Engine (TCG)

An engine in the Pokémon Trading Card Game is a player-made term used to refer to a card or a series of cards that, when played, greatly increase a player's drawing or searching speed, thus helping them burn through their deck faster. The most famous and effective engine is probably the infamous Holon Engine, which consists entirely of Trainer and Supporter cards. However, while engines are often centered around Trainer cards, some engines are centered around Pokémon cards. However, if an engine is based around one or more Pokémon cards, the Pokémon will generally sit on a player's bench and utilize its Poké-Power. Some cards could be considered engines by themselves, such as Delcatty. In essence, the power of an engine is its drawing or searching ability.

Single-card engines

Single-card engines are engines that are able to function virtually by themselves. However, they are often used in combination with other cards.

Delcatty Energy Draw engine

The Energy Draw engine was centered around Delcatty, from the EX Ruby & Sapphire and EX Power Keepers expansions, and its Poké-Power, Energy Draw. Energy Draw allows the player to discard an Energy card from his or her hand to draw up to three cards, once per turn. This was exceptionally useful in decks that actually benefited from discarding Energies, such as Infercatty.

Claydol Cosmic Power engine

The Cosmic Power engine utilized Claydol's Cosmic Power Poké-Power to simply draw cards. Cosmic Power allows the player to put up to two cards from his or her hand on the bottom of their deck and draw cards until they have six in their hand. Cosmic Power is one of the simplest, yet most effective engines to date, yet it is not without its problems. Since Claydol sits on the bench, it is vulnerable to being sniped by attacks such as Garchomp C LV.X's Dragon Rush, at which point the Claydol player may be left without a way to reliably draw cards.

Pidgeot Quick Search engine

The Quick Search engine utilized Pidgeot from the EX FireRed & LeafGreen expansion. Pidgeot had a Poké-Power called Quick Search which allowed the player to search for any one card from his or her deck and add it to their hand, once per turn. The was not stackable, meaning that if one had multiple Pidgeot in play, they could still only use the power once. However, Pidgeot was the backbone support Pokémon of many EX-era decks. It was often used in combination with a variety of searching and drawing Trainer and Supporter cards, most notably Rare Candy to make it easier to get out.

Multi-card engines

Castaway engine

The Castaway engine was centered around Castaway, a Supporter card from the EX Crystal Guardians expansion. Castaway was often used in non-δ decks during the EX Holon Phantoms-onward Rotation. Castaway was often used in combination with Scott, Cessation Crystal, Battle Frontier, and others to disrupt the opponent's strategy while making sure the Castaway player always had resources in their hand as well as Basic Energy cards.

Holon engine

Main article: Holon Engine (TCG)

Cyrus engine/SP engine

The SP engine, also known as the Cyrus engine, centers around the Cyrus's Conspiracy Supporter from the Platinum expansion, as well as a number of SP Trainers. Generally, Cyrus's Conspiracy is used in combination with SP Radar, Energy Gain, Power Spray, Poké Turn, and a number of single copies of other Supporter cards. Cyrus's Conspiracy is remarkably similar to Castaway. However, Cyrus's Conspiracy allows the player to search for a Trainer card with Team Galactic's Invention in its name, rather than a Pokémon Tool card. The Cyrus Engine is the primary manner in which SP decks, such as LuxApe and LuxChomp, get setup and cause disruption. It is often used in combination with Uxie for drawpower.