Evolve your Deck
By Stephen Huxman
Today's Topic: Haymaker evolved ionto Blitzkrieg
I’m going to
get right to it, I’m not going to talk about how I wrote
for another site (which will remain nameless) before they closed it
or
how I won one of their strategy article contests… Whoops, too late.
Anyhow, I’m going to take a good deck idea… or a bad deck idea and
make
it better. When it comes to Deck construction I spend months fine
tuning,
I play until I find a problem and then spend more months fine
tuning.
Today we’re
going to go over the Blitzkrieg deck, it literally evolved
from Haymaker. I created the Blitzkrieg because Haymaker was good,
but
not perfect. Blitzkrieg takes everything that was good about Haymaker
and
focuses it into just good, it leaves out the bad.
Step 1: What do I want it to do?
Damage, and lots of it… QUICKLY. This is the only real part of
Haymaker
that works… that all the deck is, it can win a lot… but a good
Raindance
or Alakazam/Chansey backed by an even better player will force
Haymaker
into a pathetic Jab for 20 v.s. smackdown for 70 battle.
Step 2: What is best suited to this?
Hitmonchan, Electabuzz, Scyther, Magmar, Jynx, Hitmonlee, Farfetch’d,
Lapras, Mr. Mime, and Tauros. All of these cards either creates large
amounts of damage or make it cumulative at a high speed. Mr. Mime can
also shut down Raindance faster than I can tear up a Pikachu
card.
Step 3: What improves the deck’s job?
Energy Removal, Super Energy Removal, Bill, Professor Oak, Professor
Elm,
Plus Power. Bill and Oak are vital, they let you draw like mad and
use
all of your resources at once which can make for a short game. Elm
allows
for card advantage without hurting your deck size and Plus Power can
be
stacked to make it possible to take out the big'uns by surprise. As
for
the energy destruction… it slows your opponent down, which
effectively
makes you faster than them.
Step 4: How do I make my opponent play MY game?
Gust, Switch, Double Gust, Pokemon March, Good Manners, and Rocket’s
Sneak Attack. All of these cards allow you to control the game. If
you’re
in trouble one of these cards can usually turn the tables around in
more
than enough time to hurt your opponent. March and Manners are for the
sake of making sure you don’t leave your half dead Hitmonchan alone to
be
KO’d. Haymkaer had a problem with keeping the bench warm.
Step 5: How do I make sure I can play my game?
Computer Search, Time Machine, Pokemon Trader, Energy Search, Here
Comes
Team Rocket, and Energy Retrieval. Another problem with Haymaker and
one
of the original problems with Blitzkrieg is that it burned energy of
the
type it was about to need. Energy Retrieval allows you to bring it
back
and can throw away any cards you really don’t need. Energy Search is
just
spiffy, (and you know a card is good if I refer to it as spiffy) it
gets
you any type of Energy you need AND thins out your deck creating a
better
possibility of drawing the card you need.
Step 6: What do I do with this stack of cards?
We brake it down again.
Building the deck:
Better make
yourself comfortable while doing this, it can take some
serious thought deciding which is better, Stantler or Tauros.
First look
at the Pokemon you have for choices, how wide of a selection
can you have in your deck without hurting it? I decided I wanted the
main
portion of my energy to be Fighting, this allows me to use both
Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee, but not many. I opted for 2 Chans and 1 Lee,
I
could’ve gone with more Lees but his HPs might be a problem in games
against Psychic. Also, I would have to devote even more resources to
fighting types, you can’t afford to waste energy on a Pokemon that
doesn’t always work. Lee is only here because his High Jump Kick can
waste 3 enemies before he goes down and his Stretch Kick can wreak
havoc
on an Alakazam deck.
Now that I
know a good portion of my deck is going to be fighting
oriented I know what its common weak point will be… Psychic. Tauros
is
pick of the litter in Psychic defense, with a Double Colorless he can
do
20 to 30 damage on his first turn. Lots of basic Psychics can’t
handle
that. At first I wanted to use two but then I spotted my single
Stantler
card, the two are identical in everything but one attack. Tauros
hurts
himself for more damage while Stantler makes the opponents hurt
themselves on occasion. I ended up putting in one of each. This gives
me
more selection when it comes to a difficult match.
