For a change of pace, I thought I'd have lunch up here in my office this
afternoon. I had a sausage and pepperoni pizza delivered and although my
Venus Flytraps are licking their lips with expectation, this baby's all
mine. My secretary went out for her lunch break with the ditzy dental
assistant who works nextdoor. Margaritas and male-bashing...how fun.

   See, I've gotta filter through all the deck submissions periodically and
determine which ones need help. This usually takes a whole afternoon.
Luckily there's no appointments for the rest of the day. It pays sometimes
to have a lazy secretary. When appointments forget to be made, well, I've
been known to overlook it once in a while.

   Hmmm, what's this? This one looks interesting. Let's take a look, shall
we?




Take a look at this Deck and Rate it. I believe it would be better if I had
a
>Here comes Team Rocket in it. I have a friend I will be battleing against,
>he
>has a Mr. Mime,Ditto Deck what can I do?? Anything that does not have a (2)
>beside I only have one of. Here it is:
>Pokemon:
>TR ponyta
>Jungle Rapidash
>Jungle Tauros
>TR Dratini
>Dratini
>Dark Dragonair
>Jungle Dragonair
>Fossil Dragonite
>Doduo
>Jungle Dodrio
>Jungle Lickitung
>Rattata (Can kill a basic Mewtwo!)
>Raticate
>TR Mankey (The guy I am facing has like four pokedexes in his deck!)
>Primeape
>Seel
>Dewgong ( Rather have a Gyrados!)
>TR Oddish (love sleep powder!)
>Dark Gloom
>Dark Vileplume (Can you say AAAHHH-Chuuu!, And by by Trainers!)
>Jungle Venonat
>Jungle Venomoth (Koga!)
>Jynx
>
>Trainers:
>Boss's way
>Scoop up(2)
>Pokemon Center
>Challenge
>Gust of Wind (2)
>Bill(2)
>Sleep!
>Mysterious Fossil (used as a Clefairy Doll)
>Computer Search
>Full Heal
>Super Potion
>
>Energy:
>Full Heal Energy
>Colorless(3)
>Fighting(3)
>Water(3)
>Plant(6)
>Fire(3)
>Psy(3)


    I know I've got a bottle of aspirin around here somewhere. I may need it
to get through this. This deck is aptly named, that's for sure. You'd have
to have O'Leary, Flanahan or Dennehy as your surname to stand a chance with
this load of road apples. There's no pot of gold at the end of this deck.
That's a guarantee, laddy.

    Strategy, strategy...where'd I place the strategy? Apparently not in
this deck. Among many other things, this deck suffers from a complete lack
of direction. While some could claim "Win" as a strategy, that doesn't even
come close to a possibility in this deck.

   This deck appears as though somebody opened up a Pokedex and drew numbers
from a hat. ("#48, Venonat...ok! #91, Cloyster...Got it!) While this sounds,
to amateurs, like a good plan, it never is.
   There's 23 Pokemon here. This is pretty high, especially when using just
singles. Having no duplicates of any Pokemon is like playing a lottery; yeah
there's a chance you COULD win, but there is also a chance you could be
trampled to death by a quartet of Janet Reno impersonators wearing Chicago
Bears helmets in your own living room. I'd bet on the Reno impersonators
myself.
    The problem lies in simple math. If you need say, that Dewgong. That
Dewgong is one out of 60 cards, well in your case, 59. Reducing your card
count is a pretty dumb way to increase the odds ya know. But normally, it
would be a 1 in 60 chance of finding the Dewgong. The same goes for any card
which you only have one of.

     Continuing with the lack of any cohesive theme or plan for victory, the
choice of Pokemon is so wide that even if you do manage to attain a
semi-powerful bench, there is absolutely no way that you're going to luck
out enough to get the proper amount of Energy in the right types. Every
color you add to a deck beyond the first, (not counting colorless Pokemon)
divides the likelihood that your Energy will correspond to whichever Pokemon
you have on your bench.

     I feel I have to laugh at one line in particular...You stated that
Rattata "can kill a Basic Mewtwo!". Well I hate to burst your bubble, but,
duh! Any Pokemon can kill a Basic Mewtwo, except for Base Set Porygon. In
the right circumstance, you can kill pretty much any Pokemon with any other
one. You could claim the same schpiel for Tentacool or Eevee and still be
correct, albeit dimwittedly so. Trust me, there's NOTHING special about
Rattata.
     You also seem to have included the Dark Vileplume for no other reason
than it felt lonely being left in the binder with that moron Victreebel.
Dark Vileplume is not going to help this deck out any by restricting
Trainers. Not that any thought was put into your Trainers anyway.

     Why does my secretary always leave me these ones to filter through when
she's gone?? Sigh...

    The Trainers, well lack the common sense God gave gravel. There are a
few staples of the game in the mix, and I mean "few". The Bills, Gusts of
Wind, Computer Search and Scoop Ups are good to have, yes, but not in
limited quantity. And what's with using the Mysterious Fossil in this deck
as a substitute for an equally lousy card, Clefairy Doll? One, proxies are
pretty illegal in a deck, 2, if you ARE going to put in a false card, at
least make it something worth using, like a Professor Oak, or a copy of The
Daily Prayer.
    As for your your conclusion that a Here Comes Team Rocket would help you
out, I have to ask exactly how? So what if you can now see what your prizes
are. When was the last time you actually DREW a prize using this deck?? A
luke warm package of Ball Park hot dogs would give this deck a run for its
money.

    "Ball Park hot dogs...that was a good line." Tom said, frankly.

      (Note to kids! Go ask your grandparents what a Tom Swiftie is! But be
prepared for long-winded stories about movies which only cost a nickel,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, how kids your age respected their elders and how
they had much nicer diseases when they were young. Go on ask!)

     Whoa, lost track there. I've gotta get some stronger coffee. I'm
starting to build a tolerance to this espresso stuff.

     It also bears mentioning that using just 3 of any Basic Energy in a
deck will guarantee that you'll never see it when you need it. There's power
in numbers when it comes to Energy. Once again, simple math.

     Closing this deck and crumpling it into a dense little wad, I'd have to
say that it should probably be dismantled. There is just too much going on
to know what to keep and what to discard. If you wish to get additional
advice on deck building tips, there is a slew of information in all the Deck
Mechanics areas and on the rest of the Pojo, not to mention the numerous
other Pokemon sites around.
     Take an afternoon to browse the archives for good deck ideas. I know
you've got a computer... See what cards appear in most of the decks and look
for common themes. Read the Single card Strategies for ideas on how to use
your cards to their fullest. If lack of cards or money is a problem,
download the Apprentice Pokemon card game and build some decks on your
computer for free. You can have all the Blastoises and Wigglytuffs you want
there. Play for fun online and see what style works for you the best. You
can't expect to have a good deck overnight.

     Oh yeah..you wanted a rating. I've never done one before, but eh, why
not? I give this deck a-

    2 - Not quite as bad as the gunk I find clinging to the bottom of my
fridge, but still disgusting enough.

      Oh yeah, tell your friend with the Pokedexes in his deck to maybe
replace them with some PlusPowers or Mr. Fuji's or something. That card
stinks too.

      Now to finish what's left of my cold pizza and write more Tom
Swifties...

                         As always, Good Luck!!
                            Dr. Crash Landon
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