General Troubles/"Personal" Issues with the TCG

Ms Hugo

Ms Hugo

Aspiring Trainer
Member
(Sorry if this is in the wrong place)

Well I've been struggling with the Pokemon TCG for a short while now, I'm unable to pinpoint exactly what it is but it's meant that I'm having trouble getting motivated with the game at the moment.

I think part of it is the fact that I'm interested in getting into competitive, but Expanded (which I despise) is everywhere, and whenever I try to come up with a deck for Standard, I give up on it instantly due to it having some glaring flaw in it against one of the top tier decks (Yveltal, Manectric, Night March etc) and I just lose confidence.

When I try to come up with a deck to use for fun, I get demotivated when I play against one of the top decks, and drop it almost instantly. If I play a deck that's consistent (Bronzong/Dragons is one of my personal favourites), there's something in it that people find objectionable (Toad, or Giratina for example) and I've been sneered at for playing "meta" decks. So once again, this makes me lose confidence and faith in myself, because I feel cheap for playing these decks when others aren't.

Without wanting to get too personal, Pokemon is one of the few things I feel I can enjoy in my life at the moment, and it's getting difficult when I have these issues, along with the fact that I only get 1 chance to play per week and it's an hour away from where I live.

I guess I was just wondering what advice you would give to someone in my situation? I used to really enjoy this game and looked forward to going every week, and for some reason that's disappeared.
 
I personally am not liking the amount of recycling making its way through the current format, and in addition to time restraints, I've sorta dropped from playing the game much like you.

Why do you despise Expanded? I actually find that I prefer it, mainly because rogues work better in that environment. I created a deck during late in the last rotation that is fairly unique and should work quite well in Expanded (but will need touchups due to the meta changes caused by recent expansions), if you'd like me to send you it.

For Standard decks, is there a particular rogue combination you're sorta wanting to make work? If so, I can try to help you with it, and see if it can stand up to Yveltal, Man and Night March.

Also, are you at least somewhat good at what you play? Are you the one beating the people that are sneering at you. The reason for people sneering at you could easily be a combination of jealously, but in the case of Toad and Giratina, it's more that they're not fun decks to play against. Another thing I just thought up - do people generally consider you easy to pick on (or bully)? That would explain why people sneer at you and not others.

My advice honestly would be too ignore them. Think about it this way: Jason won US Nationals for 2015 using a Shaymin/Toad build... which was a top contender for the tournament by basically everyone. This, however, does not make the win "cheap". The main reason Jason won was because he was skillful at the game. If you play using a Tier 1 deck, win the game and the game was challenging, you won because of YOU who made a good meta choice, played well, built the deck well etc; not because the deck is good.

If you know anyone in your area that plays Pokemon who are near your skill level, you may like to take a step back and play some casual games/games with EX restrictions. It's fresher and just as enjoyable as piloting a deck you built yourself, and it would bring back the fun that can be lost in a negative community, which is what your area seems to be.
 
Thankyou for your helpful comment.

I think I was a bit down when I wrote this, so I wouldn't say I despise Expanded. What I don't like is its prevelence in my area, and I personally like playing with new cards and am not willing to drop £20+ for a format that will probably rotate out in September, especially considering I'm not too confident in my play anyway (I can barely bring myself to go to league challenges). But I would like to see this list, if only for creativity reasons.

I don't feel like my community is particularly toxic, and maybe I've overstated it a bit. The people saying such things are a minority, but they are particularly vocal about it. They are also friends and I used to play with them (they've quit the game over what they consider OP cards), but would always make me feel bad without fail for using powerful cards or trying out meta decks.

I think I may take the time to try out some fun decks, or decks that are effective but that aren't displayed as being top tier on here. Maybe I've just sucked myself into the "competitive" scene too much...
 
Sure, I'll send over the list.

Yeah, the best treatment is to ign0re them. You may like to go ask some other players who play meta decks what they think about playing meta decks, or even make a thread in the TCG Competitive Play. It should give you a bit more confidence and insight on why people play meta decks.

All competitive scenes can get somewhat toxic, but you may have jumped in a bit too quickly. It is nice to step back sometimes.
 
@Ms Hugo
As in life, there are "haters" in gaming communities too. Ignore and "rise above" that unproductive and negative "noise" and just be true to yourself. Your time is too precious to waste of those folks.

