Grantham Report :: Trading Card Game Other Pages

On Sunday 25th December, Chris Ward (Donky) and I went to and actually took part in one the Wizards Pokémon TCG League things. Hosted in the FanAttic in Grantham, throughout the course of my time there, about 20 people must have turned up.

The experience was quite refreshing, as most of the people there were my age (14), which was good, because it showed that there were still people interested in Pokémon.

The way the league worked was simple, and similar to the American system. You got given a booklet to record different things in. The object is to earn points to get prizes such as Promo cards and stickers. You can get points through lots of different ways, including taking part in a duel, winning a duel (obviously), teaching a newbie how to play, and even for just turning up.

Until I realised anyone could be a gym leader just by completing an easy multiple choice test, I was asking the Gym leader if he needed any help, as I needed points!

When you earn points, they get recorded in your badge record thing, which when you complete it, you earn a cool badge like in "real life", and your points also get recorded in the back where you work your way towards Promo cards. At the moment, Im trying to get Togepi and Smeargle, but there is also a Scizor on offer.

As good as the day was, it was also a humiliating one! Having not played for just under a year, due to lack of opponents, not to mention lack of cards post-Gym Challenge. I was a *little* rusty. I started well beating Harry who was aged 8. His deck was an Erika theme deck. Next up, it was Matthews (10)turn to lose. Oh how I laughed. He beat me.

Next up, James Coleman, who was more my age. This defeat luckily wasn as humiliating, as it was close. We both had similar decks based around Psychic cards, but what really put the last nail into my coffin of dispare was when it was Mr Mime Vs Mr Mime both with 10HP left, and he built up his bench but I was getting no energy! After this loss, I was called a Good Player, which was nice.

The next duel I had, was in the style of Yu-Gi-Oh. Actually it wasn . I faced another small child called Peter, who beat me with AN UNOWN. Nightmare it was.

The day ended with preparations to duel Chris. After being attacked on the forehead with several pens and a green point-stamper, my parents got back to the shop, forcing me to leave. However, next time, I will battle Chris and beat him!

One final thoought, wouldn it be class if this type of thing was done with the regular Game Boy games? Then wed have people to battle and a purpose to train. Pokémon fans don want a NOM tour, they want regular shop-based events on a regular basis.

Finally, Id like to thank Chris for telling me about this, FanAttic for running such as class thing, Scott the gym leader for giving me extra points, and thats about it. I hope to return in two weeks.