Hello Little Lights! For those who have been keeping track of my Twitter Account this might not come as a surprise! Yet I have recently played a RomHack of my favourite franchise that I really want to talk to you about today! What if we combine Pokémon with YuGiOh?! I got my game on and tried this rom! A journey began …but I felt like this game was missing something, perhaps some spirit… or maybe even the heart of the cards?!
Creature Swap
In the past I have already played Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Team Training. Which was a Dragon Ball Rom hack of the same base game. Fire-Red. However where in that game we do see some locations reskinned and renamed here we travel through good old Kanto. No Domino city here.. though that makes sense. YuGiOh is fairly barren of locations. As it is very much set in one city and one island and maybe the Egypt of the past.
Yet even then in that ancient egypt there wasn’t much dueling going on. PokéDuel also only really has references up to to 5d’s and those are very minimal. Rather than being Pokémon YuGiOh this kind of feels more like Pokémon YuGiOh Abridged. But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. There are 163 new creatures to collect, so for those well versed in YuGiOh lore and even those who just saw an arc or two of the first season.. there are still plenty of monsters to add to your team that you will know.
Gym Leaders have also been replaced including their respective typing. A lot of monsters even have custom typings and every monster has somewhat altered movesets so they seem more interesting. For example Dark Magician Girl will learn psybeam, but also a lot of moves like attract, sweet kiss and barrier to mirror the role of a card she had in the series. It goes so far that this actually has a fairly large impact on the game as YuGiOh monsters tend to not have a lot of moves in the anime,, the card monsters in this game reflect that and get a lot more stat boosting, or status inducing moves.
This game is not something you should play without a healthy dose of full heals! So gameplay wise, I actually found this rom to be a fairly interesting departure from the Pokémon formula ,and instead we go for a slower type of gameplay, with more tactical plays to be made. Neat! So just by swapping creatures around and typing availability the game changes a lot!
Examples of gameplay changing is very noticable in Dragon Type cards. If you know a bit about YuGiOh, you’ll know Dragon cards are very common in the game, so Dragon Types.. are not always that tactical to have. Dark type is SUPER common as well , so is the normal type. So fighting types are very strong to have in this game, many of the 5d’s cards are steel type after all. Water types are really uncommon only existing in the form of Humanoid Slime and Archery Girl as well as the Legendary Fisherman and a handful of other cards.. but going from one of the most common typings to one of the least common means you will have to adjust your strategies! And that is the saving grace of this game! It offers a very interesting take on Pokémon battling and will make you a better fighter.. Unfortunately the rest of the game isn’t very good.
Dark Mirror Force
First of all this game is UGLY! I don’t want to rip on peoples pixel-art and people are still working on this game but it is made public , so I think I am allowed to have my opinion here.. and this game isn’t pretty! Overworld sprites are okay.. because famous duelists have been ripped out of those GBA store games like Resheff of Destruction or that narrative god cards game. You will recognise them Tea, Tristan and the others quite easily! ..It does result in some problems though!
For example Pegasus is an Elite 4 member.. but instead of his iconic look we get the Reshef of Destruction restyle.. where he called himself Sol! Odd choice! Dartz is a Gymleader and obviously he has no sprite so that one looks very odd! And then there is the fact that a YuGiOh sprite is twice as tall as the trainer sprite.. so we get some odd ratios in the overworld.. as well as regular pokémon still appearing in that world.. it looks odd to find a Kabuto Fossil while the item uses the dome fossil to revive Exodia Necross. It just screams fan remake.. something that was less apparent in a few other hacks.
In battle though is where the game really looks like a digested Kuriboh. The Dark Magician sprite is FANTASTIC, so is her back sprite… but some of the duelist and some monsters look like …..crabcakes..that have been eaten by a dog.. and passed out. Some art is really good! The starters look pretty amazing! Other art however looks like it has been drawn in paint. Some of the monsters are absolutely non recognisable. Like Change of Heart of Buster Blader. What am I looking at?! However I could find myself liking this if it had been done ironically!
The problem is that there is no style which makes that paint work look uglier than an Orange shouty man.. if you had soaked him in a tub of red beets.. all pruned up and all! Some trainer sprites are just heads. Their portraits from Starway of the Destined Duel.. while some have been made in pair style. Other times they are simplified version of the overworld sprite. There is no style though! Odion’s head is completely blown up large and in your face, while the Elite 4 is custom sprite work.. The same goes for the monsters. I should be scared when I see a five headed dragon for the first time! Not laughing my ass off. Cyber End Dragon is supposed to feel menacing. .. not like a nest full of baby birds crying for momma to feed them.
