Special Conditions in the Pokemon TCG can be incredibly effective in battle, but they can be confusing at first. Here’s everything you need to know.
The Pokemon TCG can seem deceptively confusing with terms like BDIF andSIR, but once you get past the jargon, it’s a lot of fun to play. Special Conditions are a huge part of the game and they can be quite confusing if you’ve never had to deal with them before.
What Special Conditions are there in Pokemon?
If you’re unfamiliar with Special Conditions, they are damaging or negative states that Pokemon can be put into. The main Special Conditions in the Pokemon TCG are:
Generally, Pokemon are put into these states by enemy Pokemon using attacks or abilities. For example,Galarian Weezingfrom theSword & Shieldera of the game has an attack called Severe Poison which inflicts 4 Damage Counters each turn on the enemy Pokemon.
In some cases, non-Pokemon cards can also inflict Special Conditions like Stadiums or Trainer cards.
If your Pokemon is affected by a Special Condition that does not fade automatically over time, you’ll need to cure it by either retreating and swapping it for another Pokemon, evolving it, or by using a card that has a healing ability.
Some examples of these cards can be seen below, with both a Pokemon card example and two Trainer cards. It’s important to note that the Trainer cards are not tournament-legal right now, but the Radiant Tsareena card currently is.
These cards all function very differently, with Radiant Tsareena having an attack that also heals Special Conditions, the Pokemon Center Lady having a straight-forward heal, and the Life Herb requiring a coin flip.
Special Conditions can be frustrating to deal with in battle, but they’re very manageable if you have a good variety of Items and Trainers to hand. If it fits into your deck, it’s worth having a support-oriented Pokemon or two to help deal with irritating Poisons or Burns.
Em Stonham was a Games Writer on Dexerto’s UK team, specializing in Pokemon coverage. They are a Pokemon TCG expert, and also covered Pokemon Go, and Pokemon Sword & Shield. Em is also a big fan of trading card games and World of Warcraft, with bylines at Only Greats, Sleeve No Card Behind, and Diamond Lobby.
