History YMMV / PokemonTradingCardGame

* PopularGameVariant: One of the most popular alternative formats is Gym Leader Challenge. In addition to using the expanded format, which includes cards from all past expansions through Black and White, Gym Leader Challenge adds three rules to the normal rules: All Poémon in a player's deck must be the same type, Pokémon with a rulebox and Ace Spec item cards are not allowed, and only one of each card other than basic energy may be in a player's deck. The format is so popular that it even sees play in side events at official competitions.

** [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Tapu_Lele-GX_(Guardians_Rising_60) Tapu Lele-GX]]'s Wonder Tag ability allows it to search out a Supporter card from your deck when played to the bench, making it a fantastic card to get you out of pooer hands or to aid in setup.[[labelnote:*]]The last Pokémon to have this effect for an Ability, Jirachi-EX and its Stellar Guidance, saw incredible amounts of play despite effectively being very frail dead-weight in most decks after being played.[[/labelnote]] To top it off, its main attack is a copy of Mewtwo-EX's X-Ball attack that can't hit for weakness; despite having been long since powercrept past, it's far from being a bad attack, and means that it can't just be ignored and can be a powerful tool in some situations.

** [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Shaymin-EX_(Roaring_Skies_77) Shaymin-EX]] allowed for lightning-fast setup, making fast offense decks much more powerful; when played to the bench ,you can draw cards until you have six in hand. Not only does this not take up your supporter card for the turn, you could play ''multiple'' Shaymin-EX to keep drawing cards, making exceptionally potent early-game attackers even more so. To top it off, for a single Double Colorless Energy, you could return it to your hand — and then, if you wished, play it down ''again'' the next turn!

** Item-based Gusting effects[[labelnote:*]]After Base Set's Gust of Wind[[/labelnote]] have historically been very powerful, even when limited to either be a ComebackMechanic (Ultra Prism's Counter Catcher) or a coinflip) (XY-era on Pokémon Catcher). However, non-limited Gusting effects (such as the original Gust of Wind, Double Gust, Black and White's Pokémon Catcher print, etc.) tend to be disgustingly powerful in comparison to other cards. (Reliable Gusting effects are usually extremely powerful even on Supporter cards; both Lysandre and Guzma saw incredibly extensive play while legal)

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This is the YMMV page for the Game Boy Color game based on the trading card game. If you were looking for the actual paper card game, see TabletopGame/{{Pokemon}}. [=YMMVs=] for the paper trading card game should go in the section at the bottom of YMMV.{{Pokemon}}.

* AntiClimaxBoss:
** Every one of the Grand Masters besides Courtney. They center their decks on their signature Legendary cards, who are all AwesomeButImpractical; Dragonite relies on coin flips for its attacks to work, and Zapdos and Articuno's attacks do damage to random targets, and Zapdos can ''hit its own teammates'', so feel free to laugh as Steve knocks out his own Pokémon. Aside from their Legendaries, the Grand Masters mostly prefer Pokémon with high energy attacks, which means they'll quickly stall as they dump lots of energy into their Pokémon only for it to be KO'd. [[spoiler:Ronald]] has the powers of all four Legendary cards, but seems to have included them in his deck just for bragging rights, as he only runs Fire energies and thus his Articuno and Zapdos exist to use their Pokémon Powers and soak up damage while his Eeveelutions do all the heavy lifting for him.
** Vilrich can very often become this due to ArtificialStupidity with deck-burning, [[StupidEvil which makes it more likely than not that he'll deck out]].
* EvenBetterSequel: The second game is much longer and has more cards, allowing for more diverse strategies. It also has an actual plot, and the characters get a little bit more development. It's a shame that it never got an international release (though there ''is'' a FanTranslation for those interested in playing it).
* FridgeBrilliance: The Castle in the Game Centre in GR Island of the 2nd GBC game has duelists [[ChessMotifs formed after]] {{TabletopGame/Chess}} [[ChessMotifs pieces]]. However, the Queen herself says that the castle has no King. The logic comes from the fact that, before the Queen, the player had already dueled a Pawn, a Knight, a Bishop, and a Rook in that order... more specifically, the order of the relative strength the actual chess pieces have. The King piece is around the strength of a Knight or Bishop, meaning that a King duelist would either be an AntiClimaxBoss or would have to be located between the Knight and Bishop (making a jarring inclusion). Alternately: there’s no King in the Game Center because the entirety of GR Island is ruled by [[FinalBoss King Vilrich]], who stays in his own castle.

