Dear Pojo,
I am submitting you a deck. I have never used this deck in tournament play, because frankly, there aren’t many by where I live. Also, I got the idea for this deck from a friend. He called it David’s Basic Deck or something (I am not really sure exactly what it is). I did though, make my own variant of his deck, but I must give him and his little brother Stewart some props.
The Pokemon TCG League Was Held at:
K.B. Toy Works in Bolingbrook, IL. This particular report was bassed on the games I played on 2/12/2000 (January 12th, 2000). I am not sure on he exact amount of people in attendance, but I would guess around 15-20. I could be way off, but I'd guess around there. It's not a tournament, just a TCG League.
There are 2 main purposes to this deck. First, to get out a pokemon and attack fast. Second, to take advantage of weakness and resistance. You cannot use this deck in tournament play though (you’ll understand later), but it is very effective playing at your local TCG League or against friends. Of course, I know you don’t want that "I beat all my best buds at the most coolest sleepover ever, and he had a pickachu and almost killed me but I won in the end and I had only 3 cards in my deck but we dont play using energies and I want to give them all credit their names are: (Insert friends names here)"
Ok, There are 48 cards that are ALWAYS in this deck. They are as follows:
Energy:
8 Fighting
Trainers:
4 Bill
4 Plus Power
4 Gust of Wind
4 Energy Removal
3 Prof Oak
3 Energy Search
3 Super Energy Removal
1 Pokemon Center
Pokemon:
4 Hitmonchan
4 Machop
4 Rattata
2 Raticate
Now, this is where the "interesting" concept comes in. If you know what type of deck someone always usses, then check out the weakness of their pokemon. Then, substitute the 12 of that kind I have listed bellow, or see what of yours has a resistance to theirs. This is why you can’t use it in tourneys, you have to keep one deck. I must say though, that this is a very efficient way to just switch your deck from a fighting/fire to a fighting/electric.
Water:
8 Water Energy
4 Staryu
Psychic:
8 Psychic Energy
2 (Fossil) Gastly
1 Drowzee
1 Movie Promo Mewtwo
Grass:
8 Grass Energy
2 Bulbasaur
2 Nidoran(Male)
Fire:
8 Fire Energy
2 (Fossil) Magmar
2 Charmander
Electric:
8 Electric Energy
4 Electabuzz
That’s about all. The only bad thing about this deck, is if it is too noticable that you are switching back and forth to use weakness and resistance to your advantage, nobody will want to play with you. Another thing, is that this also isn’t the most fair thing to do. I know you guys want some of how this deck I used (I know it’s supposed to be in a tourney, but hey, there just aren’t any around me) I will write though the people I played at the TCG League at my local Toy Store.
Game 1 vs. This Kid with a Psychic Deck
I used my Psychic set in it. I got off to an O.K. start. I led with a Gastly and he had a Drowzee. I could’ve knocked him out (Drowzee haas weakness to Psychic, Gastly doesn’t). I didn’t draw the right energy though, and I stalled a while using my trainers, but he eventually killed me and I had no more basic
(0-1)
Game 2 vs. Same Guy
I used the same deck but got off to a better start. I threw out a Machop (weakness to psychic) and he got killed but eventually I got out my Gastly and Rattata’s and killed him. I eventually just killed him going back and forth. The energy removals helped a lot. If it wasn’t for these, he would have won.
(1-1)
Game 3 vs. Kid with Grass/Fire
I threw in my Water instead of Psychic. I started out with a Staryu and just dominated (Just Kidding Pojosama). Really, he threw out a Growlithe and I killed him in two turns with slap (Which does 40 damage for 1 energy to a fire w/ weakness to water ^_^) I powered up my bench with 2 Fully Loaded Hitmonchans and a Staryu and Raticate. He forfitted after I killed 2 of his Pokemon.
(2-1)
Game 4 vs. Guy with Fire
I used the water again. Basically, the way this went was pretty simple. He didn’t get many Evolutions out, and with my water in, I used Staryu, and Raticates to kill him off easily. Mostly went like this. I’d use an energy removal to keep him from attacking next turn and use Staryu’s slap. He’d would attach an energy card, and next turn I’d kill him.)
(3-1)
Game 5 vs. Guy with Grass
I used fire. I don’t remember much about this. Little kids kept bugging me about trading one of my Charizards for something like a Pikachu and Caterpie. I do know, remember that I won.
(4-1)
Game 6 vs. Guy with Water
I didn’t have time to change to my Grass because this guy only needed 10 more points to a badge and he wanted to battle quickly. He had a VERY exspensive Deck. 2 Blastois, 4 Poliwrath, 3 Gyrados, and 2 or 3 Articuno from what I could tell. I didn’t have much of a chance. Surprisingly, I killed 3 of his Pokemon (Articuno, Poliwhirl, and Squirtle) with my Rattatas and Machops before he could totally destroy me. I attribute this mainly to the Energy Removals and Bills and Professor Oaks and Plus Powers. He eventually though got out a fully loaded Articuno and I didn’t stand a chance. I almost decked myself using the Oaks and Bills. Anyway, it was more of a social game (Those are the best anyway ^_^)
(4-2)
(This next match wasn’t at the League, but it was against the Gym Leader at the league. O.K., he’s myolder brother who happens to work at the store and be a Poke-holic. He does still, though, have four more years of education and life on me. I played him later at home, but he kept rubbing it in that he’s a gym leader so I wanted to beat him bad.)
Game 7 vs. Gym Leader w/ Fire/Colorless/Grass
I used my water, and luckily, most of his colorless had a weakness to fighting. Anyway, I threw out my Staryu and he had a Growlithe. I flipped and I went first. I hardly gave him a chance to attack me at all. I killed his Chansey, and all his other ones (I don’t remember them well) I had a full bench with Hitmonchan Loaded, Staryu and Machops loaded. Using Energy Removal it stalled him and the final result was Me killing 6 of his Pokemon, he didn’t kill any of mine. He only had 20 damage on a Hitmonchan and 20 on a Staryu. By far, this was one of my best games yet.
(5-2)
The most important aspect of this deck, I believe, is it is easily customizable. If you don't have four Hitmonchans, throw in an extra Ratatta and maybe another Suprer Energy Removal for example. If you don’t have many electric, just don’t use electric. It will give you less advantage over water, but you will still have a chance using grass. I'd also like to give thanks once again to David and Stewart to helping me with this deck.
If you do want to use this deck in a tourny, I would suggest throwing in the Electric with the Fighting and Colorless. Electric has a weakness to Fighting, so if you have fighting in there, if the other deck is a fighting, you your Hitmonchans. That is mainly what David's deck is, with a few differences in Trainers and Colorless Pokemon.
The infamous Props and Slops
Props to Toy Works for holding T.C.G. League
Props to David for inspiring me and helping me
Props to Stewart (Just cause he's a cool little kid)
Props to Wizards and Nintendo for Pokemon and Pokemon TCG
Props to Pojo for being the best Pokemon site.
Slops to my old Fire Deck that stunk
Slops to Toy Works for having exspensive Booster Packs
Kevin "gHeTtO pOkEmAn" Shanks