Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Thinking, playing, etc. like a champion.

I do want to be a "champion", and I do want to learn how to think that far ahead.

That said, how can one learn to think that far ahead?

- Croatian_Nidoking
Forgive the Sun Tzu sayings; there will be a few of them, but only because they apply well.

One recommendation: always assume your opponent has the best possible cards in their hand to defeat you in any given situation, unless otherwise proven by the game state. What might they do to disrupt your strategy? Is your plan clear as day to someone trying to defeat it? If it is that apparent, is there anything they can do to stop it?

Example: your opponent has played no Pokemon Catchers during the game. They may be playing none at all, or they could just be holding them all back. Would your current situation be jeopardized by them getting heads? What would they take from your Bench to make your situation as bad as possible? Might they be playing Sableye with their Darkness Energy deck to get it back? What about Dowsing Machine? If you have reason to believe they are unable to play any more Pokemon Catchers (four in the discard pile, no apparent way of using anything to get them back), adjust your play accordingly.

Likewise, if they need a three-card combo to achieve something, even if they have only two in their hand, one might be a Professor Juniper (or other hand refresh card). However, if they are playing in a way that leads you to believe they don't (failing to refresh their hand multiple times in a row), don't use a card like N that could get them a better hand.

On that note, never expect your hand to remain the same between turns. Do the best you can with your turn, but don't invest too heavily in the next turn unless you are certain you'll be able to achieve what you want with what you have done to try and achieve it. I often keep my hand face-down, as I know what's in my hand already, and if my opponent wants to N it in, there's nothing I can do to stop it.

"All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near." "Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him."
There is nothing against presenting your position as stronger than it may seem to be. It may lead your opponent to making plays that would seem questionable, even terrible, if they had any knowledge of what your true situation was.

"If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected."
Your opponent has a strategy. Identify it as quickly as possible, in addition to whatever your deck has to deal with that strategy. If you realize game after game that you are unprepared to deal with a strategy, analyze whether it is worth sacrificing the reliability of your deck in order to be better prepared to defeat a deck that would otherwise defeat yours.

There are a great many other things that can be applied to Pokemon or any other game of strategy that is not mathematically "solved" already (See: Connect 4, tic-tac-toe). To see more, just look up some Wikiquotes of Sun Tzu.
 
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Well, Sun Tzu (and by way of comparison, most generals) wasn't playing with extremely limited resources (e. g. 60 cards in a deck), so I'm not 100% sure how this would apply here.

- Croatian_Nidoking
 
Again, it's something worth thinking about. I'm not saying Sun Tzu pre-wrote The Art of War in preparation for the printing of the Pokemon TCG, but that there are comparisons that can be drawn between the situations that require someone to make tactical decisions that can mean the difference between victory and defeat.

Of course, don't let yourself be constrained by thinking narrowly about forcing every situation into one of the sayings, either.
 
Well, Sun Tzu (and by way of comparison, most generals) wasn't playing with extremely limited resources (e. g. 60 cards in a deck), so I'm not 100% sure how this would apply here.

- Croatian_Nidoking

You need to learn some etiquette dude. You've been kind of rude to every single person that has tried to help you. You wanna be handed a championship without working for it. Idk how old you are, but you're acting like a child.

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If it sounds like I'm being rude, I apologize. It's just that I'm not sure exacly how to practice (for example) self-control or learning how to think a few moves ahead. If people could give me a few tips and tricks on how to do these things, it would be greatly appreciated.

It's not that I don't want to work for it - far from it. It's that I want to know how to work for it.

- Croatian_Nidoking
 
If it sounds like I'm being rude, I apologize. It's just that I'm not sure exacly how to practice (for example) self-control or learning how to think a few moves ahead. If people could give me a few tips and tricks on how to do these things, it would be greatly appreciated.

It's not that I don't want to work for it - far from it. It's that I want to know how to work for it.

- Croatian_Nidoking

We've given you a bunch of tips and every single one you've told us why it doesn't work.

