Sh Ape Shift

      
I was hoping you would do a CotD on Brock's Ninetales, but ya never did.. so, maybe you can help me with my Ninetales deck? It's made to surprise my opponent... thanks!  ~Josh

---Pokémon--- (20)
4x Brock's Vulpix
3x Brock's Ninetales
4x Magmar
2x Erika's Dratini
1x Gligar
3x Arcanine
1x Exeggutor
1x Clefable
1x Dark Charizard

---Trainers--- (24)
3x Professor Oak
3x Computer Search
3x Bill
3x Energy Removal
2x Super Energy Removal
2x Pokémon Trader
2x Nightly Garbage Run
2x Gust of Wind
2x Lass
1x Narrow Gym
1x Chaos Gym

---Energy--- (16)
12x Fire Energy
4x Double Colorless Energy

Strategy
I see you have Magmar and Dratini as more of the stalling basics so you can build Ninetales and prepare for an Arcanine. You do a good job, but we can abuse Arcanine more if we focus on it. Let us.

Pokémon
Get rid of the Exeggutor. You don't want coin flips to ruin all the cards you had to go through to Shapeshift to it.  That means bye to Dark Charizard, also.

I can't stress this enough- use Cleffas. Cleffa belongs in every deck. Every deck.  Add two.  They're nice with Lass, against it, fight against RSA, Trap, and bad hands.  Everything else is fine.

Trainers
Ever hear of Brock's Protection?  Get in on Ninetales or Vulpix, then Shapeshift to Arcanine.  Your Arcanine's energy cannot be removed by your opponent.  An unremoveable Arcanine is almost unstoppable. Add two.

You're playing a lot of evolution, so why don't you try changing two Bills to two Marys, also.

Get a couple Gold Berry in so Arcanine can remove damage it takes, and so anything else can.. except for Dratini and Cleffa.  You don't need more than one Gust, you can take down (pun intended) anything with your Arcanine.  (yes, bad pun, and accidental, but still a pun.)

Unfortunately, we should get rid of the Super Energy Removals. Your energy is too precious to be discarding.  We can also get rid of Pokémon Trader as Cleffa will do that job for us.

Add the 4th Oak to keep the deck fast.

Energy
Drop three fire. Add two metal, as damage done to yourself by your own attack is reduced by 10.. yes, read the card. Damage done by this Pokémon and (if it isn't metal) damage done to is reduced by 10. The 30 Arcanine does to itself would be reduced to 10 to itself with one metal attached.  This works for Rocket's Zapdos and Chansey too. Metal Energy, Gold Berry, and some math can help win games.

We're done.

---Pokémon--- (21)
4x Brock's Vulpix
3x Brock's Ninetales
4x Magmar
2x Erika's Dratini
2x Cleffa
1x Gligar
3x Arcanine
1x Clefable
(no risky evolutions, the addition of probably the best basic in the game, Cleffa)

---Trainers--- (24)
4x Professor Oak
3x Computer Search
3x Energy Removal
2x Mary
2x Brock's Protection
2x Gold Berry
2x Nightly Garbage Run
2x Lass
1x Gust of Wind
1x Narrow Gym
1x Chaos Gym
1x Bill
(more speed, we conserve our energy by dropping Supers, and try to focus on helping Arcanine go through everything with Brock's Protection and Gold Berry)

---Energy--- (16)
10x Fire Energy
4x Double Colorless Energy
2x Metal Energy
(the deadly double-reduced 30 damage to yourself.. Arcanine takes 10, but does 70.)