Bored of Standard and Expanded? Try Pokemon TCG Alternative Play Handbook!
TCG Alternative Play Handbook - what is it?
TCG Alternative Play Handbook is a fun guide for everyone who has (or plans to buy) Pokemon cards and wants to explore various formats of play, other than the Standard and Expanded formats being played regularly on tournaments. The alternative formats can be used to compete with your friends or just to kill time between rounds on tournaments – the possibilities are endless! Plus all that, you don’t need to have any skill in Pokemon TCG – the alternative formats are suitable for beginner, intermediate and advanced players!
What are the alternative playing formats?
Inside the Handbook, you will find various alternative formats, with detailed description of each.
They are divided based on the player experience level to:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Within the experience scale, the formats are distributed to:
- Casual
- Competitive
- Cooperative
There are 11 alternative formats and we bet you will find the one which suits you and your friends best! So let’s start!
Beginner formats
As the name itself suggests, the Beginner formats are most suitable for casual Pokemon TCG players who are looking to make their introduction into the Pokemon TCG world even more fun!
In the Handbook, you will find the following Beginner formats:
- Poke Catch
- Booster Fun
- Multi-experience (grow & go)
- Basic Battle
Our favourite format for beginners is the Booster Fun! As the name suggests, with this format you will be pulling some awesome cards from your new Booster Pack and additionally have fun with those cards immediately! Within the Booster Fun you can find the following gambeplay’s:
- Top Number Triumphs
- 151 Questions
- Who's That Pokemon?
- Memory Berry
Gameplay for Beginner format: Booster Fun - Top Number Triumphs
Intermediate formats
If you already have some experience with playing Pokemon TCG, we recommend to jump right in the Intermediate level! Intermediate formats offer casual and competitive gameplays such as:
- Pack Battle
- Menu of Limitations
- Achievements
Since we are all in on the mystery of the Booster Packs, our pick in the Intermediate level is the Pack Battle, with a nifty additional Ditto rule to make things more interesting.
Advanced formats
Don’t you worry, the Handbook has also taken care of all of you skilled players out there. You can choose from four different types of gameplay, which are desribed in detail, since their rules are a bit more challenging. But we assure you that all that reading will pay off with tons of fun and laughter after each alternate format game! The four Advanced formats are:
- Team Format
- Raid Format
- Gym Leader Challenge
- Ditto Draft
It was very difficult to choose from all of those cool formats, but our pick for Advanced format is: Gym Leader Challenge – we just love to play it!
After shortly presenting our favourites from the recently issued TCG Alternate Play Handbook it is now time to go through the Handbook and pick your alternate play favourites – we wish you all tons of fun! Share your alternate gameplay photos and tag us on our social media!