I’ve played many, many, TCGs in my time. My main card game used to be Cardfight!! Vanguard, run by Bushiroad, before switching over to Magic: The Gathering in 2023. I’ve also indulged in Yu-Gi-Oh!, Flesh and Blood, Weiss Schwarz, Dragon Ball Z, Pokémon, and Lorcana. So, when I was invited to try out the newest Pokémon set with my friend — specifically the Build and Battle boxes — I couldn’t turn them down.
For this play session, each of us would be using a Build and Battle box each. These boxes consist of a preconstructed 40 card deck, as well as instructions on how to play the deck, and four packs of the set it’s based on. For this, we’re playing with the Destined Rivals set; themed around Team Rocket and their Pokémon.
Using these four packs, the instructions encourage you to use any spare cards you pull in your packs in your deck —- so long as you don’t exceed the 40 card limit. In this build and battle format, you’re allowed to use as many versions of a card as you can in a deck, as opposed to the full TCG, which at maximum, allows four. We both decided to just use the decks as is this time around.
My friend mainly plays Pokémon Pocket, the mobile version of the game that is shorthanded and made much simpler. In contrast, he found the rules easy to understand and the differences minute. The biggest difference between the two comes from the energy system. In Pocket, you have an energy pool outside of your deck so you always have access to energy, whereas the TCG requires you to draw your energy to your hand to use it.
Both of us quickly found that we wanted Team Rocket’s Weezing in our active slots. It does extra damage for every Koffing and Weezing both you and your opponent control, so it was easy to one hit KO practically any Pokémon we each put out.
For a simple out of the box experience, it was an awful lot of fun. If you’re a new player looking to get into the game, or have a young child expressing interest in getting involved, I think that the build and battle format is one of the best places to start.
The Build and Battle, Destined Rivals decks release on the 30th of May, you can find out more about them on their official website.