Pokemon TCG

[rich pine]

Oh they’re bringing him back?

[final musk]

Sorta

Cynthia's archetype has Gabite as a searcher

https://www.pokebeach.com/2025/02/more-from-heat-wave-arena-revealed

[final musk]

TLDR; Full Arts, Gold Arts, and Alt Arts starting with Journey Together will not be craftable for 6 months after a pack releases

The worst part of this is they don't have a solution to this in place yet

[final musk]

Looks like the "Click to Play" update also broke attaching from the discard pile, so Gardy, Archaludon, and Magneton in Miraidon are all unplayable rn

Reads forum

Actually it's broke for Gardevoir different. If you have extra energy in the discard pile after using Gardy's ability, it will stack 20 extra damage on whatever you were attaching to

Archaludon and Magneton and such are broken in that, if you have multiple targets, you can't attach anything

Update also broken attach from deck somewhat too

... and it broke moving energy between pokemon too

[final musk]

They revealed Arven’s theme and…

https://www.pokebeach.com/2025/02/arvens-mabosstiff-ex-greedent-and-more-arvents-pokemon-revealed

It sucks

[graceful summit]

I got a League challenge tomorrow, Im judging too but I'll probs end up playing Roaring Moon Turbo

[dusky rapids]

Hello, does anyone know if all regionals in the US have pokemon center stores or is that just at IC?

[graceful summit]

The moon haunts you!

[graceful summit]

Won todays league challenge

[torn wyvern]

nice one

[peak silo]

Hell yeah

[delicate surge]

Is that 50 damage for each psychic energy on your Pokémon or this Pokémon

[peak silo]

Should be this pokemon

I uh

cant read

wait

shit

that probably means we're getting a SIR for this

aaaaaaaaaargh

oh shoot 3 prize cards

[delicate surge]

Yeah 3 prizes is fair

[rich pine]

Huh that’s pretty cool

360 Hp is huge but no guarantee it’ll be that way for all

But mega garde about to not do anything just because zard lol

[final musk]

Hate it. It’s basically the return of both Tag Teams and VMax

[graceful summit]

I can't wait to war crimes it up with Gardevoir now, losing the good Kirlia be damned

Tbf Pokemon TCG has always had a big inflation problem Don't google that when it comes to HP. Literally stuff in DP base set power crept most of the stuff in all of the Gen 3 era of the TCG.

Happy that the Stage 1s and Stage 2s will continue to require evolutions but I think it could've been handled differently.

Like Lv X/Break Pokemon or something. But then how do you justify what is effectively a possible Stage 3 pokemon.

[delicate surge]

https://x.com/freewer30/status/1895172224409366902?s=61&t=cBZvUrdAQBg9SBrQp2_2KA

Losta🌙 (@Freewer30) on X

My take on 3 prizers

X · Feb 27, 2025, 6:00 PM

[peak silo]

Could you use rare candy to go into a mega evolution

[delicate surge]

I don’t see why not

[graceful summit]

You can

[peak silo]

Does anyone know how the terapogos deck plays? I saw a little bit of a similar deck with eevee but not sure.

[graceful summit]

https://limitlesstcg.com/decks/292

[graceful summit]

Get the Underdepths stadium, load up your bench to 8, then start blastin'

[rich pine]

It’s just a big beater deck and noctowl is great

You use the duskull line to soften up anything Tera can’t one shot

[peak silo]

Oh okay thats cool

My friend wants me to buy a klawf deck and im not sure if that deck would still be around after rotation. They just like the funny crab that does stupid damage

[rich pine]

It’ll probably be playable in a rogue way unless something real bad happens to the metagame

[delicate surge]

Rip DTE

I can’t believe I’ll have to attach twice for my scissors

[rich pine]

Oh yeah DTE’s gone

Surely they have another similar card because they want to keep Tera alive

[final musk]

For the time being Klawf will be dead to rotation

SV9 has no replacement to DTE. If there is a replacement in SV10, we’d know in about 1 month max

[torn wyvern]

Multiple cards that support klawf are leaving too

[peak silo]

is it good to go on limitless and use this to buy a deck of TCGplayer

[torn wyvern]

I would just do it manually even though it's tedious

[graceful summit]

Ye, also to get any rarity bumps that you may want 😎

[final musk]

Welp. Heat Wave Arena is up. time to see if any remaining cards can save this lackluster set

.
Yanmega ex

Ability: During your turn, if Yanmega ex moves from the bench to the active position, you can take 3 grass energy and attach them to Yanmega ex. Shuffle your deck afterward

3GC: 210, Move 3 energy attached to this pokemon to 1 of your benched pokemon.

Floatzel

2C: 30, discard one energy from the opponent's active pokemon.
WCC: 140, This pokemon cannot attack during your next turn. (You don't care about this attack)

Dondozo ex

WC: 30 + Damage on Dondozo
WWCC: 120. You can add 120 damage. If you do, Dondozo does 50 to itself.

Mainly covering this because 260 is tied for the highest HP on a basic rn. In reality Chien Pao is bad rn and nothing can support this guy.

Electivire ex (This ain't good tbh)

LC: 50 to 2 of your opponent's pokemon
LLC: 180. If Elective has 2 additional energy attached to it, +100

and that's basically all that was left. I honestly think this set's pretty bad overall

Arven's horrible
Misty had a cool idea with Gyarados/Psyduck but is basically unfinished
Ethan is basically Chien Pao ex 1.5 and Braxian 1.5
Cynthia is a run of the mill tank deck

A bunch of the owner's pokemon are filler and they didn't really get as many pokemon as the ones from Journey Together

https://www.pokebeach.com/2025/03/heat-wave-arena-all-63-main-set-cards-revealed

For when the full set gets translated

[final musk]

A quick breakdown of the owner's pokemon from this set:

Misty:

• Use Misty's Gyarados to attack for damage off discarding Misty's Pokemon
• Psyduck can stack itself on top of the deck
• Magikarp has great ability for protection on bench
• Staryu, Starmie, and Lapras are all borderline just names. There's like virtually no other support.
• You don't want to open Staryu, and Lapras is only good on the first turn going second. This limits it further

Arven:

• You tank a hit with Mabosstiff, heal it with Arven's Sandwich, and do 150 with the dog for 1 energy. Greedent recycles the sandwich.
• Toedscruel is bad
• You can't efficiently do damage until you take damage
• 150 damage is way too low to even be decent casually.
• 270 HP doesn't even tank against some decks
• Better off with Steven or Cynthia for the same idea

Ethan

• Magcargo and Ho-oh ex are a new Chien Pao / Baxcalibur deck.
• Pinser is a type-cover against Charizard ex.
• Harder to set up high damage as you need to bench 2 Ho-oh to do so
• Ethan supporter can't get you far enough on its own and probably isn't worth running
• Ho-oh can be combined with Flare Off Armorouge instead for a fire box deck
• Typhlosion branches off on a completely separate deck similar to Serena's Braxian
• Sudowoodo and Pichu are bad

Cynthia

• You put up Garchomp and tool to make 400 HP tank
• Spiritomb turns the tanked damage into offense.
• There's a Roserade that buffs damage, but it is clunky
• Milotic is bad
• Fighting type has horrible support right now. Gets some in the first Mega Evo set
• There's like virtually no energy acceleration to use. You are tank and reactive to damage.
• Still better than Arven.

[delicate surge]

i kinda like the electivire and yanmega cards

[peak silo]

One time pichu SAR please

[steep crow]

https://x.com/TCGTracker/status/1898289827067330937?t=zGupi-ClhFZf_YqR8HQbjw&s=19

Pokemon TCG Restocks & News 24/7 (@TCGTracker) on X

Rumour has it this might be the first official look at the next Pokémon TCG Scarlet & Violet SV10 Destined Rivals Display Box (36 packs)!

As always early links will be loaded into our custom monitors on discord!

Don’t miss this drop!

🔗 https://t.co/DHlikWIObd

X · Mar 8, 2025, 8:28 AM

The west is never seeing this in stores jesus christ

[steep crow]

https://x.com/PokemonRestocks/status/1898934572668051912?t=PiatguIpYYnN6z1u_69xPg&s=19

Pokemon TCG Restocks & News (@PokemonRestocks) on X

First look at Ethan's Typhlosion Art Rare from Heat Wave Arena! 🔥 #PokemonTCG

X · Mar 10, 2025, 3:10 AM

[graceful summit]

This is going to be a $70+ IR or an $2 ETB promo, there is no in-between

But it does look sick

[peak silo]

https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonTCG/s/beFCD17h3w

[little falcon]

the Ethan and Misty ones are sick

[peak silo]

I guess this will be the closest to a pichu art rare

[mental carbon]

Got some stuff in the mail for my binder

[little falcon]

You collect Jap versions too?

