In an effort to bring back more activity to the TCG and help people
complete their collections, I have written a guide for the TCG. Some of
this information may be common knowledge to those who actively
participate in the TCG, but I hope everyone can get at least something
out of it. The guide is based on my experiences so there may be
information that people might disagree with, heh.
Basic Information First
off, I’m going to assume most people know how to use the card system in
general (ex: sending trades and replying to offers). If not,
this thread
covers most of it. Some other information that isn’t mentioned includes
the fact that up to 8 cards at a time can be recycled at a time; in
addition, only up to 3 cards can be offered in a single trade (per
side), and more than one of the same card is not allowed in the same
offer. As annoying as the restriction can be sometimes, it was
implemented to prevent a glitch that would cause cards to duplicate.
A complete collection can be seen in the
Card Display account, which was purposely created to display all the TCG cards. Don’t ask it for a trade – you will be ignored.
Triggers As
mentioned in the thread above, there are site actions that allow you to
get more cards. Here is a list of some of them.
Logging on AiB –
Currently awards 4 cards: one from each series. The simplest of the
ways to get cards, it can be argued that it doesn’t even count as a
trigger. Occasionally, there will be more cards awarded by just logging
on to the site (sometimes even limited addition ones). This can either
be a holiday drop or Enigma trying to fend off complaints about the
difficulty of getting cards. It should be noted that the system awards
the cards at 3 am EST, so logging on any time after that will count for
that day.
Voting on front page polls
– Awards 3 cards. Yet another easy way to get cards, but one that is
not consistent as other methods because the polls only appear every so
often. Don’t miss out when they do come around!
Voting on TCG group polls
– Awards vary. Unlike the front page poll, the cards from the TCG group
polls awards cards instantly. Furthermore, you can still go to the
thread for the poll and get the cards if you missed out when the poll
was featured in the group.
Getting mentioned in a news post
– Awards 2 cards. This is a bit harder to accomplish for obvious
reasons. I would not specifically try getting this trigger since it
really is something that just happens. However, one surefire way
accomplish this is to win in the “Who’s that User” competition (whenever
they come around) as the winners will always be mentioned in the
subsequent WTU post.
Wins on the ladder –
Awards cards based on the number of wins earned on the previous day.
Every two wins on singles ladder awards one card. Additional cards can
also be earned after a set amount of wins or having a winning streak.
Participating in a tournament –
Awards cards based on participation and if a medal was won or not. When
tournament results are uploaded, the cards will be awarded the next
day. It works for offline tournaments only.
Blog recommended –
Awards cards based on how many recommendations received. Blogs that are
recommended usually have good information in them. They can be related
to tournaments or have wisdom or tips; basically, entries people would
be interested in reading. They may also be something that requires
community attention. But one really should be writing for the blog
itself, not the cards.
Participation in Stadium – Awards cards if your scores are approved and/or a record is set.
TCG Contests – Sometimes the TCG group hosts contests that will reward cards. Currently it’s the series 5 snapshot
contest (go participate! /shameless plug). I’m also planning to run a
weekly one in the future so keep an eye out for that.
Even
with these all the triggers, you probably don’t have a complete
collection. So let’s continue to the next section, shall we?
Trading Trading is the
most effective method of getting specific cards you need (with some
exceptions). Where do you find people to trade with?
TCG group
– The most obvious place: this group was created to facilitate trades.
Leave a shoutout and see other people’s shoutouts. It’s pretty
self-explanatory and quite useful.
TCG chat
– Activity here has been dead recently, but checking it every so often
doesn’t hurt. If there are trading events going on, they would be in
here. Midnite will be planning a get-together soon to help make the TCG
more active.
Friends list –
These people aren’t ones you added randomly to get a badge are they?
Help fill each other’s collections, there are likely cards someone has
that the other person doesn’t. The people on your friends list are also
less likely to ignore you (I hope).
Whoever is online –
Go to the bottom of the forums page to see who is online. Chances are
they participate in the card system. However, it is also somewhat likely
that people will ignore a complete stranger asking for a trade.
Profile shoutouts – One of
the more effective ways, if a bit stalker-ish. The main idea is looking
to see if anyone else has traded with someone that you might be able to
trade with as well.
Okay, you found people
willing to trade with you. Now what? Make an offer! There should be
some things to keep in mind when doing this.
