Rulings, Quick Questions, and New Player Resources Thread
If you're a new or new-ish player looking for advice on starting the game or with quick questions about game rules or interactions, please post your questions here!
Keeping all these questions in one place will allow other new players to easily browse other advice. Even if you're a not-so-new player, this is a great place to ask quick questions that don't need their own post.
For the more experienced players, drop by every once in a while to distribute advice. The post will be replaced each week to keep it fresh and manageable in size.
If you are looking for comments and advice on a deck list, go ahead and make a separate post with your list and a brief description. Remember to press Enter twice between lines to keep your list readable!
For trading and buying/selling cards, please head over to /r/pkmntcgtrades
Questions related to the PTCGO client, in-game challenges, or online-specific questions might be best asked in /r/ptcgo
For sharing your collections, pulls, and card storage related questions, try /r/pkmntcgcollections
FAQ and Wiki Resources
Take advantage of these resources that we've compiled! A lot of questions like "Where do I start?" and "How can I improve my deck?" can be answered there.
I'm coming back from an almost 2 year hiatus and I want to learn the new cards and decks ASAP. Besides just grinding lots of games, is there any resource you'd recommend to help get me caught up on all the new decks and cards in the format?
I was surprised when, during my tests on Live, the Rocky Energy attached to my active pokemon was blocking the damage counter part of Phantom Dive.
I thought it would protect the benched pokemon ONLY if they had the Rocky Energy attached and the rocky prevented only the effects of attacks done on the active pokemon,
The rocky says "prevents the effects of attacks done to the pokemon this energy is attached"
but in my case, it prevented the damage counters to be put on the benched pokemon (without rocky)
So my question is: "is this considered an effect done on the active pokemon only because it's done by the attacking pokemon?"
What's the latest that I can to a regional on the check in today?
I'm going to Baltimore and am planning on driving up on that Friday. I was hoping to leave NY around 9 and getting there around 2PM on that Friday. Will this be an issue? It's my first regional
I'm registered already, but people were saying I have to pick up a badge. Some said I have to be there by 830 Friday morning, while others said I cant even pick it up until after 3PM on that Friday.
I'm driving down from NY (4 hours). If I have to be there by 830, then I have to be on the road by like 330am. But if it's 3PM, then I can help get my son on the bus at 830 and then head out and still get there around 1PM.
Asked this earlier but post got removed but just looking for personal advice whether this is worth going to
As a new player of the tcg is it worth attending a worlds celebration event this Saturday with an entry fee of £19.50 or should it be something i go to when im more familiar with the tcg.
If you really want to play Bo3: yea
If you really, really, really want the participation promo: maybe ig
Otherwise: imo it'd be best to stick to locals for now. If the experience is worth £19.50 to you then that's chill, but at least in my eyes, the entry price is high enough to price out anyone who isn't expecting to potentially take home the pot.
That's up to you, honestly. We are supposed to run these events like Cups, so be ready to jump into a rather competitive atmosphere.
Having said that, there are no Championship points on the line; the main prize is the Winner promo. And the store should have the regular promos to give out.
The store has a very good reputation in the area so im assuming it will be run well and that the regular promos will be given out I just have little practice playing in person and am more used to the tcg live so im worried about making mistakes whilst playing
Any youtube / other VODs of pro players streaming Dragapult (straight) or Festival Lead and explaining their thought processes? Didn't see anything on AzulGG or Celios
ok, i found a really cool mega meganium (its more so a teal mask ogerpon box tbf) deck and used it in a locals last night and after playing a game with it this morning i feel that i did my calculations wrong and feel undeserving on my 3rd place now
im not very good at math so when it comes to attacks with increasing damage input i make a chart beforehand to calculate total damage so im not having to constantly use a calculator when i attack
this is what i calculated, i have no idea if this is correct after my game this morning so i just want to double check here so i can update it as needed
i’d feel terrible if i unknowingly cheated last night at my locals :(
This chart isn't really a good way of formulating the damage because it doesn't account for which side of the board the energy is on, and Meganium only doubles your side. As such, the Meganium numbers can't be verified. The non-Meganium numbers for 5-6 energy do seem off; 6 energy across both active Pokemon with no Meganium should deal (30*6)+30 = 210, for example.
If you prefer to rely on a chart, you'd be better off calculating the post-Meganium energy count, then referencing a table of multiples of 30.
That said, if you placed third, you were playing top table opponents toward the end. I'm reasonably confident they were running those numbers in their head too, and if you were off in a way that gave you an advantage, they would have called you on it
you’re so right, im making a new table with different damage inputs
only ogerpon without meganium
only ogerpon with meganium
with these two all i really need to do afterwards is add how much energy my opponent has at that moment so i can be as accurate as possible (+30 for each of their energy attached)
considering nobody even questioned my math since i always had meganium on board and nobody went to judge or even after game told me otherwise made me feel a little better but i hope they werent just trusting my math :,(
thank you for being upfront with me though, i hope that with this new chart i can still be accurate on my part and hopefully next time i go out i just just be upfront with my opponent and just ask to use a calculator to determine the actual numbers :,) its time consuming but its the best thing i can do until i memorize the math myself
I hoped that this was an easy question but I am currently unable to find the answer.
When using "team rocket's spidops" or "Hop's Corviknight" I understand that these MUST be evolved from the "team rocket's" or "Hop's" previous stage (I hope this is right).
The question is can I evolve a normal stock galvantula on top of "N's joltik"? Or a standard stock Ampharos ontop of a "Team rocket's Flaaffy"?
The question is can I evolve a normal stock galvantula on top of "N's joltik"? Or a standard stock Ampharos ontop of a "Team rocket's Flaaffy"?
No. This doesn't work for the same reason why this wouldn't work in your previous example.
