Poison Oak
Toys R Us League
Waterloo, Iowa
July 22, 2000
This deck was used to replace the old Rain Dance, Haymaker, Potpourri, and
Sponge decks. Sometimes they are good, but there's one thing bad about them,
they get boring. That's why many people at the pokemon league I go to don't
use them anymore. If case your wondering I am Matthew Kauten I am 14 and I go
to the Toys R Us Pokemon League in Waterloo, Iowa. I first used this deck
July 22, 2000. This deck is called Poison Oak. I tried making it with the
fewest rare cards possible. There are 6 rare cards. This deck mostly uses the
three dark poison pokemon given to us in the Team Rocket Set to trick out the
other player. Its all just knowing how to use poison pokemon. You have to
know when to attack and when not to so that your opponent's pokemon faints
from poison at the end of his turn so you can have the advantage. Read below
to find out what every card's purpose is in the deck.
Pokemon:
4 Koffing (Base)
3 Dark Weezing
4 Grimer (Fossil)
3 Dark Muk
4 Ekans (Fossil)
3 Dark Arbok
2 Scyther
Trainers:
4 The Boss's Way
3 Professor Oak
3 Impostor Oak's Revenge
2 Plus Power
Energy:
25 Grass Energy

Dark Muk
Dark Muk is one of the best starters in this deck. Many times you will start
out with Grimer and Dark Muk or The Boss's Way. First you need to send out
Grimer first and attach an energy, then do Nasty Goo attack if your lucky it
will be heads and you won't get any damage on your opponent's turn. If you
don't want to risk it you can do minimize which can block 20 damage and
usually in the beginning of the game your opponent can't do much more damage
then that anyways. Then when it is your turn again you can evolve into Dark
Muk and attach an energy to him and do Sludge Punch. Your opponent will be
surprised. It is also good that your opponent can't retreat because Dark
Muk's Pokemon Power adds 2 Energy your opponent's pokemon.
Dark Weezing
Dark Weezing may not sound as good as your think he is. His Mass Explosion
isn't so good unless it is an Emergency. But his Stun Gas attack is really
good. It does 20 Damage and you flip a coin if heads the defending pokemon is
now poisoned, if tails he is now paralyzed. So your opponent can expect
something bad either way. He may have low HP for a rare Stage 1 pokemon, but
his ability makes up for it.
Dark Arbok
Like Dark Weezing, Dark Arbok has only one attack which is really useful. His
Stare attack really isn't that good, but it can become handy depending on
what your opponent's deck is made of. His Stare attack allows you to do 10
damage to one of your opponent's pokemon and if that pokemon has a pokemon
power it stops until the end of your opponent's next turn. Which could become
useful. Then his other attack does 10 Damage to your opponent's active
pokemon, poisons them, and does 10 Damage to each of your opponents bench
pokemon. That is the main purpose for using Dark Arbok. Dark Arbok may again
have low HP, but his ability makes up for it.
Grimer
Now that you have heard about the big Stage 1 cards your probably wondering
how well the basic pokemon holds up. Your also probably wondering why I
choose Fossil Set Grimer in stead of Rocket Set Grimer. Well first off,
Fossil set Grimer has more HP then Rocket set Grimer. He also has a better
stalling ability with his Nasty Goo and Minimize attacks.
Koffing
Well I think Koffing is a pretty good basic pokemon. Its not one of the best
starters though. His one attack Foul Gas does 10 Damage and you flip a coin
if heads the defending pokemon is now poisoned, if tails he is now confused.
So again like Dark Weezing's Stun Gas Attack your opponent can expect a bad
effect either way.
Ekans
Well Fossil set Ekans may not be the best card, but I think he is much better
then Rocket Ekans. His Spit Poison attack does no damage, but you flip a coin
if heads the defending pokemon is now poisoned. His other attack called Wrap
does 20 Damage and gives you a chance to Paralyze the defending pokemon.
Scyther
I know Scyther isn't a Poison pokemon, but I needed someone to fill the spot
to add more Basic Pokemon in my deck. Usually you won't use Scyther when you
play, but sometimes you need him. Sometimes in the beginning you can use him
as a stall, but you can also attack with him. First attach one energy and do
Swords Dance so trick your opponent into thinking you may have a Double
Colorless energy. Then keep doing Swords Dance until you have enough energy
to do Slash. Your slash attack will now do 60 Damage. So that can be good. He
has no Retreat Cost so that can become really handy.
The Boss's Way
Well I think we have heard enough about the pokemon in this deck. Now lets
look at the Trainers. I know that this deck has little trainers, but it
really doesn't really need that many. We probably now what this card does and
why its needed, but I tell you anyways. The Boss's Way allows you to search
your deck for an evolution card with dark in its name. So you can search for
either Dark Arbok, Dark Muk, or Dark Weezing in this deck. One problem is
that you must show the card to your opponent, so it may be a little hard to
surprise them.
Impostor Oak's Revenge
Many of you are probably thinking that im Crazy putting this card in this the
deck, but it is actually really useful. First off sometime in the beginning
of the game people will tell you they got a good hand or a bad one. So you
know whether or not to use the card. It is also good that they only draw 4
cards instead of 7. The downside of it is that you have to discard one of
your cards too.
Plus Power
Plus Power is used in this deck to get poison to do the thing you want.
Example: Say your opponent has a Charmander (Base) and you have a Dark Muk
out. Well if you do Sludge Punch, then charmander will not be knocked out at
the end of your opponent's turn, so you would want to use Plus Power so that
charmander is knocked out at the end of your opponents turn and force him to
send someone else out after he attacks. (Plus Power adds 10 damage to your
attack.
Professor Oak
Well almost all good decks need some Prof. Oaks in them. You discard your
hand in order to draw 7 cards. Which can be useful when you have used up all
the good cards in your hand.
