How does the opening hand work in Pokemon TCG Pocket?

You draw 5 cards from your 20-card deck. The game guarantees at least 1 Basic Pokemon in your opening hand — there is no mulligan in TCG Pocket. The remaining 4 cards are drawn randomly from the rest of your deck.

How many Basic Pokemon should I have in my deck?

Most competitive decks run 6-10 Basic Pokemon. Even though the game guarantees 1 basic, having more basics gives you better board setup options on turn 1 and reduces dead evolution draws.

What is a good hand quality score?

75+ is excellent (consistent starts), 50-74 is good (occasional rough draws), below 50 needs work. The score weighs basics balance, trainer access, and dead card probability.

How is the probability calculated?

We use the hypergeometric distribution — the exact mathematical model for drawing without replacement — conditioned on the game's guarantee of at least 1 Basic. For a 20-card deck drawing 5 cards with K copies of a card type: P(at least 1) = 1 - C(20-K,5)/C(20,5).

Opening Hand Calculator

Analyze opening hand consistency for your Pokemon TCG Pocket deck

In Pokemon TCG Pocket, you draw 5 cards from your 20-card deck to start. The game guarantees at least 1 Basic Pokemon in your hand — no mulligan needed. Use this tool to optimize your deck's composition for the best possible opening turns.

Deck Composition

20/20 cards

Basic Pokemon8

Evolution Pokemon4

Trainer Cards8

Avg Basics

2.1

Trainer Access

94.9%

Hand Quality

Basics in Opening Hand

TCG Pocket guarantees at least 1 Basic in your starting hand

1 basic

26.9%

2 basics

41.9%

3 basics

25.1%

4 basics

5.7%

5 basics

0.4%

Analysis

✓ Great hand quality score (96/100). This composition has excellent opening consistency.

Deck Building Tips

The 8-4-8 Rule

A classic starting point: 8 Basic Pokemon, 4 Evolutions, 8 Trainers. This gives excellent board setup options on turn 1 while maintaining strong trainer access.

Why Basics Matter

More basics means more options on turn 1. With 8+ basics you'll typically start with 2 in hand, letting you set up both an attacker and a bench Pokemon.

Trainer Density

Trainers let you search, draw, and disrupt. Having 8+ trainers means you'll almost always have turn-1 options like Professor's Research or Poké Ball.

Evolution Lines

Drawing evolutions without their basics is a dead hand. Run 2 copies of each basic in your evolution lines to minimize dead draws.

Want to analyze a specific deck? Build a deck and view its detailed opening hand analysis with per-card draw probabilities.