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[Cloud Strife]

Note: Not sure if this belongs in Off-Topic but due to the Online Game taking priority over the physical one in this thread, I figured I'd stick it here. Mods pls move if this isn't the case, thanks :3

Let's get real here. Many of us as kids had these super kickass Pokemon cards that we would bring to school to trade or play with friends.

Remember this guy?

Good times, very good times. However, it's probably safe to say that none of us knew how the game actually worked. I remember I would just slam down a cool looking Pokemon, look at the number on its attack, then subtract that number from the other Pokemon's HP. Most of the time we never even had decks, we would just play with our favorite cards. If any of you are seeking vengeance for that one kid that humiliated you during recess when his Rattata destroyed your Mewtwo single-handed because "yeah well in the show the Rattata had a special move that hurr durr" then you can whip out Facebook or a Phonebook to find this Joey and tell him that after insertamount of years since that game was played, you now know the rules well enough to call for a rematch. Or alternatively you could just buy a deck and play casual games with friends. That's cool too.

With the emergence of the Online Pokemon TCG, a F2P (more on this below) download card game, I feel like this may be a good chance to explain how the game actually works for those who had ever wondered. If you already have an operating knowledge of the Pokemon games, then this will be pretty easy (and addictive) to get a hang of. It's a fun game when you get right down to it. This thread will go over the basics of the game. I won't be discussing any of the professional tournaments and stuff because I play it casually online. Find out more about the professional scene here.

I'll go over what everything means and where everything goes. I'll also go over the rules themselves before getting into the actual cards.
Credit for the above pic

The Basics

Active Pokemon
You have six "slots" in which you can place your Pokemon. One of these is the "Active" Slot in which a Pokemon can attack or be attacked. There must always be a Pokemon in this slot. ALWAYS (you cannot have an inactive Pokemon). If your Pokemon is defeated in this slot, then your opponent takes a prize card.

Benched Pokemon
These are your inactive Pokemon. Your bench can hold up to 5 Pokemon. Pokemon on the bench CANNOT use any of their attacks but their abilities remain active regardless (more on abilities further down). Some Pokemon have attacks or abilities that can target Bench Pokemon along with Pokemon in the Active Slot. If a Pokemon is knocked out when on the Bench, your opponent takes a Prize Card. This means that it is possible to knock out more than one Pokemon per turn. If you have at least one Pokemon on the Bench, the Pokemon in the Active slot can retreat once per turn onto the Bench (think of it as switching out in the Pokemon handheld games). However, this requires a Retreat Cost to be paid meaning you must discard a certain amount of energies already attached to your active Pokemon. The Pokemon will remain at whatever health it is currently at prior to switching out. Any Special Conditions on the Pokemon are removed once it switches out to the bench. Again, I will address special conditions eventually...hehe.

The Deck
Every deck has a maximum of 60 cards. These will be a mix of Pokemon, Energies, and Trainer (Item, Supporter, or Stadium) cards. You are not allowed to have more than four of the same card in one deck (excluding all basic energies). All you crazy Luvdisc enthusiasts can eat your hearts out. For Pokemon, although there are different iterations, you are still only allowed to have FOUR of each type. For example, this means you can have four Kyurem's from different sets.

Here we see two different prints of Kyurem. You can combine however many versions you want so long as it does not exceed four.

However, Pokemon EX's are different and you can have four of these ON TOP of the four Kyurem's you already have. More on EX cards to come.

The Discard Pile and the Lost Zone
The Discard Pile is where knocked out Pokemon or discarded trainer cards and energies go. When a Pokemon is knocked out, all cards attached (energies or tools for example) are discarded with it. The difference between the Discard Pile and the Lost Zone are that cards can be returned into play from the Discard Pile with the use of abilities or trainer cards whilst if they enter the Lost Zone, they are gone for the entire game no matter what. The Lost Zone is wherever you want it to be unless designated specifically on a play mat.

Spoiler

Rumor has it, Mewtwo is chilling down here because based-Sakurai

Stadium Cards

These are cards that have effects for both players for the entire game. The Shadow Circle will remain in play until either player plays any other stadium card which will replace and discard Shadow Circle. You cannot play the same stadium card if it is already in play(why would you want to?).

So now that we know what the playing field looks like, let's get into the meat and potatoes, the actual cards!

The Cards
A Wild Pokemon Appeared!

Let's breakdown a typical Pokemon card. Here's everyone's favorite starter, Froakie!

