Author Topic: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)  (Read 23515 times)

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Offline Jonnyboy117

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This is the official discussion thread for the winning game of our latest RetroActive poll. Pokemon: The Trading Card Game was first released on Game Boy Color and is now available on the 3DS eShop.


Comments here may be quoted for the RetroActive feature on Radio Free Nintendo. Please try to stay on-topic! This is also a great place to request or provide help for other players.
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Offline yoshi1001

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #1 on: February 15, 2015, 09:03:02 PM »
One nice thing about this game is the fact that the CPUs aren't playing super-optimal decks, so you have the freedom to explore the cards more than you would have at a tournament back in the day (there were really only three viable tournament decks from the card pool in this game). If they were real people I'd feel bad about beating them so badly, though-I often have games where the CPU gets like one prize at most.

What does everyone think of the aspect of losing a game when your last Pokemon in play is knocked out? This is commonly brought up as a design flaw in the card game, so I was curious what people thought.

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Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #2 on: February 16, 2015, 06:15:33 AM »
What does everyone think of the aspect of losing a game when your last Pokemon in play is knocked out? This is commonly brought up as a design flaw in the card game, so I was curious what people thought.

It's problematic, to be certain. you're gonna have bad lucks of the draw more often than not, sadly. thankfully, this is from a time long before you could get something silly like 60 for a double colorless or such nonsense garbage.

That being said, I'd like to take a moment and get this thread kicked off with a couple of tips for folks that might be new to this whole thing or maybe only collected cards in their childhood and didn't actually try playing the TCG.

For example, there's a few Pokemon that you will want in your deck no matter what sort of deck you're running. sometimes you should fill up on these until you can mould your deck into something far more formidable, or sometimes you should run a lone copy or 'tech' it in to give your deck a sort of not too common trump play in a tight spot.

SCYTHER Lv. 25

This is a pretty great filler card. granted 30 damage for 3 colorless is not the best thing in the world, but what is is that Scyther is a basic pokemon with 70 HP, a fighting resistance, and most importantly, no retreat cost. Scyther is the go-to lead-off pokemon of the formatand can usually even take a weak hit from it's fire weakness from your opponent's basic fire type once or twice before eating a KO. Put these in your deck until you have something else with free retreat and a chance to stall (For me, this is usually Horsea since I run blastoise turbo usually. I'll get into what my deck looks like another time.)

HITMONCHAN Lv. 33

Fighting is probably one of the most splashable types early on in the game, as you can get a lot of mileage out of fighting's basic pokemon that have low energy costs. Mankey is a decent scout that doesn't have a lot of HP but that coveted 0 retreat, Onyx is 90 HP you can thorw out, even if it doesn't build to much, and Machop gets you 20 for one fighting energy.

Then again, so does Hitmonchan, who's also fairly beefy to boot. he also can build up to 3 for 40, which... again, not super great? but it's a basic pokemon that can really put in the work in the early to mid game while you're still scraping together for cards. I use a lot of him, hitmonlee, Ryhorn, Onix, and a couple of others in my Aerodactyl deck that I keep as a secondary deck to shut down stuff that has evolution based win conditions.

Likitung, Chansey, Khangaskahn

I group all these three together because they all serve a similar purpose of being colorless pokes that are beefy and can help you stall or accelerate the game.

Chansey has a whopping 120 HP, a health pool that will allow it to survive anything besides Charizard's fire spin. it also gets a coin toss to prevent damage and an 80 damage attack if you need one final gambit to desperatley get rid of something and you have no other options.

Likitung is probably the most common of this trio, and really isn't amazing other than he's 90 HP with 1 colorless for 10 damage and a coin toss for paralysis, which puts in a little more work than chansey, who just sits there until you hit a switch or you decide to pay the exorbant retreat cost.

Khangaskhan has the 80 damage final gambit of chansey and the HP of Likitung, but rather than being a stalling card, fetch gets you garenteed extra draws, which is extra chances to hit your draw engine, the pokemon/evolutions you might need, or a switch to get it out of there if it's running into trouble!

