How's your game coming along now? Any news to report in your blogs? Personally I'm done some of the side quests after beating the elite 4, but I'm still working on filling up my Unova pokedex (9 to go, one of which I can only get by trading - Skitty). Shouldn't be long now, then I can concentrate more on breeding and EV training.

Well, .... I can understand you wanting to just catch female pokemon .... sort of. It could be useful later on when breeding to get particular natures etc, or chain breeding for egg moves. However, sometimes you could be passing up a good strong pokemon (stats-wise) that way. I realize statistically you have just as much chance of getting a poor pokemon catching anything that comes your way, but in my opinion you are hindering your progress. As long as you have an idea what stats are good for a particular pokemon, then it shouldn't matter. I suppose to each his own though.

I'd like to wish you good luck in your future competitions.

That is a good idea!
I think we need a new re-design.
I think I will hold off on rants for a while...
Though there are so many things that drive me nuts about being a collector, but for some reason, none of them stop me

Lovely idea! I agree! My rants only go so far
As well I think maybe if we move this up more?
Like underneath of the COTD and poll makes it too far below what most people will look at...
Even just under the COTD, may make a huge difference?

I agree with your points on the pokemon lines being exactly the same in all the decks. I was playing VVV and then switched to Chandelure. Literally The only differance so the main attacker and then Victini for Dodrio. Even the energies stayed the same. It went from 4 Rescue and 8 water to 4 Rescue and 8 Psychic.

I think the powers that be really had no "good" choice when it came to the basics. Last format was ruined by crappy donk decks. The easiest way to solve the problem was to make high HP basics. It only seems natural that high HP basics should be powerful. I think the real shame about the first two dragons was the fact that they didn't have a 2 prize draw back, however, I think it is totally awesome that you can drop a Reshi active to start and feel confident you won't get donked.

I think the powers that be really had no "good" choice when it came to the basics. Last format was ruined by crappy donk decks. The easiest way to solve the problem was to make high HP basics. It only seems natural that high HP basics should be powerful. I think the real shame about the first two dragons was the fact that they didn't have a 2 prize draw back, however, I think it is totally awesome that you can drop a Reshi active to start and feel confident you won't get donked.

I got to give it to you Prime, you hit the nail right on the head. I have been noticing players around me just like you that have been falling out of love for the Pokemon TCG (not all but several) and it's a shame really cause the game itself has so much potential and it seemed like it was off to making an amazing comeback when Diamond & Pearl first entered the scene as well. I got into the Pokemon TCG around 2008 when DP Majestic Dawn was the latest Modified expansion so yeah.

It seemed like the franchise as a whole hit it's 2nd peak with Gen 4 then it sort of dropped with Gen 5 sadly. The Video Game franchise is doing fine to some extent, sadly I can't say the same for the Anime/Manga series and the TCG. I was hoping they would do much better but sadly they're not. As for the TCG I will admit that Noble Victories did have more playable cards but as you pointed out earlier didn't solve much of the overall problems you described. The Rock/Paper/Scissors nature of HGSS-On is making it hard for other decks to shine, and the new Dragon Type sort of fixes that but it still doesn't do anything.

In terms of the TCG it's been said that this format has an overabundance of Basic Pokemon that hits for high damage for low attack costs by doing 120 damage for 3 or less energy instead of like as vaporeon pointed out a Basic doing just 70 damage with an attack cost of 4. The Dragons are ruining the format, Catcher is mainly contributing to the problem due to the 1st Turn Rules from Black/White and the recent Rare Candy errata, regardless of how diverse this format is it still seems like a huge mess when you look hard into it and the power creep keeps getting worse.

Another thing is that we don't need EX Pokemon in this format, it wasn't necessary to bring them back when we could fix the rules and bring back more Stage 2's being competitive decks instead of just being limited to like 10 Stage 2's in this format which isn't a bad thing but it could be better than mostly seeing just Vileplume, Reuniclus, Emboar, and Magnezone being used more than other Stage 2's because of the nerf on Rare Candy. Sure people will say that The Truth would be BDIF If Rare Candy never got errated, that could very well be true but for other decks especially with the possibility of Catcher never seeing the light of day this format would have been so much better IMO. Don't get me wrong, HGSS-On has proven to me to be a very fun format so far despite it's flaws.

Just my 2 cents.

Yes, those decks were easy to recommend as a purchase with the pack in them. It was brilliant. I wonder if the 'early release of theme decks' for BW was a strategy for making them attractive without the pack?

Also, I'm liking Bullados' comment about putting a pack in the VG box. Cross marketing does not make me cross.

Nice thoughts, I agree I wish we had that too. I don't like the Online Game, my computer's too slow to accomodate it correctly.

As far as VGs- I wouldn't put a Booster Pack in the game itself, but instead put a Ticket with a Serial number to register the game, Or, include an ingame feature to redeem things online. When you do either, a Booster Pack gets mailed out to you personally. I only say this because when you include things like that, companies (Gamestop) WILL take the time to remove such things from products, and such things do get ripped out by shoplifters constantly.

Well, at least for 3 series...

