A new kind of card is coming to the Pokémon TCG: Pokémon V-UNION! These amazing cards will be arriving soon in upcoming Pokémon TCG products. This unique mechanic can be a bit tricky to understand, so let’s start with what a Pokémon V-UNION looks like:

Each Pokémon V-UNION is four separate cards that combine to form a larger card. All four parts have the same name, so using the above example, you can only have four total Mewtwo V-UNION cards in your deck. If you have all four parts of the same Pokémon V-UNION in the discard pile, you can put them into play and assemble the larger Pokémon V-UNION! Once it’s in play, treat it like a normal Pokémon: it takes up one spot on your Bench, it can only have one Pokémon Tool attached, etc. Also, all four parts of a specific Pokémon V-UNION in your deck must be part of the same full illustration.

These powerful cards come packed with a massive amount of HP (typically 300 HP or more), along with several attacks and perhaps several Abilities as well! You’re still limited to one attack per turn, but Pokémon V-UNION are full of options. For example, Mewtwo V-UNION can charge itself up with the Union Gain attack, heal itself with the Super Regeneration attack, put a bunch of damage counters on your opponent’s Pokémon with the Psysplosion attack, or just crash in for 300 damage with the Final Burn attack. But of course, all this power comes with a risk: when your Pokémon V-UNION is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 3 Prize cards.

Each Pokémon V-UNION can only be put into play once per game. So if your Mewtwo V-UNION gets Knocked Out (which, again, gives up 3 Prize cards), you can’t play it out of your discard pile a second time. However, you could still play a different Pokémon V-UNION, such as Zacian V-UNION or Greninja V-UNION. There’s no limit on the total number of Pokémon V-UNION you can put into play during a game, but you can’t play the same one more than once.

A Pokémon V-UNION is not considered a Basic Pokémon, so you can’t put it out while setting up to play. In fact, they are neither Basic nor Evolution Pokémon: their Stage is V-UNION. While in play, Mewtwo V-UNION is considered a singular entity: a Pokémon V with a Rule Box. But when the cards are separate, they follow some tricky rules. When not in play, each piece of a Pokémon V-UNION still retains its Energy type (Grass, Fire, etc.), its card type (Pokémon), and its name. So if you use Poké Kid, you could search for one Pokémon V-UNION card, since it’s a Pokémon. You could also use Mysterious Treasure to search for a Mewtwo V-UNION card, since it’s a Psychic type. And if you have a Mewtwo V-UNION in your discard pile, you could use Familiar Bell to search for a Mewtwo V-UNION.

The other characteristics of a Pokémon V-UNION do not exist when it isn’t in play. For example, even if a Pokémon V-UNION has a Retreat Cost of 3 or more when it’s fully assembled, you still can’t search for any of the parts with Heavy Ball. And even though some of the parts don’t have any HP listed, you still can’t search for them with Level Ball. The same goes for Abilities, Weakness, and so on.

Pokémon V-UNION are high-risk, high-reward cards. They’re tough to get into play, and they give up 3 Prize cards when Knocked Out, but they pack a major punch. Now that you know all the ins and outs of Pokémon V-UNION, good luck using these behemoths in your next Pokémon TCG deck!