>Sorry for the unimaginative name.
>I've been working on a deck that's based on getting lots of energy on fast.
I've played it on the game boy >trading card game a couple of times and it
does pretty well. But, it has a couple of problems (at the end). >Please
would you help me tune it a bit so it plays slightly better. I've got a couple
of ideas, but I could do >with a hand (I'm new to building decks that
actually have a strategy and aren't just haymaker variants >(my skills amaze
even me *g*)....
>
>Pokemon: 17 (13 Basic)
>3 MP Mewtwo
>4 Bulbasaur
>2 Ivysaur
>2 Venusaur
>3 Scyther
>3 Pinsir
>
>Trainers: 17
>3 Bill
>3 Professor Oak
>2 Computer Search
>1 Item Finder
>2Nightly Garbage Run
>3 Plus Power
>2 Gust of Wind
>1 Pokemon Breeder
>
>Energy: 26
>16 Grass Energy
>7 Psychic Energy
>3 Double Colourless Energy
>
>Strategy:
> Get a Mewtwo active and a Venusaur in play as soon as you can. (While you
are doing this is helps if >you discard as many energy as possible with oaks
and computer searches). Then get some big grass >basics (Pinsir and Scyther)
on the bench and using Mewtwo's energy absorption, Venusaur's energy
>transfer and your one energy card per turn it is possible to get a fully
charged up Pinsir or Scyther very >quickly. The rest of the strategy is
pretty obvious; high attacks, low retreat costs and plus power is a good
>combination.
> I'd better put an explanation about the trainers in as well. Bill is pretty
obvious. I'd normally use >Gambler instead of Oak because I'm quite a
cautious player but I need discarded energy for Mewtwo. >(This is one of the
reasons it's going to be interesting when I play this deck; everyone's used to
me being >very defensive and careful about discarding anything. Now I'm going
to just be running through cards >and they won't be expecting it). Computer
Search and Item Finder are good ways of discarding energy >for Mewtwo and
getting something (Venusaur etc) at the same time. Nightly Garbage Run is my
>cautious side of not wanting to deck or lose something very important that I
can't get back. Plus Powers >are in for attacking (duh). Gust of Wind is good
to mess around with your opponent. Pokemon Breeder is >to help get Venusaur
out fast at the early game (I'd put more in, but there's an outbreak of mew-itis
at the >moment)
>
>Problems:
> ***mew - upto 5 energy on Mewtwo in one turn can be bad against mew. Also,
this deck would work >better for more breeders, but mew is too popular at the
moment.
> ***slow start - this deck can be kinda slow because none of the pokemon can
attack on the first turn. It's >not a major problem, but if you could help
make it a bit faster at the start that might be better.
> ***energy - I have been thinking about lowering the energy because I can
transfer and the space maybe >could be used better if I had a couple of
energy removals in it instead of energy. What do you think about >taking out
1 psychic and two grass energy to put in 2 energy removals and another item
finder. It's a >pretty efficient deck with energy, so that might work.
> ***fire - I have a small problem with fire because most of my deck has a
weakness to it. If I run into a >fire deck, I usually just play mostly Mewtwo
and gust out weak unevolved fire pokemon before they gust >out say a scyther,
evolve to a charmeleon and kill me. Is there any way I can make the weakness
less of a >weakness (does that make sense to anybody apart from me ???). I
thought about a colourless pokemon >along the lines of farfetch'd or the
dratini/dragonair evolution might fit...
>
>Anyway, the reason it is in glorious technicolour is because I've been
reading it through and trying to >think what else I could do to the deck as
well (make any more changes before I send it in) and I sort of >ended up
colouring it in...
>
>Thanks a lot :o)
***
A lot of people try the idea of comboing Venusaur and Movie Promo Mewtwo. I
didn't used to think much of this combo, because by using Mewtwo to get grass
energy you expended your attack and left him vulnerable to attack. It seemed
better simply to use Energy Retrieval. However, Rocket has introduced a new card
that just might make this combo worthwhile: Rainbow Energy. Let's see what we
can do.
1) You say you have slow starts. I say that if Scyther, Pinsir, and MP Mewtwo
are slow starts for you, I don't know what to tell you. The Pokemon you've got
are plenty fast. I think I'd put in a fourth Mewtwo and drop Pinsir to 2--you
still want Pinsir around to deal with specialized threats, but 2 should be
plenty. Your Venusaur line also looks fine. Exactly how many Ivysaurs to use
will be a personal decision, but two should work.
2) You definitely need a few more trainers. I'd say one more each of Item Finder
and Pokemon Breeder are a must, as well as another Computer Search if you can
make it fit. We can (and will) drop the energy down some more to create room as
needed.
3) 26 energy is high. Drop it down to 23 to make room for the trainers I
mentioned above. With 4 DCEs, that leaves us 19 slots for colored energy.
Allocate 7 for psychic energy and 12 for grass energy. Now drop two energy of
each type and put in 4 Rainbow Energy. This will increase the versatility of
your deck and make Mewtwo and your Grass pokemon work better together. Note that
it doesn't cause damage when Trans'd or Absorbed, so you can manipulate it
without fear.
***
17 Pokemon:
4 Mewtwo
3 Scyther
2 Pinsir
4 Bulbasaur
2 Ivysaur
2 Venusaur
20 Trainers:
3 Bill
3 Oak
3 Computer Search
2 Item Finder
2 Nightly Garbage Run
3 PlusPower
2 GOW
2 Pokemon Breeder
23 Energy:
10 Grass Energy
5 Psychic Energy
4 Rainbow Energy
4 DCE
***
And there you have it. If you find energy a bit low, you can drop a psy energy
or two for either more grass energy, NGR, or Retrieval. Fire shouldn't be a
tremendous problem with four Mewtwos. Good luck!
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