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As someone who used to play the TCG waaaaaay back when it started in Base Set/Jungle/Fossil/etc as a kid, how much has the gameplay changed over the years? Looking for a new card game to get into that I can play at home when I'm not at LGSs playing MtG. I remember seeing newer cards and thinking they were hilariously broken compared to the original sets, but apparently I've heard it makes the game better? I pretty much stopped playing when the Dark and Steel types became a thing. (I kind of resent kid me for selling my collection for like $10, I had some fairly good stuff...) Also, is this kind of like MtG where Standard often gets "solved" and there's a rampant "best deck" that everyone plays to the point of monotony, or can you build a deck with your favorite pokemon of your favorite type and do fairly well? (My favorite types are psychic, fairy, dark, grass, and steel, at any rate.)
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Nov 8, 2017 21:02
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Decided I'd give it a try. I'm just doing the training missions right n-- ok
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Nov 9, 2017 07:50
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Finally managed to grind up 500 tokens. Should I just dive in and buy a theme deck, and I'm assuming one of the three you mentioned was the best to go? (Would probably get Hidden Moon just because it has types and cards I like). (Though I really like Alolan Ninetales too and it's on the cover of another...)
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Nov 10, 2017 05:00
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Looked through the cards in the decks and ended up picking the Hydreigon one. Seems pretty decent so far. With the packs I'm getting from the trainer challenges, should I be opening those or trading them?
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Nov 10, 2017 15:22
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PMush Perfect posted:Open, they're account locked. ah gotcha  I guess duplicate foils in the same pack is cool, haha Framboise fucked around with this message at 16:32 on Nov 10, 2017 |
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Nov 10, 2017 16:29
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Captain Fargle posted:That's not a duplicate. One is foil and one is reverse foil. I know, but I meant they're the same card and both are foil, haha. PMush Perfect posted:That Chandelure seems like it'd be a fun buildaround in Extended, when you've actually got VS Seeker so you don't have to hamstring yourself to get it rolling. I'm guessing Extended is to Pokemon as Modern is to Magic?
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Nov 10, 2017 17:58
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PMush Perfect posted:Yep, basically. I'll keep that in mind for when I build up a collection, then. The Destruction Fang deck is serving me well; I'm already on the second tier of rewards after a 9-game winning streak (that I lost right after due to horrible draws. C'est la vie.)
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Nov 10, 2017 19:19
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X_ThePerfect posted:I picked up Clanging Thunder as I have an electric and dragon challenge - naturally I only draw Type Null and the shellos line for literally three games in a row. I bought some pack codes from ptcgo.com, that seems pretty cheap and efficient-- but as far as specific traders, it seems to be a huge mess. I'm not quite sure what to do right now. I've been blazing through Versus with my Theme deck, and I made quick work of the "do 3000 damage with colorless pokemon" using Bewear to sweep games, so I have 800 tokens and I'm not sure what to buy. Are the special Regice/Darkrai/Mew sets worth getting, and if so, what should I be looking into getting to play in Standard or Expanded? I don't even understand what's good and what's bad yet. I did get a full-art Turtonator-GX that I traded for a full-art Sylveon-GX though. Dunno if that was a good deal, but I love Sylveon, so!
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Nov 12, 2017 02:17
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I ended up just blowing my tokens on packs. Trying to get a Tapu Lele like all the cool kids in the Standard arena have. (I can see why, they're so bullshit.) I made myself a standard deck of simple good stuff (Bewear, Garbodor, Sylveon GX, etc) and just decimated an opponent who decided to just use all -EX Pokemon. That was pretty cool. Bewear with a Choice Band is just stupid against those dudes.
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Nov 13, 2017 04:42
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Captain Fargle posted:If you think Tapu Lele GX is bullshit you should look up regular Tapu Lele! That thing is very much banned from play. What was it? All I can find while searching is just the GX version. My Psychic-Fairy Goodstuff deck is serving me pretty well in standard! I haven't put much money into the game, so it's a pretty nice feeling. I do wish I had some Lele-GXs to put in, but as it is, it's not doing too bad:  It's not too bad for something I just cobbled together. I just kept in mind the classic "card advantage is key" strategy from Magic and filled the deck with tons of card draw and cards that can let me "tutor" for other cards. (I don't know the terminology for Pokemon so I'll just use MtG terms for now). Bewear is great against EX Pokemon, which people love to just load their deck with-- and Garbodor is great against people who play like I do and flush their hands constantly with N/Sycamore. Alolan Vulpix can grab anything I need for free, and Eevee can tutor up Sylveon-GX for free. Any suggestions to make it better?
