r/pkmntcg

▲ 11 r/pkmntcg

Custom deck for 7 year old

Hello all. My 7 year old is into the game and I got her the starter deck set (pikachu, cinderace, eevee). She's learned the basics of the game (I'm a very casual MTG player so I understand the basics) but has only used those decks. For her birthday I'd like to get her two new decks so that we can play against each other. Her favorite pokemon are Reshiram and Sceptile, but I'm not looking to get something that's actually competitive (as we only play each other). When I look around online all the decks are aimed at being competitive and are probably too complex for her. Do y'all know of any services or individuals who I could pay just to build two casual decks so that we can play with more than the starters? Thanks in advance.

reddit.com
u/Jurgioslakiv — 1 day ago

How does Dudunsparce TEF keep you from decking out?

I'm really confused on how it keeps you from decking out.

If you have zero cards in deck and shuffle the two cards back into deck you wouldn't be able to evolve the Dunsparce

Is it the sequencing of cards or do you need more than one line of Dudunsparce for this to work?

reddit.com
u/Charlesleray — 22 hours ago

Tactics for Mega Lopunny to counter Meta Fighting decks?

Along with Mega Lucario, a second candidate I’m considering bringing is a Mega Lopunny for my upcoming regional. But fighting meta decks (Lucario, Garchomp, Okidogi etc.) will demolish Mega Loupunny. Since I’m new to playing Mega Lopunny, are there any tactics available to counter fighting decks?

reddit.com
u/Lightspecter141 — 1 day ago
▲ 101 r/pkmntcg

TimDanklin claims he created an army of 473 Team Rocket's Honchkrow players for Melbourne regionals, do you think this is true and how do you feel about it?

I think this could be very funny if it is true and it leaves an imprint on the top decks list of Limitless, climbing to 8th place minimum in my bet.

Another thing: he said he trained 473 players, but we don't know how many of them would have attended Melbourne without his initiative. So it could be very possible most of them would have not and that we may see our first tournament in Oceania with over 1,000 players (699 attended the last one).

As for the credibily, while he may have exaggerated the number, I think it would be at least a few dozens, since we saw him asking for players to be in that initiative months beforehand in a few videos.

What do you think?

reddit.com
u/SpeedAccurate7405 — 1 day ago

Raging Bolt bad matchups

I’m a returning player coming back after a few years of not playing. I’ve built a raging bolt and plan on going to some locals again soon. What matchups are bad for the deck and how should I play into them? I’ve done some testing online but I’m in the lower ranks so I have no clue what matchups are actually good or bad

reddit.com
u/Sol_Ursus_42 — 1 day ago

Blissey Ex Deck salvageable to Standard

I was using a blissey deck to gather and learn mechanics of the TCG. With the new rotation almost half of the cards used are no longer viable where I wanted to see if there is a way to continue using Blissey and the Munkidoris to the new standard?

Pokémon: 16

4 Munkidori TWM 95

3 Chansey TWM 133

3 Blissey ex TWM 134

2 Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex TWM 112

1 Girafarig TWM 83

1 Farigiraf ex TEF 108

1 Eevee SSP 143

1 Leafeon ex PRE 6

Trainer: 35

4 Arven OBF 186

4 Iono PAL 185

3 Boss's Orders PAL 172

1 Professor's Research JTG 155

1 Professor Turo's Scenario PAR 171

3 Ultra Ball SVI 196

3 Pokégear 3.0 SVI 186

2 Night Stretcher SFA 61

1 Precious Trolley SSP 185

1 Redeemable Ticket JTG 156

1 Earthen Vessel PAR 163

1 Nest Ball SVI 181

1 Counter Catcher PAR 160

1 Switch SVI 194

2 Technical Machine: Turbo Energize PAR 179

1 Exp. Share SVI 174

1 Air Balloon BLK 79

1 Rigid Band MEW 165

1 Technical Machine: Evolution PAR 178

2 Town Store OBF 196

Energy: 9

4 Darkness Energy

2 Fighting Energy

2 Psychic Energy

1 Grass Energy

reddit.com
u/hadwn — 23 hours ago

I want to build a set of 3 decks from current standard to play with people at work. As I'm looking to have somewhat of a Rock-Paper-Scissors format, what would be the best third deck to join Dragpult and Festival Lead?

