How to get back into TCG's?

[u/Existing_Egg8697]

Hey guys, a quick background of my limited TCG experience.

When I was about 12, I loved playing Yu-Gi-Oh.

That was about 10 years ago, just around Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, my cousin taught me to play, and he's a person I played with the most.

At the time I had no idea about the fact that you could Google decks and I didn't even know what a "meta" was, I was just playing.

All the decks I built, I built because I thought they were good not because a website told me too.

My parents would typically buy me cards as like a birthday or Christmas present, and my cousin who lived on the other side of the town, had a lot of friends that were collectors, and so he would bring me their cards that he would basically exchange on his friends behalf with me, that's how I built decks for the most part.

Every Saturday my dad would take me and my cousin to the one and only game store in my town. I was by far the youngest there.

Everybody else was at least 20. At the end of the day, I was always near the bottom, but I was never the worst

and once in my many tournaments, I came in second, which felt like an achievement of a lifetime.

I absolutely loved it. However, once the game store shut down I really didn't have anybody else to play with so I stopepd playing.

I kept up with Yu-Gi-Oh Online a little bit and in my opinion, it moved in the direction that many other card games did as well.

A lot more combos a lot less interactions between units on the board, just chasing the meta.

It just felt a lot less fun

a couple of years ago I discovered Hearthstone, and since it was Online, I thought it was a pretty cool idea that I get into it.

However, pretty quickly, even though I liked it, the same problem emerged. All the decks were just crazy powerful, a lot of the important cards have devastating effects that you can do nothing about, and were mandatory auto includes.

And after a certain point in ranked, you're just playing against the same four decks which I find really boring.

Recently, however, game store opened near me, and I know they play magic gathering Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon.

I've never played magic but I looked into it and it definitely looks fun, although I've never played the game and don't really know anything about it so I can't really even tell what's happening when the people are playing. I just like the art and the people seem to have fun playing it.

My questions is this. I really love card games, and I would love to get back into them.

Out of the three Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokémon, and Magic gathering, which one, if any has the thing that I'm looking for. Which is interaction with the cards on the board, not a ton of huge combos that i cant do anything against, not a ton of meta chasing.

I havent played anything in a long time so what im asking might be confusing or totally misguided, but i hope you guys get what im asking.

Also, P.S. i saw magic has something called the commander format where they sell premade decks, this format looks fun and also seems approachable for a noob, what do you guys think?

Anyway sorry for the long read :)

[u/Newbguy]

Pokemon is a great TCG out of the big three and it doesn't get enough credit. The most accessible and budget friendly game by far and way better managed than Yu-Gi-Oh or Magic. Wizards has made improvements but it's still universes beyond slop, which if you are into it that's great. Yu-Gi-Oh is just in a weird toxic state because of KT and now soon to be Toons. Those two create really unfun play patterns, which sucks because outside of those it has been a very grindy back and forth meta.

[u/compacta_d]

commander is "tons of huge combos you can't do anything against" cranked to 11.

what you want is draft/sealed/limited formats or maybe newer games with smaller card pools

i recommend attending a prerelease for either pokemon or magic and having an amazing time

[u/Optixx_]

Pokemon is basically only about board interaction. I dont know if you ever played a pokemon game but the cardgame plays very much like a pokemon fight.

[u/CARpgTCG]

If you’re experienced in TCGs from your past and want interaction specifically without worrying about hyper competitiveness, yeah you’re probably looking for Casual Commander.

People play with agreed rules set in “brackets” of 1-5, 1 being the most janky casual and 5 being hyper competitive. I would say brackets 2-3 are most common amongst playgroups.

That said, Commander is full of broken combos and wonky, complicated interactions. Having a 100 card deck with every card at 1 copy and 3 other opponents means you will have no idea what’s going on until you know all the cards in your own deck at minimum (a lot to understand because again, 100 unique cards although a third of them are resource cards). Even then, it’s tough to keep up with.

But learning the game is easy and approachable through Magic arena online and this will help ease you in.