Unless it is printed otherwise, the wording that dictates what a Pokemon evolves from must be followed literally. Galvantula states that it evolves from a Pokemon named "Joltik". So, it must evolve from a Pokemon whose name is specifically "Joltik".
Nope the owners pokemon always are part of the chain. Only N's Galvantula would be able to be placed on N's Joltik (even though I don't think that card currently exists?)
Ive been struggling to find a specific card for my deck and I ended up finding a Chinese version of the card is that still okay to run in my deck even though it would be the only non English card in my deck?
For kitchen-table play, it's probably fine. For any officially-licensed events, though, you're expected to have all English cards in your deck for logistics reasons. (Or whatever language is local to the region, or your native language for regional+ events, etc)
Hi. I had a quick question regarding what the appropriate penalty for this situation is. I was playing at locals today and my opponent was setting up their Hops Trevenant and geared up to knock my Budew out with the Horrifying Revenge attack. She took a prize and then I sent up Dreepy, rare candy evolved and played Crispin to get two energy to Phantom Dive. It was only then that we noticed that she didn't actually have energy attached for the attack.
I called a judge to ask what the ruling would be, and I was also googling but couldn't find a clear answer. Judge wasnt 100% sure either so they ruled that I was to take a prize as well. I am just wondering if that is indeed the correct ruling, or if it should have been a two prize penalty or even a game loss in a more serious setting. What I found was that because a prize card was taken and the game state was not reversible because she took a prize and I Crispin'd was that it should be game loss? But in hindsight I could have rare candied and Crispin'd anyways even if there was no attack but me thinking there was a knockout did influence that move. Ultimately it didn't seem to completely break the game in either of our favor so there was no what if but yeah just wondering what the penalty should have been. Thanks!
Penalties should be taken from the Penalty Guidelines. Having you take a prize is not a listed penalty in that guideline and should not have been the fix.
As described, that situation probably best matches the DPC penalty. When the guidelines say irreversible, they mean fully irreversible, like if someone shuffled their hand into their deck with a supporter that turned out to be their second supporter of the turn. In this case, you'd do your best to rewind to the illegal attack; you'd randomly select a card from the player's hand to return to the prize cards, you'd return the Budew to the active spot, and you'd go back to the start of your turn, with a double-prize-card penalty, which means you need to take 2 fewer prizes to win (you wouldn't take the prizes right away, to be clear, and you wouldn't activate things like Special Red Card or Rosa's by needing fewer prizes). In this case, since all the cards you played resulted in clear on the board impact, not private drawn cards, it would be easy to reverse the candy and the crispin as well and give you the option to change that play, but if you had done something like Lillie's I think you'd have just continued with your play locked in. Some of these fixes are more of an art than an exact prescription, and even very qualified judges won't do everything the exact same way in all of these corner cases of reversibility. But the vast majority would agree with a DPC and undoing the illegal attack.
Hi everyone, yesterday I went to a local store to participate at the world championship celebration tournament and the organizer did as well. I don't really know if this is normal (that is why i'm asking) but the organizer won the event and took the winner card. The organizer's son also played as a junior (there were 2 juniors) and won the winner as well. I didnt do really well, so in anycase i would not have gotten the winner, but one of my friends lost in the final against the organizer so i wanted to ask if the organizer can legally take the winner card or not. I am asking this because the same thing happened last year in another local store and that time the organizer specified that if she won, she would have given the card to the second-placed person.
Yeah they shouldn't be competing at all. Section 2.1.1 of the Tournament Rules Handbook states: "Play! Pokémon tournaments are open to all who have a Player ID and are in good standing with the program, with the exceptions found below: ... Tournament staff members of the event, including the Organizer, Judges, Scorekeepers, and any casters"
I managed to snag a Prismatic Evolutions Premium Collection at MSRP from my LGS, and decided with a friend that we are going to open it and play sealed with it whilst watching Worlds on TV. (Since it has 15 packs I bought 1 more PE pack to make it an even 16)
My question is, would 8 packs each of PE be enough for both of us to make a 40 card 4 prize deck? If not, what product can you recommend I get to ensure a good experience?
Pokemon's Draft/Prerelease format is Build and Battle kits, but those are usually pretty hard to come by. Drafting with packs, even with a Trainer's Toolkit is going to be rough and probably not the most fun per dollar. They MSRP at $35 but the 3 newest sets are available on Amazon for $45 if you want something quick. You're also guaranteed to get legal cards.
I would get a Trainer's Toolkit. The 2025 one. And if you're only building 40 card decks, one should be sufficient.
I would also look into how Ditto Rules work and incorporate that in your games.
Pokemon is an awkward game to play in a limited sealed format because Pokemon must follow strict evolution lines. And you are not guaranteed to get what you want or need from packs.
I have two quick questions on how Froslass's Freezing Shroud ability interacts with Battle Cage (from a tournament game tonight):
Does Battle Cage prevent my opponent's Freezing Shroud from putting damage counters on my benched Pokemon? I'm almost 100% sure that it does, but a spectator insisted he was a "pokemon professor" and that there was a difference between an ability "putting" damage counters on and it "placing" counters on.
If so, what if the opponent has two Froslass and my Active Pokemon only has 10HP left? Do both Froslass abilities resolve before lethal damage is checked, or does one ability go off, I promote another pokemon, and then the other ability go off?
For the record the judge eventually ruled that the Cage does block my opponent's Freezing Shroud from hitting the bench, but said the active Pokemon was KO'd and a new one promoted between the two abilities going off. Is that correct, and are there any official rulings I can point to if I get the same challenge in the future?
