New 'Let's Play' Theme Decks Featuring Pikachu and Eevee!

[Luxray]

Simpler cards I can see would be good for little kids. Less trainers will be bad. I remember when I started playing at five years old, I quickly gave up on the rules, like most other kids I played with, because they were complicated, and building a deck required more cards than I had. It was actually more enjoyable to have a stack of cards and take turns just trading damage, and whoever had the cards with the most damage and health won. We all got annoyed at whoever brought trainer cards to the party because we had decided they were useless. I eventually discovered bill, did some quick math, and realized that trainer cards are a gift from heaven, but nobody else wanted to use them... so I stopped playing pokemon for 8 years.

PLEASE teach the children that trainer cards are good things. DON"T just sell us bulk and call it good marketing... Even if it's only tierno, shauna, and great ball. It doesn't need to be high end trainer cards, but just something to give them the idea of playing a sequence of cards instead of the typical draw-attack-pass style of a theme deck these days. That's what one of pokemon's biggest strengths is over other TCGs, IMO.

 

[Alex Sableye]

Agreed, why don't that make theme decks that new players could take to a league night and play right out of the box.

I can't tell if this is sarcasm or if you're serious.

Just in case you're serious, you can use these straight out of the box for casual league play.

 

[The Last Shaymin]

oh yeah mr krabs im lovin my insane 10 trainer draw engine with my 30 pokeymans and 20 energy

no but seriously they should make ones with 40 trainers, 10 energy and 10 pokemon, just make it a good deck. I'd gladly pay more if i could get my set of staples like that.

 

[Pokefam]

The good old days of being a kid , everything had to simplified. Sarcasm Behind, Stoked to see what kind of cool eevee coin I will need to pick up.

 

[boyishgoodlooks]

I can't tell if this is sarcasm or if you're serious.

Just in case you're serious, you can use these straight out of the box for casual league play.

Theoretically, they are functional deck, but not anywhere close to the ideal build. The garchomp deck for instance has 2 garchomps, 1 lucario and 20 fighting energy.

 

[Pokefam]

Theoretically, they are functional deck, but not anywhere close to the ideal build. The garchomp deck for instance has 2 garchomps, 1 lucario and 20 fighting energy.

The alolan ninetales deck is not bad in a gx heavy meta it could be ok. Plus anything can win a Juniors league cup in best of one dead draw / loss and you don't get first. 3rd Theme decks in general are good starting points @boyishgoodlooks I 100% agree with you.

 

[RiverShock]

I don't see this being good for kids honestly. Sure, little kids care more about the Pokemon than anything else, but I highly doubt these decks will increase the VARIETY of Pokemon, they'll more than likely just be more COPIES of Pokemon, which doesn't do anything but make the decks less playable. It also gives those that do take an interest in the game itself the wrong impression, that Trainers aren't all that important, when they are by FAR the most important cards. (Same reason why I hate how few Trainers are in Trainer Kits. It makes even less sense there since they give a guided game anyway.)

Also, I reaaaaaally hope they stick to 1-2 types. I could see them doing more than that just so kids see more of their favourite Pokemon, which would make the decks even worse.

 

[bbb888]

More pokemon + fewer trainers.... so even worse than the already terrible theme decks. Sounds like fun.

Can they be any worse than old Wizards of the Coast decks that had 28 energy cards and 11 trainers at most??

 

[TokenDuelist]

TPCi continuing to show that they have no idea what they're doing with the TCG.

Nothing new.

 

[DragonFang101]

Le executive dudes at Tpci:

Oh Frollicking Frillishes won't this be the grandest thing we have to offer to our fans! *claps hands with excitement* I'm sure that with fewer Trainer cards and more Pokemon everyone is SURE to love it!!!

 

[Gengar master]

Just what we wanted!

 

[CynderDarkov]

Yeah I don't know having an even more simple version of the already simple theme decks seems pretty insulting. Plus at least from a "I want to get into the tcg" aspect of it, it's important to know about trainer cards and acknowledge their existence. I sure as hell didn't when I was a kid.

 

[Merovingian]

“These decks contain more Pokemon and fewer Trainers with simpler cards for an experience aimed at a younger audience.”

As a League owner, this is "throw your arms in the air and walk out of the office" infuriating.

I do a Pokemon League ever week. HALF of my time with kids and new players is having to re-establish good deck building and overhauling their 20/20/20 decks, decks with 30 Pokemon/30 Energy, or 18 Booster-palooza.

