So to say I've been hooked on this game is an understatement. I've steadfastly remained Free 2 Play as a meager "I'm gonna stick it to the man!" mindset (and also, I feel like the idea of investing in a digital card collection that could get shut down at some point is a tough pill to swallow lol), but I've been playing this game a massive amount since November 6th, especially when some stuff irl sorta went off the rails for me. TCGP's simplicity has been a welcome highlight! To give you an idea of how much I've been playing...
I reached level 50 as a f2p player!
The Exp Data
So how did I reach that you may ask? A massive amount of battles of course!
2,941 wins to reach level 50 is a lot, but to put that into perspective, here's a pie chart for my other sources of experience. Look at that Pac-Man for Versus Battles!
A little note: most of the "other" is likely wonder picks. However, you get 15 exp per wonder stamina used, so I attempted to set up an algebraic equation using the total amount of exp (
56625 according to this site) equaling all the sources of exp, and to solve for Wonder Picks... and I got 3160. That's not divisible by 15! So either I messed up the math somewhere, or there's some other source of experience I didn't consider...
Regardless, almost 78% of my exp coming from battle wins is a LOT! To give you an idea: even if I somehow only got experience from battles,
I would still have been only 10 exp away from level 46! And if I didn't battle at all, I'd only be level 27!
Since I'm a F2P player, here's two other stats of mine in case anyone finds them interesting.
I'm pretty sure I had more cards than the average F2P player, but at least when I face players close to my level, I look at their card counts and get the impression that they are spending some cash, because my card count is way lower lol.
I've done quite a few wonder picks though, thanks to those free bonus wins! I was also less conservative with my wonder hour glasses compared to my pack hourglasses. Though sometimes Wonder Pick reminds me of OHKO moves in the mainline games but worse: I only got a 20% chance of getting what I want!
How Did I Do That Many Battles?
So almost 3000 wins (and maaaany more battles than that) is an absurd amount, but I did have a trick to doing that many battles! Since this game lacks a ladder, the random battles have a more casual feel to me (though thankfully a lot of players seem to take it seriously!), so I often was not fully paying attention to some battles! Some of the things I was doing while battling included:
- Making myself some simple breakfasts
- Playing with the stray cat I rescued 7 months ago. The vet said she's likely part Abyssinian and part Bengal.. both high energy breeds. I have to play with her at least an hour a day, which is a good time for me to battle! I pay more attention to her than my game though lol, so that little cutie has lost me quite a few battles! To be honest I care more that she's having a good time than me winning though :P
- Making some rather complicated Super Mario Maker 2 stages (one of which got delayed into next year lol)
- Doing damage calcs for some team ideas for Pokemon Scarlet / Violet. I ended up not playing this a lot over the past month, but I plan on starting the new years with some Terapagos ideas for Regulation G in Battle Stadium Singles!
A consequence of this "multi-task" style of battling is that, if the game recorded win percentages... I wouldn't be shocked if mine wasn't particularly good! There was plenty of times for example, where I made a bone-headed move like putting energy on the wrong Pokemon or letting time run out while testing out machines in Mario Maker. In retrospect, I feel bad about the time thing in particular, so I made an effort this month to be more conscientious about that part (though it led to me making some VERY dumb moves because I was trying to move fast while not paying attention lol).
One particularly memorable loss to me was when I was using a Pikachu Ex deck against an Articuno EX deck. I had the advantage but... my bagels popped, and I decided to concede because I was more interested in the bagels than continuing the battle lol.
Reflecting On The Decks I Used
Something important to realize here is that... this is my first TCG EVER! I mean, I used to collect physical Pokemon cards in the late 90s, but I didn't actually play the game, instead I was part of a group of cretins in elementary school that would gamble them on Pokemon Link battles (I got a lot of cards because I was the first to realize what Amnesia Mewtwo did LOL). I went into this pretty blind, so I thought it'd be fun to go back into how my deck-building progressed! Don't take this as an endorsement of all these decks. You'll see as I go on, how I started to grasp how this game works more.
