Pokemon TCG Dead?

[XxSSJGotenks21xX]

Hey Guys!

It's been a while since I've looked at my lonely box of Pokemon cards, and I've been wondering...is the TCG dead? Has Yugioh completely take over control of the TCG world? What about Magic the Gathering or the growing popularity of Duel Masters.

In essence, I'm really asking if Pokemon TCG will be around within a few months or so.

- XxSSJGotenks21xX

[Feynar]

I dont really know, I just started up with my g/f and her little brother, and im not sure how to go about finding tournies and such.

[Terezar]

From what I've been able to see, it seems pokemon may be finding its second wind. Slowly but surely its popularity has been recovering. It has since found several new players where I play. The thing is that once it lost its original rush, people assumed it was going to die and dropped out of it, which in turn caused it to die. Kind of ironic really. But I've noticed a few people picking up where they left off. Keep with it, the game can only go up from here.
Terezar

[Polalion]

I just attended a workshop, and the trainer told us that out mind cannot tell the difference between reality and what it thinks is real.

Our beliefs can change many things. So if people continue to talk and beileve that Pokemon is going to die, it's likely that it will. So if all the players continue to play and promote and be proud of it, it will not die. Never.

[fox316]

I have always played the game, but left after neo gensis. Now I feel that it is coming back , but at a slow pace and I'm very happy to see new people and old people come to play this game again. Maybe it's just because that YGO has lost its flavor and people want to return back to the old days of prizes and coin flips and of course....damage counters!

If it comes back, I'll be sure to dust off all the old cards that I were about to sell and make my old colorless deck :)

[raccoon_gurl_12345]

I my town, we have 30 yugioh players, 25, pokemon players, and 10 duel master players. It an even field here. More people are leaving yugioh for pokemon, Kinda odd but hey i like it. I admit I joined back to the pokemon game after yugioh dies down a lot here. there was 80 yugioh players and now only 30. thats a huge difference.

[Santa_Claus989]

The Pokemon TCG is still alive in Jaoan and America, I don't know about Europe but in England it is dead. I can't remember the last time I even looked at my Pokemon cards let alone played with them, Yu-Gi-Oh has taken over in England and all the smart shops are replacing the slots once filled with Pokemon cards with Yu-Gi-Oh cards. But as long as it is popular in places like Japan and America it'll survive.

[Rentazilla]

In my area, I am seeing alot of ppl starting to play pokemon, including me and my brother. before it was all just yu gi oh, but pokemon is seen as a simpler, more diverse game now...we still hold tourneys for yu gi oh over here...but more and more people are playing pokemon

[Mad Skills Z]

Pokemon is still going strong. For a while there is was alot of yuge players but I am seeing new faces. I am teaching them how to be better players and soon one day they will be great compitition. Some where yuge players, some are completely new. I don't care. The more the marryier.

[BondiBorg]

I've played this game since two weeks after its American debut...I've never quit, or dropped out of the game. I've persevered through 2 absolute player droughts in my area, and will be competing in the States on Saturday with a bye the first round. If you stick with the game, it'll treat you well.

Despite being the hub of a major fad, people forget that all of the publicity and all of the junk about it being a kids game is just that; junk. The game harbors in-depth strategy, and has the best drawpower options of any TCG. Once you play, you'll never lose the taste of true drawpower. Pot of Greed, my butt. =/

There were people a year ago saying it would be gone within a few months...place your bets, ladies and gentlemen, but my money says the game sticks around for a long, long time.

[Polalion]

Haha, now that you'd mention Pot of Greed... I actually tried playing YGO, and the only drawpower I can come up with now is that and Graceful Charity. I mean, Pot of Greed = Bill = Draw 2 cards. But in Pokemon, Bill has become obsolete! You can practically run through your deck the whole game, and burn it by the eighth turn! That's the power of control you get in Pokemon. I also tried Duel Masters out, and found out there's isn't as much drawpower yet. I'd give it the benefit of doubt, and look into the next set.

