Making an original deck.
-Adam
Most players of Pokemon cards don't use a deck which is entirely original.
It seems that Wigglytuff decks are appearing everywhere. I'm sick of seeing
them on this pojo website. I am also sick of Scyther, and Haymaker, as they
are so boring! Thankfully I've only ever played one Wigglytuff deck, but it
is still far too powerful. I also am totally sick of Dragonite. (I'll never
be sick of raindance though, or hitmonchan, or alakazam)
Anyway, if you want to make an original deck, Psychic is a good colour to
start with. We don't want to make an Alakazam deck, as that is no way
original, but here are a group of mostly lesser-used Psychic Pokemon that
are good because of a special attack or Pokemon Power.
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Slowpoke (Fossil)
Slowbro
Dark Slowbro
Gengar (Fossil)
Haunter (Fossil)
Gastly (Fossil)
Mr. Mime
Mew (Promo)
Hypno (Fossil)
Drowzee (TR)
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Other colours also seem to be good here. Let's see what we've got:
FIGHTING
Onix
Mankey
Aerodactyl
WATER
Tentacool
Omanyte
COLOURLESS
Erika's Dratini
Porygon (TR)
Porygon (Base)
Ratatta (TR)
Clefable
Clefairy
GRASS
Dark Gloom
Oddish (TR)
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So I am going to look at each card mentioned in more detail.
Slowpoke (Fossil)- This is a common card from Fossil, my favourite
expansion. His first attack - Spacing Out, is a poor quality attack, but
that scavenge! For 2 Psychic energy it says 'Discard 1 P Energy card
attached to slowpoke in order to use this attack. Put a Trainer card from
your discard pile into your hand.' This attack acts as a reuseable Item
Finder! It works very well with Energy Removal, Clefairy Doll, Mysterious
Fossil, etc. Also he has reasonable HP and the ability to evolve into
Slowbro or Dark Slowbro. So he is much better than his Rocket brother.
Slowbro (Fossil)- This is an uncommon stage 1 that evolves from Slowpoke. It
has bad HP (60), a mediocre attack, but a useful Pokemon Power. It lets you
transfer one damage counter to Slowbro from another of your Pokemon in play
as long as you don't knock out Slowbro. The power is useful when combined
with Mr Fuji.
Dark Slowbro- A rare card in Rocket that evolves from Slowpoke, Dark Slowbro
has the same HP as its Fossil counterpart, and an unreliable attack. Its
Pokemon power, Reel In, lets you put up to 3 Basic Pokemon/Evolution cards
from your discard plie into your hand. This card works really well with
EEVEE!
Gengar (Fossil)- A rare card which not only has a useful attack, no
weakness, fighting resistance and low retreat cost, also has the ultimate
bench destroying Pokemon Power. It can knock out Pokemon too. The power
works especially well with Tentacruel - Poison the opponent, retreat for
free then Curse the damage to benched Pokemon. If you have two gengars on
the bench and a tentacruel active, you can transfer the Poison damage to
benched Pokemon while the active stays Poisoned for longer!!!
Haunter (Fossil)- A rare card which is much better than its Base
counterpart. Its Pokemon power gives most attacks to Haunter only a Half
chance of working. Add to that the Nightmare attack which sends the
opponent's active pokemon to sleep, there is only a 25% chance of the
opponent's Pokemon being able to attack Haunter the turn after Haunter has
used Nightmare. As if that wasn't enough, it has no weakness, resistance to
Fighting and no retreat cost!
Gastly (Fossil)-This uncommon basic is infinite times better than Base
Gastly (The word ghastly describes the base gastly VERY well) beacuse of
better HP and attacks. It has no weakness, resistance to Fighting and no
retreat cost, plus two good attacks. Energy Conversion is good with Slowpoke
and a lot of other cards.
Mr. Mime- This card is nothing special without its Pokemon Power. There are
unlimited uses for Mr. Mime's Pokemon power. With 3 Dodrio and Onix this
mime is almost unstoppable. It also happens to be the only Pokemon that has
an advantage by having a weakness: ie a 20 damage psychic attack would do no
damage to Mr. Mime but a 20 damage fighting attack would do 20 as normal.