Battles
Well thats basically everything you need to know about my deck. There's just
a one more thing you need to know. If you change this deck it won't do as
good as it should because every card is perfectly planned out right. The
first time I used this deck I lost only 1 time out of about 14 battles at the
Pokemon League in Waterloo that gave me about 280 points counting the
activity points and everything.
Well now its time to tell you about the battles.
First Battle
This battle was against a person at the pokemon league was has the stupidest
decks. His decks usually have only 8 basic pokemon in them. The deck he used
against me had a deck that has only Scyther, Magikarp and Gyarados as
pokemon. I started out with Grimer, Koffing, Dark Arbok, Impostor Oak's
Revenge, and three grass energy. Well it wasn't the best hand ever. I was
hoping to have dark muk so I could easily knock out his Magikarp. But I
didn't, so I deicited to send out grimer and put koffing for a bench. I went
first. He had 2 Magikarp on the bench and had scyther for an active (I think
he cheated because how to he have 3 basic pokemon if you has only 8 in his
deck). I was thinking that he was going to use Scyther as a stall while he
charged up Magikarps and then evolve into Gyarados. I attached an energy and
did Nasty Goo. It was tails. Then he did Energy Removal and surprisingly
attached an energy on to scyther. Then he did Swords Dance. Well I though
maybe he had a double colorless energy. Well then I drew a card and got an
energy. I attached another energy on to Grimer and did Nasty Goo, again it
was tails. Then he attached another energy and did swords dance. Now I knew I
needed to Paralyze him or I would be knocked out. I drew a card it was Dark
Weezing. So i attached an energy onto Koffing and then had grimer do nasty
goo, finally heads. Well he attached another energy onto Scyther and used
Recycle, it was tails. My turn I drew a card and got Prof. Oak. Well then I
attached an energy onto Koffing and used Prof. Oak. I got Impostor Oak's
Revenge, Dark Arbok, Ekans, The Boss's Way and 3 grass energy. Well I used
Nasty Goo, it was tails. Then he attached an energy to Magikarp and had
Scyther do Slash (it didn't do 60 damage because he was unable to to swords
dance last turn). Well then it was my turn I got another grass energy when I
drew a card. So I deitied to attach an energy to Grimer and use The Boss's
Way. I found a Dark Muk and evolved grimer and did Sludge Punch. He was
knocked out. Well then he attached another energy to Magikarp and sent out
the Magikarp without energy and did nothing. Well i drew another Prof. Oak,
but deicited not to use it. I attached an energy to Dark Weezing and then did
sludge punch with Dark Muk. Again he was knocked out. Then he sent out his
last basic pokemon Magikarp and did flop. Well then I just knocked him out
with sludge punch. I won. Well I really didn't do as good as I should have
this time, but its just because I didn't get the best hand.
Secont Battle
Well this battle was against someone who usually has a good deck, but didn't
today. He had some dumb deck that ditto in it. Im not sure what else you'll
find out why in a sec. I started out with a pretty good hand. I had Grimer,
Dark Muk, Boss's Way, Pluspower, Prof. Oak, and 2 Grass Energy. Again I went
first. He had only one basic pokemon out and that was a ditto. I used Nasty
Goo. Heads! Then he attached an did nothing. I attached an energy and evolved
into Dark Muk. I attached a Plus Power and did Sludge Punch. Then he attached
an energy and got knocked out at the end of his turn. He had no other basic
pokemon so I Won. Well this time I got a good hand and was able to easily
knock him out and win. That pluspower really came in handy. It also made it a
quick battle to.
Third Battle
Now I got to the hard part it was the person I really needed to beat. In fact
it is almost the full reason why I made his deck. He has a Sponge deck. Well
we started. I got Ekans, Koffing, Dark Arbok, Prof. Oak, and 3 grass energy.
He goes first. He had Electabuzz out for active and had a Promo Movie Mewtwo
for bench. I sent out koffing and had ekans for a bench.  He used
thundershock. Heads.. Well I drew and energy and attached one onto Ekans. I
did nothing. He attached a energy and did thunderpunch tails. I attached an
energy onto ekans and did nothing. He attached an energy onto mewtwo and did
Team Rocket Sneak Attack. He got ride of Prof. Oak. Then he did thundershock
and knocked out Koffing. The I sent out ekans and drew a card. Impostor Oaks
Revenge. I attached an energy onto ekans and evolved him into Dark Arbok. I
used Impostor Oaks Revenge. Hahahahaha he had a superenergy removal (see why
I say every card is needed in this deck). Then I used poison vapor, it did 10
damage to hin and he was poison so 10 more for the end of my turn plus it did
10 damage to mewtwo. He attached an energy to electabuzz and used Thunder
punch, tails. I drew a card and got Prof. Oak. So I used it. I got Scyther
and a lot of other cards, I attached an energy to scyther and used Poison
vapor, Electabuzz is knocked out and Mewtwo is down to 50. He sends out
Mewtwo and knocks me out. I send out scyther and attach an energy and use
swords dance. He does 40 damage to me and I use Slash to knock him out. I
WON!!!!!!!!!!!. Well this time it was close, but I won.
Fourth battle
Well he wanted a rematch so I battled him again. I'll tell you right now that
this is the one loss I got that day. I got a Koffing, 2 Dark Muks, Pluspower,
3 grass energy. I sent out koffing and he sent out ditto. He went first he
attached a double dolorless energy and attacked. He poisoned me. Im down to
30. I draw a card and get an energy. I attach it to Koffing and do nothing.
This time he uses plus power and knocks me out. I lost. Well that was my one
loss I had that day. I could stay hear and write all day, but I think that I
have written enough for you to know how to use this deck.

Please email me about what you think about this deck. <A
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