My First Deck: Marowak EX lottery
So Marowak EX was the first EX I pulled... and I didn't really have a lot of good cards, so this is what I scrounged together to get some pvp experience, before I knew what on earth I was doing. It shows too: look at the massive amount of Pokemon I have! Since I only had one Marowak EX, I ended up relying on Sandslash a LOT as a closer, but the subpar nature of the deck meant most of my wins (especially against Mewtwo Ex teams) relied on some good Marowak EX coin flips! I used Grapploct because the effect of forcing a switch-out seemed cool, but in practice that was a lot of energy, and it was before I realized what Sabrina did. Farfetch'd was the real winner here though: I was at least smart enough to quickly realize that Farfetch'd offered a lot of bang for your buck in terms of energy and damage! Onix... didn't really do much, I didn't have Brock yet, and the only reason it stayed on was because the Lapras event led to my next deck...
Larpas + Misty Desperation
So after getting some good Marowak EX coin flips against the Lapras event, I finally got my 2nd EX! Now to be clear, even I knew that Lapras EX really wasn't much compared to either Articuno EX or Starmie EX (and in fact, the AI's Starmie EX gave me way more problems than the Lapras EX lol). But still, I had remembered seeing two things with my short stint with online play: lots of Misty coin flips leading to me getting swept like a lucky Fissure Dondozo in SV, and Sabrina putting me in real bad positions. So I started pulling the Pikachu pack to get 2 Mistys (and that ended up being even more important later!), and I used pack points on an extra Sabrina. I didn't have much in the way of Water-types, and at my mind in the time I was like "well Farfetch'd doesn't help me against Electric decks", so I replaced it with Golduck. The weird thing here is Heliolisk... SOMEHOW, I didn't see a lot of Pikachu EX decks at the time, but the 3 legendary birds were giving me a LOT of issues, so I got the galaxy brained idea of "hey Heliolisk just needs colorless energy, and they're weak to Electric!!!". In practice this wasn't a great idea: Helipotile as my only lead would brick me hard (since I did not run dual energy, hence why I only ran one Helioptile), and Heliolisk needed a coin flip to even 2HKO the EX birds!
The deck heavily relied on Misty coin flips so it wasn't exactly good. But again, I didn't have much of anything useful, so this was pretty much the best I had! I continued to pull the Pikachu booster pack, partly because I figured "well I'm a f2p player and won't get the best stuff, so maybe I can cheese some wins with Wigglytuff EX coinflips". But I ran into what I first thought was a problem: I kept getting the same EX cards over and over again! Specifically, I got doubles of 2 EX cards in rapid succession, so I was pretty annoyed at first. You want to know what they were?
Pikachu EX and Zapdos EX!
So one day while battling, I finally face a competently run Pikachu EX deck.. and get THRASHED. This shouldn't surprise you, but a reasonably played Pikachu EX would slice through my Lapras deck like a hot knife through butter! This got my curious since I was like "hey I have a lot of these cards...", so I FINALLY looked at impressions of the current metagame... and quickly realized that contrary to what I was expecting, I ALREADY HAD A META DECK!
If any of you know how I tend to play competitive Pokemon metagames I'm new too: I tend to use pretty standard stuff at first so I can get used to the metagame, then start experimenting later when I get comfortable. So now that I realized I had a meta deck, I ditched the desperate Lapras stuff I had ASAP and got to work!
Finally, Pikachu EX!
So what you're seeing here is among the most bog standard of early Pikachu EX decks you can imagine at the time. I did try the more popular Zebstrika variant first, but I didn't quite grasp the value of bench hitting at the time beyond certain situations, and I REALLY liked Electrode's 0 cost retreat, so I stuck with this for a while!
Before Pikachu Ex, I think I had less than 100 wins... but Pikachu EX made it very clear it was a HUGE upgrade over what I had right before! I was struggling with that first emblem event since I was so reliant on Misty coin flips (epecially against Mewtwo Ex teams!), but Pikachu EX made that a thing of the past. THIS is when I started playing a LOT of battles, often while doing other stuff. I loved how flexible the deck would feel with reteating in particular, it almost felt like "what if switching in Pokemon was more free" to me! The burst damage was very appealing to me too (except those rare times I faced Exeggutor EX and Venusaur EX teams, those guys were a real issue lol), it really felt like playing a hyper offense team in a mainline Pokemon game to me!
The one iffy part to me was actually Zapdos EX. It was a useful meat shield to help me position myself correctly and do chip damage, but I didn't really like how its big attack was 4 coin flips! This wasn't enough for me to want to give Zapdos EX the boot entirely, and in fact, Thundering Hurricane sorta reminded me of running OHKO moves on say, Assault Vest Kingabmit like I used to use early on in Battle Stadium Singles in Scarlet and Violet: not the main wincon, but a panic one to use in bad situations. Additionally, Mewtwo EX, while not feeling nearly impossible like it did with the old Lapras EX deck, was still a consistent road block for me. I did experiment with Raichu a bit to OHKO Mewtwo EX with Giovanni, but it was missing something...
