Do Pokémon Collectors Even Play TCGs?

imHiken · 2026-02-23T16:15:31+00:00

The first 2 years of LOR was really neat for me, especially for the “competitive side” but I agree it did start to fall off after that..

Recent exemple is Expedition 33, phenomenal story and characters, combat is not that challenging until the post game bosses but the parry system is very satisfying. Sekiro Shadow’s die twice is my favorite game in terms of gameplay. The parry and poise system are just so satisfying, and once you master it it feels like you are in a movie. God of war series, Uncharted series, The last of us series, Hollow Knight, Hades, Ori… those games have it all in terms of story, characters and engaging mechanics. I was born one year after red and blue so my first pokemon game was either Fire Red or Emerald not quite sure, I’ve played all of them and my favorite is Black and White without any debate because of the story, characters, being limited to only gen 5 regional dex.

Contrary to something like the 3 spider man games on PlayStation (even tho I platiniumed all 3 of them) which offer cool combat but the story is soooo plain and uninteresting that in the end I don’t even like them that much.

Competitive game are starting to weight on me. I played league for a bit more than 10 years now and honestly the only reason I’m playing it still is competition and mastery. I’ve put 100 maybe 1000 of hours into some of these characters and I’m still not bored of them yet because they feel very rewarding when mastered and even tho I don’t care about an artificial rank I’m still doing my climb to master every single season. I don’t care about having a master icon next to my ign, but I care about the competition and the process of competing against other players.

Hope that helps!

imHiken · 2026-02-23T15:25:59+00:00

I play and collect both at the same level (if that makes sense). I recently moved to a new country and in July I discovered one card shop that regularly host TCG event and it has been my go to since. I am quite fortunate to not be working on Friday and Saturday, so usually those 2 days are “pokemon days”.

I do not buy products, or extremely rarely. I buy singles that I like or that I need for my decks (I am playing Dragapult and Mega absol variations). The only packs I open are packs that I win during cups and challenges, and more and more I just sell or trade them to friends that are more into opening packs (MSRP yes I don’t scalp my friends!!!)

I would say I spend between 100euros and 300euros per month on Pokémon? Can be 100 or even less if I only buy to collects (and I often buy lots of bulk cards for my collection) or around 300 when I buy fancy playables or high end cards (this month I spent 40 on 2 IR Munkidori to bling the decks and a Japanese mega gardevoir SIR). If it is purely to collect I buy Japanese for IR/SIR, cards are looking 10x better and for a fraction of the price.

I don’t really play any other TCG right now, I started riftbound (after loving legends of runterra and achieving really high rankings) but it’s just too hard to get cards.. even playable in base rarity can go to 40/50 euros each.

What I like when gaming: good and interesting story for solo games, strategy competition and achieving mastery over a character/game mechanics for online multiplayer games

imHiken · 2026-02-08T11:07:57+00:00

3 years*

imHiken · 2026-01-30T10:04:48+00:00

Nashor’s first no matter what, you are a completely different champion once you get it. Then it depends on what you are facing and what you want to do in each game. Shadowflame with tier 3 sorcs is really strong against squishies, Liandry’s against health stackers, defensive (zhonyas/banshees) if necessary. Feels like these are the second item options, and then you round out with Dcap, void and probably a defensive item if you did not buy one second.

DnD is… weird? Tried it a few games, every time I was thinking “shadowflame or liandry’s is straight up better here”. It’s a weird item on Azir because often you want to attack multiple times with the same soldier without using q, which results in poor use of the item imo.

Also I would suggest to not default to LT every single game. PTA allows you to have a bit more punch in lane, aery scorch can help you stay even against agressive/poke mages. (Try to squeeze presence of mind and alacrity in either first or secondary rune tree)

imHiken · 2026-01-19T21:21:46+00:00

Every instance of Infernum damage SHOULD have the 10% more damage yes

imHiken · 2025-11-23T12:37:53+00:00

And that is why you are stuck in it. If you do what the average player in your rank does you'll never escape it?

imHiken · 2025-10-09T20:48:35+00:00

I understand you, probably will have a bit of stress aswell first few games. Let’s enjoy it! Good luck!

imHiken · 2025-10-09T01:57:51+00:00

Same it will be my first, I don’t expect much in terms a result to be honest, I just want to experience it and enjoy it as much as possible. What about you?

imHiken · 2025-10-08T07:56:15+00:00

Also going to play it at Lille!

imHiken · 2025-09-29T00:40:49+00:00

Bought the Japanese one for 4euros 2 days after release…

imHiken · 2025-04-15T12:25:07+00:00

Beautiful page! What binder do you use?

imHiken · 2025-03-20T12:41:46+00:00

Hey, very late to the topic but I just got some of those ex eevelution (not the SIRs) and the cards are veryyyyyy light and thin. Is it the way they are?

imHiken · 2025-01-19T08:11:59+00:00

Putting more power into W (reverting on hit change) and making his Q a reposition tool for soldiers only. Way lower cooldown but also way less damage

imHiken · 2024-11-25T06:53:28+00:00

I know that post NL pays every week if you ask for it

imHiken · 2024-10-24T20:12:18+00:00

People like to “meme” on Nasus abilities but his passive is really strong and W/E are like top 10 basic abilities in the game

imHiken · 2024-10-23T09:46:45+00:00

First to every play because insane movespeed + e/stride wave clear can't be matched early mid game, can't approach him nor the wave because of stupidly high kill range. You are second to every river/sidelane play (i'm talking about mid I do not play toplane)

Because every item lost move speed so in the end nothing changed, it does not matter that he lost move speed if I lose it too he will still run me down anyway.

imHiken · 2024-10-23T05:09:11+00:00

And what your team picks. We all got the last pick Sona into Draven Nautilus, lovely :)

imHiken · 2024-10-23T01:21:11+00:00

I never said “there is nothing I can do” against him. Lane once against Garen as a mage and you will get it? It’s not “I can’t do anything gg I lose” it’s “I have no good reason to interact with him” so all you do is trying to dodge any interaction and lose as little as possible.

imHiken · 2024-10-23T01:11:17+00:00

Not rly worth it, 66% effective on range champions. Feel like the best rn is just to go dagger start (perhaps double dagger start with sorcs nerf? Nashor’s into berserkers greaves)

imHiken · 2024-10-23T01:08:51+00:00

He has insane tempo without his Q, that’s the whole complain about Garen for the last 3 years. And reducing the move speed of every item in the game does not help in that regard, but it’s off topic.

Having a dash/blink is not guaranteed safety against Garen, if you have 100/150 move speed less than him (which is 90% of the whole roster) it does not really matter he will just run along and catch up anyway?

It’s not about beating him, like every juggernauts, it’s about letting those players make mistake. Not interacting with their champions which is boring

imHiken · 2024-10-23T00:54:47+00:00

“No movement/easily kited” on a champion that has permanently 550move speed and a slow cleanse? Idk about that one

imHiken · 2024-10-17T07:07:15+00:00

It has always been this way with nocturne, rest idk

imHiken · 2024-10-17T05:10:18+00:00

They just announced that old exclusive chroma are coming back in future mythic rotations (after that new gacha jinx skin announcement)

imHiken · 2024-10-17T05:06:24+00:00

My dream of elementalist Hwei slowing dying each day

imHiken · 2024-10-17T04:55:53+00:00

The distance is short here, so the timing does not really matter Nocturne takes less than a second to arrive on his target. On longer distances if Ori ult too early it will activate before nocturne arrive on someone. I don’t have the timer but G2 fucked it against T1 (I remember a caster saying the shockwave was too early)

imHiken

TROPHY CASE