Hey everyone.
As a special feature, every now and
again I like to present
interesting theme decks on subjects that tickle my fancy. X-Men,
Weird Al Yankovic, whatever. Today's theme deck is particularly
timely. It deals with a topic that is rather fresh in my mind, since I
started and finished the second Harry Potter novel this morning and
afternoon, respectively.
If you think about it, there a lot of
cards you can convert into
the Harry Potter universe, but first the deck!!
Hi Dr. Crash! Chansey and I are stopping by for a deck fix. It is a theme
deck, In honor of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Chansey, must you
juggle your egg in here? No! Don't Shoot spitballs at... SLASH! his
secretary. Well, about the deck.
Harry Potter Deck
Pokemon (21)
3 Slooch (Just Joking!)
3 Chansey ( The nurse that helps madam Pomfrey. My Favorite Pokemon, too)
3 Dratini
2 Dragonair
1 Dragonite (Norbert Has Returned!)
4 Growlith (Sirius)
3 Arcanine (The Gryffyndor Lion)
2 Moltres (Fawkes)
3 Ditto (A Boggart)
Trainers (20)
3 Lass (Hermione)
4 Bill (Ron)
2 Prof. Oak (Dumbledore)
3 Mr Fuji (Hagrid)
2 Switch (Floo Powder)
3 GOW (Did you see that Firebolt!?)
3 SER (Like Voldemort, It's Evil)
Energy (19)
15 fire
4 DCE
What's that smell? Hypno Far.... (Falls on the floor, limp)(3 hours later)
Ugh. You're not joking, your Hypno smells worse than your secretary. (door
opens) What'd you say!!! I um, said, um, whoever dyed your hair
chartruse
did a nice job. Oh, Thanks! (secretary leaves room). Phew, that was close.
Here, Help me get Chansey up, he's kinda egg shaped so he can't get up from
his back. Thanx, and here's a dollar for Hypno's bills.
Well, as a theme deck, I'm not going to focus all that
heavily upon making it a mean machine, since theme decks are
really just for casual play. Still casual decks deserve victory now
and again, so I'll point things out here and there. I'm really not
changing that much, not because it doesn't require any refining, but
moreover in that I'm just posting this as proof that you can have fun
and be creative at the same time.
(By the way, Slooch was funny once,
but I'm getting sick of
seeing it included as a joke. I used it as a bad example and some
people have run away with it. From now on, any decks with Slooch
or other nonexistent Pokemon will be gleefully dropped into the
circular file. Just issuing fair warning to regular readers.)
All references to Harry Potter aside, I'm gonna actually
look at the real cards now.
Dratini-Dragonair-Dragonite: Not a
bad family. The TR Dratini
is my preffered choice, but some swear by the Base Set one. As
for Dragonair, I'd actually go for the Dark Dragonair, in terms of play
machanics. Evolutionary Light is very strong as a Pokemon Power.
It allows you to run reduced amounts of Evolutions with little
penalty. Of course, with Dark Dragonair, you'd need to switch to
Dark Dragonite. (I'm uncertain who Norbert is. Evidently he is in the
3rd or 4th novel which I haven't reached yet. So I have no clue if
Norbert is good or bad. I'm just saying that play wise, the Dark
family is a bit better IMHO.)
Growlithe-Arcanine: A nice sweeper Pokemon.
Plays good
with a DCE and quick evolving time. Good damage potential too,
although that backlash from Take Down is nasty. Still, Arcanaine
has the HP to take out a few Pokemon before he goes out. (Once
again, I've no clue who Sirius is, presumably a dog. Gotta get the
third book and see I guess.)
Chansey: I'm skeptical of this card in this
deck. Chansey is
only going to compete for your DCE's and they're needed for
Dragonites and Dragonairs and Dittos. Sorry to say, they gotta go.
(Ms. Pomfrey's assistant? Where? Nurse JOY has an assistant in
Chansey, but nowhere have I read yet of Pomfrey getting help.
Maybe I need to read more....)
Ditto: One of my faves for dealing
with the unexpected. Just
toss that annoyance back at the opponent. Particularly nasty with
Psychic Pokemon....(Boggarts?? I'm REALLY behind.)
