Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

List of Uncommon tournament staples.

L

LennonsDad

New Member
Looking to take the step up? You've played, you found "cool" combos, and now you're starting to get a handle on the "metagame", the decks that are big for a reason? Your collection is getting there, but every time you go to make a deck, you notice that list after list, suggestion after suggestion, has a lot of the same cards. Well, the good news is, many of these cards are "Uncommon". You can find them on many sites between $2 and $6. If you want to make an investment in having a well rounded collection to build tournament level decks ... start here.

Why are these cards staples? emodicer does a fantastic job of explaining why many of these cards are used so often here. If nothing else, read this quote:

emodicer said:
Why is looking for staples first, rather than Pokemon, more important when starting out? Because staples can be "re-used" when you decide to make another deck (as some new players tend to shift from one deck idea to another in a short span of time). For instance, acquiring a set of Bebe's and PONT will be more useful in the long run (which means more value for your money) than buying a 1-1 Floatzel GL LV. X (which can only be useful in water decks, albeit having the great Poke-Body).
Click to expand...

Anyone should feel free to continue to reply with suggestions for cards and the list itself, or any commentary, on this thread. Most folks here still know better than I :wink:.

(DISCLAIMER: I'm no pro, just a guy who started to make this step up myself (as seen by my original text for this thread, quoted below). I also do not buy/sell nearly often enough to keep track of the single card market, so if one of these, for whatever reason, shoots up in price, I'm sorry I lead you astray. However, with the exception of small list that is marked "Rares" on the bottom, these are Uncommon rarity (meaning the diamond icon on the bottom right of the card), so I can't imagine they will get out of control).

My original post:
As I handle our first rotation, and continue to try to learn to make (our versions of) the metagame decks that are out there, I notice that more and more there are the same cards that we don't have that I'm proxying, borrowing, etc for each and every deck I build. And then, last week a new father/son combo came to league and started playing; and I was part of the conversation about getting started ... and yet when I was explaining to him that you'll find a bunch of specific cards in many decks, I couldn't think of that many.

There are so many TSSs, basic starter/tech Pokemon and the like that so many decks have, many of them in the $1 - ~$5 range, that I thought it would be helpful to folks like myself and the new fathers/beginning competitive players/etc to build a list. I don't know if I can continue to maintain the list at the top of this thread (honestly, my original purpose for this post was more selfish; *I* would like the list so I can consider buying/trade for them myself), but if that's the way this thread goes, I will try. In the meantime, please post cards that you think everyone should have in their collection if they want to build most tournament decks. For now, I think we should not worry about things like Luxray GL X, Uxie X, etc ... and stick to a pile that if someone spend just a few bucks, they'd have a good skeleton.

Off the top of my head (will update/organize/link list later):
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SUPPORTERS
Bebe's Search (RR) :setsRR:¹
Copycat (HS):setsHGSS:
Cyrus's Initiative (SV):setsSV:
Cyrus's Conspiracy (PL):setsPT:
Judge (UL):setsUL:
Looker's Investigation (PL):setsPT:
Palmer's Contribution (SV):setsSV:
Pokémon Collector (HS):setsHGSS:
Professor Oak's New Theory (HS):setsHGSS:

TRAINERS
Luxury Ball (SF) :setsSF:
Team Galactic's Invention G-105 Poké Turn (PL):setsPT:²
Pokémon Communication (HS):setsHGSS:
Pokémon Rescue (PL):setsPT:
Pokémon Reversal (HS):setsHGSS:¹
Team Galactic's Invention G-103 Power Spray (PL):setsPT:²
Rare Candy (UL):setsUL:¹
Team Galactic's Invention G-109 SP Radar (RR):setsRR:²
Super Scoop Up (MD, UL) :setsMD:,:setsUL:¹
VS Seeker (SV):setsSV:¹
Warp Point (MD):setsMD:¹

TOOLS
Bench Shield (AR):setsAR:
Team Galactic's Invention G-101 Energy Gain (PL):setsPT:²
Expert Belt (AR):setsAR:

STADIUMS
Broken Time-Space (PL):setsPT:

POKÉMON
Chatot (MD):setsMD:
Crobat G (PL):setsPT:
Sableye (SF) :setsSF:
Unown Q (MD):setsMD:

ENERGY
Call Energy (MD):setsMD:
Double Colorless Energy (HS):setsHGSS:¹
Warp Energy (SF) :setsSF:¹

In addition, these three Pokémon are all in many decks, in varying degrees, but are unfortunately a bit beyond the price range listed above. Still, if you're looking to complete your "staples" and successfully build most decks, you're going to want to invest in:

Azelf (LA) :setsLA:
Uxie (LA) :setsLA:
Spiritomb (AR):setsAR:


¹ These cards have also been printed, in their exact form, in previous sets. You are allowed to use the previous version of any card that has a current in print version (You can use Warp Point from Diamond and Pearl :setsDP: because there is currently a Warp Point in Stormfront :setsSF:). PokePop maintains a list of cards from older sets that are still allowed here.

