Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game.

Here’s what happens during a turn. First, draw your card, then do any of the following in any order as much as you’d like. You might want to play a basic Pokemon to your bench. You could involve Pokemon that have been in play at least one turn. You can attach an energy card to one Pokemon — now the energy card you can only attach once per turn. You could play trainer cards as often as you like, except for supporters once per turn and stadiums once at a time in the center of the playing area. You might want to retreat your active Pokemon. If you do you need to, send one up from your bench. You could use abilities as your poke-powers. Finally, you attack and then end your turn. And don’t forget, in between turns you’ll want to handle all your special conditions too.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game.

On your turn, you may do one of several things before you attack. And one of these is playing trainer cards. Now, remember there are 3 kinds: items, supporter, and stadium. When you play a trainer card, do what the card says. Item cards can be played as much as you want. You can only play one supporter card turn, though. And stadium cards, remember, go in the middle of the game area facing sideways. And you can only have one stadium card in play at the same time. If your opponent has a stadium card in play, and you have a different stadium card, you can place your card down, and that player must discard their stadium card. For example, if your opponent has Lost World out, and you have Lost World, you can’t play that card to force them to discard their Lost World card.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game.

On your turn, you may want to do one of several things before you attack. One of these is using a Pokemon’s abilities. Now abilities are not attacks. These are special powers that a Pokemon has that you can play during your turn. You can use abilities at any point during your turn before you attack. Simply follow the directions on the card for that ability. Sometimes you may use an ability once per turn, per card. Sometimes you can use an ability many times per turn, per card. And sometimes an ability is always active, or sometimes an ability can only be used when the Pokemon is in the active position. It’s possible you may notice Pokemon cards with Poke-powers or Poke-bodies. These are okay — these are from previous expansion sets. Abilities have since replaced them in the newer cards. Its important to note though that Poke-powers and Poke-bodies are treated separately from abilities in the game. For example, let’s say you play a card that references a Poke-power or Poke-body, and your opponent’s Pokemon uses an ability. The ability is treated separately.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game.

Sometimes an attack can affect a Pokemon in ways other than damage, and these are called special conditions. There are five types; the first is asleep. When your Pokemon is asleep, turn it counter-clockwise facing to the left. In between turns, flip a coin, or roll a die. If you get tails it stays asleep, but if it’s heads it wakes up.
A sleeping Pokemon can’t attack, and it can’t retreat to the bench, either. If your Pokemon is burned, place a burn marker next to it. In between turns, flip a coin. If you get tails, place two damage counters on that Pokemon. Burn counters stay on the Pokemon until the Pokemon evolves or retreats to the bench.
Sometimes your Pokemon may become confused in an attack. If it does, turn the Pokemon upside down. After announcing your attack, flip a coin. If heads, the attack proceeds normally, but if tails, your Pokemon gets three damage counters and the attack ends with no other effect.
If your Pokemon is paralyzed, turn the card clockwise to the right. A paralyzed Pokemon also can’t retreat. However, in between turns, a Pokemon becomes unparalyzed. Paralyzed Pokemon can’t attack, and they can’t retreat. When your Pokemon is poisoned, put a poison marker next to that Pokemon. In between turns, place one damage counter on that Pokemon.
Pokemon can be burned and poisoned, and one of confused, asleep, or paralyzed. You can’t be confused, asleep, and paralyzed at the same time, though, because of the direction you’re turning the card in. If you move a Pokemon to your bench, return it to your hand, or evolve a Pokemon — that removes any special conditions it had. In between turns, you’ll want to handle special conditions in a certain order: poisoned, burned, asleep, and then paralyzed. Don’t worry about confused. You handle confusion during your turn when your Pokemon is about to attack.
When a Pokemon is poisoned and burned, of course that means it’s going to take on damage counters. That also means the Pokemon could be knocked out just by being poisoned or burned. If it does, you take your Pokemon and discard it, and your opponent takes a prize card.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey. That’s my son Lex and his coach Mitchell. They’re both Pokemon trainers, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game. Trading card games are extremely popular these days, and Pokemon is no exception, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. At Comic Cafe, we’re training new players from kids to adults almost every week, and now it’s your turn.
Comic Cafe can be found online at comiccafe.com. To learn more about Pokemon or to find a league near you, visit Pokemon.com, and if you’re ever in Warren, New Jersey, stop by to say hello. We’d love to see you.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game.

