Beginner question about energy and other questions

[Waldo120]

Hi, I've never played Pokemon before. I grew up on Magic The Gathering, and have played some Hearthstone as well. Just played a game with a starter kit and 2 boosters with my 5 year old. I have what are probably stupid questions for you all, but I can't seem to find the answers in the instructions that come with the card set. And my googling has relieved a bunch of advanced web sites when I have very basic questions.

1. Regarding energy, when you use energy to do an attack, do you discard the energy you used to attack, or do you just need that much energy on a Pokemon in order to do the attack? In other words if I have 3 energy on a Pokemon, and I use an attack that requires 2 energy, does that Pokemon now have 1 energy or still has 3?
2. My kid mixed the decks that were originally separate. Are you supposed to only pick 1-2 colors/types? Now I've got to balance the two decks. Also seems like this would make it difficult to adapt to the cards your opponent is playing. Right off the bat your entire deck may be weak to their entire deck.
3. My wife purchased the cards. So if I don't have the type of energy a Pokemon requires (I presume because she purchased different color boosters then starters) I should not deck them?
4. If I don't have the Pokemon basic for an evolution 1, or basic + evolution 1 for an evolution 2, then I should not deck the evolution card? Do they really expect you to match up a basic with it's evolution + evolution 2? That seems unlikely.

Thanks for helping.

 

[donavannj]

Hi, I've never played Pokemon before. I grew up on Magic The Gathering, and have played some Hearthstone as well. Just played a game with a starter kit and 2 boosters with my 5 year old. I have what are probably stupid questions for you all, but I can't seem to find the answers in the instructions that come with the card set. And my googling has relieved a bunch of advanced web sites when I have very basic questions.

1. Regarding energy, when you use energy to do an attack, do you discard the energy you used to attack, or do you just need that much energy on a Pokemon in order to do the attack? In other words if I have 3 energy on a Pokemon, and I use an attack that requires 2 energy, does that Pokemon now have 1 energy or still has 3?
2. My kid mixed the decks that were originally separate. Are you supposed to only pick 1-2 colors/types? Now I've got to balance the two decks. Also seems like this would make it difficult to adapt to the cards your opponent is playing. Right off the bat your entire deck may be weak to their entire deck.
3. My wife purchased the cards. So if I don't have the type of energy a Pokemon requires (I presume because she purchased different color boosters then starters) I should not deck them?
4. If I don't have the Pokemon basic for an evolution 1, or basic + evolution 1 for an evolution 2, then I should not deck the evolution card? Do they really expect you to match up a basic with it's evolution + evolution 2? That seems unlikely.

Thanks for helping.

1. No, you do not discard the energy used. It's kind of like mana from MTG in that it's permanent unless a card or a card's effect specifically removes it, though it's specifically attached to just that one Pokemon, so when that one Pokemon is removed from play (meaning back to your hand or to your discard pile), it's typically discarded (unless a card specifically says to take all cards attached to a Pokemon and put them into a hand/deck). That

2. You can use as many types as you want, but anything beyond 2 is typically impractical for the same reasons it'd be impractical in Magic. And when I say types, I mean the energy types the Pokemon use, not the types of the Pokemon themselves. I'll cover in detail how energy works in response to your question about attacking below.

3. You should not use Pokemon that you cannot attack with. If a Pokemon needs Fire energy to attack and you only have Water Energy cards, do not use it. Keep in mind that a Pokemon's type does not mean it can only use that type of energy. Its type only dictates what type of damage it does. If an attack has that star in the white circle (which is known as a Colorless Energy symbol), any type of energy can be used to meet the energy requirements for that specific colorless energy need, as long as you have enough energy attached to met that Pokemon's energy needs. Let's look at an example:

This Pikachu card requires a single Lightning Energy for its first attack, and 2 colorless energy for its second attack. To use Gnaw - which you do not have to use at all if you want to attack with Agility, by the way - you would attach one Lightning Energy (or some other card that provides a lightning energy) to Pikachu and then when it's the part of your turn where you attack, you declare that you're attacking with Gnaw (this declaration part is probably something you already know).

To use Agility, however, you need only 2 energy of any type at all before declaring that you'll be using it. A single Double Colorless Energy card meets the requirements for the attack just as well as 2 Water Energy or two Lightning Energy.



4. If you don't have any of the Pokemon a card's "This card evolves from ____" field specifies, then don't put it in as it's not going to be usable. Keep in mind that the name of the card it evolves from has to be an exact match. It's not as hard as it seems to get up to a Stage 2 card. It just seems unlikely because you're still new to the game.



What will really help is to go out and buy a Trainer Kit set, which contains two 30 card half decks, and then follow the first seven turns it guides you through.

Next would be to go to www.pokemon.com/tcgo, create an account, then download the Pokemon Trading Card Game Online program and install it onto a computer, and then log into that and watch/play the tutorial built into the online game.

Those two steps should cover the basics and generally give you a very solid knowledge of the basics, possibly even covering some things you may have missed or not known at all.


Did these answers help?

 

[Hands]

The only thing I'll add to what donavannj said is that whilst having anything that can't attack isn't wise, some cards can still be useful because of their abilities. Some cards like Vileplume can be really bothersome just because of their ability.

Most decks are so trainer heavy now that having this on your bench would cause a lot of problems for virtually any current deck and really stall some set ups. 3 energies for 70 on stage 2 isn't special and the heavy retreat makes it a really big liability up front.

The Eeveelutions from Ancient Origins also have really handy abilities. They're ok attack wise but they'd be even more helpful on the bench, giving your pokemon a potential 5 types (Bisharp from Steam Siege is Dark/Metal, teamed with the three eevelutions he'd be Dark, Metal, Fire, Water and Lightning, given you 5 type covers to help you do double damage to your opponent's pokemon thanks to the weaknesses mechanic)

These are just two examples of Pokemon that work great from the bench and never have to run a single energy to be useful.