Lightning Wall(unofficial name)
Chris Brown
Comic Boxx
Cleburne, Tx


All examples listed count games at the comic boxx only unless otherwise
stated. This article is a bit long, but bear with me and read it all, or
read at least the tournament example section or the game play section to
get an idea of how the deck does. I think the game play section is the
better of the two. I'm also taking ideas for a deck name. Please submit
names to pikachu_8379@yahoo.com.  I might offer a prize for the person
who's name I choose, though I haven't decided. There is an underscore
between pikachu and 8379.

Lightning wall(Unofficial Name)
18 Lightning Energy
4 Double Colorless
4 Scoop up
3 Gust of Wind
2 Switches
3 Defender
1 Energy Flow
1 Nightly Garbage run
3 Energy removal
2 Super Energy Removal
2 Energy Retrieval
2 bills
2 professor oaks
4 Electabuzz
4 Base Zapdos
2 Scyther
2 Chansey
1 Lt Surge Pikachu

Decks current status: 45 wins:1 lose*game score* This score is based on
games played only at the Comic Boxx, I have won 4 tournaments, and
obtained 2nd in the prerelease tournament for gym heroes.

All my tournament and league point games have been played at the Comic
Boxx, a local game store. I've been in four tournaments plus the
prerelease gym heroes tournament. I've also played a few times on
Fridays, a day when you can just come in to play and earn points.

The most common decks I have played against are Raindance, Haymaker,
Turbo Wiggly, and even my Lightning wall deck, which I have seen three
other modified versions of.

Idea of how to play it.

The deck power lies mainly in it's ability to survive a long time. High
hitpoints basics and supporting trainers allow it to do so.  Scoop ups
are easy enough to understand and combined with energy flows, they are a
mean combo.  Defenders help to prevent Zapdos and Chansey from doing a
lot of damage to themselves.  Super energy removals and energy removals
help slow down your opponent to allow you to get the time to build up
Zapdos or even chansey. Gust of wind and switches, pretty easy to
understand. Bills and oak help speed the deck up a little and help to
ditch a hand if it's really really bad.hehe. Nightly run helps get back
extra energy or pokemon, but mainly it's a way to keep you from being
decked as easy. And energy retrievals are ways to get back energy ditch
for zapdos 100 damage attack.  Note: I hope to put in another energy
flow, just haven't figured out what to trade out.

As for the pokemon, it's simple. Get out Electabuzz, scyther, or even
Pikachu for some early damage. *I prefer electabuzz.* Scyther is in case
they have a lot of rock/fighting pokemon.  It's resistance to
fighting*lightnings weakness* and it's ability to do double damage to
most rock makes it a nice choice. Plus the colorless attack and free
retreat can't be beat.  Lt. Surge pikachu has a nice attack for 1
colorless called charge. Retrieve lightning energy from the discard and
attach to Pikachu. With this, you can build up and then use energy flow
to return the energy to your hand to continue to use. An ok combo, if
nothing else. It's second attack isn't to bad.  After getting one of
these guys out, a zapdos on the bench building up is a nice touch.
Chansey plays an interesting role.  While every creature*except the
current pikachu* has at least 70+ hp, chansey is the important stalling
pokemon for this deck. Scrunch and 1 retreat cost allow chansey to take
a beating or stay alive long enough to help you last a few more turns.
Plus, a well played scoop up allows chansey to heal and come back for
more.  Also, double edge is a mean attack. 80 to yourself? Not a
problem. Do the attack twice to take out two of theirs or do a scoop up
after one attack, or play all three defenders and you can do 3-80 damage
attacks*assuming you take no other damage*

Game Play against certain deck types

Haymaker-speed decks-While most haymaker decks themselves do not give my
deck trouble, when you start adding the speed element, I can sometimes
be hard pressed. Add in the opponent using energy removals, and it
becomes a game of luck and skill.  Usually if I'm having a bad draw and
they've been sending my energy to the discard pile, I go defensive and
try to just deck them.  It's work twice and almost worked against the
one guy who beat me, however, again, I made a small error.  If they
don't have the speed to back it up, Zapdos can take out most 60 hp
pokemon or even ditch for 100 to take out most of the common haymaker
pokemon. If needed, chansey can do an 80 attack to take them out also.
If faced with heavy hitmonchan and hitmonlee, Zapdos and scyther play an
important role here. Resistant to fighting and good attacks allow an
easy win. I actually decked a person by using gust of wind to return
their hitmonchan back out against my zapdos and using energy removals to
prevent them from getting energy to retreat, and they on my luck, had no
switches.

Raindance-Must I explain how this deck handles them? Water=weakness to
lightning and grass.hmm.lets just say all the ones I've come against
lasted only a few turns.

Turbo wiggly-One of the decks that gives us the most trouble. Well
played*especially by a friend of mine who has made the deck semi-popular
at the tournament* it can have a wiggly out pretty quick and have energy
removals out to prevent zapdos from getting to it's power. And sinse
most of the pokemon in my friends deck require nothing but colorless
energy, it can be to quick from my deck to stop. While I have decked him
often and beaten him a few times the other ways, I've learned to watch
my step vs him.  Honestly, other then his version, I've met only a few
others that have given me a threat, however, I've only lost to my friend
when we play at home.

Lightning Wall-Why I haven't made a real name, this deck seems to be
growing in popularity.  Counting my own, there are four people who play
this deck.  I have seen people modify it by adding Jolteons, Voltorbs,
and changing out the colorless pokemon to other things.  Why I have shut
all of them down the few times I've played them, it's mainly because
most of them have built decks to slow.  And decks with a lot of pokemon
with less then 60hp are asking for a loss.  Generally I'm able to play
against these decks normally, pulling my electabuzz, etc to stall while
my zapdos and chansey build up to get ready to start knocking out
pokemon.