I got back into Pokémon stock purchases

[mental carbon]

Yes, the way the market is right now, JP singles are good gets

Also JP is just nicer in general

IMO

[little falcon]

oh dont really follow it yet

[peak silo]

whats your method for JP singles

[mental carbon]

not really a method for me, if I like it, I get it. I'm very fond of mid era

[peak silo]

oh I meant like where to buy, I was thinking there was a website for it or ebay

[mental carbon]

oh that, I look on tcgplayer usually for stuff I'm interested in. Currently I'm trying to complete Marowak/Ampharos sets for example

other than that, I look on whatnot

I usually get solid deals on HP-LP stuff on whatnot

[peak silo]

oh you got it on tcgplayer? thats surprising

[mental carbon]

Certain stuff like all mid era reverses are up right now, so if I see something for cheap I usually pick it up on tcgplayer

[proper fossil]

in all honesty I have been considering getting back to Pkmn TCG with set rotation

plus Pkmn singles are widely sold here so getting those isn't issue

[steep crow]

Man Pokémon singles prices are crazy, I know, I'll get the Japanese copies of the Cynthia cards because they're usually worthless than the English ones would be, I can't wait to save so much mo-

[little falcon]

Wow @mental carbon with horrible advice

[mental carbon]

hot wind arena hasn't been released here yet lol

it's not even officially out in japan yet iirc

[final musk]

Yeah it's out in Japan this weekend

[final musk]

Reading up on those that did prerelease, and this prerelease format sucks

[peak silo]

https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonTCG/s/zz1Nf6n15f

[little falcon]

ooo that Kangaskhan is awesome

[peak silo]

ngl that leak might be fake because if destined rivals gets revealed that early then thats a long time

[steep crow]

||https://x.com/AwesumJames/status/1901057859237945413?t=B-KwY_4wH6E3tE4PSBo0Dg&s=19||

[peak silo]

ah okay that leak is real

suspicious that they didnt leak anything else

but given that they put their tag in, yeah thats definitely leakers because leakers tend to expose themselves

[proper fossil]

I am rather surprised how difficult it is to find any advice about what to get as returning player

I thought that that was easy to find with tons of advice

[torn wyvern]

Justinbasil has some beginner guides

[proper fossil]

that's the thing, not beginner guides but ones for returning players

I already know how to play game

[mental carbon]

@little falcon this is what $8 on whatnot got me

[little falcon]

wtf

What scam you running

[mental carbon]

Nothing, I literally spent a week straight on whatnot looking for steals

I could show you some of the other shit I got, but i literally filled up my entire binder with mid era stuff

[little falcon]

This is my small collection so far

[mental carbon]

Not bad at all, knowing you you’ll have the high end chases by the end of the month

[little falcon]

honestly kinda debating cashing out of mtg and just moving it to this lol

[peak silo]

Is this worth it or do I need to wait for the price to drop

[graceful summit]

Sheesh

[delicate surge]

Scamming scalper bots

[peak silo]

Yeah thats a thing

Going on r/pokemontcg its just the same thing

[mental carbon]

The typhlosion and psyduck might be worth a pretty penny as time goes on, and they’re both just generally pretty cards

[peak silo]

Tbf I wanted the one from neo revelation or the JP edition for typhlosion

I made a whole pokedex for what I wanted to collect

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/17y8_JuOuoT-h3QhuDp9BedCZu37RHV_ZEsfeMVUHv94/htmlview#gid=0

The plan here is entirely JP but im not opposed to english cards

Illustration rares are so eye candy that I need to redo gen 1

[mental carbon]

I would do the same, but I literally want all the mid era stuff

And as much as I like some of the modern stuff, I don’t like how overpriced modern currently is

[peak silo]

I mean if its singles its not that bad but understandable

I was in awe that the moonbreon was like

300 usd

And just shot up to 1500 usd

I was so surprised how many people dont buy singles

[final musk]

https://www.pokebeach.com/2025/03/the-glory-of-team-rocket-set-revealed

TLDR;

The Pokémon are getting there for being comp strategies. Mewtwo is honestly just missing some acceleration to be competitive.

The set will feature all the admins, which is a good thing.

The supporter lineup for Rocket archetype is absurdly strong. They have a better version of Judge AND a fucking Guzma.

[digital crow]

Holy shit guzma in the format again

[peak silo]

Is guzma ptsd or something

[final musk]

Guzma is a better version of Boss's Orders

arguably one of the most powerful supporters between now and the beginning of BW

[graceful summit]

Guzma my beloved

[rich pine]

Oh no, Guzma AND Judge???

wtf those cards look cracked

[digital crow]

Oh yea can we just talk about receiver?

Like better and guzma area already crazy, but them being SEARCHABLE on top with an item is so insane

[rich pine]

All I can hope for is that it’s hard to accelerate energy into mewtwo but even then it’s really easy since his Hp is huge

[final musk]

So far the best streategy for Mewtwo's energy is Rocket's Energy + Ogrepon + E Switch

Which, Rocket's Energy isn't the most reliable thing in the world since it is an unsearchable special energy

[peak silo]

Im way too boomercoded for this app wth

Im saying this as a gen Z but its like

Im lost

[mental carbon]

@little falcon some of the Jp stuff I picked up, along with other reverses

I had to order 2 more binders, I want to organize everything by set

[little falcon]

You’re too committed haha

[mental carbon]

There’s very few things sexier than a good looking binder

I do it for the love of the cards

[peak silo]

is this all from whatnot grinding

[mental carbon]

Yep

[peak silo]

https://www.pokebeach.com/2025/03/destined-rivals-tcg-set-officially-revealed

[peak silo]

@mental carbon can you teach me how to use whatnot or use whatnot effeciently?

[mental carbon]

What exactly are you looking to use it for? Are you looking to add to your collection or upgrade playable staples? Are you looking for modern, mid era or vintage?

[peak silo]

adding to collection. If I was looking for staples (im not, im very busy next month so im just gonna collect pokemon instead of buying a new deck and getting into pokemon (unless that changes, which it probably will)) and mostly looking for modern and vintage. Building a collection seems to be key but its not a race or anything

vintage probably more leaning since thats like the market

[mental carbon]

I can DM you some sellers that stream multiple times a week that have $1-$2 starts, most of them will tell you what they're running on any given day, whether it's vintage, mid era or modern. It really comes down to finding sellers that you like and trust tbh

[graceful summit]

Time is a flat circle

[mental carbon]

Fuck I need that dark ampharos stamped

I don’t need it, I don’t need it, I don’t need it…

https://tenor.com/view/spongebob-meme-i-need-it-i-don’t-need-it-i-definitely-don’t-need-it-thirsty-gif-17101453146721253330

[peak silo]

oooo you neeeeeed it

[jade rose]

Future:

[peak silo]

https://www.pokebeach.com/2025/03/first-ever-pokemon-tcg-pocket-merchandise-releasing-includes-paper-theater-cards

[nova scarab]

look what i just bought for literally a few bucks

[peak silo]

I think card shows are poisonous to me

[peak silo]

https://www.pokebeach.com/2025/04/the-glory-of-team-rocket-all-98-main-set-cards-revealed

[graceful summit]

1 Morbillion years of Gardevoir

[final musk]

Yeah the main meta is trench warfare with Budew until you feel you are ready to run over the opponent

Gardy is now a good answer to Dragapult given Lillie’s Clefairy ex

Losing Kirlia matters less when both players are just spamming Budew until they can guarantee a win

[graceful summit]

Also the winning Garde deck just played N's Zoroark as a 1-2 line

[final musk]

Henry Chao explained his reasoning:

1. It was too inconsistent to see playing a 1-1 line
2. Because the deck has a way higher dependence on Research now, it was more likely that ditching Zoroark would happen than ditching Zorua, as Zorua could just be benched

Archaludon did a similar thing with Dialga V/Vstar to also help avoid opening Dialga

[digital crow]

Close enough, welcome back base neo format

[graceful summit]

I see the vision on that, makes sense to me. Also you wouldnt got 2-2 because it feels like now Garde is fighting for its life in terms of bench space. You basically always want:
1-2 Garde
2 Monkis
1-2 Support ex
1 Attacker

Thats really tight.

[final musk]

It's less that the bench is really tight and more that the list is really, really tight.

[final musk]

All it's missing is a baby flip coin. It just lumped that over to Slowking and makes that always flip tails

[peak silo]

https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonTCG/s/cM5PeNRDBT

https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonTCG/s/FFrPnMILDx

Is it just me or does destined rivals not look that exciting

I know the heat wave arena looks cool but the team rocket side looks overhyped

[final musk]

Destined Rivals competitively is pretty bad

Collectively I think people are doomposting the set because it has some really good alts

[final musk]

Heat Wave Arena in Japan amounted to almost nothing. People are massively overhyping Mewtwo and an attacking Mewtwo deck is not viable. If any deck can break the mold, it would have to be a Rocket Toolbox deck.

[final musk]

“How is this team rocket? There’s no Jesse and James!”

I can’t with these comments.

[peak silo]

Nah I get it

[mental carbon]

Alright, I made my list for cards I need to complete my binder

[graceful summit]

Delta Species my beloved

[graceful summit]

How tf did that Garde list win Atlanta. Mustve gottem god hands because when I played it today it was ass 😭

[peak silo]

Do you think that, similar to yugioh, people are just destined to play certain decks in certain mannerd that win?

