Pokémon Trading Card Game: Sword & Shield Astral Radiance Elite Trainer Box EXPIRED

Also what makes the Brilliant Stars box better than this one? That seems to be the consensus.

This is so crazy complicated, Interested for my 6 yr old as well, for 2 - 4 player which one would be good idea? There are so many , shouldn't it be level 1 considering it's beginners?

So is this a self-contained game, like the Battle Academy box?

My son is young (6) and there's this tension between wanting to learn and play the TCG game, and just collecting. The third prong to this world, investment, is not part of the calculus (at least at this time).

We have the Battle Academy box, and it is great for what it is (to learn TCG), but he also wants to just put the cards in his binder and treat them like any other. So it's like we need junk cards on top of what's in that set, as it feels important to keep that set intact.

I see all these Pokemon sales but it's so hard to know what it is what, it feels like a different language. Feels like a big part of the "problem" (if you call it that) is the investing side of things is so enormous it outweighs everything else for most people so when they talk about these deals, that's the main focus. .

These Elite Trainer Boxes have 8 Packs of cards, and a bunch of other goodies, like 60 Card Sleeves along with Dice and Damage Counters to use when you play. At $25 it's a good deal, because you're getting 8 packs for about $3.13 a pack, instead of $4.49 the price of those loose hangers in store (sleeved blisters). Determining cost per pack on a product is a great way to determine if it's a good deal. $2.50 is about as good as it gets, usually.

Filling the binder with cool, shiny cards is what most kids want to do. Opening packs and getting that joy of hitting something cool. You can get packs as cheaply as possible and hunt for them, or buy single cards you want for often very cheap on ebay and tcgplayer. But then there are some chase cards in each set that may be highly sought after and expensive. This set, Astral Radiance, has about 8 cards over $30. 3 of those are over $50 and 1 of those is over $100.

You can also use these packs to build decks of your own, but then you're starting to get pretty complex. Even deck builders often look to experts to form decks and then they follow them. Those decks can cost over hundred easily to build, because the cards in them are usually highly sought after.

For gameplay, Battle Academy is the best place to start, then add in some level 1 decks that you can buy "V Battle Decks" for more varity, and then when looking for more advanced decks, "League Battle Decks", marked Level 3, such as the "Mew VMAX League Battle Deck" currently being sold in stores.

This is so crazy complicated, Interested for my 6 yr old as well, for 2 - 4 player which one would be good idea? There are so many , shouldn't it be level 1 considering it's beginners?

My daughter (5.5 yr old) was interested in Pokémon cards, so I bought her a pack at the store... She thought the cards were cool, but then wanted to know how to play, When I looked into it, it's basically impossible to put together a deck from random packs of cards. We bought the intro Battle set (~$15 on amazon) that comes with three decks. The strategy is still a little complex, but she can follow all the rules, and I press her to read the cards and figure out what the attacks and trainer cards do. I think it's helpful both in reading and in basic math (Your Pokémon has 100 health, and this did 30 damage, how much health do you have left). For the past two weeks, all she wants to do every night is play the game. I think the intro battle decks is definitely the way to start for anyone new to the game. The game is too complex for my 4 year old, but he's happy to sit on my lap and "help me battle her", he'll draw cards, flip coins etc at my instruction.

We've also been able to "swap" one or two cards that she drew from the random pack into the starter battle decks. I think this might be the best path forward. I will get her a few packs as a stocking stuffer for christmas.

sold out?

I bought my 8 year old pokemon cards. He tells me Names of what Pokémon characters his friends have, but doesn't know how to play nor does he tell me that his friends plays. I feel like they only show off who has better cards?