I don't know if anybody has messed with Donphan Prime as a deck on its own, but I have. It has a 50/50 matchup against Weavile and VirGen/Celebi. And it has like a 75/25 Matchup against Flareon (This is in Flareon's Favor of course. Donphan Prime is really fun because when you use Reuniclus you can move all the damage around and focus all the damage on your Outragers. If you want a reference list to get sort of an idea look at google Cawthon's “The Truth” Deck. I've been playing the Legacy format since it came out by the way so yeah. Hope this helps somebody.
Blog Blast From the Past - A Comprehensive Intro to the Legacy Format
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PMJ
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I would build this if I had the cards to. I remember how hyped it was and it just fell flat. I would be interested in finding out how it fares in this format, but I imagine it could be decent.
I like this idea, but requiring at least 6-7 Pokemon Prime is going to make this deck the territory of really old players only, I'm afraid. I would love to try it though.
Donphan Prime is basically nowhere due to how rare it is. If PTCGO starts releasing HGSS packs again, it might show up a little more.
Thanks for your posts, guys! Please be sure to like the first post of this thread to show your support!
I am short on time, but besides enjoying the article I wanted to remind everyone the basic rule for the Legacy Format is to look at the various past top decks. The difficulty still in obtaining many of these cards in the PTCGO can be a problem, so if you have a very understanding friend you might be better off building or proxying some in real life to test.
I am not sure how expensive Weavile [Plasma] is right this second, but earlier this month the main reason I think it cost me three BW: Plasma Freeze boosters to snag four is because I was impatient and wanted it ASAP. I put up three auctions, two that were me receiving 1 Weavile [Plasma] for a PLF booster and one that was me receiving 2 Weavile [Plasma] for a [PLF] booster. Probably should have been patient and just gone for two of the more favorable trade. If prices have continued to rise, then my bad and please let me know. Or was the comment about the general cost of the deck? The list I've been using only runs two Junk Arm and while it is handy I don't think I could make room for more.
Honestly given the price of Shaymin-EX (ROS) the costs for these Legacy decks doesn't seem so bad in hindsight.
I am not sure how expensive Weavile [Plasma] is right this second, but earlier this month the main reason I think it cost me three BW: Plasma Freeze boosters to snag four is because I was impatient and wanted it ASAP. I put up three auctions, two that were me receiving 1 Weavile [Plasma] for a PLF booster and one that was me receiving 2 Weavile [Plasma] for a [PLF] booster. Probably should have been patient and just gone for two of the more favorable trade. If prices have continued to rise, then my bad and please let me know. Or was the comment about the general cost of the deck? The list I've been using only runs two Junk Arm and while it is handy I don't think I could make room for more.
Honestly given the price of Shaymin-EX (ROS) the costs for these Legacy decks doesn't seem so bad in hindsight.
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The comment was mainly towards the cost of the deck, but you do have a point comparing it to Shaymin. For the price of just one you could build this entire deck, though upgrading the cards would cost a lot.
I got the Sneasels, and Weavile from a very friendly player, and I manage to pull 2 Junk Arms from locked Triumphant packs. I sank about 10 RS to get 2 more and I was pretty much ready to go. The tip I have is pretty much to save coins for HGSS-era packs and hope for the best.
The SR Eggs has gone very expensive though, I am very glad I got it complete within 2 weeks of playing the deck.
The SR Eggs has gone very expensive though, I am very glad I got it complete within 2 weeks of playing the deck.
Yeah, I have a friend that used to play the Pokémon TCG in real life. Unfortunately he just can't get into the PTCGO mostly because Theme Decks are so random (even the good ones) and unsatisfying, and since he was already "iffy" on the matter (he'd rather play Hearthstone >.>). I also was fortunate that for various reasons I'd already amassed a play set of Professor Oak's New Theory and many other of the cards you mentioned as being important I had at least one or two of just because.
That brings up an idea for a follow up article: there are a lot of key cards that people unfamiliar with Legacy might not realize they should look into. Obviously you mentioned a few like Junk Arm in your article, but I know if I had them I'd be experimenting with Pachirisu (Call of Legends 18/95) and Shaymin (HS: Unleashed 8/95) a lot more. I mean they used to be the backbone of a competitive deck, and I thought the main reason it stopped was because they rotated out.
10 RS?
At least the Secret Rare Exeggcute really is only for bling factor; I'm just using the regular version.