In any case, I'm wondering when the set block is going into a different one after EX. It's a whole 5 sets big now, bigger than Neo with 4. I'm guessing new blocks would only come when there are new Pokemon. Or they could do anothr Expedition, and combine everything; R/B/Y, G/S/C, Ruby/Sapphire, and Fire Red/Leaf Green. That would be something to look for.

[michiganlover]

Over here in Bay City, Michigan Pokemon is starting to see a comeback. There are about a half dozen (or more) Yu Gi Oh players who have started to play Pokemon as well. I myself just recently started playing it about two weeks ago. I had written off Pokemon as being a childish game with too much coin flipping, but it is actually a great game, and has much more variety than Yu Gi Oh! lol.

Yu Gi Oh is still hugely popular, and we had the largest tournament ever this past weekend with 46 people! However, with newer players entering the tournament, that means far less people who are strong competition, since the newer players are new, and not yet very good.

Duel Masters is being played by quite a few people in my area, but the tournaments are not yet very big...only 6 to 8 people. I myself play DM, and love the game.

As for card drawing, it is very refreshing to see that Pokemon has so many card drawing abilities. As you well know, card drawing in Yu Gi Oh is severly limited, and as such Yu Gi Oh is more dependent on the randomness of what you draw. Pokemon has many drawing mechanisms, and many cards that make you shuffle your deck....making what you draw not quite as important.

As for DM, if you want card drawing currently the only way to accomplish that is through Water (blue)

~Michiganlover~

[RobbieBond008]

I played Pokemon and I played Yu-gi-oh, both I have stopped. I dearly loved both games, Pokemon more, but in my area absolutely NO tourneys can be found. Show me a player and I'll play, I dearly loved that game. That's why I'm still here, I miss it. I write fan fiction, and Pokemon has such a better storyline, characters, etc. You can imagine the Pokemon! Yu-gi-oh has completely lost its luster, it was too "youthfied". Older people (its actual audience) have no one alike them to play with, only eight-year-olds who play the game completely wrong. The TV show messed Yu-gi-oh up, it got rid of players, despite it originally got those players. The TV show plays Yu-gi-oh the incorrect way, hence little kids play the wrong way, and then it gets annoying. Pokemon wasn't like that, there was one way to play, the right way, and the fun way. I enjoyed Pokemon, and if it makes a comeback I'll be the first back on the bandwagon.

[Brockiflower]

Pokemon, yugioh, duel masters and all anime based tcgs are fads sometimes they will make a comeback but in the end they will die. I would unload your cards while they're still worth something.
Only Magic and L5R will stick around because there is no "target" audiunce everyone can play.

[Betelgeux]

As long as their are fans willing to keep the game alive it will stay around. Nintendo is still making large profits off it, so I don't think they're going to drop everything anytime soon.

[sneaselsrevenge]

[QUOTE=RobbieBond008]I played Pokemon and I played Yu-gi-oh, both I have stopped. I dearly loved both games, Pokemon more, but in my area absolutely NO tourneys can be found. Show me a player and I'll play, I dearly loved that game.QUOTE]

I'll hold you to that.

What:Mass. Gym Challenge
Where:TJ Collectibles 160 Main St Milford, MA
When:May 23 11am
Cost:$10

LMK how it went

[RobbieBond008]

What:Mass. Gym Challenge
Where:TJ Collectibles 160 Main St Milford, MA
When:May 23 11am
Cost:$10

I really appreciate that, I'm glad you reached out for me. Sadly, I live about three hours from Milford. And as you can probably guess, I'm not gonna travel three hours to play a fun game for an afternoon. I do have a cousin who lives in Milford, I'll see what I can do...

[PokePop]

It's a Gym Challenge, maaaannn!
That is the big event for the Northeast this year.
There will be a Stadium, but that's down in DC. And then Worlds down in Florida.
But this will be the biggest thing that is within a few hours from you for this year.

[Buster Blader 126]

Well, I play YGO, and I can name quite a few drawpower cards. There's Mirage of Nightmare, and Jar of Greed. But most of the other ones other than the one's mentioned in this topic aren't too good.

Back to the topic. Yes, u heard me, I play YGO. But that doesn't mean that I never collected Pkmn cards.

