Discussion People Say the Pokemon Community is Welcoming and Friendly but I've Not Had the Same Experience.

Hmm...

When I see threads like this, a few things tend to pop into mind. With this thread, a few specific things pop into mind:

1) People are not inherently good or kind. Can we do good? Can we be kind? Absolutely! However, without effort, we act in our own interests, which inevitably comes into conflict with the interests of others, and so it is pretty easy to be unkind. I can be rather rude myself, and barring some good or bad stretches, the further back you go, the worse I behave. >_<

2) Speaking of how I behave... how are you behaving towards these people? As a veteran jerk, I've got to ask; there are so many times I've gotten mad at someone, only to run it by a third party and have them go "Well, duh; what did you expect with how you treated them? Sounds like you had a really bad match-up, and was looking for advice on how to better handle it but... is there anything you could really do? "Git gud" can be used to deride someone who cannot accept that nothing is wrong with the game, they just need to learn how to play it better or it can be used because the only real option is to become a more skilled player (and to chuckle to one's self over it). Take Night March in Expanded play; the short answer to "How does Night March counter Karen?" is to "Git gud". The slightly more detailed version is to learn how to conserve resources in a deck that used to be rather reckless.

3) Now, taking everything you've said at face value... Facebook tends to be truly toxic. Not only do you have people that seem to be spoiling for a fight over miscellaneous issues, but perhaps worse are the "echo chamber" types that can't handle anyone not agreeing with them. I'm not a part of that group, but they did name themselves after a Poison-Type Gym, right? ;)

I'm not trying to chew you out; part of being kind is understanding others. If these people were total jerks for no reason, I'm sorry. They don't represent the greater Pokémon Community, or the many wonderful local ones as well. There will be some bad ones, I'm afraid; that's just how it is.
 
Sorry to hear that you had some bad experiences. At first my advice would be not to take looses personal. Focus on what you learned about your deck in these matches instead. Posting a decklist at the forum and describing the problems you had is also a good way to understand what might have been done differently or how to adjust the deck to your local meta game. Hope this provides some initial assistance.
 
Online you're always going to have keyboard warriors, but in person, I have had a very different experience.

My son got in to the game about a year ago and drug me along with it. We took our terrible decks to our first league. I asked the first person for advice and they were eager to sit down and help. He even threw in some of his own cards to help my son's deck. I later found out that he is a very well known world's competitor who runs a successful Pokémon YouTube channel. He took about 30 minutes to help.


If it's just the people in your league, find another league. From personal experience, the Pokemon community is a very accepting community. Don't let online trolls get you down.
 
GekkisaiDaiNi said:
Don't worry about being annoying, I used to upload 10 different decks to the deck garage daily! :p

Also, try to remember that some people are just rude. Try to brush it off and move on. Eventually, they'll realize they aren't getting anything out of being rude to someone who doesn't care, and they'll stop.

This happens. I was playing Volcanion against Metagross but I started Shaymin and dead-drew myself to a loss. It happens, its annoying, but there's always another game :)


That's really rude. I'd just avoid those people and ask for advice from other people, maybe like whoever runs the league since they would probably be a lot nicer. You can also ask for advice on Pokebeach or use the Great Google.

Hope this was helpful :)
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No, you know what you do? Report these people to mods.
 
People can be assholes. I like to criticize players to help them improve, but I'll never make it personal and hurt them.

Anyway, there'll always be rude people. You're gonna find it everywhere - Pokemon, Magic, Yugioh, and life. Can't opt out of life (well, you can, but please don't), but you can ignore the people who put you down.

Pokemon's community is considered by many to be one of the best communities. We have children, teens, adults, and seniors enjoying the game. Those few people are one of millions of Pokemon players. Keep your head up and never stop - most of us on this thread would love to help you.

Link me the threads or PM me. I'm open to giving you support.
 
That Facebook group is really toxic, I would suggest not using it. This is one of the best, most helpful sites I have seen, and the Reddit pkmntcg is also very supportive. Just know that we all struggle and get frustrated! Really!
 
Oh yeah, Virbank is full of assholes, don't use them for anything. I actually think I saw the thread someone told you to git gud. Actually, I'm not entirely sure, but it may have been me, because it sounds like something I would say, but I can't find the thread, so I can't check for sure. I'm actually surprised that your local players were that vicious towards you. Like, Jesus Christ, there's jerks and serious players, but that's like insane for me to hear. I have local players that call me bad, but then I proceed to win events that I go to. I'm not so much of an optimist, so I guess I'll be the one to say that 16-9 isn't that good to my standards, but a little advice: look for things you did wrong, remember what to do next time, and try to figure out what changes to make to your deck if you think there are any to be made. If you have problems with players at that league, go to other leagues until you find one that you really like, and stick there until you think you're good enough to competently(out of lack for a better word) play against the assholes or just don't care. I had people calling me "scrub" for around a year or so, but I kept going to their local league, kept getting better, and now I'm basically one of the cocky assholes no one likes. Except that, people do like me, because in addition to my criticisms, I give advice. If people are ripping at you and you get nothing other than regret from going, then they're obviously not good players themselves.
 
