• Breaking News

    Thursday, January 7, 2021

    Home Unlabelled Pokémon TCG Let's gooooo

    Pokémon TCG Let's gooooo

    January 07, 2021

    Pokémon TCG Let's gooooo

    Let's gooooo

    Posted: 07 Jan 2021 03:07 AM PST

    I'm reviewing all 34 theme decks of Sun & Moon series and Sword & Shield series

    Posted: 06 Jan 2021 11:59 PM PST

    Summary: As of early 2021, the 34 newest theme decks are 9 from Sword & Shield series and 25 from Sun & Moon series, for a total of 34. I'm reviewing all 34 of them, plus 2 more as a bonus, so that makes 36. I actually have 40 total theme decks available: those 36 plus the three starter decks plus Mental Might. Since those last four are available by default and not purchased from the Shop, I'm not counting them.

    I started playing PTCGO on Monday, November 9, 2020. Wednesday, January 6, 2021 marks my 58th day of playing this game. Since I currently work from home, I've had the time to burn through about 1.5 decks per day. By that, I mean actually getting all 36 wins with each theme deck in the Trainer Challenge. At first, I was only going to buy the most powerful decks, but then I ended up getting everything that has benefited from the power creep of Sun/Moon and Sword/Shield. You may have seen me commenting on my progress here:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/ptcgo/comments/jtv9dt/just_got_four_stars_for_everybody_in_the_trainer/

    https://www.reddit.com/r/ptcgo/comments/k8b84e/i_bought_all_the_most_powerful_ptcgo_theme_decks/

    I am going to give each theme deck a rating of 1 star, 2 stars, 3 stars, 4 stars, 4.5 stars, or 5 stars. Then, I'm sorting them by alphabetical order. The 4.5-star thing is just because I had four decks that I felt deserved five stars, but they were in some way just a notch below truly five-star decks. All the text from my December 6 thread are copied and pasted and unchanged, so they may be somewhat inaccurate and outdated. This is because those 17 decks are not fresh enough in my memory for me to go back and change what I said. The 19 decks that I reviewed after that are still fresh in my memory, so I can comment on them more accurately. Any deck with 4, 4.5, or 5 stars, you cannot go wrong with. Any deck with 1, 2, or 3 stars should not be used unless you're using it to complete a daily challenge or just enjoy the novelty of using a weaker deck.

    5 stars (3 decks):

    Charizard Theme Deck (Vivid Voltage) (Colorless/Fighting/Fire) - Leon's Charizard is about as powerful as Relentless Flame. In my opinion, it is pointless to argue which one is better because either one can easily curbstomp the other depending on luck. If Charizard somehow isn't enough for you, there are strong attackers in Yanmega, Lugia, and Magcargo. There's a reason that everybody plays this deck, and it's not just because it's new.

    Relentless Flame (Colorless/Fire/Psychic) - Not much needs to be said here. Getting out Nidoqueen and Charizard is like an instant victory button, but it's infuriating when you can't find the pieces you need because they're in your prizes or something. Also, I feel like Farfetch'd and Brock's Grit slow this deck down.

    Soaring Storm (Unified Minds) (Colorless/Dark/Dragon) - This is unusual among theme decks in that all the cards are incredibly powerful and work well together; there is no filler. Some say that this is a decent counter against Relentless Flame, although I still see it as kind of a toss-up between the two. Keep Dragonite on the bench, or attack with it. It'll tear things apart either way. Thundurus, Tornadus, and Lanturn are also each obscenely powerful attackers.

    4.5 stars (4 decks):

    Drednaw Theme Deck (Water) - So basically, there are two evolutionary lines that you want to take advantage of in this deck: Samurott and Drednaw. Either one can wipe the floor with your opponent, but I'll give the slight edge to Samurott because it's powerful offensively and defensively. Everybody plays this deck to counter Charizard, but it's quite a force to reckon with against just about anything.

    Rillaboom Theme Deck (Colorless/Grass) - There's no question that this is the deck to use for daily challenges involving Grass. Rillaboom is insanely powerful, alternating between 180 and 90 damage every turn. Maractus is no slouch, either. It can be very frustrating to go against this deck in Versus Mode and get wiped out so easily.

