How Many Energy In A Pokemon Deck

Freeze Enemy Pokemon To Gain The Upper Hand

Although the “Frozen” status does not technically appear in the TCG, the Paralyzed special condition fills in for it as a more versatile mechanic. Making a foe Paralyzed is not a water-exclusive strategy, as grass and electric pokemon can unleash this effect as well, albeit for different lore reasons. However, some modern water pokemon cards can launch attacks with a chance to inflict this condition with less average cost than most.

RELATED: Pokemon TCG: How To Make The Best Grass Deck

One such card is the evolution of Vanillite found in the Darkness Ablaze expansion, Vanillish. For only a single water energy, this stage 2 pokemon can deal minor, but quick, 30 damage per attack with a chance to make the foe Paralyzed. With a bit of luck during the coin flips, this can leave the adversary crippled and weakened, unable to respond. Not only can this allow trainers to dominate the battle, but it can also give them time to draw and play Vanillish’s evolution, Vanilluxe an ice pokemon that is even more adept at freezing foes.

Vanilluxe has an ability called Bitter Cold that lets their trainer flip a coin free of cost that can make the opposing active pokemon Paralyzed. Having an ability to do the freezing leaves Vanilluxe able to attack with the 90 damage Frost Smash that only requires 2 energy. In two or three turns, given good draws, one can go from a no-energy Vanillite to a full-power Vanilluxe that acts essentially like a living blizzard.

Choosing Pokmon For Our Deck

After choosing thetype of Pokémon to build the deck around, the next step is to choose the Pokémonwe want to include. When evaluating a Pokémon, it’s important to consider its HitPoints , the damage done by its attacks for each Energy attached to it, anysecondary effects of those attacks, and the ease at which the Pokémon can beput into play.

Pikachu & Zekrom-GX is oneof the most powerful Lightning-type Pokémon around. For a cost of 3 LightningEnergy, it can do 150 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon and attach3 more Lightning Energy to 1 of your Pokémon. Consider the strengths and drawbacksof Pikachu & Zekrom-GX compared with those of Ampharos V or an evolved Pokémonlike Morpeko VMAX, and you can quickly see why it’s such a popular choice.

As a general rule,every deck should include a cast of Pokémon with attacks or Abilities thatcomplement each other. Boltund Vis the perfect partner for Pikachu & Zekrom-GX because the former’s Electrifyattack can be used to power up the latter’s Full Blitz. Plus, Boltund V’s BoltStorm attack does more damage for each Lightning Energy attached to all of yourPokémon. Tapu Koko Prism Star alsoearns a spot in this deckits Dance of the Ancients Ability benefits both Pikachu& Zekrom-GX and Boltund V.

An Introduction To Deckbuilding: Learn How To Build A Pokmon Tcg Deck

With so manyinteresting Pokémon to choose from and exciting strategies to explore, buildingyour own deck is one of the most enjoyable and rewarding elements of the PokémonTrading Card Game. Before you begin, it’s important to note that each deck mustcontain exactly 60 cardswith at least one Basic Pokémonand cannot contain morethan four copies of any card .

There are alotof ways to approach deckbuilding. Some decks focus on one type of Pokémon suchas Fire type or Psychic type, while others may focus on an individual Pokémon’sAbility or particularly powerful attack. Decks can include an even distributionof Pokémon, Trainer cards, and Energy cards, or they can be heavily skewed toinclude, say, mostly Pokémon and virtually no Energy. With so many optionsavailable, the task can feel daunting even for the most intrepid deck builder.

The good news is a varietyof methods can result in a winning deck! Let’s take a look at two of the most popularapproaches to assembling a solid deck and the design principles that underpinthem.

Read Also: How To Soft Reset Pokemon Ultra Moon

How Many Cards Can You Have In A Pokmon Tcg Deck

All Pokémon TCG decks must have 60 cards. No more, and no less. There are also limits on how many of each card you can include. You can only have a maximum of four of a specific card in your deck.

For example, you can only have four Fennekin cards. This is the general rule, but there are certain exemptions, such as Prism Star, which can only be included once per deck.

Once you have around 15 Pokémon in your deck, its time to start thinking about Trainer and Energy cards. Use Normal type Pokémon to fill space if you need some more attackers.

Pokémon Master: These are the best Pokémon cards

Trainer cards are the core of any Pokémon deck. They allow you to change the conditions of the game so that you can gain an advantage, or at least get yourself into a better tactical position.

When choosing Trainer cards, think about how you can set yourself up for future turns. If your deck focuses on Fennekins final evolution, Delphox, then youll want to move that card into an active position as soon as possible. Trainer cards will help you achieve this.

You want at least twenty Trainer cards in your deck, but wed generally recommend having more. After all, they act like little cheats for you to unveil when you need them most.