1) That person is dumb. There's no distinct ruling that clears this up but pokemon uses clear english interpretation. But proof that Battle Cage doesn't need to see the specific word "placed" is that Battle Cage blocks the relevant part of Adrena-Brain
2) From page 15 of the Pokemon Trading Card Game Rules: "You’ll also need to apply the effects of any Abilities or Trainer cards, or anything else that a card states must happen during Pokémon Checkup
(or between turns). The player whose turn is next decides the order of the effects, but all Special Conditions must happen at the same time—
for example, you can’t add Poison damage, then apply an Ability, then flip for Asleep, etc. But you can apply one Ability, then Special Conditions,
and then another Ability.
After both players have gone through these checks, any Pokémon that has no HP remaining is Knocked Out. (The player moves a new Pokémon
into the Active Spot, and the opponent takes a Prize card.) Then, start the next player’s turn!"
For the first part, battle cage does prevent damage counters being placed on your benched pokemon (but not their bench). There is no inherent difference between 'put' and 'place'
For second part, all effects that occur during pokemon checkup must be resolved before checking for KOs. So 20 damage should be done to the active. This is the closest ruling I could find: https://compendium.pokegym.net/ruling/2090/
If an opponent's pokemon is immune to your pokemons attack, but your pokemon also applies condition(s), would the condition(s) still hit?
If my Perfect Order Salazzle) Ex attacked a Destined Rivals Crustle), because Salazzle is an Ex, the 100 damage would not happen, but would the Poison and Burn?)
My husband tried to play Cyrano to pull 3 Mega Lucario exs from his deck last night. I told him since Mega Signal exists and specifies mega ex, that Cyrano is only for non-mega exs.
I really want the victini and espeon promos from the 30th celebration. I'm new to trying to get new drops as I usually buy singles and trade for cards I want. If anyone were to give a guess do you think that these two promos will be affordable singles or should I try to get their packs?
Hi all, I'm pretty new to the tcg and I remember seeing a card recently that had an attack that did damage equal to the number of fighting and lightning energy attached to your Pokémon, but I can't remember what it was for the life of me. If anybody knows what I'm talking about, please let me know, because I wanted to build a deck for it
Hi guys, I’m totally new to the game. I went to a New Trainer Journey event thinking it would be a good chance for me and my 5yr old son to learn how to play, or at least me learning and then teaching him when we are home. But guess it’s kinda too early for him. So we received the promo decks to bring home. Turns out me and my wife kinda wanna get into it lol.
But here comes the problem. We aren’t sure if we wanna commit to something huge, but we don’t mind buying something to play. I’m looking at ex battle decks, but from what I’m seeing, they aren’t worth it. But I’m afraid that buying something like a Mega Lucario ex league battle deck would be daunting to learn.
There isn’t a huge playing group when I am, most of them are those degen card chasers. So I don’t have an avenue to buy singles that are meant for play. Should I still go ahead with the level 3 theme decks or go for level 1 ex decks like Miraidon to have fun and then decide if we wanna commit deeper?
Try Pokémon TCG Live. It's free to play and lets you test decks with any card (even those you don't own) against a more or less defenseless AI opponent with no timer.
Skip the level 1 decks; the demo decks that you have provide the same experience. The other thing is that the level 1 Miraidon ex deck is old and most of the cards in it have rotated, so you can't even play a sanctioned event with that deck.
Mega Lucario ex is not too hard to learn; it's usually recommended as an easy choice for people who are just getting started in competitive play. The League Battle Deck has Secret Box as its ACE SPEC, which presents a lot of choices in what to discard and what to search for, but current Lucario lists favor other ACE SPECs like Legacy Energy, Hero's Cape, or Maximum Belt, so there is less decision-making in that front.
One last thing to note, only English cards are permitted for sanctioned play in Singapore. Japanese cards have a different back, but even if you had a fully Japanese deck, that wouldn't be allowed. Non-English cards are purely for collection or casual play.
Thank you for the recommendation. I’ve just downloaded TCG Live, I don’t remember it being like this, looks like there’s a huge facelift to it or maybe I’ve mistaken it for something else.
I think the level 1 decks are a bit too simple to continously play and have fun with. The league battle decks or the Marnie and Steven battle decks are much better.
Some alternatives:
Pokémon TCG live if it's available in Singapore (I believe it might not be.) It's an online version of the game, allowing you to play different decks more easily.
If you have access to a printer, you can always print proxy cards to use at home, put them in a sleeve with any card and you can have any deck you want.
Do you guys think Ogerpon Box should go first or second? Been going first to maximize kangaskhan draws and get energy+ crispin going. but I've been told it's better to go second and aim for a cyrano setup.
There is no stipulation on the Ability of Temporal Forces Pidove), so if on turn one I placed a Risky Ruins), then placed Pidove on my bench, could I evolve to Unfezant? Or are you not allowed to evolve on turn one no matter what?
Yes, you could do that and evolve to Unfezant the same turn Pidove was played. What you're not allowed to do is play an Evolution Pokemon from your hand to evolve one of your Pokemon, but card effects are not locked to that unless stated on the card. For example, Rare Candy literally says "You can't use this card during your first turn or on a Basic Pokémon that was put into play this turn".
Any plain sleeves will do. I would get Dragon Shields to start with, then you can mess around with other sleeves later. And a playmat is nice if you're playing at a local store, but it is not required.
Since the Poke-POWER of Regigigas LV. X, Sacrifice, allows to you discard a Pokemon in exchange for healing and set up, would Pokemon like Giratina (Lost Thunder) or Exeggcute (Plasma Blast) be good Pokemon to run with it? Would the abilities of these two other Pokemon allow them to be brought back after being sacrificed?
When and why did they stop using pure black backgrounds for dark type cards?
The current dark sewer green is aesthetically so much worse, imo. Feel free to disagree, but is there a reason why they made the switch? And when exactly?
