Help New Player(s) ... Needing Guidance! :)

K

Kamkraft

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Hi Guys,

I'm a noobie Pokemon TCG player which tbh started as a fun hobby to take up with my Son (Who is 8).

We bought 2 physical theme decks (Wave slasher and Electric Eye I believe their called) and played several games, we then started to buy booster packs in the attempt of improving our decks as to be honest, the theme decks are a little clunky (And that's coming from a new player).

Last weekend we decided to redeem all our codes online and take it up a level, which I must say is a great way to learn quicker as I've soon realised we have been playing wrong in small ways.

Although thoroughly enjoying the online aspect of the game, we've still not updated our decks much and to be honest I don't have a clue where to start.

In Versus most of the time I come up against EX decks which are a nightmare for us to beat, and personally I'm very competitive and could quiet easily see myself wanting to go to tournaments at some point.

The point of this post is to 1) to say hello but 2) ask for advice, whats a cheap budget deck i'm likely to get sorted through online trading easily to get me started.
We do have a couple of EX's which we got from online boosters, but really need direction on what to trade them for.

Any and all help appreciated,
Thanks in advance....

Kamkraft
 
I can think of about 4 budget decks atm that are somewhat competitive

Night march (expanded only)
Vespiquen
passimian/mew
golduck/starmie

here's some advice I give to new players at my league
starting point for deck construction is 20 Pokémon, 12 energy, 28 trainers (10 of which are supporters) adjust as needed for the deck from there

the cards you want to focus on acquiring first are playsets of the staple trainers (professor sycamore, N, vs seeker, ultra ball, level ball, double colorless energy, etc) as you use these in all your decks and they tend to stick around longer in format then specific Pokémon cards.
 
Hi Trey, thanks for the response... Much appreciated.

After some research and looking at what I had I've decided to try build the Passimian/ mew deck.

After some trading last night I'm about 80% of the way there. Just need to try track down a few of the harder trainers, and the Mew's.

Hope to get done by weekend :)
 
Do you have much of a budget to spend on real life cards? Will most of your playing be done in person or online? Unfortunately the theme decks are not competitive at all and are as you noticed clunky and filled with dead cards. They are only useful as the most basic introduction to the game, and in the "Theme deck" mode online, which is actually an ok way to play in the tournament mode online and win packs. I'd highly recommend picking up the Keldio/Rayquaza Battle Arena deck ($25-30), as it gives some great staple trainers for both Standard/Expanded, plus the bare bones of two decent Expanded decks. You'll also get a code card to get each card and both decks online. Also, the elite trainer boxes are a decent way to get packs, sleeves, a storage box, and a nice dice set to use as a randomizer and damage counters. ($30-40 depending on age of set)

Regarding the code cards you get from packs, most players use those as currency in the game. It's highly recommended that you never open a tradable pack and instead save it to trade for something you actually want. Since most decks use various EX/GX cards that you don't open often, it's more cost efficient to trade 10 packs for a Decidueye GX than to open 10 packs and hope you get one, but end up getting filler junk cards. Obviously open the non-tradable packs, and if you get lucky you get lucky. :)

How soon do you think you'll wait before going to real tournaments? If you don't plan on going any time soon you can look into the World Championship decks. These give you the top decks from the World Championships last year relatively inexpensively. ($12-15 at Amazon now) The downside to these are the WC decks have a different card back, therefore they are NOT LEGAL for tournament play. However, if you are playing casually with your son or even casual play at a local league (With sleeves) most people won't care. At my league several players use the WC cards as an easy way to get extra Shaymin EX, VS Seeker, and various trainers that way they have several decks to play with. They have their playset of the "Real" cards for when they play a formal tournament, but during the causal league play the WC cards allow us to cheaply have 3-4 decks flushed out. Again, they are not legal for tournament play though. (The only one I don't recommend is the Greninja break one as all those real cards can be had relatively inexpensive anyway)

I'd highly recommend looking for a local league to play at. This is the event locator, which you can use to look up one near you. https://www.pokemon.com/us/play-pokemon/pokemon-events/find-an-event/ You're also coming in at a good time, this weekend and next weekend are the Pre-release weekends for the next set. Playing in that type of tournament is a great way to get new packs at a little bit of a discount.

