Help How can I improve my skills/become a better player?

FlashRayquaza

FlashRayquaza

Rayquaza Fan
Member
The title is basically my question/problem. When I attend tournaments, I am often not satisfied with the results. I feel like at least 40% of my losses are caused by single misplays (such as powering up the wrong Pokémon) or general lack of playing skill (for example, not perfect plays, mini-misplays, or not playing right against certain decks), while at least another 20% seems to be lost due to a bad decklist. (the other losses: bad luck such as dead hands or bricking, bad matchups).

This is why I want to improve my skills. But I simply do not know what's the best way to do so. Daily training on PTCGO? Playtesting with proxy cards?

Another problem is my deck. My choice is often no very good metacall, my lists are somehow not that good, and my biggest problem is that I often do not completely understand the deck (for example, I have no idea what the gameplan against a certain matchup looks like). How can I choose a good deck for a tournament? How do I improve my decklist? And, what can I do to completely understand my deck and react right to certain matchups?

I am aware that one can't become a great player from one day to the next, so I will invest my time in training. I appreciate any help!
 
As with anything, the time you put into something will eventually reap its benefits. Now, just going online and grinding games won't help. Having a firm understanding of your own deck should be the foundation of your testing. Your ideal first-turn or second-turn setup is going to be different for a Malamar deck than a Rayquaza-GX deck, so understanding the goal and strategy and purpose of each card in your deck is critical.

When you test online, think about executing that strategy. You're gonna mess up to start off (as you described with the misattachments and suboptimal decisions) but you will learn from those mistakes, which you can add to your mental toolkit in the heat of the moment. As you progress in the game and with your deck, you'll usually be able to auto-pilot your first couple of turns because you'll know exactly what you need to do. Keep doing so as you get closer and closer to victory and see what other microdecisions you'll have to make, and continue to practice.

Metagaming is one of the most important (if not the most important) and most difficult skills that even I have trouble with. You have to know what the meta is and have an idea as to what to expect when walking into an event, and be ready to play against those top-tier decks. If you walk in unprepared, you're going to have a bad time.
 
One thing that I like to do when starting a new deck that isn't a really out there rouge deck is to look on Limitless TCG, find a decklist, and then look over it and for EACH individual card say, why is this in here? What purpose does it serve? Is this the best way for this deck to do that? That should help you as far as deck building goes. As far as misplays go I find that when you are playing a PTCGO game, it helps me to almost commentate on what I am trying to do. For some reason, it helps to say it out loud as opposed to just thinking it. Also, keep in mind that you need to practice with your deck. The more you play with your deck, the more you learn its intracity and learn how to do things you would have missed before.
 
What I try to do is to sit down and finish the rewards ladder each day I decide to play. That way, in order to save yourself time, you're incentivized to not suck. So for me, it's a couple of nights worth of long sessions each week that I "practice."

Grinding the ladder every day will get boring if you're using the same deck each day, so I try out a variety of decks. Eventually I gravitate towards something I find myself playing more frequently than others and that I'm comfortable with. I think that getting exposure to a lot of different decks will allow you to get a grasp on matchups (and it's really important to know matchups from both perspectives), and you can think more about individual card choices and whatnot.

I also credit the monthly tournaments here for really helping me improve my game. It's easy to develop the tendency to play ladder games mindlessly, so having these Bo3 matches with some stakes involved has really helped me focus on all aspects of my game and play more intelligently. If you have a good local scene, I'd go to those as well!

But yeah, those are some of my habits. Really just practice, and I'm sure the other responses on this thread will tell you more specifics. :p
 
Not a pro player here but I'll tell what's working for me:

1- Think about some 4,5 different first hands and what would I do in this case, from the best to the worst, it's helping me to improve my "ignition". What would be the best possible hand for this deck? What would be the worst possible one?

2- Do the maths (or probability) of what could be prized and act according to it instead of suffering.

3- Try the same deck at least 10 matches before trying something. I know it can be a punishment sometimes, but makes you understand more the patterns of what to improve in your deck.

4- Check Limitless TCG and similar deck sites for ideas and take notes of meta decks, you don't need to create the wheel by yourself to enjoy your benefits.

5- I make notes from my games, I do separate in blocks of 10 matches to sit and review those notes. Some come from bad luck, some from anger but mostly a pattern to recognize.
 
A good method to learning is to record each game you play and watch them back. When you're not in the heat of the moment, you'll see plays that you wouldn't have made. Seeing yourself play and reacting to it is a very good tool to have.
 
When preparing for a tournament, if you aren't able to attend tournaments often, playtest on PTCGO or do "dry runs" and see how consistent your deck is. A deck that is consistent is what will serve you best.

When teching against certain decks, 95% of the time, a tech will only 'bump your matchup by one'. Look at it like this, your matchups against any deck can be categorized by the following:

- autoloss
- unfavorable
- slightly unfavorable
- even
- slightly favorable
- favorable

A popular tech that gets thrown around in Expanded is Promo Giratina for Trevenant and Greninja decks. There is a large misconception that, if your deck is unfavorable against Trevenant, Promo Giratina makes the match favorable and you'll beat a Trevenant player. This is really untrue.

If you have an unfavorable matchup against a certain deck, a tech will more than likelt turn it slightly unfavorable. A tech is only worth a spot if you have spaces in your deck and can close the gap in a matchup to make it even.

That said, if you have an unfavorable matchup against a deck that is swarming the meta, a tech for it will not help you.


Look into probabilities. Rukan Shao has written a couple articles that deal with probability and drawing into outs. I'd get familiar with probabilities and get your head wrapped around it in terms of deckbuilding because it is valuable.

When I prepped for Dallas, I was worried that I'd face a lot of "Exodia" Zoroark decks as well as a lot of LEt Loose Marshadow. We worked on the deck enough to where it had favorable odds in drawing out of Red Card/Marshadow. We could have thrown a bunch of sycamore and N in the deck and called it a day, but we ran the odds of how many outs we had, probability of drawing said outs in a 4 card hand. If we get hit with Delinquent/Peeking Red Card afterwards, whats our odds against drawing out of that.

I didn't face Exodia the whole day, but I faced 3 Rayquaza-GX decks who were very liberal with Let Loose Marshadow. Got hit with Let Loose 16 times, could draw out of it once. LEarning and working with probability is a lifesaver.

Metagaming is tough. Focus on proper deckbuilding and understanding, when a deck does well, it includes what it includes.
 
A few more thoughts for your consideration:

Find good player(s) in your area that you can actually play-test with. In these games (with "top" decks - even if you need to proxy cards), converse openly with each other to discuss plays, game strategy, etc. Build upon game knowledge and tactics.

Study components of "top" decks. Discuss the "whys" certain cards are in these decks with your Poké pals and/or here in this online community.

If your previous lack of success can be attributed to "poorly" built decks, then submit your deck into the Deck Garage Forum for review and improvement suggestions. Also, sometimes you may find great deck ideas too in this Forum.

Play-test on websites like tcgone.net which is completely FREE. Build or copy "public" to play-test. Play-test lots of different decks. Find a few you like and that "fits" your style. Focus more play-test time on your preferred decks. Experiment with different versions of your preferred decks (e.g., I run 3 different versions each of my favorite decks). Find new Poké pals who are receptive to helping you "train" for tournaments too.

Learn the meta in your area and prepare accordingly for tournaments. Please note that the meta continuously changes given new card sets, areas, so-called "top" decks at the time, etc. Also, many players outside of your area may come and compete in your area's tournaments; so, even the "local" meta could become distorted.

Play-test, play-test, play-test a lot; and then play-test, play-test, play-test some more. Prepare for each upcoming tournament.

KNOW your deck - all 60 cards to the point that when you perform your first deck search, you should be able to predict what your prize cards are. ​

Please keep in mind that at a tournament, some things are out of your control like your match-ups, for example. Further, there will be times when you'll just encounter situations (e.g., opponent draws the right card, despite very low probability, to win the game) that are not in your control. DON'T WORRY ABOUT SUCH SITUATIONS since these can't be helped. Build a good deck, and play as best as you can. Take away some insights from each tournament to help you improve your capabilities for the next tournament. Lastly, have fun too.
 
I have a single playstyle that all of my decks fit. I call it the XY playstyle, because it was popular in XY. You simply power up everything as fast as you can, and go to town. It works relatively well, ecspecially with Silvally GX. BUT, the only condition is, it sucks when more than one Pokémon can be featured in the deck title. For example, it works great for Attacking Xurkitree GX, Silvally GX, and Rayquaza GX (notice one name) but doesn’t work for Vikabulu, the Forbidden Light Wimbledon Combo (Ultra Necrozma/Malamar) and Vikaray. Combo decks don’t work. Lost March doesn’t work. Latios <>/Altaria doesn’t work. Xerneas BREAK works. See the pattern?
I build all my decks to that style, and it just comes to me. I know what to do if I build around the shell. Now, I can make exceptions, like maybe teching in draw supporters. But more Pokémon? No.
Metagaming I find kind of easy, actually. You look at the top decks from the most recent regional, think about how to counter them, and do it. Sometimes, it’s just altering playstyle. You go full risky all out on turn 1 when facing Trevenant BREAK, etc.
That’s what I do. That’s probably not what you’re gonna do.

