Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Giving Up?

D

Delirium Trigger

New Member
Does anyone ever consider just giving up on playing competitively?

I am right now for two reasons.

For one, I'm a musician and I noticed too much of my money going into Pokemon. Now I can't afford gear I need. Amps, pedals, and so on. Having to pay for travel and cards is alot for a 16 year old who can't get a job with the current state of the economy.

And two, I'm a student. My school combined with my music makes finding time to practice deck strategy really hard. I noticed too much of my time being spent just looking at cards or making decklists that failed when I played them in a tournament.


I've found myself in this place that I can't do as good as I'd like to. I spend sooo much of my own money on cards and traveling to tournaments, and I'm usually met with disappointment when I play in these tournaments.

My band played a gig while I was on a weekend trip to the Alabama city tournaments, they got payed and praised for their playing. I...I was sitting in Alabama trying to figure out how to beat Gigas. I made top cut ONCE in the three cities i went to.


Does anyone else ever feel like this?

By the way I'm sorry if this comes off as a "boo hoo poor little me" type thing. It's not.
 
If your life is taking a direction, and you can bring pokemon with you, then feel free to give it up for now.
Just remember, pokemon isn't going anywhere right now, you cane easily take a break, go through school, play with your band, and get back into it later when you have more time and money.

You can come back at any time, and the game will happily welcome you with open arms.
 
I've pretty much given up on PKMN too. Given most of the stuff they are releasing, they don't really seem to be marketing to me, a 22-year-old metalhead. I'd much rather pump $20-30 into more CDs and dates than worry about something as inconsequential as (for example) Pokemon's effect on the ELO ranking system. It's just . . . so . . . stupid now.

PUI apparently wants little trash players to beat up on people who are ten times better than them, and any card game company who continually endorses such gameplay is not going to receive any cash from me. There's no reason to improve if luck is so prevalent. These little twerps get a random Godhand, trounce a seasoned veteran, then undeservingly brag about it. If I lose at a game I invest hundreds or thousands of dollars in, I want it to be because I made an error, not because some little ant Godsmack'd me!
 
If you spend thousands on Pokemon cards just to win, maybe you're doing something wrong. It's all about luck, yes, but it's why Pokemon is fun because of the unpredictability. Now, not having a job and paying for Pokemon and gears isn't a good idea. My opinion says a job is needed.

I have a 20 hr/wk job, it works out just fine. With correspondence school online, I have so much time on my hand it's not even funny.
 
Phazon Elite said:
I've pretty much given up on PKMN too. Given most of the stuff they are releasing, they don't really seem to be marketing to me, a 22-year-old metalhead. I'd much rather pump $20-30 into more CDs and dates than worry about something as inconsequential as (for example) Pokemon's effect on the ELO ranking system. It's just . . . so . . . stupid now.

PUI apparently wants little trash players to beat up on people who are ten times better than them, and any card game company who continually endorses such gameplay is not going to receive any cash from me. There's no reason to improve if luck is so prevalent. These little twerps get a random Godhand, trounce a seasoned veteran, then undeservingly brag about it. If I lose at a game I invest hundreds or thousands of dollars in, I want it to be because I made an error, not because some little ant Godsmack'd me!
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Yeah, I definitely agree with you there. this season has got to be one of the worst of all times in terms of legitimate competition.


As for quitting pokemon: If its not fun anymore, don't play it. If you're still interested in it though, just try to utilize your money/time more wisely. Try borrowing cards and looking for ebay bargains to save money. Also just because a tournament is near doesn't mean you have to go to it, go play in a gig.
 
ClickB said:
If you spend thousands on Pokemon cards just to win, maybe you're doing something wrong. It's all about luck, yes, but it's why Pokemon is fun because of the unpredictability. Now, not having a job and paying for Pokemon and gears isn't a good idea. My opinion says a job is needed.
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It's not like PUI would stop me from buying thousands of dollars of cards because I'm buying them for the wrong reason. If they didn't want the TCG to be at least somewhat competitive, they wouldn't have POP. My issue is that they want the competition to rely extensively on chance, which almost always only appeals to people who can't win unless they get lucky.

As someone who is super-competitive, I don't see why I should spend money and weekends trying to win what amounts to a coin flip.
 
SPARTA said:
Cold, last year was the worst season for pokemon since Nintendo took over.
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Respectfully disagree. Although Gardy appeared to be the best, matches were still alot of fun and highly skill based.I actually felt in control throughout the entire season and was never as concerned as I am now about early game donks.
 
