[ i p t c g  :  p t c g  r u l e s ]

Battle Time

During the battle, you and your opponent will use different cards from your hands. Many different cards will show up. There are Basic Pokémon, Evolution Pokémon, Trainer cards, and Energy cards. All of these do different things. Choose what combination of cards to use carefully. These cards can help you win.

You and your opponent will play different Pokémon from each other's hands. The Pokémon that is attacking (your's/opponent's) is called the Active Pokémon. The Pokémon that is getting attacked is called the Defending Pokémon. You also "bench" Pokémon during the game. Your Benched Pokémon battle for you either after your Active Pokémon gets KOed or if you retreat/switch a Benched Pokémon with your Active Pokémon. You may only have 5 benched pokémon though.

  You start by shuffling your deck and drawing a hand of 7 cards. Put the rest of the deck facedown in front of you.

  Put down your Basic Pokémon (it will say "Basic Pokémon" in the upper left hand corner). If you have more than one, you may bench them, but you don't have to (you may only bench up to 5 pokémon). If you don't have any basic pokémon, show your hand to your opponent, and shuffle your hand back into your deck and draw another 7 cards. Your opponent may then draw up to 2 cards. Each time you do this though, your opponent gets to draw up to 2 cards. If you and your opponent both don't draw any basics, then show your hands to each other and then shuffle your hand into your deck and draw a new hand. Don't draw any extra cards this time.

  Put the top 6 cards of your deck facedown in front of you. These cards are your prizes. Once you KO one of your opponent's Pokémon, you draw one of these. You may not look at them until you pick it up after you have KOed one of your opponent's Pokémon.

  Then flip a coin to see who goes first. If you have a special Pokémon coin that you got in a Starter Set/Theme deck, you can use that too.

  Flip over all of your benched and active pokémon. Then the person who goes first, draws a card. You may only draw one card per turn unless altered by some attack, Pokémon Power, or trainer.

The following is what your playing area should probably look like: