Playing early TCG with modified rules for 4 players, & more in-game strategies

Hi!

I was wondering if anybody here had experience of making up their own TCG rules that they wanted to share. I recently found my old base+jungle+some fossil/rocket collection, and my friends and I modified some of the rules and created something that I found to be a lot more enjoyable than the original game. We kept most of the core mechanics the same. We've played these rules with 3 and 4 players, it would probably work for more. I'd love to hear some comments or suggestions about things which might/might not work, and predictions for which cards would dominate or be weakened compared with the real TCG. So here's the Rulez:

GAMEPLAY:
~~Turn Phase: Everybody draws a card at the same time, and plays trainers/attaches energy/evolves pokemon as per usual, except for retreating/attacking. Trainers like gust of wind affect an opponent (of your choice) in real time.

~~Attack/Retreat Phase: In the attack phase, players choose to either attack one opponent or retreat. This is done secretly and then revealed simultaneously once all players have chosen (we use energy cards to refer to different players, so if I were fighting and jack were water, I would place a water energy face down next to my active pokemon to signify attacking jack, and a fighting energy to signify a retreat). A player can also play one trainer in the attack phase, like a gust of wind, for a last minute effect.
~Order: First, the last-minute trainers have their effect (typically gust of wind, plus power, defender, or switch). Then, any retreats take place. Then, the attacks. Turn order is the opposite of retreat cost, so pokemon with 0 retreat cost move first, then 1, and so on until snorlax always moves last. Pokemon with the same retreat cost have their attack effects take place simultaneously. After all attacks are finished, players replace any KO'd pokemon, then everybody draws a card and goes back to the Turn Phase.

~~Prizes: Take a prize only if you're the player who lands the killing blow. This was the best part of the game, because there's often little incentive to 'gang up'. If multiple players KO a pokemon simultaneously, i.e. with attacks from pokemon with the same retreat cost, they take half a prize each (half-prizes we showed by turning a prize card face-up).

~~Other Rule Changes/Tweaks:
-- We made all energy cards wild except double colourless, to encourage type coverage and variety in deck building.
-- Energy removal can't be used against an opponent's active pokemon (because you might've already attached your energy for that turn, it's unfair to not be able to respond to ER).
-- If you run out of benched pokemon, you don't lose. The other players can still fight each other while you keep drawing cards
-- Two players can't use the same pokemon in their decks (we found the 'drafting' process quite fun)
-- Paralysis/Sleep/Poison effects (and other 'next turn' effects) happen before and after your attack. So for the purpose of card interpretation, your 'turn' is your personal attack.
-- Some Energy-related poke-powers have to be made less powerful

The best part of the game was that you had to try to predict what your opponents were going to do, in order to be able to land the finishing blow.

~~Natural Limitations
We were limited by the cards we have, which means that we can only have 2-3 of some trainers in our decks. Notably, there is only 1 super energy removal and 8 energy removals (so 2 each). I also don't have any scoop up or lass, not sure if they'd make an impact or not.

So there you go! What do you think? Would you play it? Have you messed with the rules in your own way?

Hi,

just created an account to thank you for these rules (even though you left the forum in the meantime).

We applied it to a family of three, and they proved to be effective, and fun. The only rule we didn't apply is replacing the energy by double colorless energy: that's not necessary. Another rule we added is to ignore weaknesses, because that would lead to strange assymetrical games (like one player harassing another).

Also, regarding Stadiums: we chose that, if two players really insist to place their respective stadium during the same turn, they have to flip a coin to decide which stadium survives.

Generally speaking, giving damage blowing priority to pokemon with low retreat cost makes sense, because strong pokemon usually have a high retreat cost. Noticeable expection to this are Yanmega and Garchomp, and of course... lightening type pokemon. So, for pure lightening-based decks, we have chosen to prevent this player from attaching an energy during the first turn.

As for paralysis, when it's an attack effect caused by the fastest pokemon, we have chosen to apply the effect immediatly, preventing the defending pokemon to fight back, but then to reset the state at the next turn. I understand that what you advised.

Forgetting to apply other special conditions twice in a turn (i.e. before and after the attack, as you advise to do) can be fatal to decks based on special conditions. So don't forget to do that!

Finally, we allowed Evolutions during the first turn and for newly placed Pokemon (but not twice in a row), because delaying it makes no sense when everyone playes simultaneously.

On the whole, many thanks for your post, which is quite unique on the internet, regarding parties of 3. If it haven't been for it, I dunno if I would have thought of it myself.