Pokmon Tcg Beginners Guide: Tips For Starting Out And Building A Deck
While theres many who have collected Pokémon cards at some point in their lifespan, not everyone has delved into the trading card game . Its a scene which is part of the Pokémon World Championships every year and has smaller regional events too, alongside the video game championships and Pokken Tournament DX.
With an overwhelming amount of influencers now unboxing Pokémon cards following Logan Pauls viewership success, theres a chance the TCG could be on the receiving end of renewed interest too. So if youre looking to play the game, heres the best places to start and what decks you should be buying.
Two: Choose Your Supporting Pokmon
From there, players will need to pick more Pokémon that fit their chosen strategy. For example, one card that’s currently popular is Single Strike Houndoom, a Stage One Pokémon that is also from Battle Styles. This card’s Single Strike Roar ability allows players to search their deck for one Single Strike Energy card and attach it to a Single Strike Pokémon. Abilities can be used from Active or Benched Pokémon as noted on the card. In a hypothetical Tyranitar V deck, Houndoom could play an important support role because it helps find Energy cards that can be placed using an ability.
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Players should note that there is no set limit to how many Pokémon, Trainer or Energy cards can be included in a deck, only that the total number of cards cannot exceed 60. Therefore, some decks may only have a handful of Pokémon. It is also important to take into account which cards can be used against a given Pokémon, and as players gain more experience they can try to counter potential threats accordingly.
Choose A Pokmon Tcg Format To Start Building Around Your Favorite Card
A trading card game format is essentially an extra set of rules that determine which cards players are allowed to use. There are two official formats in Pokémon TCG: Standard and Expanded. The Standard format is the most common for official tournaments and is the format used at the yearly Pokémon World Championships event. It uses cards only from the most recent Pokémon TCG sets, and older cards rotate out of legality every year in August. The official Pokémon websites TCG section details exactly what cards are legal to use in Standard.
Expanded format features in some major official tournaments, but is far less common than Standard. In Expanded, all cards from the 2011 Black & White set onwards are allowed for use, except those on the official banned card list. A banned card list also exists for Standard, but its currently empty. Although cards have been banned from Standard in the past, its usually a rare occurrence.
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That Was A Lot Of Information
Theres more than 2,000 words in this guide, and we havent even discussed strategy! That just goes to show that building a deck is complicated, and to build one that will win, youll need to learn and play as much as possible.
Feel free to bookmark this page, and let us know on if youve got any questions. Well be more than glad to help you out with your deck!
Answering Commonly Asked Questions:
Q: How many energy cards should you have in your Pokémon deck?
A: There is no one correct answer, but competitive decks tend to average around 9 energy cards.
Q: How many Pokémon should you have in your Pokémon deck?
A: There is no one correct answer, but competitive decks tend to average around 16 Pokémon.
Q: How many trainer cards should you have in your Pokémon deck?
A: There is no one correct answer, but competitive decks tend to average around 35 trainer cards.
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Finalizing The Pokemon Deck
Once you and your child have picked out about 20 each of Pokemon, Energy, and Trainer cards, count them up! If you are slightly under 60 cards total, see if you can add another copy of a Trainer card that you only put one or two of in the deck, or another copy of a Basic Pokemon, or one or two more energy. If you are over 60, double-check that your Pokemon have one less Stage 1 than Basic in the deck, and one less Stage 2 than Stage 1. If you are including four copies of a trainer card, consider including only three or two. Once you have exactly 60 cards, the deck is ready to go.
One other note: Most theme decks come with a coin and some cardboard damage markers. These are great items to collect, but arent very useful while playing the game. Instead, try using clear six-sided dice. I say clear because if your child decides to play at a league or in a tournament, dice a judge cant see through will not be allowed. When using a die as a coin, evens equal heads and odds equal tails. When a die is laid on a Pokemon, each die-pip can represent 10 damage.
Next time we will talk about how to play the game. I am excited to hear what decks you build!
How To Make A Pokemon Deck For Beginners
Are you not a video-game person? But you still love to play and make a Pokemon deck? The creators did see people like you and are not ready to disappoint any of the Pokémon fans. This one is for the people who cherish the beauty of real-world games. THE POKÉMON TCG!! This is one Pokémon game that you can play with any family member provided that you can teach them the rules.
However, the number of players you can play with is limited to 2. The rules may seem confusing but are very similar to any card game that you know of, for example, UNO. The basic game idea is the same. So let us get a closer look at the type of cards used in Pokémon TCG and how to play the name so that you will get to know how to make a Pokemon deck.
