Bench Warmer
Pokémon (18)
2x Elekid
3x Electabuzz (lvl. 35; Base)
4x Pikachu (lvl. 14; Jungle)
3x Dark Raichu
2x Zapdos (lvl. 40; Fossil)
3x Scyther
1x Cleffa
Trainers (20)
3x Bill
2x No Removal Gym
4x Gust of Wind
4x Professor Elm
3x Professor Oak
2x Nightly Garbage Run
2x Computer Search
Energy (22)
18x Electric Energy
4x Double Colorless Energy
Strategy
This deck was designed as a Bench Killer. The basic idea is
to get, if at
all possible, to get Scyther or Elekid out first turn, and stall for a bit.
At the same time, build up your bench Pokemon. Retreat Scyther or Elekid and
begin killing your opponents active and benched pokemon, getting multiple
prizes in a single turn. Gusting out badly damaged pokemon is a plus too :)
Thanks for the help
Wonderland
Hey wonderland, thanks for sending me this deck. Its pretty good as is, but
lets see if we can make it a little more diverse and able to fend off a few
more threats.
POKEMON
Electabuz is one of the top 5 pokemon in the entire game, and 3 of them are
just fine in this deck.
Fossil Zapdos is pretty good if you can get it powered up, but the fact that
it needs 4 colored energy to make an attack of any kind makes it risky at
best. More often than not, its going to get energy removaled, even if you
have no removal gym out, or gusted before it can get built up. Another
problem with it is that if you go on a tails flipping spree against an
opponent with a full bench, you can basically take yourself out with your 1st
attack. So what to do?
Lets use a beter zapdos instead. Substitute Rocket's Zapdos. The 20 for 1
lightining is allways good. It's ability to suck energy up out of your
discard is really good for 2 reasons. One is that you can get its big attack
powered up for turn 3, and another is that it makes it fairly resistant to
energy removals, which is allways a plus. And of course a fighting resistant
lightning pokemon is perfect to balance out our fighting week ones. Lets up
our zapdos count to 3.
Elekid is a useful pokemon for 3 reasons. First is that its free retereat and
the protection of the baby rule can make it useful as a stall. Second is that
it has an attack that requires no energy. Third is that its attack can be
launced from the safety of the bench and used instead of an attack of a
confused or asleep pokemon. Its just fine to keep 2 of these.
Cleffa is almost a necessity in decks anymore With all the Slowking, The
Rocket's Trap, and Dark Vileplume running around in decks out there,
sometimes it is your only hope of geting a new hand. It is also useful as a
stall for the same reason Elekid is. Lets increase our Cleffa count to 2.
Dark Raichu is a lot beter pokemon than most people give it credit for. the
70hp is ok for a stage one, and its ability to do 20 damage to the entire
bench is just incredible. The only weak point is that its only attack takes 3
colored energy, making him a prime candidate for energy removals. We can try
to counter that with no removal gym, but really with elekid able to attack
while we power it up, and with things like golden nut in the deck, we
should
be able to survive the removals just fine. Presonally, I prefer the Promo # 1
Pikachu to the Jungle one because of the 10 extra HP and the paralization can
be more useful than 10 bench damage, but the jungle one does fit the the
theme of the deck beter, so i decided to leave that one in. If you can get
the promo pikachu, you may want to consider trying it in the deck to see
which works beter for you. I think that going to 3-2 on this line is best
though, because we have plenty of other good attack options in the deck, and
the bench damage works best later in the game, so geting Dark Rachu out very
early isnt a priority most of the time.
Scyther is great in a lot of decks for a million reasons, but I think you
will get more milage out of Ditto in this deck. Why? Because it gives you a
way to counter sneasel, stall clefables, and counter other peoples Rocket's
Zapdos's. In the current environment, most of the top decks feature 2 of
these annoying pokemon, and ditto is a good way to counter them. Lets use 2
of them.
TRAINERS
Your mix is pretty good, and other than adjusting the numbers of some of
them, and adding a few others there isnt much to do here.
The only trainer that I think should be removed is Bill. A couple months ago
removing Bill would have been almost unthinkable, but with Oak, Elm, Cleffa,
and Computer Search, Bill just isnt a necessity in a lot of decks anymore.
Oak and No Removal Gym are just fine at their current levels (If your facing
a lot of Wiggly decks, consider Sprout Tower as an alternative to No Removal
Gym)
Lets drop one Professor Elm and 1 Gust of Wind, and add 1 Computer Search and
1 Nightly Garbage Run, because it gives a little more balance to our trainer
mix.
For additional trainers, lets put in 3 Item Finders, 3 Golden Nut's, and 2
Scoop Up. These will allow us to keep our pokemon healed and out there for
longer periods, and will allow us flexibility by being able to retrieve
whatever trainers we may need from our discard.
ENERGY
Not much to say here. 14 Lightning and 3 Double Colorless should be plenty
with 3 NGR and with Rocket's Zapdos ability to get them back.
FINAL DECK
POKEMON (17)
3 Electabuzz
3 Rocket's Zapdos
3 Pikachu (Jungle or Promo #1)
2 Dark Raichu
2 Elekid
2 Cleffa
2 Ditto
TRAINERS (25)
3 Professor Oak
3 Professor Elm
3 Computer Search
3 Item Finders
3 Nightly Garbage Run
3 Gust of Wind
3 Golden Nut
2 Scoop Up
2 No Removal Gym (or possibly Sprout Tower)
ENERGY (18)
14 Lightning
4 Double Colorless
Hope this fix helps, and thanks for sending me your deck.