New to the Game and Have a Few Questions

Zing

Zing

Lean Mean Green Machine
Member
My daughter received a few Pokémon cards from a friend at school a few weeks ago. The next thing I know, we are at the store buying the Fennekin and Chespin starter decks. Over the weeks since then, we have bought all of the XY and Flashfire theme decks as well as several tins and a two boxes of boosters! My girlfriend also got into it, with a Froakie starter, a couple theme decks, and many booster packs. I have a stack of over 100 online code cards (unused) as a testament to our newfound enjoyment of this game.

I have a few questions and observations. Note that we only use XY series cards, and have no interest in older cards for various reasons. We are slowly (ha!) working our way through the series and have just broken into Furious Fists. We also have a self-imposed ban on buying singles, but are open to trades with "outsiders".

I have played many, many TCGs over the past 20 years. I find Pokémon to be one of the most difficult for new players to build playable, consistent decks. Unless you are building off a theme deck, you will need to spend a lot of money on booster packs just to get staples. I believe this is due to the nine different types of energy, making each pack contain a lot of "useless" cards to someone who just uses a few types.

The most bizarre thing for me is the handling of energy. At the rate we have pulled energy from boosters, we would need to open four booster boxes (144 packs at over $500) to get enough energy to even run a "three colour" deck. I get an energy every four packs or so. I currently have at most, three of a single type. Why does the company even bother to put energy in the packs?

This essentially forced us to buy theme decks. Even so, until we delved into Flashfire, we had no access to lightning. Also, Metal Energy seems more rare than Full Art cards. We have pulled two total in all of our 55 XY packs. The only way to get it is the Froakie Starter Deck. I understand that there are relatively few Steel and Lighting Pokémon in this set, but they are literally unplayable unless you buy the related theme deck.

My daughter is in fourth grade, and many other friends have a collection of Pokémon cards. She appears to be the only one who actually know how to play the game! So maybe the company knows their market (collectors and children) and isn't very concerned with playability?.

When you first started playing this game, how did you make decks? Did you trade for or buy energy?

As mentioned, I have a huge stack of online code cards. At least 100 total of XY and Flashfire. I enjoy playing theme decks online and have used those codes, but I am not sure I want to get into constructed online. I see online codes listed for sale everywhere. Is there actually a decent market for these? Would it be better to redeem the codes then sell any valuable cards I find?

I'd love to trade these codes for chase rares I need for decks. (Gogoat!)
 
Unfortunately for booster pack enthusiasts, the cards and staples needed for making a competitive deck are too many/too rare to get them within a reasonable number of boosters. You'd spend a fortune on booster packs before you got half of your deck (if using an EX deck) but even if using a rogue it still would take a lot of money getting everything from packs. If you however insist on not buying any singles at all, I suggest you get the Xerneas vs Yveltal Battle Arena pack. It contains a lot of staples as well as Dark and Fairy Energy (I'm not sure if it also has Metal).
I started with the Red Frenzy BW Theme deck, and from there I got a couple of other theme decks to get energy and stuff.
I've never traded for Energy. It's market value is extremely low, not to mention that most of my trades are international, so they would just add weight. There are many stores who sell energy however, but it would count as singles. If you are interested though in my local store it's 10¢ per Energy, but Idk if every store sells them.
As for the codes, you can't sell cards you have online irl. Only the unused codes, which are ~25¢ each depending on the set.
The only reason I can see why you're having so much trouble is because you're not buying singles. TPCi knows that there is many Energy already in circulation, so they wouldn't need to spend money on making even more energy to put into packs. Imo, the energy in the packs are leftovers.
If you insist on not buying singles however, I guess you can always borrow cards from someone. Again, my store lets us use its Energy cards for free, as long as we return them after the event.
Is there any particular reason why you don't want to get singles?
Also, welcome to PokéBeach and Pokémon! :D
 
I am avoiding singles for now to keep trading interesting and fun for the three of us. Also, it helps reign in my decks a bit. If I were to start maximizing my decks with singles, it could quickly become less fun for the others as I have decades of constructed CCG experience. Plus, it's just more fun to open packs! I have twelve boosters each of XY and Flashfire remaining. I suspect I will move on to Furious Fists after this. My girlfriend already has both FF theme decks, but no packs (yet).