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Stick To One Or Two Types
In the Pokémon games, it’s best to have six pokemon of different types with move sets that can counter anything you might run into. You take Ice Pokémon to fight Dragon Pokémon or Bug Pokémon for Dark and Grass Pokémon. But in the Trading Card Game, you don’t have that luxury. You could try to have six different types and have one for each stage of their evolution, and at least 4 energy types, but by then you’ve used up most of your deck and you have very little chance of getting something useful onto the field.
So instead, focus on only one or two energy types. You can also include colorless energy as they usually count for two energy instead of one, and most pokemon can use them.
How To Build Your Pokemon Cards Into A Deck
If you have a bunch of random cards, or want to incorporate a few random cards into a new theme deck, we should learn how to build a deck. A good rule of thumb to keep in mind is 20 energy, 20 Pokemon, and 20 Trainer cards for a 60 card deck. Once you have built a few decks and know what cards you want to play, youll see how fudging some of those numbers work and others dont. Using this set-up to start will make it fairly easy to learn and play the game.
There are three main categories of cards.
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Commit To A Play Style
There are numerous ways to beat your opponent during a match. It is crucial to understand the different ways to win and to know which way best suits your play style.
If you enjoy being an aggressive opponent, build your deck with the purpose of getting knock outs as efficiently as possible.
Want control of the game and your opponents resources? Then you will want to build a deck that depletes your opponents energy and support. Doing so will force your opponent to wait more turns to attack.
Or maybe you want to force your opponent to draw all of their cards before reaching their 6th prize card. If so, it would be best to have cards that will stall the game causing your opponent to deck out giving you the win.
There is a style for every player. It is important to choose whatever style you have the most fun playing with and to use cards based off of the style you choose.
Four: Keep Your Eye On The Prize
Players may be surprised to realize they don’t need to include many Energy cards in their deck as a default. However, it’s better not to reduce Energy amounts too much in a beginner deck, as they are necessary for play. It may be best to focus on mastering one specific mechanic, such as the Energy retrieval outlined above, before truly honing the scope of a deck.
Furthermore, players need to keep in mind that six of their cards will initially be kept face-down as Prizes. While constructing any deck, players need to account for the possibility that certain cards may be unavailable. As such, beginner decks shouldn’t try to be too complicated and should include enough duplicates.
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Selecting Cards To Support An Unconventional Strategy
The next step is toensure that the main Pokémon can be retrieved from the deck or discard pilewhen they’re required for battle. Notice how this Polteageist deck includes avariety of Trainer cards to achieve that goalQuick Ball lets you search for Basic Pokémon likeSinistea, Evolution Incense letsyou search for Evolution Pokémon like Polteageist, and Great Ball lets you search forboth. Like the Lightning-type deck above, Polteageist also includes Supportercards and Pokémon with Abilities that enable players to draw these core cards. Accessto lots of cards, either by searching with Item cards like those mentionedabove or by drawing a bunch of cards , is extremely important in virtuallyevery deck.
Finally, we get to seewhat all those Pokémon in the deck are for. The strategy of this deck is to doloads of damage with Polteageist’s Mad Party attack. That being said, this deckshould include many other Pokémon with the Mad Party attack, as well as ways toput those Pokémon into the discard pile. Dedenneand Bunnelby aregreat additions because they serve a dual purpose in this deck: they can attackusing Mad Party, and they increase the damage of Polteageist’s attack when theyare in the discard pile.
Now that you’ve read up on a couple of different approaches to deckbuilding, it’s time to build your own deck!
Good luck, Trainers!
Look For Cards You Don’t Have
You don’t need to go buy a whole booster box trying to collect every card you’re missing. There are websites where you can see every card in a series. Take a look at them. Read the card text. Learn what’s new in each set, and see if you can find interesting strategies in those cards. Then, once you’ve decided on what cards you want to have, you can either go out and buy packs and hope you get what you want, or you can directly purchase them online.
If the cards you’re looking for are common or uncommon, you’ll have pretty good luck just buying packs. That way you’ll probably get the cards you want, as well as have a chance at some good rares. Or you can do what many players do and directly buy the cards online.
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Play The Correct Amount Of Each Card
In Pokemon TCG, you must have exactly 60 cards in your deck, with a max of 4 copies of a card with the same name . Having the correct amount of copies of cards will increase your chances of drawing your most important cards when you need them.
Below are things to keep in mind during your Pokemon deck building when youre deciding how many copies of a card to play. Remember your plan for your deck and base the number of cards that will fulfill that plan most efficiently.
Use Kricketune V Not Crobat V
Crobat V is a staple in competitive decks for a reason. It can be a game changer when you need to get going fast and dont have the cards you need. However, in Rayquaza VMAX deck, a one time draw of up to six cards is not actually that handy. Plus, once you play Crobat, he just takes up extremely valuable space on your bench. Not to mention if you start with him.