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Nov 13, 2017 19:52
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PMush Perfect posted:Drop the Vulpix. Run the full 4 Professor's Letters ASAP, same with the fourth Sycamore. Run a couple Skyla (getting the items you need) and a couple Professor Kukui (getting you a KO you might otherwise miss). You don't need that many Energy cards, especially not with Wishful Baton. I'd say 4 of each. Run a couple Energy Retrievals, if you wanna. I'd definitely run a couple Rescue Stretcher in this setup. I did precisely what you suggested and it's working pretty well in the couple test runs I did! Granted, it wasn't against EX/GX decks, but it worked quite smoothly. As far as Ultra Balls go, I had a full set in because I figured since I'd be drawing a lot, I'd have plenty to throw away for a specific card. I could see myself dropping one or two though. Understood on Hau though-- I think I'm just stuck in the MtG mindset of "Ancestral Recall is tremendously busted, so this should be too". He's out. So far so good! If it continues to perform well, I'll try putting it in a tournament event.
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Nov 14, 2017 00:00
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PMush Perfect posted:If you pull an Ultra Ball, I'd put in a Town Map, since you've got a couple important 1-ofs. But that's just me, and I think I over value Town Map a bit. I actually pulled one out to put in a second Sylveon-GX for that reason. Eevee's kind of a dead draw when I can't immediately jam Sylveon on it since it's in the prize pool. I have a Town Map in and frequently fetch it with Skyla, so that works out pretty well. Or would it be worthwhile to go down to 2 Ultra Balls and an extra Map? I'm not sure. Deck is running very smoothly so far-- it's very common for me to be smashing faces in with Sylveon/Espeon/Bewear on turn 2, and people tend to scoop pretty quick to that. Doesn't make for the most fun games sometimes, but when it's pushing me up that versus meter toward free stuff, I won't complain.
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Nov 14, 2017 19:19
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fun game  fun deck tapu lele is getting to be a pretty tiresome sight though I also opened up another Sylveon-GX from a pack. I think the game knows I'm fond of it. Also I should ask: why is the game so GPU-intensive? It's not like it's some graphical work of art, yet on some screens it's making my 980Ti run at 80-90%.
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Nov 15, 2017 00:32
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ok ouch wow playing at night is way harsher than playing during the day. I'm on like, a 5-game losing streak to people who do nothing but jam EX and GX Pokemon into their deck. It's... kinda boring to see the same thing over and over, honestly.
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Nov 15, 2017 08:01
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Zodack posted:That's the meta for you! Any card game will get boring eventually since the cream rises to the top and some people just play to win. It's why I like playing casually, you can still make competitive fun decks and you don't have to worry about shelling out for the expensive stuff. Other than Lele because every deco needs her. Oh, I definitely like playing competitively. Is there a place where I can learn the meta better so I can at least predict what certain decks are trying to do, or is it "really everyone plays Lele and the rest doesn't really matter as much"? Because it's really hard to get those and I really don't feel like buying 40+ pack codes just to get one Lele.
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Nov 16, 2017 20:23
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Star Man posted:Don't buy packs to get cards. This is true for paper collectible/trading card games and digital cards. Ever ever ever ever ever. Hmm. Do you know any good vendors? I just thought what people did was essentially trade pack codes for cards in the trade center. Price of being naïve, I suppose. EDIT:  This was turn one. Turn. One. Maybe I really do need to run an anti-EX/GX meta deck. Framboise fucked around with this message at 05:37 on Nov 17, 2017 |
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Nov 17, 2017 01:32
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I AM THE MOON posted:thats normal How on earth do you counter something like that
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Nov 17, 2017 17:43
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PMush Perfect posted:Gardevoir's going nuts right now because Steel kinda sucks. Hopefully, the next set's gonna bring in some things to help with that, but right now, the only real options are "Choice Band rush", "Anti-Meta", or "laugh at the stupid bastards spending hundreds of dollars on a children's card game". True, I suppose. I had a gleeful moment of OHKOing a Tapu Lele-GX a few minutes ago. Opponent swapped to it to do 100 damage to my Bewear, and I just shrugged, switched to Garbodor with Choice Band, and did precisely 170 to it. She switched to Mimikyu to do 280 to Garbodor, and I just went back to Bewear to smack it back for the win.
