Pokémon Trading Card Game (GBC)

[DHR-107]

It was for the GBC/GBO... So it is only the original run of cards... Original Pokémon. Probably only a few hours long if you hardcore it and get lucky with the cards in the booster packs etc.

Right now I'm pretty sure Hitmonchan is just the total boss of this game, and once you get one of these guys set up you're basically guaranteed to win.

Hitmonchan is amazing. 70 HP, 20 damage for 1 energy and 40 for 3. Psychic decks are pretty rare too so you don't have to worry so much about getting bashed for double damage that often.

 

[Texas Cloverleaf]

I am interested in the game though there are other games that I definitely want to get first. But I am wondering how much I will get out of it, especially in terms of hours, as Pokemon spin-offs tend to be very short. Also, how forgiving is the game with Pokemon choice? Like, can I play if any old pokemon and expect to enjoy playing with it?

If your playing through it cart style you'll probably get between 8 and 16 hours of game play, depending on how intent you are on speedrunning it, and how far you intend to go to completion. The game is pretty forgiving with choice, there are a lot of viable strategies and all types are usable, though obviously certain strategies win more easily than others.

 

[Fatecrashers]

why are you two replying to an adbot

 

[Son_of_Shadoo]

Wow, I should really consider getting back into this. I really used to suck at this game, never even beat GENE. I suck. But, I'm 19 now and actually have something of a brain. Perhaps after my exams I'll try again.

 

[Shining Kestral]

I play this all the time, usually if need to kill ten minutes or so, I bring out the GBC (amazingly, both it and the game still work perfectly fine) and do one or two duels. Most of the NPCs are quite easy.

Also forget Dr. Mason's advice and use a flying type deck against Gene and Mitch. They can do roughly nothing against decks that resist fighting. Scyther and Golbat especially will eat Gene alive and the best shot Mitch has at beating you is Stretch Kicking you bench with Hitmonlee.

I change decks all the time to break monotony, usually coming up with gimmicks just to see if they work. Currently, the deck I'm using is a Damage Swap-Cowardice deck combined with Golduck and Dragonair. The basic idea is to get Golduck or Dragonair into play to Hyper Beam the shit out of everything and have Alakazam shift damage to Tentacools who then Cowardice back into the hand for basically free potions every turn. It's a pretty evo heavy needlessly specific deck, I have to admit, and if I can't get a Hyper Beamer into play, it has a rough time. (Probably going to find a way to shove more Pokemon Traders into it) I really use it just to mess with the NPCs until I can come up with a new gimmicky idea.

I do have a deck made with the sole purpose of taking down Murray because screw that guy. I never actually lose to him (having a single Gambler card ensures I won't deck unless I get really unlucky and it's one of my prizes), but having to win by waiting for him to deck himself is the worst.

Also at least once, you should try knocking out an evolved Pokemon by giving it enough damage (like say, a Charizard with 8 damage counters) and using Lv. 23 Mew's Devolution Beam to revert it back to its previous stage...except now it has enough damage to be knocked out. Not a practical or effective strategy in the least, but it sure makes you feel awesome when you pull it off.

 

[Jellicent]

Just finished beating this game (still some cards I'm missing, but I'll get those when it's not almost 5 AM). Short, but amazing game.

I started off with Squirtle and Friends, and I gotta say, the Water deck did not let me down. I mostly ran Squirtle and Staryu evolution lines until I got some Horseas and Seadras. Lapras consistently pulled its weight, but I only had one the whole game ;-;

Also, Hitmonchan is an absolute monster. I ran 4, and a majority of my wins are due to this card. Being useless against Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno was a bit of a drag towards the end, but it still managed to keep the rest of the opponent's team in line at all times. I found it particularly useful against the Electric gym (apparently Electric is weak to Fighting? >.>), which would've wrecked my Water deck otherwise.