HP: Froakie's HP is 60. If this goes to zero, Froakie is knocked out and discarded along with anything attached to it.

Attacks: Froakie has two attacks, "Pound" and "Water Drip". Let's look at Pound. In order to use this attack, Froakie needs one Water energy. What the heck is an energy? Are you telling me that all those circly cards from back in the day actually have a use? Well yes good sir/madame, they fucking do. You can only attach one energy per turn, so Froakie's Water Drip will take two turns to get going unless you use an ability or trainer card of some kind. Using either will take 10 or 20 off of the opposing Pokemon's HP respectively. Some attacks have added effects that are pretty self-explanatory like coin-flipping or recoil damage.

Weaknesses and Resistances: If we look at the bottom left, we see that Froakie is weak to Grass. More on the types later, but this means that Froakie will take double damage from any attacks from a Grass-typed Pokemon (i.e. 10 from a Snivy will be 20). Resistances work similarly, usually you take -20 from any attack from the type you are resistant against. Froakie is not resistant to anything because fucking Froakie.

Retreat Cost: Right below the Weaknesses and Resistances is the Retreat Cost. In order for Froakie to retreat onto the Bench, you must discard one energy of any kind from Froakie. That energy will go to the discard pile and Froakie will go to the Bench to be swapped out with a Pokemon on the bench. Retreat costs usually increase with evolution or are higher on "Heavy Pokemon" (like in the games, the faster the Pokemon usually means a lower Retreat Cost in the TCG).

Rarity: The only thing anyone on the schoolyard gave a shit about besides whether it was shiny or not. Pokemon usually have a circle (Common), a diamond (Uncommon), or a star (rare) at the bottom right of the card. This card is a promo as you can see, meaning it was given out in a promotional event, or is a part of a promotional set. There are first editions and double rares but who really cares about any of that when playing the game, right?

Basic Pokemon
Froakie is a Basic Pokemon (top Left). This means it can be played at any time on the Bench, or as an Active Pokemon on the first turn.

Evolution
Well, look what happened! Froakie EVOLVED!!

Froakie is now a "Stage 1" Pokemon and as a result, it has more HP (80>60) and stronger attacks. Any energies or attachments on Froakie remain when it evolves. You cannot evolve Froakie into Frogadier on the turn you play Froakie to the Bench. Likewise, you cannot evolve any Pokemon on the first turn, you have to wait until the next turn unless an ability or trainer card allows it. Once you evolve a Pokemon, it still has the same HP damage as before. So if Froakie had 20/60 HP, Frogadier will have 40/80 HP. Think of it like this: every bit of damage (10) is a damage counter. if Froakie had 20/60 HP, that means it had four damage counters on it or 40HP in damage. Once you evolve to Frogadier, that damage becomes 40/80 since Frogadier still has four damage counters, but its base HP has increased. Furthermore, any Special Conditions your base Pokemon had will heal upon evolution.

Abilities
On our next turn, Froakie evolves again...

The badass ninja Greninja now has a hefty 130HP as a Stage 2 Pokemon, Froakie has evolved all that it can go. What's different this time around is that Greninja has an ability: "Water Shuriken". Abilities are always active, even when Greninja might be on the Bench and not in the Active position. There are many unique abilities with a lot of interesting effects that nullify weaknesses, lower retreat costs, increase draw power, add extra damage, prevent the use of some cards, and even increase the amount of Prize Cards taken per kill. A lot to work with! The same conditions apply in evolving to a Stage 2 Pokemon as with a Stage 1 Pokemon.

Pokemon EX
Let's use the Kyurem from the example above.

In re-iteration of the aforementioned point, you can have up to four regular Kyurem's in your deck and up to four Kyurem EX's as well. Treat EX's as their own card. For example, say there is a Greninja EX card. It is a Basic Pokemon right off the bat and can be played on any turn without the need for a Froakie or Frogadier. All EX's are Basic Pokemon (even if they logically aren't).

Anyway, EX cards are usually very powerful. In exchange for devastating attacks, increased HP, amazing abilities, and emotionally satisfying artwork, all EX cards count as two kills meaning your opponent gets to take TWO prize cards instead of one if they knock your Kyurem EX out. Be careful in stacking your deck with EX's, because it'll only take your opponent 3 kills to win instead of 6.

