Pokémon TCG: Sun & Moon Trainer Kit Lycanroc & Alolan Raichu Card Game

As a kid myself I never learned how to correctly play Pokémon cards.. Now that my son has got into them I decided we both learn! Great value! Very easy to follow along. Clear instructions. Don't shuffle the cards! My son got excited and shuffled his so we had to reorder his set because the directions say not to shuffle. After you play the first round using the guided play instructions YOU WILL BE A MASTER OF THIS GAME! My 9 year old read his instructions and I read mine and it was easy to follow along WHILE STILL HAVING FUN LEARNING! I didn't keep track of the time but I'd say about 30 fun minutes of the practice game. After that you will know how to play and you can shuffle and play the cards as you wish without the guides.Buy it! You and your kids will love it! However I don't think a kid could learn this on his/her own, they need a little guidance because it's tempting to skip over steps and read ahead or miss a step etc. Now that we know we're gonna teach my sons older siblings and friends. Oh and I used a ziplock bag to put everything in because the little tokens are very small and easy to fall out the box it came in.. see images. Still- very perfect and awesome guide and card set for beginners! Great cards in this set also!

My daughters and I recently got into Pokémon by their merchandise and mobile games. I thought it would be great to go back to its roots and play the Trading Card Game. I had no idea how to play it and was glad to have found this Trainer Kit. For about $9, why not?After the initial set-up, which took longer than the actual game, we had a good understanding of how to play. I then downloaded the TCG Online app for both our PC and tablet and entered the code that came with this kit. The app had a tutorial mode that was even more helpful (not to take anything away from the kit), and I feel that I've got a great understanding of it now and would be able to teach my nephews, nieces, and young cousins to play.This kit teaches the most basic rules of the game and can help one get started on building a good deck even with the cards included in this deck. I would suggest looking into the official rules to learn about retreating and statuses such as confused, poisoned, asleep, etc.I bought another Trainer Kit to try out other Pokémon types because I liked this kit so much. I highly recommend this to anyone, especially to those who are on the fence about the Trading Card Game.

By popular demand from the kids and tweens I work with, I started hosting a Pokemon TCG get-together. Despite how popular Pokemon remains, some of the most enthusiastic attendees had never actually played the game before. It can be a little difficult to reign the kids in, and make them go through a practice game using the 2 separate half-decks, and follow the instructions step-by-step, it's well worth the effort.These starter decks cover most of the basic mechanics, to get new players familiar with the game. Even some adults have been surprised to learn that they found the game enjoyable too, and using what they learned, now can talk about it with their kids. The fact that the cards are numbered is *invaluable* when they inevitably get mixed up or dropped. Even better, once they feel comfortable with the rules, you can combine the 2 half-decks into a full deck and play along with more practiced players who have built their own.

I wrote a similar review for the Alolan Sandslash and Alolan Ninetails Trainer Kit. Here is that review, verbatim:“ This pack has a lot of great cards for beginners, and it’s worth the price. It certainly teaches you how to play the game if you’re new, and it comes with a lot of helpful cards to start your own deck. However, the notion that you can combine these two 30 card decks into one 60 card deck to play against others with is absurd. There’s too many Pokémon for a battle-worthy deck and they’re of four different elemental kinds. There’s 24 Pokémon and 26 element cards, leaving only 10 trainer cards. I tried combining it and playing against one of my basic decks, and it lost in less than ten moves. I repeated the experiment, and it lost again and again.“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not unhappy with my purchase. I have enough extra Pokémon cards that I plan on splitting up this deck and building upon it with my other cards (removing some Pokémon and element cards and adding on trainer cards and such). My overall point being, while this is a good deck for beginners to learn how to *play* the game (when it’s split 30 & 30), it’s not a battle worthy deck in an actual 60 VS 60 game.”I would add onto that review with this deck by saying that this trainer kit is not as diverse in energy types as the other kit, by one. The Ninetails and Sandslash kit had four types, this one has three. It makes it a little easier to play with if it’s all you have available, but it still lost in my test plays. I’m going to do the same thing with this pack: split up the Pokémon types and create new decks.

I wanted to address some of the comments in previous reviews regarding the value of this item. Not only is this a fantastic item for easing into Pokemon TCG, since it is set up to play half games (which is less daunting), it's also a great value to start a collection. 60 cards for $8 (current price on Amazon) is 13 cents/card, compared to 20 cents/card for $4 booster packs. Obviously this kit is designed for absolute beginners, which I and my 7-year old are. So it was really perfect for us. We had so much fun playing that I went out and bought a (more expensive) theme deck the next day and played against a deck consisting of these two half decks with only a few swapped out and, let me tell you, the cobbled-together deck held it's own! Truth be told, my 7-year-old kicked my theme deck's butt. Of course, I am still learning and it might not hold up to really good decks -- but the value of having the energy and item cards alone is worth the $8. If you are a brand newbie, this is actually a great place to start. Don't let these other reviewers convince you to drop more coin when this will do just fine for starters.