The , abbreviated as PTCG or Pokémon TCG, is a tabletop and collectible card game developed by Creatures Inc. based on the Pokémon franchise. Originally published in Japan by Media Factory in 1996, publishing worldwide is currently handled by the Pokémon Company. In the United States, the game was originally licensed to Wizards of the Coast, the producer of Magic: The Gathering. Wizards published eight expansion sets between 1998 and 2003, after which licensing was transferred to the Pokémon Company.
Players assume the role of Pokémon Trainers engaging in battle, and play with 60-card decks. Standard gameplay cards include Pokémon cards, Energy cards, and Trainer cards. Pokémon are introduced in battle from a "bench" and perform attacks on their opponent to deplete their health points. Attacks are enabled by the attachment of a sufficient number of Energy cards to the active Pokémon. Pokémon may also adjust other gameplay factors and evolve into more powerful stages. Players may use Trainer cards to draw cards into their hand, harm their opponent, or perform other gameplay functions. Card effects often rely on elements of luck, such as dice rolls and coin tosses, to decide an outcome. Gameplay relies on the usage of counters to indicate damage dealt and status effects. It is also classified as a sport.
The Pokémon TCG has been the subject of both officially-sanctioned and informal tournaments. Wizards of the Coast staged multiple tournaments across American malls and stores. Official tournaments are currently overseen by Play! Pokémon, a division of the Pokémon Company, and are hosted on a local, national, and international basis. In addition, numerous video game adaptations of the Pokémon TCG have been published, including two Game Boy Color games, the Pokémon: Play It! series, and Pokémon TCG Online. After the closure of TCG Online in 2023, it was replaced with Pokémon Trading Card Game Live (PC) and Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket (mobile) in 2024. In recent years, the cards have become subjected to shortages due to scalping, with products from the official Pokemon Center site being sold out.
As of March 2026, the game has produced over 85 billion cards worldwide. Beside formal competitions and informal battling, the Pokémon TCG has also been the subject of collecting hobbies, with an extensive market for individual Pokémon cards, packs, and ephemera.
Development and publication
The Pokémon Trading Card Game was developed in Japan, based on the 1996 Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow Game Boy video game by Nintendo. It was first published in October 1996 by Media Factory in Japan. In the US, it was first published by Wizards of the Coast, towards the end of 1998 to capitalize on the US popularity of Pokémon. Over the next five years, Wizards of the Coast published more than a dozen expansion sets for the game, allowing the company to sell millions of cards and earn more revenue from Pokémon than they had from Magic: The Gathering in its first 10 years. Hasbro bought Wizards of the Coast in September 1999 for $325 million based on the strength of the Pokémon license. In 2001, Nintendo created its affiliate Pokémon USA, Inc., so that it could recover the US licensing rights to the game. In June 2003, Nintendo transferred the publishing rights from Wizards of the Coast to The Pokémon Company. Wizards sued Nintendo on October 1, 2003, and accused the company of poaching employees and violating its patent; the lawsuit was settled out of court.
Gameplay
The Pokémon Trading Card Game is a strategy-based card game that is usually played on a designated playmat or digitally on an official game client (usually Pokémon Trading Card Game Live) where two players (assuming the role of Pokémon Trainer) use their Pokémon to battle one another. Pokémon that have sustained enough damage from attacks–that reaches or exceeds its HP–is referred to as being "Knocked Out", granting the opponent a prize card; however, powerful card mechanics like Pokémon-V and Pokémon ex (which have higher HP and are harder to "Knock Out") grant extra prize cards when Knocked Out.
Taking all six prize cards is the most common win condition. Other ways to win are by "Knocking Out" or by removing all opponent's Pokémon in play–the Active and those on the Bench (i.e. the row behind the Active that can house up to five additional Pokémon to support and substitute Active Pokémon if it retreats or is "Knocked Out"), or by Decked Out–if at the opponent's next turn they have no cards left in deck to draw into.
Players begin by having one player select heads or tails, and the other flips a coin; the winner of the coin flip will decide who goes first or second. (Dice may be used in place of coins, with even numbers representing heads and odd numbers representing tails; dice are also primarily used in official tournaments organized by The Pokémon Company). The player going first cannot attack or play a Supporter card (powerful Trainer effects card) on their first turn. Players shuffle their decks and draw seven cards, and then each puts one Basic Pokémon in play as their Active Pokémon. This Pokémon is the one that is actively attacking and receiving damage. If a player does not have any Basic Pokémon, they must call mulligan, shuffle, and then draw another hand until they draw a Basic Pokémon; the opponent may draw one additional card per mulligan. Once both players have at least one Basic Pokémon, they can play up to five more Basic Pokémon onto their Bench, and then take the top six cards of their deck and place them to the side as Prize cards.
Play alternates between players who may take several actions during their turn, including playing additional Basic Pokémon, evolving their Pokémon, attaching an Energy card, playing Trainer cards, and using Pokémon abilities and attacks. After Trainer cards are played, cards are discarded by effects from Trainer cards or Abilities, and after Pokémon were "Knocked Out", they are put into the discard pile. A player may also retreat their Active Pokémon, switching the Active Pokémon with one on the Bench by paying the Active Pokémon's retreat cost of a certain number of Energies. At the cost of ending the turn, players may use one of their Active Pokémon's attacks once the prerequisite number and types of Energy attached to that Pokémon is fulfilled. Effects from that attack are then activated and damage may be dealt on the defending Pokémon, which may modify based on the defender Pokémon's type weakness or a resistance policies, and/or by any other effects on the defending Pokémon. Players alternate attacking until a player wins either through one of the above win conditions or by concession. Although in rare cases both players may take a Prize card at the same time with a Pokémon like Dusknoir from Shrouded Fable's ability which can "Knock Out" another Pokémon but it also "Knocks Out" itself, if this happens a new games known as "Sudden Death" starts where both players set up as usual but with one Prize card and the first player to take their Prize card wins the game, but if both players take a Prize card at the same time again, this process is repeated.
