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A lot of people online (both here and places like reddit, facebook etc) ask the question of where to start with the TCG. This is usually a hard-ish question to answer because of the many variables. Do they want to play competitive or casual? Do they want to play Standard or Expanded? What kind of deck are they looking for?

I'm gonna try and write a skeleton guide in this thread to answer some of the more common questions and to share a few resources for new players. Something to note with this is that I'm talking exclusively about the physical game and not the PTCGO


Firstly, the real big question is do you actually want to play? By that I mean, do you want to play at organised tournaments, events and leagues? If you're just planning on playing at home with a few friends or family or whatever then honestly any cards from any set are fine. You really do not have to worry too much for this.

If you want to play organised, then you need to find out what your local league plays. Some play expanded year round, most will play standard. Standard as of Sept 2016 is Primal Clash onward. That means anything from sets prior to Primal Clash are not Standard legal.

Expanded is anything from Black & White onward. This means any set that came out after the initial BW set (and including said set) is legal for this format, that is, with the exception of certain banned cards like Lysandre's Trump Card.

https://www.pokemon.com/uk/pokemon-news/pokemon-tcg-format-rotation-for-2017/

More information can be found at the above link.


When you've figured out what format you will be playing you'll then want to know where to start. This is the most daunting question really because even if you're just playing Standard that still leaves ten current sets in rotation and at least two more to come. First off the bat you should look at some decks online via youtube or attend a local event as an observer and see how things are played. Do you want a fast deck that hits quick and sets up quicker or do you want a deck that is a bit more bulky, is a slower burner and provides a lot of late game control? Maybe you want a pretty technical deck that runs unconventional combos, or you might even want a rogue deck.

Knowing what deck/type of deck you want will help you identify what cards you need and by extension, what sets you want to buy from/trade from. If you know exactly what you want it might be cheaper to buy singles than packs. Good sites for singles are everywhere, some notable ones are:

UK/EUR/IRE

https://www.magicmadhouse.co.uk

https://www.chaoscards.co.uk/

https://www.cardempire.co.uk/

USA/CA

https://www.trollandtoad.com/Pokemon/7088.html

https://www.tcgplayer.com/

https://www.facetofacegames.com/


Alternatively to these eBay (any region) is often a good place to go for playset purchases or harder to find cards, although it's a far more volatile market than the dedicated stores.

Something worth thinking about regardless of what deck you want is staples. Staples are cards that are pretty much essential in most, if not every deck. Below is a very finite list of trainer staples in the current format:

Professor Sycamore
N
Ultra Ball (Dive Ball if you are running a water deck)
Hex Maniac
Lysandre
Switch (or float stone, escape rope or another card that allows free retreats/swaps)
Pokemon Ranger
VS Seeker
Max Elixir
Trainer's Mail

Pokemon wise, Shaymin EX is about the only thing considered staple, however Shaymin is wildly expensive these days and as such I would personally avoid calling it a staple to new players. Octillery from BREAKThrough does roughly the same thing and is a fraction of the cost.

One thing I can't stress enough, avoid the theme decks, they're bad and have no competitive value. A great place to start is the Keldo Vs Rayquaza Battle Arena kit (see below) which contains a massive stack of current staples and a lot of great expanded cards.

Now that you have an idea of what kind of deck you want, a grasp on what to buy and where to buy it and a scope of what cards are essential to most decks the only thing left for you to do is get out there and play. Chances are you'll lose a lot at first, but treat every loss as a generous lesson and you'll soon be bringing home wins.

If anyone has any questions, or suggestions on how to improve the thread feel free to post them here or message me directly.

 

[Hands]

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Click the little guy above to see a write up on the Octillery mentioned in the first post.


Credit to SadSlug from deviantart for the cool little (better than official) gen 2 Octillery animation

 

[KnockoutSushi]

I appreciate this awesome guide, helps a lot fam.

 

[Hands]

I appreciate this awesome guide, helps a lot fam.

Thanks man, glad I could be of help. Will probably update and add to this over the next few weeks. If there's any questions I can help with feel free to ask

 

[ddrox13]

You really should have written this as a Daily article lol

 

[Hands]

You really should have written this as a Daily article lol

I'll flesh it out a bit and submit it :)

 

[ChariotsOfThyer]

This is super helpful to me! Just bought a theme deck and was looking at getting 2 more. Will deffo avoid that now and look at other options

 

[donavannj]

This is super helpful to me! Just bought a theme deck and was looking at getting 2 more. Will deffo avoid that now and look at other options

You really only want to avoid them if you're hoping to do official organized events or if you're looking to play others with more than just the cards in the theme decks on the TCGO. They're perfectly fine for facing against friends.