Subj: My Deck needs some help! Date: 2/25/00 5:53:33 PM Central Standard Time From: simone@barkingdogstudios.com  (Simone Smith) To: TheLady@pojo.com  Deck's Name: Trouble Maker My Name: Simone Age: 10 (yes I'm one of the younger trainers) Before you guys all send me mail asking why I fixed this admittedly horribly constructed deck, I want to hold you off and say--- she said she was 10 years old. Unfortunately, I see lots of decks built like this, and this is a typical deck for a very young player. I'm not saying that this is the kind of deck that I will fix very often, but only once and a while. She's lucky though, because she told me that she was 10, I decided not to trash it right away.
Pokemon 1 Goldeen 1 Jynx 1 Squirtle 1 Wartortle 1 Blastoise 1 Lapras H 1 Seaking 2 Staryu 2 Starmie 1 Horsea 1 Seadra 1 Drowzee 2 Gastly 1 Haunter 1 Likitung 1 Krabby 1 Kingler 1 Abra 1 Kadabra  (And one day hopefully  an Alakazam) 1 Poliwag 1 Poliwhirl 1 Jigglypuff 1 Spearow 1 Fearow 1 Dewgong 1 Seel 1 Pokemon Trader 1 Gust of wind 1 Bill 1 Pokemon Flute 1 Potion 1 Switch 1 Super Potion	Ok, Simone--You're right that this deck is a trouble maker, and I bet it makes more trouble for you than for your opponent. The biggest problem with this deck is that you have 27 Pokemon--and no doubles of any of them! You've GOT to have at least 2 of anything to have it do any good. I'm going to seriously work on this deck.... The first thing I want you to do is REMOVE ALL YOUR Pokemon. I see that you want a Water and Psychic deck, and I will put back in Pokemon that you've got. Put back in: 2 Lapras, 3 Squirtle, 2 Wartortle, 1 Blastoise. Now, you've got 8 Water Pokemon.  Put back in: 2 Drowzee, 3 Gastly, and 2 Haunter (try to make those Haunters from the Fossil set.) Now you've got 7 Psychic Pokemon. You can also add 2 Likitung, because Likitung has lots of hitpoints and a very good attack for 1 colorless. You've got 17 Pokemon total. 17 is a good number of Pokmeon to have in your deck.  Pokemon (17) 2 Lapras 3 Squirtle 2 Wartortle 1 Blastoise 2 Drowzee 3 Gastly 2 Haunter 2 Likitung Now, for your Trainers. Take out Pokemon Flute completely. Add 1 more of everything else... and add either 2 Gamblers or 2 Professor Oaks Trainers (14) 2 Pokemon Trader 2 Gust of Wind 2 Bill 2 Potion 2 Switch 2 Super Potion 2 Gambler
Energy 1 DCE 11 Psychic	Looking at your Energies I notice you have no water energies to power those water Pokemon of yours. With just your Pokemon and Trainers, you have space for 29 energies. I suggest you put in 12 Psychic, 3 DCE and 14 Water energies.  Energies 03 DCE 12 Psychic 14 Water
Pokemon (17) 2 Lapras 3 Squirtle 2 Wartortle 1 Blastoise 2 Drowzee 3 Gastly 2 Haunter 2 Likitung	Trainers (14) 2 Pokemon Trader 2 Gust of Wind 2 Bill 2 Potion 2 Switch 2 Super Potion 2 Gambler Energies 03 DCE 12 Psychic 14 Water	So... What do you have for a new deck? Well, for starters you don't have 479 different cards! Your new deck has 4 Families of both Psychic and Water, like your origional deck had. Sometime when you get another one, you should add another Blastoise to your deck. You could use it, just in case the other one winds up in the discard pile or in your prizes. You actually didn't do to badly on your trainers, you just needed to add more than one of each of them to your deck. After I added water energy to your deck, you can actually use those silly hydro Pokemon that you like. Try this out and let me know how it works. TPL