Having recently started building Pokemon card decks, it became fairly evident that we was short on trainer cards that would have gone a long way towards making these decks flow better. Furthermore, I wanted to add a few more V and VMax cards to expand our options and complete any loose evolution chains we currently had.

With a trip downtown coming up, I figured it would be a great time to order singles from my favourite local game store from the website and pick them up while I’m in the city.

I did order some singles…and some other stuff. Here’s what I got!

League Battle Inteleon Deck

The League Battle Inteleon deck is one that I’ve had my eye on ever since I started playing the game. Unlike standard theme or V Battle decks, the League Battle decks are designed with competitive play in mind.

Picking this deck up now crosses off multiple objectives for me:

• It has copies of trainer cards I was looking to buy as singles, such as Air Balloon, Bird Keeper, Marnie, Boss’s Orders, Capacious Bucket, Ordinary Rod, and Scoop Up Net
• It has two copies of Inteleon V and two copies of Inteleon VMax
• It has two copies of Frosmoth, which is one of the best supporting Pokemon for a water deck
• Buying the deck is notably cheaper than buying the cards separate. The V and VMax cards alone would have been $20 CAD vs. the $22 I paid for the whole deck.

The package basically gives me all the cards I was looking to buy as singles and then some! Not only can I scrape this for parts, but we can use this as a strong deck without any further adjustments. Best of all, my local game store sells this deck for considerably less than anywhere else available to me. They’re even selling it at a lower price than the Pokemon Center!

Vivid Voltage Charizard Theme Deck

Unlike the League Battle deck, I did not get a great deal on the Charizard deck. If anything, I paid a bit of a premium for this one. Though it shouldn’t be like this, this particular Charizard deck ended up being a bit more expensive than the League Battle deck, despite it being a weaker deck with no unique cards in the set.

Nevertheless, this one has caught my interest for a few reasons:

• More foundational trainer cards to use for custom decks, such as Bede, Dan, Great Ball, Ordinary Rod, and Switch
• This is one of my favourite decks to use in the online game and I wanted to be able to play it IRL
• This is one of the hardest theme decks to buy due to its popularity. My local game store is the only one that I’ve seen that still has it in stock at a somewhat-normal price.

Looking forward to roasting with this one!

Vivid Voltage Drednaw Deck

Drednaw…isn’t exactly the type of Pokemon that would buy a deck off the strength of their presence. In fact, I have used this Drednaw deck as the butt end of jokes on many occasions. Having used this deck in the online game, it’s also not one of my favourites to play with.

So…why did I buy it?

For starters, it was on clearance for $10 CAD. Normally, theme decks go for between $20-25. $10 for a functional deck is a great deal and gives Steff and I one more quick play option. Also, we can siphon off its trainer cards and energy cards for our own decks. Welcome to the family, Drednaw!

Shadow Rider Calyrex V

During our Chilling Reign run, we were fortunate enough to pull two Shadow Rider Calyrex VMax cards. Unfortunately, we can’t use either of them without the V to start. Though it was the most expensive card to obtain, I’d rather pay the $10 CAD to get it right away rather than pushing our luck by purchasing even more boosters.

Shiny Rillaboom V

Though our shiny Rillaboom VMax sort of got lost in the shuffle when we pulled a shiny Charizard within the same collector’s box, I did not forget when it was time to grab a Rillaboom V to complete the evolution. Could have saved a bit of money by going with the regular Rillaboom V, but really wanted to complete the pair!

Cinderace V and Cinderace VMax

Having obtained the V and VMax cards for Rillaboom and Inteleon, why not complete the Sword & Shield starter set? Glad to have the extra firepower!

Crobat V and Crobat VMax

Crobat V and VMax is the MVP of my online dark deck. However, in the online game, I have a four of each. Wasn’t ready to fully commit to that extent IRL, but I did pick up a set to add the presence of my star Pokemon when Steff and I play together!

Blissey V

Having fought against players using this in their decks, Blissey V is an absolute terror! If you let it get going, it will one-shot everything you have while only getting stronger with time. Though I hate facing off against it, I love having it for our own collection!

Aggron

Admittedly, this one is a curious pick. However, after opening a booster box of Chilling Reign packs, we ended up with a ton of Aron and Lairon cards that didn’t really have much value without the final evolution. Picked up two of these in case either of us decides to build a deck using its beefy attack!

Rillaboom

Similar to Aggron, I have a ton of loose Grookey and Thwackey cards from an assortment of different sets. While I do have a few Rillaboom cards from the theme deck, the Chilling Reign edition of Rillaboom has different moves and is classified as a Rapid Strike card should I decide to make Rapid Strike decks someday.

Xerneas

Xerneas is a card that I first pulled in the Pokemon TCG Online. Though it isn’t necessarily a spectacular card, it is one of a Pokemon I like and a direct upgrade to cards that I already use in my IRL and online psychic decks. Grabbed a pair to round out my squad!

Sword and Shield Base Set Booster Packs

Everything above this I bought online and picked up at the store the following day. However, I did have an itch to buy boosters to open. My local store had base set boosters for $8. This is notably higher than the $6-7 regular price, but base set cards are hard to come by these days. I grabbed two and was content with that.

Then…I went to Chapters. They usually have a modest selection, but certainly not the first place you’d think of when shopping for cards. What made it particularly tricky was that they weren’t sorted at all. Each rack featured Battle Styles boosters at the front. I actually walked away the first time thinking it was just Battle Styles packs.

But if you dig a bit deeper, they had a whole grip of base set cards! They also had the highly-sought-after Vivid Voltage packs too! Best of all, these were sold at $5.95 each! While I could have cleaned out their rack of base set cards, I settled for a modest six packs. In total, I came home with eight, which Steff and I opened one-per-day.

---

Admittedly, this is much more than I thought I’d have when I initially set out to buy a grip of trainer cards and other loose ends. Even so, I think what I ultimately picked up largely stayed within my original vision.

Buying the decks may seem a bit extreme, but it was a simpler and actually more cost-effective way of getting all of the cards I was looking for. Also, I come away with three playable decks!

The singles mostly complete existing threads or are cards I’m excited to use.

As for the booster packs, that wasn’t me going entirely off the rails. My goal is still to grab a sampling of cards across the different modern sets (Sword & Shield era) and we didn’t have any of those prior to this purchase.

Can’t wait to put all of these cards to good use!

---

Buy the Pokemon TCG Battle Academy Now From Amazon.com

[Purchasing through this Amazon affiliate link gives me a small commission without adding any extra cost or effort to you. Thanks for your support!]