Trainer Cards

The 20-card format has fascinating implications for deck composition in Pocket. The most important cards in your deck are not necessarily the Pokémon themselves, but the support cards you include alongside them. These cards come in two types:

• Supporter cards: powerful utility cards that can be played one per turn
• Trainer cards: Items and Tools that can be played at any point and frequency during your turn

Unlike the original TCG, you DO NOT LOSE when you must draw from an empty deck. This means that there is zero penalty for getting every card out of your deck and into your hand as quickly as possible. With that in mind, let's go over some of the core Trainer cards - niches will be covered later.

Professor's Research

Draw 2 cards.

Pot of Greed Oak allows you to draw 2 cards. This is 10% of your deck. Just about every deck should contain 2 of this card so as to put as much of your core into your hand ASAP.

Poké Ball

Put 1 random Basic Pokémon from your deck into your hand.

Another staple card. Any basic you include in your deck probably has a good reason for being there. This either puts it into your hand for you to play, or puts it into your hand to get it out of your deck. It's a win/win. Generally, run 2 of these as well, unless you are only running 1-2 basics.

Should you end up with both Oak and Poké Ball in your hand, the order in which you play them matters. If you play Ball first, Oak is more likely to net you non-basic cards. If you play Oak first, Oak has a better chance of netting you a basic in addition to the follow-up Ball. Need to evolve your Kirlia into Gardevoir? Ball first. Running Pikachu EX and need to fill out your bench? Oak first!

Potion

Heal 20 damage from your Pokémon.

A critical card for thwarting two-hit KOs. These are also very good for additional healing power in stall decks. Run 1-2 of these, unless you need the space.

X Speed

During this turn, the Retreat Cost of your Active Pokémon is 1 less.

Energy economy is king in Pocket. As such, Pokémon with high retreat costs are painful to withdraw, and can slow down your power scaling. With X Speed, you can reduce or even fully nullify your Pokémon's retreat cost, allowing you to keep pace with attaching Energy. As this is an Item card, you can play both on a single turn, but this is not always the right choice.

Sabrina

Switch out your opponent's Active Pokémon to the Bench
(Your opponent chooses the new Active Pokémon).

When played at the right time, Sabrina can put your opponent in a real bind. You can drag out a Pokémon with a high retreat cost, trapping it in the Active position and costing them precious Energy or X Speeds. Or, you could drag up a weak Pokémon for an easy point to secure the game. Either way, timing your Sabrina correctly is a skill every player should practice.

Giovanni

During this turn, attacks used by your Pokémon do +10 damage to your opponent's Active Pokémon.

This is another strategic Supporter card. As you can only use one per turn, you may not want or need to run 2 Giovanni cards. However, it can push your Pokémon's attacks from 2-turn kills to OHKO. For example, Tynamo attacks a Psyduck for 30 + 20 (weakness). With a Giovanni, Psyduck takes 60 damage and is knocked out. Hitting these HP thresholds is key to being relevant in the meta.

Red Card

Your opponent shuffles their hand into their deck and draws 3 cards.

Unless you really know what you're doing, do not play this card or even include a copy in your deck. 95% of the time, you will be helping your opponent. I won't get into the math, but it's just not good.

main