Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

How Did you get into the game/ how did you find pokemon?

PokemonPizzaParty

PokemonPizzaParty

Member
So, this is a thread about how YOU got into this game, I'll say mine:
I got a pokemon booster pack one day in 2009, ( i thought pokemon were just collectibles) and I looked at the back of the pack, it said " go to go-pokemon.com" I was bored so I went on, and I read all about how it was a game (lol) and learned how to play with the tutorial and have been playing ever since. If I had not been looking at that pack that day, I wouldnt be playing right now.
How I got into pokemon was in idk, maybe 3004 or 2003 I couldnt stand pokemon. When my sister turned it on, i shouted. Until one day, my sister convinced me to watch pokemon 2000 with her. I watched the whole thing, and I LOVED it! My favorite pokemon there were zapdos and lugia, and they still are today. After we watched the movie, I tried to make a sculpture of lugia with blue play-doh. Lol
So, whats your story? :wink:
 
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I think it was around 1996 or 1997. I went to a friend's birthday party. It's kinda a custom around here not only for those invited to give gifts, but for the host to also give "goodie bags" to those he invites. Our goodie bags included the usual Fun Size candies and other random junk. But they also included a Base Set Theme Deck. I got the Kangaskhan one. And I was hooked from day one. Haven't even thought of leaving since.
 
This thread pops up every year or two.

...to make a short story long...

I started playing the Pokemon tcg in July of 2004. I learned about Pokemon from a Nintendo Power article about Ex Dragon. I was fascinated by the cute little Jirachi, I admit it. I wanted to collect something so it was a great fit.
I was just one of thousands: A ten year old Pokemon trainer starting out on his journey. Yeah. It was funny. I was elated after pulling a Mudkip in my first RBS pack. It was my “starter Pokemon”. I was ten years old, what can I say? I thought I was a boss with my Swampert deck. I eventually found a local league. At that point I was actually an exception to the accepted rule “everyone starts as a noob”. I understood consistency and the importance of trainer cards. I taught myself how to play with the rule book, not to say I did not have much to learn. I played Gadivoir EX in a modified (unsanctioned) event a few years later (2006?). I played a man named Dave first round with Zapturndos. When he saw my Gardy hit the table he said nothing. Little did I know that Gardy was out of the format at this point and normally I would have got DQ’d. But he said nothing. Not until several years later did I see this man again. He was the dad of a Master player I still know to this day.

Dates are fuzzy but I believe I first went to a league sometime in my first year of owning that Mudkip I started my journey with. I was lucky: my league is fifteen minutes away and has sense survived seven years (Not to say it hasn’t had several brushes with death). The league leader was nice, however, quite incompetent. He often didn’t show up. He forgot EVERYTHING. He had nowhere to point his kids who wanted more knowledge of the game. At this point I am on top of the league with my 4-3-3 Gardivoir EX line (Sorry Mudkip, you just weren’t good enough) However, this is where my first road block came up: I was playing with no knowledge of tournaments or the modified format. I was not getting better. I thought I was hot stuff with my Gardy Deck.

Now fast-forward to August 2005! EX Unseen Forces Prerelease! “Mommy, can we go?!?”
Yeah, I went. It didn’t go over too well. I drove an hour and a half with my parents only to lose round one to some scrub with his Poliwag deck. I thought I had to leave because I lost round one but then… yet another intervention of Poke-Kindness! The TO happened to be near us before we left (He let me borrow damage counters, I love Pokemon). Basically he explained swiss rounds. However my naïve eleven year old self was not convinced. I played the next three rounds only to walk away with a Typhlosion ex and a mediocre 2-2 record. Yeah, I was pretty sad and convinced that I never wanted to go to another event. And for a long time that was true.

Skip ahead to summer 2006. I was twelve and now old enough to think about ways to better myself in the game. I just had my first real (local) experience with a player with skill equal to my own. I had stepped up one on the Pokemon ladder and was playing a modified deck at this point (Dustox EX/Cradily). A few weeks before this our league leader stopped showing up with no explanation (Jerk) and the kids stopped coming. It was a sleepy Saturday morning. Almost no one was in the store, exceptions being my friend/rival who had been with me on my journey sense day one and a girl who looked to be probably about fifteen. And she was GOOD (compared to us). She ran a React Energy deck with Machamp and Cradily. My friend got up after playing looking like he got mauled by an Ursaring or something. She was from Arizona it turned out, just visiting. I learned a valuable lesson that day. There is always someone you can learn from; you just have to look around. If I had performed a simple “Google” on Pokemon I most likely would have already discovered Pokegym at this point. Silly me.

Now I was set on a path to be better. I knew there were players out there better than myself. I wanted to go to an event again. Not just that but I wanted to be a CHAMPION! :D

And that children, is how I got into competitive Pokemon.
 
Got my first pack around 2001, then traded a lot with some friends. I didn't really know how to use energies or trainers until probably around 2004, lol. Once I learned how to play I didn't do much except brag to people about how great I was etc. Finally I went to a Yankees game for the 10th anniversary of Pokemon and they have out leaflets which had an ad for organized play. I kind of forgot for a while but remembered and went to league for a bit, then my first tournament in May 2009.

