Hey all,
Do you recall how I had a horrible stomachache last
week? No? Well, go check, because I did. Go. I'll wait.
There. Believe me now?
Anyway, I went to the doctor for it
and he told me it was stress related. He asked if I had any highly
stressful items in my life. I told him about my secretary and Hypno.
He then introduced me to these really nice gentlemen with white
jackets and cattle prods.
No...not really. They
wore blue.
Just kidding again there.
It was green. No, what he DID do
was tell me to take a vaction. So I went home, packed my bags,
booked a hotel in Maine and flew out to New England for 5 days.
I'm actually writing this from my laptop computer in the hotel.
Yup. I closed
my clinic for a few days, gave my secretary
the week off, without pay. I shouldn't have to pay her for sitting
home and doing nothing. I find it ridiculous enough that she gets
paid for sitting in the office doing nothing. And Hypno...I taped him
to a chair and put in a Barry Manilow CD on repeat for the duration
of my absence. Told everyone about chicken in my locker, did he?
Well, maybe next time he'll think twice before sharing.
So now I'm up here in Southern Maine, taking in the last
rays of summer. It's a comfy 70 degrees and the sea air feels dang
relaxing. I took a walk earlier down on the pier and got some
crabcakes and a banana milkshake that didn''t taste like bananas
at all. Then I wandered over to the boardwalk and went to some of
the arcades. The video arcades here are intense.
I'm starting to feel relaxed finally. My stomach is still
bothering me, but I think that's from my having a bad clam last
night. I'm finally in the mood to look at a deck again. I brought a
few e-mail requests with me to look over. Let's take a look, what
say?
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Hey Dr.Crash!
My Deck is a revised Psych Out deck renamed 'Road Block' The stratgey
behind my deck is to make my opponents think it is a Wiggly deck but
later on bring in dark wartortle and the like to pound em hard! Any way
heres 'Road Block'.
Pokemon 22
3 Jigglypuff
1 Wigglytuff
3 Abra
1 Kadabra
1 Drowzee
2 Jynx
4 Squirtle (1 rocket)
2 Wartortle (1 Dark)
1 seel
2 Staryu
1 Psyduck
1 Dark Golduck
Trainers 10
2 pluspower
2 Gust of wind
1 Computer Search
1 Rockets Sneak attack
1 Here comes team Rocket
1 Challenge!
1 Switch
1 Super Potion
Energy 27
14 water
13 psychic
1 potion energy
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Verrry interesting. I selected this
deck because of its different
strategy. It still needs a lot of work though.
At first
glance, this deck seems very haphazardly tossed
together. A second glance confirms this. Its not without its good
points though.
The idea of
using popular Pokemon commonly found in
one particular archetype to lull the opponent into thinking he's
dealing with nothing more than another Wiggly deck deserves
some praise. If you can successfully get the mental edge on an
opponent, you can tilt the odds in your favor heavily. If he plays as
though your deck were a standard Wigglytuff deck and you toss
out a Dark Wartortle suddenly, he'll be so confused that it may well
take him a couple turns to adjust strategies, which could be all the
time you need to gain dominance. Pulling this off could be tough
against an experienced player, but if you can do it, kudos to you.
Well I think the biggest
problem with the deck is in which
Pokemon you've got working for you. It's kind of hit and miss. A
Drowzee here, a Dratini there...no rhyme or reason. Well I'll GIVE
you a reason. You want to win.
Aside from a few
Pokemon you picked, most of them are
pretty much barrel scrapers, the kind you stick in your bicycle
spokes to hear that realy cool machine gun effect. Not very
playworthy. Staryu has pathetic attack power, no real defense, low
HP and a very exploitable weakness. The same goes for Drowzee,
Dratini and to some extent, Seel. So we're gonna toss them right
out the window and watch them float carelessly to the ground
before watching them get shredded by the lawnmower.
What we're left
with is some better Pokemon. Abra and
Kadabra are decent. Kadabra is certainly powerful, but has low HP
and tends to waste Energy. Abra is just, plain and simply, a
liability on your part. I have to give them their walking papers.