Which EX cards do you have and do any interest you enough to try to build a deck around? Also, do you plan on favoring Standard or Expanded or both (Online and in person)?

Hopefully I answered as many questions as I asked! If you have any more questions feel free to post again.


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Standard disclaimer anytime I mention World Championship cards: They are not legal for tournament play. Only use them during casual play, and they must be sleeved with sleeves that are not in the least bit transparent if they are mixed with normal cards. Bad things will happen if you take them to a tournament. Don't do it.
 
Hi Guardian,

Thanks for the reply... A lot to take in and reply to on my phone but will cover a couple of notes now and revisit later.

Unfortunately I'm not loaded rich, But I'm comfortable enough to drop £20 to £50 a month on cards if required. (Bearing in mind I'd be building a couple of decks for me and my son).

We had probably 20 packs when I first signed up online which we had bought, wish I had your advice before as I could of traded them!

That said we did get maybe 5/ EXs a few I've traded away now trying to build the Passimian/Mew deck.

Originally I was trying to aim for a Mega ampharos deck as I have 2 Ampharos ex and 1 mega ampharos but mainly because I love the colour Yellow.... Until I realised how hard it is to trade for cards :(

As for attending tournaments I had a look on the link and the closest place to me is about 50 miles which is fine but unfortunately not just down the road....
I will certainly attend some but only once I've built a use able (physicl) deck.

Thanks,
Kam
 
Ok so got the Passimian/ Mew deck built yesterday....

I'm not 10 wins for 1 loss.

Also came second in a 89 coin tournament so well chuffed so far!

Thanks all.
 
Hi Kam!

I was in your situation a few months ago and there is still lots I need to learn myself! I highly recommend the Battle Arena set guardian recommended, it was one of the first things I bought and enabled me to setup decks to play with.

I also noticed by the £ that you are UK. There are some good sites to buy cards from online like Chaos Cards, MagicMadhouse, Chase Games and KO Collectibles (although it's down due to technical). Also if you're on facebook there are a lot of good groups for buying cards and code cards from people.
 
@Kamkraft

So you're trying to do both the physical TCG and the PTCGO, right?

As others have mentioned, the Battle Arena Decks tend to be good there. If you can find them for a good price, the Darkrai VS Mewtwo and Keldeo VS Rayquaza ones have some really great cards. I am writing this quickly, off the top of my head, so please pardon me if I transposed the names.

I don't play the physical TCG much anymore, but I can give you some solid advice for the PTCGO. I've been on there since 2014 and while I don't have every card, I've got a far better collection than I ever enjoyed in real life. If you've never been there before, learn to check the official PTCGO forums here. Besides getting news announcements for the PTCGO a bit more quickly, if you're logged in you can view the In-Game Item Exchange subforum. Why does that matter?

There are multiple groups of organized traders who maintain long-running threads. These "trading companies" provide an effective price guide for the PTCGO. Since you said you were reading on your phone, I don't want to overwhelm you with details. Let me know how much you know of trading on the PTCGO. There's basically a game within a game for it, and some folks never really figure it out.

...

(Someone helped me XP)
 
Hey @Kamkraft just want to reiterate what these guys said. Passimian/Mew deck is a good budget deck to start with and I hope it will get you insight to some of the decks you will be playing against. Also yes. Keldeo vs Rayquaza Battle Arena Decks are a good start to get staples and decent decks. There is s new one coming out in June/July: Black Kyurem vs White Kyurem. Which will have staples as the previous Battle Arena deck. Some YouTube channels that can help you with deck making.: Team Fish Knuckles, PTCG Radio and WorldRenownedHeretic. Just a few that i follow. Good luck!
 
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