 

[Midnight Show]

Just finished in about 14.5 hours. This ended up being very, very fun, especially since I had no idea how to play the TCG beforehand.

I started out with Squirtle & Friends, but modified it a ton by the end. Tore through the Grand Masters with Gigashock Raichu.

I'm going to attempt to complete the card album now, but I still need like thirty cards...

 

[Showsni]

Some of the cards you can only get via Card Pop!, so you might have some difficulties there (unless you happen to have lots of friends who own the game).

 

[Nix_Hex]

Bumping this since I found my cart and want to share some of my decks. First off is a standard haymaker I ran in real life before they were banned at Toys'R'Us tournaments:

Fossil Magmar (x4)
Base Electabuzz (x4)
Hitmonchan (x4)

Bill (x4)
Energy Search (x4)
Energy Removal (x3)
Switch (x2)
Pluspower (x2)
Gust of Wind (x3)
Potion (x4)

Fire Energy (x10)
Fighting Energy (x10)
Lightning Energy (x6)

Strategy: Haymaker. Set up for immediate damage with low energy attacks. All three mons in this deck can attack on the first turn with high damage (Hitmonchan) or nasty side-effects/status (Electabuzz and Magmar). Burn through your deck with Bill and Energy Search. Before long you will have full powered Hitmonchans and Electabuzzes.

As others have stated here, Hitmonchan is a no-brainer because of that one turn set up. It's not too hard to get it to +3 for Special Punch thanks to the 1 colorless. Magmar is a great lead too with Smoke Screen then possibly Smog on the next turn. That 1 retreat cost is golden, letting Magmar do its job then leave when it needs to for little penalty. Electabuzz gets possible first turn paralysis, although I really dislike the coinflipping. Potions can heal the recoil, and Pluspower is there to assure KO on something with 40 remaining; this is great on the last prize when you have nothing to lose. Also, possibly OHKOing all those damn base 50s out there is pretty amazing.

There's some great type synergy here too, since most Pokemon that resist Hitmonchan are weak to Electabuzz who can do either 60 or 80 damage with just two energy!

Everything else is filler. Switch helps me get around Hitmonchan's and Electabuzz's 2 retreat cost, while Energy Removal and Gust of Wind pretty much make bench set up a non-issue.

Bulbasaur (x4)
Ivysaur (x3)
Base Venusaur (x3)
Charmander (x4)
Charmeleon (x4)
Charizard (x3)
GB Moltres (x2)

Energy Retrieval (x4)
Super Energy Retrieval (x1)
Energy Search (x4)
Switch (x2)
Computer Search (x4)
Potion (x2)

Grass Energy (x10)
Fire Energy (x10)

This deck is a little more experimental. I made it because I was bored of owning everything with Haymaker and I missed the whole "set up and rape" strategy that made Pokemon so much fun as a beginner. Venusaur can shuffle Grass energies around the field, primarily to Charizard who uses it as fire energy. Since all three stages of Charmander require discarding to use their most powerful attacks, Energy Retrieval and Super Energy Retrieval are there to pick up the pieces. GB Moltres has Fire Giver to load me up on Fire energies. Overall this deck performs pretty poorly in practice but I think it has the right idea. Any suggestions?

 

[cantab]

I loved this game. My own favourite deck was an energy removal one. Poliwrath, Golduck, and Dragonair, and load up on the Energy Removal and Super Energy Removal. Not the most reliable to be honest, but when it works it works very well. I also tried the just Legendary Zapdos deck, it's cheap and exploity but certainly kills stuff.

Also, I found myself almost always running 25 to 30 energy, any less and I kept not having the stuff. Tended to mean being a bit thin on the trainer cards.

And, of course, plenty of cheating options, mostly involving resetting in battle after finding out how your deck's arranged or what the next coin flip will be. Best though was an Action Replay code that let you control the computer player as well, I played a couple of matches with friends on the one Game Boy using that.

Played a fan translation of the sequel too, was OK but the translation was incomplete so while the battles were fine I was left guessing the plot.

