Returning Player - What to Buy for a Decent Amount of Cards?

[Nick H.]

I've been out of Pokémon since Dark Explorers, but am looking to get back into the game. I'm trying to decide how to spend my money. I have no idea what I want to play, and I'd like to have a second deck for a friend to use if possible. My first thought was to get a box of every standard format set and try to trade for anything else that I needed to finish a deck once I decided on it, but my friends are telling me to just buy single cards. I proxied out a deck (that isn't doing so well), which ended up being over 50% proxies. It was a real hassle to cut out all those too. I don't want to have to keep making decks that are over half proxy until I find what I like to buy singles for, and I want to have some bulk cards from each set. Plus, my parents owe me a box for my birthday, and people are telling me I should get Roaring Skies for obvious reasons. Is that the best choice? What should I do about the other cards / other sets? I'm thinking maybe get half a box worth of each of all the other standard sets (allowing me to make decks with few proxies), and then buy/trade for what I need to finish a deck once I decide on one.

What do you all think?

Thanks!

 

[infernape1245]

1) Yes buy roaring skies unless you want to buy single Shaymin EXs which are crazy expensive
2) just buy singles, you can save more money that way

 

[bbninjas]

The optimal buy will depend, but there are some good basics.

Most decks are made of the same staple cards, so it would be optimal for you to get those first. The Yveltal vs Xerneas Battle Kit (see bottom images for content) has many of these staples, while the Mewtwo vs Darkrai Battle Kit has even more! Unfortunately the Mewtwo vs Darkrai kit contains many staples more relevant for the Expanded format, but still contains staples if you're looking at playing in the Standard format. If you're looking at competitive play, you'll probably be playing in both, which would be ideal if already have Black White - Dark Explorer cards.

It would then be optimal to buy a box of some sort to obtain some trading/buffer cards. My two recommendations are Phantom Forces and Roaring Skies. Phantom Forces has many great cards for beginning your journey, including a competitive Crobat line, Wobuffet, Nightmarchers and Bronzong, as well as more staples such as Professor Sycamore, VS Seeker and Battle Compressor (Compressor not in all decks). Best things is these are all relatively easy to obtain being rare or under. Roaring Skies is really quite lackluster for beginners in my opinion, as it only contains Shaymin-EX, M-Rayquaza-EX and Sky Field of particular worth. My recommendation is the Phantom Forces box as you are more likely to get good cards that you can use in your deck.

If you want to choose what to buy with your deck as basis, I would recommend deciding what deck you want. You can find proven competitive decks in the Metagame Deck Discussion, although some great ideas can be found in the Deck Garage. Then, once you've decided on your deck type, you may like to post your deck in the Deck Garage for feedback. You could also try making and testing the deck on an emulator such as PTCG Online. Once you've decided on a decklist, you could be a box that your deck needs many cards from, or buy the Phantom Forces box. You should then buy any remainder singles you need, as it is much cheaper this way. It would also be worthwhile to get connected to a league for trading, getting back into the game and help in general.

Hope that gives you some insight, and good luck!