Release Restraint
Besides the ugly sprite work is how limited the game feels! Dialogue has been replaced with YuGiOh dialogue.. but it has been done randomly! Up to a point where one guy in a Pokémon Center can mention his Pokémon while the other makes a comment about dueling on MotorCycles. There is no immersion in this world as the game is very much unfinished at least in terms of feeling. There is no cohesion, and what is said feels a bit like a retread of YuGiOh Abridged.
Take Lavender town for example, the entire ghost tower is one giant Pot of Greed joke! Which is fun, I laughed but if every character in the tower there makes the same joke, I would have rather seen a funny reference elsewhere. It feels as if the creators of this Romhack were to afraid we would not like their jokes so they mostly used the ones of little Kuriboh.. and that is a shame!
Because WHEN the game does it’s own thing with the franchise it does it nicely. Before entering Rock Tunnel for example you encounter a duplicate of the old man laying on the ground sprite.. with a little girl sitting besides him. She makes a joke that her Grandpa had a near heart attack at the announcements of Pendulum Summons! I hate that mechanic myself so I laughed really hard.. it also combines this iconic Pokémon thing with a relevant joke in the YuGiOh and that is where this game can shine! In lavender town you can find a man who makes a very good yugioh/ this is a rom hack joke. Where they used to burry pokemon and people… now they bury cards. \
There is soul in that! Yet then they add in green hair Kaiba.. as a reference to season 0 of YuGiOh, but when defeated he says, screw the rules I have green hair. I like the joke.. but not as a line for when defeated. It would be funny if they had replaced the Saffron City guard with it. and when letting you through he could say the line. Weevil is in Erica’s joke and he makes a joke about all women that surround him.. yet the old man outside has not been given new text.. missed opportunities. Team Rocket is just a team rocket. That would make for a great henchman joke.. with finger guns! It just lacks that sense of cohesion.
Mai replaces Surge and could have been made more interesting by replacing “there is a switch there” by .. what’s this you picked up a strange scent.. and the second line with, you found a scented card. Just something, Blaine’s Quiz was still a pokemon quiz, I would have loved Yu Gi Oh questions! It just feels like random people did random parts of the game and it has been stitched together like a patchwork quilt.. where the creators tend to thread on the safe side just a bit too much, despite their amazingly interesting battle system.
Kaiba versus Marik
In the end we end up with a game that feels a bit like a match between Kaiba and Marik. It definitely has some interesting back and forth in terms of gameplay.. but something is not feeling right! The two personalities are too similar and the same kind of lines are repeated back and fourth without much to keep you engaged. You’d miss that sense of Grandeur that Joey or Yugi can bring to a match! Kaiba versus Marik also seems like a match that is not meant to be.. if it was in the anime, we would probably see Joey and Yugi doing some other stuff at the same time.. time skipping trough the match with the field constantly growing bigger and crazier but we would lack the rhyme or reason! And it’s a shame! Because the ingredients for a great game are here!
I had some of the best pokémon battles in this game from a tactical sense and it was fun to play the game at a different pace! Yet at the same time I kept asking myself questions, why does Kuriboh evolve into Kuribabylon with a Moonstone? Why does Relinquished transform into restrict with that same item?! I get why Neos turns into Neos Aqua Dolphin with a water stone, but why is Celtic Guardian a Grass type.. and at that why is he pretty much the only grass type in the game?! It is a game that gets really close to getting it right.. but leaves too much work undone to feel as a proper attempt at a crossover ..for now!
Give it a try if you are a big fan of both franchises AND Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged, otherwise I’d say it’s a good idea to let this one sit in it’s cocoon of evolution for a little while longer. I really enjoyed the more status and effect heavy way of battling , yet at the same time it slows the game pace down a lot, and Pokémon already has a fairly slow pace of it’s own! So it is something you would need to keep in consideration. More times than you’d want you’ll find your monsters Paralyzed , Confused and Attracted, which does fix some gameplay issues..but creates others of it’s own. In the end I think that is really what this game is. Rather than an evolution of Pokémon Games, this aims more to feel like a Spin Off…. as if we would get Yu-Gi-Oh.. but on Motorcycles..or something!
