This is Fubarb here showing the world his newest improved deck

This is Fubarb here showing the world his newest improved deck, downpour (hope nobody has used this name before, cause making a name for a raindance is a difficult task) In my opinion, this is one of the most powerful decks on the scene, and brings me more sucess than my wigglyhay (wigglytuff is not invincible, and pretty boring to boot.) If you want a competitive deck, that's fun to play, i suggest raindance. okay, enough with all of this talk, here's the deck.*Fubarb opens small door in corner of closet, and fumbles around with combination lock.* Here it is, Downpour.

Pokemon (16) In a Raindance, you have to have the right pokemon, and the right counts, if you don't, you'll end up with a bumdance that gets trampled by wigglytuff and his haymaker friends.

4 Blastoise - IMHO, a raindance cannot run at premium with less than 3 Blastoise. His job is to dance around on the bench and is not meant to fight unless 1. you have more than one in play, or 2. you have no other options. Also a very able fighter. But if Blastoise dies, raindance dies.

2 Dark Blastoise - Blastoise's alter ego and alter role. His job is to attack, attack, attack! with this juggernaut, you'll be knocking out a pokemon at least every other turn, mowing down, mewtwos, electabuzzes (with a well timed GOW)and hitmonchans in no time.

4 Articuno - I like to call him the messiah of Raindance, you probably call him Articuno. He eats those filthy electabuzzes alive. I've beaten many a deck running Electabuzz using Articuno alone, an ideal raindance attacker, and better than Gyarados.

2 Lapras - pretty good pokemon, and is ideal for starting. good, no - great. High hp, and two standard\above average attacks. Only two are used here because he's not meant for the late game. Beats starting with squirtles. And can stop that evil mr.mime

4 Squirtle(Base) - i use the base set version here. though it has lower hp, i prefer it because of its ability to stall to some extent. Besides, who's gonna want to attack with a squirtle for a measly 20 damage? Raondances do 30+ every turn.

Trainers(27) possibly the hardest part about Raindance. Putting together these trainers took me tons and tons of playtesting. But you know what, I'll show 'em to you in the 40 seconds you read em. ;)

4 Professor Oak - Raindance needs 3 things, options, card atvantage and water energy. Three things Oak provides.

4 Bill - cheap card atvantage. 2 free cards just isn't fair for your opponent, and helps you get a little boost.

4 Computer Search - must have in any deck, any card, anytime, gets what you need, and helps make those 2nd turn Blastoises possible.

3 Item finder - can really save you or get back one of those Breeders. This is one of the cards that makes the reverse Blastoise pyramid work. Also, props to Pie for that great article bout this card.

4 Pokemon Breeder - much much, better than Wartortle, mainly cause you can use it over and over thanks to itemfinder. If somebody says Wartortle is better they're saying it because 1. Everybody in their 40 mile radius plays mew, or 2. They have no pokemon breeders.

3 Gust of Wind A.K.A gow - helps you uot with a free prize, doesn't it feel good to wipe away you opponents Scyther they just powered up with hydrocannon? I know it does.

3 nightly Garbage Run - get back your precious water energy or those squirtles you need, Want more articuno to ko those buzzes? feel free. Want to put back those cards you had to lose with computer search? be my guest. Also helps with a little problem Raindance has called DECKING (the word makes me cringe)

17 Water energy - you may think this is too low for a Raindance, but believe me, it's perfect. Well, for me at least.and if u wanna make it sound higher, count NGRs as 3 and retrievals as 2 energy, so peopple won't think you're insane.

1. Which pokemon to start with. DO NOT START WITH SQUIRTLE (unless you have more than one) a squirtle is a potential Blastoise so starting with squirtle will probably kill it, thus killing a potential Blastoise. Articuno and Lapras are better starters, though you might feel like attacking first turn, it may not be the wisest idea with this deck.

2. Throwing away Blastoise. though getting out blastoise is a goal of Raindance, that does not mean keeping it in a situation in which you have squirtle benched, Articuno active and Blastoise&professor oak in your hand.you will probably be able to get Blastoise after you oak, especially with cards like computer search and itemfinder in this deck.

3. Water energy. When you have Blastoise in play, and lots of energy, DO NOT RAINDANCE IT TO BENCHED POKEMON. Only raindance energy when you need it. because with the high energy costs in this deck, you may have 2 benched articuno, one fully pumped and one not. The one with no energy can get gusted, leaving you stranded, while your opponent does as he/she pleases. If you had kept you energy off the table, he/she might have gusted either energy-less articuno, giving them a suprise on your turn, and leaving them with one less gow.

There are many Raindance pokemon, and now, i'll fill you in on them and reasons why i chose what i did.I'll also number them from best to worst.

10.Poliwrath - this pokemon does not belong at all. His whole family takes up entirely too much space and his watergun isn't any better than vaporeon's.

9. Dark Vaporeon - just another wannabe poliwrath with crappy hp and weak attacks, discarding an energy is nice, but nothing compared to actually knocking out a pokemon.

8. Seadra - Agility is nice, but it's simply just not worth evolving for a measley 60 hp, and low damage attacks. Just as rare as dewgong, but not half as good.

7. Vaporeon - Average pokemon. hp is pretty good, but quick attack isn't very potent and watergun is a joke compared to some other attacks, not to mention he evolves from eevee, who can't even benefit from raindance.

6. Dark Gyarados - I've heard of peoplle winning matches with this, but look at it, articuno has the same attack, same hp, same retreat cost, same resistance, oh, wait, what happened to Articuno's weakness? Dark Gyarados does have that pokemon power though, which is good, especially with a two headed coin. not to mention, it evolves from...... i can't bear to say it.

4. Dark Blastoise - hp is low for a stage 2, but look at that damage potential! can smear haymaker pokemon like jam on bread, and can squeeze in with your blastoises as part of this complete raindance.

3. Gyarados - Magikarp may be very weak, but if he survives without bieng smashed by a stronger pokemon, such as kabuto, he may become the mighty Gyarados who will crush opponents like little bugs. (usually makes a raindance poorer in quality due to the amount of space it needs)

1. Articuno - what can i say? doesn't need to evolve, saving space, kick @$$ attacks and no weakness to boot. Need I say more?

Questions or comments? E-mail me at dgjt@msn.com also expect to see some killer reports if I ever join the pokemon league.