So when we talk about rare cards, there are two types. One is player rare and one is collector rare. Player rare refers to a card that is very popular in the current meta-game. The meta-game describes what those around you are playing. For example, Pokemon Catcher is really popular recently. And because this is such a popular card, people are going to collect more of them and hold onto them, so it becomes more scarce. Then there’s rare according to the collector—these are actual rare cards. For example, in a box of 36 packs, you might have a full art card in all those packs or a secret rare card like the recent Pikachu, which does not appear in the normal set sequence. Also, event exclusives just like trophies and medals, sometimes you get a card that you can only get at a tournament.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game.

Pokemon are the different creatures that appear in the trading card game, and here’s one — say hello to Emboar. Now Emboar is a Pokemon. He’s a stage two Pokemon, and there are various parts of the card. I’ll go through them here. On the top left, you can see the evolution of the Pokemon — Emboar’s a stage two. There’s the name. On the right, there’s the number of hit points, sort of the life force, if you will. When that drops to zero due to damage from attacks the Pokemon’s knocked out. Below the picture of Emboar is an ability, special abilities that they have, powers that they have. These were previously called poke-powers or poke-bodies. Below that is an attack. This attack requires four energy — two of them are fire and two can be any kind. The name of the attack is heat crash, and you have a damage of eighty. Below that on the left you have weakness and resistance. They’ll affect how the Pokemon reacts to different Pokemons’ attacks. In this case, Emboar has a weakness of times two to water and no resistance. Below that are four colorless energy symbols. That’s the retreat cost, that’s how much energy is required to back out of the active position. Also on the card you can see below the picture, the card number, the height and weight, the type of Pokemon. Down below there’s a little paragraph that describes what the Pokemon does, the illustrator, that’s all called flavor text. And on the bottom right, you have a couple numbers. Emboar is number twenty out of one hundred fourteen. Pokemon releases cards in sets, and this particular set has one hundred and fourteen cards, and this is card number twenty in the sequence. And on the far right on the bottom is the symbol that identifies the set. Pokemon cards are the main attraction of the Pokemon trading card game. There are over six hundred different Pokemon. You can find them online on Pokemon.com in something called the Pokedex. A single Pokemon can appear on many different cards, each card with different abilities. You can never have more than four of the same Pokemon in a deck, even though the Pokemon themselves may have different abilities.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game.

Knowing which Pokemon cards to have depends on what decks are popular, or what the meta-game is—the meta-game consists of what people are playing in your area. Choose cards with abilities that make sense for other cards that you’re seeing being played around you. Cards from more recent sets can sometimes be more efficient. For example, they may have more hit points or HP and they could require less energy to do your attack. Look for staple cards that could benefit your deck, such as Pokemon Catcher, Rare Candy, Pokemon Collector, or Professor Oak’s New Theory. You will also want to look for cards that work well together or have synergy. At the world championship in 2011, Typhlosion, Reshiram and Ninetales were very popular as an engine. In the end, the best Pokemon cards to have are cards that best reflect your playing style and personality.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game.

Each Pokemon may have a weakness or a resistance to another type of Pokemon. This alters the final amount of damage done to that Pokemon. For instance, a fire type Pokemon may be weak to water because water puts out fire. On the other hand, a water type Pokemon, which can include ice, for example, is weak to grass, metal, or lightning. A weakness on more recent cards tends to be a multiplier, like times two. If there is a weakness, it’s usually minus twenty. For example, if a Pokemon attacks with twenty damage, and the opponent’s Pokemon has a times two weakness to that Pokemon’s type, it actually takes forty damage. Benched Pokemon never take weakness or resistance into account. So if a bench Pokemon is affected, you don’t worry about the weakness or the resistance in that case. Dual types of Pokemon like the Pokemon legend cards have two types of weaknesses. Weakness and resistance are always handled after determining an attacks base damage. Some card mechanics eliminate weakness and resistance all together. Finally, some Pokemon have zero resistance and/or weakness. Baby Pokemon have neither.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game.

