Pokemon Partner Battles allows players to play with ALL of their Pokemon Trading Card Game cards, from Base Set through the most recent expansion, in a fun format which feels more balanced than the unlimited format due to deck construction limitations.
Here’s the basic rules you’ll need to know to get started (for more verbose rules, see the link to the full rules at the bottom of the page):
Pokémon Partner Battles Rules
(Abridged [v2.06.02])
Deck Construction Rules
- Players must choose a single Pokemon card as the Partner for their deck.
- The Type Identity of a Pokemon is its Type plus the Type of any basic energy symbols in the card’s attack costs; Non-Pokemon cards have no Type Identity.
- Pokemon in a deck (other than pre-evolutions of the Partner Pokemon) may not have any Types in their Type Identity which are not shared with the deck’s Partner.
- A Partner Battle deck must contain exactly 100 cards, including the Partner.
- Other than Basic Energy cards, no two cards in the deck may have the same english Name and Attacks/Abilities. Some cards may have rules text which overrides this rule.
- Rules which prevent you from having cards with different names in the same deck do not apply. (i.e. – You can play Professor Sycamore AND Professor Juniper in the same deck)
Card Legality Rules
- All Pokemon Trading Card Game cards which have been printed as standard sized cards in English are legal in Partner Battles.
- No cards are currently banned.
Play Rules
- Partner Battles are played for 10 Prizes.
- Partners begin the game in their owner’s Partner Zone. Once during your turn, you may play your Partner from the Partner Zone. Whenever your Partner is returned to the partner zone from play, your opponent takes a prize card.
- While in play, evolution cards and other cards that may normally be placed on top of a pokemon in play cannot be placed on top of a partner. No game effects can override this rule.
- If a Partner would be put into a deck, hand, discard pile, prize zone or lost zone from anywhere, it is returned to its owner’s partner zone instead.
- Being a Partner is a property of the card and tied directly to the physical card. “Partner-ness” cannot be copied or overwritten. The card retains its partner-ness at all times.
- If one or more of your opponent’s Pokemon is knocked out by damage from one of your Partner’s attacks, you take 1 (additional) prize card.
Errata Rules
- Cards are played using the text printed on the English language version of the card (ignoring all issued errata).