As for your deck above, I'd slap the Double Colorless Energies in since Charizard makes good use of them. Also I might replace some Computer Searches with Pokemon Breeders.

 

[Shiruba]

i have one thing to say about this game

WHY DOES THE SPRITE CONSTANTLY WALK INTO THE TABLE

 

[SimicCombine]

So ten-year-old me thought you could break the game by jamming Blastoise with Dewgong, Articuno, and Lapras with all the card draw and just keep spamming super powerful water attacks. Was I right?

 

[Chou Toshio]

I played ALL HAYMAKER

Hitmonchans, Electabuzz, Mewtwo, Scyther; mixing in some Kanghaskan and/or Jiggly/Wiggly for fun.

DO THE WAAAAVEE!!!!

 

[Ratatat]

I loved this games back in the day. Back in school circa 2001 I used to think about it all the time during my summer job, strategizing and what-not. It's on par with the Mystery Dungeon games for best Pokéspin-off. I even played some of the Japanese sequel for what little I could make out from it. The music takes me back...

I can't remember any of the exact decks I used back then, but I actually replayed this about a year or two ago and ran a fossil-type Haymaker variant I called "RockLock". The basic idea being to run 'mons that didn't evolve while locking out my opponent's ability to evolve themselves with Aerodactyl's Pokemon Power.

4x Lapras
4x Hitmonchan
4x Aerodactyl

4x Bill
4x Energy Removal
4x Mysterious Fossil
4x Pluspower
3x Gust of Wind
3x Professor Oak
3x Super Energy Removal
2x Item Finder
1x Computer Search

12x Water Energy
8x Fighting Energy

Probably could have made a better choice than Lapras, but it worked well enough. Especially since the AI rarely if ever used Haymaker-type decks of their own (but that daggone Magmar was annoying).

 

[thesynchrohero]

Also, Hitmonchan is an absolute monster. I ran 4, and a majority of my wins are due to this card. Being useless against Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno was a bit of a drag towards the end, but it still managed to keep the rest of the opponent's team in line at all times. I found it particularly useful against the Electric gym (apparently Electric is weak to Fighting? >.>)

Ground types are fighting in the tcg

 

[Flareon]

I remember this game!

I used to run a deck that used Pokemon that could attack with any energy (Scyther, etc).

 

[Hulavuta]

This thread taunted me so much that I have to replay this game now. I'm thinking going for a full Dinosaur theme, if there are enough cards, otherwise I'll just try to go as close as possible. So, that means starting with the Venusaur deck and then using stuff like Rhydon or Scyther. Fossil Pokemon will also count, even though none of them are technically based off of Dinosaurs.

 

[Ratatat]

Has anyone played the sequel that never got an English release? I'd love to know the reasoning behind why the game never got released. As the first game sold 1.5 million copies alone in North America.

Year-old reply, but I'm guessing that by the time it would have been translated to English the GBA would have likely been on the market for several months at that point (it actually came out the same month as the GBA in Japan). Nintendo probably just wanted to move forward and focus their marketing entirely on the new hardware. Kind weak reasoning seeing as how the GBA was backward compatible with the GBC already, but that's all I can come up with.

Kinda poopy since, as it stands, it's one of the few Pokemon games that never made it out of Japan, along with the WiiWare Mystery Dungeon games. We never got English versions of the original Japanese N64 Stadium 1 or Pokemon Green either, but at least we ended up getting better versions of those anyway.

