Card types

In the Pokémon TCG, there are three types of cards players can use to build their decks with; "Pokémon", "Trainers" and "Energy".

• Pokémon cards are the creatues you use to do battle with. Each Pokémon card has some combination of attacks and "Pokémon Power", these are used to either disrupt your opponent or give you the winning edge.
• Trainer cards generally have a one time effect and are then discarded.
• Energy cards is the "fuel" necessary for your Pokémon to attack. If your Pokémon has no Energy cards attached to it, it cannot attack!

Each of these cards themselves have their own subtypes as well.

• Pokémon cards include both "Basic" and "Evolution" Pokémon.
• Trainer cards include regular trainer cards, "Stadium" cards, "Poké Tool" cards, "Technical Machine" cards, and others
• Energy cards include Basic and Special Energy cards.

Elemental types also play a large part in the Pokémon TCG. Both Pokémon and Energy cards can be one (or more) of these types. Similarly, a Pokémon can (and probably will) have a Weakness and Resistance to other types. But unlike in the Game Boy adventures, there are only 9 types.

• Grass
• Fire
• Water
• Electric
• Fighting
• Psychic
• Colorless
• Darkness
• Metal

Also unlike the Game Boy adventures, when a Pokémon attacks, the type of damage it does is based on the Pokémon's elemental type and not the type of Energy the attack requires. For example, a Psychic Pokémon will always do "Psychic damage", even if the Energy types required for the attack are "Water Energy" (meaning it won't do "Water damage"). Likewise, Pokémon in the TCG also can't do an 1.5 times damage if their attack and type are of the same Elements.

Because of the limited number of types, the many of 17 types found in the Game Boy adventures have been combined into one of the TCG types. For example, Poison, Bug and Grass types in the Game Boy adventures are instead combined into the Grass type in the TCG. However, in keeping with Pokémon tradition, the Weakness and Resistance of certain Pokémon are similar to their weaknesses in the Game Boy adventures. Even though, for example, Grimer is a Grass type in the TCG, it's weakness is to Psychic, much like in the Game Boy adventures.

Another difference between the Game Boy adventures and the TCG is how damage is calculated according to Weakness and Resistance. If a Pokémon has a weakness to another Pokémon's type, the damage done is doubled. If a Pokémon has a resistance to another Pokémon's type, that damage is reduced by 30 damage points (and not halved).