Help Retired Player Trying to Make a Return

[KindFawn]

Hey everyone. I am a former player who started playing in the Diamond and Pearl era and stopped playing when the Team Plasma deck with Deoxys and Lugia I think. I'm thinking about returning possibly this fall, but if not that soon I'll most likely wait another year and start doing some more studying up and maybe playing at a league. I just have a few questions to start off with.

1)I remember that there was some kind of multiple rotation thing that was going to be implemented that had a standard format and extended format or something like that. Is that still a thing and which is more popular? Also when is rotation, still August?

2)What are locals/tourneys formatted like nowadays? Back when I played, there was a league where you played games to earn league promos. Is there a way to find a league near me? The tournament structure I'm familiar with is pre release, battle road, city, state, regional, national, worlds. I know there is something new, but I'm just curious how it works now and how the worlds points system works now.

3)Is there any way I can quickly catch up on the current meta, upcoming rotation, deck guides, etc.?

I'll just start with those, thanks for the help!

 

[mattfofatt01]

1. There is a standard format and an expanded format. Standard, beginning this September will include all cards in the Sun and Moon era, so I would suggest making decks for post rotation, unless you want to play expanded.
2. As for tournaments and whatnot, there are form smallest to largest: League Challenges- usually cheap, you get a pack with entry and people play some fun decks, League Cups- usually $10-20, typical swiss format with a top 8 and prizes based on attendance, these happen every quarter, you can attend multiple at different stores at different times/days, Regionals- large tournaments in bigger cities, bigger prizes and bigger entry fee, Internationals-biggest events aside from Worlds, large championship points up for grabs, really good players coming out, Worlds: coming up in a few weeks, will happen before rotation so A LOT of pack options to play from, in order to qualify you must have secured at least 400 championship points form the lower events.
You can find leagues near you here where you can see if its just a league or if they have a tournament coming up. https://www.pokemon.com/us/play-pokemon/pokemon-events/find-an-event/

3. Limitlesstcg.com has the results and decklists of the most recent tournaments. My suggestion would be to look up on youtube some of the results from those tournaments and watch how you the decks play. For example there are many Zoroark variants right now, including Zoro/Lycanroc, Zoro/Golisopod or now Zoro/Control. Take a look at some of those and if any of the top tier tickle your fancy, buy singles.

 

[KindFawn]

1. There is a standard format and an expanded format. Standard, beginning this September will include all cards in the Sun and Moon era, so I would suggest making decks for post rotation, unless you want to play expanded.
2. As for tournaments and whatnot, there are form smallest to largest: League Challenges- usually cheap, you get a pack with entry and people play some fun decks, League Cups- usually 0-20, typical swiss format with a top 8 and prizes based on attendance, these happen every quarter, you can attend multiple at different stores at different times/days, Regionals- large tournaments in bigger cities, bigger prizes and bigger entry fee, Internationals-biggest events aside from Worlds, large championship points up for grabs, really good players coming out, Worlds: coming up in a few weeks, will happen before rotation so A LOT of pack options to play from, in order to qualify you must have secured at least 400 championship points form the lower events.
You can find leagues near you here where you can see if its just a league or if they have a tournament coming up. https://www.pokemon.com/us/play-pokemon/pokemon-events/find-an-event/

3. Limitlesstcg.com has the results and decklists of the most recent tournaments. My suggestion would be to look up on youtube some of the results from those tournaments and watch how you the decks play. For example there are many Zoroark variants right now, including Zoro/Lycanroc, Zoro/Golisopod or now Zoro/Control. Take a look at some of those and if any of the top tier tickle your fancy, buy singles.

Awesome, thanks for the help! I've also noticed that quite a few of the meta decks seem pretty cheap(200 dollars at the highest) which is a lot different than what I'm used to (Luxray Gl being 100 a pop) has this been the norm for a while or just happens to be how it is now? It also seems like the pull rates are much higher nowadays, we used to get like 3 GX rarity cards in a box in DP boxes. Also, are the current meta decks even going to be relevant next rotation?

 

[mattfofatt01]

Awesome, thanks for the help! I've also noticed that quite a few of the meta decks seem pretty cheap(200 dollars at the highest) which is a lot different than what I'm used to (Luxray Gl being 100 a pop) has this been the norm for a while or just happens to be how it is now? It also seems like the pull rates are much higher nowadays, we used to get like 3 GX rarity cards in a box in DP boxes. Also, are the current meta decks even going to be relevant next rotation?

Most decks are a lot cheaper than $200 these days, with the most expensive card being a Tapu Lele-gx which we just found out will be coming out in a box promo, which dropped the price of a regular art one from like $40 to ~$15, most decks run 2-3 of them with some of the more expencive staple trainers that need playsets to be no more than 3-4 dollars including Cynthia and Guzma. Also pull rates are pretty good, with some better or worse depending on the set, with the best box being Guardians Rising since many staple trainers are found in there and you can pull a Lele. I say pull rates are typically 5-7 hits per box with 1-2 of them being secret rares or full arts. What I would do is print proxys from limitlesstcg.com and playtest if you can to see what you like and buy singles, it will save you a lot of money. Celestial storm comes out tomorrow and the meta will be changing a bit with rotation coming so youre coming in at a good time.