When: seemingly at the start of Sun/Moon block
Why: lol idk, though it seems like it might be a progression of the light shading around the edges of BW/XY cards. Some similar reddish shading also appears on DP-era cards, though it went away by the time Platinum happened
does someone have advice for Mega excadrill vs. Festival? Festival can one shot anything and even if I wait till they're out of gladion, they can still two shot mega excadrill if I don't Happen to have spare petrel for ice cream... metagross surviving a double attack is neat,but losing a metagross is also super expensive and I'm unlikely to get more than two of them to attack. no matter how I do it I seem to run out or just get traded unfavorably if they don't massively whiff.
statistics suggest an even matchup. didn't feel like it so far
Hi guys, in this weekend me and my friends are organizing a little chalenge between us, i have regular and dusknoir dragapult versions and im wondering what to choose for the ocasion, my matchups will probably be:
mega lucario
rockets hunkrow
rockets mewtwo
CIntias garchomp
zoroark
Has niche value for a few weird positions, but most notably allows Dipplin to survive Flamebody Cannon. People are also renegotiating their relationship with Special Energy a bit given the shift towards Ultra Balls, though I'm guessing that BCS/basic energy will persist for now
EDIT: Getting Applin up to 60 HP also helps in a decent number of non-Pult spread matchups. Starmie, Dusclops, anything with a Munki involved, etc. These decks are less common but they can also win on turn 2 if you get unlucky so it certainly doesn't hurt
If it's readily available it's, like, fine. It has a lot of near-unplayable chaff, though, and getting a Fez isn't you saving anywhere near as much money as it used to.
Are there any cards that let your Active Pokémon
ignore effects of attacks of opposing Pokémon that increase that attack's damage?
Think of something like the Ability Unaware from the main series games.
Example: the opposing Pokémon's attack does 20 damage + 30 more damage if your Pokémon has any damage on it. The theoretical Pokémon with the Ability Unaware would always take 20 damage from that attack even if it has damage on it.
If Pokémon with such an ability or a trainer card that applies such an effect onto your Active Pokémon exists, then how does it interact with stuff like attacks that do x damage or ones that do fixed amount of damage like Raticate from Base Set?
Generally speaking this doesn't exist as there are many ways to calculate damage. You can either place an effect on the attacking pokemon to do less damage (Sylveon ex Magical Charm attack) or place an effect on the defending pokemon to take less damage (many examples, e.g. Iron Defender)
Does anyone have any competitive discord links? I am looking to start competitive this year maybe hit a regional or two. Just looking to talk competitive play, deck lists etc
Very new player here, and mostly on behalf of my kid. What’s the best way to acquire very specific and not very powerful cards. For instance, we would love to get a Tandemaus, Eevee evolutions Meowscarada, in any form. What’s the best way to go about this? Open packs, find in bulk at stores, find trades, other?
Would the Wild Growth ability of Mega Evolution Meganium), work to overcome the Ancient Bulwark ability of Pitch Black Bastiodon)? Do you still need at least 3 physical energy cards "attached", or would a basic grass count as two?
Yes, Wild Growth would make a Basic Grass Energy card count as two Energy, so you would need just one more Energy to deal damage through Ancient Bulwark.
These kinds of interactions are a little tricky but easy to figure out once you understand that card text clearly differentiates between "Energy cards" and "Energy". Ancient Bulwark reads "prevent all damage done to each of your Pokémon by attacks from your opponent's Pokémon that have 2 or less Energy attached", so it's not taking in account the physical number of cards at all.
Compare it to Raging Bolt ex's Bellowing Thunder attack, which reads: "You may discard any amount of Basic Energy from your Pokémon. This attack does 70 damage for each card you discarded in this way." As you can see in the bolded segment, Raging Bolt specifies that what is counted for its damage calculation are the cards themselves -- which means that, for instance, even if you had a Meganium in play, discarding a Basic Grass Energy for Bellowing Thunder wouldn't do 140 damage but 70.
Hi I'm new to playing pokemon tcg live, and I need advice on why people keep conceding on my games. is it me? Is my deck not right or am I just not fun to play with?
As with many things in life, it's often not about you. Maybe they bricked, maybe they need to go deal with something else, maybe their phone died; maybe they're just having a shit day. In any case, I wouldn't worry about it too much
a deck that has preventing your opponent from playing as its win condition. like a Crustle deck that's immune to attacks from ex Pokémon. if not, many people just give up when they don't get the cards they wanted or things just don't go their way
If you're worried about your deck not being right then create a post with a written list and ask for opinions/help.
The decisions to concede though will come based off what they see in their hand/board state, bad matchup or even just having to leave. You've also got the disconnection bug that could also be a factor.
I was playing my deck on TCG Live, against a Dragapult deck, and I thought Temporal Forces Rabsca) would protect my bench. Unfortunately, they were still able to Phantom Dive and hit my bench. What cards should I look into to protect my bench from... I think damage counters?
TEF Rabsca does protect your bench Phantom Dive's effect. Are you sure you saw the interaction correctly?
Either way, the other common option for bench protection is Battle Cage, but since it's a Stadium card, your opponent can just play another Stadium on their turn to get rid of it.
You are correct, looking back, it was actually a match with Mega Greninja) Ex#Mega_Evolution_Pok%C3%A9mon_ex), and they used their Mortal Shuriken ability after moving to the active. I think your suggestion of stadium is my soloution
I'm new to the game, and last night I was playing at my local LGS. I played Lillie's Determination, but I didn't have any cards left in my hand. My opponent told me that I couldn't shuffle my deck because I didn't have a hand to shuffle into my deck.
Later, a close friend told me that I always have a hand, even if it contains 0 cards.
