---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Sam Da Man" <plasmablizzard@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2000 17:15:51 EDT

>Dear Aaron,
>          I am building a deck and I need help. My deck is called "Sam's
>Multi-Colored Multi-Purpose Haymaker". I call it this because it is 1)My
>deck and my name is Sam, 2)Has different types of Pokemon(Psychic,
>Colorless, etc...), 3)Should work good against many archtypes, 4) Should hit
>hard, like a "Haymaker". But I usually just call it "My Deck". It consists
>of
>
>3 Promo Mewtwo
>3 Scyther
>3 Electabuzz
>4 Dratini
>4 Dragonair
>
>4 Energy Removal
>4 Bill
>4 Gust of Wind
>1 Professor Oak
>2 Energy Retrieval
>2 Potion
>
>12 Psychic Energy
>12 Electric Energy
>2 Double Colorless Energy
>
>
>   I set the cards up like this to take on a wide variety of decks. Psychic
>is hurt by Mewtwo and Dragonair. "Rain Dance" is taken on by Electabuzz and
>Scyther, since a lot of Water Pokemon are weak to Electric and Grass. Fire
>and Electric are put out by the Dragonairs, since both need a lot of Energy.
>Fighting is blocked by Mewtwo and Scyther. But I still don't think my
>combinations are set up right. Please help me straighten my deck so that it
>is tourament worthy.
>
>                                                 From,
>                                                      Sam.
>________________________________________________________________________
>Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
>
>


-----------

I had to post this deck since it includes my favorite Pokemon from when I first started playing... Dragonair!

High HP, no weakness and a resistance to Psychic, not to mention potentially the most powerful attack in the game... Hyperbeam!  The ability to remove an Energy from the opposing players Pokemon EVERY turn is an attack I thought was just screaming to be abused!

After much testing, I found that this Energy Removal attack was often foiled by a dose of it's own medicine... Energy Removal.  ER on a DCE or heaven forbid a SER often made it impossible to abuse Hyper Beam, and so my Dragonair's I'd spent so much time trading for started collecting dust along with my Shellders and Onix!  After many months of neglect...

HERE COMES TEAM ROCKET!!

MVP in my opinion is Rocket's Sneak Attack!  This card has DISRUPTION written all over it.  I can't even begin to list it's many uses.  Obviously on turn 1 it can cripple a RainDance deck by grabbing that Professor Oak or Breeder.  Same goes for TurboTuff decks!  A skilled player will be given a big boost by taking note of the other cards in the opponents hand, thus making it very difficult for the opponent to surprise you!  The ability to know what is in your opponents hand while they have to wonder about yours is a valuable commodity in itself!  Later in the game Sneak Attack can be just as useful, once you build up a big baddie(like Dragonair) on the bench use Sneak Attack to check the opponents hand to make sure they don't have anything that will disrupt your well laid plans(SER).

Then you must consider the side effect, shuffling the Trainer card back into the opponents draw pile.  While some would say this is a bad thing as it replenishes the opponents draw pile, I see it as a bonus in an Energy Removal Deck!  By adding another non-energy card to the draw pile, the odds of your opponent drawing a much needed Energy is slightly lessened!

Here's my "Fix"

3 TR Dratini
2 Base Dragonair
4 Electabuzz
2 lvl. 16 Pikachu
4 Scyther

4 Energy Removal
2 Super Energy Removal
4 Rocket Sneak Attack
3 Gust of Wind
4 Bill
3 Computer Search
2 Professor Oak

12 Electric
4 Potion Energy
4 DCE
3 Energy Retrieval

Note some of the other cool cards available to this deck from Team Rocket.  TR Dratini I think is a definite improvement over the base version.  The ability to paralze will keep the little guy around longer, note this deck has 9 Pokemon with Paralyze attacks!!  Paralyze attacks AND Energy Removal AND Hand Disruption will throw serious kinks in even the best decks out there!

Hope this helps...have fun!
Aaron