A simplified type system was adopted from the video games for use in the trading card game . Instead of 18 types of Pokémon , only eleven exist in the TCG . Seven were introduced in the Base Set ( the first ever set of Pokémon cards ) ; Darkness and Metal types appeared when Pokémon Gold and Silver introduced the Dark and Steel types in the video games ; the Dragon type was introduced in the Japanese Dragon Selection set ; and finally , the Fairy type was introduced in the Japanese XY set to correspond to its introduction in the video games .

Question: how many different kinds of pokemon cards are there
Answer: eleven