In the game of pokemon, there are seven different colors that you can choose from to create decks with: FIRE, WATER, GRASS, ELECTRIC, PSYCHIC, FIGHTING, AND COLORLESS. They all have their own strengths and weaknesses, ups and downs. Let me explain.

        1. FIGHTING:  Fighting is one of my two favorite colors? Why? Because they are so fast! Look at the fighting basics- Hitmonchan, Machop, Diglett- they all do alot of damage. Diglett is a little shabby on HP, but otherwise they have alot of HP and do alot of damage for a little energy, so they easily destroy those slow fire decks that do damage for 3 or 4 energies. Fighting also has some of the best evolved forms, like Dugtrio and Machamp. They work great with colorless pokemon, since colorless has the most in common with fighting. It is simply a great color to use.

     2. FIRE: Fire is considered really good, because of that 100 Damage dealing Charizard. Of course, he requires 4 energies to do it- not to mention discarding 2, making him a 1-2 pokemon killer at best. And it takes alot of time to get one out without a god draw. Every Fire pokemon that is evolved has a move that discards energies- so you have to waste space in your deck with energies and energy retrievals to power those guys. Fire is a bit shabby for now.

    3. GRASS: Grass is sort of neglected. They're one of the best colors in the game, up there with fighting. Venusaur, Nidoking, and Beedrill easily hold their own in the fray. Koffing, Tangela, and Metapod do their dirty work as well. Grass needs some energy, but they are a great color which deals alot of damage, and can ruin the status of opposing pokemon.

   4. Electric: Electric sucks. Yea, I said it. They suck. Besides Voltorb, every one of them has a 50% chance of committing suicide, or a definite chance, if they wanna do any real damage. Geez, what a bunch of losers. Zapdos is lame, either does 30 to himself or discards 4 energies. Raichu is the only guy worth anything with agility, but if Raichu wants to lay the smack down, he's gotta risk his own self. Electric is lame for the time being.

    5. PYSCHIC: Psychic is pretty good, I guess. They're sorta like fire, with good moves that do good damage. But, they just don't cut it. They don't have enough HP, or enough good pokemon. Abra is lame, so getting out Kadabra or Alakazam could be tough. Haunter has a 25% chance of doing damage, while Ghastly has a 12.5% chance. Jynx is great, of course. Mewtwo... well, he doesn't live up to his expectations of what he's like in the game boy game. He does good damage against big punks like Charizard and Blastoise, but then he dies immediately with his low HP level.

   6. COLORLESS: Colorless is good- they sort of aren't a color, more of a compliment to decks. Chansey, Clefairy, Dragonair, Farfetch'd, Pidgeotto- all great pokemon. However they take up space, and need double colorless energies. Sometimes these colorless guys can create problems. I don't use any of them except Dragonair and Farfetch'd, because Clefairy is like a squirtle, and Chansey is like a bomb. Pidgeotto dies trying to mirror move anything decent, like Fire Spin or Seismic Toss or Solar Beam or an upgraded Blatoise's Hydro Pump. Colorless is good, but I put them with Psychic and Fire.

  7. WATER: The MAC-DADDY of em all. WATER baby! Who can stop Blastoise, Garydos, Dewgong, and Poliwrath? Those guys do too much damage with no takebacks! They have tons of HP, and Blastoise powers them up like nobody's business. Staryu and Starmie are sort of the outcasts of the group, but who cares? The rest make up for those losers. Water is the best.


   So: 1. WATER 2. FIGHTING 3. FIRE-PYSCHIC-GRASS-COLORLESS 4. ELECTRIC

 That about wraps it up. Try pure of each of these decks, you'll see what I'm talking about in this article!

E. Judd

The PokeMaster