>Hello,
>
>I am Bong from the Philippines...23 years old, been
>playing TCGs since I was sixteen. I try to never use
>archtypes, so I'm trying out this deck. It has a 45%
>win loss ratio and im trying to improve it.I have been
>buying Japanese TR since last month, I am now awaiting
>the english version. So i apologize for the deck if it
>is too early...
>
>Pokemon: 22
>
>4 Machop  (Basic set)
>3 Evil Machoke
>3 Evil Machamp
>
>4 Ekans (Fossil)
>3 Evil Arbok
>
>3 Dratini (Basic set)
>2 Evil Dragonair
>
>Trainers: 14
>
>3 Switch
>3 Gust of Wind
>3 Bills
>3 Lass
>2 Prof. Oak
>
>Energy:
>
>10 Fighting
>12 Grass
>2  Double Colorless Energy
>
>What I try to do with this deck is either clear his
>bench with Poison Mist from the Evil Arbok, or ruin
>his tactics with the bench manipulating attacks by the
>Evil Evolutions of Machop. I also use Evil Dragonairs
>to search my deck for evolutions.My early game would
>be to hold him out using Ekans or Machop.Please help
>me try to tune this deck.
>
>
>Thank you very much.

***

Okay... Since TR is coming out in a very short amount of time, I thought I'd try and get a jump on things by looking over this deck. Since I don't have the English cards quite yet, though, I'll be using the translations from the Apprentice Neo patch. If they're inaccurate, it's not my fault, okay?


1) Good call on using the Base/Fossil forms of all the basics. They're better than the Rocket ones in most cases. Also, thank you for sparing me a large headache by not putting Evil Dragonite in here. But there's a problem with your deck, and here it is: you've got 22 Pokemon, and you don't really have any strong basics to show for it, except perhaps for Machop. I'd cut the Arbok family, since their HP is really low, and although Evil Arbok's second attack is pretty funky, trying to get 3 colored energy on a 60 HP stage 1 can land you in a world o' hurtz. So let's go with mono-fighting for now, okay? Hmm... Machamp. The ability to Gust up a really nasty Pokemon and make it go away is pretty good, but it's too bad that (according to my translation) you can't use Throw Out if your opponent has no bench. (You were allowed to bench out your opponent with Pidgeot... why not Machamp???) Machoke can also give your opponent headaches, and Machop is a mini-Hitmonchan. Speaking of Hitmonchan, I'm thinking we'll want to

2) Hmm. Lass. Hehe. It'd be cool to Lass your opponent right after dropping Dragonair, meaning that you could search your deck and he/she couldn't. I would drop it to 2 though, since the deck shouldn't depend on it. Also drop Switch to 2. Right here, I like adding in my customary 2 Computer Searches and 4 Energy Removals. A few other trainers (PlusPower for example) would be nice, but no space right now. We definitely want to keep the Oaks, Bills, and Lasses... so...


3) Make all colored energy Fighting, and drop the overall amount. Also, run 4 DCE. Dragonair and Kangaskhan will both thank you, and it can be used to pay retreat costs as well. If you find yourself not having enough fighting energy, you can swap a couple of DCE back for colored energy.

***

18 Pokemon:

4 Machop
3 Evil Machoke
2 Evil Machamp
3 Dratini
2 Evil Dragonair
3 Hitmonchan
1 Kangaskhan

18 Trainers:

3 Bill
2 Oak
2 Computer Search
2 Lass
4 Energy Removal
2 Switch
3 GOW

24 Energy:

20 Fighting Energy
4 DCE

***


Nice looking deck. It would be fun to shut down an archetype such as Rain Dance or Damage Swap simply by Gusting out Blastoise or Alakazam and sending it back to your opponent's library. Let me know how it does.


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