>I have recently purchased my first deck of pokemon cards and i
>got the overgrowth deck. I have modified it slightly but it
>doesn't seem to be very good at all. Could you plz help. I am
>not able to get my hands on any of the fossil or jungle sets
>yet but i can get the basic cards. This deck needs some serious help.
>
>
>ENERGY
>Grass x 12
>Water x 12
>
>POKEMON
>
>Weedle x 4
>Kakuna x 2
>Beedrill x 1
>Bulbasaur x 4
>Ivysaur x 2
>Tanglea x 1
>Koffing x 1
>
>Staryu x 3
>Poliwag x 2
>Poliwhirl x 1
>Squirtle x 1
>Wortortle x 1
>Magikarp x 3
>Gyarados x 1
>
>Porygon x 1
>
>TRAINERS
>
>Bill x 2
> Switch x 2
>Gust of wind x 1
>Revive x 1
>Defender x 1
>Pokemon Trader x 1
>
>My strategy is to get any pokemon out to deal cheap OK damage
>while stalling to build up Gyarados, Poliwhirl, Beedrill, and
>Ivysaur. Is this deck okay to beat an electric/psychic deck,
>plz help.
The idea behind most of the starter decks is to teach new players how to play
the game. Although they can fight out decent games, they are never as good
as a well organized, custom constructed deck. A lot of this is brought on
by the lack of strong cards in the decks or addition of weak cards to it,
without the correct support of energy and trainers. Asking a deck mechanic
to fix a starter deck is very difficult for us, especially since most of the
time the people that submit these don't have many cards. I will try to
help you by changing this deck just a slight bit with commons/uncommons only.
Not every deck must have rares to win... a lesson which surprised a local TCG
league that I visited with a pure fire/grass common/uncommon deck.
First off, pokemon. A good deck needs between 14 and 18 basic pokemon to
do well. There are exceptions to this rule, such as rain dance, but always
start with this number until you get to be a master deck builder. Using
what you already have, let's try these pokemon:
Pokemon (14 Basic + 8 Evols = 22 Total):
4 Bulbasaur
3 Ivysaur
3 Tangela
4 Staryu
3 Starmie
3 Squirtle
2 Wartortle
This, by all means, isn't the best mix of water/grass pokemon you could get if
you were to get jungle (Scyther and Nidoran(F)!) or Fossil, but it will get you
started on learning to build better decks.
Next is energy... I use the standard 20/4 philsophy. If you can get 4
Double Colorless Energy, do so. They are uncommon and from base set.
Otherwise, just add 2 Grass and 2 Water in their place.
Energy (20 Basic + 4 DCE = 24 Total):
11 Grass
9 Water
4 Double-Colorless Energy
Lastly is trainers. This is where the deck magic occurs. Almost
every deck built needs 4 Bill, 1 or 2 Professor Oak, 1 or 2 Gambler (From
Fossil), and other cards to support your pokemon and hassle your opponent's.
Knowing this, and that we have (60 - 22 - 24 = 14 left) 14 slots for trainers,
let's use these:
Trainers (14 Total):
4 Bill
2 Professor Oak (uncommon, should be easy to get)
1 Computer Search (rare, you should be able to trade for it)
3 Gust of Wind (common)
2 Potion (common)
2 Defender (uncommon)
Good luck...