Help The "What Should I Buy?" Thread

[AlexanderTheAwesome]

RE: New Player- Needs help

If you want to buy theme decks to get into the competitive scene.... don't. They are all basically pointless.
AS for packs.... I wouldn't really either.... I would buy singles to get started and if you wan't to get packs get like A LOT of packs
I'm not the most knowledgeable in this are since I was given a lot of stuff when I started out.... so maybe someone else can help here.

Now for where I can really help:
Metagame decks:
Darkrai/Yveltal (with and without Garbodor)
Rayboar & Stoise (new players most likely don't play this because they require Tropical Beach)
Fairies (Xerneas/Aromatisse/Xerneas EX)
Fairies with Techs (Xerneas/Aromatisse/Various Attackers)
Stage 1s (Raichu/Dugtrio/Flareon/Garbodor)
Virizion/Genesect
Lugia (Lugia/Deoxys/Thundurus/Genesect/Others)
Trevanant/Accelgor (It's a Lockdown Deck)

That's all I can think of off the top of my head, just tell me if you are interested in any of those and I can help you get a list together for the tournament.

 

[Eron]

RE: New Player- Needs help

Well, when I started, I went to a place I knew I could play, I didn't have any good cards, just common stuff and an Articuno EX FA, there, a guy explained me how to play, then he gave me some of his cards, he had a vault full of cards, and made me a simple deck. I would reccomend you to buy just some packs from Plasma Storm to XY that is the current set.

You can take in count all the decks that ATA told you, a simple one to make is Fairies, you only need to buy 2-3 Xerneas tin and 2 Theme Decks of Resilient Life (the one of Xerneas) and you have that deck made.

Another good, and easy deck that you can make is Sigilyph Toolbox. If you have a place where other pleople go to play you can ask them for stuff you need.

 

[Frost Mage]

RE: New Player- Needs help

Rayboar & Stoise (new players most likely don't play this because they require Tropical Beach)

Never say need. It limits your options in all walks of life.

 

[Eron]

RE: New Player- Needs help

Rayboar & Stoise (new players most likely don't play this because they require Tropical Beach)

Never say need. It limits your options in all walks of life.

I run mine with no Tropical Beach, and works wery well.

 

[pokemart123]

Thanks for the replies guys. Unfortunately, there aren't really any other players that I know. The tournament is to see how many people turn up on the day. I'll grab a handful of packs today, then I'll research the cards in that list and see what appeals to our play style.
Then I'll be selling the excess yugioh cards I have to fund decks.
What kind of price am I looking at to build a couple of competitive decks?
And are there any "staple" cards, that I should just pick up?

 

[Machamp The Champion]

Thanks for the replies guys. Unfortunately, there aren't really any other players that I know. The tournament is to see how many people turn up on the day. I'll grab a handful of packs today, then I'll research the cards in that list and see what appeals to our play style.
Then I'll be selling the excess yugioh cards I have to fund decks.
What kind of price am I looking at to build a couple of competitive decks?
And are there any "staple" cards, that I should just pick up?

Competitive decks aren't that expensive. Compared to Yugioh and Magic, they're really cheap (or so I've heard). They can really vary, but I'd say most of the cheap-ish ones are about $80 to $120 (these are all in US dollars). The cheapest can be around $60, and the expensive ones can be around $200, if they use a lot of new and/or ultra rare cards. And the really expensive ones are around $700-$800 ($600 of that is getting a playset of a certain card: Tropical Beach).

There are definitely a lot of staple cards. N, Professor Juniper/Sycamore (they're the same card), Ultra Ball, Professor's Letter, Muscle Band, Colress, Skyla, and Tool Scrapper are all ones I can think of off the top of my head.

To answer your previous post, the cheapest top tier deck that's easy(ish) to play is probably Plasma. It uses Thundurus EX, Deoxys EX, Lugia EX, Snorlax, and Genesect EX, and is basically a fast beatdown deck. Lugia EX takes extra prizes with it's attack, and Snorlax is really powerful for a non-EX. Thundurus gets Energy on your Pokemon faster, and Deoxys boosts their damage. Genesect is for it's ability to bring up 1 of your opponent's benched Pokemon. Once the Xerneas and Yveltal tins come out mid-march, Darkrai/Yveltal will be pretty cheap. Most of the stage 2 decks need Tropical Beach to match the power of the other top tier decks, which is the only $150+ card in the format right now.