Professor Oak/Bill/Gambler

All of these facilitate keeping your deck moving, keeping the flow of cards going, keeping an advantage. more cards means more options, and you always want the options to get out of a jam if your opponent puts pressure on you. Pokemon TCG in the beginning had a TREMENDOUS ammount of draw power, generally because energy attachment dictated the pace of a game and not so much having cards in your hand. I still feel drawing is good in any TCG you play, as it gives you the access you need to the rest of your tools. just make sure you don't burn through your deck too fast.

Switch

ALWAYS Run switch, NEVER full restore. your pokemon are cured of status conditions upon a switch, and if you're playing this game right, you should always have a pokemon on your bench with zero retreat cost to cycle back to the pokemon you are curing of a status effect.

Switch also, y'know... lets you get past retreat cost when things get bad, or even lets you rebound from your opponent hitting you with something crippling like a super energy removal or a gust of wind.

Super Energy Removal/Energy Removal

as I said before, this game's primary version of advantage is energy. because you are (usually) limited to one attach per turn, the opponent who misses a turn of energy attachment is usually the one who ends up in deep trouble early on. for the cost of a trainer card (and possibly one of your own energy attaches), you can set your opponent back in this ever-important cycle. Dish out the big damage sooner than they can, and ripple them from being able to bounce back.

Bonus points if you ever snipe a double colorless energy with energy removals. That's why stuff like Enhanced Hammer is so good these days.



Anyhow, I hope those give you some generalized cards to look out for in the early games. I can't be bothered to remember what packs they come in, but know you've gotten a bit of a gem in any of those, no matter what deck you are running. It is currently 5:15 AM. good night.


Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #3 on: February 16, 2015, 09:35:48 PM »
sorry to double post, but a quick pro strat; make a restore point as the victory fanfare plays when you win a card game. when the music for the overworld loads up, that signifies when the game has loaded up the contents of the booster packs you've won from an opponent. this way instead of having to grind for collesium packs, you can just load states until you get boosters that have copies of professor Oak, Bill, Scyther, Chansey, and also, I can't believe i forgot to mention it...

ELECTABUZZ Lv. 35

This is probably the second or third most important card to the Base set/Jungle/Fossil Metagame. 2 energy for 30 damage is already amazing, especially when one of those is a colorless, but 1 electric and 1 colorless for 40 on coin flip is the most bang for your buck you will get out of a single card in this format. Yes, Wigglytuff can do the wave for a cheap 60 if you fill your bench with a bunch of filler, but electabuzz requires all of 3 cards to set up as opposed to the 9 you'd need for a Wigglytuff sweep. Promo Mewtwo is probably the only thing comparable.

Offline lolmonade

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #4 on: February 16, 2015, 10:56:39 PM »
I've gotten through the initial tutorial.  I find it a little silly that they've framed the intro just like you're playing a regular Pokemon game, but I guess that's Gamefreak's way of trying to lure in the people who may have played the pokemon games, but not the card game.


The card game itself seems pretty basic/simple after the tutorial.  I'm curious to see how much strategy can actually go into a game, as well as if the different deck choices actually make a difference.


Question for those who have gotten farther - does the pokemon type matter like in the proper games?  How so?

Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #5 on: February 17, 2015, 12:49:57 AM »
I've gotten through the initial tutorial.  I find it a little silly that they've framed the intro just like you're playing a regular Pokemon game, but I guess that's Gamefreak's way of trying to lure in the people who may have played the pokemon games, but not the card game.


The card game itself seems pretty basic/simple after the tutorial.  I'm curious to see how much strategy can actually go into a game, as well as if the different deck choices actually make a difference.


Question for those who have gotten farther - does the pokemon type matter like in the proper games?  How so?

HUDSON SOFT

this game was licenced out to Hudson Soft. :P it's why the overworld stuff feels a lil' jank-tastic.


As for pokemon typing, it does indeed matter. Pokemon deal damage of their card's type, no matter what the attack. they also have a weakness and resistance printed on their cards. Weakness at this point in the TCG's life multiplies the damage you do by two, while resistance does a flat -30 damage off of any attack.

