Hello all. From time to time I'm sure you've heard me talk about my
fish. I'm very fond of them. I try to keep the water clean and the castle
properly embedded in the rocks and all that fish ownership jazz. But for
some reason they've still been real skittish ever since I got them, so I
called up the local aquarium to inquire as to what the problem may be.
     The nice woman at the aquarium listened to the symptoms and determined
that my fish have "issues". I wasn't aware fish could have issues. I mean,
they're just floating sacks of guts and plankton, right? Well, apparently,
the best way to remedy this situation is to place a specially trained
Goldeen into the tank and let it communicate with the the other fish.
     It's been swimming in there for about half hour and I'm not sure it's
doing anything. My fish have been hiding nervously underneath the little
plastic scuba guy and really haven't come out for anything. Has it come to
the point where the psychiatrist's need a psychiatrist?

    While the Goldeen does it's thing, whatever that may be, why don't I do
mine? Come on into my office and let me have that deck.

>
>Dr.Crash
>This is my deck.
>My strategy is after my deck.
>
>2 Alakazams(Damage swap)
>3 Kababras(For Alakazam and good attacks.)
>3 Abras(For Alakazam)
>1 Movie Mewtwo(Good basic with high hp and good attack)
>2  Fossil Gastly(Resistance to fighting free retreat good starting attack)
>
>4 Electabuzzas(main attacker)
>
>  2 Wigglytuff(Main attacker)
>  4 Jigglypuff(good starting  pokemon)
>  2 Lickitung(Good starting attack.High hp)
>  2 Chansey(good staller while I get Wiggly and Alakazam and Double edge
>then damage swap.)
>
>  3 scoop ups(scoop up almost dead pokemon and bring out new ones.)
>  3 Professor Oaks(Get a fresh hand and Wiggly and Alakazam out early.)
>  2 Super Energy Removals(pees apponet off)
>
>  4 Double colorless energy(second turn Wiggly)
>  12 Lighting energy
>  12 psi energy
>
>strategy-My strategy is to start out with a pokemon like
>Likutung,Electabuzz,Gastly,Jigglypuff or Chanasey then scoop them up.Then
>bring out a pokemon I have gotten ready on my bench like
>Wiggly,Electabuzz,Mewtwo or Chansey.I try to get out a Alakazam and move
>the damage to benched pokemon like chansey and Lickitung.I try not to send
>out my Alakazam unless there is a Hitmonchan that is killing all my pokemon
>because a lot of my pokemon have weakness to fighting.That is why I put in
>some fossil Gastly.
>                    Sincerely
>                         Jason Mallette
>
>
   --This certainly isn't a terrible deck. I've seen plenty worse. But you
do have some heavy work ahead. Hmmmm....

    Ok. The Pokemon count is way too high. For a successful deck, you should
have something in the neighborhood of 15 cards, give or take a few. Your 25
monster assault is making your deck lopsided. You haven't got enough room
for Trainers because of this. (You also have 61 cards, but that's only a
misdemeanor in the Pokemon courtroom.)
    The biggest problem with your Pokemon is that you're trying to combine 2
successful archtypes: Damage Swap and Tuffstuff. Unfortunately this won't
work. Wigglytuff requires a lot of speedy Basic Pokemon, whereas Damage Swap
need a lot of Evolution and stalling.
    However I sense you're really not shooting for a Damage Swap staller.
But I think I've got just what you're looking for.

   You can begin by removing the Jiggly/Wiggly family. It's strategy is only
going to get in your way. The Gastlys, while kind of nice, kind of, have no
business here either. Remove them. Same with Tauros and Lickitung. Nice
guys, but better elsewhere.

   Now you must alter the amounts of the remaining Pokemon. 3 Abras, 2
Kadabras and 2 Alakazams will form the backup crew of this deck. Tossing in
a couple Pokemon Traders will help you find these guys when you need them
most.
   Optimally, you should have 3 Promo Mewtwos in here also, but I know from
experience how hard they are to get. Jynx will work allright in the
meantime, but you should really aim for those Promos. They're worth the
effort.
   2 Chanseys is exactly the right number, but I'd suggest dropping the
Electabuzzes by one. Finish the army with 3 Scythers. It's Resistance and
free retreat are very valuable in stalling when you need to. Slash is
effective too.

