Taking a bit of break from VN and Speedrunning, I decided to foray into the adventure that is Pokemon TCG
I have never played a TCG game before so this is my first one. I am aware of the general rules of Pokemon Card Games from playing the Gameboy version of Pokemon TCG so I'm not completely blind, but I have no idea about the meta or anything.
Unfortunately, I do not have cards, nor do I have people to play with, but there is a free official online way to play: Pokemon TCG Online
And so. after stealing a few booster pack codes from my little brother, I installed the game and opened the packs online. From these few pulls I got a bunch of cards, but nothing too special. Fortunately, the game gives you a bunch of cards to get started. You start with a "Basic Orange" deck, which revolves around fighting type Pokemon. However, if you beat the Trainer Challenge, you can get additional cards from the decks "Basic Green", "Basic Blue", and "Basic Red". Why they are labeled by color instead of type, I have no idea. You also get "Mental Might" which is a Psychic Deck from logging in and "Rallying Cry" from typing a free public code (I actually did not know about this until today :l )
Trainer Challenge is basically Co-op vs AI, with set difficulty and decks. Unfortunately you can't use your own deck in these challenges, but perhaps that is why they are called challenges. The three difficulties are Easy, Medium, and Hard. Easy is very very easy, with the AI purposely making bad choices. I haven't really found a difference between Medium and Hard. By beating these challenges, you can get good rewards: Trainer Tokens, which can be used to purchase Booster Packs (and other game goodies) as well as actual Booster Packs themselves.
After messing around a bit the Trainer Challenge and acquiring more booster packs, I happened to pull my very first EX Card: Genesect EX
Very Cool
With my trusty Genesect EX in hand, I decided to create a PvP deck and fight other players. I chose Grass Type as my main, revolving around Genesect EX and the Serperior family. At this point, I kinda didn't know what to put in my deck at all. So I jumbled together a mess, looking something like 20 Pokemon, 20 Trainer Cards, and 20 Energy Cards in a nice even ratio.
The TCG game makes you go through 5 Practice matches before playing Ranked so I did those first. I think I won most of them but I don't really remember. With that I started Ranked Matches.
Ranked matches are different in that, you can get bonus Tokens and Card Packs from winning AND losing. Getting a card pack is much rare, but it is very nice if you do happen to get one
Spin to win!
Now what I absolutely like the most is that you get these rewards regardless of win or loss. And the rewards for winning/losing aren't that different. This creates a very stress free environment.
Most of my victories came from (what I assume) beating up kids who just threw together cards that they liked, resulting in some weird mixture of types and therefore lack of energy card efficiency. After playing with my deck more and more, I realized when I win, it was from using few key cards. Mostly Genesect EX. The other Pokemon cards felt like fillers or sacrifices. This made me realize that I was building my deck inefficiently and having an even ratio of card types was maybe not such a good idea after all. With that in mind, I built my second deck, this time having much fewer Pokemon and many more trainer cards. After playing with it more and editing my deck more, I ended up deciding using my Genesect EX along with the Gallade family from the Mental Might Deck. I also included a Croagunk/Toxicroak and a Sigilyph, totally 11 Pokemon Cards. This time I included fewer Energy cards and more Trainer cards as well. Adding in more trainers to shuffle my hand, such as Professor Juniper, N, and Colress. And this deck seemed to work pretty well! I began to win way more.
By far the most important card that I have was Sigilyph. Without this card, I would've lost many more matches. And that is because of his special ability
This leads me into a mechanic that I have very mixed opinions on. That is EX Pokemon. Now, only accustomed to seeing regular Pokemon cards, when I saw these EX cards in play during my matches, I was overwhelmed. How was I suppose to beat these monsters that were stronger and had better abilities than most Stage 2 Pokemon??? And everyone online seemed to have mostly EX cards in their decks, with maybe one or two non EX Pokes. This led to some hilarious matches where I kill the non EX Pokemon, then use Sigilyph to take down everyone. Or sometimes I've seen people ragequit with their only EX Deck, when they realize they can't kill Sigilyph.
But the more I won, the tougher my opponents became. Not only did they only have a deck full of EX Cards, but great regular Pokemon as well as much better trainer cards such as Lysandre, Hypnotoxic Laser, and my all time most frustrating card:
Who thought this was a good idea?
This really screwed over my Sigilyph strategy since I only had 1 copy. But it was very satisfying to beat all these tough EX Pokemon. Perhaps maybe if I had more EX cards, I wouldn't be so frustrated at them.