Good day loyal subjects! Yugi Muto might be the king of games but I am the princess of Pokemon TCG..somehow that is better believe me. Noble as I am I do not participate in tournaments to give others a chance at the title as champion is a step down from princess anyway. Pokémon TCG is big business, in the Netherlands Yu-gi-oh packs are becoming increasingly rare while Pokémon is standing strong with new expansions just behind the horizon. When a trading card game is healthy, it does mean people actually like to trade cards giving value to these little sheets of paper. The five cards we will talk about today.. fetch quite a high price.
The Rules
Now there are many ways to do this top 5. I could rank based on rarity here and put up a list of cards that are most likely valuable and that are among the most desirable. Yet anyone who has ever seen a pawn show knows that with exceedingly rare items.. prices are all very relative. For example Yu-Gi-Oh has a card named TYLER THE GREAT WARRIOR a one of a kind item that was given to a young cancer patient way back in the day. There have been offers made that allegedly have 7 digits yet the card is not for sale. Maybe Tyler drew on the card when he was a kid, maybe he even lost it? Perhaps it’s still gem mint in a sealed case. Stuff like this would put the value of the card between 0 and 10 million or so and that’s a bit too wide of a range for me to operate on. After all I am a princess I am right! That’s my whole thing! So for this list we will only deal in hard cash. Cards that are out there WITH a price tag. Of course I could just put a common pikachu card out there for 12 million and take the top spot myself but I doubt they’d sell, maybe if I get more followers and become a pokémon icon, so if you haven’t yet.. please subscribe! For this post we will use cards that have been put on sale and either sold or are likely enough to be sold for a ‘fair’ price. Yet due to the nature of how this list is made.. someone might offer them a bit cheaper.
(A Million Dollar Card..looks oddly familiar)
Number 5: Tamamushi University Magikarp Trophy Prize (PSA 9)
Cards can be graded on their quality, the most common standard is the PSA. It stands for Professional Sports Authenticator and like the name suggest they are best known for authenticating and valuing sports cards. Yet they also grade nearly any trading card game, even those who can not be played in a sports like setting like amiibo cards and the likes. They grade a card from 1 to 10, 10 being gem mint fetching the highest prices. In 2017 a PSA 10 version of this card sold at auction for about $2150, yet this PSA 9 is on sale for quite a bit more. The lesser quality PSA 9 is on sale for $48.978. That seems rather unrealistic right? Well the price of this magikarp has recently skyrocketed beyond belief. In 2018 the same PSA 10 card sold again but this time for $10.000 dollars. This year PSA 7’s of the card are selling already for $8000 and are selling out. There is a big gap in what people are willing to pay for a PSA 9 and a PSA 7. In general a PSA 7 in terms of more affordable cards sells for about as much maybe even a tad less than an ungraded one. A PSA 10 can turn a 200 dollar card into a 1000 dollar one and the right PSA 9 can do the same. This particular card was handed out to a small group of Japanese school children who were selected to participate in a contest in Osaka. Only the winners of this contest (divided on several age groups themed around gym leaders) where awarded with this magikarp that knows the move dragon breath. The asking price for this card is bordering a bit on the iffy side of the spectrum..but hey magikarp has always been overpriced.
(I can’t help but feel that the price for this one is a bit fishy)
Number 4: Albino Zapdos
When there is a printing error on our card, the border is not neatly aligned or if it’s been cut sloppily cards loses value as quick as a Honey Boo Boo can make people lose faith in humanity. However if there is a misprint .. people totally go ham over these cards. One of the most famous mistakes are the so called Albino Pokémon. A type of misprint where one colour would not be printed. Quite oftenly just a detail this Zapdos had the ‘misfortune’ of being on a card where yellow ink did not find its way to the 6.4 by 8.9 cm piece of paper. When it became sealed in a pack the card that was only worth a few dollars otherwise suddenly became a $49.999,99 dollar card. It’s been marketed for that price for a long while and it’s commonly accepted that the card is worth that amount. Unfortunately recently the lucky german who pulled this card was forced to settle for a lot less. Ending up costing the new owner only $14.999,99 this would knock Albino Zapdos down a few spots. Yet the $50.0000 zapdos was quite commonly accepted as the actual price and worth of the card.You can be the judge on that one.. but to keep it fair for the cards that have not received offers yet we shall list it under it’s commonly known asking price. It’s actually worth? That’s a bit of a grey area.
