Weighing Anchor Edition>I want to learn the game, where do I begin?Download PTCGL at https://tcg.pokemon.com/en-us/tcglThe game has a quick tutorial and a bunch of decent decks to get you started against other beginners or against the AI. Some of those decks are very close to meta too. You can also go to your local game store and see if people are playing Pokémon.>I know how to play, how do I make my own deck?You have a decent beginner's guide at https://www.justinbasil.com/guideThere's also the old /tcg/ guide at https://imgur.com/a/W4NkOu6After that, look up meta decks and try to reverse engineer them to see how things work.>Where to find meta decks?For big irl events, go to https://limitlesstcg.com/decksFor online events, go to https://play.limitlesstcg.com/decks?game=PTCGFor japanese events, go to https://pokecabook.com/archives/1417Previous thread: >>59219338Old /tcg/ pastebin: https://pastebin.com/Ge95YuMA
>>59248762In standard? Trump cardIn expanded? All the time Standard bans pretty much NEVER happen unless they impact irl events like trump card did causing massive overtimes. They never ban for stuff being oppressive like budew/dragapult/lugia etc either. It's only bans if it enables you to win turn1 before your opponent can interact.
>>59248843The last standard bans were bellelba and mismagius in Darkness Ablaze. Mismagiis could evolve and self-ko in one turn alongside reset stamp. Bellelba was banned partly to remove all of eternatus's counters, and partly because of oranguru/excadrill card recycling.
>>59249013Huh I remember thinking that was for expanded but it was standard. but yeah it's in line with their philosophy of only banning turn1 donk/locks
Posted in the wrong thread meaning to post here just got back into buying cards for the first time in like #0 years and I got this in my second pack
>>59249207congrats it's useless
>>59249210
>>59249222what are you gonna do, offer it to your opponent to get them to concede? that's bribery and will get you disqualified
>When you win a game because your opponent prized their third Ceruledge EXI almost forgot how much of a pain in the ass it is to face a deck you're type disadvantaged against. It turns the 2hko meta into 1hko.
>>59249634Not running 4-4 in Ceruledge is a stupid idea. Your opponent deserved to lose.
>>59249207We aren't scalp niggers here. Fuck off and go somewhere else.
>>59249643Don't care, still feel good for the win.It's either getting highs from this or from toxic faggots who emote spam when they think they are winning, and then AFK when they realized they lose and time waste out of spite.
>>59249688Can't wait for them to print more megas to counter dragapultLike WOWZA that gallade and floette can hit 200 damage?! crazy!!!!! dragapult is dead!
>>59249688Bros.... I don't think I'm cut for this meta.......
>>59249844There's no counter to pult that's the problem.There is no way to stop pults bullshit unless you A. Disable their effect, or just simply outdamage it.Those are the two counters, anything else is going to suck.Getting rid of budew is another choice as well.
>>59249844the gallade is probably designed to be played with 4x wally. which is neat lore wise
>>59249927Pult falls off if they print something worthwhile. Why use a mega pokemon hitting 200 dmg when dragapult does the same while being a 2prizer. There's just no benefit to running half this garbage they're printing nowadays Budew is a 1 off in most lists now, it's not the main focus anymore. Even if you remove budew, dusknoirs and blaziken, dragapult will just find a new partner. It was ran with pidgeot or charizard before. It can be run with rockets crobat if they wanted next. It's not even pults fault, the next bdif would've done the same. There's just nothing new to contest it because every new set is so damn WEAK since they're trying to tone down powercreep
>>59249986>We have electivire at home for 1 more prize and worse support
Powercreep DOES need to be toned down, and if that means one bad format rather than creating another two/three years of bad formats just to make a deck that keeps up with Pult now, then so be it.
>>59250003People thought the same once urshifu's left then mew/lugia took overPeople thought the same once mew/lugia left then gardevoir took overPeople thought the same once gardevoir left then dragapult took overBecause they never do hard rotations it means the older cards will always be strong, as newer cards are fundamentally weaker as they're "toning down" powecreepIt also takes ONE fuck up releasing a strong card or synergy to completely ruin the meta for the next 1-3 years, look at what regidrago did in the end. It was completely unintentional and if that happened earlier the meta would've been even more degenerate. Same with lugia and rainbow rares/rainbow energy. ALL those years of toning down powercreep ruined in one moment, since they don't ban cards here eitherSo instead of trying to tone it down and risk 1 bad egg ruining it all they really should just be making cards equal/slightly above the current powerlevel.
Qrd on the Expanded format's state? And do you think its pool is too large now?
