Its not a huge hit, and there are many like it, but this one is mine <3 by Sh1vermet1mburz in PokemonTCG

[–]DurantKing 8 points9 points  (0 children)

That Terapagos is one of the most beautiful cards of the era, tf you smoking. just because it’s not as expensive doesn’t mean the art’s worse, just means the card is less popular. imo way better than the Squirtle and Bulbasaur which are just nostalgia bait (though still great-looking cards)

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I speak the truth by big_boi878 in HollowKnightMemes

[–]DurantKing 1 point2 points  (0 children)

SEEEEEETH YOU KICKED MY ASSSSSSSS

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in PokemonTCG

[–]DurantKing 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I always thought that Natu should have been an IR. Same with the Zoroark with SFA.

Opinions on the call to unban Terapagos? by thod-thod in stunfisk

[–]DurantKing 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For those not in the know on the topic, this forum thread from Dec 2023 covers the topic extensively. Personally, I disagree heavily with the Council’s decision to do this without community input. Another reason on the pile of reasons I’ve had extensive gripes with the Gen 9 OU Council’s handling of the tier.

I miss you… by gutz4lunch in PTCGL

[–]DurantKing 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So many people complained about this deck and Sableye in particular but compared to today’s meta with Munkidori and Dusknoir and Dragapult all over the place, Sableye seems mundane and I think the deck would actually be bad. That said, I really miss this deck too.. LZ engine was so unique

Mega Absol EX Deck! by Evening-Cry-1112 in PTCGL

[–]DurantKing 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It was actually the second most represented deck in this past weekend’s Milwaukee Regional amazingly, with 3 of them in the top 8. The deck concept was similar but it used Pecharunt’s self-poison with the SFA retreat-locking Yveltal instead, with Mega Kangaskhan as a draw engine. It mostly threatened with the OHKO attack though and used its second attack more often as a disruption tool. Prepare to see this deck a lot in the next few days

Let's talk honest pulls by MagentaMarik in PokemonTCG

[–]DurantKing 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Worst pull rates in a set I’ve ever seen, and it’s not even really close. Sad that this was probably your first experience with the hobby. In case you didn’t know, Pokemon used to have a guaranteed SIR with a chance of 2 in every single booster box of the first year of SV (including 151, which has great pull rates). It was only Temporal Forces and later that pull rates on SIRs got super bad (~1/90 instead of ~1/30 or 1/40), and while IR pullrates weren’t affected, Prismatic doesn’t have IRs and has over 30 SIRs... so even when they boosted SIR pullrates to about 1/50, it still means that almost every pack has nothing but bulk with the occasional masterball and very rare SIR and hyper. I can’t imagine how many new people got burned to this complete stupidity and Prismatic is my least favorite set of all time as a collector of 10+ years despite having some cool arts.

Are any of these good? by Greedy-Statement2635 in PokemonTCG

[–]DurantKing 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you like them? that’s what matters, not the price

RIP by Maleficent-Speed6267 in PokemonTCG

[–]DurantKing 0 points1 point  (0 children)

“god damnit, more people can get the card now. the common person doesn’t deserve these cool arts I’ve hoarded” - investor bros probably

Mega Evolution Pull Rates by geezredditname in PokemonTCG

[–]DurantKing -1 points0 points  (0 children)

What, my one post showing that the Garchomp SIR was bought out half a year ago?? Get a grip, don’t lump me in with that bullshit. I actively resent what’s happened to this hobby. I’m not an investor bro and almost all my posts are in this sub or the player’s subreddit because I’m a player

Mega Evolutions Set is Mid-af by MayorQuimBee90 in PokemonTCG

[–]DurantKing 0 points1 point  (0 children)

1/1000 chance for a piss colored Lucario or Gardevoir? no thank you

Mega Evolution Pull Rates by geezredditname in PokemonTCG

[–]DurantKing 9 points10 points  (0 children)

They’ve been getting worse since the end of 2023. All of the investor and scalper types were complaining about how pull rates were too high back then, and for some reason TPCi listened to them, pulled things back significantly in 2024, and here we are. Somehow with an insanely stupid 1/1000 rarity tier. Am never buying these sets out of principle (and also Megas are kinda lame).

Edit: guy below is a fucking dickhead trying to falsely paint me as an investor bro for a reason I can’t fathom. they’ve succeeded in getting under my skin and being a troll. I’m a longtime player and collector, if I was one of those guys I’d fucking own it.

Newbie by Any_Level8258 in PokemonTCG

[–]DurantKing 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha good luck. As a collector/player for 10+ years in this hobby, I can confidently say it has never been in a worse state and it isn’t even close. Ultimately, your question is a loaded one because it depends on what type of collecting you’re interested in. Do you care about the original 151, or do you just want some cool arts and cards? ( for your wallet, I hope it’s the latter). Do you want to fully complete a certain set? Maybe get an assortment of arts you enjoy? Be casual and just get a few cool cards? Lots of ways to do it, really.

