Ability (TCG)
Ability (Japanese: 特性 ability) is a special mechanics in the Pokémon Trading Card Game, named after the analogous element in the main series games. It may be held by any type of Pokémon cards. They replaced Pokémon Powers and their successors Poké-Powers and Poké-Bodies as a non-attack capability of cards with the release of Black & White. No Pokémon card has more than one Ability, although a Pokemon consisting of multiple cards such as a Pokémon BREAK or V-UNION can have multiple Abilities while in play.
Abilities are additional effects that the card's player can trigger once or multiple times during their turn, before they attack, or that are always active during the game. For example: Keldeo-EX has an Ability that allows the player to switch Keldeo-EX with the Active Pokémon, once per turn; Alolan Muk has an Ability that causes other Pokémon to lose their Abilities and is active always, until Alolan Muk is no longer in play. Unlike Pokémon Powers, Abilities are not disabled if their user has a Special Condition.
A common effect is for Pokémon to "have no Abilities". Pokémon under this kind of effect are treated as not having Abilities at all, even if there are Abilities printed on the card. (The Abilities that no longer exist do not have any effect) Notably, cards that care about if a Pokémon has an Ability will not apply to Pokémon printed with Abilities but are under this effect.
Some cards have attacks that cause a Pokémon to gain an Ability. Some Pokémon Tools are printed with an Ability that the Pokémon the Tool is attached to can use.
Some Abilities, instead of being active when a Pokémon is in play, are active or can be activated if a Pokémon is in another zone, such as the hand or discard pile. A select few Abilities can be activated when a Pokémon drawn from the deck or taken from the Prize cards.
With the release of Sun & Moon, the Ability symbol has been updated with a new one with red background and white text.
List of Abilities
Black & White Series
XY Series
Sun & Moon Series
Sword & Shield Series
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This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: Needs info on Abilities released from Battle Styles to Crown Zenith |
Scarlet & Violet Series
Relevant categories
See also
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This article is part of Project TCG, a Bulbapedia project that aims to report on every aspect of the Pokémon Trading Card Game. |
