Pokemon TCG

[Cresselia~~]

Can we have a new thread about Pokemon TCG?
Including discussions of news, collecting and competitive play of the Pokemon TCG (TCG online included).

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Is anyone interested in Pokemon TCG competitively here? (apart from me)
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So, I had been testing my Gardevoir Sylveon Tag Team GX deck with Jirachi and Alolan Ninetales today.
I ended up with 11 wins and 4 losses today on TCG online.

I had not have such great results for months since my Lost March deck.
(I had a win streak of 10 back then)
Lost march kind of died ever since Unbroken Bonds came out, since Charizard tag team GX was way too strong.

It's difficult to survive without using Charizard, but so far, I'm ok with Gardevoir.

PS: I'm still kind of a newb. I started playing TCG last year after my ex boyfriend taught me. I knew nothing about Pokemon cards before then.

 

[Champion Leon]

The things I liked about this TCG, are that it’s not over-complicated as Magic The Gathering has become, and not as “set” based (everything following an archetype theme), as Yugioh.

I think Pokémon is a good intro to TCG bc it doesn’t limit itself to overcomplicated rules, which can serve as a gatekeeper to potential new players, and it can be learned much easier without having to buy expensive cards.

Also, it’s not overly simple either, as many combinations can be based on complex strategies, so that winning requires thought but also understanding the game is actually realistic. I think it’s the complex, yet cool ideas, based on a learnable game, that makes creativity and strategy collide in the best of ways.

Pokémon cards are banned only based on how old a set is for tournament formats, and while there are some exceptions, overall it’s based on misprints (mistranslations like on Japanese to English Slowbro), or rare rulings that only serve to balance the game, in a positive way, rather than just banning a card but then making a nearly identical one a year or two later like we may more commonly see in MTG and Yugioh.

 

[Cresselia~~]

I recently constructed a Slowpoke Psyduck deck.
It's a cute deck that can potentially be threatening.

The things I liked about this TCG, are that it’s not over-complicated as Magic The Gathering has become, and not as “set” based (everything following an archetype theme), as Yugioh.

I think Pokémon is a good intro to TCG bc it doesn’t limit itself to overcomplicated rules, which can serve as a gatekeeper to potential new players, and it can be learned much easier without having to buy expensive cards.

Also, it’s not overly simple either, as many combinations can be based on complex strategies, so that winning requires thought but also understanding the game is actually realistic. I think it’s the complex, yet cool ideas, based on a learnable game, that makes creativity and strategy collide in the best of ways.

Pokémon cards are banned only based on how old a set is for tournament formats, and while there are some exceptions, overall it’s based on misprints (mistranslations like on Japanese to English Slowbro), or rare rulings that only serve to balance the game, in a positive way, rather than just banning a card but then making a nearly identical one a year or two later like we may more commonly see in MTG and Yugioh.

I agree that Pokemon is gateway to TCG-- it's challenging but not overly complicated.
Might be too difficult for kids who are under 10, but definitely great for teenagers.

 

[Cresselia~~]

So, today at World Championships, a new type of card is revealed-- Pokemon V.
They seem to be very strong cards, but costs 2 prize cards if knocked out.

I've already been seeing people complain about V cards distorting the balance of the meta game.
But I think it's rather early to say that.

Back then, some people complained about tag teams to be too powerful, but in the end, tag teams aren't necessarily great because they cost 3 prize cards. Many competitive decks don't contain tag team Pokemon, or even any GX Pokemon.

 

[girazard]

Galarian Weezing in the games will have an ability that cancels other abilities on the field, which makes me suspect that we have another Garbodor DRX/BKP situation. Yay.../s

 

[737373elj]

I don’t play competitively but I have a relatively large stack of cards sitting there haha... anyone can get it if they want

 

[Pikachu315111]

I recently constructed a Slowpoke Psyduck deck.
It's a cute deck that can potentially be threatening.

I'm assuming these guys are a part of it:

(Probably not the best of the GX Tag Team cards, but gotta give it style points for I think being the only card being capable of doing 1000 damage (well, 1010 damage). No kill like overkill).