The next
weak point for fighting is the flying type, Electabuzz is no
contest. He has low energy requirements for high attacks. The fact he
only needs one electric energy means I can squeeze two in. Electabuzz
also works as a great offense against Rain Dance and those annoying
Pidgeot decks. Since I just mentioned Rain Dance why don’t we stick in
a
Mr. Mime from Jungle. He can lock down any deck that relies on large
amounts of damage. He can also double damage every attack making him
a
good choice, one or two would do just fine but I’m not even close to
done
so I’ll put in one.
I now see an
opening to make use of double colorless energies and give
Haymakers and Fighting decks a hard time. Scyther from Jungle works
REAL
WELL. I’ll put in two. A second turn attack for 30 is just neat.
Now I’ll
take a look at what improves my deck’s abilities. Plus Powers
gain an immediate four slots in my deck as does Bill, Energy Removal
and
SER. Wait, make it three Bills, four may burn the deck TOO fast.
Professor Oak is a gem in any deck, but Blitzkrieg can run out of
cards
by turn five if you have too many. I’ll put in one for good measure,
if
it comes down to the wire I can use him on a Computer Search of
Energy
Retrieval. Professor Elm is almost as good as Oak, but he’s a lot
safer.
The only drawback is that your Trainer card stream gets dammed up the
moment you use him. He’s still not to be over looked though. I’ll put
in
one. The next card surprised me by how well it works. Pokemon March
is
versatile and it only takes one in a deck to double your chances of
keeping your bench warm. Once again, I’ll put in only one card.
The control
cards come next. Rocket’s Sneak Attack I threw in on whim to
see how it performs. Good news… it eats stall ALIVE. “Oh, I see you
were
saving the Pokemon Centers and Potions to make my life difficult,
let’s
get rid of those.”- my sister’s worst nightmare (she is the queen of
stall and the only person who can claim to have beaten me more than
twice, in fact much more than twice. We don’t play cards anymore, we
just
flip coins.)
Back to the
subject. Switch, Gust, and Double Gust are all cool but
can’t be over done. I’ll put in two of each. Double Gust can count
for
two more Gusts and Switches without adding four cards. That’s
efficient,
and efficiency is what this deck is about.
Now come the
fix-it cards. These are the cards that grease the wheels on
the deck. Due to the fact I have three energy types and not much of
two
of them I’ll quickly throw in Four energy searches and an Energy
Retrieval. The Retrieval is really important due to the fact that I
have
four SERs, to most gamers that would seem dangerous, but I like to
live
on the edge, you know, stay up till 10 once in a while.
Computer
Search can be a game winner I once needed an extra twenty
damage that turn or I would lose, shame all I had in my hand was Oak,
Oak, Elm, Comp Search, and Item Finder. Note: I had six cards left in
my
deck I ended up Searching and Finding fore two Plus Powers and won
the
match. It is for this reason I also add Item Finder. I also realized
at
that point that I was more of a danger to myself than my opponent. It
was
all too easy to deck myself in seven or eight turns, now I include
Time
Capsule, it can provide me with five extra turns of butt-kicking.
Here Comes
Team Rocket is so powerful it should be banned. If you
already have an advantage it makes you unbeatable. If you’re at a
disadvantage and your opponent’s IQ is 12 you will lose for sure.
It
can’t give you an advantage straight out, it just lets the one who’s
winning complete the task. Some day I’ll do a single card strategy
about
it. But for now, I’ll put a single one in.
Energy! And
not much room for it. I only have room for 16 cards,
fortunately the Energy Searches I put in earlier will increase
relative
energy in the deck to 20, and the energy retrieval to 22. This is
just
fine for just ten Pokemon. Four double colorless go in before
anything
else, they count for two energy to most of my team so they’re
priceless.
One Mime = one energy. I know I sound stupid putting a single psychic
energy in but the Mime will only be used one in every ten games, plus
I
have several cards to get the energy when I need it. Four electric
energy
go in for the Electabuzz, Energy Removals always seem to target them
so
I’m going to make sure I have extra. The rest of the space is for
fighting energy… a whole SEVEN CARDS? Don’t be surprised, the deck
really
works quite well with practice. The point of Haymaker was to do a lot
of
damage fast, same here, but fast damage means low energy costs. The
deck
doesn’t need that much energy. Most games rely on Scyther, Tauros and
Hitmonchan rotating in and out of action to make use of weakness and
resistance.
Good luck
with the deck… if you choose to use it. She’s my pride and joy
and I have yet to fail to place in a tournament with it.
e-mail me at steveh43@juno.com
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