To anyone who is reading this, I bid you welcome. If you're a keen reader of Pojo's Card of the Day reviews you may recognise me as Mad Mattezhion, or if you found this while messing about with the search function you may recognise me as yet another opinionated lunatic let loose upon the Internet.
 
But now, instead of rating cards and giving headaches to Nintendo's design team with my impossible expectations, I'd like to share a few thoughts on the Poke'mon TCG itself. Specifically, why I still collect and play this game after so many years.
 
The first and most important reason is because it is a massive amount of fun! Sunday is my favourite day of the week simply because my local League has its meetings on that day, which means four glorious hours of trading, strategy, inside jokes and maniacal cackling amoung friends. The Poke'mon TCG puts a bright spot on my calendar whenever a tournament is announced, and each prerelease is a buildup of anticipation that makes for truly memorable events (getting smashed 5 times with a succesful double flip from V-Blast Victini is just one such story). Trust me, you always remember when you pull something awesome out of a prerelease pack!
 
But Poke'mon is more than just a game. Sure, building up a big creature and going on a rampage, only to be shut down when one of the cutesy critters across the table grows some teeth, is good for a laugh and will keep you playing for several hours. But the lasting appeal of Poke'mon is in the people you play with, the challenge of becoming a better player/collector and the thrill of helping new people enjoy discover the same joy in this simple-to-learn-but-complex-to-master game.
 
Let's start with the people. As I've said above, my local League is a great place for gathering with like-minded people who love to share a joke and have a game. Even if you don't have a League near enough for you to get to, you can still find a group of friends and get together for some gaming goodness, whether it be at school, a regular LAN event or even while you're at another club if you have some downtime (such as at conventions, or between longer games like Dungeons & Dragons) . Or you can start your own League if you are over 18 and have a friendly neighbourhood gaming store to rely on (this is a must, both for the initial application and for smoother running of the club with regular supplies).
 
Of course, finidng the people in the first place can be difficult. You may not know anyone else who plays Poke'mon in your area, and trying to find them can be discouraging. Still, if you don't know anyone you can introduce people you do know to the game. Basically if you know someone who is a good sport, enjoys a challenge and can laugh at themselves then chances are they'll like Poke'mon enough to play it more than once.
 
The above qualities are something that Poke'mon likes to call the Spirit of the Game, which applies to both players and collectors. Getting along with other people is at the heart of Poke'mon, as is the ability to have fun (yes, even when, perhaps especially when there are big tournament prizes on the line). To be a true member of the Poke'mon community, you have to be able to put aside any disappointment if you can't seal a deal or win a match and enjoy yourself anyway along with helping others to have a good time for the same reasons. To be around people who understand all of the references and get the jokes, to share both your experiences and your knowledge with your fellow gamers is the entire point of Poke'mon.
 
For the more serious players it can be especially difficult to keep that in mind. But if you can take pleasure in a learning from defeat and looking forward to an equally close rematch then you have learned the secret to enjoying any competition, as well as the secret to good gaming. No matter whether it's winning or losing, a one-sided match isn't as satisfying as a close-fought one (even if, like me, you enjoy the 'Godzilla takes out Tokyo' effect one-sided matches have). Make no mistake, the fastest way to kill the fun is to unfairly stack the odds.
 
The same is true for collectors. It can be hard to keep everything straight when you have several people all wanting to trade with you at once, and dealing with whiners who won't take no for an answer is aggravating in the extreme (I'm begging you, no matter how much you want the card, please don't be that pain in the eardrum!). Suffering at the hands of immoral scalpers and thieves is downright painful, but even though you are right to be angry you can't take that out on everyone else. In the end, all you can do is keep a close eye on anyone looking through your binder and ,if you are doing the looking, be polite enough to stay near the owner as well as being honest enough not to steal. Other than that, offer fair value in trades and you can't go wrong (sure, you want to get the better end of the deal and that's the point of negotiating, but don't let the newbies make ridiculous trades when they have no idea what they're offering).
 
