The Rules of Old-School Pokémon

Table of Contents

Introduction

Pre-Game Set-Up Procedures

First Turn Rules

Retreat Procedures

Attack Procedures

Damage Calculation Procedures

Pokémon Checkup Procedures

Knock Out Procedures

Win/Loss Determination Procedures

Sudden Death Procedures

Main Differences from 2026 Standard

Main Differences from WotC’s 1999 Rules

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Introduction

Here at Pokémon 1999, we focus primarily on the International Base-Fossil format, but we also enjoy other old-school formats of the first two generations: Base-Gym Prop 15/3, Base-Neo Point Buy (Hall of Fame), Team Rocket-Legendary Collection, and WotC GLC, to name a few.

The thing about this that could be really annoying is that the rules of the Pokémon Trading Card Game underwent half a dozen subtle changes from 1996 through 2001, and the rules used in Japan didn’t always line up with the rules used elsewhere, either. You need to know the rules of a format if you want to play it as intended, and a person could spend years researching what those rules should be and still remain unconfident without a reference handy. (Ask me how I know.)

That’s why I’ve put together, with the help of the Unofficial Pokémon Card Old Back Wiki, this (relatively) straightforward rules guide for pre-“e” formats. These are the rules as they existed in Japan at the tail end of their “old back” era, before VS and Web (precursors of the e-series) introduced the new back design in the latter half of 2001. For the most part, they’re the same as what you’ll find in any of WotC’s English rulebooks, as well as in the programming of the Game Boy Color games and the TCG ONE simulator.

If you’ve never played any iteration of the Pokémon Trading Card Game in your life, I’d suggest playing the Game Boy Color game to get started in Base-Fossil. The Official Player’s Guide from Nintendo Power is a very newbie-friendly resource that I’d recommend reading as well if you’re brand new to the game. (It’s the first result on Google if you search “Pokemon Trading Card Game Game Boy Color player’s guide.”)

For those of you who are already familiar with the basics of the game, though, here’s a guide to the rules of the specific “old back” formats we play here at Pokémon 1999:

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Pre-Game Set-Up Procedures

Source: Official Book 2000

1. Greet your opponent. Shake hands and wish them luck.
2. Shuffle your deck.
   • After shuffling, let your opponent cut your deck while you cut theirs.
3. Draw 7 cards.
4. Set 1 Basic Pokémon card, Baby Pokémon card, Clefairy Doll, or Mysterious Fossil face-down in your Active Spot.
   • If you didn’t draw any of these cards, show your hand to your opponent and start again from step 2. This is called a “mulligan.”
     • Your opponent doesn’t reshuffle and redraw unless they also failed to draw any Basic or Baby Pokémon cards. Your opponent should track how many times you mulligan, as you should track how many times your opponent mulligans. This will be important later (see step 7).
   • If you didn’t draw any Basic or Baby Pokémon cards, but you did draw at least 1 Clefairy Doll and/or Mysterious Fossil, you have 2 options:
     • Option #1: Keep your hand and play that Doll/Fossil face-down as your Active Pokémon.
     • Option #2: Mulligan. Show your hand to your opponent, and, because it doesn’t contain any Basic or Baby Pokémon cards, shuffle it into your deck and re-draw a new hand of 7.
5. You may bench up to 5 Basic or Baby Pokémon face-down.
   • If you have more Basic Pokémon cards, Baby Pokémon cards, Clefairy Doll cards, and/or Mysterious Fossil cards, you may, if you wish, place up to 5 of those cards face-down on your bench.
6. Put the next 6 cards of your deck face-down on the side of the table as your Prize cards.
   • Don’t do this until after you and your opponent have each set a Basic or Baby Pokémon card face-down in your respective Active Spots.
7. If your opponent mulliganed, you may choose to draw up to 2 extra cards for each time your opponent mulliganed and you didn’t.
   • That’s 0, 1, or 2 extra cards per opponent’s mulligan. You can choose.
   • If both players had to mulligan, that doesn’t count–neither of you get to draw extra cards for that.
   • If you draw additional Basic or Baby Pokémon cards in this way, you may place them face-down on your bench if you like.
     • You may not, however, place them in your Active Spot, as your Active Pokémon was already locked in at step 4.
   • Note: In the Game Boy game, players don’t get to draw these extra cards.
8. Flip a coin or play Rock-Paper-Scissors to determine who will take the first turn.
   • The winner must go first, and the loser must go second.
   • Outside Japan, we generally perform a coin flip for this purpose. In Japan, they play Rock-Paper-Scissors.
9. Turn all of the face-down Pokémon in play face-up and begin the game, starting with the player who won in step 8.

