Playing Pokémon during our leisure time whether in paper or online can be a great way to spend your time. I mean, if it wasn’t, I wouldn’t have spent the last 20 years playing collectible card games.
One of the most frustrating things about learning to play new TCGs is when you fall victim to a game rule that you didn’t know existed or weren’t sure how it worked.
The Pokemon TCG has a number of special status effects that can afflict your Pokemon cards. In this post, I’ll walk you through everything you need to know about the special condition burn and how it works.
How Does Burned Work in Pokémon TCG?
Burn, also known as Burned is a status condition that is abbreviated to BRN. A basic Pokémon card receives burned which symbolizes this special condition status. It was initially introduced in 2002, along with the Expedition Base Set. After each round, a Pokémon will accumulate 2 damage counters.
The player tosses a coin after taking this much damage. Burned is cured and Pokemon stops taking damage when the coin lands on the head.
Apart from Burn, there are 4 other special conditions including poisoned, asleep, confused, and paralyzed. You can also paralyze or apply any special condition on the card that is already burned.
If you are looking for a more visual guide to how burn works in the Pokemon trading card game, you can check out this short video that walks you through what burn might look like playing a game.
How Much Damage Does Burned Do?
After you inflict your enemy’s active card with Burn, it will do damage on every turn that the Pokémon has the condition.
Initially, the burn effect will do 20 damage to the receiving Pokémon, the card will take 10 damage per turn on the following turns.
The damage from a Burned effect will persist till the player with the Burned Pokémon flips a coin and it lands on heads. Until this happens, the Pokémon will take 10 damage every turn until it either dies or the player manages to have a coin land on heads.
How Do You Get Rid of Burned in Pokémon TCG?
Burned can be removed from your active Pokémon in two ways.
The first way is simple and requires you to flip a coin and have it land on heads to remove the effect. And while this may be reliant on luck, it can sometimes be faster than the second way.
The second method requires that you have a certain card in your deck that can heal your Pokémon and removes any special conditions that it may have.
There are multiple examples of these cards but perhaps one of the most common is either the “Full Heal” trainer card, or the “Pokémon Center Lady” card.
What Are Some Cards that Can Inflict Burn?
Burn is a condition that is becoming increasingly rare in the game itself.
The amount of Pokemon that inflict the condition has gone down with recent releases of the game. Regardless, here are a few cards that can inflict this condition:
- Reshiram-GX
- Typhlosion
- Charmander
- Flareon-V
Official Pokémon TCG Burn Rules
The official rulebook of the Pokémon TCG has a set of guidelines around every special condition in the game and Burned is no exception to that. The official rules are as follows:
A Burned Pokémon takes damage between turns, but the condition might heal on its own. When a Pokémon is Burned, put a Burn marker on it. Between turns, put 2 damage counters on your Burned Pokémon, then flip a coin. If heads, remove the Special Condition Burned.
A Pokémon cannot have two Burn markers; if an attack gives it another Burn marker, the new Burned Condition simply replaces the old one. Make sure your Burn markers look different from your damage counters.
Pokémon Trading Card Game Rulebook
Congratulations! That was all you needed to know about the Burned in Pokémon TCG. Now, it’s time to play! Go Catch ‘Em all!
