This is something I've been writing for the players at my league. We've had a really big 'reset' in the last year as almost all of the experienced players, people who placed in top events like Worlds, have all disappeared never to be heard from again. Moving up to fill in their ranks are new player eager and excited just to play the game. They don't have a way forward yet, and the information I've been writing for them is to help give them some direction and food for thought. This isn't just to give them knowledge to take them to all the way to a Regional top cut, but it's full of facts that they'll find useful in any game they play no matter how far they want to go with it.
This is meant to be an introduction to the depths of the game with some wisdom and a philosophical bend to it. The things contained below are things I've learned or realized in many different games that I've played on many different platforms. They're also useful outside of games when you learn to apply them, too.
This is still a draft.
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Pokémon has two general types of players with different types of goals. Competitive players seem to follow a great pursuit of victory above all else. A casual player is just concerned with playing the game and trying to have fun. Each person has their own definition of what they find fun and how they achieve their enjoyment. That is to say: everyone has a different means to reach their desired ends. This is why dichotimization isn't helpful. We live in a time where people are eager to classify and dichotomize everything and everyone they can. While on the surface this seems like it might be useful or helpful it's really a fruitless endeavor.
The little details change too much to stand against time. It's far easier to identify the constants that exist and learn from those. It puts up a false face towards something that is incredibly easy to understand: at the end of the day people just want to play the game. To do that though, no matter what their goals are, they all require resources to make it happen.
"Does Pokémon require resources?" you might be asking. It absolutely does! But what are those resources and how do you recognize them? See, Pokémon isn't just a game that you get something out of for playing, it's something that you have to put something into first. Nothing ventured nothing gained, right? This isn't just true with this game -its true throughout life. Lets start by going over the 3 key resources you'll need to improve your understanding of the game -and maybe enhance your outcomes.
Cards
Cards are the first things that probably come to your mind, so lets talk about them!
Human
Pokémon isn't solitaire! You can only play it with another person, so use that time with whoever that might be to improve upon what you do -win or lose.
Time
This is the resource that affords the above resources to serve a purpose. You need time to accumulate cards. You need time to really learn how to use them. Given enough time you can move on from learning and actually doing things on your own. You'll be able to build your own decks and see how all you've learned plays out in a battle! It's a shame that there are only so many hours in a day, isn't it?
I'm going to skip bullet points on this one. Let's start with some math: let's say you only play at league for 3 hours a week. For 1 year, or 52 weeks, you'd get in 154 hours of play time. Add in some league challenges, some league cups, waiting in line for one of the two single-use bathrooms at a Regionals event, and you still don't come close to breaking 300 hours in one year. Of course you can play the game outside of these times, but where do you find the time for it? I don't think anyone who placed in the World Championships their first go around had 10,000 hours of TCG time under their belt yet. We can't treat that rule like it's law, though -not for something like a TCG. It's not just time itself but the quality of the time spent.
In no time flat will you realize that you've lost a game. What matters at that moment is if you're thinking about why it was that you lost. It's easy to say your opponent had better cards, but unless you look at yourself you won't improve any. You have to spend time looking at what you did or didn't do. You can only control what you do and the plays you make, which makes judging your outcomes on the opponent alone is a waste of your time. Invest your time not just to play the game but to look at yourself and your methods more critically. We have to be our own best critics because we're our own worst enemies.
Next time we'll talk about the constant that have existed in the game since I began to play it: things like setup, draw power, and how to use cards that reduce chance in your deck and focus on getting it all to work for you
--- --- --- --- --- ---
That's all for now.
This is meant to be an introduction to the depths of the game with some wisdom and a philosophical bend to it. The things contained below are things I've learned or realized in many different games that I've played on many different platforms. They're also useful outside of games when you learn to apply them, too.
This is still a draft.
--- --- --- --- ---
Pokémon has two general types of players with different types of goals. Competitive players seem to follow a great pursuit of victory above all else. A casual player is just concerned with playing the game and trying to have fun. Each person has their own definition of what they find fun and how they achieve their enjoyment. That is to say: everyone has a different means to reach their desired ends. This is why dichotimization isn't helpful. We live in a time where people are eager to classify and dichotomize everything and everyone they can. While on the surface this seems like it might be useful or helpful it's really a fruitless endeavor.
The little details change too much to stand against time. It's far easier to identify the constants that exist and learn from those. It puts up a false face towards something that is incredibly easy to understand: at the end of the day people just want to play the game. To do that though, no matter what their goals are, they all require resources to make it happen.
