Hey!

Here is a deck idea using some of the TR cards.  It will be a while before I
can play this deck because I live in the UK and Jungle has only just come out!

THE LUNATICS ARE RUNNING THE ASYLUM!

Offence / defence with status effects.  Let Drowzee use long distance
hypnosis while Snorlax is active.

12 Psychic Energy       3 Lickitung         4 Energy Removal
4 DCE                   4 Snorlax           4 Bill
4 Full Heal Energy                          2 TR's Sneak Attack
                        4 Drowzee (TR)      3 Lass
                        4 Gastly (F)            3 Scoop Up
                        2 Haunter (F)       3 Gust of Wind
                                            2 Energy Retrieval
                                            2 Professor Oak

The main theme of this deck is to have Snorlax active with multiple TR
Drowzee's on the bench.  Drowzee's Pokémon Power: Long Distance Hypnosis is
very powerful in this situation:

Once during your turn (before you attack), you may flip a coin.  If heads,
the Defending Pokémon is now Asleep, if tails, your Active Pokémon is now
Asleep.  The power can't be used if Drowzee is Asleep, Confused, or Paralysed.

Snorlax's Pokémon Power: Thick Skinned makes Drowzee's Pokémon Power a
no-lose situation:

Snorlax can't become Asleep, Confused, Paralysed, or Poisoned.  This power
can't be used if Snorlax is already Asleep, Confused, or paralysed.

Hence, the ideal situation would be 4 TR Drowzees on the bench, giving you
four chances a turn to put you opponent's Pokémon to sleep.  With Snorlax
active, there is no risk of putting Snorlax to sleep, and Snorlax has a 50%
chance of Paralysing the opponent with 30 damage using his Body Slam attack.

The main trainers used are Lass and TR's Sneak Attack.  You need to target
your opponent's Switches (or Full Heals - but who plays those?), the only
real defence to this strategy.  Removing SERs from your opponent is also a
good idea - if you plan to charge Snorlax up with DCEs these can really stall
you.

The other Pokémon just work well with the theme of inflicting damage with
status effects.  Gastly and Haunter can deal with Fighting and other Psychic
Pokémon; Lickitung is great in the early game if the Snorlax / Drowzee combo
is a few turns away.  The Full heal Energy help to defend against other
status effect decks, and all of the Pokémon (except Gastly) can use
colourless energy to pay for at least part of their attack cost.  The other
trainers are pretty self explanatory - although I would use the energy
removals for DCE only, or save them up and play them all at once.

Before you all e-mail me about Muk (fossil version) shutting this deck down,
remember that he is weak to psychic and that their are three GOW in this deck.

Thanks for reading.  Two other articles that you should read are my article
on Flipping Coins (To Flip or Not to Flip - TCG Strategies, April), and
Henry-Michael Brown 's killer deck report (The Cleaner - Killer Deck Reports,
April - marked "a good read").

Phil

Comments?   Philipbinns@AOL.com