I feel my self like giving up competitive play and trying to put together a band because I actually would prefer it over pokemon. You need to go with what your gut thinks. You can always come back when the time is right. I think being in a band beats pokemon because

1. you get paid
2. Not everyone has the talent of being able to play guitar/drums/sing vs anyone being able to play pokemon

In your position I would put pokemon down a bit and come back when you got more money.

And I here ya when it comes to Instrument gear over pokemon (lotta $).
 
ColdCoates90 said:
Respectfully disagree. Although Gardy appeared to be the best, matches were still alot of fun and highly skill based.I actually felt in control throughout the entire season and was never as concerned as I am now about early game donks.
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Last format was essentially that if you could pronounce the attack "Psychic Lock" all of a sudden you were a grade A player. When everyone and their mother is running the same deck because not a single deck in the format has >50% chance vs it, there is a problem.

And early game donk? Rare Candy, Garde, DRE, Wager, GOOD GAME. Last format was so Donkey it was insane, at least this format's early donk decks have balance put in them.
 
I agree with everything SPARTA has said so far. The thing I have to add is that the donk is getting a bit ridiculous at this point. The fact that who goes second is probably going to win 70%, maybe higher makes it even more luck than before. With all the early disruption cards right now: Mesprit, Power Spray, Lookers, etc. It's to easy for the player going second to completely hinder their opponent all from T1.

Add in the fact that in pretty much every tournament you go to your allowed 1 maybe 2 losses to get into Top Cut. So you get outplayed by a better player or make a crucial misplay, and it could end up costing you Top Cut. Because that one loss added to getting donked by a newbie who got the God hand while you had a deck fart; then your leaving it up to a a Resistance factor that has been screwed up by the person that donked you.

This year and last year the game has taken a step back. It pretty much has been going down since they implemented the no trainer T1 rule and started making ridiculously.
 
Well first off I will say I am an older player (I started playing and play because of my childern playing). I understand at your age School, Lack of job or time for job, and playing in a band is a very talented accomplishment and if you have skill in that then you should see where it goes and enjoy it. I was a tournament magic player in my older teen and younger twenties and took several breaks from the game and was able to go back when I wanted so dont fear that if you leave now you lose it forever it will be there for you when you are ready.

As far as the rants of the Game itself, yes TCG games are expensive to keep up with new sets traveling to tournaments and they can cause a burden on some players (I have 4 players in my house so have to spend tons on new cards for all the decks). Be here is a SIMPLE FACT of games ALL GAMES HAVE A LUCK BASED SYSTEM whether a board game, a tcg, or outdoor games such as baseball and basketball however great skill is still required to stay at the top of your game.

LAST SEASON WITH G&G SUCKED it was awful. It was play G&G or take the chance of not doing well. I know several players that did great last year winning cities, placing high in states, and regional tournaments with the deck. However this year they are NOT doing very well. So why is that they are good players they proved it last year so what is the difference this SEASON. FACT they are not very good deck builders, this is a extremely HEALTHY season we have this year there are so many viable decks to play it makes your head hurt (in all games I have played I have never seen a format that has so many viable decks as this seasons Pokemon). Last year with G&G they had someone make a top deck and they rode the coat tails all season, this season that has not happened and it really dont appear that will happen. So if not doing well this season after being spoiled last season, try a little harder on your deckbuilding, join a team, or find a good deckbuilder and have them help you...this pokemon community is a very helpful group of people. Alot of people are good players but stink at deck building and some build awesome decks but cant play great if life depended on it.

If this game and season was nothing but luck then the same people would not keep winning, face it for the most part a large majority of the top cut are the same players every tournament in a specific area. I made many top cuts at cities this season with a different deck every tournament, We all need some luck but if you have no skill then all the luck in the world does not help no matter what you try to do in life.

Good luck to you and do what feels right and what you need to do at this point in your life.
 
cards. The '06-'07 season, the last Delta Species year, the game was still great. Over the last two years I've talked too many great experienced players and have agreed with me that the game play itself is starting to take a down fall. But if that's what they what to do with the game, making it more luck based, then it may come to bit them in the back later on. As they will discourage many experienced players from playing, in an attempt at getting a fan base who likes the luck factor. From day one this card game was known as the "luck" game. From day one I expressed how much I dislike the luck factor. So is it a bias opinion, no. Why? I have/had learned to deal with it. But at this point, Phazon Elite makes a great statement in this last post.
 
