Pokémon Trading Card Game/Mason Laboratory

When you come inside, you tell Dr. Mason that you want to learn how to play the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Mason comments with the fact that playing the game is better than just collecting cards. So, he decides to teach you. Instead of getting a real deck, you get a Practice Deck. Dr. Mason calls over Sam over to be your opponent for a practice duel.

You are also given the chance to ask Sam some questions. There are 7 things you can learn about. They are Energy, Attacking, Retreating, Evolving Pokemon, Using Pokemon Powers, Ending Your Turn, and The Win And Loss of a Duel. This guide has its own answers to these questions on the ../Gameplay/ page is what Sam tells you doesn't seem to click. When you're done, press Nothing To Ask. Then the Practice Duel finally starts!

The Practice Duel
Mason will be coaching you on this duel, as you are dueling for the first time. This is just a tutorial where you follow the instructions given to you and everything is predetermined. If you try to do something you weren't told to do you'll be stopped at the end of your turn, reminded what you were supposed to do, and the turn restarted so you can't mess it up.

Setup
Setup for the practice duel is pretty normal. Both players draw 7 cards. Even though this won't happen in this duel, if you have no Basic Pokemon cards in this hand of 7 cards you need to take a mulligan. You have to shuffle the deck and draw 7 cards until you get at least one. You don't give free card draws to your opponent for mulligans in this game, so you don't have to worry about ending up at a disadvantage for a bad start. However, you won't be able to get an advantage for an opponent's bad start either.

Then, you go to your Hand. You have one Goldeen card, one Staryu card, one Seaking card, one Full Heal card, one Psychic Energy, and two Water Energies. Dr. Mason will tell you to play the Goldeen card first so that it gets placed in the Active Pokémon spot. Sam will place his Machop. Then you'll play the Staryu on the bench as well.

Then both of you place the prizes — two of them for this match. Next, you flip a coin. If you get heads, you get to go first. In this practice match the coin will always flip heads.

Turns 1 & 2
You draw Water Energy at the start of your first turn. Then Dr. Mason tells you to attach one water energy to Goldeen and make it use Horn Attack. You do as instructed, and Machop takes... 10 damage. Wow. Well, things will get better. Sam decides to attach a Fighting Energy to Machop, and makes it use Low Kick. This does 20 damage to Goldeen.

Your next turn has you draw another Water Energy. Mason says Goldeen will be knocked out, so he tells you to evolve it into Seaking. Finally! Now, you need to attach Psychic Energy to your Seaking. Then, you must use Seaking's Waterfall attack. Now Machop takes a lot of damage; it takes 30 damage leaving it with 10 left. Now, Sam places a Rattata on his bench, and attaches a Fightng Energy to it. Machop uses Low Kick again, leaving Seaking with 30 HP left.

Turns 3 & 4
Now, attach a Water Energy to Staryu. Then, use Seaking's Horn Attack, since that's all you need to knock out Machop. Then, you can draw a prize. Don't worry about which one you pick, though, since both are Water Energy.

Sam uses Rattata. He evolves Rattata into Raticate, which probably means big trouble. Then he attaches Lightning Energy to Raticate, and Raticate then uses Bite on Seaking. This means Seaking only has 10 HP left.

This turn, you draw a Drowzee. You must put it on the bench and attach a Water Energy to it. Now, use Seaking's Waterfall on Raticate. This deals 30 damage, like all the other Waterfalls. Raticate has ANOTHER Lightning Energy attached to it. Then it uses Bite, knocking out Seaking and allowing Sam to draw a prize. Now, choose Staryu. You can also press Select to see Pokémon info.

Turns 5 & 6
You draw a Potion. Now, attach a Water Energy to Staryu and make it use Slap. Staryu deals 20 damage to Raticate, meaning it is almost knocked out. But now things get annoying. Sam puts a Machop on his bench, attaches a Fighting Energy to it. Now, Raticate retreated to the bench, so now you have to KO Machop. Machop then uses Low Kick to deal 20 damage to Staryu.

Now, you draw a Seaking, which is useless since you don't have Goldeen. Now, use Potion to let Staryu recover. Then, attach another Water Energy to Staryu and make it use Slap. Now, Sam makes Machop use Low Kick again, but only after attaching a Fighting Energy to it.

Turns 7 & 8
Finally, you drew a Starmie card! Evolve Staryu and make your new Starmie use Star Freeze. You flip a coin, and if you get heads, Machop is paralyzed. However, it always lands on heads in the practice match. It deals 20 damage and paralyzes them. Then Sam attaches another Fighting Energy to Machop, but Machop can't attack, luckily. Now Machop is cured and you draw a Water Energy. Now the battle is almost finished; this is the last turn of the battle. Use Star Freeze again. It KOs Machop and paralyzes it. Now draw a prize! You've finally won!

Starter Decks
Now that you've finished your Practice Duel, you can get your very own deck. Your choices are similar to the choices in Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue and are listed below along with a recommended order for challenging the clubs. Feel free to use whatever deck you like to start; and begin building a better deck along the way. As you change your deck and the balance of it, you may find that a different order is better for you.

Bulbasaur & Friends Deck → Rock, Fighting, Water, Grass, Science, Psychic, Lightning, Fire.

Charmander & Friends Deck → Grass, Science, Rock, Fighting, Fire, Lightning, Psychic, Water.

Squirtle & Friends Deck → Fire, Rock, Fighting, Water, Psychic, Science, Grass, Lightning.

Now it's time to challenge your first Club!

Opponents in this location

 * Tech Sam - Sam's Practice Deck
 * Tech Aaron - Fire & Lightning Deck
 * Tech Aaron - Water & Fighting Deck
 * Tech Aaron - Grass & Psychic Deck

You can duel against Sam in his normal duel or Aaron as many times as you like in order to receive special booster packs per win. These only contain basic energy cards. You'll get one from Sam and two from Aaron. Energy can be very helpful in terms of improving your current deck and building new decks. Dueling against Aaron also gives you a rough idea of how your deck will perform against the various types.

The normal duel against Sam uses the same random seed as the practice duel which means that all of the random events like the coin flips will be the same if you take the same exact actions every time. This makes it a really nice environment for figuring out how different choices can affect a duel. It's a good idea to play at least a few duels with Sam in normal duel and make different choices than what Dr. Mason told you and see how it plays out.

The Mason Lab also has the Auto Deck Machines, the Deck Save Machine, and later, the Challenge Machine. The Auto Deck Machines will build decks for you if you have the required cards. The first deck machine can create alternative versions of the starter decks and two other decks. None of these are very good, and may be even worse than the starter decks. From there the rest of the Auto Deck Machines need a Club Medal to operate. They generally let you create decks used by that club's members.

Dr. Mason's Mail
Check the computer in the far northwest and read the mail from Dr. Mason to get your first normal booster pack and see if you get anything good to add to your deck. Each club and the Challenge Hall have a side room with a computer you can use. Dr. Mason will occasionally send you a mail while you travel between clubs and earn medals. Make sure you check them from time to time to get a free booster pack from each one.

Easy Extra Energy Cards
The Tech closest to the right of Dr Mason will give you 10 each of every energy card provided you have all of your energy cards in a deck except for 9 or fewer.

Create decks using 1 basic Pokemon and 59 Energy Cards until you have no Energy Cards remaining. Speak to the Tech and he will explain PTCG is difficult without Energy Cards and give you 10 each Fire, Grass, Water, Lightning, Fighting and Psychic Cards. Repeat creating decks with 1 basic Pokemon and all of your remaining energy cards, the end result should be about 30-40 of all 6 basic Energy Cards, more than enough to get through the game.