History TabletopGame / Pokemon

* AloneAmongFamilies: Card art of the Pokémon Cubone often showcases the Pokemon's orphaned state, such as [[https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-tcg/pokemon-cards/xy-series/xy8/77/ an image]] of one alone on a bench while, in the background, several happy human families are shown enjoying their time together.

** Delcatty was an integral part of the [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Infercatty_(TCG) Infercatty]] deck archetype, which achieved good success in competitive play until its counters became more prevalent. Its regular form was able to quickly gain the energy needed to power Infernape's Flare Blitz, while its ex form was able to recycle that energy and discard cards to fuel Infernape LV.X's Flare Up FinishingMove. Contrast this to the video games, where Delcatty is one of the weakest fully-evolved Pokémon out there and isn't even functional as a SupportPartyMember.

** Joltik cards are generally jokes, being 30 HP basics. But one Joltik has an attack called Night March that does 20 damage times the amount of Pokémon with Night March in the discard pile, allowing it to [[GlassCannon hit absurd damage totals]] when combined with the other Pokémon that have Night March. Night March is arguably the best deck in many formats where it was and is legal.

* AloneAmongFamilies: Card art of the Pokemon Cubone often showcases the Pokemon's orphaned state, such as [[https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-tcg/pokemon-cards/xy-series/xy8/77/ an image]] of one alone on a bench while, in the background, several happy human families are shown enjoying their time together.

** The [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Heatmor_%28Dark_Explorers_19%29 Heatmor]] from the ''Dark Explorers'' expansion has an attack that does 60 damage if the opposing Pokemon is Durant, and 10 damage otherwise. It was introduced to counter [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Durant_Mill_(TCG) Durant Mill]] decks, but it does have the justification that Heatmor is a predator of Durant.

** The original Baby Pokémon from the Neo and e-Card sets, especially the ones from the Neo sets. At first glance, they look pretty bad, especially due to their horrific HP and the fact that you don't necessarily have to use them in order to use their "evolved" forms. However, they often proved to be nasty annoyances due to their Baby Pokémon Powers, which caused every single attack — even those that don't inflict any damage — to have only a 50% chance of succeeding (if the attacker flipped heads). Combine the original Baby Pokémon Power with Focus Band, and one would have a whopping ''seventy-five'' percent chance of having to deal with the Baby Pokémon again the next turn. To make matters even crazier, the Babies usually had troublesome attacks that only cost one Colorless Energy and they had free retreat. After Ruby and Sapphire were released, all new Baby Pokémon were Basic Pokémon, and no longer had to be attacked on a coin flip. However, especially destructive Babies like Cleffa (which was like a Professor Oak that DIDN'T discard your hand that you could re-use, potentially multiple times thanks to the Baby Pokémon rule) were so influential on the game that they were "reprinted" 10 years later in the Heart Gold/Soul Silver sets; however, these new versions weren't anywhere near as chaotic as their G/S/C era counterparts, as they were only impervious to damage if they were asleep.

** Some of the Stage 1 Pokemon GX in recent sets certainly qualify. Golisopod GX can hit for 120 damage for a single energy (though it has to have just came into the active position that turn) and has 210 HP, and the damage output of Zoroark GX (also 210 HP) is based on the amount of Pokémon in play, meaning that in the Expanded format where Sky Field (which allow you to have up to 8 Pokémon on your bench) or [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Eternatus_VMAX_(Darkness_Ablaze_117) Eternatus V-Max]] is legal, it can hit for up to 200 damage for one Double Colorless Energy.
** [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Reshiram_%26_Charizard-GX_(Unbroken_Bonds_20) Reshiram & Charizard GX]], from Unbroken Bonds also qualifies. Despite having a hard-hitting, but expensive attack in Flare Strike, it has plenty of Fire-type support, like [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Welder_(Unbroken_Bonds_189) Welder]], which attaches 2 Fire energy from the player's hand to one of their Pokemon in addition to drawing 3 more cards. Thus, decks built around this Tag Team aim to draw through most of their deck while accelerating energy at a fast rate.
* LimitBreak: GX attacks. You're only allowed one per game and only certain Pokemon can use them, but they're all rather powerful. Tag Team GX Pokemon take this to a whole new level; their GX moves have an optional additional energy or specific card usage requirement that, if fulfilled, enable an even stronger effect when used.

