Pokemon Battle Academy

This month is a card game that I played when I was in middle school. Well not specifically the Battle Academy, I only got that a little while ago. The Pokemon Trading Card Game though, has been around for a very long time. I remember going to my local Burger King back when I was a kid for an event, and I earned a “Gym Badge” which was just a little pin with one of the original gym badges on it. I can’t remember which one it was for the life of me though. It was certainly a fun time though and sticks out in my brain for a reason.

Anyways, enough reminiscing, and back to Pokemon Battle Academy. This is set up as an introduction to playing the Pokemon TCG. I have to say it works. It makes it super easy to learn the game. The decks are very simple, even the Mewtwo “Advanced” deck is not complex at all. The board it comes with spells out everywhere you put your cards and also gives you information like what you can do on your turn. Not only does the board spell the game out for you, it comes with tutorial booklets for the Pikachu and Charizard decks. These booklets, along with the two decks being set in a specific order, walk you through your first match. It tells you every card to play and every move to make.

The decks are VERY simple though. No complexity in a trading card game as huge as Pokemon. You don’t use weaknesses or resistances in this game and there is really only like 3 or 4 different trainer cards in the decks. Which for a “Academy” that is supposed to just teach you the game and get you going, it does it’s job and honestly does it well.

It’s a reasonable price and if you were ever thinking of trying out Pokemon TCG, I would highly suggest this being the way you do it. Once you figure out the game you can build your own deck and still use the board to play your matches on.