(I bet having to sell it for a third of the price was a bit shocking to the german)
Number 3: Shadowless 1st Edition Base Set Charizard Holo 1999 (PSA 10)
This is the most famous expensive pokémon card and most likely the least unique on on this list. This is basically something you could have owned as a kid. Nostalgia for the card that was super popular back then has pumped up the value as a kid. Also as we were all kids who took that card everywhere the good quality ones have dropped of the earth faster than basic human decency in Jersey Shore. This combination made this one of the most coveted cards out there. Every collector wants this one while most of the other cards are much more unique this one has a power over people. ‘Hey guy I got a albino zapdos card’ can still be met with a frown and a look like ‘dude what are you talking about’.. whilst if anyone says ‘Dude I got a holographic 1st Edition Charizard’ they will KNOW that is something impressive. I’ve seen lesser versions sell at auction in the $30.000 range. This australian man might be pushing his luck asking $68.725 dollars for it but recently the Charizard cards have all been picking up in price again. With about 15 views per hour..for a pokémon card that costs as much as more than decent car about 150 months of my rent this one still is likely to sell. The value of this card is quite stable as well so it might be a good investment if you have some cash to burn.
(While the other cards come and go 1st Edition Charizard will always be hot)
Number 2: Trophy Kangaskhan Parent & Child Tournament 1998 Pokemon Promo Card Japan (PSA 10)
Can you imagine sending little Buta to school in japan, he picks up a magazine and comes back all excited saying if you enter a pokémon tournament together you can win some neat prices. So you decide to enter, letting little brother Bosu participate alongside his mother as well. Bosu and mom are out of the competition quite fast. You never had high hopes for that kid anyway. You and Buta make your way down the ladder but end up eliminated after a few wins. Hey you still did well enough to receive a price. A Kangaskhan card… neat. It has a symbol that it’s special but hey.. it’s just a piece of card so Buta can keep it. Now 21 years later you are reminiscing those memories sipping your green tea while checking ebay to see if you can buy that card again. Buta .. being a kid lost it.. but now that they have moved out you want it as a memory. You see the only copy currently on sale is in the hand of the British and it’s being sold for $98,126.85. You curse as you realise now Bosu has to become your favorite kid. I am sure this must have happened to at least one japanese father. Who could have expected that the little card you won by playing card game with your son would grow out to be one of the most sought out pokémon cards ever. Not even part of one of the most prestigious tournaments and more just a fun promotion. The design and story around this card has made it amongst the most valuable of them all.
(Paying 100k for a card is far from normal)
Number 1: POKEMON 2001 TROPICAL WIND TROPHY CARD (PSA 9)
Psyduck in a hammock, along with a igglybuff and smoochum. In the background a Executor is riding a boat. This card was only handed to winners of a tournament and no visitor version was ever handed out. Since there were two age classes back then.. this card by all means should exist twice only. The seller on Ebay prides himself on having the highest rated of those two copies. There will never be a PSA 10..he holds the highest rarity of one of the most rare cards in existence in Pokémon. So what is that worth? NO ONE ELSE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD OWNS THIS PSA 9 CARD!!! Says the add. While about as subtle as a 90’s comedy or action movie it does hold true. So if you ever want to spend half a million dollars, that’s right this card costs $500.000, on a Psyduck in a hammock.. this is your only option. At least unlike the Kangaskhan and the Magikarp you can get bragging rights with this one! This one at least belongs to the champion of a semi-prestigious tournament rather than just a fun event. So hey that’s worth 400k right? I mean not for me, I am already prestigious enough so I will not let my staff bring out a bid on this one. If you want to donate it to me though.. I would be fairly appreciative. I’ll even get you your own hammock.. and a real duck to go with it.
(This is the only card on the list that has free shipping)
Now that we wrapped up this post please do not take the attempt to donate the card to Princess Pinkie seriously of course unless you are a billionaire who’s all like ‘Oh that sounds like fun’ in which case you can go right ahead. What is your most expensive Pokémon Card.. or even other collectable! Let us know in the comments and if you are new don’t forget to follow this blog for more Pokémon content ..most days!
