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Cardz Shop

Cardz Shop 7: Waving and Training

05.20.05  Hey all. Now that I’m getting close to being back on track again with my fixes, I’ll probably be dropping back to one fix a week. If I miss any given week, I’ll try to make up for it on the next week. But, hey, this stuff isn’t that important to this week’s fix.

This week I’m looking at a deck that looks like a recreation of a deck I used to run back when Fossil came out. Anyone up for Doing the Wave again?
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I, Nathan, sent this deck in before and I wanted to make a few changes with Emerald out so here it is. This is my Deep Sleep deck (modified). I have a medium access to cards so that is my level I want the fix on and I don’t really no the popular decks in my area (I have seen a few RockLocks though). I think it would help if you put your e-mail address on you main page ‘cause it’s kind of hard to find.

Pokemon:20

2x Wigglytuff Ex
2x Wigglytuff
4x Jigglypuff (Hidden Legends)
4x Igglybuff
2x Dunsparce
2x Relicanth
2x Pelipper (Deoxys)
2x Wingull (Deoxys)

Trainers:22

Regular
2x Potion
2x Vs. Seeker

Supporter
2x Mr.Stone’s Project
2x Scott
4x Wally’s Training
4x Steven’s Advice

Rocket’s Secret Machine
4x Swoop Teleporter

Stadium
4x Battle Frontier

Energys:18

Special
4x Boost Energy

Regular
14x Water Energy

I use Pelipper to deal some damage while I power up Wigglytuff Ex, and Relicanth is my staler, yep that’s pretty much my strategy. For random thought’s maybe about obesity and how fast it is growing in the USA.
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Well, this deck looks like a Neo-Wigglytuff deck with Relicanth thrown in for sleep stalling. It’s too bad that his attack doesn’t do auto-sleep like most pokémon. I’d be very nice to have that on him. The Wigglytuff line look a little unbalanced as I’m not a big fan of the RG Wigglytuff. But let’s see what we can do with this deck.
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Pokémon: Wigglytuff ex is the centerpiece of this deck, so let’s put him in that position by adding another one. Now let’s move onto your other evolutions. Wigglytuff (RG) isn’t that great of a card. Sure, it can heal status conditions from your pokémon, but noot many people right now are running many status decks. So the regular Wigglytuffs are out. Also going out are two of your Igglybuff. In this deck, Igglybuff is a great addition to everything. But four of any baby pokémon in any deck right now is overkill. There is a much better pokémon for getting basics to your bench and we’ll be adding a lot more of him here in a minute.

Now, onto your other lines and basics. Two Dunsparce are just not going to cut it. As much as I don’t lie maxing out on Dunsparce in a deck, I think your deck could use the extra Dunsparce boost. Add two more of him to your mix. HL Relicanth is a nice idea for this deck with the sleep combo, but I don’t think it really benefits this deck. Neither does your Pelipper line. What you really need is something that can help you get quick drawing done with a Pokémon Power. I know you don’t have as readily access to cards as most people, but I really think that a 2/2 or 3/3 line of DX Magcargo with Smooth Over would really benefit this deck. For the sake of this fix, I’m going to take out the Pelipper and Relicanth in favor of a 3/3 line of Smooth Over Magcargo. It will really help you out with the draw trainers I’ll be adding later.

-all Wigglytuff (RG)
-2 Igglybuff
-Pelipper Line
-all Relicanth

+1 Wigglytuff ex
+2 Dunsparce
+3/3 line of Smooth Over Magcargo

Trainers: Well, this section has a promising start, but we can improve on this a lot. First Potion = Bad. Always has, always will. Let’s drop both of them in favor of some draw trainers we’ll be adding later. VS Seeker is an underrated card IMO and two is about all you’ll want to run in this deck.

Now for your Supporters. I have not been impressed with Mr. Stone’s Project yet, especially in a deck running only one type of basic energy. It’s like a double Energy Search, which you don’t need. So he’s going out. Also, with your energy count, you should never have a shortage of energy for this deck to function on. Scott is a trainer I think the jury is still out on. Being a Supporter, it shuts down any Supporter you would grab with this trainer. But Scott can grab the ever useful Battle Frontier that all non RockLock, Dragitrode, and Pidgeot users are running to shut them all down. For now, you’re just running two, so I’ll leave them in since you don’t have as easy access to cards. But after a couple of matches playing with this deck, see if they’re actually benefiting this deck or if they’re just deadweight and couple be replaced by better cards.

Your other two Supporters, Wally and Stephen, are good cards to use (Stephen more so than Wally, but more on that later). Stephen is an excellent draw trainer and I’m glad you’ve got a full set of him. Wally is now a decent evolution supporter, but he works for your deck. Personally, I think you should start running a couple Celio’s because of your need for draw power, but that up to you. However, for this fix, I’m going to drop one Wally and add in two Celio’s Network. If you can’t get the Celio’s, go ahead and keep the Wally’s. But trust me, the Celio’s can really help you get Magcargo out and running much quicker.