 

[KindFawn]

Most decks are a lot cheaper than $200 these days, with the most expensive card being a Tapu Lele-gx which we just found out will be coming out in a box promo, which dropped the price of a regular art one from like $40 to ~$15, most decks run 2-3 of them with some of the more expencive staple trainers that need playsets to be no more than 3-4 dollars including Cynthia and Guzma. Also pull rates are pretty good, with some better or worse depending on the set, with the best box being Guardians Rising since many staple trainers are found in there and you can pull a Lele. I say pull rates are typically 5-7 hits per box with 1-2 of them being secret rares or full arts. What I would do is print proxys from limitlesstcg.com and playtest if you can to see what you like and buy singles, it will save you a lot of money. Celestial storm comes out tomorrow and the meta will be changing a bit with rotation coming so youre coming in at a good time.

Thanks for the help! I'm really excited to get back into it!

 

[mattfofatt01]

Thanks for the help! I'm really excited to get back into it!

Also, not sure if you know but the online trading card game is pretty cool and can be a great way to test decks if you don't have a way to playtest. It is free to play but you can go onto ebay or other sites and buy codes for relatively cheap to trade for cards in the game. Don't buy electronic cards online as that is against the TOS but buying code cards are perfectly fine. Pokebeach does a monthly online tournament which rewards real packs for free!

 

[KindFawn]

Also, not sure if you know but the online trading card game is pretty cool and can be a great way to test decks if you don't have a way to playtest. It is free to play but you can go onto ebay or other sites and buy codes for relatively cheap to trade for cards in the game. Don't buy electronic cards online as that is against the TOS but buying code cards are perfectly fine. Pokebeach does a monthly online tournament which rewards real packs for free!

I remember playing a non automated thing online to playtest back in the day that imported decks from bebessearch, is that still a thing? Not trying to have to build up two collections, especially when one I can't buy singles.

 

[Otaku]

I remember playing a non automated thing online to playtest back in the day that imported decks from bebessearch, is that still a thing? Not trying to have to build up two collections, especially when one I can't buy singles.

Sorry, can't help you with the unofficial stuff; I don't think those are as popular as they once were.

How long has it been since you tried the PTCGO? It sounds like you either haven't played it since you stopped playing the physical TCG (which would make sense XP) or you never played it at all. Unless you only buy cards second hand, you're already paying for the PTCGO. Not because it is pay-to-win; when you buy a new booster pack, tin, gift set, theme deck, etc. you'll get a redemption code for it (or the equivalent) in the PTCGO.

To give you an idea, I'm a non-paying player. The in-game rewards are pretty ample, and for a while I was playing and grinding in the PTCGO all the time, letting me build up a solid collection and a lot of unopened booster packs to trade. Even with the value of those booster fluctuating (sometimes wildly), a week or two of serious grinding (or a few months of casual grinding) allows me to "keep up" with the game. I only wish it was this easy and affordable to maintain oneself in the physical TCG.

 

[KindFawn]

Sorry, can't help you with the unofficial stuff; I don't think those are as popular as they once were.

How long has it been since you tried the PTCGO? It sounds like you either haven't played it since you stopped playing the physical TCG (which would make sense XP) or you never played it at all. Unless you only buy cards second hand, you're already paying for the PTCGO. Not because it is pay-to-win; when you buy a new booster pack, tin, gift set, theme deck, etc. you'll get a redemption code for it (or the equivalent) in the PTCGO.

To give you an idea, I'm a non-paying player. The in-game rewards are pretty ample, and for a while I was playing and grinding in the PTCGO all the time, letting me build up a solid collection and a lot of unopened booster packs to trade. Even with the value of those booster fluctuating (sometimes wildly), a week or two of serious grinding (or a few months of casual grinding) allows me to "keep up" with the game. I only wish it was this easy and affordable to maintain oneself in the physical TCG.

I mean I may go to PRs and get a few boxes now and then, but I've always bought second hand after like my first year. It just makes more sense to do so to me, but I understand that some people would rather open packs. I'll give PTCGO a shot tho

 

[Otaku]

Yeah, I only mentioned you might be getting PTCGO codes because you might be getting PTCGO codes. I guess with the Tapu Lele-GX tin coming, I was thinking more about things like that or the like the Battle Arena Deck series... which you wouldn't know about because I did not expressly state such things and you're only now coming back. XP

When it comes to the PTCGO, the main things are

• Knowing how much time you can spare for the PTCGO
• Learning the proper approach.
• Having the patience for the proper approach.

Let me know if you'd like further advice. Most of it seems like common sense in hindsight but you can't go more than two weeks on the PTCGO forums (less, when they're busy) before someone makes a thread that lets you know they're clueless about the above. Though if they don't know about those official PTCGO forums, they have a partial excuse (but aren't the people making those threads).