Setting up

Every game starts the same way. It takes about a minute once you've done it twice, and getting it right matters — a botched setup is the most common way a new player accidentally cheats.

The sequence

1. Flip a coin. The winner chooses who goes first.
2. Shuffle your deck and draw 7 cards.
3. Check your hand for a Basic Pokémon. No Basic? That's a mulligan — see below.
4. Put one Basic face down in the Active Spot.
5. Put up to five more Basics face down on your Bench, if you want to. This is optional, and it's the last chance you get to set up before your opponent can interfere.
6. Set 6 Prize cards face down from the top of your deck.
7. Both players turn their Pokémon face up at the same time.
8. The player going first takes their turn.

Mulligans

If your opening 7 has no Basic Pokémon, you can't set up. So:

• Reveal your hand to your opponent.
• Shuffle it back and draw a new 7.
• Repeat until you have a Basic.
• For each mulligan you took, your opponent draws one extra card — after both players have finished setting up.

That's the real cost. Not the lost time — the free cards you're handing over. A deck that mulligans often is a deck losing a card a game to variance before it's played anything.

Going first

The player who goes first draws a card and takes a turn — but a restricted one.

What they can do is build a board: play as many Basic Pokémon to the Bench as they like, play as many Items as they like, attach one Energy, attach Tools, use Abilities, and play a Stadium.

The no-evolving rule isn't just a first-player restriction — neither player may evolve on their own first turn, and no Pokémon may evolve the turn it's played. A Pokémon has to sit through a turn before it can grow.

So going first buys you board development and denies your opponent the first attack. It costs you your Supporter for the turn, which is a real price — going second means you can drop a big draw Supporter immediately. That trade is the whole "do you want to go first?" question, and good players answer it differently depending on the deck.

What the board looks like when you're done

Your deck sits face down, your six Prizes are set aside, one Pokémon is Active, and up to five are waiting on the Bench. Your discard pile is empty — for now.

Next: what you can actually do on a turn.