Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Question from a band new player

G

Gillerire

New Member
Hi there everybody,

I have decided I need something new to do with my time so a friend and I decided playing Pokemon would be a good idea. We have a small amount of experiance in playing other trading card games but have never player Pokemon before.

What I'd like to know is, where should we start? We are not really interested in playing tournaments or getting too specific to the point of buying single cards. We just want to start at the same point, buy some booster packs when needed, and have some fun.

Is there a set that has all the cards you need to start playing?

Thanks for your help :)

Gillerire
 
Easiest thing to do starting out is to just pick up any one of the theme decks. They're probably not going to win you any tournaments any time soon, but since you said that's not a concern, that's the easiest place to start. With the theme deck, you'll have:

  • A 60-card deck, fully legal for any league or tournament out of the box, that you can start modifying with your booster cards
  • A rulebook
  • A playmat with reference until you get used to the game
Just pick up the deck you like the most and go from there.
 
On the deck help and strategy forum, there is a sticky called Decklist Program. If you go their, and click on sample decks, It will give you all the theme decks.
 
Haha, well based entirely on the fact that green is my favorite colour, I decided that I'd go for either the Flourish or Terra Firma deck. Guess I'll decide when I get to the shop :)
 
Something I would suggest is that you pick up at least a few packs of the third set in the Diamond and Pearl expansion, Secret Wonders, or even pick up a theme deck from it. That set has both Roseanne's Research and Bebe's Search, two cards you are going to want to have many copies of to make your deck really good.
 
So I seem to have a slight problem. Went into the local card shop today to make my purchase...

Seems that Pokemon has gone out of fashion over here in Australia. I walked all over the city and every place was the same. Only had a VERY small variety of decks to choose from (usually only stormfront) and said they probably wouldn't get any more in after they were sold.

New question: Is there an online shop I can buy cards from that will ship to Australia? Otherwise ebay seems to have a few decks on offer. I'd rather know that I can always get more if I want to from a reliable source however.
 
I know a few people from Australia, and yeah cards seem to be a bit hard to get a hold of.
Jayson should be able to help you with this, I'll send him a link to this thread.
 
My suggestion is to buy several of the same theme deck because each theme deck as 1 or 2 nice things and lots of crap. By buying 2 decks and perhaps a tin with the level x card that goes with those theme decks you can build a halfway decent deck that you can enjoy playing.

Like most CCG the key is to minimize randomness, and the best way to do that is to get cards to help minimize randomness and maximize the cards so that you increase the odds of being able to play those cards. That is what irks me about the theme decks, they do not put a full 4-4-4 evolution line in them. Often it is 4-2-1 which is terrible from a statistical standpoint and then they often put crappy supporters and trainners like Mom's Kindness or Energy Search.

There are a few staple cards that will always serve you well and some of these were mentioned above. Bebe's, and Roseanne's Research. Having 4 of each in a deck goes a very long way.

Most people who play stage 2 decks run 4-3-4 or 4-3-3-1 (lv x). You want to do that two unless you can run things like rare candies which allow you to play with your ratios. You will want a good secondary attacker that compliments your deck in case you have a bad weakness match up or somthing happens to your main attacker.

The trend these days has been gravitating to quick attacking decks that are functional and up and running by turn 2, and in some cases turn 1. This can only be achieved by the ability to significantly manipulate and go through your deck. Uxie, Claydol, and Rare Candy are in big demand for those reasons.

It shouldn't take you long to figure out what cards are efficient for what they do, and some cards are terrible because they cost so much energy for very little comperative damage. Mom's Kindness is a terrible supporter because you essentialy are only getting 2 cards for 1 for a net 1 card advantage vs Prof Oaks which grants you 2 cards for 1 and allows you to pick ot keep the best 2 cards. Potion is a terrible card because it only heals 20 damage and people are doing 50-80 very easily so it is way too little considering what you are having to deal with and will not prevent the 2 turn knockout which most decks rely on.
 
SPARTA said:
I know a few people from Australia, and yeah cards seem to be a bit hard to get a hold of.
Jayson should be able to help you with this, I'll send him a link to this thread.
Click to expand...

You're thinking of Jason.

Gillerire: be sure to check ebay, you can often get really good deals on theme decks from previous sets. I've seen sets of 3-4 theme decks go for as little as 15 dollars. You can get multiple copies of the same deck and combine the good cards to make a better deck, or you can get all different decks to play a variety of matchups between you and your friend.
 
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