The biggest thing about collectible card games is, of course, the game behind them. There's a slight problem though, if you play the game, your cards might get damaged and go from Near Mint to Lightly Played. A lot of people who play these games either don't play their rarest cards, or intentionally play with rare cards as a flex. Magic the Gathering players largely dislike holofoils, and as they make up the bulk majority of people who buy the cards, the overall sentiment toewards them is very negative. Holos tend to react very poorly to cold, so when you buy a pack of cards in the winter, its pretty likely that any pulls you might get will be curved inwards, and because they're rather difficult to flatten back to normal, most players do not want these cards because they will not fit into a deck without being very noticeable.

With Pokemon, the opposite is true. Not nearly as many people actually play the card game, and people go absolutely crazy for holofoil cards. There are far more people out there collecting Pokemon cards that aren't even interested in learning the game. It's pretty safe to say that it has the most staying power out of any trading card game. It doesn't have as many problems with power creep as other games, and it's able to rely on brand recognition to such a massive extent that people buy the cards just to get their favorite Pokemon. This is also a tendancy for a small percentage of YuGiOh players, and a very large percentage of Weiss Schwarz collectors that love anime.

So where do you stand? Are you a card game player, a card game collector, or both?

I used to be a heavy YuGiOh player from 2004 to 2008, and tried to get into Magic from 2011 to 2012. Once I started collecting Pokemon cards in 2021, I wanted to play the game but found it pretty simplistic, so I got back into Magic, which is growing more and more hated by its playerbase, so I got back into YuGiOh, which is loved by its playerbase but due to power creep is now practically solitare that is unplayable to newcomers. I'd love to get into one of these games, but it just seems like the worst of times to do so.

Not anymore, I haven't played an actual PvP card game in years, mostly due to not having anywhere to play or anyone to play with.

I used to play Yu-Gi-Oh a lot with my brother years ago, right before XYZ cards and all that nonsense started coming out. After that I stopped collecting until recently, when I started collecting them a little bit more. I'm still not all the way collecting again.

As for Pokemon, I rarely even played it when I was little, but I collected so many of the cards, and still do (but rarely). I never was a giant fan of the card game, I preferred to just play the video games a lot more.

As for Magic, I have never played the game but I have hundreds of cards. I really just enjoy looking at them and talking about them with my friends who do play instead of playing. The rules still confuse me sometimes.

Not anymore really. For Weiss Schwarz, I haave been collecting for almost a year but I never played at all. For Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh!, I have always been collecting but stopped playing years ago outside of the online card games. I'll still occasionally play Yu-Gi-Oh! with others on the Switch.

Sort of. I collect Pokemon cards heavily, but I do not play with the cards that I collect. I do, however, play the Pokemon Trading Card Game online. It's easier to find opponents that way, and I do not have to spend money building decks, nor do I have to worry about damaging the cards that I play with. Playing online allows me to enjoy playing the game, while also keeping my collection in pristine condition.