Trading Card Games - Magic, YuGiOh, Pokemon, etc

[Trill Co$by]

I know for a fact that I'm not the only person here who plays at least one of the popular trading card games that are ranking in millions upon millions of dollars. Whether it be Magic the Gathering, YuGiOh, Pokemon, Dragon Ball Z Panini, Cardfight! Vanguard, etc. etc. So to help bring the community members out of its shell here, why not make a post. For those of us who aren't afraid to admit that we play one of these card games, or have an interest in learning about these games, feel free to discuss here.

To get the ball rolling, let's start with the obvious questions.

1. What's your favorite TCG/CCG to play?

2. What's the least interesting TCG/CCG in your opinion?

3. Do you play casually or competitively in your Card game of choice?


And for those who don't play but have an interest... What card game are you interested in, and what makes it so interesting?

Currently, the only two games I play are YuGiOh and Pokemon. I've been playing YuGiOh since about 2007 and started entering the competitive scene in 2009 during the Gladiator Beast format. I've not won a single regional tournament, but have placed in the top 16 twice. To me, the different ways Konami keeps the game fresh with their Forbidden/Limited list keeps me going.

For Pokemon, I admittedly only recently started playing about 6-7 months ago. Admittedly, I was once a one card game kind of person and only played the formerly mentioned. I had always had an interest in Pokemon the franchise like most 90s babies. I watched the shows, played the games, and even collected cards back in the 90s but I never got into actually playing the game itself. I'm currently enjoying learning the basics of the game, and intend on going to a local card shop to compete in my first tournament.

 

[Messiah]

I haven't played Yugioh or Pokemon since i was 10 year's old... That shit was dope back in the day though.. You're definitely not the only one who plays that shit, but you might be the only one on this forum.

 

[Hyorinmaru]

My game of choice is Magic. I've been playing since middle school.

My least favorite was/is Yugioh. Loved the show but the game never really appealed to me.

I tried playing Magic competitively but I didn't enjoy it. What I love most about it is the casual atmosphere. I've gone to my local shop with my cards and made friends with people who have come up and asked if I wanted to play a game. The fact I taught my wife only adds to the awesomeness.

 

[Dave]

On the subject of card games, has anyone played the game of Gwent on The Witcher 3? I've never played Magic The Gathering but some people have remarked that it is quite similar in some ways. Obviously, having not played it myself, I can't really say whether it is similar or not. All I can say with some certainty is that it is completely addictive and in many ways the best part of The Witcher.

It allows people to choose from different decks and each has their own strength and weakness. You get to choose your leader, who also has a perk added to them. And then the rest is down to pure strategy. I haven't ever been totally into trading card games except when Pokemon first came on the scene. But this one was all about strategy and it really appealed to me. Hopefully someone else has played it...

 

[Find'er Woo'er Ryder]

I'm actually partnered in a hobby shop where I live and we specialize in Magic the gathering. I have played pokemon, dbz, and yugioh as well but I enjoy magic the most. I do play competitive. My biggest accomplishmentioned so far was at Grand Prix Charollote 2015. I cashes in the event and almost made top 8 but lost in the last round to a mistake on my part. The tournament had somewhat around 2000 people I beleive.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

I was into the Pokemon Trading Card game and Yu Gi Oh as a kid. Tried dabbling with MTG but it just wasn't my thing. But there's one card game I do enjoy and play the hell out of with my friends, and it's called One Night: Ultimate Werewolf. Now it's not like the 1 vs. 1 you get from most card games. If anything this is more of a tabletop but played with cards. It's a social game where you get about 8 people who all get a certain role. You bow your heads and listen to what instructions come your way for the card you hold, and then you act on it. When everyone "wakes up" you have to figure out who was who, but most importantly, who was the Werewolf(ves). If you were the Werewolf, your mission is not to get killed, but try and sabotage the game by getting someone from the Village team killed (there are 3 teams in the game). You all have about 10 minutes (5 if you want to really fuck em all up) to vote on who to kill. Some cards, like the Tanner, make it their mission to try to get the Village team to kill Tanners off. Tanners are on a team of their own, and hate their job so much they want to die. Makes for a crazy deceitful game, since it usually pays in your favorite to lie no matter who you are.

Add in One Night: Daybreak and you have a more Werewolf friendly expansion pack. Really makes you question people after figuring out how good they are at fucking with you.

Least favorite? Probably Harry Potter. Yeah they had a pretty popular card game back in the day, but I never could get into it, and I'm a big fan of Potter.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

I've played trading card games pretty much my entire life. I started with Pokemon, as most kids in the 90s probably did. Then moved on to Yu-Gi-Oh, and moved back and forth between the two for years depending on what was hot.

I consider the Pokemon TCG to be "Baby's First TCG", not in a derogatory way, but in the same way I consider the actual Pokemon games to be "Baby's First RPG". It's a good, solid game with mechanics that aren't very deep, making it extremely accessible to people of all ages and skill levels, but deep enough to grow with you until you're ready for something more complex. It was Pokemon that got me into Dragon Warrior, which got me into Final Fantasy, and I still go back and play Pokemon games (and the awesome Pokemon TCG Gameboy game), so I don't consider "Baby's First ___" to be an insulting term. Much like it was PTCG that got me into YGO which got me into Magic.

Now I play anything with card-based mechanics, especially tabletop games, and that all goes back to my original love of the PTGC. Dominion, Bang!, Muchkin, Star Realms, King of Tokyo/New York, 7 Wonders, etc.

1. What's your favorite TCG/CCG to play?

Has to be Magic. There's a reason it's been king of the trading card game for as long as it has been. It's just that good. It can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. Literally thousands of variations in style, and no limit to what you can do if you're creative enough and take the time to really dive into the different, more off-the-wall mechanics. And the game is constantly changing and evolving every couple of months, which you can either choose to embrace or completely deny, and either way it's still your game. Magic is king. I don't even think there's a close #2.

