The Starting Hand – Maximizing Your Openers in Pokémon TCG Highlander

The endless positive reactions players give when they learn that they get to choose all six of their prize cards from their 13-card hand never get old. But that reaction quickly becomes a sense of heightened concentration (and sometimes stress) for deciding on what will become the six-card hand (after at least one basic Pokémon is played) and the six prize cards.

Here is a quick reference guide for what experienced players tend to do to maximize their 13 card openers:

Keep One Draw Supporter: With an average of eight to eleven Draw Supporters per deck, it’s highly likely that you’ll have one of these to start with, two even. Try to make sure that you keep one in your hand so that you can start streaming resources each turn. The only case where it’s normally okay to put them in your prize cards is if you open with a Pokémon that can consistently fetch cards from your deck, like Manaphy, Spinda, and Palkia.

Sacrifice a Pokémon Line: It’s really hard to part ways with your favorite Pokémon. But because the average deck list will have seven to ten fully evolved Pokémon, it’s perfectly okay to put a line or two into the prizes to use later. Remember, you get to look at your prizes, so you can easily store a Primeape or Slowbro in the prizes and have their pre-evolutions benched right before you take a prize card for a turn, allowing for them to be played on the next turn.

Mid/Late Game Cards: Sometimes there are cards you don’t want in your hand at the start, especially if you’re playing cards like Professor’s Research that require a hand discard to draw seven. Lysandre/Guzma, Last Chance Potion, and even a crucial Switch are perfect for the prize cards that can be freely fetched as you start taking prizes and gaining momentum.

Energy: It’s as simple as it gets, but if you have more than one energy in your opener, you can easily store the other in the prizes. This can actually be a positive strategy due to knockout momentum and grabbing crucial energy for attachment next turn. If you’re going second, you get to attach two energy that turn, so keep that in mind. You can still store one if you expect that your draw supporters will get you another one to take advantage of this one turn bonus.

Your 13-card opener is an entire game plan; don’t overthink it. Use these tips as you play and get better at understanding strategy for early, mid, and late gameplay.