Notes on Mulligan Draws and Benching

Many rulebooks, both English and Japanese, both from the 1st and 2nd Generations, simply say to draw your 0-2 optional mulligan bonus cards in the moment when your opponent mulligans. However, the Silver Bible (Pokémon Card Official Book 2000) instructs us to draw those cards after setting aside our prizes, which is what the Japanese Old Back Wiki says to do, and is what we do too.

Why? Because, if you drew your mulligan bonus cards before setting prizes, it would be theoretically possible, albeit astronomically improbable, to draw so many mulligan cards that you could end up with 54 or more cards in your hand, not leaving enough in your deck to even set aside 6 prizes. By setting the prizes aside first, that possibility is eliminated.

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First Turn Rules

• At most Japanese “Old Back” events, the player who goes first does not draw a card to start their first turn. This was an official rule used at most Japanese tournaments from the ’90s through the end of their Old Back era in 2001, but it was never used in the US, nor anywhere else outside Japan, to the best of my knowledge. It’s also not programmed into TCG ONE for formats of this era. As such, this rule is not currently in use by the Pokémon 1999 community, but it’s still something to be aware of if you’re ever playing with Japanese players, and it’s a rule we could potentially decide to adopt at some point in the future–pending a vote, of course.
• Otherwise, the only “first turn” restrictions in this era are that neither player may evolve any Pokémon on the first turn of the game. Both players are free to attack turn 1, play all kinds of Trainer cards turn 1, etc.

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Retreat Procedures

Source: Official Book 2000

1. Declare that your Active Pokémon will retreat.
2. Discard a number of Energy from that Pokémon equal to its Retreat Cost.
3. If your retreating Pokémon is Confused, flip a coin to determine whether its retreat attempt succeeds or fails.
   • If heads, the retreat succeeds. Retreat normally.
   • If tails, the retreat fails. Your Confused Active Pokémon remains Active and Confused, but the Energy it discarded to pay its Retreat Cost remain in your discard pile.
     • A Confused Pokémon that fails an attempt to retreat cannot attempt to retreat again until its next turn, unless it recovers from its Confusion first.
4. Choose one of your Benched Pokémon and switch it with your Active Pokémon.
   • The switch happens instantly, so in game terms you always have 1 Active Pokémon. Your Active Spot is never vacant during the switch, and your bench never exceeds 5 Benched Pokémon at a time.

Notes on Retreating

• You may retreat as many times as you like during your turn.
• However, a Confused Pokémon that fails an attempt to retreat cannot attempt to retreat again until its next turn, unless it recovers from its Confusion first.
• The effect of the “Retreat Aid” Pokémon Power of Dodrio LV.28 (Jungle #34/64) stacks.
  • This means that, since 1 Dodrio on your bench reduces your Active Pokémon’s Retreat Cost by 1, a second Dodrio on your bench reduces your Active Pokémon’s Retreat Cost by 1 more, for a total reduction of 2.
  • Therefore, with 4 Dodrio on your bench, your Active Pokémon’s Retreat Cost will be reduced by 4.
• Being switched from the Active Spot to the Bench by the effect of a Trainer card, attack, Pokémon Power, etc. does not count as “retreating.”
  • This means that effects that say a Pokémon “can’t retreat” won’t prevent them from switching out via other effects.
    • Example: The effect of the “Mean Look” attack of Murkrow LV.25 (Neo Genesis #24/111) will prevent the Pokémon that receives the effect (the opponent’s Active Pokémon when the attack is used) from retreating as long as Murkrow remains in the Active Spot. However, it will not prevent that Pokémon from being switched out by the effect of the “Switch” Trainer card.
  • In contrast, effects that say a Pokémon can’t leave the Active Spot, such as the effect of the “String Wrap” attack of the Japan-exclusive Caterpie LV.15 (Vending Machine Expansion Sheet #1 [Blue]), will prevent that Pokémon from leaving the Active Spot no matter what.
• Although retreating (or otherwise leaving the Active Spot) automatically removes all Special Conditions and lasting effects of attacks from a Pokémon, specific attacks have effects that place markers which are not removed in this way.
  • For example, Char markers, Food counters, Bone counters, and Color markers are not removed when the affected Pokémon returns to the bench.
    • All of the above markers are, however, removed by evolution/devolution.