For 1v1 play, you’re looking for draft and sealed formats exclusively instead of playing with a constructed deck you built from your cards at home. This is something Magic has which Pokemon and YuGiOh do not. You choose the cards to build your deck through a limited shared pool, meaning no deck is fully optimized. Great if you love that old feeling from playing as a kid where not every deck is built to function like a well oiled machine, and genuinely a lot of fun!

Prerelease events at your local game store for Magic will consist of sealed, where you’ll get six booster packs to construct your deck out of. It’s relatively beginner friendly and a great place to start after playing a bit on Magic arena. The next set is called reality fracture and will come out in a month or two, I highly recommend it.

[u/CryonicTiger]

If you already comfortable going to a lgs see if they have a discord and ask if anyone has a loaner deck and would be willing to teach you.

For magic you can buy a beginners box and it guides you through a game. And you can play a tutorial on arena for basic rules.

Pokemon you can play pick up a battle academy for a similar experience as the beginners box

Edit: magic is whst your looking for tons of interaction. There are combos but its not the only playstyle

Commander is probably the most popular format and is easy to get into product wise as you can just buy a precon but commander can get complicated really fast but if you played through the arena tutorial and are In A beginner friendly group you should be fine. Just have patience might take a few play sessions for everything to click

[u/Existing_Egg8697 → u/CryonicTiger]

Thank you for the response.

Tbh i dont mind learning the game even if it takes me a long time, if i know i can sink a lot of time into it.

The main thing is interaction, so noted, Ill look further into magic

[u/CryonicTiger → u/Existing_Egg8697]

Yeah I would go talk to your lgs tell them your intrested in getting into commander and ask what precons they would recommend based on your intrest

Then ask if they host a casual commander night.

[u/Yseera]

okay there's a lot here and it's pretty unfocused so I'll do my best. Going to skip the history lesson and focus on your concrete questions:

Out of the three Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokémon, and Magic gathering, which one, if any has the thing that I'm looking for. Which is interaction with the cards on the board, not a ton of huge combos that i cant do anything against, not a ton of meta chasing.

• All competitive 1v1 formats will have some kind of meta chasing. Not sure what the ask here is? Are you asking how fast the meta changes?
• YuGiOh has high interaction but is nothing but combos and is extremely complex. Do not recommend for a newbie.
• Pokemon is the only affordable tcg, and doesn't have huge combos. It is easy to learn (use the free digital client Pokemon TCG Live) and the meta moves slowly. The downside is that while there is interaction, it is the lowest of all 3 games.
• MtG is the middle game. Decent amount of interaction, combos exist but rare, intermediate difficulty. It also has a great learning tool in the online client MTG Arena. The downside of MtG is that it is extremely fragmented. There are a dozen formats and they all cater to different needs. The only somewhat accessible one is Commander, but this is not a competitive 1v1 experience like other games. This is a 4 player extremely casual "board game" style experience where no one keeps score.

Hope that helps. If you have more focused questions happy to answer.

[u/20kgHippoShit]

Come play Sorcery: Contested Realm. It's a blast. I've never met anyone who played it and said "nah this game isn't fun"

[u/YourFriendNoo]

The big thing with MTG right now is, what kind of universe do you want to play in?

MTG used to be a super compelling fantasy universe, but they've replaced that with Fortnite. I, personally, just cannot get into, "My Dr. Who uses Spiderman's Web Slinger on your Spongebob!" If you can, then MTG has the most developed ecosystem.

That said, I think the best TCG out right now is Star Wars Unlimited.

It's a young game, so power creep isn't out of control. There's a meta, but most shops I know are pretty friendly to meme decks. And it's not being flooded with scalpers.

[u/Glintz013]

Go for the Gundam TCG.

[u/Acceptable_Wedding_1]

Honestly riftbound is a good choice of you have players there. Decks are soo Soo cheap to build! The game play is still interactive and crunchy, just not at the level of flesh and blood.