I'm thinking it'd either be Garchomp or Crustle, but does anyone have other opinions or suggestion?

If I extended this out to 4 decks, is there a best 4th deck?

reddit.com
u/Jaccount — 1 day ago
▲ 13 r/pkmntcg

How to deal with the healing Megas? (with Wally)

If you are not Dragapult (and even then), it gets tricky to deal with Mega Lopunny/Starmie/Froslass since they can heal with Wally, get the energy back in hand and then attach/attack again.

Okay sure Starmie first attack isn't great but they do have Ignition for the second one.

It is very rare that you can OHKO them. So usually you need the two attacks. Which then gives them margin to heal.

I know that it limits them to have the Wally in hand, and not have any other supporter being able to be used then. But still.. With the dunsparce line, they seem to be able to deal with it.

So.. How can they be dealt with in such cases? 😁

In mean besides running Garchomp/Okidogi

reddit.com
u/ReptilPT — 1 day ago

Dragapult early game questions

To preface, I am using Andrew Hedrick’s pult list from LA, which only includes one budew. I’m trying to understand some of the strategies to use in the first few turns. Should I go first or second? What matchups should I use budew? If not, what should I leave in the active?

reddit.com
u/Accurate-Hat-4075 — 1 day ago
▲ 13 r/pkmntcg

What's the actual point of Dudunsparce EX in the Dragapult deck ?

I'm rather a new player, I've started playing last year (rather as a "poké-dad") in a local league with an easy-to-play Chien-Pao and built a Dragaput-Dusknoir just before the rotation, wich I'm now trying to adapt.

I totally see the point of Dudunsparce as a draw engine and Dudunsparce EX as a useful weapon against decks that rely heavilly on EX pokemon.

But I don't quite understand how to play Dragapult without the Dusknoir evolution chain. The way I've seen it from the start, the whole point of the deck was to use Dusknoir, Mundikori, the effect of Drag's Phantom Dive and to deal damage to benched pookemon and get 2 to 3 killsin a turn, wich compensates the rather slow build-up of Dragapult.

Now, even if I play some Rare Candy to evolve Dragapult faster, I'm still not quite sure of how the added draw ability, (and the EX's "tenacious tail" attack), compensates the loss of the ability to deal 130 damage to bench.

Is there an entirely different way of playing this variation of the deck ?

reddit.com
u/yurt-dweller — 1 day ago
▲ 100 r/pkmntcg

Regional Campinas & Utrecht: Glimpse of A Brighter Future

The past weekend saw 2 concurrent standard tournaments taking place, totalling almost 4000 players, or almost half of a Japanese Champions League, for scale. Despite Dragapult winning all of Prague, LA, and Aichi beforehand, new winners finally emerged in the post-rotation format. The other grand finalists were both Dragapults, of course, the deck is still BDIF, but neither could make it all the way.

Utrecht Winner: Miloslav Posledni’s Mega Lopunny Dudunsparce

An iteration of the deck that got 8th in LA, the big bunny took home the W. Gone are the 3 useless Spiky Energies, and in are 3 Fire Energies and a Moltres. This inclusion allows a better matchup into Slop playing Teal Masks and the occasional Grass Decks, since the Spikies were basically dead slots anyways. Notably this list runs only 3 Poffins and 3 Lillies, maxing out of the Pokegear instead to increase the chance to find Wally’s Compassion as high as possible. The meta call of ‘pretending fighting decks don’t exist’ continue to pay off here, as Miloslav faced literally 0 of them the entire way, and banked on the great pult matchup all the way to the championship. The success of this deck will inevitably results in higher Watchtower usage and perhaps the increase of Garchomp & Lucario, but only the future can tell if that’s significant.