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Attack Procedures

Source: Neo 1 Handy Guide

1. Announce your attack.
   • You cannot announce an attack if you don’t have the required Energy attached to your Pokémon, or if your Pokémon is in a state of definitely being “unable to attack” due to some lasting effect.
     • Example #1: If your Active Pokémon, a Charmeleon LV.32 (Base Set #24/102), has no Fire Energy attached, it can’t announce “Flamethrower.”
     • Example #2: If your Active Pokémon received the effect of “Suggestion” from your opponent’s Active Pokémon, a Sabrina’s Drowzee LV.15 (Gym Heroes #92/132), during your opponent’s last turn, then your Active Pokémon can’t announce any attack during this turn (unless you clear that effect first by returning your Active Pokémon to your bench or evolving/devolving it).
2. If your opponent’s Active Pokémon is a Baby Pokémon, flip a coin for the Baby Rule check.
   • If heads, continue to step 3.
   • If tails, your attack fails, and your turn ends immediately.
3. If your Active Pokémon is under a lasting effect such as that of “Sand-attack” or “Smokescreen” that could potentially prevent its attack, process that effect.
   • If you flip heads for Sand-attack, Smokescreen, etc., continue to step 4.
   • If you flip tails for Sand-attack, Smokescreen, etc., your attack fails and your turn ends.
4. If your Active Pokémon is Confused, flip a coin for the Confusion check.
   • If heads, the attack will be performed normally. Continue to step 5.
   • If tails, your Active Pokémon hurts itself in confusion, dealing 20 damage to itself. Follow all normal damage calculation processes for this “Confusion damage,” including applications of Weakness, Resistance, PlusPower, Defender, Darkness Energy, Metal Energy, etc.
     • When you fail the Confusion flip and your Active Pokémon hurts itself in this way,
5. Perform the attack as instructed in the attack’s description.
   • If damage is dealt to any Pokémon, including the user and any player’s Benched Pokémon, follow the steps outlined below in the Damage Calculation Process guide.
     • However, do not apply Weakness or Resistance for Benched Pokémon.
   • Deal damage before resolving other effects of the attack, unless otherwise instructed.
   • After dealing damage, resolve other effects of the attack in the order in which they are written on the card.
     • Fulfill all the attack’s effects to the best of your ability (“do as much as you can”). If there’s a step you can’t complete (or can’t fully complete), do whatever you can, then skip to the next step that you are able to complete.
       • However, if an attack’s description contains an instruction that says something like, “you must do x in order to use this attack,” or, “if you can’t do x, this attack does nothing,” then those are not steps you can simply skip if you aren’t able to fulfill them.
         • Example #1: The “Firestorm” attack of Blaine’s Arcanine LV.42 (Gym Challenge #1/132) says, in WotC’s English translation, to discard 3 Fire Energy cards attached to Blaine’s Arcanine “in order to use this attack.” Therefore, if you aren’t able to discard 3 Fire Energy cards from Blaine’s Arcanine, then you can’t use the attack.
           • If Clefable LV.34 (Jungle #1/64) attempts to perform “Firestorm” via the effect of its own “Metronome” attack, and Clefable isn’t able to discard 3 Fire Energy cards from itself, then “Metronome” will fail.
             • This is in direct contradiction to the WotC English text of “Metronome,” which says to ignore effects and requirements such as discarding Energy cards. That was an error on WotC’s part.
         • Example #2: The “Flamethrower” attack of Houndoom LV.37 (Neo Discovery #23/75) says, in WotC’s English translation, to discard 1 Fire Energy card attached to Houndoom, “or this attack does nothing.” Therefore, if you aren’t able to discard a Fire Energy card from Houndoom, then the attack does nothing.
           • The Japanese text says, “Discard 1 Fire Energy card attached to this Pokémon. If you can’t discard, this attack deals no damage.”
           • If Clefable LV.34 (Jungle #1/64) attempts to perform “Flamethrower” via the effect of its own “Metronome” attack, and Clefable isn’t able to discard a Fire Energy card from itself, then “Metronome” will do nothing.
             • Again, this is in direct contradiction to the WotC English text of “Metronome,” which says to ignore effects and requirements such as discarding Energy cards. That was an error on WotC’s part.

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Damage Calculation Procedures

Source: Pokémon Card Trainers vol.12

The following steps must be performed in order, start to finish, for every Pokémon that could potentially be damaged by an attack.

