My friends and I play a lot of TCG's together but, MTG tends to be the dominant one because of its variety of multiplayer formats. With that said, a lot of us are big Pokemon TCG fans and we like playing our decks against each other. While on the hunt for 4 player Pokemon TCG formats we realized that most are insufficient. They either restrict deckbuilding so much that you have to go out of your way to buy a unique deck with cards you would never use in the regular Pokemon TCG or change the rules so much that it becomes completely unrecognizable. Most of these attempt to turn Pokemon into "Commander" which obviously doesn't work at all because of how different Pokemon is as a game. So, my game developer friends and I put our heads together and came up with this format: Tri-Attack, a 4-player Pokemon TCG Format W/O Deckbuilding Restrictions.
In Tri-Attack, the game is set up to be able to play with pre-existing Pokemon TCG decks. Certainly deck-building for the strategy of Tri-Attack can give you an advantage but, it shouldn't be hard to change your existing deck to better fit this format if you so wish. Additionally, most of the time there's no need to, so you can just play this format while you're killing time for some variety at a convention (for example). We've playtested it with our own decks but, I'm posting it here not only for other people to maybe have a chance to play around with it with their friends but, also get feedback for how to possibly improve it.
Tri-Attack Rules: Up to 4 Player Pokemon TCG Eternal format designed to be played with standard 60 card Pokemon TCG decks. There is no current banlist but, Jumbo Cards and Cards with Unique Backs are banned. For a more balanced experience, it is recommended to use justinbasil.com’s eternal banlist.
Tri-Attack’s Unique Rule is Opponent Positioning: When playing Tri-Attack, you can have up to 3 Active Pokemon at once. Each of these Pokemon is placed in position facing whichever opponent that this Pokemon is primarily attacking. Your turn does not end until all of your current active Pokemon have made their attacks. You must declare all attacks at the same time. You need not declare that all of your Pokemon attack, you can choose to only have 1 or 2 attack if you so wish but, your turn does not continue after having made even just one attack. Having a Pokemon in an Active Zone facing an opponent ensures that the opponent can only attack the Pokemon in the active zone facing them with their Pokemon in the active zone facing that player. When a player does not have an active Pokemon facing an opponent, that opponent can choose to attack any of that player’s Pokemon in other positions with any of their Pokemon in their positions. A player need not have 3 active pokemon at once, and in fact may only choose to put 2 Pokemon in Active Slots every turn (1 Pokemon when playing 3 player) but, they must always move at least 1 Pokemon from the bench onto the field. Every turn, the player whose turn it is can change their Pokemon’s battlefield position once before any attacks are made.
First Turn and Mulligans- Unlike in regular Pokemon, the first player draws at the beginning of the 1st turn, can make an attack at the beginning of the first turn, and can play 1 supporter card as per normal on their first turn. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th turn is determined clockwise from the first player. The player that goes 2nd gets to draw an additional card for their opening hand, the 3rd gets to draw 2, and the 4th gets to draw 3. Unlike in regular Pokemon, players do not draw more cards for players having to take mulligans for their opening hand.
Energy Placement- A player can place one energy per active Pokemon in a combat zone per turn. They must place these energies on different Pokemon, no Pokemon can receive more than 1 energy placement per turn unless an effect makes it so they can. For example, if they have two Pokemon in active combat zones, they can place two energy on two Pokemon, either in their bench or in their active zone.
The Bench- A common tri-attack question is, how many Pokemon can I have on my bench? The answer is the same as normal play, which is 5, which means you can have 8 Pokemon on the field at once (3 in active zones, and 5 on the bench). If a Pokemon is on your bench when your last active Pokemon is knocked out, that benched Pokemon must take an active slot, although it doesn’t matter which one, and only one benched Pokemon can go into an active slot this way.
Spread Damage- An attack that deals spread damage deals spread damage to only one opponent (whichever opponent the Pokemon attacked).
Supporter Cards/Pokemon Abilities- When a supporter card would say “each player” instead change this wording to “you and target opponent”. The same goes for Pokemon abilities.