   Excuse me, my secretary is tapping on my window. Something must be
happening with the fish.I should check this out.

   What in tarnation? The Goldeen is writing something with the colored
stones. How cool.

   "The fish want"

   Want what? Huh? It seems to have stopped writing. Now it's swimming
around my fish and doing loops. How weird. I'd best monitor this closely.
   And I heard that wisecrack from you behind that desk...you will not
sautee my fish lemon and butter! Go fax something!

   Ok, let's continue with your deck. Want what? How odd. I wonder what it
is....

     Your deck is suffering from a severe lack of Trainers. 3 Professor Oaks
will not make up for the lack of strategy that other Trainers provide. I
don't usually do this, but I feel it's best to just start over with the
Trainers from scratch. Here's the recipe:

     Begin with 2 Professor Oaks and 4 Bills. This is standard issue for
just about every Pokemon deck nowadays.
     Toss in 2 Pokemon Traders to get those Alakazams and Electabuzzes when
you have to.
      Mix together 3 Mr. Fujis/Scoop Ups to lengthen your decks play and get
some of those Pokemon and Energy back later. The exact combination of Scoop
Ups to Fujis is up to you. I'd think 2 Fujis and one Scoop Up would be good,
but you do what you think works best.
     Add 3 Gusts of Wind for eliminating wimps like Squirtle and other
Abras, or getting big baddies out of your hair for a while.
     Lightly sprinkle 2 Item Finders in to strengthen your deck's ability to
handle the late game.
     Top it off with 2 Switches because a lot of these guys have some pricey
retreat costs and who wants to waste Energy?

    Speaking of Energy, your formula had 26 Energy in it. Psychic needs a
bit more to handle the hefty attack costs, but 26 is just a bit too much.
Try 24. 13 Psychic Energy, 7 Electric and 4 Double Colorless Energy will
make for a good ratio. Remember Promo Mewtwo fills himself...

     Well it's not a Wiggly/Buzz Swap anymore, so you'll need a new name.
But the change is definitely for the better. It's barely ever a good idea to
cross major archtypes. In fact I can't recall any instance where it's worked
completely. As for the name, Alternator sounds good, because that's exactly
what this deck will be able to do. Be offensive when you can afford to be
and then quickly change gears and put up a strong defense with Damage Swap,
Resistances and Scoop Ups/Fujis when the strategy calls for a slower
approach. I like the way this deck looks and I'm probably going to work on a
similar version after looking at all this. So that's the highest form of
compliment I can give: my desire to copy it. Way to go.
     Oh yeah, you'll want the exact decklist, huh? LOL...ok here it is.

     3 Abras
     2 Kadabras
     2 Alakazams
     2 Chanseys
     3 Scythers
     3 Electabuzzes
     3 Promo Mewtwos

     2 Oaks
     4 Bills
     3 Mr. Fujis/Scoop Ups
     2 Pokemon Traders
     3 Gusts of Wind
     2 Item Finders
     2 Switches

     13 Psychic Energy
     7 Electric Energy
     4 Double Colorless Energy

   One note: The newest expansion, Team Rocket is coming out and it
contains, for once, some excellent Trainers which you'll definitely want to
consider putting in once you can get some. The best card in the set,
Nighttime Garbage Collection, is one of the best Trainers ever and it's
common to boot. It lets you choose any combo of 3 Energy, Basics and
Evolutions and shuffle them back into your deck. With this card you could
probably reduce your Pokemon count by a few in favor of this versatile card
without giving up anything, bacause you can get the reamining Pokemon back
eventually. :)

      OK, I wonder if that Goldeen has finished it's message. I need to know
what my fish are suffereing from.

    Hey, my secretary is over by the tank and she's looking at me with that
evil knowing grin of hers. The Goldeen must have finished.

     What? I'm reading...clear outta the way. And don't smile like that, I
feel like the devil is in the room. So what's the "issue" here?

     "The fish want female companionship."

    Well that explains my secretary looking like she did. My fish were
lonely! I remember my venus flytraps going through the same thing a while
back...I really should have known. I'll have to get some girl fish in here
soon! I'm gonna go call the pet shop right now!

     Wait a minute...how the heck do you tell if a fish is male or female??
Goldeen! I got another question for ya!!

                    Good Luck!!
                 Dr. Crash Landon
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