Pokemon TCG Prerelease Rules

Game Setup

• Shuffle your 40-card deck 🔀
• Draw 7 cards for your starting hand
• If you don't have any Basic Pokemon in hand:
  • Reveal your hand
  • Shuffle and draw 7 new cards
  • Opponent draws +1 card per mulligan
• Place 4 Prize cards face down
• Place 1 Basic Pokemon as your Active Pokemon ⭐
• Place up to 5 Basic Pokemon on your Bench (optional)

How to Win

• Collect all 4 of your Prize cards 🏆
• Knock out all of your opponent's Pokemon in play
• If your opponent cannot draw a card when required

Your Turn

1. Draw a card
2. You may do any of these in any order:
   • Put Basic Pokemon on your Bench (max 5)
   • Evolve your Pokemon
   • Attach 1 Energy card ⚡
   • Play Trainer cards
   • Retreat your Active Pokemon
   • Use Abilities
3. Attack with your Active Pokemon (ends your turn) 🎯

Status Conditions

• Asleep: Flip coin between turns. Heads = wake up
• Confused: Flip coin to attack. Tails = 30 damage to self
• Paralyzed: Cannot attack or retreat. Removed at end of turn
• Poisoned: Place 1 damage counter between turns
• Burned: Place 2 damage counters between turns, flip coin. Heads = remove condition

Additional Rules

• You can have multiple of the same Basic Pokemon on your Bench 🪑
• You can only attach one Energy card per turn ⚡
• You can only play 1 supporter trainer card per turn 📝
• When a Pokemon is knocked out, all cards attached to it go to the discard pile 🗑️
• If your Active Pokemon is knocked out, you must replace it with a Benched Pokemon 🔄

Time Limit Rules

When time is called in a tournament match:

1. Complete the current turn
2. Play three additional turns ("+3 turns")
3. If no winner is determined through normal win conditions, use the tiebreaker:

Tiebreaker Rules

• Compare remaining Prize cards for both players
• Player with fewer Prize cards remaining wins
• If both players have the same number of Prize cards, the match is a tie