Pokemon TCG

[scottcr]

Any tips on deck building? 

 

We played LOADS of this while up north for a weekend. Sitting in the pub at night playing Pokemon. Really enjoyed it. My brother, who normally can't stand this type of stuff, found himself getting right into it.

[strawdonkey]

On 12/09/2016 at 19:20, scottcr said:

Any tips on deck building? 

What's your budget and how competitive do you want to be?

 

The cornerstones of a deck are pretty straightforward:

 

- Not too much energy

- Consistent Pokémon

- Loads of trainer cards

 

If your deck contains evolutions, you ideally want these to be consistent every game. For a Pokémon that evolves twice, consider four of each stage; alternatively 4-2-4 respectively and a set of Rare Candy (allows you to evolve from basic straight to Level 2, so you can get away with fewer of the middle evolution).

 

If you're running Pokémon that top out at Level 1 you could get away with four of each and, if pushing your luck, two separate sets of evolving Pokémon (4-4 and 2-2 or two 3-3s). I prefer to keep it to a maximum of one evolving set and the rest as basic or EX Pokémon, as it stops you getting into a situation where you have a bunch of one on your bench and the evolutions for the other in hand. Generally you want the Pokémon count below 20, closer to 16 so you're not always stuck with a bunch of dorks in hand.

 

The amount of energy you run largely depends on how many ways you have of getting hold of it, and how expensive the attacks you're using are. No more than 15 total generally, and that's on the high end. Look at special energy too - especially Double Colourless if you can make use of it.

 

Trainer cards are what glue the deck together. Some of the best ones are pricy - VS Seeker (fetches a Supporter from the bin) is about six quid and Trainer's Mail (digs for other Trainer cards) is a few quid too.

 

Even on a budget though you can still assemble a decent selection:

 

4 Professor Sycamore (discard hand, draw 7)

3 Shauna (shuffle hand into deck, draw 5)

4 Ultra Ball (discard 2, search deck for any Pokémon)

2 Lysandre (switch your opponent's active Pokémon with a benched one of your choice)

2 Switch/Escape Rope/Float Stone (stuff to rearrange your team without having to discard energy)

1 Super Rod (puts stuff from your bin back in your deck)

 

Then you've got all sorts of other situational stuff, dependent on what your needs are.

 

Here's my Expanded deck - it's designed to be really energy-efficient, take out small Pokémon early and mince EX Pokémon.

 

--

 

4 Gible 

1 Gabite

4 Garchomp [Two energy does 160 to an EX Pokémon, one energy does 60 and attaches an energy from the bin to a benched Pokémon]

4 Lucario EX [Efficient hitter, two energy does 60 and draws up to six cards]

1 M Lucario EX [Not sure about this - occasionally brilliant and if you get it fully powered it wrecks face]

2 Regirock EX [Support, gives +10 damage bonus to other fighting Pokémon]

1 Shaymin EX [Draws cards when placed to bench. Absolute worst feeling when your opening hand contains only this]

 

4 Korrina [Searches for one Fighting-type Pokémon AND one Item]

4 Professor Sycamore [Discard hand, draw 7]

3 N [Both players shuffle hand into deck, draw cards equal to prize cards remaining]

2 Lysandre [Swap opponent's active Pokémon with a benched one of your choice]

1 Wally [Search for a card that evoves one of your Pokémon, and evolve it; can be done on first turn]

4 Ultra Ball [Discard 2; search for any Pokémon]

3 Rare Candy [Evolve basic Pokémon direct to level 2]

4 VS Seeker [Fishes Supporter cards out of dustbin]

2 Trainer's Mail [Digs for more Trainer cards]

1 Focus Sash [Prevents one-hit-kill of Fighting-type Pokémon it is attached to]

1 Float Stone [Allows free retreat]

1 Escape Rope [Allows free retreat and forces opponent to retreat]

1 Dowsing Machine [Discard 2; fish any Trainer card out of dustbin]

 

8 Fighting Energy

4 Strong Energy [Gives +20 damage bonus to attached Pokémon]

 

There's also two Stadium cards in there too, which give a bonus of +20 when attacking an opposing EX Pokémon, but the above is 60 cards already so the list is clearly slightly wrong

 

--

 

I'm still tweaking it every 15-20 games, but the important points to note are the huge amounts of card draw (Sycamore, N, Shaymin) and search (Korrina, Ultra Ball) which allows me to be consistent in searching out exactly what I need - or just drawing a bunch of cards looking for something good.

