How to Build a Deck in Pokemon TCG

If you’ve played around with a bunch of theme decks to decent success but feel limited by their restrictions, then the first item on your agenda should be to learn how to build a Pokemon TCG deck from scratch. Deck-building is a vital skill if you plan on delving into competitive play. You get to elevate your gameplay to the next level and learn how a deck’s individual elements contribute to its style and play.

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So if you want a simplified tutorial on the basics of how to build a deck, or even a good deck, for Pokémon TCG, you’ve come to the right place. This guide will take you through all the intricacies of an ideal TCG battle deck, along with descriptions of each component’s contribution.

How should you Build your Deck in Pokemon TCG?

Deck-building in Pokémon TCG isn’t rocket science, especially if you know the various factors that go into making a killer card deck. Therefore, we’ve laid out everything you need to know about deck-building in Pokémon TCG right below:

Pokemon TCG Deck Components

The first thing that you need to consider before you go crazy on purchasing Pokémon cards for your deck are the limitations. Here’s what you should keep in mind:

Number of Cards in Deck

When making a deck for your TCG competitive endeavors, you need to ensure that your deck consists of 60 cards; no more, no less. However, the breakdown of these 60 cards can vary depending on your preference, and the best deck builders strike the ideal balance between each type of card.

Number of Card Copies

Next up, bear in mind that your deck can only contain up to four copies of the same card except for Basic Energy. To clarify, that means you can’t have more than four Charizard if they have the same name but are from different expansions, but you can keep more than four Charizard if they have other forms (EX, VSTAR, GX). You’ll have to consult the Standard Rulebook to confirm whether this rule applies to specific forms.

Types of Cards in Pokemon TCG

Once you’re acquainted with what cards you can keep in your deck and how much, all that’s left to do is understand the different types of Pokémon cards to build an awesome deck. There are three main card types in TCG: Pokémon Cards, Trainer Cards, and Energy Cards. All of them have different roles to play in duels, and we’ll cover the purpose of each one:

Pokemon Cards

These are the bread and butter of Pokémon TCG. Pokémon Cards are meant to dish out all the damage (or help their comrades do so). In most cases, you don’t want too much variation across your set of Pokémon cards since you’ll be looking to evolve and max out a particular species’ potential rather than having multiple power-hitters from many different species.

Constricting your focus to a small pool of species and Pokémon also helps manage energy and trainer cards. Ideally, you should have three evolution lines of Pokémon alongside one or two Basic form cards that don’t evolve. You should also ensure that their typings have reasonable overlap so that you don’t have to overload your deck with too many energy cards to compensate for all the different types.

You should keep around 12-18 Pokémon cards in your deck to ensure you always have some in your hand or the Stadium.

Trainer Cards

Trainer cards come in different types and hence can have different rules for each kind. The three types of Trainer Cards are Supporter Cards, Item Cards, and Stadium Cards.

Supporter cards are the most powerful Trainer cards but come with the condition that You cannot play them more than once per turn. This rule also means that you don’t want to keep too many Stadium Cards in your deck since you probably won’t get to play more than a certain amount throughout the game’s duration.

Item Cards have essentially basic but valuable functions and can be played at any point in your turn. They allow you to perform actions like drawing over one card per turn or making your opponent discard or swap out random cards. You can already imagine the many situations in which item cards are helpful.

Stadium cards, as implied by the name, affect the entire Stadium in Pokemon TCG. More importantly, they are cards that have the same effect on both trainers. For this reason, players usually keep Stadium cards that don’t impact their deck as much as they would affect an average player. Since stadium cards overturn any other Stadium cards currently in play, you want to keep very few in your deck.

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That said, you should keep around 25-35 Trainer cards in your deck. To make it even simpler, we’ve provided you a fair breakdown below:

Trainer Card Type	Number Of Cards
Supporter Cards	8-12
Item Cards	12-18
Stadium Cards	4-5

Energy Cards

You can think of Energy Cards as the ‘currency’ of Pokémon TCG. Energy cards are supposed to cover the move and retreat costs of Pokémon, meaning you can’t do any damage without attaching energy to any of your Pokémon.

Energy cards are divided into Basic and Special energy. Unlike Basic Energy, you can’t keep more than four copies of any Special Energy. Special Energy also comes with perks such as attaching multiple per turn or using numerous different types of Special Energy.

You should keep around 8-12 Energy cards in your deck and rely on item cards to help you draw them into your hand.

That’s all for the basics of deck building. Trainers should still remember that the true art of deck building involves understanding which cards complement each other best. As you grow more adept at Pokemon TCG, your experience will help you brainstorm fantastic decks for your competitive endeavors.

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 Videogamer.com is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API / Last updated on 2024-04-18