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 (Pokémon TCG for short, and that's how it'll be called for the rest of this walkthrough). Mason comments with the fact that playing the game is better than just collecting cards. So, he decides to teach you. So instead of getting a real deck, you get a Practice Deck. Now, you can play a Practice Game. Mason calls Sam over to be your opponent. Mason then asks you to ask Sam the basics of the game. 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. What Sam says is not listed here. Instead, you can find and use our Glossary for definitions. When you're done, press Nothing To Ask. Mason will be coaching you on this duel, as you are dueling for the first time. If you don't follow his instructions, then you have to redo your turn. Then the Practice Duel finally starts!

The Practice Duel
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, so you can't mess it up.

To start, both of you draw 7 cards. Even though this won't happen in this duel, if you have no Basic Pokemon cards in your hand, then you have to shuffle the deck and draw 7 cards until you get at least one. 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. Then both of you place the prizes (there are two of them). Next, you flip a coin. If you get heads, you get to go first. But don't worry about going last, as heads is always what side the coin will land on. Then, both of you draw a card. You draw Water Energy. Then Mason tells you to place Goldeen on the arena. You do, and Sam places Machop. Then he 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, which does 20 damage. You then 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. 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.

Now 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. Now, 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. 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. now you finally 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. 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: you can either get the Bulbasaur & Friends Deck, Charmander & Friends deck, or the Squirtle & Friends Deck. Feel free to use whatever deck you like to start; and begin building a better deck along the way. Below is a suggested order to challenge the clubs, depending on your starting deck. 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

Helpful Hints
You can duel against Sam's normal duel or Aaron as many times as you like, in order to receive special booster packs per win, which 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 deck, building new decks, and in getting one promo card opportunity later. Dueling against Aaron also gives you a rough idea of how your deck will perform against the various types. The Mason Lab also has the Auto Deck Machines, the Deck Save Machine, and later, the Challenge Machine.

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 ever 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.

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.

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.