How To Set Up The Game: A Tour Of The Stadium

• On the left side is your prize card area. You should begin with six random face-down cards that hang out here until you pull one as a reward for a knock out, for example.
• The middle of the field is where stadium cards are waiting for mystical effects to trigger.
• The front row of the field is where your active Pokémon resides. Here is where you can pull off attacks.
• The back row is where your benched Pokémon hang out, waiting for their turn to shine.
• Top right is where your is waiting for that next big shuffle or draw.
• The middle bottom is your discard pile, also known as the lost zone, where Pokémon and other cards are lost forever. Q_Q

Like I said before, if you buy a pre-constructed deck, it should come with a play mat to make this layout easy to remember. The mat is helpful when you are first learning but later, you may not need to use it anymore.

The Playing Stadium of the Pokémon Trading Card Game: How to Set up the Field.

Recommended Reading: What Type Is Good Against Rock

Staying Updated On New Pokmon Tcg Sets Will Help With Deck Builds

If the decks format allows for it, its beneficial to keep up to date with the latest Pokémon TCG expansions and sets. New card sets may introduce new staple cards – the ones that fit in any deck – and they may even contain cards that help specific win conditions. Although it may not always seem that way at first glance, some cards may end up surprisingly effective in certain decks, especially depending on a player’s favorite cards.

A noteworthy example of this comes from decks built around the Unbroken Bonds Espurr card when played together with the Unbroken Bonds Persian, Espurr can deal massive damage to opponents benched Pokémon without needing any Energy as long as theyre already damaged. But the deck lost access to a lot of important tools in the 2020-2021 rotation, including Spell Tag, Giratina, and Ditto Prism Star from Lost Thunder. Just before the 2021-2022 rotation, however, which would move Espurr and Persian into Expanded, Chilling Reign cards were released. Chilling Reign includes an Inteleon with an Ability that puts two damage counters on any single opposing Pokémon, which turned out to be a great replacement for Spell Tag in the Espurr deck. It was unexpected for an Inteleon card to have synergy with a deck full of cats, but by keeping up with the latest releases, Standard players were able to give their Espurr deck extra consistency before rotation.

From Discard Pile To Deck

Shuffling cards from the discard pile back into your deck is useful if you want to recycle certain cards to access them later. Most often the disadvantage of not having a direct access to those cards is compensated for by the benefit of returning multiple cards instead of just one. This is true for every card in the list below except for Max Revive .

• Bunnelby PRC
• Pal Pad
• Energy Recycler

If you can afford using an attack to return cards into your deck, Bunnelby from Primal Clash is the best option. This bunny is already included in many decks because it allows deck manipulation on both players sides. You could either return any card from your discard pile into your deck or discard the opponents top card of his or her deck. Thanks to Bunnelbys Ancient Trait you could even do both in the same turn, or just return or discard two cards.

Sacred Ash is used in decks which focus on setting up a lot of Pokémon, e.g. Crobat PHF. It shuffles five Pokémon back into the deck. There is no other Item card that recycles more cards.

Super Rod is a little bit more versatile as it can also return basic Energy cards you are limited to three cards in any combination of Pokémon and basic Energy. Decks like Night March feature this card because they need to fight the late-game shortage of both attackers and Energy.

Recommended Reading: What Are Fairy Type Pokemon Weak To

Its Okay To Start With No Knowledge Of Pokemon Deck Building

Your kid just came home with some playing cards that have colorful little monsters on them and they call it a Pokemon Deck and want help building it. If you havent been exposed to Pokemon before, you arent alone.

Breathe. Thats why Im here. Im going to help you understand the basics of the game, and how to build a deck.

Build Up Pressure With Lots Of Energy

Water types have “Plus” energy attacks, moves with a plus sign to the right of the damage number. These kinds of moves get a flat bonus to their damage output for water energy, and they mostly only exist on water type cards. The Wailord card from the Vivid Voltage expansion is a great example of this. Even though it takes a total of 4 energy to unleash their Hydro Pump attack, it will always deal massive damage when launched. The base 10 damage plus the optimal attachment of 4 water energy results in a 170 damage assault that has no negative downside for the user.

It is a normal attack as well, so, unlike Pokemon GX attacks, it can be used repeatedly. This kind of move, usually called “Hydro Pump”, has been seen on water type pokemon cards since some of the earliest sets featuring the very first water starter line. Blastoise was the original user of this watery weapon, though variants have flourished since its inception.

Also Check: Eevee Location Sword

What Are Energy Cards In Pokmon Tcg

Energy cards are essential in any Pokémon TCG deck. They allow you to use your Pokémons attacks, deal damage to opponents, and ultimately claim prize cards to win.

Most Pokémon cards will have attacks, which carry a specificed energy cost. Count the total energy costs of your cards in Delphoxs case, you need fire energy and add the necessary energy to your deck.Since you lose energy when your Pokémon are knocked out, make sure to include a few extra energy cards, so that you can always find them in your deck.