Don't use Virbank. Its just meme garbage. Your deck is automatically bad if its not max rarity and if you speak out against the various scams and scummy tactics against retailers they get all butthurt about it.
 
Seastrome said:
I want to at least be good at something I enjoy. Had a girl telling me at League Cup how I should play and stuff and it's embarassing being talked to like i'm a scrub. I draw shit and just lose to auto win matchups and it just makes me wonder what the pros would do. They somehow always have a play for each situation, I don't. I think I know but never draw anything that helps.

I just want a deck that's good and consistent. Bulu and Gardevoir don't seem to tick both boxes. They might be good but they aren't consistent.
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I know i'm probably re-spewing something you've heard before, but with whatever deck your playing, you need to get to know your deck, know on what turn at what moment to use the Guzma instead of the Sycamore, if you know what I mean.

If you don't get to know your deck, you will have a 16-9 win lose. DON'T get me wrong like Josh said that is not bad! 64% is better than what I can do on a daily basis (although I don't have Lele to my disposal). You just have to keep playing, playing, playing, till you figure out, "Hey, at this time I always choose to Sycamore instead of Rare Candy my Vikavolt, i should probably rare candy so I can attack with Bulu this turn, instead of getting a fresh hand from Sycamore." Again if you know what I mean?

It's the luck of the draw, prize draw, etc. Also do you mind posting your VikaBulu deck list? I would love to see and critique it! Maybe there's too much trainer bulk, not enough of something, that is more often than not the issue in VikaBulu, so post that on your own time, that is if you haven't already.
 
AFEX said:
I know i'm probably re-spewing something you've heard before, but with whatever deck your playing, you need to get to know your deck, know on what turn at what moment to use the Guzma instead of the Sycamore, if you know what I mean.

If you don't get to know your deck, you will have a 16-9 win lose. DON'T get me wrong like Josh said that is not bad! 64% is better than what I can do on a daily basis (although I don't have Lele to my disposal). You just have to keep playing, playing, playing, till you figure out, "Hey, at this time I always choose to Sycamore instead of Rare Candy my Vikavolt, i should probably rare candy so I can attack with Bulu this turn, instead of getting a fresh hand from Sycamore." Again if you know what I mean?

It's the luck of the draw, prize draw, etc. Also do you mind posting your VikaBulu deck list? I would love to see and critique it! Maybe there's too much trainer bulk, not enough of something, that is more often than not the issue in VikaBulu, so post that on your own time, that is if you haven't already.
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why does it matter if I post the list or not? VikaBulu is VikaBulu. You can change a few cards but overall it plays the same. I stopped coming on the past few days because I've just never been more disinterested in the game than I am now. I used to want to play everyday and now it's just I don't feel like playing at all. I have no confidence I can win a game right now.
 
Seastrome said:
why does it matter if I post the list or not? VikaBulu is VikaBulu. You can change a few cards but overall it plays the same. I stopped coming on the past few days because I've just never been more disinterested in the game than I am now. I used to want to play everyday and now it's just I don't feel like playing at all. I have no confidence I can win a game right now.
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It's all about practicing, just give yourself a confidence booster somehow, try a new deck, etc.
 
Seastrome said:
practice ain't helping much.
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Look man, the people that win at the game consistently (Pramawat, Sosa, Diaz, Klaczynski, etc.) and people that succeed in life overcome nuuumerous obstacles that try to drag them down. These obviously come in different forms for different people, but they work around em and keep testing until they've made it to the top. It's clear that Virbank City is the source of most of your concerns. You can either mope about it, realize that page has become an overabundance of meme garbage, or turn away. Heck, you can do some or all of those things.

Turn to your friends for encouragement and support. It's normal to be discouraged and it's natural to have this kind of response to negative comments, but those comments are no reason to quit trying. I like to think of pessimism and ridicule as motivation to work even harder to snag yourself a spot in top cut next time. In the grand scheme of it all, this is a trading card game and not trading card life. If those individuals giving you heartache have nothing going for themselves and find it imperative to waste their breath on discouragement, they won't amount to anything.

Just do you, man.
 
Hmm...

My best advice for you is to consider all the competitive options in front of you, and do not tie yourself to just one deck. In that regard, if you have kept all your PTCG Online code cards, you should try that app out, as it allows you to keep multiple decklists at once. Either that, or you can try to proxy decks together with other friend you have for practice.

I should tell you: I'm kind of rusty right now, as a year ago, my computer stopped being able to handle the client. But while I played online, I was a big fan of playing rogue decks. Were all of them any good competitively? No way - I've lost so many games with them against truly professional decks. However, I saw though playing them why the top decks were justly so. I made sure to try out each of the top decks too... Well, at least the ones that I thought had ethical play involved.

I think playing rogue decks is an excellent way to bring back your motivation. It is a sign that you're trying to break the chains that the metagame is binding many players. Yes, you may lose many of your matches as you make them. But you learn about why the rogue didn't win, and use the info to either improve your special creation, or make a new rogue to exploit the matchup chains you've noticed.
 