Mega-Evolutions
A new addition to the TCG since the release of X and Y. I haven't come across many people who use them but then again, only Venasaur and Blastoise have been released in NA with Charizard X/Y and Kangaskan on the way. Here's what Blastoise EX looks like:

Mega Blastoise has all the characteristics of an EX card (2 kills in one) with two additions. One, it now has ridiculous HP and attacks, like seriously, the new Charizard EX cards deal like 300 damage, wtf? Second, you can only use a Mega-Evolution by "evolving" your corresponding EX card (Blastoise EX in this case). Once you do however, your turn immediately ends (so save it for last).

Pokemon Types

Just like the video game, Pokemon are divided into several elemental types. However, the TCG has less types, for whatever reason I have no idea. Anyway, they are as follows:

Colorless

: What would be considered the Normal and often Flying types. The Colorless type, along with the Dragon type, are unique in that they do not have their own unique energy cards. Here's an example.

Here we have Pidgeot, a Colorless-typed Pokemon. Notice that for its attacks, it requires two and three colorless energies respectively. This means that any energy card can count towards the attack cost. If you had three fire energies attached, then you could use both of Pidgeot's attacks. Yay! Another thing to note is that currently, all retreat costs for all Pokemon, regardless of type, are symbolized in Colorless energy meaning that you don't have to discard an energy of a specific type to retreat. So essentially, Colorless type Pokemon with pure Colorless attacks can work in any elemental deck.

Fire

: Pretty basic. As in the games, Fire is weak against water and strong against Grass and Steel.

Water

: In the TCG, the Water type is both Water and Ice. This means that some Water types may be weak to Steel and Fighting (both beat Ice in the games) along with the expected Grass and Lightning weaknesses.

Grass

: The Grass type is both Grass and Bug. Grass types are weak to Fire. Poison types used to be here as well but they moved to the Psychic type after Gen IV. Grass types are strong against Water and Fighting (more on this below).

Lightning

: The Electric type! Lightning is weak to Fighting and are strong against Water and some Colorless types (if those Pokemon are flying types as with the Pidgeot above).

Fighting

: The super cut Fighting type is actually a combination of Fighting, Ground, and Rock from the games. This means they are usually weak to Grass and Water on top of Psychic types. Generally, the fighting type is strong against Dark and Colorless types (when they are not part Flying).

Psychic

: In the TCG, Psychic is Psychic, Ghost, and Poison. This means, oddly enough, that most Psychic cards are weak to themselves (Poison being weak to Psychic and Psychic being weak to Ghost) along with a weakness to the Dark-type. They are strong against Grass (Bug), Fighting, and again, themselves.

Darkness

: The Darkness type is the Dark type. Strong against Psychic and weak against Fighting.

Metal

: The Metal, or Steel type, is weak to Fire and Fighting and strong against Water and the newly inducted Fairy type.

Dragon

: Dragon is the second-newest type to grace the TCG and finally save dragons from the Colorless pit of despair. Similar to the Colorless type, the Dragon type has no basic energy of its own. Again, why they did this I have no idea.

Because of the lack of their own energy, Dragon types, like Colorless types, can be fitted into other elemental decks. However, their attacks are usually specific such as this Salamence that requires a Water and Fire energy. Dragons are usually weak to themselves or Fairies.

Fairy

: The new kid on the block! Yay how exciting! The Fairy type is new, and as such, has fewer cards than the rest of each type. They are generally weak to Metal and strong against Dragons.

Special Energies
Some Energy cards are special (

Spoiler

WOW!

). Like the very common "Double Colorless Energy" Card.

This energy counts as two Double Colorless energies and is a very common card that powers up moves very quickly. Only one, either regular or special, energy can be played in one turn excluding abilities and trainer effects. Now you see why this card is handy, it's two in one! Colorless energies cannot be subsituted for attacks that require a specific type. So for that Salamence above, you'll still need a Fire and Water energy on top of a Double Colorless if you want to attack. Other special energies include the awesome Rainbow Energy that provides one of any type of energy in one card!

A list of all Special Energy cards can be found here.

Trainer Cards

These cards are the insert metaphor here that will change the game drastically. Trainer cards come in many varieties, let's take a look at some.

Items:
These are your basic Trainer cards. Item cards can be used as often as you like during your turn. Here's an "Energy Search".

As long as these cards are in your hand, you can use as many of them as you like (though you are only allowed four in your deck to begin with) during your turn. You can also use other item cards as often as you'd like. FOR EXAMPLE, HERE'S A CARD THAT EVERYONE AND THEIR GRANDMA LOVES TO SPAM IF IT SEEMS LIKE I'M PISSED IT'S BECAUSE I AM.