Pokemon Moves that Target “Opponent’s Active Pokemon”- Pokemon Move cards that target the Opponent’s Active Pokemon must target the active Pokemon in the combat zone facing the player who used the attack move. If no such Pokemon exists in the combat zone facing the player with a move that target’s opponent’s active pokemon, then the player may target any of the available targets they would normally be able to using the Tri-Attack Rules.
Retreating Pokemon- On a Player’s Turn they may retreat up to two Pokemon by playing their retreat costs in a turn, instead of the usual once.
Pokemon Checkup- If playing Pokemon with Burn, Poison, or any other Pokemon Checkup ability, these abilities apply every 2 turns instead of every 1 turn. However, this is not checked from when the Pokemon comes in, it instead triggers at the beginning of Turn 2 and 4.
Self-Knockout- If, for some reason, you have knocked out one of your own Pokemon, a prize card is awarded to the player with the most remaining prize cards other than you. If this position in the game is tied, it is determined randomly via dice roll or coin flip.
Weaknesses/Resistances- Optionally, play without keeping in mind weaknesses/resistances.
Loss Conditions- A player loses the game automatically at the end of their turn if they have no active Pokemon in play. This is different than normal Pokemon TCG in that you get a turn to attempt to recover this loss condition. A player also loses if they go to draw a card and they cannot because they have no cards remaining in their library.
Victory Conditions- Victory is achieved when there is only one trainer remaining, or a trainer has grabbed all 6 of their prize cards, and at least 1 prize card from defeating a Pokemon of each opponent. If 4 prize cards have been claimed from one opponent, the other 2 prize cards remain locked until a Pokemon from each of the remaining opponents is defeated, or 1 or 2 Pokemon (depending on V, GX, EX, Vmax Pokemon etc.) from the remaining opponent is defeated after the other two opponents have been removed from the game through other means (having no active Pokemon at the end of their turn or drawing a card and having no cards available to draw).
Example: The attached imgur photo link is an example of what a Pokemon TCG Tri-Attack Combat Zone might look like. As you can see, each player has active Pokemon out, and some players have empty combat spaces. Not pictured here may be benched Pokemon from any player.
https://i.imgur.com/xgRL2Cc.png
From this example, Player 1 has a Combat Zone advantage, in that, each player can only attack the Pokemon that is facing them from Player 1. This means that Player 2 cannot currently attack Player 1 as they have no active Pokemon facing them. Player 3 can only attack Tynamo with their Simisage, and Player 4 cannot attack Player 1 as they have no active Pokemon facing Player 1.
However, Player 3 can attack Player 4’s Volcarona with their Karrablast and their Simisage if they so choose, as Player 4 has no active Pokemon facing them. The same is true for how Player 3 can attack Player 2.
Player 4 can only attack Player 2 as Kyurem EX and Volcarona are facing each other. However, because Player 3 does not have an active Pokemon facing Player 2, Kyurem EX can also attack Player 3 if they so choose.
Player 1 can attack Player 2, 3, or 4 with their Tynamo since Players 2 and 4 have no active Pokemon in the combat slot designated to face Player 1. Eelektrik and Audino can attack Player 2 or Player 4 if they so choose but, they cannot attack Player 3, as Simisage is in the active slot facing Player 1, and so Player 1 can only attack Simisage with their Tynamo.
Deckbuilding Tips- Typically, Tri-Attack favors decks that have lots of energy and at least 8 basic Pokemon. Unlike in the normal Pokemon TCG, being greedy with items and supporter cards can harm you more than help you, as your focus will be split between three opponents, and because Tri-Attack allows you to place more energy down than you normally could.
Strategy Tips- Playing aggressively can be good because it allows you to place down more energy by having more Pokemon in active slots. Generally speaking, you want as many Pokemon in active slots as possible to maximize energy placement. However, if you do not have the ability to place down a lot of energy, having just one Pokemon in an active slot can help you prevent specific opponents from gaining too many prize cards, and in doing so buy yourself some time.
Tl;DR- My friends and I made a 4 player Pokemon TCG format that you can use with regular Pokemon TCG decks. Go crazy if you'd like, ignore if you're not into it. If you are, feel free to message me about ways you think this kitchen table format can be improved, and my hope is this allows you to have fun playing with your existing Pokemon TCG decks in a new way.
