A good, cheap pokemon tcg deck?

[Darkartisan]

Hey everyone. Ever since I was young, I loved pokemon cards. I sold all of my cards about 3 years ago, and I am looking to get back into the card business. I have about $50 USD, so I am thinking of some options.

Should I buy two tins?
ten packs? Also, what type of packs? Stormfront, Legend awakened, etc?
Or should I just buy a deck; wait, what's a cheap efficient deck?

I am really hoping that you guys actually play the Tcg.

Thanks for wasting your time :D

-Dark

 

[chenman333]

My grip with pokemon and yu-gi-oh is that it is quite difficult to make a good, cheap tcg. I remember I spent less than $10 dollars on my magic cards (no holos or any special cards), structured my deck around the theme of directly attacking life points, and was able to beat my friends who spent $60 or more dollars (they have no lives, we were 12 and obviously not as intelligent :D) on their magic cards.

I tried out yu-gi-oh but found I couldn't avoid spending a lot of money for the really good cards.

So my suggestion is just to avoid pokemon tcg and go into magic. 50 dollars is more than enough for a solid magic deck.

 

[Darkartisan]

eh, not exactly what I was looking for :(

Pokemon because i am good at it

Magic is a big nono because I can't stand playing with 20 year olds, and the effects are a little too "droll" if you will.

 

[nardd]

well I assume you wouldn't have any energies so you should stick to decks

stormfront decks have decent pokemon in them (I prefer the tyrannitar one myself) though if you want to have a truly competitive deck you might need to spend a little more than that :[

if you're just looking for some fun then i'd say either legends awakened or stormfront, as they have the best pokemon.

last option is to make/playtest a cheap deck on redshark (download at pokebeach.com) and order them online somewhere. You can get more trainers that way and customize more easily, though it will be a little harder to stay in budget :/

 

[Darkartisan]

Thanks.

I know that I can make a good deck with $50 dollars, I actually just found this Scizor deck that wont cost me a fortune.

Although I am still looking at the SF Ttar deck...

 

[nardd]

yeah that scizor one is decent, though it loses steam if your swarm doesn't work. Definitely could find the cards for $50 i think

Are you planning on spending more later or is this just a whim?

 

[Olie]

Pokemon tcg is quite cheap compared to yugioh actually
just buy 3 starter decks and you'll have enough cards to actually make a competitive deck. In yugioh of course this is hard to do.
3 starter decks should run you about 45 dollars, my personal favorite being the electivire starter (if you can find it, use it)

 

[Darkartisan]

yeah, I may just buy a box with my friend and get 12 packs for 50 bucks. I find that the starter decks are too normal, I want to buy packs mainly to be able to trade for what I need. I'm talking about the Scizor/Cherrim strategy incorporated at the pokegym.net. It is cheap to build I think, and is a quick setup quick win deck.

 

[nardd]

boxes come with 36 iirc so that's 18 for you not 12

 

[Darkartisan]

ahh, he's paying 70, so I calculated that he gets more packs than me. I'm happy with 12 packs anyways as it's practically guaranteed that I get a lv.x, hopefully Hetran as I could get everything I need for it.

 

[nardd]

ah ok got it. Good luck dark! I'm probably going to split a box with my gf as well sometime soon. We've gotten into tcg as well recently :]

 

[Darkartisan]

Thanks. GL to you too.

 

[Anti]

I'm about to sell all the cards from when I was younger on eBay... going'a be more than $50 USD though.

 

[Darkartisan]

I would buy, but the problem is that they are most likely all out of date >.>

I just bought 5 packs actually, and only a few notably good cards, which was a slight disappointment.

Gyarados SF (reverse holofoil)
Sceptile SF (Reverse Holo)
Mismagis SF (Holofoil)
Scyther SF (I want to build a scizor/cherrim deck)
and also a SF Machamp.

I'm excited though because I am probably buying a couple new packs, so hopefully I can trade with the 35 year olds in the back that have practically 5 of every card.

:)

 

[nardd]

I'd say you have a start on a few good decks with scyther and machamp. Also about trading, occasionally you'll find someone nice enough to just give you a couple cards to flesh out your line (i.e. machops, more scythers etc) so if you explain you're starting fresh and on a low budget you might get some deals. Happened when my gf and I went to a nearby league, though we didn't pursue (yet). Could be because she was a girl, but who knows :]

 

[Mekkah]

58 Psychic Energies
1 Basic Mewtwo (Barrier/Psychic)
1 Maintenance

Reshuffle and draw until you have Mewtwo.
Play Mewtwo.
Attach Psychic on turn 1, then don't die or get removal'd.
Attach Psychic on turn 2, and Barrier.
Use Maintenance at some point, and repeat above steps until opponent decks himself.

