Pokemon Trading Card Game Guide By Razor Leaf Sections: Introduction 1. Mason Laboratory 2. Fire Club 3. Grass Club 4. Fighting Club 5. Rock Club 6. Lightning Club 7. Water Club 8. Psychic Club 9. Science Club 10. The Grand Masters 11. After The Grand Masters & Challenge Hall 12. People You’ll Meet 13. In-Game Trades 14. Card-Pop & Promo Cards 15. Cheats/Hints 16. Winning Decks 17. End and Disclaimer NOTE- Some sections of the guide are currently incomplete, but will be finished eventually. I have ensured there is a basic walkthrough for the Club Masters and Grand Masters which should be enough to help most people, but I also have more information on the weaker enemies which I will add at some point. INTRODUCTION Welcome to my guide on the Pokémon TCG game for the GameBoy, a game which was released way back in 2000 when Pokémon was at the height of its commercial success. Now there is much less merchandising (thanfully) but the GBA games still sell very well. Although quite old by now, I would still recommend this game to anyone who enjoyed the TCG because it is a very fun and challenging game to play, and although the game is probably difficult to find I imagine it can be bought for a very reasonable price. There was talk of a sequel featuring more sets, up to and including Team Rocket I think, but it was never released here in the UK to to best of my knowledge, and I doubt it ever will be. It would have been nice to see a GBA release featuring all the existing sets so far, however, since Pokémon still sells well for Nintendo it could still be an option. I am not going to include any basics of the controls or basic gameplay because these are all covered in the manual which comes with the game. On with the guide... SECTION 1: MASON LABORATORY The place we start off in the Pokemon Trading Card Game is Professor Mason’s Laboratory. He is the local expert on Pokemon Trading Cards (Like the Professor Oak of Pokemon Blue, Red and Yellow). First, we learn how to play by battling his assistant Sam. You have a practice deck, which is stacked. To win you must do exactly as Prof. Mason tells you. It’s too easy. When you win, Prof. Mason asks you to bring your cards over so he can build you a deck. There are three choices: Bulbasaur & Friends Deck, Charmander & Friends Deck and Squirtle & Friends Deck. There is no real best choice, but the Charmander and Bulbasaur decks are not particularly easy to use, even for expert players. So, if you are a beginner, definitely choose the Squirtle deck and if you know what you are doing you might want to accept a challenge by using one of the first two decks. *Remember to check your PC regularly for messages from Prof. Mason. His e-mails include tips on how to beat Club Masters and free booster packs. * If you start with the Bulbasaur deck, begin at stage 4. If you choose Charmander, start at stage 3. Once you’ve finished, return to stage 1, as you will then have a more varied selection of cards with which to tackle the club masters, and you won’t be helplessly trapped with a limited amount of Pokemon, all of whom are weak to that Club’s type. *You should check Section 12: People You’ll Meet to anticipate any rivals who may challenge you. *Now would also be a good time to get the promo Slowpoke card, because the more energy cards you have the more you will lose getting it. Check out Section 13: In Game Trades for details on how to get the card. In Professor Mason’s lab, there are two people you can fight to receive booster packs full of energy cards- Sam, Professor Mason’s assistant, and Aaron, a tech. This can be useful to stock up on energy cards. In the room right of the main block of Professor Mason’s lab, there are deck machines. Once you beat a club, come back with the medal and insert it in the corresponding machine to get a list of the decks in that club, along with configurations for the decks, so you can build them too. There is also a deck save machine, where you can save deck configurations to be built whenever you want. SECTION 2: FIRE CLUB The fire club is situated beside a volcano at the top right hand corner of the map. The Club Master, Ken, will only fight you if you have at least 130 cards. That’s equivelent to your