Card types Pokémon cards depict one or multiple Pokémon from the Pokémon franchise, one to two elemental types, one or more attacks and/or an Ability, and a certain amount of HP. Basic Pokémon are Pokémon that have not evolved and can be played directly onto the Bench; they have Stage 1, Stage 2, and/or special mechanic evolutions. Each player may have up to six Pokémon in play: one in the Active Spot and five on the Bench.
Most Pokémon have attacks that require a certain amount of Energies to use. Attacks deal damage to the opponent's Active Pokémon and sometimes deal additional damage to their Benched Pokémon; they may have additional effects like drawing cards, inflicting Special Conditions (Asleep, Burned, Confused, Paralyzed, or Poisoned) or altering the opponent's deck and/or board state. Abilities, previously called Poké-Powers and Poké-Bodies until 2011, are not attacks, but special effects on Pokémon that may be activated once or multiple times during their turn, such as drawing additional cards or switching the opponent's Active Pokémon with one of their Benched Pokémon, or can be passive, i.e. they remain in effect as long as the Pokémon with the Ability remains in play.
The other type of Pokémon cards are Evolution Pokémon. In contrast to a Basic Pokémon, Evolution Pokémon cannot be directly put into play; they must be placed on top of the corresponding previous Stage Pokémon to evolve it, and they cannot be played onto a Pokémon the same turn that Pokémon was put into the Bench or during the player's first turn. Stage 1 Pokémon evolve from Basic Pokémon, and Stage 2 Pokémon evolve from Stage 1 Pokémon. As a Pokémon evolves, it gains HP and their attacks change, usually becoming more powerful. Over the years many different variations to the standard mechanics have been added, the most prominent of which are the signature feature of their respective expansion series. +Major Pokémon Card AttributesCard TypeRelease ExpansionEvolution Stage(s)MechanicsShining Pokémon, Pokémon ☆, Radiant PokémonNeo Revelation & Shining Legends (Shining), EX Team Rocket Returns (☆), Astral Radiance (Radiant)BasicOne per deck (excluding Shining Pokémon released after Shining Legends)Pokémon-ex, Pokémon exEX Ruby & Sapphire series, Scarlet & Violet seriesBasic, Stage 1, Stage 22 Prizes, official documentation writes the names from the two releases differently but they function the same and are treated as such.Pokémon LV.XDiamond & Pearl seriesLEVEL-UPCan use attacks, Poké-Powers, and Poké-Bodies from its previous evolutionPokémon LEGENDHeartGold & SoulSilver seriesLEGEND2 Prizes, 2 cards must be played onto the Bench at the same timePokémon-EXNext DestiniesBasic2 Prizes, distinct from Pokémon-ex because it is composed only of Basic PokémonMega Pokémon-EXXY seriesMEGA2 Prizes, turn ends after evolving from Pokémon-EX (Can be cancelled with a Spirit Link Pokémon Tool)Pokémon BREAKBREAKthroughBREAKIncreases HP and gives an additional attack/Ability to its previous evolution.Pokémon GXSun and Moon seriesBasic, Stage 1, Stage 22 Prizes, each player can use a GX attack once per battleTAG TEAM Pokémon GXTeam UpBasic3 prizes, each player can use a GX attack once per battlePrism Star CardsUltra PrismBasicOne of each Prism Star card per deck, sent to the Lost Zone when discardedPokémon VSword and Shield seriesBasic2 PrizesPokémon VMAXSword and Shield seriesVMAX3 Prizes, evolves from Pokémon VPokémon V-UNIONSWSH Black Star PromosV-UNION3 Prizes, once per game for each V-UNION name: add four V-UNION cards with the same name from the discard pile to the BenchPokémon VSTARBrilliant StarsVSTAR2 Prizes, each player can use a VSTAR Power once per battle, evolves from Pokémon VTera Pokémon exScarlet & Violet seriesBasic, Stage 1, Stage 22 Prizes, different types than normal but uses the same energy, cannot be dealt damage by attacks while on the BenchMega Evolution Pokémon exMega Evolution seriesBasic, Stage 1, Stage 23 Prizes, Distinct From Mega Pokémon-EX Other Pokémon attributes include Owner's Pokémon, Baby Pokémon, Crystal Pokémon, Dark Pokémon, Light Pokémon, Team Magma's cards, Team Aqua's cards, δ Delta Species, Pokémon Prime, Pokémon SP, Restored Pokémon, Team Plasma cards, Ancient Trait, Ultra Beasts, Single Strike, Rapid Strike, Fusion Strike, Ancient, and Future cards.
Trainer cards create a wide range of effects that influence the game, such as drawing cards, healing Pokémon, removing Energy from opposing Pokémon, or recovering cards from the discard pile. Before the Diamond & Pearl series, all non-Pokémon and non-Energy cards were simply classified as Trainer cards. Afterward, they were divided into three categories: Item, Stadium, and Supporter.