I have to explain to kids and parents that, yes, a Theme decks and starter deck is a good way to start and learn, but they only get you so far in regards to building a versatile Trainer pool and skillset. It feels weird when you have to educate kids and parents that they nearly wasted 2 on something that won't help too much.

Don't get me wrong. I love teaching new players and kids and teaching good deck building and everything there is to it. But it's really tough when I spend so much time trying to hammer out bad habits and TCPi continues to encourage bad habits in which players dont have the best opportunity to grow.

I will reserve complete judgment until the full decklists are published. Unless we are getting Mach Strike 2: Electric Boogaloo, I'm not going to look forward to a bunch of kids coming up to me and asking why their Let's Go! decks are doing poorly.

I'm glad I live in a small town as I'm going to redirect all the parents to the local Target that has about 6 Mach Strike decks warming up the shelves.

 

[DiaborMagics]

I enjoy collecting Theme Decks if nothing else. And if the Eevee one has an Eevee coin, I NEED to get me one. I keep saying it but I'm still pissed that Enchanted Echo had a Lucario coin; that mon had nothing at all to do with the deck and it should have been a Sylveon - my favorite Pokémon and the very face of that theme deck - coin. They robbed us of the perfect opportunity to get a Sylveon coin and now the same print of Lucario is on multiple coins (albeit that the coins themselves look different).

So Europe miss out again

...
I had read over that. With America I assumed Europe as well. You've got to be kidding me.
Can anyone else confirm if Europe gets shafted again?
And can anyone explain why figures aren't allowed? I can't find what point in the law states that. I wanna know why. Getting incomplete products is so frustrating and importing isn't cheap. It's taurosdung

 

[TheRealBro..]

''...for an experience aimed at a younger audience.'' Just like the games...

And the previous games (sun & moon).. And those before that. I guess we should have seen it coming when you're always playing in-game as a 10 year old. No more casino's, mobsters, dead Pokemon and finding things out on your own.

 

[PokeMedic]

18 Booster-palooza.

I've always wanted to have a word I could use for that phenomenon. It's difficult to get through to kids how important it is to start with some sort of structure and move on from there. Almost all of them get 60 cards and think they're Ash Ketchum IRL (spoiler: Ash never wins League).

 

[FossilJockeyMG]

I don't think this is as terrible as it seems the consensus here is. Yes, kids come to league with piles of cards that aren't decks. That's going to happen regardless. However, this is a simpler deck at a lower price point. It it going to win at a tournament? No. Are they even going to win a ton? Probably not. However, what if a parent has two kids who like GO/Let's GO, but they themselves don't know how to play the TCG. They pick up the Pikachu/Eevee decks, and teach the kids to play. Not everyone lives near a league, unfortunately, so having some meta heavy deck wouldn't be a big deal in that scenario when the meta is honestly whatever your parents bought you.

Let's say they do find a league. At least they'll know the basic rules of the game. Sure, if they want to compete they will need to modify/build a deck (or at the very least buy a deck of the next tier, like the Garchomp one). I honestly don't see the harm in this, especially since it's not like we aren't seeing more competitive stuff making their way to stores. The battle arena decks are great for expanded, for those who play it, and we are getting a Tapu Lele GX box. Geez, I mean, Arceus forbid they make a couple theme decks that aren't ready for Worlds. I think there is a great deal of bias here, probably not intentionally, because obviously people who frequent PokéBeach are deep in the TCG. However, what isn't represented here are all of the casual players who don't even know PokéBeach exists. Making claims like these products shouldn't exist suggests those people shouldn't be allowed to play the game unless they are willing to go as deep as we do. I don't think that is a fair assessment.

I plan on picking up an Eevee and Pikachu deck for my daughter for Christmas so we can play them against each other at home.

 

[RiverShock]

I don't think this is as terrible as it seems the consensus here is. Yes, kids come to league with piles of cards that aren't decks. That's going to happen regardless. However, this is a simpler deck at a lower price point. It it going to win at a tournament? No. Are they even going to win a ton? Probably not. However, what if a parent has two kids who like GO/Let's GO, but they themselves don't know how to play the TCG. They pick up the Pikachu/Eevee decks, and teach the kids to play. Not everyone lives near a league, unfortunately, so having some meta heavy deck wouldn't be a big deal in that scenario when the meta is honestly whatever your parents bought you.