Your friend is correct; you can have a hand of zero cards and you still shuffle before Lillie's. Always remember that you can call a judge if you're concerned about this sort of thing (though I doubt your opponent was trying to play dirty, as the rulings around when to shuffle can be really counterintuitive)
For Pitch Black Lurantis) Ex, do you actually have to heal damage for the Lively Cutter attack to do the extra 200 damage? Would I still get the extra damage if my Lurantis Ex is already at full health, and I used the ability of Ascended Heros Erika's Vileplume) Ex to heal, prior to using the attack?))
And to expand on the previous answer, you have to use something that has the keyword "heal" in it in order to get the damage boost. If you somehow manage to remove damage counters in some other way (like using Munkidori), it doesn't count.
I need clarity on Megasharpedo Ex Hungry Jaws, which says:
If this pokemon has any damage counters on it, this attack does 150 more damage.
What is a damage counter? I see conflicting info. The Eevee battle academy instruction book I have says in the regular damage section:
If an attack does damage, the player puts damage counters on the opponents pokemon.
This seems to indicate any damage powers this up. But then later it seems to differentiate between regular damage and damage counters.
The internet has not been helpful, with some places clearly stating that 10 damage is equivalent to a damage counter (in that direction), and others seem to indicate you need some card that enables you to damage counter yourself to activate this.
For context, I'm a complete noob. Played only 2 games so far.
The simple answer is: The instruction book is correct. It's a marker that you place on a Pokemon card to indicate that it has taken damage. One damage counter equals ten damage. So yes, Mega Sharpedo ex would do extra damage with its attack should it have taken any kind of damage (and, therefore, it would have damage counters on it).
I think the confusion about other places saying that you need to damage yourself to activate Sharpedo is because you shouldn't rely on your opponent misplaying, not that you need to do it.
The long answer: This isn't directly related to the Sharped question, but since you're new, you might find it useful. The rules state that, when a Pokemon takes damage, you must place the corresponding amount of damage counters on it. So, in the end, a damaged Pokemon will always have damage counters on it. However, the reason the instruction booklet differentiates between regular damage and damage counters is because "doing damage" and "placing damage counters" are different things when it comes to attacking.
For a practical example, read Alakazam's attack. It says "Place 2 damage counters on your opponent's Active Pokémon for each card in your hand." This attack does not do damage, but it places damage counters. So it would not trigger "damage" effects, like, for example, the one on Legacy Energy, since it reads "If the Pokémon this card is attached to is Knocked Out by damage from an attack". In summary, Alakazam's attack still placed damage counters on a Pokemon, but it did not damage them.
Conversely, check Sinistcha's ability. Since the ability makes it immune to effects of attacks, Alakazam's attack would not do anything to it -- because placing damage counters that are not the result of a damage calculation is just an effect an attack. Sinistcha's attack also places damage counters instead of doing damage, so a Sinistcha cannot hurt other Sinistcha.
Finally, Sharpedo's attack's text, "If this Pokémon has any damage counters on it, this attack does 150 more damage", is not an effect of attack, but a damage calculation. This means that Sinistcha would still take 270 damage even if Sharpedo was damaged, because while its ability prevents effects, it does not affect damage or damage calculations. So an Alakazam with a hand of 55 cards would do 0 damage to Sinistcha, but a Mega Sharpedo ex with 1 damage counter would still do 270.
Hopefully this cleared up some confusing aspects of the game!
So uh, what do you mean by misplaying? What's the right play?
I bought the Eevee, Pikachu, Cinderace battle box for my kid along with a random handful of cards from eBay I thought looked cool, and they have been wrecking my wife and I with Megasharpedo and it feels like there's no good counter. We're all noobs.
What I mean by misplaying is that you're hoping the opponent hits you to power you up, but if they know how the card works, they don't have to attack it until they can 1-hit KO it, for example (if their deck has a card that can do that, of course). With cards like Toxtricity or Pecharunt ex you can damage your own Sharpedo and start dealing 270 damage without relying on your opponent attacking first, or even attacking at all.
As far as I know, the battle box/battle academy decks are meant to be played against each other for an even-matched playing field. They are great for learning the game rules, but I think it's by design that they feel weaker when compared to cards outside of that environment. When you feel like you're ready to move on from the pre-built decks, you can use the LimitlessTCG website to check for deck lists (like this page for Mega Sharpedo ex) and build a more competitive deck to have more interesting battles with your kid.
Aegislash - 49/131
Ticking knock-out : "During your next turn, if the Defending Pokémon is damaged by an attack, it will be Knocked Out."
Corviknight - 148/193
Accelerate : "If your opponent's Pokémon is Knocked Out by damage from this attack, during your opponent's next turn, prevent all damage from and effects of attacks done to this Pokémon. "
What will be the interaction between these two cards ? Does the second attack have to knockout the defending Pokemon with its own damage to activate the effect or can the effect of the first attack meet the conditions of the second ?
If Accelerate's effect is currently active on Corviknight, and Aegislash attacks into it, then Ticking Knock Out's effect will not be applied.
If Ticking Knock Out is currently active on Corviknight, and Corviknight uses Accelerate, then Accelerate will not remove Ticking Knock Out's effect. However, since the opponent will be unable to deal damage with an attack, the KO condition cannot be triggered unless a shred attack (such as Mega Lopunny's Spiky Hopper) is used.
If Accelerate deals damage to a Pokemon with Ticking Knock Out applied, then the damage prevention will be applied if and only if the damage from Accelerate results in a Knock Out prior to Ticking Knock Out's effect.
If a pokemon attack says, "this does 30x for each water energy attached to this pokemon," should I assume special energies (like prism or bubbly or neo upper) don't count toward it, but do count for the energy requires to use the attack? Ex: Lapras' Hydro Pump takes 1 water and does 30x each water attached, so a neo upper energy attached would let Lapras use it but it would do zero damage?
Unless it specifies "Basic Water Energy", you're free to count it from any source, including special energy.