deck and seven booster packs. The member’s decks contain mostly fire and colourless Pokemon. Most of them can be easily taken out by a Water/Fighting deck. For complete deck lists, go to Section 16-Winning Decks. Club Member: John Prizes: 4 Deck: Anger (Fire/Colourless) Winning Deck: Water and Fighting Strategy: John’s Pokemon use the Rage attack, which does more damage depending on how many damage counters are on it. Use Water types which can paralyse his Pokemon and strong Fighting Pokemon. Use Energy Removal and Super Energy Removal to rob his Pokemon of their strongest attacks. Awards: 2 Evolution Booster Packs Club Member: Adam Prizes: 4 Deck: Flamethrower (Fire/Colourless) Winning Deck: Water Strategy: As the name of the deck suggests, this deck is all out Fire, with the only Colourless Pokemon being Eevee, which Adam will try to evolve into Flareon as quickly as possible. Water Pokemon with attacks which can stall him (such as Horsea’s Smokescreen or Squirtle’s Bubble) would be most useful. Awards: 2 Colosseum Booster Packs Club Member: Jonathan Prizes: 4 Deck: Reshuffle (Fire/Colourless) Winning Deck: Water Strategy: Jonathan uses Sleep and Paralysis to stall you while he builds up heavy hitters. He uses Switch to save his Pokemon from being KO-ed, so make sure you have a lot of 'Gust Of Wind'. Use Water beasts to provide quick damage before he can build up evolved Pokemon. Staryu is excellent at this, as he can deal 40 damage a turn on Fire Pokemon that are weak against Water types. Awards: 2 Colosseum Booster Packs Club Master:Ken Prizes :6 Deck: Fire Charge (Fire/Colourless) Winning Deck: Water and Fighting Strategy: Ken uses more Colourless Pokemon than Fire. He manipulates Chansey’s high HP to stall you while he builds up heavy Fire beasts. Start with a good Fighting Pokemon like Hitmonchan to plough through the Chansey wall. Awards: Fire medal & 2 Mystery Packs SECTION 3: GRASS CLUB The grass club is a little building in the middle of a forest, above the water club. You can’t fight the club master until you beat 3 grass club members. Kristin and Heather are in the main battling hall, and Brittany is in the lounge. The club member’s decks use mostly grass and a mixture of other types so use Fire, and other types depending on the other types they use. For complete deck lists, go to Section 16-Winning Decks. Club Member: Brittany Prizes: 4 Deck: Etcetera (Grass/Psychic/Fire/Lightning) Winning Deck: Water, Fighting and Colourless Strategy: Oh, this is hard. Brittany has chosen the option of a rather daring Rainbow type deck-she has many different types of Pokemon in it. Take advantage of this by attacking her Pokemon with Energy Removal cards. It is hard for her to meet the energy requirements her Pokemon need to attack. She tries to paralyse you and send you to sleep- so bring some Full Heal Trainer cards. It’s a piece of cake. Awards: 2 Mystery Booster Packs Club Member: Heather Prizes: 4 Deck: Kaleidoscope (Grass/Colourless/Fire) Winning Deck: Fire and Water Strategy: Heather has also opted for a rather daring Rainbow deck. She mostly tries to evolve Colourless Pokemon into other different types, and uses Porygon to change the weaknesses of your Pokemon to whatever type she wants. Her deck also suffers energy requirement problems, so take advantage of this by bringing along Energy Removal cards. Awards: 2 Colosseum Booster Packs Club Member: Kristin Prizes: 4 Deck: Flower Garden (Grass) Winning Deck: Fire Strategy: Kristin uses Grass Pokemon with the power to poison and cause paralysis. Bring some Full Heal Trainers to get rid of the status effects, and use Fire types like Magmar and Charmander to KO her Pokemon quickly. Awards: 2 Evolution Booster Packs Club Master: Nikki Prizes: 6 Deck: Flower Power (Grass) Winning Deck: Fire Strategy: Nikki uses Pokemon Breeder cards to quickly evolve Oddish and Bulbasaur into Vileplume and Venusaur. By using Venusaur’s Pokemon Power Energy Trans, she transfers lots of Grass Energy cards to Exeggutor so it has good chances of dealing out high damage with Eggsplosion. Knock out her weaker Pokemon early on with Fire types. Charmander and Magmar (Fossil) would be good choices. Awards: Grass Medal & 2 Laboratory