** The good old-fashioned Blastoise Rain Dancer deck works just as well as it does in the real game. Get a Blastoise into play, abuse its Pokémon Power to attach as many Water energy as you like to your Water Pokémon, and go clean house. Even on its own, Blastoise can pump itself up to a base 40 damage attack once it hits the field, with the potential for it to hit 60 damage with two more energy on it.
*** You can do some absolutely evil combinations by adding on Mewtwo, which allows you to get two energy cards from your discard pile, and Mr. Fuji, which allows you to shuffle back your Pokémon and your energy back into your deck, greatly reducing the risk of deck outs.
** [[https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/581059-pokemon-card-gb2/75196165 Legendary Zapdos]] is utterly broken when used by a skilled player. Its special attack "Big Thunder" deals 70 damage to a random Pokémon in play other than Zapdos, ignoring weakness and resistance. So, just play no other Pokémon, load Zapdos up with Electric energy, and then zap the enemy to death.
** Normally, you can only draw one card per turn. If you have Bill, which is the Pokémon equivalent of Yu-Gi-Oh's Pot of Greed, it allows you to draw two additional cards. If you have Professor Oak, you can discard your entire hand and get ''7 turns' worth of cards'', which works amazingly when your hand consists of a single Professor Oak. Have multiple Professor Oak cards and don't want to discard all of them? Have Gambler, which shuffles your entire hand back and coin flips you either one card or 8 cards. It's basically mandatory to have 4 Bills in your deck and multiple of Professor Oak and Gambler, and while they do increase your risk of decking out, they make it far easier to find the cards that you do want, which leads to...
** Haymaker decks. In fact, if you start with a Charmander & Friends deck, you can immediately run soft Haymaker with supporting Diglett for a 2 Fighting energy move that causes 30 damage and Rattata, which has a 1 Colorless energy move that causes 20 damage. They're frail until you evolve them, which is problematic, except the payoff is Dugtrio having a 4 Fighting move that causes 70 damage, like [[ThatOneBoss Courtney's Legendary Moltres]], ''but without the downside of missing half the time'', and Raticate keeps Bite, allowing you to hit Pokémon like Mr. Mime (which, outside of a few edge cases, cannot be hurt by any move dealing 30 damage or more, which counters Haymaker) while also giving Raticate Super Fang. Super Fang causes half of the Pokémon's remaining health to disappear, allowing you to three-shot any Pokémonwith 100 health or less. But the real hard Haymakers are rare cards like Scyther, which has a 3 Colorless move that causes 30 damage (or 60 with a one turn setup), Hitmonchan, which causes 40 damage for 2 Fighting and 1 Colorless, and Electabuzz, which causes either 30 or 40 damage for 1 Electric and 1 Colorless. They are far easier to set up than Dugtrio because they don't require an evolution, and any Colorless requirement can be solved with either any energy card or a Double Colorless Energy, allowing you to set up easier. An example: You can start a game off with Scyther as your active Pokemon, use a Green Energy turn one to double the power of Slash, and DCE on turn two to give it the required energy to do 60 damage. Additionally, with the cards from Charmander & Friends, your deck starts off with being able to evolve Charmander into a Charmeleon, which also has Slash, allowing you to spam 30 damage moves from your second turn onward; it's just slightly more impractical to setup than Scyther is, but for the most part, hits just as hard.
** You can also use the same idea that [[ThatOneBoss Murray]] has; stall. It's very slow, it's very boring, but it's extremely powerful. Evolve Abra into Alakazam on your bench to let you move damage counters and use Mr. Mime to prevent you from taking damage from attacks that do 30 or more damage. Have Switch to move Pokémon without paying the retreat cost and Scoop Up to move your injured Pokémon back into your hand, removing all damage in the process. You can also stack energy cards on any Pokémon you want to use Mr. Fuji on to put them back in your deck with your Pokémon, making it effectively impossible to deck out before your opponent. But what he doesn't abuse is Pokémon like Magmar and Lickitung. Magmar has Smokescreen, a 1 Fire energy 10 damage move that flips a coin and causes paralysis if you land on heads, preventing the opponent from attacking or retreating (unless they use Switch, Scoop Up, or evolve), and Lickitung has Tongue Wrap, which is the same, except it's Colorless, making it way easier to pull off. Both of them also have very respectable health pools - Magmar has 70 HP and Lickitung has 90 HP, allowing you to survive most hits that Pokémon would do, and Alakazam can shrug that off to the rest of your party as much as you want during your turn. Add in Pokémon Center, which heals your entire team at the cost of all your energy, but when the move you want is only one energy card, it's effectively free. Especially if you add in Pokémon like Chansey, who has both 120 HP and their own 2 Colorless move that prevents it from taking damage from a coin flip, and you can shrug off any attack outside of a Charizard's [[AwesomeButImpractical Fire Spin]], healing every turn back to full health, while making it extremely annoying for your opponent to attack you, especially with any moves that require their own coin flips to work.
