I Spent 10 Hours Playing The Pokemon TCG to Prove IT'S RIDICULOUS 

The thing that makes pokemon a lot different than Yugioh is that even though you can do so much crazy shit, it all has to filter through this bottleneck. You can still only attack once per turn, you can still only have one pokemon in the active spot no matter how much other stuff you do behind it, and you almost always have to kill at least two pokemon to win the game, which means even super crazy games still have to last a couple turns. IMO this gives pokemon a really unique feel, where you can draw and play a billion cards in a turn, but what you or your opponent actually *accomplishes* each turn is extremely limited and predictable

Fun fact, the pokemon card client is hated so much by the community that a third party team have started developing their own client for the competitive scene. (Its called twinleaf)

"Pokemon makes a million dollars so they can probably afford voice acting right" This was the funniest thing in the video and it's not even close

I love how Rarran only communicates in hearthstone terms. Hp being hero power and not health pool made me crack up.

From my friends, that play Yugioh. The consensus they had, after playing Pokémon tcg. Was the fact that you can actually play your turn. Without being interrupted, to the point that your opponent gets to play a turns worth of effects on your turn! Granted, you can get shafted during your opponent’s turn. They can pull shenanigans that limit you by your turn. But they seemed to be relieved that they didn’t have to stop and let their opponent chain, negate and destroy everything on their side of the field on their turn!

"I didn't like Pokemon because there were too many coin flips" - Full Time Hearthstone Streamer

‘As someone who has played Pokemon their entire life,’ >doesn’t know what a Bibarel is 😂

The coin flipping in this game is unreasonable….. Meanwhile in Hearthstone: “Replace your entire deck with …..”

Watching rarran play other card games just showed me how easy is to play hearthstone it’s not even close to any other card game

Glad to see you tried this one after doing Yugioh! While Pokemon TCG Live is so bare-bones and not as functional as Master Duel, MTG Arena, or Hearthstone, it's still playable at the very least and gives a good platform with a generous economy for those who are interested in playing with those cards they keep ripping open. I'd also HIGHLY suggest trying the Pokemon TCG Game Boy Color game they just released on Nintendo Switch Online. It's limited to the first three sets of the game, but has gym progression with 8 badges, an Elite Four and Champion just like the mainline titles, and it's so much fun to play. Plus, the Base-Fossil format is a popular retro format in the PTCG space, and with NSO being online, you can play against other people without needing to use a lackluster third party simulator like TCGOne.

No wany he said hero power 🤣🤣1:38

I wish the Digimon card game had good client. Would love to hear Rarran's thoughts on that game, especially the memory system.

It's really cool to see the perspective of a new player getting into the pokemon tcg

Can't wait for you to learn about Gym Leader Challenge. Aka Pokemon Commander. No ex, no v star, just good old single prize pokemon. Its such a fun format

If he was getting annoyed from that I can't imagine what his reaction be to lost box.

pokemon is all about getting one pokemon that can roflstomp their whole team, which is the same way the video game works, so it's fairly consistent.

I'm just so ecstatic that Rarran gave PTCG another chance. When he did it the first time; I felt so bad that he was playing with the old decks and thought that was the experience. Live may not be the best designed client out there, not by a long shot; but the fact that it gives you the proper experience of playing the game to the max is its true strength.

The battlepass is part of the tutorial, because it's not possible to spend real money on the game. It's not actually advertising micro transactions at all

my favorite content you make is when you try out the other cards games and rate keep it up rarran glad youre having fun

10:30 You automatically mulligan if you can't play a basic pokemon in your opening hand, since having no pokemon on board means you automatically lose. The mulligan doesn't penalize you though, its just you draw a different starting hand and shuffle. This way you can actually start the game. You can also take advantage of it in deck building, since you mulligan till you have some pokemon in your hand, so you can have a lower ratio of pokemon to trainer cards than you would normally think to draw them as if it were another card game.

Got me into the game too! Super fun so far at least in lower levels and there’s tons to do. Glad you had fun as well

I think a big difference between Yugioh and Pokemon is in consequences. Both of them are going to super combo and then do a big attack. With Yugioh though that one attack can just be the end of the game. While with pokemon you do all those big attacks and big plays to just get 1 maybe 2 prize cards. The games not over your opponent now gets to do all those combo things too. The back and forth is what makes it more fun and interesting than Yugioh while the card draw and tutors and combos are still just as intricate.