Actually, style points is probably one thing that TCG has over other Pokemon media. I recently watched the reveal trailer for "V Pokemon" (which just look to be re-branded EX Pokemon) and looked through the comments which reminded me how many special gimmicks the TCG had gone through over since its creation:

• Dark Pokemon were first (introduced in the original Team Rocket set), giving us "corrupted" forms of Pokemon presumably owned by Team Rocket. Now honestly they didn't seem that difference from any normal Pokemon (apparently they had lower HP but higher damage dealing), I'd say it just gave the artist chance to give certain Pokemon darker and edgier artwork. Since then it has made a few scant appearances, like in Neo Destiny which introduced their "Light" counterparts and then EX Team Rocket Returns which utilized the dual-type gimmick they had during the EX/Delta Species era. Time will only tell if they make one more appearance during the GX era, though looks like we may not be moving on from that with these new "V" cards.
• Owner's Pokemon (introduced in the Gym Heroes & Challengers set) and Pokemon SP (introduced in the Platinum set) gave us Pokemon which belonged to a certain trainer. At the start it was the Kanto's Gym Leaders and some Team Rocket. Then they did another with the Johto Gym Leaders, Elite Four, & Champion... in Japan. Sadly the Hoenn Pokemon League never got any cards during the EX era but Team Magma and Aqua had a few. Same with Team Rocket with their return set. But during the Diamond and Pearl era the Pokemon League trainers and Frontier Brains got a chance with the Pokemon SP card along with Team Galactic. Each Pokemon even got an additional logo depending if they were owned by a Galactic member (G), Gym Leader (GL), Elite Four (EF), Champion/Cynthia (C), or Frontier Brain (FB). During this time even the movies got special promotion cards (M). On a related note, for a while they also continued with Owner Card's for the Pokemon movies but looked to have stopped after the Zoroark movie. Come Black & White they completely stopped making a Pokemon card that was said to belong to a trainer. As of recently it looks like it has sort of lived on in a GX Tag Team mechanic which requires a certain Trainer Card depicting a character to do an additional and powerful effect.
• Shiny Pokemon (introduced in Neo Revelations) and Pokemon Star (introduced in EX Team Rocket Returns) was just more neat to see then having gameplay significance. Outside of the game you don't see much about the Shiny Pokemon so to get cool artwork featuring them plus a special rarity symbol. And they're not gone either, they made a sudden surprise appearance in the third Sun & Moon expansion Shinning Legends. And as the set name applies (and maybe the only reason they brought them back), they had a few Shiny Legendaries and even gave them the unique rarity symbol too. Sadly though only the initial Shiny Pokemon had a special gimmick where they needed all sorts of Energy Types to do a move, but I guess they got rid of them by the time of the Star and recent Shiny Pokemon as needing to have two or three specific kinds of Energy Types would be limiting (at that point you're more building the deck around them).
• Light Pokemon (introduced and only seen in Neo Destiny) were made to be counterparts to Dark Pokemon. Where Dark Pokemon were corrupted, Light Pokemon were made to look more graceful or majestic, this even applied to their gameplay as they were more about healing, protecting, or buffing up your Pokemon. Interesting idea though sadly only ever seen once. I think they could have brought them and Dark Pokemon back for a set in during Black & White or Sun & Moon.
• Crystal Pokemon (introduced in Aquapolis) were like the initial Shiny Pokemon with them needing two or more Energy Types but weren't in their Shiny colors (which I think was a bit of a let down on that respect). However, thanks to their shared Poke-Body, they had a pretty unique gimmick. They were all Colorless at first but when you attached an Energy card they needed to use one of their moves, their Poke-Body "Crystal Type" changed their Type to that Energy Type (which means they could hit a Pokemon for their weakness with careful planning). Another neat thing about them was the background for their card reflected this gimmick, being all white but you saw highlights of the colors of the Types they could change into making each Crystal Pokemon have a unique background.
• Pokemon ex (introduced in EX Ruby & Sapphire) and Pokemon-EX (introduced in Next Destinies) I think was the TCG's first taste of power creep. Well, gradually. The first Pokemon ex weren't all that powerful as they were initially references to popular TCG cards from previous sets. However after that initial set they were slowly made more and more powerful, probably to justify when they were knocked out your opponent drew 2 prize cards. Pokemon ex ended with the beginning of the Diamond & Pearl series... but were then brought back for Black & White as Pokemon-EX (you can tell they're more powerful as they're capital letters now). And no needing to warm up this time, they came out swinging with being extra powerful. And THEN when XY came out they expanded the Pokemon-EX mechanic with M Pokemon-EX, aka we got Mega Pokemon in the TCG now. As far as I can remember all Mega Pokemon were these, but that made sense as the Pokemon-EX mechanic fit perfectly well with the idea of Mega Pokemon.
• Going back to the EX era, Delta Species (introduced in EX Delta Species set) is actually one of my favorite gimmicks and something I wish they would bring to the games. The idea behind Delta Species is that it and the next two sets took place in a region called Holon which had a strange electro-magnetic energy that resulted in Pokemon species to radially change their Type. Not only that, but many final evolutions were dual-types being part Steel-type. It more then anything gave the artists an opportunity to draw a Pokemon but of a different Type. Thinking about it, that's sort of like Regional Variants, so maybe this TCG set had a (delayed) effect on the games.
• LV. X (introduced in Diamond and Pearl set) and BREAK (introduced in BREAKthrough set) had a neat idea where they were essentially "power-up" cards rather then their own Pokemon like the EX cards were. You would put the LV. X and BREAK Pokemon on top of the "base" Pokemon they were for and "gave" that Pokemon extra HP and moves while also retaining the moves and Poke-Power/Poke-Body of the card below it. It pretty much made these Pokemon on par with EX Pokemon but without having the drawback of your opponent drawing 2 prize cards if they knock it out (instead you had to go through the "evolving" process). While LV. X only gave the Pokemon cooler art, BREAK actually used a 3D model of the Pokemon but it was given an all gold texture (I'll let you choose the joke: they either went Super Saiyan or are using THUNDER ARMOR :P).
• LEGEND (introduced in HeartGold & SoulSilver set) was one of two new gimmicks that was meant to replace LV. X (the other being Prime Pokemon which I don't think are anything that special). LEGEND however had a special gimmick: it was technically one large card and you needed both cards in order to play it. LEGEND were essentially the predecessor to GX Tag Team as they often featured two Pokemon (also all of them were Legendary Pokemon). I think what is most remembered about these cards is their artwork and how they formed a big card when put together, it was a really cool idea though I kind of understand why it didn't last going into Black & White.
• And finally we arrive to the Pokemon GX (introduced in Sun & Moon set). If you though the Pokemon-EX brought power creep they were blown away by the GX cards. Not only having bloated HP amounts, but they also came with a "GX Move" which were the TCG's version of Z-Moves: you could only use one GX move per game, and even then they seemed OP with doing huge damage, powerful effect, or both! GX had also gone through iterations like Ultra Beasts having their own special GX cards and then the Tag Team cards which pushed the power creep even higher though also the cost of doing so with knocking out one resulting in 3 prize cards being taken. Though looks like we aren't done, right now Tag Teams feature two Pokemon but the upcoming set (the last GX era set it looks like) will have Tag Team with three Pokemon and already they look like they're set to break things even further!