Rarity/Weight –The
rarity of the card is indicated by the circle and the weight is
indicated by the squares on the bar (the higher the weight the rarer it
is). Note that the rarity on the card might not correspond to how easy a
card is to get, though it is generally the case. For example, a
Munchlax card (common Pokemon) is exceedingly less common than a Wifi
Waiting Room (stage common) due to the fact that Pokemon cards can only
be acquired through forging a Pokeball or Premier Ball. This is what
I’d like to call “true rarity”. The true rarity can be determined by
seeing how the card is acquired, and it should be considered over what
the card says by itself; it is probably the most important thing to
consider when looking at offers. Short list of cards whose true rarity
is usually different than what is (or isn’t) displayed – Pokemon,
Vending Machine, Promos, Keepsakes, and forging materials for hard to
get cards.
Points –
The point value of a card is usually related to its rarity. Commons
typically range between 5-100 points, Uncommons from 100-300, Rares
300-600, Ultra-Rares (URs) 600-865, Legendaries 865-1000. Again, there
are some exceptions: Red Charizard is an uncommon worth 95 points and
Pichu and Poppant are rare cards worth -350 and 50 respectively. Some
people are very picky about points, while others are not at all. Be sure
to know who you are trading with when making an offer.
Quantity –
The number of cards being offered. Not as important as the above two,
but still something to consider. In some cases, you may find someone
willing to trade an UR for a large number of non-UR cards. You also may
have trouble trading a Jirachi for 100 S1 Marths even though the trade
is clearly in the favor for the person receiving Jirachi (or is it?).
Dupes – Does the person
have more than one of the card you are trying to trade for? Many people
dislike trading cards they only have one of. However, non-dupe trading
is still completely viable and quite necessary to get the harder to find
cards. People are also less likely to accept a trade if it has cards
they already have/they don’t need. You may have to over offer to get
someone to trade their non-dupe or if you are offering cards they
already have, but that goes both ways.
Category
– What category the card is in used to be more important (in the past
people focused on completely specific category) but nowadays it does not
matter too much. Sometimes you will still find people that only collect
a certain category though (most likely characters). Characters are the
most popular category so you may want to consider keeping a few of those
around.
Series – Wait
really? Yes. The main reason to consider this is as a more accurate
judgment of card’s true rarity. If a series is just released the new
cards are harder to find the cards that have been out for a while. Also,
if a series has high demand cards (say, series 1 for Pokeballs and
Smashballs), the other cards in that series become more common as people
buy more and more packs. This means that even UR’s in that series drop
in value. This usually doesn’t have a huge effect, and it does change
over time.
It should be said that there is
no perfectly equal trade other than trading the exact same cards to
each other due to all the above differences. That does not mean people
can’t come to an agreement (yay for stating the obvious!); Matching or
balancing most of the above criteria usually results in an acceptable
trade. The key to getting a trade done is knowing what the other person
is looking for.
Stop! Example time!
Starting simple:
Fire Flower vs Food In
this case, almost everything about the cards is the same other than a
15 point value difference. The user with Food is losing 15 points in the
trade, but if they are getting a card they need for something they have
a dupe of, chances are the trade will happen.
That was so simple it felt like a waste of time typing it…next!
Name Entry vs Sector Z
These are both uncommons, but Sector Z has a much higher weight, and is
harder to find than a Name Entry is. However, Name Entry can be used in
forging! …which a lot of people don’t do. The 5 point difference is
negligible. In general, this trade is in favor for the person trading
Name Entry, but the person trading Sector Z is still likely to trade it
if they have a dupe of Sector Z and/or they need a Name Entry.
Challenger Approaching vs S4 Galleom In-depth
analysis time! Both of these are URs, with S4 Galleom having 1 square
higher weight and 30 more points. The trade seems to be in favor of the
person receiving S4 Galleom, but I would argue that it’s pretty equal.
