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PokePop’s House of Cards
Pokémon TCG is Coming on Strong and Making Changes!
July 22, 2005

The Pokémon TCG surprised the gaming world this past month at Origins by hosting what was probably the busiest Trading Card Game area in the TCG hall, even giving Yu Gi Oh a run for it’s money! While YGO’s Championship was about 20% larger, Pokémon’s National Championship attendance of exactly 400 was 60% larger than last years. Also, through the week, the Pokémon play area was well attended from first thing into the morning to, often, late at night. This demonstrated the Pokémon was back with a vengeance.

If Origins is any indication, Pokémon is going to host an amazing event this August in San Diego when they hold their World Championships. If you can make it, you should come. There will be a last chance tournament on Friday to allow people who have not already earned an invitation a chance to make it into the World Championship event. Even for those who don’t play in the main event, there will be plenty of side events throughout the weekend to keep everyone occupied.

There are a few recent game changes that have just gone into effect. It is part of PUI’s effort to bring the worldwide game in line with existing Japanese rules. One may anticipate further changes in the next season as well. Here is the information that PUI will post on their website.

As of July 10th, 2005, the following game rules will be in effect for all POP-sanctioned tournaments, including the upcoming 2005 World Championships:

1. At the beginning of a game, Fossil Trainer cards are treated as regular Basic Pokémon for the purposes of determining whether a player may mulligan.

This game rule changes the optional mulligan rule found in the EX Sandstorm rulebook, when the player had a choice to shuffle his or her hand back into his or her deck to draw a new hand (if he or she didn’t have any Basic Pokémon but did have one or more Fossil Trainer cards). This does not affect Fossil Trainer cards in any other way – during the game, the only time they are considered Basic Pokémon is when they are in play (and they are always considered to be Trainer cards). This ruling affects Claw Fossil, Mysterious Fossil, and Root Fossil.

This rule affects only Fossil decks and those that use Fossils as bait/stallers. It also makes the current version of Mysterious Fossil virtually unplayable. No one can risk having to start the game with a lone 10 HP Basic! Not to worry, though, a 50 HP Mysterious Fossil will be released in the next few sets. Too late for Worlds, though.

2. Each deck must contain at least 1 Basic Pokémon.

A “Basic Pokémon” is considered a Pokémon with “Basic” as the Pokémon’s Evolution Stage. This includes “Baby Pokémon” from expansions prior to EX Ruby & Sapphire but does not include Fossil Trainer cards (Fossil Trainer cards are not considered Basic Pokémon while in a player’s deck).

This strikes me as an odd rule. Why exclude Fossils from this requirement, since they are now counted as Basics during set up? Otherwise, this has little to no impact on any player.

3. A player may not play a Stadium card matching the name of a Stadium card already in play.

This game rule addresses playing a Stadium card being played, replacing a Stadium card of the same name. For example, if a “Battle Frontier” Stadium card is in play, neither player may play a “Battle Frontier” card to replace the one currently in play.

This will have the largest impact on current game play.

Many players will play an identical Stadium card to adjust their hand size or thin their deck. This change removes a slight bit of strategy from the game.

As usual, if you have any Pokémon TCG game play or card questions, drop me an e-mail and I’ll answer it via a future column.( PokePop {at} PokeGym {dot} Net [replace the at and dot with @ and .])

Thanks

PokePop