Sadly, there aren't too many good cute Pokemon right now. The only ones I can think of that use them are really complicated gimmick decks that aren't that great. There's Empoleon, which can play Leafeon and Emogla (< has the cutest card art in the history of forever), and is really simple to play. If Aromatisse counts as cute (I personally think it's hideous), then there's the Fairy deck, which I'd say is easy to moderate skill level, depending on the type of Fairy deck you make.

The best packs are probably XY, Plasma Blast, and Legendary Treasures to a lesser extent. Plasma Storm, Plasma Freeze and Boundaries Crossed are also really good, though I would be cautious about buying Boundaries Crossed, since it's probably going to be illegal within 6 months.

 

[pokemart123]

^This post.
Thank you. Pretty much answered everything I was looking for. I am sorry for being a pain and an utter noob scrub haha.
If anyone can link me to a plasma deck list that I can draw inspiration from, I'd appreciate it massively
And on my lunch, I will go and spend a lot of money on packs to keep the girlfriend happy she just loves opening them.

 

[Frost Mage]

RE: New Player- Needs help

Never say need. It limits your options in all walks of life.

I run mine with no Tropical Beach, and works wery well.

RayBoar without Beach 4lyf.

The best packs are probably XY, Plasma Blast, and Legendary Treasures to a lesser extent. Plasma Storm, Plasma Freeze and Boundaries Crossed are also really good, though I would be cautious about buying Boundaries Crossed, since it's probably going to be illegal within 6 months.

Plasma Blast pull rates <<<<<<< walking on glass, in my opinion. Also, I highly doubt that Boundaries Crossed will be rotated out this coming season.

 

[Machamp The Champion]

^This post.
Thank you. Pretty much answered everything I was looking for. I am sorry for being a pain and an utter newbie scrub haha.
If anyone can link me to a plasma deck list that I can draw inspiration from, I'd appreciate it massively
And on my lunch, I will go and spend a lot of money on packs to keep the girlfriend happy she just loves opening them.

Don't worry about it. Everyone starts out as a scrub, lol.

I don't want to get in trouble for linking to another site, but here's a place to find a skeleton list, and discuss the deck in general. That list has 4 extra spots (not 44, lol), so you can add some cards from the "good additions" section.

 

[Luispipe8]

^This post.
Thank you. Pretty much answered everything I was looking for. I am sorry for being a pain and an utter newbie scrub haha.
If anyone can link me to a plasma deck list that I can draw inspiration from, I'd appreciate it massively
And on my lunch, I will go and spend a lot of money on packs to keep the girlfriend happy she just loves opening them.

Don't worry about it. Everyone starts out as a scrub, lol.

I don't want to get in trouble for linking to another site, but here's a place to find a skeleton list, and discuss the deck in general. That list has 4 extra spots (not 44, lol), so you can add some cards from the "good additions" section.

Another site, Machamp? Really?

 

[Machamp The Champion]

Don't worry about it. Everyone starts out as a scrub, lol.

I don't want to get in trouble for linking to another site, but here's a place to find a skeleton list, and discuss the deck in general. That list has 4 extra spots (not 44, lol), so you can add some cards from the "good additions" section.

Another site, Machamp? Really?

I meant "I didn't want to link to another site, so here's a place on Pokebeach that has a good list". I can understand how you were confused about that, lol.

 

[Luispipe8]

Oh, you meant that... XD A "so" instead of "but" would have made all more simple...

---

Ps.: 400th Post! Woohoo!!

 

[Ryan Gleason]

Price Range: ~$100
What you are thinking of buying: Booster Box
Any options to choose from and why (Optional but helpful): Something from pre-Black and White.

I just recently got started back on collecting. I am just interested in collecting, not competitive. My goal is to get one of every pokemon, regardless of set. I have already got a good bit of Black and White and XY cards so I thought my best best would be to look into sets pre-that.

 

[Athena]

For the record: if you're looking to collect cards of every Pokémon, you'd probably get more bang for your buck by buying singles rather than a booster box, since with a box you're much more likely to get doubles. That said, it's totally understandable if you'd rather buy a booster box even if it is unoptimal; it's my favourite way to buy cards, too, since I feel it's the most fun.

If you do want to do the booster box route, I'd probably suggest a box of one of the larger sets from the DPPt-era. The larger sets would give you a better chance of getting more different Pokémon and less doubles (Supreme Victors has 153 different cards, Legends Awakened has 146, and Secret Wonders has 132). The biggest downside to these booster boxes is that they're older and a bit out of your price range; Supreme Victors has a BIN on Ebay right now for $133; the others aren't available on Ebay at the moment, so I can't grab a quick price. More affordable would be sets from the HGSS series, though those aren't as large so you'd be more likely to double up. These seem to be available for ~$92-$150 (depending on which set) on Ebay.