In the Pokemon trading card game, we use counters for damage and coins to flip during the game, but did you know there is a better way?

Dice are the ultimate multi-taskers. These are great. They are used in tournaments and league play all over. Here’s how they work. With dice, one pip equals ten damage, so if you place two sixes on a Pokemon, that’s 6+6 for 120 damage.

When used as coins, it’s even easier. Heads is even, and tails is odd. So if you want to flip 3 coins, just roll three dice. If you get even, even, odd, it’s two heads and a tail. It’s just that easy. You can often get dice at your local league, or your comic book, or game shop. Damage counters, or dice, should be placed over the image on the Pokemon card. That way you can still read the text.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game.

Now you’ve done everything that you want to do during your turn, the last thing you do is attack. Once you announce your attack, there’s no turning back. To prepare for your attack, make sure your Pokemon has enough energy to perform the attack. Sometimes no energy is required for an attack. Look at the weakness and resistance of the Pokemon you’re attacking. This is the defending Pokemon. Depending on how much weakness and resistance that Pokemon has, it will affect in part the final damage done. Now you’re ready. First announce your attack, the Pokemon you’re targeting, and the total damage done. Your opponent then places the proper number of damage counters on their Pokemon. If the Pokemon’s HP is reduced to 0, that Pokemon is knocked out, and you take a prize card. Once you knock out a Pokemon, your opponent must take that Pokemon and all the cards attached to it and put it in their discard pile. This is located directly below their deck. Remember, if you take all 6 of your prize cards, or if your opponents cannot put a Pokemon into the active position, you win the game.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game. Comic Cafe can be found online at comiccafe.com.

As you become more familiar with your Pokemon cards, you might want to try your hand at building your own deck. Here’s a high level overview of five types of decks you might encounter in league or tournament play. Each one has a special mix of Pokemon, trainer, and energy cards. Speed decks are designed to help you set up faster than your opponent. If all goes well, you can start knocking out opponents’ Pokemon by the second turn. And if your Pokemon are knocked out, speed decks will help you get those cards back into play as quickly as possible. Heavy offense decks use Pokemon that do a lot of continuous damage to your opponent. Once you get going, it’s not unheard of for you to take a prize card every time. Heavy defense decks used Pokemon that can withstand multiple attacks through high hit points, the ability to move damage counters to other Pokemon and even by removing or reducing damage. Disruption or lock decks are designed to prevent your opponent from setting up or even using trainer cards such as the trainer lock. They can prevent cards from being used. They can force your opponent to discard cards from his hand. They can force your opponent to discard cards from your hand. They can control the cards your opponent gets or prevent your opponent from attacking. The Donk deck is designed to knock out your opponents Pokemon, hopefully when there’s no Pokemon on bench during the first turn. That way they have no more Pokemon and you win right away. If the Donk fails, you will want a back-up plan. So make sure your deck is designed to keep you so far ahead of prize cards your opponent cant keep up. Also, be mindful of the medi-game. This is describes what those around you are playing. This will help influence the decisions you make when you are building your deck. Remember to test your deck, become comfortable with it. Don’t be afraid to revise it. Seek out advice from your friends or other Pokemon professors.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game.

On your turn, you may wish to do one of several things before you attack. One of these is retreating a Pokemon. Let’s say your Pokemon has a lot of damage. You might want to think about retreating it to the bench. To retreat a Pokemon, look at the bottom of the card, and you’ll see something called a retreat cost. This is the amount of energy you must discard from an active Pokemon before you can retreat it to the bench. If you don’t have enough, you can’t retreat the Pokemon. Also, if your Pokemon is asleep or paralyzed, it can’t retreat either. Sometimes, no energy is needed to retreat a Pokemon, and when this happens, we say the Pokemon has free retreat. When the Pokemon comes back to the bench, all damage and attached cards stay with that Pokemon. However, all special conditions go away. Last, if a Pokemon is asleep or paralyzed, they cannot retreat, no matter what. If you retreat a Pokemon, you must send another Pokemon from your bench into the active position. You can’t move back the same Pokemon you retreated, though. It has to be a different one.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game.