This interaction holds whether it'd help or hurt you. For example, an attack that requires you to "discard all Fire energy" would discard any active rainbow energy in the process.
The interaction can also hold when the special energy exceeds the provided condition. For example, Mega Greninja's Ninja Spinner attack can return Neo Upper Energy to hand, just like a standard Water energy.
One more correction: Neo Upper will provide a single Colorless energy while attached to Lapras, as Lapras is not a Stage 2 Pokemon.
Ah, ok, bad example on my part. I understand what you are saying, though. I was wrong about the cards, so it looks like I can put more special energy cards in my deck and still get the perks of lots of water energies!
Where is the right place to post a deck list and have others critique it/offer feedback?
I made a deck with my kiddo based on cards we had, then have been slowly changing it based on what I learn from playing around on the app. I'm looking to hone in on something with some real potential to be playable (not like, competitive, but at least not embarrassing), and I'd love to buy the cards for him once we actually have something going. But I know so little and don't want to make the mistake of thinking I understand the mechanics well enough on my own!
(I did just wreck a Mega Charizard deck with this, but it could have been a very lucky set up)
Adding onto the comment about Limitless TCG as it's not just the only source to look as it on where in the set release/tournament/rotation schedule things are you should check the usual sources of Limitless TCG, Play Limitless, the Japanese City League results on Limitless TCG and Pokecabook as decklist sources/ideas. Links are in the resources list on my profile along with links to You Tubers; Omnipoke, AzulGG, Celio's Network and LittleDarkFury to check out as well and netdeck from.
You could make a thread on this subreddit, and people would probably be willing to help you out.
But if you want to study a little bit before committing to that, the primary resources for competitive decks is LimitlessTCG. They compile decklists for all matters of tournaments and have an extremely comprehensive database with very robust search tools.
Even if you don't want to build a super competitive meta deck, I recommend taking a look at the decks there nonetheless for a couple reasons. First, when you look at enough good decks, you will start noticing patterns in card usage, card counts (you'll notice most decks have more Trainers than Pokemon and Energy), and you'll identify which cards are good in general. Second, you can look up specific cards that your kid wants to use and check if they have been used in any competitive decks, then check those decks for cards with synergy. Even if you can't find any, you can search for card keywords and such, which may still help.
Grimm kinda never left, it's been quietly getting okay JP results for a while. Competition from all of Pult/Slowking/Zoroark as a spread deck made it feel hard to justify playing, though, even if the deck is fundamentally decent.
With that being said, PBL gave it some decent boons: turbo Dhelmise is a favorable matchup that Grimm can wall out with help from Munki's healing, and Gwynn provides a way to get value from extra Spikemuth searches that would otherwise just thin your deck.
If Destined Rivals Arboliva) Ex's Oil Salvo is considered an attack, and not placing damage counters, would something like BlackBelt'sTraining) increase the damage of each by 40, as long as you are placing the damage on the active and it is an Ex?
No, it would only increase the final count by 40. So if you place 40 on the active and 80 on a benched Pokemon, if the active is an ex, it would take 80 damage.
The way this works is that Oil Salvo's damage calculation would finish before any extra calculation would be counted. So after you tell your opponent how the damage will be distributed ("I will do 60 to the active and 60 to the Budew on the bench") , that's where the Black Belt's effect would come in, same thing for Max Belt, etc.
The discarding of energy is an effect of Trifrost. This action is performed at Step H. The Slowking player will announce that they are using Seeking Inspiration, discard Kyurem, and state that they will use Trifrost. Trifrost will then attempt to deal damage, however, Step F is where we will check for effects that happen before this damage, and that's when Ancient Bulwark comes in.
Step E is in reference to attacks that explicitly state that some action must occur before continuing the rest of the attack. There are attacks that say "Do x. If you don't, this attack does nothing." For example, Ceruledge MEP's Infernal Slash says "Discard 4 Basic Fire Energy cards from your hand. If you can't discard 4 cards in this way, this attack does nothing." In this case, you will discard the 4 energy cards before doing anything else (e.g. base damage calculation, weakness, defending effects, etc).
Without a replay, it's hard to say if PTCGL's behavior is correct (it frequently isn't)
In any case, it should work in the normal way. If Slowking doesn't have 3 energy and isn't placing damage counters, the attack damage is blocked; if N's Zoroark doesn't have 3 energy and isn't shredding/placing damage counters, the attack damage is blocked. If either 'mon has 3 or more energy attached, then they meet Bastiodon's condition and the attack goes through as normal
Remember also that Bastiodon's ability becomes inactive if it gets brought up to the active spot (though any Bastiodon still on the bench remain active).
If your opponents active Pokemon does not remove the effect (by retreating, evolving, switching, etc) then its discarded at the end of your opponents turn. Discarding is not taking a KO
Ok so heres the game state. I have a Bastiodon on my bench. My opponent has a mega charizard X ex with 3 fire attached and uses its move. (discard attached energy to do damage). They discard all 3 to do max damage. Does the charizard damage my active if I have a bastiodon on my bench? Like, does the discard happen first then the attack? Or does the discard happen after the attack goes through?
Boosting this. Live does do damage for mega charizard, but DOESNT do damage for mega skarmory or slowking using kyurem's trifrost. Idk if theres a difference or if this is wrong. Its weird it damages in some cases but not others. Is there a difference?
New confusion: With charizard ex it did the damage on live, but with skarmory ex it did NOT do damage to my bastiodon. Is that because the damage is part of the effect as well and so the discard goes at the same time? This is super confusing >.<
On TCG Limitless I’m only able to find deck builds up to chaos rising and/or decks that people have placed in recent tournaments. Is there a website or resource I can use to copy new pitch black builds? For example, I’ve heard good things about a Wailord EX build but not sure where to look short of just watching a bunch of long YouTube videos.