Packs SECTION 4: FIGHTING CLUB The fighting club is situated just to the right of Mason Laboratory. The Club Master, Mitch, won’t duel you until you find his three students and defeat them. They are in the lounge of these places: Michael-Grass Club Jessica-Fire Club Chris-Rock Club They are easily defeated, so use Psychic and Fighting as they use Fighting and Colourless. For complete deck listings go to Section 16: Winning Decks. Club Member: Chris Prizes: 4 Deck: Muscles For Brains (Fighting) Winning Deck: Psychic Strategy: Just to lay in to him quickly with Psychic Pokemon, or try a deck like Damage Swap or Mewtwo’s Barrier to defeat him easily. Awards: 2 Evolution Packs Club Member: Jessica Prizes: 4 Deck: Love To Battle (Fighting/ Colourless) Winning Deck: Psychic Strategy: Jessica uses the Machamp family to try and overcome you quickly. Use Psychic Pokemon such as Kadabra to put a stop to her attacks with brute force. Awards: 2 Colosseum Packs Club Member: Michael Prizes: 4 Deck: Heated Battle (Fighting/ Fire/ Lightning) Winning Deck: Mixed or Psychic Strategy: As Michael has a mixed team, use Super Energy Removal and Haymaker Pokemon to stomp him. Or you can use a Damage Swap deck. Club Master: Mitch Prizes: 6 Deck: First-Strike (Fighting) Winning Deck: Psychic/Colourless Strategy: Mitch uses a deck which is designed to hurt you quickly with high damage, so build up a strong team of Psychic Pokemon, and put in some Colourless flying types with resistance to Fighting to give you time to build up the Psychic Pokemon. Pidgey or Spearow would be good for this. Awards: Fighting Medal & 2 Laboratory Packs SECTION 5: ROCK CLUB The rock club is just above the lightning club, and a vast desert surrounds it. The club members use Rock (Fighting) Pokemon, which are weak to grass. For complete deck lists see Section 16: Winning Decks. Club Member: Matthew Prizes: 4 Deck: Hard Pokemon (Fighting) Winning Deck: Grass Strategy: He uses Rock Pokemon to try to stall and build up strong attacks on you. Some good grass Pokemon should do it easily. Scyther is especially good at this as he is effective against Rock, and also resistant to it! Awards: 2 Mystery Packs Club Member: Ryan Prizes: 3 Deck: E xcavation (Fighting) Winning Deck: Grass Strategy: Ryan tries to quickly evolve Mysterious Fossil into Aerodactyl, so try to get your Pokemon evolved as quickly as possible. Again, Scyther is a big help. Club Master: Gene Prizes: 6 Deck: Rock-Crusher (Fighting) Winning Deck: Grass Strategy: At this stage in the game, the Club Master’s are becoming slightly more challenging, but are still beatable. Just make sure you have a good deck which you are comfortable with. Grass decks are especially effective, and make use of Scyther and Venusaur. Awards: Rock Medal & 2 Laboratory Packs SECTION 6: LIGHTNING CLUB The lightning club is North East of Prof. Mason’s laboratory. The club members use lightning Pokemon, so use Fighting all the way, except when battling Jennifer, so use some Colourless for her Flying Pikachu and Fighting to KO the other Pikachu. The club master, Isaac, is even easier than the rest. For complete deck lists see Section 16: Winning Decks. Club Master: Isaac Prizes: 6 Deck: Self-Destruct (Lightning) Winning Deck: Fighting Awards: Lightning Medal & 2 Laboratory Packs SECTION 7: WATER CLUB The water club is in the bottom right-hand corner of the map, surrounded by a lake. To fight the club master, Amy, you have to defeat her sisters Amanda and Sara, then her boyfriend Joshua. Joshua will then finally let you duel Amy. It’s no wonder she had three people to protect her, as they all can be taken out by lightning Pokemon. For complete deck listings see Section 16: Winning Decks. Club Master: Amy Prizes: 6 Deck: Go Go Raindance (Water) Winning Deck: Lightning Awards: Water Medal & 2 Laboratory Packs SECTION 8: PSYCHIC CLUB The Psychic Club is the long, thin building South West of the fire club. As an intresting point, the guy in the foyer is the character you play in Red/Blue/Yellow. His name is Red. This is a really hard club to beat, so it’s best to leave it to nearly last, so you have built up a good arsenal of cards. There is member called Robert in the lounge who has a