Tips On Sorting and How to Play Pokémon
By: Tatum Robertson 3/25/24
Gotta Catch ‘Em All! Or, in this case, gotta sort ‘em all! Numero uno rule of collecting and battling with Pokémon cards-get some. After that, it can get pretty complicated. The rules of Pokémon battling are many, and it can take a while to get to know all of them. Collecting is a bit easier, though. There are plenty of ways to do it, which will be shown later on.
While collecting, some good ways to sort your Pokémon cards are sorting them by energy type, by pokédex number, stage evolution, and by strength and health. When sorting by energy, you simply divide all of your Pokémon cards into their energy type. The Pokémon’s type is shown in the card’s top right corner. If you have a card file, then you can put the different types on different pages. Otherwise, you can put them in piles. Pokédex number is next. On a Pokémon card, right under the picture of the Pokémon, there is the kind of Pokémon that it is, its height, its weight, and its Pokédex number. In the Pokémon games, there is a device called a Pokédex that keeps track of the different Pokémon that you collect, and each Pokémon has a number. So, while seeing what Pokémon you’ve collected as cards, you can sort them in order based on their number. Another simple way to sort Pokémon cards is looking for their evolution stage in the top left corner. If it is the first evolution, then it will say “Basic”. If it is the second evolution, it will say “Stage 1”. And if it is the third evolution, it will say “Stage 2”. The last way to sort here is by strength and health. If you sort by health, then you look in the top right corner, next to the energy type. Usually, it will say: “HP110” for example. The way that you sort by health is by either putting the lowest health at the top and highest at the bottom, or vise versa. Of course, if you have files for trading cards, then you can put your cards in in any of these ways-or none of them!
The first thing to do when playing the Pokémon game is to make some decks, and then find some other people to play. If you’re going to make a deck, then you’re going to want to have a large variety of trainer cards, energy cards, and the actual Pokémon cards, all based on one or two main attackers. A good variety of cards for a deck is about twenty of each kind of card (energy, trainer, and Pokémon). You have to have 60 cards in a deck. No more and no less.
Once you have your deck made, you have to learn the actual rules. In the game, you should have a board. On the board, there are two sides. One side is for your cards and the other is for your opponent’s.`On your board there is an outline of a rectangle that says “deck” in the middle. You place your 60 cards there, and you begin the game.
The first thing that you do in the game is draw 6 cards. DO NOT LOOK AT THOSE CARDS! Put those 6 cards face down in the 6 outlines that have “Prize Cards” at the bottom. Next, you draw seven more cards to use as your hand. If you have any cards with “Basic” in the top left corner, then put them face down on, most importantly, the “Active Spot”, and second most importantly, the “Bench”. If you don’t draw any basic cards, then discard the cards that you drew, and draw seven new cards. Every time that you have to do this, your opponent gets to draw one more card. After that, flip a coin, and the winner gets to go first.
If you are playing the first turn, then you may not attack or play any supporter cards. Once you have finished, tell your opponent that it is their turn. Your opponent then must draw a card from their deck (you must always do this at the beginning of your turn) and then do anything with the cards that they have. But there are some restrictions. You can only attach one energy card to your Pokémon during your turn, and you can only play one supporter card. At the end of each turn, the player must either attack or tell their opponent that it is their turn. After using a card, or if a Pokémon faints, the player discards that card. Each player alternates doing these things throughout the entire game.
The game ends when a player has collected all of their prize cards. Prize cards are earned when you defeat another player’s Pokémon. Sometimes, a stronger Pokémon card says that if you defeat it, then the defeater can collect more prize cards. It says this in the bottom right corner, if it says it at all.
These are things to go by while playing the game. These rules should be helpful, and hopefully, the sorting tips were as well.
Thanks to:
TheGamer
Pokémon Battle Academy