** In the sequel, Lv. 30 Dark Machamp breaks most decks across its knee. On top of being deceptively easy to bring out for a second stage mon (The Boss’ Way being a free search for Dark cards), it has respectable damage in a two energy move that deals 30 damage. But the real reason it’s busted is Fling, which throws the opponent’s active Pokémon and every card on it back into the deck. Due to the AI never planning around it even if it’s on the field (Fling only works if there’s at least one benched Mon), it’s an immediate get out of jail free card unless your opponent is bricked, and aside from a few opponents like Queen and her Haymaker deck, it’s borderline impossible to recover from until it’s too late to matter.
* DemonicSpiders: Mr. Mime is an extremely annoying card to go up against, and it's used not only in ThatOneBoss Murray's deck but later matches with TheRival. Its Pokemon Power makes it immune to all damage greater than 20, making it impossible to one-hit KO despite its 40 HP, and it's often combined with Alakazam to move what little damage it takes to the Bench. If you don't have or draw Switch, you can be forced to lose Energy retreating something that can't hurt it, or worse, be stuck against it until you're KO'd, and if nothing on your bench does 20 or less damage... Its Meditate attack is deceptively dangerous too, doing +10 damage for each damage counter on the target, essentially giving it compounding damage.
* HilariousInHindsight: [[HilariousInHindsight/{{Pokemon}} Check the main page]].
* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlhyUGOx_oE Club Leader Duel]] music has an identical bassline to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE51zPBHa1M Waterfront by Simple Minds]]
* ThatOneBoss:
** Murray, leader of the Psychic Club in the first game. His deck is based around stalling, playing key monsters such as Chansey and Snorlax to soak up damage with their massive HP pools, using Switch to return them to the bench without losing energy, and Scoop Up to return them to his hand and negate all the damage they've taken. On their own, they can just take attacks or attack, but Murray can also use Alakazam's Pokémon Power to transfer any damage he takes to any of his benched Pokémon (like Chansey or Snorlax). Even worse, Murray can use Pokémon Center to heal all the damage you've manged to inflict on his active and benched Pokémon. Losing to him because of a Deck Out is very possible. On the other hand, if you load your deck with colorless types resistant to Psychic, ''beating him'' because of a Deck Out is also possible, since [[ArtificialStupidity he loves using Kanghaskhan's "Fetch."]]
** Michael, [[BossInMookClothing an ordinary Fighting Club member]], runs something ''very'' close to the infamous Haymaker deck archetype, featuring Hitmonchan, Electabuzz and Magmar, along with Kanghaskhan for high HP, covering Psychic types, and draw power.
** Grand Master Courtney's Legendary Moltres has the power to add Fire Energy to her hand, making her extremely likely to get out Moltres and power up her Pokémon effectively. Its 70-damage coin flip attack is also a hassle.
** Hiderō/Bernard, leader of the GR Fire Fort, in the second game boy game. His "special rule" is easily one of the most unfair in the game: Fire type Pokémon have ''no weaknesses!'' Why is that so unfair? Well, unlike the other masters' rules, there's pretty much no way to possibly use this to your advantage, since his deck doesn't have any Water cards to hit ''your'' Fire types' weaknesses. So basically, it's just TheComputerIsACheatingBastard disguised as a rules change. His deck is by no means bad either, and with no weaknesses to exploit the only real strategy is just to play really, really well or hope his AIRoulette gets handed the IdiotBall.
** Also from the second game, Queen uses a variant of the infamous Haymaker deck, which was ''the'' dominant deck in the early days of the real life TCG for its simple efficiency of unevolved Pokémon with plenty of HP and respectable damage output, backed up by lots of powerful Trainer cards. Since all the Pokémon are fully evolved, they tend to hit relatively hard from the get-go, and have high HP. But since they're also all basic Pokémon, they don't need any setting up beyond some energy cards. Unless you get very lucky or are running a similar deck, she ''will'' give you a lot of trouble.
* ThatOneLevel: In the second game, the Colorless Altar is a frustrating area to go through, even if you're experienced with the game. Each opponent will randomly choose four of a certain card/Pokémon you need in your deck to face them. On one hand, you can manipulate the RNG beforehand (what cards they ask for aren't chosen until you talk to them so you can just save and reload for the right choice) which helps a bit; On the other hand, if you don't have ''any card'' they ask for? You're gonna have to go back and grind for the right card packs until you get what you need. Not only that, but the deck requirements can make it a pain to even try and cheese through these opponents, especially with Nishijima's [[StoneWall heavily defensive deck.]] There's a reason that even the best speedrunners in this game lose runs to this place.
* ViewerGenderConfusion: Even though 'Murray' is a male name, his long hair and purple top give him a feminine appearance.

