That TCG Blogger

The hippies defined the sixties, disco ruled the seventies, and the reign of pop controlled the eighties, but what defines the time most of us grew up in; the nineties? If you think about it, the three things listed for the previous generation were fads; widely popular for awhile then suddenly just a boring thing to do; so wouldn’t it make sense that the Pokémon craze would define the nineties? At the time of its release, everyone had Pokémon Fever and fell in love with the one hundred and fifty one critters and knew them by heart. They played the video games, collected the toys, and more importantly played the card game.

The Pokémon TCG is easily one of the biggest games to sell when it first came out, even becoming more talked about than Magic. It was released in the right place at the right time, just as the franchise was at its prime. But, was it really that good of a card game to sell so much? After all, it was only a fad and is not played as much (there still are big tournaments) as it was when first released. I know for a fact that most people got into it only to impress their friends and not get lost in the crowds. Perhaps one of the best selling TCGs of this time isn’t all its cracked up to be?

The Pokémon TCG was based on the interaction between two trainers and their creatures of choice. It’s a great concept, allows for a lot of player confrontation which is what every game needs. They would start out with their un-evolved Pokémon and then make them grow stronger through evolution cards, still very flavorful. Battle to reduce the opposing creatures hit points to zero, not bad at all. Play energy cards in order to use effects, kind of using the mana system of Magic, but I’ll let it slide. But the one big killer in all of this is the fact that they have a set number of Pokémon they can create in each set. What made Magic so successful in its run is how diverse the cards were and the different possibilities. I’m not saying that this TCG doesn’t have diverse techniques in the advanced game play (any game can), but the fact that their cards are already limited just kind of kills me inside.

Today, when I sit at home playing this game with my little sisters (who love it) I always think to myself about how this game really isn’t that noteworthy as a “good” TCG. My definition of a “good” game is one that beings something new to the table, and gives us a new way of thinking. I can play this game and think of every card like I do in Magic and still come out alright in the end. But Nintendo must be doing something right, or else the game would’ve been dead ages ago. I believe that to be solely on the content of the TCG itself. People adore these cute critters, so isn’t it obvious that they would want to play a game based on them? Back in the nineties, if anything had Pikachu’s face on it kids would buy fifty of it if they could. That’s what got the professional players of the game into it, the one’s who saw the Charizard card that went for hundreds, and the ancient Mew from the first movie.

In the end, Pokémon wasn’t a bad TCG; it just wasn’t “new”. We had seen Magic do pretty much everything in the game before it had even came out. But, I have to say that if the Pokémon TCG never existed then the trading card game community wouldn’t be what it is today. I can say that probably about more than half of today’s players got their start by trying to get the holographic cards from the first set, and for that I have to thank the Pokémon TCG.

-That TCG Blogger-

Got a question, comment, concern, or you just completely disagree with me?

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Tomorrow: we have a special “Fail of Week: Pokémon Edition”, so stay tuned.