Campinas Winner: Matias’ Matricardi’s Hydrapple Meganium

From a rogue deck to regional winner in about 2 weeks, the Hydrapple ex deck is taking the meta by storm. With many decks running Shaymin, the Arboliva build is ceding play rate to Hydrapple as the premier Grass deck (the Megas continue to be fake). Anyone who’s played with or against this deck knows that it hits for very big numbers, and the inclusion of Celebi & double Meowth for aggressive consistency paid dividends. The ability for Hydrapple to accelerate energy to another mon allows the usage of Tapu Bulu as an excellent single prizer with an attack just strong enough to kill all Ogrepons and 2-prize liabilities on bench. In general the lists are fairly similar, but both Unfair Stamp & Hero’s Cape prove viable ace spec options.

Utrecht’s Top 4: Joshua Vanoverschelde’s Rocket’s Honchkrow

The only single-prize deck to have made top-cut at Utrecht, Honchkrow bounced back from a terrible LA to getting top 4 on the back of Youtube’s very own ZapdosTCG as the pilot. His list remains unchanged from its 28th placement at Prague, and Joshua cites better practice as a reason for his greater success this tournament. The deck itself still boasts a terrible conversion rate into Dragapult as an archetype, but perhaps Joshua has shown all it really need is more ride-or-die.

Campinas’s Top 4: Bruno Barros’ Rocket’s Spidops Mewtwo

Another theme deck apperance, this Rocket Box fittingly ran Secret Box for maximum consistency similar to the list from LA. Gone are the Handheld Fans, as respect for Festival Lead has cratered. No Rocket’s Kangaskhan also means only 3 Giovanni, and the 1 Archer has found his way back into the deck. 2 Poke Pads + 1 Energy Search promises smooth turn-2 acceleration, minimising situations where you cannot find your Spidops / Energy. Importantly, a Counter Gain and a Brave Bangle are present to replace the Tool slots, allowing Mewtwo to attack with only 1 energy attachment for turn as well as turning Lillie’s Clefairy into a plan-C attacker now that the deck runs 1 Basic Psychic.

The Emergence of Predators:

With a smaller share of Pult preys like Alakazam and Festival Lead, Dragapult counters are on the rise. Raging Bolt sees the most obvious rise in usage, followed by Lopunny Dudunsparce, Slop Box, and even Clefairy Ogerpon. These decks all boasts great conversion rates, and promise to shave down the Dragapult numbers one meta shift at the time. However, these numbers should be self-correcting, as the single-prizer that feeds off them will likely see an increase in response.

How’s the good-against-Pult-but-loses-to-grass decks been doing? Garchomp made 13th at Utrecht with a Rare Candy list, while Zoroark earnt 2 top 16s. Oh, there’s Grimmsnarl too? Yeah. Grimmsnarl gang better hope Special Red Card carry them because it’s not been looking good. Mega Absol? …

The Post-Rotation MVP - Dudunsparce

Initially, only Akazam really ran a lot of Dudunsparce as a synergistic draw engine, but with the lack of reliable draw supporters in the format, as well as the legality of Poffin and Poke Pad, many other decks began to follow in its stead. Dragapult was of course the first to find great success, so much so that the Dunsparce variant has easily overtaken the much overhyped Blaziken in terms of success. Mega Lopunny was the next, seeing great synergy with Dudunsparce’s ability to get itself out of the active. But is that too pedestrian for your taste, still? How about Mega Starmie Froslass Dudunsparce, seeing good day 2 success in both Campinas and Utrecht. This combination isn’t new per se, and it has been seen circulating in Japan, but only now has gotten its big breakthrough in the TCG. Is that still too meta for you? How about Mega Lucario? This combo actually boasts a pretty good conversion rate at Utrecht, forgoing Hariyama’s clunky bench space demands for an extra draw engine on top of Luna Rock, not to mention allowing you to reset Mega Brave should the opportunity arises. We also see a few Archaludon lists running this to some small results at the lower tables, but expect that deck to make a bigger splash once Prism Tower arrives.