Online forums are a common place to find traders. When trading, you want to prepare two lists: a list of what you have and a list of what you want. Make sure you put down the condition of the cards that you have. Card condition can be subjective. For an example of card grading standards you can use to apply your cards, you can visit psacard.com. Be aware of you trading with. One way to do this is to look on the forum for feedback from other traders from past trades. There are no guarantees that the cards you ask for are the cards you’re going to get. If you want to be sure, ask for a picture. If you are new to trading online, you obviously won’t have a high reputation, so chances are you are going to need to send your card to the other trader first. As people leave positive feedback for you, your reputation will improve. If you are uncomfortable trading with a trader directly, look up a moderator on the forum who can act as a proxy. They will receive card from both traders, check them, and trade them in the other direction. When preparing a card for mailing, it’s common policy to protect it. Place it in a sleeve. Sometimes you may place the sleeve in a top loader and then that in a padded mailer. If you are trading cards of high value be sure to include tracking and insurance before you ship, and always remember when you done to leave feedback to your fellow trader.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game.
On your turn, you may want to do one of several things before you attack, and one of these is evolving your Pokemon. Pokemon have three stages of evolution: basic, stage 1, and stage 2. To evolve your Pokemon, you must go from basic to stage 1, or stage 1 to stage 2. The only way you can go from basic all the way up to stage 2 is to play the rare candy card. All cards previously attached must stay on the Pokemon as it evolves, and you can’t use any attacks on the Pokemon you evolved from, only the Pokemon you evolved to. Also, if your Pokemon has any special conditions, such as “”asleep”” or “”confused”” or “”paralyzed”” and so on, they disappear when you evolve. Now, this is really important: you cannot evolve a Pokemon that you just played to your bench. For example, if I place a Pokemon down to my bench, I cannot evolve it on the same turn. I have to wait until my next turn in order to evolve it. Even if you have rare candy, you still have to wait until your next turn if you’ve played that Pokemon to your bench. This is why players can’t evolve Pokemon their first turn. Because they just placed the Pokemon down their bench, they have to wait another turn before they start evolving their Pokemon.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game.

In the Pokemon trading card game, your strategy’s influenced largely by the type of deck that you’re playing. It helps to remember the fundamentals, there’s a lot of text and a lot of numbers on these cards. So basic reading and math skills are essential, you’ll want to think on your feet. Be sure to study your cards. Know them backwards and forwards. In fact, you would do very well to study an entire set of cards to see how they interact with each other. Use a deck that’s comfortable with your playing style, start with Pokemon your familiar with or enjoy playing. You might want to consider building a trainer engine, this is a set of cards that helps you maximize your efficiency and keeps your deck playing consistent. Finally you’ll add a variety of staple cards to your deck. Nw these aren’t cards with actual staples; these are cards that are good in any deck. They include basic Pokemon set up cards like Pokemon collector or duo ball, hand refreshers like Professor Oak’s new theory or Professor Juniper. Cards that help you get cards out of the discard pile, flower shop lady, junk arm, good rod, recycle, energy retrieval are all helpful here. Special energies like rescue rainbow or D.C.E. — double colorless energy. Rare candy is a trainer card that lets you evolve from basic to stage 2 Pokemon in one step. It helps to be able to search for Pokemon in your deck. For this, you’ll want Professor Elm’s training method, or Pokemon communication, great ball or poke ball.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game.

Where there are valuable cards, there will be counterfeits. Pokemon is no exception. Of course, the best way to avoid a counterfeit card is to purchase from a trusted source, such as an authorized seller, a trading card or game shop, or comic book shop that you go to often.