Jigglypuff and Tuff are ok. Wigglytuff is most certainly a
broken card, meaning it's ridiculously powerful. I can also think of a
few reasons to actually have them in the deck. It's a subterfuge
thing which I'll explain later.
Squirtle and Dark Wartortle are pretty good too. Dark
Wartortle is especially mean. It is essentially the best staller
Water has to offer. Unfortunately it can't dish out the powerful hits
unless it gets whacked itself. But when it does, BAM! Even an
Electabuzz, which can wipe it out in one shot will have to pull the
punches or take a whopping 60 damage in retalliation.The retreat
cost is also very reasonable.
Psyduck and Dark Golduck are one of my favorite pairs
in the Pokemon TCG. They just compliment each other so well. If
you're using the fossil Psyduck, you can stall your opponent's
hand by restricting his use of Trainers. The Team Rocket version
can grab you some much needed extra cards. Both are excellent
Basics to work with. Fury Swipes or Water Gun are both
potentially painful too.
I am going to keep the Pokemon at these 6. We've got
3 evolutionary families already, which some Deck Mechanics will
recoil in horror at. I see this as more of a fun, experimental deck
and there's no reason why you MUST play by hardcore tournament
standards. I say have an original deck and enjoy the game,
tournaments or not.
The next major hurdle is our Trainer situation. As I
scanned through the deck's contents I noticed there were very few
Trainers and there were hardly any multiples. I cannot stress this
enough: THIS IS BAD.
Having great Pokemon is well and good, but you've
gotta back them up with strong tactics and support for when the
pressure is on. Trainers are so essential for this and multiples are
a must! You'll greatly increase the odds of having a clutch card, by
having several in the deck.
First up on the block is a big wrist slapping for your
not having any Trainers that draw cards. I'll bet a lot of times you're
just sitting there with a handful of trash or nothing, wishing you
could get an Energy or an Evolution. Well without cards that
replenish your hand, you'll be twiddling your thumbs a lot. This is
why Trainers like Bill, Professor Oak, Computer Search, Sabrina's
Gaze and the like are critical.
We're going to give you the full smattering of card
drawing. That's 4 Bills, 3 Professor Oaks and a couple Computer
Searches to start this off right.
Now we must figure upon the unexpected. While I
can't say what that will be, presumably a deck chock full of
Electabuzzes and Raichus or a bignasty Wiggly assault, whatever,
but I can reccomend insurance against bad luck. Gust of wind
remains one of my perennial faves for dealing with rogues that can
do some evil stuff to my Pokemon. I can save my keester or screw
with my opponent's plans. The fun is endless.
Item Finder is perhaps your best ally late in the
game. I like it because it allows me to get extra mileage out of any
Trainers in my used pile. Sometimes I really NEED that PlusPower
that's not in my hand, and my deck is getting thin. In times like
that, I call upon Item Finder. Sure I'm tossing out two cards, but if
they weren't helping me right then and there, I can spare them. If I
don't sacrifice them, I may never get the opportunity to use them
after the opponent's next turn. Pokemon is a war of attrition.
Sacrifice is a big element. But trust me, Item Finder is really, really
good.
In any deck with multiple Evolutions, it's imperative
to have a way of getting back lost Stage 1's. Losing a Wartortle
early on could really louse your game right up. So could having to
toss a Wigglytuff to the discard pile with a Professor Oak, only to
draw 3 Jigglypuffs. For these reasons, Nightly Garbage Run is a
great card to have. Simply pull back those precious Evolutions into
your deck and shuffle away. Or you could get back all that Water
Energy your opponent has so mercilessly forced you to discard.
Either way it lengthens the amount of turns you have to play and
that gives you breathing room.
Rocket Sneak Attack is a devilish card that allows
you to examine your opponent's hand and remove any one Trainer
there you choose. This is good on 2 levels. First you get to
eliminate an immediate threat such as a PlusPower, Gust of Wind
or Energy Removal. This alone would be good, but there's more.