reasonably good deck which uses ghosts which have no weakness, so use Colourless Pokemon who have resistance to Psychic. A good Colourless deck will do best in this club. As Murray’s deck uses Damage Swap, then Scoop Up, you should knock out his Pokemon early on to beat him. For full deck lists see Section 16: Winning Decks. Club Master: Murray Prizes: 6 Deck: Strange Psyshock (Psychic) Winning Deck: Colourless Awards: Psychic Medal & 2 Laboratory Packs SECTION 9: SCIENCE CLUB The Science Club is exactly underneath the fire club. Make sure you have a good collection of Psychic Pokemon, and then change the other types according to the deck. The club members here have lots of different types of decks. Club Member: David Prizes: 4 Deck: Lovely Nidoran (Grass) Winning Deck: Psychic Strategy: As you can guess from the name, this deck uses lots of Nidorans. Psychic decks will plough their way through this one. Gengar helps a lot. Club Member: Erik Prizes: 4 Deck: Poison Winning Deck: Psychic/ Fire Strategy: This deck contains Pokemon that are gonna poison you, so most areweak to Psychic, but the Beedrill family are weak to grass so Fossil Magmars will help you a lot. Throw in 4 Full Heals to prevent Poison. Club Member: Joseph Prizes: 4 Deck: Flyin’ Pokemon Winning Deck: Psychic/ Lightning Strategy: This contains everything flying-Zubat, Flying Pikachu and the Pidgeot family. They retreat a lot, so try and attack the bench. Use Psychic and Lightning Pokemon. Club Master: Rick Prizes: 6 Deck: Wonders Of Science Winning Deck: Psychic/Colourless Strategy: Rick uses Muk to block out Pokemon Powers, so try and get rid of the Grimers before they evolve. Psychic helps a lot. Colourless Pokemon such as Wigglytuff will help take out his other Pokemon. Awards: Science Medal & 2 Laboratory Packs SECTION 10: THE GRAND MASTERS The Pokemon Dome is in the middle of the map. Now you have won 8 master medals you are eligible to battle the Grand Masters, who have the Legendary cards and decks based around these cards. They are even better than the Club Masters, and quite challenging. You walk through a set of double doors and are asked whether you wish to Challenge the Grand Masters or would like to turn back. If you feel you have a good arsenal of cards and are ready for it, go into the Pokemon Dome. I have complete listings and strategies of decks that beat the Grand Masters most of the time, even if you are an inexperienced player. Go to Section 16: Winning Decks for complete deck listings. The first time you beat the Grand Masters, your rival Ronald will appear and you will have to battle him for the ownership of the Legendary cards. He already has them in his deck and gets to use all of them (how is that fair?) so he is mildly formidable. Again, be boring and use Wigglytuff decks to defeat him easily. You get each of the legendary cards when you beat Ronald, and the next 4 times you beat the Grand Masters you get a different one. You can only get 2 of each, so be careful. Good luck! Grand Master 1: Courtney Prizes: 6 Deck: Legendary Moltres (Fire) Winning Deck: Water (Waterfall) Strategy: As she uses Moltres’ Pokemon Power Firegiver, she’s never short of Energy. A pure Water deck is the easiest way to triumph, although other options are available but may be more difficult to use. Blastoise and Gyrados work well. Attack her quickly so she doesn’t have time to build up evolutions and because it takes three energy for Moltres to attack, you can deal out some quick damage and hopefully KO it before it has a chance to strike. Grand Master 2:Steve Prizes: 6 Deck: Legendary Zapdos (Electricity/Colourless) Winning Deck: Grass (Energy Trans) Strategy: He uses Peal Of Thunder to hurt you quickly (I love it when it hurts him instead). Zapdos is resistant to Fighting, but the other Electric Pokemon are not. A good, strong deck of any description should beat him, I personally like Energy Trans. Grand Master 3:Jack Prizes: 6 Deck: Legendary Articuno (Water) Winning Deck: Electric (Revenge) Strategy: This guy loves Articuno. Articuno is resistant to fighting, so use Lightning, and some Fighting against his other Pokemon. Take advantage of Articuno’s high energy requirement with quick attacks