The Pinkest Poké Blogger is blasting off again! XO Pinkie
Chibi Pinkie has been wanting to talk to you all about the Pokémon Trading Card Game with you for a while now. With a new set releasing called Hidden Fates, which is a genuine treasure trove a goodness it would be nice to ramble about but since most of our readers aren’t to aware we will start with a post on how to play the game first. So in the future we can let you refer to this. Not only will this post feature the basic rules but also some practical tips about them.
i WANNA BE THE VERY BEST
Hi big people monsters, Chibi Pinkie here and today , even though I am a bit sad, me and Fun the Mime Jr will teach you to play PTCG, thats short for Pokémon Trading Card Game and the official term for it. PTCG is one on one card battling games with some faint familiarities to Cardfight Vanguard and Magic The Gathering. Like in Pokémon the video games this is done by one on one Pokémon duels and you can win a match by completing one of three conditions. Be the first to claim six prize cards, clear your opponent’s field of any pokémon or deck out your opponent. Although little old me doesn’t really think decking out is all that viable.. as the game is relatively fast to play with little room for THAT creative tactics. Clearing the opponent’s field is hard and requires some heavy RNG thingies..so think of it more as an bonus winning condition than YOUR goal. Claiming six prize cards is the way to go. You can claim prize cards for knocking out your opponents pokémon in battle. Though the game would want you to believe this is normally one per knockout but in special cases two in reality more often than not you are facing the special cards. Knocking out a plain monster will net you one price card, taking out an opponent’s EX- GX-Tag Team or soon to be.. V cards equals a double dip in the price pot. Given how these cards are so much better than the regular monsters though, nearly every deck you are going to encounter while playing this game is featured around the big hitters. So to beat your opponent you just have to beat down everything he brings.
LIKE NO ONE EVER WAS
In PTCG everyone builds their own deck or buys a starter deck. No matter how you build, your deck always has to contain exactly 60 cards. Another official rule is that a card can never have more than four copies in the deck. In fact you can’t run more than four cards with a single name in your deck. So you can’t run 4 pikachu’s from set A and use four Pikachu’s from set B! You can however run 4 mewtwo’s AND a MEWTWO GX. On rare items there might be a single card limit. A deck can contain several types of cards.
-Regular Pokémon Cards -Special Pokémon Cards (EX-GX-Tag Team etc) -Energy Cards -Special Energy Cards -Items -Supporters -Stadium’s
All Pokémon Cards and Energy cards can exist in eleven different colours representing typings or a group of typings. Pokémon cards exist in three tiers as well. Basic, Stage 1 and Stage 2. Stage 1 and Stage 2 function as evolutions and can not be played right away, Pokémon have to be evolved over time. Basic Pokémon can be played once in your hand. Energy cards are comparable to mana in magic but rather than playing them on the field they are attached to a pokémon and thus much more a limited resource. But more on the rules in later parts. Special Energies can only be attached to a Pokémon whose card colour is equal to that energy colour(except for colourless) and you are limited to having four of them in your deck. Special Energy however do activate special effects to power up your Pokémon’s offence or defence.
Item cards are comparable to magic cards in Yu-Gi-oh, you can activate them from your hand allowing various weaker effects to incur like switching a pokémon or preforming a deck search. Supporters are themed like people in the Pokémon world and are powered up versions of items, they will allow you to search for better cards or more cards. allow you to influence your opponent in a way you pick rather than himself etc. Basically everything items do, they can do better. As a drawback you can only play these once per turn while items have no such limitations. Stadiums are very much like field spells in Yugioh, they determine the battlefield only one stadium can be active and a newly played one destroys the old one.Using these tools you build yourself a deck. Usually you want to run either a single colour deck or two colours.
Most starting decks are two coloured decks but every starter deck is pretty much useless against someone who at least had one or two lucky pack pulls. Starter decks are insanely lackluster. So if you just want to buy a deck, buy one of the world championship decks , each year they release a few special decks based on the competitive meta. Not tournament viable but if you want to play against some friends with actual decks this would be the way to start.
However a big portion of the fun is creating your own unique deck in this game. It really is a collectible card game in that aspect. Unfortunately to properly play means to properly invest. What to use and not to use as well as aspect ratios for energy to pokémon vastly differs per deck. Is your deck hero a Tag Team Card (whose mechanics work on excess energy) you’ll run an energy heavy deck. Does your deck hero revolve around certain effects you might want to run more items to keep it healthy or take it off the field to retrigger it’s effect. It is however important to build your deck around the mechanics of your cards they have to be a team. It generally is a bad idea to run a deck with multiple strategies. Commit to one and build support around it.
