>Hi Spike,
>
>Here is my son's deck called 'Dragon
>Drill'. We found it at another, uuhm
>web site, but that was before we found
>pojo.com. According to the designer
>Nathan, you use Dragonair and Magmar
>until you can build up Beedrill and
>Ninetales. Use Moltres if Beedrill and
>Ninetales are not strong enough, and Muk
>is used to hose other Pokemon powers.
>The deck does alright for my son if he
>gets a good draw and some lucky coin
>flips. He loves Ninetails (Vulpix
>should like that), Beedrill for poison
>and free retreat, and Muk has saved him
>more than once. Magmar is great as a
>starter, but in a pinch he has used the
>high HP of Moltres to stall.
>
>The problem seems to be he has too many
>pokemon with too many strategies. While
>that gives him versatility against most
>decks, most of the pokemon require four
>energies for their best attacks and are
>slow to build up. Here is the deck.
>
>25 Pokemon
>
>3 Weedle
>2 Kakuna
>1 Beedrill
>3 Grimer
>2 Muk
>3 Vulpix
>2 Ninetails
>2 Magmar (Fossil)
>2 Moltres
>3 Dratini
>2 Dragonair
>
>13 Trainers
>
>3 Bill
>1 Oak
>2 Gambler
>2 Energy Retrieval
>3 Gust of Wind
>2 Switch
>
>22 Energy
>
>10 Grass
>12 Fire
>
>Assuming we stay with the fire/grass
>theme, I thought about taking out
>Moltres and Dragonair, and beefing up
>Beedrill lineup to a standard 4-3-2.
>This keeps Ninetails (absolute must),
>Beedrill and Muk. However, this is 21
>pokemon and 12 basics, but the basics
>may be a little weak for stalling while
>building up the big guys. So, another
>idea is to also take Muk out and fill in
>with 2 Scythers and 2 Kangaskhans. This
>gives him some better basics and card
>drawing power, but he loses Muk's Toxic
>Gas power. These are just my ideas,
>what do you think he should do?
>
>I did not attempt to change the trainers
>because the pokemon's retreat costs,
>weakness', etc. can affect some of the
>trainers. I did not look at the energy
>cards for the same reason.
>
>I just noticed that if Dragonair gets
>tossed (heavy sigh), my son will have to
>change the name of the deck. How does
>'Drillpix' sound, or maybe 'Fire Drill'.
>Have to think about that for awhile.
>
>Keep up the good work.
***
Thanks again for the lengthy letter and detailed
explanations. I try not to post multiple decks from
the same person in a relatively short time frame (I
like to give everybody a chance) but I suppose it's
not technically yours, it's your son's. Anyway...on
with the fixin'!
1) 25 Pokemon is WAY the hell too much. You can start,
yes, by axing Moltres and Dragonair. Now, I understand
that keeping Ninetales is an "absolute must", and so
I'll do it...but keep in mind that Ninetales was
really not made for a multi-color deck. My main deck
uses Ninetales (a revelation for most of you, I'm
sure) and for a while I had a lot of grass energy from
my Brushfire deck, which I used for lack of sufficient
Fire energy. Hey, Arcanine could use it. But you have
no idea how many hours I spent swearing at my deck and
waving a handful of grass energy. "One fire energy!
Just one! Please!" Meanwhile, my Ninetales sits
whimpering in front of me, with three fire energies on
it, being beaten up on by a Venonat. Those experiences
have scarred my soul forever. Now that I've related my
tragic tale...what to do? We've gone from 25 Pokemon
to 18...definitely a step in the right direction. But
we need to cut it down a bit more, 'cause we want some
more strong basics in here. We've got a big fat stage
2; it sure would be nice if we could swap it for a
Stage 1. How about Venomoth? Free retreat, low energy
costs (big plus) and status effects galore. Not that
Beedrill isn't great. It is. My main motivation is the
need for card slots. Give it a whirl and see how it
works. Finally, add in a couple more basics--either
Fossil Magmar, Kangaskhan or Scyther. I think I'd go
with Scyther here, both for variety and to avoid
sucking more fire energy than neccessary. Not to
mention the low-cost retreat, which is good.
2) Need another Oak and two Computer Searches at
least. A proper deck cannot work without these. Then
stick in 4 Energy Removals. Again, a must. You can
drop Gambler if you like; I probably would. A word
here about Gambler. I understand that it may be useful
for young (learning) players who don't understand the
myriad intricacies of Oak. But let me attempt to give
a course in Oak 101:
A. You determine that you need seven fresh cards in
order to stay in the game.
B. You play everything you can from your hand. (You
may not want to play an energy until after you Oak in
some situations.)
C. You play Oak and get your seven cards.
D. You execute an incredibly cool combo and laugh in
your opponent's ugly face.
So keep in mind that Gambler is only a stepping-stone
to bigger and greater things. (Of course, he's also
useful in some other types of decks, or to keep from
decking...but that doesn't apply here.) That should
about do us for trainers.
3) Energy is going to be iffy. Work with this on your
own...you should be able to figure out what you need.
I'll leave it as-is for now.
***
19 Pokemon
3 Grimer
2 Muk
3 Vulpix
2 Ninetales
2 Magmar (Fossil)
2 Scyther
3 Venonat
2 Venomoth
18 Trainers
3 Bill
2 Oak
2 Energy Retrieval
3 Gust of Wind
2 Switch
2 Computer Search
4 Energy Removal
23 Energy
10 Grass
13 Fire
***
I had an extra card slot for some reason. I probably
added wrong when doing the fixing. At any rate, I
chose to go ahead and put an extra grass energy in
there. You may want to think about dropping one of
your basics (Magmar, Scyther) either for Kangaskhan or
for more of the other. I don't know. At any rate, good
luck with this deck. It's hard running Ninetales in a
multi-color deck, but it can be pulled off
successfully.
By the way..."Drillpix" sounds cool :-)
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