This version of what has become a classic card game gives new players the opportunity to learn how to play and experienced players a chance to sharpen their skills, all without the need for a human opponent. There is a story which involves a quest for the "Legendary Pokemon Cards" held by the Grand Masters of the game. will recognize elements like having to defeat the Masters of the Card Clubs in order to earn the Medals you need to enter the Pokemon Dome and fight the Grand Masters, which feels a lot like the Badges you have to earn in the original Pokemon game to earn the right to compete in the Pokemon League. You even have a rival, but this time his name is Ronald instead of Gary. Most of the time you will play the game's Story Mode but there are a couple of additional features for use with other players. Card Pop! - If you and a friend both have a Color Game Boy and a Pokemon Trading Card Game Pack you can use the special Card Pop! Feature. All you have to do is select Card Pop! from the menu that appears when you power up the game, line up your infrared ports and press the A button. You both get a random card. Its just that easy! This is a great way to get some of the rare cards that you may have trouble winning any other way. You can only Card Pop! with each person once. Your Game Pack will remember who you have traded with. There is a limited buffer so if you Card Pop! enough times you will fill it up and you will be able to Card Pop! with some of the same people you popped with early on. Link - You can use the Game Boy Pack to duel your friends by hooking up with a Game Link cable. For this to work you need to enter the Battle Center of the same Card Club. You can decide how many prizes to play for. When you power up your game for the first time you will be greeted by a rather pretty intro sequence that ends with the traditional Start screen. Pressing the Start button calls up a second screen with a picture of a kid in a bandana and a simple menu that only has 1 option - New Game (once you have a game set up 2 more options will be available - Card Pop! and Continue From Diary). You begin play in the laboratory of Doctor Mason, the Pokemon Card Game Expert. He teaches you the basics of the game with the help of his assistant, Sam. Its an effective introduction, but a long one and there doesnÕt seem to be any way to bypass it so if you already know how to play you have to be patient. Once you make it past this Basic Training stage of the game you can choose one of three decks. Doctor Mason offers you the Charmander & Friends Deck, the Squirtle & Friends Deck or the Bulbasaur & Friends Deck. Your best bet is the Charmander & Friends deck. It has the best assortment of cards. The cards in the other decks can used to build more effective decks but if you want to get started right away stick with Charmander. Get you Deck and you're ready to go! The object of the game is to defeat the Grand Masters at the Pokemon Dome. Naturally, the Pokemon Dome is a private club. You won't be able to get in until you can present 8 medals, one from each of the Card Clubs. You earn your medals by defeating the Master of each Club. As you may have guessed by now, you won't be able to duel the Master of a club until you have beaten the other members of the club. This guide has a seperate entry for each of the locations on the world map. In general, you will want to tackle the Card Clubs one by one, taking occasional trips back to Doc Mason's to use his Auto Deck and Deck Save machines. There are some side trips you have to take but you will spend most of your time duelling in the Clubs. Before you go any further you should learn how to play the game. At the start of a duel, you and your opponent will shuffle each other's decks, then you will each draw 7 cards. If you don't have any basic Pokemon in this initial draw, you reshuffle those cards into the deck and try again- the same goes for your opponent. From those seven cards you choose one basic Pokemon to be active, and put up to five more basic Pokemon on your bench. A coin toss then determines who will go first, and prizes are placed (the number varies according to the opponent, but its usually four). Now play can begin! First, you draw a card. There's no limit to how many cards you can have in your hand, but you lose if you run out of cards to draw from. This rarely becomes a factor, as few duels ever last that long- even stalling decks either bring out a powerhouse or get worn down. You then have several options, which you can perform in any order: Bench: You can put a basic Pokemon on the bench from your hand, as long as that doesn't push the number of benched Pokemon over five. While having several benched Pokemon is a good idea, particularly since you lose if you have nothing on your bench when your active Pokemon gets knocked out, but its a good idea to leave a little space- just in case you draw a Pokemon whose abilities are particularly useful in your current situation. Evolve: You can play an Evolution card on one of your Pokemon in play. Stage One Evolutions are played on basic Pokemon, and Stage Twos are played on Stage Ones. A Pokemon can't evolve more than one step in a single turn, so a Squirtle can't evolve into Wartortle and then into Blastoise in the same turn (the Pokemon Breeder card lets you sidestep this rule a bit). You also can't play an Evolution card on a basic Pokemon that you played during the current turn. Evolving a Pokemon cures any battle conditions like confusion, but be sure you have enough energy to power the evolved form, or you may end up with a Pokemon who can no longer attack! Retreat: By paying the retreat cost in energy cards, you can move your active Pokemon to the bench and replace it with one of your benched cards. The cost is paid in cards, not energy, so a Double Colorless Energy only counts as one card. Energy: You can attach one energy card to any of your Pokemon each turn, and only one. Be careful when playing energy cards- make sure you can use them, and don't waste them. Power: Some Pokemon have a Pokemon Power seperate from their attacks. While some operate automatically, the rest don't do anything unless you activate them each turn. Trainer: You can play as many Trainer cards as you like each turn. Trainer cards are often a great way to help prepare your Pokemon or otherwise improve your chances of winning. The last action of any turn is the attack. You can only attack with an active Pokemon who has the correct energy attached. If you manage to knock out your opponent's Pokemon, you get to take one of your prizes and put it in your hand. While the good Dr. Mason provides you with a deck at the beginning of the game, as you win duels and accumulate cards, you will inevitably want to modify it and build more. Your best bet is to use no more than two types of Pokemon in a deck to help ensure you have the right energy in your hand when you need it, though Colorless Pokemon are good in every deck, since they can use any energy. There a few limits on how you build your deck. Each deck must have 60 cards in it, and can have no more than four of each Trainer or Pokemon card. Basic energy is not limited in this way, but Double Colorless Energy is. The way to produce the best deck is to find a balance between the different types of cards. A mixture of quickly-energized small frys and powerhouses is a good idea, and you should ensure that you have enough energy to power your Pokemon and enough Trainer cards to help them win. A good ratio is 24-28 Pokemon cards, 10-15 Trainer cards, and 20-24 Energy cards. You should also make sure that your lines of evolution are balanced. Always have more copies of a basic Pokemon in your deck than its evolutions. A good mix is 4 basic, 3 evolution 1, and 2 evolution 2, or 4 basic and 2 or 3 evolution 1 if there is no second evolution. A special word about drawing cards- drawing cards is what makes any deck go. Without a constant supply of new Pokemon and energy, a deck will stall and likely lose. As a result, you should stock your decks with card-drawers. Meowth Lv15, Kangaskhan Lv40, Professor Oak, and Gambler are all good choices. My personal favorite, however, and a card I highly recommend several of for every deck, is Bill- those two cards he produces can be lifesavers. With these tips, you should be quite a successful deck builder. You'll likely want to fine-tune the deck Dr. Mason gives you, and then you'll be off on your Pokemon journey!