The game also has a Trade feature where you can trade cards with other players, but cards opened from packs purchased with in game tokens cannot be traded. I traded one of my Hypnotoxic Laser for a Meloetta EX because I thought the card was cute
Hnnnnnnnggg~
And so I decided to experiment with a Round Deck. using Meloetta EX, Wigglytuff, and Exploud as my Round users. I also added Sigilyph for those pesky EX cards.
My first Round Deck I created failed horribly. I couldn't get anything out and kept dying. I quickly realized having only 1 Meloetta EX is really limiting, but making some modifications, I managed to assemble to a deck that works OK. It is so satisfying getting those Rounds up to one shot everything with Exploud, including EX Pokemon
Most of my strategy seemed to revolve around stalling with Sleep Tactics:
He got a grand total of ONE heads
It sort of seems RNG heavy, but I can easily use Jiggly/Wigglytuff, Sigilyph, and Meloetta to deal with any sort of leads. While getting my Exploud out to sweep.
One of my favorite card is actually this new one:
This seems to work really well here, to save a Pokemon in a pinch, switch out, as well as many other uses. At first I thought it was just a worse Cassius, but being able to take back any Pokemon in play (particularly the active) has many uses. Especially since Jigglypuff and Whismer are pretty tanky but has high retreat costs
And perhaps the best part of all is being able to commit suicide:
I DIE ON MY OWN TERMS
I think I had the most fun with this deck so far (not that I have tried many others)
While playing the game, I learned about many many new Pokemon, Abilities, Moves, and Mechanics.
Some were pretty fun
So much damage, I couldn't even calculate properly
Others.... not so much
Remember to read the fine print
But overall, it was pretty cool learning new things and thinking about how to deal with it. I really liked the strategy aspect, deciding which move is the proper one to take. But I guess that is in the nature of most card games. I've also ran into some pretty cool strategies, like using this one fish Pokemon that transfers electric energy from discard onto another pokemon in conjuction with Rayquaza EX, that discards energy to do more damage
However, the game has some problems... Notably random disconnects, chat issues, and weird glitches:
I don't even
And the fact that most players online have MANY EX cards, so a new player would be at a great disadvantage without any card codes. Not to mention the numerous trainer cards such as Lysandre's Trump Card, any of the Team Flare tools, ACE SPECS Items to name a few.
Also one of my least favorites, Prism/Rainbow Energy
It's frustrating when people are using these super strong EX Pokemon with weird combinations of energy, and having these makes it much easier to fulfill the energy requirement I know there is a limit to how many they can have in a deck, but still it irks me
However, the positives of the game far outweighs the negatives and I would recommend any Pokemon fans to try this out! Or card game fans for that matter. The Matchmaking seems to work pretty nicely as well
I'm not sure why but I really enjoy every match, win or lose. It's also possible to get every card so it really is sort of fair, but spending money would obviously be a much easier way to obtain new cards. The trade feature is really nice and can net you some pretty good deals (although limited). Although still unpolished, once the bugs gets fixed up, this would be a solid game. The chat and friend functions are really nice.
Give it a try! You might be pleasantly surprised how fun this game is~
Also huge thanks to sc_ares (Arconine) for providing me with another Meloetta EX!
The power creep on this game is just absurd. Back when the game came out Basic Pokemon had like 30-50 HP save a few exceptions that were very weak offensively.
There already were those cards that are just ridiculously powerful like Bill and Prof Oak though...
Haha yeah, I was really surprised to see the new Pokemon Old Computer search was great too
A question I have is, do they disallow stuff from older packs as newer ones come out, so my decks would eventually get obsolete? Like right now, it is Black and White onward correct?
Or perhaps it is like this for every TCG, so I shouldn't be upset about it
On December 05 2014 06:59 spinesheath wrote: The power creep on this game is just absurd. Back when the game came out Basic Pokemon had like 30-50 HP save a few exceptions that were very weak offensively.
There already were those cards that are just ridiculously powerful like Bill and Prof Oak though...
That happens to every card game I've ever played. Magic, YuGioH, Digemon, Pokemon all come out with more and more powerful cards because there is money to be made. No one wants a card that's worse then the one they have already. It's why I stopped caring about card games a long time ago and why I don't play Hearthstoe anymore.
On December 05 2014 06:59 spinesheath wrote: The power creep on this game is just absurd. Back when the game came out Basic Pokemon had like 30-50 HP save a few exceptions that were very weak offensively.
There already were those cards that are just ridiculously powerful like Bill and Prof Oak though...
That happens to every card game I've ever played. Magic, YuGioH, Digemon, Pokemon all come out with more and more powerful cards because there is money to be made. No one wants a card that's worse then the one they have already. It's why I stopped caring about card games a long time ago and why I don't play Hearthstoe anymore.
