What can you tell me about the Pokemon TCG (Trading Card Game)?

[Luz de Luna Luz de Luna Luz de Luna's icon]

I was lucky enough to be around at just the right age to truly appreciate Pokemon's popularity as it was starting to grow and spill over to other genres, collecting all sorts of weird products along the way (postcards, anyone?)... But the one that truly made scratch my head was the trading card game.

It's not that I didn't know anyone who owned the cards (I knew plenty of those), but every single person I ever met who had at least a couple of those kept them around as collectibles, never actually sitting down to play a game with them the way it was intended.

Now... Considering that all the same people had mastered Yu-Gi-Oh, I gotta ask: was the Pokemon TCG a misstep, a stumble on the way to greatness? Maybe it's the greatest card game ever, but the fact that even my local cardshop didn't even try to set up tournaments or a trading "ring" like it did with other games has always caught my attention.

Thanks, dudes ^^!

 

[cjl8336 cjl8336]

wizards of the coast taking advantage of a very popular license

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Delta Pokemon being regional variants before Gen 7

 

[CheesyExplosive]

POkE-MAN jamacain voice

 

[bjork]

I know that I beat that Game Boy Color game for it, though all I recall is some cheesy strategy with Chansey cards.

I know that I have no respect for the scalpers who buy an entire store's shipment in one transaction. Pushing each other over on the floor over cards and whatnot. Silly.

 

[JellyjamLu]

It can be very fookin' expensive

 

[Ziko]

Delta Pokemon being regional variants before Gen 7

They would be an early example of this and what's nuts is that this happened in the card game of all things and it's hard for me to believe that the devs at Game Freak couldn't have done that idea alone. I really would like to see these Pokemon in a rom hack at least but no one wants to do that apparently.