This video took me back to my middle school days when we all barely knew how to play the game

If there is 1 thing this client does better than the previous is that it’s a lot more newcomers friendly.

Coin flips are exactly made for that. Make you rage quit. Adds dynamic to the game. There are multiple strategies that speaks to different people which makes it so that more people plays the game. Also reading cards actually helps, to some deck building and finding combos are actually half of the fun.

The game is super easy to understand and the decks super easy to customize. The thing that bugs me the most about this guy trying new card games is his refusal to check is inventory and try to figure out how to make a better deck. Like literally just switch the charazard cards from the archinine deck with the Ex cards it gave you and add draw cards and your set for a WHILE.

Bruh I just started to watch this, and this was fire. I dont even play this game. You just are a fun content creator and fire edits.. positive outlook, love it man.

Dude I love your videos, been watching you for quite some time now (definetly one of my fav content creators for Hearthstone) ! I believe I played most card games. Played Hearthstone for years, recently I got kinda sick of it (still playing twist since I find it interesting having a change in the meta every 30 days). When I started playing Runeterra you were uploading content with @Snnuy, so I went and followed him, started watching his videos and it helped me a lot in terms of knowing what decks to craft. Now that I kinda abandoned both games (still open Hearthstone every other day to complete DQs and WQs) and started playing Pokémon TCGL again I see your PTCGL videos on my feed! It's like you always upload content that is useful to me no matter the game I'm playing 😂 Keep it up Rarran, as I said in the beginning, I love your videos. Even when the meta (in HS) is boring and stagnant, you still manage to create some quality content! Cheers from Brazil, mate! PS: Unfortunately Pokémon TCGL has some issues when comparing to HS and LoR. Besides what you said about the game having no log of what happened, there's no API in this game, which make 3rd party apps, such as Decktracker, impossible. Not to mention the bugs that seems to not be on the devs priority list. Anyway, I hope you had fun playing it!

Him getting raticated was funny AF lol

This is inspiring me to continue designing my card game

Big thumbs-up for using the Professor Rowan theme in your intro. One of the best Pokémon themes, and very fitting for the scene ~ You still eat glue for a living though

>Hearthstone player >Doesn't like coin flips I find that amusing. I haven't even seen Pokemon cards since gradeschool, but the power creep looks real. Biggest health pool I remember then was 120, now they are up to 280, quite the jump.

5:53 ah yes the mario kart lick

Having recently dabbled, the Electric starting deck is probably the best and easiest to use, it has that Raikou and Pachirisu both deal damage based on the number of benched pokemon, and the deck has trainers card to attach extra energy, so you can start out right away doing big damage on the first turn you can attack and the Zerora is a free retreat pokemon so he can be sacrifice to stall for turns if you have to. You can literally start pumping out 200 damage from the start if you get a good starting hand.

I started playing 4 months ago. BEST thing ever! I play at a league in real life now. It so much fun!!

I’ve been playing the tcg for 6 years and the thing I like about the new client is that for a new player like yourself it gives you actually good decks that you can play semi competitively as opposed to the other client that gave you 1 bad deck and that’s it

In the nitpick about type match ups, I found this out while irl deck building but you have to be on the look out for cards that require colorless energy for their moves. It allows your deck to be more diverse in its typing and avoids the problem of being hard countered by a type advantage.

If you want a really good experience you need to build a custom deck. Just take a bit to look through the current format cards, pick 1 or 2 heavy hitting pokemon, preferably of different types, as your mains and a handful of pokemon that will support them, usually through abilities. Than you need to look through the trainers and select a good few, i usually run around 25 to 30 trainers, but I also use energy burn decks, so most are for getting back energies to reuse. lastly the amount of energies you should use varies, like I said, I use a deck that focuses on drawing multiple cards a turn to get energies for my main pokemons attack, so I run around 15 to 18 depending on the second typing i use

This game is much better than the last because when starting they give you a full list of starting decks that are actually good and viable, even if they could be slightly better with some upgrades.