[rich pine]

Garde’s strong

Needs a pilot who knows the deck in and out and they lost their best piece but it’s still winnable because of budew

[graceful summit]

So after a decent bit of testing I've come to some conclusions:

This format you don't play to win, you play and hope your opponent loses lmao. With consistency taking such a hit the format feels like you have to play towards just drawing better, doesn't seem to matter what the match up is.

[mental carbon]

play not to lose, let's go

[burnt grove]

What we are saying is spread deck new meta

[mental carbon]

Btw, with the product shortage, how easy is it to get the cards you need for locals etc?

Granted, Journey Together seems to be more widely available

[final musk]

Give it a set. We’ll see if Froslass Munkidori picks up, but Team Rocket has a whole set of spread cards.

[final musk]

Woe be upon you
Curse of Itchy Pollen Unfair Stamp

[burnt grove]

I mean I still like my future hands jank so I may just run with that or some dumb poison shenanigans idk, we shall see, i kinda wanted to make a figjting/dark antimeta deck but we shall see

[peak silo]

Is this deck worth buying?

[rich pine]

very

[graceful summit]

100% its BDIF

[proper fossil]

while I don't know what upcoming rival decks are like that one is totally worth it

[burnt grove]

Yep it's the best deck, but that said even for the staples it's worth it, it's a shame it's scalped like the Charizard one but it's how life is until the sneakerheads and college kids get bored

[final musk]

Singles will always be the way to go generally, but if you can find it for MSRP it's mostly worth it

If you want to play Dragapult, it has a good amount of cards you'd need

[mental carbon]

My mail day, I thought this wasn’t bad for $20

[graceful summit]

Not too shabby! Ngl I really like the Lycanroc, I picked it up for myself recently too

Zeraora gets some banger cards,even some of its non-alt arts look sick

All right, what do I play for League challenge/cup (I forget whichever one has the mat up for grabs), I got Gardevoir and Dragapult Dusknoir built rn. I've test them both quite a bit, but I have yet to play Dragapult with the Munkidoris/Latias ex.

[steep crow]

Zeraora love is always appreciated

Can't believe they put him in persona 4

[peak silo]

https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonTCG/s/atFbNSqCnu

[final musk]

This set is going to break people

For context: every single Pokémon in these sets are getting an illustration rare or SIR

We already know Black Bolt alone has 80 IRs before SIRs

The pull rates are gonna feel horrible

[mental carbon]

Sigh, more art sets of starters, is this finally going to push me to complete the 151 line for my binder

[delicate surge]

The scalpers are already frothing at the mouth

[graceful summit]

Send me your energy for League Cup ya'll 😤😤😤

[graceful summit]

Bro I got my ass beat, I went 1-3. Bo1
R1 vs Goldengho - Outpaced due to not seeing anything I needed.
R2 vs Poison Don - Got Donked
R3 vs Zard - Got greedy and got punished for it, but I got tired because I Itchy Pollened 13 times on a BM Ursaluna stuck in the active and he bricked.
R4 vs Drag Dusknoir - Got the turn 3 donk.

[graceful summit]

(They gave me the 3rd mat since we only had Masters playing and 1st and 2nd got the other 2 mats)

[graceful summit]

I was helping as a professor

[final musk]

https://www.pokebeach.com/2025/05/black-bolt-and-white-flare-officially-revealed-in-english-will-be-first-ever-dual-sets

This set
Will break people

[graceful summit]

Currently have the Pokemon Center site open for when pre orders drop lmao

[mental carbon]

When are preorders supposed to drop?

Also how do you know when pokecenter preorders go live?

[graceful summit]

Apparently its usually the day of the english announcements

But tbh, Ive never preordered anything off of the Pokemon Center site before

[mental carbon]

Oh that’s a shitty way to do preorders lol, I’ll lock into the site also then

[graceful summit]

Also me being in Canada may affect things too.

[mental carbon]

Also, judging from what we know about the set, they’re going to have a field day with box sets for this set you would think

If they’re “only” confirming over 65 IR’s (weird number) we might get at least a dozen collection boxes with IR promos

[graceful summit]

Is that 65 for each set, or combined for both sets?

Assuming each set: that means 26 IR/SIRs would be promons (65 x 2 = 130)

[mental carbon]

Oh you’re right it’s each set

That leaves what, 24 IR/SIR’s as promos?

You would assume this set is 100% getting a collection box, so that’s 3 promos there

[graceful summit]

Yup

Also, depends on if we get Therian Forms for the Genies, also the Kyurem fusions

Also, 2 Meloettas

Id say Keldeo as well, but Keldeo has never had the form change acknowledged in the TCG as far as I remember

[little falcon]

Eww Gen 5

[mental carbon]

The preorders for the ETB’s dropped today

While I was taking a nap

[mental carbon]

Wooo, I got through and was able to get 1 of each

[graceful summit]

Nice

I havebt tried yet tbh

At work

[graceful summit]

I managed to snag them now too pog

[mental carbon]

Let’s goooooo

It seems everybody managed to get them that I know

Which is crazy

I heard the queue cracked over 4 million at one point

[graceful summit]

I believe it for sure

But ya, way smother than Prismatic and Destined Rivals

[mental carbon]

Queue is live now, idk for what

Maybe booster box drops?

[graceful summit]

That or maybe a 2nd wave of people realized they could get in. This set wont have booster boxes.

[mental carbon]

It ended up being for a pin

I did not realize this was a special set with no booster boxes

Hopefully it doesn’t get scalped to all hell

[mental carbon]

Best Buy preorders supposedly went live and got instantly sold out

[graceful summit]

Oof

[mental carbon]

Mail day

[graceful summit]

Managed to finally break my dry streak of today. Went 4-0 with Gardy.
R1 vs Gardevoir
R2 vs Mimikyu/Ogrepon Stall
R3 vs Iono Raging Bolt
R4 vs Dragapult Duskull

[final musk]

lol Metagross ex is already broken on Live

can attach to anything instead of its restriction to metal and psychic

[final musk]

https://www.pokebeach.com/2025/05/black-bolt-and-white-flare-to-experience-severe-shortages-but-tpci-now-catching-up

So yeah Fomo really sucks the set

Fuck me for driving to Pax East during pre orders I gues

Good thing actually playing the set will be cheap.

[mental carbon]

https://x.com/bestpokemondeal/status/1924117162782031945?s=46&t=DdUsqNPs-c3IFDRYOhiq8A

PokeDeals Nerd Dani 🤗 (@BestPokemonDeal) on X

2 months before release, Destined Rivals hasn’t even officially dropped, and people are already opening White Flare 😓

X · May 18, 2025, 2:57 PM

[graceful summit]

Early testing Metagross rn

[graceful summit]

Can't believe Pocket got Ultra Beasts before they came back to the TCG proper ☠️

[graceful summit]

I burnt down the kitchen a bit

[final musk]

Trashalanche is back but it’s on a fossil

Pain

https://www.pokebeach.com/2025/05/keldeo-ex-genesect-ex-swords-of-justice-and-fossils-revealed-from-black-bolt-and-white-flare

[graceful summit]

Can't believe they made my custom card

[mental carbon]

Best Buy drop for destined rivals ETB’s is in 7 minutes

If anybody wants to try

[final musk]

sold out in 10 minutes

[mental carbon]

Yep, these bots are impossible to beat on non PC sites

[hot prawn]

ooh what good metal evos do we have for this

[graceful summit]

Metagross ex 😤

Also Goldenghoul

[graceful summit]

Perfection

[hot prawn]

oh I likey for gholdengo

Can you pull up Metagross?

[steep crow]

saw outside my lgs, line out the door for pokemon
walk 5 minutes to the smaller lgs, 6 etbs in stock no line

Ya boi

[little falcon]

wow congrats on becoming rich

[steep crow]

One per customer and plastic wrap cut on purchase but retail price

Just got one for me and my partner to open

[little falcon]

lol guess more places are doing that now

[steep crow]

Its good, means the players/collectors actually get product

[graceful summit]

Someone posted in my local group posted they were camped outside of Gamestop for product.

I am too employed for this lmao

[mental carbon]

I went to pick up Starbucks and there’s a GameStop next to it, probably around 30 people in line waiting to get product

I can’t wait for things to normalize again

People that do this for profit and not the love of the game are wack

[graceful summit]

Tbf, some of my regular actual play group is also doing this, because they have to

People want to build the new decks, shane we have to deal with the acalpers to try and do so

Speaking of which, Im going to try and get the Metagross deck today during lunch

[mental carbon]

I wanted to get the rival decks to play with and I can’t even find them in store lol

[final musk]

This was the case for my local GameStop too… 30 minutes before opening

My lgs has like no one outside it so I figured I would badger the shop owner. 5 mins away from opening and I am the only 1 here

[graceful summit]

I managed to get the 2 Steven decks and a booster box during lunch, no line up pog

[mental carbon]

Not even bothering checking, closest locals to me is Gamer’s Choice

[final musk]

Pulls from ETB:

[mental carbon]

That crobat is my chase, the art on it is beautiful

[graceful summit]

My booster box friggin sucked

Remind me to never open sealed Pokemon product and just hoard them like a dragon because SHEESH

All my regular art exs were the bulk ones. No Mewtwo ex, or Garchomp ex or anything decent.

