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Pokémon Trading Card Game

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This article is about the Trading Card Game itself. For the Game Boy game related to this game, see Pokémon Trading Card Game (game).
Back of an English language card
Back of a Japanese language card

The Pokémon Trading Card Game, abbreviated as Pokémon TCG or PTCG, is one of the most popular and steady aspects of the Pokémon franchise (next to the video game and animated television series). The Pokémon TCG revolves around buying, collecting, and trading playing cards with various likenesses of Pokémon on them including some Pokédex information.

History of the Pokémon TCG

The Pokémon TCG was created by Media Factory in Japan. It was first released in Japan in 1997. Wizards of the Coast, seeing a great opportunity to ride the new Pokémon wave, was licensed the game and introduced Pokémon TCG to North America in 1999. In 2003, Nintendo of America took over the game from Wizards of the Coast, and is currently releasing new sets for it. During the early part of its run, two Game Boy Color games were also released, Pokémon Trading Card Game and Template:Card GB 2, though only the first was released outside of Japan.

How to play

A person must build a deck of sixty cards using a combination of various "Pokémon" cards (creatures that do battle), "Trainer" cards (which have special effects on them) and "Energy" cards (a method of cost). To win, a player must "knock out" six of their opponent's Pokémon creatures. A player can also win if their opponent no longer has any Pokémon creatures left to battle with, or if their opponent runs out of cards in their deck.

Deck upkeep

Unlike classic card games which uses a single deck of 52 cards, a trading card game (TCG) is constantly and continuously growing. New cards with new game abilities are released at a steady interval in order to keep the game fresh and alive. The only cost of TCG's, however, is that it forces a player to constantly keep in touch with the game, as well as having to purchase new cards from newly released sets. Players who don't keep up run the risk of falling behind other players.

Card types

Wizards of the Coast (English) sets

File:Wizards.jpg
Wizards of the Coast ran the game between 1999 and 2003

Wizards of the Coast (English) unreleased sets

Nintendo (English) sets

File:Nintendo.jpg
Nintendo has since taken over the TCG from Wizards

Sets

Other Merchandise

Media Factory/The Pokémon Company (Japanese) sets

External links

On Bulbagarden forums

Project Games logo.png This game-related article is part of Project Games, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon games.
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