>Hey Spike,
>
>My little brother has run into a problem of sorts. He
>went over to a friends house today and REFUSED to
take
>
>his Pokemon cards. I couldn't believe it. My brother
>is seven and he lives for Pokemon. (Well that's not
>totally true he really lives for food. He's got a
>bottomless pit for a stomach and he's only 7 :)
Anyway
>the reason why is because he always loses to this
>kid's deck (which is a reworked theme deck).
>
>I tried to fix it myself but now I thought I'd hand
it
>over to a pro. Since he's seven his strategy is to .
.
>.
>well, win. Strategies are hard for him to grasp so I
>tried to make the deck sort of play itself for him.
>
>The deck was originally brown and yellow. Now it's
>brown and green and needs some pruning.
>
>Heartfelt thanks from a poke-boy's sister:)
>crystal star
>
>The Deck:
>
>POKEMON
>
>Machop   3
>Machoke  2
>Machamp  1
>Bulbasaur 3
>Ivysaur  2
>Venusaur  1
>Jigglypuff 2
>Wigglytuff 1
>Sandshrew  2  (because it prevents some attacks)
>Sandslash  2
>
>ENERGY
>
>green 7
>brown 12
>
>TRAINERS
>
>energy removal  2
>S. energy removal 1
>prof. oak     2
>Bill          4
>gow           2
>switch        2
>pokemon trader 1 (trying to get more)
>potion        3
>energy search  2
>energy retrieval 1
>pokeball        2  (no comp. searches)
>
>P.S. He has some singles problems because he got
>mainly boosters and foils are very hard to get. Oh
and
>he's going over to that kid's house again next week.

***

Vulpix!

As you may or may not be aware (depending on whether
you've read Vulpix's Corner for this week) Spike is
out of town this weekend. So that you all shouldn't
have to go without a dose of the Shed, he asked me
[Vulpix] to do a couple of deck fixes. Not bashes,
fixes. I was kind of annoyed at first at having such
restrictions placed on me, but decided to go along.
Mainly because I thought it would be interesting to do
fixing for a while.

Now then, let's take a look at this deck. Spike left a
couple of decks that he said he wanted me to fix, and
this was one of them. Probably wanted to see whether I
could keep from giving in and bashing it. Presumably
it's the explanation of it being a little kid that
stopped Spike from trashing this deck outright. How
does Spike usually do this? *checks notes* Pokemon,
trainers, energy, revised listing, closing comments.
Got it.

*Pokemon* Well, you need some work, that's for sure.
And you definitely want to make your families more
diverse. You didn't tell me much about this other
kid's deck (whether he has psy or fighting
resistance--two things that could be nasty) so let's
start by dropping Venusaur. His power is not very
useful in this deck, and the family is a relatively
slow starter. Use the spaces thus created to boost
'Champ to 4-3-2. Machop is an excellent starter for
being part of a Stage 2 family. Now, add in another
Jigglypuff and Wigglytuff, and add in another
Sandshrew. I don't think we have space for any of the
haymaking Pokemon, but they'd probably be hard to get
anyway, and Sandslash family is okay (assuming your
friend doesn't run Scyther.) You have strong basics
and psy resist, so no problem.

*Trainers* You need some work. I know the better
trainers are hard to get, but they will probably help.
First, drop the SER (this deck is pretty
energy-intensive.) Also drop the Potions. I know
Potions seem good to little kids...they seemed good to
Spike for a long time, too...but help your brother and
see if he can't master the art of going off quickly
enough to avoid using Potions and using the card
spaces in some other way. Drop the Energy Search, and
drop the Pokeball in anticipation of something better.
That is all we will need to drop. Now add in 2 more
Energy Removals, and another Retrieval. You have all
the Oaks and Bills you should need--good job! And now
we come to the method of searching. I really recommend
Computer Searches when you can get them, but maybe a
little kid will have an easier time with Trader. The
one defining advantage is the ability to pull ANY
card. Try it, you'll like it. I'm going to recommend
them, and you can go with Trader instead--you can even
keep the Pokeballs until you get better searching. If
you don't use CPU Search, you may want Item
Finders--in fact, you might want them anyway.

*Energy* Running only 7 grass in a deck with Venusaur
is a felony in some states. Replace all the former
grass with fighting--actually, bring fighting up to at
least 20. Now you may want to think about some DCE to
help Wiggly. Why don't you start with 2 DCE, and
adjust it as needed?

***

19 Pokemon:

4 Machop
3 Machoke
2 Machamp
3 Jigglypuff
2 Wigglytuff
3 Sandshrew
2 Sandslash

19 Trainers:

4 Bill
2 Oak
4 Energy Removal
2 Energy Retrieval
2 GOW
2 Switch
2 Computer Search (or Pokemon Trader)
1 Item Finder

22 Energy:

20 Fighting Energy
2 DCE

***

And it all falls into place neatly. You might need to
tweak it a bit, depending on what the metagame is like
in your area (translation: exactly what your friend
plays) but it's much better now than when I first got
my paws on it.

I just thought of something. Why does Spike use those
little rows of asterisks to divide sections in his
deck fixes?

Vulpix vulpix!

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