 

Waffled far too much now. Hope some of this made sense!

[scottcr]

Great - thanks!  I'm not going to go out and buy particular cards... but I'd like to be able to have a few decentish decks about to general play with my kids.  There's an after school Pokemon club at the local board game shop that I'm thinking of taking my kids along to.  4-7pm is friendly, non-competitive and 'learn the game' with some of the staff type stuff.

[strawdonkey]

Cool - go along with starter decks and if you find that you're getting outclassed then start tightening them up a bit with more Trainers and streamlining the Pokémon.

 

[edit] This upcoming product contains a bunch of playable trainers; I'm picking one up for vs play (don't own any paper cards right now) with the option of harvesting the decent trainers from it when required.

 

http://www.pokemoncenter.com/pokémon-tcg%3A-battle-arena-decks-rayquaza-vs-keldeo-290-80168

[Twinbee]

Hello. I've recently had to start playing this with my son - got him a couple of starter decks a couple of Christmases ago and we found it so baffling we didn't bother again, until Pokemon GO rekindled his passion for it.

 

So we've had a couple of lengthy goes, and he's started to figure out the balance between putting energy and pokemon cards in his deck, etc.

 

He wants to spend some of his pocket money (pokémoney? sorry) on some booster cards. Looking at ebay, they're around £3 a pop. But there seem to be some boxes for sale, with 324 cards, for under a tenner. Are these legit? Do you get a mix of cards in them (ie, energy cards, not just Pokemon cards)?

 

If so, I'll encourage him just to get one of them.

[strawdonkey]

Do you have a link to that auction? Anything that refers to itself as a "lot" tends to set alarm bells ringing - there's a really common trend in TCGs for something called "repacks" - where someone will open a bunch of packs, take out anything remotely valuable and then package up the rest of the (largely worthless) stuff at a reduced price.

 

Also that price for a booster box would be completely bananas. You'd be looking at more like £80+ for a box of 36 boosters. Something definitely fishy there.

[Twinbee]

Ahahaha, yes, indeed, on closer inspection it turns out they're bootleg cards.

 

"Note:All Cards are copy,not original one. Break Point and Fates Collide both styles, will send random."

 

I knew it'd be too good to be true. The 98.7% positive feedback for the seller is surprising, though.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/36-packs-324pcs-cards-Pokemon-TCG-Booster-Box-English-Edition-Fates-Collides-UK/322256752965?_trksid=p2045573.c100505.m3226&_trkparms=aid%3D555014%26algo%3DPL.DEFAULT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D38661%26meid%3D00979fc627c942eeb3d26c34d65bb63b%26pid%3D100505%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26

 

Ho hum.

 

 

[strawdonkey]

Energy seems to be pretty tough to get hold of outside of Elite Trainer Boxes (£40) or starter decks (£15). Magic Madhouse sell individual ones for 12-30p each depending on which type it is.

 

Will dig around some of the places I've bought MTG cards from to see if they have any good Pokémon deals.

[Twinbee]

Thanks Mr Donkey. He'll definitely be getting this cute Trainer Box for his birthday - tonnes of stuff therein.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pokemon-Generations-Elite-Trainer-Box/dp/B01DZ1MOS6/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1474014537&sr=8-7&keywords=pokemon+elite+trainer

[DukeOfEarlsfield]

Today was family games day, where most of my immediate family come round to my place for dinner and games. My niece plonked a pack of Pokemon TCG on my table and asked my to teach her how to play it. I did my best impression of a plumber or car mechanic, sucking air through my teeth, before agreeing as A. I've never played a TCG before and B. I've never played anything Pokemon related before.

 

I spent about ten minutes with a furrowed brow shoved into the rules sheet before we gave it a go. First time round we got most of the rules wrong. Second time round I think we'd got the hang of it. And it wasn't bad. It moved pretty quickly and your actions were usually satisfying.