I have no idea what they were thinking when they made this card. So many matches lost to its BS. Anyway, rant over, moving on.

Supporters:
Supporter cards can only be used once per turn. This is usually because their effects are greater with more of an impact on play.

Pokemon Tools
These cards can be attached to Pokemon, both Active or on the Bench for different effects. Only one tool can be attached at a time and it is discarded when the Pokemon is knocked out just as energies are.

Stadium Cards:
These are technically Trainer cards, we already went ova dem.

ACE SPEC Cards:
These are newer additions to the TCG. ACE SPEC cards are very powerful trainer cards, so much so that only ONE can be allowed in a deck, regardless of which kind. Here are some examples:

Special Conditions

Like in the games, there are special conditions that come with some attacks or trainer cards. Special conditions are nullified through either switching onto the Bench, evolving, using a specific trainer card, or upon being knocked out.

Poisoned: A very common one. Poison means your Active Pokemon will take 10HP of damage between turns. After your turn ends, you'll take 10HP and when your opponent's turn ends, you'll take 10HP until your Pokemon is cured.

Burned: Another hot one. Similar to poison, Burns activate between turns; you must flip a coin. If you get heads, there is no damage. If you get tails, you take 20HP.

Paralyzed: This one is the worst by far. If you are Paralzed, you can't attack OR retreat for the whole turn. Unless you have a trainer card or some handy ability, you are screwed from attacking for one whole turn which is very deadly.

Asleep: Your Pokemon cannot attack or retreat when asleep. Flip a coin between turns. If tails, the Pokemon remains asleep. If heads, the Pokemon wakes up ready to attack or be attacked depending on whose turn it is.

Confused: If the Pokemon tries to attack, flip a coin. If heads, you use the attack but are still confused. If tails, you take 30HP and the attack is cancelled AND you are still confused. You CAN switch out when confused in order to heal yourself.

Depending on the condition you are afflicted with, you have to turn your card a certain way or add a special marker to it to signify the ailment. More on that here.

 

[Cloud Strife]

How To Play

The First Turn

On the first turn, you will flip one coin calling heads or tails. Whoever guesses correctly gets to choose who goes first. Let's say it's you for now. Both players will draw 7 cards from their deck to compose their initial hand. Of these 7 cards, both players must place a basic Pokemon face-down in the Active slot. A basic Pokemon is a Pokemon that does not evolve (ex. Qwilfish, Emolga, or Kanghaskan), is at the base stage (ex. Pidgey and Zorua are basic Pokemon that have yet to evolve), or is an EX card. To help even further, it'll say BASIC on the top left corner of the card. If you do not have a basic card in the first 7 cards you draw, you shuffle your hand into your deck and draw another 7. Each time you do this, your opponent gets to draw an extra card adding to his or her initial 7. If both players do not draw a basic in their initial 7, then both must shuffle their cards into their respective decks and redraw. In that scenario, neither player draws an extra card because it cancels out. Ex. I misdraw twice and my opponent misdraws once, therefore, my opponent gets to draw ONE extra card as opposed to two because he or she misdrew once.

Anyway, once both players have an active Pokemon face-down in their respective slots, they can choose up to five Pokemon to put on their bench (also face-down). Once this is done, both players pick six cards from their decks as their Prize Cards without looking at them and place them to their left. Next, both players flip their Active and Bench cards over to begin the match. Since you're going first, you draw one card from your deck. Both players do this at the start of their turns. By going first, you cannot attack but you can utilize trainer cards and energies normally.

What's the point?

You will win the game if you do either of the following:

• Pickup all 6 of your Prize Cards
• Knock out the opponent's Active Pokemon when they have no Bench Pokemon in play
• Make the opponent "Deck Out"
• The opponent forfeits

There are six Prize Cards. Every time you knock out one of your opponent's Pokemon, you pick up one of your own. When all six cards have been taken, you win! Likewise, the opponent will win if they manage to take six of their own cards. The second condition is when you knock out the opponent's active Pokemon when they have no Bench Pokemon. Be confident in your active Pokemon if you plan on going solo (or you could have been screwed with a band hand/draws). ! If it gets knocked out you lose! The last condition is rare, and usually never happens unless you're faced with a deck that is specifically built around discarding its opponents cards (the most annoying builds ever conceived). Starting with 60 cards in your deck, you draw 7 in your first hand and one card per turn thereafter (excluding draw power cards or abilities). You will lose the game if you cannot draw a card at the start of your turn. And of course, you will lose the game if you forfeit.

