BEGINNER(ish) in need of help! Please give me a hand

[Kmanftw]

Hi guys and girls,

My daughter has gone Pokemon crazy all of a sudden!

She is loving Pokemon go and just got to the Pokemon league in diamond (which I think is fairly cool for a 6 year old! Obviously with a little bit of help from dad)

She wants to get into Pokemon cards and I'm going to go get her her first deck today! Will buy myself one so I can teach her to play but I haven't played in about 16 years! Have the rules changed much? I'm guessing they have with all the new types of cards etc and I'm guessing I get a new rule book with a theme deck?

Also what's the best Theme deck to get for a starter? Can a steam engine deck fight a generations deck for example or can you only battle people with the same type of deck as you?

Your help would be most appreciate before I head into town

 

[donavannj]

Actually, the best deck set to get for just starting out is one of the Trainer Kits, as they will hold your hand through the first several turns of the game. Each "deck" inside that deck is only a 30-card deck (AKA a half deck), so each individual deck in it is not meant to be played against other decks. With most Trainer Kits, though, you can combine the two half-decks to get a halfway decent 60-card deck to play against another deck.

 

[ddrox13]

Hi guys and girls,

My daughter has gone Pokemon crazy all of a sudden!

She is loving Pokemon go and just got to the Pokemon league in diamond (which I think is fairly cool for a 6 year old! Obviously with a little bit of help from dad)

She wants to get into Pokemon cards and I'm going to go get her her first deck today! Will buy myself one so I can teach her to play but I haven't played in about 16 years! Have the rules changed much? I'm guessing they have with all the new types of cards etc and I'm guessing I get a new rule book with a theme deck?

Also what's the best Theme deck to get for a starter? Can a steam engine deck fight a generations deck for example or can you only battle people with the same type of deck as you?

Your help would be most appreciate before I head into town

This is where I normally redirect people to some super awesome and probably handsome PC Daily author's comprehensive guide on how to play and start the Pokémon TCG, which also conveniently gives his (my) recommendations for ways to start playing the game, which the tldr of is buy a theme deck.

Any deck of 60 cards can play against any other deck of 60 cards. I would personally start by buying TWO theme decks (The two Steam Siege ones are nice if I've heard correctly), so that your daughter can play one and let dad/mom play the other.

 

[echimaru]

buy theme deck ray with keldeo which on sale now, its cheap and got pretty good

 

[Hands]

buy theme deck ray with keldeo which on sale now, its cheap and got pretty good

Yeah, this. It gives you a bunch of usable cards, a little tips sheet and two complete decks that are semi competitive. The only downside is that a lot of the stuff is for the expanded format only, however given her age I assume that won't be a massive set back if she just wants to have fun

 

[CheekyChelsea]

Yeah, this. It gives you a bunch of usable cards, a little tips sheet and two complete decks that are semi competitive. The only downside is that a lot of the stuff is for the expanded format only, however given her age I assume that won't be a massive set back if she just wants to have fun

My dad and I are new to the game and recently bought these decks and like the Rayquaza and Kaldeo battle areana decks to be a lot more helpful than the theme decks we started with. Also, the online game is really helpful for learning.