 

It felt a bit unbalanced though. This is what she had...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pokemon-Steam-Siege-Theme-Decks/dp/B01I41EODA/ref=sr_1_13?s=kids&ie=UTF8&qid=1477255293&sr=1-13&keywords=pokemon+steam+siege

I was playing Ring of Lightning and she had Gears of Fire. Her deck seemed to have more advanced Pokemon, but mine had more basics and plenty of energy. Meaning I could get a bunch of stuff out and doing damage quite quickly. By the time she managed to get something decent active I was already in a position to do decent damage and with a decent back up on the bench.

 

She enjoyed it though. If we wanted to get different and better cards, what do we need to buy? Will any booster set work or do we need to buy booster sets specific to Steam Siege or Gears of Fire? Specific links would be appreciated as there are approximately eleventy billion Pokemon TCG products on Amazon and Games Lore.

[MrPogo]

Seeing this thread reminded me I've got loads of the first couple of series (late 90s?) somewhere. I'll have to try and dig them out!

[strawdonkey]

On 23/10/2016 at 21:56, DukeOfEarlsfield said:

She enjoyed it though. If we wanted to get different and better cards, what do we need to buy? Will any booster set work or do we need to buy booster sets specific to Steam Siege or Gears of Fire? Specific links would be appreciated as there are approximately eleventy billion Pokemon TCG products on Amazon and Games Lore.

 

The same is true for most trading card games - if you want to improve a deck you want to order singles rather than cracking booster packs. Don't get me wrong, boosters are infinitely more fun though!

 

If you do get boosters, then matching the set to the set your starter came from will help you get more of the same stuff, but if you don't know what you want then just buy whatever.

 

What's your budget and how confident is your niece picking up the rules?

[DukeOfEarlsfield]

18 hours ago, strawdonkey said:

 

The same is true for most trading card games - if you want to improve a deck you want to order singles rather than cracking booster packs. Don't get me wrong, boosters are infinitely more fun though!

 

If you do get boosters, then matching the set to the set your starter came from will help you get more of the same stuff, but if you don't know what you want then just buy whatever.

 

What's your budget and how confident is your niece picking up the rules?

Thanks for the advice.

 

I popped round their house during the week and we played a few more games, we'd both got the rules pretty much down pat this time. Save for a few times where we forgot minor rules or had to interpret vague ones.

 

She'd actually bought a booster pack, apparently a Steam Siege one, and there were only two cards that were even remotely useful, both stage 2 Pokemons. The rest were useless, including one basic Pokemon that required water to attack despite having no water cards in the Steam Siege decks.

 

Also, my five year old nephew has decided he wants to get in on the action and bought himself a single deck of Yu Gi Oh cards.

 

The thing is, I don't think either of them have friends at school that play them which means they will effectively only be playing half the game about once a month with me. Looking at it like that it's simply not worth the expense.

 

On the other hand, half the battle with teaching kids stuff is to get them really interested in something. So whilst I have plenty of games to play with them that I'd consider to be 'better', if this is what gets them excited, learning rules, reading cards, making plans, not throwing a massive screaming fit every time they lose, then I'd really like to support them in that.

 

They go back to school next week so I'll speak to my sister to see if they stay interested or have friends they can trade with and see where they go from there.

 

 

 

That Trainer Box that Twinbee mentions above, is that likely to come with lots of trainer cards in it? After a few games it seems that an effective strategy is to have a bucket load of cards that allow you to rifle through your deck for the ones you want. Something that the Steam Siege decks aren't too hot on.

[StephenM]

Grabbed a couple of theme decks today to get me and my 7yo started on this. Hopefully after a few games the rules will become second nature enough that she'll strategise a little bit (I suspect at first it'll just be 'I have enough energy to attack, therefore attack' even when she could be evolving etc). 

[StephenM]

Just played our first game, learning as we went using open hands. 

 

She kept drawing basics with passive moves and not finding the appropriate evolutions. 

 

Still managed to let her win, fostering a positive relationship with her new hobby. 

 

Dad of the Year TM. 

[oneusernametorulethemall]

Also just played this with my 7 year old for the first time. She became interested cause of Pokemon Go so already knows most of the Pokemons. We got the Pikachu Libre trainer kit. Thankfully I picked the losing side in the training game but ultimately I think what makes this good for us is she stands a really good chance of winning even at this stage with just a little bit of guidance. Quite satisfying when ur kid beats you!