² These cards are shown here with their full title. The cards, like the links, have "Team Galactic's Invention G-xxx" in smaller text at the start of the card name, and depending on where you search, may be included as part of the name. In most casual discussions, you will find them called only by the "full text", aka "Team Galactic's Invention G-105 Poké Turn" is usually called "Poké Turn".
 
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Judge should definitely be on that list, no question. Even if you don't play it in every deck, that card will be a focal point to dominating setup based decks this season.

Flower Shop Girl I think is important due to its versatility and replacement to Night Maintenance.
 
Call Energy, Ambipom G, and the Toxitank Engine are commonly used in SP decks.
I'm not sure if they're list material, though
 
Azelf, Uxie and Spiritomb are not Uncommon, they are rares....

Add:
Energy Gain
Poke Turn
Power Spray
SP Radar
Looker's Investigation
Copycat
Judge
Warp Point
Bronzong G
Darkness SP Energy
Metal SP Energy
Energy Exchanger
Engineer's Adjustment
Call Energy
Dragonite FB
Poke Drawer+
Pokedex Handy 910is
Pokemon Reversal
...........................................

That should be the most important cards....

Darkmot.
 
Darkmot said:
Azelf, Uxie and Spiritomb are not Uncommon, they are rares....

Add:
Energy Gain
Poke Turn
Power Spray
SP Radar
Looker's Investigation
Copycat
Judge
Warp Point
Bronzong G
Darkness SP Energy
Metal SP Energy
Energy Exchanger
Engineer's Adjustment
Call Energy
Dragonite FB
Poke Drawer+
Pokedex Handy 910is
Pokemon Reversal
...........................................

That should be the most important cards....

Darkmot.
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I don't think he was literally referring to the card's rarity symbol, but how common the card is in competitive decks.
 
Then Uxie and Azelf and Tomb have ton stay
and Unown R, Staraptor Fb LV.X, Ninetales, and some more have to be added....
Darkmot.
 
Well, it was more the general price range thing more than anything else. I added Uxie mostly because almost EVERY deck has 2x Uxie in it, and it's not an expensive rare (right? because it's a league promo?).

I'm mostly thinking of cards that are in at least 50% or more of decks. Every single time I make a deck, for example, I'm printing out new proxies of Communication or Collector, because we didn't buy those packs. Every deck. Almost every deck has the potential to need Rare Candy, Broken Time Space, etc.

I don't think many decks "need" a Bronzong G, for example. It's probably a relatively inexpensive uncommon tech .. but is it used a lot? If random person who has some of a collection suddenly builds VileGar or any combination of Lux and Chomp and whatever, would they have to reach for Toxitank? I don't think so, but I don't know well enough. I can tell you the 8 or so times I've tried to build a deck for my son or myself, almost every one of the cards in my initial list were at least considered for ~6 of those decklists.

I think a few cards from everyone's lists are good suggestions, I'll continue to add. Thanks all for the sugestions and the dialogue ... keep going :D
 
I realize he's not really a staple, but Relicanth Sv needs some more love. He utterly wrecks SP if used correctly, though without Rosy he's not as easy to splash in :/ But on the same token, the dependancy on BTS and more Expert Belt to deal with not beign able to dig through the deck with Comsmic power is a boost.

Smeargle UD also has a lot of potential, let you spy on your opponent's hand and maybe grab a supporter.
 
Bumping just to indicate the formatting and change to the thread title/etc. Please feel free to continue to suggest more cards or ideas.
 
Given the criteria, I think Poke Turn should be on there before Energy Gain. If you're going to include Gain because it goes in every SP deck, then Spray, SP Radar, and Cyrus should make the list as well.
 
kwisdumb said:
Given the criteria, I think Poke Turn should be on there before Energy Gain. If you're going to include Gain because it goes in every SP deck, then Spray, SP Radar, and Cyrus should make the list as well.
Click to expand...

Fair enough. One of the few decks I haven't built, in any form, is SP, so I don't know how staple-y the various cards are. I know I at least included Conspiracy because some people are saying it's being used even in non SP decks as a search engine. Would you agree with me that Spray and Turn are probably more used than Radar and Gain? I'm kind of mentally drawing the line in the sand, but maybe I should just have all 5 SP-style uncommons.

Kayle said:
Have you seen the price of a Uxie these days? o_o
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As of this writing, 9.99 on Troll and Toad, 5.54 on Professor Oak (but sold out of course). I thought/hoped the price would be somewhat controlled by the fact that it was also a league promo. (For comparison, Spiritomb is 10.99/10.42 on those two sites). These three cards are awkward for me, particularly the Pixies, because they are SO staple that it seems to be an injustice to not include them, but yes, they also greatly stretch the concept of affordable. Anyone who wants to be flexible enough to build multiple decks just flat out needs them, and it's harder to shrug off financially than Luxray GL X or Uxie X. I'll take any suggestions for better ways to describe it, or include/not include them.
 
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