Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. The Current State of Affairs
3. The Best Course of Action
4. And One Step More...
5. Conclusion
1. Introduction
Greetings to one and all. I am DNA, the crafter of this guide, which is written for those players who used to play the Pokemon TCG in the past, but have either stopped following or stopped playing the game for a few years on end. I'm sure there are a lot of you out there, and most of you probably have this question floating through your heads:
"I used to play the Pokemon TCG back in [insert year here] and I absolutely loved it. However, I didn't keep up with it for very long, and now I want to get back into playing again. What should I do?"
I'm going to attempt to answer that question as best I can. If I've solved all your relevant problems, this guide has done its job. If it hasn't...well, let me know so I know what to add and help you out.
This guide isn't going to be outrageously long, but it's going to be long enough to hit all of the poignant points.
2. The Current State of Affairs
The first thing you need to know before trying to catch up again with Pokemon is the following:
Most old cards aren't legal anymore.
I'll explain.
Each year, usually on September 1st, TPCi (The Pokemon Company International) puts into effect what is called a "rotation", in which older sets are rotated out of use in tournaments (and therefore cannot be used) to accommodate for all the newer sets that keep popping up. The latest current rotation happened on September 1st, 2012, and the oldest currently tournament-legal set is Black & White; in addition, all Nintendo Black Star Promos with a BW number are also legal (e.g. BW08). The next rotation has not yet been announced, but it can be assumed that it will happen on September 1st, 2013.
So yeah, all of those really old cards you worked so hard to amass aren't legal in tournaments anymore. The exception is if a card from an older set has been reprinted in a newer set. In that case, you must always play that card name with the new card effect, and carry around a newer reference card with you to tournaments, should you choose to use it. (The exception to this rule is if the effect of the card didn't change at all when reprinted; for example, Switch's effect has always been the same, and you can use Switches as old as Base Set without a reference. However, if you have older PlusPowers or Potions, you need a newer copy, as their effects have changed significantly.) Also, basic Energy cards, regardless of date printed, are always legal.
3. The Best Course of Action
So after hearing that downer, what should you do? You so desperately want to keep playing the game, even though you know you can't use any of your old cards anymore - because you love the Pokemon TCG so much and want to stay with it.
If you're still with me reading this, then good. The worst is over; it only gets better from here.
There are actually a few things you can do to keep yourself up to speed. Below are listed the three main methods used:
- One of the best things you can do is find a league near you. A league is basically a group of people who meet once a week at a shop or other building for a few hours at a time, who get together to not only play the Pokemon TCG with each other, but also hang out and have fun. Leagues can also issue new Player IDs to newcomers for participation in leagues and tournaments (although having a Player ID is usually mandatory, it's mostly just a formality and it's no big deal). In addition, the more games you play at a league, the more points you will earn towards getting various goodies, such as foil cards and special pins you can only get through leagues. You can even trade with the players there for newer cards you need for your deck!
To find any leagues or tournaments near you, you can use the following link: https://www.pokemon.com/us/account/events/ This will allow you to scrounge around for any events in your area, so you can see where the closest league is to you. Some might be 10 minutes away, some might be an hour away - of course you have to count the cost for driving all that way, but there are people willing enough to drive long distances to attend leagues. (I know a few who go to my own that drive an hour or more to get there.)
- There is also the method of buying a starter deck. That method's worked in the past for newcomers and it continues to work in the present for newcomers and existing players alike (usually because those are the best sources for basic Energy!). A starter deck will automatically come with a pre-made 60-card deck (it's not a super amazing deck, but it is enough to get you rolling, and you can tweak it as much as you please from there), damage counters, poison and burn markers, a plastic coin, half a playing field (paper fold-out), 1 booster pack (to help improve the deck), 1 deckbox (to hold the deck), and a current copy of the Official Pokemon TCG Rulebook. Even if you already know how to play the game, it is definitely worth reading; things have changed over the years with concepts that might be completely foreign to someone stuck in the Base/Neo days. (For example, Confusion has changed, there is now a 5th Special Condition "Burned", there's the Power/Body split, the newer Abilities, and a few Pokemon cards that don't even have an evolution stage - namely, the LV.X and Pokemon LEGEND cards!) The further back you last played, the more helpful the rulebook will be.
At present, the newest starter decks are from Dragons Exalted: DragonSpeed featuring Garchomp (the bad one, sadly), and DragonSnarl featuring Hydreigon (the bad one, sadly). Starter decks can be found at most retail stores (such as Target and Wal-Mart), and even a few other places that sell specifically trading cards.
- Speaking of which...yes, there are such things called hobby shops! Unlike retail stores, these shops focus almost exclusively on selling components for various trading card games (Pokemon is one of them, other popular examples include Yu-Gi-Oh! and Magic the Gathering) and usually have a wide variety of things available, including booster boxes, deckboxes (for storing your decks), and sleeves (for protecting your cards from wear - a vital asset to any player). A lot of leagues are sometimes run inside these hobby shops, and an added bonus is that hobby shops will usually sell booster packs and theme decks for a lower price than that of retail stores. If there's a hobby shop near to your area, it's definitely worth checking out.