But now we have these "Pokemon V" cards and they sound like they may be the TCG's version of Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing. While they go back down to only being 2 prize cards taken when knocked out, looks like they have "less power" compared to Tag Teams but WAY more HP. Infact, they sort of look like to be GX killers in a way. They have enough HP to outlast a GX Pokemon and enough power to knock one out (like with Zacian's move) or hinder them (like with Zamazenta's move removing Energy cards which GX moves rely on having to do their special effect), but they have drawbacks or less power that a normal Pokemon may be able to take them on. It would be interesting to see how things play out.

 

[Cresselia~~]

I'm assuming these guys are a part of it:

(Probably not the best of the GX Tag Team cards, but gotta give it style points for I think being the only card being capable of doing 1000 damage (well, 1010 damage). No kill like overkill).

Actually, style points is probably one thing that TCG has over other Pokemon media. I recently watched the reveal trailer for "V Pokemon" (which just look to be re-branded EX Pokemon) and looked through the comments which reminded me how many special gimmicks the TCG had gone through over since its creation:

• Dark Pokemon were first (introduced in the original Team Rocket set), giving us "corrupted" forms of Pokemon presumably owned by Team Rocket. Now honestly they didn't seem that difference from any normal Pokemon (apparently they had lower HP but higher damage dealing), I'd say it just gave the artist chance to give certain Pokemon darker and edgier artwork. Since then it has made a few scant appearances, like in Neo Destiny which introduced their "Light" counterparts and then EX Team Rocket Returns which utilized the dual-type gimmick they had during the EX/Delta Species era. Time will only tell if they make one more appearance during the GX era, though looks like we may not be moving on from that with these new "V" cards.
• Owner's Pokemon (introduced in the Gym Heroes & Challengers set) and Pokemon SP (introduced in the Platinum set) gave us Pokemon which belonged to a certain trainer. At the start it was the Kanto's Gym Leaders and some Team Rocket. Then they did another with the Johto Gym Leaders, Elite Four, & Champion... in Japan. Sadly the Hoenn Pokemon League never got any cards during the EX era but Team Magma and Aqua had a few. Same with Team Rocket with their return set. But during the Diamond and Pearl era the Pokemon League trainers and Frontier Brains got a chance with the Pokemon SP card along with Team Galactic. Each Pokemon even got an additional logo depending if they were owned by a Galactic member (G), Gym Leader (GL), Elite Four (EF), Champion/Cynthia (C), or Frontier Brain (FB). During this time even the movies got special promotion cards (M). On a related note, for a while they also continued with Owner Card's for the Pokemon movies but looked to have stopped after the Zoroark movie. Come Black & White they completely stopped making a Pokemon card that was said to belong to a trainer. As of recently it looks like it has sort of lived on in a GX Tag Team mechanic which requires a certain Trainer Card depicting a character to do an additional and powerful effect.
• Shiny Pokemon (introduced in Neo Revelations) and Pokemon Star (introduced in EX Team Rocket Returns) was just more neat to see then having gameplay significance. Outside of the game you don't see much about the Shiny Pokemon so to get cool artwork featuring them plus a special rarity symbol. And they're not gone either, they made a sudden surprise appearance in the third Sun & Moon expansion Shinning Legends. And as the set name applies (and maybe the only reason they brought them back), they had a few Shiny Legendaries and even gave them the unique rarity symbol too. Sadly though only the initial Shiny Pokemon had a special gimmick where they needed all sorts of Energy Types to do a move, but I guess they got rid of them by the time of the Star and recent Shiny Pokemon as needing to have two or three specific kinds of Energy Types would be limiting (at that point you're more building the deck around them).
• Light Pokemon (introduced and only seen in Neo Destiny) were made to be counterparts to Dark Pokemon. Where Dark Pokemon were corrupted, Light Pokemon were made to look more graceful or majestic, this even applied to their gameplay as they were more about healing, protecting, or buffing up your Pokemon. Interesting idea though sadly only ever seen once. I think they could have brought them and Dark Pokemon back for a set in during Black & White or Sun & Moon.