See, I only had 1 Raichu!
kamikaze was singing the praises of the Raichu version of the Pikachu EX deck, but there was an issue... I didn't have 2 Magnetons or 2 Raichus. BUT, at the same time, with how much of an issue Mewtwo EX decks were, I also thought "wow I REALLY need that deck!". I was saving up hourglasses for the leaked expansion, so I hatched a plan: I'd focus on opening the Mewtwo booster pack to finally put that team together (in addition to scoping out wonder picks for Mewtwo Ex), while scouring Wonder Picks for an extra Raichu and Magneton. This took a while though...
Enter Raichu
Since I was refusing to use hourglasses, at this point my quest for Mewtwo Ex and Raichu was slow going... when I finally got a 2nd Magneton via Wonder Pick, I said "screw it" and got a 2nd Raichu via pack points. Now contrary to the image, I initially used 2 Magneton, but I ended up replacing one of them with a Giovanni to make the Mewtwo EX match-up more reasonable. Regardless... I was hooked on this variant of Pikachu EX! Sure, Raichu wasn't the easiest thing in the world to use, but it was blasting Pikachu EX mirror matches with that extra win condition, and giving me what felt like a more solid chance against Mewtwo Ex. I also of course, appreciated the out it'd give me when an Articuno got out of control because of some Misty coin flips!
Plus, while I don't think Zapdos EX is bad... I felt like one was enough!
When the SP Emblem event came up, this deck cleanly swept through with 5 wins on my first try! Who knows if I'll nail it that well next time, but this was the first time I felt REALLY satisfied with a deck!
Late To The Blaze
So despite being a steadfast F2P player... somehow I got Pikachu EX decks ready WAY before I got Blaine together! There isn't really much special about this, I got it together via the Arcanine EX event giving me the Ninetales I needed. I liked the deck though not enough to use it over Pikachu EX very often. I DID enjoy it when I tried some NOEX matches though! However I had a pretty hard time with Greninja teams, so that made me want a Greninja... which I didn't really get the full set of mons for until a few days ago lol.
I did get the new Ponyta which seems like a straight upgrade to the OG, and the new Rapidash seems cool despite the extra energy cost. I think I'll have to experiment with Blaine more in the future...
A Meme Sidetrack With Coinflips
So Coinflips are sorta the meme of this game, and shortly after I got a Raichu deck together, I managed to wonder pick a Wigglytuff EX. I also got a 2nd Marowak EX from my mainly failed Mewtwo EX booster attempts... so since I zapped throught the SP Emblem in short order with Raichu... I decided to be a little demon, and see how a coin flip deck would do on the SP Emblem match-up! To be clear: this was made to be a meme deck in mind, I would NOT suggest you actually use this. But I got some pretty disguting wins, with stuff like Dugtrio outstalling stuff, Wigglytuff sleeps, etc. While it might not be a good or consistent deck, I can't deny I had some fun ruining people with coin flips lol. Probably the least consistent deck I used overall though!
Mewtwo Many Packs
My Mewtwo Ex hunt was not going so great. At first I had some hope: I got 2 Gardevoirs before I got 2 Ralts somehow, ended up getting my 2nd Ralts in a failed Mewtwo EX wonder pick... and got an immersive Mewtwo Ex! But then about a week passed and instead of getting another Mewtwo Ex, the game decided to give me... 4 more Gengar EX and 4 more Bulbasaur full arts. It was now the final weekend before mythic island came out. That's when it hit me... this was the final weekend for this metagame! I REALLY wanted to experience Mewtwo EX since it seemed so vicious. This is when the game laid its trap: I decided I was going to start using my hour glasses until I got my 2nd Mewtwo Ex!
I spent... 242 hourglasses! Normally I'd regret this, but I still had over 200 hour glasses left, and WOW, I was impressed with how brutal Mewtwo EX was! This certainly felt like the best deck I've used yet! The Gardevoir ramp up resulted in so many fast victories against me in the past, so now that I WAS in control of it, I quickly saw why this deck was so popular! Mewtwo EX's excellent bulk for a basic really helped make the Gardevor evolution line-up not feel like some impossible task to acheive, as well as the decent 2 energy attack.
