Help A Yugioh Player Get In To Pokemon?

[TheRedShadow]

So alright, I've been in the Yugioh-scene since like 2005ish, and still am competitively. I've always loved playing the Pokemon card game also, but Baltimore, MD practically has a dead playerbase for it, so I could never find anyone to help keep me motivated to keep up and play. Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places, but oh well. In any case, me and a friend of mine would like to get in to the game again, and I was in the process of making a Plasmaklang deck last year, but after Shift Gear got rotated out, I heard that it was a very poor deck choice to make, so I gave up on it lol (although I still do have all of it, including my full-art Cobalion EX's).

Back when I actually did play years back, my best deck was an Infernape Lv-X Fire-Mill deck, and although it was fun to play, it really wasn't anything remotely meta (I think at the time, SP's and that Shuppet+Pluspower deck was the brokeness before it was errata'd). In Yugioh, I typically play aggro combo-based decks that are fun to play, and not just about sitting on one card all game, every game. What would you guys suggest for a player like me to really learn the game?

 

[My Little Keldeo]

RE: Help A Yugioh-Player Get In To Pokemon?

Unfortunately, due to Pokemon's high prevelance of search power compared to other games, including Yugioh, most metagame decks (including Klingklang) do revolve around one "main" attacker that you want to use every game (In that case Cobalion-Ex). However, you will be pleased to know that fast, aggressive decks are a major part of Pokemon's metagame, and the newest sets are tipping the odds in their favor even more. Any big basics with Garbodor deck is right up your alley. As the name suggests, these decks run bulky Pokemon (generally EXs like Mewtwo, Landorus, and Yveltal) to start racking up the damage fast and Garbodor to block the opponent's abilities. The strategy is straightforward and great for both new and experienced players.

 

[Auride]

RE: Help A Yugioh-Player Get In To Pokemon?

What I generally suggest to new players is to take a look at the Deck Garage forum. There you can find a ton of community-made lists with strategies listed for them. If you look at these lists carefully, you can get an idea of what cards are staples, and what goes well with what (make sure you always look up the scans for the cards you don't know. You can find scans for all modified-legal cards through the PB homepage). These threads also include strategy blurbs that can give you a basic idea of how each deck plays. Based on that, pick a few (not too many. maybe 2-4) decks that appeal to you and test them out in an online simulator.

At the moment, PlayTCG might be your best option, as it's free, but uses a mostly manual interface. Other options are TCGOne, which is also free, and has an automatic interface (rules, effects, and actions are built into the simulator), but lacks some of the most recently released modified cards and is slow to update at times; and PTCGO, which is the official simulator, but requires that you acquire your own cards through codes found in booster packs.

After you've done some testing, figure out which decks are fun and which decks aren't. Then, you can either searching for decks similar to the ones you liked, or refine those decks based on what you think would improve the deck. Eventually, you'll just get better at deck-building and playing until you have something decent on your hands.

Besides the above, if you want to get into physical play, look for leagues in your area (using the league-locator which can be found on the Pokemon TCG website) and find a time when you can attend. Leagues are for-fun weekly events where you can play whatever you want (including non-modified cards, so long as your opponent agrees to it, and proxies). I also recommend attending pre-release events for each set that comes out (the next being Phantom Forces in November) so you can your hands on new cards and gain some insight into potential new strategies.

Lastly, you might learn something by reading articles written by experienced players (which you can find on sites like http://google.com/), and watching videos of these same players in action. Matches from the US Nationals and World Championships can be found on the official Pokemon YouTube channel, and regular gameplay can be found on a variety of fan-channels, such as TheTopCut.

Have fun!