If you’ve been hooked by Pokémon TCG Pocket’s quick and fun monster battles, and are now considering playing the real Pokémon Trading Card Game, you may be wondering where to start. Well, that’s easy – the Battle Academy is the perfect starter set for you. Here’s what you need to know about it, and where to go next.
The Pokémon TCG Battle Academy is designed specifically for new players. Although it uses the full rules of the game, the three decks it contains are built from simple cards that are easy to understand. This makes it a perfect stepping stone from the simple battles in Pokémon TCG Pocket to the real life Pokémon Trading Card Game.
Those decks come in a box like a board game, along with a cardboard board to ensure both player’s cards are organised in the right places during a game – and there’s a nifty metal Pokécoin. The Battle Academy includes a tutorial guide to talk you through your first games, and then a full set of rules once you’re more confident.
If you want to peek ahead and see what’s different between Pokémon Pocket and the full TCG, Wargamer’s guide on how to play Pokémon cards explains everything you need to know to get started.
You may also come across a product called “Pokémon TCG: My First Battle”. This is designed for young children, with simplified rules. As such we don’t recommend it if you can already play Pokémon Pocket – but it makes a great Christmas present for youngsters who have never played any kind of Pokémon cards.
Once you’ve mastered the Battle Academy, you’ll probably want to play with a more complex and interesting deck. Pokémon Battle decks are a great next step – they’re preconstructed decks with a strong theme. If you want to make something that’s unique to you, Wargamer’s guide on how to build a Pokémon deck from scratch will teach you how.
New Pokemon sets release all the time, adding more cards to the game: The newest Pokémon set, Scarlet and Violet – Surging Sparks, releases on Friday November 8. Customizing your deck with new, better cards is a huge part of the fun. But before you go buying a mountain of booster packs, remember that it’s cheaper to buy single copies of even the most expensive Pokémon cards from your local game store or an online retailer like TCGPlayer, than it is to open booster packs until you find them.
A good way to test out decks before you buy the cards for them is with Pokémon TCG Live, an online version of the full card game available on PC and mobile. The cards in all Pokémon sets released since 2011 are available in the game, so it’s a close match to the real thing.
It’s a free to play game, and you don’t really need to spend money to build respectable decks. Even better, most real world Pokémon TCG products come with a code that unlocks a matching product in Live.
If you’re sticking with Pokémon TCG Pocket for now, check out our guide to Pokémon Pocket rarity to work out how many packs you need to open to get a particular card; and our sister site Pocket Tactics’ Pokémon Pocket tier list of the best ‘mons you need to put in your deck!
Source: Wargamer