1. Calculate the base damage of the attack.
   • For attacks where the amount of damage dealt or the target of that damage is variable depending on the text of the attack (coin flips, player choices, etc.), make those choices and calculate the damage.
     • Example #1: The “Thunderpunch” attack of Electabuzz LV.35 (Base Set #20/102) requires a coin to be flipped, and additional calculations to be performed based on the results of that flip.
       • If heads, add 10 to the damage dealt to the opponent’s Active Pokémon.
         • 30 + 10 = 40, so the damage calculated at this step will be 40 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon.
       • If tails, deal 10 damage to the user.
         • The damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon at this point will be 30, and the damage to the user (Electabuzz) will be 10.
         • The user, in this case, becomes a secondary target, and the damage dealt to the user must be calculated separately from the damage dealt to the opponent’s Active Pokémon.
     • Example #2: The “Fury Attack” attack of Doduo LV.10 (Base Set #48/102)
   • If, after you’ve finished all the calculations for step 1, the damage has become 0 or negative, stop calculating–the attack will not deal damage. Otherwise, continue.
2. Calculate and apply damage-modifying effects from attacks or Pokémon Powers on the attacking Pokémon.
   • If the Pokémon performing the attack is under a lasting effect from an attack or a Pokémon Power that modifies the damage it does when it attacks, such as the “Swords Dance” attack of Scyther LV.25 (Jungle #10/64), or the “Prehistoric Dream” Pokémon Power of Omanyte LV.20 (Vending Machine Expansion Sheet 2), calculate and apply those effects.
   • If, after you’ve finished doing so, the damage has become 0 or negative, stop calculating–the attack will not deal damage. Otherwise, continue.
3. Calculate and apply Weakness.
   • If either player’s Active Pokémon is being damaged by the attack, and that Pokémon has Weakness to the type of the Active Pokémon that is attacking, calculate and apply the effect of that Weakness to the damage dealt to that Pokémon (and that Pokémon ONLY).
     • Don’t apply Weakness to damage dealt to any player’s Benched Pokémon.
4. Calculate and apply Resistance.
   • If either player’s Active Pokémon is being damaged by the attack, and that Pokémon has Resistance to the type of the Active Pokémon that is attacking, calculate and apply the effect of that Resistance to the damage dealt to that Pokémon (and that Pokémon ONLY).
     • Don’t apply Resistance to damage dealt to any player’s Benched Pokémon.
     • Even if, after applying Resistance, the damage has become 0 or negative, do NOT stop calculating yet. The attack may still deal damage after subsequent calculations are performed.
5. Calculate and apply damage-modifying effects from Trainer cards and Special Energy cards that are affecting the attacking Pokémon.
   • For example, PlusPower, Darkness Energy, Charity, Sprout Tower, etc.
   • It is possible for an attack whose damage had been dropped to 0 or a negative number by Resistance in step 4 to be brought back up to a positive number by modifiers such as PlusPower and Darkness Energy in this step. Such attacks can still deal damage.
   • Even if, after applying an effect at this step, the damage has become 0 or negative, do NOT stop calculating yet. The attack may still deal damage after subsequent calculations are performed.
6. Calculate and apply damage-modifying effects from Trainer cards or Special Energy cards that are affecting the Pokémon receiving the attack.
   • For example, Defender, Metal Energy, etc.
   • Even if, after applying an effect at this step, the damage has become 0 or negative, do NOT stop calculating yet. The attack may still deal damage after subsequent calculations are performed.
7. Calculate and apply damage-modifying effects of attacks or Pokémon Powers that are affecting the Pokémon receiving the attack.
   • For example, the lasting effect of the “Minimize” attack of Grimer LV.17 (Fossil #48/62), the “Kabuto Armor” Pokémon Power of Kabuto LV.9 (Fossil #50/62), etc.
   • Even if, after applying an effect at this step, the damage has become 0 or negative, do NOT stop calculating yet. The attack may still deal damage after subsequent calculations are performed.
8. Calculate and apply effects that prevent the Pokémon receiving the attack from taking damage.
   • For example, the “Invisible Wall” Pokémon Power of Mr. Mime LV.28 (Jungle #6/64), the lasting effect of the “Harden” attack of Graveler LV.29 (Fossil #37/62), etc.
9. Perform all of the above calculations independently for each target Pokémon, if the attack deals damage to multiple Pokémon.
10. Deal the final amount of damage to the target Pokémon.
    • Once all the above steps have been completed, if the damage being dealt to a particular Pokémon is 0 or negative, that attack will be treated as not dealing any damage to that Pokémon.
    • If the damage being dealt to a particular Pokémon is positive, deal that damage.
      • Indicate the damage dealt by placing damage counters on the Pokémon receiving damage. (1 damage counter represents 10 damage.)
    • Even though the damage must be calculated independently for each target Pokémon, the damage is dealt to all targets simultaneously.
      • As such, the damage won’t be dealt to any Pokémon until after all damage to be dealt has been fully calculated.

