I'm someone who has been on and off playing this game since Christmas of 2007 I got the Tim Roos World Championship deck. That day I realized as a 9 year old "Oh you can play a game with these?" I'd never seen anyone play the game before. Just elementary school kids just trading around the cool shiny cards or trading around secrets of how to get legendaries in the video games. I don't know how I believed catching Unknowns in alphabetical order would net me a legendary dog in Crystal but you live and learn and get internet access eventually.
Fast forward to my personal favorite set Diamond and Pearl Stormfront. I got the Regigigas starter deck and started playing casually at my first league. This was a kids training ground. I came to play with my jank deck against other kids jank decks. At the same time this is when I truly saw the game for what it was. Two adult players were battling. There was a more in depth strategy at play happening before my eyes. I don't remember the game but I remember the players. To this day I'm still in contact with one of them. Just played against them 2 weeks ago.
After this Id casually play for the next year or two, the store moved location and then suddenly shut down. Just wasn't making enough money to keep afloat from I what I had heard. After this Pokemon wouldn't be in my life for a good while. I didn't have anywhere to play so guess I gotta try Yu-Gi-Oh for a little bit. Didn't last long. Fast forward again to 2016.
I'm an art school drop out just trying to figure out what do I do with my life. I'm really into retro games collecting at the time and find a game store in town that sells that stuff. Walk in the first time to see there is also a Pokemon league playing in the back of the store. It's here, it's real and maybe the dream of playing this game isn't dead. This league is where I'd take my next step as a player. Going from casual to more competitive. I played from XY Fates Collide to Sun Moon Guardians Rising. I love this era of the game. Not at all the best by any means compared to other eras but if you're new to the retro TCG side of things this block is a great starting point. Strategies aren't too deep here and most decks are straight forward. Darkrai ex- max elixir those energies. Mega Ray - Sky Field and Hoopas EX. Greninja Break. Shadow Stitch and Moonlight Shuriken for days.
This is where I first learned how to strategically play. This is where my player confidence grew. Playing against and learning from good players who can tell me what I'm doing wrong. This is a very valuable time to me. I also played at my first regional. Roanoke VA 2017. I got a 5-3-1. Was one tie away from day 2. This was my first real tournament ever so there were some rookie mistakes I made and in retrospect some slight card swaps for my deck would have been better but only 3 cards at most. Went with Darkrai Ex but uniquely ran 3 hex maniacs in the vs seeker format. Look people using Hoopa Ex and Shaymin Ex is too good. It very much worked in my favor. I left feeling a little salty but a lot smarter.
After this time I'd always keep an eye on the game, play at league every once and while. Pandemic. ADP Zacian. Palkia Intel. Naic 2022. AzulGG wins against Isaiah Bradner after Bradner hits some of the most brutal draws in a game three I've seen in a while. No spoilers if you haven't seen it. I still play standard and the current game feels like some of the best of the modern era. Now I help run a local league that I hope becomes one of if not the best league in VA. Ive got plenty of ideas for the futuring including organizing with other leagues, running unique tournaments, etc.
With all that being said I've kept myself here because of all these people that were open to helping me get better and because of the great variety you can get from the game if not in modern standard then in any retro space if you find the one right for you (or three or four or all of them). Why do you play this game? Let me know. I'd love to see what kind of variety of answer come from it.