• Crystal Pokemon (introduced in Aquapolis) were like the initial Shiny Pokemon with them needing two or more Energy Types but weren't in their Shiny colors (which I think was a bit of a let down on that respect). However, thanks to their shared Poke-Body, they had a pretty unique gimmick. They were all Colorless at first but when you attached an Energy card they needed to use one of their moves, their Poke-Body "Crystal Type" changed their Type to that Energy Type (which means they could hit a Pokemon for their weakness with careful planning). Another neat thing about them was the background for their card reflected this gimmick, being all white but you saw highlights of the colors of the Types they could change into making each Crystal Pokemon have a unique background.
• Pokemon ex (introduced in EX Ruby & Sapphire) and Pokemon-EX (introduced in Next Destinies) I think was the TCG's first taste of power creep. Well, gradually. The first Pokemon ex weren't all that powerful as they were initially references to popular TCG cards from previous sets. However after that initial set they were slowly made more and more powerful, probably to justify when they were knocked out your opponent drew 2 prize cards. Pokemon ex ended with the beginning of the Diamond & Pearl series... but were then brought back for Black & White as Pokemon-EX (you can tell they're more powerful as they're capital letters now). And no needing to warm up this time, they came out swinging with being extra powerful. And THEN when XY came out they expanded the Pokemon-EX mechanic with M Pokemon-EX, aka we got Mega Pokemon in the TCG now. As far as I can remember all Mega Pokemon were these, but that made sense as the Pokemon-EX mechanic fit perfectly well with the idea of Mega Pokemon.
• Going back to the EX era, Delta Species (introduced in EX Delta Species set) is actually one of my favorite gimmicks and something I wish they would bring to the games. The idea behind Delta Species is that it and the next two sets took place in a region called Holon which had a strange electro-magnetic energy that resulted in Pokemon species to radially change their Type. Not only that, but many final evolutions were dual-types being part Steel-type. It more then anything gave the artists an opportunity to draw a Pokemon but of a different Type. Thinking about it, that's sort of like Regional Variants, so maybe this TCG set had a (delayed) effect on the games.
• LV. X (introduced in Diamond and Pearl set) and BREAK (introduced in BREAKthrough set) had a neat idea where they were essentially "power-up" cards rather then their own Pokemon like the EX cards were. You would put the LV. X and BREAK Pokemon on top of the "base" Pokemon they were for and "gave" that Pokemon extra HP and moves while also retaining the moves and Poke-Power/Poke-Body of the card below it. It pretty much made these Pokemon on par with EX Pokemon but without having the drawback of your opponent drawing 2 prize cards if they knock it out (instead you had to go through the "evolving" process). While LV. X only gave the Pokemon cooler art, BREAK actually used a 3D model of the Pokemon but it was given an all gold texture (I'll let you choose the joke: they either went Super Saiyan or are using THUNDER ARMOR :P).
• LEGEND (introduced in HeartGold & SoulSilver set) was one of two new gimmicks that was meant to replace LV. X (the other being Prime Pokemon which I don't think are anything that special). LEGEND however had a special gimmick: it was technically one large card and you needed both cards in order to play it. LEGEND were essentially the predecessor to GX Tag Team as they often featured two Pokemon (also all of them were Legendary Pokemon). I think what is most remembered about these cards is their artwork and how they formed a big card when put together, it was a really cool idea though I kind of understand why it didn't last going into Black & White.
• And finally we arrive to the Pokemon GX (introduced in Sun & Moon set). If you though the Pokemon-EX brought power creep they were blown away by the GX cards. Not only having bloated HP amounts, but they also came with a "GX Move" which were the TCG's version of Z-Moves: you could only use one GX move per game, and even then they seemed OP with doing huge damage, powerful effect, or both! GX had also gone through iterations like Ultra Beasts having their own special GX cards and then the Tag Team cards which pushed the power creep even higher though also the cost of doing so with knocking out one resulting in 3 prize cards being taken. Though looks like we aren't done, right now Tag Teams feature two Pokemon but the upcoming set (the last GX era set it looks like) will have Tag Team with three Pokemon and already they look like they're set to break things even further!