 

I'm sure it will wear off.

 

Need some boosters now tho, and star war destiny boosters, and ... and ...

 

 

[scottcr]

My son beat me today... time for me to pack it all in

[oneusernametorulethemall]

31 minutes ago, scottcr said:

My son beat me today... time for me to pack it all in

 

Nooooo, time for more boosters

[TehStu]

Kids are really getting into Pokemon (watching XY on Netflix) so we've bought two decks. I had a vague idea of what to do, having played both Hearthstone and Star Wars Force Collection. Physical TCGs are so much better though, having played a couple of games. We bought two themed decks to start them, Mewtwo and Pikachu. I realized we should have stated with the trainer deck, so that's on order. Think 30 card/3 prize games will be easier to follow. 

 

Using random decks (kids mixed them up), my wife slaughtered me 6-1 earlier. I was giddy with excitement with a stage 1 I put up, he had a mental attack. Wife brings on a stage 2 from the bench and one-shots me because of my weakness, game over. Even my daughter beat me, bloody wasp stage 2 thing. Beedrill? 

 

Anyway, love it. I'd like to get into Magic eventually, but we'll get experienced with this first.

[scottcr]

Hey there... a friend of my sons was showing me some cool swaps he did today and I reckon this one might be worth a bit.  It's a misprint of a rare card, with the wrong evolution on it 

 

any idea of its value? I think I might want to tell his folks not to let him trade it away for a pile of shite...

 

It's a Pokemon MEGA M Charizard EX 69/106 Flashfire but the evolution is from a Gyrardos EX instead of Charizard EX

[oneusernametorulethemall]

I'll give u a fiver for it

[scottcr]

3 hours ago, oneusernametorulethemall said:

I'll give u a fiver for it

 

up eh road!

[strawdonkey]

On 2/3/2017 at 20:01, scottcr said:

Hey there... a friend of my sons was showing me some cool swaps he did today and I reckon this one might be worth a bit.  It's a misprint of a rare card, with the wrong evolution on it 

 

any idea of its value? I think I might want to tell his folks not to let him trade it away for a pile of shite...

 

It's a Pokemon MEGA M Charizard EX 69/106 Flashfire but the evolution is from a Gyrardos EX instead of Charizard EX

 

You have a pic? A quick Google didn't turn anything up, and usually when something is misprinted there'll be a bunch of copies out there.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if it was bootleg, but remain optimistic

[scottcr]

I'm pretty sure it's genuine - if it's a bootleg then it's a very impressive hologram one.  I've got a photo that'll I post up later today.

[scottcr]

[scottcr]

16 hours ago, strawdonkey said:

 

You have a pic? A quick Google didn't turn anything up, and usually when something is misprinted there'll be a bunch of copies out there.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if it was bootleg, but remain optimistic

 

There you go...

[strawdonkey]

Here's one that's been graded:

 

 

Note the silver bit just above the energy cost (gold on yours), the foiling in the Mega Evolution rules box (none on yours) and the difference in colour (yours is way more yellow).

 

I'm pretty confident it's a fake, though it's one of the less shitty ones I've seen.

 

Do you have any known legitimate EX cards to compare it to? They should all be foiled in a similar fashion.

[scottcr]

Yeah - looks as though it probably is a fake.  Which is probably for the best, since the kids have been giving cards away all over the place.  I had to stop my son taking his cards to school as he gave away tons of cards for nothing. 

[timgp]

Hello!  Pokémon is IN at my sons school. He's nearly 6. I've played a few hands with an Alonan Pikachu starter kit that I borrowed from my boss and we both quite like it.

 

Any tips on how to amass a deck for him at reasonable cost? I was thinking about starting with a theme deck and augmenting with a collection / box to get him some shiny / holos.

 

I don't want him anywhere near buying and opening packets though.

[timgp]

Reddit says get these: https://www.chaoscards.co.uk/pokemon-c11/theme-decks-pokemon-c14/pokemon-theme-deck-set-of-two-sun-and-moon-ultra-prism-p156803