    Towering Heights (Cosmic Eclipse) (Fighting/Psychic/Water) - The deck's strategy is rather cheap if you can get it going. Have any damaged Pokemon on your bench, and Throh is a Basic Pokemon that can do 120 damage with only 2 Energy. If that's not enough for you, Garchomp, Seismitoad, and Groudon can also clean house by themselves.

    Unseen Depths (Colorless/Water) - Empoleon is overpowered just like Blastoise, but in a completely different way. Empoleon has the ability to snipe benches, which is essential for ridding your opponent of their weak monsters before they become Stage 2 Evolutions. This is largely luck-dependent and player-dependent, but Empoleon has the power to absolutely ruin some decks.

    4 stars (7 decks):

    Blazing Volcano (Colorless/Fire/Grass) - Wow, Entei/Magcargo can be a really powerful combination... if you can pull it off. It requires a bit of setup and is quite cheap once you get it going, but somewhat unreliable compared to Relentless Flame. I found Shuckle and the Grass Energies to be utterly pointless.

    Galarian Darmanitan Theme Deck (Colorless/Fire/Water) - You want to get Galarian Darmanitan out to win the game. Either one is fine. There are two versions: a Water-type and a Fire-type. I like the Water-type slightly more. Your only other decent attacker is Kangaskhan. Overall, this is a poor man's Rillaboom. The only reason I rate it so high is that it's similar to Rillaboom, and whereas Rillaboom is weak against the Charizard that everybody plays, this one is strong against it. I also hate how this deck made a mockery out of Suicune, one of my favorite Pokemon.

    Laser Focus (Colorless/Fairy/Psychic) - Necrozma is a Basic Pokemon so good that an entire deck was built around it. It deserves it, because doing 100 damage or 160 damage with a Special Energy attached makes it absolutely outstanding. Silvally is also a powerful attacker, but plays second fiddle to Necrozma. The rest of the deck is entirely unremarkable, but that doesn't matter because Necrozma carries this whole deck.

    Mach Strike (Colorless/Dragon/Fighting) - All you need to do is pull out Garchomp and Lucario to win the game, but many things can go wrong here. And while Garchomp is strong, it's also not that strong. 100 damage or 200 damage if you played Cynthia this turn... some of the other decks are able to deal higher damage more consistently.

    Storm Caller (Colorless/Electric/Psychic) - In my opinion, this is the weakest of my seven "good" decks. Ampharos and Raikou make for a rather broken combination, but the setup is slow and unreliable. Zebstrika and Naganadel aren't that useful by comparison, so they often end up being dead draws.

    Torrential Cannon (Colorless/Water) - Get out Blastoise, and your opponent is going to have a hard time. It doesn't matter what type their deck is, because Blastoise will wipe out just about everything. However, the rest of the deck isn't that great.

    Zacian Theme Deck (Colorless/Fighting/Steel) - You hardly ever see this played in Versus Mode, and I wonder why. In my opinion, it's slightly better than its rival Zamazenta, although this isn't really due to Zacian itself. It's due to Unfezant, which is overpowered if you can get the Stage 2 out. You might also have some luck with Probopass and Galarian Perrserker, but it's basically Unfezant that deserves all the credit here.

    3 stars (8 decks):

    Cinderace Theme Deck (Colorless/Fighting/Fire) - At the risk of stating the obvious, Cinderace is the star of the show here. It's surprisingly easy to get out for a Stage 2 Pokemon, and it hits hard. In a way, it's like a more powerful version of Zacian. It's too bad that the rest of the desk is nothing special, because you'll likely be looking for ways to stall until you can get Cinderace out.

    Destruction Fang (Colorless/Dark/Fighting) - You'll want to do everything in your power to get out Hydreigon and Houndoom, because they are your main attackers for this deck. But until they come out, you're largely helpless. Bewear and Oranguru might fend off some enemies, but it's really Hydreigon and Houndoom that dominate in this deck. Great for Dark-type challenges.

