Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

I need to buy a deck for my class. What should I get?

S

SharpEdge

New Member
I'm a Game Development major, and in my "History of Games" class at DePaul university (real gamer friendly school btw, regardless of major), I am required to buy a Pokemon Deck, and play with other students.

I have owned cards before, in the glorious grade school days of the 90s, but I never really got to play "for real" as I had no friends, (awkward childhood) and the very few times I did battle, the other guy insisted on "energy cardless" rules.

Which of course was silly when he threw out a First Edition Holo Charizard. It got stolen within a week though, thank karma.


Anyway, so, I was wondering, since I want to really take this seriously, I wanted to ask:

What would be the best starter deck to purchase now?

Any particular boosters I should look for?

Any killer strategies for said starter decks?


Anyway, I'd appreciate any tips.

Also, I'm sorry if this is not the right place to post this. I was directed here by a very helpful person on the PA Arcadia Battle Academy forum...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
prodigal_fanboy said:
The Powerhouse theme deck from Secret Wonders is really solid.

The two new Platinum TDs are rubbish.
Click to expand...

Seconded - this will give you 2 Roseanne's Research, which are crucial to any deck.

For boosters, go for any of the following:
Platinum
Legends Awakened
Stormfront

There are good cards in past sets, but the cards from these sets (especially platinum) are a lot more powerful. Also, if you want help on deckbuilding after you get the cards, post it to the deck help forum and we will be glad to help out.
 
Your questions are great and I'm sure that you'll get many answers but just a quick note that this is in the wrong forum and should be in Cards: Strategy, Ruling and Collecting Questions. I will work on moving it there for you.

If you have any other guidelines for purchasing a deck, please fill us in so we can give you the best possible answers.

The first thing that popped into my head though is to buy one of the World Championship decks. These are reprints of some of the decks that placed very well in the various age divisions at the World Championship. Given that they won or almost won such a difficult tournament means that the deck 'design' was very well thought out and the players were able to execute the various powers and attacks effectively. That would be great from your game design perspective. The downside is that these decks are not tournament legal. The cards have a different backing and border from the normal decks and packs that you buy. So they may not fit your requirement because of that. Another fun thing if you don't mind buying 2 decks would be to buy one theme/starter deck and one World Championship deck and compare and contrast the two to see how the pros do it differently - number of different Pokémon, type of trainers, etc.

If you are really thinking about playing beyond the class then some of the starter decks are better than others. If there is a Pokemon that you really like - go with it and have fun learning. Some other possible things to consider are ways to expand the deck (for instance the new Platinum starter decks have related tins which contain the Lv X or highest version of the main attacker plus additional packs). Also some of the decks have Metal Energy or Dark Energy which can be difficult to get outside of a deck.

Good luck and have fun! That is what Pokemon and gaming is all about!
 
Last edited:
^Agreed, the deck from Secret Wonders is really solid. The Tyranitar deck from Stormfront is pretty good too.

If you're willing to build your own deck, Platinum is hands-down the best set to start with.
 
mrdraz07 said:
^Agreed, the deck from Secret Wonders is really solid. The Tyranitar deck from Stormfront is pretty good too.

If you're willing to build your own deck, Platinum is hands-down the best set to start with.
Click to expand...

Yeah, anyone can build some jank version of Toxitank with a few Pt packs and some trading.

You'd scoop to any experienced players, but hey, if it's for a class, all the chicks will dig your skills.
 
Heatherdu said:
The first thing that popped into my head though is to buy one of the World Championship decks. These are reprints of some of the decks that placed very well in the various age divisions at the World Championship. Given that they won or almost won such a difficult tournament means that the deck 'design' was very well thought out and the players were able to execute the various powers and attacks effectively. That would be great from your game design perspective. The downside is that these decks are not tournament legal.
Click to expand...

Ha! If they allow you to use one of the World Championship decks, you'll wipe out the field!
And it's a better showcase of the Pokemon game than Theme decks which, by their nature, are pretty weak decks.

If you can get a Worlds get, get the Empoleon one, either 2008 or 2007.
Those are pretty straightforward.
 
Can you use cards from any set or is it modified format? Also ya, if you can use a World Championship deck go for the Swift Empleon from 2007 it's the easiest to use and is pretty good.
 
I agree
get 2007 empoleon
you can find a variety of boosters at Newberry Comics or Fye if you live near one
you can also get them at target
they usually cost $12-$14 bucks
good luck
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top