TO CATCH THEM IS MY REAL TEST
Now that you know how to build a deck it is time to discuss how to set up the game. A game usually starts with a coin flip oftenly replaced by a dice roll (odds and evens) . The winner determines who starts the game. Speaking of dice, it is generally a good idea to keep a set of about 10d6 as you play for damage calculations before you play. Some decks work better when starting first (but this player can not attack on their first turn) some decks work better if they can come out swinging right off the gates. After the turn order is determined players shuffle their decks and draw 7 cards. If the player draws at least one basic Pokémon they can select which one they make their active Pokémon and put it face down in front of them. Should a player have no basics, they are forced to reveal their hand and mulligan. Reshuffling and drawing seven cards, repeating this process until you have one basic at least. Each time you mulligan your opponent gets the choice to draw an extra card.
After the active Pokémon has been set both players can choose to play other basic Pokémon to the bench. This is your back row of Pokémon which can contain up to five monsters at the same time. When facing a serious deck it is wise to at least play one or two on your bench if you have the option, as long as these cards have over 30 hp. A few cards allow your opponent to send back one of your monsters allowing for a turn one knockout if you only play an active pokémon. Keep in mind your effects though, abilities that trigger when played to the bench do not trigger turn 0.
After both have at least an active Pokémon, both players place the top six cards of their deck face down separated on the upper left side of your playing field (your deck generally would be on your lower right side and discard pile just above it. These are your prize cards. You can only obtain them by knocking out your opponents pokémon. Which brings me to our next deck building tip. NEVER build your deck around a deck hero you only have a single copy off. The way PTCG is played, you usually have on champion in your deck.. the pokémon that ties everything together.Because the price-pile is a thing there is a 10% chance of your deck hero being locked off from you if you run a single copy. So even if your deck is build around drawing it from your deck (which anyone should) there still is a fair chance your strategy is sealed away from the start. Since price cards are face down coming back from this mistake would be very hard to do and would rely on a lot of luck After the price pile has been formed players flip open their active pokémon (and bench if you played those face down) and the first player takes their turn.
TO TRAIN THEM IS MY CAUSE
So now that we have your field setup its FINALLY time to get into the action. Each and every turn begins with a draw and ends with a pokémon attack or the turn being passed around. As soon as your active Pokémon attacks.. the fat lady sings …at least for that turn. As soon as you have drawn you have a few possible actions. You have a few ‘limitless’ possibilities. These actions you can take as often as you want.. or more likely as often as you have the cards for it. These include:
-Playing item cards -Use a Pokemon’s abilities -Playing new basic Pokémon to your bench. -Evolve a pokémon that has at least sat on the bench for one turn. -Withdrawing Pokémon. -Playing a Stadium
As long as you have the proper cards you can take these actions. Item cards basically tell you what they do on the card art and you can play them as long as you hold cards in your hands. Upon activation of an item it is either equipped to a pokémon or sent to the discard pile to release it’s effect.. like the special pokéballs that let you search your deck for pokémon. Items are very important to every pokémon deck and are key in keeping it consistent. They improve your card cycle , offence or defence in a quick way. Crucial in all three of my decks you want to feature them in your deck plentifully.
Using a pokémon’s abilities isn’t THAT important depending on your build , there are only a few cards that have an active ability. Though two decks of mine rely on this most meta decks don’t rely on active abilities to much. Though in the 2018 season it was a staple with Tapu Lele GX being a play it to grap a supporter card. That has since faded into obscurity a bit. It generally is smart to use pokémon with abilities though, PTCG does not have any trap cards like yu-gi-oh does and these pokemon abilities are probably what comes closest to that, allowing you to redirect attacks, negate damage at times or draw. Every single deck of mine relies very heavy around the abilities of pokémon, though there s plenty more straight forward sweeping decks as well.. starter decks tend to have no or few pokemon ability cards. Just like I said, abilities you have to activate like my sweet Ariados One punch deck, are rare, abilities themselves are not.
Pokémon come in few varieties. Basic, Stage 1 , Stage 2 and Mega Evolutions. Basic Pokémon are the ones you can play directly to your bench as long as you have one of your 5 bench slots available that is. You can not play a basic from your hand into the active pokémon zone. As soon as a pokémon leaves the active zone you have to immediately replace it with something that is already is on your bench. If you can’t .. you lose the game. As long as you have slots you can play basic Pokémon.
