Which Trading Card Game Should You Start? Seven Games Compared

Start with the game your friends or local store already play, because every game below sells a ready-to-play starter. If you are choosing fresh: Pokemon has the simplest deck rule, Yu-Gi-Oh! has dedicated beginner decks, Lorcana and One Piece build around colors or a leader, and Flesh and Blood’s Blitz format uses short 40-card decks.

The deck rules below come from each publisher’s own rulebook or official site. They tell you how much a first deck asks of you, and how much card care it will need.

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Deck rules at a glance

Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh!: the long-running pair

Pokemon’s deckbuilding guide sets one clear rule: a deck has exactly 60 cards, with at least one Basic Pokemon. Products range from single packs to the 36-pack Booster Display, and the Elite Trainer Box bundles 9 packs with sleeves, Energy and dice for a first deck.

Yu-Gi-Oh! decks run 40 to 60 cards. Konami sells Starter Decks for Duelists learning the rules and Structure Decks for more advanced players; our Structure Deck vs Starter Deck page compares them. Yu-Gi-Oh! cards are a smaller size than the other games here, so they need their own sleeves.

Disney Lorcana: two inks, 60 cards

Lorcana’s Comprehensive Rules ask for at least 60 cards, no more than 4 with the same full name, and no more than two ink types. Ravensburger’s starter decks are 60-card decks ready to play. Read what is in a Lorcana booster box for the pack and box contents.

Disney Lorcana starter decks

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One Piece Card Game: a Leader and DON!!

Bandai’s Comprehensive Rules say each player needs exactly 1 Leader card, a 50-card deck and a 10-card DON!! deck. Deck colors follow the Leader. A Starter Deck gives you all three in one box, as our guide to One Piece Card Game starter decks explains.

Flesh and Blood: heroes, weapons and short Blitz games

Flesh and Blood is built around a hero card with weapons and equipment. Its Blitz format uses a young hero and exactly 40 cards in the deck, with only 1 copy of each card. Classic Constructed uses an adult hero and at least 60 cards. Legend Story Studios sells Blitz Decks as ready-to-play products; see Flesh and Blood Blitz decks.

Star Wars: Unlimited and Digimon

Star Wars: Unlimited decks have 1 leader, 1 base and a draw deck of at least 50 cards, with no more than 3 copies of a card. Fantasy Flight’s Two-Player Starter comes with two pre-built 50-card decks, paper playmats and folding deck boxes.

The Digimon Card Game’s General Rules ask for exactly 50 cards in the deck and up to 5 cards in a separate Digi-Egg deck, with up to 4 copies of a card.

Starter products at a glance

Every one of these is sold sealed, so you know what you are getting before you open it. Contents change between sets and printings, so read the product page for the exact deck or box you are buying; the table uses the products named in each publisher’s own listing.

What every new player needs

Whichever game you pick, the first purchases are the same: sleeves that fit the card size, a deck box that holds a sleeved deck, and something to play on. Our guide to protecting trading cards walks through sleeves, toploaders, binders and storage, and card sleeve sizes explains why Yu-Gi-Oh! needs a smaller sleeve than the rest.