Pokemon Is the Devil's Work

I found out today why my children are being influenced by the Devil. In particular, my daughter who is a Pokemon fanatic. She wishes they were real, draws them all the time, and has their stats pretty much memorized.

Is Pokemon ruining my children?

Don't Miss Dragonite for Pokemon Diamond and Pearl

Dragonite is a unique, and strong, level 50 dragon pokemon. You can get yours at Toys R Us on November 8th and 9th. Don't miss out!

Pokemon Without Energy

My daughter has created a way to play Pokemon TCG without using any energy.

We each get a deck of pokemon - any pokemon, our pick. I'm not exactly sure of her mental algorithm, but she has one for determining which pokemon powers we can use, and when we can bring out our stage 1 and 2 pokemon. When we play, I ask her whether it's OK each time I want to use a power.

It's interesting playing this version with her. She's bypassed all the boring red tape of the game, and created a version that has only the fun stuff - attacking each other.

The downside - there's very little strategy. For a 7 year old, I think that's just fine.

Great Encounters for Pokemon

There is yet another Pokemon Diamond and Pearl TCG set available. It's called Great Encounters. The 7 year old is all abuzz with excitement that she can get new pokemon. Hubby is trying to find room in the Pokemon binder to fit new cards. I am wondering how anyone can keep up with it all.

Tonight, we offered to play the game with the 7 year old, and she wasn't all that interested in the "real" game. She had her own version. I don't know if we'll be back to the game store PokeGym any time soon.

Maybe our kids are too young to care about competition. Maybe there are so many cards now, that the kids are overwhelmed. I know I am! Even so, they kids still love their Pokemon cards. And they have them mostly memorized.

It's amazing what a 7 year old's brain can remember.

Pokemon TCG: Secret Wonders - An Unexpected Adventure

For the first time in a month, we went to our Pokégym this weekend. What a surprise, it was a Secret Wonders new pack tournament!

The buy-in was a pack of Secret Wonders Pokémon cards and two expansion packs. The kids had 20 minutes to put their decks together. They played 2 out of 3, with 3 prize cards.

Our 6 year old beat the Gym leader in the first round! Unfortunately, we couldn't stay because after nearly two hours, our 4 year old was getting really, incredibly, completely bored. And hungry.

There was no prize for winning the tourney other than extra stamps on their Pokemon Gym cards, so we left. Our 6 year old was disappointed. But she was also hungry. So we said our goodbyes to the other players.

Overall impression with Secret Wonders? It's getting hard to keep up with all the cards. But, with there being so many expansions now, the odds are pretty good that if we buy a booster pack, we'll get cards we don't have. The kids love getting cards we don't have.

It's also interesting that the two starter decks for Secret Wonders are Fire/Grass and Lightening/Fighting. Odd combinations, yet complimentary.

We Missed a Pokegym Tournament!

We went to our local pokegym yesterday, and found out that there was a tournament on Saturday, and we didn't know it. Only three people were there! We could have totally won the tournament!

Don't miss a tournament like we did! Search for your local tournament here.

More About the Pokemon Learning League

We started with the card game. Then, hubby bought the Pokemon DS Diamond. Then, we found a waaaaay old Gameboy-Color Pokemon Red that the kids have been playing. Now, since we seem to be much more invested in the whole Pokemon brand, I'm reconsidering the Pokemon Learning League. Here's a review.

Have any of you used it? What do you think?

Relax at Pokemon Beach

What a find! A place to hang and learn more about Pokemon TCG.

Everyone is abuzz about the Nintendo DS Pokemon game right now. (Even hubby went and got a copy.) Not so much buzz about the card game. But there is still a strong following for the card game. And Pokébeach has all the info about it!

There are card scans, sample decks, card info, event lists, and more.

Enjoy!

Parent's Pokemon Corner

Now Pokemon Center is an interesting website. It has a section just for parents.

Basic rules, how to throw a Pokemon themed party and projects to do with the kids.

Otherwise, it's an online card store. But any website that has a section just for parents, even if its purpose is to get us to part with our money, gets my vote.

New Pokemon Decks

Last night, dad went through all of our cards and created three decks from scratch. I'll let him tell you more detail about what's in them, and how he made his decision.
But it took him over an hour to go through them all.

Eventually, he ended up with three decks that were similar to what we had before. Mostly because we didn't have enough evolved critters in each energy type to create a deck that wasn't water, grass or fire.

Dad's main goal, I think, was to make all the decks balanced, so one deck wouldn't cream either of the other two. We'll have to play with them a little more to get a feel for how powerful they are.

Two things I learned last night while testing out the new decks.

1) Make sure to shuffle a LOT before starting play. Especially if the cards had just been organized in some way. Or else the deck will be imbalanced in the pile, and you won't get any energy cards in your hand.

2) Mantyke is an AWESOME card, and all water decks should have one.

New Cards Today

We bought six booster packs for Diamond and Pearl today. We got Shiftry, Azumarill and a few other evolved critters.

We took all of our decks apart. The most promising deck builds, with what we have, are psychic and fighting/metal. We wanted to make a lightening deck. But Diamond/Pearl doesn't have enough lightening to do that.

We learned a thing or two about putting decks together. Now that we have more trainer cards and more evolved pokemon, we have some flexibility to put together some faster, more streamlined decks. And, enough cards to make some fun, all-low level decks, since we have so many basics.

Pokemon Learning League

Our friends, who also play Pokemon TCG, said we should try the Pokémon Learning League. I'm tempted. But we already play sooo much pokemon. Would it be too much to add this to our list of things to do? Or is it worth it?

Pokémon for DS

This mantyke blog is about Pokémon TCG. But after reading this review, I'm jonesin' for some Pokémon DS action.

Way back when, years ago, when pokémon was just starting out, I played one of the original pokémon games on the Gameboy. The old-school Gameboys. Mine was green.

I played so much, I got some kind of carpal tunnel thing in my thumb. And I had to stop.

Perhaps, one day, I might play the new pokemon on the DS. Maybe I should ask for the pink DS-lite for my bday?

Legal Pokémon Cards - The Basics

One of my main goals was to make sure that we don't inadvertently use cards in our decks that won't be legal for tournament plat starting Sept. 1st, 2007. We did some research to figure out which sets are legal. There was not one place that had it clearly laid out to say, "These card are legal to play starting Sept. 1st". So here is what we found.

The following card sets will be legal for play in tournaments and at gyms starting Sept. 1st, 2007.

EX Holon Phantoms
EX Crystal Guardians
EX Dragon Frontiers
EX Power Keepers
Diamond and Pearl
Mysterious Treasures (Due out in Oct. 2007)
OP Series 4
OP Series 5
Black Star Promos 37 and up
Any card printed in an earlier set that was reprinted in one of these listed sets (i.e. energy cards)

Anything I'm missing?

The following list are the sets that were legal in the 2006-2007 season, that will no longer be allowed in game play starting Sept. 2007.

EX Deoxys
EX Emerald
EX Unseen Forces
EX Delta Species
EX Legend Maker
EX Trainer Kit 2
OP Series 3
OP Series 2
Black Star promos 29 to 36

You can check here to know which cards go with which sets.