I thought this might be an interesting topic for anyone that wants to get to a new level in terms of Pokémon TCG skill and success.
Joining or starting a team can be one of the best ways to improve at the Pokémon TCG, but it is not all fun and games; if you are going to be serious about it, it takes a huge commitment. I have been a part of some very successful teams in the past, but honestly I don’t think I will ever start or join a team again. It makes the game seem like something bigger than what it is; just that, a game.
However, if you are extremely competitive by nature, then the concept of a Pokémon TCG team might sound intriguing.
What is a Pokémon TCG team?
I should probably define what exactly should be considered a “team” in Pokémon. Basically it is a group of people who only test with and discuss Pokémon cards with each other. They work together to improve and hone their skills.
There can be varying degrees of secrecy from team to team, but in my mind, to be a real team, you can only talk to and discuss Pokémon cards with the people in your team. The idea is to keep all your findings under wraps, which will give you an edge against people who don’t know about your findings in tournament play.
There really aren’t that many “creative” (for a lack or a better word) players in the game, so any new deck engines or developments that you stumble upon are incredibly valuable. Ideas spread super quickly through word of mouth and online forums, so if you are able to keep these ideas shrouded from anyone outside your team, it’s a huge advantage.
This is somewhat of a catch-22 though, because without conversing with other players, it’s hard to get a grasp about what decks other people are working on, and you may overlook an obvious combo.
How many people should be in a team?
I think a team should have no more than a half dozen people. Once you have more than that, you will find it hard to get everyone to contribute, and there is an increased chance of information being leaked.
In the past, my most successful teams only had 3 or 4 people. It’s just much easier to communicate with a small rather than a large group.
Where should the people in my team be located?
Ideally, you want everyone in your team to be from a different area, so that you will not have to play against each other in local tournaments.
Unfortunately, having a delocalized team can be a problem because it’s more difficult to communicate with one another. You are limited to discussing and play-testing solely online rather than in person. There can also be issues regarding time zones which will make it hard to find times to talk to and play with your team members when you live in different regions.
How can a team stay organized?
Make a message board for your team. I personally love ProBoards if you need a free message board. They are simple to configure and load really quickly.
The message board will serve as the main way for you and your team members to communicate with each other. These are the default categories I used when I set up on my teams’ boards:
- Deck Discussion
- Testing Results
- Decklists (finalized lists would be here for reference)
- Single Card Strategy and Combos
- Tournament Talk
- Tactical Operations (any information we heard/found from outside sources would go here)
Where do I find people to join my team?
Either ask people at your local league, local tournaments, or online message boards if they would like to start a team with you. Simple as that. :)
It’s best for you and the person you ask to know each other at least at an informal level before asking them to join your team; don’t ask a complete stranger. Make sure they know what they are getting into and are going to be a contributing member of your team.
What’s the secret behind a successful team?
To put in most simply, everyone has to be really into it. Everyone on the team really needs to be focused on Pokémon cards and constantly thinking about new combos and strategies.
It’s good to have maybe 1 person that is all about the game, but if nobody else is, then the team will fail.
It is not easy to find people that want to succeed as much as you do. A lot of people only want to play the game semi-competitively for enjoyment. They want to win, but they don’t want to invest a lot of time into doing so either.
I have to admit, my team members and I were completely obsessed with Pokémon cards at times. I know I would be thinking of new deck ideas 25/8; it was frustrating but I couldn’t help it. The game can be addicting.
The advantages can be great if you succeed, but I think the playing field is more balanced now, which makes it more arduous to pull out a tournament victory. Even if you practice 300 more hours than your tournament foes, it’s not that big of an advantage anymore. More people are playing the game nowadays compared to 3, 4, or 5 years ago, so there is much more variability.
Being on a super serious team also takes a lot of the fun away from the game. Everything rides on your tournament success, and with a limited number of tournaments available for attendance, all your preparation can easily amount to nothing. All that time you spent could have possibly been better utilized.
An alternative route to improvement rather than being on a team is to do the exact opposite and talk to everybody! Share you decklists in public places, ask for help, and help others. It can be more enjoyable doing this because you will make more new friends and won’t have to invest as much time into the game either.
You aren’t as good as you think you are (unless your name is Jason Klaczynski), so getting multiple viewpoints is always a good thing.
You may not be as successful a player utilizing this method, but with the moderately meager prizes that are given out for a hard earned victory, I think it’s a fair compromise.
I hope you enjoyed reading this article and if you have any questions or comments, please post them!
-Adam
I thought this was a great article on an underplayed aspect of the TCG. I also love the picture of the dream team at the top : P.