Notes on Damage Calculation

• Attacks that damage the user follow all of the above steps in order. In such cases, the “attacking Pokémon” and the “receiving Pokémon” are one and the same.
  • This includes “Confusion damage” dealt to a Pokémon that flips tails when attempting to attack while Confused.
• Do not apply Weakness or Resistance to Benched Pokémon unless specifically instructed to do so by a card.
• When “other effects” are mentioned in descriptions of attacks such as the “Swift” attack of Yanma LV.32 (Neo Discovery #17/75), this is referring to the effects processed in steps 6 through 8 of the above process.
• Effects of attacks other than damage are to be processed after applying damage.
  • Example #1: The discard effect of the “Hyper Beam” attack of Golduck LV.27 (Fossil #35/62).
  • Example #2: The switching effects of the “Rapid Spin” attack of Donphan LV.34 (Neo Genesis #21/111).

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Between Turns “Pokémon Checkup” Procedures

Source: Neo 4 Handy Guide

1. Poison check
   • If your Active Pokémon is Poisoned, put 1 damage counter on it.
2. Sleep check
   • If your Active Pokémon is Asleep, flip a coin. If heads, it wakes up. If tails, it remains Asleep.
3. Paralysis check
   • If your turn just ended, and your Active Pokémon was Paralyzed for the entire duration of your turn (since the Pokémon Checkup that preceded that turn), it recovers from being Paralyzed.
4. Check other markers and counters
   • For example, for each of your Pokémon in play with a Char counter on it placed by the “Char” attack of Quilava LV.35 (Neo Genesis #47/111), flip a coin. If tails, put 2 damage counters on that Pokémon.
5. Check Darkness Energy
   • For each Darkness Energy attached to your Pokémon that isn’t a Darkness type and doesn’t have “Dark” in its name, put 1 damage counter on that Pokémon.
     • If a Pokémon that isn’t a Darkness type and isn’t a “Dark” Pokémon has 3 Darkness Energy attached to it, put 3 damage counters on that Pokémon in this step.

Notes on Pokémon Checkup

• Pokémon Tools that require processing during Pokémon Checkup can be processed at any time during Pokémon Checkup as decided by the owner.
  • For example, if your Active Pikachu is Poisoned and has 1 Darkness Energy and 1 Gold Berry attached to it, you must process the Poison damage before the Darkness Energy damage, but you can process the Gold Berry’s effect at any time–before the Poison, between the Poison damage and the Darkness Energy damage, or after the Darkness Energy damage.
• If both Active Pokémon are Knocked Out during Pokémon Checkup, the player whose turn comes next must be the first to send up a new Active Pokémon.
  • For example, if both players’ Active Pokémon are Knocked Out by Poison damage at the same time, the player whose turn comes next will choose a new Active Pokémon from their bench first, followed by the player whose turn just ended.
  • However, the Knock Outs are still considered to have happened simultaneously, which means that both players still take their Prize cards “at the same time” in game terms.
    • In very niche situations, such as when Here Comes Team Rocket! has been played and all Prize cards are face-up, it may be disadvantageous to reach for your Prize card before your opponent reaches for theirs, even when, in game terms, they’re being taken “simultaneously.”
      • Technically speaking, since it’s a simultaneous action, the player whose turn it is should get to choose the order–if it happens during a player’s turn (including when Pokémon are Knocked Out by direct damage from that player’s attack). The most strategically wise choice, in those niche situations where it makes a difference, would be to have your opponent choose first.
        • In WotC’s “Neo” Rulebook, they say that the player whose turn comes next must take their Prize card first. This aligns with what we would expect them to choose anyway.
      • However, if a simultaneous Knock Out happens between turns (during Pokémon Checkup), such as by Poison damage when both players’ Active Pokémon are Poisoned with only 10 HP remaining, the player whose turn comes next should theoretically get to choose the order in which the Prize cards would be taken. In this case, their most strategically wise choice would be to make their opponent choose first. This is such a niche situation (HCTR! played, both players’ Active Pokémon Knocked Out simultaneously between turns by Poison damage/Char damage/Darkness Energy damage) that you’ll probably never need to worry about this.