To be fair, this card game came out 16 Years ago So seeing such a huge change isn't really surprising
Yeah, it does kind of suck, having to buy new cards, but honestly, if you were going to play competitive, you're probably going to buy the new cards regardless If you just want to play for fun, no harm playing with old cards And it's not like the older cards lose any value Collecting cards can be a fun hobby It IS a collectable card game
You can grind for cards free on the online client so it's not too much of a issue, but being virtual has it's downsides and upsides too
On December 05 2014 11:56 Aveng3r wrote: Me and 2 friends are gonna start playing this when finals are done
Go for it! Playing with friends is probably the best way to have fun with this!
Feel free to add me! (or anyone) IGN: HyperLuminal
On December 05 2014 06:59 spinesheath wrote: The power creep on this game is just absurd. Back when the game came out Basic Pokemon had like 30-50 HP save a few exceptions that were very weak offensively.
There already were those cards that are just ridiculously powerful like Bill and Prof Oak though...
I don't even think the old cards are legal now so it's more like a rebalancing. Eg. cards past X set are supposed to be equal.
As for Pokemon Online, when I tried it I kept crashing and one of the bots was really hard. It was the same with the hydra boss in duels of the planeswalkers 2015. I felt like I needed to grind or buy or set the difficulty lower for duels. I didn't know you could do that for Pokemon. Does the game crash for you?
On December 05 2014 06:59 spinesheath wrote: The power creep on this game is just absurd. Back when the game came out Basic Pokemon had like 30-50 HP save a few exceptions that were very weak offensively.
There already were those cards that are just ridiculously powerful like Bill and Prof Oak though...
I don't even think the old cards are legal now so it's more like a rebalancing. Eg. cards past X set are supposed to be equal.
As for Pokemon Online, when I tried it I kept crashing and one of the bots was really hard. It was the same with the hydra boss in duels of the planeswalkers 2015. I felt like I needed to grind or buy or set the difficulty lower for duels. I didn't know you could do that for Pokemon. Does the game crash for you?
Well in the bot games, you have to use a premade deck, so getting new cards won't help I think it's challenging, but I haven't beaten a whole lot of the bot games There really isn't any harm in beating them in Easy, since you get the same rewards regardless
As for the game crashing, I never had it crash before I got DC a couple times, but never had it freeze or close on me
On December 05 2014 06:59 spinesheath wrote: The power creep on this game is just absurd. Back when the game came out Basic Pokemon had like 30-50 HP save a few exceptions that were very weak offensively.
There already were those cards that are just ridiculously powerful like Bill and Prof Oak though...
That happens to every card game I've ever played. Magic, YuGioH, Digemon, Pokemon all come out with more and more powerful cards because there is money to be made. No one wants a card that's worse then the one they have already. It's why I stopped caring about card games a long time ago and why I don't play Hearthstoe anymore.
That's just plain wrong for Magic. Not only were the most powerful cards in the game printed in the very first editions, new editions only ever add a handful of legacy playable cards. There is a slow power shift between card types as creatures were really bad in the early editions and have slowly gotten stronger, but overall there isn't all that much of a power creep.
On December 05 2014 06:59 spinesheath wrote: The power creep on this game is just absurd. Back when the game came out Basic Pokemon had like 30-50 HP save a few exceptions that were very weak offensively.
There already were those cards that are just ridiculously powerful like Bill and Prof Oak though...
I don't even think the old cards are legal now so it's more like a rebalancing. Eg. cards past X set are supposed to be equal.
As for Pokemon Online, when I tried it I kept crashing and one of the bots was really hard. It was the same with the hydra boss in duels of the planeswalkers 2015. I felt like I needed to grind or buy or set the difficulty lower for duels. I didn't know you could do that for Pokemon. Does the game crash for you?
Well in the bot games, you have to use a premade deck, so getting new cards won't help I think it's challenging, but I haven't beaten a whole lot of the bot games There really isn't any harm in beating them in Easy, since you get the same rewards regardless
As for the game crashing, I never had it crash before I got DC a couple times, but never had it freeze or close on me
Maybe I'm remembering wrong then. I just recall some really hard matches where it didn't feel like I could do anything to win short of buying cards.
On December 05 2014 06:59 spinesheath wrote: The power creep on this game is just absurd. Back when the game came out Basic Pokemon had like 30-50 HP save a few exceptions that were very weak offensively.
There already were those cards that are just ridiculously powerful like Bill and Prof Oak though...
I don't even think the old cards are legal now so it's more like a rebalancing. Eg. cards past X set are supposed to be equal.
