Week of Pokemon! - TCG Trainers and Energy

Today's article will be a brief overview of the various Trainer cards in the game.  If you're going to build a deck to win then you're going to need lots of Trainer cards which is perfectly fine because there are tons of Trainer cards out there and chances are you'll find a good combination of them to help boost your deck!

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When building your deck you'll have four kinds of Trainer cards to choose from: Supporters, Items, Stadiums and Ace-Spec Cards.  

Supporters

These cards are cards can only be played once per turn.  Some common Supporter cards are Cheren which allows you to draw three cards or the ever famous N which shuffles both you and your opponents hand into their deck only to draw the amount of prize cards left for each player.  N is great if your opponent is down to one or two prize cards left because it puts them at a disadvantage.  Another staple Supporter card is Professor Juniper which requires you to discard your hand allowing you to draw seven new cards.  Now Juniper can be good or bad depending on how you play her.  If it is the last card in your hand and you play a Professor Juniper you essentially are drawing seven free cards from an empty hand.  This is one of the best plays in the game especially for decks that require loads of energy such as Blastoise decks.  

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Item Cards


Item cards take up the majority of the Trainer cards in PTCG.  These include the various forms of Pokeballs, Rocky Helmets, or the ever popular Hypnotoxic Laser which will Poison your opponent’s Pokemon with a chance of Sleep.  


Stadiums


These cards offer a wider array of abilities which everyone can take advantage of.  When played, the Stadium card takes up it’s own slot in the playing field next to the two Active Pokemon.  When someone plays a new Stadium Card the old Stadium gets moved to the discard pile and the new Stadium’s effect is now in place.  Some popular Stadium cards include Virbank City Gym which boosts Poison Damage between turns, Skyarrow Bridge which reduces the Retreat Cost of Basic Pokemon, or Tropical Beach which is great for drawing cards into your hand.  The important thing to know about Stadium Cards is that they are playable by all players so all players can take advantage of it's ability.  

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Ace Spec


Ace Specs right now are currently only limited to Item Cards at the moment though I would like to see some possibilities of Ace Spec Supporters or Stadiums.  Ace Specs are limited to one Ace Spec card per deck.  This is because of the overwhelming power they possess and the ability to turn the tides of a game.  One good Ace Spec card for beginners is the Rock Guard, an equipment item which deals out 60 damage to any Pokemon attacking the Pokemon it’s equipped with.  One of my personal favorite cards is Computer Search.  By discarding two cards from your hand you can then search your deck for any card.  The nice trick with this is that you can discard two Energy Cards and then take them back with the trainer card Energy Retrieval.  

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Energy Cards

If you’ve played TCGs then you’re familiar with resource cards.  Pokemon TCG is no different.  In this game Energy Cards are your resources.  They power all your Pokemon’s attacks.  There are eight basic Energy Types:  Fire, Water, Grass, Lightning, Fighting, Psychic, Metal, and Dark.  You can only attach one energy from your hand per turn unless it’s with an ability or Trainer Card.  To attack with your Pokemon, that Pokemon must have the same corresponding energies attached to it’s attack in order to use that attack.  You’ll also come across energy signs that are grey with a black star inside.  These are Colorless Energy slots.  Any kind of energy can fill that spot as long as it’s filled.  

Special Energy Cards


Special Energy cards act like normal Energy Cards in that you can only attach one from your hand per turn but unlike their Basic Energy brothers you can only have four of each in a deck.  Usually these Energy Cards provide more than just energy for a Pokemon.  One commonly played card is the Double Colorless Energy card.  As its name implies attaching it to a Pokemon provides it with two colorless energy as opposed to one.  The only caveat with it is that it is only colorless energy and nothing else.  This is important for Pokemon with high Energy costing attacks or Retreat Cost.  Sometimes that one turn of extra energy can mean either a Pokemon who's alive or Knocked Out.  Another commonly played Special Energy card is the Prism Energy which provides one energy of any colour provided the attached Pokemon is a Basic Pokemon.  This is great for Big Basic Pokemon such as Mewtwo EX or Keldeo EX which don't even evolve in the format at the moment.  

I'll be putting up a list of some of the decks that I'm currently working on as well as a peek at one of my new favorite decks of the format.   Please let me know in the comments section if you want to know more about certain decks, cards, or strategies or if you would like me to review any kinds of cards. That's all for now guys!