and Super Energy Removal cards. Grand Master 4:Rod Deck: Legendary Dragonite (Colourless, Fire & Water) Winning Deck: Fighting (Rock Slide) Strategy: Ooh, it’s the leader of the Grand Masters, Rod. He’s probably the easiest! Use a good Fighting deck (Rock Slide) to KO Dratini quickly, and Magikarp can be quickly removed before Gyrados shows up. It is annoying when Dragonite uses Healing Wind, and when Dragonair uses Hyper Beam, so have lots of energy and Pokemon with good offence. Rival: Ronald Deck: Legendary Ronald Winning Deck: Haymaker Strategy: This guy is so annoying- ‘Legendary Ronald’ deck, I’m sure… Well, anyway, he uses the Legendary Moltres, Zapdos, Articuno and Dragonite cards! He uses Moltres most so try for water types. Try and kill his Pokemon early before they get a chance to build up energy. Psychic decks are also a good choice to use heavy damage and make use of irritating Pokemon Powers. Use Gengar’s Pokemon Power Curse to add on extra damage to benched Pokemon. Hitmonlee and Zapdos (Fossil) also help to attack his bench when he has a Kangaskhan out. SECTION 11: AFTER THE GRAND MASTERS AND CHALLENGE HALL Now you’ve beaten the Grand Masters you have the legendary cards. Use them to make powerful decks, which will hopefully make you a Pokemon Trading Card Game Pro. There are many things to do after the Grand Masters, here are a few: -Card-Pop with friends -Complete your card collection -Experiment with new decks -Beat Challenge Hall -Defeat your friends when duelling with the Link cable -And lastly- beat Professor Mason’s Challenge Machine. While you were busy defeating the Grand Masters, Professor Mason received a machine to test a player’s ability to build a deck worthy of defeating five opponents in a row. The best deck for this would be a Haymaker or Wiggly. For full deck listings, see Section 16: Winning Decks CHALLENGE HALL At the exact North of the map there is a large building called the Challenge Hall. Inside there is a regularly held Challenge Cup. This is when you go into the arena and enter yourself in the cup. You have to beat three opponents in a row. But for what, you ask? A rare promo card, which is a good way of completing your collection. Some cards can only be obtained this way so compete regularly to complete your collection. The Challenge Hall will be opened when you win your third badge (You receive a Movie Promo Lv.60 Mewtwo), fifth badge (a Lv.8 Promo Mew), then randomly after you receive all eight badges. SECTION 12: PEOPLE YOU’LL MEET In the Pokemon Trading Card Game, there are people who do not belong to clubs that may wish to battle with you. Some of these people can provide rare cards and booster packs for your collection. I will list the people that may be useful to fight and how to beat them. People To Battle: Ronald This is your main rival who you encounter many times. Sometimes he’ll give you rare promo cards so it would be advisable to battle him. In the Fire Club foyer: This is one of the first times you’ll encounter Ronald. He appears once you’ve defeated Ken, so save before fighting him. He seems to use mostly Water and Fire types, so a good Lightning and Water deck will beat him. In the Rock Club foyer: He’ll brag about how easily he got the medal and teases you because he thinks you’ll never be able to get those cards, but he doesn’t want to battle this time. In the Lightning Club Foyer: As with the Fire Club, Ronald appears on your way out after you defeat Isaac. He has relatively the same Pokemon as last time, and a good deck such as Haymaker can defeat him easily. In the Psychic Club foyer: He is much tougher this time, and comes out after you beat Murray. Again, a Haymaker will easily defeat him. This time he has a very valuable prize- a promo Jigglypuff. Pokemon Dome: Go there when you don’t have all eight medals and read the gold sign next to the door. He doesn’t fight, but brags again. Imakuni: This guy is weird! He’s always in a different club lounge each time, and can be easily spotted because he is between the bookcase and reception desk, and dresses all in black. There is also very weird music when you approach him. He also has a pair of large black ears on his head, and always sings the Pokerap