As aforementioned throughout the post, you draw one card per turn, can attach one energy per turn, can use as many items per turn as you want, can use one supporter per turn, and you can retreat once per turn. Your turn ends when you attack or you can choose to end your turn without attacking.

Things you need to play!

• A deck (60 cards)
• A decent surface to play on or a playing mat that comes with most decks
• A coin for Heads/Tails bullshit (I use a Flowing Hair Dollar)
• A friend
  Spoiler

  will eventually become a prisoner
• An intact sanity

Resources
It's no secret that good decks require good cards, and like most other TCG, this becomes expensive sometimes. Thankfully, there are a lot of neat places to get deals and buy cards online.
http://www.pokeorder.com/
http://www.toywiz.com/pokemon.html

As for deck building, the following sites are amazing resources as they have scans of the individual cards.
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Trading_Card_Game
http://www.serebii.net/card/dex/

Furthermore, you can also buy "Theme Decks" from various Department Stores places like Wal-Mart, Target etc. that come with 60 cards ready to go and certain elemental themes. Here is a list of them. The older ones are likely hard to find in stores as they usually stock more current sets, but you can surely find them online.

Online TCG
I'd recommend downloading the free online game from here if you want to get a feel for the game without buying anything. Here's a pic of what the game looks like after the latest update:

When you sign up and download, you get to choose from some starter decks and can go up against other players or NPC's. Furthermore, you can earn coins when you play matches that will unlock booster packs. For every pack you buy irl, you also get an online code that can be redeemed for a pack online. So there's some incentive there I suppose. BE RESPONSIBLE, a friend of mine bought like $150 worth of cards to play one game with me last year due to nostalgia of opening packs and never played again. Please don't be like him. Please.

NeoJaf Friend List

Cloud Strife-Freshtomato
DarthWufei-Spiritreaver
Lordfroakie-lordfroakie

My Deck

Here's what my deck looks like to show you what kind of strategies you can use.

Pokemon
My Deck is a Darkness type deck meaning all evil little Pokemon. My main attackers are the following:

Oh Zorua, you beast. Normally, you can't evolve on the first turn you play a Pokemon down, but with Zorua's "Ascension Attack", I can evolve my Zorua in the Active Slot as soon as I put it down and end the turn. And Zoroark? Holy shit this thing is powerful. If I have my bench maxed out, Zoroark will do 120HP (6x20) at minimum without boosts. If it takes any damage, it will likewise be able to counter-attack. Hit my Zoroark with 90HP? Game over. Aside from Mega-Evolutions, Zoroark will OHKO ANY Pokemon in the game at 180HP without boosts. The second Zoroark here is great for setting up in certain scenarios, namely Mewtwo EX or other EX's with huge attacks. I can use it to search for any card OR use it's "Foul Play" to copy ANY attack of the Active Pokemon, and I don't even need the specific energies of the original attack! The new Charizard X/Y cards take 5 energies to power up and do 300HP of damage. With Zoroark, I can put two energies on and copy this attack and OHKO those Mega's without a sweat. It's incredible.

Mainly for support. It's ability means I can swap out at any time my Pokes have low HP or are affected by a special condition. Offers great maneuverability.

Not used too often but helpful in a pinch. For one energy, Weavile will do a cool 90HP of damage to any noob with a Pokemon Tool attached (they are very common).

If I don't get Zorua on my first turn, hopefully I get this sucka. His ability helps because I don't use any Ace Spec cards anyway (they're bullshit) and his attack can help me out if I get a shitty hand.

I also have a Yveltal EX in there (feel bad) and a Sableye (has an attack called Junk Hunt that lets me pickup trainer cards from the discard pile) that I rarely use anymore.

Trainer Cards

Here are some examples of the Trainers I use. Dark Claw will boost Zoroark's damage by 20. If I put a Giant's Cape on Zoroark, he'll be at 120HP. Keldeo EX has an attack that has 50HP base damage plus 20 per water energy attached, people love to spam it. So let's say I have a Giant Cape on Zoroark and Keldeo has 3 Water's attached. Keldeo will do 50+20+20+20=110HP leaving me alive at 10HP. Know what that means? I can then do 11X20 damage. You do the math.