2 of the 3 IRs were bad: Rapidash and Raticate. Atleast Yanma has some potential

3 garbage tier Full arts: Nidoking, Cetitan and Petrol

No Golds or SIRs.

I am a very salty biscuit

[little falcon]

We did it @hot prawn @mental carbon

[peak silo]

Gg

Is there anything meta relevant for destined rivals?

[graceful summit]

Mewtwo Spidops may see play. Also some people are teching and Ethans Engine with Typhlosion into Dragapult for a back up one prizer along side Drag itself

[peak silo]

oh ok

is it hard to build a pokemon deck? I wanna build an ethans deck with like typhlosion or macargo

[torn wyvern]

pokemon's got a reputation as the cheapest tcg so should be good

[peak silo]

uh, I meant in the technical sense not the financial sense

I guess I would need to make the list first

this was a list I saw on youtube and I wanna know if I should make changes before I go on TCGplayer to buy the deck

that or I buy a league build deck or a better deck

[torn wyvern]

If you've tested it, feel free
I'm not too honed in atm so I wouldn't know
I'm just aware that dragapult is the deck to beat sorta and has it's own prebuilt product also

[final musk]

Solo Typhlosion is fine for locals, but expect a very lopsided matchup spread in what it beats/gets beaten by. However, I'd look into Victini + Gravity Mountain for helping damage output

This was the starting point I was looking at

[mental carbon]

Friend opened their etb today, not bad at all

[little falcon]

Fuck I want that Garchomp

[peak silo]

I think my plan is probably to buy the league battle deck if I do see it and then just copy a topping list. I just mentioned ethans typhlosion since I am a big Heart Gold fan (although I am sad its not like... good per se)

currently been having a breakdown with yugioh so figured I might bite the bullet to get into pokemon now that destined rivals is out

[little falcon]

Bored af of Yugioh too and my locals have been dead af. Idk what I wanna move to tho

[peak silo]

nah im not bored of yugioh im just frustrated with the game that im going to try to commit to pokemon

[mental carbon]

https://x.com/dengjeff1/status/1929613681702191262?s=46&t=DdUsqNPs-c3IFDRYOhiq8A

Jeffrey Deka (@DengJeff1)

Made Top 8 in a Destined Rival Booster Box tourney. It's insanely fun to play this deck! List not optimal yet.

X · Jun 2, 2025, 6:58 PM

[hot prawn]

Ethan's is pretty straightforward so that's nice

[peak silo]

Whats with these pokemon?

Bottom 6

[hot prawn]

Clef is used to murder dragapult

[rich pine]

What’s wrong with them? They’re pretty normal tech cards

[torn wyvern]

Special energy

Their attacks only require 1 non fire

[rich pine]

Yep and most of them don’t even need anything special

Wellspring ogerpon is a bit tricky to use for new players

[peak silo]

Sorry im not versed in pokemon to understand enough and I was confused by the energy requirement

[torn wyvern]

Latias and durant are for their abilities alongside fez

The rest are utility attackers

Iron hands and clef need the special energy to do so

[peak silo]

do they go in every deck like staples (besides fezandipiti) or is it for decks like this specifically?

[torn wyvern]

Latias is pretty common in big basic decks

Iron hands always shows up when a deck has good generic energy accel

Because it only needs 1 thunder for the bonus prize kill

Water decks like chien pao in the past have utilised it

Baxcalibur had a similar ability to the armarouge above

I wouldn't call these staples

[final musk]

Latias is purely utility yeah. Free Retreat makes it a lot easier to keep momentum for moving up new attackers.

However, each other one is a utility attacker including Durant

All the attackers in that pic require X number of colorless energy and 1 energy of a specific type, which is covered by Luminous Energy or Legacy Energy. The X Colorless energy are covered by the fire energy moved onto the pokemon.

Lillie's Clefairy is an attacker to beat Dragon ex pokemon, namely Dragapult ex.
Durant ex is a Grass attacker for Grimmsnarl ex and Charizard ex.
Iron Hands is to improve prize racing by taking an extra prize on small stuff.
Wellspring can do similarly by taking out 2 pokemon at once. It can also lock an opponent's active pokemon if you need to buy time.
Gouging Fire ex is the hardest hitting fire type available.

For utility attackers, you also have Regigigas and Bloodmoon ex is the full deck list.
Regigigas can swing heavily into tera pokemon as a 1-prize pokemon.
Bloodmoon has tanky HP, good damage, and gets easier to power up later in the game.

[peak silo]

this is a good explanation thank you!

[hot prawn]

Good morning Ethan fans

[graceful summit]

Average early game of the TCG post Prismatic Evolutions

[proper fossil]

I ended up buying that Dragapult EX precon after all

I just can't try it out this week since I am away when there is Pkmn TCG league

[hot prawn]

Is this anything @graceful summit @final musk

[graceful summit]

The Ethans engine/Typhlosion line can actually be put into a few decks. Its p fun

[hot prawn]

oh planning to play it as the main deck haha. I think I saw lists on victini and gravity mountain

[graceful summit]

Went to EB Games for a Switch 2 case, managed to get this!

[little falcon]

rich

[graceful summit]

More like pure dumb luck lol

[proper fossil]

as expected NAIC top8 was prety much Dragapult and Gardevoir

I did do some upgrading to my Dragapult EX battle deck but I am still missing some cards and I ended buying extra poffin since I didn't remember that battle deck already had 4

oh well

[final musk]

Yeah the rundown is basically:

• Pult was the most successful deck overall. Pultzard is now a lot more effective of a variant, but SlowPult had the best placements at the top.
• Gardy is clearly the best deck at top level play
• Bolt and Grimmsnarl are good picks overall. Grimmsnarl fell below some's expectations that it would kick Gardy out of the top 3 (which was ridiculous to expect)
• Eevee is a good deck into anything except Gardy and Pultzard, which holds it back.
• Gholdengo did eh
• Joltik box did bad and with Pultzard's rise, will probably continue to be a bad play
• Mewtwo, as predicted, was a scam.

• Zoroark had 1 result, but it was pretty much a meta call on respecting Shaymin

[graceful summit]

Also, just for the hell of it I took a look and there were exactly 2 Metagross players at NAIC 😭

And they both did poorly ofc ☠️

[final musk]

The metal attacker pool is unfortunately that poor

As a psychic accelerator it’s outdone by Gardy tremendously.

As a stand-alone attacker it’s not as self sufficient to pair with Munkidori, and Grimmsnarl has a stadium searcher.

[digital crow]

Wait joltik?

Did i get sent 13 years into the past?

[rich pine]

No way it’s been that long since night March

[digital crow]

It hasnt, double checked

Only 11 years

[rich pine]

bruhhh

[little falcon]

I never knew this Pikachu art existed

Had to buy it when I saw it. Also bought these other 2 cause the art is top notch and Altaria is the best

[mental carbon]

It was a blister promo for team up iirc

[little falcon]

yeah its a promo idk from where dont normally see it tho

[graceful summit]

Optimal Metagross boardstate

[digital crow]

Imagine if the metagross was a garde instead tho

[final musk]

https://championships.pokemon.com/en-us/about/2026-season-changes

Some deets for 2026 season. Probably going to Pitt regionals in September. Vegas would be neat since I've never been there, but I'd have to see if I could fit it in.

Biggest change by far is the End-of-Round change going to Turn 0 + only 1 turn.

[graceful summit]

I'm going to crash out if they don't have a Toronto Regional this year ☠️

[warped needle]

What gradings are respected in pokemon>

[rich pine]

Only a PSA 10

If you have anything under that, go ahead and just burn the card since it’s not worth anything

[mental carbon]

Fully depends on the era

[hollow wagon]

Random question for people that play Pokemon Pocket. Is Ultra Beast still the most busted thing you can play?

[digital crow]

The pocket players are in #1020096234968596531

[hollow wagon]

Thank you choccy

[runic kiln]

How much is the perceived value of this out of curiosity

Bulk popplio signed by the Pope

[rich pine]

Becomes a 1 of a kind holy item pretty much

I think technically the specific undertale given by matpat is one too

[graceful summit]

[graceful summit]

I stg these ETBs are talking like the Green Goblin mask

[mental carbon]

I got mine from PC earlier this week, I decided to ask my friend if he wanted them for what I got them for, my love for collecting has kinda died with all the scalpers and people in the hobby who don’t actually love the cards, and are just in it for a profit

[graceful summit]

I bought 1 of each regular ETB to open. No SIRs, but not too shabby imo

[graceful summit]

Got bored and opened 2 more ETBs. Happy with the Meloettas and Dewott. Also may try to build the meme Buffalant list so thats nice. Overall pretty happy with them.

[hollow wagon]

They better let me keep this

[stable loom]

I got the Lugia ex one from the first pack I did was so dissapointed to hold it down and just see a black screen. In other news: I have 48 PTCG Live codes after opening a box and some other stuff. I just like to collect shiny stuff, so I dont play the game. Anyone want em, lemme know.