Offline lolmonade

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #6 on: February 17, 2015, 08:30:52 AM »
I've gotten through the initial tutorial.  I find it a little silly that they've framed the intro just like you're playing a regular Pokemon game, but I guess that's Gamefreak's way of trying to lure in the people who may have played the pokemon games, but not the card game.


The card game itself seems pretty basic/simple after the tutorial.  I'm curious to see how much strategy can actually go into a game, as well as if the different deck choices actually make a difference.


Question for those who have gotten farther - does the pokemon type matter like in the proper games?  How so?

HUDSON SOFT

this game was licenced out to Hudson Soft. :P: it's why the overworld stuff feels a lil' jank-tastic.


As for pokemon typing, it does indeed matter. Pokemon deal damage of their card's type, no matter what the attack. they also have a weakness and resistance printed on their cards. Weakness at this point in the TCG's life multiplies the damage you do by two, while resistance does a flat -30 damage off of any attack.

Jankey is the perfect description, thanks for correcting me.  It makes sense it wasn't GameFreak, so far the game looks pretty awful, and the sprites look off.

Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #7 on: February 17, 2015, 11:31:57 AM »
I really think that only goes as far as the character design. the card art is surprisingly faithful to the actual cards as far as Gameboy graphics are concerned.

I'm currently at 216 of the game's 226 obtainable cards. 2 of them I can't get because I'm pretty sure that even though the 3DS has an IR port that Card Pop isn't available, and there's a promo venusaur and a promo mew that's only obtainable through doing this thing where you and a friend held the IR ports of Game Boy Colors up to one another.

Anyhow, my decklist...

Water Energy x 22
Horsea x 3 (can be subbed out for 2 scyther and a Double Colorless energy. were I playing the actual TCG, I would.)
Squirtle x 4
Wartortle x 3
Blastoise x 2
Lapras x 2
Articuno x 2
Articuno (GB Exclusive) x 1
Professor Oak x 3
Bill x 4
Pokemon Trader x 2
Energy Removal x 4
Switch x 3
computer search x 1
Pluspower x 2
Gust of Wind x 1
Gambler x 1


this is probably the most straightforward of the decks that were good in the meta, although mine runs a bit differently. I like having a 0 retreat pivot of sorts to heal statuses via switch, and Horsea does so well by forcing coin flips in this game, even if it only has 40 hp and 10 damage to it. Scyther would be a better pick to try and help deal with the electabuzz menace if I was playing against actual humans.

Most people run dewgong because it has 50 damage for 3 energy, but I honestly do not like seel as a basic pokemon, and just roll with Laprass instead because that's one less evolutionary line to worry about.

Articunos have no weakness and a fighting resistance. the GB Exclusive one can only be obtained by beating the Grand Masters, and I run more for the free shot at paralyzing the opponent moreso than for any prowess it might bring to the table.

Blastoise is the star of the show here. it is your win condition. the idea of a deck like this is to burn through as much of your deck as quickly as possible until you can develop a squirtle into a blastoise. at that point, you can attach as much energy as need be, and pretty much have several bruisers at ready because you just flood the bench with energy. especially when you start knocking out opponents and using energy removals to stymie their own energy output, you'll just overwhelm your poor enemies, even against decks you probably should be weak against. do look out for electabuzz, as it can peel through most of your deck.

I'll have another deck list for you all when this discussion really kicks off!

Offline yoshi1001

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #8 on: February 17, 2015, 09:35:18 PM »
You really should be running more than one Gust of Wind-that card is truly broken, in the same league as (Super) Energy Removal.
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Offline ejamer

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #9 on: February 17, 2015, 09:50:11 PM »
I wasn't keen on playing this game from the get go, but the more I read comments here the less interested I become... 
 :(


On the upside, it's nice to see some people who are really passionate about Pokemon TCG offers.
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Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #10 on: February 17, 2015, 10:25:52 PM »
You really should be running more than one Gust of Wind-that card is truly broken, in the same league as (Super) Energy Removal.

But... but what do I drop for it? ;_; I know how potent dragging out your opponent's stuff is. Heck, it's why Lycandre is so good right now. I guess I could drop my teched copy of Gambler for a second one? maybe go 3 Gust of Wind/3 Energy Removal?