Mew (Promo)- This card has an attack that works like Devolution Spray, but
you can use it on your opponent's Pokemon too! It really destroys decks that
use Pokemon Breeder and many Stage 2s. Psywave is decent and so is
everything else about it.
Hypno (Fossil)- A rare stage 1 that is definately underused. Prophecy can be
handy or can interfere with your opponent's draw pile. Dark Mind is the same
as Gengar's. 2 retreat is average, and he also has a good basic (TR) and THE
HIGHEST HP OF ANY PSYCHIC POKEMON. I reccommend this card to you, put him in
a Psychic deck.
Drowzee (TR)- Its attack, HP, retreat, weakness, and resistance are
standard, but that Pokemon Power!!! It works really well with Snorlax, Base
Haunter, or Promo Venusaur (but it cures the opponent too!). Also, sleep
stops most Pokemon Powers from working. (Strikes Back? Kabuto Armour?
Transparancy? All switched off when sleeping.
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Onix- You're probably thinking, Onix is the worst card ever. Well note the
HP and second attack and Mr. Mime and 3 Dodrio. Well work it out for
yourself. Mr. Mime's Pokemon power is almost the opposite of Onix's Harden.
So, use Invisible Wall to block large attacks and Harden to block small
attacks. Dodrio is for retreating.
Mankey- Only useful for its Pokemon Power, which lets you look at cards that
are turned over. Works well with TR Rattata.
Aerodactyl- This stops evolutions being played. Evolutions such as
Wigglytuff, Blastoise, Alakazam and Venusaur! Not only that, it has a good
colurless attack too and your opponent doesn't take a prize for knocking out
a Mysterious Fossil. Fossil is weak though, and succeptible to a Gust of
Wind.
----------------------------------------------------
Tentacool- Like Mankey in the sense that it's only useful for its Pokemon
Power. It is a great power though, especially when combined with Alakazam.
If only Chansey had this power...
Omanyte- Its Pokemon Power lets you look at your opponent's hand, and works
well with Lass, Erika's Perfume and R.S.A. Mind you it isn't particularly
good in any other way, but I have beaten Clefable with it.
----------------------------------------------------
Erika's Dratini- Another great Pokemon Power here. When combined with
Aerodactyl, it presents a very strong combo. It will also destroy Haymakers
that use only basics! I recommend not to evolve it unless your opponent has
lots of evolutions out.
Porygon (TR)- In my opinion one of the most diverse Pokemon. It can change
your opponent's weakness, and then confuse. A good tip is to change your
opponent's weakness to their own type, then confuse them. If they do damage
to themself while confused, the damage done will be doubled! Free retreat is
also good.
Porygon (Base)- Although it can't do damage, Porygon can change its
resistace, which means that Scyther can be useless against Porygon! 30 HP is
terrible though.
Rattata (TR)- Like Mankey and Tentacool it's only useful for its Pokemon
Power. But it works especially well when combined with 'Here comes team
rocket!'.
Clefable- This is one of the best cards as it can copy any attack for 1
colourless energy!!! Zapdos' Thunderbolt? Nice. It has reasonable HP,
reasonable retreat cost, and a reasonable other attack. Put Clefable in any
deck. NOT GOOD AGAINST MYSTERIOUS FOSSIL! (This actually happened in a game
once that I played)
Clefairy- Not as good as Clefable as it only has 40 HP and its attacks are
more costly. Hitmonchan or Machop can knock it out in one hit! But if you
evolve to Clefable it's great.
----------------------------------------------------
Dark Gloom- Its pokemon power is very useful and so is its attack. Bad HP
and retreat though. Is good when combined with Snorlax.
Oddish- Included here as it is a stepping stone to Dark Gloom, plus it has
some nasty status effects! Not a bad basic Pokemon here with OK HP too.
----------------------------------------------------
So, you're spoilt for choice on Pokemon to put in an original deck.
Well after that long article, which I have done over quite a few days, I
must say that I am opposed to Proposition 15 and 2T and I am not going to
play by those rules even if they come into force.
You can e-mail me at
Hoodadam@hotmail.com
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