How To Use Seasil Correctly And How to Defeat it.

    My name is Matt Haithcock.  I have been Playing Pokemon for nearly 2
years now, and I have played with and against just about every type of
deck out there.  Currently I am playing a sneasel trap deck, and It
works well.  But I also notiuced recently just about everyone at the
pokemon league has a sneasil in there deck.  I go on aprentice league,
and The place is crawling with them.  Here I am going to let it all out
and tell you how to use sneasel to the deadliest effect.  But for all
you people out there who hate them, I'll also tell how to defeat them.

    There is no doubt that sneasel is one of the fastest and deadliest
pokemon in the game.  With only 2 energys, you can do an average of 80
damage.  not bad hp, great bottom stats, and dark so noone has
resistance to it.  contrary to popular beleif, sneasels biggest threat
is not energy removal.  The energy removal crisis can be easily
avoided.  Play an eco gym, no removal gym, chaos gym, slowking, rockets
sneak attack, the rockets trap, and even recycle can be used, or even a
combo of 2 or more.  If you have a chaos gym and a slowking out, you
don't have anything to worry about.  If you play no removal gym, and
make sure you keep there hand low with the trapper combo, your cool.  It
almost like the guys who made pokemon are trying to cover for making ERs
and SERs TOO good.  Any sneasil deck, or deck built around sneasil,
needs to be fast, really fast.  Oaks, bills, cleffas, whatever it
takes.  You need 2 darks, a full bench, and something to stop energy
removal.  If you make a deck fast enough to use sneasel correctly, then
you are a force to be reconed with.  Sneasel Is also the perfect card in
a trapper deck.  Sneasil is the ultimate haymaker/fast archetypical
pokemon.  Does damage for little energies, Check! no retreat and
resistance to psycic, Check!  energies are built in pluspowers, check.
I know Murkrow is getting really popular, And I know gusting out a MP
mewtwo, slapping a gold berry on him, and mean looking him, just after
you play a chaos gym is probably the most fun combo there is. I use it,
Awsome.But sneasil is just too cool for school. I know I havent given
out anything new and shocking, but heres something to think about.
Rather than building a sneasil deck to run and hide from energy removal,
Build one than uses it.  If you have a sneasil deck, and your playing
any 70 hp based deck, and you have a full bench, and a supply of
pluspowers(which is not a rare occurrance) than you can assume that your
going to knock out everyone of there pokemon in one hit.  Your only
worry is that there next pokemon will knock you out, sneasel does only
have 60 hp.  If you can use ers and Super ERs, you can make your oponent
use the attacks that do very little or no  damage.  That special punch
is now a jab, that do the wave is now a lullaby, looks like chansey will
be using scrunch this turn.  This princepal was one of the basises of
the haymaker deck, but sneasil uses is To its fullest.  Haymakers
shortcuircuted other decks, but still took 2 to 3 turns to knock em
out.  Sneasel shortens them then takes them out before they can
recover.  Theres something for you to think about.  But Don't get too
happy, sneasel isn't perfect. Infact, he can be beaten in a couple of
ways.  This brings me to....

HOW TO BEAT SNEASEL

I know I will pobably get alot o lip for saying this(and please mail me,
I can out argue the best of them!) but energy removal is not the best
card against senasil.  Every Sneasil Deck worth worrying about has spend
a long time mnaking there decks er proof.  If you really want to, you
can stop them, but there is a better way.  Narrow Gym isn't terrible,
but most sneasel decks use alot of gyms anyway, so watch out.  The Trick
to beation Sneasil Is not trainers. Trainers are sneasils freind.  In
fact, the way to beat sneasel is the exact oposite. If you want to beat
sneasel, there is one card, not too popular, that can stop sneasil from
being too much of a threat.  Any sneasil deck worthy of building a deck
to beat, need a lot of trainers.  Chaos gym and slowking arent the
answers.  in fact chaos gym can work in there favor.  what your need to
do is stop all trainers completely.  Thats right, Dark Vileploom.  If
you play a dark vileploom before sneasel can get powered up, you can
Take them down!!!!  Dark vileploom stops the flow of basics to fill
their bench, stops the traps and sneak attacks, It shuts it down..  But
vileploom has another good side.  Glooms power can confuse sneasel
without attacking. Even A well placed rockets oddish can stop a sneasel
in its tracks.  STATUS CHANGES ARE EXTREMELY HARD ON SNEASIL.  Poison
takes him out in 3 turns.  magmar in 2, even if it takes out your
magmar.  And confusion, ooh. All sneasel needs is more coinflips.  But
due to sneasils free retreat, Confusion and poison art not the best.
Sleep, for the same reason as confusion is mega painful.  Sneasil is the
embodiment of offense is the best defense.  If you put him to sleep, you
have a 50 50 chance of taking away his only use.  Paralyze is also a 50
50 chance of stopping him(since there is no garunteed paralization).
And if you have vileploom, then That means no full heals or myracle
berrys. (full heal energies are still a threat, but are not commonly
used).  One turn Sneasil cannot attack, is a very bad turn for them.
The attacker made to beat sneasil is the one and only old school
punder.  Throw your hands in the air and do the wave for this Tuff Puff
of stuff, Its Wigglytuff to the rescue.  Not only can it and jigglypuff
put it to sleep( the most effective status effect). and wiggly can knock
out a sneasel at its own bench filling game.  wiggly is just as fast,
but much more effective.  Wiggly's attack is more reliable in killing a
sneasil, and sneasil, with a full bench, only has a 50 50 chance of
knocking out wiggly.  "but matt, what if they have hitmonchan in their
decks??????".  That leads into our next big boy, Scyther.  A dance on
turn one is a one way street to a next turn knockout.  Even just slash
can knock him out in 2 turns.   rockets scyther also adds in, with
shadow images, gives sneasil another flip to add to its attack, lowering
its odds of a knockout.  Another fun guy to hit him with is ditto.  With
a double colorless, you suddenly become a faster sneasil.  "but youi
don't get the extra 20???????"  since sneasil only has 60 hp, with a
full bench, ditto still only needs 3 out of 6, same as sneasels odds
against hay basics. Clefable is not your best bet, due to clefairy, but
still a good option.  But the best thing is all these pokemon, work well
in one deck.  They can all share double colorless and grass energies.
If you put them in a Dark Vileploop deck, then your set.

NOw I know All Of sneasils Benifits can be countered,  And all of those
counters can be countered, and so on.  there is no card that is perfect
against him, and nothing makes him invincible.  Sneasel is an instant
clasic, and will always be used, and people will always try to take it
down.  And this huge fight between beating those who are beating you is
the entire basis of Pokemon the Card game.  Sneasel Brings Out all the
Best parts of Pokemon TCG,  And it also brings out the worst and most
dirty flaws.  It is so powerful, yet so week, and until it is used so
much that those japanese guys make a single card to stop it, It will
continue to make the Metagame more and more challenging.  Sneasel is a
great card, and its not overrated, but Its not the perfect card.

Oooook.  I'm getting a little bit too dramatic, I do that sometimes.
But take my advice seriously. It will help you in the long run.  I'm
outta here, Cya later.

Matt Haithcock
matth@greenvillenc.com