Points on an UR shouldn’t matter as much because they shouldn’t be
recycled anyway (but again, it depends on who you are talking to). Even
though Challenger Approaching has less weight, the likelihood of getting
it is lower than getting a S4 Galleom in a pack due to the fact that
there are only 3 URs that you can get in a Series 4 special pack. Also,
because Series 4 is a newer series, you are going to find people opening
more of those packs compared to a Series 2. It’s easier finding someone
with a dupe S4 Galleom than a dupe Challenger Approaching. But at this
point in time, there are a few people who collects SSE bosses, so S4
Galleom has another pro going for it; on the other hand, there is also
someone who wants a Challenger Approaching because it features Ness’
silhouette. But most people don’t look so in-depth, so in the above
case the person trading S4 Galleom could mention the weight and point
difference and probably get the other user to add more cards to their
offer.
Recycling/Buying Booster Packs
Recycling every dupe and buying packs is not the fastest way to
get a complete collection (in fact, it is impossible), albeit it is the
method to get most of the cards that takes the least amount of effort.
Trading is exceptionally more effective than recycling, but there are
some cases where it can be necessary to recycle. These cases are getting
Ultra-Rare/Legendary cards and to pay for forging. But this is only if
you can’t find someone to trade that has those, since Trading is forever
better than Recycling!! Unless you happen to be super lucky, of course.
Just looking at statistics/using math, you can easily spend more than
5000 points trying to get a CD through packs, but you would probably get
no offers if you tried trading a CD for 5000 coins. But for something
such as newly released UR (where no one actually has it to trade for)
it’s time to buy some boosters. It can also be a fast way to get a lot
of cards in a new series, when you don’t have to worry so much about
getting too many cards you already have (but trading is still better!).
What should you recycle?
Cards people do not want
– This is subjective, but mainly commons and uncommons. It’s usually
not worth recycling a rare since you should be able to find someone that
needs it, but sometimes people don’t feel like taking the time to do
so.
Eh. A better question is what shouldn’t you recycle?
Cards that are used for forging – Something such as an Alloy is more useful as an ingredient than the 50 points it would give you.
Certain character cards
– Quite a few people collect certain characters, so you will be able to
get at least more points for them than you would by recycling. Keep an
eye on the TCG group for these individuals.
URs, Legendaries, Promos - You can find someone that will trade more points for them quite easily.
Which packs should you buy?
The booster that has the UR card or wrapper you can’t find anyone to trade for- Self-explanatory. Look at Card Display to determine which series the card belongs to.
Series 1 Special Booster- For
Pokeballs and Smash Balls, the two cards that are currently in the most
demand. Assist Trophies are a slight bonus, as they are rumored to be
needed for series 5.
Item Booster –
For the items listed above. I find these to be worse than the series 1
specials, especially since s1 specials can also award a wrapper now, but
if you are beyond lucky you may get multiple URs in a single pack.
(Don't count on it, really.)
Series 4 Special Booster –
For Smash Balls. There are only 3 UR cards in series 4, so it is more
likely that you are going to get a Smash Ball from here than from any
other pack.
Series 2 Special Booster –
For SSE Bosses. Winged Tabuu is the rarest card you can get through
buying packs so the S2 special gets a mention. SSE bosses are also
somewhat popular.
The normal series
boosters may give you a net point gain if you are lucky, but they don’t
give URs so they are fundamentally not worth it (other than getting the
wrapper for those boosters, but that goes under the first point). I
would also advise against recycling until you actually need to use the
coins, as you never know if someone wants the card you just recycled.
It’s better to have the card than to have some coins that are not enough
for anything.
Forging
Forging is a great way to get specific cards, and sometimes the only
way to get them. Each recipe has a cooldown, meaning the amount of time
needed to wait before using the same recipe again. You can find a list
of known forges in
this thread.
But certain forges are not actually worth it the cost. Sandbag’s
Revenge for Sandbag, Home Run Bat, Home Run Contest, and 400 points?
Ouch. Here are the better ones:
Pokeballs – Currently the only way to get UR Pokemon (1/6 chance). Cooldown: 24 hours.
Smashballs/Chaos Emeralds/Varia Suit Pieces – The only way to get Final Smashes. Cooldown: 24 hour.
Cheap Gift/Expensive Gift – The only way to get console keepsakes. Cooldown: 1 hour.
Promos-
Promos were released to everyone before, but they have not been
re-released recently, so they fall under the category of “the only way
to get these” for now. Cooldown: 24 hours.
Jyks
– A rare and 300 points for an UR sounds pretty good. (However, this is
a reported glitch that will probably be fixed later). They can also be
used to make Smashballs, but 3 URs and 300 points for 1 UR (even if it
is a Smashball) isn’t as appealing. Cooldown: 1 hour.
