How to build your own deck and still be viable?
I am very new to the Pokémon TCG, and while I immensely enjoy playing, so far the only decks I've used have been either pre-assembled League Battle decks, or exact copies of deck lists I found online for strategies that interested me. Currently I'm running a Palafin deck copied from a list I found on a TCG strategy website, and while it's pretty strong in casual play, I'd love to build my own very own unique deck.
I guess this question is twofold: The first part is, how do I find out which cards I need to be able to make my deck stronger without just copying an online decklist? And secondly, is there any point in playing outside the meta with cards I like, or will my self-assembled decks always be doomed to fail against strong meta decks like Lost Zone Giratina Vstar and Chien-Pao EX?
Forgive me if this is a foolish question, but as I mentioned, I'm extremely inexperienced and would love any help that y'all could offer.
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Well, most of the time it is pretty hard to just build your own deck that is completely unique and survive against the meta. I don't really have many tips because I pretty much only play what has already been established as a good deck, but I can say that your deck should be both consistent and have a good focus on what you want to do to win the game.
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There's no shame in taking influence from other decks, if you made it it's yours. It's generally a good idea to keep an eye on meta decks, not only because they'll give you an idea of how good decks are structured, but also because knowing which decks are going to be an issue for your own can tell you which cards are capable of beating them what you need to add to improve - if you struggle to hit certain HP numbers you could consider running one of the 'gloves' tools or Defiance Band for example, and there are plenty of specific 'counter cards' in the meta right now like Drapion V or Mightyena for Mew VMAX.
Obviously in real life the benefit of playing outside of the meta is that the cards are generally cheaper and easier to come by, but even on PTCGL the element of surprise can be a big boon - certain decks like Roaring Moon ex have a really rough time against bigger single prizers because they generally don't expect to see them all that often.
Also keep in mind that losing is okay. If there were some rouge card that could beat every meta deck flawlessly, that card would be meta itself. Just focus on having fun, and stuff (I sound like a camp counselor or something lol). There are plenty of places out there that you can post your deck to get suggestions from other players, including this forum if you want to :)
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I've been playing for around 6 or more months. Always just palying with pokemon I like and now im finally starting to become a strong trainer in my local region and online.
I never wanted to be someone who played meta decks but I also didnt like losing.
My advice is to find those pokemon you like. Then search limitless tcg to see how the people who play those specific pokemon build around them with the rest of their 60 card deck.
for example charizard ex is a favourite of mine. if you search limitles you will see what cards work well and how people play that specific deck. then you can bring over those general principles or just use them as a benchmark to compare how your deck compares and if you can make improvments or remove some irrelevant cards.
so if you like gardevoir find garevoir decks online.
if you like mew find mew decks online.
if you like water then you will find multiple water dekcs online.
then all thats left is to believe in the deck you made and play with confidence.
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