TCG Strategy Articles

[Stripes]

I've heard many with questions on how do I make a deck or what cards should I remove or add to a deck, so I'm here to help. On this thread I will post strategy guides that work with the best decks out there, errata's that some may not know about, and answers to some of those game deciding questions. I look forward to everyone's input.

Article 1: Basis to the game.

As we all should know your tcg deck should be made out of 60 cards. Within those 60 you should have your pokemon, trainers, and energy. Your pokemon are what makes the game fun, you can evolve, heal, and use special powers to win the game for you. You should always have at least 8-10 basics in a deck and usually no more than 16. With these basics you may have evolved pokemon. The main statistics inyour deck of evolutionary lines should usually be-4-3-3.(which means 4 bulbasauur 3 ivysaur 3 venusaur) When doing statistics like this the chance of drawing the evolved form you need increases and decreases risk of all your needed evolved pokemon being in your prizes.(explained in the future)

We'll now go on to the trainers. These cards can give you an added advantage in the tcg game and will be useful in any deck. I'll explain the full potential of trainers later.

Now we have the energy, the most important part of the game. These are used to allow your pokemon to attack, and without energy you are sure to lose. The basic amount of energy varies from deck to deck but should be kept between the parameters of 16-26. Advanced variations of decks will change how many energies you will use.

I hope this and future expansions of this article will widen everyone's view on the Pokemon TCG. Any comments or questions will gladly be heard and answered. In the next article I'm going to go into advance study of the basic pokemon cards.

 

[Bullados]

I'll just make some edits to this article, as I really don't feel like writing my own.

I've heard many with questions on how do I make a deck or what cards should I remove or add to a deck, so I'm here to help. On this thread I will post strategy guides that work with the best decks out there, errata's that some may not know about, and answers to some of those game deciding questions. I look forward to everyone's input.

Article 1: Basis to the game.

As we all should know your tcg deck should be made out of 60 cards. Within those 60 you should have your pokemon, trainers, and energy. Your pokemon are what makes the game fun, you can evolve, heal, and use special powers to win the game for you. You should always have at least 8-10 basics in a deck and usually no more than 16. [EDIT] Statistically, it is best to have 12 Basics in your deck. Any more, and you really cut down on the effectiveness of your Trainers. Any less, and you run a greater risk of Mulligan draws. A full stats chart, including the basis on which the calculations were obtained, can be found here: https://www.pojo.com/Features/X-Act/Odds In Pokemon 1.htm [/EDIT] With these basics you may have evolved pokemon. The main statistics inyour deck of evolutionary lines should usually be-4-3-3.(which means 4 bulbasauur 3 ivysaur 3 venusaur) When doing statistics like this the chance of drawing the evolved form you need increases and decreases risk of all your needed evolved pokemon being in your prizes.(explained in the future)

We'll now go on to the trainers. These cards can give you an added advantage in the tcg game and will be useful in any deck. I'll explain the full potential of trainers later.

Now we have the energy, the most important part of the game. These are used to allow your pokemon to attack, and without energy you are sure to lose. The basic amount of energy varies from deck to deck but should be kept between the parameters of 16-26. Advanced variations of decks will change how many energies you will use. [EDIT] I personally believe that, in Unlimited, you should NEVER run more than 20 total energies, and, in Modified, 23 is the high. That being said, there are also preferences in energy count for both formats. For Unlimited, I like 10-15, and in Modified, I like around 15-20, mostly b/c Modified doesn't have the drawing, searching, and recovery abilities that Unlimited has. [/EDIT]

I hope this and future expansions of this article will widen everyone's view on the Pokemon TCG. Any comments or questions will gladly be heard and answered. In the next article I'm going to go into advance study of the basic pokemon cards.

 

[Stripes]

Sure, that's fine what ever you feel like adding to.

Ok I'm going to just add on to this so I don't double post.

Article 2:

Basic Pokemon-basis of the game

Well here we are on article 2 of the strategy guide. The topic this time is basic pokemon.
Basic pokemon are the building blocks of the tcg. They are what starts the game and sometimes end the game.(explained further in future chapters) You should always have a high supply of basic pokemon in your deck and really they should be accounting for a sizeable portion of your deck. Without basic pokemon it dosen't matter what evolution, powerful trainer, or energies you have. There should always be basic pokemon usually that compliment your deck, or enhance the chances of certain strategies or crucial plays.(for example:Wurmple searches your deck for as many grass basic pokemon as needed and puts them in play) That right there is a perfect card to compliment a full out grass deck. If your strategy is to get out the big guns that require evolving you should have four of the same basic for higher chances of drawing. If need be many players don't just use basic pokemon for the sole purpose of evolving, but many times as there main attacker(Rayquaza ex) for example. While we move on you should be able to pick up on the feelof how many basics you need for a certain deck. Always make sure you'll have enough basics you fraw from your deck when you need them, and on the flip side make sure you don't have to many so you don't keep drawing useless basics in the tidal point of the game.

That about wraps up the teachings on the basis of basics. Please join me again for my next chapter where we will do the analysis on evolved pokemon. Again feel free to add any input on this. If needed any clarification on this article please feel free to PM me.

Under Construction...