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Nov 17, 2017 20:36
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DarciisFyer posted:That's not even the good Gardevoir. Both that Gardevoir and Darkrai decks are unfavorably matched to the actual tier 1 expanded meta: Night March, the actual good Gardevoir (GX), and Garbodor/Necrozma. If you want decklists look here: http://thecharizardlounge.com/2017/11/12/the-new-face-of-expanded-and-an-update-to-gardevoir/ I'm playing standard right now, so I don't know how relevant that is-- or how well my deck would fare in expanded. I'm more surprised to see that Fort Wayne Regionals were mentioned, because I live in Fort Wayne and had no idea such a thing went on here. A shame MtG doesn't get as much attention here for that, it's always Indianapolis. (But I don't play Standard or Modern in MtG anymore, so whatever on both counts.) Framboise fucked around with this message at 03:03 on Nov 18, 2017 |
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Nov 18, 2017 03:00
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DarciisFyer posted:The image you posted has Gardevoir Spirit Link and Hoopa-Ex, both of which are expanded-only. Are you sure you're doing standard? The ptcgo client sometimes switches to expanded on its own, buggy like that. I'm sure. I'd never pick expanded if I didn't build a deck specifically for the format. Though that Night March deck didn't seem like it'd be too hard to put together. I already got myself a Shaymin-EX thinking it was in standard but again, dumb beginner mistake. Just need a couple more and maybe a Lele eventually. Still, that's pretty messed up. I AM THE MOON posted:in expanded if you go second you can hit for 240 damage on the first turn and thats with a deck thats not even that good What deck is that? I'm intrigued.
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Nov 18, 2017 06:02
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Hmmm. So say I want to build an anti-meta deck for standard. I assume I'd load it up with Alolan Ninetales, maybe Regice, Glaceon-EX... and what else?
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Nov 18, 2017 23:43
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PMush Perfect posted:I posted a decklist earlier here, it's worked well for me. My main advice is get 2 regular A-Ninetails, one GX, and, this is crucial, a Manaphy EX. That free retreat turns Guzma into one of the best cards in your deck. Regice is gonna be super niche, only really useful against about half of the meta (Darkrai will tear that poor bastard in half). I'd rather use that slot for something like Tauros GX. Lapras GX is a trap, but Errand Running Lapras from BREAKpoint is decent filler, and I'd recommend 1 of either it or Oranguru, depending on if you have more trouble early or late game. Hm! I think I can manage to put that together. I pulled a secret rare Counter Energy and a Guzzlord-GX today, so maybe those will be good trade fodder for the Tauros-GX, Alolan Ninetales-GX, and the Manaphy-EX. (Or full-art Toxapex-GX, I have that too). Unless any of those are really good and should be kept. Meanwhile, one of my challenges for the day was to KO 5 pokemon with a grass-type... but I have no grass-type in my theme decks, so I had to throw something together for standard instead. I think I may have frustrated someone who was running all Alolan Exeggutor-GXs and Tapu Lele-GXs against a deck that had Golisopod and Alolan Ninetales in it. Framboise fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Nov 19, 2017 |
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Nov 19, 2017 05:07
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Is it just me, or do you have a higher chance of having to mulligan the higher your winning streak is? I had to mulligan 5 loving times last round until I got a basic and got loving trampled by the unbalance.
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Nov 21, 2017 18:58
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I guess. It's just kinda hard when you have so few basics in your deck. Meanwhile, I finished the deck you suggested and it's pretty fun to play late at night. Who will win?  a team overflowing with GX dudes or  one snowy boy (spoilers, it was the snowy boy)
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Nov 22, 2017 06:57
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PMush Perfect posted:On one hand, that always feels great. He did. He switched to it and hit me, and I healed with Lana and hit the Null twice to kill it. All he had left were GX Pokemon. The way he was enthusiastically evolving all of them was really dumb in hindsight, he knew Alolan Ninetales was right there and I could switch to it anytime thanks to Manaphy. It's like "what were you even trying to accomplish with all of those?". I had Alolan Ninetales GX on the bench as well, so I would have won by killing that Gumshoos GX with 180 damage by using that one to hit it on the bench. Instead, he just scooped. All the same.
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Nov 22, 2017 07:48
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I haven't been playing as much lately but it seems like the only really worthwhile pulls are the Ultra Beasts.
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Dec 22, 2017 05:02
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Because Tapu Lele is an overpriced card with a bullshit broken effect that fits in any deck  It's basically the Pokemon equivalent of being able to use Wheel of Fortune for free, every turn, with phyrexian mana (except it doesn't hurt you), and can do even more. Frankly it's a big part of the reason why I don't really play PTCGO anymore. Having that much control over card advantage is just ridiculously busted.
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Jan 11, 2018 05:08
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Speaking of Expanded, this month's Versus reward card is Shaymin-EX. May as well get a jump on that if you don't already have those.
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Jan 11, 2018 16:39
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I've been finding more enjoyment in playing theme decks in PTCGO lately because I don't feel like investing a ton of money in virtual cards so I can deal with Tapu Lele city. I'm looking forward to new ones; I already have 1000 coins saved up to snag them if they appeal to me. I also, for fun, checked out Expanded using my Standard deck. Is it weird that I have an easier time there? It feels like while Standard is Spike city, Expanded is just full of weird Johnny decks that I can push my way through.
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Jan 26, 2018 20:01
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Wow, the Empoleon deck looks very... not very good. Empoleon itself seems great but the rest of it kinda blows.
