PTCG Pastebin/FAQ

Q: I'M NEW, HOW TO POKEMON CARD???

1. Download the PTCGO client from http://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-tcg/play-online/download/

2. Go to the 'Redeem codes' page under the shop and enter the codes 'flashfire' 'furiousfists' and 'phantomforces', these will give you copies of the Rallying Cry theme deck, which gives you a bunch of shit cards but also some useful trainers, some of which are no longer in print as well as a playset of double colorless energy (DCE). If you would like a complimentary fedora for your avatar, enter 'dragonsexalted'.

3. Go to the Trainer Challenge page and complete those battles (YES, ALL OF THEM) with each of your starter theme decks. Beating the trainer challenge will unlock cards for your three starting theme decks, allowing you to use them online as well as granting you tokens.

4. Once you have earned 500 tokens from competing in the trainer challenge, purchase ONE theme deck from the shop. Most people recommend the Incineroar deck, all 3 Sun and Moon themedecks are solid by theme standards, and the Steam Siege ones are also pretty good.

5. Complete the trainer challenge battles again with this themedeck. Upon beating each trainer with the fourth different theme deck, you will be awarded one pack. There are a total of 45 packs to be gained this way.

6. Once you have completed the trainer challenge, begin playing versus matches to clear out your bonus wheel as much as you can each day. You also earn versus ladder rewards which often include very good cards.

Q: OKAY, THEN WHAT?
After this, progression becomes more open ended. Your goal is to accumulate TRADABLE value. All packs and cards purchased with tokens or awarded by the trainer challenge/bonus wheel are no-trade.

You can acquire TRADABLE value by
1. Reaching trainer level 16 and completing daily challenges that award packs (packs awarded before lv16 are no-trade)
2. Entering ticketed tournaments, even if you lose, you get at least one tradable item
3. Purchasing PTCG paper products and redeeming code cards, or purchasing second hand code cards from these products.
4. Playing the market

On the third option, you will usually find the best prices for code cards on ebay. Beware of mixed code card lots that do not list exactly which packs you are getting, people will generally try to inflate pack count with low value packs. Pack value, as of February 2017 is approximately as follows

Roaring Skies/Plasma Freeze/HS-Triumphant    2
Sun and Moon, most HS era packs              1
Generations, most BW era packs               0.75
Other current standard sets, Phantom Forces  0.5
Evolutions, Fates Collide, early XY sets     0.25

Every trading site varies a little bit in what they're willing to give for each pack but the difference in value is about the same. Keep in mind, for high value cards like Shaymin-EX this ratio becomes even more distorted.

OPENING TRADABLE PACKS IS GAMBLING, since packs are the primary currency of this game and chances are pretty high you will get less than one pack's value by opening a pack. Sometimes you will hit it big, most of the time you're just burning money.

When it comes to playing the market, http://www.ou7c4st.com/card-values.html is a pretty decent guide of what cards cost, though prices are inflated as trading companies seek profits. Expect to get slightly less for your cards, and to be able to trade for cards for less than these prices in most cases.

Q: OKAY BUT WHAT DO I DO WITH THESE FUCKING TOKENS?
1. Enter token tournaments to convert your tokens to tickets, then convert tickets to tradable value through ticketed tournaments
2. Purchase Roaring Skies packs in the store and hope for the god pull of Shaymin-EX so you don't have to trade for it
3. Purchase bundles in the shop if they have promos that are worth buying (ask in the thread if you're not sure)
4. Purchase a themedeck if it has cards you need for building a standard deck, saves you tradable value

Q: WHY DOES THIS GAME PLAY SO SLOW
Theme plays very slow compared to standard and expanded, trust me, it gets better.

Q: WHAT THE FUCK ARE STANDARD AND EXPANDED?
Standard format is the format with the most online players. It includes every set newer than Primal Clash. Standard format will rotate out old sets in September of 2017. It is speculated that sets older than Breakpoint will be rotated but nobody truly knows where the rotation will end.

Expanded format includes all sets newer than Black and White base set. Expanded should be avoided as a new player due to the cost of acquiring playsets of key cards for the format. At some point, older black and white sets may be rotated out of expanded, but TPCI has stated they aren't doing it yet.

Legacy is the third PTCG format which includes only cards from the HGSS era and BW era, no XY/SM cards allowed. It incorporates special game mechanics that no longer exist in PTCG's other formats such as the lost zone. This format is the hardest to get into since none of the cards that can be used in it are in print or available in the store except as promo bundles.

Q: OKAY I GOT ALL OF THAT AND HAVE SOME PACKS TO TRADE, WHAT NOW?
Build a decklist, post it in the general, get criticism. Either build a memedeck that works without Shaymin and can cheese wins (Typhlosion, Lucario FAC, Haxorus, ask for other memes in the thread if these aren't spicy enough) to get started in standard or take a competitive decklist and strip out the expensive cards for cheaper alternatives. Rainbow Road (Xerneas-BKT) is probably the most easily budget-ized deck, though your no-trade pulls may give you cards that make other decks more attractive.

