---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: marjasi@thegame.com
Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 01:04:40 -0400 (EDT)

>Dear Aaron,
>    
>     If you have the time,can you please help me with my deck.
>
>Hydro Fury
>
>Pokemon (21)
>4 Eevee
>3 Vaporeon
>3 Magikarp
>1 Gyarados
>1 Dark Gyarados
>4 Squirtle
>3 Wartortle
>2 Blastoise
>
>Trainers (10)
>4 Bills
>2 Professor Oak
>2 Super Potion
>1 Pokemon Trader
>1 Pokemon Breeder
>
>Energy (29)
>29 Water energy
>
>The Squirtle evoultion line is for Blastoise's Rain Dance. The Eevee line for Vaporeon's high hp and water gun attack. The Maikarp line is for attacking and in case I need it to paralyze the defending pokemon. The trainers are to help me get more enrgy and to evolve Squirtle into Blastoise faster. But I think my deck isn't good as it can be.
>
>Thank you for your time.
>
>
----------------


WARNING:
Before you scroll down and see my decklist, let me warn you... I'm gonna turn this deck into a RainDance deck.

Now, before you send me hate mail... give me a chance!  Instead of just saying "your deck stinks" and posting a RainDance deck, I'm gonna explain why I'm taking certain cards out of your deck and why I'm putting certain cards in so all of you can actually see why I do what I do!  Lets start with the Pokemon...

4 Squirtle/3 Wartortle/2 Blastoise

In a deck that is built around the Pokemon Power RainDance, you want to get Blastoise up and running as quickly as possible.  Pokemon Breeder allows for a turn 2 Blastoise while using Wartortle means turn 3 is the earliest you can see Blastoise, so I decided to take the Wartortles out and up the Blastoise count to 4.  Please note that some decks run 1-2 Wartortles anyway if Mew is popular in your area, as Devolution beam can wreck a breeded Blastoise.

3 Magicarp/ 2 Gyrados

One of the unwritten rules to Aaron's School of Pokemon is to use only 1 evolution line per deck.  And while there's always exceptions to the rules, exceptions shouldn't be made for MagiCRAP.  His 30 HP stinks no matter how you spin it.  I'd prefer to replace these 5 cards with 4 Lapras, due to his hefty 80HP and cool attacks.  Another reaon Lapras is in so many RainDance decks is 'cause he easily gets around Mr. Mime, which can shut down all the 30+ attacks this deck can generate.

4 Eevee/ 3 Vaporeon

Not only does this line violate the "1 evolution per deck" rule, but it just plain stinks.  While Water Gun is cool, Articuno has just as good attacks and doesn't require Eevee to get them.  Not only does Articuno have heavy attacks, it also has NO weakness to Electric... not to mention a handy resistance to Fighting.

Trainers...

4 Bill

Duh, 2 cards is good.  We need more tho, which leads us to

2 Professor Oak

RainDance requires a bunch of energy to dump onto those expensive attacks, being able to dump all energy in hand and then Oak for more is often a mandatory play with this deck, so I upped the count to 4.  Hmmm... 4 Bill and 4 Oaks are a ton of card drawing, can we squeeze in some more?

2 Super Potion

Ummm, not to say that Super Potion doesn't have a place in certain decks, but it has no buisness in an aggressive deck like this.  Lets replace them with 4 Computer Search, as it allows us quickly build Blastoise or find that needed Oak exactly when we need them.

1 Pokemon Trader

This violates the unwritten rule about not using singles of a card.  While Trader ain't that bad, 1 won't do much.  Let's dump Trader and up the Pokemon Breeder count to 4 so we can evolve Blasoise in a hurry.

Energy...

With all that Oaking and Billing, 20 Water Energy should be plenty.  I also included 3 Nightly Garbage Run into the deck which can recycle energy in the discard pile.  Run also lets you Oak a little more without having to worry about decking yourself, and you can also shuffle Pokemon back into your deck since there are only 12 Basics in the deck!

Here's my "fix"

4 Squirtle
4 Blastoise
4 Lapras
4 Articuno

4 Bill
4 Oak
4 Computer Search
4 Pokemon Breeder
3 Garbage Retrieval
3 Gust of Wind
2 Rocket Sneak Attack

20 Water Energy

On a final note I like Rocket Sneak Attack in this deck as defense against Lass.  This deck really has a hard time if it looses it's Trainers early, a REALLY hard time(It's true, It's true!)  Counter this by using Sneak to grab an opponents Lass, this is especially good tech if Lass is popular in your area, you may want to use even more!

Hope this helps you young 'uns understand RainDance... Have Fun!
Aaron