Pokémon Prize Card Tracker

How Prize cards work

Each player starts with six Prize cards. During setup, after drawing an opening hand of seven and putting down a Basic Pokémon, each player places the top six cards of their deck to the side, face down. Those are the Prize cards, and the number still sitting there is the score.

You take Prize cards by Knocking Out your opponent's Pokémon. A Pokémon is Knocked Out when the damage on it reaches its HP, and its owner's opponent then takes Prize cards into their hand. How many depends on the Pokémon:

The rule box on the card states the number, and a few card effects change it, so read the card rather than going by the name alone. Because the count comes down in steps of one, two or three, a game is usually a race of Knock Outs, and a player behind by a single Knock Out of a Pokémon ex can be two Prize cards behind. Where the rule box sits on a card →

One side effect of setting the six aside face down: a card you need can be stuck in your Prize cards until you take it. That's part of why decks usually run more than one copy of their key cards.

Every way a game ends

Taking your last Prize card is the usual ending, but the standard rules give two more ways to win, and a player can always concede.

The two less common endings are why the Prize card count isn't the whole story. A player on four Prize cards can still win if the opponent's last Pokémon goes down, and a deck that draws aggressively can run itself out of cards. If both players meet a win condition at the same moment, the rulebook's answer is Sudden Death: a new game in which each player sets aside one Prize card. Organized play adds its own details for tied finishes, so a tournament follows its current rules document.

Prize cards vs. damage counters

Prize cards and damage counters measure different things. Damage counters sit on one Pokémon and say how close that Pokémon is to being Knocked Out: each counter is 10 damage, so a Pokémon with 120 HP and eight counters on it has 40 HP left. They stay on the Pokémon until an effect heals or moves them, or the Pokémon leaves play.

Prize cards are the player's score. Nothing in the game adds to them, they only go down, and they move only when a Knock Out happens. A game can have a dozen Pokémon carrying damage at once, but only two Prize card counts.

In a two-player game, TurnZero HQ tracks both. Each Pokémon on the board carries its own damage, and a Knock Out moves the Prize card count by the number that Pokémon gives. Many players still put damage-counter dice on the cards as well, and that's fine: the board is the record, and the dice are what the table sees at a glance.

Ways to keep count at the table

Most players never write the Prize card count down, because the Prize cards are already on the table: you can count how many are left at a glance. A separate tracker helps when you want a record of the game afterward, or when somebody is following along from elsewhere.

How to track a Pokémon game in TurnZero HQ

In a two-player game, TurnZero HQ tracks the board: each side's Active Pokémon and Bench, the damage on each Pokémon, and the Prize cards. You still play with real cards at a real table, and the app keeps the record beside them. Games happen inside a gathering, which is TurnZero HQ's word for a group sitting down to play, and a gathering is set to one card game.

1. Open the Play tab, pick Pokémon in the game picker at the top of the sheet, and tap Start a Pokémon game. Under How many at the table?, choose 2.
2. In setup, pick each player's deck from their Pokémon decks built in TurnZero HQ. Choose Best of 3 (first to two games, and the default for Pokémon) or Single game, then tap Flip a coin to decide who goes first. Tap Start match (or Start game for a single game).
3. Tap Choose the Active Pokémon on each side and pick one. On your own side the list starts with the Basic Pokémon in your deck, and search finds any card. Tap Bench to add Benched Pokémon the same way.
4. Tap a Pokémon to open it. You see its attacks as the card prints them, its damage buttons, its Special Conditions and its Energy, with Retreat, Switch, Evolve and Knock Out at the bottom. Use on an attack works out the damage, Weakness and Resistance included, and you can change the total for anything the attack's text adds.
5. When a Pokémon's damage reaches its HP, TurnZero HQ asks you to take the Prize cards. The number comes from the card (two for a Pokémon ex, three for a Mega Evolution Pokémon ex), and you can change it for an effect that says otherwise. Then the player whose Pokémon was Knocked Out chooses a new Active Pokémon.
6. Tap End turn to pass. If either Active Pokémon has a Special Condition, Pokémon Checkup comes first: Poison and Burn damage go on, and a coin is flipped for Burned and Asleep. The bar in the middle of the board also tracks the once-per-turn Energy attachment, Supporter and Retreat.
7. Taking the last Prize card, or Knocking Out an opponent's last Pokémon in play, ends the game with a Record the result button. For any other ending, open the Game Menu and tap End Game. On Select Winner(s), choose how it ended and tap Confirm Results.
8. In a best-of-three, the next screen offers Start game 2. The player who lost chooses Go first or Go second, and the match ends when someone wins two games.

Undo takes back any step, a Knock Out's Prize cards included. One device keeps score at a time: the host or a seated player. Anyone else in the gathering watches the board update live, with a line saying who is keeping score, and a player at the table can tap Keep score here to take it over. How gatherings work →

A game with three or more players doesn't use the board. Each player gets a Prize card count instead, and you tap it down by one for each Prize card taken.

After the game

A game played on the board ends with a From the board card: how many turns were played, who went first, and each player's Prize cards taken, Knock Outs by name and coin flips.

Your stats then show your win rate going first against going second, your best-of-three match record, and Matchups: your record against each kind of deck you've played in two-player games, for all your decks or one at a time. TurnZero HQ names an opponent's deck after the Pokémon ex (or Pokémon V) they played most, read from the board, so you see "Raging Bolt ex" rather than whatever the deck was called.

Frequently Asked Questions