The weekly packages can have HGSS-era specials, saving coins for those is key to how I manage to get cards to play on legacy.
10 RS?
At least the Secret Rare Exeggcute really is only for bling factor; I'm just using the regular version.
10 Roaring Skies. Pretty the only XY-Series pack that is worth anything. It is in a standard in a standard 1:1 value.
See, having 4 SR Eggs will give you moments like this that makes you think GLOD Eggs is the best thing ever.
http://puu.sh/ojgAG/fa7305f724.jpg
Great article, congratulations! Now why don't you make some articles about legacy decks? I would sugest Keldeo/Blastoise, which is my favorite for the format.
That is how I acquired four Professor Oak's New Theory, plus I think a few other cards. They were part of some Theme Deck that kept being put into the online shop. Usually they are pretty expensive when they hit and it is why I am supposed to be keeping 1000-2000 Tokens on reserve (I never have kept that many, so usually I then spend the week grinding out what I need to purchase said product).
Probably why I had a single Junk Arm as well: a lucky pack pull from this time period.
Thanks; just wanted to make sure it was that and not some term that I wasn't already familiar with; people love to re-use abbreviations and especially for long time players it gets confusing. For a split second I was like "Ruby & Sapphire packs" before my brain kicked in and I realize "Those don't exist on the PTCGO". I usually see Roaring Skies shortened to ROS. No, I am not telling you that you have to do that, I'm just explaining my comprehension fail. XD
Speaking of comprehension fails: I don't get it. I mean, is it anything beyond the "bling factor", where your opponent may be more intimidated by that hand because you are using BW: Plasma Blast 102/101 instead of BW: Plasma Freeze 4/116? Don't get me wrong, I would love to have four of the Secret Rare version, btu since I am not the player that has untold resources to invest in the game and thus could theoretically be running any card, no matter how rare... it would be a costly bluff. XD
As I said, don't be intimidate by what I did, I am just one of those people that have a need for better arts to suit my wants. After I got what I needed to begin, I started winning in-game tournaments, then trading up happens, and before I knew it, I have something rare to show for it. The only thing I really paid per say is 3x SR Ultra Balls, which is funny since it is now worth double what I paid way back during Roaring Skies launch hype.
Otaku, you remind me of that one game I had on the ladder, guy sees the all FAs, all the SR Eggs, and went "Why use that much bling in a budget deck?" I guess I can never understand cause I rarely see anyone ever using a fully loaded Night March on last year's standard. The way I see it, getting to a point where someone can bling out the deck in the simulator is not so much a show of money, but rather how well you can trade up and gain packs from tournaments.
The one tip I can give to getting into Legacy is to cough up 25 RS packs to fetch for 4 Junk Arms and a Smeargle. Be on the lookout for deals using 1:1 packs for trades, it took some serious playing on the HGSS tournament rotation and opening packs to go plus. (Rev Foil HGSS Rainbow, and DCE are down in price, but can still easily fetch for a good Full Art-ex) Currently as of this post, Triumphant is on the tournament rotation, and easily have the best of the best cards in it.
Of course, if Triumphant packs are in the shop special, just grab as many as you can and try to bump into Junk Arms.
EDIT: Meganium Prime Bundle with 3 Undaunted in back in the shop!
May be next week they will go back to Feraligatr again with Triumphant.
Might be how I worded my last post, but I wanted to clear a few things up myself.
I use "bling" because it was (regrettably) a fashionable term when the concept of trying to throw off your opponent by demonstrating you had abundant TCG resources and thus were unlikely to be constrained by lacking a more expensive card in your deck became apparent to me. Or maybe it wasn't, but that annoying term is the one that stuck with me. XD
I do not mean, especially for the PTCGO, that you must invest money; trading is often investing time, energy, and expertise if you want to get a good return. For the record, while I'm not great, between the ample opportunities the PTCGO provides and knowing the basics, I manage on the PTCGO with a total cash investment of $0.00 USD.
I can't afford to build any and every deck at the drop of a hat, but I've got enough decent boosters built up that if I wasn't trying to plan ahead I could probably scratch build at least one competitive deck, though not if it needed multiple Shaymin-EX (ROS) and Tropical Beach, and not if I was trying to be fast about it and just use a trading company from the official PTCGO forums. As is, I did prioritize getting four Shaymin-EX (ROS) ASAP, and thankfully before I'd gotten all four I pulled a FA version from a trade locked booster.I can tell you though, for players that either haven't been active as long to build their PTCGO resources or who can't simply invest actual money to get trading fodder (re: Redemption Codes) to then convert into what they really want, decks intentionally using all or at least some of the most rare versions of cards really do scare those players. After all, many of them are barely able to cobble together one budget deck.
