What are you playing?

[PresidentLeever]

They're certainly better when it comes to instant gratification, and in some cases open-endedness (not including BotW I think, haven't played it yet).

I thought I was pretty thorough with writing stuff like that down when I played through it a couple of years back since stuff like that tends to bother me, but you may be right about the other steps. I remember trying to break from the main path a lot when I played it so I might've ended up getting some of that stuff sooner than you.

[PretentiousHipster]

Went inside The Interloper in Outer Wilds. It's been like 30 minutes and I'm still shaking and breathing very heavy from its conclusion. Games can be more immersive than movies at times, so this shit hit me really hard. Apparently it gets even more touching and emotional later on. Right when I thought this was a potential 10/10 it just gets better and better. This does what no games have done before. If people say games can't be art, show them this.

[noiseredux]

I've been playing Pokemon Trading Card Game (GBC) since the weekend, and am pretty hooked. I'm just mostly doing battles with low levelers to grind for cards. I don't have enough cards to build any of the decks from the auto-machine yet. But I'm interested in building my own custom decks. I just have no idea how to start. Like, is there some kind of basic guidelines to follow? IE: so many Pokemon, so many Energy cards, so many Trainer cards, etc ?

[alienjesus]

I've been playing Pokemon Trading Card Game (GBC) since the weekend, and am pretty hooked. I'm just mostly doing battles with low levelers to grind for cards. I don't have enough cards to build any of the decks from the auto-machine yet. But I'm interested in building my own custom decks. I just have no idea how to start. Like, is there some kind of basic guidelines to follow? IE: so many Pokemon, so many Energy cards, so many Trainer cards, etc ?

I think you should just try stuff out and see what works for you. I used to use a ratio of about 20 pokemon, 15 trainers and 25 energy cards when I was younger, which worked well enough.

Now I'm older though, it seems like the ideal setup is to have more trainers and less energy - you should be relying less on drawing energy each turn and instead relying on drawing trainer cards to let you get the energy and pokemon you need - stuff like Bill, Professor Oak, Lass, Item Finder and Energy Retrieval are great. Energy Removal is also super broken as a trainer card - I think it might have been banned competitively back in the day.

There are some classic deck types you could utilise - Haymaker for example focuses on using low energy basic pokemon with high hp, plus pluspower cards to boost damage - stuff like Scyther, Hitmonchan and Electabuzz. Raindance decks utilise blastoise to throw down as much water energy onto pokemon as fast as possible, and Venusaur decks focus on moving grass energy around en masse, and pair well with exeggutor who gets a coin flip for 20 damage for each grass energy he has. Alakazam decks focus on moving damage counters around alongside pokemon like Snorlax and Chansey to soak up loads of damage - then using Scoop Up to return them to your hand and get rid of all that damage at once.

Hope that helps with some ideas!

[noiseredux]

When you say "20 Pokemon" that includes the Evolution cards, too?

Also THANK YOU for pointing out that Scoop restores HP. I didn't realize that aspect. Just thought it put it back in the hand to "save" them from being knocked out, but that I'd still need to use a Potion. Good tip!

Bill rules.

[alienjesus]

When you say "20 Pokemon" that includes the Evolution cards, too?

Also THANK YOU for pointing out that Scoop restores HP. I didn't realize that aspect. Just thought it put it back in the hand to "save" them from being knocked out, but that I'd still need to use a Potion. Good tip!

Bill rules.

Yep, evolutions too. I'd avoid using too many evolved pokemon in your deck if you can help it, especially 3 tier evolution lines - often good basic pokemon are more effective more quickly.

Don't fall into the Charizard trap. 100 damage is great but normally unnecessary, and the set up and downsides arent worth it. Generally you want high damage for minimal set-up, or at least a consistently usable reward (like Blastoise, Venusaur and Alakazam offer) for the effort.

[noiseredux]

all good thoughts, thank you. I'm gonna try to build a deck tonight. Will report back...

[noiseredux]

didn't have much time for gaming last night. Baby's started teething, poor thing. But I at least started working on a new deck, which began by culling the Squirtle & Friends deck a bit. I started out by cutting it down to just using Water and Fighting cards (and Meowth, which is a ANY energy Pokemon). I thought I'd start with a sort of balanced 20/20/20 template of Pokemon, Trainers, Energy. But it's a little off. I have more Water than Fighting Pokemon, so the Energy is split like 12 and 8 cards. I played a couple matches and it was okay. But I wasn't pulling enough Energy, and I felt like some of my Trainers were being wasted. So I skewed it more like 20/15/25, with 14 Water Energy, and 11 Fighting. That did a little better.

It's still not great, though I'm getting the hang of the deck building here. I play a match or two, and then make adjustments. There are def some Pokemon that I favor. I like the one that looks like a walrus (I'm terrible at remembering their names, sorry) and especially his evolution. I like the one that looks like Nessy as well. Meowth is straight RNG, but he's fun.

On the flip, I'm not super crazy about any of my Fighters. So I'm thinking about which other Pokemons I want to split this deck with. Water's a keeper for me. Maybe Water/Electric? Is that weird or cool? I'm not gonna lie, I like the idea of a Squirtle/Pikachu deck.

Certain Trainers I love having in the deck. Bill for sure. And Scoop. And Switch. And obviously some Potions/Full Heal/Revive. But there's lots that I'm just not using. I need less Evolutions in there, too.

Anyway, I'm having a really good time with this game. I spent a lot of time on Lightseekers last year, and really got into the deck building there, so it's fun to have another card game that I'm actually enjoying crafting decks.

[alienjesus]

Professor Oak is a great card, especially if you have some trainers that let you get stuff out of the discard pile too. It makes you discard your hand but draw 7 cards. So you can play all your trainer cards, put down pokemon and add an energy, then basically reset so you can stockpile new stuff.

[noiseredux]

Okay, I re-tweaked the deck into a Water/Electric combo. I like this one way more. And it seems to be working a lot better. I managed to get THREE medals already: Fighting, Water and Science. Good stuff! I'm about 7 hours in at this point.