Hey, all. I've been wanting to get into Pokemon, both the video games and the card game. Any suggestion on what video game to start with and where to get some cheap Pokemon cards?

Fancdew : The best place to get cards would be your local TCS (Trading Card Shop). I know Magic The Gathering has a thing where they show all the stores that are allowed to do sanctioned events, but I'm not sure if Pokemon does. I can ask one of the owners tomorrow for you, when I go into the shop to play some MTG Commnader, since I have to talk to him about some other stuff anyways. 

As for the games, I would say it depends on how much you like Pokemon. If you are like me, and just want to get into it to have something to play, but don't want to play every iteration since there isn't that many differences in each generation, I would just go with the remakes of the old stuff first. Rather than playing Red, Blue, Green, and Gold, you could just play Emerald Green instead. If I'm wrong in my thought process, I am sure somebody else will come in here and give you a better answer than I can. 

thing1 : Don't you mean FireRed and LeafGreen? (And the 2nd generation remakes HeartGold and SoulSilver)

And honestly I don't have that much to tell you, except maybe do a bit of research on each generation of games and see which one you'd like to play the most, which ones have features you like, Pokemon you like, etc. Sorry I can't give you a solid answer but with questions like these it really depends on the person.

And I have no experience with Pokemon cards, I have like 2.

THOUGH if you don't mind getting into Pokemon with the spinoff games, may I recommend Pokemon Mystery Dungeon? I recommend you play either Red/Blue Rescue Team or Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky

I would start off with either Gold or the Gold remake HeartGold because you basically get two games in one with it. Instead of playing through the original games and then playing these gen games, you get to explore Johto and then do a little adventure in Kanto as well, so it feels much bigger than it should.

Emerald wouldn't be so bad either.

Fancdew : I'm gonna suggest for the card game that you go look online for deck recommendations on a budget, and find the cards at a local TCS (Trading Card Store), or buy these things called Theme Decks from the big stores, which are premade decks for you to play with for about $13 a piece, and they come with damage counters, poison and burn markers, and a special coin along with the pre-made deck. If you have a friend who wants to get into it too, get another deck and start dueling each other to learn the basics of the game. There's also an Online version of the card game called Pokemon TCGO, which is a cheaper version of playing the card game with other people, as you use codes to get packs and decks, but you find these codes in physical products, or you could buy them online as a standalone. For the games, I would say go for FireRed and LeafGreen. It will expose you to a variety of Pokemon without overwhelming you at first, and once you beat the game, a lot more will be obtainable. This is also true of Pokemon Black and White for the DS, as only 150 Pokemon are available until you beat the game, then the rest of them are able to be seen and obtained.

I'm not really a fan of the card game, i never really liked it, but i think the best game to start pokemon with is fire red, cuz it is the simplest and it pretty much introduces you to pokemon and everything about it. And its the first generation of pokemon, and i dont think you will like pokemon red, cuz its pretty old and very hard and the sprites are quite ugly. 

   I say that you should play Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire. Both are really good remakes of the original GBA games (Also Hoenn is my favorite region). The Story is really good, it has some of the best Pokemon in my opinion, and it does a pretty good job getting new players into the game.

I personally recommend playing Pokemon Emerald, you don't even need to get a cartridge if you don't want to. Although I won't exactly tell you how to get them without buying them

Well its difficult to figure what Pokémon game to suggest when people play it out of different reasons. Each game to an outsider would say there all the same apart from new Pokémon added. Each game has its own little story line some better than others which is what keeps me playing Pokémon.

But I agree with Boured saying playing ruby/ sapphire emerald I think its a good starter game, its got a nice story line and a wider variety of Pokémon compared to fire red and leaf green which are remakes of red &blue. 

Personally my favourite game was gold and silver the remakes I like but some changes that put me off which I wont indulge here due to spoilers lol

If your looking to try out Pokémon games id suggest looking up desmume and trying it out before purchasing as Pokémon games can get expensive. 

anyway i hope you have fun on your Pokémon adventure

kind regards kitteh