It's okay to stop playing for awhile. I lost interest in Pokemon after they made all the 2nd gen Pokemon. I really thought they had stupid Pokemon names and the "monsters" didn't appeal to me. The TV anime had Jouto league which I thought was stupid too. I only played Red & Blue on Gameboy, and I was already 16 at that time. I collected/played the TCG until the Gym Heroes set, and realize there are just way too many cards and pokemon that it's just becoming a big cashcow thing. (It still is).

I'm in my mid 20s now, the game is still fun. I just got back into the TCG. I have a good job so I can now buy the cards myself without asking my mom for allowance :) But releasing new sets every 3 months, with the rotation thing going on, I don't feel I would ever want to play in an organized modified tourney. I don't want to be updating my deck every few months. And tourneys all seem to play similar archtypes, just because they are the best, and everyone wants to be the best in the tourneys, since there's no room for errors. (It's serious stuff).

It's all good though, whether you like tourney competitive or just friendly competitive. I still have a bunch of friends that play the TCG with me, unorganized and unlimited format. :) Hate to see all my old cards (and money) go to a waste.

Do what you want with your life now, don't let Pokemon take over... lol
You can always come back in your 20's, like what I did.
 
The game is designed to seperate you from your cash on a regular basis utilizing a tried and true form of planned obsolence and sprialing arms race tactics. In order to be competitive you have to minimize randomness. Since all cards are not created equal, and now cards are being designed that eliminate the need for skill, it just comes down to spending money. At somepoint someone is going to recognize that essentialy you can have the same experience flipping a coin and a quarter is a whole lot cheaper then spending several hundred dollers per set just to get 2 competitve 60 card decks. Games of skill take too long. Look at how long a chess match lasts between 2 skilled opponents. Kind of hard to hold an afternoon tournament with game times like that. Getting down to the 30 minute game is the purpose of the new cards. More and more ultra rare cards are being introduced into each set to drive the liklihood of you getting the cards you want down and thus you have to spend more to get the cards you want.

You just have to recognize that this is the business model for collectable card games and while short term it is very profitable, long term it is hard to sustain. Folks just don't have that kind of income to keep supporting it. This game will become a game for the wealthy, and most of us average joes will be proced out of the picture.

A good example are the theme decks. Why don't they make the theme decks in accordance with good deck design and accepted rules? Why don't they put a full 4-4-4 evolution line in the theme decks? Card stock is just card stock right? It doesn't cost them to make any more with solid evolution lines, instead they put crappy unplayable cards like potions and mom's kindness and only 1 of the stage 2 pokemon. Why? So that you buy the booster packs to make it "better." Also people would buy more of the booster packs and i think the profit margins are lower on those. They are greedy *^*&%s.
 
The problem I see with dropping out is, when I come back it will be all that much harder to get back in.
I dropped out around Team Aqua/Magma...then returned just as Diamond and Pearl began.
It took me 2 seasons to get back with the times. Two seasons and alot of money. I'm afraid of that happening again.

I don't think I'm going to quit, but I think I need to find the right amount of money to spend. Which is hard. If i want to be a successful competitor I think I need staple cards such as Dialga G Lv.X, Uxie, and so on. But when I can't afford them and can't find a way to make decks work without them I don't see point in spending money/time on the game.

I agree with Everwind that, theme decks SHOULD be made with good design. I'm guessing they are build so simply to make them accessible to younger players just starting. Maybe they could think into releasing advanced decks? Tournament level cards, but not tournament winning decks.
 
thats a good idea decks with cards such as
rare candy
claydol
uxie
warp point
night maintenance
roseanne
and bebe
yeah i like the advanced deck idea
 
GengarPwns said:
thats a good idea decks with cards such as
rare candy
claydol
uxie
warp point
night maintenance
roseanne
and bebe
yeah i like the advanced deck idea
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That would seriously make tournament play SO much more accessible.
I know plenty of people who would do better in tournaments if they had Claydols or uxies.
 
Heh, I remember back in the days, when I was lucky enough to find cards being sold at some Chinese market places.
They were actually selling cards individually, and although most would rip you off, I was lucky to find a store that sold cards in accordance to their rarity rating. All commons 25cents, all uncommon 50cents, all rare trainers $1.

Meh, wasn't too expensive to rack up 4 computer searches for $4. Better than paying $5 for a booster to get some a rare Clefairy Doll.

The Pokemon were a bit more expensive, but at least the rare and good trainers were easy to get.

Wished I could still do this now.
 
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