I sure hope I am in the right forum to share this, if not hopefully it can be moved to the right forum. So here is a story I am very proud of that may help all of you that have kids that want to get into the game, but you are not sure if they will understand it enough.
I am a league leader, I have had my own league for 3+ years now, my son plays and he is the one that got me into it. In the last year now, my daughter 3 at the time, now 4 years old started coming with us, so that my wife could have a relaxing night. My daughter was really interested in the cards, so I gave her some older cards we would never used. She watched us and just by watching us learned a lot of the basic moves, you draw, you attach energy, you shuffle, you offer to cut etc. My daughter wanted to learn how to play. But it was a league championship tournament, that made me decide that maybe she can learn!
I started going to 2 leagues a week, since my daughter was into and wanted to go to another league. The league owner of the 2nd league we go to, asked if she would like to play in a league championship, since he has no juniors to play. I warned him, that she knows the basics, but I will have to tell her what the cards do, since I have never really worked with her on what the cards do. She played a Groudon-Excradrill deck. 3-0 in the league championships. She just needed me to tell her what the attack was and what the trainer didn't. She got an invite to an annual BBQ we do every year to represent his league in the juniors. So, now it came down to, how do I teach her to play, without my help.
I went through a lot of mistakes with this. sometimes, I think we forget that the juniors, especially the new juniors, need to have it more simple then the masters. I made decks that had abilities, tried to teach her the abilities, no that didn't work, she would forget what to do. I then gave her a deck that had a stage 1 (evolution) she had a hard time remembering that the "bigger one, went on the little one". I looked at all the cards, wasn't quite sure what to work with, then it hit me. She needs a simple deck, that you can attach energy, attack and not worry about all the extra stuff. I found my match made in heaven for her, she loved Groudon EX, knows the attacks, but I couldn't figure out what to pair it with. Then I remembered, Terrakion is simple, just attach and attack. So I found my Pokemon line for her. Groudon EX and Terrakion. Then came the trainers.
This part was much easier then figuring out the Pokemon. She watched me enough times to know what catcher was, so I gave her 4 catcher in the deck. Cheren just draw 3 cards, Juniper, you discard all your hand and draw 7. She had been doing well counting to 10, so I knew she could count to 7. I am so thankful for Heavy Ball with this combination, instead of having to explain to her, that Heavy ball gets a Pokemon that has 3 retreat, I taught her that Heavy ball just gets any Pokemon she has in her deck. Simple as that! Switch gets you the Pokemon you want to use. Plus Power helps you attack, she easily caught onto that. I had 4 more cards to work with, unsure what to put in there, I tried EXP Share. Now I was worried about this, but I didn't tell her all the wording, I just said, "this goes on a benched Pokemon, when they knock out the Pokemon on top, 1 of their energy goes to whoever this card is attached to" She surprisingly had watched me use it enough she knew exactly what it did. So now we have a simple trainer line to work with.
She played in the league Championship, she won 1 match, and lost the rest, but she showed she could do the basics.
She has decided to try Battleroads, She has now played 2 tournaments and has placed 2nd in both tournaments. The most recent she went undefeated up until the last match and due to pre-engagement, we had to leave before the last match, we decided to just let her take the loss, so she would place.
So I hope this article helps you remember, that if you are worried about your child playing, and scared they won't remember all abilities, the harder attacks that have extra effect, or worried about evolving their Pokemon, you just need to take a moment and realize, they are just wanting to have fun! Just make a simple deck they can play and maybe they will even surprise you when they are doing so well, because they don't have to remember a conjillion different things to do on their turn. Draw, Attach, Attack, simple trainers.
For any ideas, for you small one here is how I made my daughters list.