** Occasionally attack name translations differ from the main video game series' to better fit the context of the card game move's effects; for example, "''Nenriki''" (literally "willpower") is "Confusion" in the video games (it has a chance of confusing the opponent) and "Psyshock" in the card game (it can cause paralysis).
** The FanTranslation of the sequel is one of the very rare examples to [[DubNameChange change character names]], most likely so that the characters that debut in this game don't have names that [[AerithAndBob stand out too much]]. Like in the main series but the unlike the first Trading Card Game, they are given {{Punny Name}}s based on their specialty (so the Grass Fortress leader is Parker, the Water Fortress leader is Brooke, ''etc.'')

** Haymaker decks. In fact, if you start with a Charmander & Friends deck, you can immediately run soft Haymaker Diglett for a 2 Fighting energy move that causes 30 damage and Rattata, which has a 1 Colorless energy move that causes 20 damage. They're frail until you evolve them, which is problematic, except the payoff is Dugtrio having a 4 Fighting move that causes 70 damage, like Courtney's Legendary Moltres above, ''but without the downside of missing'', and Raticate keeps Bite, allowing you to hit Pokemon like [[DemonicSpider Mr. Mime]] while giving it Super Fang. Super Fang causes half of the Pokemon's remaining health to disappear, allowing you to three-shot any Pokemon with 100 health or less. But the real Haymakers are cards like Scyther, which has a 3 Colorless move that causes 30 damage, Hitmonchan, which causes 40 damage for 2 Fighting and 1 Colorless, and Electabuzz, which causes either 30 or 40 damage for 1 Electric and 1 Colorless. They are far easier to set up than Dugtrio because they don't require an evolution, and any Colorless requirement can be solved with any energy card or a Double Colorless Energy, allowing you to set up easier, such as having Scyther to use a Green Energy turn one to double the power of Slash and DCE on turn two to give it the required energy to do 60 damage. Additionally, with this deck, you start with Charmeleon, which has the exact same move as Scyther, allowing a turn two 30 damage move.

** Also from the second game, Queen uses a variant of the infamous Haymaker deck, which was ''the'' dominant deck in the real life TCG for its simple efficiency of unevolved Pokémon with plenty of HP and respectable damage output, backed up by lots of powerful Trainer cards. Since all the Pokémon are fully evolved, they tend to hit relatively hard from the get-go, and have high HP. But since they're also all basic Pokémon, they don't need any setting up beyond some energy cards. Unless you get very lucky or are running a similar deck, she ''will'' give you a lot of trouble.

** Also from the second game, there's Queen, who uses a simple and efficient Haymaker deck -- i.e. one full of Pokémon that don't evolve, energy cards, Bill and Professor Oak for drawing, and Switch to negate the high retreat costs. Since all the Pokémon are fully evolved, they tend to hit relatively hard from the get-go, and have high HP. But since they're also all basic Pokémon, they don't need any setting up beyond some energy cards. Unless you get very lucky or are running a similar deck, she ''will'' give you a lot of trouble.