Misc. Fun Facts

  • If Lopunny can win despite auto-conceding to Fighting Decks, is there another archetype that can do the same? Yes, sort of. Mega Kangaskhan Bouffalant sees 3/5 players making day 2 at Utrecht, with 1 breaching top 128.
  • Slowking got its highest placement so far at Campinas, earning a 16th spot. This is another deck that will benefit grealy from the upcoming Chaos Rising set.
  • Prime Catcher got its highest placing post-rotation in the 2nd place list from Campinas on Fracisco Osorio’s Dragapult list. Imo Prime Catcher is severely underrated.
u/Arabella_Fabiene — 2 days ago

Chaos Rising Claydol

No idea if this will make it into the meta but the chaos rising Claydol seems pretty interesting!

1 fighting energy
Devolves the highest stage and puts card back in opp hand

50dmg

I’m pretty new to the TCG but I feel like this is a fun mechanic when combining this with being able to apply damage from the bench and knocking out the devolved form

Not sure if this type of attack has been in the game before.

reddit.com
u/Lilf1ip5 — 2 days ago

Could You Help me Make This Charizard X / Oricorio Deck Better?

Hi all,

My goal is to build a beginner friendly deck that is...

  1. ...easy to pilot and...

  2. ...has at least a decent chance at local tournaments.

My choice was a Charizard X / Oricorio deck because of the easy piloting. I've actually built the below deck in TCG Live (without the Nitro Energy of course) to practicet, and it is performing pretty well (I think I have around 60-70% win ratio). Of course, I am at a very low tier in ranked TCG Live; so, it probably does not matter that much.

My question is: how would you guys make this deck better (more consistent, maybe faster) without sacrificing much of the easy-piloting aspect of it?

Thank you!

The deck:

Pokémon: 13

4 Charmander PFL 11

3 Charmeleon PFL 12

3 Mega Charizard X ex PFL 13

3 Oricorio ex PFL 18

Trainer: 33

4 Rare Candy MEG 125

3 Poké Pad POR 81

3 Energy Recycler DRI 164

2 Switch MEG 130

4 Ultra Ball MEG 131

2 Lillie's Determination ASC 192

4 Dawn PFL 87

2 Surfer ASC 200

3 Waitress ASC 215

3 Boss's Orders MEG 114

3 Firebreather PFL 89

Energy: 14

4 Nitro Fire Energy M4 81

10 Fire Energy MEE 2

reddit.com
u/Rinceart — 2 days ago

Min/Maxing Online vs IRL

I was thinking about taking a couple of decks to some locals and play in some matches, locals I guess they might be called.

Is there typically only tournaments or casual play?

In the local scene. (Town with about 120k people)

How common is it that most people have every card they need?

I know online PTCGL I can get every card perfect and min/max my deck.

IRL I often finding myself missing a few cards. Maybe a Pokepad has been hard to find, maybe that card was too expensive or I just missed it.

I understand that it really depends on the deck and how important the card is

How common is it that people's decks aren't perfect and maybe having to run 3 more energy or tools or something because they couldn't get the cards to make it perfect for one reason or another

reddit.com
u/Pickles17 — 2 days ago

Wailord ex

With Wailord ex being revealed for Pitch Black, I was pretty excited for it, so I wanted to jump on building a deck around it. What do we think about this? I had Aurorus and the new Primarina cause it really seems like they want you to pair Primarina with Wailord since it heals all damage, but it seemed like overkill and they're both stage 2 Pokemon. So, I chose Aurorus to reduce damage and Jumbo Ice Cream for healing. Lapras is an early attacker to switch out to Wailord with Dewgong moving energy from Lapras to Wailord and Shaymin to protect the bench. Any area to improve and should I make cuts? I wish there was more protection and disrupt cards, but what's here is decent at most.