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I haven't told you why it doesn't work; what I have told you is that I don't know how to practice, say, self-control or how to think a few moves ahead. There's a difference. Like I already said, a few good tips and tricks on how to do these things would be greatly appreciated.

I am hearing you guys. It's just that I'm not exactly sure how to put it all into effect.

Tell me, what is/was an example of advice that was given that I (apparently) brushed off?

- Croatian_Nidoking
 
It may be a matter of how much you need explained, then.

Learning to think three moves ahead is learning to think three moves ahead. While there is practical advice to help its a lot like teaching someone how to run; most already have the basics down and its just a matter of fine tuning it, and most don't know how to adequately explain the fine tuning. Learning self-discipline is similar; there are techniques but not all work for the same people.

You've probably read or seen some story where someone is meditating in unpleasant circumstances, to learn how to discipline their bodies and minds against such stimuli, like assuming za-zen* under the cold rush of a waterfall, or perhaps even more common the person that learns how to regulate their own bodies in cold or warm weather so that they can function in a wider temperature range in at least relative comfort. For some people that works, for others it doesn't... or it will be incomplete: maybe you can be calm in the situation you trained in but not others, or you can only handle the biological side of things so that you don't fly into a blind rage at an insult, but you still find yourself dwelling upon it.


So at this point, I suspect you need to find an experienced player who is more advanced in these than yourself and learn from them; even if they aren't a World Champion they might at least have one trait you need, in which case you can learn it, hopefully have made a friend, and then seek the next mentor.


*Whee! Used my the Word Of The Day a dictionary website sends me!
 
Not to hijack the thread or anything, but as a league owner when I see these words used in this order:
...so I can win ... at League and get promos...
it kinda sets off a red-flag in my mind. Just to clarify, your league doesn't keep track of how many games you actually *win*, does it? The rules are very clear that win or lose, you get your prizes for *playing*, not *winning*.
 
Well here it what I've gleaned from reading various articles from the top players.

Find those threads on the forums and those articles on the blogs titled something along the lines of "What won at the latest set of tournaments". That should give you a list of half a dozen deck titles that did well. Scour those same sites for deck lists for those decks. Preferably, you find the lists of the people that actually won but even a general list will do.

Become as familiar with those decks as you can. Ideally you play them until you have a comfort level for how they work. If you don't have the cards, print out proxys for testing at league. If even that doesn't work for you, find the articles that explain the strategies or find the livestreamed games and watch them in action. Once you know what you would do with the deck, then you have a good idea what your opponent would do with those decks.

So when building your own deck for play, ask yourself the following question, if I am playing against Deck X what is my plan for winning? Some decks just lay out so much damage that you don't have to adjust things much. Others do great against most decks but need a tech card or two to have a chance other decks. In some cases, there is a deck out there that is an auto loss and you have to judge your meta to decide if that is an acceptable risk. Once you've built that deck based on that theory, start playtesting it against those meta decks. Refine your list based on how those games go.

I am no champion but I have seen steady improvement in my local games and tournament rankings following this plan. Good luck.
 
Expect the unexpected. This can be true once more now that Pokemon Reversal is back. Look up and do a scan of all the legal cards and think.. could this be a tech? if so.. can I deal with it?

I have seen players become "great" through one of two ways.. build your archetype and just play it an entire season and grow as a player because you will learn all of the good/bad matchups... and will develop your own personal techs for them, or (this is the path I chose {and I know I am not "great"}, build weird and get better by trial and error. In the ten years I have played.. I have made weird crap.. I mean.. I top cut an old California States with Jynx (Unseen Forces) and Tyranitar. However, throughout the years I improved and made known QueenNoir and Skittles. Then a great friend, Vanderbilt_Grad, helped with the greatest "odd" deck of them all... Dusknoir/Gliscor Lv. X. {sorry for that random history.. just giving an example of the "evolution" of the making weird crap process haha}.

Aside from that.. using common sense. When to play a card... not playing cards just because... when to be conservative and be aggressive (example: I Juniper'd my hand of 4 Supporters that had other supporters other than Juniper to try and go for a win at a Regionals).

