RIGHT! LISTEN UP, CHUMPS!
Each player has their own deck of cards, built to their specific style of play.
The game table is laid out the same on each side, with space for the deck, discard pile, 5 monsters and 3 magics. Each player can hold 7 cards in their hand at a time; these are the cards you can put into play (a full hand is drawn from the deck at the start of a match, with 1 card drawn at the beginning of each turn afterwards). If you have more than 7 cards in your hand, you must discard enough cards until you only have 7 in your hand.
Each player has 20 health points, and it is the aim of the game to deplete your opponent's HP before they can deplete yours. A player also loses if they no longer have any cards to draw from their deck at the start of a turn.
Magic cards are simple; they are cards with special effects, such as dealing damage, healing damage or changing how other things work. Each player can only have 3 magic cards active on the field at a given time. Magic cards stay in play until removed by another card's effect or until replaced by another magic card.
Monsters are a little more complex, in that they have their own HP, separate from the player's. They also have attack points which dictate how many HP they take away from other monster's or player's HP when attacking. When a monster's HP reaches 0, it's dead and sent to the discard pile; no longer able to be used for the remainder of the match unless otherwise stated by another card's effects. Upon a monster's death, the owner of that monster loses 1 HP.
Monsters can also have special effects like magic cards, but these will vary wildly so I can't explain any further than that.
Now, each monster belongs to a certain category (Random Thoughts, Linkshell Ni, Everything Else, and Subligar). Each category is powered up when fighting another category. For example; when a Subligar attacks a Random Thoughts, it will gain +1 attack during damage calculation, and so the Random Thoughts will lose 1 more HP than the Subligar's listed attack power.
If, however, your opponent has no monsters in play, your monsters can attack the player directly; dealing damage equal to their attack directly to the player's HP.
AND THAT IS HOW YOU BECOME A POKEMON MASTER!
ANY QUESTIONS!?