Next, Dark Patch allows me to attach two energies per turn. If I use Engineer's Adjustments (Discard one energy to draw 4 cards) on the same turn, I'll get to draw 4 cards, put an energy in the discard pile, THEN use Dark Patch. Great way to power up and get some draw power. Level Ball let's me search for every Pokemon in my deck except for Darkrai, Yveltal, and Zoroark. Very handy. Professor Oak's Research (shuffle your hand into your deck and draw 6) allows me to negate a potentially shitty hand.

So that's an example . I also use the stadium card Shadow Circle as seen above to prevent Fighting types from wrecking my shit.

Conclusion
Why did I write this thread? Well it took for fucking ever, but mainly, it was because my friend saw that I was playing the online game and it brought up old times about how none of us knew how to actually play the game back then and that asshole Joey (his name actually was Joey, fuck me right?) Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and at least learned a little something about the game. You might have even clicked this and say "who gives a shit" and I'd just close my eyes, look into the sun, and and say "...". Who knows, maybe if it ever becomes popular enough, we can make an OT for the online version over on the gaming side. I'm going to bed now though, pce.

 

[Rnr1224]

i actually used to play this alot with my friends last year. We used to go to the local comic store every saturday morning to play for badges. it was fun but they both moved away so i cant play with them as much anymore

 

[The Llama]

I used to play the TCG gameboy game a lot, heh. Love it. Crazy to read through this thread and see all the mechanics they've added since then!

 

[Duxxy3]

I used to write for a magazine about tcg strategy. Long long ago.

 

[SteveWinwood]

I remember way back when a friend and I learned how to play and we did it like 3 times... Then figured collecting and looking at them were honestly more fun.

 

[Tan]

I always loved the pokemon card art. So much variety in art styles.

 

[Oyashrio-Sama]

I Played the Pokemon TCG Gameboy color game to hell and back.

 

[Wreck-It Ralph]

I tried that online version. The way every match went:

- I put down the coolest looking Pokemon in my hand.
- Other guy puts down XTREME ULTRA MEGA POKEMON.
- Proceeds to beat my Pokemon to death with its own legs.

I stopped playing after like three games...

 

[Cloud Strife]

Even at the very least, check out some vids on YT on how the game looks and feels now. I play it casually a few times a day but it's pretty addictive...

 

[vareon]

Completely forgot about this. Let's buy the X and Y sets!

 

[The Xtortionist]

All I know is that Scyther was broken as shit at the time of release. Turn 1 grass energy + Swords Dance, turn 2 double colorless + Slash for 60 damage = dead enemy poke most of the time. Run a Rattata to get around Mr. Mime and you're golden.

Scoop Up deck was also obnoxious.

 

[Cloud Strife]

I tried that online version. The way every match went:

- I put down the coolest looking Pokemon in my hand.
- Other guy puts down XTREME ULTRA MEGA POKEMON.
- Proceeds to beat my Pokemon to death with its own legs.

I stopped playing after like three games...

Was your deck a custom deck? There are options now for those with the basic starter decks you get to play matches against people with similar decks. It sucks going against a Pokemon EX card with basic cards.

 

[kasane]

I just skimmed through so its basically just like yu gi oh?

 

[Mariolee]

I had to learn this on my own when I entered a tournament when I was ten or eleven.

I lost at the first round.

I wish this thread existed back then.

 

[The Xtortionist]

I just skimmed through so its basically just like yu gi oh?

I'd say it's closer to Magic, or other games with resource systems. Yugioh is far less restrictive about what you can do/when you can do it.

 

[Zeyphersan]

Best way to learn: grab the Pokemon Trading Card Game Game for the GBC. Seriously fun

 

[Mr.Towel]

Is birthday Pikachu still hot shit?

 

[NewGame]

I still understand nothing. I always go into it thinking I'm playing the actual video game. Nothing makes any sense in a TCG. You're all crazy.

 

[Joeku]

As a Joey let me assure you that I was one of about three kids who played the Pokemon CCG correctly at my school.

 

[Boney]

Uh, people didn't know how to play this? It came with a pretty self explanotary manual.

I remember how me and my brother first learned how to play in the hotel room on our trip to New York.

Didn't really enjoy the web version, ran terrible for me. But I've been enjoying Hearthstone a lot lately and I have no idea how Nintendo doesn't have a new software based on their actual hardware and not web based

 

[Cloud Strife]

I still understand nothing. I always go into it thinking I'm playing the actual video game. Nothing makes any sense in a TCG. You're all crazy.