2. What's the least interesting TCG/CCG in your opinion?

Hearthstone? Which is ironic, because I'm still playing it pretty frequently. I honestly just don't find the mechanics or the cards to be that interesting. But that's kind of its appeal - it's simple and you can play a game in less than 10 minutes. It's the most accessible TCG video game probably ever made. I know I'm still defending it, but it's a good game, just not a very interesting one.

3. Do you play casually or competitively in your Card game of choice?

Always casually. For one, playing any card game competitively takes serious time and money. You have to keep up with standard rules and sets, buy the best cards for your best strategies, and do nothing but play and play and play. And for me, that takes the joy out of the reason I play these games, which is just to have fun and kill time with my friends.

More Notes

- In terms of TCG video games, Yu-Gi-Oh Duelist of the Roses (PS2) is my all-time favorite. That was a game that took its base game formula and did something totally different and innovate with it. Somebody thought "what if Yu-Gi-Oh could be fought with an X and Y axis, and what if that grid could be effected by land masses that changed the way the game was played?" And then they went out and made that concept a reality, and it was fucking cool.

- The US should have gotten a Pokemon Trading Card Game 2 for Game Boy Advance. If one was announced I would go out and buy it tomorrow. I don't even care that I haven't touched those cards in 15 years.

- If you know how to play Magic but don't have a lot of friends that do, I highly suggest checking out a Friday Night Magic gathering at your local game shop. I live in Portland, OR and we have the massive, massive Guardian Games which does multiple events including weekly drafts of different kinds with 100 different people. It's awesome. Relatively cheap and fun way to spend a Friday (or Saturday or Sunday if your game shop is big enough) night.

 

[lenguy]

I pretty much followed the fads when it came to card games. First it was Pokemon and then Digimon then Yugioh became popular ect...ect. Of course a lot of this was way back in grade school so it was more about the collectible aspects of the cards themselves more than the actual game. So nobody ever bothered to learned to play Pokemon or Digimon. It was just a collectible fad. I remember fights would start over these things man. If you had a rare card, its best you keep it at home, otherwise you'd be a target for them rare hunters haha. Both Pokemon and Digimon were banned in our school because kids would literally bring weapons to school to confront each other over that kids Charizard or whatever. It was a savage time indeed. Magic was popular too but I never really "got" it and just pretty much kind of avoided it.

Yugioh was different because the card game was based on the actual card game used in the Anime. It was easier for people to get into and play. All they needed to do was watch the show and get a basic idea of how the game works. This one became the fad that stuck around and grew. Yugioh was not just about the collectible cards but it was also about the game. Yugioh was my game; I loved playing it. The endless hours dueling my friends and the seemingly stupid amount of money we spent on booster packs are good memories for me. I never bothered to compete competitively because competitive game play just killed the fun for me. I don't mind a good competitive match between friends but anything else is just too stressful haha.

But after so many years people just moved on from it and so did I. I got rid of most of my cards and just dropped it. I still kept my main dueling deck though only because you can never be too prepared! I tried getting back into it recently but I found the changes...unwelcoming. It almost became a different game entirely and I couldn't get back into it. I still break out the old deck whenever I see old friends and we battle casually and just have fun playing a card game that ties our friendships together out of nostalgia.

 

[Trill Co$by]

I pretty much followed the fads when it came to card games. First it was Pokemon and then Digimon then Yugioh became popular ect...ect. Of course a lot of this was way back in grade school so it was more about the collectible aspects of the cards themselves more than the actual game. So nobody ever bothered to learned to play Pokemon or Digimon. It was just a collectible fad. I remember fights would start over these things man. If you had a rare card, its best you keep it at home, otherwise you'd be a target for them rare hunters haha. Both Pokemon and Digimon were banned in our school because kids would literally bring weapons to school to confront each other over that kids Charizard or whatever. It was a savage time indeed. Magic was popular too but I never really "got" it and just pretty much kind of avoided it.

Yugioh was different because the card game was based on the actual card game used in the Anime. It was easier for people to get into and play. All they needed to do was watch the show and get a basic idea of how the game works. This one became the fad that stuck around and grew. Yugioh was not just about the collectible cards but it was also about the game. Yugioh was my game; I loved playing it. The endless hours dueling my friends and the seemingly stupid amount of money we spent on booster packs are good memories for me. I never bothered to compete competitively because competitive game play just killed the fun for me. I don't mind a good competitive match between friends but anything else is just too stressful haha.

But after so many years people just moved on from it and so did I. I got rid of most of my cards and just dropped it. I still kept my main dueling deck though only because you can never be too prepared! I tried getting back into it recently but I found the changes...unwelcoming. It almost became a different game entirely and I couldn't get back into it. I still break out the old deck whenever I see old friends and we battle casually and just have fun playing a card game that ties our friendships together out of nostalgia.

It was quite the opposite for me with the new mechanics. I was getting tired of everything being fusion revisited with all the XYZ and Synchro summoning they added. And then they created Pendulums and I fell back in love with the game. They revitalized older mechanics such as Ritual Summoning and traditional fusions, and they've recently reminded people just how boss the Blue-Eyes truly is by giving him more extra deck monsters and building an entire archetype around him. They even revitalized Red-Eyes, Dark Magician, Buster Blader, and made new archetypes that are just fun and awesome to play with.

I will agree that competitive play can take away the fun sometimes, but if you find the right style then you can find fun in it still. I've yet to actually get past top 16 but even when I'm losing I'm still having fun, and the fact that the card game is still growing is really a testament to how awesome it is.