 

[Ryan Gleason]

For the record: if you're looking to collect cards of every Pokémon, you'd probably get more bang for your buck by buying singles rather than a booster box, since with a box you're much more likely to get doubles. That said, it's totally understandable if you'd rather buy a booster box even if it is unoptimal; it's my favourite way to buy cards, too, since I feel it's the most fun.

If you do want to do the booster box route, I'd probably suggest a box of one of the larger sets from the DPPt-era. The larger sets would give you a better chance of getting more different Pokémon and less doubles (Supreme Victors has 153 different cards, Legends Awakened has 146, and Secret Wonders has 132). The biggest downside to these booster boxes is that they're older and a bit out of your price range; Supreme Victors has a BIN on Ebay right now for $133; the others aren't available on Ebay at the moment, so I can't grab a quick price. More affordable would be sets from the HGSS series, though those aren't as large so you'd be more likely to double up. These seem to be available for ~$92-$150 (depending on which set) on Ebay.

Thanks for the info. I do realize that buying singles might be easier but like you said opening packs is fun. Ill look into those sets.

 

[Ryan Gleason]

Price Range: ~$100
What you are thinking of buying: Booster Box
Any options to choose from and why (Optional but helpful): Something from pre-Black and White.

I just recently got started back on collecting. I am just interested in collecting, not competitive. My goal is to get one of every pokemon, regardless of set. I have already got a good bit of Black and White and XY cards so I thought my best best would be to look into sets pre-that.

An update to this post, I have created a spreadsheet of every pokemon I own at least one card of. If you guys want to take a look at it and suggest what sets I should look at that would be great. Thanks.

Here is the link. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuAnBUibN6LMdHE1clhLNklNNlhIeEFSN09SOFN5TXc&usp=sharing

 

[pokemat]

I have been wanting to just splurge and buy a whole case of 6 booster boxes. i know its a lot to spend, but i've saved up the money to do it and im thinking that in selling some doubles ect would help me recover a little bit back at least.

my question is, do you think the new Flash Fire set would be a good set to do this for? will the charizard card value make getting a case worth it? assuming i sell secret rares/full arts within the first week they come out, the BC charizard secret rare was going for 90 when it came out. lets say i get one secret rare and one full art, could i make maybe 150 back just on that? plus maybe another 100 on code cards.

thats my theory at least, im asking here to see if its true or not. its also assuming that i GET both of those cards. i figure im bound for at least one secret rare though.

are there other playable, valuable cards to sell off? as far as trainers ect? im more of a collector so i dont know much about whats going to be good. i know that the charizards will make some money back from a collectors stand point, but what about from players?

is this a good set to get a case or should i wait for another set with more valuable and playable cards?

 

[Frost Mage]

I have been wanting to just splurge and buy a whole case of 6 booster boxes. i know its a lot to spend, but i've saved up the money to do it and im thinking that in selling some doubles ect would help me recover a little bit back at least.

my question is, do you think the new Flash Fire set would be a good set to do this for? will the charizard card value make getting a case worth it? assuming i sell secret rares/full arts within the first week they come out, the BC charizard secret rare was going for 90 when it came out. lets say i get one secret rare and one full art, could i make maybe 150 back just on that? plus maybe another 100 on code cards.

thats my theory at least, im asking here to see if its true or not. its also assuming that i GET both of those cards. i figure im bound for at least one secret rare though.

are there other playable, valuable cards to sell off? as far as trainers ect? im more of a collector so i dont know much about whats going to be good. i know that the charizards will make some money back from a collectors stand point, but what about from players?

is this a good set to get a case or should i wait for another set with more valuable and playable cards?

I'd go for it, Flashfire looks so promising, I don't think you'll regret it.

 

[Shök]

Price Range: $20.00 - $30.00
What you are thinking of buying: Red Genesect Collection

I'm looking to play Pokemon competitively. However, I just left the Yugioh TCG, so I'm not looking to spend too much money...yet.

A friend of mine who plays Pokemon told me that the Red Genesect Collection box would be a pretty good start for $20.00. What do you guys think? I currently have the Team Plasma Druddigon Starter deck, Fennekin Structure deck, and a Deoxys Ex tin which had some supporters/trainers.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Luispipe8]

Go for the Genesect Box, it has most the Staples you'll need. If you can buy a second one, don't doubt to get it.