New Player Building a Collection, Aiming at Competitive

Nicolas_Uncaged

Nicolas_Uncaged

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I have been a long time competitive magic the gathering player and for the past few months I've been gaining an interest in the pokemon tcg. Currently I am unable to play at many magic events due to my job, but next year i'll be moving to Japan so I thought it would be good to delve deeper into this game since Tokyo is the center for many pokemon events and I want to do something outside of the video game itself.

Recently I bought the arena decks featuring darkrai and mewtwo seeing as how many said its a good start. I also bought an elite training box of the new set that's releasing. I know that buying singles is always the most efficient way to build a competitive deck, but I want to first build up a decent collection with some things to try out since it will be a year before I can really start playing.

Currently I'm looking to see which sets are good to buy packs of that should hold value or atleast get me some decent cards to play with/trade off. If possible I'd like some clarification on which cards should still be standard playable in the next year.

My budget is around 180~200 a month if need be since my magic collection is already pretty big and I can get by without having to spend much on it at this point.


TL;DR: which sets should I begin buying to start a collection with the goal of playing competitively a year from now?
 
I would definitely suggest buying single cards vs. packs with random contents.

Also, before actually investing in cards, I would suggest checking the Deck Garage and find deck(s) that interest you. Start building a deck, with proxy cards if need be, and test it. Make any necessary changes, and test some more. After you've settled on your list, then buy the cards you might need.

There are 2 game play formats for next season. Recently announced was that the Standard format will only include sets from PRC on (i.e., to the most current set). The Expanded set, not yet officially announced, will include a few more sets. Sanctioned tournaments will specify which format will be legal for that particular tournament.
 
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my main issue with buying singles and building a deck now would be the fact that i have no means of playing in tournaments for a year, so whatever i build may no longer be viable or may new rotations/additional sets may just make entirely new meta decks. is it that difficult to get a decent return on buying boxes? with magic the gathering, singles are still the best way to build decks, but buying a box would usually yield decent enough cards where it either paid for the box or got a little above or below that threshold.
 
Roaring Skies, Phantom Forces, and Plasma Freeze are all good packs to buy, but buy singles. Shaymin-EX is always going to be good, and it's probably going to stay in the game for awhile. Same with VS Seeker. Sycamore, Ultra Ball, and N are good staple supporters to invest in as they've been reprinted recently and probably won't leave the format. Volcanion-EX toolbox might be a good deck for you to proxy, as it was just printed and might have some longevity (as long as a tool removal card is printed in Evolutions).
 
Is shaymin used in the extended format as well and if so, should i get 4 of them or would that be overkill?

I also know that singles are always be the best way to build a competitive deck, but at the moment I can't play anything but the online game due to my location so i figured getting packs would let me build a small collection and allow me to get some stuff for the online game with the codes. I will eventually buy singles once i can start going to events, but at the moment that is not an option for me.
 
Three is a good count for Shaymin, and it's way cheaper to just buy the codes. If you really want to buy packs, buy booster boxes.
 
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