>>59249903I am so fucking happy Arven is gone.
>>59249207I got this as well in a 6 pack box. it's super cute and the art is nice, worth 70 ungraded and a lot more if it's nice, but I want to keep it cause I like it.but that's one of the more valuable POR cards. also, the clefairy rare matches the art (if you put it above or below), pretty cool.
>>59250000>280 is the same as 330Retard
>>59249986>Pult falls off if they print something worthwhileYeah, so you just want a mega with a two energy cost that does 320 damage for free.You are just going to bitch when that becomes the new 25% top preforming deck after usurping pult and all the other decks are even shittier compared to that.It's not the way to go.
>>59250000280 for FIVE energy.
If it wasn't for Dragapult the meta would be incredible with a bunch of different viable options. The Megas are also mostly balanced pretty well except when compared to Dragapult. To fix this issue I propose we rape all Dragapult players until rotation.
>>59250614>Electric generator and eelektrik>3/5 of the cost can be covered with acceleration energy from the set afterBefore all the HP powercreep with megas 280 would be the 330 now. Obviously it was shit, but that just shows how bad excadrill is gonna be too
>>59250638>You just want somethng more brokenlolno? Something at least playable. Something better than the 3 PRIZER DOING 200-240 FOR 3 ENERGY we've been getting constantly as of lateYou know, the SAME amount of damage 2 prize basics have been doing for YEARS now? That does not justify being a stage1/2 card which rewards +1 more prize card. They're not even attempting to make anything competitively viable, nothing even close to being viable. That's the problem
>>59251265Just play Zam where you can draw 20 cards every turn and do 400 damage for 1 Psychic on a 1 prizer.
>>59251265Bro you keep harping that none of the megas are playable, but I'm running into lucario, lopunny, froslass, starmie, kangaskahn, venusaur, meganium, feraligatr.They are out there, but I'm going to be real with you also. Do you know how many fucking unplayable EX mons there are?Out of 20, you will get maybe 2 that will see actual play.Still you won't explain what the fuck "playable" is to you, because apparently it needs to one hit KO EXs or it's not playable to you. And if that's the case do what >>59251329 said and play zam or hydrapple.The discussion is stopping pult from overtaking the entire meta, not how apparently you really want to play megas.
>>59251265I get your point but I think the cards you posted are bad examples because they have interesting attacks and abilities that could make them see play. also while one shotting the active is good considering raging bolt still hasn't retired yet, it's not the end of a deck just because it can't take ko each turn. arch, n's zoroark, and mega absol all made cash or won tournaments even without having a big 330 damage attack
>>59251440>Dude I'm running into all the megas from the first 2 mega setsMeanwhile all the ones in the last 6 months have been filler. Even mega greninja is just a 1 off, the deck is primarily the tera fighting greninja So yeah, point stands. New sets are garbage. When garbage ex like cobalion, yveltal are doing the same as 3 prize megas, perhaps you know.. there's a problem with the megas..I'm not out here asking for megas to be doing 350+ dmg for 2 energy like you're larping. I'm asking them to be WORTH their extra prize card. It can be giving those megas useful effects or abilities like greninja. Just doing 16 poison, 200 dmg, 200 dmg, 210, 240 dmg with no additional effects or abilities just aint it. Why bother with those when 2 prize basics are capable of doing the same thing. >Do you know how many fucking unplayable EX mons there are?Well yeah, majority of the new ones are completely unplayable as well. Fucking everything as of late has been unplayable. If the gimmick of the mega evolution series isn't even worth running what's the entire point. They "upgraded" them to 3 prizes compare to gen6 megas and these look absolutely awful in comparison of the other 3 prize gimmick of vmax vsing v's. Our current megas are not justified for being 3 prizes, not anywhere close
>>59251470Spending a turn on delphox 1st attack to get hit for 220-280, if not ohko'd in return doesn't gain you enough initiative. That's HALF your opponents prize cards at risk. The mons you pull can't enable you to pull a come back after that. Delphox is stranded on board at low health unless you wally, and boss order is as spammed as ever. Greninja has a good ability so I don't hate on that despite it also doing 200 dmg, but the other 3 prize megas aren't so creative. Arch has acceleration to turo loop, zoroark multiple attackers and trade. Absol hand control. They were also in mega pre-mega HP so it was patched up with poison/munki's easier than it is now>I can use a basic mega absol for 200 and pick what to discard>Or this stage1 for 160+conditional 50 and 2 random discardsAbsol got to use bravery charm back then so their HP would've been the same. You see what I mean with the newer cards being so lackluster man. The first 2 mega sets did well, that's where (mostly) all the current viable megas are from. After that it went downhill and is why the meta is at a standstill
>>59251470Zoroark hits 330 when boosted. Do you not know how the deck functions?