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Knock Out Procedures

1. If an effect activates when a Pokémon’s HP reaches 0, process that effect before the Pokémon is Knocked Out.
   • Example #1: The “Time Travel” Pokémon Power of Celebi LV.16 (Neo Revelation #3/64).
   • Example #2: The “Focus Band” Pokémon Tool.
2. When a Pokémon is Knocked Out, if there is an applicable effect that activates upon being Knocked Out, process that effect.
   • Example #1: The “Fortitude” Pokémon Power of Giovanni’s Machamp LV.50 (Gym Challenge #6/132)
   • Example #2: The “EXP.ALL” Pokémon Tool.
3. Discard the Pokémon that has been Knocked Out, along with all cards attached to it.
   • Note: The “Buzzap” Pokémon Power of Electrode LV.40 (Base Set #21/102) attaches the Electrode card to the Pokémon of your choice after the Electrode itself is discarded in this step, which means the “Allergic Pollen” Pokémon Power of Parasect LV.30 (Neo Revelation #35/64) prevents the Electrode card from leaving the discard pile and being attached.
4. If your Active Pokémon was Knocked Out, replace it.
   • Choose a Benched Pokémon to send up to your Active Spot.
     • If you can’t send up a new Active Pokémon because you don’t have any Benched Pokémon, you lose the game.
5. If both players’ Active Pokémon are Knocked Out simultaneously, the player whose turn comes next must send up a new Active Pokémon first.
   • If one player is able to send up a new Active Pokémon, but the other player is not, then the player who can’t send up a new Active Pokémon loses the game.
6. A player takes 1 of their Prize cards for each of their opponent’s Pokémon that has been Knocked Out.
7. If both players take their last Prize card at the same time, see the chart below for how to break the tie.

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Win/Loss Determination Chart

Source: Official Book 2000

Because there are three ways to win (or lose), it’s possible that each player may fulfill one or more win/loss conditions at the same time. When this happens, the player who fulfills more win conditions (and fewer loss conditions) than their opponent will be declared the winner. If both players meet the same number of win/loss conditions, the rules call for a “Sudden Death” round to be played.

You took all your Prize cards	Your opponent took all their Prize cards	You have no Pokémon in play	Your opponent has no Pokémon in play	Result
✔️		✔️		Sudden Death
	✔️		✔️	Sudden Death
✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	Sudden Death
✔️	✔️		✔️	You Win
✔️		✔️	✔️	You Win
✔️			✔️	You Win
✔️	✔️	✔️		You Lose
	✔️	✔️	✔️	You Lose
	✔️	✔️		You Lose

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Sudden Death Procedures

Source: Official Book 2000

1. You and your opponent each return all 60 of your cards to your respective decks. Shuffle your deck and allow your opponent to cut it while you cut theirs.
2. Set up a new game according to the set-up rules described earlier, with one major exception: Each player only sets 1 Prize card face-down, rather than the usual 6.
3. The first player to take their 1 and only Prize card wins.

Notes on Sudden Death

If Sudden Death ends in a tie, the official rules explain that a second Sudden Death round may be necessary, or a third, and so on, until the tie is broken. However, depending on the specific event regulations, in the interest of time, the final result may be declared a draw, or Rock-Paper-Scissors may be played to break the tie and determine a winner.

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Main Differences from 2026 Standard Rules:

• Turn order is determined after set-up, not before.
  • In other words, you have to decide what your Active and Benched Pokémon will be before you know whether you’ll be going first or second.
• The player who goes first can attack on their first turn.
• The player who goes first can play as many Trainer cards as they want during their turn, whatever subcategory of “Trainer” they may belong to.
• “Item” cards and “Supporter” cards don’t exist; they’re all simply “Trainer” cards. Thus, the “1 Supporter per turn” restriction doesn’t exist, because “Supporters” don’t exist.
• “Pokémon Tool” cards and “Stadium” cards do, however, exist, as subcategories under the umbrella category of “Trainer” cards.
  • That said, the “Pokémon Tool” subcategory was not introduced until Neo Genesis, so pre-neo Trainer cards like “PlusPower,” “Defender,” and “Brock’s Protection” are not considered “Pokémon Tools” even though they attach to Pokémon much like Tools do.
    • Because those cards aren’t Pokémon Tools, they aren’t limited by the “1 per Pokémon” maximum that Pokémon Tools are, which means you can attach up to 4 PlusPower and up to 4 Defender to the same Pokémon at once.
• Other “Trainer” cards don’t fall under these or any other subcategories; they’re simply “Trainers.”
• You can play any number of Stadium cards per turn.
• When a Stadium card is already in play, you can replace it with another copy of the same Stadium card from your hand, discarding the one that was already in play.
• The “Burned” Special Condition does not exist.
• When your Confused Pokémon attacks, flip a coin. If tails, the chosen attack fails, and the Pokémon attacks itself for 20 damage instead. This 20 damage is affected by Weakness, Resistance, and other effects, and it must be calculated according to the Damage Calculation Procedures described earlier just like any other attack.
• When your Confused Active Pokémon attempts to retreat, you must flip a coin after paying that Pokémon’s Retreat Cost.
  • If heads, the retreat succeeds and is resolved normally.
  • If tails, the retreat fails.
    • The Confused Active Pokémon remains Active and Confused, and it cannot attempt to retreat again during that turn (unless it recovers from its Confused state first).
• Players can retreat an unlimited number of times per turn.
  • Bolded for emphasis because retreating is huge in Base-Fossil.
• If a player’s Active Pokémon is a Baby Pokémon (introduced in Neo Genesis), then their opponent must flip a coin when announcing an attack.
  • If heads, the attack proceeds as usual.
  • If tails, the Pokémon fails to attack and their turn ends immediately.
  • This check must always be performed, even if the attack attempted targets Benched Pokémon or doesn’t deal any damage, like the “Fetch” attack of Kangaskhan LV.40 (Jungle #5/64), or the “Eeeeeeek” attack of Cleffa LV.6 (Neo Genesis #20/111).
• Effects other than Special Conditions that must be processed/resolved during Pokémon Checkup can be resolved individually at any time during Pokémon Check as decided by the player whose cards are affected.
  • For example, if your Active Pikachu is Poisoned and has 1 Darkness Energy and 1 Gold Berry attached to it, you must process the Poison damage before the Darkness Energy damage, but you can process the Gold Berry’s effect at any time–before the Poison, between the Poison damage and the Darkness Energy damage, or after the Darkness Energy damage.
  • This is in contrast to the 2026 rules regarding Pokémon Checkup, which state that these “Other Effects” must be resolved either before all Special Condition checks or after all Special Condition checks, with the player whose turn comes next deciding the order in which simultaneous “Other Effects” are resolved.
• Sudden Death rounds use only 1 Prize card.
  • This is in contrast to the 2026 rules, which use 6-Prize tiebreaker rounds despite declaring a winner as soon as one player gains a Prize lead over the other.

Notes on “Fail to Find”

• Under modern rules and meta-ruling conventions, whenever a card has a player search an area that’s considered “private,” like their deck, for a specific card or kind of card, that player is permitted to “fail” that search by choice, even if a valid target exists–and even if both players know that a valid target exists.
  • For example, consider Energy Search, which says to search your deck for a Basic Energy card and put it into your hand. Even if you search your deck and you do find multiple Basic Energy cards, if you don’t want to take any of them, you can just shuffle your deck and discard the Energy Search without taking anything.
    • To understand why this ruling has been accepted for the last two decades, consider the alternative:
      • Even way back in 1997, it was ruled that, if you didn’t find any valid targets in your search, you didn’t have to show your deck to your opponent to prove it. However, you were still supposed to take one if you found one. Without a way to enforce this rule, it relied on nothing more than the “honor system.”
        • If your opponent suspected you of cheating by declining to take a valid target from your deck, they could theoretically call a judge to search your deck and confirm it. However, you can see how impractical this would be on a large scale. At a major event, every time a player performed a deck search and failed to find a valid target, a judge would have to confirm that no valid targets existed, and the gameplay would have to be paused until then. Removing this rule made things far more efficient while eliminating the possibility of cheating (by legalizing it).
  • Although this rule is not historically accurate, it’s the way all modern events are played, including modern retro events like ours and those overseas.
• The only exception to this rule is a card like Computer Search, which just says to search for “a card.” Because it’s not searching for a specific kind of card, and because the number of cards in a player’s deck is public information, it is known that a valid target exists before Computer Search is played. Thus, if your deck contains at least 1 card, you are required to take that 1 card when you play Computer Search.
  • If your deck doesn’t contain at least 1 card, you can’t play Computer Search in the first place, because it’s public knowledge that you have no valid targets.
• Searches of other public areas, such as the discard pile, cannot be failed in this way, because their contents are public knowledge. It is already known when you play such a card which valid targets exist, so if a card requires you to take one, then you must do as instructed.