Also, if it seems like my posts are more about the TCG than the game and programming that abounds it... it's because really, the game itself isn't compelling outside of the TCG. there's really not a point to the overworld besides maybe going from club to club trying to hunt down that bastard Tomoaki Imakuni? I can think of YuGiOh games that handled this sort of stuff better, and let's not kid ourselves; YuGiOh! is not a bastion of great video game design either in spite of Konami being at the helm.

I do want to comment on the music. there's a few really good pieces here, particularly the theme for your rival in this game, Ronald. The Grandmaster Battle theme was my go-to Elite Four theme until Black and White rolled around with it's heart-pounding Drum n' Bass.

I also want to address the writing. oh GOD the writing. Pokemon is always a strange series to me as it is really, REALLY awful at world building. Between Pokedex entries that make No sense and are sometimes REALLY off putting, the NPC dialogue really bothers me because EVERYBODY in a pokemon game seems obsessed with Propane and propane accessories Pokemon and the technology that abounds them. Yes, I get it. this is a world where the animals are really crazy cool and some are eerily sentient, but not everybody on planet earth yammers on about their pet iguana to random passers by! Even if I was a professional cockfighter, I'd still want to...y'know, talk about technology, government, politics, religion (Hail lord helix!) issues our world has that ISN'T connected to pokemon.

This game takes it a step further. every last NPC... EVERY LAST ONE just wants to talk about the Pokemon TCG. Dr. Mason is a PROFESSOR OF TRADING CARDS! this is to a worse extreme than Triple Triad in Final Fantasy 8. Sure, people may want to play cards with you during TIME KOMPRESSION, but they're still... y'know, worried about other things. they'll talk to you about something else! the moment you dive into Pokemon TCG's Island (I refuse to call it a world), everything is about cards. there's even CARDS THAT START TALKING TO YOU ABOUT HOW YOU HAVE INHERITED THEIR CARDS . I'm not asking for brilliance here, but the dialogue is so stilted, and you are only going to learn about pieces of digital cardboard with pokemon drawings on them in this game.

Offline Jonnyboy117

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #11 on: February 18, 2015, 04:55:19 PM »
It's funny to see so many familiar terms from Magic the Gathering in these posts, even though the rules are more different than I expected. I'm still grinding through the early stuff but look forward to building my own decks once I have decent cards.

Can anyone recommend which gyms are best to start? I wandered into one of them and fought a Fighting deck that ruined me. (If it helps, I chose Bulbasaur and friends as my starter deck.)
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Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #12 on: February 18, 2015, 05:50:37 PM »
It's funny to see so many familiar terms from Magic the Gathering in these posts, even though the rules are more different than I expected. I'm still grinding through the early stuff but look forward to building my own decks once I have decent cards.

Can anyone recommend which gyms are best to start? I wandered into one of them and fought a Fighting deck that ruined me. (If it helps, I chose Bulbasaur and friends as my starter deck.)

fighting or Science should be fine, honestly. the best way to go about the game I find is to find one dude in a club you can consistently beat and grind booster packs out of 'em, Johnny. Try to find somebody who gives the Coliseum booster pack (Has Pikachu on the cover. lots of those cards I suggested earlier in the thread, and it's the booster you most commonly get energy from.) If you're going to stick with a grass deck as well, you might also want to be hunting for Executor and Venusaur in the Evolution booster set. (This game having imaginary booster sets makes things interesting as far as what cards come from where.)

make sure to check your mails from Dr. Mason as well, as somehow the guy sends you boosters electronically.

Also, has anybody tried the fan translation for this game's sequel? it's called Pokemon Trading Card Game 2: The Invasion of Team GR!

Offline pokepal148

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #13 on: February 18, 2015, 07:26:47 PM »
Meowth Level 15 is a nice one to draw early in the game.

Also I've really enjoyed wrecking the cpu's day with an energy remover.

I started with charmander and friends fyi

One thing that's interesting is that in the main Pokemon games you want to have as many Pokemon types as possible whereas here you want to consolidate everything to as few types as possible.

