Help TCGO player looking to start playing physically

[Vulpixy]

Hi guys, my bf and I are looking to start playing in the league at our lgs. We have a coworker who's been getting into Pokemon with her son and we're teaching them how to play as well as helping them out some. I used to play with some friends around the HG/SS sets and a bit before. Lately my Pokemon fix has been digital in the expanded format.

We're currently looking into what will be the best option to break into the physical game without taking too much budget away from living/mtg. Atm we've gotten the following:

x2 Battle Arena Decks: Keldeo Vs Rayquaza
x2 Bright Tide theme decks
x1 Elite Trainer kit S&M (looking to get the other one just cuz)

Right now we're really just playing with a Keldo/Blastoise deck and RayEels though we're looking to get a pair of standard decks together as well. We're looking at some budget builds like Golduck/Starmie, Passimian/Mew, Machamp BREAK, and a Raichu/Sky Fields deck I built online (decklist in the spoiler below). Which would you recommend based on the price tag and how fun it is to pilot/play against?

As a side note: I had an idea of gathering a solid core of trainers for him and me. Trainers like Vs Seekers, N, Lysandre, etc that end up in pretty much every deck out there. Then just pick up the pieces for a few decks that can be built around this core. Do you think that could work?

Strawberry Fields Deck spoiler:

Spoiler

****** Pokémon Trading Card Game Deck List ******

##Pokémon - 18

* 2 Carbink FAC 50
* 4 Dedenne FFI 34
* 4 Pikachu XY 42
* 4 Raichu XY 43
* 2 Remoraid BKT 32
* 2 Octillery BKT 33

##Trainer Cards - 32

* 4 Trainers' Mail ROS 92
* 1 Professor's Letter BKT 146
* 2 Lysandre AOR 78
* 2 Revive ROS 88
* 1 Karen PR-XY XY177
* 4 Puzzle of Time BKP 109
* 2 Evosoda XY 116
* 1 Skyla BKT 148
* 4 Level Ball AOR 76
* 4 Sky Field ROS 89
* 3 Professor Sycamore XY 122
* 4 VS Seeker PHF 109

##Energy - 10

* 4 Double Colorless Energy NXD 92
* 6 Fighting Energy GEN 80

Total Cards - 60

****** Deck List Generated by the Pokémon TCG Online www.pokemon.com/TCGO ******

tl;dr of deck: max out bench with Dedenne, nuke things with Raichu, stall with Carbink, win(?) Does pretty well in vs mode online.

 

[TheGuardian118]

Double battle arena decks will give you a solid core of trainers so that's great. You have the right idea in regards to trainers, many are used in just about every deck. (N/Sycamore/Lysandre/VS Seeker and such) There are exceptions of course and counts may vary, but for the most part you want many of these if you want to play multiple decks.

Some of those decks have promise as budget decks. Are you looking to play competitively at tournaments or just casually at league/with friends?

One thing I like in my Circle Circuit Raichu deck is a set of the Ancient Origins Eeveeloutions. They turn your stage one into an extra type, so you could hit for different weaknesses than just electric.

 

[Vulpixy]

Double battle arena decks will give you a solid core of trainers so that's great. You have the right idea in regards to trainers, many are used in just about every deck. (N/Sycamore/Lysandre/VS Seeker and such) There are exceptions of course and counts may vary, but for the most part you want many of these if you want to play multiple decks.

Some of those decks have promise as budget decks. Are you looking to play competitively at tournaments or just casually at league/with friends?

One thing I like in my Circle Circuit Raichu deck is a set of the Ancient Origins Eeveeloutions. They turn your stage one into an extra type, so you could hit for different weaknesses than just electric.

Good idea with the AO eeveelutions. I forgot about em when I was building the deck. Will def try to find room for them.

As for the double battle packs: the trainers where the main reason we did that. Been on the pokemon TCGO for over a year now and idk what I would do without some of those key trainers! We noticed that the value of the decks vs the msrp was insane, so it felt like the best start to our collection. BF was also a big fan of the Keldo/Blastoise combo and we almost picked up the champion deck for it before the battle decks came out. So glad we waited

For the physical game, we're looking more at casual play. Like I said there's a league for our local lgs and we're just looking for a budget deck or so for each of us to play down there to give some variety. Not looking to dive too much into the game physically since we play online.