>    Hey Spike,
>        Here's my deck, and please send back and
help. I can do good
>with
>this deck most of the time but I have seen other Zap
decks whoop on
>people I
>somehow manage to squeek by. I have 3 other decks
that are just fine
>but I
>would like to include this one into my selection,
anyways here it
>goes...
>2 Jynx
>2 Mr. Mime
>3 Gastly
>1 Fossil Haunter
>2 Regular Haunter
>2 Abra
>2 Kadabra
>1 Magnemite
>1 Zapdos ( don't ask me take this one out because it
is my favorite
>Pokemon)
>2 Voltorb
>1 Jungle Electrode
>1 Poke Ball
>1 Pokemon Flute
>1 Plus Power
>1 Revive
>1 Computer Search
>1 Pokemon Trader
>2 Switch
>3 Potion
>2 Super Potion
>3 Energy Retrieval
>1 DCE
>13 Psychic Energy
>11 Elecric Energy

***

You may be looking at this deck and wondering "How did
it get posted??" Well, I'm trying to also help people
who are apparently still novices, or people who are
trying valiantly to play with a "favorite" Pokemon
that, like so many others, got screwed over in the
transistion from electrons to cardboard. No offense,
dude, but I'm first going to hold up your deck as an
example of what NOT to do. I see so many people (at
Pokemon League and elsewhere) who buy the Zap deck for
some unknown reason. Perhaps a few of them have a
genuine idea of how to make a good deck with it, but I
suspect most of them buy it because it has Pikachu and
Mewtwo on the front of the box. Then, when they figure
out that those two cards kinda suck, they try to fix
it by buying a few boosters and sticking in all the
Electric and Psychic Pokemon that they get. Now...I'm
not saying that this is what happened to this guy, and
even if it was, he may have known what he was doing
buying the deck (his favorite Pokemon IS electric,
after all) but he's run into some snags trying to make
it into a good deck.

Once again: I *WILL* try to post one or two decks a
week that I sense are from relative beginners (and if
I sort you into that category by mistake, please
excuse me.) I will still be trashing (or bashing, as
may become the case later on) decks that I sense are
from people who simply haven't bothered to make any
effort, or who were on some strong drugs at the time
they put their decks together. The difference will be
determined according to my personal instincts. And if
I'm wrong some of the time, boo hoo...

Now that we're done with that lengthy disclaimer, on
with the deck itself...

1) First things first. Zapdos is your favorite
Pokemon? All well and good. But you should have at
least 2 of them in there to use him effectively. And
they should both be Fossil. Got that? Moving on...Take
out all the rest of your Electric Pokemon and let's
rebuild the electric half of the deck from scratch. I
would recommend putting in some Electabuzz, and also
some of the Pikachu family (the only worthwhile
Electric evolution family at this time, IMO.) Jungle
Pikachu is always my favorite (Pokemon League Pikachu
is also excellent if you can get some.) Normally I
recommend Fossil Raichu, but since this is a
multiple-color deck, I think Basic Raichu might
actually work better. Now, on to the psychic Pokemon.
I'd recommend taking out the Jynx, as well as the
Kadabra families, for more ghosts. This is an electric
deck, so fighting resistance is good. Fit Gengar in,
make it 4-3-2, and make sure all of your ghosts are
the Fossil variants. Leave some Mr. Mime in if you
have the space. That about wraps it up for the
Pokemon, I think.

2) Arrgh. That about sums up my reaction to the
trainers in this deck. Take 'em out. That's right,
tear out every last trainer. We're going to build them
up from scratch. First, there are my standbys: 3-4
Bill, 2 Oak, 2 Computer Search, and 4 Energy Removal.
These should go in almost every deck, and I see no
reason not to put them in this one. Usually, I
recommend GOWs for any deck, but with insane bench
destruction like this deck has (Gengar, Pikachu,
Zapdos) I think it might be better putting in Energy
Retrievals--this, combined with Oaks and Bills, will
get you the energy you need to feed those Zapdos.
Normally Potions and/or Defenders might be nice,
seeing as how you've some electric Pokemon (Buzz and
Raichu) but don't put them in if you don't have
problems with knocking yourself out.

3) Energy. I REALLY, REALLY wish people would tell me
whether or not decks have energy problems--this is a
big help to me in deciding how much energy they need,
which in turn affects card space for the rest of the
deck. Some more Electric energy might be nice. Let's
take out the DCE (I can't understand its presence in
the first place) since it's not worth having just for
Raichu.

***

21 Pokemon:

3 Electabuzz
2 Zapdos (Fossil)
3 Pikachu (Jungle)
2 Raichu (Basic)
4 Gastly (Fossil)
3 Haunter (Fossil)
2 Gengar
2 Mr. Mime

13 Trainers:

3 Bill
2 Oak
2 Computer Search
4 Energy Removal
2 Energy Retrieval

26 Energy:

13 Psychic Energy
13 Electric Energy

***

This deck is going to be very tight on energy. The way
we've fixed it, it looks like a lot of the strategy
will rely on Gengar's Curse power in some way. This
can mean using Zapdos to create lots of damage, then
swapping it around to get a few KOs, or perhaps
swapping enough damage onto the active for a quick
knockout with Mr. Mime. I ended up having to leave out
the Defenders and Potions I spoke of, but I'm sure you
can find the space for them if you really
want--dropping Energy Retrieval, for example, if you
find yourself drawing enough energy. It's probably
better just to send out Zapdos fully loaded, have him
wreak havoc, and then send out the little guys to mop
up what's left of the guy's bench...heh heh.