You're not leaving.

As a Joey let me assure you that I was one of about three kids who played the Pokemon CCG correctly at my school.

That Joey kid even had a Charizard and said that he automatically won because it was the best card. Why...?

 

[-Horizon-]

I remember way back when a friend and I learned how to play and we did it like 3 times... Then figured collecting and looking at them were honestly more fun.

Pretty much what happened to me when I was growing up.

 

[Ryan242004]

Ah the memories

 

[Astral/H3X]

I love how incredibly inconsistent the card arts are. Referring to the "Trainer" cards having like 15 different appearances depending on the weather that day at the card art office.

 

[The Xtortionist]

OK, so I'm running through this situation in my head

It's turn 1. You play Scyther (Jungle), a Grass Energy, and a combination of trainer cards to get a a Double Colorless Energy and Lass into your hand. You then play the Lass so both players discard all trainer cards. You Swords Dance and pass the turn.

So what the fuck does your opponent do. They have no trainers and you have this grossly incandescent 70HP beast with a 60 power attack ready to go on turn 2, while they have nothing except pokes (likely weak) and energy cards. Most importantly, no Energy Removal to blow up your Grass Energy.

Like, is there a better turn 1 play? This was the dominant strat for my playgroup back in the day.

 

[SuperChoco]

Eh, I knew how to play when the game came out, but I always thought it wasn't really that great. Similar to MtG, I don't like filling up a third of the deck with resource cards that would be dead draws by the tenth turn. I'm also not a fan of a rotational ban list, though it definitely is better for game balance. I honestly don't think that this game would have lasted as long as it has without the brand name.

That being said, I do like Yu-Gi-Oh, though that game is majorly suffering from a huge power creep problems.

 

[zoukka]

Bill's, professor Oak's and Computer Search.

All I need.

 

[The Xtortionist]

Bill's, professor Oak's and Computer Search.

All I need.

Old school Pokemon trainer cards approach Magic's Power 9 set in terms of brokenness. It's pretty nuts to basically have access to any card in your deck at any time

Spoiler

except when they Lass you turn 1 Kappa

 

[Niraj]

All I know is that Scyther was broken as shit at the time of release. Turn 1 grass energy + Swords Dance, turn 2 double colorless + Slash for 60 damage = dead enemy poke most of the time. Run a Rattata to get around Mr. Mime and you're golden.

Scoop Up deck was also obnoxious.

I remember the "Haymaker" deck with Scyther, Hitmonchan, and Electabuzz used to be really popular. I think those were the only Pokemon in the deck, and it was stacked with trainer cards so you could get energy cards quickly. Good times.

 

[Cloud Strife]

OK, so I'm running through this situation in my head

It's turn 1. You play Scyther (Jungle), a Grass Energy, and a combination of trainer cards to get a a Double Colorless Energy and Lass into your hand. You then play the Lass so both players discard all trainer cards. You Swords Dance and pass the turn.

So what the fuck does your opponent do. They have no trainers and you have this grossly incandescent 70HP beast with a 60 power attack ready to go on turn 2, while they have nothing except pokes (likely weak) and energy cards. Most importantly, no Energy Removal to blow up your Grass Energy.

Like, is there a better turn 1 play? This was the dominant strat for my playgroup back in the day.

Now, those who go first can't attack or use any moves in the first turn so no one is cheesed immediately.

There are so many new strategies it's ridiculous. The poison card I posted sucks because there is a stadium card that boosts poison damage to 20HP per turn instead of 10. Couple that with a preceding attack, and you're cheesed to shit in the waking seconds of the game.

 

[Bii]

So what decks are used in the meta game nowadays? I stopped playing a year or so ago when Boundaries Crossed was released. Back then there were a bunch of Darkrai/Sableye, Garchomp/Altaria and Blastoise/Keldeo decks.

 

[Skelter]

I just want a Pokémon TCG for the 3DS with online play. Gimme dat already.

 

[Thorakai]

Thank you for this. I finally know how you are suppose to play this game, sounds fun!

 

[xSL4INx]

Awesome thread OP! I currently travel around and play the game competitively, mostly in Texas, but I've been to various tournaments in Colorado, Missouri, Louisiana, and Indiana.