** Giratina from the United Minds set allows you to discard a special energy card attacked to your opponent's active pokemon when you first place it onto your bench.

** Magikarp & Wailord GX has a whopping 300 HP on a Basic — most Stage 2 Pokemon don't even breach 200 HP — but, as a tradeoff, it's ridiculously slow to use its very strong attacks. 5 Water energy to use its normal attack for 180 damage, and ''8'' to use its GX attack[[note]]Well, technically, one. But, without the seven extra energy, it'll only deal 10 damage without any other effects[[/note]].

** Trainer cards initially ''inverted'' this, as Trainer cards from the first few sets were so incredibly powerful that you could dig through half your deck in a single turn and freely switch your opponent's Pokémon around, leading to incredibly restrictive rules on the number of Trainer cards allowed in decks and the introduction of Supporter cards in the Expedition base set, of which only one could be played in a turn, as well as a massive downswing in the effective power of Trainer cards. In more recent years, Trainer cards have slowly crept back up in power; while never ''quite'' reaching the same levels of power that the original Base Set did[[labelnote:*]]Many Base Set cards had effects reprinted in a more limited format, such as 'Bill' having the same 'Draw 3 cards' as the Supporters Cheren, Tierno, and Hau, Professor Oak sharing effects with Supporters Professor Sycamore and Professor Juniper, Gust of Wind's effect going to Supporter Lysandre, and Computer Search being reprinted as an Ace Spec (you may have a single Ace Spec card in your deck — not one copy of, one ''Ace Spec card'') with the same name[[/labelnote]] but often improving in other ways from the ''Expedition Base Set'' onward; such as cards with a near-identical effect simply being more effective[[labelnote:*]]Heart Gold & Soul Silver's Moo-Moo Milk card heals 10 more damage per heads than the otherwise-identical Neo Genesis Moo-Moo Milk, [=BREAKthrough=]'s Brigitte being better than the Holon Mentor card, Professor Kukui outclassing Buck's Training, etc.[[/labelnote]], having effects previously on Supporter cards become Item cards[[labelnote:*]]Professor Elm's Training Method compared to Timer Ball, Pokémon Nurse, and Max Potion[[/labelnote]] or ''both'' [[labelnote:*]]XY's Evosoda is a strictly superior version of the Wally's Training Supporter card[[/labelnote]].

** {{Averted}} with most of the ''Film/PokemonDetectivePikachu'' cards; some of them like Mewtwo, Charizard, and Greninja are all fairly useful, and their GX versions are about on par with normal GX cards. That being said, some of them like Snubbull and Charmander really aren't that great, but that's typically expected of Pokemon intended to be evolved up.

* TheScreamParody: The [=TCG=] once did a collaboration with the Tokyo Art Museum to create an exhibition of cards that were inspired by the painting. Characters exhibiting the Scream included Psyduck, Eevee, Mimikyu, Pikachu, and Rowlet, whilst the other backgrounders in the painting are replaced by Pokemon (such as the Gastly family and Mimikyu) as well.

A trading card game based on the popular ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' franchise. Recursively, the card game ''itself'' became [[VideoGame/PokemonTradingCardGame a pair of video games]], [[NoExportForYou of which only one left Japan]]. Really likes making people flip coins.

** Will from the upcoming Dream League/Cosmic Eclipse set allows you to flat-out choose the result of a coin flip.

[https://tcg.pokemon.com/en-us/tcgl/ Can also be played online, though there's software to download first.]] Physical booster packs and decks now come with a digital code that allows players to redeem them in the online version.