Now initially I used the more standard regular Mewtwo as my 5th mon, and its tankiness and 1 point factor certainly made it clear why it was usually the best choice. However, I was getting annoyed by well timed Sabrinas, especially when my hand wasn't good and I only had Mewtwos out, the 2 retreat cost would start to bite! So that's when I decided to experiment with the strat some Charizard EX decks were using, and used fossils as an anti sabrina tactic. It actually seemed to work pretty well, especially since Pokeballs wouldn't call them. I actually started trying regular Aerodactyl around this time too! I.. actually sorta liked it, sure it was a total coin flip mon, but Pokeballs not calling it meant it wouldn't usually interfer with the Mewtwo EX set up that badly. Additionally, I won several games by throwing fully powered up Charizard EX back into the deck, so that was amusing! Still, I think running 2 Old Amber rather than replacing a Giovanni with an Aerodactlyl was probably the better call.
Mythic Island Raichu!
So the first thing I REALLY wanted to do was use Mew EX... but like my Mewtwo EX luck, I spent most of my hourglasses and got 0 Mew Ex. I did however, get 2 Mythic Island Electabuzzs, which I thought could be a cool alternative to Magneton. Now note, this is BEFORE players realized how crazy Gyarados EX was. I did try some more regular Pika EX decks since I got the full art Dedenne pretty early, but in the end I liked the idea of actually being able to fit bench hitters in with Raichu without losing support cards. I do still sometimes miss Magneton, and I get why Zebstrika Pika EX teams are more popular with their better 1st turn potential against Magikarp... but since I still like Raichu's "panic button win" style of play, I think Electabuzz is a reasonable alternative for those sorts of teams! Funnily enough when Gyarados EX blew up, I actually went back to this deck until near the end of my run this year, and it still served me well in the recent emblem tournament, ensuring I got the emblem on the 1st day!
Also: I used to use the new Pikachu with the weak Circle Circuit, because I figured OHKOing Staryu leads would be neat... but after Gyarados EX became a big deal, I went back to the old Pikachu, because being unable to OHKO that thing felt really awful lol.
Toxic Tribulations
So let me rewind a bit: I figured with the buff Mewtwo EX decks got (and STILL not having Mew Ex myself...), that I should try to counter team them for the Mythic Island Emblem event. I figured players were gonna be extra prepared for Pikachu EX decks... so when I saw that a Scolipede deck won a tournament, I figured "oh THIS is what I need!". So I tried two versions: the regular Tauros version, and a Mew Ex version after I unfortunately bricked with Tauros being my only lead several times in a row lol.
I won't deny, when the set-up works, Scolipede feels BRUTAL with the toxic damage and the Koga set up. This was also the deck that made me appreciate Koga and cards like it, its like the game gave me a full restore, a forbidden idea in mainline Pokemon games outside of gen 5's obscure Wonder Launcher!
However, I don't think I was quite skilled enough to use this deck consistently. I did rather poorly with it in the Emblem event, often not coping well with having the optimal hand for evolving my mons fast. This forced me to switch back to good old Raichu, who was tearing stuff up for me as usual. With all the fighting decks around now, I'm not sure I'm eager to explore this deck again soon, but I'm certainly open to new ideas with Weezing later, especially when the expansion hits!
Mew Ex: Mewtwo Strikes Back!
So after that bad time with Mew Ex... about 15-ish wins away from my SP Emblem, I managed to Wonder Pick a Mew EX! it blasted the emblem event at the end. I really loved Mew EX's mirror match-up potential, its bulk, and the low retreat cost! Despite that, I started trending more towards Leaf despite it not always being as flexible because it'd help with getting Mewtwo EX out of bad situations. Mystical Slab ended up being cool too, I didn't really realize how great it was till I used it, really upped Mewtwo EX's consistency.
Now as for Jynx.. I used to actually have a Budding Expeditioner in its place. However when Gyarados EX blew up, it became clear pretty quickly that the Mewtwo EX match-up for that was ROUGH. Jynx was sorta a panic band-aid, though not exactly a solution since Jynx doesn't OHKO. It's still a pretty tricky match-up for me. I still love the Mewtwo EX deck, but Gyarados EX threw enough of a wrench into it that I started to explore some other stuff while I was attempting to grab that thing...
