What are Special Conditions? Pokemon TCG explained

Special Conditions in the Pokemon TCG can be incredibly effective in battle, but they can be confusing at first. Here’s everything you need to know.

The Pokemon TCG can seem deceptively confusing with terms like BDIF and SIR, but once you get past the jargon, it’s a lot of fun to play. Special Conditions are a huge part of the game and they can be quite confusing if you’ve never had to deal with them before.

What Special Conditions are there in Pokemon?

If you’re unfamiliar with Special Conditions, they are damaging or negative states that Pokemon can be put into. The main Special Conditions in the Pokemon TCG are:

• Asleep: If a Pokemon is Asleep, it can’t attack or retreat without assistance. Each turn, the player with the Asleep Pokemon must flip a coin to determine if it wakes up or stays Asleep – tails means that the Pokemon is still Asleep and vice versa.
• Burned: A Burned Pokemon has a Burn Marker placed on it. Each turn, the owner of the Burned Pokemon must place 2 Damage Counters on the Pokemon and then flip a coin. If the coin lands on heads, the Pokemon is healed and no longer gets Damage Counters on the next go.
• Confused: When a Confused Pokemon tries to attack, the player who owns it must flip a coin. If it’s tails, the attacking ‘mon gets 3 Damage Counters placed on it and the turn ends. Confusion lasts until the Pokemon retreats, Sleep or Paralysis occurs to the Pokemon, or a Confusion-healing card is used on the Pokemon.
• Paralyzed: Paralyzed Pokemon are immobile for one turn, meaning they cannot attack or retreat. This condition fades after one turn.
• Poisoned: Poisoned Pokemon get 1 Damage Counter placed on them each turn while they have the Special Condition. This can be healed with special Item or Trainer cards, and some Pokemon abilities or attacks may increase the amount of Damage Counters placed.

Generally, Pokemon are put into these states by enemy Pokemon using attacks or abilities. For example, Galarian Weezing from the Sword & Shield era of the game has an attack called Severe Poison which inflicts 4 Damage Counters each turn on the enemy Pokemon.

In some cases, non-Pokemon cards can also inflict Special Conditions like Stadiums or Trainer cards.

How do you get rid of Special Conditions?

If your Pokemon is affected by a Special Condition that does not fade automatically over time, you’ll need to cure it by either retreating and swapping it for another Pokemon, evolving it, or by using a card that has a healing ability.

Some examples of these cards can be seen below, with both a Pokemon card example and two Trainer cards. It’s important to note that the Trainer cards are not tournament-legal right now, but the Radiant Tsareena card currently is.

These cards all function very differently, with Radiant Tsareena having an attack that also heals Special Conditions, the Pokemon Center Lady having a straight-forward heal, and the Life Herb requiring a coin flip.

Special Conditions can be frustrating to deal with in battle, but they’re very manageable if you have a good variety of Items and Trainers to hand. If it fits into your deck, it’s worth having a support-oriented Pokemon or two to help deal with irritating Poisons or Burns.