Special Edition: 5 rules for building your first Pokémon TCG deck

Special Edition: 5 rules for building your first Pokémon TCG deck

So you wanna be the very best Pokémon TCG player but don’t know the difference between an energy and an item card? Maybe you’ve played with pre-built decks and have enough cards in shoe boxes that you want to try your hand at building your own deck?

Well, the Professor (not you, Oak, sit down!) is in the house, and he’s got you covered. I (the esteemed Cooltrainer Ace) had a chat with Pokemon_Prof_Mike about the 5 most important rules to follow when building your deck.

Grab those damage counters and let’s shuffle!

So you have decided to begin your journey to Pokémon TCG master and you are ready to begin your quest by building your own deck.

Hi My name is Michael Tremere but you can call me Pokemon_Prof_Mike. I am a Pokémon TCG Youtube Creator and Twitch streamer. I have been playing the Pokémon Trading Card Game since it came out in December 1998. I have dabbled in competitive play since the Diamond and Pearl era of the card game competing in many regionals and provincials and coming in top four at a few battle roads back in the day.

What makes the Pokémon Trading Card Game unique among other card games is the format in which games are played. A Pokémon TCG match is best 2 out of 3, and where other card games with this format have side decks to help counter metas, Pokémon does not. What this means is that you are stuck with the same sixty cards for every game of a tournament, so it's up to you to create the most fluid deck possible in those sixty cards.

Fear not though friends. I am here to give you my 5 Poké Commandments for consistent deck building, so let's dive in.

Pokémon TCG Deck Building Commandment Number 5: Ratios

The right mix of Pokémon, Trainers, and Energies is the most basic key to creating a Pokémon deck but it is something that beginning players will often struggle with. I used to teach Pokémon TCG at my local Mind Games and one of the first things I would discuss with parents and players is this topic.

Decks that run too many of the same cards will always run into issues drawing what they need when they need it. A good place to start really getting a feel for this is League Battle decks. Generally League Battle Decks will always run a great ratio of Pokémon, Trainers, and Energies. I would highly suggest looking at the lists of current League Battle decks to get a feel for the basics.

Obviously there will be some changes to these ratios (electric decks might run a higher energy count to guarantee two energies off of Electric Generator). As a whole though these numbers will be the same for most decks

Pokémon TCG Deck Building Commandment Number 4: Pokémon Lines

Pokémon are the key to winning your games as they will be knocking out your opponent’s Pokémon and taking Prizes to give you the win. When you are building your decks it is key to max out on certain Pokémon, especially if they will evolve into your main attackers.

Take Mew VMAX decks for example: almost every list you look at will be running four Mew V and three Mew VMAX. This is done to avoid the issue of prizing (Cooltrainer Ace note: “prizing” is when a card you need gets stuck in the draw pile of your cards used as prizes when you knock out an opponent’s Pokémon), allowing you to still, have access to two Mew V incase you end up prizing two. The same can be said for Stage 2 decks—if your stage two is your main attacker you always want to include four copies of the basic Pokémon to increase your chances of not prizing all of them.

Pokémon TCG Deck Building Commandment Number 3: Know your consistency cards

Knowing which cards you want to run the maximum number of is important in any card, However it's even more important in Pokémon.

One of the many things that makes Pokémon unique among its peers is prizing and if you are cutting important cards then you are limiting the consistency of your deck. Cards that search for Pokémon should always be prioritized in your deck. If you run out of benched Pokémon then you lose the game, so cards like Ultra Ball and Battle VIP Pass will always take priority in deck building.

Drawing cards is also very important in Pokémon, since drawing through your deck will increase the chances of you getting key cards. Most draw cards will be in the form of Supporters. They range from drawing cards and interrupting your opponent to drawing a lot of cards for a cost.

Lastly, cards that get Pokémon you don’t want active back on the bench are key. Since you can’t play cards to disrupt your opponent on their turn, you have to use your turn to the best of your ability. Cards like Boss's Orders will put a Pokémon you don’t want active in the active spot so your opponent can buy a turn. Playing cards like Switch, Switch Cart, and Escape Rope can definitely help keep you maximizing your turn.

Pokémon TCG Deck Building Commandment Number 2: Research, Research, Research

This one is super important especially when you make the dive into Pokémon TCG competitively. The game has evolved so much since I started playing and thanks to social media and streaming it has never been easier to research what decks are doing well and what those players are running. Websites like Limitless TCG and Pokemon.com always have decklists from events up super quickly, and players will often post pictures of lists from events on twitter.

Researching decks and what the pros are running will always keep you in the loop on what’s being played.

Pokémon TCG Deck Building Commandment Number 1: You can't counter every deck

This is perhaps the most important thing to remember when building your deck. The Pokémon TCG metas are usually consisting of many decks all of which have good and bad matchups.

It's important to remember that you only have 60 cards to work with and not all decks can counter their bad matches. Even more important you shouldn’t build your deck around countering your bad matches as this could lead you to taking out key cards that help you against your good matches.

It also goes without saying that just because you have a bad matchup against a certain deck that doesn’t mean you will always lose. At its core there is also a luck element to Pokémon as there is to all card games. Your opponent could prize key cards they don’t run a max number of, or they might get stuck with some bad draws. So many things factor into a Pokémon TCG match that how the odds look on paper may not dictate how the match goes on the tournament floor.

Thanks, Mike! If you’re looking for more resources on how to play, check out these links:

• Pokémon TCG Learn To Play

• Pokémon TCG Top Deck Academy

Until next time,
Cooltrainer Ace