But now we have these "Pokemon V" cards and they sound like they may be the TCG's version of Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing. While they go back down to only being 2 prize cards taken when knocked out, looks like they have "less power" compared to Tag Teams but WAY more HP. Infact, they sort of look like to be GX killers in a way. They have enough HP to outlast a GX Pokemon and enough power to knock one out (like with Zacian's move) or hinder them (like with Zamazenta's move removing Energy cards which GX moves rely on having to do their special effect), but they have drawbacks or less power that a normal Pokemon may be able to take them on. It would be interesting to see how things play out.

With Pokemon GX that mimics Z moves, I'd imagine Pokemon V to mimick dynamaxing/ gigantomaxing.

 

[DHR-107]

So I decided to get some boosters on a whim a while ago cause Shuckle was a featured card so got the pack.

I have now ended up with like 3 decks, and like two dozen or more boosters. Got some pretty cool pulls too including a Muk and Alolan Muk Tag Team and a Golden Reset Stamp (Which is worth a fair bit of money). I also got a Unified Minds Elite Trainer Box, and it was generally a really nice purchase. It's a touch expensive, but you get 8 boosters, 65 card protectors, 4 card dividers, dice, poison and burn markers, a GX Pin thingy, and 9 of each energy. If I see another one I'll probably get another.

I'm also impressed with the code system they have for the TCG Online game. Essentially you buy once and actually get twenty cards in a booster, rather than 10. Each booster/deck has a theme code in it which lets you redeem it against the TCG Online game. While I am no pro at TCG, I've been really enjoying replaying it again, and the TCG Online program is actually pretty damned good. There are plenty of AI trainers to play against and it's relatively easy to earn coin to buy more digital decks/boosters within the game itself. Even if you lose vs another person (unless its a white wash), you still make progress to rewards which benefit you playing it more. It's a pretty nice system for "free".