As for Pokemon Online, when I tried it I kept crashing and one of the bots was really hard. It was the same with the hydra boss in duels of the planeswalkers 2015. I felt like I needed to grind or buy or set the difficulty lower for duels. I didn't know you could do that for Pokemon. Does the game crash for you?
Well in the bot games, you have to use a premade deck, so getting new cards won't help I think it's challenging, but I haven't beaten a whole lot of the bot games There really isn't any harm in beating them in Easy, since you get the same rewards regardless
As for the game crashing, I never had it crash before I got DC a couple times, but never had it freeze or close on me
Maybe I'm remembering wrong then. I just recall some really hard matches where it didn't feel like I could do anything to win short of buying cards.
Maybe you were playing vs actual people Trying to take on those EX decks without good cards of your own is pretty hard
Or you can make an RNG Deck and win anyways I kind of want to try to make an RNG deck with Audino and other cards like it + Show Spoiler +
On December 05 2014 06:59 spinesheath wrote: The power creep on this game is just absurd. Back when the game came out Basic Pokemon had like 30-50 HP save a few exceptions that were very weak offensively.
There already were those cards that are just ridiculously powerful like Bill and Prof Oak though...
I don't even think the old cards are legal now so it's more like a rebalancing. Eg. cards past X set are supposed to be equal.
As for Pokemon Online, when I tried it I kept crashing and one of the bots was really hard. It was the same with the hydra boss in duels of the planeswalkers 2015. I felt like I needed to grind or buy or set the difficulty lower for duels. I didn't know you could do that for Pokemon. Does the game crash for you?
Well in the bot games, you have to use a premade deck, so getting new cards won't help I think it's challenging, but I haven't beaten a whole lot of the bot games There really isn't any harm in beating them in Easy, since you get the same rewards regardless
As for the game crashing, I never had it crash before I got DC a couple times, but never had it freeze or close on me
Maybe I'm remembering wrong then. I just recall some really hard matches where it didn't feel like I could do anything to win short of buying cards.
Maybe you were playing vs actual people Trying to take on those EX decks without good cards of your own is pretty hard
Or you can make an RNG Deck and win anyways I kind of want to try to make an RNG deck with Audino and other cards like it + Show Spoiler +
huehuehue
Haha, reminds me of geodude
Iirc in the gba tcg you could use save states if you emulated the game so you could guarantee as many heads as you wanted if you were patient and skilled enough. I don't remember if this was TCG 1 or 2.
I played the Pokemon TCG until about 2008, so I'm familiar with the game but not with any of the new cards.
Just logged in today and started playing a bit, it's pretty cool.
I pulled four EXs from my first 10 packs. Is that normal or am I really lucky? Also, the artwork on the EXs is just insane, they all look incredible, the artwork kicks the ass of any other card game out there.
Seriously though, the second bite damage and free retreat cost Only way he could've stopped it was if Mew used Glare to paralyze my Dunsparce But I had escape rope, so it wouldn't have mattered
On December 06 2014 22:08 FuRong wrote: I played the Pokemon TCG until about 2008, so I'm familiar with the game but not with any of the new cards.
Just logged in today and started playing a bit, it's pretty cool.
I pulled four EXs from my first 10 packs. Is that normal or am I really lucky? Also, the artwork on the EXs is just insane, they all look incredible, the artwork kicks the ass of any other card game out there.
I think you got pretty lucky I pulled seven 10 card packs yesterday and today, but only got one EX card Mega Charizard EX + Show Spoiler +
I do agree the art on the cards are FANTASTIC I especially like how they make the Pokemon pop out of the box or just have no box at all
I guess we'll see how long my luck lasts then. It turns out that two of the EXs got are Mega, so I can't even use them until I get the regular EX as well.
Man, apparently you can't trade cards unless you bought them with real money. Disappointment is intense. I think the rate of card gain is just too slow for me.
EPT![[image loading]](http://www.pokezam.com/games/gameboy/tcg/title.gif)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/BONzuT1.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/NqtgsiM.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/thumb/f/f8/SigilyphLegendaryTreasures66.jpg/200px-SigilyphLegendaryTreasures66.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.serebii.net/card/plasmafreeze/108.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/thumb/b/b8/MeloettaEXLegendaryTreasuresRC25.jpg/200px-MeloettaEXLegendaryTreasuresRC25.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/thumb/5/56/AZPhantomForces91.jpg/180px-AZPhantomForces91.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/W3A7yY1.png)
![[image loading]](http://www.collectorscache.com/storemodules/ProductImages/922/PrismEnergy93.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/8/8c/AudinoLegendaryTreasuresRC17.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.pokezam.com/tcg/fossil/47.jpg)
