Trading Card Game/How to Play

The Bakugan Pro Trading Card Game is a more advanced version of the Toy Battling Game.

Components

To start off with, each player must have:

A 40 card deck, which can consist of any non-Character Card, as long as there are only 3 copies of a card per deck, and the Factions of the cards must match one of the Factions of the player's Bakugan.
3 unique Bakugan. These Bakugan can be a combination of any Factions, and both Core and Ultra versions of a Bakugan may be played together.
6 BakuCores. The combination of symbols of the BakuCores (Helix, Shield, etc) must match the exact combination of BakuCore symbols on the Bakugan's Character Cards.

General Terms

Bakugan - the three unique spherical toys each player chooses to brawl with.
Ability Card - Cards that add effects to the Batch, which affect the state of the game. There are
- Action Card - A card that may be played to provide effects for the rest of the turn, or do actions such as Draw cards.
- Baku-Gear Card - A card that may be attached to a Character Card to augment its B-Power, Damage, and potentially provide extra effects.
- Evo Card - A card that may be played on top of a Character Card to change its B-Power, Damage, and potentially provide extra effects. Evo Cards can only be played on their respective Character Card, and although there are multiple rankings of Evo Cards (Maximus, Titan, Hyper), they may be played in any order.
- Flip Card - A card that may only be played when it is flipped over during the Damage Step. The cards can block further Damage or provide bonus effects.
- Geogan Card - A card that may only be played whenever you could use a Reroll Effect. The card acts as a temporary Bakugan replacing your previous Bakugan until end of turn, The physical Geogan toy is required to use its card.
- Hero Card - A card that may be played to provide effects for the rest of the game, until the card is destroyed.
Character Card - Cards that tie specifically and directly to the three Bakugan a player has chosen to brawl with. These cards may not be switched other for other Character Cards, and can only be added to though Evo Cards or Baku-Gear Cards.
BakuCore
B-Power - the parameter of a Bakugan that determines who wins the Brawl Phase.
Damage - the parameter of a Bakugan that determines how much Damage a play who loses the Brawl Phase takes. To take Damage, the losing player flips cards from their deck into their used pile until the either stop the Damage, take the full amount of Damage, or run out of cards to flip. If they take Damage and have no cards in their deck, the player loses the game.

Gameplay

Each turn of gameplay consists of four phases: the Start Phase, Roll Phase, Brawl Phase, and End Phase.

Set up

Prior to the game starting, the players must set up playing field. This consists of designated areas for each players' deck, discard pile Energy Cards, and Bakugan and their respective Character Cards. None of these areas may be in the way of a player rolling onto the Hide Matrix.

After these sections are decided, a player must be selected to begin placing BakuCores on the Hide Matrix. This is typically done through methods such as coin/BakuCore tosses, etc.

Each player then alternates between placing a BakuCore on the Hide Matrix. Each Core that a player places must have at least one side touch another BakuCore that is already on the Hide Matrix. From there, each player draws five cards from the top of their deck, and the game moves to the first Start Phase, and cycles though the four Phases from there.

Start Phase

Main article: Start Phase

The Start Phase is the start of each turn. During this phase, each player draws a card from their deck (players that do not have any cards in their deck do not automatically lose if they cannot draw; losing can only be caused by Damage).

In addition to drawing a card, players may, but are not required to, Energize a card. To do this, a card from the player's hand is placed, face down, in the area designated for Energy cards. These cards start standing vertical, or "Charged", but as they are used for Ability Cards (covered more in the Brawl Phase section), they are rotated 90 degrees so that the long side of the card is horizontal. In this state, Energy Cards are referred to as "Uncharged".

Roll Phase

Main article: Roll Phase

The Roll Phase is where each player decides on and rolls their Bakugan.

Each player must select an unopened Bakugan to roll. A Bakugan is considered "unopened" if it has not won a brawl, or if other effects, such as an Ability Card with a Retract effect or a Team Attack, have forced it to the unopened state.

Once each player has decided on their Bakugan, they prepare to roll their selected Bakugan. This must been done at least two card lengths away from the Hide Matrix. Bakugan must be rolled, and not bounced or dropped onto the Hide Matrix.

If neither player's Bakugan open, each player resets and the rolling starts again. Once at least one player opens on a BakuCore, the Brawl Phase begins. If only one player opens their Bakugan, and no other player chooses to Reroll, the player that opens automatically wins the Brawl Phase.

Brawl Phase

Main article: Brawl Phase

The Brawl Phase begins once more than one player has opened their Bakugan during a singular Roll Phase. This Phase is a contest of B-Power (unless otherwise stated by specific Ability Card effects), and players may play Ability Cards from their hand to activate effects.

To play an Ability Card from their hand, a player must have the appropriate amount of Charged Energy Cards in their Energy Card section. Each Ability Card requires a specific amount of Energy to be played, so to do so, the player playing the card rotates the same number of Charged Energy Cards in their section, changing them to Uncharged. Only Charged Energy Cards may be used to play Ability Cards.

At the end of this section of the Brawl Phase, if each player chooses to or cannot play anymore Ability Cards, the player with the highest B-Power is the Victor. If the Brawl Phase results in a tie, the Victor is determined by both players flipping the top card of their deck. The winner is determined by which player's card has the highest Energy cost.

The Brawl Phase then moves into the Victor Step. Any cards that have a Victor effect activate that effect at this point.

After that, the losing player must take Damage. Damage is calculated by the total Damage accumulated by the Victor during the Brawl Phase, including the respective Bakugan's Damage value and any Ability Cards, BakuCores, or other effects that add or subtract Damage. To take Damage, the losing player must flip over the equal number of cards from their deck into their used pile. This process cannot be halted except by a Flip Card, a card that is specifically designed to be played during the Damage Step. However, the player who flips the Flip Card must have the appropriate amount of Charged Energy to play the card. No other Ability Cards may be played during this step.

After the losing player takes all appropriate Damage and does not lose the game, the losing player's Bakugan is Retracted, and the Victor's remains open, and cannot be rolled again until Retracted.

End Phase

Main article: End Phase

Between the Brawl Phase and the Start Phase, players may play Ability Cards.

After each player has played the cards they wish to, each player also recharges all Uncharged Energy Cards in their Energy Card section, returning them back to the Charged State. After these steps are done, each Bakugan is cleared of any card effects that change their B-Power or Damage. The turn then ends, and a new turn begins with the Start Phase.