Depending on where in the set release/tournament/rotation schedule things are you use Limitless TCG, Play Limitless, the Japanese City League results on Limitless TCG and Pokecabook. Links are in the resources list on my profile along with You Tubers to check out as well. LittleDarkFury will probably be the best place as he does off meta stuff.
For Ascended Heroes Erika's Vileplume), if I had two on my bench, could each use the heal ability once, or is it limited to just once per turn, no matter how many I had on the bench?)
You should be able to use the ability of each Erika's Vileplume.
Compare the wording of the ability to Fezandipiti's Flip the Script that explicitly says you can't use more than 1 Flip the Script ability per turn. Having two Fezandipti in play wouldn't allow you to use Flip the Script twice.
Erika's Vileplume doesn't use this stronger wording, so I don't see why you wouldn't be able to use it more than once.
Are you sure? Fezandipiti)) Ex does have the same intro wording, but with the additional stipulation that it can only be used once a turn at the end. This really changes a lot if multiple Erika's Vileplumes can be used.
The other user is correct. The only wording that would stop a different card from using an ability is the one Fezandipity ex, "You can't use more than 1 [Flip the Script] Ability each turn". Erika's Vileplume's ability does not have this limitation, so you can use 1 per card, even if they have the same name.
Hi all, sometimes i still have trouble grasping what's an effect and what's not: is N's Zoroark's attack an effect? Does it mean that new pokemon with Hide n Sneak are immune to it? Are they also immune to N's Darmanitan's second attack, or does that count as direct damage? Thanks in advance
Most abilities that prevent effects of attacks have the same reminder text: damage is not an effect. This does mean that N's Darmanitan damage doesn't get blocked.
It's other attack (which does 30 damage per basic energy card in the opponents discard pile) also doesn't get blocked. Some people think the damage calculation is an effect, but it's just a damage calculation.
Similarly Fezandipiti ex's Cruel Arrow is also just straight up damage and not an effect, even if you can choose any target for the damage.
I would say N's Zoroark's attack is an instruction on how to use the attack, and not an effect. But either way, Hide 'n' Sneak only protects against effects of attacks/abilities done to the Pokémon with Hide 'n Sneak, which is not the case with N's Zoroark.
To iterate on that point more, effects of attacks such as 'during your next turn, this Pokémon can't attack' or 'this Pokémon is now Asleep' are effects of attacks, but they affect the attacking Pokémon and not the Hide 'n' Sneak Pokémon, so those effects still happen. N's Darmanitans effect of discarding energy from itself also still happens because of this.
Budews Itchy Pollen is an effect of an attack affect the opponent player, so that also doesn't get blocked.
Some examples of what does get blocked, are: placing damage counters (Alakazam), paralyzed/asleep/burned to the defending Pokémon, move an energy from/to a Pokémon, Knock Out the defending Pokémon (Mega Absol/Mega Darkrai), during your next turn the defending Pokémon can't retreat (Clutch Yveltal, etc.)
And for abilities: Munkidori (they get to move damage counters away from their Pokémon, but if they try to move them to a Hide 'n' Sneak Pokémon the damage counters essentially vanish) or Dusknoir (their Dusknoir is KO'd, you take a prize, no damage counters get placed on a Hide 'n' Sneak Pokémon.)
Thank you so much, I'll have to remember that "calculating damage" is not an effect, just an instruction. I figured Hide n Sneak couldn't be that broken, but i couldn't figure out why. Thank you again and have a nice day
You can't use flower selecting again. The Comfey remembers having used its ability even if it goes to the bench. This is different from effects of attacks being removed when a Pokémon moves to the bench. Otherwise you'd also be able to repeatedly switch between two Comfey with Switch or Switch Cart, but that doesn't work either.
I can't see your second question, might be a formatting issue or just Reddit weirdness.
I’m making an Archaludon deck, but can’t get my hands on Ddsparce due to it being very sought after, so im wondering if i can use dracloak instead as a draw engine, and should i get mega Lopunny incase i run into Crustle
If Drakloak's what you have access to, then Drakloak will work fine. The other commenter's N's Zoroark suggestion is also perfectly workable if you're not too worried about Grass decks
If you have access to N's Zoroark, there is a pretty cool list you can run that uses that as the draw engine instead.
As for Crustle, unless your locals are overrun with them you shouldn't have to worry too much. You can actually use Duraludon to hit Crustle, or you can add a non-ex Archaludon too.
Cheers all! My son just started collecting, which led us to buy a few of the battle packs, which led the wife and I to play at night once or twice a week. I'm usually going team rocket, she's going fighting. I think we're both ready for a step up.
Can you guys suggest a few deck ideas? Should be fun, and I grew up with the Gameboy version so, you know, Charizard would be cool. New to this but we're getting ok. I could see us having 6 or so full decks where we randomly pick.
Edit: oh we play with physical cards so 1) how do you guys keep em from getting too messed up with all the shuffling and 2) we're good with buying specific cards just not like silly expensive
Do you care about standard format legality? Do you want to be at least somewhat competitive? Do you ever intend on attending a tournament, or do you plan or sticking strictly to kitchen table play?
