Pokemon Play

I mentioned in a previous post that Calfgrit7 is interested in Pokémon card game (mostly just for the cards). We’ve played a few partial games, and I can give a play test report now.

Overall, it’s a fun game. The general concept is that each player is a Pokémon trainer, and they toss out their various Pokémon to fight each other to unconsciousness. Each player has a deck of exactly 60 cards full of Pokémon creatures, energy (to “power” the creatures), and items, trainers, and other accessories to support the creatures. The decks I bought come with cardboard, coin-like counters to keep track of damage to the Pokémon, and special plastic “coins” to flip for heads or tails.

When I played Magic: the Gathering (MtG), the deck boxes you bought for the game came with completely random cards. That was intentional and part of the gimmick of the game — you had to trade and collect to build a deck to play with. But these Pokémon decks I bought come already organized for play. This is a great thing. You can start playing immediately by buying just one deck. The pre-built deck is not great — after only a few games I see how I’d like to improve my deck — but it is functional and full usable.

The instructions are pretty straight forward, but one thing bugged me because I couldn’t figure it out: the prize cards. The only thing the instructions say about the prize cards is that you are supposed to lay out six of them before play starts, and when you knock out an opponents Pokémon, you take a prize card. Where do the prize cards come from? Do I pick them from my deck, or draw them randomly from the top, can I see them? And when I knocked out my opponent’s Pokémon, did I take from his prize cards, and vice versa? (I think my time playing MtG, with ante and bet cards, messed up my ability to understand this concept.)

The first couple of games we played, we skipped the prize card thing because I really couldn’t figure it out. I eventually found the explanation on the Pokémon game Web site, after having to really search for it. I learned that the prize cards are drawn randomly from the top of your deck, and you get one of them (of your own) when you knock out your opponent’s Pokémon.

So I had finally come to understand all of the basic instructions for the game. But then there are some specific instructions on the cards that could use a little clarification. There’s probably some clarification and errata on the Web site, but I haven’t looked into it yet. If I was playing the game regularly, with serious gamers, I’d look into the info. But just playing with Calfgrit7 once every few days (and usually not having time to even actually finish a game), it’s not worth the effort.

Even though the prize card rule confused me, and some occasional card text is vague, I like the game. I’m considering getting my adult game group into the game for a few plays. I need to play against someone who can be real competitive. Calfgrit7 mostly just likes the Pokémon creatures, and he shoves any new ones he gets into his deck without knowledge or care that he doesn’t have the appropriate energy cards to power the creatures.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com