Pokémon TCG Glossary: Terms and Slang Explained

New to the Pokémon Trading Card Game, or coming back after a few years? This glossary explains the official terms you will see on cards and in the rulebook, plus the slang players use at the table. Terms are grouped by topic so related ideas sit together.

The play area

Active Pokémon: The one Pokémon in the front spot. It is the only Pokémon that can attack, and usually the one that takes damage.
Bench: Up to 5 Pokémon waiting behind the Active Pokémon. Benched Pokémon cannot attack, cannot have Special Conditions, and ignore Weakness and Resistance unless an attack says otherwise.
Prize cards: 6 cards set aside face down at the start of the game. You take one or more each time you Knock Out an opponent’s Pokémon; take your last one and you win. See Prize cards and winning.
Discard pile: Where used Trainer cards, discarded Energy and Knocked Out Pokémon go. Many cards can get things back from it.
Lost Zone: A place cards go when an effect says to put them there. Unlike the discard pile, cards in the Lost Zone are out of the game for good.
Stadium: A Trainer card that stays in play between both players and affects both sides. Only one Stadium can be in play at a time.

Card types

Basic Pokémon: A Pokémon you can put into play directly from your hand. You need at least one in your opening hand.
Stage 1 / Stage 2: Evolution cards that are placed on top of the Pokémon they evolve from. You cannot evolve a Pokémon on your first turn or on the turn it came into play.
Pokémon ex: Powerful Pokémon with a “rule box” that give up 2 Prize cards when Knocked Out. Older cards used “EX” in capitals, which also gave 2 Prizes.
Tera Pokémon ex: Pokémon ex with a Tera type. While on the Bench they are protected from attack damage.
Mega Evolution Pokémon ex: Mega Pokémon ex that give up 3 Prize cards when Knocked Out.
Pokémon V, VSTAR, VMAX: Rule-box Pokémon from the Sword & Shield era. V and VSTAR give up 2 Prizes, VMAX gives up 3. Each player may use only one VSTAR Power per game.
Rule box: The text box on special Pokémon such as ex and V that explains their extra rules, usually how many Prize cards they give up. Some cards interact only with Pokémon that have, or do not have, a rule box.
Item: A Trainer card you can play as many times as you like during your turn.
Supporter: A stronger Trainer card limited to one per turn. The player who goes first cannot play one on their first turn.
Pokémon Tool: A Trainer card attached to a Pokémon to give it an effect. Normally one Tool per Pokémon.
ACE SPEC: Especially powerful Trainer or Energy cards. A deck can contain only one ACE SPEC card in total.
Basic Energy / Special Energy: Basic Energy provides one Energy of its type, and you can play any number of copies in a deck. Special Energy has extra effects and follows the normal 4-copy limit.

Damage and conditions

Damage counter: A marker worth 10 damage. A Pokémon is Knocked Out when its damage equals or exceeds its HP.
Knock Out (KO): When a Pokémon’s damage reaches its HP, it goes to the discard pile and its opponent takes Prize cards.
Weakness and Resistance: Weakness doubles damage from one type (×2); Resistance reduces it by 30. See How damage is calculated or try the damage calculator.
Special Conditions: Poisoned, Burned, Asleep, Paralyzed and Confused. Only the Active Pokémon can be affected. See Special Conditions explained.
Pokémon Checkup: The step between turns when Poison and Burn damage is applied and Asleep, Burned and Paralyzed Pokémon may recover.
Retreat Cost: The Energy you must discard to move your Active Pokémon to the Bench. You may retreat once per turn.

Game flow

Mulligan: Redrawing your opening hand because it has no Basic Pokémon. Your opponent may draw one extra card for each mulligan. See the mulligan odds for your deck.
Going first: The player who goes first cannot attack or play a Supporter on their first turn. Who goes first is decided by a coin flip.
Deck out: Losing because you have no card to draw at the start of your turn.
Sudden death: A short extra game, starting with 1 Prize card each, played when both players win at the same time.
Best-of-three (Bo3): A match won by the first player to win two games, used at most competitive events.
Time / extra turns: At events, when the round’s time runs out, players finish the current turn and play a few extra turns. See Match timers and tournament play.

Formats

Standard format: The main competitive format, using recent card sets only. Each card has a regulation mark (a small letter) that shows whether it is legal.
Expanded format: A format that allows a much larger pool of older cards.
Rotation: The yearly change when the oldest regulation marks leave the Standard format.

Player slang

Gust: Any effect that forces your opponent’s Benched Pokémon into the Active spot, usually so you can Knock it Out.
Prize trade: Comparing how many Prize cards each player gives up per Knock Out. Using 1-Prize Pokémon against an opponent’s 2-Prize Pokémon is “winning the Prize trade”.
Single-Prize / two-Prizer / three-Prizer: A Pokémon that gives up 1, 2 or 3 Prize cards when Knocked Out.
Search / tutor: An effect that finds a specific card in your deck and puts it into your hand.
Draw Supporter: A Supporter whose main job is to draw cards, such as shuffling your hand away and drawing a new one.
Consistency: How reliably a deck does what it is meant to do each game. Mostly comes from search cards, draw Supporters and good copy counts.
Tech: A card included for a specific matchup or situation, often as a single copy.
Meta: The decks that are most popular and successful at the moment.
Donk: Winning on the first or second turn, usually because the opponent’s only Pokémon was Knocked Out.
Bricked: A hand that cannot do anything useful.

Track it all in one place

The PTCG Companion match counter handles damage counters, Special Conditions, Pokémon Checkup, Prize cards, coin flips and the match timer on one screen, so you can focus on the game instead of the bookkeeping.