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #14 on: February 18, 2015, 08:07:40 PM »
also dr mason uses smileys, wtf

Offline lolmonade

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #15 on: February 18, 2015, 10:18:09 PM »
I played Magic: The Gathering (MtG) quite a bit growing up, so it might flavor my opinions on the game so far. 


The mechanics of the card game itself are relatively simple compared to MtG.  Instead of developing a large mana pool you utilize across several actions, you have to permanently assign that "energy type" to a pokemon to meet their consumption requirement for an action.  This makes the energy a lot more important to success than in MtG, because it's a one-time use and you can't get it back. 


Additionally, only being able to use one monster at a time in battle creates a very urgent need to build-up the pokemon on your bench through assigning energy to them in advance or evolving them.  Unless you get a really good draw, you can expect your first pokemon to get knocked-out, so the strategy quickly turns to prepping for your next pokemon to be a beast from the outset.  If you don't, your whole bench will start falling like a line of dominoes.


I'm guessing what'll turn off most people from this game is that like most trading card games, while there's some strategy involved in choosing your deck and executing on a strategy, the luck of the draw is so important to start-off on the right foot in a match.  A bad draw in the beginning or a continual draw of the wrong card type in the middle of the game will sink you like a stone.

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #16 on: February 18, 2015, 10:49:55 PM »
sorry to double post, but a quick pro strat; make a restore point as the victory fanfare plays when you win a card game. when the music for the overworld loads up, that signifies when the game has loaded up the contents of the booster packs you've won from an opponent. this way instead of having to grind for collesium packs, you can just load states until you get boosters that have copies of professor Oak, Bill, Scyther, Chansey, and also, I can't believe i forgot to mention it...

ELECTABUZZ Lv. 35

This is probably the second or third most important card to the Base set/Jungle/Fossil Metagame. 2 energy for 30 damage is already amazing, especially when one of those is a colorless, but 1 electric and 1 colorless for 40 on coin flip is the most bang for your buck you will get out of a single card in this format. Yes, Wigglytuff can do the wave for a cheap 60 if you fill your bench with a bunch of filler, but electabuzz requires all of 3 cards to set up as opposed to the 9 you'd need for a Wigglytuff sweep. Promo Mewtwo is probably the only thing comparable.
Rapidash is also very strong, at least against the CPU, 30 damage and a coin flip to decide whether your opponent can attack or not? Yes please.

Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #17 on: February 19, 2015, 12:26:31 AM »
First, I'd like to adress Pokepal's post on Rapidash.

1.) Electabuzz is a basic pokemon that is potentially dishing out 40 by turn 2, and the only set-up this requires is electabuzz himself, 1 lightning energy, and one of any other energy card. by comparison, Rapidash requires that you have had a ponyta for at least 2 turns to get it up to 2 Fire energy, and that you have drawn into it's evolution card, Rapidash.

2.) Ponyta has no 1 energy attack (neither does Rapidash), while electabuzz has 10 damage and a paralyze chance for 1 lightning energy.

3.) the moment electabuzz hits the field, it has 70 HP. Ponyta has at least one turn of being at a vulnerable 40 HP, which might I add, is in range to get 1 hit KO'd by a successful coin toss on thunder punch.

Electabuzz takes almost no time to set up. it is a low-maintenance, but high damage card. That is why it is so important to the time period unto which it was released.

If anything though, Rapidash has more peerity with Scyther than Electabuzz, as it has 0 retreat like scyther and type advantage over it, although again... you have to evolve it. the other thing is that because of Scyther's attack being all colorless energy, it can pay for it in Double Colorless energies, which cuts down on the time it takes to get a scyther set up even. I'd still say for a Fire deck, Rapidash can put in some work in a similar copacity that Seadra does for a water deck.


Onto Lolmonade's Comments:

Wizards of the Coast distributed Pokemon TCG in the US for the first several years of it's lifespan before NoA took over.

Energy is indeed precious now, although in later formats it's not so much, with decks running as few as 10 energies to instead facilitate their draw and search engines. there's even some sick ways of energy recycling in this game, such as Promo Mewtwo.

I do want to say that yes, building your bench IS important. I would like to point out the cards I mentioned earlier in the thread though. they all share some common themes.