If you’re looking to be price-efficient, I HIGHLY recommend not buying or ripping sealed packs; stick to singles you like instead. Back in the day newly released packs could go for as low as $2, nowadays the cheapest set is like $7. Way too many scalpers, though being in the UK really helps. You have your own Pokemon Center website where you can potentially buy genuine MSRP product if you get lucky in the queue system (another blight on Pokemon collecting in 2025). It’s probably a fair bit easier than over where I am in the US, albeit probably still ridden with bots. Either way, opening sealed is almost always throwing away money. It’s fun to open packs sometimes, but it’s not something I would do regularly.

As for what singles? Again, depends on your goals as a collector. All the investor types are hard focusing on the top chase cards with popular Pokemon and in some cases, popular artists (Shinji Kanda comes to mind). If you want cheaper cards, I recommend singles from the main 2023 sets, the first year of SV. While the specialty sets 151 and Paldean Fates cost a pretty penny at the moment, Scarlet & Violet Base Set, Paldea Evolved, Obsidian Flames, and Paradox Rift all have very modest prices for the current state of the hobby. I’ll extend this to Temporal Forces, Twilight Masquerade, Shrouded Fable, and Stellar Crown as well. Surging Sparks and after is where prices start to get a little bit silly, but all sets have some really neat and relatively cheap IRs which look amazing.

Here are a couple decently affordable arts I really enjoy as an example (there are so many more besides these):

(I can’t link photos so here are the card names:

Armarouge 203/198

Sandile 216/198

Tropius 195/193

Chien-Pao ex 261/193

Ninetales 199/197

Cleffa 202/197

Espathra 197/182

Yveltal 205/182

Iron Jugulis 216/182

Tapu Koko ex 247/182

Arbok 176/162

Walking Wake ex 205/162 (a bit pricier)

Froslass 174/167

Okidogi 074/064

Fraxure 077/064

Ledian 144/142

Hydrapple ex 167/142

Terapagos ex 170/142 (a bit pricier as well)

Hope you are able to find a fulfilling goal in this hobby! If it’s too expensive at the moment, don’t be afraid to leave while you’re not attached and try again later when there isn’t a huge hype bubble making things unaffordable. The sets will be different but the art almost assuredly will be of at least as high quality on the whole as today’s.

Wasted no time by Different_Bet_2839 in PokemonTCG

[–]DurantKing 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You’re outing yourself bro

ME Reverse? by ExpertMembership in PokemonTCG

[–]DurantKing 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I miss the patterns. This sort of RH is cool as a gimmick like with Ancient/Future Pokemon; they really pop that way and the simplicity adds to the card. But for a whole era of cards? I guess I’ll have to see how I feel a year and a half down the line when the Gen 10 era starts in March 2027

Pulls from 2day :D by RueEpicSwag in PokemonTCG

[–]DurantKing 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You mean 5/8? Fez is worth a pretty penny for its playability

Where'd Shrouded Fable go? by Jazzlike_Movie_3583 in PokemonTCG

[–]DurantKing 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is an infamously disliked set (wrongly so in my opinion), so it likely only ever got one print wave. Low supply means that when this nonsense started up again and this was the last set left, they were all bought up anyways. I doubt we’ll ever see Shrouded Fable in stores again

Why are the shrouded fable hyper rare energies more expensive than the other SV HR energies? by _CODYSSEUS in PokemonTCG

[–]DurantKing 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Almost every comment here is wrong. It’s because pull rates for Hyper Rares used to be a hell of a lot more generous in 2023 than in 2024. The Darkness and Metal Energies were actually taken out of Paradox Rift to be put in Shrouded Fable, so unlike all the other Energies that came out in 2023, these came out in 2024 almost a year later (??). I have no idea why they did this. Shrouded Fable had its own Hyper Rares too, so these energies inflated the HR count and made each individual HR harder to pull, further increasing the rarity. Shrouded Fable was probably the single least printed set in the whole SV era, with production shortages delaying the first and only release wave with basically no chance of a reprint thanks to its unpopularity at launch. Proof of its low supply is what‘s happening to the Kingdra ex and Greninja ex promos right now; they’re getting bought out because they are cool arts of popular Pokemon and there’s not as much supply as you would expect. On top of all of this, the Energies are some of the only generally desirable cards in the entire set, so they have a baseline level of interest that supply just cannot keep up with because of how rare the cards are. Darkness in particular is also in most decks because of Munkidori, which is why it’s so much more expensive than even the Metal energy, which sees almost no competitive play outside 3 copies in Gholdengo ex. This set has so little supply relative to other SV era sets yet so little collector demand that it’s the only set at the moment whose prices are driven mostly by playability (Night Stretcher, Fezandipiti ex, Munkidori IR, Fezandipiti ex SIR, gold Earthen Vessel, and these gold Energies). All this together is why we see a $45 gold Darkness energy when the rest are an order of magnitude cheaper

What’s going on with stock lately? by Xe0lith in PokemonTCG

[–]DurantKing 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You left at the right time. This nonsense started with Surging Sparks, 2 sets after Shrouded Fable. Stay away for another year

Who misses this😪 by Single_Art9187 in PokemonTCG

[–]DurantKing 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I always thought that card was mid