New Game Mechanics for the TCG
-Before, the player going first wasn't able to draw a card on their initial turn. With the new rules, both players draw a card at the beginning of every turn.
-The player going first can't play any Trainer Cards (Trainers, Supporters, or Stadiums) on their initial turn. Before, the restriction only applied to Supporters but with the modified rules, no Trainer Cards may be played.
Claw Fossil, Mysterious Fossil, and Root Fossil can not be put into play on the first player's initial turn. These cards CAN be put into play during the initial setup phase.
-If Claw Fossil, Mysterious Fossil, or Root Fossil is Knocked Out, the opponent takes a prize. (If the owner of the Fossil card chooses to discard it, it is not considered a Knocked Out Pokemon.) Fossils are to be treated as Trainer cards while in the deck, hand, discard pile, and prize area.
-Up until now, there have been 5 types of cards categorized as "Trainers" (Trainers, Supporters, Stadiums, Pokemon Tools, and Technical Machines). In the DP series, Trainers, Supporters, and Stadiums are all classified as "Trainer Cards," but only Trainers, Pokemon Tools, and Technical Machines are considered "Trainers".
-Weakness and Resistance are now customized to each Pokemon. When calculating Weakness and Resistance, add or subtract the number written in the Weakness and Resistance section of the card. The way that damage is calculated on ex cards goes unchanged. If running ex and DP cards together in a deck, damage done to DP series cards is calculated with addition and subtraction while ex cards take double damage for weakness and -30 damage for resistance.
-Basic Energy versions of Darkness and Metal energy appear in the DP series. Basic Darkness and Metal energy do not have any any special effects and any number may be put in a deck. Special Energy versions of Darkness and Metal Energy may be run along with the Basic versions, with a limit of 2 copies in a 30 card deck and 4 copies in a 60 card deck.
If a card says, "Attach a Darkness Energy to 1 of your Pokemon," either the Special Energy or Basic Energy version of the card will meet the requirement.
-All of the Unown in the DP series are named according to their letter (i.e. Unown A, Unown B). Each differently named Unown is treated as a different card. In the ex series all Unown were treated as if they had the same name. In a 60 card deck you can have 4 Unown A, 4 Unown B, and 4 ex-series Unown. Also, if a card says, "Choose 1 Unown," Unown A, Unown B, or an ex-series Unown will meet the requirement.
-Pokemon LV.X (Level X) cards have an "X" where the level number should be. An Active Pokemon can be "Leveled Up" by placing the LV.X card of the same name on top of it. The LV.X card should be treated as another copy of the Pokemon it shares a name with, and 30 card decks are limited to 2 copies of a card with the same name while 60 card decks are limited to 4 copies of a card with the same name. For example, Dodaitoise and Dodaitoise LV.X have the same name, so in a 60 card deck you can have 4 in any combination of Dodaitiose and Dodaitoise LV.X while in a 30 card deck you can have 2 in any combination of Dodaitoise and Dodaitiose LV.X
-In the DP series, an Active Pokemon can be Leveled Up during your turn. A Pokemon can't be Leveled Up on the same turn that it comes into play. As long as they're Active, multiple Pokemon can be Leveled Up during your turn. Energy and damage counters that were on the Pokemon before it Leveled Up remain on that Pokemon. A Pokemon recovers from Poison, Burn, Sleep, Paralysis, and Confusion when it Levels Up. Any other effects that were on the Pokemon also go away.
-There are now energyless attacks, where a Pokemon can use an attack without any energy requirement whatsoever.
