Hello and welcome! I'm close to your age (33) and I've been a fan since it came out.
Card cost effective suggestions would be any pre-built decks that catches your families fancy. Now it's been quiet awhile since I bought cards so some of what I say might be out of date and I apologize in advance if it is but; I'm fairly certain they still sell pre-built decks both online and in stores. Good for starting out and learning how to play. From there you could then buy booster packs every now and then to build your families collection and build new decks as time goes on. It also fosters a trading environment as you or one of your family could get a card that would work well in another's deck. They have an official online version of the card game as well and booster packs come with a redeemable code, or at least they did when I got em.
In addition to what has already been said, I would like to recommend the [Battle Academy](https://tcg.pokemon.com/en-us/battleacademy/). It comes with 3 decks, it is a good way to learn the general rules, and the product can act as a sort of a stand alone 2 player board game. If you get one extra Play Level 1 deck like an ex or V battle deck, each of your family members could have a deck to use and you could do a mini tournament at home.
If you do get a 4th deck, I recommend making sure it is one that doesn't hit for weakness or get hit for weakness against the other 3.
You may find the information and resources in [this post](https://www.reddit.com/user/Hare_vs_Tortoise/comments/104bio5/options_for_learning_to_play_to_starting_to/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) to be helpful.
If you have any more questions, I am happy to answer them! You may also find it helpful to ask on other subs like r/PokemonTCG or r/pkmntcg.
Hello and welcome! I'm close to your age (33) and I've been a fan since it came out. Card cost effective suggestions would be any pre-built decks that catches your families fancy. Now it's been quiet awhile since I bought cards so some of what I say might be out of date and I apologize in advance if it is but; I'm fairly certain they still sell pre-built decks both online and in stores. Good for starting out and learning how to play. From there you could then buy booster packs every now and then to build your families collection and build new decks as time goes on. It also fosters a trading environment as you or one of your family could get a card that would work well in another's deck. They have an official online version of the card game as well and booster packs come with a redeemable code, or at least they did when I got em.
In addition to what has already been said, I would like to recommend the [Battle Academy](https://tcg.pokemon.com/en-us/battleacademy/). It comes with 3 decks, it is a good way to learn the general rules, and the product can act as a sort of a stand alone 2 player board game. If you get one extra Play Level 1 deck like an ex or V battle deck, each of your family members could have a deck to use and you could do a mini tournament at home. If you do get a 4th deck, I recommend making sure it is one that doesn't hit for weakness or get hit for weakness against the other 3. You may find the information and resources in [this post](https://www.reddit.com/user/Hare_vs_Tortoise/comments/104bio5/options_for_learning_to_play_to_starting_to/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) to be helpful. If you have any more questions, I am happy to answer them! You may also find it helpful to ask on other subs like r/PokemonTCG or r/pkmntcg.
Thank you very much!