 

[Deleted User 465389]

What’s your favourite card art? Let’s start with mine.

 

[Pikachu315111]

What’s your favourite card art? Let’s start with mine.

Reposting an old post from the "Little things you like about Pokémon" thread:

Ooh, card art, there's something you can talk about!

Now for the most part most TCGs (or at least the most popular ones) have wonderful art. Makes sense, you want the cards to look good so they'll attract players. Pokemon is no exception, however Pokemon does do something different with its card art that not many other TCGs do. For the most part TCGs try to have a consistent look that, while it may improve over the years, you can tell its from that franchise. But Pokemon doesn't, if you buy a few pack of Pokemon cards from different expansion you'll probably see a handful of different art styles. Now they have their professional looking art but they've also used childlike drawings, CG, toy figurines, watercolors, etc.. Now this does make sense, Pokemon has a limited amount of creatures to work with and they're going to use them over and over again. And while professional looking art is nice there's only so many ways to draw a Pokemon until they would start looking the same. However by allowing for many different art styles they give themselves almost limitless opportunities to show the Pokemon in a new way.

With so many examples to show, instead I'll show some of my favorite cards. During BW there was an expansion called Legendary Treasures that had cards which told a story when looked at together:

Tepig Family

Starting with Tepig, we have a nice family scene with a young boy holding his Tepig with his mom and dad. Okay, nothing unusual and its a sweet enough scene.

Moving onto Pignite, it looks to be a few years later we get another portrait that not only shows how much older the boy got but in the between years the parents had a daughter who's hugging Pignite. So from these two cards we can assume Emboar would also be another family portrait, so what does it depict?

We've moved to several years ahead showing the little boy in the Tepig card has fully grown up, got married, and had a kid of his own! On the right you can see the now grandparents (both showing a bit of grey in their hair) and the now teenage kid sister. And in the middle is Emboar keeping a watchful eye on the baby who's reaching out to it (or to the fire around its neck, eitherway it's keeping a watchful eye).

Considering how old the Pokemon franchise is, I wouldn't be surprised if some Pokemon fans could relate to the series of card that though their family has changed over the years there was always Pokemon (not physically of course) to help them through the good and bad times.

Natu and Bouffalant

The first card in this story is Natu, or rather two Natu who somehow got caught in a snow storm and are huddling together trying to keep each other warm. In the background you can see a blurry brown thing which looks vaguely like a Bouffalant. Let's take a look at the Bouffalant card in the same expansion.

The brown thing in the back not only was a Bouffalant, but it depicts the same Bouffalant who has shown to have rescued the two freezing Natu who happily sit snug in Bouffalant's afro. In addition the snow storm has stopped as rays of sunshine can be seen.

Trubbish Phione and Empoleon

We start with a Trubbish who looks to have been left behind in a landfill by a garbage truck. Things look pretty sad about it.

And then suddenly Phione! It pops out of the nearby water surprising Trubbish.

The Trubbish presumably tells the Phione what has happened and Phione seems to have had an Empoleon friend who gives Trubbish a ride over the seas to probably someplace a bit less glum.

Charmeleon and Swablu

Had enough of sappy stories? Well about a humorous one where a Charmeleon bends down to eat some berries only to accidentally burn a nearby Swablu who flies off in a huff. Life ain't easy for Fire-types, but it's even less easy for the ones who get burned from it (personally I would have had Swablu furiously pecking at Charmeleon who's running away covering its head but hey it's still a fun little story).

Plusle and Minun

In the past they've had cards whose images are actually from a larger image. However the Plusle and Minun cards from not only Legendary Treasures but also the Dark Explorer's expansion play with this idea:

Dark Explorers shows a scene Plusle joyfully hopping away on the ground from a plane while Minun is posing with its arm crossed on the wing of the plane. You can see the other electric rodent in the background and they're in the same exact pose in their card making the card depicting the same image except at different angles.

In Legendary Treasures there's no direct relation but from the context of the image you can tell they probably go together. On the right side with have happy Minun jumping up in joy, the people around who are dressed in blue also doing so as confetti falls.

Meanwhile Plusle looks shocked as the people around it, one dressed in red in particular, are looking rather disappointed and upset, yet you can still still confetti in the image.

