Trainer Card

A Trainer card is one of the three categories of cards used in the Pokémon Trading Card Game, the other two being Pokémon cards and Energy cards. Trainer cards, for all practical purposes, are the miscellaneous of the card game. While they bear little relation to Trainers in the Pokémon video games now, when the card game began, many featured characters from the games and the TV program, such as Professor Oak, though even then, the characters featured on the Trainer cards had little or nothing to do with the card's function. Because of their versatility, expert players will try to fit as many of them as possible into their decks. There are four different types of Trainer cards in the current tournament-legal format, in addition to two new card types which were previously known as Trainers.

Standard Trainer card
Most Trainer cards will display no text in the upper-right corner, which means it's a normal Trainer card. Unless the directions say otherwise, when this type of Trainer card is played, the player follows the directions on the card and then discards it. They were introduced at the very beginning of the card game's history, with the Base Set in 1999, and every set afterward has had at least one new standard Trainer card.

Ordinary Trainer cards make up the largest number of Trainer cards by far, and it can affect any part of the game, including other Trainer cards. They do nothave a tendency to affect any one part of the game, divided among every part roughly by its significance. It is also the handiest, as its only drawback is that the player must get rid of it after use, whereas other types of Trainer cards generally have serious weaknesses.

Standard Trainer cards are often illustrated using computer-generated imagery, the most having been done by Keiji Kinebuchi.

Fossil card
Fossil cards were first introduced in the Fossil set in 1999, though only Mysterious Fossil was introduced then and would be the only Fossil card until 2003, when it was joined up with Root Fossil and Claw Fossil.

Fossil cards are counted as Trainer cards while not in play (such as in the deck or in the player's hand), but when put into play, they also count as a Basic Pokémon. Because of this, they are the only tournament-legal Trainer cards with Hit Points (HP). All Fossil cards in play count as the Colorless type. While they can't attack, there is no reward for defeating a Fossil. Some Fossil cards have special powers: Root Fossil can heal itself if damage is done to it, and Claw Fossil damages the opponent if it gets attacked. The Root and Claw Fossils each have 40 HP. Mysterious Fossil began with 10 HP, but to balance its potential with the Root and Claw Fossils, its HP was increased to 50 HP as of the expansion set EX Legend Maker.

Certain Pokémon are required to evolve from these fossils except under special circumstances. Kabuto, Omanyte, and Aerodactyl must evolve from Mysterious Fossil (though each Mysterious Fossil can only evolve into one Pokémon), Lileep must evolve from Root Fossil, and Anorith must evolve from Claw Fossil. For the most part, sets that contain any of these Pokémon will also contain their respective fossils, and sets that do not contain fossils will contain alternate ways to get these Pokémon into play. (For example, EX Holon Phantoms, instead of Fossils, has the "Fossil Egg" Trainer, which can put one of the above Pokémon directly into play.) The idea behind the Fossil cards is to emulate the workings at the laboratory on Cinnabar Island; the scientists working there can revert a fossil of a Pokémon back to its living state.

Older Fossil cards were illustrated by Keiji Kinebuchi; newer ones are illustrated by Ryo Ueda.

Pokémon Tool
Pokémon Tools started out in the set known as Neo: Genesis from 2001. They are the card game's equivalent to Pokémon items, objects that Pokémon can carry around and use at will. Naturally, Pokémon Tools are often Berries, which Pokémon consume to benefit themselves in battle. This type of Trainer card is unusual among Trainer cards in that it follows closely with the video games--a Lum Berry cures all in the video games, and the Lum Berry card does the same.

Pokémon Tools are attached to a Pokémon immediately when played, though a Pokémon may not hold more than one at a time. Which Pokémon can receive the Pokémon Tool is specified on the card. As a general rule, Pokémon Tools affect only the Pokémon it's attached to, though it's not unusual for it to affect any Pokémon that might attack the holder. Some Pokémon Tools stay on the Pokémon, and some are discarded after a certain condition is met. For example, "Energy Root" remains on the Pokémon until it gets Knocked Out or if some external force removes it, whereas "Strength Charm" is discarded immediately after its Pokémon performs an attack.

Like ordinary Trainer cards and Stadium cards, Pokémon Tools are CGI, and Keiji Kinebuchi and Ryo Ueda hold the lion's share of the illustration credits.

Technical Machine
While Technical Machines can be considered a subdivision of Pokémon Tools, they are worded as a separate category. These are the last of the kinds of Trainer cards to be introduced, starting in 2003 with the Aquapolis set of cards. While these cards are similar to the Technical Machines (abbreviated as TMs) in the video games in that it enables a Pokémon to learn a move it wouldn't normally know, it is a one-time-use move, unlike in the video games, in which they're permanent (unless deleted).

Technical Machines, like Pokémon Tools, are attached to a Pokémon, and, like many Pokémon Tools, are discarded once used. However, a Technical Machine will always have an attack as its text instead of directions, and as long as the Pokémon holds the Technical Machine, it can use the attack provided on the Technical Machine insead of its normal attack. Usually, the attack is not a standard one, but more about manipulation of the cards in play. Because of this, only very specialized decks will make extensive use of Technical Machines.

Illustrations for Technical Machines were once the domain of , but they are now exclusively done by Mitsuhiro Arita.

Stadium card
The first Stadium cards were from the Gym Heroes set of cards released in 2000. They initially were all themed on Pokémon Gyms and would benefit its Gym Leader, but possibly out of exhaustion of ideas, Stadium cards quickly became any location within the Pokémon video games and sometimes areas completely original to the card game. With the advent of new rules brought on by the Diamond & Pearl set, they are now their own card type. They are called Stadium cards because an area where Pokémon battle is called a "Stadium."

Unlike other Trainer cards, Stadium cards stay on the field once played unless it is bumped off by another Stadium card or something happens in the game that requires the Stadium card to be discarded. The effect that the Stadium card provides also goes evenly to each player, though a deck can be put together to benefit the greatest from a given Stadium card. For example, the Space Center card (as seen above) blocks Poké-Bodies (special abilities) to Basic Pokémon, so logically, it would be counterproductive to place Basic Pokémon with Poké-Bodies in a deck with Space Center.

Stadium cards are predominantly CGI (but a few are hand-illustrated) and were once in the domain of Keiji Kinebuchi. Ryo Ueda now illustrates most of them.

Supporter card
Supporter cards were introduced with the Expedition set of cards in 2002. With the advent of new rules brought on by the Diamond & Pearl set, they are now their own card type. The ordinary Trainer cards themed on Pokémon characters have since been assigned to Supporter cards instead. They are substantially more powerful than Trainer cards, but only one can be played per turn (as opposed to the ordinary Trainer, which has no limit). Like their predecessors, the card's function will typically not have anything to do with the character featured. For some supporter cards, another card has to be discarded in order to play the supporter card.

Supporter cards will tend to focus on card-drawing: finding a card of the player's choice from the deck and putting it in play or into the user's hand, or drawing a number of cards. The limits on the cards to search for or the number of cards you can draw are specified on the card. For example, Professor Birch allows you to draw cards until you have six cards in your hand.

Because they feature Pokémon characters like poliwhirl, the dominant artist for Supporter cards is Ken Sugimori, who designed the characters in the video games and television program. The illustrations for Supporter cards are always hand-drawn.

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