As a new player, versus is really disheartening

[pelle1212]

As a new player whos only previous experience is with the gameboy version of pokemon tcg i must say that playing versus has been a really disappointing experience. Playing standard is pretty much out of the question so you are stuck with the theme decks which In itself I don't mind if it weren't for the fact that more than 50% of the players uses the XY blue deck which feels way too powerful and difficult to counter.

 

You would imagine that the green deck should counter it but seeing how articuno/walrus is weak to metal and gyarados to lightning that is just no the case. I'm quite frankly getting tired of playing the same deck over and over again it's honestly making me want to stop alltogether.

 

I do enjoy the core gameplay but I don't see myself playing much further if this is all I can expect

[ChawkyV]

Well theme deck battles arent really all that fun, you should play the trainer challenge (ironically with theme decks) in order to get packs or buy codes and trade so you can make some good Standard decks !

[pelle1212]

I have played through most of the trainer challenges and have bought a fair amount of theme decks to play around with but If I look at any of the standard builds I feel that I'm a far way off from making anything playable. I'm also not that invested into the game that I feel like dishing out money for cards.

 

Either way i just wish that the new player experience was better than it is

[00dragonite00]

Vespiquen is probably the most accessible standard deck that is also competitive.

[pelle1212]

Vespiquen is probably the most accessible standard deck that is also competitive.

Gonna check that one out. Thanks for the suggestion

[JimiCobain27]

 

[RedTuesday]

Night March is also really easy to build.

[pelle1212]

Hey bud, welcome to the game. It can be tough at first, I felt like a total noob for ages, and in some regards, I still am, because I make my own decks instead of copying from online suggestions and so on.

But sometimes a good headstart for you can come in the form of a person just being friendly and helpful. I was helped out by a kind player when I first started and they traded me a bunch of cards for almost nothing in return. Now I do the same sometimes, to "pay it forward", as they say. So if you would like, I could trade you a whole bunch of useful cards and I would ask for very little back. And no, I'm not trying to scam you, I just know how hard it can be.

 

The cards you'll get from me won't all be crazy rare cards, obviously, but I'll give you useful ones, especially ones that come in handy when it comes to standard play. I really dislike the Night March and Vespiquen decks that everyone seems to use these days, and I don't want you to become one of those players, but I'm willing to give you some of the cards needed for those decks so that you can get a winning streak happening to get you started and winning more packs/cards.

 

Anyways, get back to me if you're interested.

 

That's really nice of you but I don't have much to trade for at all. Have only opened one tradeable booster and I don't think there was anything special in it

But I too would prefer to use decks that does not consist of carde everyone else runs seeing how that it must be more fun than sticking to a build found on the internet

[Chroniton]

Starting out as a free player is a long hard grind but if you focus on picking up the right stuff you can end up with a solid deck, I suggest one of these routes:

 

3 Resilient Life decks for an Aromatisse core

3 Burning Spark decks for a Magnezone core

2 Destruction Rush + 4 Night Striker for Yveltal + Zoroark

 

These all give a solid starting point that can all build into decks that can compete with the other decks in versus after you pick up a few other theme decks for extra Trainers and some booster packs to add to the pokemon.

[arcangelgold]

I suggest playing in vs unlimited mode and earning coins. You can buy boosters with coins and also earn from the ladder. With hard work and time you CAN build a deck win worthy.

[awesome_guy]

arcangel, I highly doubt a new player should be starting unlimited- which Is riddled with shiftry and powerful trainers like hypnotoxic laser..

 

pelle, i'd advise you to collect a bunch of the following energy accelerators:

 

yveltal, landorus, sableye (from shop), etc.

 

from your booster packs you got locked more likely than not you'll have pulled at least one ex and a decent amount of trainers..

 

using these you can create a makeshift deck to play your initial battles revolving around energizing your ex pokemon..

 

after that, you can start getting in cards and modifying your deck as you start winning to include better and better cards and shape it towards your final desired strategy- at least that's what I did when I joined and it seemed to work pretty well

[Jonaman]

I suggest playing in vs unlimited mode and earning coins. You can buy boosters with coins and also earn from the ladder. With hard work and time you CAN build a deck win worthy.

That's so true! 

[Cefiro]

The PTCGO is a game where starting takes a while. If you don't wanna "grind" don't play, but it gets waaaay more fun when you are able to build standard decks.

I've put zero real life money into the game, but I now have about 25 standard decks, with 10 being pretty competitive (I win tournaments with them, and about half of those I usually get second or first place). I was also like you and growing bored of using theme decks ages ago, but hey, just play when you feel like it. Play a little every few days or once a week, and soon enough you will attain enough cards to build fun decks for standard format and beyond.

And here's an important tip:
NEVER EVER open the latest card pack (as of now BREAKthrough) if it is trade-able. ALWAYS trade it when you're starting out! You can get a few rares, often 1 EX (assuming it's not high demand), or if you need commons and uncommons you can get TONS of those from trading just 1 pack.
I wish I knew this when I started myself.
It speeds up how fast you can get a deck going by a huge margin. Check which cards you have, and which you'd need to make a semi-viable deck for standard format. Then whenever you get trade-able packs simply trade for those cards.
The packs that are locked, those are the ones you open. 