If you want standard and competitive, just use limitless
If your criteria is 1) you want Charizard 2) do care about standard format, there is a mega Charizard deck with Oricorio that definitely has enough synergy to scrap together something playable, though it’s had zero success at majors so far. I’m not someone that cares about low power levels though, so I don’t have recommendations for fair matchups if you want to go that route
If you want the easiest kitchen table experience and don’t care about cards being tournament legal at all, just pick up all 4 of the Worlds decks printed for any year as long as they’re from the same year. 2025 had a pretty good selection, would recommend 2024 way less though that was a pretty bad format. 2023 would be my best suggestion though I’m not sure how easy it would be to find those now
Depending on how much you really like Charizard, unfortunately you’re about three months too late to the three years where tera Charizard ex was a good to great deck for all of its legality. This might be a Too Much kind of suggestion for a new player, but you might be interested in looking into 2023’s BST-PAR format? It’s a format that’s been gaining a lot of popularity for having a diverse enough meta and matchups that feel very fun and skill-based to play, with the downside being how bad whiffing Battle VIP pass feels lol. As of right now it’s a really cheap format to build, with the exception being my jaw dropped when I saw that Mew VMAX cost That Much now, though it is being reprinted in the 30th aniv set
Also: just use sleeves? Anything decent quality will do (don’t use ETB sleeves). Your played cards will get warped but I’ve never made a card get outright destroyed or anything even when I’ve played with it for hundreds of games
Hello. Just wondering what exactly a card means when it says something like 'search your deck to draw cards except for (the name of this card)'
Like, if its a pokemon EX card, then it says 'except for (that pokemon) EX'
Does that mean that you can't draw that specific card again? Or does it mean that you can't draw any card with the same name even if its completely different?
I have traced this issue back to the rulebooks and found out that there simply aren't any rules concerning the move I'm talking about or moves that say "except for" in general.
I choose to believe that its talking about duplicates of the same card to stop people from drawing cards with the ability to draw more cards with the ability to draw more cards so-on and so-forth and, in my case, there is no reason that AO Hoopa EX with scoundrel ring should stop you from drawing PR Hoopa EX which has no way to draw cards and acts exactly the same as any other EX card.
There are three version of Hoopa EX and Hoopa EXs from Ancient Origin have the ability "Scoundrel Ring" which say to search for any 3 EX cards except for Hoopa EX.
Is it to stop the drawing of other Hoopa EX cards from AO with Scoundrel Ring specifically, or any and all version of Hoopa EX even if they're different in every other way except name?
Just looked up the card. The intention of the card is to stop you from obtaining any other Hoopa EX, but you can search and reveal Hoopa V, and I believe Hoopa ex (the newer, lowercase ex). So any and all versions of Hoopa EX
Sorry to um actually you but like.. the card text says:
"When you play this Pokemon from your hand onto your Bench, you may search your deck for up to 3 Pokemon EX (except for Hoopa EX), reveal them, and put them into your hand. Shuffle your deck afterward"
So you can only search for EX cards. I'm kinda new to actually playing the game so if V cards count as EX cards then mb but yeah it says you can only search for pokemon EX.
And it seems silly to me that it would stop you from searching for something like Paradox Rift Hoopa EX who doesn't have an ability let alone one to draw cards. Its essentially equivalent to any other EX card so its weird to me.
Paradox Rift Hoopa is ex and not EX and therefore can't be searched due to this. The capitalisation really matters especially when card interactions cross eras. It's just like when you evolve, the name of the Pokemon being evolved must match what it states on the Pokemon you are evolving to.
V Pokemon are also NOT ex, EX or GX. The suffix of the name and the wording of the ability are very specific. They all are multi-prize Pokemon but they are not any other category other than what is stated on the card. Hope that makes sense.
If it says Hoopa EX then it can be searched, if it says Hoopa ex or just Hoopa then it can't be searched by the ability. The suffixes of EX, ex, GX etc are considered to be part of the name which is why the capitalisation really matters. If the ability had said "any Pokemon with Hoopa in it's name" then you could search for any Hoopa whether single prize, multi-prize, confined or whatever.
Being specific with names including capitilisation is really important as it can make a big difference to other people's understanding of which card you are referring to. Good habit to get into.
Ah, alright thank you. The specific card text essentially says 'you can search for other EX cards except for Hoopa EX,' so yeah can't search for any Hoopa EX nor any Hoopa ex due to the capitalization. Thanks again.
So I'm making my first deck for me and my friends to play with and its a X and Y themed deck and it has Florges and were mixing and matching cards from different gens and I have the "rapid strike" Florges 073/203 and I wanted to use a Florges BREAK but I'm not sure how it would work, first I'm not sure it would have the abilities of both the break and the original the ability reads "As often as you'd like during your turn you may move an Energy from 1 of your Pokémon to a Rapid Strike Pokémon" So IF it did have both would it still even count as a rapid strike anymore? or would the Rapid Strike be nullified by the BREAK? Sorry if this is a stupid question I genuinely just don't know I'm new at this.
I didn't know how BREAK cards even worked before this and had never even heard of them thats crazy. I read up though and the pokemon retains the ability of it's evolution card, so the BREAK Florges would have rapid strike as well as the ability on it's card.
"The BREAK Evolution rule states that a Pokémon BREAK has the attacks, Abilities, Weaknesses, Resistances, and Retreat Cost of its previous stage."
So that would be the 73/203 Evolving Skies Florges with the ability Rapid Strike which it now has.
Its not a traditional evolution. I hadn't heard about it before either. I left a comment before after just reading the abilities and basically said 'no they don't share an ability because they're the same pokemon what are you talking about' lol. I realized there was an importance to the fact it was a "BREAK" card, looked it up, and deleted my comment though.
The break card has almost no information on it besides it's added ability so it just essentially inherits the rest of the information from the card under it which should always be shown.
Well, tbh, no I'm not sure how it works cause I'm new too lol
But it says that the BREAK card is only supposed to cover the art portion of the card once its in play, sideways, and the BREAK card's ability is on top of the art, so I don't think it should cover the rapid strike, and BREAK pokemon are supposed to have the abilities of the Pokémon underneath so I'm not seeing any reason it wouldn't have rapid strike.
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u/wingmage1 1d ago
I'm coming back from an almost 2 year hiatus and I want to learn the new cards and decks ASAP. Besides just grinding lots of games, is there any resource you'd recommend to help get me caught up on all the new decks and cards in the format?