Home » Pokémon » Trading Card Game » The Pokémon Trading Card Game
The Pokémon Trading Card Game
The Pokémon Trading Card Game is the card game half of the franchise, played and collected in parallel with the video games since the very beginning. Launched in Japan in 1996 and in the West in 1999, it turns the core loop of the games (build a team, battle, collect) into a duel between two decks of sixty cards.
More than twenty-five years later, the TCG is one of the most played and most collected card games in the world, with organized play from local leagues up to the World Championships, and a collector market where the rarest cards have become genuine investment pieces.
This section covers the card game from both angles, playing and collecting: the history of the TCG, the basic rules, card rarities, collecting and card care and deck building. The video game adaptations have their own pages: Pokémon Trading Card Game and Pokémon Card GB2.
What's inside a booster pack
A booster pack of the Diamond and Pearl era contains ten cards: a guaranteed rare slot (holo roughly one pack in three), uncommons, commons and often a reverse holo. Modern packs follow the same logic with more premium slots. The booster is the heartbeat of both hobbies: players buy them for playsets, collectors for the chase cards.
The product lineup
Beyond boosters, each set ships theme decks (preconstructed sixty-card decks ideal for learning), collector tins with promo cards, and boxed products combining packs and accessories. Sealed products from older eras have themselves become collectibles, with vintage booster boxes among the most valuable items in the hobby.
Organized play
The TCG has a full competitive ladder: local leagues in shops, city and national championships, and the World Championships held every summer. In the Diamond and Pearl days the circuit ran through Battle Roads and Nationals; today the Play! Pokémon program fills the same role with age divisions from juniors to masters.