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Jan 29, 2018 17:38
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PMush Perfect posted:I think the best way to do the 2-for-1 would be a stall-with-Floatzel strategy? Maybe. It's not a great deck, but it has some good cards in it. I'm fine with it anyway. I'll get the Garchomp deck and then I'll have like 700 coins to mess with. Should I still be hunting Tapu Leles, or is there a big card to chase in Ultra Prism?
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Jan 30, 2018 04:52
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PMush Perfect posted:Tapu Lele is still like a $50 card. Full-art Cynthias are gonna be worth a lot in a while, especially once Sycamore rotates out of standard, but there's a regular version of that, while Lele is one of the most expensive singles in the game right now (not counting collectors' items). Oh, right; for building it into a Standard deck, right? I can run with that, maybe.
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Jan 30, 2018 05:18
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PMush Perfect posted:Yeah, I actually did a how-to for a basic beginner deck from it on the bottom of the previous page. Throwing a Tapu Lele in there would be a spectacular way to beef it up, too, since you could just search out a Cynthia from an Ultra Ball. Yeah I saw it, I just didn't really think too much about actually doing it because I only had enough coins for 2 decks and wanted to get both new ones. Now that I know that the Empoleon one kinda sucks, I can now. I reeeeeeally just don't feel like playing anything outside of Theme right now because Tapu Lele is just too drat broken and decks without it are underperforming. And paying actual money for virtual cards just makes my skin crawl a bit these days.
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Jan 30, 2018 06:20
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Zodack posted:Not quite as broken as some people seem to think, just very useful, so you're going to want to chase some. I respectfully disagree. Being able to tutor up any supporter on the fly means you pretty much have access to any card in your deck, making it never a dead card, and it also has a decent body, no weakness, and a cheap double colorless attack, which makes it universally useful in any deck, which is why almost every competitive deck uses it. That's pretty busted in my eyes. Framboise fucked around with this message at 19:32 on Jan 30, 2018 |
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Jan 30, 2018 17:38
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Out of curiosity. Is running a deck that's pretty much all Dark Energy and 4 Guzzlord-GX with some stretchers, elixirs, and dark patches for reusing resources a valid deck? Because it sounds totally stupid if it is and I want to do it. I mean yeah, you're probably going to mulligan 20+ times, but who cares when you can hit for 180 on turn 2?
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Jan 30, 2018 22:08
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It's... not working out as fun as it sounded. Way too many "damage based on energy attached" attacks, haha. Also, slow-rolling Volcanion decks are such a pain in the rear end. We get it, you wanna cycle through like 6 energy per turn. Deck's definitely funny when it goes off though. Guzma'ing into a weakened GX and using Guzzlord's GX move to get 4 prizes is kind of hilarious. Also, I pulled a Buzzwole-GX from a pack and see that people are trading quite valuable things for it. Is it really that good? EDIT: Decklist so far. Suggestions? 4 Guzzlord-GX 2 Max Elixir 3 Guzma 3 Pokemon Fan Club 4 Choice Band 2 Wishful Baton 42 Dark Energy I can very consistently use Tyrannical Hole on turn 2, but it's amazing how fragile a 210 HP dude can be, especially against energy-matters attacks and Lycanroc-GX just kinda laughs at me. Also, the deck simply crumples to any anti-GX strategies (Hoopa, Alolan Ninetales, etc). Trying to figure out ways around that. Framboise fucked around with this message at 11:17 on Jan 31, 2018 |
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Jan 31, 2018 05:01
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PMush Perfect posted:Fighting Fury Belt would give you a -20 drop in damage, but +40 HP. And I forget if it's still in Standard, but Hex Maniac can help with Hoopa. Unfortunately, Hex Maniac doesn't seem to be in Standard. Is there another way around it? I am considering Garbotoxin but it sounds super inconsistent.
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Feb 1, 2018 03:39
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PMush Perfect posted:Oh, here's a goofy idea. Add a couple Ninja Boy, and one Shining Lugia. Shining Lugia's 3 energy attack is a guaranteed KO on both Hoopa and Ninetales. Shining Lugia isn't $30; it's like $5 on average on TCGplayer at least; trade values seem to be somewhat similar. Oranguru seems to be a great option too, might run one of that and Lugia or something.
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Feb 1, 2018 04:37
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PMush Perfect posted:Okay, yeah, that looks more reasonable. Oranguru is spectacular, and super cheap since it also comes in one of the theme decks. I have a few Oranguru, yeah. I'll pop a couple in my deck (and maybe some Nest Balls to grab Guzzlord with in case I don't draw it) and give that a go. Gotta get some Ninja Boys first. Think 2 should be okay?
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Feb 1, 2018 05:08
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Garchomp theme deck is pretty cool. May be digging it more than the Hydreigon one for multiple reasons.
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Feb 3, 2018 03:10
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