I never played competitively, as when I started, I was only a collector, & when I decided to play competitively, there were no tournies to be found. :( I do buy more YGO than Pkmn, but I occasionally buy a couple pf packs from every set that comes out to see the new cards and whatnot. & if anybody ever asked me to play a round of Pkmn, I'll whip out my old school Grass deck in an instant.

I'm not supporting Pkmn as much as I used to, but I still watch the show, & I still buy the games. I believe that Pkmn will survive for quite a long time. It might've lost a couple of battles with other TCG's, but it hasn't lost the war. & even though I might play YGO 24/7, I still like Pokemon more!:D

~Buster Blader 126~
Go Pokemon!

[-TrueGamerX-]

I have read what you all have said, but Pokemon right now is not dead, no. It's been screwed. I have been playing and battling since Neo Genesis, making real crappy decks and mainly getting into the game itself. I remember the first time I battled when my best friend made me a deck, I was completely hooked. I wanted to see what other Pokemon combos I could do. I made decks from Unlimited and transcended over to Modified where the competition was at. I learned that Feraligatr was a big time combo, Kabutops, Entei/Magcargo and all sorts of combos. Those were the glory days, and on May 2003, I went to my first tournament ever. I remember, I played a Kabutops/Steelix or "Kabulix" deck which did fairly well, and I got a 4-3 record, not bad for my first tournament. So after that tournament, my best friend and I started to configure new combos, but then we found out that Wizards would give up its license to Pokemon. I was pretty excited, but my best friend just drifted away like many others did. From when Nintendo took over and announced the new Modified format, I was pretty cool with that. They came out with cool cards and nice combos, but not how Wizards used to do it. Nintendo mainly focused on making more powerful Pokemon, then improving on the Trainers like Wizards used to do, (Double Gust, Bill, Computer Search, Oracle etc.) So from September of when they announced the new format I studied and came up with cool combos that actually worked. I went to my second Modified tournament on December 2003, and did fairly good placing 4th but they only had about 10 people. So I was satisfied, and greatly improved on my deck after that. I looked on forums, message boards and did all I can to improve upon my deck.

Then on March 2004, I found out that Nintendo will be having State Championships all across the United States. I was highly excited about this, and did all I can to practice to get ready for it. Then April 25 finally came and I attended the Virginia State Championships. That day marked a turning point for me in Pokemon. I received a 2-4 record that day, and I was so depressed in spite of months of work and getting the money to get these cards. I came to realize that 80% of the people their all had the Blaziken/Ampharos/RayquazaEX deck. I battled with a KabutopsEX/Shedinja deck which set up so perfectly each battle, and K-tops EX was fully powered third turn. I never made it to the top eight, because all 8 people had BAR decks. Now this proves that their is only one deck in Pokemon to play and that is Blaziken/Ampharos/RayquazaEX. This deck is so rampant and so powerful, nothing can counter it. So I decided not to play after that, because no matter what I do to make a deck, nothing works. Simply, if you want to win a tournament then play BAR, want to lose play something else.

Pokemon battling never used to be like this, in the Neon-format and past formats their were so much of a variety of decks to play. From Wigglytuff, Raindance, Slowking/Sneasel etc. At the top 3 decks at Gencon 2003, it was 3rd place = Feralisect, 2nd place = Entei/Cargo, and 1st place = Scizor/Furret/Muk. Now there is only one deck, just ONE!!! So I have decided to end Pokemon for good, I have lost my passion for playing and making combos all in spite of fun. But I'm not going to waste my time going to make one counter to one deck that cannot be beaten, and it has been proven. In this current Modified format, their is 7 sets and a whole lot of cards to play, but only ONE deck rules them all.

In the meantime, I have came to conclusion that Yu-Gi-Oh, is more of a randomized, creative, and diverse trading card game to play. I have become more into YGO now than ever before and have Pokemon be put behind me.

[michiganlover]

Well, I play YGO, and I can name quite a few drawpower cards. There's Mirage of Nightmare, and Jar of Greed. But most of the other ones other than the one's mentioned in this topic aren't too good.