You also gain the knowledge of what's left and should be able to
anticipate within reason your opponent's next several moves,
provided he doesn't draw a Professor Oak or something. Still this
knowledge can be downright powerful. I've been known to just play
Sneak Attack to simply glean an insight into my opponent's hand,
without the desire to toss anything out. Of course, I still make him
shuffle something back into the deck, but that's just icing on my
cake.
Lastly I reccomend using PlusPowers. The Pokemon
in this deck hit ok, but not super hard. Early on, it's to your
advantage to drop a PlusPower on a Jigglypuiff to get 30 instead of
20 damage. Down the road that often makes a huge difference.
Don't waste them though. Be aware of how many turns it will take
your Active to KO the opponent's Active. Many times it will take 3
turns and you only need 10 damage that last time round.
PlusPower can make that 2 turns and a quicker Prize.
The last segment to fix is Energy. You have way too
much. You're not running Golem or Nidoking here. C'mon! There's
no need for nearly half the deck to be Energy. This means that
50% of your drawn cards will be Energy, resulting in your asitting
around, thumbs twiddling, waiting for something to actually use
that Energy on. Take it down to about 20 energy. This is just 1/3 of
your deck, meaning that 2 out of 3 cards will be Trainers or
Pokemon, both more advantageous than a lousy Water Energy
when you need to do something fast.
Since we've got Wigglytuffs, let's give you a
bunch of Double Colorless Energy. Speed kills and DCE speeds
Wigglytuff up a ton.
We need Water Energy, so I'm sending 7 of
them your way. The next 7 Energy will be Psychic. Finally a pair of
Full Heal Energies will keep things like Paralyzation and Poison at
bay.
So what have we got here? A completely revised
deck, with much more direction and purpose in mind. Let's see the
contents.
3 Jigglypuffs
2 Wigglytuffs
4 Squirtles (Use the Base Set ones. Paralysis on the
first turn is very good.)
3 Dark Wartortles
3 Fossil Psyducks (Controlling your opponent is
slightly better than an extra card.)
3 Dark Golducks
4 Bills
3 Professor Oaks
2 Computer Searches
3 Gusts of Wind
2 Item Finders
3 Nightly Garbage Runs
2 Rocket Sneak Attacks
3 PlusPowers
4 Double Colorless Energies
7 Water Energies
7 Psychic Energies
2 Full Heal Energies
And Voila! (That's French
for "Holy Crap!") A deck with
direction and an interesting twist on tactics.
Here's how I'd play it.
If at all possible,
place your Psyduck out with a Psychic
Energy. You can prevent the opponent from playing his opening
Trainers this way. In this stall time, you can work toward getting a
Dark Wartortle into the Active position. Your opponent may have a
few powered up Pokemon at this point, but he will likely hold back
for fear of hurting himself just as much, seeing Jigglys on your
bench and fearing a sudden Do the Wave attack. Once you've got a
Dark Golduck or a Wigglytuff and a full bench, pull back Wartortle
and go to town. Use those PlusPowers then to quickly eliminate
his fighters and Rocket Sneak Attacks to anticipate any dirty tricks
like a Pokemon Center. If things get hairy, put Dark Wartortle back
nto the Active spot and use the down time to rebuild and refill your
hand. Then go back to layeth the smackdown down. Simple as
cake, because I don't care for pie much. (Although the Pojo's Pie is
a pretty cool guy.)
This deck is fixed. simply mail the check to my office
and the postman will slip it under the door and torment my Hypno
with the sight of money he can't get to.
Well
that's all this Doctor wrote. I'm heading back to
enjoying my vacation. I'm gonna head off to the Ebb Tide restaurant
for what could possibly be the world's best clam Chowder and then
i'm gonna drive by George Bush's house in Kennebunkport and yell
real loud about how much of a loser his kid is. After that, it's back
to the arcades. I found one that's open all night and I just can't get
enough Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
But first I'm gonna get this sand out of my shorts.
Good Luck!!
Dr. Crash Landon
my signature line