"Does Pokémon require resources?" you might be asking. It absolutely does! But what are those resources and how do you recognize them? See, Pokémon isn't just a game that you get something out of for playing, it's something that you have to put something into first. Nothing ventured nothing gained, right? This isn't just true with this game -its true throughout life. Lets start by going over the 3 key resources you'll need to improve your understanding of the game -and maybe enhance your outcomes.
Cards
Cards are the first things that probably come to your mind, so lets talk about them!
- You can't play the game without cards. You can't play the game well without certain cards. You can't play in a 'competitive way' without very particular cards. Accumulate these cards through purchasing packs, trading with others, or buying singles when you can. There's no shame in having to buy a single if you can't get something you need from a pull or a trade. Be prepared however to pay a price you might not expect for a card like Tapu Lele GX in the Standard Format or Computer Search in the Expanded Format
- The Expanded Format really makes use of a lot of cards. These cards go years back to the release of Black and White. Many players simply held on to their cards from that period of time up until now. This format is proof that it pays to hold onto things. Know when to keep what you have more than when to get rid of it
- Consider that Tapu Lele GX (at the time of this writing) is $42.00 a piece. As a full art GX card it's really up there on the rarity scale. That combined with the ability to draw a supporter when played to the bench makes it not just a pretty piece but an asset! You can purchase about $42.00 worth of packs of Guardians Rising and never even pull a Tapu Lele GX. You can buy a whole box and still not pull one! For only $42.00 you can go ahead and bite the bullet, otherwise you're just taking a gamble
- When you go after any pack you essentially are gambling. There's an element of luck and randomness not knowing what's in that pack when you've gotten it. By buying a single you're eliminating all elements of that luck and therefore you pay those higher prices of certain cards. You're not so much paying for the card and its market value so much as you paying for the convenience of getting the card you wanted direct to you
- Different types of players have different ways of acquiring their cards. You can even identify a persons motivations by how they invest into their resources. Did they buy two Tapu Lele GX and some Buzzwole GXs and whatever else is needed for the meta game? Consider that person 'all in'
- All this leads to another resources: funds to get them! But those raise a whole different set of questions with a whole different set of answers
Human
Pokémon isn't solitaire! You can only play it with another person, so use that time with whoever that might be to improve upon what you do -win or lose.
- Experienced players are the best way for both beginners and aspiring players to learn how to play the game. A players development should be constructed like scaffolding: building upwards with layer upon layer of experience from trials and errors. This is begun with the help of mentors who are others that play at a higher level and who can and are willing to pass on their knowledge
- More often than not there are a lot of higher level players who don't teach others. This can be a lack of interest, a lacking of mentoring ability, or a desire to keep someone else from competing against them.
- Someone may be willing to teach, but what they teach isn't inline with the Spirit of the Game or might not even be desirable. Mentoring should be pursued with caution
- Organizers can facilitate their league to serve not just as a place to play but as a place to improve the abilities of their participants. The video games after all referred to these places as Gyms for a reason: a place to help you git gud. As the game has moved further and further towards tournaments and eSports it seems that leagues have been forgotten about and their potential squandered -but great potential for them still exists if organizers can tap into them!
Time
This is the resource that affords the above resources to serve a purpose. You need time to accumulate cards. You need time to really learn how to use them. Given enough time you can move on from learning and actually doing things on your own. You'll be able to build your own decks and see how all you've learned plays out in a battle! It's a shame that there are only so many hours in a day, isn't it?
I'm going to skip bullet points on this one. Let's start with some math: let's say you only play at league for 3 hours a week. For 1 year, or 52 weeks, you'd get in 154 hours of play time. Add in some league challenges, some league cups, waiting in line for one of the two single-use bathrooms at a Regionals event, and you still don't come close to breaking 300 hours in one year. Of course you can play the game outside of these times, but where do you find the time for it? I don't think anyone who placed in the World Championships their first go around had 10,000 hours of TCG time under their belt yet. We can't treat that rule like it's law, though -not for something like a TCG. It's not just time itself but the quality of the time spent.
In no time flat will you realize that you've lost a game. What matters at that moment is if you're thinking about why it was that you lost. It's easy to say your opponent had better cards, but unless you look at yourself you won't improve any. You have to spend time looking at what you did or didn't do. You can only control what you do and the plays you make, which makes judging your outcomes on the opponent alone is a waste of your time. Invest your time not just to play the game but to look at yourself and your methods more critically. We have to be our own best critics because we're our own worst enemies.
Next time we'll talk about the constant that have existed in the game since I began to play it: things like setup, draw power, and how to use cards that reduce chance in your deck and focus on getting it all to work for you
--- --- --- --- --- ---
That's all for now.