    Galarian Sirfetch'd Theme Deck (Fighting) - If you're a fan of large Pokemon that do powerful attacks for huge costs, this is the deck for you. I personally prefer being able to hit fast, so this isn't really my cup of tea. But I can't deny that it's really powerful, if you can get over how slow it is. With high-damaging attacks from Stonjourner, Hippowdon, and Galarian Sirfetch'd, you'll be bringing on the pain sometimes while being a sitting duck other times.

    Inteleon Theme Deck (Water) - There are better Water-type decks out there. Inteleon happens to be extremely easy for a Stage 2 Pokemon to get out. Inteleon along with Drednaw are the only worthwhile attackers in this whole deck, so it feels like a Water counterpart to Cinderace, which I also don't recommend in favor of better alternatives.

    Lightning Loop (Colorless/Electric) - You know, this one is actually... okay. You have some interesting choices with Magnezone, Stunfisk, Zeroara, and Dodrio. The problem is way too much drawing power, way too much switching around, and way too much running into dead ends with not being able to attack or play Supporter cards.

    Rock Steady (Colorless/Fighting/Psychic) - I hate to admit it, but this one might actually be my favorite of the 10 decks I consider "bad." You have some pretty good choices for attacking with Lucario, Lycanroc, Meowstic, and Rhydon. By contrast, Rhyperior happens to be less useful and only comes in handy during an extreme emergency.

    Twilight Rogue - All right, not great, but we have some okay attacking options with Lycanroc, Dusknoir, and Salazzle. I wouldn't call any of these cards strong, but they kind of get the job done. One of the better "bad" decks along with Rock Steady and Lightning Loop, but nothing to write home about.

    Zamazenta Theme Deck (Colorless/Steel) - I see this deck fairly often in Versus Mode, and I'm not entirely sure why. You'd assume that Zamazenta is the star of the show here, and that the entire deck would be weak against Fire. In reality, Corviknight steals Zamazenta's thunder if you can get it out. It's a surprisingly effective counter against Charizard, because its weakness is actually the Electric-type, and it allows you to reduce its damage received the next turn by 100 if you discard 2 Energy. Ferrothorn might be useful for fending off attackers for a while, and Duraludon is probably better than Zamazenta.

    2 stars (10 decks):

    Battle Mind (Colorless/Dragon/Fire) - You'd think that a deck with Incineroar and Mewtwo would be extremely powerful. No, it's actually quite weak. Not horrible, but not great either considering that you have better Fire options with Relentless Flame and Blazing Volcano.

    Clanging Thunder (Colorless/Dragon/Fighting) - I've seen this deck maybe once in all my Versus matches, and it's easy to see why. Kommo-o is your main attacker, but it requires two different Energy types and easily leaves itself open. Gastrodon and Alolan Raichu are okay attackers, but I wouldn't include them in a deck when so many better options are available.

    Forest Shadow (Colorless/Grass) - Like Clanging Thunder, this is another deck that I've seen all of one time in Versus. I don't even know what that person was thinking, because you need Decidueye in order to get anywhere, and even that is severely outclassed. Other useful Pokemon in this deck are Kangaskhan, Pinsir, Spinda, Parasect, and Shiinotic. But don't let that large number fool you, because you're grasping for straws with any of them. For Grass, use Rillaboom instead.

    Hidden Moon (Colorless/Fire/Psychic) - My god, what is this thing? You need Lunala (and maybe Bewear or Salazzle) to pull off anything, making this deck too unreliable to be of any use.

    Hydro Fury (Colorless/Fire/Water) - Terrible, just terrible. Water and Fire do not go together. It's mostly just Swampert that runs this whole deck, and indeed its damage potential is insane. However, I don't like everything else going around this deck.

    Imperial Command (Water) - This is a different Empoleon, and in my opinion not nearly as powerful as the one from Unseen Depths. Absolutely no reason to use this one.