>>59251490They was referring to zoroark before rotation and pre-zekrom anon, it still had success before that released
I haven't played or boughted cards since megas released but now I'm back and want to remake my decks with the new stuff. I go to a store to see what's in stock and only 3 pack POR blisters are left so I get one and pull this. I think I'm off to a good start this season
>>59248781TCG should do print on demand
>>59251760technically that's what the trainer kits are for
>>59251766The what?
>>59251774sorry I meant toolkitthese things
>>59251777Oh. I didn't know they printed those on demand
>>59251786they don't but it's a way to get the most used cards out in public without printing on demand
So, I'm looking in this game's direction again, but my Charizard/Pidgeot deck is out of rotation. How is (Mega) Charizard doing right now? back to being shit tier? Saw this as one of the first things in a google search but is it too simple for today's meta?
>>59251794It's shit. Don't bother.
>>59251794it's dragapult or bust >>59249688
>>59249688>Dragapult dominating ever since rotation>Mega greninja releases, it's playable but still shit in comparison>No meta changes in sight for monthsIt's gonna be like this all year, isn't it?
>>59251821>It's gonna be like this all year, isn't it?T-t-think of the mega darkrai..! It can ohko!! (Keep in mind it's useless vs 1 whole type, blocked by two common special energy and harder to pull off compare to absol) but it's an ohko!! that's kills dragapult!Storm emeralda will be july 31st in JP. Sadly out EN release of abyss eye is releasing early july so it wont be merged. Our next set will be around sept, so the meta will remain the same till then if the rest of abyss eye is as bad as excadril and this shit
hmm who would've thought an era/series of just gimmicks wouldn't become meta?
>>59251861Megas before were very meta though, even with the spirit link shenanigans they had to deal withThey just royally fucked up the nu-megas. It's good they didn't bring back "big basics" but what the fuck were they thinking with 3 prizes. I would take the spirit links back over that
Ratio of usable exs and filler exs doesn't seem all that different from usable megas and filler megas. Kang, Absol, Lopunny, Froslass, Lucario, Starmie, Diancie, and Mawile have all seen some play.
>>59251877You'd think they would've learned their lesson about 3-prizers after the TagTeam/VMAX era and all the complaints people had about them.
>>59251891Mega evo and phantsmal flames had the good megas yes. After those 2 sets it went to shit. Just froslass and greninja (and starmie until greninja). Visually like this you see the big power drop after phantsmal flamesSo we've had 3, coming up 4(if the rest of pitch black sucks) sets of bulk, which explains why the meta hasn't changed at all since rotation
>>59251973People will play Excadrill. It won't be good, but it'll sneak wins here and there, and people will play it.
>>59252034Metal slopbox seems more effective than stacking 5 energy on an excadrill desu
>slopnah, i'm good
not everything is slop bucko
slop my meta up!
apples
phantom slop and place 6 slop counters on your bench
draw slop
Name one (uno) deck that isn't pure slop
>>59251793Oh I see. Is there a reason why they don't print on demand?
My deck: pureYour deck: slop
>>59252429Unlike other competitive card games, the demand for pokemon cards is like 99% collectors/scalpers rather than the people actually playingThey're all after the high rarity and unlike other games like yugioh (Yugioh has fixed that in recent times tho reprinting competitive staples a shit ton) All pokemon cards have a low rarity as well, nothing is exclusive to higher rarity. So it's cheap to get staples, and even cheaper when collectors are burning through packs just for the ultra rares. Meaning competitive boxes like that generally aren't worth the money still, it's cheaper to buy singles still As for printing on demand, the collectors are already begging for that to help fix the scalper issue
You know what.I went to look into Sabrina, cause there was some thread talking about how pyschic used to be the "evil" type. And I had to confirm that in the manga she worked for team rocket, like surge and koga.I stumbled upon this pocket TCG card, and frankly. I am now on the side we need a Sabrina boss's orders. Again doubt we will ever get it, but I need it now.
>pocket1000% slop
>>59252452Card art is good though for some of the cards.You can't tell me if they printed that as a boss's orders, you wouldn't want that in your deck.
>>59252437I hope they print on demand someday. Just so I can go to a store and buy packs
>>59252460We already have the Ghetsis one which is easily the best Boss's Orders art we'll get
