Zone (TCG)

Zones, also sometimes refered to as areas, are places where a card in the Pokémon Trading Card Game will stay during gameplay, with some being considered public information. Initially, all cards will be in a player's deck and are moved to other zones as the game progresses. Plenty of card effects will also allow a card to be moved between zones, including where they might not end up with just the game's core mechanics.

When a card moves between zones, it is considered to no longer be its same instance; as such, cards like Darkrai-GX can use their effects that move them between zones once per turn and reuse this effect if the criteria is met again, even if the opponent can track it to be the same card.^[1] This does not apply to effects that target the player or many of their cards at once.

List of Zones

Deck

Main article: Deck

Both players in a Pokémon Trading Card Game match require a playing Deck. An official deck is either purchased or built with 60 cards, composed of Pokémon cards, Energy cards, and Trainer cards.

Hand

Generally held in the player’s hands, a player’s hand is the group of cards that only they are allowed to look at (not their opponent) and play from during their turn. At the beginning of a match, players take seven cards from the top of their respective decks and places them into their hand. At the beginning of each player's turn, they take one card from the top of their respective decks and place it into their hand. Notably, players always have a hand, even if that hand has no cards in it. This allows players to pay for costs that require discarding their hand even in such a case.^[2]

In Play

The In Play area corresponds to where the player's Pokémon will stay to use and receive Attacks and activate most of their general effects. It is split into a section for the player's Active Spot, placed in front of the player toward the upper center of their half of the field, and a Bench that is directly in front of each player. These sections do not count as different zones for the intent of reusing once per turn effects.

Pokémon in Play can have cards attached to them, usually Energy and Pokémon Tool cards. They can also be damaged/Knocked Out and evolve whenever the conditions are met. This is also where Stadium cards remain while active, which are placed next to the Active Spot.

Active Spot

The Active Spot (Japanese: バトルポケモン Battle Pokémon) is reserved for the Pokémon that the player has chosen to battle the opponent's Active Pokémon. In regular formats, each player can only have one Pokémon set as their Active Pokémon at any given time. Uniquely, the Active Pokémon can have a Level Up card used on it. The Active Pokémon is the only Pokémon allowed to Attack or retreat. The Active Pokémon is also sometimes referred to by the opponent as the Attacking Pokémon or, if affected by an opponent's attack, the Defending Pokémon. If the Active Pokémon leaves play (usually by being Knocked Out), a Pokémon currently on the Bench must become the new Active Pokémon or the opponent wins the game.

Bench

During play, any Pokémon that are not considered to be the Active Pokémon may be put onto the Bench (Japanese: ベンチ Bench). These are classed as Benched Pokémon (Japanese: ベンチポケモン Bench Pokémon), of which each player can have no more than five at a time. They generally cannot Attack or Retreat, but they may be able to use Abilities, Poké-POWERS and Poké-BODIES if they do not state that the Pokémon must be in the Active Spot to use them, and they can also be switched out into the Active position if the current Active Pokémon retreats. Some attacks allow a Pokémon to deal Damage to the opponent's Benched Pokémon (and some even deal damage to the player's own Benched Pokémon). In these cases, Weakness and Resistance are not applied to the Benched Pokémon unless stated so.

Prize card

Prize redirects here. For money given to the winner of a battle by the loser, see prize money.

A Prize card (Japanese: サイド Side) is a card taken by a player for Knocking Out one of their opponent's Pokémon. At the start of the game, after drawing their initial hand and putting Pokémon into play, cards are taken from the top of the deck and set as player's Prize cards. Prize cards are laid face-down and are unknown to both players. When using regular 60-card decks, six prizes are put down at the start of the game. However, three are put down if using 30-card Half Decks, and four are put down if using 40-card prerelease decks. In a Sudden Death match, each player has only one Prize card.

When one player's Pokémon is Knocked Out, their opponent takes one of their own Prize cards and puts it into their hand. Some effects can increase or decrease the number of Prize cards taken in this way. There are also effects that prevent players from taking any Prize card when Knocking Out a Pokémon, and those override any increase. Certain Special Pokémon have Rule Boxes that also allow the opposing player to take more Prize cards when they are Knocked Out, though this technically is not an effect that increases the number of Prize cards taken. Rarely, there are effects that can interact with the Prize cards, sometimes allowing a player to take theirs without Knocking Out a Pokémon.

The first player to take all of their Prize cards wins the game.

Discard Pile

When cards are taken out of play, they are moved into the Discard Pile (Japanese: トラッシュ Trash). Either player can look at the cards in their own Discard Pile, as well as those in their opponent's. When a Pokémon is Knocked Out, it is moved to the Discard Pile, along with all cards attached to it. When a Trainer card is used, it is often immediately moved to the Discard Pile after being used. Energy and other cards in Play that are discarded are also moved into the Discard Pile. Some cards allow the player to recollect cards from their Discard Pile.

Lost Zone

Main article: Lost Zone

The Lost Zone is an area considered to be a more advanced form of the Discard Pile. Cards moved to the Lost Zone are kept face-up, but unlike cards in the Discard Pile, are considered to be "outside" the Play Area due to the fact they are not kept on the playmat if one is used. Cards moved to the Lost Zone are no longer considered to be in play, and cannot be retrieved by any means during gameplay. There are no card effects that can circumvent this.

In the video games

Most games based on the Trading Card game will follow the same rules for the period they were released in as usual.

Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket

Main article: Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket#Differences from the TCG

To achieve simpler rules and a faster game pace, this game abandons certain Pokémon TCG concepts and introduces new ones:

• Each players' starting hand will always contain at least one Basic Pokémon, meaning mulligans will never be taken.
• Energy cards are replaced by an Energy Zone, which generates one Energy each turn to attach to a Pokémon. Saved decks can customize their Energy Zone to generate up to three different Energy Types, of which the player has no control of their order during gameplay.
• Prize cards are replaced by points; players win battles by obtaining three points.
• Players unable to draw a card at the start of their turn do not lose the battle, as they would in the physical game.
• In addition to their Active Pokémon, each player can have up to three Benched Pokémon, instead of five in the physical game.
• Each player may only have up to 10 cards in their hand, whereas the physical game has no limit.

Trivia

In other languages

See also

• Public information

References

This article is part of Project TCG, a Bulbapedia project that aims to report on every aspect of the Pokémon Trading Card Game.