Pokemon Card Tips: Preparing for a Tournament

Before any tournament, especially the big ones, eat even if you’re not hungry or your stomach is a little queasy. You’ll need the energy to concentrate throughout the day.

Fact: quaziko almost had a seizure from not eating one time.

You gotta make sure you eat and drink water. Pokemon is an exhausting game, I get headaches just from thinking too hard and without the proper nutrition, you are really going to suffer.

Great vid…

Regarding sleeves, I always include a few extra sleeves in the deck box in case of a rip or damage during play. We also carry more full packs of sleeves in the case just so we can do a full resleeve if needed.

When judging, I have seen this happen and the player does not have extra sleeves and they have to then remove all their sleeves and play without, or find some way to resleeve. If the game has already started, ouch, this can seriously mess up game state and the results can be less than pleasant.

Nice vid Ian…

Some kind of nut is a great snack for in between rounds. I like raw almonds personally, but something high in protein will keep you feeling full. Try to get unsalted if possible, or carry a lot of water :]

Good tips here. I like to carry some extra sleeves as well just in case.

I’m with you nardd! Raw almonds are great. I love protein and granola bars too. I highly recommend Cliff bars if anyone wants to try something new.

i’m glad you guys liked the video. LordHolly i agree with you. Having an extra pack of matching sleeves is really important. As far as cliff bars go, i like those a lot!

Great video Ian,

All of your points are spot on. I really like the use of visual aids. Basically, anything you can do to make sure you arrive early and unstressed the better off you will be. The tournament itself is enough stress without adding in any extra!

My red sleeves are really nice, but from the back of the sleeve you can see through to the card. Is this going to be a problem?

Re: Notebook — Great idea. I’m always at a computer so I use a notepad program, but notebooks are also a great way to go. I also like to bring a notebook with me to the tournament to take notes and such.

Re: Deck Lists — Definitely a must. However, I’d recommend SteveP’s decklist program over the official POP ones. SteveP’s is definitely the most intuitive, and you can fill it out completely digitally. http://pokegym.net/decklist/

Re: Transportation — Agreed. I always pack up everything the night before, print out the Mapquest the night before, and plan to be there 15 minutes before registration starts (especially if I’ve never been there before).

Re: Alarms, etc. — Hahaha. I was hoping this was going to be in here. I’m super anal about alarms. I like to set my alarm to wake me up in the morning, and then my phone alarm to go off when we’re supposed to leave, and then my fiance’s phone alarm for when we’re supposed to arrive, so we can track our time well.

Re: Testing — Agreed. I used to be very anti-testing the night before, and I still am to an extent, but that all changed the night of Regionals when everybody in the whole hotel was testing, and I think it helped quite a bit.

Re: Lunch – Agreed. I’ve also found that some of the bigger/better comic/gaming shops will have relationships with nearby restaurants, so you might be able to save some money that way as well. For example, my LCS is on the same block as a Taco Del Mar, and we have tons of free taco coupons, so everybody always jumps on that at tournaments.

Re: Sleeves — This is definitely something that I see a lot of my local league kids miss out on. I always try to get at least 2 packs of whatever sleeves I’m using, and bring them all with me, just in case something terrible happens as far as ripped sleeves, etc. It’s also a good idea to bring a bunch of extra sleeves of different varieties, etc. just in case someone you know breaks a sleeve. Also, I’d recommend completely re-sleeving before bigger tournaments like Regionals, Nationals, etc.

Great video!

@Nardd @Adam: ALMONDS FOREVER. Team Almond.

@Woodstock: This will only be a problem if you have card backs that are noticeably marked (scratches, writing, etc.) or if you’re using Japanese/Foreign cards that have different backs.

yeah woodstock they should fine if you use all english cards. After all the backs of the cards haven’t changed over the years.

About the written decklist…

You mention writing out decklists so that you can edit it easier… but I still prefer printed out decks. They are super neat. What I do for the “write-in” problem is that I leave spaces below every card space that I might change. I always have staples, as in, cards that are essential to the deck, but below every tech card, or card that I’m considering how many copies I should run, I leave a blank line. This way, I can get the neatness of a typed-out decklist, with the flexibility of a written one.

I just keep a decklist file on my laptop so I can pull up whatever deck I’d like to (re)build. Saves trees, no mess, no pencils required!

Yes, you can use your laptop… but something about writing edits appeals to me. I love scratched up pages… it adds a sort of class that you can’t achieve on a clean slate.

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