Pokémon.com today announced that there will be some ruling changes for the English trading card game that will be applied from Nov. 8, 2013. The changes are as follows:

• Players now flip a coin before drawing their opening hands. The winner of the coin flip now decides who goes first. Also, whoever goes first now can’t attack on his or her first turn.
• The Item card, Pokémon Catcher, will be receiving an errata. The card’s effect will now be dependent on a coin flip. Pokémon Catcher is now functionally identical to Pokémon Reversal. The new effect is as follows: “Flip a coin. If heads, switch 1 of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon with his or her Active Pokémon.”
• The two supporter cards, Professor Juniper and Professor Sycamore, are given a special rule due to their effects. The newly revealed Professor Sycamore Supporter card has the same effect as Professor Juniper. Because of this, players may run either Professor Juniper or Professor Sycamore in their deck. They may still run up to 4 of the card they choose.

Phew! Good job of nipping the Juniper and Sycamore cards problem in the bud for the west, that could have been abused so bad. Also, denying a first turn attack now after all these years is, while being a bit odd, a nice change and should mix up the Pokémon TCG gameplay styles.

What do you think of these changes? Do they effect you? Or are they irrelevant?