From: Mantis789@aol.com
Sent: Friday, June 14, 2002 12:40 AM
To: pojo@pojo.com
Subject: Martin's Mansion deck fix: Matt's Fiery Steelix



***Creaky Door Opens***

Welcome back to Martin's Mansion. Today we will be reviewing a Fire/Metal deck. Oh boy.

Hey. My name is Matt and I made a Fire deck and tossed a Steelix into it because he is my favorite pokemon. It is pretty good but it can use some help. It's biggest problem is ER and SER, but I have a couple of gyms in to counter it but the deck could use more. Please give it a hand and I thank you in advance.

Pokemon (20)
(3) Growlithe [base]
(2) Arcanine
(3) Slugma [destiny]
(2) Magcargo
(3) Onix [S.I.]
(2) Steelix
(3) Magmar [fossil]
(2) Chansey

Trainers (20)
(3) Computer Search
(3) Item Finder
(3) Prof. Oak
(3) Pokemon Trader
(2) Energy Retrieval
(2) Gust of Wind
(2) Switch
(1) Chaos Gym
(1) Ecco Gym

Energy (20)
(14) Fire
(4) Metal
(2) DCE

STRATEGY
This decks strategy is to get out one of my three heavy hitters as quickly as possible, all while stalling with the Magmars and Chanseys. I put the Chanseys in because they work real well with Metal, as does Arcanine. That's about all I can say about my deck.

Pokemon

Looking at this deck I see a few major flaws. First of all, Metal and Fire haven't been known to be that great of a combo. Since you insist to play fire with Steelix, I will do my best to tweak it up a bit.

Steelix, Arcanine, and Magcargo take a lot of energy to power up, this explains why Energy removing type cards seem to hurt you.. plenty.

I say you drop the Arcanine and Magcargo line, they require too much energy and Chansey is much better than Arcanine HP wise, attack wise, and since it's a basic, it takes up a lot less deck space. This makes room for Cleffa, every deck needs this card. Play 4 in here.

Add another Steelix, a 3/3 Steelix line works best. Fossil Magmar is a Decent back up Pokemon, so he can stay. I myself Go with 2 Tyrogue and 2 Pichu in Steelix, but it all depends on YOUR personal preference.

Finally, you may want to try Unown N in this deck, it is great with Chansey for double edging.


Trainers

You got a great trainer line up. Only a few things should be changed. Pokemon Trader isn't that good in the "unlimited" format. Leave that for Modified. I would put a couple Professor Elm in it's place since it is great with Evolution and Non basic energy.

Add 1 more Eco Gym. Lass is also a great card which helps against Energy removing. If you Lass your opponent first turn and Eeeeeeek, you strip them of their options and get a fresh new hand. Since you run a high risk of being Energy removed easily, play 2 energy charge.

I Prefer Nightly Garbage run over Energy Retrieval, it works much better for deck recovery. Also, playing a fourth Computer search won't hurt.

Since you are building your deck AGAINST Energy removing, it does not mean you cannot play it yourself. Go with 3 Super energy removal just incase your opponent gets ahead start on you.


Energy

Since your main attackers will be Chansey and Steelix, you MUST play 4 Double Colorless energy, 4 Metal is a no-brainer.

And Lastly, you can lower the ammount of fire energy to about 6, because Magmar only needs 2 and Steelix uses 2 at most since we play DCE.


Matt's Fiery Steelix

Pokemon-16
4-Cleffa
3-Onix (Southern Island)
3-Steelix
3-Magmar (Fossil)
2-Chansey (Neo 4, OFCOURSE. [/end joke])
1-Unown N/Tyrogue

Trainers-30
4-Computer Search
3-Professor Oak
3-Gust of Wind
3-Lass
3-Item Finder
3-Super Energy removal
2-Professor Elm
2-Energy Charge
2-Switch
2-Eco Gym
2-Chaos Gym
1-Nightly Garbage run

Energy-14
6-Fire
4-Double Colorless
4-Metal


That's about it. Change it up a bit to fit your Metagame, Steelix is a very versatile card.

Mantine says Goodbye....

GIIIIIIAAAANT WAAAAAAVE

"I don't get it"

~Martin Moreno