Moltres: A good Pokemon for the most part,
nice in the late
game when you want to drain the enemy's deck down to almost
nothing. It has been rendered less effective though by Nightly
Garbage Removal, but if you Wildfire those NGR's...:) Resistance
to Fighting is a plus though. I'm not sure Moltres belongs in this
deck though, strategy wise. But it IS a cool reference, so it stays.
If your deck can't be fun, why play?
(An interesting side note
concerning Fawkes the phoenix. It
seems to me that Fawkes is named after Guy Fawkes, a notorious
traitor to the crown at some point in England's history and the man
whom Guy Fawkes Day, a British holiday, is named. Each year,
on Guy Fawkes Day, children gather for parties and fun, as straw,
or some similar such substance, effigies are burned at the stake to
reenact Guy Fawkes's destruction. Well, the legendary pheonix is
destroyed is a similar manner, a fiery death from which it is reborn,
much as each year new effigies of Guy Fawkes are made and once
again destroyed. J.K. Rowling is British, so naturally the
significance of this name is perhaps more meaningful to her British
fans whereas we "Wankers" (British derogatory slang for Yankees
or Americans) would be generally ignorant of this subtle reference.
Or maybe it's all one huge coincedence and I'm a couple rodents
shy of a Whack-A-Mole game...)
As for the Trainers....
Lass- Well yeah it does have that Hermoine Granger
effect of
stripping both people of options, I gotta admit that much. I'm not so
sure the actual card is such a good fit in the deck though. Lass is
for quick disruption decks, not slower evolution decks. If Hermione
weren't so pivotal for any good Harry Potter deck, I'd yank Lass
here.
(By the way, how DO you pronounce Hermione?? I've tried to
figure it out, but have no clue. If anyone has any concrete evidence
of how to say it, preferrably in print or text somewhere, please let
me know.)
Bill- Standard deck card...nuff said. I guess Ron
Weasley's
gotta go in somewhere too.
Professor Oak: Who didn't see this casting call
coming? Albus
Dumbledore is a perfect fit, just like Oak is a perfect fit in any deck.
The rest of the Trainers are acceptable in this
deck, none being
terribly out of place. I'd think Voldemort would be better
represented by Impostor Professor Oak, but then you'd never have
it in your deck, so scratch that idea.
I'll present the deck in my slightly
modfied form.
4 Dratinis
3 Dark Dragonairs
2 Dark Dragonites (Norbert..hmmmm....)
4 Growlithes
3 Arcanines (I'll believe it's Sirius.)
2 Moltres (Yup it's Fawkes all right.)
2 Dittos (Whatever Boggarts is or are.)
2 Lass (Hermoine Granger)
4 Bills (Ron Weasley)
3 Professor Oaks (Albus Dumbledore)
3 Mr. Fuji's (Rubeus Hagrid)
3 Switch (Floo Powder or is it FLUE powder..think for a
moment.)
3 Gusts of Wind (Effective Counter Magic against Dark
Arts)
3 Super Energy Removals (Is it really a good thing to
have, You-
Know-Who in a deck anyway?)
4 Double Colorless Energy
12 Fire Energy
3 Full Heal Energy
This will mostly be a fun deck
unless the tournaments in
your neighborhood are really lame and the competition is full of
people who strive to be as astute as Forrest Gump.
Here are some also handy dandy
Pokemon/Potter
crossovers I've thought of while examining this deck.
Arbok : The Beast of Slytherin
(Hey, since Jesse talks to
Ekans and Arbok, is she a parselmouth?)
Computer Search- The Sorting
Hat
Raticate - Scabbers
HootHoot - Hedwig (duh)
Potion/Super Potion - Severus
Snape's Potions class
Gengar - Peeves the Poltergeist
Defender - That lightning bolt
shaped scar on Harry's
forehead that protects him from Voldemort's Dark Magic
Impostor Professor Oak - Tom
Riddle or if you prefer to
scapegoat that jerk, it could also be Gilderoy Lockhart.
Pokemon Breeder - This card
makes a better Hagrid in my
opinion. Hagrid raises animals in his spare time, like chickens and
Fang.
Mr. Fuji - Professor Flitwick
(Why not, he's cool.)
Jigglypuff - Represents House
Hufflepuff
I'm unable to think of anymore
this late at night, but you get
the idea. See how easy it is to make themes up out of nothing. Try
it and send em by me, if they're good and well made, I'll post them.
Good Luck!!
Dr. Crash Landon