For best results, post your decklist as an image. The image FAQ is a bit outdated but generally holds true. Most decks will want
x4 Ultra Ball
x4 VS seeker
x3-4 Trainers' Mail
x4 Sycamore
x2-4 N
x2-4 Lysandre

Aside from VS seekers (which alongside Lysandre are likely to leave standard in September) these cards are all quite common and you should have a playset of them just from pulling your trainer challenge packs.

By the way, when you see people describe cards with a 3 letter abbreviation (ie, BKT, AOR, EVO), they are describing a particular version of a pokemon card from a set. A full list of set abbreviations can be found here: https://pkmncards.com/sets/

Q: JUST SPOONFEED ME, WHICH DECKS ARE GOOD? WHAT'S STANDARD META RIGHT NOW (2/24/17)

Tier 1: Yveltal/Garbodor, Mega Mewtwo Y/Garbodor, Darkrai Turbo, Darkrai/Dragons, Vespiquen
Tier 2: Mega Gardevoir (Despair Ray), Volcanion, Xerneas (Rainbow Force), Mega Rayquaza (Emerald Break), Gyarados AT
Tier 3: Vileplume Toolbox, Decidueye/Vileplume, Lurantis/Vileplume, Raikou/Electrode, Lapras-GX, Xerneas BREAK/Dragons, Carbink BREAK/Zygarde, Greninja BREAK, Lurantis/Solgaleo, Mega Scizor, Mega Gardevoir (Brilliant Arrow)

Right now, being able to pass the 180/220 damage mark is very important due to Tauros-GX so energy scaling OHKO centric decks have a major advantage. Bench scaling OHKO is also good, but more vulnerable to counterplay. There is no reliable tool removal in the meta so Garbodor heavily shuts down ability dependent decks.

Keep in mind that just because a deck is a lower tier doesn't mean it can't win events if it gets good enough matchups in swiss. Higher tier decks tend to be harder to counterplay and have less bad matchups.

Q: WHAT'S EXPANDED LOOK LIKE (3/1/17)

Tier 1: Toad/Bats, Toad/Owls, Maxie's/Yveltal, Darkrai Turbo, Trevenant BREAK
Tier 2: Night March, Vespiquen, Mega Rayquaza (Emerald Break), Carbink BREAK/Zygarde, Darkrai/Dragons
Tier 3: Greninja BREAK, Xerneas (Rainbow Force), Raikou/Eels, Mega Manectric, Accelgor/Wobbuffet
Tier 4: Sableye/Garbodor, Primal Groudon, Mega Gardevoir (Despair Ray), Vileplume Toolbox, Archie's/Blastoise

For the most part, a lot of good standard decks are also good in expanded with slight modifications to take advantage of expanded's wider trainer card pool. Expanded has a much more diverse card pool but power creep on monster cards being what it is, many of the top tier offensive pokemon are the same ones we see in standard, plus some stuff from the most recent standard rotation like Trevenant, Night March and Seismitoad/Bats.

Q: LEGACY?
Just build VirGen and call it a day fam. See http://thecharizardlounge.com/2016/04/26/an-introduction-to-pokemons-legacy-format/ for tips at building legacy decks and the quirks of the format. Nothing ever changes in Legacy.

Q: OKAY I'VE BEAT PTCGO AND I'M READY TO PLAY ON PAPER, WHAT PRODUCTS SHOULD I BUY?

Mostly single cards on ebay or your favored local/online card shop if you're not big on the thrill of cracking boosters. Even with most of the mega/ex boxes, individual cards you want from it are going to be cheaper than buying the whole box with boosters included (and TCPI seems to be packing the new boxes with evolutions/fates collide packs anyways). There is one major exception to this general rule though: Battle Arena Decks: Rayquaza vs Keldeo

This box contains a ton of useful cards for both standard and expanded play and it's probably the only paper product right now that will give you as much or more value than buying individual cards if you can get it cheap enough.

The key cards this set includes are
Pokemon: Keldeo EX BCR x2, Blastoise BCR x2, Octillery BKT x1, Articuno ROS x1, Regice AOR x1, Rayquaza-EX DRX x2, Eeelektrik NVI x2, Raichu XY x2
Trainers: Sycamore x4, Ultra Ball x4, VS Seeker x2, Battle Compressor x2, Float Stone x2, Level Ball x2, Dive Ball x2, Lysandre x2, Switch x2, Skyla x2, Teammates x1, Karen x2, N x2, Rare Candy x2, Rough Seas x2, AZ x1
Plus a bunch of holo fire/electric/water energy for entry level deck bling.

There's another Battle Arena deck with lots of good cards, Mewtwo vs Darkrai, but it's been discontinued and is extremely expensive, can't recommend it from a value perspective. The Rayquaza vs Keldeo Battle Deck retails for about $20-30 while the Mewtwo vs Darkrai one is $60+ There is a new Kyurem vs Kyurem Battle Arena deck coming in June that promises new trainers' mail arts, vs seekers and other important cards that may be worth buying, it will cost $40.

Elite Trainer Boxes are also nice since they tend to come with new tournament legal play peripherals. But from a value perspective they're only decent, not great unless again, you enjoy pulling boosters.