Jar of Greed is not a good card! lol. It is a one for one trade. Discard Jar of Greed to draw one card. No serious tournament deck besides Exodia would ever play it. lol.

As for Mirage of Nightmare, even that doesn't net you great card advantage. Assuming you had an empty hand, you would draw four cards, and then activate a set Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your Mirage of Nightmare. (otherwise Mirage of Nightmare would really hurt you badly) So you would draw 4 cards, but lose two. That would be a 4:2 ratio which reduces down to 2:1 the same card advantage as Pot of Greed. (people play Mirage because in Yu Gi Oh there are no other available options)

Even Graceful Charity is only a 1:1 ratio. You draw 3 but discard two from your hand. Hopefully you trade a crummy hand for a better hand.

Yu Gi Oh simply doesn't have any card drawing powers even comparable to Pokemon! Nothing even comes close to Professor Elm, which is a 7:1 ratio! There are also Pokemon that will let you draw an extra card every turn. Woo Hoo!

The lack of card drawing in Yu Gi Oh is a big downfall, making the top deck even more important! In Yu Gi Oh a well timed Mirage may win you the game, because it is the equivalent of playing two Pot of Greeds at once.

~Michiganlover~

[xXxPoKeYxXx]

I dont think that the game is dying, in fact it is back on the rise....
i think yu-gi-oh however is starting to fade from what it had a year ago.


I really appreciate that, I'm glad you reached out for me. Sadly, I live about three hours from Milford. And as you can probably guess, I'm not gonna travel three hours to play a fun game for an afternoon. I do have a cousin who lives in Milford, I'll see what I can do...

I doubt that you live 3 hours from milford... i honestly dont think that theres a place in massachusetts besides the new york border or the corners of mass that are 3 hours from milford... i live in new hampshire and its less than 2 hours away.

[Hariaku]

Pokemon, yugioh, duel masters and all anime based tcgs are fads sometimes they will make a comeback but in the end they will die. I would unload your cards while they're still worth something.
Only Magic and L5R will stick around because there is no "target" audiunce everyone can play.
Hmm, that's a good point. L5r is a great game and requires a lot more strategy then most other ccgs. It's also quite hard compared to Pokemon and Yugioh so people actually avoid the game. I know a forty yr old guy who got be so badly that he ran away from l5r, but that's probably an isolated incident. Personally I started collecting pokemon before the days of the $400-$900 charizards and I have to say, it seems to have endless potential since it's capable of rotating so many different pokemons. Also with the possibilty of diving into new types of pokemons I think the possiblities for change and new flavor are endless.

[YaBakura]

I was once a big Pokemon fan. I had (and still have) a ton of cards, and I loved the card (and GB) game. Around the time the Neo 4 set came out, I switched to Yu-Gi-Oh. I have been toying with the idea of doing both games.

Pokemon is a better-made game that Yu-Gi-Oh. That's just a fact. Although I haven't seen much of PKMN lately ("lately" is obviously a while), they didn't make any really overpowered cards. There was never one unbeatable deck type. When I go to my Yu-Gi-Oh tournies, there are maybe 3 different types of deck. Now, granted, there are only 3 ways to win in PKMN, but there are millions of different methods. Yu-Gi-Oh duels get really repetitive. If I see one more blasted "Yata-Lock" deck, I'm going to go mad. The reason that PKMN is better than YGO is because of Energy cards. Really. Yu-Gi-Oh cards have no costs involved, and if there are, they are minimal or avoidable. There is a great article about this on Edo's Yu-Gi-Oh page (check the Japanese YGO Cards section on this board; a link is stickied at the top).

I have never seen better video games than the GB Pokemon games. The YGO games (all but one) are card simulations. The PKMN games have depth and are really addictive.

Both of the TV shows are overdone; however, the YGO TV show is so melodramatic it's funny. See, in both shows, the characters overreact equally dramatically to what happens in their battles. In Pokemon, that's understandable. In YGO- it's a card game, and it's absurd. Unfortunately, many YGO players also take the game too seriously. The game lends itself to certain abuses by being so serious.

Although it seems like I'm "bashing" YGO, it has its good points. I just think PKMN has most of the same ones.