Put them together and you get the picture that Minun and Plusle were on opposing teams, one blue and the other red, and it looks like Minun's team won while Plusle's team lost. It's a subtle connection but still a nice piece of narrative.

Sadly it doesn't look like they've done this story telling idea since, at least none I can find online (I actually discovered the Trubbish, Charmeleon & Swablu, and Plusle & Minun story just now; I knew about the Tepig family and the Natu & Bouffalant story and was just going to tell them but threw in the other stories too since they're fun).

There's probably more of the TCG I can talk about, but I think I said enough for right now.

 

[Scorpio]

I haven’t really paid attention to the TGC for years, but back in the first gen the cards were the franchise as far as I was concerned (IDK if I knew the games existed). I remember being on a quest to collect one of every species in the cards, a quest I eventually succeeded in (thanks to my parents lol). Then I got a guidebook for Pokémon Crystal, got a copy of Pokémon Gold, and that was that. I’ve occasionally gotten some new cards (most significantly a Fossil Bellsprout I saved from the recycling bin or a bunch of cards I found on the side of a street and saved from the coming rain)

I should probs get my collection appraised. Some of those cards are probsworth quite a bit (1st Ed. Holo Machamp springs to mind)

 

[spookysocialist]

The tcg has some amazing art but the full art Solgaleo and Lunala Tag Team is my favorite. I love what they did with Lillie in the tcg, she had her card reprinted several times, each time with new art following her journey through the game. The final promo art for her sold for a ridiculous amount in Japan. https://www.pokeguardian.com/360700_new-lillie-full-art-promo-card-has-sold-in-japan-for-1400

 

[theotherguytm]

Does anyone know what happened to the Mewtwo & Mew Tag Team that totally ruined one of the most varied Expanded Formats ever, by powercreeping literally every other card in the game simultaneously?

 

[Pikachu315111]

Does anyone know what happened to the Mewtwo & Mew Tag Team that totally ruined one of the most varied Expanded Formats ever, by powercreeping literally every other card in the game simultaneously?

In what sense? Like I can find the card online, that's no problem, and there's places you can purchase it. But if you mean in competitive play like if it was banned or something, from what I've seen it's not banned with an explanation why being Pokemon V are the new hotness so they're not a concern they once were (don't know how true that is, that's just what I quickly read).

 

[theotherguytm]

In what sense? Like I can find the card online, that's no problem, and there's places you can purchase it. But if you mean in competitive play like if it was banned or something, from what I've seen it's not banned with an explanation why being Pokemon V are the new hotness so they're not a concern they once were (don't know how true that is, that's just what I quickly read).

Ok, so you know Mew EX's famous "use any move that's in play" Ability?
Let's extend that to both player's discard piles too. Oh, and lets slap it on a Tag Team with their insane HP.
Result: Literally every single Expanded deck becomes "abuse this thing" (because ofc Mewtwo mirror syndrome means it's weak to itself...).

 

[Pikachu315111]

Ok, so you know Mew EX's famous "use any move that's in play" Ability?
Let's extend that to both player's discard piles too. Oh, and lets slap it on a Tag Team with their insane HP.
Result: Literally every single Expanded deck becomes "abuse this thing" (because ofc Mewtwo mirror syndrome means it's weak to itself...).

Oh, I can see why it's overpowered, I just didn't read anything about it being banned and one explanation why was Pokemon V (though looks like when I tried to follow the link it leads to a deleted Reddit post).

 

[theotherguytm]

I'm also impressed with the code system they have for the TCG Online game. Essentially you buy once and actually get twenty cards in a booster, rather than 10. Each booster/deck has a theme code in it which lets you redeem it against the TCG Online game. While I am no pro at TCG, I've been really enjoying replaying it again, and the TCG Online program is actually pretty damned good. There are plenty of AI trainers to play against and it's relatively easy to earn coin to buy more digital decks/boosters within the game itself. Even if you lose vs another person (unless its a white wash), you still make progress to rewards which benefit you playing it more. It's a pretty nice system for "free".

On a more positive note, yeah the system is great. Though I'll let you in on a few tips.
There are actually two types of packs/cards: Tradeable and Tradelocked. Tradeable packs produce tradeable cards and vice versa. The cards you get from rewards in-game and with tokens in the store are tradelocked, the ones you get with codes are tradeable.