Additional Rules To Remember

• Whenever a card’s text overrides the game rules, the card’s words take precedence. For example, although the rules say that a player can only play one energy card per turn, several Pokémon allow additional energy to be played if that card is in play. In those cases, special exceptions are made.
• You can only set down one energy card per turn but you can put energy on benched Pokémon to prep up for future attacks.
• Trainers, like potions, can affect benched and non-benched Pokémon.
• Evolving can begin one turn after the Pokémon was played from the deck and Pokémon can only evolve to the next stage. Both benched and active Pokémon can evolve.
• Pokémon attacks can only affect the active Pokémon . So the majority of the time, only an active Pokémon can be affected by an attack.
• When a Pokémon is knocked out, any energy cards attached to it go into the discard pile.
• When a Pokémon evolves, that evolution clears up any handicaps it might be suffering, but its damage points remain the same.

Also Check: What Is Fighting Types Weakness

Pokemon Card Game Rules And How To Play

If you grew up in the 90s, youd remember Pokemon. It was the latest craze, and it has endured and even reached new heights thanks to its range of animes, movies, and video games. But were focusing on the Pokemon card game rules in this piece.

Pokemon trading cards come in many different sets. And over time, the gameplay has expanded and developed. It can easily be overwhelming to newbies, so to help, well be looking at everything you need to know about how to play.

Can You Have More Than 60 Cards In A Pokemon Deck

The rules for building a Pokémon deck specify that a player’s deck must always have a total of exactly 60 cards, with no more than four cards of the same name. … Of course, you should make sure you have the correct number and type of energy cards needed for your Pokémon to perform their attacks and abilities.

You May Like: Randomize Pokemon X

From Discard Pile Into Play

Lets proceed to the third kind of recycling: from the discard pile right on the field, right into play. Try to think of two things which need a lot of time to set up Evolved Pokémon and Energy cards come to my mind. They are hard to get into play because they subject to rule restrictions. The following cards are going to break those barriers!

• Archies Ace in the Hole & Maxies Hidden Ball Trick
• Revive
• Mega Turbo
• Blacksmith

Archies Ace in the Hole and Maxies Hidden Ball Trick represent a shady duo in the Pokémon TCG. Unexperienced players, who are doing their first steps in this game, have to understand that they must not put a Stage-2-Pokémon right into play and start attacking with it. Different to the Video Game, those strong Pokémon have to be evolved to come into play . Archie and Maxie do not conform to any rules, though. It does not really matter against those monstrous EXs anyway, does it? Of course it does. Unfortunately, those nifty rule breakers only exist for Water and Fighting Pokémon at the moment.

Compared to those, Revive is just boring. Puts a Basic Pokémon from your discard pile onto your Bench. Needless to say that this is quite useful sometimes. Skipping most come-into-play abilities is a disadvantage, though.

There are multiple ways to systematize all Pokémon that provide Energy recycling. As I do not want to go into detail , I am going to suggest two different approaches here: recycling done with Ability / Attack and recycling by Energy type.

From Discard Pile To Hand

If you want to use a card immediately after you returned it from the discard pile, then you are looking for options to get those cards into your hand without any detours.

• VS Seeker
• Superior Energy Retrieval & Energy Retrieval
• Fisherman
• Exeggcute PLF

The most popular example is VS Seeker. I cannot think of a deck that does not include at least three of them. Reusing Supporter cards is very important in a format of useful one-ofs like N, Hex Maniac, Xerosic or Pokémon Center Lady. How many games have been decided by VS Seeker for Lysandre?

When proceeding with Trainer card recycling, Sableye from Dark Explorers comes to mind as well as the ACE SPEC Dowsing Machine. Sableyes attack Junk Hunt lets you grab two Item cards from your discard pile. Thanks to VS Seeker, Supporter cards are also easy to access this way. Only Stadium cards remain inaccessible. If you want to recycle those, you should think about choosing Dowsing Machine as your ACE SPEC in Expanded. It is the most practical card to return all kinds of Trainer cards.

Another versatile card for discard to hand is Milotic from Primal Clash. Milotics come-into-play ability Sparkling Ripples gives you any one card from your discard pile back into your hand. It is used in Night March to return Double Colorless Energy which cannot be recycled in another way. Downside of Milotic: it is a Stage 1 and that 30 HP Feebas is somewhat weak.

You May Like: How To Beat Arlo In Pokemon Go

Sometimes A Competitive Deck Is Drastically Different

Now, while the decks above, and tips on how to build a better deck will help its important to note that not all decks adhere to the competitive deck building best practices. For example, Enrique Avilas Wailord EX deck doesnt use any energy cards and never attacks. With only 7 Pokémon and 53 trainer cards, its truly a unique deck:

Pokmon Energy And Trainer Cards

In this card game, two players act as Pokémon trainers, using the creatures in their deck to battle one another. Each player has their own deck, each deck should have 60 cards, and there should be three different kinds of cards in your deck: Pokémon, Energy, and Trainers. Each is described in detail below. Energy powers attacks, trainers turn the tables, and Pokémon do battle. Each type of card is described in more detail below.

An ultra rare card: Fly on FLYGON

Also Check: Where To Find Tyranitar In Pokemon Shield