    Leaf Charge (Colorless/Grass/Electric) - Whoever said this was a good Grass deck? They lied to me. The Electric-type is nearly useless here because you'll rely on Sceptile to accomplish anything. Just like Swampert from Hydro Fury, you can dish out a ton of damage and sweep your opponent for the rest of the game, but everything else about this deck is worthless.

    Luminous Frost (Colorless/Fire/Water) - Again, too many useless cards. It might be a different story if you can get out Alolan Ninetales or Bouffalant, but even then, they're not that powerful. The rest of the deck is terribly weak.

    Roaring Heat (Colorless/Fighting/Fire) - Without a doubt, there are good Fire-type decks out there. Also without a doubt, this is not one of them. You know it's a problem when Incineroar, your primary attacker, is a Stage 2 Pokemon with a 3-Energy attack that has a 25% chance of doing 0 damage. That alone is a disqualifier. Unfortunately, Torkoal, Bewear, and Oranguru absolutely are not enough to pick up Incineroar's slack, and the rest of the deck is astonishingly useless.

    Steel Sun (Colorless/Steel/Psychic) - Solgaleo is this deck's main attacker, and even then it's incredibly slow with being able to hit hard only every other turn. The rest of the deck is all filler that you only use to hold off until you get Solgaleo, which is itself of questionable usefulness. I really don't see any strengths to this deck.

    1 star (4 decks):

    Bright Tide (Colorless/Electric/Water) - I am shocked and disgusted at how utterly weak this deck is. You'll want to quickly get Primarina out to even stand a chance. In the meantime, you're stuck with Lanturn, Golduck, Corsola, and Cloyster. Don't be misled, because every single one of them is worthless. I'm not even going to get into the disgraceful cannon fodder Pokemon they included to clog up your hand and make it difficult to get the cards you actually need.

    Mewtwo Mayhem (Fighting/Psychic) - So the nostalgia decks from X/Y are fun if you enjoy torturing yourself. With Mewtwo Mayhem, your only options for survival are two approaches: attacking with the Fighting-type and attacking with the Psychic-type. On the Fighting side, Dugtrio, Hitmonchan, Machoke, and Onix are what you'll need to make do with (roughly in that order of power from greatest to least). With the Psychics, you'll need to either get lucky with Mewtwo or pray that you can manage to get out Nidoking. It's lucky that the AI is artificially stupid because I wouldn't have been able to get all 36 wins without spamming stalling with Onix and decking out the opponent several times. A lot of luck is required to win with this deck, and even that sometimes won't be enough.

    Pikachu Power (Colorless/Grass/Electric) - Just like with Mewtwo Mayhem, you don't have much of the benefit of power creep on your side. Raichu and Beedrill are your MVPs. On the Grass side, you need to take advantage of Beedrill and Tangela's poisoning, and you may be able to stall some with Metapod. Remember that poisoning and paralysis can stack in this game. Thankfully, the deck has two Beedrill, and you can snipe the opponent's bench with them. With Electrics, you'll be attacking with Raichu and Electabuzz, although Magneton may be used as a last resort. I won't even dignify the rest of the Pokemon by calling them cannon fodder. Take advantage of the fact that the AI is stupid and sometimes chooses weak attacks or no attacks for some reason. Nothing in this deck is really strong, so you'll need to win through attrition most of the time. Poisoning and stalling are your main strategy, and the prevalence of Grass-types means you'll often lose to Fire-type users like Brittney and Mick.

    Tropical Takedown (Colorless/Dark/Fighting) - This one is easily my least favorite of all the decks. It is incoherent, disorganized, slow, and altogether weak with its five different Energy types. What's the point of all these Energy cards that are only good for one Pokemon? Never mind that all the Pokemon themselves are pitiful except Exeggutor and Alolan Marowak, and even that's questionable. Without a doubt the worst deck on this list.