4. And One Step More...
Excellent! You've managed to build a fully functional deck with the help of some of your new friends at league, you've tweaked your deck quite a lot, and you feel very confident. You decide to attend your first tournament to see how well you stand up to the competition. Unfortunately, your round 1 opponent uses a deck design you've never seen or heard of before; he's got a 180 HP giant sitting in the Active slot, and although you attempted to make a strong counterattack and deal a lot of damage to the guy, he calmly moves Energy off his Active Pokemon, then proceeds to heal all the damage away, attach a few more Energy from his discard pile, bring up something weak from your Bench, put the Energy back, and finally manages to score a double kill, putting you way behind. Even now, you're scratching your head and wondering "What just happened?"
Ultimately, there will come a point where just playing for the sake of playing will not be enough. Losing time and time again is not fun - there's no denying that. You want to keep playing for fun, but you also want to win. Fortunately, there are ways to solve that problem too. There are four things you can do about this, two of which have already been mentioned.
- First things first - before you go about building your deck, first find out what are the most popular decks in your area - i.e. the ones that have the highest overall win %, and those who do the best when matched up against other decks. Then, once you have that in mind, go with a deck that you believe will do well against whatever you will most likely run into. Most deck types have had articles written about them in some form or another, and there are skeleton lists of these decks on articles all across various Pokemon TCG-based sites. (A skeleton list is a basic 60-card deck list of a specific deck that will do what it was built to do, and do so well. However, they're also made so you can make your own tweaks to them to deal with certain matchups. For example, most Darkrai/Hydreigon decks run Shaymin EX in case they run into Terrakion, who otherwise tears the deck apart.) Once you have decided on what deck you want to run and what list you'll be using, figure out what cards you have and what cards you need (it's usually a good idea to pick a good deck that you already have many of the cards for), then move on to the next step.
- The easiest method you can use to get the cards you need is, ironically enough, your league. Virtually everyone who goes to a league will bring with them a trade binder, containing cards they're willing to trade, and most of them will be glad to let you look at their binder, in exchange for looking at yours. (Just remember, look with your eyes - not with your hands! People usually don't like others taking cards out without giving permission to do so. The 10-and-under crowd is the worst offender here, so make sure to keep an eye on your cards.) Not everyone will necessarily have the card(s) you're looking for. Another perk about league is that the people there can also give you constructive feedback on your list, including suggestions such as what to take out, what to leave in, and how best you can fare against certain matchups. In this respect, the usefulness of your league in helping build your deck is twofold.
- If you can't get all the cards that you need from the deck that you need (you so very desperately need a couple Catcher for your deck, but no one at league is willing or able to trade any), then you can actually turn to hobby shops. Most hobby shops that deal in various trading card games will also sell singles and booster boxes. A "single" is one particular card from a set, with a price tag affixed to it - for a certain amount, you can buy that specific card right there and then, without having to suffer at the whims of buying packs and just hoping you pull that card. (Singles are much more efficient because you will be guaranteed to get that card.) On the other hand, a booster box is a sealed pack of exactly 36 packs from one particular set - it is basically 36 booster packs all in one. Buying a box is usually recommended if you need a bunch of cards from one set for your deck, and although boxes can be rather expensive (usually somewhere around $100), it's actually cheaper per pack to buy a box (at that rate, a box is $2.78 a pack for 36 packs). If you buy a box, odds are you'll get several valuable cards that you don't necessarily need, but other people do, and you can trade for the cards they need more effectively.
- But what if the hobby shop doesn't have them? Then you can turn to the Internet. There are also certain sites that will sell both singles and booster boxes - Troll & Toad is the one most often used for Pokemon cards (among others), although other sites do exist. This is good for buying things that you don't need right away, and that your local hobby shop (if there is one near to you) doesn't have. If you're in a rush and need the cards ASAP, then buying singles locally is the preferred method; however if you aren't in any delay, you can do some comparison shopping, viewing prices from local shops and comparing them to those of sites that sell cards. (Remember, you don't want to spend too much money. After all, Pokemon is still just a game.)
5. Conclusion
So, at the end of the day, what's left to say after all this? The goal of this guide was to get older players who aren't still much acquainted with the Pokemon TCG back into the swing of things. If you are one of those people, and after reading all this you feel invigorated to start playing again, then this guide has worked.
I'm always open to feedback, though. If you feel like there was something this guide didn't address well enough (or didn't address at all), let me know and I'll tweak it accordingly.
Just remember - you don't want to ever stop having fun with the game. If you find fun winning tournament after tournament, regardless of what resources you might expend, then more power to you. Everyone is different - some have fun by winning, others have fun by playing with favorites, still others have fun by looking to play interesting matches against opponents, win or lose. Bottom line, thanks for reading this guide, and I hope I inspired any of you older players to start playing again!
