• Our software update is now concluded. You will need to reset your password to log in. In order to do this, you will have to click "Log in" in the top right corner and then "Forgot your password?".
  • Welcome to PokéCommunity! Register now and join one of the best fan communities on the 'net to talk Pokémon and more! We are not affiliated with The Pokémon Company or Nintendo.

PTCGO: Hackers? Or just bad luck?

4
Posts
6
Years
Ok, so this is the third tourney that I've joined that resulted in a player having a deck made almost entirely of GX and EX Pokémon who spent about 3 minutes on their first turn and one shot a high HP Pokémon on their second... So am I being put up against good players, or are they hacking and spoiling the fun for us? They always seem to start with the same basic loadout as well.
 
Last edited:
4
Posts
6
Years
Game Log Output Begins Here:
Spoiler:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
507
Posts
8
Years
  • Seen Sep 7, 2023
(Note that I have not played the Pokémon trading card game in 6 years, so what I am saying may not be accurate)
In many card games, the goal is to reduce the effect of luck as much possible. The easiest way to reduce the effect of luck is by reducing the no. of cards of your deck to as little as possible and to run as many copies of good cards as permitted by the meta. Let's say that your opponent has 6 GX cards (but remember that for any specific card, you can only run 4 max). That would mean that at the first draw of the game, your opponent has a 6/60 (10%) chance of drawing any Pokémon GX and that each consecutive draw would increase the chance of drawing any Pokémon GX. But if you want to know likelihood that your opponent would have a Pokémon GX in the opening hand, add up each probability event. Remember that each time a card is taken out, subtract a card from the denominator and that any time your card of focus (GX cards in this case) is taken out, subtract a card from the numerator.

(6/60)+(6/59)+(6/58)+(6/57)+(6/56)+(6/55)+(6/54)≈74%

This means that you can be 74% certain (assuming that the deck was actually shuffled "randomly") that your opponent has a GX card in the opening hand. Also note the opponent's support cards and how they work to achieve the goal of reducing randomness.
Ultra Ball - This card lets you grab any Pokémon from the deck, effectively eliminating chance from the equation. Also note that it sends 2 cards to the discard, which will have synergy with Rescue Stretcher's effect.
Professor Sycamore - Discards your hand, and gives you seven new cards. This card reduces the amount of cards in the deck, thus improving your chance of drawing the card you need overall. This card has synergy with Rescue Stretcher too.
Rescue Stretcher - Adds a Pokémon from the discard to the hand or returns 3 Pokémon to the deck. This effectively undoes any consequence of accidentally discarding a useful Pokémon.
All the other cards help let you search for specific cards such as the Max Elixir which gives you the energies you need, Tapu Lele-GX gives you the supporter cards you need, and Octillery's effect lets you draw more cards.

To answer, your question, I don't think your opponent is hacking. I don't think that their deck is made entirely out of GX cards, but rather they have an effective system of getting them out quickly. And there is a reason why you see the same basic loadout. That is because it works well in reducing the overall luck and gets you the cards you need as fast as possible.
 
Last edited:

ddrox13

Anti-Nonsense
1,650
Posts
8
Years
Ok, so this is the third tourney that I've joined that resulted in a player having a deck made almost entirely of GX and EX Pokémon who spent about 3 minutes on their first turn and one shot a high HP Pokémon on their second... So am I being put up against good players, or are they hacking and spoiling the fun for us? They always seem to start with the same basic loadout as well.

正真正銘 is correct above. However, math is really hard, so I'll take this time to explain from a TCG perspective.

"The same basic loadout" is what we call staples - cards that should be in every competitive deck. That's your Tapu Lele GX, Sycamore, Ultra Ball, etc. You know, the good stuff. These are what make decks successful.

Besides that, what you played in the log you posted is quite typical of Buzzwole decks. They are designed to set up incredibly quickly and start one-shotting things on their 2nd turn if possible.

The problem was not your opponent getting lucky. Your opponent played two incredibly standard turns. Decks in 2018 want to tear through their deck ASAP to get as many cards as possible. The small amount of luck was pulling that Float with N, but I'm not sure how many he ran. The issue was you not having a Supporter to start the game. No, Lana doesn't count. It doesn't do anything. Trust me here. The reason you lost, at base value, was that your opponent saw 25 of his 60 cards (42%), while you saw essentially 8 (13%). He also just had a better deck than you, but that's a separate issue.

In short, it is neither bad luck nor hacking. If you end your first turn with only a single Basic in play in 2018, you need more draw support. If you'd like to post your list, I can look at it. Just looking over the log, I'd start by replacing every Lana with Professor Sycamore if you can.

Edit: to expand a bit - While Versus attempts to pair you against players of similar skill, Tournaments on the TCGO do NOT. They don't care how good you are, you can get paired against anyone else. I recommend staying out of non-theme tournaments until you have a competitive deck. And I'm sorry if this came off as blunt.
 
Last edited:
22,952
Posts
19
Years
Basically, what ddrox said. The people with EXs turn 1 are building their decks in a way to maximize their odds of starting with the cards they need and not getting stuck in the weeds because they have cards that don't help them get their primary method of winning out into play. The counter is generally to run more setup cards in your own deck so you see more cards from your own deck earlier on so you've got your primary win method setup earlier.
 
Back
Top