Pokémon Cards Are Better

As I said, there is a game made for these cards. Or perhaps you could say that these cards are made for the game! Every individual Pokémon has information on it, from health to type to attacks. Each attack has its own name, such as “Tackle” or “Flamethrower,” and each deals a certain amount of damage and can inflict status conditions, such as burn, poison, or paralysis. For more information on this topic, you can read my article Tips On Sorting and How to Play Pokémon. Zander Hoard, an 8th grader at EJHS, agrees with this sentiment, “You can actually battle and play with Pokémon cards, while with baseball cards you can only look at them and sell them.” A true baseball fan may argue that you can, in fact, play a game with baseball cards. But can you really? The baseball card “game” is merely a comparison of player stats and absolutely pales in comparison to the great game of Pokémon. Of course, there are plenty of other ways to play the Pokémon game, and beginners may also play a much easier version that isn’t affected by many of the game's particularities. One could simply attack and defend until the health of a Pokémon goes down to zero. I did this for years before finding the rules to the more complicated version, and it was a ton of fun and great for bonding time with friends.

Now, by all means, this isn’t just a game to play. Much like baseball cards, each card has a number from the set that it belongs to, providing one method of sorting. However, while baseball cards only virtually have two other efficient sorting techniques (by rarity or by player and team), Pokémon cards can be sorted through a variety of approaches. One such way is by type. A Pokémon’s type is shown in the top right corner of a card, and can be anything from fire to electric to psychic. You could keep each type separated from each other in the pages of a binder, or have them in stacks or boxes. Another way is to sort them by strength. Health points (also in the upper right corner) or damaging abilities (next to attacks close to the middle of the card) are both ideas for this particular technique. And last but not least, my personal favorite: by Pokédex number. Besides the set number, there is also a specific number for each Pokémon, which, originally coming from the games, puts Pokémon more or less in the order of their creation, as well as putting them near or next to closely relating Mons (eg, Pikachu and Raichu are right next to each other).

Now, there is also the argument that baseball fans may make: there is only one kind of Pokémon card. This is not true. Even the base Pokémon card has changed across different sets and editions, altering the placement, shape, and size of some parts of the card. Beyond this, there are cards called ‘full arts.’ These are basically cards that, instead of having a small picture of the Pokémon at the top of the card, has nearly the whole card as a picture. There are some really amazing art styles showcased on this (as well as on other cards, though these ones in particular). They’re definitely some of the prettiest cards. There are also stronger cards that have better attack damage and better health, with a variety of names. EXes, GXes, V-Stars, and other cards of the sort have a layout similar to those on normal cards, but they all have their own color schemes, such as the V-Star cards having a white and yellow pattern on them. Many of these cards also have their own full art versions, but again, they are different from normal full arts. For example, some of the mega evolved ex cards in the new Mega Evolutions sets have both a picture of the “mega evolved” Pokémon and its non-mega counterpart (Mega Evolution is similar to powered-up versions of certain Pokémon). And, of course, there are even more types and styles of cards not exhibited here.