[[http://www.pokemontcg.com Can also be played online, though there's software to download first.]] Physical booster packs and decks now come with a digital code that allows players to redeem them in the online version.

** Trainer cards initially ''inverted'' this, as Trainer cards from the first few sets were so incredibly powerful that you could dig through half your deck in a single turn and freely switch your opponent's Pokémon around, leading to incredibly restrictive rules on the number of Trainer cards allowed in decks and the introduction of Supporter cards in the Expedition base set, of which only one could be played in a turn, as well as a massive downswing in the effective power of Trainer cards. In more recent years, Trainer cards have slowly crept back up in power; while never ''quite'' reaching the same levels of power that the original Base Set did[[labelnote:*]]Many Base Set cards had effects reprinted in a more limited format, such as 'Bill' having the same 'Draw 3 cards' as the Supporters Cheren, Tierno, and Hau, Professor Oak sharing effects with Supporters Professor Sycamore and Professor Juniper, Gust of Wind's effect going to Supporter Lysandre, and Computer Search being reprinted as an Ace Spec (you may have a single Ace Spec card in your deck — not one copy of, one ''Ace Spec card'') with the same name[[/labelnote]] but often improving in other ways from the ''Expedition Base Set'' onward; such as cards with a near-identical effect simply being more effective[[labelnote:*]]Heart Gold & Soul Silver's Moo-Moo Milk card heals 10 more damage per heads than the otherwise-identical Neo Genesis Moo-Moo Milk, BREAKthrough's Brigitte being better than the Holon Mentor card, Professor Kukui outclassing Buck's Training, etc.[[/labelnote]], having effects previously on Supporter cards become Item cards[[labelnote:*]]Professor Elm's Training Method compared to Timer Ball, Pokémon Nurse, and Max Potion[[/labelnote]] or ''both'' [[labelnote:*]]XY's Evosoda is a strictly superior version of the Wally's Training Supporter card[[/labelnote]].

* ItemAmplifier: [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Magnezone_(Plasma_Gale_25) Magnezone]] has the effect "Double Brain" that lets the player use 2 Supporter cards per turn instead of the usual 1.

* JokeCharacter:
** Imakuni? is an incredibly weird guy. He has his own rap group to promote the series, specifically the card game, called [[TwoGuysAndAGirl Suzukisan]], which consists of him, an enka singer named Sachiko Kobayashi, and an American guy named Raymond Johnson (who also had TheDanza as a minor character in TheMovie of the anime) who speaks SurprisinglyGoodEnglish. He also makes some joke cards and does illustrations for serious cards. He has a blog at imakuni.com.
** Some cards that weren't intended to be humorous cards are these. For example, Slowpoke and Slowbro from Dark Explorers had terrible attacks/abilities. The former had to do 2 energy for 20 damage ''on a coin flip'' while the latter's ability can '''only''' attack if you have an even number of prizes left, meaning that not only does Slowbro become useless after stealing a kill unless it manages to kill a Pokémon-EX, but it also can't attack at all until you have already taken a prize or you negate its ability. Additionally, Jungle Victreebel was another unplayable card, and even the Weepinbell it evolved from was arguably much better.
** Another useless Slowbro, from Unbroken Bonds, has the attack Three Strikes: flip three coins, for each heads, deal 100 damage, up to 300. [[{{HopeSpot}} Sounds good, right]]? Well, if all three coins are tails, '''[[NonStandardGameOver you lose the game]]'''.

** [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Radiant_Jirachi_(Silver_Tempest_120) Radiant Jirachi]]'s Astral Misfortune has two coins flipped, and knocks out the defending Pokémon if both are heads, doing nothing at all if even one tails is flipped.]]

* OneHitKO: It's possible to one-shot your opponent and win on your very first turn if the hands are just right.