I play a modified version of the Origins Dialga deck and it is actually fun af. If you play it right, it can beat almost all the decks (can't beat the Roaring Moon or Charizard decks consistently) and you can really cook with it at times, even if it seems like you are going to lose.

Dude you are too funny, id love to see you do more pokemon tcg videos.

Rip, this online TCG used to have actual TRADING between players in the past.

2:29 Pokemon Game NPC: You can use as many items as want! Rarran: (Has Flashbacks to the first yugioh video!) OMG?!

Friend, this very premise proves *you* are ridiculous. I am now subscribed 😂

would love to see more of these!

Been playing and collecting in all aspects of Pokémon since it came to the states way back in the late 90’s and have never got bored with it. Always have the new sets pre ordered the moment they are available. Just a fun franchise all around.

Been playing since the Black and White days Definitely recommend it to anyone who likes solitaire! Not joking

Just started watching your content from the yugioh video. You’re really selling the simplicity of hearthstone.

Ronald Reagan finally learned how to read more than one sentence of card text -applause-

Yeah it feels similar to yugioh itself cause you may play all of your cards in a turn except on a little restrictions. You can also overkill your opponent. And make shortcuts on evolving your pokemon. (special summoning in yugioh.) But pokemon is a bit slow unlike yugioh today. Those "EX" cards makes it fast a bit. And restrictions on this game makes sense. If you are wondering, pokemon don't have "extra deck" thing but they have also summoning methods like in yugioh.(evolve, mega,terra,gigantamax,etc.)

Loved this vid!

9:30 That's literally every mobile game ever. They give you enough gems for one pack and you think "nice I can save up for the 10pack discount" and then they force you to buy a single one.

I can’t wait to watch and then it’s just one game against Lost Box for 10 hours.

Dude wtf! You pulled so many good cards out of that... way better luck than me and I've opened WAY too many!

Having played much much Yu Gi Oh yes it is and i love it. It is ridiculous you can do so much and still you play more than 3 turns. Yes sometimes your set up suck so much you know you lost however the reverse feels incredible.

I have played and enjoyed the Pokemon TCG BUT it's main flaw is if you draw absolute garbage ie, only draw 1 basic Pokemon, no energy thus can't attack and your opponent draws the perfect hand, they stomp you.... you lose in a turn or two... Other games don't quite end up like that.... Yes, Im aware other TCG's can end quick but usually you can at least defend yourself.

Honestly, coming from a Magic the Gathering background, I love that Pokemon just lets you do all the things. Magic makes you fight for every little advantage, while Pokemon lets you say, here's my best, can you beat it? Both are fun and rewarding in different ways. Also, I build decks that avoid coin flips. I don't like them either.

Pokemon TCG is marketed at actual 4 year olds but designed for PHD certified Rocket Engineers.

3:10 he's got a mean grindset, He got them 12 wins in heroic brawl

It was really nice. Just deck a lil bti to get the baxcalibur version of your palkia and you are gonna do amazing, i play that locally, and you need just a couple of cheap cards you alredy have the core

You should try Shadowverse! (It plays VERY Similarly to Hearthstone, apart from individual mechanics)

16:00 i can't believe you didn't include the 7 heads in a row!

More pokemon tcg content please!

10:45 Rarran experiencing PTSD from Yu-Gi-Oh

Cool to see Macho Man Rarrandy Savage branch out even more

fun watch! i might play pokemon also. mtg arena got me bored

"as someone who's played pokemon their entire life" and then proceeds to not know most of the pokemon shown in the game past gen 1

Hard to say, since as now it has some problems in common with Yu-Gi-Oh, like the extreme velocity of games, which sometimes are reduced to whoever sets up the board in the first turn or two, while being more balanced (but here too, some cards are too good and too splashable). Maybe when Battle VIP Pass will be out it'll have a shot, with slower and less explosive games, but we'll also have to see how the removal of Path to the Peak will change the meta. Rn, bricking against someone with a good hand can really bring you down in a couple of turns at best, some games are basically decided turn 1, especially against super fast decks like Miraidon or Mew VMax. But the card game perse surely is a good one, it has personality (i mean, it's Pokémon, on that side is the only game that can defeat even MTG), really low costs (the world champion deck can be made with something like 65$), and it's fun and deep enough to play. As for now, i'd say that with a good app on PC and smartphone could surely fit into the top 3, but we need TPC to do something they clearly don't, *care for their video games.*

