I’m sure it’s been asked before but which do you find more satisfying? Is it playing the card game or collecting the cards. In context, so include experiences that are tied in to either.
My answer: Collecting hands down. I love collecting, somehow it runs in my dad’s side down to me. Stamps, baseball cards, coins, video games, but I have limited it down to pokemon cards recently. I think it’s because my dad always used to drag me to shows, swap meets for old cars, etc. And would appease my angst by buying me some packs 'o cards. I love the pokemon video games as well but even in there I just collect and despise battling. I’ve never even played the card game except recently through the online thingy. It was really fun but my attention span may be a little short. I also feel like there is a stigma tied to the tourneys, at least in my mind, where they are filled with little twerps and uber nerds. I bet they aren’t though… OK maybe just a few.
I drove MANY miles taking my sons to league 15 years ago where they enjoyed playing. Me? I’ve been a collector my whole life. I still have baseball cards, bottle caps, comics, Mad Magazines and more that I collected in the 60’s.
I blame it on all the excess dopamine. I would have really been something else back the world was a lot less of a cozy place. Mad magazine is a super underrated magazine. I used to love reading them. Have you been collecting the new topps sets? They rigged it up pretty good for creating a valuable card market in the last couple of years. There are like a bunch of alternate sets and really limited availability. It’s pretty cool.
I’ve never played the game, even back in grade 2 and 3 as it just came out in the 90’s. The whole school yard was battling away at lunch and recess and I just nosed around watched on with my nice binder tucked under my arm.
I’ve been that way ever since. It’s why I’m so attached to binder collecting, even 15 years on haha.
Haha, well I guess I am not the only one that doesn’t play or has never played. It’s just very peculiar, I guess, that the two don’t really go hand in hand.
Definitely enjoy collecting more than playing. I decided awhile ago that it would be good to have a general knowledge of the TCG metagame, so I started playing online here and there. While I don’t consider myself a competitive player by any means, I think knowing the game has made collecting easier. For example, I know that while Mewtwo-EX Full Art may be $30-40 card, it’s only that expensive because of its playability in the TCG. As such, when it gets rotated out of Standard format later this year, the price will drop and I will go pick a few up to grade.
Playing the game has also taught me to violently shred any Seismitoad-EX cards I come across.
Never played the TCG in my life, but I enjoy the fact that there are many more people getting interested in playing the game at local card shops and tournaments. I see those videos on youtube all the time, pretty cool- just not for me.
Seismitoad-EX is an extremely good card. Its attack, Quaking Punch, hits you for 30 and you can’t play any Item cards from your hand during your next turn. Since Item cards usually make up about 50-60% of a deck, and are vital to getting your deck to work the way you want, your game is immediately disrupted as over half of your deck is now unplayable. Pair that with cards like Enhanced and Crushing Hammer, which remove your energy cards, Hypnotoxic Laser, which poisons and has a 50% chance to put you asleep, and Virbank City Gym, a card that increases poison damage, all make Seismitoad a deck that is super powerful.
It’s also annoying as f*&k. I can go into deeper detail on my hatred of Toad if you wish.
I absolutely adore the TCG GB video game, and would totally buy a sequel of it if one ever came out (but it wouldn’t because of the TCG Online simulator), but other than that I’ve only ever played fun matches against my boyfriend. I’ve thought about going to Leagues for Prereleases and stuff, but the nearest one is 40 miles away, and playing those games against my boyfriend made me realize how much of a hassle actually playing the game in-person is when you’re used to the video game doing stuff like automatically drawing a card for you every turn and shuffling your deck.