Kricketunes ability pairs incredibly well with Rayquazas Azure Pulse. Once you draw the three cards you need and play a few or all of them, Kricketune lets you draw again until you have three cards. Kricketune also makes for a great active Pokemon to use while you stall for time. If he is in the active spot, you get to draw until you have four cards. And thats an ability you can use every turn, not just once.
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What Are Energy Cards In Pokmon Tcg
Energy cards are essential in any Pokémon TCG deck. They allow you to use your Pokémons attacks, deal damage to opponents, and ultimately claim prize cards to win.
Most Pokémon cards will have attacks, which carry a specificed energy cost. Count the total energy costs of your cards in Delphoxs case, you need fire energy and add the necessary energy to your deck.Since you lose energy when your Pokémon are knocked out, make sure to include a few extra energy cards, so that you can always find them in your deck.
How To Build A Pokmon Tcg Deck For Beginners
Strategic depth: Medium
Publisher:Wizards of the Coast
Once youve mastered how to play the Pokémon Trading Card Game, youll almost certainly want to find out how to build a Pokémon TCG deck. Like the video games, a lot of the fun of the Pokémon TCG is the chance to assemble your own party of Pokémon, combining different strengths, weaknesses, evolutions, energy types and trainer cards to gain the advantage over your opponent and ultimately claim victory.
If youre completely new to the Pokémon Trading Card Game, the best way to learn is probably by picking up a pre-made deck pack. These are widely available and can be based on a variety of things, from specific themes to World Championship decks that recreate the pro decks used by master trainers in high-level tournaments. These ready-to-play decks let you focus on learning the rules without worrying that your deck is potentially unbalanced or having to invest in lots of booster packs.
Once youre comfortable with the basics of playing, though, youll probably want to learn how to build a Pokémon TCG deck. Building a Pokémon TCG deck is similar compared to learning how to build a Magic: The Gathering deck and other popular collectible card games, but there are a few unique things that set the Pokémon Trading Card Game apart from the rest of the crowd – and make it a little bit easier to pick up if youre a total newcomer.
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Strike Hard To Keep The Advantage
Fire-types excel at offense and don’t have great defense or recovery, making the kind of playstyle required for a successful fire deck obvious. With heavy-hitting yet energy-expensive attacks, players can one or two-shot many opposing Active Pokemon, though this momentum can be difficult to keep up.
Jolteon Vmax And Inteleon Deck Guide
Eeveelutions have made up for most of the best decks in the game for the 2021/2022 format due to their versatility and their ability to easily pair up, and often synergize with Inteleon. Jolteon VMAX and Inteleon is a great example of this, and the deck has quickly become top-tier in tournaments because of its type advantage against Suicune and Ludicolo decks. In this guide, Ill be taking you through the best deck list for Jolteon VMAX and Inteleon for the Standard format of PTCGO, how each card works in the deck, and things to keep in mind while using the deck.
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When It Comes To Building A Deck Dont Be Afraid To Copy
While not essential to playing TCG, like other card games, there might be a point when youll consider assembling your own deck to form unique strategies. It can be overwhelming at first, especially as newer decks like Sword and Shield and Darkness Ablaze have shifted the meta significantly over the past year.
The easiest way to assemble decks is by playing around with different strategies already out there. On TCG site Limitless, theres lists of past decks used in competitive tournaments, along with a breakdown of its popularity over time and how successful its been in tournaments.
Theres nothing wrong with copying peoples deck lists, Chip Richey, US TCG player and caster, tells GINX Esports TV. Its very common in Pokémon TCG to share deck lists and you can copy a list that did well at a tournament and make your own adjustments.
An Introduction To Deckbuilding: Learn How To Build A Pokmon Tcg Deck
With so manyinteresting Pokémon to choose from and exciting strategies to explore, buildingyour own deck is one of the most enjoyable and rewarding elements of the PokémonTrading Card Game. Before you begin, it’s important to note that each deck mustcontain exactly 60 cardswith at least one Basic Pokémonand cannot contain morethan four copies of any card .
There are alotof ways to approach deckbuilding. Some decks focus on one type of Pokémon suchas Fire type or Psychic type, while others may focus on an individual Pokémon’sAbility or particularly powerful attack. Decks can include an even distributionof Pokémon, Trainer cards, and Energy cards, or they can be heavily skewed toinclude, say, mostly Pokémon and virtually no Energy. With so many optionsavailable, the task can feel daunting even for the most intrepid deck builder.
The good news is a varietyof methods can result in a winning deck! Let’s take a look at two of the most popularapproaches to assembling a solid deck and the design principles that underpinthem.
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