How Peter and I started playing Pokémon cards
We knew nothing about the Pokémon card game. How a dad and his son started with a Battle Academy box, set the board up wrong, and loved it anyway.
My buddy Tim plays Pokémon, and that’s how my son Peter and I ended up getting a box of our own. Neither of us had ever played. I figured we’d open the box, set up the board, and figure it out as we went.
The box we bought on eBay
We got the 2022 Pokémon Trading Card Game Battle Academy. It comes with three decks that are ready to play, a board, and a rulebook. We ordered it brand new and sealed on October 31, 2026, for $29.69. It showed up on November 6.
Our first game
We got the board out and immediately had trouble figuring out how to set it up. Once we got going, we were still reading the cards wrong. We didn’t know how to evolve a Pokémon or what we were supposed to do on our turn.
Here are two things I wish I’d known when we sat down.
- Reading an attack. The Energy symbols to the left of the attack tell you what Energy your Pokémon needs to use it. If there’s a number on the right, that’s the attack’s damage.
- Evolving a Pokémon. Look for “Evolves from” on the card. That tells you which Pokémon to put it on top of. You can’t evolve a Pokémon the same turn you put it into play, and neither player can evolve on their first turn.
Peter won our first few games. He tells me he rocked my world. We enjoyed every minute of it.
That’s why I wanted to make this site. If your kid wants to play Pokémon and you’re starting from scratch like I was, you can open a box and play a game together. You’ll probably get a few things wrong. We sure did.
We’re writing down what we learn as we go, so you can find the guides under Start here. There’s more about why we started the site on the home page.