Well, if you read all this, I thank you and apologise for the length.

Oh, and one last thing:

Pokemon will only die when people give up on it.

[Omega Ridley]

It's hanging on by a thread here in Washington, but some guys at my school are trying to revive it.

[PokeTeen15]

yeah... I quite pokemon about let's see 2 or 3 years ago. which is when i was 13. Now i'm 16...and have played yugioh, and the other tcg games and I still love the game and am starting up again. THE show is still the greatest.

[Magnor]

Amen to that. I quit when i was 11-12, now I'm 14 and starting to play again!

[SuperMajinPiccolo]

im starting to play again, but in my area no card shops run any leagues for pokemon. they only run yugioh, duel masters and yuyu. :mad:

[Kaiba]

I was once a big Pokemon fan. I had (and still have) a ton of cards, and I loved the card (and GB) game. Around the time the Neo 4 set came out, I switched to Yu-Gi-Oh. I have been toying with the idea of doing both games.

Pokemon is a better-made game that Yu-Gi-Oh. That's just a fact. Although I haven't seen much of PKMN lately ("lately" is obviously a while), they didn't make any really overpowered cards. There was never one unbeatable deck type. When I go to my Yu-Gi-Oh tournies, there are maybe 3 different types of deck. Now, granted, there are only 3 ways to win in PKMN, but there are millions of different methods. Yu-Gi-Oh duels get really repetitive. If I see one more blasted "Yata-Lock" deck, I'm going to go mad. The reason that PKMN is better than YGO is because of Energy cards. Really. Yu-Gi-Oh cards have no costs involved, and if there are, they are minimal or avoidable. There is a great article about this on Edo's Yu-Gi-Oh page (check the Japanese YGO Cards section on this board; a link is stickied at the top).

I have never seen better video games than the GB Pokemon games. The YGO games (all but one) are card simulations. The PKMN games have depth and are really addictive.

Both of the TV shows are overdone; however, the YGO TV show is so melodramatic it's funny. See, in both shows, the characters overreact equally dramatically to what happens in their battles. In Pokemon, that's understandable. In YGO- it's a card game, and it's absurd. Unfortunately, many YGO players also take the game too seriously. The game lends itself to certain abuses by being so serious.

Although it seems like I'm "bashing" YGO, it has its good points. I just think PKMN has most of the same ones.

Well, if you read all this, I thank you and apologise for the length.

Oh, and one last thing:

Pokemon will only die when people give up on it.

You have to remember that when you lose a duel, instead of just laughing it off, you usually die or have a cruel punishment. Fun. XD. I love pokemon, but I've been getting out.

[INUYASHA743]

Havent you guys noticed pokemon is sitting on the side be dusten just to keep the store neat. Pokemon has been dead for about 1 to 2 years now. Why do you true fans always have to stick with the game. Pokemon has been making a short lived come back but it has been chewed up and spit out by yugioh and duelmasters will soon do it to. Actually it already has.

[Buster Blader 126]

Jar of Greed is not a good card! lol. It is a one for one trade. Discard Jar of Greed to draw one card. No serious tournament deck besides Exodia would ever play it. lol.

As for Mirage of Nightmare, even that doesn't net you great card advantage. Assuming you had an empty hand, you would draw four cards, and then activate a set Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your Mirage of Nightmare. (otherwise Mirage of Nightmare would really hurt you badly) So you would draw 4 cards, but lose two. That would be a 4:2 ratio which reduces down to 2:1 the same card advantage as Pot of Greed. (people play Mirage because in Yu Gi Oh there are no other available options)

Even Graceful Charity is only a 1:1 ratio. You draw 3 but discard two from your hand. Hopefully you trade a crummy hand for a better hand.

Yu Gi Oh simply doesn't have any card drawing powers even comparable to Pokemon! Nothing even comes close to Professor Elm, which is a 7:1 ratio! There are also Pokemon that will let you draw an extra card every turn. Woo Hoo!

The lack of card drawing in Yu Gi Oh is a big downfall, making the top deck even more important! In Yu Gi Oh a well timed Mirage may win you the game, because it is the equivalent of playing two Pot of Greeds at once.

