Ah..Ahh...Achooooo!! Oh, boy this plaster dust is doing
a number on me.
I don't think there's enough Benadryl on this continent to keep me from
sneezing my sinuses inside out. See, I'm having a ceiling fan installed in
the waiting area. They circulate the air better than central conditioning,
or so the brochure says.
To make it worse, the installer is this big, hairy,
surly guy who reeks
of cigars and has apparently never heard of a belt. Say no to crack kids!!
But people's deck problems don't wait for ceiling fans
and my next
appointment should be crossing into the hazard zone any moment...yes here he
is. Boy I'm goo-Achoo!! Oh man...
Quick duck into my office, I'll open a window and then
you can tell me
what the trouble is. And thank you for wearing a belt.
>Hi. I'm an average pokemon player and I would like to
>get an experts opinion about my deck. I think that my
>problem is that I have to many different types of
>cards. You tell me. The theme of my deck is either to
>evolve pokemon as much as they can so they are super
>powerful or find pokemon that are there strongest when
>they first come out.
>
>My deck consist of:
>ENERGY
>12 Water Energy
>12 Grass Energy
>TRAINERS
>1 Clefairy Doll
>1 Pokemon Breeder
>2 Poke Ball
>1 Super Potion
>1 Super Energy Removal
>1 Plus Power
>COLORLESS
>2 Eevee
>1 Kangaskhan
>1 Spearow
>1 Fearow
>WATER
>1 Atricuno
>1 Vaporeon
>2 Magikarp
>1 Gyrados
>GRASS
>2 Venonat
>1 Venomoth
>2 Caterpie
>2 Metapod
>2 Butterfree
>2 Exeggcute
>1 Exxegutor
>1 Scyther
>1 Nidoran Male
>1 Nidorino
>1 Nidoking
>1 Nidoran Female
>1 Nidorina
>1 Nidoqueen
>
>I would really appriciate your help.
>
>Matt Miller
>_________________________________________________________
Well at least
you know what your problem is. That's WAY too many
creatures!
A good rule of thumb is that you should
always stick with 4-6
different Pokemon and have numerous copies of each one. The basic problem
with having just one of each creature is that if you have say, your
Nidoking, but your Nidorino is stuck in your prize pile, then you're
screwed. You'll never be able to evolve your Nidoran Male until you get that
Nidorino. Meanwhile, the Nidoking wastes space in your hand. Having several
Nidorinos would remove this problem.
Also, a good Pokemon deck just
doesn't NEED that many creatures of
any type, in any combination. The average formula is as follows:
Energy cards- 22-26
Pokemon cards- 14-18
Trainers- 16-18
You have 29 creatures. See how this
leaves little room for valuable
trainers? Having strong pokemon is very nice, but playing an effective
Trainer card at the right time is what wins games the most. Don't
shortchange yourself with the Trainers. You'll regret it.
It seems you have a nice variety of creatures
available to you, so I
can only assume that you have others as well. Any cards I suggest which you
don't have can be traded for using some of those rares you mentioned
earlier.
And just to point this out to you, either
evolving strong Pokemon or
using powerful basic Pokemon is kind of the fundamental strategy of EVERY
deck. Not just yours.
Hold on, the fan guy needs something.
What?? No I don't know if we
use direct or alternating current. You're the one with the degree. Oh. It's
not a degree. What is it? A certificate of knowledge?? Well Sally Struthers
must be very proud of you. I dunno...just stick your finger into the socket
and see which one it is.
Sorry for that. Let's continue. I'm
pretty sure you like Grass
creatures. You went out of your way to include them. So that's what I'll
work with you on. We're going to revise this Pokemon roll call into a
leaner, meaner Grass-kicking machine.
The best creatures for Grass are
Scyther, Pinsir, Muk, Venusaur and,
to a lesser extent, Exeggutor. Some good backup colorless Pokemon would be
Wigglytuff and Kangaskhan. So let's work around them.
There really is no reason to include
the water Pokemon in this deck.
They don't add anything to Grass's capability and distract from your ability
to put in Double Colorless Energies.
As for Trainers, the standard
set of Bills, Professor Oaks and
Gusts of Wind is always worth including. There isn't a single deck out there
which has no use for these 5 star cards. In addition to these, a Computer
Search, a couple Pokemon Traders, an Item Finder and maybe some Energy
Retrievals to get back anything lost in retreating. Grass isn't always the
cheapest to retreat.
This is what a good Grass deck
tends to look like. You can play
around with the formula a bit, but don't stray too much from the original.
This deck I'm about to list is what you should be trying to make if you want
to have a competitive game. Take a look. Also please try to ignore the
dimming lights and loud screaming from the other room.
4 Bulbasaurs
3 Ivysaurs
2 Venusaurs
4 Scythers
3 Jigglypuffs
2 Wigglytuffs
4 Bills
2 Professor Oaks
4 Gusts of Wind
2 Computer Searches
2 Pokemon Traders
3 Energy Retrievals
1 Item Finder
20 Grass Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy
This is a very solid, rudimentary Grass deck.
Very simple, with good
potential to develop some combos on your own, depending upon how creative or
smart you play. Trust me, the possibilities are there. I like Grass very
much and know it well. Once you get the feel for this simple, streamlined
deck, then you can change it around a little. Add some Exeggutors for some
Venusaur Energy Trans fun or maybe try some Energy Removals insted of
Retrievals. But keep the basic formula and rules of thumb intact, and you'll
never be far from success.
Good luck with your game, and I
hope you adhere to the deck
building guidelines I've given you. They'll serve you well.
If you can get around the
falling plaster and drywall dust, you can
pay my secretary for today's session. That is, if she's not passed out
already from taking all that Benadryl.
So let's see how the fan is coming along
anyway...Oh wow!! It's
done!! I guess that big oaf knew what he was doing after all. It seems to be
working fine. That's good. Nothing to do now but sweep up...
Hey... why are there all these empty Scotch
tape dispensers in the
trash?? And what is that bizarre creaking sound. . .?
Good luck,
Dr. Crash-Landon
______________________________________________________
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