>Sorry for the unimaginative name.
>I've been working on a deck that's based on getting lots of energy on fast. I've played it on the game boy >trading card game a couple of times and it does pretty well. But, it has a couple of problems (at the end). >Please would you help me tune it a bit so it plays slightly better. I've got a couple of ideas, but I could do >with a hand (I'm new to building decks that actually have a strategy and aren't just haymaker variants >(my skills amaze even me *g*)....
>
>Pokemon: 17 (13 Basic)
>3 MP Mewtwo
>4 Bulbasaur
>2 Ivysaur
>2 Venusaur
>3 Scyther
>3 Pinsir
>
>Trainers: 17
>3 Bill
>3 Professor Oak
>2 Computer Search
>1 Item Finder
>2Nightly Garbage Run
>3 Plus Power
>2 Gust of Wind
>1 Pokemon Breeder
>
>Energy: 26
>16 Grass Energy
>7 Psychic Energy
>3 Double Colourless Energy
>
>Strategy:
> Get a Mewtwo active and a Venusaur in play as soon as you can. (While you are doing this is helps if >you discard as many energy as possible with oaks and computer searches). Then get some big grass >basics (Pinsir and Scyther) on the bench and using Mewtwo's energy absorption, Venusaur's energy >transfer and your one energy card per turn it is possible to get a fully charged up Pinsir or Scyther very >quickly. The rest of the strategy is pretty obvious; high attacks, low retreat costs and plus power is a good >combination.
> I'd better put an explanation about the trainers in as well. Bill is pretty obvious. I'd normally use >Gambler instead of Oak because I'm quite a cautious player but I need discarded energy for Mewtwo. >(This is one of the reasons it's going to be interesting when I play this deck; everyone's used to me being >very defensive and careful about discarding anything. Now I'm going to just be running through cards >and they won't be expecting it). Computer Search and Item Finder are good ways of discarding energy >for Mewtwo and getting something (Venusaur etc) at the same time. Nightly Garbage Run is my >cautious side of not wanting to deck or lose something very important that I can't get back. Plus Powers >are in for attacking (duh). Gust of Wind is good to mess around with your opponent. Pokemon Breeder is >to help get Venusaur out fast at the early game (I'd put more in, but there's an outbreak of mew-itis at the >moment)
>
>Problems:
> ***mew - upto 5 energy on Mewtwo in one turn can be bad against mew. Also, this deck would work >better for more breeders, but mew is too popular at the moment.
> ***slow start - this deck can be kinda slow because none of the pokemon can attack on the first turn. It's >not a major problem, but if you could help make it a bit faster at the start that might be better.
> ***energy - I have been thinking about lowering the energy because I can transfer and the space maybe >could be used better if I had a couple of energy removals in it instead of energy. What do you think about >taking out 1 psychic and two grass energy to put in 2 energy removals and another item finder. It's a >pretty efficient deck with energy, so that might work.
> ***fire - I have a small problem with fire because most of my deck has a weakness to it. If I run into a >fire deck, I usually just play mostly Mewtwo and gust out weak unevolved fire pokemon before they gust >out say a scyther, evolve to a charmeleon and kill me. Is there any way I can make the weakness less of a >weakness (does that make sense to anybody apart from me ???). I thought about a colourless pokemon >along the lines of farfetch'd or the dratini/dragonair evolution might fit...
>
>Anyway, the reason it is in glorious technicolour is because I've been reading it through and trying to >think what else I could do to the deck as well (make any more changes before I send it in) and I sort of >ended up colouring it in...
>
>Thanks a lot :o)

***

A lot of people try the idea of comboing Venusaur and Movie Promo Mewtwo. I didn't used to think much of this combo, because by using Mewtwo to get grass energy you expended your attack and left him vulnerable to attack. It seemed better simply to use Energy Retrieval. However, Rocket has introduced a new card that just might make this combo worthwhile: Rainbow Energy. Let's see what we can do.

1) You say you have slow starts. I say that if Scyther, Pinsir, and MP Mewtwo are slow starts for you, I don't know what to tell you. The Pokemon you've got are plenty fast. I think I'd put in a fourth Mewtwo and drop Pinsir to 2--you still want Pinsir around to deal with specialized threats, but 2 should be plenty. Your Venusaur line also looks fine. Exactly how many Ivysaurs to use will be a personal decision, but two should work.

2) You definitely need a few more trainers. I'd say one more each of Item Finder and Pokemon Breeder are a must, as well as another Computer Search if you can make it fit. We can (and will) drop the energy down some more to create room as needed.

3) 26 energy is high. Drop it down to 23 to make room for the trainers I mentioned above. With 4 DCEs, that leaves us 19 slots for colored energy. Allocate 7 for psychic energy and 12 for grass energy. Now drop two energy of each type and put in 4 Rainbow Energy. This will increase the versatility of your deck and make Mewtwo and your Grass pokemon work better together. Note that it doesn't cause damage when Trans'd or Absorbed, so you can manipulate it without fear.

***

17 Pokemon:

4 Mewtwo
3 Scyther
2 Pinsir
4 Bulbasaur
2 Ivysaur
2 Venusaur

20 Trainers:

3 Bill
3 Oak
3 Computer Search
2 Item Finder
2 Nightly Garbage Run
3 PlusPower
2 GOW
2 Pokemon Breeder

23 Energy:

10 Grass Energy
5 Psychic Energy
4 Rainbow Energy
4 DCE

***

And there you have it. If you find energy a bit low, you can drop a psy energy or two for either more grass energy, NGR, or Retrieval. Fire shouldn't be a tremendous problem with four Mewtwos. Good luck!




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