I'd suggest developing your own "community" of positive players who share similar Pokemon interests, as well as being players you enjoy playing with and sharing/discussing deck and/or card ideas. The Internet (e.g., Pokebeach, TCGOne.net, etc.) makes it easier to recognize and find positive, supportive Poke-pals.
 
TuxedoBlack said:
@Ms Hugo
As in life, there are "haters" in gaming communities too. Ignore and "rise above" that unproductive and negative "noise" and just be true to yourself. Your time is too precious to waste of those folks.

I'd suggest developing your own "community" of positive players who share similar Pokemon interests, as well as being players you enjoy playing with and sharing/discussing deck and/or card ideas. The Internet (e.g., Pokebeach, TCGOne.net, etc.) makes it easier to recognize and find positive, supportive Poke-pals.
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I have to agree...I guess it's about finding out why I'm playing and how I like to have fun. I've decided to try and run a slightly more technical Seismitoad deck (Seismitoad/Empoleon) that will hopefully also give me a chance in Standard cities.

In response to your second point, there are a couple of people at my League that will talk to me about decks over Facebook a lot more now. So I suppose I'm making steps. For personal reasons I haven't been able to make League that often, but I am trying.

Thanks for your comment!
 
I'm in the same position, I really do enjoy TCG as I like the technique and making niche decks, but the problem at our local league is that there is only around 5 regular players, and 4 of them don't play competitively, so I can't deck test as much as I would like. This creates problems when I go to cities, regionals etc as there's loads of decks I haven't come across that I didn't think of (PTCGO just does not like to work on my laptop, so I can't even test on there!)

Makes me feel really disheartened on some of my loses as I know if I had tested against different decks I would've played differently, and that irritates me.

I wouldn't listen to the people who sneer at your decks. For me seeing different decks that people have poured their heart in is part of the game; imagine everyone playing the same boring tier 1 deck again and again. When fairy transfer was popular I used to play that despite being advised against it; I'd usually top 16 but not get any further but I didn't care as I loved the deck.

I hope you get the TCG love bug back, if it isn't that I would say for the friends etc that you make on the way :)
 
I see a ton of excuses in these posts.

I'll win more rounds at a tournament to my worst matchup's then to my best matchup's, I spend more time testing to exploit decks then I do to test against key matchups (which explains cities for me in a nut shell), I encourage you just test your decks over all, every deck has some kind of a flaw and if you want to play at the top table of any tournament playing for consistency for both you and your opponent is how you get there. What you have and what your opponent has as well is how you win, not every deck is flawless, the player is.

I understand that indecision as I used to be that kind of player a long time ago, don't question yourself no matter what people say, people may offer different strategies but you play the deck.
 
Yo-yos said:
I see a ton of excuses in these posts.

I'll win more rounds at a tournament to my worst matchup's then to my best matchup's, I spend more time testing to exploit decks then I do to test against key matchups (which explains cities for me in a nut shell), I encourage you just test your decks over all, every deck has some kind of a flaw and if you want to play at the top table of any tournament playing for consistency for both you and your opponent is how you get there. What you have and what your opponent has as well is how you win, not every deck is flawless, the player is.
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But... the OP is talking about the enjoyable factor of the TCG, not particularly the competitive...? Hence I don't see what these "excuses" are.
 
Excuse's are ignoring players, you cannot ignore players if you have to play against them, they can't help who they are but that doesn't mean you have to listen to what they say either.
 
Yo-yos said:
[...]but that doesn't mean you have to listen to what they say either.
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That's what people mean when they say "ignore". You wouldn't go around not bothering talking to said people, that's wouldn't really do you much good. :p
 
They can't help who they are but that doesn't mean you have to listen to what they say either.
 
Hmm...

I actually have had some motivation issues myself. Though I've had times where I was almost totally inactive and even attempted to quit twice: once because someone claimed Gym Heroes and Gym Challenge were a reboot of the game (obviously this was way, waaaay back) and once earlier last year. I cannot afford to play the game in real life and I'd honestly stayed involved for the community and/or because I love writing CotDs (even if I make a good deal of mistakes). Then when my old computer finally started having enough issues to justify replacing it (with a used one found via Craigslist), it turned out the new one could handle the PTCGO whereas the older one could not.

This allowed me to finally get playing again and reviewing again but... I'm not enjoying playing all that much. I mostly grind for the in game rewards and that is it. I do not care for the direction the game has been and continues to take.
 
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