Today is the day I officially started my journey to becoming a Pokémon Master.
Dylan took me to Vagabond, one of the game stores in Auckland CBD, and honestly, the moment I stepped inside, I was overwhelmed.
Board games. Card games. Figurines. Boxes everywhere. Everything was colourful, shiny, and screaming for attention.
The little kid inside me was basically jumping up and down.
Even though my heart was telling me to touch everything, pick everything up, inspect it, put it back down, and repeat the process with absolutely no intention of buying half of it, my eyes somehow stayed focused on the main reason I was there.
My shopping list was very simple:
Pokémon cards. A binder.
That’s it.
While Dylan was trying to explain everything to me, I spotted a binder with Greninja on the cover.
Greninja isn’t even on my list of favourite Pokémon, but the binder looked cool.
Decision made.
Dylan asked about the price, and yeah… I could afford it.
At this point, price wasn’t even a concern to me.
Financially unstable? Yes. Financially immature? Also yes.
Please don’t talk to me about finances right now.
The next problem was that they didn’t really have the card packs I originally wanted.
But it would be stupid to walk out with an empty binder, right?
Right?
Hahahaha.
So I bought two Mega Evolution-Pitch Black booster packs.
I am still learning the Pokémon TCG language, by the way.
Apparently there are booster packs, ETBs, which stand for Elite Trainer Box, poster collections, binder collections, premium collections, and probably another seventeen things I haven’t learned yet.
Dylan tried explaining everything to me.
Mind you, I am a 30-years-young boy.
It might take a while.
Just when I thought I was ready to pay, Dylan stressed that I needed sleeves too.
Sleeves. To protect the cards.
My brain paused for a second.
Isn’t that what the binder is for?
Apparently not.
According to Dylan, the cards you put in your binder are usually the cards you actually care about, so giving them another layer of protection helps prevent damage while you’re holding them or showing them to people.
Fair enough.
And just like that, these became the three things that started my Pokémon journey:
A binder. Two booster packs. And sleeves.
I walked out of Vagabond excited as hell because I wanted to open those packs immediately.
So Dylan and I found a chair at Chancery Square and opened them there.
First pack…
Second pack…
Bam.
Two full-art cards.
Apparently, according to Dylan, that was a pretty good start.
The first rare card I pulled was Silvally full art.
The second was Dedenne full art.
Dylan told me he had always wanted the Silvally.
Naturally, I told him he could have it.
In my head, I was thinking: I can always buy more packs and get it again.
Please refer back to Alif’s financial decision-making.
But Dylan told me to keep it because it was my first rare pull and I should keep it as a memory.
Okay, Dylan. Why are we getting emotional over Pokémon cards now?
Still, that moment made me decide something.
The first Ultra Rare card I pull one day is going to Dylan. A gift for being the person who showed me the way. I don’t care if he keeps it, sells it, trades it, or launches it into space.
It’s his.
That’s just something I want to do.
We continued walking around the city, and eventually we went into Farmers.
And then I saw something that made me very happy.
The Mega Zygarde ex Premium Collection.
Of course I asked the price.
$100.
Now, for once, I actually stopped and thought about it.
Then I checked my Farmers account.
$20 voucher.
Hehehehehe.
Safe to say, the Mega Zygarde ex Premium Collection is now in my possession.
Wuhuuu.
We went back to the same spot at Chancery Square where we opened the first two packs.
Dylan had already told me that pulling two good cards from my first two packs was lucky, so naturally I decided this chair was now my lucky Pokémon spot.
Inside the collection were six Perfect Order booster packs and two Phantasmal Flames booster packs.
There were also promo cards and an oversized card, but honestly?
At this stage, I did not care.
All I wanted was to rip open the sealed packs and experience the surprise of whatever was inside.
I don’t even remember exactly which rare cards came from those packs anymore.
What I do remember is looking at my binder afterwards and realising that half of the first page was already filled.
For day one?
I was very happy.
You would think that was enough Pokémon spending for one day.
You would be wrong.
On my way home, I stopped by another game store that I have walked past for years.
It is literally beside my apartment.
I went inside.
Immediately overwhelmed again.
And then I saw it.
An Elite Trainer Box.
An ETB.
Something that apparently contains most of the essential items needed for Pokémon battles.
I asked the price.
Almost $150.
This time I hesitated.
For a few seconds.
Then the shopkeeper told me that walk-in customers were getting 10% off.
And that was apparently enough information for me.
Later that day, there I was, sitting on my bed with a shiny new Pitch Black Elite Trainer Box.
Inside it were:
9 Mega Evolution—Pitch Black booster packs 1 full-art foil promo card featuring Zarude 65 card sleeves 40 Energy cards A player’s guide to the Mega Evolution—Pitch Black expansion 6 damage-counter dice 1 competition-legal coin-flip die 1 plastic coin A collector’s box 6 dividers for organising everything
See?
Suddenly spending around $130 feels completely justified.
I am battle-ready.
Well.
Maybe not quite yet.
Because before learning how to battle, obviously my first priority was ripping open every single booster pack.
By the time I finished everything from that day, I had opened 19 booster packs.
If each pack has 10 cards, that means I suddenly had around 190 cards in my possession.
And then came my second major Pokémon problem.
What the hell do I do with all of them?
Some of the cards were already safely inside my binder.
But the rest?
So I came up with a system.
First, I separated everything into Pokémon cards, Energy cards, Item cards, Supporter cards, and Stadium cards.
Then I grouped the Energy cards by type.
I did the same with the Item, Supporter, and Stadium cards.
And finally, I separated the Pokémon cards according to their type as well.
Thankfully, the ETB came with a storage box and dividers, so now everything actually has a place.
The cards can stay like that for now.
The next problem is learning how to build an actual battle deck.
And for that, I really need Dylan.
I asked him to take me to the Pokémon battle event at Vagabond this Sunday.
For now, I just want to watch. See how everything works. Understand what people actually do.
Then maybe we can take a step back, look at my cards properly, and start building my first battle deck.
So that is it.
My first entry.
One binder.
Nineteen booster packs. Nearly 200 cards. An Elite Trainer Box.
A questionable amount of money spent. No idea how to battle yet.
