Reading Your Opponent in the Pokémon TCG

At Level 1 you learned to play your own turn well. At Level 3 you start playing your opponent’s turn too, in your head, before it happens. The Pokémon TCG hides less than it seems. Most of what your opponent can do next turn is sitting face up on the table.

What you can see

Plenty of information is open to both players:

• Every Pokémon in play, with its HP, attacks, Weakness, Retreat Cost, and damage counters.
• Attached Energy and Pokémon Tools.
• The Stadium in play.
• How many Prize cards each player has left.
• How many cards are in each hand. You can ask; your opponent should answer.
• The discard piles. Cards there are face up, and they tell you what your opponent has already used.

When your opponent plays a card you do not know, ask to read it. That is normal and polite, and it is part of reading the game.

The question before every attack

Before you announce an attack, run this check:

1. Which of their Pokémon could attack next turn? Count the Energy each one has now, add one for their next attachment, and add any Energy their deck can move or attach with Abilities or Trainers.
2. What is the biggest damage they can do? Check the attacks against Weakness on your Active Pokémon.
3. Who can they hit? Usually your Active Pokémon. But some attacks hit the Bench, and some cards pull one of your Benched Pokémon into the Active Spot first.
4. What does that cost you? How many Prize cards would they take, and how many Knock Outs would they still need after?

You will not always have a way to stop it. But you can often choose what they hit, or make sure the Knock Out costs them something.

What the hand tells you

Hand size is a clue.

• A big hand usually means options: an answer to your attacker, a switching card, a Supporter.
• A hand of one or two cards means fewer answers. If they also did not play a Supporter last turn, they may not have one.
• A hand that stays the same size while they play nothing much may be full of cards they cannot use yet, like Evolution cards waiting for their Basics.

None of this is certain. Treat it as a lean, not a fact.

What their deck tells you

Once you see two or three of their Pokémon, you can usually tell what kind of deck they are playing and what its main attacker is. That tells you what is coming.

• Count what they have used. If their deck plays a key card and you have seen several in the discard pile, fewer remain.
• Watch what they search for. When your opponent searches their deck and takes a specific card, they have shown you their plan for the next turn or two.
• Notice what is missing. If their main attacker has not appeared by midgame, it may be Prized, or still in the deck. Either way, their plan is slower than usual.

The next lesson on deck archetypes helps you recognize the common decks faster.

Playing around it

Once you know what is coming, you have choices.

• Hold back a Pokémon you need later rather than Benching it where a Bench attack or a Bench-pulling card can reach it.
• Leave a single-Prize Pokémon Active to absorb a big hit, as in the Prize trade lesson.
• Spread your Energy so one Knock Out does not strand all of it.
• Take the Knock Out that removes their next attacker, not always the one with the most damage on it.

Playing around everything makes you too slow. Play around the one or two things that would hurt most, and accept the rest.

Stay friendly

Reading your opponent is about cards, not about staring them down. Keep your questions polite, keep your face relaxed, and say good game at the end. The players who read the table best are usually the ones having the most fun at it.