Help The "What Should I Buy?" Thread

Phantom Forces or Flashfire?

Which recent Pokemon trading card set would be better to collect as an investment? Phantom Forces set? or the Flashfire set? Which cards are the most sought after in both sets? I don't play the game itself. I just like to collect them and store them in trading card sheets inside a binder. Check each card I get when I open up a new pack off the set checklist. I find it fun trying to get a card I don't have, yet. To see what I get next. Which set would be worth more money down the road if it was complete in a binder?

Thanks. :D
 
RE: Phantom Forces or Flashfire?

In the future, I'd say Flashfire will be the most popular, simply due to abundance of popular Pokemon, such as Charizard and Blaziken.
Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure PHF is actually worth more ATM; with many staples as well as good EXs, and the Chromo Dialga.
 
RE: Phantom Forces or Flashfire?

For current value, Phantom Forces would give you better bang for your buck, but in the long-term, Flashfire will probably retain its value better since it has a lot of popular Pokémon and that tends to be better for long-term value, whereas Phantom Forces value is more competitive-related.

Regardless, since you're going to be collecting, you're likely just better off picking which set you like the most. You can see all the scans for both sets on the main page, so you can see which one has the Pokémon and cards you like the most.
 
RE: Phantom Forces or Flashfire?

Given that PHF has so many splashable cards such as: Manectric/Mega Manectric, Sneaky Bite Bats, Malamar EX,AZ, Battle Compressor, Hammer, Head Ringer, Robo Sub, Xerosic, and Lysandre's Trump Card; as well as good cards such as Gengar-EX, Bronzong, Heatran, Dialga-EX, Aegislash-EX, Florges-EX, and Hydreigon.


However, FLF does have the Zards, Pyroar, Kangaskhan/Mkangaskhan, Blacksmith, Fiery Torch,Lysandre, Startling Megaphone, and Sacred Ash.
 
What Booster Box Should I Get?

I want to get a booster box from the XY expansions, but I'm not sure which set I should get. I want cards that could be useful for play, such as Prof. Sycamore, Lysandre, Muscle Band and other useful trainers. I've also been looking at decks that I'd like to make and a lot of steel types in Phantom Forces look pretty good, so I'm leaning more in that direction. Are there any sets in the X & Y series that are 'better' than the rest? What are your opinions?
 
RE: What Booster Box Should I Get?

Nin said:
I want to get a booster box from the XY expansions, but I'm not sure which set I should get. I want cards that could be useful for play, such as Prof. Sycamore, Lysandre, Muscle Band and other useful trainers. I've also been looking at decks that I'd like to make and a lot of steel types in Phantom Forces look pretty good, so I'm leaning more in that direction. Are there any sets in the X & Y series that are 'better' than the rest? What are your opinions?

You're probably best going with Phantom Forces. All the EXs are pretty playable, and there's some great Trainers in there, like Professor Sycamore, VS Seeker, Double Colorless Energy, Battle Compressor, Lysandre's Trump Card, and Shauna. There's also a few solid Pokemon too, such as Slurpuff, the Crobat line, the Night March gang, and of course Bronzong. I think XY may have overall better Trainers (Sycamore, Muscle Band, Professor's Letter, DCE, Shauna), but Phantom Forces has far superior Pokemon.

I hope this was helpful! :D
 
I'm currently trapped in between 3 different sets, XY Primal Clash, B&W Legendary Treasures, and XY Flashfire. I want to complete all 3 sets, and have about the same amount of cards so far for each set. I want to buy a booster box but not sure which set I should try and complete first XD
I don't play competitively with the cards or anything, just like them for the artwork.
 
Effectively Legendary Treasures is reprinted artwork for many past BW cards, so if you want to collect the reprints (and large quantity of EXs) then you could go with that. FF will likely be the most expensive set out of those three in the future due to featuring 4 Charizards, so if you plan on ever selling, try completing FF. PRC is just a nice set overall, with heaps of cards. PRC is the largest of the three, while FF is the smallest.
 
bbninjas said:
Effectively Legendary Treasures is reprinted artwork for many past BW cards, so if you want to collect the reprints (and large quantity of EXs) then you could go with that. FF will likely be the most expensive set out of those three in the future due to featuring 4 Charizards, so if you plan on ever selling, try completing FF. PRC is just a nice set overall, with heaps of cards. PRC is the largest of the three, while FF is the smallest.
They all have different, but awesome qualities xD this is going to be a hard decision...unless i save up longer and buy all 3 at once haha.
 
