Nick's Precon Recon… Okay, some of you may know me as Mindblade on the pokegym discussion forum but today and for future days to come (let's hope) I will be writing articles for the Pojo. Now I know what it's like to have a limited card pool, and being a teen myself, I can't go out and spend $200 bucks on booster packs. So I am dedicating my time to help out the average Joe by creating powerful tourney class decks with a precon and a few boosters. First off let's take a look at what many believe to be the "weakest" precon, "Zap!" Now straight out of the box this precon has potential but not much more than that, but once we tweak it some we should have a solid tourney class deck. First let's take a look at the contents of the precon… Zap! By Wizards of the Coast Pokemon…21 Psychic Pokemon 3 Abra 1 Kadabra 3 Gastly 2 Haunter 2 Jynx 2 Drowzee 1 Mewtwo Electric Pokemon 3 Magnimite 4 Pikachu Trainers…11 2 Bill 2 Gust of wind 2 Switch 1 Super Potion 1 Potion 1 Defender 1 Professor Oak 1 Computer Search Energy…28 16 Psychic Energy 12 Electric Energy Okay, So we have a very sub par deck here, one that most likely couldn't stand up to most of the decks out there today. That's where I come in… The Pokemon… Drops… First on our to go list is the "Gastly/Haunter" line. These guys just can't cut it with the available options out there, although they have no physical weakness, their true weakness lies in their attacks. Horrid Pokemon. Second on the psychic rejects list is "Drowzee". Until Fossil is released we won't have his evolved counterpart, and that just leaves him as Scyther fodder as he will rarely see playtime with low HP and sup par attacks. And even though this takes away the main psychic line we need to drop the "Abra/Kadabra" line. With the current environment we are in, Super Energy Removal virtually limits us to not using heavy energy reliant Pokemon, nor evolutions. Kadabra is a solid, strong Pokemon, but Abra will most likely be destroyed before you even see his stage 1. For electric Pokemon we need to lose the "Magnimites". Their first attack isn't half-bad but I find their second attack to be practically useless. Not only does it allow your opponent a prize, but most likely the attack won't kill the opposing active Pokemon. The only good part of the attack I can think of is the damaging of the opponent's bench but then again it also damages yours. Additions… In the place of the two Drowzees we will add in two more of one of the meanest psychic Pokemon out there, Jynx. Now this guy is just plain mean when fully pumped and can hit the Nidorans, Hitmonchan, and any other psychic weak Pokemon pretty hard for just one energy. Of course if coin flips don't go your way your in trouble. Next, in place of the one "Kadabra" We will pop in one more Mewtwo. This guy will be the end to all those fully pumped psychic weak Pokemon out there. And if you get in a bind you can always barrier away all threats next turn, granted a gust will spoil that plan. All around, a solid psychic Pokemon. In place of "Magnimite" we will place in Four "Electabuzz". Now I know that your card availability might be low, but these guys shouldn't be too hard to come by as they are non holographic rares, buy a couple of packs and trade for them or just shell out a couple bucks for a near mint condition one. in fact one kid just gave me one for free. But back to buzz. This guy has quickly started to become one of my personal favorites, as most Pokemon just can't match his speed. His first attack is nice but his second attack just can't be beat for cost vs. effect. Now for a tough decision, do I want to keep my deck running two electric Pokemon or add some more variety and psychic resistance with colorless Pokemon? The answer that I would give is go with the colorless. Both are weak to fighting but only colorless can stand the evils of psychic Pokemon and laugh back. To concentrate on the decks theme of cheap status effects and raw beatings we shall place in Likitung. Yes I know all of you are asking "Why Likitung?" so here is my answer. They just don't make a better anti psychic IMHO for two reasons. Confusion just wreaks havoc upon those weak to psychic low HP psychic Pokemon. And most of them have high retreat costs making retreating very hard to come by. Second, 90HP for an uncommon basic!!! That's just plain awesome. This guy is guaranteed to by around for a while and be as annoying as possible while doing so. We will add in four in place of the Pikachus. So there we have our Pokemon for the deck with 14 basic and no evolutions. This will help us immensely as any Pokemon drawn can be played immediately if necessary. Now for the tricky part of the deck, the Trainers. These should be used as a type of "backup" and "stabilizer" for your Pokemon. I tend to go with as many as possible in order to assure your maximum game control and minimal luck dependence. The Trainers… Drops… "Defender" is not that great of a trainer. Half the time it doesn't even give you an extra turn of life and more often then not I find it just dead space. So we'll drop it in favor of something better. The last thing we need to drop in the Trainers section is the "Potion/Super Potions". These things can't help that much although they do give you a very small healing aspect. So we will drop them in favor of other things. Additions… "Bill" is just an awesome trainer. Draw two cards. No drawback just plain simple deck acceleration. This guy is a common and is very easy to come by so 2 more is a breeze. I don't think there is a trainer that has helped me more than the good doctor, "Professor Oak". His bargain of discard your hand to draw seven others is just so powerful and game saving I can't begin to tell you how many times I was glad to see his face. We will up them to 3 for the sake of speed and to minimize the risk of drawing all of them at the same time. "Switch", considered by me to be an underrated card as it can get you out of a tight Jam all to often. And while having some Pokemon with such a high retreat cost of three colorless, we should include them for the obvious reasons. Also saves your butt should a psychic resistant Pokemon confront Jynx or Mewtwo. THE most underrated Trainer in the game, "Gust of Wind". This card just foils all of your opponents well laid plans, I know, It has happened all to many times to me in challenging games. And of course our favorite search card, "Computer Search". A very good card that gets you the card you need, when you need it. "Energy Removal" has nearly the same disruptive power as "Gust of Wind" but on a higher level. For a deck of solid basics you can't leave out "Scoop Up", this will be your emergency healing and switch for this particular deck. And "Item Finder" will be your extra "Scoop Up", "Computer Search", "Professor Oak", or just about anything else you might need. And so, without further Ado, I give you… Nick Millanes' Zap! Attack V1.0 Pokemon…14 4 Jynx (uncommon) 2 Mewtwo (rare holo) 4 Electabuzz (rare) 4 Likitung (uncommon Trainers…21 4 Bill (common) 2 Professor Oak (uncommon) 4 Gust of Wind (common) 2 Switch (common) 4 Energy Removal (common) 2 Computer Search (rare) 1 Item Finder (rare) 2 Scoop Up (rare) Energy… 25 12 Psychic Energy (common) 10 Electric Energy (common) 3 Double Colorless Energy (uncommon) That should do it for a very powerful, easy to put together, modified Zap! deck. Now some of these cards might be hard to come by, But what I did was trade all I could to make a powerful deck then let the tournament prizes expand my collection. Good luck. Anyone can E-mail me at Megamarv@Hotmail.com This is Nick Millanes, signing off.