I should note, I haven't used Mewtwo EX in a solid week or so. When I return to it, I'll likely slot in Blue somewhere, since seeing that block some Raichu revenges makes me think its pretty rad in Mewtwo EX mirror matches, and I actually have Blue now unlike last week.
Golem: party like its 1999!
So on the Smogon Battle Stadium Singles discord, me and
KevDev were discussing Golem. He was getting some wins against Mewtwo EX decks with an off meta Apex Golem deck using Druddigon and a Brock ramp up, but that made me think "man the new Golem seems really cool...". This is before it hit big, but I don't want to make myself seem like I was super ahead of the curve here: when I initially tried out Mythic Island Golem I didn't use Druddigon on every build (opting for Mew Ex stall instead), and I didn't realize the clincher idea of "I should use Hitmonlee to snipe Magikarp". But still, even with the sub-optimal builds, Golem felt like it was REALLY close to being viable. Guard Press is one hell of a move, that combined with the 160 HP, and honestly, Golem felt like it was a 1 point EX card!
So once it made waves in that tournament, I saw the deck and went 'YOINK" with the small modification of running Sabrina over a Potion for most of the time (though I'm not sure this was the right call, Sabrina certainly saved me in some matches). This deck really made me appreciate bench hitting, well that and the looming threat of Gyarados EX lol. It also made me realize I seriously underestimated Marshadow, which led me to try another deck...
This is also when Druddigon's magic really hit me. I thought Rough Skin was neat from the start, but I wasn't really sure of the application besides something like, using it with Pidgeot EX. When I saw Gyarados EX wreck me though, combined with using this deck.. and I got hooked on using this thing for longer set-up teams! Its really true, it really is a tank that needs 0 energy, and one that can BLOCK potion from stopping revenge kills! Now granted, it's extra vulnerable to bench hitting fiends like Hitmonlee and Zebstrika... but I feel like that's sorta a testament to how good Druddigon is. It also gave me shades of mainline Pokemon metagames, where some Pokemon like say, Fling Light Ball Groudon in the free-for-all season in near the end of Sword and Shield's life for Battle Stadium Singles, comes out of the shadows and ROCKS the metagame to its core. I always find it fascinating when strange stuff makes a huge impact like that!
No Blooms Yet
Since I got hooked on Druddigon but was frustratingly NOT getting Gyarados EX... this is something I tried while I was waiting. It was simple: Venusaur EX is bulky (and also I only had one Celebi Ex and one Exeggutor EX, so this was my first real grass team lol), so I was interested in trying them together! However before I tried it, I was worried about one aspect before I even tested this... I wasn't impressed with Venusaur EX's damage breakpoints, ESPECIALLY since I didn't have Giovanni. This unfortunately came true, where Gyarados EX wasn't exactly easy to outstall, and hte Mewtwo EX match-up wasn't too hot either. Still, I did appreciate Venusaur EX's crazy bulk, makes me wonder if there'll be a set up to make a mon like that sing in the future, because I don't think Druddigon was quite enough for this...
Toying With The Toolboxes
So I was already pretty positive on Hitmonlee and Marshadow after my experience with Golem, though sometimes I felt like Golem's slow set-up time held them back a bit. So I hear about this team someone won a tournament with that used Farfetch'd, and I slap myself on the head. I feel like a total doofus, how on EARTH did I not consider Farfetch'd + Marshadow?! I use a pretty similar set-up except I didn't land on using Tauros till later on to help the Celebi match-up. Afterwards, I decide to try out the new Manky and Primeape over Farfetch'd and support... and Im fairly impressed with it actually! 1 energy for 50 damage is a real bargain on Primeape already, but with Mankey, despite the annoying coin flip... a simple basic potentially 2 shotting Druddigon was pretty awesome.
I realize the Primeape version usually run Aerodactly EX... but I only got one of those, so I just tried 2 Mew Ex with it instead lol. I still think Mew Ex is great against Mewtwo EX match-ups (though Blue can throw a wrench into that), but I'll certainly try this again once I get my 2nd Aero EX! Only thing is, I am sorta worried about how on earth I can break through Exeggutor EX with this, because Mew Ex wans't helping much on that front either because of Erika.
