Returning Player Help getting information

[biodermcq]

My name is Dave, and I am a poke-holic. After staying sober since the release of base set 2 I finally cracked this previous weekend. What started with an innocent purchase of a pokemon Platinum pre-constructed deck, ended with me buying 2 boxes of the platinum set and a lingering desire to "catch-em-all!"

Alright, so really I'm just looking for a card game to fill my time between Magic the Gathering tournaments and I remembered loving pokemon TCG back in the day so I figured I'd give it a shot again.I had forgotten how much I loved the game's easy to learn difficult to master" strategy. Back in the day, I played 'Raindance' which clearly isn't legal in any way shape or form anymore.

I am pretty caught up on the new rules, the banned sets/cards, etc. So, my question for you is where can I find decklists and strategy breakdowns for popular decks in the metagame. I found a list of archtypes with basic "how-to-play this deck" information stickied under the Cards: Strategy, Rulings, & Collecting Questions. Which was helpful, but what about individual testing results etc? I know that for magic, a ton of this stuff is on the Wizards website and all over the internet, but i have found it has been difficult to trackdown a single locaiton for this stuff for pokemon. Specifcally, top 8 decklists form large tournaments would be great.

Lastly what is the best deck in the format? I've seen mention of Dialgia G, and AMU, as well as Regigigas (not good in the Meta right now?) How good is the speed-Gengar deck fromthenarticlke on the front page.

I am excited to start playing again, and I can't wait to start putting my deck together. Thanks for the info in advance.

 

[nnaann]

To get started, chose a front page deck and learn from it. See which staples are popular and put those into your deck.

JMO but good plays at the moment are - AMU, Different Galactic decks, Gengar, Machamp, T-Tar etc are all OK plays.

All decks aren't invincible, every deck will struggle against some. Your best bet is to, after going to a few tournaments - judge your metagame and pick the deck you think will do the best.

Most of the front page articles are really good for a starting deck. The Gengar looks solid.

 

[baby mario]

I don't think you will find many Top 8 deck lists on sites that anyone can view. Sometimes people include a decklist in their Tournament Reports in the Tournaments and Organised Play Forum on this site. That's also a good place to see what decks are popular atm.

The Gengar and the T-tar lists on the front page are both good. I'm surprised there hasn't been any G deck articles now that Regionals are over and decks will change with the new set.

 

[AzNightmare]

Welcome back.

Similar thing with me, bought a Majestic Dawn theme deck back in January... Just for good times sake.
Then got hooked on it. But don't think I'll ever be serious enough to participate in any Tourneys... people at my age should be thinking about getting married soon... lol

 

[Dark Ninja]

Unfortunately there aren't the top 8 decklists like there are for almost any big Magic Tournament. That would be nice.

Anyway, you should definitely try and get staple cards that go in most decks. Bebe' Search, Roseanne's research, Claydol, Rare candy. The front page decklists are good places to start, but can definitely be expanded upon.