On a basic pokémon you can play either a stage 1 evolution or a mega evolution.. play a stage 1 or a mega evolution on a basic is allowed if the pokémon has at least spend 1 turn on the field (bench or active) For player 2.. turn 0 counts towards this as well.. for player 1 it does not. Meaning player 2 can evolve in their first turn. A stage 2 can be played on any stage 1 that has been on the field for at least one turn. There are items that bypass stage 1..but those are far and few in between and only reliable in certain decks (like my fighting one). Playing a Mega evolution generally leads to your turn ending unless a specific item is equipped to that pokémon. Mega evolutions are however not really viable cards anymore. I just thought I’d tell you about them as their card design is really cool and older sets are often quite a bit cheaper to construct decks with.
Each Pokémon has a retreat cost depicted in the lower right of the card , this is the amount of energy you have to discard to move your active pokémon back to the bench (you can not move it to your hand without items) as long as you can pay the cost you can technically do this as much as you need to. A pokémon that is under status conditions is harder to retreat if not impossible. You can not withdraw your pokemon if you don’t have anything on your bench to replace it with.
Placing a stadium card is free as well.. should you have a hand filled with stadiums in theory you can play them all in rapid succession.. it’s stupid but you can…Stadium cards are almost like field abiltiies. Some allow certian pokémon to heal.. other change how status works and yet again others improve damage. Only one field can exist at the same time and you and your opponent share the same statdium card slot on the field.. meaning your opponents new card sends your old one to the discard pile and vice versa.
Then you have a few actions you can only use once per turn.
-Play A Supporter Card -Attach an Energy card -Attack
Suporter Cards make the world go round.. this is the big reason why many of the starter decks fail so hard. They lack ANY good supporter so they are very unreliable. Pitting starter decks against each other is very unfun in my opinion due to how slow and clunky everything feels. Like any card game PTCG relies on luck of the draw.. but items and even more so supporters mitigate that problem.. you build your deck to draw or search.. but not in starter decks.. they offer you the bottom of the barrel supporters to heal damage counters or give you lackluster effects. A proper deck needs proper supporters. Throughout these you gain your momentum.. and thusly you are also only allowed to play one. If your opponent plays three supporters by the time you have played one.. you will notice there is a shift in power.
Attaching Energy and Attacking I will discuss in a single paragraph because to attack you need energy .. and the use of energy is to be able to attack, so in a way they are two sides of the same amulet coin. Once per turn you play an energy card (special energy counts towards this as much as normal energy) and equip it to a pokémon. Each Pokémon card holds one or more attacks it can do depicting an energy cost. As long as this cost is equipped to this pokémon they can attack. White energy can be replaced by ANY form of energy Attacking does not consume the energy unless the attack effect mentions cards have to be removed. So think of it more like training up your pokémon for battle. Attacks cause either an xx amount of damage (always a tenfold..unless REALLY old and useless) which is then placed on the opposing pokémon as damage counters (usually we use dices where each dot on the dice represents 10 damage) when the damage counters exceed the hp that is depicted on the pokémon card, that monster is knocked out and you take the appropriate amount of prize cards. Prize cards are added from your price pile to your hand, but as soon as your attack is finished your turn ends so you can not play those cards you obtain that turn anymore. Claim all six of your prizes to win the game.
The Power that’s Inside
And basically that is how you play Pokémon the Trading Card Game. Now a lot of these rules have some slack because of the many abilities, special status conditions enhancements and much more. For example there are a few status conditions like sleep, confusion, paralysis, burn and poison. These are either dots or stuns of varying degrees. However since these are very situational and their effect can vary depending on fields items and even the pokémon themselves i’d recommend reading up on these if applicable. They are feature that you do not find in every single deck with burn being virtually useless and confusion and sleep being RNG heavy. What I do want to discuss here is HOW to start your PTCG adventure .. because if you haven’t noticed.. I am NOT a big fan of starting decks. So I am giving you a few options on how to get into it.
Option 1 : I have no friends interested in playing and I do not want to spend a lot of money. Way to play: Download PTCG the online game. It’s basically free to play with packs a fairly easily in game grindable currency. It can be a bit of a slog to get a proper deck to start with but there is an online market for cards to ease your burden a bit.