HS and UNL didn't have boosters in their PCDs. Heck, those PCDs were pretty not good. UNL had IMO the best PCDs that this game has seen. I do like what they've done with the new Prime packages, only making a good product better.

I do agree that there should be at least one Pokemon booster pack in pretty much everything Pokemon. Including the VGs. Cost? Virtually nil. Benefit? Infinite.

Great read, Prime. While I think Emerging Powers should be forgiven for its lack of good evolutions (it's not much of a real Japanese set, after all), I agree that TPC is not thinking about the health of its game. At all. Between power creep, lack of unique ways to win, and over-dumbification of the game, PCL is going in the wrong direction.

One thing that Magic The Gathering does is balance out it's colors properly in terms of card design. If you take a single Magic The Gathering Card, flip it over, and look at the five colors, you see this balance. Start on any single color. The two dots to the immediate right and left are ALWAYS allied with the color you suggested, in that cards blend and mesh well, and will generally be more synergistic together. The two dots across the pentagon shape will be enemy-colors, have less synergy.

Pokemon doesn't have this balance.

Psychic is weak to Psychic and sometimes Dark.

Colorless is Weak to Fighting and sometimes Thunder (birds) and resistant to Fighting (birds)

Grass is weak to Fire and Psychic, and sometimes resistant to Water.

Fire is weak to Water.

Steel/Metal is weak to Fire and resistant to Psychic.

Water is weak to Grass, Thunder, and sometimes Steel.

Thunder is weak to Fighting, and sometimes resists Steel.

Dark is weak to Fighting, and resists Psychic.

Fighting is weak to Grass, Water, and Psychic and sometimes resists Thunder.


There's no balance. If you're playing Fire, you a completely balanced against everything and have advantages. Fighting, Water, Thunder, and Psychic can sometimes hit a resistance.

The other thing that helps balance Magic is their concept of a Sideboard. Since Pokemon is only one game long, a sideboard is impossible.

Magic does have it's faults, such as color favor, mechanic/ability favor, and flavor favor, but overall it's balanced in Theory.

Not to be rude, but to get a better understanding of the kid, is he illiterate because he is so young, or is he of the age to where he should be able to read, but can't. I only ask because, one of three scenarios play out:

1.Kid is too young to read
2.Kid is old enough to read and is competent enough to read, but can't
3. Kid is old enough to read and can't due do mental illness or the like

If the kid has the ability to learn to read, this is a great opportunity to help the kid learn to read and to teach them to count. If the kid is unable to learn to read, giving him some more simple mechanics would definitely be the way to go. When I get in younger kids, I make them read me the card, then tell me what it means. If they can't read, I'll sit beside them and read it with them. Then, I make them assess what it means, and work with them get the right meaning. Let them flip the coin at first...and, if they can't, just go to dice. Then, when counting, I always make them do their own counting and own math. If they can't, I'll help them. If they do it wrong, I'll help them. I think little kids are much smarter than we give them credit for, we just have to find that level of wanting to make them learn. If they want to play Pokemon, they have to be able to read...that is a great incentive for them to WANT to learn to read. They will see words they have no clue what it is, but over time, will memorize the effect and learn to read the word by way of repetition. And, of course, with the kids, starts off with cards like Bill, make it easy.

Just some more food for thought about kids and learning...and, for any Canadians, correct me if I'm wrong:

I had a friend that went to Canada to play minor league hockey or something like minor league (it was hockey, not sure of the organization). He was still in HS at the time. He told me that once, while reading in class, he came across a word he had never seen...so he started to sound it out and everyone thought he was crazy. Apparently, they were never taught to sound out words, they were taught word recognition. While I'm not sure this is the best way to teach, Canada does not have a 100% illiteracy rate, thus it does work, even if there are better methods. The point is, the kids will learn to "read" by recognition...and, if you've ever seen the "My Baby Can Read" stuff, that is all it is: say a word with the letters on the screen, the kid associates that word with that image.

One of the best ways I've found to build a deck for a newbie is to have them choose one Pokemon that they like the most. Then, find the simplest version of that card that you possibly can, pair it with another simple card that's either Colorless or of that same type, and put in the most basic TSS that you possibly can. Bill, Cheerleader, and Juniper are just a few of my favorites. Dual Ball is interesting. Great/Master Ball (once its legal) will also help. The Constant Reprint cards (Potion, Switch, Energy Search, Pokeball) are also good cards to start with, as at least those will never go away.

Seems okay, can you increase the consistence by adding extra Stoutlands, or replacing cards so he can have extra options? idk, Pichu can be easily explained (sorta.... you have to explain him the sleep mechanic, but it's like "if Pichu attacks, you can fill your bench with basics, and your opponent can do that too, then, Pichu falls asleep. When you or your opponent end your turn, Pichu wants to wake up, so you have to roll a die. But if Pichu is asleep, it is so cute your opponent cannot harm it!" or something along these lines).... but I might be wrong.

I can't think of a card with simple mechanics, however I like your motivation.

Lol, weird to read this entry, I feel exactly the same way...and not going to Nats or Worlds for me is probably the same as well. Though, I am pretty stoked to see what actually wins at Nats.

Can't wait for the new set and the new season!

Got it! Took me a while, but I got it!