But, here’s the tip: if you play a deck with a particular playstyle, build your next deck around that style or similar to it, and then you can branch out into more versatility.
 
Although I do like speed decks, I much prefer tank decks and considering tomorrow I can officially bring my Scizor-gx out from the back burner, it's gonna be fun.
 
The following may seem utterly pointless... because I'm not sure how necessary it is. I believe it ultimately helps players but calling it a hypothesis is giving it more credit than it deserves because I haven't even worked it all out myself. XP I also don't want it to sound like the be all end all of getting good; it is just one facet, and I think some of the above posts at least touched upon it.

It is important to understand what works, but that's the beginning of understanding, not the end. @Merovingian brought up the concept of TecH. I think he left out one tiny thing, pertaining to the definition of TecH, namely that "technical advantage" is achieved as a trade-off. You're slapping in just one or two cards to counter something, even though that will sometimes cost you games versus if you were running more obvious choices, like additional cards to improve reliability. If it is worthwhile TecH, though, you'll still see a net gain as you improve some other key matchup through running those one or two cards.

Understanding why and how things work goes beyond that as well. Once you start, you become better at predicting what will and won't work, and under what circumstances. This helps in reacting during a game but also in planning what to play, and what to acquire for playing. This is where knowing the game's history can help, especially if you have friends that will help you test out older stuff.

Here's an example from the early days of the game. The modern Trainer card divisions did not exist back then; until the release of Gym Heroes, all Trainers were played the same as modern-day Item cards. This includes a card named "Bill", later re-released as a Supporter. Before that point, though, there was a debate. Bill simply lets you draw two cards. Sounds like a must-run. The catch is that it released alongside cards like Computer Search (originally not an Ace Spec), Energy Removal (Crushing Hammer without the coin flip), Item Finder (like Dowsing Machine but not an Ace Spec), Professor Oak (like Professor Juniper or Professor Sycamore but not a Supporter), etc. So the debate was do you run Bill to make your deck even more reliable or do you trust in what you already had (Computer Search, Item Finder, Professor Oak) and use that space to include more copies of extremely powerful Trainers... like Energy Removal and Gust of Wind? Thinking on things like that, even if you cannot come to a concrete answer, can help you better evaluate such dilemmas in the modern game as well. Even better is play-testing it as well.
 
Where ever your life leads you, just don't become a cancerous turd, Judging and marshadowing players while using the happy/crying emotes.
 
Fafnirchaos said:
Where ever your life leads you, just don't become a cancerous turd, Judging and marshadowing players while using the happy/crying emotes.
Click to expand...

I think he might be talking about me, yet I agree.

On that note, know when to get out. I loved Pokémon when it first came out: the video games, the TCG, the animation, even the western release of some of the comics. Let's just say I haven't appreciated the general direction of many things... but by that point, I'd already sunk so much time and effort into Pokémon, and I still enjoyed it on some level, so I stuck around when I probably should have called it quits. ^^'

Which actually is relevant to the discussion, because there's a chance you're going to try as hard as you can to get better and... it's barely going to make a difference. You need to be okay with this investment paying small dividends.
 
There's no substitute for practice, most of my improvement came from just playing a lot and getting a superb understanding of one (usually rogue) deck at a time. That said, understanding the meta is helpful, and places like Limitless and Pokestats are great for giving you hard numbers about what decks you need to beat, although it's admittedly a moving target.

It's also useful to just watch high-level play, be it tournaments or just youtube videos and twitch streams - look at what decisions good players are making, and if you don't understand why (at least when they're streaming), by all means ask.
 
Otaku said:
I think he might be talking about me, yet I agree.

On that note, know when to get out. I loved Pokémon when it first came out: the video games, the TCG, the animation, even the western release of some of the comics. Let's just say I haven't appreciated the general direction of many things... but by that point, I'd already sunk so much time and effort into Pokémon, and I still enjoyed it on some level, so I stuck around when I probably should have called it quits. ^^'

Which actually is relevant to the discussion, because there's a chance you're going to try as hard as you can to get better and... it's barely going to make a difference. You need to be okay with this investment paying small dividends.
Click to expand...

No I wasn't about you. That day I was getting judged and marshadowed every second match with people using those emotes. I get that disrupting your opponent is a good strategy but gloating about it just makes you a pompous rump
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top