 

[crazyrazey]

Sorry for upping an old topic


The main deck i used was

Aerodactyl evo lock

Mystery Fossil x4
Aerodactyl x3
Scyther x2
Pinsir x2
Hitmonchan x2
Hitmonlee x2
Kangaskhan x2
Lickitung x2
Tauros x2
Snorlax x1
Professor Oak x2
Bill x2
Pokemon Trader x1
Energy Search x2
Energy Removal x1
Pokeball x2
Computer Search x1
Gust of wind x2
Gambler x2
Grass Energy x6
Fighting Energy x14
Double Colourless x4

Where you simply aim to get Aerodactyl out on your bench and then kill there weak basics with your strong ones



Other decks i have built but hardly use is

Dodrio Retreat - Use Dragonite Step In ability to get out of status conditioning and use Dodrio Retreat Aid to give it free retreat (much like Keldeo EX does in current decks). And attack with the strong basics like Hitmonchan ect.

Mr. Mime/Mew - Use Mr. Mime ability to stop 30+ damage and Mew ability to prevent it getting hit by evolved pokemon. And use Alakazam ability Damage Swap to move damage onto high HP pokemon like Chansey.

Blastoise - An obvious one really, using his ability to power up powerful water types. (If only you could attach to non Water types i would of paired him up with Charizard with his ability Energy Burn)

Nido's - Using Nidoking's Toxic and also powering up Nidoqueen's Boyfriend attack.

Muk - Block all Pokemon Powers attack with basics. Much like Garbodor decks. (No use on the game though :( )

Free Retreat - Use free retreat Grass and Colourless pokemon like Golbat, Scyther, Fearow ect. And also have a Venasaur on your bench to move Grass Energy onto the new active.

Mew/Dragonite - Use Mew Devolution Beam on Dragonite so you can keep using its Healing Wind ability, Promo Venasuar to get rid of status conditions with ability.

Venomoth - Try have as many types of pokemon you can to use Venomoth Shift ability so Venom Powder will always be super effective. Be best if energy cost is colourless (You can get Fire, Water and Lightning with the GB eeveelutions)


I know some of these aren't that great but they are what i came up with

 

[Juice!]

I love this game. I got it when it first came out, and so did a few of my friends, but they hated playing against me, because I always won. I used to be really good at the Pokemon TCG irl, I started playing in grade 5 when the first base set came out right up until Neo 2 came out in like grade 8 I think when I kind of stopped playing in favor of Magic The Gathering. I was basically undefeated at both my local stores. I had so much store credit I never had to pay for singles I needed for decks with cash. :P I played in the World Championships one year when I was 12 I think, and just missed the top 8 due to a really bad run of cards in my last round.

Anyway, yeah back to this game. It was sick, I was always annoyed that they never released a sequel. I wanted my damn Rocket's Zapdos. Anyway I played Haymaker with Wigglytuff or Rain Dance, kind of alternating, as they were just so dominant.

4x Electabuzz
4x Jigglypuff
3x Wigglytuff
3x Mewtwo (the promo one with Psyburn)
2x Mr. Mime
2x Scyther

4x Bill
4x Professor Oak
4x Computer Seach
4x Gust of Wind
4x Energy Removal
3x Super Energy Removal
2x Itemfinder

4x Double Colorless Energy
5x Lightning Energy
8x Psychic Energy

PlusPower was good but I never managed to fit it in, but it never mattered because I almost always had turn 2 Wigglytuff hitting for 60 with all that card draw. Sometimes just to switch it up I cut Psychic for Fighting and ran Hitmonchans instead of Mewtwos and Mr. Mimes, and just ran a 3rd Scyther, but I liked the Psychic version better, as Mewtwo hits for 40 on turn 2 (energies are easily discarded with Oak or CPU Search), as opposed to Hitmonchan hitting for 40 on turn 3.

....and now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go dig out this game and my GBA and fire it up. :P

 

[x42bn6]

I managed to clock over 200 hours on this game.

I think the best part of the game was the music - which I think is easily one of the best on the GBC. I'd argue it's second only to the Oracle series on the GBC. I think it has the best rival, too.

The decks I used were abusive Blastoise/Wigglytuff style decks. I tended towards Wigglytuff style decks because they can accommodate Hitmonchan (to handle Mr. Mime, thanks Murray) better.

