Greetings! This is my first attempt at a submission to the PoJo, and I haven't had the chance to read the entire site article-by-article, so I hope I'm not repeating something that already exists elsewhere. I'm here to talk about Beatdown Efficiency. You know, how to deal the most bang for your buck with as little wasted time, energy, and cards as possible. There are three major factors to Beatdown Efficiency: Attack Efficiency, Progression Efficiency, and Card Efficiency. Attack Efficiency is that which everyone is already familiar with: Dealing the most possible damage (and/or effect) for your energy cost. Hitmonchan, Seaking, and Gyarados are highly efficient Pokimon in their own right, because each has at least one attack which is the pinnacle of efficiency. For 1 Energy, you should be able to deal:  20 damage (Hitmonchan, Rattata)  10 damage + a 50% status change (Abra, Caterpie)  A 100% status change (Jigglypuff) For 2 Energy, you should be able to deal:  30 damage (Magmar, Diglett)  20 damage + a 50% status change (Kakuna, Metapod)  10 damage + a 50% of two status changes (Koffing, Butterfree)  10 damage + a 100% status change (theoretically; no such Pokimon currently exists) For 3 Energy, you should be able to deal:  50 damage (Kadabra, Dewgong)  30 damage + 50% status change (Alakazam, Magneton)  20 damage + 100% status change (Ivysaur, Nidoking, Tangela) Finally, for 4 Energy, you should be able to deal:  60 damage (Venusaur)  40 damage + 50% status change (Gyarados) ( Beedrill is exceptional in that her 3-energy Poison Sting attack deals 40 with a 50% chance of poisoning. ) Progression Efficency Progression Efficency is a concept that, as far as I know, is basically unknown. But it's a beatdown deck's main weapon against Energy Removal. Basically, Progression Efficency means having as little time as possible spent with energy lying unused on a Pokimon. Any time spent with unused energy on your Pokimon is time during which an opponent can Energy Removal that spare energy and ensure that you get absolutely nothing for it. By making sure that you can use each and every energy you place the turn it comes down (assuming you are Gusted, or your active Pokimon is Koed), you ensure that you get the most efficient use of your energy, and leave your opponent with less time to make your just-played energy a total loss. To put it simply, a Pokimon (or evolution chain) whose attacks progress in a single-step manner (i.e. first a 1-energy attack, then a 2-energy, then a 3, then a 4) as opposed to having gaps in that progression (i.e. first a 1-energy attack, then a 4-energy attack), has Progression Efficency. Here's a partial list of some Progression-Efficent Pokimon (and the evolution chains until they become inefficent.):  Venonat  Venomoth  Oddish  Gloom  Vileplume  Pikachu (basic)  Raichu  Bellsprout  Weepinbell  Victreebell  Voltorb  Electrode (Jungle)  Magnemite  Magneton  Goldeen  Seaking  Charmander  Charmeleon  Charizard  Diglett  Dugtrio  Mankey  Primape Some very Progression Inefficient Pokimon include:  Kangaskhan  Scyther (We all know he rules, but he sure ain't Progression Efficent!)  Magikarp  Gyarados Very few Pokimon evolution chains fall into both the Attack Efficient and Progression Efficient areas. Though they may not be the 'best' Pokimon in terms of what the masses like and what gets played most often, they are simply solid beatdown machines. The most prominent one is Weedle  Kakuna  Beedrill. All three have attacks that deal the most damage that you can get for their cost and still have a 50% chance of poisoning, and their attack costs raise by one energy each stage (Weedle's takes G, Kakuna's takes GG, and Beedrill's takes GGG). In my opinion, a good mixture of Attack and Progression efficiency is the backbone of a beatdown deck. Not all Pokimon have to be both (and few are), but a good mixture of both should be apparent. Finally, we have card efficiency. This is the simple idea that every card should be exactly what you need, and nothing beyond that. Part of this is being able to draw and/or get the cards you need: every beatdown deck (and, IMHO, nearly every deck period) should have 2-3 Oaks, 1 Pokimon Trader for every 2 non-Basic Pokimon in the deck (which means that you should limit yourself to 8 evolutions, and have mostly strong basics), and 4 Bills. Also, the amount of times a card appears in your decklist should be directly related to how much you need the card: Firstly, how many other cards depend on it's presence in-game, and secondly, how strong is the card itself. A strong card should appear more often than a weaker card, and a vital card should appear more often than a non-vital card. Here is a sample deck based on a combination of all of these principles. It dosen't look like much at first glance, but it plays much more strongly than it looks to. 3x Weedle  2x Kakuna  1x Beedrill 3x Bellsprout  2x Weepinbell 3x Scyther 4x Staryu  1x Starmie 3x Goldeen  2x Seaking 4x Bill 4x Pokimon Trader 2x Professor Oak 2x Gust of Wind 14x Grass Energy 10x Water Energy Here's the logic: Weedle/Kakuna/Beedrill -- As I said, this a strong family of evolutions. Their ability to poison is very valuable, and they progress from stage to stage perfectly. In addition, each stage above Weedle has attacks accessable through colorless energy, so they fit well into a dual-colored deck. Normally, because this family is so strong, I would have 4-3-2 of them, but in this case, I elected to replace one of each stage with a Scyther, because this deck was lacking in powerful starters (and because he complemented a small sub-theme of this deck, the low retreat-cost creatures). Bellsprout  Weepinbell -- While Bellsprout isn't the greatest starter, Weepinbell is powerful enough to make up for his lack. With a perfect progression (12) and perfectly efficient attacks (10+50% poison  30 dmg), not to mention decent HP and a low retreat cost, Weepinbell is a strong beatdown card. Scyther -- as I said above, Scyther is the strong starter that this deck was lacking in it's original form. In addition, his colorless attack goes well in a dual-color deck, and his resistance to fighting makes him all the more valuable. Staryu  Starmie -- Staryu is a very decent starter, with the most efficient damage-dealing attack in the game, half-decent HP, and a low retreat cost. Starmie, while not Progression efficient, has a powerful attack (20+50% paralyze) that has a mostly colorless energy cost (just right for a dual-color deck) As well, his low retreat cost goes right along with the deck's subtheme. Goldeen  Seaking -- these oft-maligned beauties are quite significant in this deck. Goldeen, while having horrible Attack efficiency, has 40 HP and a zero retreat cost, making her a decent backup starter. Seaking is a decent beating: his Waterfall attack is at maximum efficiency (and has a part-colorless Energy cost), he has 70 HP, and a retreat cost of 1. 4x Bill, 2x Oak -- these are simply necessary in any deck that, like this one, can empty it's hand so quickly. 4x Pokimon Trader -- with 8 evolutions in the deck, it is vital to have Traders around to get out the stronger forms that much more quickly (particularly for Bellsprout and Goldeen!). 2x Gust of Wind -- this is simply standard fare for a beatdown deck; I wish I had room for more. 14 Grass Energy/10 Water Energy  the decision here was simple. None of my Water Pokimon requre more than 1 water to use at any point (except Starmie's Recover, but I don't plan on that as a major part of this deck's game plan). My Grass Pokimon, on the other hand, while they have colorless attacks, require Grass energy to be at their fullest potential. I like to play with plenty of energy, to ensure that I can use my most powerful attacks as soon as possible and that I can recover from Energy Removal as quickly as possible. Perhaps I would remove one of each energy and put in two more Gusts of Wind if the players around here didn't like Dragonair so much ;-) Anyway, thanks for persevering through all of that. I hope that, if nothing else, I got you to thinking. Michael Danielson ("Essence") --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Share what you know. Learn what you don't.