Hi everyone,

I really like the delta species Pokemon, as it's just cool seeing the different types. Because of this I want to collect a set with them in it, I was wondering what set is the easiest to source (as the cards are a bit old now) and cheapest.
 
Hey! I just bought Pokémon card for the first time. Two decks, the Resilient Life deck for myself, and the Destruction Rush deck for my brother. I've played a couple of games with him, and I really enjoyed it, so I've decided to get into the world of the Pokémon TCG! I want to have a deck based around the water types and some other type.

My question is this: what should I do to get started? What decks/packs should I buy to get water-type Pokémon? Which are the best water-type Pokémon, and which types go best with water?
 
Hey, welcome to the world of the Pokémon TCG! :)

If you're actually looking to play competitively and compete in tournaments and the like, I would suggest you look through some of the threads here and maybe make a thread of your own. Competitive Pokémon is quite a bit different from casual, and there's some specific advice that would be useful to you for building viable competitive decks. Other threads here and here might also be useful to you. There are some popular Water-type Pokémon available in some current decks, though it's more about which specific Pokémon go with what than simply matching types together.

If you're just looking to play casually with friends or whatever, though, I would suggest the newest set, Primal Clash. Since it's based on ORAS, it's got a good amount of Water-type Pokémon.
 
Hey, so i have a question about profiting on Pokemon cards
With a 50$ budget i want to profit a little bit on cards as well as collect nice exes
and As a good amount of us know, profiting off ENGLISH booster boxes is VERY hard to do unless you get very lucky.
my question is what does the japanese booster boxes look like in terms of pull rates and bang for buck? and does it compete or trump english box pull rates?
and is it worth for example buying 2 boxes open them for exes/holos/bulk and then selling them online?
i know that the pullrate for exes in Bandit ring for example is ~4EXES per box if that helps
 
You might want to take a look at this thread for more information on Japanese booster box pull rates. The last couple pages are primarily talking about Bandit Ring.

Japanese pull rates are much less swingy than English sets. Generally speaking, it's easier to pull Rs/RRs, but less common to pull SRs/URs, though the SR/UR ratio for Bandit Ring seems to have increased significantly. In terms of profit, just like in English sets, popular Pokémon and competitively useful cards are typically worth more.

Buying Japanese booster boxes for profit is still a gamble, though. You could easily be that (apparent) 1/10 chance of no UR/SR and end up at a loss, or you could pull a Shiny Rayquaza FA that's worth about US$50 on Ebay right now and recoup the cost of both boxes with a single card.

If you do want to buy Japanese booster boxes for profit, though, Bandit Ring is a good set to pick. It's new and fresh with a lot of popular cards and very good pull rates. AmiAmi is even still in stock so you can get a good price on boxes, too.
 
Hey Pokebeach
I used to play the TCG when I was young but then stopped at age 13, I am trying to get money for an elite trainer box. I know about the new break cards but what elite trainer box and theme decks (for good trainer cards) would you guys recommend?

Thanks in advance!
 
Looking for a starter product to buy.

Me and a friend want to play a bit to see if we enjoy it, we're both hyper competitive types with magic experience, in the long-run price isn't a factor if we jump in (i have legacy decks over $3k+), what's a cheap and easy way to resemble what the end game looks and feels like?

Was thinking mewtwo vs darkrai arena decks?
 
Hey Pokebeach
I used to play the TCG when I was young but then stopped at age 13, I am trying to get money for an elite trainer box. I know about the new break cards but what elite trainer box and theme decks (for good trainer cards) would you guys recommend?

Thanks in advance!
BREAKThrough packs as they contain highly competitive Pokemon like Zoroark and Gallade, while BREAKPoint more features good Trainers such as Bursting Balloon, Puzzle of Time and Max Elixir. Unfortunately the theme decks are really average, although Greninja BREAK variants are decent so you could obtain that deck.

Looking for a starter product to buy.

Me and a friend want to play a bit to see if we enjoy it, we're both hyper competitive types with magic experience, in the long-run price isn't a factor if we jump in (i have legacy decks over $3k+), what's a cheap and easy way to resemble what the end game looks and feels like?

Was thinking mewtwo vs darkrai arena decks?

Mewtwo vs Darkrai Arena Decks would be my recommendation, as it does give you a decent competitive feel and provides you with some great staples.
 
What would you recommend me getting that is under $30 for people that want to play competitively
 
Ok so I am gonna buy a booster box soon, what would be the best set to buy one from besides flashfire and the break sets?
 
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