This is the YMMV page for the Game Boy Color game based on the trading card game. If you were looking for the actual paper card game, see TabletopGame/{{Pokemon}}. [=YMMVs=] for the paper trading card game should go in the section at the bottom of YMMV.{{Pokemon}}. See also the franchise-wide HilariousInHindsight page [[HilariousInHindsight/{{Pokemon}} here]].

* GoodBadBugs: The sequence of coin flips in the first game is predetermined for each match and doesn't change when the game is reset. Liberal SaveScumming can let you keep most of the heads for yourself while sticking your poor opponent with most of the tails, which is as powerful as it sounds. It's especially deadly when combined with cards like Fossil Haunter, which can put the opponent to sleep (requiring heads to break free of) and, due to its Transparency Pokémon Power, requires another heads to even take damage.

* EvenBetterSequel: The second game is much longer and has more cards, allowing for more diverse strategies. It also has an actual plot, and the characters get a little bit more development. It's a shame that it never got an international release.

** The good old-fashioned Blastoise Rain Dancer deck works wonders just as well as it does in the real game. Get a Blastoise into play, abuse its Pokémon Power to attach as many Water energy as you like to your Water Pokémon, and go clean house. If nothing else, on its own Blastoise can pump itself up to a base 40 damage attack once it hits the field, with the potential for it to hit 60 damage with two more energy on it.

* GoodBadBugs: The sequence of coin flips in the first game is predetermined for each match, and doesn't change when the game is reset. Liberal SaveScumming can let you keep most of the heads for yourself while sticking your poor opponent with most of the tails, which is as powerful as it sounds. It's especially deadly when combined with cards like Fossil Haunter, which can put the opponent to sleep (requiring heads to break free of) and, due to its Transparency Pokémon Power, requires another heads to even take damage.

** Murray, leader of the Psychic Club in the first game. His deck is based around stalling, playing key monsters such as Chansey and Snorlax to soak up damage with their massive HP pools and using Scoop to return them to the bench without losing energy. On their own they can just take attacks or attack, but Murray can also use Alakazam's Pokémon Power to transfer any damage he takes to any of his benched Pokémon (Like Chansey or Snorlax). Even worse, Murray can use Pokémon Center to heal all the damage you've manged to inflict on his active and benched Pokémon. Losing to him because of a Deck Out is very possible. On the other hand, if you load your deck with colorless types resistant to Psychic, ''beating him'' because of a Deck Out is also possible, since [[ArtificialStupidity he loves using Kanghaskhan's "Fetch."]]

** Hiderō/Bernard, leader of the GR Fire Fort, in the second game boy game. His "special rule" is easily one of the most unfair in the game: Fire type Pokémon have ''no weaknesses!'' Why is that so unfair? Well, unlike the other masters' rules, there's pretty much no way to possibly use this to your advantage, since his deck doesn't have any Water cards to hit ''your'' Fire types' weaknesses. So basically, it's just TheComputerIsACheatingBastard disguised as a rules change. His deck is by no means bad either, and with no weaknesses to exploit the only real strategy is just to play really, really well. Or hope his AIRoulette gets handed the IdiotBall.
** Also from the second game, there's Queen. The reason for her being so strong is because her deck is simple and efficient: a Haymaker deck -- i.e. one full of Pokémon that don't evolve, energy cards, Bill and Professor Oak for drawing, and Switch to negate the high retreat costs. Since all the Pokémon are fully evolved, they tend to hit relatively hard from the get-go, and have high HP. But since they're also all basic Pokémon, they don't need any setting up beyond some energy cards. Unless you get very lucky or are running a similar deck, she ''will'' give you a lot of trouble.

* ViewerGenderConfusion: Even though 'Murray' is a male name, his long hair and purple top gives him a feminine appearance.

* FridgeBrilliance: The Castle in the Game Centre in GR Island of the 2nd GBC game has duellists [[ChessMotifs formed after]] {{TabletopGame/Chess}} [[ChessMotifs pieces]]. However, the Queen herself says that the castle has no King. The logic comes from the fact that, before the Queen, the player had already duelled a Pawn, a Knight, a Bishop, and a Rook in that order... more specifically, the order of the relative strength the actual chess pieces have. The King piece is around the strength of a Knight or Bishop, meaning that a King duelist would either be an AntiClimaxBoss or would have to be located between the Knight and Bishop (making a jarring inclusion). Alternately: there’s no King in the Game Center because the entirety of GR Island is ruled by [[FinalBoss King Vilrich]], who stays in his own castle.