Tournament Rules

[Mp3Kid2000]

Okay, look. I will be honest- I played pokemon TCG a long time ago, and now I just play it with my immediate family. Now, I know you all are up to date with the rules, and I am not. The last tournament I played in, I was about twelve, thirteen and I kicked some ass with my deck built around the all-powerful Nidoking (base set), with some Snorlax and Licktounge to back him up (Jungle Set)

BUT, I was reading some reviews on cards, and it says "if only this card were allowed in tournaments, it would be a killer in a deck with --- card"

so whats up with the whole Unlimited/Modified junk? I mean, are my old favoret cards like Electabuzz, Super Energy Removal, and Snorlax still allowed? Has the almighty Nidoking been dethroned for reasons unknown to me? Just wondering what cards are banned, and why?

Also, on a side note, how many of you all think that Spinda (EX Hidden Legends) is a good card? I think pattern distraction makes up for the 50/50 chance of ten damage.

 

[Gokey Shuckle]

Ulimited you can use any card I think. (Don't yell at me. I haven't played the TCG in a while).

Modified recently changed. The only cards that can be used are from EX: Deoxys and up.

 

[Mp3Kid2000]

so...is Modified what they use in tournaments, and Unlimited is everything else? sorry, kinda confused, though I get the basic concept

 

[Gokey Shuckle]

I believe it depends on where you go. Some places will let you run Modified, and others will let you run Unlimited.

 

[Astinus]

Unlimited is when you just play with your friends. There are no limits to the cards you can use. Some TCG leagues allow you to play unlimited. If you are going into the sanctioned tournaments, then it's modified. This allows for the card combos that owned back in the day to lie collecting dust. Besides, some of the tournament players might have just started playing the game.

My deck is full of new cards. It can beat my friend's deck that is newer. My other friend has old cards. He owns me all the time.

Modified is Expedition on. Anything before set Expedition can't be played under modified rules.

As for Spinda... The Legend Maker set is the one you are talking about. And the Pattern Distraction Pokébody is fifty/fifty chance of any damage.

 

[Cipher 2008]

Modified isn't Expedition-on. At the moment it's Hidden Legends onwards, and from 1 September it's EX Deoxys onwards.

 

[Mp3Kid2000]

so i get what your saying- its to keep things fair, because its hard to keep the game balanced anyway, without having to deal with cards that are out of print. so in tournaments especially, to keep things fair you can only use cards from the most recent set.

because, of course, Nidoking would pwn all the new cards. :D

 

[Forci Stikane]

I killed many Nidokings in my day...

...but yeah, that's the deal. All my decks are old-school, too, so I'm worse off......except that there's nobody to play anyway...

 

[Lordpenguin]

In my local area, the card shop run tournaments (Magic, yugioh which I don't play, and Pokémon) and sometimes they run a format called 'Classic' which is essentially base, jungle and fossil sets. I don't own any recent cards, so I tend to only play 'classic' and it is really good fun. Soon we are starting a classic league, i think, you will be allowed 4 decks, and can change like 5 cards in each every week... I don't know yet, but that's how I think it will work. There are about 3-5 guys who play classic, compared to to 10-odd who prefer modified, but with a fixed card-pool, classic requires much more skill.

 

[Jaimes]

Expedition on:\ what!!? No wait-- LOOK AT THIS & Ill explain!

Okay, look. I will be honest- I played pokemon TCG a long time ago, and now I just play it with my immediate family. Now, I know you all are up to date with the rules, and I am not. The last tournament I played in, I was about twelve, thirteen and I kicked some ass with my deck built around the all-powerful Nidoking (base set), with some Snorlax and Licktounge to back him up (Jungle Set)

BUT, I was reading some reviews on cards, and it says "if only this card were allowed in tournaments, it would be a killer in a deck with --- card"

so whats up with the whole Unlimited/Modified junk? I mean, are my old favoret cards like Electabuzz, Super Energy Removal, and Snorlax still allowed? Has the almighty Nidoking been dethroned for reasons unknown to me? Just wondering what cards are banned, and why?

Also, on a side note, how many of you all think that Spinda (EX Hidden Legends) is a good card? I think pattern distraction makes up for the 50/50 chance of ten damage.

Ill explain all, there are 3 formats:

Unlimited: Allows all Pokemon cards that have an English counterpart except for Ancient Mew.

Modified: The OP format starting on 1st September. Which allows all cards from Ex Deoxys on to the latest set and also cards that have a reprint such as SS Rare Candy, Pokeball, old energy cards.

Draft/Limited: Tournaments set up games where they give you randomn (usually from boosters) cards and required you to build a deck and play with it.

Most tournaments never play unlimited. This is because there are over 25 sets, allowing all cards legal for OP would be chaos. To keep the game fresh and exciting (and not dominated by the same Sneasel/Cleffa etc) sets are rotated out. This also encourages sales for the latest sets.
Almost all OFFICIAL Tournaments only run Modified, as Unlimited tournaments are a joke.

Some cards have also once banned from Modified because they are deemed too powerful such as Energy Removal, Slowking and Sneasel - thus in fact spoiling the game.

The majority of players do not play unlimited as it is a very unfair format, with very unbalanced cards - requiring very little strategy compared to modified.

And in answer to your question; No Spinda is not a good card. And to be perfectly honest, neither is Base Nidoking or Jungle Snorlax.