I never actually did it, but it looks like a cheap fallback in every sense of the word.

 

[X-Act]

Hehe.

One, that Mewtwo card (and Maintenance) have long been banned from Modified play, unless there's a reprint of those cards that I'm not aware of (which is something they might have done - they reprinted cards like Electabuzz when I still used to play).

Two, even if you allow all cards, that deck is easily beaten by Super Energy Removal, which should be in every Unlimited deck. It is also shut down by Cleffa Eeeeeeeking every turn, thus allowing you not to deck and for the Mewtwo player to deck... and Cleffa is in every Unlimited deck.

 

[Darkartisan]

yeah, man reprints wont happen anytime soon >.>

So today I have the option of splitting a booster box with my frien for 18 packs each, which will get me everything I need for a deck, or buying 12 packs for 50 dollars. Hopefully my friend will pick me up and drive me to the local card store, i'll keep you guys updated on what I get.

Oh by the way, I also have these:

Lucario and 4 riolu's
The whole machamp evo line with 4 machokes and machops
Gyarados and Magikarp.

Edit: Just bought a box and split it w/ my friend!

I got

Heatran lv x, Gyarados', Ttars and a bunch of other good things!

 

[Shinryu]

Ok, this is coming from someone who's been playing the game...well, since it came out. So I know quite a bit of the decks and such.

If you're looking for cheap and effective, Scizor/Cherrim is your best bet. However, for the next step up, Machamp is also a very good deck. Both these decks can be constructed largely from non-holo rares (excpet for Machamp, which needs the Lv X form). If you don't play Dusknoir with it, Gengar can also fall into this category.

From there, Dusknoir, Magnezone, Torterra, Kingdra, and Regigigas are your next tier cost-wise I think. These decks either have more expensive holos and/or their respective Lv X forms. But in return, they also perform better; Dusknoir, Kingdra, and Regigigas are the big decks right now, but Torterra (and Grass in general) promises to be big once Shaymin Lv X is released (finally) in February.

Here's a basic list of the "staple" Trainers/Supporters you'll want in any deck regardless:

4 Bebe's Search
4 Rare Candy (unless you plan to avoid Stage 2 decks entirely, which is hard since most require Stage 2s)
3-4 Roseanne's Research
3-4 Buck's Training
2-3 Cynthia's Feelings
2 Night Maintenance
2 Warp Point
1 Luxury Ball
1-3 Premier Ball (depends on the deck)
3-4 Professor Oak's Visit or Felicity's Drawing
2-4 Plus Power

And finally, if you're serious about running Scizor/Cherrim, here's a great article to get you started (just don't mention Smogon on that site if you sign up, it's a banned word there for retarded reasons):

http://pokegym.net/forums/showthread.php?t=88567

 

[Mekkah]

Hehe.

One, that Mewtwo card (and Maintenance) have long been banned from Modified play, unless there's a reprint of those cards that I'm not aware of (which is something they might have done - they reprinted cards like Electabuzz when I still used to play).

Two, even if you allow all cards, that deck is easily beaten by Super Energy Removal, which should be in every Unlimited deck. It is also shut down by Cleffa Eeeeeeeking every turn, thus allowing you not to deck and for the Mewtwo player to deck... and Cleffa is in every Unlimited deck.

well, looks like I finally know why nobody's been talking about that one anymore ~__~

 

[Syberia]

A game in which how "good" you are is almost directly proportional to how much money you spend is not worth playing, IMO.

 

[Darkartisan]

Yeah, I set up a Scizor/Cherrim deck. Thanks fior the article Shin, although that was what I was using lol.

I set it up, but I am thinking of making a beat down deck also.

I am thinking of building it around the idea of Tyranitar/Darkrai/Weavile.

 

[X-Act]

A game in which how "good" you are is almost directly proportional to how much money you spend is not worth playing, IMO.

Well, you can always play online without spending a penny.

And if you don't play online, to be honest I'd rather spend money than waste hours soft-resetting for legends and breeding. To each his or her own, I guess.

 

[Darkartisan]

Wait X-act, you can play the tcg online?

 

[Sklez]

You can, Redshark is the name of the progam I am aware of.

http://pokebeach.com/redshark