High End Tournament?

I have to agree with some of the people here in the comments, that is a great idea, but I think you should start smaller to get things going.

And for that, figure out which sets to include, maybe a combination of sets that work well together for play, and have collectibility

A smaller entry fee won’t generate the hoped for media interest Rusty is hoping for to make it all worth while. A quarter million dollar purse could generate interest/publicity even outside the region.

We could get together here on efour and partner up funds to send our best playing member. That’s one entry right there:)

1 Like

I know of a few already interested, I would be dropping in a spot as well. It would be nice to actually feel excited to pull a gust of wind or energy removal.

The high end aspect of it would be definitely be the draw.

WSOP is one of the events that kick started the thought haha. For Pokemon, I think you have more of a say if giving yourself an advantage with your deck.

Gary, feel free to just come display that collection
 anytime.

I do like the idea of doing a draft with other older product- not so high end. Gathering up these old Pokemon boxes is not as easy as just buying them though! Many of the boxes are getting quite hard just to find for sale.

1 Like

So last year when Steam Siege came out I made a deck and played someone at my shop running Greninja BREAK. I made the deck like older decks where you have near 20 energy
 I was hammered. Just that one battle helped me get the deck up to meta. Just play a few times against people who know what they are doing, and you figure it out quickly. You could simply go make two decks straight off a playlist on PokeBeach and play yourself. Very quickly, you figure out just how powerful Gust of Wind, Energy Removal, and Bill really are.

1 Like

It would be a risk for sure, but if you open the packs and win the tournament it could pay off big. There would still most likely be a cash pool with top prize getting anywhere from $10-$50K depending on the entries and how the other prizing works.

Even with the 1st Ed Box scenarios as additional prizing, there would be a cash pool and the packs from each set you have as well. I have some other cool items that could be thrown in the mix for prizing - like uncut sheets or PSA stuff.

I do not think getting the entries or enough prizing to make it work it would be the hard part. Setting up the venue and making the most out event would be the tough part haha.

I think the concept of a big buy in large prize tourney works but are people going to fill the spots knowing that their chance of winning is based on pure luck from the pack pulls as opposed to being the best tcg player? Imagine spending 5k on this and then pulling no decent trainers from your packs, you can kiss your money goodbye before you’ve even played a game
 I think maybe having people bring their own decks would be interesting, you could even limit the era which the cards can be from?

I know Rudy and Vintage Magic play high end mtg, but don’t know if they do in a high end tournament setting like this.

Also can be very challenging to do. Deck building changed so much since WotC. Some Base trainers will be so damn broken combined with VS seeker etc.

Too bad I am to poor to participate :laughing:

You have would 85 packs minimum to open from all different eras. This kind of draft would be more skill-based on deck building since you would have nearly 1000 cards to choose from ranging from the entire life span of the game. Most drafts are luck since you get like 4 or 8 packs - but with this having so many packs it should not be hard to construct a deck.

I would love to get smaller or more limited tournaments going as well, but this “high end” tournament would be a test across the full Pokemon TCG from the very start. The appeal would be having cards from every edition. I have the means to only run it this way once and then that would be it. Any store have people bring their own deck to a limited format tournament.

I didn’t realise how many packs would be distributed, you’re right with 85 packs you would be fine. I think streaming this would be a really good idea.

1 Like

Sounds like an awesome idea. Opening a pack from each expansion on one day would be amazing. I feel like there would have to be an opening day then at least 24 hours for folks to go through their cards and put together their best decks. I don’t know much about the TCG, but I imagine it would be so hard as there would probably be several viable strategies sitting amongst your several hundred cards. You’d have no idea what anyone else was going to come up with either. There would have to be ban lists or certain cards that couldn’t be used together right? I recall reading about unlimited format “donk” decks using cards from several years apart that could win on turn 1 almost every time.

1 Like

You could be the e4 entrant:)

BYOD WotC era only. This allows real old-skool players/builders to bring their best game possible with the limited options WotC offered. I think this is the format Rudy/AlphaInvestments and Daniel/VintageMagic play

This is a cool idea Rusty, however

I think it would be a good idea to stick to the first three WOTC sets for a high end draft like this. Base, Jungle, and Fossil sets would be sufficient to build a deck. It could be like the TCG for Gameboy. Base Set provides staple trainer cards while the other two sets add supporting PokĂ©mon and more strategic plays to the mix. Obviously newer sets are going to have very high HP and high attack power PokĂ©mon. I just don’t see people using PokĂ©mon from earlier eras when newer more powerful options are available. Just an idea but it could certainly attract more people with the funds if they know its Base-Fossil they will be provided.

In a setup like that, any Blastoise deck will be victorious.

True, Blastoise is powerful in a format like this, but there were many more competitive decks. Scyther/Electabuzz/Hitmonchan and “Do The Wave” for example.
Personally it’s a format I’d love to see done :blush:

Haymaker deck and if no one is looking, sneak in 2 of the pikachu wb movie promo cards, id put some money on that. However, being a draft by opening packs, its very uncertain what kind of deck you might get.

Getting Buzz, Chan or Scyther isn’t that hard. Getting 4x Bill, 4x Proffessor Oak, 4x DCE and a couple Breeders is harder.