1.) a cheap costing attack so that they're contributing to you winning right out the gate
2.) a high ammount of HP so they can sponge a few hits while you set up your benched stuff.
3.) 0 retreat cost so that at a moment's notice they can peel out to allow something else to start doing the heavy lifting.

Take Horsea for example that I run in my deck. No seadras, just Horsea. See, horsea has a 1 water energy attack that does 10 and forces the opponent to coin flip to even attack at all. sure, it has 40 HP, but it's also got 0 retreat.

Lapras? 80 HP. for 1 Water energy it has an attack that if I invest further, gets stronger.

Even Squirtle has a paralysis attempt on it for 1 water energy should I end up in the doomsday senario where I'm forced to lead off with Squirtle.

About the only bad lead in my deck is articuno, which has 70 HP, no weakness, and a fighting resistance so it can take a couple of weaker hits while I try to go through my deck and maybe stumble across a switch.

The idea that the pokemon you send out in the lead is dead meat is a bad mentality to have. yes, you have to pick and choose to develop your pokemon appropriately, but there is an element to speed to the game, especially since gaining prize cards can especially swing the momentum of a game in your favor!

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #18 on: February 19, 2015, 08:41:31 AM »
So Clex....I'd say your comment about first Pokemon not being a meat shield is right/wrong, like most things, depending on what's in your hand.  If I have a bulbasaur & 2 grass energies I can assign right away, his leech seed is a good tool to knock out a few undeveloped opponent Pokemon while I attempt to develop a bench Pokemon to be running right out of the gate.

IF you start with a lousy hand, because you can't take the option to re-draw, your best option may very well be to toss out the Pokemon with the highest HP to absorb damage while hoping to draw something with utility.


On an unrelated note, why the hell can't we forfeit a match?!?!  There have been a few times I was getting trounced, and knowingly had no chance of recovering, but the game makes you sit there and take it for the extra 10 minutes it takes for your opponent to finish you. Very, very frustrating.

Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #19 on: February 19, 2015, 11:11:38 AM »
yeah, the lack of a forefit button is annoying, considering I've played plenty of other TCGs that allow such.

and to further talk about Lolmonade's comment, I'd like to talk about the deck that was at the top at the time; the deck that if you take the time to make, you will win lots of games (as I have taken the time to do so and it works wonders!

Lightning Energy X 9
Fighting Energy X 8
Double Colorless X 4
Scyther X 4
Electabuzz lv. 35 X 4
Hitmonchan X 4
Bill X 4
Professor Oak X 4
Energy Removal X 4
Super Energy Removal X 2
Energy Search X 2
Pluspower X 4
Gust of Wind X 3
Computer Search X 2
Itemfinder X 2

This is a deck that in my experience running it through about 30 games last night had all of one bad start last night, and that was namely because one of the opponents in my opponent pool I was choosing from had a lot of fighting resistance in his deck and it made it really hard to dish out any damage of any sort.

The 12 pokemon in this deck are all basic pokemon that fill 2 of those 3 requirements of a good basic pokemon. considering you have the 4 bill, 4 Oak, 2 energy search, and 2 computer search, there's a chance you will hit at least SOMETHING you can use that is good and good immediately because of how low maintenance your pokemon are. the absolute worst case senario is that you're maybe stuck with a scyther that takes 3 turns of set-up because you haven't hit a double Colorless energy, as Hitmonchan only require one energy of their respective color to go live.

In addition, this deck actually gives you a rather nice spread of types, unlike most ones. you can cover pretty much any colorless pokemon, most water pokemon, and lightning Pokemon  with ease. Scyther's fighting resistance also makes it a fine tool to deal with those pokemon as well. this rather nicely covers Electabuzz's weakness.

There is a variant of this that drops Hitmonchan for Magmar Lv. 31, which switches out your electric and colorless coverage and raw damage for some rather nasty status effect play and some grass coverage... then again, I think this is inferior, because you could be just using Hitmonchan or electabuzz to dish out the big damage.

