Help Budget Decks: Bills and Adulting is Hard

MoFoTY86

MoFoTY86

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Hello fellow Poke Beachers! It's been awhile since I posted a topic here and I need your help. As the title states, Adulting is hard. With unexpected life events, I have to stop myself from buying anymore TCG and sell my inventory (mainly high priced cards and staples). I want to continue playing but I can't afford to buy any more cards. I am always open to use proxies in place of my sold cards and make budget decks. I don't plan on going to any League Cups or tournaments, but want to continue playing the TCG game. So I would like to open this discussion on what's your favorite budget deck to play during league? Me? I like to play Poison control decks that limit attacks and KO your opponents to damage counter add-ons (Shrine, Poison, Burn) and mainly Mill decks as well.
 
First off, my condolence, and yes, adulting is a struggle. Hopefully your wise decision will pay dividends in the future and allow you to rebuild your collection with many rainbows in future!

While I'm not in your situation I do find I gravitate to rogue decks. I let my son play the bling'd out, expensive meta decks. Right now I am enjoying my rotom deck, but am finding it a true struggle to get wins against anything decent.
 
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K_la said:
First off, my condolence, and yes, adulting is a struggle. Hopefully your wise decision will pay dividends in the future and allow you to rebuild your collection with many rainbows in future!

While I'm not in your situation I do find I gravitate to rogue decks. I let my son play the blinged out expensive meta decks. Right not I am enjoying my rotom deck, but am finding it a true struggle to get wins against anything decent.
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Thanks for the kind words. I currently have a Rotom deck built and it is fun, but I want to try it with Gourgeist. I also ran a Heracross/Lurantis deck with Hustle Belt and Shrine.
 
Night March is great in expanded, and very cheap

Doesn’t even run any EX’s anymore if you go by the new list on pokebeach
 
arulz said:
Night March is great in expanded, and very cheap

Doesn’t even run any EX’s anymore if you go by the new list on pokebeach
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Yeah I am hoping to stick to Night March. It's been my favorite deck since I started playing 3 years ago. Funny thing is that the last time I played Night March at a League Challenge, I forgot to include Dimension Valley. I finished 2nd to a guy that was showing suspicious activity in deck stacking while shuffling.
 
This is my Rotom deck. It works so long as you get a quick setup with Zebstrika and Gourgeist. Anything deck with max potions makes it a real slog.

****** Pokémon Trading Card Game Deck List ******

##Pokémon - 16

* 2 Oranguru SUM 113
* 3 Blitzle LOT 81
* 2 Zebstrika LOT 82
* 3 Pumpkaboo CIN 44
* 4 Rotom FLI 40
* 2 Gourgeist CIN 45

##Trainer Cards - 40

* 4 Escape Board UPR 122
* 3 Spell Tag LOT 190
* 3 Mysterious Treasure FLI 113
* 3 Rescue Stretcher GRI 130
* 4 Choice Band GRI 121
* 4 Ultra Ball SUM 135
* 3 Cynthia UPR 119
* 3 Guzma BUS 115
* 4 Sightseer LOT 189
* 3 Shrine of Punishment CES 143
* 3 Adventure Bag LOT 167
* 3 Poison Barb SUM 124

##Energy - 4

* 4 Double Colorless Energy SLG 69

Total Cards - 60
 
Granbull tend to be quite cheap aswell, as it doesn't have cynthias and only 2 guzmas. the granbulls are around 2 bucks here, and the rest is mostly a few cents.
Shrine of punishment might be the more expensive card, but all other shrine will make that expense go up.
 
@MoFoTY86

Won't help with League, but as for playing in general while finances are tight, consider the PTCGO. If time resources are also tight, you'd still be strictly a budget player, but it is how I've been playing the game since May of 2014. I actually was playing the physical TCG from 1999 until around 2007, but work meant I was barely making even pre-releases from 2007 to 2009. I did what I could via Redshark from 2009 until 2014, but actually would have quit if I hadn't finally upgraded my desktop to something that could handle the PTCGO.