My “team” is Team Wittz– which basically just consists of me, my brother, sometimes my sister, my cousin, his brother, and his half-brother. I don’t think a family meeting goes by where pokemon games aren’t played. I highly recommend trying to get the rest of your family involved when you play pokemon–it’s probably the easiest way to start a team that stays in contact! Plus, you get the extra fun of sibling rivalry when two family members play eachother :P. All I need now is to design T shirts before nats. . . :P
If there were better prizes in pokemon, then being on a team would be more beneficial ten-fold. However, the amount of time invested, as Adam said, simply does not correlate to the reward. You may gain an edge being on a team going into a tournament, but still even if you manage to get good luck and good matchups, and all your special techs you used worked that day and you won the tournament…well, hooray, you just won half a box of pokemon cards. How long did you prepare? Oh, only 50 or more hours testing matchups….
There are benefits to how the TCG tournaments are organized now. With free entry, more people are attracted to the game, and the attendance goes up each year, along with interest. HOWEVER, I think the prizes, consequently, are pathetic. The only tournaments worth winning are Regionals, Nationals, or Worlds. And even placing highly in these gains a minimal reward considering the time one must invest to even have a chance at doing well.
In all, I think that if people are playing the pokemon card game, they aren’t poor. And I think that they would, or should, be willing to shell out minimal entry fees for tournaments, from Cities to Nationals, with increasing costs, say from $1-$2 to $15 to $20. This would make prizes at tournaments so much greater, making the competitiveness worth something, making every tournament win feel like a great win. More than five years ago, they did charge for some tournaments, and they should do so again. At the very least, for the big ones.
Thus, if you’re on a team, that’s great. Pokemon’s a fun game, and competitive too. You may like testing and feeling that you have the “best” deck going into a tournament. But there’s a lot of time invested to get to that point. And until the reward is great enough, I don’t think that time is warranted. There are people who simply want to play Pokemon and have fun. Great! But there are even more people who want to compete, and who’d like a little moola to go with their shiny new trophy.
Great article Adam,
A team is definately not my cup of tea, but I can see how some people would really get into it. You do a very good job of highlgighting the pros and cons of being on a team.
quaziko – I think your ideas apply more to the Masters Division. I know for many Juniors and Seniors, the free entry is a big plus and they are quite happy with the prize support. It’s hard to have a tournament structure that meets the needs of all levels of players, and their diferent levels of commitment.
Yes, that’s precisely what I mean, I should have specified. They could easily discriminate between divisions and have the entry fee only apply to Master’s.
Im the latter, I talk to everyone, share everything. Theres much more to gain then to lose when you’re openly communicating with fellow players.
I’ve been a part of a Team Pottu (trans. Team Potato) since like year 2003. Currently, the team has around ~40ish people from all over Finland. Only about half of those plays TCG quite often. We have only a couple of Seniors left and rest of us are Masters. Every time a new set gets released we have to buy like total 2-5 booster boxes to get good number of new cards to “clan stash”. One people holds most of the cards on himself and creates most of the decks to the other team members for touraments.
Being a part of a team gives also a few other non-mentioned advantages. First one is borrowing/loaning of the cards. It will be a lot easier to get your and your team members decks done. By doing temp. trades, you don’t need X amount of every card to make good decks. Second advantage is that if you don’t succeed this time, your friends may succeed. I’m sure you would also want to lose to a team member rather than random player. Third advantage is by joining a team you may get yourself a new friends; online or IRL. Fourth advantage is to build a secret decks. If your team has good number of decks and cards, its easier to test out a secret deck without of others to know about it.
Three years ago, Team Pottu had an secret deck at Nationals. 4 guys played almost same deck (1-3 cards diff) and we had 3-1, 3-1, 3-1 and 2-2 statics (we had total 3 mirrors iirc) and we ended 5th, 6th, 8th and 1Xth while we had only a top-4. Before anyone asks about the deck, it were Salamence ex^3/Typhlosion ex/Nidoqueen d.
TL;DR – pros: friends, cheaper hobby, borrowing cards, team members success, (secret) decks, etc.
Man I love the pic of the Dream Team besides the fact Karl Malone is on there instead of Larry Bird, but that is another story for another day. Being on a team has a lot of benefits as stated. The card pool increases greatly, a lot more discussion of strategy, competent people you can trust to play against, and also a sense of pride. I’m in a local team from the store I go to, Estrada, and the highly respected and acclaimed pseudo-team, Lafonte.