Evolution decks-Simply put, to slow. Most evolution decks have low hp
basics, a problem vs my deck. Electabuzz can do 40 by turn 2, possibly
50, scyther can do 30*no grass, so I can't do 60*, chansey a possible
80*if you get 2 doubles*, and zapdos.well, forget zapdos by turn 2.;)
So most 40 and 50 hp pokemon can be knocked out by turn 2 or 3.  Why I
am not factoring in energy removals and the rare chance they evolve, as
a general rule, I see evolution decks being knocked out way to fast by
my deck.

Others-I can't account for every deck type, I've played a few others,
fire/water, earth/grass, etc.but most of the others are to slow to keep
up.  Aerodactyl and muk decks*shut down evolutions and pokemon powers,
note, not in the same deck* hehe.are useless. I have no evolutions and
no pokemon powers.
Well, for the most part, I've covered the bulk of it.  The deck isn't
easy to play, and you have to take it through a few runs to learn when
to play certain cards, however, the deck has not only worked great, it's
been fun to play.

Tournament Example

Just to give an example of a tournament, I will do the prerelease
tournament, as it was the only tournament that I have lost a game in.

1st game-Water deck.
While I don't remember all that was played, I do know she had played a
few squirtles, seals, poliwags, and articuno.  An easy win as I had a
scyther and electabuzz out really quick.  The double damage done by the
pokemon took out all but articuno, who wasn't able to get any energy due
to my energy removals.  I won by knocking out all her pokemon.

2nd game-Speed Haymaker
The one game I lost was even against my friend.  A pretty solid deck, it
used electabuzz, machops, hitmonchan, hitmonlees, kangeskhan, chansey,
and aerodactyls.  The game started out with both of of playing 2
electabuzzs.  My draws from there were bad, I drew almost no energy and
after a few turns, he had a few fighting pokemon out.  A few turns later
and my first electabuzz was gone and my other one had already taken 30
damage.  His electabuzz had only 1 energy and by my luck, I was able to
get a zapdos out and scoop up my electabuzz, keeping him from either
switching for a fighting pokemon or making the 40 flip.  From there, I
had to play defense mostly, using energy removals to pick off energy
carefully and using my one built up zapdos to take out pokemon where I
could. The game got down to him with 2 prizes and myself with 4.  I had
a chance to take out his kangeskhan with my zapdos attack, but decided
to see if I could take out two by gust of winding one of his other
pokemon up and doing the 60 attack first, then using the 100 on kang.
However, when his turn came up, I had missed my flip and my zapdos only
had 60 hp left, he got lucky and made 3 of his flips. From there, I was
doomed as I couldn't do much to try and take his kang out.  I played
defense, pulling switches, scoop ups, and retreats to keep my scythers
and chanseys that I had out alive, but I wasn't able to last long enough
to deck him, though I came within 5 turns of doing so.
Note: This friend won the tournament.

3rd game-Turbo Wiggly
This game was against my other friend. His first few draws came out
pretty badly, he was able to get two wigglytuffs out, however only
energy on one.  His bench was full by the third turn with 1 wiggly, 1
chansey, 1 scyther, and 2 grimers.  His active was a wiggly.  It seemed
like the game was in his favor, however, I drew a gust of wind and
pulled out his wiggly with no energy.  While knocking it out with my
electabuzz, using thundershock to help by time, I built up my zapdos.  A
few turns later I had played enough energy on Zapdos, so I knocked out
his first wiggly.  He moved out with his other and played another
scyther on his bench.  He did the wave for 60*I had already taken 10
from a missed punch flip* and knocked out my electabuzz.  I then moved
zapdos up and did the 100 attack.  From there, his draws were bad, I was
able to shut him down with energy removals and was able to quickly build
up zapdos again to start taking out his pokemon.  Though I won the game
by taken all 6 prizes, he admitted that he had nothing left he could do
and would have been decked.

4th game-Water deck
Another water deck. I laid a electabuzz on bench and Scyther to start.
He started with a squirtle and poliwag. I moved electabuzz up and turn
two, knocked out his squirtle. Turn three, poliwag fell to a lucky
flip.  Easy win.

5th game-haymaker
Another haymaker, while I had to play defensively to avoid having his
fighting get to high, he didn't have any energy removals or supers and I
was able to build up both zapdos and chansey and keep him on his toes.
While the game did take some time, I was able to start picking off
pokemon about 15 turns into the game and soon knocked out 6.

Sudden death games-I had to play 3 sudden death games to win 2nd place.
The first one was against a water/fire deck.  I was able to gust of wind
for a water pokemon and knock it out quickly with an electabuzz.  The
next game was a bit more of a worry.  I had 2 electabuzzs out, and he
had a articuno and a machop.  He quickly played a switch to move his
mahcop out and do 40.  My first instinct was to start building up my
bench pokemon, almost forgetting that it was sudden death. I played an
energy on my electabuzz and a defender. The I gust of winded for
articuno and thundershocked, but missed my flip. Next turn he played a
poliwag and moved machop forward doing another 40-20 for 20 damage,
bringing me to 60.  Next turn was the one that counted. I played a
defender and my second gust of wind for poliwag. Played an energy on
electabuzz and prayed. I got lucky and made my flip and took out
poliwag. The last game I played was against a guy who played brock's
onix and I played an electabuzz, He kept using bellow when he could to
buy time, and even used a potion once.  He didn't get enough energy in
time and only got off one attack for 20*I had played 2 defenders* and
then I punched for enough to knock his onyx out.

Chris Brown
E:mail me at pikachu_8379@yahoo.com with any suggestions or questions.
I'm always willing to help out or take new improvement ideas.  I'm
currently messing with the idea of putting gym cards in my deck, but
haven't seen what to remove out yet.