Pokemon (14)

3x Lapras ex

2x Wailord ex

2x Wailmer

2x Dewgong

2x Seel

1x Aurorus

1x Shaymin

1x Meowth ex

Supporters (16)

4x Lillie's Determination

3x Misty's Energy

2x Boss's Orders

2x Judge

2x Dawn

2x Xerosic's Machinations

1x Eri

Items (14)

3x Jumbo Ice Cream

2x Heavy Baton

2x Great Haul Net

2x Ultra Ball

2x Night Stretcher

1x Rare Candy

1x Special Red Card

1x Antique Sail Fossil

Ace-Spec

1x Hero's Cape

Stadium

1x Surfing Beach

Energy (14)

2x Bubble Water Energy

12x Basic Water Energy

reddit.com
u/ResidentForsaken — 2 days ago
▲ 26 r/pkmntcg

Chaos Rising format: Beedrill ex and Mega Greninja ex. How do you think they'll do in the west, especially the turin special event.

Seeing how well have the turin special event right around the corner as the first major tournament when chaos rising cards become legal, how do you think these two new decks will do? Does beedrill ex have a niche over Meganium/TMO/Arboliva? ​

reddit.com
u/Traditional_Art8872 — 3 days ago

What cards could help optimize my Lucario deck? Especially ACE Spec card?

I’m preparing to go to the Indianapolis Regionals. With the Meta the state it’s in, I’ve made a modified Lucario deck that had gotten me an 11 win streak and a 1600 point standing at Live. I love Lucario so could my deck be further optimized. Ace spec I have an Unfair Stamp but should I change it?

Pokémon: 17
3 Mega Lucario ex ASC 113
3 Solrock ASC 106
2 Lunatone ASC 105
1 Makuhita MEG 72
1 Hariyama MEG 73
4 Riolu ASC 112
2 Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex PRE 58
1 Meowth ex POR 62

Trainer: 32
2 Air Balloon ASC 181
1 Judge POR 76
4 Poké Pad POR 81
4 Lillie's Determination ASC 192
2 Wally's Compassion MEG 132
2 Gravity Mountain SSP 177
2 Boss's Orders MEG 114
4 Fighting Gong ASC 187
1 Switch MEG 130
3 Ultra Ball ASC 213
4 Premium Power Pro MEG 124
1 Team Rocket's Petrel ASC 207
1 Salvatore TEF 160
1 Unfair Stamp TWM 165

Energy: 11
2 Rocky Fighting Energy POR 87
9 Fighting Energy MEE 6

reddit.com
u/Lightspecter141 — 2 days ago
▲ 22 r/pkmntcg

Which one is the superior grass deck now? Arboliva or Hydrapple?

So I been trying to pilot Bolt but having a really hard time, barely hitting 1400 in live.

Before the rotation, I used to run Arboliva ( Yes, I know it wasn't meta ) and had success, sitting in 1600 and winning in casual locals. But after the rotation everything went downhill with shaymin in every deck and the loss of nest ball/turo, so decided to switch to bolt. Been trying ungabunga bolt, and got some success but the deck feels weak, so I tried to switch to box bolt, but I'm having a really hard time.

So, I believe I will go back to grass decks.

Both decks are doing good in JP, with Arboliva having a slight edge. But there's not much grass in the regionals, so I don't know what to do.

Which grass deck do you recommend for someone that it's rather new in the game and just want to try some local cups?

reddit.com
u/Sifflion — 3 days ago
▲ 26 r/pkmntcg

How do you think special red card will impact the meta?

Seeing how much decks pick Unfair Stamp as an Ace Spec; Special red card has a place in most, if not all, decks with at least a "one of". So, are we back to using secret box, prime catcher, legacy/neo upper energy and hero's cape? Or will unfair stamp stay the nr. 1 ace spec for so many decks?

Would N's zoroark suddenly pick up scoop up cyclone to deal with the issues of bench management?

And would Mega Sharpedo now want Hero's cape to endure more hits?

Will dragapult consider neo upper to fix the energy management issue especially with mega greninja on the horizon?

reddit.com
u/KafeiTomasu — 3 days ago