This game made me think Raichu was a tank in the main games - 80/90 HP, with ridiculous damage? Fossil Raichu was my favourite card in the series - 90 HP to tank hits, and the ability to take multiple prize cards at once. The AI loathes this move, too, as it can't always do saving switches and big threats can slowly be whittled down.

 

[Pika25]

Psychic (Murray) was the toughest GM. I wish it was Mitch that carried the haymaker deck, not his minion Jessica. With more Electabuzz and no Magmar. And I wish Amy's rain deck had better attackers. Seaking? More like sea weakling to me... The only other GM whose deck is even remotely competitive in my eyes is Nikki. Using Venusaur with P-Center... oh god!

 

[Perfect Shadow]

I had a lot of fun with a (legendary) Zapdos FTK deck (the other main use for that card). Sadly you have to trade/abuse the card cloning glitch to get more than 2 of any of the legendary cards. It also works better in the sequel since you can get Super Scoop Up in that.

 

[MatthewPlaysPokeX]

When I got this game on the 3DS Eshop 2-3 days ago, I made a Confusion deck as Confusion was by far the most broken status in that game due to the old rules. The theme of the deck was to use Grass and Water Pokemon that could Confuse the opponent's Active Pokemon to spam the mve sthat could Confuse the Pokemon e.g. Lapras Lv31's Confuse Ray and use Energy Removal, Super Energy Removal, Potion and Defender to stall longer as your opponent just attacked themselves LOL XD.

Dazzling Confusion Deck

4x Golbat Lv29
4x Zubat Lv10
2x Weezing Lv27
2x Koffing Lv13
2x Tentacruel Lv21
2x Tentacool Lv10
2x Lapras Lv31

4x Prof. Oak
4x Bill
2x Pokemon Trader
1x Energy Retrieval
2x Energy Search
3x Energy Removal
1x Super Energy Removal
3x Computer Search
1x Defender
2x Item Finder
2x Gust of Wind
1x Potion

7x Grass Energy
6x Water Energy
3x Double Colourless Energy

Confuse them all.

P.S. Was there anyway to connect to other players who had the 3DS version and battle each other

 

[Lady Vader]

While I didn't play it back in the day, I did play a ROM shortly after getting back into Pokémon in 2009 and it actually taught me how to play (when I was little, I just collected cards...yet I still managed learned how to play the convoluted mess that is Yu-Gi-Oh). I actually recently got the actual game pak not too long ago and it is currently in my GBC. In less than a week, I built a pretty decent Haymaker with Base Set Magmar, Scyther, and Hitmonchan:
Pokemon (12)
4x Scyther
4x Magmar (Base Set)
4x Hitmonchan

Trainers (24)
4x Bill
4x Professor Oak
4x Energy Removal
3x Super Energy Removal
4x Pluspower
3x Gust of Wind
2x Item Finder
2x Computer Search

Energy (22)
10x Fire Energy
8x Fighting Energy
4x Double Colorless Energy

I also have two alternate versions where I replace either Magmar or Hitmonchan with Electabuzz.
I still need to beat it, though (I only have 2 Medals).
It's quite honestly my favorite TCG adaptation I've ever played and I've played a lot (most of the GBA Yu-Gi-Oh games, the PS2 Duel Masters game). It's the same game as back in the day with the exception of not letting your opponent draw if you don't get a basic in your opening hand. Well, that and no Fossil Ditto nor Base Set Electrode. Plus, Scyther for life! (It's Slash attack made short work of the Rock Club).

Does anyone know how fun this game is against other people? I was the only one who owned this game way back in the day, so I had no one to play against.

I actually played against one of my friends a couple of months ago and I beat his Rain Dance deck. It was just fun having two GBCs hooked up with a Link Cable playing against a friend.

P.S. Was there anyway to connect to other players who had the 3DS version and battle each other

Sadly, no. That's the worst part about any Virtual Console game.