Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

New player with GF and 5 year old son!

kurokun said:
Thanks for your time Professor Trican (XP) That sounds about right.

Now I am just torn apart on where to start. Im reading a bunch of columns on 2-3 sites and yeah, I'm starting to love this game's complexity.

But the harsh reality is the same as in other tcgs. Competitive decks are completely different than the more casual ones.

I am just "worried" of betting my money on the wrong cards (no one wants to spend hard earned money and loose its value.)

So. Lets wrap this up. Dontwanna take more from your time.

for 50-80 usd.

what should I get?

The newest theme decks + 3 MewTwo EX tins?

3 Darkrai tins + singles?

buy a booster box and trade if i get a ultra rare?

X_X
Click to expand...

To get the most out or your money, I would suggest you get a very good understanding of the game. Once you fully grasp it you can then look into the Tier 1-1.5 decks in the format. This can easily be found on many forums by reviewing past tournament reports and in the deck help sections/Card Strategies of each forum. From there it is simply deciding what each deck strategy fits you, your significant other, and your child's desires and play styles.

It would be beneficial to you to purchase the standard staples first. Others have provided lists to choose from. This is because as more sets are released, your deck choice will inevitably change, but these "staples" will most likely be in ANY deck you will run. eBay and other sites are a great way to get singles for cheap. Once you get a good amount of the staples you can then focus your money on the core Pokemon line-up of whatever deck you decide to run. Buying singles will always be cheaper in the long run than buying packs/decks/boosters.

Once you get decks that are competitive, then it would be acceptable to buy packs/tins/theme decks. And I use acceptable in the sense of frugality.
 
Well I'll counter with this-

If you're not ready to drop into the full spectrum of buying Catchers for all your decks and what not check out the double theme decks thread. You're not going to build competitive decks this way, but for six theme decks you'll have three OK decks. If at that point you get to where you're ready to drop the cash into playing the big decks find a list and find a way to go about buying either EBay (cheapest) or a singles site (quickest.)
 
Ok. Thanks to everyone that posted. I got my hand on the basics for several decks with this:

2 sets of:

10 Items
---------
2x Switch
2x Pokeball
1x Potion
1x Computer Search
2x Great Ball
2x Ultra Ball

12 Trainer Cards
-----------
3x Cheren
3x N
3x Bianca
3x Prof. Juniper

many energies.
(18 per deck)

and 20 Pokemon in combinations of 2 colors.

As you all know, and I just found out, Tier1 decks are way different that the ones used to teach/learn/enjoy(in anon competitive environment)

So those are the ones I built.

From the 20 Pokemon I got two sets of pyramids (4-3-2) and the other 2 some legendary.
This way I can swap them.

For competitive...that is another story.



I wanted to close this (from my part) with many many thanks to all those that shared their thoughts, experiences and helped me save a bunch of time and money.

=)

c ya around the forums. I will still be checking here in case someone wants to add their wisdom =)
 
For learning decks you can start with a relatively flat build (20 pokemon, 20 T/S/S, and 20 energies). Very quickly you'll see that energies will be the first things to cut, especially if you have strong draw supporters. However, for a young child, it will be very tempting to shove more and more pokemon into the deck because everything looks cool and powerful. Enforcing a 20-20-20 build early on is easier and will allow you to accommodate multiple energy types if your kid wants to put some non-synergistic Pokemons together in the same deck. It's all for fun anyways :)

I recommend added "tough decision" cards into the deck so that the child is not simply auto-piloting the deck based on set instructions. For the first few games, decks that "set up and win", such as a non-techy version of Keldeo/Blastoise, RayEels, or Darkrai/Hydreigon is pretty good since there is a clear path to victory. Eventually you can add in cards that force discards, like Ultra Ball, Computer Search and Juniper...these tend to be cards that kids don't like to use because they force a "tough decision" based on risk/reward. It'll be up to you to demonstrate/explain how these cards can accelerate the basic strategy of a deck and why they are more powerful, but at a cost.

Eventually you will want your decks to be around 10-15 Pokemon (or more, depending if you are running Stage 1/Stage 2's or just a big-basic/haymaker type deck), 30+ T/S/S, and 10-15 Energy. Of the T/S/S, I would recommend at least 10 draw supporters so that your can draw into them consistently. Of course, this is just a general rule and you may find yourself deviating for any number of reasons, but it's something to aim for while you're starting out :)

Most importantly, have fun :)
 
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