Help Getting into Expanded: Where to Start!?

HouchinsDJ

HouchinsDJ

Aspiring Trainer
Member
So I noticed that a lot of the regionals this year, especially the ones closest to me, are Expanded Format. This is concerning because I've never seriously played Expanded before. I got into the TCG about a year ago, when last year's rotation hit, so this is really my first rotation. I've thought about getting into Expanded in the past but it was always a little daunting because there's a way bigger card pool to choose from, decks that I've never played against, and I know some of the older cards aren't easy to get. So I guess my first question for getting into Expanded is, what are the "staple" cards you see in Expanded decks? Also, if you have any suggestions on a good first Expanded deck, let me know! I'm just trying to find a good place to start.
 
I'm pressed for time, so I'm mostly going to focus on a potential source for affordable Expanded Format staples; the Battle Arena deck series that begins with "Xerneas Vs Yveltal", though that one is not one of the better ones. "Mewtwo Vs Darkrai", "Keldeo VS Rayquaza", and "Black Kyruem VS White Kyurem" are better.

The thing is, if you've been playing competitively in Standard, a lot of the same cards are staples.

  • Professor Sycamore is just joined by Professor Juniper, except you cannot use both in the same deck so if you've got the former, the latter is just an aesthetic option
  • N
  • VS Seeker (granted, by this point it will be an Expanded-only option)
  • Ultra Ball
  • Tapu Lele-GX
  • Guzma
  • Etc.
It will be deck specific options that are likely to change, like how you build certain decks that exist in both Formats or decks that only exist in the Expanded Format. We also don't already have a major event to verify if some of the newer cards have usurped the place of older staples, such as AZ versus Acerola.
 
Since you've already been playing Standard, I'd recommend starting by converting a standard deck you have to expanded. That will help reduce the number of older cards to obtain while staying playable. From there, check out some of these expanded staples:
  • ACE Spec cards (One copy allowed super strong items)
  • VS Seeker (Grab supporter from discard)
  • Battle Compressor (Discard 3 cards from your deck. Great for removing irrelevant techs or utilizing early VS Seekers)
  • Hypnotoxic Laser (Instant poison & coin flip sleep condition)
  • Colress (Shuffle and draw equal to all benched Pokemon in play)
  • Blacksmith (Attach 2 fire energy from your discard pile to a Pokemon)
  • Shaymin-EX (Draw to 6 cards)
  • Exeggcute (Can be returned to your hand from the discard pile. Good for ultra ball & other discard requirements)
  • Check out the older stadium cards that may prove useful deck dependent
Once you've gotten into the format some, I'd look into expanded heavy decks & techs for match-ups. There are a lot of cards and decks that are viable in expanded so this is trickier to get into.
 
I agree with Otaku about the Battle Arena decks being a good place to acquire staples. For expanded, I specifically recommend Keldeo/Ray because it includes battle compressors. That can be huge for a lot of expanded decks. It also opens you up to a lot more T1 plays. Now you can Lele for whatever supporter if you get access to Lele, and if not, you can often play Battle Compressor + VS Seeker to discard and then retrieve whatever you want. Having access to any supporter you want at almost any point in the game is HUGE.
 
Thanks for the tips! I actually bought the Keldeo/Rayquaza battle decks like a year ago because they had a lot of cards I needed for the Greninja deck I was running at the time. After doing a bit of research today, I'm leaning towards trying Trevenant. I have most of the cards needed for it online so I can at least try it out there first.
 
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