TOP TIP: Do not open tradeable packs. They are used as an in-game "currency" by the traders, and you can obtain nearly any card you need by saving up enough tradeable packs. Different sets are valued differently depending on how in-demand the cards in it are.

There is one exception to the rule however: packs/chests you get from tournaments are tradeable. The easiest way to obtain them is to purchase with Tokens whatever the best Theme deck is and enter Theme tournaments. That way, you're on a level footing with everyone else and also more likely to run into weaker players too. Theme tournaments also cost less tickets too, and you can get all the tickets you need from the ladder (there's no need to spend money on them).

 

[Deleted User 465389]

Does anyone know what happened to the Mewtwo & Mew Tag Team that totally ruined one of the most varied Expanded Formats ever, by powercreeping literally every other card in the game simultaneously?

Trevnoir released

Night Watch ナイトウォッチャー 150

Choose 2 random cards from your opponent's hand. Your opponent reveals those cards and shuffles them into their deck.

Pale Moon-GX ペイルムーンGX

At the end of your opponent's next turn, the Defending Pokémon will be Knocked Out. If this Pokémon has at least 1 extra Energy attached to it (in addition to this attack's cost), discard all Energy from your opponent's Active Pokémon. (You can't use more than 1 GX attack in a game.)

The deck goes fast, discards cards from their hand, and OHKOs a mewmew for 3 energy.
It also has gengar and mimikyu gx, so you can prevent them playing cards from your hand for 1 turn, giving you enough time to set up.

 

[theotherguytm]

Wow ok that's pretty silly lol. Reminds me of how they made Dark Explorers as a set right after Next Destinies in an attempt to counterbalance Mewtwo with a load of busted Dark types. But yeah that mon is basically Delinquent on steroids rofl. TBH I stopped following the TCG after mewmew came out and the direction and scale of powercreep that was coming in was pretty clear.

 

[spookysocialist]

Mew3 is a very average deck in expanded even upon release, it was never broken or overpowered. Expanded had enough silent lab spam and psychic attackers to keep mew3 from becoming oppressive. The best mew3 ever got was in Archiestoise but the turn 1 rules really hurt Archiestoise.

Right now the best expanded decks are trevnoir, roweggs, turbo dark, maxlax, timachomp, doll stall, and ultra necrozma. The highest a mew3 got at the most recent expanded event was 39th with Andrew Nunez and there were only 3 in top 64. It's a solid tier 3 deck.
4 net and at least 2 shaymin is in almost every deck that isnt necrozma. Honestly the things that need to go at this point are shaymin or net and trevnoir and milotic (both need to go tbh, trevnoir could work with max elixir and guru others and milotic could just find a new attacker)

 

[DreamPrince]

So with Dragon being removed, what type will Dragons be in the TCG, for pure Dragon types like Goodra and Haxorus?

 

[Deleted User 465389]

So with Dragon being removed, what type will Dragons be in the TCG, for pure Dragon types like Goodra and Haxorus?

haxorus’s been colourless so it’ll be that
goodra has the rain thing so either water or colourless

 

[spookysocialist]

They'll probably all be colorless, but I could see them getting typings to match their aesthetic and traditional energy costs. Goodra has always had water/fairy energy costs so I could see it being water type, and Haxorous has had fighting and steel in the attack cost of all but one of it's cards so I could see them making it one of those typings.

Or they could just not print the pure dragon types for a while. Some pokemon have gone a very long time without cards, even excluding kadabra - Castform went from March 2008 until March 2017 without a new card, and Unown went from 2010 to 2015 without a new card. I could see Goodra, druddigon, and Haxorous getting similar treatment, just not getting new cards until the brin dragon types back. The other pure dragons are all prevos so they can just give a their final Evos a V with their secondary typing.

 

[Pikachu315111]

I could see Goodra, druddigon, and Haxorous getting similar treatment, just not getting new cards until the brin dragon types back. The other pure dragons are all prevos so they can just give a their final Evos a V with their secondary typing.

Actually I would think they would be more likely to get a new card just to give at least one version of them that is not the now discontinued Dragon-type. And they'll all likely be Colorless like Dragon-types were previously unless they do a special theme set which play around with the TCG Types (if they do this I can see them finagling Goodra into Water, Druddigon to Fighting, and Haxorus to Steel).