Let's say they do find a league. At least they'll know the basic rules of the game. Sure, if they want to compete they will need to modify/build a deck (or at the very least buy a deck of the next tier, like the Garchomp one). I honestly don't see the harm in this, especially since it's not like we aren't seeing more competitive stuff making their way to stores. The battle arena decks are great for expanded, for those who play it, and we are getting a Tapu Lele GX box. Geez, I mean, Arceus forbid they make a couple theme decks that aren't ready for Worlds. I think there is a great deal of bias here, probably not intentionally, because obviously people who frequent PokéBeach are deep in the TCG. However, what isn't represented here are all of the casual players who don't even know PokéBeach exists. Making claims like these products shouldn't exist suggests those people shouldn't be allowed to play the game unless they are willing to go as deep as we do. I don't think that is a fair assessment.

I plan on picking up an Eevee and Pikachu deck for my daughter for Christmas so we can play them against each other at home.

My point isn't so much that the fact they're worse is a problem (though it is), it's the fact that there's likely no pay-off for that downgrade aside from maybe a lower pricepoint. Theme Decks already have fairly diverse Pokemon. I don't see this making the decks any more desirable, even for kids that just want Pokemon and nothing else. (And really, booster packs are much more effective at that, and always will be, being much cheaper than decks, having more variety, and getting shiny foil stuff to excite the kids further.) What incentive could there possibly be for someone to buy this for their kid over a Theme Deck? (Aside from, arguably a Pokemon like Pikachu or Eevee on the cover, which they could do with an actual theme deck if they wanted to. And both have featured on Theme Decks, at that.)

 

[FossilJockeyMG]

My point isn't so much that the fact they're worse is a problem (though it is), it's the fact that there's likely no pay-off for that downgrade aside from maybe a lower pricepoint. Theme Decks already have fairly diverse Pokemon. I don't see this making the decks any more desirable, even for kids that just want Pokemon and nothing else. (And really, booster packs are much more effective at that, and always will be, being much cheaper than decks, having more variety, and getting shiny foil stuff to excite the kids further.) What incentive could there possibly be for someone to buy this for their kid over a Theme Deck? (Aside from, arguably a Pokemon like Pikachu or Eevee on the cover, which they could do with an actual theme deck if they wanted to. And both have featured on Theme Decks, at that.)

Truthfully, the biggest payoff is probably the "I like Eevee" or "I like Pikachu" sort of deal. A lot of the theme decks currently available don't overlap GO/Let's GO that much since they may feature pokémon after Gen 3 (ex: Garchomp, Lycanroc, Empoleon). Also, since we haven't even seen the cards yet, we really can't assess the decks fully outside of the basic knowledge of "less trainers = bad." For all we know these decks, despite having less trainers, may have really good basic ones. I mean, what if these came with 3 Cynthia or some other new simple, yet effective hand refreshing, card (Prof. Oak, perhaps)? I'd buy 'em just on that reason alone. Maybe the cards are all holo like the Genesect deck? I wouldn't mind a set of holo energies.

As for your point regarding packs, obviously buying packs is more fun, but you can't easily build a deck from pack busting without dropping a lot of cash since what you get is random. Buying 6 packs will cost you around $24 before tax... and I would hate to see the deck someone built using only 6 packs and nothing else. This is more of a bridge between wanting more pokémon and actually having something playable. (In this case playable meaning "functions like a deck" over "wins at events and league.")

I know back in the WotC days starter decks were labeled for beginners, Theme decks were labeled advanced, and packs were labeled for experts. I don't see this as any different. Based on the little we know, Eevee/Pikachu are for Beginners, theme decks like Mach Strike are intermediate as just a little work will make them good for something like a League Challenge, and then building a deck from scratch using packs would be something someone with experience would do. Seems legit to me.

I guess my main point here is, if you aren't stoked on these that's fine. However, it just seems pretty premature to me to completely write them off as pointless.

 

[RiverShock]

The issue with your points is that all of them could just as easily be covered in an actual theme deck. As I said, there's nothing stopping them from having Eevee star on a Theme Deck that's otherwise on the same level as the rest, and I doubt it would sell any less to kids. If the quality of Trainers IS better, that would only prompt people to question why actual Theme Decks don't have more copies of sought after trainers. (I'm also only expecting Trainer Kit-level Trainers here personally, along the lines of Hau, Switch and Potion.)

(And the deck isn't all-holo. They'd have mentioned that well ahead of time if that were the case, and it wouldn't be cheaper than an existing Theme Deck.)