Simple Pokémon Games

What’s the Simplest Way to Play Pokémon Games?

Do you have a stack of unused Basic Pokémon you’d like to get some use out of? Or do your kids have a bunch of Pokémon cards but not enough Energy and Trainers to make a proper deck? Are they looking for simple games to play with your Pokémon cards? Here are two simple Pokémon games you can play with your collection of Basic Pokémon cards.

Poké One-Up

Make a pack of Basic Pokémon. You’ll need at least 16 cards for a short game, or about 20 cards per player. Split these equally between all players.

Number of Players: 2–8
Deck: Basic Pokémon only

Now each player flips over their first Pokémon. Look at the damage value for each Pokémon’s first attack. The player with the highest attack damage wins all the cards revealed in this round. If there’s a tie, put all the cards from that round aside. They’ll go to the winner of the next round.

The winner of the game is the player with the most cards after a player has been knocked out.

This simplest of Pokémon games is based on Top Trumps, and you can make it more interesting by picking other card traits to compare. Here are a few:

  1. Retreat cost
  2. Highest attack cost
  3. Greatest resistance
  4. HP
  5. Shiny!
Simple Pokémon Games

Energy Unleashed: Basic Poké Battles!

Make equal packs of Basic Pokémon for each player. Don’t worry too much about what Energy cards they need, but pay attention to their attacks and abilities. Remove any cards that won’t make sense for this type of game.

Number of Players: Best for 2, fine for 3~4 players
Deck: Basic Pokémon only, but you’ll need a pile of Energy cards or tokens to use as Energy cards.

Each player shuffles their deck, then draws 7 cards (just like a regular game of Pokémon). Put the rest of your cards away, since we won’t need them for the rest of the game.

Then, each player chooses one Pokémon from their hand to be their active Pokémon, and then places 5 on their bench, which is the row behind the active Pokémon. This is just like a regular game of Pokémon too, but you don’t have Power cards or Trainers to worry about. Keep the last Pokémon in your hand until a spot opens up on your bench.

During each turn, put an Energy card on one of your Pokémon. It doesn’t matter what energy it provides, although if you have enough Energy cards you can rule that it does. Make attacks as in a normal game of Pokémon. A player wins if they knock out 6 Pokémon.

Did you enjoy these Pokémon games? Do you have other games you play with your Pokémon cards? Let us know, in the comment below.

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