[graceful summit]

Pulled the overpriced frog pog

[mental carbon]

Severely overpriced frog

[graceful summit]

Flipping it for SIR Reshiram ex

[graceful summit]

Flip successful

[mental carbon]

Sheeesh., that’s a come up in my book

[graceful summit]

Shoutout to the idiots that started the rumour that Seismitoad would be banned/get new art because it had "666" on the current art lmao

[graceful summit]

Went 2-1 at League challenge, lost in Time to Typhlosion and he won the whole thing. I got 2nd overall

[graceful summit]

1 MORBILLION YEARS OF GARDEVOIR

[graceful summit]

GARDEVOIR THE GOAT

[graceful summit]

4-0-1 today, still have to play top cut. Playing Garde.
R1 vs Zard/Skull
R2 vs Garde mirror
R3 vs Pult/Skull
R4 vs Bolt Ogrepon
R5 Intentional draw

[graceful summit]

Lost in top 8 to Gholdengo Hands, opening hands were just super weak.

[graceful summit]

These were my pick ups today. Def did some damage to my wallet, but the dude gave me reasonable prices.

And my pulls

[digital crow]

JAAAAAADGE

[steep crow]

What's yalls favourite underrated illustration rares

[mental carbon]

Cramorant from Twilight Masquerade is a sick card, Bewear’s IR also comes to mind

[graceful summit]

I know its a promo, but I love the Fluttter Mane IR. Like really sells the whole cryptid vibe that the pokedex talks about.

[final musk]

JTG Maractus
JTG Swinub
JTG Noibat
DSR Clampearl
DSR Spidops
PAR Crustle
SCR Lileep
SSP Kecleon
151 Omanyte

[mental carbon]

JTG has a lot of great art and most of it feels underrated

[steep crow]

Got some new pickups

[digital crow]

OBF cleffa and TWM probopass

[steep crow]

Which one do i get fellas

[digital crow]

Roserade

[mental carbon]

Meowscarada has aura

Cynthia has aura in the roserade card

[little falcon]

Answer is always Cynthia

[steep crow]

Okay so these are all my pick ups for this month

And the Cynthia's roserade

[steep crow]

Fuck it i got one more

This looks infinitely better than the garchomp sar from destined rivals

[mental carbon]

Idk about that one, I do really like this card though

[steep crow]

My main issue with the sar is the stadium

Its clearly a galarian style arena which doesnt make much sense unless it specifically takes place in the journey's series, but then it'd be mega garchomp not regular

Small things like that get to me

[graceful summit]

Been shifting my collection to new binders

So far, have Gens 1-3 in the 1st binder, 4-8 in the 2nd binder and my 3rd binder will be Gen 9 and beyond + plus misc stuff like the conplete Celebrations set

Also, making space for cards I want for the collection/Megas that'll get new cards.

[mental carbon]

Extremely jealous of your collection

[steep crow]

Fellas

Pick one

[graceful summit]

Palafin ex

[mental carbon]

Palafin

I prefer the temporal forces arts for raging bolt and iron crown

[graceful summit]

Splash pages for my 3rd binder and some of the Gen 9 section.

If anyone knows what the 1st page is a reference to, I'll give you my heaty respect

[mental carbon]

Smash?

[graceful summit]

Yup! You would be amazed by how few people realize that

[mental carbon]

I’m in the process of trying to make my binders look nice, but looking at yours is making me think I may need to get a 4x3 instead of 3x3

[graceful summit]

4x3 is goated. I love how much more room it gives me to be expressive with presentation

Occasionally there are some blank spots, but having room for expansion is good to since so many mons get regional forms/megas/cool new arts I want to show off

[mental carbon]

I should take a pic of my in progress ones, I have a mid era one and a modern binder with some random vintage and japanese Vending series/southern islands thrown in

[graceful summit]

Def do it! Id love to take a peek

[steep crow]

Got my zoroark sar in the mail today

It has an undisclosed print line on the back

https://tenor.com/view/jujutsu-kaisen-aoi-todo-crying-best-friendo-jjk-gif-13677067473840256480

[graceful summit]

Thats awful 😞

[graceful summit]

Honestly, I'd try to get a refund for it

[steep crow]

Its not something I mind too much it looks like the roller that applies gloss on the back ran out

But yeah definitely want to get some money back for it

[mental carbon]

My modern binder WIP

My mid era binder

[steep crow]

I love how they gave ogerpon 8 SARs

And their best art card is the promo

[graceful summit]

Its truuuu

[steep crow]

Just realised I have a special delivery zard

I think theyre like 80 rn

[steep crow]

I was talking to my partner about this N card and how to make it look better

This is what we settled on

[steep crow]

Want to get the DER garchomp cynthia but damn it expensive

[peak silo]

is gardevoir EX that oppressive?

[rich pine]

Honestly very likely just people reacting week 1

Best deck usually shifts a lot in between formats

[graceful summit]

Gardevoir ex has arguably been the best deck since the SV era started despite them printing so many counter to it.

1 GARDILLION years of supremacy

[peak silo]

oh ok

does the new mega evolution set shake up anything?

[graceful summit]

It does change a few things for sure

https://youtu.be/0_P7afduC-w?si=sPC3JL7lmeqCxWz5

[graceful summit]

Def recommend this as a good way to get some info

[peak silo]

I just collect but its really funny seeing a tweet about someone wanting to ban garde ex

I thought about playing months ago but never really commited to it, but now that im about to get a job (or at least hope so) then I might now invest my time into it

[final musk]

Overall, yes. There have been other decks at bdif, but talking decks introduced since SV nothing else compares overall

Lost Box was bdif for a decent portion of early SV until Charizard checked it and Drago was dominant for 6 months.

Gardy however has rarely ever been out of top 5

[final musk]

It’s weird because staleness is a thing and Gardy has consistently shown up as a viable option and tournament winner. What really didn’t help is that Mega Evo does very little to change the meta but buffing Gardy was like

The thing devs did the most

Most decks got nothing, Pult Noir got nerfed, Dengo got a slightly better Rigid Band, Mega Evo dedicated decks have lacked results.

Gardy got a better Ralts, better Kirlia, a new draw stadium, a new stage 2 attacker tech, an incoming second mega evo basic to test, and the option of an item to remove a 2-prizer off board

And, if that weren’t enough, psychic got a patch card when there were a few other types desperate for energy accel rn

We’re also about to come back full circle as Tera Box just popped off at a pair of regionals. We saw this happen and then Tera Box died out because Gardy with Shaymin or Rabsca was the best answer to the meta

We are back at the same meta we were in at Journey Together despite Gholdengo getting buffed

[graceful summit]

Ye, Regidrago, Lost Box and even Lugia VStar were all really good until they rotated. Lost Box or Drago were probably BDIF prior to rotation iirc.

[final musk]

They were yes

No debate

Gardy was bdif for like 1 or 2 formats until all the way in Destined Rivals

[graceful summit]

But once things became SV onwards, Gardy kept getting fed good things, and Mega Evo gives it more good things

[final musk]

It was clearly the best deck of Twilight Masquerade, and you could argue maybe Obsidian Flames or Paradox Rift

[graceful summit]

From Scream Tail, Flutter Mane, Drifloon and finally Munkidori

[final musk]

Even when SV onward hit, its worst format was Temporal Forces

[graceful summit]

Yup, decks with an unlimited damage cap is def its worst mu besides outright weakness

[final musk]

What is tiresome about Gardy is that no other deck got anywhere near this much new stuff to mess with

[graceful summit]

And Raging Bolt stopped being a problem once Lillies Clef came out

(Not totally, but you know)

[final musk]

Bolt was not viable in temporal forces format and Gardy was often still favored into it regardless.

The decks that put Gardy under wraps were any deck that could utilize Iron Hands. Temporal Forces was crawling with those

[graceful summit]

Man, I really wish we got Dark Patch again. I miss playing Roaring Moon 😔

[mental carbon]

Picked up Tepig and Pignite today for $18

[steep crow]

Fellas which one do I pick up?

[mental carbon]

The celebi for sure

[graceful summit]

Celebi imo. Though I actually own the Rotom and its also GOATed

[steep crow]

And out of these two (ignore value, judge solely on art)

[rich pine]

Celebi’s is prettier, sylveon’s is cuter

Do with that what you will

[final musk]

Went to Pitt, 4-3-1 with Eevee Box hit too many Gardy rip

[torn wyvern]

rip, good try

does 5-2-1 make it?

[final musk]

5-2-1 would have made it yea

JoltDengo W 2-0
Gardy Jelly T 1-1
Bolt no Owls W 2-1
Gardy L 0-2
Gardy L 0-2
PultNoir W 2-0
Grimmsnarl L 1-2 (Bricks really hurt man)
Toedscruel W 2-0

[graceful summit]

Yes, I did actually pull it

So, I'll tell you what happened: I went to my locals and bought in and paid, then when they gave out the build and battle decks, they stopped at me. They went looking in the back and couldn't find anymore and they realized they oversold it (15 people bought in but there were only 14 B&Bs).

The last guy to buy in offered to give me his since he technically shouldn't have gotten it but I told him no he paid in and as a Professor I'd be here regardless. (He went on to pull SIR Mega Khang and full art Mega Signal)

Afterwards, everyone else started to build their decks and played, I answered some questions and the folks wworking there gave me 6 packs of Mega Evolution as compensation. Pulled it on the last pack.

