exalteddragon7
New Member
Ok, you wouldn't know it by my join time, cause I just discovered this site, but I have been playing pokemon since base set. Under that time I have been playing prereleases and limiteds and other little formats like that. Over the time, I have come to learn a few little tips that hopefully will help you at your prerelease. Now, opf course some things are based on judgement calls and research, like knowing what some main colors might be played, which could affect your colors, but the rest of it I hope you'll learn here.
EDIT: I'm now making 2 sections, one for the actual card game and then another for the getting there and playing and suff.
STRATEGY
1. Only play like 2 colors, or 3, if one of them is colorless. otherwise your gonna begin to draw the wrong energies too much.
2. Try not to play too many families. Sure, you are gonna find that one pokemon line you absoluely love, but try not to play more then 1 or 2, other wise you start drawing the evolutuioins too much, and not have the basics. Remember, this is limited so your not always gonna have 4 torchic and 3 of its family line.
3. Status effects are amazing here. Unless theres a huge reason not to play it( Nothing else good in that color, costs too much, huge side effect, etc) try to include as many as possible. Cacneon and Growlithe have that auto poison/burn, and that made them played alot.
4. Unless they have great eeffects, don't play too many low HP pokemon. Yes, Wynaut was nice, but not every 30 and 40 hp guy will come fitting into your deck. They're just begging to get killed before their effects can be abused.
5. Kinda works with 4, but try to use BBPs( Big Basic Pokemon) Wobbuffett was nice, 80 hp beginner. Try to use ones with good attacks, but one reason is they can stall the front while you build the bench. You dont even have to attach an energy to him, just play it and let him die if needed.
6. Try to research to see what colors have the most playble cards. If water is one, and fire( Team Aqua and Magma) Try to play water and electricty or at least one color to combat that, if you have playable cards for that color of course.
7. Try to aim for 18 to 20 energies, more or less depending on how much your guys relyu on them, Its simple, cheap atttacks need less energies, expensive attacks need more.
8. Try to get as many fast guys as you can. 1 to 2 energy requirement, and 3 after that. Use the 4 requirement sparsley, cause then they start to take too much energy.
9. Dont be scared to use EXs. They can usually won the game or give you a serious advantage. Just play them on bench then power them up to attack. Even losing 2 prizes, you prolly crippled them or got 1 to 3 prizes yourself.
10. Card drawing is always useful. It can get you out of a jam, in many many ways. Unless theres a gross drawback, like let the opponent get like 6 cards or something, its always good. Even with a drawback like that, you can still use like 1 if needed.
11. Not all trainers are good, but most are. Use common sense. You'd be better throwing in another switch then a pressure stadium when you dont play those colors.
12. Dont use too many stadiums. Dont forget, the help the opponent too, and that extra 10 HP or free retreat may lose you the game. Unless you can take a good advantage of it too, thats mainly depends on your build. If your running odd colors, then you'll be better off, but the more common colors( research come in handy here) you may hurt yourself more then helping here.
13. Weigh the costs. Some cards are good, and some are soo good they need a drawback to balance it out. Double Rainbow Energy is good, even with the -10 damage. It puts you ahead another turn, and thats a good thing. Unless it absolutely doesnt help enough for the cost, think about putting some good cards in with drawbacks. After all, there is a reason if theres one on there.
14. Try to have cards that work together. Maybe colors that off set each weakness, or ones that help with attacks. Maybe a healign poke power with attacks that damage the pokemon that uses them or something like that.
15. Any attacks that can remove energy or some how damper the plans in other ways are always accpted. An example is one that allows you to have the opponent switch his/her active with a benched. That really hurts if youre gonna be picking off little ones for easy prizes.
16. Try not to go overboard with attacks that discard energy. Unless they are mostly game winners or scale tippers, dont use too many energy discarders because you do have other pokemon to support. So dont use them too much for like 20 damage and a burn or something, but if its something like discard any amount of energies and 20 pdamage per, then feel free to use em.
OTHER STUFF
1. Try to leave a half hr. before you plan to leave usually. I call this "emergency time", or most of the time its called "lost time" traffic might be bad, or if your new to the area, you could miss your exit or something. This just helps in case of an emergency.
2. Bring an extra 5-10 sleeves for each amount of sleeves you have for a deck. Accidents happen and if you tear a sleeve, you'd have to unsleeve the whole deck, and you might not wanna scratch the Reverse Holo Blazekin EX, ya know?
3. Pack everything the night before. This is a simple thing, but some people don't always do that. Again, bad things do happen. Maybe a power outtage messes your alarm clock, or something, but sometimes you migh tbe in a mad rush and forget something serious, like your wallet, your binder, your sleeves, something like that.
4. Always bring extra cash. You might find that RH Professor Oaks Research you always wanted, or might need a bite to eat. Never know
5. Keep a close eye on your stuff. If you can, bring a back pack or have one of those cool binders with the straps for putting it over your shoulder. I know its sad to think about it, but people do steal. Dont trade in the middle of a game, only let one person see your book at a time, stuff like that. Its common sense again.You wouldn't you leave your wallet out unattended with like a few $50 bills in it right?
6. Keep your directions with you at close hand, cause it bites to see you missed your exit and not know untill like 20 exits later.
7. Make your deck list at least the night before, that way you dont have eergy clumps or anything like that. This will make your game loads better if you have a lot of shuffling done before hand.
8. Have spare energies, damage counters, rule books, sleeves, book pages, all of that stuff. Then you can be concentrated on the game, not needing to interrupt someone to borrow some counters. I hate it when in the middle of the game a guy asks me to borrow a dice. Keep the sleeves for some new cards, energies if you need them for a prerelease, etc.
9. Always prepare for side events, or stuff like that. You might go 1-2 drop in prerelease tournament and then you'll wanna enter that draft that needs another player to start.
