Help, a newbie.

[soccer342]

I purchased a Black&White plasma freeze theme deck and 3 packs(10 cards in each). I got the playmat and rules/guide, but im wondering if It is possible to play with my cousin with those 90 cards? Can we split them somehow or what?

 

[donavannj]

Thing is, you'd probably have to split the 90 cards into two 30 card half-decks, but yes, it's possible. Half-decks aren't very popular outside of Japan, but they offer faster gameplay than a 60 card deck because typically, the number of prizes set aside for a half-deck match is 3, since if you went with the 6 from a full 60 card deck match, you'd have 20% of your deck gone straight to your prizes.

 

[soccer342]

I need some help with the instructions also, because it says "shuffle your 60-card deck and draw top 7 cards" what do i do with those 7 cards? And "check to see if you have any basic pokemon in your hand"- does it mean in the 7 cards? Another one, "Put up to 5 more basic pokemon face down on your bench"- from the 7 cards or what? And last, where do i get the prize cards from? random cards from deck? I dont understand this :/

 

[donavannj]

Those 7 cards you draw become your hand, so, yes, it means to check there. The only place cards can enter play from is your hand unless a card effect specifically says otherwise. However, for prizes, you pull those off of the top of your deck after you've set any Basic Pokemon in play from your hand. You don't set those in the prize area until you've actually got at least 1 Basic Pokemon face-down and in play, so if you have no Basic Pokemon in play, you shuffle your hand back into your deck and then re-draw your hand, which will still consist of 7 cards. If you've had to re-draw your hand in this pre-game phase, your opponent may choose to draw an extra card from their deck if they had any Basic Pokemon in their hand.

I recommend buying the Black & White Trainer Kit deck since you seem to be fairly confused by the game setup phase. If my memory serves, the handbook that comes with each half-deck in that will walk you through the setup steps for a match in a bit more detail than the stuff included within a Theme Deck.

 

[soccer342]

Thanks for the help. The theme deck has nice page on the other side of playmat that explains the game very well, but I didn't understand the setup part :)
Again, thanks for the help.
Also, the trainer kit looks great, but is it worth spending my money on trainer kit when I bought theme deck already?

 

[donavannj]

It may help you learn the game better, and it has a few useful trainers in it that you could add to your existing deck.

 

[soccer342]

Also, is there a limit of how many energy cards can i have? 30-half decks.

 

[donavannj]

There's no limit on how many Basic Energy cards you can have, but in a 30 card deck, 11 or 12 is probably the maximum you want, otherwise you'll be drowning in energy. Special energy cards (typically, these will say "Special Energy" somewhere on the card, iirc) have a cap of 4 of each, though.

 

[soccer342]

Oh alright, and I only got grass and psychic. I have like 2 or 3 pokemon that use water,dark, etc energy. Which pack will have those? booster packs?

How come other cards i see online have lvls next to their names and mine don't?

 

[donavannj]

Only certain sets will contain basic energy, so your best ways to get energy are to either a) Buy theme decks that have the energy you want, or b) buy an Elite Trainer Box that has between 5 and 7 copies of each type of Basic Energy included in all the things it gives you (you also get 7 packs, some damage counters, and an official coin-flip die). The Elite Trainer Box is the more cost efficient buy, in my opinion.