New to the TCG

Aduitt said:

I want to get into the Pokémon TCG but I don't know where to start.

What deck should I build?

What strategies should I focus on?

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donavannj said:

First, do you know how to play?

Second, are you looking at competitive play or casual play?

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Aduitt said:

I kinda want to try competitive budget to see how I like the game first.

As for the rules, I am semi familiar with them.

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donavannj said:

Buying two Mach Strike theme decks and merging them will be a pretty quick way to build a semi-viable competitive theme deck.

Spirit Shackle's first list in this post is a suggested deck for something straight out of the box from two of them.

It will still get wrecked by a lot of the better decks (that's been my experience running it the past couple of weeks), but it's a borderline Tier 2 deck.

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Aduitt said:

Yeah.
The guys who got me to play said that that would be a good starting point.
What singles should I buy to help get around the 'better decks'?

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donavannj said:

Tapu Lele GX is a need. Should probably run N. Brigette should probably be run. So should Professor Sycamore.

Other than that, not sure. I'm still shaking off a lot of rust and re-familiarizing with the format, myself.

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Aduitt said:

Thanks, appreciate the help.

Would you know anyone with a deck list for this?

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donavannj said:

Spirit Shackle probably could give you some ideas.

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Aduitt said:

Thanks again.

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bunnybird12 said:

You would also want to run 4 Double Colorless Energy to speed up your setup of Garchomp's attack. Pokemon.com has two decent lists here:

Spoiler:

https://www.pokemon.com/us/strategy/a-bite-on-a-budget/

It has one list that is less competitive and the other more competitive. If you end up liking this deck, once you feel like you have a better understanding of competitive play you can edit the list to function better.

I found that watching YouTube videos on competitive decklists helped me most on how to play competitively, as well as putting it into practice by actually playing with a competitive deck to experience using all the cards together.

I would like to note that the 2019 season format was just announced a few days ago, which basically means that cards from before the Sun & Moon sets/promos (that weren't reprinted in the Sun & Moon sets/promos) will not be valid in the Standard format any longer by September 1st (details and a better explanation on Pokemon.com). If you end up wanting to play competitively in the Standard format and want to save some money, you could consider not buying some of the more expensive cards in current competitive decks (namely Bridgette, N, Puzzle of Time, and Strong Energy). Pretty soon people will start creating decklists for the new format so this could help you find out what you would need to buy (Sorry if this was confusing-if you want you can ask me to explain better).

Good luck!

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bunnybird12 said:

Rotation occurs once a year, usually announced around July-June for Pokemon, and occuring around September. It is a way for old cards to be no longer 'legal' (playable) in what is called the Standard format. When a rotation happens, cards from older sets are no longer legal. The Standard format contains only the newest cards, while another format, the Expanded format, has some older cards and the new cards. Currently, the Expanded format contains all cards from the set Black & White and all the other set released after that set as well as promo cards BW01, XY01, and SM01 and up. As of right now, the Standard format contains all cards from the set BREAKthrough and all other sets released after that set as well as promos XY67 and SM01 and up. This means that BREAKthrough, BREAKpoint, Generations, Fates Collide, Steam Siege, Evolutions, Sun & Moon, Guardians Rising, Burning Shadows, Shining Legends, Crimson Invasion, Ultra Prism, Forbidden Light, promos XY67+ and SM01+, and the sets released in the future are part of the Standard format. However, when rotation occurs, some of the sets in the Standard format are removed from Standard format to keep the game fresh. The 2019 season format rotation is valid on and after September 1, 2018 so that the Standard format only includes the set Sun & Moon and the sets released after that as well as promos SM01 and up. This means that Sun & Moon, Guardians Rising, Burning Shadows, Shining Legends, Crimson Invasion, Ultra Prism, Forbidden Light, promos SM01+ and the sets released in the future are part of the Standard format. This makes it so any of the cards you had from the sets that used to be legal in the Standard format are now not legal in Standard (but are still legal in Expanded), with the exception of reprints (I'll get to that later). The Expanded format remains unchanged this year. Standard is the format most people play, and is the best to start with because there are fewer cards, and the gameplay isn't as ultra-fast-paced and the decks are less expensive (sorry for the wall of text).

Reprints are cards that were printed in one set, but were printed again in a later set (possibly with a different look). They have the same text and do the same thing, which is what allows cards from sets that would normally be illegal to still be played if they have been reprinted. Some cards are almost always reprinted so that they will be always be legal. Double Colorless Energy and Ultra Ball are examples of this. This means that any copy of Ultra Ball that you have (even if it is from an old set, like say Dark Explorers) is valid in the Standard format as long as a print of Ultra Ball is in one of the legal sets and they share the same text.

The reason I said you might want to not buy staples from XY sets is because those staples will rotate out on September 1st, so it might seem like a waste of money to you if you don't want to spend a lot.

https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pok%C3%A9mon_Trading_Card_Game_expansions is a great place to look at all of the existing sets. You can look at each of the cards in the sets and if they have been reprinted.

Does this make sense? Sorry for the loooong explanation, but I wanted to make sure I was thorough (I knew I was confused when I first learned about it) :laugh-squinted:

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