So I went, but didn't get to actually play lmao. It was still fun regardless and I think the universe was paying back my kindness.

[steep crow]

Clean af

Might be the best looking card in the last 5 years im dead serious

[steep crow]

I think these are my personal picks from the set

[graceful summit]

The Mega Absol.wpuld look so good with the Evolving Skies Noivern V that Arita also did

[mental carbon]

That stufful is going to look so good with the selfie bewear next to it in my binder

[steep crow]

Fellas my comic borderless Eddie brock magic card sold which pokemon card do I pick up

[rich pine]

Popplio

As many as you can so you can make a robe of popplios

And call yourself pope Leo popplio for Halloween

[steep crow]

Which one chat

[graceful summit]

Milotic easy

[mental carbon]

Some of last week’s pick ups came in, I still got about 20-30 more cards coming in

[steep crow]

Which one chat

[graceful summit]

Garde, not biased btw

[steep crow]

This month's pickups summarised

[mental carbon]

Some more of my pickups came today as well

[steep crow]

I respect the ex series reverses

[mental carbon]

I have a binder full of them, I would love to master set them one day

[graceful summit]

I want to collect so many of the Delta Species but theyre so expensive these days 😭

[hot prawn]

Ex series = goat

[mental carbon]

If its for your PC, I can’t stress enough how undervalued mid era is on whatnot compared to modern/vintage. That’s pretty much where all my ex series/e readers in my PC came from

[graceful summit]

I have a few, I'll send a pic later

But one of the things I did pick up before the Covid boom was also the FRLG set Charizard ex

[mental carbon]

That's fire. I'll say out of the mid era sets FRLG is def the one that blew up a lot, it and Delta Species

[final musk]

Lv X is also slowly blowing up in general

I got a Gengar lv X LP I think last year for like 50 and the lowest a damaged one goes for now is almost 100

Makes it weird for me since I’m like 40% through collecting those

[mental carbon]

Yeah, I managed to pick up a couple of lv X's I liked, mostly in HP-MP condition, but it's fine since they're for the PC. I got Floatzel, Gardevoir, Giratina and Shaymin right now

I also had both Heatrans but somebody offered me a deal I couldnt say no to for them

Had to find the page rq

[final musk]

Trying to remember full list of what I have for Lv X:

Infernape
Electivire
Honchkrow
Palkia
Cresselia
PorygonZ
Regigigas
Machamp
Dusknoir
Giratina
Drapion
Dialga Galactic
Flygon
Staraptor FB
Rayquaza C
Garchomp C
Blaziken FB
Gengar
All 3 Arceus

And the Promo version of Charizard G

The main one I dished money on was Flygon but I ended up dumping a whole fodder binder to take most of the cost

[steep crow]

https://tenor.com/view/kronk-its-all-coming-together-gif-15058130

[peak silo]

https://bsky.app/profile/voltaicchains.bsky.social/post/3lzwxp4vugc2w

eve (@voltaicchains.bsky.social)

i dont even play the tcg but this shit is frying me

Likes

111

Bluesky · Sep 29, 2025, 2:30 AM

[steep crow]

£60 pick up

I dont even like charizard that much I just couldn't pass the deal

[graceful summit]

Man, I remember when that UPC was actually around and not being scalped to hell, good times

These were actually my pulls from it at the time. Not too shabby all things considered still

[mental carbon]

the rainbow zard vstar is nice

[steep crow]

Man i want to buy the sir garde but its just too much

[graceful summit]

At least it os tanking compared to what it was at which is nice

[steep crow]

Still £100 here in jp

[steep crow]

Bit the bullet, I think thats every s and v-mega era card i care about in my binder for now

Got a new binder, here's the pics

[mental carbon]

Beautiful

[graceful summit]

Gorgeous 😍

[steep crow]

The spot for the garde sar will be filled soon some mf on Ebay didnt ship out so getting that cancelled, got the sylveon prismatic and mega garde sar to come too

Next up is chasing some big older grails probably gonna have to do em one pay check at a time

Thankfully I dont care about language much so this'll probably only cost me £250ish for the pair

[graceful summit]

Nice. I did the same thing for my Solgaleo and Lunala TTGX, got it in Chinese at a more reasonable price

I probably need to hop on getting the Latis TTGX in Chinese too

[steep crow]

Theres a garde id like to pick up in modern but my partner has banned me from it because they have it and want it to be special

The entire reason they keep it and not sell it btw

I am not joking

[graceful summit]

Pogging Whooper

[steep crow]

Might see if someone does my a deal for my zards at a card show im going to this sunday

If i can get 150 for all 3 id be happy

[little falcon]

omg Pachi!

[steep crow]

Split a box of Japanese mega brave with my partner

Got the riolu and marshadow irs

https://tenor.com/view/dbz-strong-sky-gif-14611436

[steep crow]

Decided to get my first psa card

Gem 10 sylveon nagaba

[mental carbon]

Got a couple of common pickups for the master sets I’m working on

[steep crow]

Card show pickups

[steep crow]

Bought some gem pack 2 boxes for cheap just to sit on cause that box art is gorgeous

[hidden ocean]

wjat are cool meta decks rn

if i wanna try game

ive seen mega lucario whihc look interesting

[graceful summit]

Mega Lucario, Mega Venusaur, the Mega Absol/Kang deck

[hidden ocean]

how do each play

[graceful summit]

Mega Lucario hits fast and hard, you try to juice up with the Power Pro +s for OHKOs or favourable 2HKOs.

Mega Venu is a stage 2 deck that uses a bunch of the new Grass stuff and can be a tanking deck at times.

Mega Absol/Kang is I can't really explain, very unga bunga big basics but also a lot of control aspects to it.

[hidden ocean]

for someone newer to pokemon tcg which wuld u recco? they all seem cool

[rich pine]

Lucario very likely

[torn wyvern]

I'm tapped out so take my opinion with a grain of salt
I like the idea of mega vena for a new player honestly. I don't think ppl should start with a big basic decks, deck has multiple evo lines (it technically cheats evo too so you're feeling too slow), it's got flexible energy and diff attackers so its not too strict. with the healing and supps like turo you're thinking about prizes more than trading 2-2-2 which is prob the most boring form of ptcg. It's not the best deck in the room (because that'll always be garde) it's solid

[rich pine]

I think for a newer player a deck focused around going fast and rushing 2-2-2 is better, keeps the game simple enough with room for improvement

[hidden ocean]

hm

[hidden ocean]

do any of these like rotate anytime soon?

or how does pkm rotation work

[torn wyvern]

It's yearly but what matters is the block the card is from, so like next april/may block "G" cards will go
the 3 decks yozzoy mentioned use fairly new cards and should be pretty untouched from rotation

[hidden ocean]

ok

[final musk]

Lucario definitely should be combined with something, either Zoroark ex or Gholdengo ex.

Else you just get farmed by a few decks

[hidden ocean]

i rly like zoroark

;-;

like out of the 3 which would be best

[final musk]

Out of Venusaur, Lucario, and Absol/Kenga, Absol/Kenga has the best results from a really good meta call, but it is also the most difficult to play by being a rather slow control deck

Venusaur and Lucario are much more rogue. Lucario probably has a lot of room to hybrid that just hasn't been tried much. Vensaur probably never better than rogue for the time being

[hidden ocean]

hm ok

ill try lucario then

ill look for like a uhm hybrid? variant of it

with the goldengho or the zoroark on limitless

[final musk]

Lucario generally has been played as just a fighting deck (Hariyama + Solrock and Lunatone) but people are trying both Gholdengo + Lucario and Zoroark + Lucario to cover for Lucario's horrible winrate against Gardevoir ex

Lucario in turn is one of the best answers to Mega Kenga, which Absol/Kenga farmed Gholdengo so far

[hidden ocean]

but it does poor into garde aswell tho right

[final musk]

Gholdengo and Zoroark both do well into Gardy, Lucario doesn't. the goal is to try and even out matchups with answers

[hidden ocean]

hoqw do i find list for those

i cant on the limitless site

[final musk]

limitless labs

https://labs.limitlesstcg.com/

https://labs.limitlesstcg.com/0040/player/0310/decklist
Zoro Lucario in particular, which got top 128 at Milwaukee

limitless labs lets you also look through what matches players played against, and the overall matchup spreads for decks at tournaments

[steep crow]

Finally got this page finished

[steep crow]

Man once corbeau comes out with an SAR im cooked

Really good character

[graceful summit]

Hauls from my prereleases

[graceful summit]

Todays pick ups 😍

[mental carbon]

Holy rich

[steep crow]

I gotta ask are you like an English only collector cause like Japanese ceruledge sar is like £7

[mental carbon]

Idk, but I prefer English on most modern stuff if i can get my hands on it

For vintage I def prefer Jp though

[steep crow]

My updated binder

[graceful summit]

I generally prefer english stuff, plus its all thats really actively available in Canada.