    Now I know that nobody asked for them, but I'm also going to post my game statistics here:

    Total Cards Drawn - 53417 Cards

    Total Damage Done - 1507680 Damage

    Total Damage Taken - 877420 Damage

    Total Games Played - 2599 Games

    Total Game Points - 2580 Game Points

    Total Time Played - 13 Days

    Lifetime Tournament Rep - 0 Points

    Total Upset Wins - 173 Upset Wins

    Different Cards Owned - 1716

    Total Cards Owned - 3938

    Set Nearest to Completion - Sword & Shield-Darkness Ablaze

    Complete Sets - None

    Most of One Card - Hop (Sword & Shield #165)

    Foil Cards Owned - 330

    Now I'm going to list each of the 11 types and mention which decks I recommend for completing them:

    Grass - Rillaboom, no doubt

    Fire - Charizard or Relentless Flame

    Water - I recommend Drednaw and Unseen Depths, or Torrential Cannon if you're feeling daring

    Electric - Storm Caller

    Psychic - I actually use Relentless Flame for this because I find Nidoqueen to be enough

    Fighting - You can use Towering Heights and Mach Strike, or even Rock Steady if you don't care about winning

    Dragon - Soaring Storm, no question about it

    Steel - Zacian or Zamazenta

    Fairy - N/A

    Dark - Destruction Fang

    Colorless - N/A

    submitted by /u/Agniflame
    [link] [comments]

    Sometimes, I'm very happy with the results.

    Posted: 06 Jan 2021 12:40 PM PST

    Results are in for the Orbeetle V Bix giveaway!

    Posted: 07 Jan 2021 06:56 AM PST

    This blew up way more than I expected, and with almost 90 submissions, I now bring you the results!

    Orbeetle V Box - u/IdiotKingOfMtStupid Sun & Moon - u/BestInfinityYT Darkness Ablaze - u/Jortieking Vivid Voltage #1 - u/velvethunder2000 Vivid Voltage #2 - u/Anonymous-0_o

    Congrats to all the winners, and I will dm you the code right away.

    If you didn't win, stay tuned because tonight I'll be doing another one for the Primarina GX Box

    submitted by /u/Executive_Meme
    [link] [comments]

    Why is the gold Tapu Lele worth a crazy amount all of a sudden?

    Posted: 07 Jan 2021 04:44 AM PST

    People are offering me 60 packs for it. I'm sure I traded it for less than 10 a few months back. Has something changed? Should I cash in or keep?

    submitted by /u/IRRedditUsr
    [link] [comments]

    Rusted Sword Zacian Tool Card

    Posted: 06 Jan 2021 11:18 PM PST

    So I know that Shining Fates comes out on around February 19th but I was wondering if the Rusted Sword tool card is 100% confirmed to debut in the Shining Fates set. This card is obviously going to drastically affect the meta, but so far I've only read rumors that suggest that it might be released during Shining Fates. Can anyone actually confirm this?

    submitted by /u/Darkistolight
    [link] [comments]

    Card prices help

    Posted: 07 Jan 2021 06:39 AM PST

    Hello! I'm interested in getting back into the game, so I both want to buy new cards and sell some of my old stuff. Are the card prices on https://ptcgoprices.com/ accurate?

    submitted by /u/eliosk96
    [link] [comments]

    Curious, What is your best record with which deck?

    Posted: 06 Jan 2021 12:25 PM PST

    I'm currently 43-26 with the Galarian Cursola/Arctozo deck.

    ****** Pokémon Trading Card Game Deck List ******

    Pokémon - 15

    • 1 Crobat V DAA 104
    • 1 Dedenne-GX UNB 195
    • 4 Arctozolt DAA 66
    • 4 Jirachi TEU 99
    • 4 Galarian Cursola V CPA 71
    • 1 Mew UNB 76

    Trainer Cards - 36

    • 2 Cape of Toughness DAA 160
    • 4 Crushing Hammer EPO 92
    • 3 Professor's Research CPA 62
    • 3 Pokémon Communication TEU 152
    • 2 Switch SUM 132
    • 2 Boss's Orders RCL 154
    • 1 Bird Keeper DAA 159
    • 4 Quick Ball SSH 179
    • 1 Team Yell Grunt SSH 184
    • 1 Wondrous Labyrinth {*} TEU 158
    • 1 Air Balloon SSH 156
    • 3 Scoop Up Net RCL 165
    • 4 Rare Fossil DAA 167
    • 4 Marnie CPA 56
    • 1 Ordinary Rod SSH 171

    Energy - 9

    • 3 Psychic Energy Energy 5
    • 2 Weakness Guard Energy UNM 213
    • 4 Horror Psychic Energy RCL 172

    Total Cards - 60

    ****** Deck List Generated by the Pokémon TCG Online www.pokemon.com/TCGO ******

    It's pretty fun and I love trying to bundle up damage when the opponent is putting on an energy. I'm trying to build my own decks and they're not doing too bad lol.

