Pokemon TCG New Player enters the battlefield.

[Brandon_Mason95]

I am not really new to the card series, but for battling with cards, yes I am new. I had over 1000 pokemon cards (exaggeration but that's what it felt like) at the age of 12 but all of them were lost due to the Sewage Pipe in the basement leaking. I put them there because I thought they would be safe, but no. Lol However that was so many years ago. I lost interest in card collecting, until recently. I saw Pokemon TCG live streaming their tournaments. Now I am interested all over again. I was wondering, what cards are banned? My first deck is going to be a mix of Fire and Dark, so what elite deck would I have to get that allows me to utilize such combo? My team is going to be aggressive, and I mean aggressive. My two Pokemon cards I have right now are M Charizard Y, and M Sableye teamed with Tyranitar. There will be some random support pokemon in there but yahs I will worry about that when I get there.

 

[donavannj]

I am not really new to the card series, but for battling with cards, yes I am new. I had over 1000 pokemon cards (exaggeration but that's what it felt like) at the age of 12 but all of them were lost due to the Sewage Pipe in the basement leaking. I put them there because I thought they would be safe, but no. Lol However that was so many years ago. I lost interest in card collecting, until recently. I saw Pokemon TCG live streaming their tournaments. Now I am interested all over again. I was wondering, what cards are banned? My first deck is going to be a mix of Fire and Dark, so what elite deck would I have to get that allows me to utilize such combo? My team is going to be aggressive, and I mean aggressive. My two Pokemon cards I have right now are M Charizard Y, and M Sableye teamed with Tyranitar. There will be some random support pokemon in there but yahs I will worry about that when I get there.

There aren't any decks that are meta that will let you use both of those types effectively, iirc, especially not both of the Pokemon you've mentioned. There's no synergy between them. They're just both heavy hitters that don't have any energy requirements in common and don't do anything to accelerate energy to the other Pokemon.

As for cards that are banned, depends on the format of the league you're going to play at. There's Expanded, which is every set from Black & White and newer, but has a banlist with several cards on it, but there aren't many leagues that play it, and there's Standard, which is currently the Sun & Moon - Ultra Prism set and every set released after it.

Limitless TCG is a good site to find some lists. Specifically this page: https://limitlesstcg.com/decks/

As for lists of what are legal in each format, PokeGym has compiled some fantastic lists:

Current Expanded Legal List: https://pokegym.net/index.php/current-expanded-legal-card-list/

Current Standard Legal List: https://pokegym.net/index.php/current-standard-legal-card-list/

Hope these help, and do come back with any questions!

 

[Brandon_Mason95]

What about the unlimited format? Do they still allow that format? That's on the Pokemon TCG game & I was fiddling with it yesterday. I don't have a whole lot of power cards on TCGO, I only have Dragonite EX lol. So I mixed Dragonite with Fire and Dark. The only reason why I went with this combo is because of all the heavy hitters. I was gonna do dragon and fairy, but idk. lol. No I am going to have support pokemon, but the support pokemon I am looking for is just going to have 1 grass and 1 colourless, or 1 colourless. Something pretty basic but can do a lot. Like, put an opponent to sleep and or paralyze them, etc.

 

[donavannj]

What about the unlimited format? Do they still allow that format? That's on the Pokemon TCG game & I was fiddling with it yesterday. I don't have a whole lot of power cards on TCGO, I only have Dragonite EX lol. So I mixed Dragonite with Fire and Dark. The only reason why I went with this combo is because of all the heavy hitters. I was gonna do dragon and fairy, but idk. lol. No I am going to have support pokemon, but the support pokemon I am looking for is just going to have 1 grass and 1 colourless, or 1 colourless. Something pretty basic but can do a lot. Like, put an opponent to sleep and or paralyze them, etc.

Some leagues do, but they're relatively rare and you'd have to ask the organizer if their league permits unlimited format decks. For Unlimited, there are no official tournaments, however, and there never have been.

By support Pokemon, I mean Pokemon that actually contribute to what the deck's trying to do. Like if the deck's trying to hit big numbers with attacks that have a high energy cost, then you want a primary attacker and then Pokemon and Trainers that help you attach energy and draw cards faster. Unfortunately, a Pokemon that doesn't contribute to that or isn't in to counter a weakness the deck has isn't really a support Pokemon.

EDIT: Also, while this may be old, the structure of it still applies to modern deckbuilding: https://www.pokecommunity.com/threads/275378

 

[Brandon_Mason95]

Well, I have seen some pkmn cards that can move tools around, get energy from your discard or your deck as an ability would that be beneficial? That's what I was thinking of getting then spam sleep or paralyze while having a rescue scarf on my basic powerhouse card to annoy them. So inst of putting it on my powerhouse card; I would put it on my support pokemon on TCGO then I have cards that can grab tool cards from discard piles. And once they realize I grabbed more Rescue Scarfs they forfeit the game usually. I don't want to play like that but when you're up against.... 5 EX cards and basically have none in your deck, then that's fair lol. I'll usually have enough energy cards for my pokemon to retreat then do the rescue scarf thing over again lol.

Again I dont want to play like that but when you're up against like 4-5 ex cards man it's not fair lol.

 

[Brandon_Mason95]

If someone that has normal cards like me goes into a battle, I won't do this to them. But when someone has EX cards and I don't this seems like fair gameplay to me lol.

 

[donavannj]

If someone that has normal cards like me goes into a battle, I won't do this to them. But when someone has EX cards and I don't this seems like fair gameplay to me lol.

I have no issues with trying to poison and such, they've just historically not been all that successful because retreating a Pokemon removes all status conditions, and even if they have a status condition where they can't retreat, there are so many cards that let you switch out from those.

You're better off in the TCG by trying to hit huge numbers or going for a lock/stall route of some kind (like preventing their Pokemon from attacking through an ability or blocking them from using Trainer cards).