** [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Spiritomb_(Team_Up_89) Spiritomb in the Team Up Expansion]] has a primary attack that lets you search your deck for four Pokémon and discard them. Again, useless, unless you pair it up with [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Zoroark_(Team_Up_91) Team Up Zoroark]] for example, which deals more damage for every Pokémon in the discard, or perhaps [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Greninja_%26_Zoroark-GX_(Unbroken_Bonds_107) Greninja & Zoroark GX]], which 2 GX Pokémon on your bench ''without evolution'', given that said GX cards are already in your discard.

*** "_____'s Pikachu" (more commonly known as "Birthday Pikachu") cards are banned due to them having an attack which is more effective on the player's birthday.

*** Jumbo Cards are banned due to their sheer size. Nothing's stopping you from playing the regular-sized versions of the cards, though. However, in 2022 a player entered a deck consisting ''entirely'' of jumbo cards into a tournament, and it was allowed (presumably because all the cards were the same size so there was no issue of being able to distinguish them from the back).
*** Most Imakuni? cards are straight up banned due to their outlandish nature (some of them do straight up tell you this).

** The bar is raised with each generation. It's gotten to the point where the best decks when the TCG started some 15 years ago (like Haymaker, for example) would be absolutely unplayable against ANY legal deck today that has seen any play. A good comparison would be [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Sneasel_(Celestial_Storm_86) [=7th=]-gen Celestial Storm Sneasel]] to its original [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Sneasel_(Neo_Genesis_25) [=2nd=]-gen Neo Genesis version]]; the original Neo Genesis version was incredibly strong since it needed only two energy to deal an average of 90 damage in a time when 150 HP was a lot, but the Celestial Storm version — which is a very slightly nerfed version of the Neo Genesis one — didn't make nearly as much of a splash, since 90 damage was to be expected of a heavy hitter that didn't need coin flips, and was only really good for evolving into stronger cards.

** Some of the promo cards you win in the game from the Cups, such as Farfetch'd and Mankey, have the EXACT SAME STATS as their alternate (and easier to get) cards. Only real difference is their art and level descriptions. Unless you're going for full completion you really like the artwork, or you ant a BraggingRightsReward, you should probably skip any Cups giving them as prizes.

** Charizard has traditionally been like this, with high HP and attacks that cause enormous damage (in the 100-300 range) but are way too slow to set up and usually have crippling drawbacks. However, Charizard cards tend to fetch high prices (despite their low competitive value) due to the big lizard's popularity combined with the "wow" factor of its damage output. A running joke in the community is that any new Charizard card is bound to be an unplayable "collector card" rather than one that can be used to good effect in battle. This is subverted with the [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Charizard_(Team_Up_14) Charizard from Team Up]], [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Reshiram_%26_Charizard-GX_(Unbroken_Bonds_20) Reshiram & Charizard-GX]],
[[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Charizard_%26_Braixen-GX_(Cosmic_Eclipse_22) Charizard & Braixen-GX]], and [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Radiant_Charizard_(Pok%C3%A9mon_GO_11) Radiant Charizard]] as these cards have seen some degree of tournament success some time after their release.

** Charizard has traditionally been like this, with high HP and attacks that cause enormous damage (in the 100-300 range) but are way too slow to set up and usually have crippling drawbacks. However, Charizard cards tend to fetch high prices (despite their low competitive value) due to the big lizard's popularity combined with the "wow" factor of its damage output. A running joke in the community is that any new Charizard card is bound to be an unplayable "collector card" rather than one that can be used to good effect in battle. This is subverted with the [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Charizard_(Team_Up_14) Charizard from Team Up]], [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Reshiram_%26_Charizard-GX_(Unbroken_Bonds_20) Reshiram & Charizard-GX]], and [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Charizard_%26_Braixen-GX_(Remix_Bout_8) Charizard & Braixen-GX]] as these cards have seen some degree of tournament success some time after their release.