Now, once you have your group of enthusiastic gamers on hand, we get to the challenge of the game. The Poke'mon TCG tests many parts of your mental mettle, from basic math and tactical thinking to expanding your understanding of languages and reading the intentions of your opponents. If you want to become the best player you can be then you can't avoid learning all of those things that your teachers told you "will be very important and useful later in life!"
 
You don't think a card game can be a crash course in every lesson you ever had? The attacks are always about calculations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, algebra and probability all come into it) and figuring out which cards to play and which to hold for later is all about logistics (both dealing with the threats in play and holding an ace in reserve). Deck building is a crash course in statistics as well as teaching you to be firm in decision making (that 60-card limit will punish the disorganised!) while also having to consider combos for an overall strategy. Then there is the guesswork of what your competition will do, both in building their decks and during the game, as well as the memory  and comprehension challenge of knowing which cards are likely to be paired up with others (lots and lots of reading and logic puzzles in there!).
 
Then there is the learning curve outside of the actual card game. Trading is another world again, requiring you to negotiate as well as know the value of one card against another. Will you trade one-for-one, or can you get them to sweeten the deal a  little if you throw in few of the reverse holos you have sitting around? Is that in-demand playset of Poke'mon Collector you have worth trading for one of the Full Arts of Secret rares that the other player has spare in their binder? It's all about investment and trying to make a deal everyone likes.
 
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we come to my third bullet point. By teaching other people to play Poke'mon you learn things yourself (helping newbies is usually when I have an epiphany and imagine a new combo) and just as importantly you help keep the game alive. We all need to invite newer players as well as give the veterans competition, because multiplayer gets you into the Poke'mon experince in a way that you just can't manage alone.
 
At our local League we have an established core group which turns up pretty much every week, and then we have our more casual players who will usually come along 3 days out of 5 (we're at 192 Russell Street, Bathurst, NSW, 2795, Australia if you happen to be in the area). These are typically the younger boys and girls, and every now and then they'll bring along a friend, parent or visiting relative who's become interested in Poke'mon. This constant flow of newbies means we have had many players who only came for a few weeks and then turn up sporadically after that but because Poke'mon is so easy to pick up it's pretty simple to raise them to be on a level playing field (we lend out cards for the day if they don't have many themselves to keep it even) and absolutely anyone can play (we have players from 6 years all the way up to 74 years of age right now). Having played a part in teaching all of these players, I've learned to appreciate how this game is put together and improved my skills (for instance, I used to be terrible at remembering to lay out Prizes before I started a match, and I have since learned the awesome power of being able to reveal an opponent's hand). Also I've been learning to find the value in every card, whether it be because it's pretty or because it can  obliterate anything foolish enough to be caught in the way (go awesome Legendaries of Doom!). The moral is to accept help from the old hands and pay it forward to the newbies, to make Poke'mon the best game because it has the best people.
 
Sure, Poke'mon is a serious hobby that requires you to regularly invest your spare cash and takes good organisation to reach it's full potential, but consider the rewards that come with it. You get lots of practise with a load of skills you need in other areas of life, you get to be sociable with other people who know exactly what a Metagross is and there is even the chance to win something shiny if you can make it to an organised event. No matter where you come from or where you intend on going, Poke'mon is a great game for an afternoon that may well become a great game for life!
 
Now that I've had the last word, I'd just like to say thankyou. First to you, the reader, for getting all the way to the end. To the Poke'mon review crew of Baby Mario, virusyosh, Conical and Otaku, whose thoughtful writing has inspired me to improve my own. To Bmoor, who is a stalwart of the Magic: The Gathering review crew with many worthy articles of his own, for his very helpful advice on setting the tone for my work. To Otaku again, for his emails and suggestions that led me to start my series with this page before you. Finally, thankyou to Pojo, the great Bill himself who keeps this site running and organises each section to bring you the Card of the Day, the many intriguing articles on this site, and more besides. Kudos and many thanks to you all!
 
If you'd like to ask questions, point out grammatical errors, get help finding a League or make a suggestion for a future article, feel free to drop a line to mattezhion2@y7mail.com. I also answer to smoke signals, carrier pidgeons and psychic vibrations so don't leave me hanging, give me your feedback!