Where do I start?
So I recently started playing Pokémon Emerald on my modded 3DS, and that motivated me to start learning how to play the Pokémon card game with my brother. My brother and I are completely clueless on where to start. Is there beginner recommended decks I should get? Should I build my own deck? What do I do as someone starting out on the card game in 2026.
Answers
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Not sure if you're a rl or online TCG player. Anyway you can take a look at the official website's getting started tutorials:
And you should install TCG Live, it's great to learn even if you prefer the physical card game. Also there are several youtube content creators with pretty decent tutorials for new players too.
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Here are some useful links for learning the TCG
This is for finding events like leagues and pre-releases
This is a link to TCG Live which is the online version of the TCG can be very helpful when learning and is very good for testing decks before you invest into them
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Either play Pokémon TCG live or go and buy yourself a Pokémon battle academy set it includes a rule book for all the different cards, 3 decks of 60 cards a total of 180 cards ready to play, a special illustrated coin and damage counters. it includes darkrai ex, armourage ex and a Pikachu ex I believe, that is of course if you get the armourage battle academy set, there is other battle academy sets out there but armourage is the latest one, but unfortunately non of them come with the new mega evolution ex Pokémon as of yet, you can always use the Pokémon TCG live app to give you an idea of the rules and gameplay I found Pokémon TCG live to be the best way to learn the Pokémon TCG rules reading it can sometimes be a little confusing but the app visually teaches you how to play good luck.
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