If I didn't have to get dressed and ready for work, I would probably have done some odds calculations to show how much of the dime you have a chance to get a lemon of a hand with this deck list I have provided. I tend to also drop some combination of trainers to run 2 fossils and a aerodactyl, as prehistoric power trolls on your opponent's ability to develop pokemon that can even compete with the hosses you're tossing out. (The cool thing about fossils is because they're a Trainer card, they do not count as a basic pokemon as far as the Mulligan rules are concerned, so you will still always be starting with a scyther, an electabuzz, or a hitmonchan.)

Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #20 on: February 20, 2015, 10:41:52 PM »
Sorry to double post again, but uh... Tonight, (Feburary the 20th, 2015), I have decided to spontaneously stream some Pokemon TCG Gameplay! and I'll probably do it again before the retroactive episode is recorded, but here's the link!

http://www.twitch.tv/clexyoshi

Offline yoshi1001

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #21 on: February 21, 2015, 06:04:08 PM »
What do folks think of the Challenge Cups? There are two that occur during the main game, then in the post-game they appear (randomly?) when starting the game. They give you a chance to pick up some of the promotional cards, which is pretty neat. Of course,you can save between matches and reset your game to make sure you don't lose out.
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Offline Jonnyboy117

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #22 on: February 22, 2015, 04:00:47 PM »
One tip I haven't seen much yet is that Dr. Mason will send you free packs with his emails, and there's one sent out for each gym that you visit, even if you don't clear it. You might need to complete a battle in each one, I'm not sure, but you can suck it up and then check the PC for some more free cards.
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Offline pokepal148

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #23 on: February 22, 2015, 08:05:21 PM »
My current deck (charmander and friends)
3 Charmander
2 Charmeleon
1 Charizard
4 ponyta
4 rapidash
3 magmar level 24

4 rattata
3 raticate
1 kangaskhan
2 Lickitung

2 Bill
2 energy search
2 energy removal
3 pokeballs
2 gust of wind

22 fire energy

good enough to give the Ai a horrible day if they don't resist fire,

Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: RetroActive #31: Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Official Discussion)
« Reply #24 on: February 22, 2015, 09:05:42 PM »
My current deck (charmander and friends)
3 Charmander
2 Charmeleon
1 Charizard
4 ponyta
4 rapidash
3 magmar level 24

4 rattata
3 raticate
1 kangaskhan
2 Lickitung

2 Bill
2 energy search
2 energy removal
3 pokeballs
2 gust of wind

22 fire energy

good enough to give the Ai a horrible day if they don't resist fire,

Not bad, Pokepal! I'd consider dropping some of the pokemon in lieu of some more trainers or double colorless energies. You shouldn't run evolution cards at the same number of basic pokemon in your deck, because for every one of those basics that become a prize card or faint or get dumped from your hand or deck by something, that renders the corresponding evolution card a dead draw. If you must keep running Rapidash, go down to 3, if not 2.

I'd also consider cutting down on rattata line and just putting in more trainers. keep in mind you'll only be going through at most maybe... 11 of the pokemon in your deck in a game. around 10 basics and 6 evolutions is what you should be shooting for in your deck ratio. you don't have to play that way, but it's my suggestion.

Also, if you wanted an alternate flavor in your deck instead of ratatta, you might want to maybe try Arcanine or Moltres or such...!

As for Yoshi1001, I like the idea of the challenge cup, but i don't like that it's a random trigger. playing multiple decks in a row without changing decks is actually a pretty tall feat, as there will almost always be a possibility to hit an an opponent who's strategy hard counters yours. Take for example... using that Electabuzz/Scyther/Hitmonchan deck against Murray, the Psychic Club leader.

His whole deck revolves around using Mr. Mimes to mitigate damage and then using Alakazam to move damage counters to something like a Chansey that he scoops up before it takes too much damage. Scyther is completley walled out by Mr. Mime, and Electabuzz can do 10 and paralyze it, but the only real pokemon in that deck that can hang is Hitmonchan. his jab does 20 and thus doesn't hit the invisible wall damage cap... of course, Hitmonchan is weak to psychic and there are plenty of psychic pokemon that just straight-up resist fighting pokemon.

Would anybody else be interested if I tried streaming more Pokemon TCG Tomorrow evening?  (Monday, Feburary 23rd)