I have been looking to be on a team. A friend of mine is one an “official” team. Apparently there is a real Team Rocket, Team Aqua, Team Magma. I can only wish to be on a team like that. I will still be looking though…
Hahaha
Team Rocket.
Teams off the gym are a …
NM
One thing that really caught my attention was this difference between the advantages of team membership versus “free agent” status.
Much like you, Jeremy, and Pablo, I contributed a lot to what became the community standard of team organization, teaming up with all sorts of people. However, it’s ironic that I’ve found a vast majority of my success as a player by simply speaking to everyone.
One thing you as players should be privy to is the fact that only the most dedicated teams will secure their deck data and intelligence from the outside community. The advantage you have to gain from speaking to everyone is that you’re practically guaranteed at least half of the big picture, and perhaps the whole picture if you converse enough.
However, being a free agent is very “GIVE AND TAKE”! Nobody (myself included) is interested in telling you a shred about my deck info if I don’t see you as either A) a person deserving of it, or B) a person who’s willing to share info of their own. In short, people don’t like leeches, so if you’re going to be a free agent, then don’t mooch!
How does one even get on a team? I’ve heard that you just have to be friends with one on a team that exist, others I have heard that you have to “great”. I am a good player but not the best…in record (lost more then won but I just got back into the game again 1 year ago…) It feels like a finding a job.
Your skill level is entirely irrelevant to the process of MAKING a team; however, you may be less likely to get on a pre-existing team if you’re an awful player.
To me team means something differently. To me a team is a group of players, usually about 4-8 people, who play together. They test together and share ideas, kind of like your definition. But there is no monopoly on the knowledge gained from team meetings. The team concept is shown in tournaments. They usually are sponsored and use the sponsorship money together with their own money and put it all in a pool to make it easier for everyone to travel to more tournaments. Like they share hotel rooms and stuff.
Your definition sounds too greedy.
Sponsored by who?
Thanks for the replies everyone!
@saturn: Kettler makes a great point there.
For someone looking to join or create a team, the best thing you can do is post on message boards and websites to show people that you are knowledgeable and could be an asset to a team.
You could then be possibly asked to join, or if you make friends with people online, then you could ask them if they would like to form a team with you.
But first, you are going to have to publicly be a helpful person and give people advice. There is no way around it; you have to show people that you know what you’re talking about. After you make a team then you can discuss strategy solely with them if you’d like.
That’s basically the process I went through before joining my first team.
@pikkdogs: I guess I am referring more to serious teams. Your definition is more like having a group of friends that play together in my opinion.
I’ve been a part of a Team Pottu (trans. Team Potato) since like year 2003. Currently, the team has around ~40ish people from all over Finland. Only about half of those plays TCG quite often. We have only a couple of Seniors left and rest of us are Masters. Every time a new set gets released we have to buy like total 2-5 booster boxes to get good number of new cards to “clan stash”. One people holds most of the cards on himself and creates most of the decks to the other team members for touraments.
Being a part of a team gives also a few other non-mentioned advantages. First one is borrowing/loaning of the cards. It will be a lot easier to get your and your team members decks done. By doing temp. trades, you don’t need X amount of every card to make good decks. Second advantage is that if you don’t succeed this time, your friends may succeed. I’m sure you would also want to lose to a team member rather than random player. Third advantage is by joining a team you may get yourself a new friends; online or IRL. Fourth advantage is to build a secret decks. If your team has good number of decks and cards, its easier to test out a secret deck without of others to know about it.
Three years ago, Team Pottu had an secret deck at Nationals. 4 guys played almost same deck (1-3 cards diff) and we had 3-1, 3-1, 3-1 and 2-2 statics (we had total 3 mirrors iirc) and we ended 5th, 6th, 8th and 1Xth while we had only a top-4. Before anyone asks about the deck, it were Salamence ex^3/Typhlosion ex/Nidoqueen d.
TL;DR – pros: friends, cheaper hobby, borrowing cards, team members success, (secret) decks, etc.
Man I love the pic of the Dream Team besides the fact Karl Malone is on there instead of Larry Bird, but that is another story for another day. Being on a team has a lot of benefits as stated. The card pool increases greatly, a lot more discussion of strategy, competent people you can trust to play against, and also a sense of pride. I’m in a local team from the store I go to, Estrada, and the highly respected and acclaimed pseudo-team, Lafonte.
Very good article Adam. I wish I could do something like this other then the weekly TCG club at my school. I’m just too busy to play the Pokemon TCG at a competitive level which makes me feel bad because all of you guys play it so competitively and you all have beastly decks and wonderful ideas and I’m some casual player with an okay deck xD. If I wasn’t so busy with my life’s goals and plans I’d surely put together a good team and go around playing Pokemon TCG all over the place. Maybe when I’m in college I’ll make or join a team or do so in the summer and actually enter a tourney!!! =)
Great article adam i think this will help pokemon tcg players a lot.