Be careful if you’re offered a booster pack of 10 cards for a dollar or a dollar and change. A booster pack can typically run around four dollars. When someone offers you a card, if you’re not sure, it might help to have the original card on hand, if you have one, to compare it to. There are a lot of ways to find out if a card is counterfeit. These cards are made to exacting standards. If the card is not on center. If the text is of the wrong font size. Or if the color is off or too bright. Different parts are larger than the regular card. Those are all signs that you’re looking at a fake.

You may be offered a card from Japan. The Japanese cards are different from all the others. They have a different back, and that’s ok. That’s normal. But you still may want to have an original on hand to compare it to.

In each booster pack, you’ll find in this order: 5 common cards, 1 reverse holo, 1 rare, and 3 uncommon. In that order. If they’re not in that order out of the pack, it might not be the right thing. In fact, it’s almost guaranteed.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game.

There are three ways to win the Pokemon Trading Card Game.
The first is if you take all six of your prize cards. Now, the prize cards are on the left side of your play area. You don’t know what they are at the start of the game. As you play, each time you knock out a Pokemon, you take a prize card. If you take all six, you’ve won!
A second way to win the game is if your opponent has no more Pokemon in play.
Say you knock out your opponent’s Pokemon. They then take a Pokemon from their bench and move it into the front active position. If they can’t do that, then there’s no way for them to battle, and you win.
The third way to win is if your opponent cannot draw a card at the start of their turn. This is called “”decking out.”” Every player starts with a deck of 60 cards placed on the right side in a North-South direction. At the start of each turn you draw a card. Now, you can’t look at the rest of your deck, unless of course, another card “”lets you.”” Say, a trainer card or a supporter card.
Now, there is a fourth way to win, and it’s called the Lost World Mechanic.
This involves two things: One, it involves a stadium card called Lost World, the second is an area right above your prize cards called the Lost Zone. The Lost Zone is sort of like the discard pile, except cards the go to the Lost World never come back into the game.
When the Lost World Stadium card is in play, if your opponent has six or more cards in the lost zone, you may declare yourself the winner.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game.

On your turn, you may want to do one of several things before you attack, and one of these is attaching energy. You may attach one energy card per turn to a Pokemon, although there may be other cards like trainer cards that let you do more energy attachments than normal. To attach, take your energy card and tuck it underneath the Pokemon it’s being attached to. It should peek out at the top. In fact, all of your energy cards should be visible to the other player. You may only attach energy to a Pokemon once per turn. Sometimes there are other ways to get energy onto your Pokemon besides attaching, even though you can only attach once, you may play other cards that will let you attach more energy.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game.

Rare Pokeman cards can be found in ten-card booster packs, boxes of thirty-six booster packs, or collectors tins. In general, the more booster packs you get, the more rare cards you’ll get. Every booster pack contains a rare card. But there are different degrees of rarity. In fact, there are seven kinds. First, there’s common. There are five of these in every booster pack. You’ll know this because there’s a circle in the bottom right corner of the card. Then there’s uncommon. There are three of these in every booster pack, and these are indicated by a diamond on the card. Then there’s the rare card. There’s one rare card in every booster pack. It has a black star on the bottom right. There’s a regular rare card with the black star and a picture hollow. This is a rare card with a shiny picture. About one in six packs will be a rare card like this. Then there’s something called reverse hollow. There’s one of these in every booster pack. The card is shiny, except for the picture. It turns out that every card except ultra rare has a parallel reverse holo. Up next is ultra rare. This has a shiny star on bottom right of the card. There are three types you may encounter. One is a prime. That has a starburst picture frame and a shiny border. Then there’s legend, now these are fun. These are two cards that connect to become one big card. And finally, full art. These are newer, and they look gorgeous. This has a much fancier card design where the Pokemon is featured on the entire card. Then there’s the secret rare. This is a card that’s part of a set, but numbered beyond the set count. For example, in a one 114-count set, it might be card 115 like this Pikachu. The Alph Lithographs are another example. And finally, promo cards. These are promotional cards from events, products, or leagues. For example, this Tropical Beach from the 2011 world championships.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game.