No matter how much the matchup may seem in your favor... never get overconfident, because you know the opponent has thought about what to do to make their matchup more favorable (see: expect the unexpected).
 
Expect the unexpected. This can be true once more now that Pokemon Reversal is back. Look up and do a scan of all the legal cards and think.. could this be a tech? if so.. can I deal with it?

I have to slightly disagree; not with the statement (Expect the unexpected) but the reasoning "why". This is TCG that attracts all kinds of players and where "going rogue" and running a deck that wins largely because it is an unexpected play is cliche. So this was true even before the errata. Remember, "secret" decks and "fun decks" both get played even at high level events (though the higher you go, you should expect the former over the latter)... and a deck and player don't have to win an event to take you out.

There is also a false sense of security with Pokémon Reversal/Pokémon Catcher; I had plenty of decks hurt in formats where (at least at the time) Pokémon Reversal was your best form of Bench disruption, and it will happen now. Again, to be a champ for more than a season, you need to know "the why": the Bench is still not safe, just "safer". We haven't had enough time to ascertain if there is a universal fix that, while inferior to Pokémon Catcher prior to the erratum, is still enough to make the Bench unsafe.
 
Also, have you considered asking one of your local, more experienced, players (whose opinions you respect and value) to "coach" you? I tend to learn different techniques/strategies from playing against players who are very, very good. during games, we sometimes discuss "why" a certain move was made, or a certain card was played, etc. This "open" discussion helps too, because you may not alwasys appreciate the reason(s) why a player made a certain move without the open discussion. Note: not all champion-level players are good coaches though.
 
So, what has won in recent tournaments? I don't think anybody's put up a list at the 'Gym recently.

If I'm going to play like a champion, I'm going to have to understand the various recent decks, as someone on this post (can't remember who, sorry) has said. However, I can't seem to find and recent "what won recent tournaments" lists floating around.

- Croatian_Nidoking
 
So, what has won in recent tournaments? I don't think anybody's put up a list at the 'Gym recently.

If I'm going to play like a champion, I'm going to have to understand the various recent decks, as someone on this post (can't remember who, sorry) has said. However, I can't seem to find and recent "what won recent tournaments" lists floating around.

- Croatian_Nidoking

That's because you have to do research. There's so many sites that talk about what's doing well that with just a bit of googling you can find anything. I would post links but I believe that is against forum policy. If you have Facebook request to join the group heyfonte. It's a huge help to see results.

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^ And these sites usually include the PokeGym, which is kinda odd for them to not do what won the recent bunch of tournaments (League Challenges). They're usually very proactive with other tournament cycles (Cities, States, Regionals, etc.) That's one of the reasons why I like this site. That's why I was asking.

- Croatian_Nidoking
 
^ And these sites usually include the PokeGym, which is kinda odd for them to not do what won the recent bunch of tournaments (League Challenges). They're usually very proactive with other tournament cycles (Cities, States, Regionals, etc.) That's one of the reasons why I like this site. That's why I was asking.

- Croatian_Nidoking

I really feel like you're just trying to get us to give you a list of what's done good. Just Google it dude. It's not hard.

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Also, have you considered asking one of your local, more experienced, players (whose opinions you respect and value) to "coach" you? I tend to learn different techniques/strategies from playing against players who are very, very good. during games, we sometimes discuss "why" a certain move was made, or a certain card was played, etc. This "open" discussion helps too, because you may not alwasys appreciate the reason(s) why a player made a certain move without the open discussion. Note: not all champion-level players are good coaches though.

Well, I would like to do this, but the problem is, most extremely experienced players don't go to League too often. I wouldn't know how to hitch up with one otherwise.

- Croatian_Nidoking
 
That is true in several cases. Most of the "best" players in my area rather playtest with their Poke pals outside of league. So, consider talking to players at tournaments and find that "coach" there. You could then perhaps become part of their playtesting group.
 
I really feel like you're just trying to get us to give you a list of what's done good. Just Google it dude. It's not hard.
We should not have to "Google it." Unless PokeGym is getting out of deck analysis as a resource for players, I don't think it is unreasonable to expect that information to be on here.
 
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