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?