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One of the biggest hurdles for thePokemon TCGis the cost: to stay competitive, you often need to pour hundreds of dollars into updating your decks for ever-shifting metas and rotating set legalities. Draft and sealed formats mitigate that problem by having all players build from a small pool of randomized cards, but Pokemon struggles with drafts due to the importance of getting specific lines of Pokemon evolutions.
to facilitate sealed play, the Pokemon TCG has Build & Battle boxes, which include a random 40-card deck and four booster packs to customize your deck. But even with these options, it can be hard to put together a functional limited deck without a little guidance.
Why Play Build & Battle?
Build & Battle Boxes put players on an even playing field. Normally, a player with a tight budget will be at a significant disadvantage against a player who has invested hundreds of dollars in their deck, and if the metagame shifts, the cash-strapped player won’t be able to adjust quickly.
By limiting each player to a small, randomized card pool, you can put your deckbuilding skills and battling skills to the test instead of your wallet.
Due to the issues that stem from trying to draft in a game where you can only play certain cards if you’ve already played the previous card,prerelease events for the Pokemon TCG are usually conducted with Build & Battle Boxes. Each player is provided one box, and then given a time limit in which to build and test their deck.
What Does The Build & Battle Box Include?
The Build & Battle Box comes with everything you need to make a functional sealed-format deck, except for additional Energy cards.Each pack includes a 40-card deck, four booster packs, aPokemon TCG Livecode, and an insert with some tips for playing the included deck.
All of this is provided in a deck box that can comfortably hold about 100 unsleeved cards, or a bit over 60 sleeved cards.
Prior to Brilliant Stars, Build & Battle Boxes included a 23-card “evolution pack” instead of a 40-card preconstructed deck. These function the same as the 40-card deck, minus 17 Basic Energy cards,
The deck included in each Build & Battle Box is randomized from four different decks for that particular expansion. The bottom card of the deck is an exclusive Black Star Promo featuring unique art and a stamp of the expansion’s logo. These cards are functionally identical to a Pokemon already in the expansion, and the normal art, without any foil treatment, is usually also included in the deck.
Building Your Deck
The first thing you should do once the Build phase begins is open your box and all four packs. Check your preconstructed deck to determine which Pokemon types are included, and set the Trainer and Energy cards aside.
Since the preconstructed deck is already playable,it’s usually a good idea to focus on the Pokemon types included in that deck, or stick to one of the included types, so arrange the included Pokemon cards by type so that you may easily see what you have to work with.
Arrange your Pokemon by the type of Energy they need, not the Pokemon’s type. A Charizard ex that counts as Dark but only uses Fire Energy should be included with Fire-type Pokemon, and a Houndour with only Normal-type attacks should be included with Normal-type Pokemon, not Dark or Fire.
Open the booster packs andfollow the same procedure as you did for the preconstructed deck, separating Pokemon based on type and setting aside the Trainer and Energy cards. This gives you a visual grid of your resources, allowing you to quickly decide which cards you’re able to keep and which ones you should cut.
Ignore the basic Energy cards: you can use any amount of any basic Energy, and the host of the game should be ready to supply as many as you need.
At this point,cut the cards you cannot use. You may have opened a pack with a mighty Dragonite, but never found a Dratini. Eliminate all the Pokemon that evolve from a Basic or Stage 1 Pokemon that you do not have in your card pool. you’re able to also eliminate Trainer cards you can’t use: Ancient Booster Energy Capsule is useless if you didn’t get a single Ancient Pokemon, for example.
Exception: Rare Candy can replace Stage 1 Pokemon, and is sometimes included in the preconstructed deck.
After eliminating all the cards you simply cannot use, you should be left with a selection of around 55 playable cards, of which you’ll use about 25 in your deck.
Generally, this pool is too small to build for a single type, even if you use normal-type Pokemon to supplement it. Sobe prepared to build with two types, plus normal-type Pokemon and Trainer cards.
From here, we can borrow a deckbuilding technique fromMagic: The Gathering:B.R.E.A.D.(Bombs, Removal, Evasion, Aggro, Duds). This acronym provides a quick and easy reference for the priority to choose your cards.
Bombs
Bombs are your game-winners. These are going to be your strongest Pokemon, the ones that can stand up to multiple hits and one- or two-shot your opponent’s Pokemon safely. Most GX, V, and ex are bombs, and you should consider adding them to your deck even if they don’t match the energy types you’re trying to work with, especially if they’re Basic Pokemon.
Cards like Dragonite V, with 230 HP and an attack that can deal 250 damage to an opponent’s Active Pokemon, are powerhouses that are likely to tear through your opponent’s whole deck if they don’t have an immediate answer.
Removal
Sometimes your opponent will have a Pokemon that you just can’t deal with, or you’ll be one Prize card away from winning, and your opponent retreated the Pokemon you would have KOed this turn. In these situations, it’s important to have some way toforce your opponent to switch active Pokemon.
Some of these cards, like Boss’s Orders, allow you to choose what Pokemon becomes the new Active Pokemon, giving you the opportunity to pull in something that will be easy to KO or that your opponent has invested a lot of Energy into already. A few also switch your own Active Pokemon.
Evasion
You dropped your bomb and KOed your opponent’s Active Pokemon. They used Boss’s Orders to pull your useless Magikarp into the Active Spot, giving them time to build up while you waste energy paying for Magikarp’s Retreat cost. But they didn’t know you had Switch in your hand.
Evasion cards allow you to swap your own Active and Benched Pokemon without paying their retreat cost, giving you more freedom to move Pokemon on your side of the board. This can allow you to save your strong Pokemon from an imminent threat, or swap in a Pokemon that can take advantage of your opponent’s Pokemon’s Weakness.
Aggro
Let’s face it, not every Pokemon is going to be a bomb, and you’d be at a huge advantage trying to build with only one or two Pokemon in your deck. Soyou’ll need to have a handful of Pokemon to duke it out until you can find your ace.
The preconstructed deck should have one or two evolutionary lines, so that you can include a whole family of Pokemon of the same color to power up, and you’ll likely find a couple of useful Basic Pokemon you can squeeze out attacks with to soften your opponent’s Active Pokemon.
Duds
Duds aren’t necessarily bad, but they’re definitelycards that you can’t play effectively. All of those Evolution Pokemon that you couldn’t find the Basic forms of, and any cards that reference another card or archetype that you don’t have access to also fit in this category.
Some of the most powerful cards in constructed formats are duds in limited formats, so try not to feel bad for putting the Mew VMAX that you pulled into this pile when Mew V doesn’t show up in the next three packs.
Deckbuilding in limited formats like Build & Battle follows some slightly different rules than constructed formats like Standard. For one,your deck must be 40 cards, not 60.
You also aren’t restricted on how many copies of a card you can play: If your preconstructed deck included three Torchics and you found three more in your booster packs, feel free to include all six in your deck!
One rule remains the same: you must include at least one Basic Pokemon in your deck, although it’s a good idea to include at least a few more.
Playing The Game
Once you and your opponent have completed your decks, it’s time to pair off and find out who’s the very best, like no one ever was.
Setup proceeds just like a normal game: Shuffle your deck, flip a coin to determine who goes first, and draw your first hand. Pick a Basic Pokemon to place face-down in your Active Spot (or reveal your hand and mulligan if you have no Basic Pokemon), and set your Prize cards. The only difference is that youset four prize cards, not six.
Once you and your opponent have set your prize cards, turn your Active Pokemon face up and begin the match. The winner is whoever takes their last prize card or knocks out all of their opponent’s Pokemon first.