 

[Guess Who]

I knew all, or at least most of, this many years ago as a kid. We didn't have EX or Stadium cards back then, but we had most of it! I'd be interested in getting back in but with how many bajillion cards there are these days, I probably couldn't be bothered to learn enough to be competitive.

 

[Scarecrow]

I wish they did an updated portable game since I've no one to play with.

 

[Tomohawk]

Man they should do one for pc like hearthstone and have animated cards.

 

[Cloud Strife]

Thank you for this. I finally know how you are suppose to play this game, sounds fun!

Awesome thread OP! I currently travel around and play the game competitively, mostly in Texas, but I've been to various tournaments in Colorado, Missouri, Louisiana, and Indiana.

Thanks for reading

Man they should do one for pc like hearthstone and have animated cards.

They do to an extent. Not as seamlessly animated as HStone but you download it and play just the same. There are animations in the game.

 

[Lightning Lord]

I wish they did an updated portable game since I've no one to play with.

Yeah, I'm surprised they never made more games after the GBC. I haven't followed TCG since back when it was still relatively new but I know I'd probably give a new portable game a chance.

But then again, there are a lot of Pokemon spinoffs that have been dropped and never revisited.

 

[Riposte]

I like that this thread exists. I was one of those dudes who was annoyed at the fact no one actually knew how to use the cards they were collecting. It was the same with Yugioh. I always ended up finding a niche outside school though.

Pokemon TCG was a rather messy game from what I recall. Probably a lot of dumbness going on then (I don't know the current game) I wouldn't like now. I think I mainly ran with Rain Dance decks, but my memory is really fuzzy.

I used to personally organize weekly meet-ups with kids in my neighborhood (ages ranging from 5 to 15~) where we would have tournaments, a ranking league (including a champion belt lol), discuss strategy, have older players explain strategy / deck building to younger players, make card trades (that were publicly advised upon to prevent naive people from getting ripped-off, either through bad deals or fake cards - which were everywhere given the kind of neighborhood I lived in), and on occasion test out variant rules I would make up and try to balance like 2v2. Also played the Pokemon games too, which we took kind of seriously, but perhaps not as much. Everyone really loved coming. Nostalgic thinking about it. I give kid-me props. (EDIT: I think I started it after dealing with the fact my mom wasn't going to drive me to Toys R Us every weekend for the "Pokemon League" stuff they did there.)

I ended up quitting abruptly one day when the tournament I was my way to (something officially sanctioned) randomly decided to ban all sets but the newest ones, even though Base 2 (am I remember this right?) was basically the same cards as the old ones. ASSHOLES, HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO BUY ALL THESE CARDS, I'M LIKE 12 OR SOMETHING.

 

[CSX]

played the one on the gameboy alot.

i dont remember seeing pokemon special abilities so im guessing that was an addition over the years?

 

[Soma]

I haven't played the TCG in a very long time. I don't plan on ever going back but it was a lot of fun. Interesting that Dragons have their own types now instead of being default colorless.

My favorite deck I built was the one that featured this bad boy:

 

[blamite]

I bought a pack of Pokemon cards the other day on a whim, for the first time in over 10 years. The art is really nice! Also the cards still smell exactly like they used to fresh out of the pack.

I doubt I'd ever play the game, though. Maybe if there was a new video game version...

 

[daydream]

I totally knew how to play back then. Still have my cards somewhere.

I used to sort them by level, but looking at these new ones, they seem to not have that anymore?

 

[Cloud Strife]

I bought a pack of Pokemon cards the other day on a whim, for the first time in over 10 years. The art is really nice! Also the cards still smell exactly like they used to fresh out of the pack.

I doubt I'd ever play the game, though. Maybe if there was a new video game version...

There is on PC!!!

 

[wanders]

Great OP

How is the TCG balanced if there is a deck playing against its weakness. Kinda unfair no?

 

[Kazerei]

I've seen the new Pokemon XY collector's tins/boxes/kits in stores and I'm so tempted to get one. I haven't played since the DPP era; skipped the whole BW era.

 

[Cloud Strife]

Great OP

How is the TCG balanced if there is a deck playing against its weakness. Kinda unfair no?

Thanks

Decks are usually multi-typed in order to strategize against one type's weakness. My deck is a Dark-only type deck so the addition of Shadow circle was great for me (fuck Fighting types).

 

[blamite]

There is on PC!!!

I'm checking it out right now, actually. Seems pretty neat, although I'm still wishing for a 3DS version I could play on my commute. Hopefully the free-to-play model here isn't too bad.