Pokemon - The Card Game

[Dan_1981]

This may be a little niche...

My little boy was gifted the 'Battle Academy' game for Xmas - basically the starter kit, board game, three decks & an intro to the game. Safe to say he absolutely loves it, and is getting right into the strategy and thinking through moves etc before completing them - he's 6.

I also have to say it's quite an intriguing game, can see loads of strategy & am quite enjoying playing with him.

My question is what comes next - the world of Pokemon is huge and massively confusing.

I understand I think that he can create his own decks - as long as he doesn't exceed 60 cards. So he can in theory go out and buy new cards and add them /remove them from his collection to create his best set of cards.

This is complicated further by things like energy cards & other stuff?

Or are decks / cards standalone? Some googling / amazon searching just confuses me further.

So I guess I'm looking for someone with an understanding of the game to advise on next steps & how to widen the card base and all the rest of it?!

Or am I mile out of sync and he's stuck with what he has and has to buy complete decks to rotate through various games?

[smithyithy]

YouTube will probably be your best bet mate. I haven't played Pokemon (although I did collect them for years), but have played YuGiOh and dipped into some other games with friends.

I found Youtube tutorials to be the best guide as you really need a visual guide and to see some basic games played out to understand the basics.

[vaud]

As an aside my kids liked Pokemon Go on the iphone. It was a good incentive for getting out for a walk under lockdown as you have to walk to find the Pokemon...

[Jimmy No Hands]

Everybody I know (have a very nerdy contingent of friends) whom collect these cards - not a single one plays the actual game or even knows how to really play it. Not that this helps, but I get the feeling it's pretty contrived and most just collect shiny cards..

[ZedLeg]

Dan_1981 said:

This may be a little niche...

My little boy was gifted the 'Battle Academy' game for Xmas - basically the starter kit, board game, three decks & an intro to the game. Safe to say he absolutely loves it, and is getting right into the strategy and thinking through moves etc before completing them - he's 6.

I also have to say it's quite an intriguing game, can see loads of strategy & am quite enjoying playing with him.

My question is what comes next - the world of Pokemon is huge and massively confusing.

I understand I think that he can create his own decks - as long as he doesn't exceed 60 cards. So he can in theory go out and buy new cards and add them /remove them from his collection to create his best set of cards.

This is complicated further by things like energy cards & other stuff?

Or are decks / cards standalone? Some googling / amazon searching just confuses me further.

So I guess I'm looking for someone with an understanding of the game to advise on next steps & how to widen the card base and all the rest of it?!

Or am I mile out of sync and he's stuck with what he has and has to buy complete decks to rotate through various games?

I used to sell ccg stuff and have a wee stash of pokemon cards that I bought to figure the game out.

You can buy booster packs (like the little packs of panini football stickers) and use these to change or expand your deck. There are multiple different series on the go at a time, Pokemon are usually based on the video game that's out at the time. Once you get a big collection you can make a deck out of what ever cards you like to suit how you play. When building decks you're best to find a type or two and focus on that so the cards will work together. The full deck I have is dark and steel for example.

If you're playing in a club or something they might stipulate only cards from certain sets are allowed but when you're just playing yourself it doesn't matter.

Worth checking if you have a Forbidden Planet or indie board game shop locally, they'll have a decent selection of cards and will hopefully have somebody who can help out a bit.