[shinygeodude]

I have lots of extra common and uncommon cards which I can trade to new players, including full evolution lines. I won't give them for basically free, but I'll give a good deal.

[royalebouquet]

I would suggest spending around 50-60 real life money on code cards, they can be found anywhere. With 50-60 real life money you can potentially get around 200 code cards that you can enter in the game. Then find out what deck you want to play that is worth playing (so yes do copycat some ideas from the internet, its to bad, but own made decks are never really good enough if you don't know all the cards yet), from there you should get things going. 50-60 real life money is pretty normal to spend on a good game that can keep you busy for years.

[Chroniton]

The game is perfectly viable to play for free imo if you don't mind going for a specific deck to start with (see my earlier post above) that you may not particularly like or want to play but it's the easiest way to get a solid deck going and then you can build anything you want if you grind enough for tokens for packs, after getting an initial deck building anything else is just down to how much you want to grind for it.

[ironcladmerc]

I made a deck just for dealing damage with my lightning pokemon. I don't have that many lightning pokemon, but I took the ones in the theme decks and added some that I opened out of packs, and adding in a couple EX's I got from packs, I am actually able to win games in standard mode and I am only playing this game about a week or so. 

I completed that weekly challenge as well, I didn't expect to win, but won more times than thought possible.  I find a lot of people even concede too early or just time out and you get free wins that way too.

[Soubadguy]

Yeah i know how u feel im new here too.

 

But it is possible to build up a good deck even with free cards.

I'm not very sure what cards you have at the moment.

If you are interested, get back to me.

 

Added you as friend in the game. =)

[shinygeodude]

You can build up your collection, and therefore have the cards to create some good decks, by completing the trainer challenge. If you get every possible reward from it, that's a total of 45 free packs. Also, complete the tutorial to get a new theme deck and a guaranteed EX.

[ZevKyogre]

Like most have said, do the trainer challenges, and open up those theme decks.

You'll get the cards in those decks to make a new one of your own (IMO, RS-Articuno (both of them) are really good for any water deck,) and you'll unlock boosters.

 

For a small coin purchase (and yes, it is small,) you can buy other decks for your own use as well - and you'll get good pokemon, like Noivern and Raichu, or Yveltal, etc.

 

In terms of making a deck of your own - you have unlimited energies to work with regardless of what it says is in your "collection" when building decks in deck manager. Even the DCEs are available if you know where to look (message me, if you haven't found them.) 
And find something that works okay - I only have one of my main attacker (bad strategy,) but you know what? I get my 820 on versus between wins and disconnects, and I get Exs, like 2 of the Lucario, Kangaskhan, and soon to be Manectric, as well as a bunch of other evolutions. 

I know it sounds hard, but you just need to know how to build your deck. Hang in there - it took 2 weeks for me to get the hang of it. 

[Firesplitter]

Honestly, you should not have any issues with the blue theme deck... My recommendation to get into the PTCGO with free means is to buy either Dark Hammer or Stone Heart themedeck for 500 coins as those are really straightforward and easy to rack up wins with even for inexperienced players (it is worth noting that while Stone Heart is overall from my experience a better deck than Dark Hammer it is ridiculously weak against Basic green which ones up every single aspect of the deck and in addition to that has immunity to its main tricks to settle/locking games early.). Then once that is done farm that format until you have a viable standard deck. That is what I do currently after a year of inactivity to get back into standard. Already have three decks with decent winrate.

However, it is worth to note that I did have a neat collection since before (sadly, however, most card were rotated out of standard but had a couple of nice cards for standard) and I open boosters like a lesser deity. But my point is that with a little work (completing the ladders mainly) it shouldn't take too long to get a playable standard deck with 50+% winrate. In the meanwhile, play Theme deck with Dark Hammer or Stone Heart to get a great win percentage as those decks are easy to play, yet really strong. Also, the new starter decks are (as you mentioned in original post) very good and have a great win percentage against most other Starter Decks.

[pelle1212]

Moving on to standard has been a joke. Nothing but opponents with super rare and powerful cards. What a joke of a match maker

[Firesplitter]

What does the deck look like? Just a curious question. A common newbie misstake is to have too many pokémons and too many energies in the deck. You should play with atleast 25 trainer cards (30+ is highly recommended) and you should never play more than 9 basics unless most of them are there for their Poképowers. Remember that each added basic decreases the consistency in which you'll start the game with your strongest Pokémon. Energies you should rarely run more than 12-14 of, but rather use trainers to ensure they come to your hand.

Other than that I can just say what I said earlier, stick to theme deck and play the top decks in that format to rack up coins for cards until you got a strong deck.

[TheDZone586]

I started off 2 months ago, thought the same thing at first.  My first deck on here was Lucario Ex and Lugia Ex, even though Lugia should be banned for being too easy, its simple deck. That can outlast others or end games early.

 

Now I have a Delphox XY deck that wins 90-95% of the time, that i thought of entirely of myself because of trainer challenges.

 

So give it more time.

[pelle1212]

My biggest issue is that one of the most used cards is also one of the most expensive one. Going up against people who fields several of such card is just pointless as I can't compete. I mean why does the match maker match me up with people like that? it's just ridiculous