26:25 the fact he missing key cards for this water deck is crazy 🤣

Loved the video! More poke'content please

I will say the top tire decks in Pokemon tend to not use Pokemon that have coin flip abilities because of how easy it is to get around them with cards like bosses orders, ryme, custom cather ect witch lets you switch your opponents active pokemon with one from thier bench

Ma man got an alternate art Kyurem on Stream? Fml his luck is amazing

the game is so much more beginner friendly. Back when I started playing in black and whites time you couldnt even play standard unless you invest around 40$ to buy packs so you could trade for essential cards and create a deck that can actually win. Unlike other card games this game offers you much more skill expression and deck control. It is far from balanced though.

12:10 aw man you should have tutored the Bidoof to hopefly get to next turn Bibarel, you needed card draw so badly, and the Bidoof prevents damage your bench

I play mtg, ygo, and pkmn. Pkmn tcg is easily the least frustrating of the three. It’s my go to tcg when i get pissed off at ygo and mtg, which is pretty often. Side note, pokemon tcg online was way better than tcg live.

Play the TCG games on the GBC too, that would be nice.

rarran the kind of dude to play with an unplugged controller and be happy

Is pokemon the best tcg? Maybe, but it is definitely the best product. Cards are cheap, constant reprints, and full tournament viable decks for retail sale at 25$. You cannot compare the price of entry of pokemon compared to other tcgs.

"Wouldn't moltres eat wooper for dinner" Pokemon challengers in regular games beating the entire game with just a Magikarp: "You really don't know much about pokemon, do you?"

I don't even like Pokémon but Rarran is just so entertaining

Rainman when a card game isn't literally reskinned hearthstone be like:

2:50 is something every pokemon fan has been saying for the last 15 years lol

"The best part about Item Cards is you can use as many Items on your turn as you wish. Oh God, it's Yu-Gi-Oh"

I feel like monochromatic decks are extremely vulnerable to getting hard-countered . Like I feel like if I am gonna do fire I also want electric so if the opponent is all water I can still play strong cards against them.

"This could use some voice acting. I think pokemon makes enough money." We've tried to tell them for years.

I remember really liking ptcg when i played it online 5 or so years ago, but ended up quitting after a few months because the UI for ptcgo was awful. Looks like I should get back into it.

Just get the tournament decks. They're not legal to play at an actual tournament but it's like 20$ for a deck that topped a tournament recently. It's a lot of fun with friends

seems like the coin flip stuff should feel right at home since most of modern hearthstone is pure RNG luck on discover/random effects into bs cards from other classes or perfect answers

Waiting for Rarran to change the games name to PokéMinions

After seeing more and more online card games, it makes me appreciate how "slow" the hearthstone client is. Effects happen slow enough so that I can actually understand what in the world is even happening. I also never thought I'd appreciate the side bar with past plays more.

“Ive played pokemon my whole life […] what’s a Bibarel?!”

I’m a retired TCG player, because I stopped in 2020 when IT happened. My favorite archetype was Night March, and it is still my favorite.

Next you need to start playing smogon video game formats lol

You should try it the Digimon card game there's only the tutorial app but I think it's pretty good I play a lot of different card games

Rarran got super lucky that his client actually worked, over 8 months and I still cant get the game to run on pc properly, search cards bugging out, matches freezing, opponents avatar not showing up and the list goes on

Everyone from tcg community holding up a sign: you can only enjoy card games if you read. Tcg boomer: Rarran would be very disappointed if he could read.

As someone who recently had my first experience playing the Pokémon tcg on the switch’s virtual console for the game boy with the old Pokémon tcg game seeing the difference here is insane. I honestly think I would prefer the original Pokémon tcg, with professor oak and item finder all the shenanigans that can be pulled with that.

imo the best thing about pokemon is the preconstructed (theme decks) games. you just need to get a 20-30 bucks deck and you're done.

The vast majority of top decks don't use coin flips, and when they do it's nothing too annoying or game-altering (Lugia Vstar with Capturing Aroma, and Mew Vamx with Cram-o-Matic)

You should genuinely play vanguard you're gonna love it a lot and I hope you do!