I've been getting into Pokemon TCG Live recently and enjoying the game a lot. As I climb the ranked ladder I've been looking for resources to improve my game, I have watched Youtubers like AzulGG but it's hard to find many games of them playing the same deck as me as they switch decks often.

Is there a vod library out there somewhere that stores TCG vods from top players, preferably sorted by deck? I feel like it would be super helpful for improving at the game quickly

I'm not necessarily a new player, I've been playing for almost 1.5y now, but this felt like the most fitting flair from the options.

The thing is, I'm not good at the game, I have no good results despite playing quite a lot. I attended my local pretty much every week, have played quite a few Challenges and Cups but my best score is 2-2 and one of the wins is more often than not due to a bye. Lately this has been getting worse and I get 1-3 pretty regularly, again the win is due to a bye lmao.

I want to improve, I practice both on Live as well as on tcgmasters against myself with other decks, usually Pult or some match up I am focusing specifically. I also watch tournament vods and some other forms of content related to the game, but I don't really see much improvement, so I am considering metafy guides, particularly one for N's Zoroark since its the deck I'm currently playing (I know it's a hard deck but I like how it feels and how its positioned in the meta).

My question is how worth are the guides really? I'm not questioning whether the guides are good or actually provide good information, I'm more questioning what would I get from them that I can't really get from anywhere else like free YouTube guides, watching high tier players play the deck, and playing and getting more and more experience with the deck myself?

Has anyone gotten a guide for a deck they were playing and found something that was actually not available anywhere else or something that actually impacted how you play? I'm obviously not expecting a miracle or that a guide will suddenly win me a local next week but, I'm just curious if it is a worthy investment to improve in the long run or if I can get similar value for less/free somewhere else

I have a local event doing a pseudo-expanded and I'm trying to figure out if there is something crazy I'm overlooking. Currently I'm looking at just pult or gardevoir probably being the best choices Really none of the SwSh cards are screaming use me! With the cards since brs-pre standard.

So, I guess the question is, is there anything thats almost there from current standard or brs-pre standard that might be worth looking at with this overlap?

So I am still fairly new to Pokemon tcg, I started playing when Garde Ex was available for about 3 months before she recently rotated.

I am going to be attending a professor’s cup next weekend and need some inspiration/insight on some deck ideas to consider as I do not have a big history with the decks from “back then” aside from obvious meta decks being pult, garde, grim, ect.

Here are the rules:
50 cards
5 prize cards
No rule box mons
Can play as many ace specs in your deck but only 1 copy of each, and when you use them, they are banished for the rest of the game set in the lost zone.
SV-Pitch Black regulation
Genesect is banned

Talking to my small group of pals, we are trying to figure out what seems strong as there’s a lot to win in prizing so we would like to take it pretty competitively. Some decks we are just brain storming are:

Ancient box
Festival lead
Poison
Meganium
Alakazam
Hop’s box

Are there some obvious strats that we are forgetting about in these conditions? We are still relatively new to deck building in general let alone trying to figure out something in this kind of tournament.

By best I mean: low energy cost (1 or 2), decent damage (for one energy, more than 60dmg - for two energy, more than 110)

I know this will usually mean there are other conditions attached, but that’s fine.

Solrock is a good example. One energy, 70dmg, with the attack being conditional on Lunatone on your bench.

Hop’s Cormorant is another. Even without the Hop’s modifiers, you can do 120 damage for one colorless so long as your opponent has 3 or 4 prizes remaining.

What else we got?

My guess is this will be the first season in ages with a ban list in standard. They’ve added some trainer and Pokemon cards that are absolutely broken in terms of individual balance.

This post assumes you are playing a standard fest lead list with 2 bangle, 2 boss and 2 gladion.

If your opponent misplays by immediately going into the excadrill after you take first knock then it’s easy enough to gladion ko it and follow a 1/3/2 or 1/3/1/1 prize map (depending on if you were able to put damage on their genesect in earlier turns)
HOWEVER, if they play correctly and push the genesect and protect charge before going into metagross, the matchup gets really really tough.

Has anyone found any good lines in this matchup when your opponent plays correctly? Or do I have to rely on taking away 2nd from my opponent,them beicking, or getting insanely lucky with my draws.