We all know the "best" cards in the environment, and some ways to beat them,

but face it, the thing a lot of people are forgetting is a wonderful thing

called metagaming. So, everybody in your league uses Slowking, make a deck to

beat slowking a.k.a. a muk deck. Dont go on ranting about banning the

cards/the environment sucks/wizards sucks. Just make something that can beat

many of the popular decks. I know what you're thinking,"another person

talking about no-archtype decks". Wrong! I'm just here to give you hopefully

useful tips on metagaming your area. Next I'll list some cards/decks that

seem to be popular and my idea of a good counter deck;

Rockets Zapdos Hay-variant

Key components;Rockets Zapdos, Oaks, Goldberry's

Best Counter deck-Well, usually they're going to be very reliant on trainers,

so sometimes Slowking/Vileplume work, but they can still get going fast w/

Zapdos. A nice trick is to give him his resistance.Make him do 40 to himself

and only 40 to you. The problem is that all the good lighting resistance

pokemon, are fighting(which he is resistance to). The solution: Use a deck w/

Brock's Sandslash (70 HP one so you at least have swift)and pewter city

gym(so you can ignore Zap. resistance:)You can poisin him, or whatever, but

if he tries to Electoburn,You'll be able to then finish him off w/ Needle

Ball the next turn. And lastly, maybe the most efficient way is to use a GOOD

Clefable deck.(70 for 1 energy!)

Slowking(mind games) w/ Sneasal

Key components-Slowking,Sneasal, Dark energy (annoying you!)

Here there are now several options, you can use muk, but getting out an

evolution w/out the help of trainers can be tuff some times.Pichu (as long as

you dont have any pokemon w/ pokepowers) is really cool. You can damage them

in multiples! But, most likely, they'll kill you before you can get 80, so

put in several copies. The newest and maybe most effecient way is to use the

new igglybuff. Just turn off there pokemon power. The problem is that now

these kind of decks are now starting to use their own igglybuff to stop

you'res.:( Then once you can use your trainers, just ER or SER there dark

away and make 'em feel stupid!

SteelChansey

Key components-Chansey, Metal Energy, DCE, Goldberry, Unown N

This is a new type of deck that will probably be played since on turn 2-4,

they can consistantly do 70-80 damage w/out coin flipping! The best way I can

see to counter it is to play you're own Unown N and maybe sprout tower (but

that can help them).Then Chansey will only do 10 a turn much better than 70

huh? Also you could use fighting pokemon, but you'll most likely see scyther

in every version. SER might be ok here since it relys on speacial energy.

Steelix

Key Components-Steelix, Metal Energy, Healing Cards(Gold Berry)

This deck isnt overly powerful, but if you're not prepared or get a bad start

you can get beat up real bad. Obviously, if you can just kill onix...no, they

are usually prepared for that, and they'll just get him back w/ NGR. One of

the most my favorite ways(as long as there's no Eco gym)is to ER/SER then use

the Kindle/Recycle Energy combo. Never give them a chance to come back! Or

you could fit Fossil Magmar into your existing deck. Not only is Steelix weak

to him, but poisin hurts steelix  since Metal doesnt pretect against it.

Trapper Deck (sometimes /w Sneasal)

Key components-Rocket's Trap, Impostor Pro. Oak Revenge, RSA, Sneasal

Simply put, the best thing is to have Cleffa in your deck at least two, maybe

more and then do the Lass/Eeeeeeek combo.These kind of decks can sometimes

mess up themselves w/ a few bad coin flips anyways. But still, be prepared.

Those are the main decks everyone is talking about. Sorry if I left out one

that is played alot in your area. You can E-mail me @ Hilfiger Boy 85@cs.com

E-mail me with comments, deck fixes, or further thoughts on one of the above

decks or an example of what a good counter deck should look like. Thanks for

reading, and thanks to Pojo who has kept me informed for so long. Till next

time,

Vader-mon      (blood tests show I'm not your father)