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Main Differences from WotC Rules:

• Contrary to what the Legendary Collection rulebook and cards state, Pokémon Powers that are shut down while Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed are NOT shut down by Poison.
  • In 2002, WotC proactively instituted a rule change regarding Pokémon Powers and Special Conditions, issuing a blanket errata to all Pokémon Powers that had previously been shut down while “Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed,” changing them to instead be shut down while “affected by a Special Condition.” This meant that Poison, which had not previously shut down those Pokémon Powers, would do so from then on. (And, once introduced, so would Burn.)
    • This rule change originated in Japan’s “mixed back” era, during which the new VS, Web, and e-series cards were being played alongside the old-back cards from neo and earlier. However, Creatures/PCL never meant for the old back cards to be played this way in a vacuum, so when retro players play “old back” formats without these “new back” cards, we ignore this rule and use the original text.
• A Pokémon that is Confused and/or under an effect like “Sand-attack” that can prevent it from using its attack does not perform mandatory discard requirements of the chosen attack if it fails the flip required by the Confusion or other effect.
  • Over the 5 years of their “Old Back” era, Creatures/PCL (Japan) made multiple iterative changes to the descriptions of attacks with special mandatory “costs” or “conditions for use” that must be fulfilled in order to use attacks (such as Flamethrower, Fire Spin, etc.), and these changes influenced related changes to their attack processing procedures.
    • Under these rules, when an attack has an “in order to use this attack” or “if you can’t do x, this attack does nothing” style requirement in its description, you can’t announce the attack if you won’t be able to fulfill that requirement. However, you aren’t to actually perform the required action until you begin carrying out the “effects” of the attack, after you’ve already dealt the damage.
    • In contrast, under earlier versions of the rules, including the rules as WotC described them in their 1999 rulebooks, these mandatory “costs” were required to be paid earlier in the attack process–between steps 2 and 3, to be specific.
      • For example, suppose your Houndoom LV.37 (Neo Discovery #4/75) received the effect of “Sand-attack” from the opposing Sandshrew LV.12 (Base Set #62/102) during your opponent’s last turn.
        • Under WotC’s rules, if your Houndoom announces the use of its “Flamethrower” attack, it must discard 1 Fire Energy before performing the “Sand-attack” flip. Therefore, even if you fail the “Sand-attack” flip, you will have already been forced to discard the Energy.
        • However, under the Japanese rules, the Sand-attack flip is performed before the Energy is discarded. Therefore, if you fail the “Sand-attack” flip, you won’t have to discard the Energy.
          • The same goes for Confusion. Under WotC’s rules, a Confused Pokémon that flips tails for its Confusion check will have already paid the discard cost for an attack like “Flamethrower” despite not getting to actually use that attack. Under the Japanese rules, though, from 5th Edition (late 1998) and beyond, this is not the case; such a Confused Pokémon would not discard Energy in this way under their rules. This is verifiable in both GB1 and GB2.
• PlusPower should apply to damage done to any player’s Active Pokémon, including the user of the PlusPower itself. WotC’s translation and rulings didn’t allow this.
  • Example #1: An Electabuzz LV.35 (Base Set #20/102) that uses its “Thunderpunch” attack with a PlusPower attached and flips “tails” for the attack’s required coin flip should deal 40 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon and 20 damage to itself. Under WotC, it did 40 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon, but only 10 to itself.
  • Example #2: A Confused Pokémon with PlusPower attached that flips tails for its Confusion check when attacking will deal 30 damage to itself after applying the effect of PlusPower (20 + 10 = 30). Under WotC, it only did 20 damage to itself, as the PlusPower effect was not applied.
  • WotC also mistranslated, misprinted, and/or misruled many other cards, some more significant than others. Still more cards weren’t necessarily mistranslated, but received updated text and/or rulings in Japan from Creatures/PCL that never made their way outside Japan. I won’t list them all here, but I will attempt to do so elsewhere in the future. For now, check out jklacz’s excellent blog post that covers most of them.
• The rule of playing Rock-Paper-Scissors rather than flipping a coin to determine who goes first is, at least so far, exclusive to Japan. We here at Pokémon 1999 generally use the coin flip method, but if you’d rather play RPS in your webcam match, suggest it to your opponent and maybe they’ll oblige! They don’t have to if they don’t want to, though; the coin flip is still the rule we use (and the only option on TCG ONE).
• The rule of not drawing a card on your first turn if you go first is also exclusive to Japan. We here at Pokémon 1999 have always had the first player draw a card, as was always the case under WotC. If you think we should change that, though, and follow Japan’s lead, say so on the discord!

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I think that about covers it for now. I’ll update this article if and when I have new information to share!

‘Til next time,

🥥 Coco