I have been looking to be on a team. A friend of mine is one an “official” team. Apparently there is a real Team Rocket, Team Aqua, Team Magma. I can only wish to be on a team like that. I will still be looking though…
One thing that really caught my attention was this difference between the advantages of team membership versus “free agent” status.
Much like you, Jeremy, and Pablo, I contributed a lot to what became the community standard of team organization, teaming up with all sorts of people. However, it’s ironic that I’ve found a vast majority of my success as a player by simply speaking to everyone.
One thing you as players should be privy to is the fact that only the most dedicated teams will secure their deck data and intelligence from the outside community. The advantage you have to gain from speaking to everyone is that you’re practically guaranteed at least half of the big picture, and perhaps the whole picture if you converse enough.
However, being a free agent is very “GIVE AND TAKE”! Nobody (myself included) is interested in telling you a shred about my deck info if I don’t see you as either A) a person deserving of it, or B) a person who’s willing to share info of their own. In short, people don’t like leeches, so if you’re going to be a free agent, then don’t mooch!
How does one even get on a team? I’ve heard that you just have to be friends with one on a team that exist, others I have heard that you have to “great”. I am a good player but not the best…in record (lost more then won but I just got back into the game again 1 year ago…) It feels like a finding a job.
To me team means something differently. To me a team is a group of players, usually about 4-8 people, who play together. They test together and share ideas, kind of like your definition. But there is no monopoly on the knowledge gained from team meetings. The team concept is shown in tournaments. They usually are sponsored and use the sponsorship money together with their own money and put it all in a pool to make it easier for everyone to travel to more tournaments. Like they share hotel rooms and stuff.
Your definition sounds too greedy.
Your skill level is entirely irrelevant to the process of MAKING a team; however, you may be less likely to get on a pre-existing team if you’re an awful player.
Teams are fun! They just kind of create the sense that you’re part of something, and I highly reccomend starting a team, even if it just consists of your local league :]
Very good article Adam. I wish I could do something like this other then the weekly TCG club at my school. I’m just too busy to play the Pokemon TCG at a competitive level which makes me feel bad because all of you guys play it so competitively and you all have beastly decks and wonderful ideas and I’m some casual player with an okay deck xD. If I wasn’t so busy with my life’s goals and plans I’d surely put together a good team and go around playing Pokemon TCG all over the place. Maybe when I’m in college I’ll make or join a team or do so in the summer and actually enter a tourney!!! =)
I think the most important aspect of any team is the member base getting along. Team B-Side (my team) is made up of people who are all friends, like-minded people, etc. Being able to get along and enjoy a friendship with a person will increase the likelihood of a successful team formation by at least 5000%, imo.
Good article, Adam!
A other important point is imo that all team members are on the same level. Sure you can bring “bad players” in your team, you can help him and he will be better mabe… but at some point it will fail.
for exampel:
-testing results are not correct when you test vs a bad player
One more note when making or creating a team. DO NOT name it after yourself or your screen name. You just sound full of yourself. IMO for a team to succeed one player can not believe he is any better of a player than anybody else on the team.
Good points User Name and Jaeger.
I think I might do another post about ways you can get on a good team even if you’re not the best player (if you guys would like to hear about that).
@User Name: I agree, although I think for a lot of people teams are about friendship as well.
@Jaeger: Completely agreed. Also, when picking your team name make sure that it’s not already taken, and I also think team names based around characters/movies/etc. are dumb
@Adam: That’d be a cool article.
jaeger: i agree completely. “team hatter” the most stupid thing i have ever heard of. “what team are you on?” “well, my team’s name is based on a kid’s pokegym who said he quit but he didnt, and he is pretty good. yeah- go hatter!”. nonsense.
user name: great point. its pretty cool, in the last 20 testing games we’ve had, the matchups between my teammates and i have 19/20 gone to the favorite in the matchup. thats ridiciulous. its amazing how much people can distort matchups in their mind based on player/skill/list difference.
one of the disadvantages of a team is knowledge incest, and perpetuating outdated ideas. this is combated by working with freelancers and other teams for general knowledge and sharing of basic concepts/ideas. a certain site has actually started to do this more and more which is cool.
Pretty nifty information! Never thought about starting a pokemon team.
“I would be thinking of new deck ideas 25/8; it was frustrating but I couldn’t help it. The game can be addicting.”
Thats me.