Through the purchase of theme decks, I have decent access to all energy except metal, as I "chose" Chespin as my starter. I have a spare Froakie starter deck, for future use, however.
 
I completely agree that it's more fun to open packs! :D
As far as trading goes, it could still be interesting, although it would require all 3 of you to get singles (or get really lucky :p).
If you want Metal Energy, I suggest you but it ad singles just to not have to spend ~20$ on it.
 
I got most of my energy by buying theme decks (originally the only things I bought :p). Since you don't want to buy past sets, I suggest looking for a close league or tournament in your area. There you can likely find a lot of people welling to sell their spare energy (which does accumulate) and you could also trade for cards.
 
I used to buy Elite Trainer Boxes, and they're pretty good for novices. You get a guide to the expansion the box belongs to, eight booster packs, and most importantly five of each color energy.
 
I would have certainly snagged a pair of elite trainer sets if they were available at retail. Current eBay or import prices are not worth it. It's $60-75 CAD after currency conversion.
 
Zing said:
I would have certainly snagged a pair of elite trainer sets if they were available at retail. Current eBay or import prices are not worth it. It's $60-75 CAD after currency conversion.
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$60-75 CAD for the pair, or each? Because that's about what you'd expect to pay for the two of them together.

I've been able to find them at Wal-Mart where I live (also Canada).
 
60-75 Each for the XY elite boxes. Yes, the Primal Clash boxes are everywhere and I could buy one from my local shop in Toronto for $35.
 
Zing said:
60-75 Each for the XY elite boxes. Yes, the Primal Clash boxes are everywhere and I could buy one from my local shop in Toronto for $35.
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Just buy that! I understand you only want to go through the sets one at a time, but that energy is pretty necessary. If you really don't want to go into Primal Clash, just buy the box and store the boosters for a later time.
 
A majority of my energy now comes from Elite Trainer Boxes (I highly recommend them if you're just starting up) and the occasional rare time I invest in starter decks (last time I ever got invested in them was Plasma Freeze ) If you refuse to buy singles - then Elite Trainer Boxes or Single Energy Cards must be the exception.

If you like building from packs then the Elite Trainer Boxes provide a lot of things for building viable decks:
  • Card Sleeves
  • Dividers to help you organize cards
  • A set of dice to keep track of damage (much better than Damage Counters in my opinion)
  • 5 of Each Basic Energy
  • 8 Booster Packs

If you already have a nice handful of energy you could probably exchange it with players at a local Pokemon League.

Also, I find that when I have unused codes, and there's new staple cards getting attention - I often offer those up in exchange for staple cards. Sometimes players are definitely willing to trade. If you already have a decent amount of cards - trading is very important if you don't want to spend a lot of money. Trade for card value using sites like TrollAndToad or Sold eBay listings as reference.

As for how I built my first deck... I simply picked up two starter decks that were on sale, used what little knowledge I had (mainly stemming from the TCG GBC game) and combined them focusing on the Pokemon I had most copies of. (Example: Starter Decks sometimes come with an incomplete line, so I automatically removed them) Played in a tournament, somehow got lucky enough to get 2nd place out of 18 players so I just assumed the deck worked out fine.

Afterwards it's a bit complicated because it was still an era were POP packs were a thing so I barely needed to invest at all since all my decks, excluding the one I purchased - were merely built upon Promo Cards I got from the packs mixed with a few staples. Sadly this isn't a thing anymore, considering a decent amount of those cards were playable.

Best suggestion I can give for deck building is finding something that works for you. Research the Meta Game and avoid using cards that don't have too much of a fighting chance.
 
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