Well, untill next time guys. And always, good luck and happy gaming.
P.S. any ciritisism is welcome, and I will edit my post if any additions are to be made.
EDIT: I'm now making 2 sections, one for the actual card game and then another for the getting there and playing and suff.
STRATEGY
1. Only play like 2 colors, or 3, if one of them is colorless. otherwise your gonna begin to draw the wrong energies too much.
2. Try not to play too many families. Sure, you are gonna find that one pokemon line you absoluely love, but try not to play more then 1 or 2, other wise you start drawing the evolutuioins too much, and not have the basics. Remember, this is limited so your not always gonna have 4 torchic and 3 of its family line.
3. Status effects are amazing here. Unless theres a huge reason not to play it( Nothing else good in that color, costs too much, huge side effect, etc) try to include as many as possible. Cacneon and Growlithe have that auto poison/burn, and that made them played alot.
4. Unless they have great eeffects, don't play too many low HP pokemon. Yes, Wynaut was nice, but not every 30 and 40 hp guy will come fitting into your deck. They're just begging to get killed before their effects can be abused.
5. Kinda works with 4, but try to use BBPs( Big Basic Pokemon) Wobbuffett was nice, 80 hp beginner. Try to use ones with good attacks, but one reason is they can stall the front while you build the bench. You dont even have to attach an energy to him, just play it and let him die if needed.
6. Try to research to see what colors have the most playble cards. If water is one, and fire( Team Aqua and Magma) Try to play water and electricty or at least one color to combat that, if you have playable cards for that color of course.
7. Try to aim for 18 to 20 energies, more or less depending on how much your guys relyu on them, Its simple, cheap atttacks need less energies, expensive attacks need more.
8. Try to get as many fast guys as you can. 1 to 2 energy requirement, and 3 after that. Use the 4 requirement sparsley, cause then they start to take too much energy.
9. Dont be scared to use EXs. They can usually won the game or give you a serious advantage. Just play them on bench then power them up to attack. Even losing 2 prizes, you prolly crippled them or got 1 to 3 prizes yourself.
10. Card drawing is always useful. It can get you out of a jam, in many many ways. Unless theres a gross drawback, like let the opponent get like 6 cards or something, its always good. Even with a drawback like that, you can still use like 1 if needed.
11. Not all trainers are good, but most are. Use common sense. You'd be better throwing in another switch then a pressure stadium when you dont play those colors.
12. Dont use too many stadiums. Dont forget, the help the opponent too, and that extra 10 HP or free retreat may lose you the game. Unless you can take a good advantage of it too, thats mainly depends on your build. If your running odd colors, then you'll be better off, but the more common colors( research come in handy here) you may hurt yourself more then helping here.
13. Weigh the costs. Some cards are good, and some are soo good they need a drawback to balance it out. Double Rainbow Energy is good, even with the -10 damage. It puts you ahead another turn, and thats a good thing. Unless it absolutely doesnt help enough for the cost, think about putting some good cards in with drawbacks. After all, there is a reason if theres one on there.
14. Try to have cards that work together. Maybe colors that off set each weakness, or ones that help with attacks. Maybe a healign poke power with attacks that damage the pokemon that uses them or something like that.
15. Any attacks that can remove energy or some how damper the plans in other ways are always accpted. An example is one that allows you to have the opponent switch his/her active with a benched. That really hurts if youre gonna be picking off little ones for easy prizes.
16. Try not to go overboard with attacks that discard energy. Unless they are mostly game winners or scale tippers, dont use too many energy discarders because you do have other pokemon to support. So dont use them too much for like 20 damage and a burn or something, but if its something like discard any amount of energies and 20 pdamage per, then feel free to use em.
OTHER STUFF
1. Try to leave a half hr. before you plan to leave usually. I call this "emergency time", or most of the time its called "lost time" traffic might be bad, or if your new to the area, you could miss your exit or something. This just helps in case of an emergency.
2. Bring an extra 5-10 sleeves for each amount of sleeves you have for a deck. Accidents happen and if you tear a sleeve, you'd have to unsleeve the whole deck, and you might not wanna scratch the Reverse Holo Blazekin EX, ya know?
3. Pack everything the night before. This is a simple thing, but some people don't always do that. Again, bad things do happen. Maybe a power outtage messes your alarm clock, or something, but sometimes you migh tbe in a mad rush and forget something serious, like your wallet, your binder, your sleeves, something like that.
4. Always bring extra cash. You might find that RH Professor Oaks Research you always wanted, or might need a bite to eat. Never know
5. Keep a close eye on your stuff. If you can, bring a back pack or have one of those cool binders with the straps for putting it over your shoulder. I know its sad to think about it, but people do steal. Dont trade in the middle of a game, only let one person see your book at a time, stuff like that. Its common sense again.You wouldn't you leave your wallet out unattended with like a few $50 bills in it right?
6. Keep your directions with you at close hand, cause it bites to see you missed your exit and not know untill like 20 exits later.
7. Make your deck list at least the night before, that way you dont have eergy clumps or anything like that. This will make your game loads better if you have a lot of shuffling done before hand.
8. Have spare energies, damage counters, rule books, sleeves, book pages, all of that stuff. Then you can be concentrated on the game, not needing to interrupt someone to borrow some counters. I hate it when in the middle of the game a guy asks me to borrow a dice. Keep the sleeves for some new cards, energies if you need them for a prerelease, etc.
9. Always prepare for side events, or stuff like that. You might go 1-2 drop in prerelease tournament and then you'll wanna enter that draft that needs another player to start.
Well, untill next time guys. And always, good luck and happy gaming.
P.S. any ciritisism is welcome, and I will edit my post if any additions are to be made.
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