    Feel free to post your deck lists if you want and W/L Record

    submitted by /u/JesterJayJoker
    [link] [comments]

    Anyone else find it hard to go on crazy win streaks?

    Posted: 07 Jan 2021 12:54 AM PST

    The longest win streak I had in standard was 7. I can never really seem to get past 3 or 4 wins without a game going wrong. Either I start with a dead hand, I play a counter deck, I get outplayed, I just don't draw into what I need, or I run into an ADP with a boss-boss turn one altered creation combo who just knocks out my dedenne's or Crobats.

    I'm not playing any rogue decks, I'm playing most Pikarom and Mad Party. I would expect the "best deck in the format" to win more games but it always feels like something goes wrong. Either I misplay, or my opening hand is like just like energy and a boss's orders. I still do have about a 55% win rate, but it feels like I scoop so often due to bad starts.

    submitted by /u/BigCoffeeEnergy
    [link] [comments]

    Doing a small code giveaway today! (Part One)

    Posted: 06 Jan 2021 01:10 PM PST

    These codes are from an Orbeetle V Box that I opened yesterday, and tomorrow I'll be doing a Primarina GX Box giveaway.

    Just leave a comment on this post and tomorrow morning I'll put the names into a random word generator and give to to first people who it picks. Each person will get one code.

    Codes to win: Orbeetle V Box Sun & Moon Darkness Ablaze Vivid Voltage (there are 2 of these but nobody will get both of them)

    submitted by /u/Executive_Meme
    [link] [comments]

    My Walmart’s “Pokémon section”

    Posted: 06 Jan 2021 04:28 PM PST

    Where to look for standard decks?

    Posted: 06 Jan 2021 07:24 PM PST

    Hey, guys, I'm pretty new to the game, so I would like to know where on the internet I can find what decks are being played in standard (budget decks preferably). I already know about limitlesstcg, but that website has no budget decks and seems slightly outdated, too.

    Thanks in advance.

    submitted by /u/Dangem97
    [link] [comments]

    Very new to the game

    Posted: 06 Jan 2021 08:12 PM PST

    I came from magic the gathering arena. I played it a lot so I'm not knew to card games. I also play a lot of hearthstone but I wanted a diffrent scene as I have always played Pokémon.

    In magic there are websites to get codes for packs is that the same with this game?

    submitted by /u/dr-cockterr
    [link] [comments]

    Giving away code cards

    Posted: 06 Jan 2021 07:21 PM PST

    Hello, I have a good amount of QR code's and I thought it'd be a nice thing to do for a friend to give them out in the chat on his stream. So every time someone follows him I'll give out a code with the last digit missing in chat (to give a fair chance). Also I'll send 3 codes after the first follow as a thanks to the first person. His name is MrLongFlop and he just started streaming R6 Siege.

    submitted by /u/BfinnyNA
    [link] [comments]

    If you play ADP on public ladder and lose to me, I have the right to spam well played and sad faces

    Posted: 06 Jan 2021 11:09 PM PST

    Looking for discard pile themed decks

    Posted: 06 Jan 2021 09:18 AM PST

    Hi, I'm migrating from other card games(MTG and yugioh). In those card games graveyard-based decks are very common and funny. Is there anything like that in pokemon tcg? Looking for extended decks, only for casual play.

    submitted by /u/odoraciru
    [link] [comments]

    Meme #2 daily memes????

    Posted: 06 Jan 2021 04:17 PM PST
    Read more
    at

    No comments:

    Post a Comment