to you. No one knows exactly who he is, or why he’s so crazy. In fact, some people in the game are frightened of him, but he’s harmless. It would be very beneficial to battle him, because he actually playsvery badly, part of this is due to his very own strange Imakuni Trainer card. When you beat him, he will either give you a booster pack of each type- Collesium, Mystery, Laboratory and Evolution, or every third time you beat him he gives you his Promo Trainer card Imakuni. It reads- “Your active Pokemon is now confused. Imakuni wants you to play him as a basic Pokemon, but you can’t. A mysterious creature not listed in the Pokedex. He asks kidsaround the world ‘Who is cuter- ‘Pikachu or me?’” Personally, I prefer Pikachu. Anyway, this seemingly useless card can sometimes be useful with Pokemon such as Primeape, which does more damage when it’s confused. But in reality, it is unlikely you would ever use this strategy. Imakuni’s decks mostly consist of Psychic Pokemon, like Slowbro, Slowpoke or Psyduck, and can be easily defeated by a Colourless deck. SECTION 13: IN GAME TRADES To collect all the cards in the game, you’ll probably need to trade with other people in the game. There are a variety of people to trade with, sometimes you’ll be ripping them off and sometimes they’ll rip you off! But most of the time you do need to be ripped off to complete your collection, as the cards are only availible that way. Here are most of the people you can trade with: Isihara: This guy is the main person you want to be speaking to if you want some good promo cards. His house is in the very northwest point of the map. He’ll trade his Surfing Pikachu for your Clefable. If you want to trade with him, either talk with the Woman in the Rock Club lounge or the Lad in the Science Club lounge in order to get Ishihara to trade cards each time. After you trade him the last card, the woman at the Rock Club will inform you that Ishihara left on a mission to get a rare card… Lass: Situated in the Grass Club lounge, this girl is somewhat shallow in the way she trades; as long as it’s cute, she wants it. This is good as we can get a rare holofoil Vileplume in exchange for a common Oddish. We can also receive an Ivy Pikachu promo in exchange for a Clefairy. We might as well take advantage of this offer. Gal: Situated in the Water Club lounge, this girl will trade her rare promo Arcanine for a lowly Lapras. Lad: This guy in the Fire Club lounge wants you to collect lots of energy cards, which he wants you to trade with him in exchange for the details of a hidden promo Slowbro. Even if you already know where this card is, trading with him it the only way of accessing this card. A good way to do this is to put as much of your energy cards into temporary decks, with only one Pokemon, then trading. He will reveal the location for only one energy card! This technique will only work effectively early in the game. If you wait until you have a lot of cards, you can’t fit them all into decks, but you could send them to another game, then talk to him, then get them back from another game. If you say no the first time this guy will disappear, shattering your hopes of easily getting a Slowpoke promo card! The only other method is Challenge Hall or by trading with another game. (By the way- the card is in between the mini-library and the poster on the wall, though you need to trade with him to get it). Man: This guy is trying to free load you into giving him free cards- though it doesn’t matter as the ones he wants aren’t rare- and it’s up to you whether to give them to him or not. Maybe he’ll pay you back someday… Old Man: This isn’t really a trade but this old man in the Psychic Club lounge will give you a promo Mewtwo if you wipe the smile off the Psychic club master’s face by defeating him in a battle. SECTION 17: END AND DISCLAIMER I hope you find my guide helpful for this game. If you have any comments or corrections, please contact me using my GameFAQS profile, including "GameFAQs Pokémon TCG Guide" in the title. Also, this guide was written by me, Razor Leaf, and the only place which has permission to use it is GameFAQs. I do not want it reproduced in any other form without getting my approval.