So more often than not, if you’re trading Pokemon cards — after all it’s a trading card game — you’re going to trade cards for cards. Now you don’t have to trade the same card for the same card, of course, because that’s rather silly. Instead you want to trade cards of similar value, and again this is a value you both agree to before the trade takes place. When you’re looking at cards to trade, look for signs of mintness, how new is the card? Of course, if it’s just come out of the pack, and you saw them take it out, then you know it’s brand new. Things to look for, though, would be like frayed edges that might tell that your card has been played a lot. If the edges are white, they may have been taped on the table a bit. If it’s a bit flimsy or if it’s even bent, all of these things lower the value of the card. If you’re trading in a league, you should check with your league leader first to make sure it’s a good trade, and second to have them look at the trade to see if it’s a fair one. Do not be pressured into making a trade you do not want to make, and always be polite and respectful with your fellow trader. Giving up your cards is never a consequence of winning or losing at a Pokemon trading card game, be it league or tournament.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game.

Ask ten different people what the value of a Pokemon card is, and you’re probably going to get ten different answers. It’s very subjective to people; the card is as valuable as you perceive it to be. That said, there are pricing standards people put on these cards. If you’re in a league, ask your league leader for some advice and suggestions on where to get pricing. Check with your local gaming shop. If they sell cards there, chances are pretty good that they’ll have a handle on current pricing. If you are selling cards, please be respectful if you are in a gaming shop. Do not trade cards for cash in a game shop because you’re doing business on their premises. Collectible shops tend to set their own value, as they deal in a very high volume of cards. If you buy a card online, keep in mind the price of a card will be highest, in general, after its set’s released, and then it will settle down to what the public is willing to pay for it. Values of cards do fluctuate. For example, after a tournament, a really popular card may go up in value as a result because it appeared and was very popular in that tournament.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game.

First, setup your play area, get out your counters and coins or dice, and your sixty-card deck. Shuffle your deck, and place it on the right side. This deck must be facing in a north-south direction. Don’t look at the cards unless you’re told to later by other cards in the game. Flip a coin to see who goes first. Draw seven cards into your hand. Now look at your hand to see if you have any if you have any basic Pokemon. If you do, you’re in good shape, but if you don’t, you need to show your hand to the other player. This is called having no basics. If you have no basics, take your seven cards, shuffle them back into your deck, and draw seven new cards. Set up your active Pokemon, and then set up your bench with some basic Pokemon. Your active Pokemon is the Pokemon that does battle. You must have an active Pokemon at all times. If you don’t, your opponent wins. You don’t have to place all your basics on your bench right away, but if you don’t put any basics on bench, be careful. You don’t want to get dunked. Next, draw six more cards, but don’t look at them. Place them on your left side—these are your prize cards. Remember, if you knock out enough Pokemon to take all your prize cards, you’ll win. If both players don’t have basics at the beginning, then neither player gets to take an extra card, they just shuffle and start over again.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Joe D’Andrea, a Pokemon professor at Comic Cafe in Warren New Jersey, and we’re here to show you how to play the Pokemon trading card game.

Always have clean, dry hands when you’re opening these booster packs. You never know, you might get a real valuable card, and it would be a shame to mess it up with some peanut butter and jelly. Also, be careful not to bend your cards when you’re opening them. The less that they’re bent, the more valuable that they stay. If you’d like to save the wrappers to make art with, carefully open the bottom seam and push the cards out carefully from the top. In each booster pack, the cards appear in a certain order based on rarity, so you may want to keep them turned over and reveal them one at a time. In each booster pack you’ll find, in this order, five common cards, one reverse holo, one rare, and three uncommon. Sometimes when people want to reveal the cards one at a time, they’ll move the uncommon in the middle after the commons, and then turn them over after one at a time. If you’re collecting, you may want to have on hand some collective sleeves, empty binder pages, or top loaders to put the cards in. Some players like to transfer their cards to a binder in set order and organize them that way, making it easy to find the card you need later. To help with organizing your binders, you can go to Pokemon.com and print a set check list. This has all the cards in numerical set order—put them through a 3 hole punch and stick them in your binder.