This is written primarily for those whom use their own ORIGINAL deck.
Like people did before popular archetypes developed. I remember when U
walked into a tourney and saw a few dozen original decks and maybe 3 or 4
haymakers. But, that's a rant for another time.

    A deck's weakness transcends the little icon on the pokemon card marked
weakness. One must build a deck to have no reliance on any part too heavily.
Easier said then done. With the creation of the gym series it is becoming
easier. A deck should be based around the pokemon themselves. But what part
of them. Their attacks, retreat costs, or powers. Take the damage swap
archetype. It relies heavily upon getting allakazam out and using his
pokemon power.
    How to disrupt this deck? Well one can use aerodactyl to try and keep
abra from evolving and since it's only a stage one it won't take long to put
Aero in play. He's scyther bait, but let's not go there yet. The other way
to stop the damage swapping terror is Muk. Unfortuneately being a poison
type grass card he's weak to psychic. Any other ways, YES, confusion,
paralysis, and sleep. Well paralysis isn't so good wears off. Sleep is not
reliable enough. So we need to confuse the damage swapping pest. GoW and
koffing would be the best bet IMO. garunteed poison or confusion. Best
scenario- confuse then poison. Oh how the mighty have fallen.
    More to metagaming types of deck you must metagame your weaknesses. If
people play a lot of aerodactyls it may not be wise to play an evolution
deck. If people play a lot of muks don't use a deck that relies heavily on
poke powers. With the introduction to No Removal Gym it is easier to get
around your own energy removal weakness.
    You need to metagame weakness. Your own weakness. I have my own deck. A
grass type evolution. It was too weak to psychic so  took 3 koffing out and
I'm going to add 3 scyther to add to my ranks of golbat. I'm also weak to
energy removal before venusaur is out and after when he's knocked out so I'm
going to add a few No Removal Gyms. They'll help. I needed more card drawing
so I added bills and gamblers to go along with the oaks I have. I added
another pokecenter and some scoop ups and Mr. Fuji cards to compliment the
energy trans power of venusaur. So now I'm less weak in one area but more so
in another. My overall weakness to psychic decks is down, but my only way to
confuse now is zubat's supersonic attack for 2 colorless energy. I'm
stronger to energy removals but weaker to lass now that I quadrupled the #
of trainers I use. And although I added trainers to make energy trans more
effective I still wouldn't call mine an energy trans dmg swap deck. If my
deck revolved around it yes, but in my deck it's just a handy combo to get
out. My weakness to muk is limited. So to wrap up, for all those building an
original deck, try to keep your weaknesses to disruptive ploys down. Try to
choose a weakness that isn't exploited in the area you play in. Thank you
for taking the time to read this.

Rory
captrory@email.com

P.S. If anyone knows a place where tournaments are held in New Jersey in the
609 area code IE 609-555-5555 email me please.