Thank God I went to that Yankees game! :)
 
I was rather disillusioned with another TCG that shall remain nameless. I had always played the video games, so I figured what the heck. That was 2 years ago, and I'm still trying to learn competitive Pokemon. I don't know anyone else who actually plays the card game, so the online version has been a godsend. Maybe someday I'll have enough nerve to go to a Battle Road or something.
 
Dang. Let me think...

I knew about Pokemon for a while. I watched the Anime some and played the VG a lot.

I think about 2004-ish I was hanging out with a friend, and he told me about this card game. He gave me a few cards (Base Set Onix and a Bill), and I started collecting. I knew there was a game, but I was too lazy to learn and I didn't even know how I could find the rules. I collected about 200-ish cards from the EX era and traded a lot.

Late summer 2009 I was cleaning my room out, and found a ziploc full of my cards. I pulled them out, and being bored (it was summer :p) I decided to go online and find the rules. I pulled my little sister (she was like 10) and we decided to learn. We made extremely crappy decks out of my cards, with like the 20-ish energy I had.

We really enjoyed our horrible decks, and eventually I got the DP trainer kit. We got into the game. I actually got into the game around the week SV was released, so I got 2 SV theme decks and made a deck, my sister making stuff from the other cards I had.

We messed around for a while. I joined the PokeGym and learned alot about the competitive game. Summer '10 we really started playing. I remember long days playing Pokemanz - me with Masquerain SV/Cherrim SV, my sister with Luxray, my neighbor with Torterra.

I eventually heard about league, and I convinced my parents to take the 30-minuteish drive to league. I met some competitve players, made good friends, and eventually made it to tournaments in late 2010. I played Scizor/Cherrim for BRs and Citites, getting second at 2 tournaments. Eventually I had the cards to make the top-tier deck Sablelock and quickly became good at it, and in love with it.

I played at States and spring BRs, not doing extremely well because of the weird meta.

Anyways, I'll be playing competetively this year.

Anyways, in summer
 
How I got into Pokemon: was given a booster pack in a goody bag when I was 6

How I got into competitive pokemon: read Pooka's articles on tcgplayer. My first competitive deck was his delta
 
My cousin gave me a handful of cheap base set cards in about 2003-ish. I wasn't that thrilled, but I was definitely interested. I got a small collection of cards from various sets (mainly RS) and built small decks for fun. FAST FORWARD!!!!! Now I have more cards than I know what to do with and rogue decks that can beat other rogues most of the time which aren't absolutely horrible against top of format decks either.

I still like Delta Species more than anything else.
 
The year was 1996 and I went to my bus stop to go to school and a friend of mine gave me a few cards which happened to be Charmander, Charmeleon, Bulbasaur, and Jigglypuff. I immediately fell in love with Charmeleon until I found out what he evolved in to and that was CHARIZARD!!! At my age it was impossible to get a Charizard unless your parents were rich or if you had an older sibling who would give you theirs. I saved my money from Birthday and from Christmas and bought a crap load of Base set packs and finally pulled him. Then team rocket came out and I needed that Dark Charizard and no one would give it up either but luckily my mom bought some packs and she pulled it(till this day she loves opening my booster packs) of course I made her give it to me. I ended up quitting the game around 14 bc I fell in love with something else...girls. About 5 years after that my brother wanted my old cards and I told him I couldn't do that so we went to walmart and we bought some Power Keepers and I pulled a Salamence Ex and I was shocked the game came so far. So I taught my g/f at the time, who is my wife now, how to play and we still play competitively today. I'm now a PTO of Alabama and we run a league together in my hometown with my brother.
 
When DP came out (late 2007) I turned on the Telly (finally got cable in my igloo). I saw the battle roads coming up in the area on my laptop i purchased at the eskimo fur coat store and decided to go. I hopped on my snowmobile and went down and lost the first round then left thinking it was over. Later got home and turned on the ac in my igloo because it was warm outside (around 0ºC). We continued at league and got a starter deck. Got better and later that year took our dog sled to provincals there everyone was running claydol and i didnt but i did go X-0 in swiss then won (juniors). Long ride home then later that year went to regionals on our snowmobiles and also brought our snowshoes. Still no Claydol, Going X-0 I ended up placing 2nd and decided to go to nats in vancouver. After a short dog sled ride we got there still no claydol, going X-0 in swiss and i ended up placing 1st! Fun! Now Worlds. Canada-Florida big weather change. Took a snowcab to the airport and went on our flight. Got there and started sweating immediately. Ran to an air conditioned place. Got to hotel and went downstairs to check out venue. Worlds, still no claydol i go X-0 and make top 16 and lose to future champion.
Continued playing and winning. We bought a bigger igloo with a heater (to protect reverse pokeman cards) Built a seperate igloo for pokemon! I sometimes try to play pokemon with my sled dogs Lillipup and Herdier but they dont understand.
 
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