Riding The Gyarados Gravy Train
Finally, a day before I hit the level cap... I got Gyarados EX from a wonder pick! Now I only had one at the time, so I had to make do with a regular old Gyarados in the mix. Now let me tell you... I lost quite a few matches because I got the regular Gyarados drawn rather than Gyarados EX, made it pretty clear that I wanted two of them! BUT even then, I could see why this deck was shredding stuff up. This was the perfect use of Druddigon: get some chip or guard Froakie and Magikarp until they evolve, and get Gyarados EX ready to sweep! I really underestimated just how great Greninja was for this till I used it. Getting the chip damage to one shot Mewtwo Ex was amazing, and it was nice for punishing opposing stall via Greninja chip damage (and preventing a Druddigon stale mate lol).
Funny thing is after I hit the level cap... I managed to wonder pick another Gyarados EX! Of course I had to take that out for a test drive, and I'm a big fan of the deck! Only thing is, the bench hitting match-up is rough, so currently I'm trying out Blue over Misty. It's more of a bandage since, Zebstrika can still beat up Gyarados EX while I set it up, but Hitmonlee is a tad easier to deal with at least. I'm tempted to try some more radical experiments to get around the bench issue as I get more comfortable with the deck. But at the very least, the Mewtwo Ex match-up is utterly magical, so I'll be using this deck quite a bit for a while!
Afterward: Chatot Nonsense
So I realized after testing the full fat Gyarados EX after the win cap, that I was pretty close to reaching 3k wins... I wanted to achieve this before the year ended, so I decided to try some turbo deck stuff with Chatot! I got... very mixed results after trying it with Florges, Venusaur EX, and Gengar EX. It was funny when I nailed the set-ups, but often times I wouldn't get set up in time, and the two I want to try it with the most, Starmie Ex and Alakazam... I don't got at all. Greninja was the closest to feeling good with how 2 Greninjas power themselves up, but Pikachu EX shred through that like wet tissue paper! So for the final vairant for now, I tested it with Raichu and Magneton... and somehow got 11 wins in a row, including my 3000th win!
Now I want to be clear:
I'm skeptical that this deck is actually any good! Of those 11 wins, they generally either were me getting my pieces together rather fast, my foes bricking (especially against a poor guy who didn't get to evolve his Froakies OR Magikarp), or players really not responding to the Raichu ramp up correctly (shotuouts to a player that seemed to have forgotten that I used up all my X Speeds, conceding with Exeggutor EX when their odds of winning were just getting one heads out of two turns).
Still while I am very skeptical that this deck is viable at all... it getting me 11 wins in a row to my 3K wins means I felt like I had to bring it up at least! I'm starting to get comfortable enough with this game to start testing out wacky ideas, even if they may not be viable in the end, just like mainline competitive Pokemon! I'll also likely use this for the upcoming Blastoise event, this will probably get me those non EX missions done fast, because I doubt the AI will respond properly to Chatot lol. I'll probably still be testing this deck more just in case despite my skepticism too before I dismiss it! But again, don't trust this deck lol.
Oh and here's the proof that I got 3K wins. I got it right before new years hit (despite not getting this post done until after that lol)
Other Musings About The Game
On Luck
So I saw a LOT of complaints about how coin flip happy the game is... and I will admit this aspect of the game was a bit jarring to be in the beginning. Since I've been into competitive mons for almost 16 years now, I'm pretty used to luck being a big factor in Pokemon. Hell even talking about Scarlet and Violet Battle Stadium Singles, I can't tell you how many times matches have gone down to Chien-Pao flinching me, or Koraidon vs Miraidon speed ties, or Dondozo landing Fissure, etc. So while con flips in Pokemon aren't new to me, that combined with hand draws WAS sorta a shocker to a newbie like me. And I gotta admit, I still find stuff like Misty to be a bit silly. So say a player on turn 2 gets 2 Misty heads, which lets a 3 energy Articuno sweep me... assuming they have Misty, that's a 25% shot of happening... only 5% less than Sheer Cold from Chien-Pao landing, except THIS "Sheer Cold" could OHKO my entire team! On the other side of things, this is also why I haven't really messed with Celebi seriously (besides only having one of them lol): the coin flips sorta freak me out, I'm worried I'm gonna get on the bad side of them!