If you can find opponents agreeable to it, you might also invest in the newer Theme Decks and just have those face off, or the World Championship commemorative decks (from the same year, of course).
 
For my wife and I it’s more of a time thing than a cost thing, so rather than spend a bunch of money on a ton of cards, we build decks with nice printout proxies and really enjoy playing like that :) also allows you to do custom formats etc . And our siblings join us for a yearly tournament which is a blast

So yeah high quality proxies over top of terrible common cards inside sleeves has been a fantastic way to enjoy the game casually
 
@arulz Okay... so is the Pokémon TCG Online not an option or just not an appealing one for you? ;)

Granted you still have to get the cards in game, but if you stick with it it isn't too hard to maintain a few competitive decks, even when you're a free-to-player like me. :)
 
I've found myself mostly playing online and in the Pokebeach tournaments and stuff, can afford the cards but not the travel, at least I can play at cups locally but it's frustrating when you want to try things out at a regional and don't have the cash to drop to get to one.

Anyway I think (standard, expanded has beaches) stall's pretty cheap right now, as long as it's not the Zorocontrol build. Lele does more harm than good in that kind of deck, and Steven's Resolve is a much cheaper way to set up what you need.
 
@MoFoTY86 im going through this right now. My kids are at the age to understand the game but not the concepts of strategy fully. I have about another 2 years before they are in that range. I still like playing competitively and like playing irl but I too don’t have the time for cups and regionals. This kills me because worlds is going to be in my backyard of Washington DC this year.

So what I am going to do is keep about 3-4 decks that I can play with through the rest of standard format this year. Even if it means I don’t put new cards in from new sets. I’m also trying to sell off all my bulk. If anyone has any recommendations of places to sell to I would appreciate it. From now on I will play at my local tournament once a month but focus more on the Pokebeach monthly tournament and that is where I will continue to play after rotation. I will just buy some PTCGO cards for some new sets which for each set to get the certain cards your looking for you can do for about 20 bucks. I will just do that for each set and then buy irl cards with any winnings from the monthly Pokebeach tournament.

I hope it all works out.
 
Otaku said:
@arulz Okay... so is the Pokémon TCG Online not an option or just not an appealing one for you? ;)

Granted you still have to get the cards in game, but if you stick with it it isn't too hard to maintain a few competitive decks, even when you're a free-to-player like me. :)
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For me it’s the aesthetic of real cards :) it’s so much more fun to actually hold them in your hand!! (In my opinion)

and even if I personally have competitive decks online, that doesn’t mean my wife and all my friends will. Vs doing proxies we all can!
 
arulz said:
For me it’s the aesthetic of real cards :) it’s so much more fun to actually hold them in your hand!! (In my opinion)

and even if I personally have competitive decks online, that doesn’t mean my wife and all my friends will. Vs doing proxies we all can!
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You do you. :) I do want to clarify my side of things, in case any of it applies to you in the future.

I do love the feel of real cards. What I do not love is having to buy so many secondary products to protect those cards because using them for half of their intended purpose (card game) slowly (and sometimes not so slowly) destroys them. XP Building a deck is fun... when you've got the time. It is frustrating when you're in a hurry: kind of nice being able to just use a Search Function or even Import an entire list. Keeping up multiple decks is easier this way as well; as long as I have a card, I can use it in... I'm sure there actually is a maximum number of decks you're allowed, but it is so high I've never reached it, even with dozens of older Expanded Format decks that are really Standard Format decks from past rotations I never deleted. XP I remember the hassle of needing to transfer multiple staples from deck to deck or else invest in multiple playsets. Even when something wasn't too hard to come by, that was one less set of staples of could trade or even just give to a new player.