[graceful summit]

Its going to be a ice water soup type week ☠️

[digital peak]

whats going on in the physical tcg

[final musk]

Card is useless

N getting Zekrom for a good pair of attack options is enough to buff Zoro tho

Now buff the other owners themes like giving Misty an acceptable number of cards

[rich pine]

card is useless but the condition is pretty damn funny

[graceful summit]

I love how the people crazy enough to play this card are already calling it "N's Exodia"

[digital peak]

Nexodia the forbidde-N one

[graceful summit]

Straight Roaring Moon is so fun rn.

Nice Mega Kang idiot 😂

[steep crow]

They still offloading these???

[graceful summit]

My LGS has a bunch of these + the stamped Sylveon

They got printed into the ground.

[steep crow]

Stamped sylveon?

[mental carbon]

good, now let's print all the SV sets to the ground

[graceful summit]

Ya, it was stamped for Pokemon day, I dont think its dated on it but it was for 2025

[steep crow]

ns zekrom is the english etb promo

Fucccccck

[graceful summit]

Isnt that good though since it wont be expensive. Or were you hoping something else would be the promo

[steep crow]

It means its gonna have a pokemon center stamped version

[graceful summit]

Truuu

Speaking of which, my Phantasmal Flames PC ETB finally shipped

[graceful summit]

Getting ready for league this weekend. We always have someone hitting time lmao

[digital crow]

Today i remembered one my favorite decks ever

No gimmick was as based as breaks and no one will ever be

[graceful summit]

Tbf, Breaks were just a new take on Lv X

But ya, it was a cool gimmick. I was kinda hoping Megas would be like that

[digital crow]

Me too yea

[graceful summit]

Also, IIRC wasn't there also a Xern that did more based on the # of types you had on Bench. And with the Steam Siege Dual types, you could hit some solid numbers

[digital crow]

There was

[graceful summit]

Ya that one too. I remember people playing that one as well as the Raibow Spear one

[digital crow]

Lv Xs were cool but man

Harpie lady ruling sucked

[graceful summit]

Harpie Lady?

[final musk]

Level X’s count as the regular Pokémon name

ie. You can only run 2 Luxray and 2 Luxray lv X total, or 3 and 1

[graceful summit]

Ahh

I totally forgot about that

[steep crow]

Mega dream designed to kill me tf

[graceful summit]

I need to go back and pull the trigger on the other Cynthia cards, specifically Garchomp soon.

[mental carbon]

I took a break from collecting hoping the market would settle a bit, guess I was dead wrong

Why are ruby & sapphire holos way up lmao

[graceful summit]

2-1 at the League Challenge today:
R1 vs Pult/Noir - Lost due to bricking hard.
R2 vs Gholdengo (Energy Search Max version) - Won, he needed a late game boss but couldn't get it.
R3 vs Flareon/Tera Box - Won. Made a wacky 3 prize turn in time for the Win. I used double Munkidori, then Turo'd 1 up and used it again to knock out a Hoothoot, the. Counter Catchered up Wellspring Ogrepon and KOd with Lillie's Clefairy for game

I was on Garde. Gave it one last ride

[steep crow]

THE FUCK IS THIS SET BRO

[digital crow]

Mid, that's what it is

[mental carbon]

Looks like Prismstic 2 to me

[hidden ocean]

i love this card

[graceful summit]

I like how people just know I love Metagross now lmao 🤣

[hidden ocean]

will this shit be expensive

i want one for my tiny ass collection

[graceful summit]

Im guessing yes, but also the value will pool around certain cards causing the rest to settle down relatively, similar to what eventually happened to prismatic with the Eeveelutions taking the bulk of the "value" and the rest of the SIRs slowly becoming more reasonable

Ok, reasonable may be a bit of a stretch, but you know what I mean

[hidden ocean]

damnit

like number?

[graceful summit]

For example:

Ceruledge ex SIR from Prismatic is ~100 USD

If you buy the Japanese version of that card, its like 20-25 USD

[hidden ocean]

oh ok

i would spend 20 on it

:p

[graceful summit]

Im guessing SIR Pikachu, Mewtwo and Mega Dnite will be the "heavy hitters" of the set, with some others in solid 2nd place.

https://www.tcgplayer.com/search/pokemon-japan/sv8a-terastal-fest-ex?productLineName=pokemon-japan&setName=sv8a-terastal-fest-ex&productTypeName=Cards&page=1&view=grid

https://www.tcgplayer.com/search/pokemon/sv-prismatic-evolutions?productLineName=pokemon&setName=sv-prismatic-evolutions&productTypeName=Cards&page=1&view=grid

The difference between Japanese vs non Japanese regions is crazy

Because in Japan, these special sets are available as axtual booster boxes and iirc you were gauranteed an SIR in each box

[steep crow]

So long as n zoroark, cynthias spiritomb and ns zekrom are cheap

Ill live

If they arent

Ill die

[graceful summit]

I tried the Liepard build. It's cute, but IMO it cuts too much into the deck and the list is tight as is.

[graceful summit]

Todays pick ups

[graceful summit]

I have come to the conclusion everyone with a functional brain already came to that I was too stubborn to accept: Sharpedo is ass I got bodied today 😭

[final musk]

Welcome to new decks in Phantasmal flames, we have:

• Furry bait
• Farmed by Dengo
• Farmed by Dengo
• Farmed by Dengo

[graceful summit]

1 guy playing Gholdengo has managed to win our last 3 Challenges. He has won every mat since Journey together with nearly the same list (Energy Search Pro version) ☠️

[rich pine]

Either a huge skill gap or cheating

Could also just be very very lucky those specific days

[graceful summit]

The latter, I have beaten them before

Just when you get to draw so much, its easy to get lucky ofc

[steep crow]

Im so happy the pokemon market is declining cause i can get my grails at cheaper prices

[steep crow]

I picked up sylveon gardevoir tag team alt today

So am happy

[graceful summit]

Im currently on the hunt for Latis TTGX Alt art in Chinese since I'll still never be able to afford the english version

[mental carbon]

I’m still trying to master set black bolt/white flare AR’s

My mid era dream is kinda dead for now

[steep crow]

Chinese tag teams are the goat

Alt zekrom and reshi and an alt garde/sylve for like £250 for both

[steep crow]

Got a charizard x upc at retail, pulls sucked but was fun

[graceful summit]

You gotta tell me where you get them. Is it just ebay?

[mental carbon]

Target had a big restock today online

I had also heard that the Charizard UPC’s weren’t selling that well, so I guess that was bs

[steep crow]

Ye

A lot of the big chinese sellers also accept pretty big discount offers

Or if you mean the upc i got it from my locals

[graceful summit]

Nah, the Chinese cards. I did manage to also scoop up a UPC so I'm 2 for 2 on Zard UPCs so far pog

[graceful summit]

Its starting to feel like the original Zard UPC where they actually managed to print it into the ground along with Phantasmal which is honestly good news.

[graceful summit]

There was a card show today, I said I'd go just to browse. Jokes on me

[steep crow]

200 dollar

Actually wait didnt see the ursuring

300 dollar

[graceful summit]

Its Japanese so less fortunately

[steep crow]

Respect on the mega absol pick up too many people disrespecting it

[graceful summit]

100% it looks so good especially with the Noivern V alt art from Evolving Skies

[graceful summit]

Doing some organizing for the collection binder

[steep crow]

No shatter glass trio smh

[graceful summit]

I have that still sealed in it's promo packaging actually lol

Got it for a clean $5 back in the day

[steep crow]

Mines sealed too its just in my binder as well

Poor articuno not getting an sar

[graceful summit]

I dont mind that too much, atleast it got some sort of special art

Regice on suicide watch though after not receiving any special cards since its Gold Star in lime 2006

I hope it gets an ex at some point

[steep crow]

My mega dream n zoroark arrived

Ya boi

Just waiting on my tag team garde, ns zekrom and cynthias spiritomb

[steep crow]

Its doooooone

[steep crow]

Cynthias page is almost done waiting on a french ultra prism alt

[graceful summit]

Nice! I still need to pick up the Cynthias Chomp SIR soon too

[steep crow]

I got mine in korean for £80

No wait £65

Market dipped by like £5 since then

[graceful summit]

Not too shabby!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17lnFpfgr5Q9wykUxy6lad2HMI4DryzHJIuiT8vc8L10/edit?usp=drivesdk

This isnt a buy list or anything, but this is what I want/need atm

[steep crow]

Also ngl i stole ur bird trio page spread i got a jtg articuno and a rivals moltres inbound

[graceful summit]

Tyty, I take that as a compliment pog

[graceful summit]

Just(Reg)ice is finally served. Regice finally got a new rule box card after 20 years (Regice Gold Star was the last one)

[steep crow]

Man im pissed tf off

My gardevoir sylveon arrived damaged

WHO THE FUCK SENDS AN ORDER IN AN ACRYLIC CARD HOLDER

[graceful summit]

What the hell

[steep crow]

Gotta wait to see if ebay gives me a refund now

Yaaaaaaay

[graceful summit]

Ebay sides with the buyer pretty much always, so you'll be good

Its just tedious

I had to "threaten" someone to return a card once explaining that the purchase was covered under the ebay policy

They folded real quick after that

[steep crow]

Seller accepted the return so I gotta wait for it to get back to china before they refund me

[steep crow]

Just saw something extremely painful

[steep crow]

All the Chinese sylveon and gardevoir sellers on ebay ARE THE SAME FUCKING GUY

[graceful summit]

Thats sucks so bad

Are there any proxy services to get Chinese cards?