Seastrome said:
practice ain't helping much.
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Exactly, practice at least 1hr 30min a day, you'll slowly get better, seems to me stubborness is your problem, not willing to try hard enough, not being mean, I'm just pointing out that that is most likely the problem ;)
 
AFEX said:
Exactly, practice at least 1hr 30min a day, you'll slowly get better, seems to me stubborness is your problem, not willing to try hard enough, not being mean, I'm just pointing out that that is most likely the problem ;)
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that's a bunch of bs. I freaking try my ass off and my opponents have outs to everything. Not my fault Bulu is a crap deck that's prone to bad openers. Just tired of losing so not playing is the solution. I'm being proded by people on here like i'm some damn noob...

Gardevoir sucks in my opinion. good luck winning mirror matches with that deck. comes down to luck. Bulu is inconsistent. Volcanion losses to Gardevoir pretty much auto loss, greninja is too clunky, same for Metagross. Is there a deck even worth playing that's solid and won't let me down?

I give up. I can't win with anything and i've played 100's of games with these decks. they aren't working for me.
 
Seastrome said:
that's a bunch of bs. I freaking try my ass off and my opponents have outs to everything. Not my fault Bulu is a crap deck that's prone to bad openers. Just tired of losing so not playing is the solution. I'm being proded by people on here like i'm some damn noob...

Gardevoir sucks in my opinion. good luck winning mirror matches with that deck. comes down to luck. Bulu is inconsistent. Volcanion losses to Gardevoir pretty much auto loss, greninja is too clunky, same for Metagross. Is there a deck even worth playing that's solid and won't let me down?

I give up. I can't win with anything and i've played 100's of games with these decks. they aren't working for me.
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We're not prodding you like your a noob, these are pro tips, that every solid player in the tcg gives to EVERYONE, you are a looking for a unique tip or sprinkle of good luck that doesn't exist.

If this section of forum is to be open to suggestions from other players, why are you blowing down every brand new option that has come to you? We are all saying the same thing, and if multiple people are saying the same thing, we are saying the RIGHT thing, but you take it as, multiple people are saying the same thing, not gonna bother looking at that post.

Rouge decks are a nice little freedom breaker, I'd say 30% of our meta standard and expanded now, was at one time a rouge deck.
Just be open to suggestions from friends and professionals and you will find success. Yes, of course in a VikaBulu match-up your opponent is going to have an out, most staples that people run are easy outs. Serpirior, Lanstar, they both have amazing points, hear them out.

Don't give up when trouble comes-AFEX
 
It just feels like you're expectations are way too high...

If you expect there is a deck which would win 75 % or more of all the games, everyone will use that deck and meta will be broken, because in a best of 3 series, that deck will win almost every round.

I think you're win rate I saw in another thread (28 / 42, that was you right?) proves that the deck might suit you. And I think trying your deck out with slightly different card lists does help you to understand which variant is absolutely the best for your playing style. And yes, you might miss that one Kukui against for example Gardevoir, but miss a FFB for example against Turtonator. What I try to say, although the differences are small, some cards will prove theirselves more than others (in more games or more 'game-changing').

Take your time not playing unless you really want to play again, and then think about realistic expectations, and I wish you all the luck!
 
@Seastrome

Considering your last few posts, it is interesting where I agree and disagree with you.

  1. If you're not enjoying the game right now, take a break.

  2. Before returning to the game, figure out whether
    • you just don't care for the present metagame
    • if you only really cared for the game when you thought it was simple and/or were winning.
  3. Depending upon which of the above apply:
    • If it really is just the current climate you don't like, dabble in the game once you've had a long enough break, waiting for things to improve.
    • If you find you don't care for the core mechanics of the game or the way the powers-that-be run (and most likely will continue to run) the game, make your vacation from it long term.

Everyone means well here, but we're only human; we make mistakes and we don't have all the answers. I base my suggestions on my own time with the Pokémon TCG; I began playing it early in 1999. My first few breaks from the game weren't because I was tired of it, but because of misinformation, school getting in the way, work getting in the way, etc. By now, I realize there are certain aspects of this game (and the typical TCG formula in general) that I don't much care for. I stick around because
  • What I don't like is not essential to a TCG and seems detrimental to one in the long run; there is the slightest chance the powers-that-be will realize this and change at least some of these aspects of the game.
  • With nearly 19 years already invested in the game, what's sticking around a bit longer? ¬_¬ Though it might sound funny, I'm serious; it is hard for me to contemplate abandoning all the effort I've put into the game over nearly two decades.
  • I also love writing about the game, which ties into my previous point.
 
I draw the worst opener hands the last 5 games now. Sycamore, Grubbin, Vikavolt, 3 Rare Candy, Field Blower. Or I'll get a Lele to start and nothing else playable. It's because Bulu is a clunky deck I guess. But my opponents draw everything so I guess there's a secret drawing mechanism that I'm not privy to... would be my luck.

I'm awful at the game. I was 28-14 with the deck. Now I'm like 33-26. I blame poor hands like what I described but what am I gonna do? Sycamore a Hand of 3 rare candy? :/ I need a deck that draws good and plays fast.
 
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