And yet despite all of this... after playing a ton of matches, it became clear to me that this was not some casino game of luck (outside of the gacha mechanics lol). There's plenty of room for skill expression in stuff like playing Sabrina at the right time building up the right Pokemon, retreating at the right time, etc. When I play mainline competitive Pokemon, I try to analyze my losses to become a better player. I tried the same tactic for this game too, and found that it was still illuminating! I can't tell you how many times I've checked my battle log post loss to realize stuff like "oh I was too greedy here" or "I forgot to count how many Sabrinas were used, I could have avoided this after realizing they drew most of their deck", etc. So like the mainline Pokemon games, while the luck can be irritating, there's enough room for skill and improvement that I still find battling to be pretty satisfying overall!
On Meta Decks
On certain parts of the internet, I saw a lot of complaining about "meta decks", which as a competitive Pokemomn veteran, seemed sorta strange to me! When I started battling a lot, I wasn't sure what to expect. Was it going to be like unrated battles in the mainline games, which often aren't that serious? So I quickly saw why people were complaining about meta decks: despite there being no ladder, I want to say the majority of battles I had in random match-up (ESPECIALLY in emblem battles) were against meta decks.
This..
made me feel really happy! Turns out, a ladder isn't 100% needed to play serious matches outside of tournaments (though I suspect tournament battles in this game are much higher level than what I've faced lol). In general, I faced so many meta decks, that I feel like I was able to improve as a player, and have plenty of enjoyable, serious battles, even when I lost (especially before I had good decks LOL). So in these parts this isn't exactly a shocking opinion, but I'm happy that there seem to be plenty of players taking this game seriously!
On Gacha
So some of you who interact with me on the Smogon Discord may be familiar with... my distaste for gacha games normally. For example, Genshin Impact was only able to hold me for about a month, until the I started feeling like the daily tests where an unfun grind and I was like "why the hell am I still playing this?!". On that front that's something I appreciate about this game: the daily tasks are extremely quick "log in, open your packs" sort of stuff. That plus it being a game I already enjoy means, the "daily grind" part hasn't really hit me at all!
However while I'm a f2p player that managed to hit the level cap and do pretty well for myself... I hesitate to say this game isn't "pay to win" in some respects. There's plenty of ideas I've wanted to test that involve Pokemon I don't have yet, that'd easily be gotten if I spent some cash on this game. That doesn't mean I'm going to break down mind you, because I don't like the idea of collecting digital cards for a game that might shut down some day using my REAL money.
I see how this game worms your way into your brain too. Look how much effort they put into those pack opening animations... or how flashy they make getting EXs. And don't forget how powerful the best EX cards are. I don't mind the power level of EX cards at all, but them being on the rare side, their flashy looks, the alts... it all seems like the game is trying to burrow itself in my brain to get me HOOKED and cough up some cash. I'm not gonna lie, I actually anticipate the whole opening packs twice a day stuff. I know I'm not ENTIRELY immune to these sort of addictive gameplay loops, so I'm glad I'm not quite there enough to start spending tons of money on it!
I'll likely be doing the free premium trial when the next expansion drops to catch up on cards (especially since I only have about 200 hour glasses atm, not as much as I used to have lol). But I'm not TOTALLY immune to being mainpulated by some of the insidious parts of the game. I'll make sure that free trial doesn't become a paid month of premium, but this game is reminding me that hey, I'm NOT totally immune to being manipulated like I hope to think!
Final Thoughts
Overall, despite some issues and insidious aspects of this game... I've had a blast! Again, this was my first exposure to a TCG EVER, so I was not expecting to adapt to it so fast and transfer skills from competitive Pokemon! I'm still gonna be heavily into the mainline competitive Pokemon games (I'm already planning some new stuff to get back into Regulation G next year, including some sorta off kilter Zamazenta builds for Battle Stadium Singles!), and I don't think my Mario Maker 2 habits are changing any time soon after I take a month off after working on some pretty complicated courses... but this game has hooked me enough that I think it'll be a solid game to add to my common rotation of games played (Super Mario Maker 2, Pokemon Violet, and several Touhou games mainly).
Honestly, I've liked this enough that I'm REALLY tempted to get into the proper Pokemon TCG! I'm gonna be trying out TCG live soon, and maybe see if my local scene is worth getting into. I'm always worried about the costs of building a deck (though I'm under the impression that Pokemon TCG is among the cheaper games of this sort), but... I think this game at least showed me that hey, this sort of competitive game is right up my alley! So in a shocking twist, Pokemon TCGP is actually one of my favorite games this year, probably only beaten by UFO 50 (my GOTY), Astro Bot, and Emio (note I haven't played Balatro yet lol)!