[mental carbon]

Just picked up a NM Raichu lv. X for $22

[steep crow]

Really don't want to but might have no choice

[steep crow]

This card being like 15 dollars fucks me up

Like the art is so good

[steep crow]

I think for my next collection pages im gonna get some of my childhood chases: the primes/legends from hgss

[mental carbon]

I can’t believe they managed to give mega scrafty aura

[steep crow]

This is my dream card

Its the only card imo to do raikou justice

[graceful summit]

Facts. I really hope he finally gets a cool looking ex during the Mega era. Raikous 2 prizers have not been good looking except for the Raikou V alt art

I am a big fan of this Raikou too though.

[mental carbon]

Skyridge Raikou and the HGSS promo are my 2 favorite Raikou’s

[graceful summit]

Todays pick ups

[steep crow]

Yooooo sleepy t tar is greaty

[graceful summit]

Ill be honest to, cheaper than what I expected it to be as well

[steep crow]

T tar always got such baller art

[steep crow]

https://x.com/i/status/2005664947527901348

Poke Pullz - Pokemon TCG News/Restocks (@pokepullzhq)

BREAKING NEWS 🚨

Pokémon × McDonald’s 30th Anniversary collab is happening Feb–Mar 2026 🗓️

2026 is heating up! 🔥

X · Dec 29, 2025, 3:39 PM

Oh no

[mental carbon]

Oh no

[final musk]

Oh no

[graceful summit]

Bruhhh

[graceful summit]

Finally got the Gardy+Sylv pog!

[steep crow]

Took a while but we got there

[steep crow]

They're done finally

[mental carbon]

Why is your collection so sick

[steep crow]

Not caring about the language helps a lot

Most of the zapdos page was a gift from my partner when the tag teams were like £5-10 each

And the rest is building up from my paychecks

[steep crow]

Now that the binder is finished though im like "now what" lol

[rich pine]

You can collect all mudkips

[little falcon]

https://tenor.com/view/mudkip-gif-10506982

[graceful summit]

List Im working on for Toronto. Had to abandon Gardy

[final musk]

I am going to Toronto as well. Local group gotta pick another booking for airbnb tho, our first one just got canned

Flipping back and forth between Gholdengo and Pult. Probably settling on Dengo but locals has a practice day this Sunday

[graceful summit]

Yo, we'll def have to do a meet up! Even if its just a quick hello.

Honestly, it feels like it can be any decks tournament.

[final musk]

Absolutely would want to meet up

Yeah that's kinda where Pokemon's been. No deck is truly safe and the format at the top is wide

[steep crow]

New pickup

[mental carbon]

https://x.com/elizasheetposts/status/2010767961766625535?s=46&t=DdUsqNPs-c3IFDRYOhiq8A

P.ART | Eliza (@ElizaSheetposts)

I made this to help you with your last second pivot

X · Jan 12, 2026, 5:36 PM

[graceful summit]

Side note: The vendors at Toronto are going to ruin me if I can get a lot of my wants list there

[final musk]

Ugh tonight is the Nihlil Zero reveals and I got my drive to Toronto early tomorrow

[final musk]

This is correct but I'm still playing Dengo this time. I'm burned out overall and Toronto has turned into the oasis for my month.

Besides, last Toronto I played Turbo Moon

[mental carbon]

Moon… my beloved

[graceful summit]

@final musk fafter getting delayed by like 12 hours I made it to Toronto

[final musk]

Why the actual fuck does Perfect Order give Psychic a better capture energy

[graceful summit]

Also, kinda ashame that with no Superior Energy retrieval, Mega Clefable is DOA

Also, Ill be heading over to the convention centre to line up for the passes early today

[mental carbon]

https://x.com/pokemontcg/status/2012209855218491794?s=46&t=DdUsqNPs-c3IFDRYOhiq8A

Pokémon TCG (@PokemonTCG)

BIG CHOMP 💥

Mega Feraligatr ex special illustration rare 🌊 Available in #AscendedHeroes January 30, 2026.

X · Jan 16, 2026, 5:06 PM

[final musk]

I myself finished 4-3-1

Started the event 4-1, had 2 horrendous matches rounds 7 and 8

[errant plank]

Its obviously garde. Blue is such a garde colour.

[errant plank]

What was that card?

[graceful summit]

@final musk the 60 I played btw

[graceful summit]

Also, got TCG Masters 2nd place Andres G. to sign my Gold Bolt too pog

[graceful summit]

They sold out of the 2017 Regionals mats by the time I got up to the Prize Wall (Burning Shadows, Necrozma and Tapu Fini on them) but my nephew and I went 50/50 on a booster box of Destined Rivals and pulled:
Gold Rare Rocket's Mewtwo
Arvin's Mabosstif SIR
Yanmega FA
Rocket's Moltres FA
Blaziken IR
Murkrow IR
And a few other solid IRs.

[graceful summit]

Also, these were my major pick ups from the Regional. Top 4 were from vendors, Dawn was entry and nephew and I pulled the Mabosstif SIR + TR Murkrow IR among. Traded TR Meowth IR for the Stamped Pikachu.

(We also pulled Gold Mewtwo from our Destined Rivals box, but I let my nephew have it and most of the other IRs since several were duplicates for me)

[graceful summit]

@steep crow

[steep crow]

Ayyy

[graceful summit]

My (mostly) Chomp page

Blank spot is saved for the inevitable Mega Staraptor card

[steep crow]

Im hyped for it

[graceful summit]

And here's my main splash page for the Gen 4 section

[steep crow]

Noice

[graceful summit]

Time rules just got reverted, no longer just Turn 0 then Turn 1.

[final musk]

They probably did this because rounds were still finishing 20-30 minutes over even with the 10 min time limit

The other important thing to note from this was that they added guidelines for time between actions

15 seconds per regular action
45 seconds per first deck search
and a reasonable amount of time doing turn checkup

[graceful summit]

Managed to get 6 packs of Ascended Heros so far, just pulled FA Glass Trumpet, regular Pult ex, and a few neat reverse holos

[steep crow]

I need to get a reverse of the wurmple

[graceful summit]

Also, my friend got a god pack

They already flipped the Gengar for a cool 1400 CAD

[digital crow]

Show this to your modern player in order to kill them

[final musk]

Show that to the EUIC head judge and get booted from the venue apparently

[steep crow]

I dont get it this seems easy enough to understand

[digital crow]

Double rainbow energy that doesnt cost your attach for turn on one of the most easily searchable subtypes in the game, playable at 4 copies with no restrictions

With an ok attack on top

[steep crow]

Oh so less ruling nightmare more busted as hell

[digital crow]

There's some weird shit revolving it but yea

Like it would be arguably playable rn as an ace spec

[graceful summit]

Whats the tea here? What happened I was kinda tuned out for EUIC

[final musk]

So I listened to Uncommon Energy podcast on this

On Sunday, there was a hosted unofficial, no prizing tournament at the venue tables for a 50-person RSPK tournament. RSPK meaning, for those unfamiliar, EX Ruby-Sapphire through EX Power Keepers.

They had gotten permission to host the tournament from a member of the the venue organizers, fanafinity, to host the tournament prior, and had hosted a similar event the year before getting approval similarly.

They held the event until top 4. At top 4, a different fanafinity member noticed that the tables had table numbers for the unofficial tournament, and that they were recording round matches. That different member brought back several higher ups, including one who approved the tournament the year before, and kicked the majority of players in the tournament out of the venue because it imposed looking like an official tournament held at EUIC due to the table numbers and recording. They were also told that the tournament the year before should not have happened either, despite both tournaments getting approval from people prior.

TLDR; You will not be allowed to hold an unofficial tournament at an IC (and probably a regional) if it appears too official by quality.

At the very least, recording the unofficial tournament with video is a no-no

What is really stupid about this is that they contacted a rep, got permission last year, did the same thing this year then got shitcanned by a different rep and the first rep being forced to flip his approval.

And despite all that, still a better event than an LAIC has ever been

[graceful summit]

Jesus

[digital peak]

Just saw we got an Ange card in ptcg

[graceful summit]

Well, thats definitely some interesting design, but it feels way too fragile to be viable. Unless we got like a Lusamine reprint or something.

[final musk]

Yeah stadium bump just makes that kinda pointless

We finally get a trainer-based metal acceleration card and of course, it’s right when Revaroom rotates

[graceful summit]

Also it funny enough it has counter synergy with Phillipes main Mega, Skarm since that shugfles energy back into deck

Also, Im at 56 packs of AH so far:
1 Mega Attack Rare
4 IRs
3 bad FAs
A few bulk exs
2 of the new Mega exs
0 SIRs

[digital crow]

TEN THOUSAND YEARS OF GHOLDENGO SUPPORT

https://tenor.com/view/pokemon-vgc-gholdengo-incineroar-rillaboom-gif-7809692656827249962

[digital peak]

funny enough pocket is about to get a gholdengo

[digital crow]

I'm aware

[digital peak]

Bet all on the golden cheese boy