TL;DR: Whether one means to or not, facing an opponent who can afford (whether through investing money, time, and/or effort) the rarest versions of cards can be intimidating for other players, especially ones that cannot invest heavily. You mean it to show how good you are at trading and while it suggests that... that is intimidating! XD
Hello! I am new to Pokemon TCG, and have been slowing getting better by playing on TCGO. Your article really made me interested in the unlimited and legacy formats.
I had a question though - your article mentioned that:
"Now, remember, codes are no longer obtainable for any set pre-Boundaries Crossed, so I’ll spend just a moment detailing the good cards you can get out of the sets you can actually get your hands on."
What do you mean by this? Could I not purchase, for example, Dragons Exalted codes online or booster packs to get redeemable codes for Dragons Exalted packs on TCGO??
Would really appreciate your clarification. Thanks!
I had a question though - your article mentioned that:
"Now, remember, codes are no longer obtainable for any set pre-Boundaries Crossed, so I’ll spend just a moment detailing the good cards you can get out of the sets you can actually get your hands on."
What do you mean by this? Could I not purchase, for example, Dragons Exalted codes online or booster packs to get redeemable codes for Dragons Exalted packs on TCGO??
Would really appreciate your clarification. Thanks!
Ah, interesting! Thanks for the explanation!
So while poking around for some stuff for an article, I found a thread elsewhere that listed a bunch of decks that had at one time proven at least somewhat competitive. I thought it would be good to just run through them and test, but of course that is easier said than done! So I'll just share it here and if anyone wants to help, feel free! These are not full lists, just deck titles. I don't remember how the other people came up with the list, so feel free to add to it. Lastly I have been meaning to post this for a week and I'm heading into a busy weekend, so there are going to be some decks on here we've already discussed in the thread (sorry!). Just cleaning the list itself up would be a big help; at a glance I can see several variants that still need to be listed, but would be nice under a single heading.
- Meloetta/Seismitoad (Round)
- Virizion/Genesect
- Celebi/Genesect
- Weavile/Exeggcute
- Thundurus/Deoxys/Kyurem (TDK)
- Plasma Lugia
- Klingklang
- Sigilyph/Trubbish (Tool Drop)
- Blastoise
- Landorus/Tornadus/Mewtwo (White Tea)
- Landorus/Garbodor
- Sableye/Garbodor/Hammers (Hammer Time)
- Rayquaza/Eelektrik (Rayeels)
- Mew Prime/Techs (Mewbox)
- Mew-EX/Tech (Original entry didn't specify which Mew)
- Ho-Oh (Ho-Oh-EX? They didn't specify)
- Quad Decks (Quad Sigilyph, Quad Entei-EX...)
- Flygon/Dusknoir
- Gothitelle/Accelgor/Mew
- Garchomp/Altaria
- Darkrai/Hydreigon
- Darkrai/Garbodor
- Darkrai/something (various versions)
- Vileplume/Accelgor
- Empoleon
- Big Basics/Garbodor
- Six Corners (various basic Pokemon, partially EX, covering common weaknesses)
- Celebi/Mewtwo/Tornadus (CMT)
- Mewtwo/Eelektrik
- Gardevoir
- Zebstrika/Garbodor
- Cobalion/Kyurem/Electrode (CaKE)
- Chandelure/Vileplume
- Vanilluxe/Vileplume/Victini (VVV)
- Amoongus/Ninetales/Leafeon
- Lanturn/Eelektrik
- Durant Mill
- Beartic/Vileplume
- Mono Gothitelle
- Serperior/Reuniclus
- Reshiram/Emboar
- Magnezone/Emboar
- Reshiram/Typhlosion
- Zekrom/Pachirisu/Shaymin (ZPS)
- Donphan/Yanmega/Zoroark
- Vileplume/Blissey/Reuniclus (The Truth)
- Magnezone/Typhlosion
- Magnezone/Yanmega (PrimeTime)
- Gengar/Lost World
- Scizorlock
- Quad Donphan
- Lugia LEGEND
- Magmortar/Emboar/Shuckle