>Dear Spike,
> I've resolved my problem of one energy attachment by changing my deck altogether to a Rain Dance. I >find that this has too many evolved forms, but I can get to Blastoise easily enough. One of the main >problems is choosing between the Dewgong and the Gyrados family. When it comes to basic, Seel >emerges victorious without a doubt, but when it comes to evolved forms Gyrados is the winner. I >managed to create this deck without trading my Charizard so whatever changes you do I should be able >to get the cards(it's amazing what people would trade forth big lizard!). I got some tips and ideas from >some of the decks you fixed and came up with this:
>20 Pokemon:
>4x Squirtle
>3x Wartortle
>2x Blastoise
>3x Magikarp(or Seel)
>2x Gyrados(or Dewgong)
>3x Poliwag
>2x Poliwhirl
>1x Poliwrath
>13 Trainers:
>3x PokeTrader
>3x Bill
>3x Comp. Search
>2x PokeBreeder
>2x Prof. Oak
>27 Energy:
>27 Water Energy
>Strategy: Get a few basics and have a few searches, lay them down on my bench and search for my >evolutions(if I can do that fast enough I'll probably have the Magikarp - Gyrados line). Lay an energy >down and then search for the mighty Blastoise and Rain Dance the night away. Try and get Poliwrath's >Whirlpool going and keep draining energy off them(I played my Haymaker against a water deck with a >Poliwrath and it's so annoying). All my trainers are ways of getting evolutions so if I get the basics I'm >on >the road to victory. I've added quite a few(well loads actually) water energy to take full advantage of >Rain Dance and I haven't bothered with DCE because it's pointless with just water requirements. Please >help my deck, I'm not sure I've got the hang of Rain Dance decks so could you list the main purpose of >it.

***

Okay... this is Spike's reward for slogging through the eclectic mix of other decks in his mailbox... a nice, simple Raindance to tune up. Let's have a look...

1) Okay, it's obvious that this isn't gonna be one of those 4-4-4 types. Nothin' wrong with that. But you're still suffering a little on speed... First of all, take out the Poliwrath line. Raindance doesn't want to be running more than one Stage 2, and Raindance doesn't give a flip about removing energy because it's too busy crushing its opponents with 50+ damage attacks. Now increase Gyarados to 4-3. He is obviously a major part of this deck, and you need to be able to grab him. I personally have stopped considering Gyarados because of the introduction of Articuno and the heavy presence of Scyther, but whatever floats your boat... Now then, you still need a way to deal with Mime, so in goes Lapras. If you're not hot on the idea of trading for still more rares, Jigglypuff makes an acceptable substitute. That about wraps us up for Pokemon.

2) Searching--check. Breeder--check. Bills and Oaks... um. You could probably use a few more of each. You could also use some GOWs. We'll take out some energy in just a bit to make room.

3) 27 energy is much too much. You can drop it to 24 easily.

***

19 Pokemon:

4 Squirtle
3 Wartortle
2 Blastoise
4 Magikarp
3 Gyarados
3 Lapras

17 Trainers:

3 Pokemon Trader
4 Bill
3 Oak
3 Computer Search
2 Pokemon Breeder
2 GOW

24 Energy

24 Water Energy

***

And what do you know... it all fits. Normally I don't like traders, but I left them in here because you need to search for both parts of the Gyarados evolution. There are a number of different directions you could take with this, but some things you definitely do need are good searching and good drawing. These are the backbone of any deck, and Raindance in particular cannot live without them.

Hope this deck works for you. Meanwhile, the rest of us poor dolts will be plodding along attaching one energy at a time.


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