Option 2: I have no friends interested but I might play at cons or just collect it and I have a bit of money to burn Way to Play: Download PTCG the online game and learn how to play with a starter deck, find out what card series of recent you like in online matchups and then go out and buy an IRL Elite trainer box. These boxes cost you around 50 dollars for 8 packs ,which would be too expensive, but these boxes feature 60 fancy (but very sticky) card sleeves , a set of dice and energy of all kinds. Which makes it a good starting position. Usually a box like this has one or two GX cards in them.. and using your pulled ace you construct a nice deck around it. With little money to burn you want to look up your staple cards and buy them online directly. Most cards can be bought form a few cents up to a few dollars. Make deck recipes in the online game and use it as a shopping list, a few of the latest sets have had VERY bad pull rates or huge card pulls meaning the chances you draw what you need is slim. By far the most homeworky way too create a deck but at least you get all your supplies + code cards to enforce your online account as well. Each Pokémon card pack irl has a code you can redeem in the online game to get a pack as well. Giving them perfect synergy for a somewhat adventures starter. Do keep in mind though that prices of cards are mostly based on nostalgia and emotion. Good cards can cost a fair bit.. like Tapu Lele GX running up 40 dollars back in the days it saw a lot of play. However cards like special Charizards or classic starters sell for a lot more for no other reason than populairity. Try to stay away from building around such cards as it will cost a LOT.
Option 3: I have friends who are interested in playing it with me but we wish to have fun in playing each other, not be the one who spends most wins. Way to play: You may have to omit the type advantage rule for this one (which I tend to do as well cause I play with friends). I hate this rule.. pokemon cards have a resisted type (depicted on the left lower half of the card) from which they negate 20 damage, and an advantaged type.. from which they take double damage. This rule is stupid and unbalanced as 20 damage in the current meta game is nothing and double damage basically means a win for your opponent if you play a mono type deck. Basically it forces you to remove synergy from your deck for safety and it just feels very busted. If you play with friends DO NOT use this rule, it will only result in you type countering each other. If you do not want to break any rules.. create decks that aren’t super effective or resistant against each other. With that established pick up as much world championship decks as you can . There’s usually three per year..but don’t go back more than one year. So right now 2019’s and 2018’s championship decks are still fun to pit against each other.. older than that and it would be under powered. A championship deck usually runs around 25 dollars. These decks are fast smart and fun to play unlike the starter decks.. they are how pokémon should be played and if you happen to go to a convention, people are usually willing to square of against these decks in non official tourneys even if they aren’t officially tournament legal. The art usually is pretty and you get a good time capsule of pokémon in that day and age.
Option 4: Shut up and take my money! I wanna pull cards from packs! Way to play: Do NOT buy booster boxes, elite trainer boxes or single packs. Focus on buying blister packs. The Elite Trainer Box has the worst pull rates of the entire series.. they just offer you a nice series of supplies to get started with and a great way to keep all those cards sorted neatly. Booster Boxes are oftenly the cheapest way to get packs and tend to feature a set number of good pulls. So you will never come out robbed. Downside being that in an entire set of 36 cards you will never get more than 1 rainbow rare.. sometimes 2 in a good set, and never more than X.. Gx’s cards.. averaging at about one in five point something packs being hot. The three pack blister card is king of the pulls, though these aren’t officially documented the pull rates. From what I have seem and pulled these are astronomically better. With a hot pack in something very close to one in three packs. These blisters aren’t THAT more expensive.. just somewhat limited in availability. A booster box will have a single pack cost you about 3,50 (european prices ..cheapest source) while a blister a single pack equals about 4,60. A notable difference yet when we but adding quantum discounts on more sets .. of the blisters online we can more or less purchase 10 blisters equaling 30 cards to one booster box. The 36 packs will give you 7 hits while with the blister cards you are somewhere in between 9 and 10 hits. So if you collecting is your style..go blisters.
Speaking of blisters his article has become so long I am starting to get blisters from typing. We will go deeper into the subject of the card game in the near future when I fix my PTCG online launcher and start getting back into the game now. Have you ever played the PTCG? Let me know in the comments. Next week I just might play the Pokemon TCG gameboy colour game for a review..or talk a bit about online battle simulator of pokémon showdown! Let me know which one you’d like to see more. Remember I am not weird, just very pink!
Pinkie's Paradise 