4 Stephen’s is almost a prerequisite for any Modified deck right now as it should be. But your deck needs more drawing power. I think CopyCat is a perfect fit for this deck. 3 CopyCats will help you get your deck running much quicker and help you sift through unneeded cards much more quickly. And, since it’s been in print so long, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding three spare copies on someone.

You have two other trainers in their own categories that I’m going to address now. 4 Swoop! Teleporter is overkill in any deck. Drop their number to two. I know it will help you seek out the right basic pokémon much more quickly, but a full set of them seems like overkill to me. In these two open slots, put in two Switch. Warp Point isn’t even an option in this deck as you don’t want to hand your opponent free Switches.

Now for Battle Frontier. It’s understandable that you’d be afraid of the many dark and colorless PokéPowers out right now and want to run as many Battle Frontier as possible to counter them. Well, I hate to tell all you Battle Frontier players right now but…

NEWS FLASH!!!: They can counter it.

A well thought out search ahead of time for their counter gym can throw off your countering plans and send your deck into a losing tailspin. Now, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t play the card. By all means, you should. But maxing out on them in hopes that you’ll never have to worry about it again is overkill. 3 BF is all any deck should be running, period. Any more is overkill in my opinion.

-all Potion
-all Mr. Stone’s Project
-1 Wally’s Training
-1 Battle Frontier

+2 Celio’s Network
+3 CopyCat

Energy: Since this is a fire centered deck now, all your Water Energy is going to become Fire Energy. However, your deck had more than 60 cards in it once I started looking at it. After editing it a down a bit, it came to 12 basic energy and 4 Boost. We now have two open slots that are going to go toward two Scramble Energy. These can only be attached to Magcargo, but he can abuse this card if you’re down on prizes. If you can’t get a hold of the Scramble Energy, just use two more Fire energy.

-all Water Energy

+12 Fire Energy
+2 Scramble Energy
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Hope that this helps. I know I’ve taken out the sleep theme, but the deck should run much more smoothly now and help you win more matches. The one thing I like about this deck is that Magcargo is a big attacker in this deck and can help stall if needed in order to get up WigglyEX. But with Dunsparce maxed out, you should have that problem. Here’s the final deck list for you and good luck with it!
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Pokemon:

3x Wigglytuff Ex
4x Jigglypuff (Hidden Legends)
2x Igglybuff

2x Dunsparce

3x Slugma (DX, Collect)
3x Magcargo (DX, Smooth Over)

Trainers:

2x Vs. Seeker
2x Scott
3x Wally’s Training
2x Celio’s Network
4x Steven’s Advice
3x CopyCat
2x Swoop! Teleporter
2x Switch
3x Battle Frontier

Energys:
2x Scramble Energy
4x Boost Energy
12x Fire Energy
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RaNd0m Thoughts…: Well, I almost did the suggestion from Nathan, but something else much more important came to my mind. I will be talking about something health related next week, but until then, here’s a health suggestion:

Drink Water.

Now, onto what I really want to talk about: Competitive Playing. I know a lot of you went to or are going to a Regionals this weekend which is great. I personally was unable to make any Regionals but, trust me, I would have been there with the rest of you if possible. This topic deals with preparing for Regionals and what many of you are already well aware of in prepping for such an event. But first, a story.

I have a younger brother of age I will not inform you of other than to say that he has been in high school for at least two years, perhaps more. The important thing is to know that he plays on the high school tennis team. About this time last year, he was competing in a Sectional tennis tournament. For reference, the progression of tennis tournaments (Sectional, District, State) is a pseudo-parallel to the Pokémon-TCG tournament system (State, Regional, National). But that’s enough of that. Anyway, at least year’s Sectional, my brother placed 8th. Very impressive, but not a good enough placement to go to the District competition. Now, we (meaning my family and I) all knew my brother could do much better. My dad even challenged my brother to get better and do better at next year’s Sectional competition.

So, over the course of this past year, my brother has been at a tennis club almost seven days a week for an average of three hours a day. He did this for but three months out of the year, and he spent those three months playing soccer instead of tennis.

So, this year’s Secitonal comes around. And my brother has improved a lot. Instead of just barely missing the cut for the District competition, he’s headed to the District as a two seed, getting an easier match in the first round. If he wins the second round at District, which is very possible, then he’s headed to the State competition.

The moral of the story is simple: Practice makes perfect. Your deck can be constructed to the best of anyone’s ability. But without constant practice with your friends and finding out what works in your deck and what doesn’t, you’re sunk. That’s why I stress playing with your deck before you send it in to me. If you know what works in your area, then I’ll try and make a workable deck around it. If you no clue what’s working, you probably still won’t have a great deck by the time you go to a major tournament.

So, here’s my final questions: How much playtetsing/deck fixing/strategy did you put in before going to your last big tournament (i.e. Regionals)?

Next Question: How much time are you going to put in for the next big tournament (i.e. Nationals)?

Last question: How much playtesting are you going to do from now on to make yourself a better player?

Think all these through. Your answers will determine how well you perform at your next tournament.

Cardzmaster2004
Cardz2004@hotmail.com