beginner help! pokemon seems so random!

[hipjon]

Hi everyone,

I was itching to get back into playing a tcg and so me and my gf decided to try out pokemon. We bought a bunch of the HGSS starter decks and played a bunch of games. We also started combining all the cards into a single set and doing a sort of "booster draft" to build our decks before playing.

Unfortunately, almost every game has turned out the same way. Around turn 3 Player X evolves their active pokemon and knocks out Player Y's pokemon. Now Player Y has lost all of their energy and needs to build up a new pokemon. Player Y usually can't put energy on the active pokemon because it will get "one-shoted" the next turn, and any damage that basic pokemon can do will be inconsequential (not worth losing an energy). So player Y is left throwing out 2 pokemon to soak up damage while trying to build up a third, meanwhile Player X is building up more pokemon on their Bench. The result is that if you evolve first, you win the game.

So my question is, are we doing something wrong? Is there a strategy that players employ to make things more competitive? I see that a lot of competitive decks listed online involve heavy use of "search" type cards that would let you get out your evolution cards quickly. Is this the only way to stay competitive? If that's the case, it seems like the basic pokemon don't do anything. Any help is appreciated!

Right now we're considering amending the rules for our own play so that

1. When a pokemon gets KO'd, it's the loser that draws a prize card. (Piling extra advantages on the player that's ahead is just dumb in any kind of game.)

2. A pokemon can not attack the same turn it is evolved. That way the opposing player has a chance to see what's coming and start building up another pokemon a turn earlier if necessary.

 

[Asrialys]

Well, you can try to buy some HGSS booster packs and hope for some Double Colorless Energy. If you have any from the Base set, those work too. Or if there are any other players nearby, you can try asking if they have any extra.

Obviously, the point of the evolving Basic Pokemon is to evolve into something more powerful. The right combination of cards can make that process faster and easier. Search cards are very important to the game, as they'll get you what you need faster. If you're just hoping to draw into what you need, then your deck will just run slower.

I recommend attending a League, if there are any nearby. You can learn about different cards and strategies to improve your game. Ask any players for help.

These are some of my recommendations for good Trainers and Supporters to start with:

Trainers
Luxury Ball
Pokemon Communication (can be found in Undaunted Umbreon theme deck)
Rare Candy (might be hard to get without just buying them online)
Warp Point (or Switch)
Super Scoop Up

Supporters
Pokemon Collector
Bebe's Search (or Professor Elm's Training Method if you can find Bebe's)
Professor Oak's New Theory (or Copycat)
Flower Shop Lady (or Palmer's Contribution)
Twins

 

[hipjon]

Hi, Asrialys. Thanks for the suggestions.

That seems to confirm my suspicions that searching/evolving quickly is of primary importance. So, does that also mean that the basic pokemon are kind of useless? By that, I mean, do you find that you rarely use the attacks on the basic pokemon because you evolve them so fast?

 

[Asrialys]

Depends on the attack. If I can't evolve it right away anyway, then I might as well put a damage counter or two on the Defending Pokemon. Not all evolving Basics have useless attacks. For example, Undaunted's Combee is a great attacker, despite its low HP. There are some Basic Pokemon that can put a Special Condition on the Defending Pokemon. There are others that allow you to draw a card or two. I'm not going to waste my turn not attacking if I can.

 

[ven?]

1. The person that ko's a pokemon takes a prize (thats the entire concept of winning in this game).
2. "A pokemon cannot attack the same turn it is evolved" BS!, because if that was true all of the top donker's like kingdra and so on in the meta would be useless (luxray tko nuff sed)


Now to begin, my guide on the format, strategy's, combo's etc 2.0 (very,very short version)

Every top ranking deck in the meta usually runs 1-3 energy top's to preform an attack, this being said by the time there active pokemon is taken out they would already have at least 1 benched pokemon ready to go (one of many strategy's in pokemon is creating a wall or setup while setting up multiple pokemon on the bench), popular cards used, spiritomb AR (trainer lock/evo), sableye (auto first go unless there is another, supporter search).

There is at best countless different strategy's in the pokemon tcg but at the moment the top three seem to be aggro, snipe, and lock (if anyone wants to add be my guest)

Aggro, This is best resulting in heavy head on damage, aka think heavy hitting tank, cards that can be noted for the usage of this type of strategy would be, Garchomp SV,
Luxray LA, and Machamp SF.

Snipe, freaking obvious if you've ever played a first person shooter, the basic concept of this is to take out benched pokemon, cards usable by strategy, garchomp C lv.X, luxray GL lv. X, and empoleon PT.

Lock, This lock's use of certain cards, power's, bodie's, Cards usable by strategy, vileplume UD, umbreon UD, Dialga G/Dialga G lv. X, and shiftry RR.

In the end it's not so much the evolution as more of the style of play you use, deck's like luxchomp use nothing but basic pokemon to derail the concept of using evolution, so it really depends on the type of cards not the concept of the game.