Pokemon
4 - Groudon EX
4 - Terrakion
Trainers
4 - Cheren
4 - Juniper
4 - Switch
4 - Catcher
4 - Plus Power
4 - EXP share
4 - Potion
4 - Heavy Ball
Energy
20 - :fighting:
Victories she has had against other decks:
A Couple Zek Eels / Ray Eels decks
Klinklang EX
Giratina EX deck
Darkrai/Zoroark rush deck
I am a league leader, I have had my own league for 3+ years now, my son plays and he is the one that got me into it. In the last year now, my daughter 3 at the time, now 4 years old started coming with us, so that my wife could have a relaxing night. My daughter was really interested in the cards, so I gave her some older cards we would never used. She watched us and just by watching us learned a lot of the basic moves, you draw, you attach energy, you shuffle, you offer to cut etc. My daughter wanted to learn how to play. But it was a league championship tournament, that made me decide that maybe she can learn!
I started going to 2 leagues a week, since my daughter was into and wanted to go to another league. The league owner of the 2nd league we go to, asked if she would like to play in a league championship, since he has no juniors to play. I warned him, that she knows the basics, but I will have to tell her what the cards do, since I have never really worked with her on what the cards do. She played a Groudon-Excradrill deck. 3-0 in the league championships. She just needed me to tell her what the attack was and what the trainer didn't. She got an invite to an annual BBQ we do every year to represent his league in the juniors. So, now it came down to, how do I teach her to play, without my help.
I went through a lot of mistakes with this. sometimes, I think we forget that the juniors, especially the new juniors, need to have it more simple then the masters. I made decks that had abilities, tried to teach her the abilities, no that didn't work, she would forget what to do. I then gave her a deck that had a stage 1 (evolution) she had a hard time remembering that the "bigger one, went on the little one". I looked at all the cards, wasn't quite sure what to work with, then it hit me. She needs a simple deck, that you can attach energy, attack and not worry about all the extra stuff. I found my match made in heaven for her, she loved Groudon EX, knows the attacks, but I couldn't figure out what to pair it with. Then I remembered, Terrakion is simple, just attach and attack. So I found my Pokemon line for her. Groudon EX and Terrakion. Then came the trainers.
This part was much easier then figuring out the Pokemon. She watched me enough times to know what catcher was, so I gave her 4 catcher in the deck. Cheren just draw 3 cards, Juniper, you discard all your hand and draw 7. She had been doing well counting to 10, so I knew she could count to 7. I am so thankful for Heavy Ball with this combination, instead of having to explain to her, that Heavy ball gets a Pokemon that has 3 retreat, I taught her that Heavy ball just gets any Pokemon she has in her deck. Simple as that! Switch gets you the Pokemon you want to use. Plus Power helps you attack, she easily caught onto that. I had 4 more cards to work with, unsure what to put in there, I tried EXP Share. Now I was worried about this, but I didn't tell her all the wording, I just said, "this goes on a benched Pokemon, when they knock out the Pokemon on top, 1 of their energy goes to whoever this card is attached to" She surprisingly had watched me use it enough she knew exactly what it did. So now we have a simple trainer line to work with.
She played in the league Championship, she won 1 match, and lost the rest, but she showed she could do the basics.
She has decided to try Battleroads, She has now played 2 tournaments and has placed 2nd in both tournaments. The most recent she went undefeated up until the last match and due to pre-engagement, we had to leave before the last match, we decided to just let her take the loss, so she would place.
So I hope this article helps you remember, that if you are worried about your child playing, and scared they won't remember all abilities, the harder attacks that have extra effect, or worried about evolving their Pokemon, you just need to take a moment and realize, they are just wanting to have fun! Just make a simple deck they can play and maybe they will even surprise you when they are doing so well, because they don't have to remember a conjillion different things to do on their turn. Draw, Attach, Attack, simple trainers.
For any ideas, for you small one here is how I made my daughters list.
Pokemon
4 - Groudon EX
4 - Terrakion
Trainers
4 - Cheren
4 - Juniper
4 - Switch
4 - Catcher
4 - Plus Power
4 - EXP share
4 - Potion
4 - Heavy Ball
Energy
20 - :fighting:
Victories she has had against other decks:
A Couple Zek Eels / Ray Eels decks
Klinklang EX
Giratina EX deck
Darkrai/Zoroark rush deck