An upside of the PTCGO route, the World Championship deck route, or even the "Recent Theme Decks" route is you're still supporting the game's infrastructure. Maybe you're doing that already, anyway... but for me personally I wasn't for several years because I couldn't afford the packs and barely managed to play even with proxies or older cards. The PTCGO gave me a place to earn virtual cards in an official manner, and a place to play with others even when I'm stuck at home. :)

Oh... and if your wife and friends actually enjoy the game, they should be able to grind and keep up at least one "real" deck. If they are only playing because you're supplying them with cards, yeah, things get awkward... but even then you can trade them what they need. You cannot just "gift" cards in the PTCGO, but trades can be Private and you can trade Card X for Card X plus a bunch of other stuff. I haven't done it a lot, but in the years since I started playing I have essentially given away a few staples to help others get started. :)

Again, all of this is more to explain myself than to change your mind, though I of course was trying to be somewhat persuasive, especially near the end. ;) Regardless, happy gaming.
 
Sounds like the PTCGO system is best for you and what your needs are :) which is awesome

most of what you’re saying doesn’t really apply to my situation haha xD which is fine, as all of your arguments are valid, they just don’t apply to my situation

I’m printing high quality proxies and playing with them, and sleeving them in front of with worthless common cards. In this way, we can for a few dollars per deck, have the enjoyment of the real card experience, while being accessible to people (like myself!) who don’t have the patience to grind for many many many hours to get multiple decks on PTCGO. (Or spend money on code cards). We play almost exclusively expanded, and have about 10 decks sleeved up that we can all enjoy together. Occasionally I buy some real cards to bling a few decks out, but for the most part they’re all proxies. (Plus of course I have some staples from my old collection that make about 2 or 3 decks worth

I think the idea that “if they really enjoy the game they’ll spend x number of hours grinding on it” is not a healthy mindset to have. There’s plenty of board games people “really enjoy” and the reason they work is because you can pick up and play. They fit into a busy lifestyle.

So for what we do, the PTCGO is just second best. It either costs time or $$, and doing proxies just costs less of both, plus has the added benefit of the enjoyment of physical cards. AND if I want to buy a full art Lysandre or Blacephalon GX for the fun of it, I can do that too.

Again though what we do isn’t the best for everyone, and it sounds like PTCGO is best for you which is awesome. But looking at pros and cons, doing proxies with a few real cards is the way to go for us
 
Thank you all for the kind suggestions and advice. Looks like these World Championship decks can be my best bet, especially for PTCGO. Since I won't be buying new cards, that also means no new code cards of the new sets so I won't be able to get the new cards and feel like I am behind when I am on PTCGO.
 
MoFoTY86 said:
Thank you all for the kind suggestions and advice. Looks like these World Championship decks can be my best bet, especially for PTCGO. Since I won't be buying new cards, that also means no new code cards of the new sets so I won't be able to get the new cards and feel like I am behind when I am on PTCGO.
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I'm actually a bit confused now. ^^'

1) I've never purchased a World Championship Deck, but I double-checked; while they come with a PTCGO redemption code, it is for a deck box, sleeves, and coin. Of course, for playing with physical cards, none of that matters but the above post did keep mentioning the PTCGO.

2) If you purchase a real-life Theme Deck, the ones that release alongside each new expansion, they do come with a PTCGO redemption code for the actual deck. You may also just spend 500 Tokens to purchase them from the in-game store, which I have done for every theme deck currently available there. Either way, you'll have all cards from the Theme Deck available for building decks in Standard, Expanded, Legacy, or Unlimited (assuming the cards are still legal for the Format in question), plus you'll have the deck for the Theme Format. Sadly, there aren't Theme Format tournaments for the physical TCG, which is a shame; it is a great way for "casuals" to enter the game and get a taste for competitive play.

3) As for keeping up with the new sets on the PTCGO, I'm more or less keeping up without spending any money on it. Too much time? Definitely at first, but not too bad now. The main thing is to learn how to trade and when it is best to grind some Event (in-game tournament) wins for Trading Fodder. Now, if you have almost no time then yeah, those options don't work too well.

So... with all of that said, still confused with your post talking about buy World Championship Theme Decks for the PTCGO. @_@ Did I just have a reading comprehension fail or what?
 
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