PTCG/O General Paste Bin

PTCG Pastebin/FAQ
Updated August 31st 2018

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. The Garchomp and Swampert decks are the two best ones right now. Most of the Sun and Moon theme decks are relatively well constructed by format standards and are still playable, avoid playing the old XY era decks, they are mostly powercrept and obsolete.

5. Complete the trainer challenge battles again with your new 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 earn prizes as much as you can each day. You also earn points towards versus ladder rewards with each prize you take, even if you lose.

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 (pack awarded before lv16 are no-trade)
2. Entering ticketed tournaments, even if you lose in the first round, 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 such as Evolutions or Fates Collide. Currently Shining Legends and Guardians Rising are the gold standard of trading packs. Guardians Rising is more likely to retain value over time due to it containing Tapu Lele-GX so it's the ideal place to store value. Forbidden Light just dropped and is highly inflated in value, it will likely settle somewhere between 50% and 75% of the value of those two.

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 when it comes to which packs are high value and which ones are low value. When trading for high value cards like popular full arts or Tapu Lele-GX, people often won't even accept shit packs like Evolutions as part of a trade even if it's a 'fair' trade.

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 and generally reflect what prices you should expect in public trades. Unless you find a reasonable trade listed, it's almost always worth listing your own since people will list looking for more than what they're selling is worth.

Q: OKAY BUT WHAT DO I DO WITH THESE FUCKING TOKENS?

1. Buy Pikachu cosmetic packs and flip them for playsets of useful commons, flip commons for rares, ect (don't ask why people trade for pika packs, nobody really knows) - If you are willing to put in the time doing trades, this is the most efficient use of tokens.
2. Purchase a theme deck if it has cards you need for building a standard deck, saves you tradable value. Garchomp and Empoleon both build into pretty good standard decks. Buying two of them gives you enough of the key rares to play them in standard.
3. Purchase Guardians Rising packs in the store and hope for the god pull of Tapu Lele-GX so you don't have to trade for it
4. Purchase bundles in the shop if they have promos that are worth buying (ask in the thread if you're not sure, the answer is usually no)

Q: WHY DOES THIS GAME PLAY SO SLOW

Theme plays very slow compared to standard and expanded, it's a format designed for kids so the decks are built so that it's hard to run away with a game with them.

Q: WHAT THE FUCK ARE STANDARD AND EXPANDED?

Standard format is the format that most people play. It includes every set newer than Sun and Moon. Standard rotates every year after worlds. Worlds happens in late August, so next rotation is a year away.

Expanded format includes all sets newer than Black and White base set. At some point, older black and white sets may be rotated out of expanded, but TPCI has stated they aren't doing it yet. The format tends to play faster and more consistently due to battle compressors and VS seekers making it easier to rapidly thin your deck.

Expanded has a banlist that is growing after many years of it being a minimally regulated format.
https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-tcg-banned-card-list/

New bans include Hex Maniac, Ghetsis, Puzzle of Time and Wally.

Legacy is the third PTCG format which includes only cards from the HGSS era and BW era, no XY/SM cards allowed. 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. The format is mostly a meme with no IRL support and rapidly declining online support but the meta never changes, so if you don't like change this is the format for you.

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. Most non-shit decks will want to run x2 Tapu Lele-GX which is the main barrier to entry, IRL they're at about $60 each, in game 25-30 packs each.

(almost) any deck that can run with Lele can run without Lele, you will just be significantly less consistent. There is no good replacement for what the card does so don't bother asking. In expanded you can run Jirachi-EX but it's still way, way worse.

For best results, post your decklist as an image. The image FAQ is a bit outdated but generally holds true. Most standard decks will want

x4 Ultra Ball
x2 Tapu Lele-GX
x4 Cynthia
x1 Copycat
x1-2 Pokemon Fan Club
x1-2 Judge
x2-4 Guzma
x1-2 Rescue Stretcher
x2-3 Choice Band
x1-2 Field Blower

This list will likely see changes over the next few months because the rotation of N, Sycamore and Brigette have created a 3-6 supporter vacuum for most decks and there are a bunch of more conditional cards that kind of do similar things vying to replace them.

Q: WHAT'S THE META?

Rotation is upon us so nobody truly knows right now until we have a few post rotation events to examine results from. Zoroark was absolutely dominant last season taking around 50% of all top 8 placements during the season with Zoroark/Garbodor taking the master's championship and most people expect it to remain a top deck until it rotates. Rayquaza-GX also had a strong showing at worlds, and the classic fighting type counters to Zoroark will be good as long as Zoroark remains good.