** An interesting {{Reconstruction}} of this trope. There's a few cards [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/User:MannedTooth/List_of_narrative_cards that reference other cards through their illustrations]]. The trend started in Legendary Treasures, and was extremely prevalent there.

* StockSubtitle: ''[[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Generations_%28TCG%29 Pokemon TCG: Generations]]'', a 2016 expansion that commemorates the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' franchise's [[MilestoneCelebration 20th anniversary]]. Also ''[[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Evolutions_(TCG) Evolutions]]'', another 2016 expansion that commemorates the franchise's 20th anniversary, this time featuring cards directly based on the layout of the original Base Set. Most Pokémon from the set are effectively reprints of Base Set cards with heavily buffed HP and attacks to make them at least playable in the modern day, although a few cards, like [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Beedrill_(Evolutions_7) Beedrill]], were completely reworked from their [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Beedrill_(Base_Set_17) Base Set counterparts]].

*** Jumbo Cards are banned due to their sheer size. Nothing's stopping you from playing the regular-sized versions of the cards, though.

** Imakuni? UpToEleven. And yes, the question mark is part of his name.

* ColorCodedElements: The game simplifies the elemental types from the game series from 18 to 11 by lumping them together by color; [[NonElemental Normal/Colorless]] (including [[BlowYouAway Flying]]) is white, [[PlayingWithFire Fire]] is red, [[MakingASplash Water]] (including {{Ice|MagicIsWater}}) is [[WaterIsBlue blue]], [[GreenThumb Grass]] (including [[BigCreepyCrawlies Bug]]) is green, [[ShockAndAwe Electric/Lightning]] is yellow, [[BareFistedMonk Fighting]] (including [[DishingOutDirt Ground and Rock]]) is [[YellowEarthGreenEarth brown]],[[note]]one of the weirder groupings, which was apparently made with the logic that "Fighting is brown, Ground is brown, and Rock is similar to Ground"[[/note]] [[PsychicPowers Psychic]] (including [[SoulPower Ghost]]) [[SupernaturalIsPurple is purple]], [[CastingAShadow Dark/Darkness]] is black, [[ExtraOreDinary Steel/Metal]] is gray, [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Dragon]] is gold, and [[TheFairFolk Fairy]] is pink.

* SupernaturalIsPurple: The Psychic type is represented by the color purple.

** Rayquaza VMAX. When set up properly, you have a very powerful and consistent all-in-one draw engine and beatstick with no weakness... emphasis on ''when''. The Pokémon is ultimately too slow and inconsistent to set up properly, requiring the Dragon-type standard of two different Energy types as well as multiple evolutions (for multiple copies of both itself and the Flaaffy used for energy acceleration), and the speed of the format it's in means the player needs to get ''very'' lucky and set up quickly or else they lose the game. Additionally, some Basic Pokémon V[[note]]meaning they don't need to evolve to reach their full potential[[/note]] released in subsequent sets do Rayquaza's beatstick job but better, such as Raichu V[[note]]deals less damage per discarded Lightning Energy, but only requires one Energy type and can discard energy from ''any'' of your Pokémon and not just itself[[/note]], Flygon V[[note]]has an attack that works similarly to Max Burst against Pokémon VMAX but deals more damage against them than said attack[[/note]], and Garchomp V[[note]]has an attack that works very similarly to a 3-energy discard Max Burst and deals slightly less damage, but can be used to snipe ''any'' of your opponent's Pokémon and not just their Active[[/note]].

** Rayquaza VMAX. When set up properly, you have a very powerful and consistent all-in-one draw engine and beatstick with no weakness... emphasis on ''when''. The Pokémon is ultimately too slow and inconsistent to set up properly, requiring the Dragon-type standard of two different Energy types as well as multiple evolutions (for multiple copies of both itself and the Flaaffy used for energy acceleration), and the speed of the format it's in means the player needs to get ''very'' lucky and set up quickly or else they lose the game.