~Michiganlover~

Those were just alternative drawing cards I mentioned. I never said that jar of Greed was good. it's a trap, which makes is suckier, but at least it's chainable. I would only run it in Exodia as well.

As for Mirage of Nightmare, that's one of the better drawing cards. People combo it with Mystical Space Typhoon to get drawing power out of it. The tradeoff might not seem good, but it's better than other cards. *coughSpell Vanishingcough*

GC is the 2nd best draw card after Pot of Greed, imo. Ya, I no it's basically 1 for 1, but if u combo those with cards such as Sinister Serpent, it wouldn't really matter. YGO does have SOME good drawing cards, but I'll admit that Pkmn has a much more variety of drawpower.

Pokemon isn't dead yet, but it's pretty much dead in Canada. Here, people couldcall u either a freak or a loser if u like Pokemon. & when there was a pre-release tournie page on nintendo's site, there were only 2 Canadian locations!
It better get new fans/players fast, or bad things will happen.......

[sneaselsrevenge]

First off.....INUYASHA743, shut up, you're ignorant. Harry Potter TCG is dead. Pokemon? Not by a long shot. Now that that's done...if you can't find a league in your area, you can always play on apprentice. And you can check for tournaments at pokemon-tcg.com.

[-TrueGamerX-]

Harry Potter TCG wasn't that bad. People never gave it a chance.

[Polalion]

Yeah. People in my area are different though. I don't think anyone plays Duel Masters here. People go for the "Big 3"; Magic: the Gathering, Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh!. Otherwise, well, no other game is being played.

Over here, people tend to just stray off their card games as they get older. There aren't many 15+ players at all, which is the problem almost everywhere in the world. And since there aren't any players around, nobody cares about the game because "no one else is playing, why should I?"

There are many young players, that's good, aged around 10 to 14, but when they hit 15 or 16, they start to think, "I don't think any of my friends play this" and dump the game. Then the new 10-14 year olds play the game. A cycle? Yes. So we're stuck with people who have at most 4 years of experience. And that's not a lot. These are the situations: People who started playing since Base Set quit when Gym came out. People who started playing after Base came out stopped at Neo. People who started playing at Neo(not a lot of people started at Gym) stopped when after Neo 4, took so long to release the next set. Then most of the (young)people playing now either started during the Expedition-Aquapolis-Skyridge block(Reverse foils. Shiny.), or they only started when Pokemon-ex came out (very shiny). I know this really young kid who has a lot of Pokemon-ex and foils, but have no idea what a basic deck requires.

And to make things worse, Nintendo isn't doing anything to help the situation. They aren't even promoting their game enough. I tried getting people of my age to start playing, and sure, they play for a month or so, then drop it.

[sneaselsrevenge]

Over here, people tend to just stray off their card games as they get older. There aren't many 15+ players at all, which is the problem almost everywhere in the world. And since there aren't any players around, nobody cares about the game because "no one else is playing, why should I?"

There are many young players, that's good, aged around 10 to 14, but when they hit 15 or 16, they start to think, "I don't think any of my friends play this" and dump the game. Then the new 10-14 year olds play the game. A cycle? Yes. So we're stuck with people who have at most 4 years of experience. And that's not a lot. These are the situations: People who started playing since Base Set quit when Gym came out. People who started playing after Base came out stopped at Neo. People who started playing at Neo(not a lot of people started at Gym) stopped when after Neo 4, took so long to release the next set. Then most of the (young)people playing now either started during the Expedition-Aquapolis-Skyridge block(Reverse foils. Shiny.), or they only started when Pokemon-ex came out (very shiny). I know this really young kid who has a lot of Pokemon-ex and foils, but have no idea what a basic deck requires.

And to make things worse, Nintendo isn't doing anything to help the situation. They aren't even promoting their game enough. I tried getting people of my age to start playing, and sure, they play for a month or so, then drop it.

That may be the case in Singapore, but it's the exact opposite here in the U.S.. Our tournaments are dominated by 15+(Parents and kids that grew up playing the game), but very few 10-, especially here in Florida.