Premier Balls –
The lesser version of Pokeball. There is no reason to forge these if
you can find Pokeballs, but that’s usually the problem. Unfortunately,
these only give up to rare Pokemon. Cooldown: 24 hours.
Team Characters
– The value of the cards used in forging these is only slightly more
(sometimes it’s equal or even less in one case!) than what you get out
of them. Cooldown: 1 hour.
Rare SSE enemies –
Arguably worth the slight point hike if one is feeling particularly
lazy in finding other people to trade with. Cooldown: 1 hour.
Strategies There a few
strategies that people use to try to complete the card collection, some
of which are more deplorable than others. In any case, there are some
listed below.
Red Paper Clip/Trading up –Start
with a Wifi Waiting Room. Trade it to a person who needs it, and get
another common; let’s say they had a dupe Red Marth they were willing to
trade. Trade Red Marth to another person and get 2 Wifi Waiting Rooms.
Ta-da, you have now doubled the amount of what you initially started
with! (yes, even if it is just another Wifi Waiting Room) by doing
reasonable trades. So just do this with better cards.
Stockpiler Delivery
– Stockpilers are the people that collect multiples of the same card.
Usually these people will collect multiples of the same character(s),
but there exist stockpilers for non-character cards as well. They will
usually give a fair (or better) trade for the card they’re stockpiling.
Even better, you can usually go back to the same person for even more
trades when you get more of the card they want.
Reputation – It’s
not really a strategy as much as it is just something that can help (or
hurt) you when trading. If you are well known, it will be easier for
you to get trades. That would be with a good reputation, of course; if
the general opinion of you is negative, it may be a bit harder. People
are more likely to respond to you if you are not a nobody, but the user
that logs on only every so often may not know famous (or infamous)
people on the site, so this may not matter too much. However, you
should still be mindful of what you say and do on the site.
Misleading
– It’s what it sounds like. Ex: trading a Mario Bros. card for a
Munchlax and saying “They are both commons, but Mario Bros has a higher
point value so it’s CLEARLY better and you should really do this
trade!!11” This method preys on the other user’s ignorance about true
rarity. Misleading other people makes you looks bad so use at your own
risk.
A lot of users are turned off of
completing the card collection because they feel they need to cheat
others to get what they want. This is not the case. You can find people
(who know values) willing to do “bad” trades. Here’s an example: Green
Wario (95 point common) was recently released. Several users were
willing to use the S1 Wario, Green Alloy, and 500 points to forge the
Green Wario. Just looking at values, why would anyone do that? People
can be impatient or just want a card enough to over-trade for it. (Yes,
this example was forging and not trading. But the idea is still the
same: if Green Wario wasn’t able to be forged, you might find someone
offering a rare for this common just to complete their character
category). In addition, you always can be super-pro and get a lot of
wins on the ladder or participate in offline tournaments to get more
cards.
Other tips ~Even if the other person doesn’t accept your initial offer, negotiate!
~If you get banned, your rarest card will go poof. Follow the rules
(but you shouldn’t need cards as motivation here right?)
~Having
trouble sending an offer to someone with 3 or less characters in their
name? Just type another character and delete it.
~If your proposed trade is straightforward, just send the offer right away to save time.
~If
you want to offer more than 3 cards (let’s just say 4) for one card,
send the first 3 cards in one offer and the last card along with a
random card the other person has in a second offer. The other person
should reply to the first trade with whatever card you wanted and the
second trade with the random card you added. That way the trade is done
without the other person trading more than they offered.
~On your birthday, you get an extra drop of 9 cards, one of which includes a UR/L.
Closing
It will take quite a bit of time (and some luck) to complete the
collection, but don’t give up! Also remember that the main purpose of
the TCG is to have fun, so don’t get too stressed trying to complete it.
There’s usually a lot of time between series after all.
I
hope this has been a helpful or at least somewhat entertaining read for
everyone. Feel free to leave any questions or comments. Happy card
collecting!
Special thanks to:
Volke Aeno for proof-reading and suggestions; TheEnigmaLiesBroken and
nealdt for the card system. Also, thank you to everyone that has traded
with me. I would mention everyone but it would probably take up a whole
page (and the fact that I'd probably miss a few people).
Picture credit -
お粥