Hiya, folks! I'm back with another budget deck. I've used this fiery
deck against pretty much all comers in my Pokemon League, and have fared
surprisingly well. Like all Fire decks, it dislikes fighting against
Water, but the rest just get turned to ash.

There's no subtlety to this deck -- it just burns, burns, burns.

Rapid Fire

20 Fire Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy

3 Ponyta
2 Rapidash
3 Eevee
2 Flareon  *Rare*
3 Magmar (Fossil)
3 Lickitung

3 Gust of Wind
3 Switch
2 PlusPower
4 Bill
2 Professor Oak
4 Energy Removal
2 Full Heal

To create a more souped-up version of the deck, just replace the
PlusPowers with Computer Searches, and one of the Energy Removals with
an Item Finder. You can also add a Snorlax in place of one of the
Lickitungs. Just one -- you can't afford to have two in here because
you'll be burning energy on your Flareons. Short on Lickitungs or
Magmars? No problem, use Jigglypuff or Grimer instead.

So how does this deck play?
It's pretty simple. While you do have some guys that generate status
effects (Magmar and Lickitung), most of your oomph is in Flareon and
Rapidash. Use Magmar and Lickitung to hold off your opponent for a
couple turns while you get one of those two powered up, then move 'em in
front and blast away. Eevee can also hold 'em off for a while, but she's
not as tough as Magmar or Lickitung, so she's not the first choice.

Why Lickitung and Fossil Magmar? Why not Base Magmar?
Simply put, their attacks don't need much energy -- just one to get
going -- and don't require you to discard energy. Most Fire decks I've
played against have way too many guys that need to discard energy, and
thus fall easy prey to those nasty little Energy Removal decks. They're
also really big, weighing in at 90 and 70 HP, thus, they're good
early-game stallers. Base Magmar is smaller, and needs more energy, so
it's not really a good Pokemon to have as your first Active. I'm
completely confident in Lickitung and Fossil Magmar as the first Active.

I dunno ... Rapidash? Why not Ninetales?
Ninetales is cool, no question, but Ninetales is rare, and also requires
you to discard energy to do damage. It's also a pretty hefty attack cost
at four Fire. Besides that, Vulpix can't use a DCE to get juiced up
early on. Ponyta is a little stronger in that respect. I think for this
Fire deck, the Lure attack is not as useful as it could be, so
Rapidash's Stomp attack beats out Ninetales' Lure. I also like the
Agility attack -- a 50% chance of not being attacked back in return is
really nice. The 0 retreat cost on Rapidash is great too.

Full Heal -- why?
Well, this deck is kinda vulnerable to status effect attacks. (I often
use a Snorlax in this deck just to deal with my opponents' Koffings.
*wry grin*) Very few decks I've built have needed Full Heals in them,
but this one seems to want them, particularly for Flareon, who is your
heaviest hitter. Also, because Eevee and Ponyta are small, Poison and
Confusion hurt them a lot. If you don't play against people who use
status effects, don't bother with Full Heal -- change them out for
PlusPowers or something else you find more effective.

Flareon? Why not Charmeleon? It's uncommon ...
Well, because honestly, Eevee's resistant to Psychic, and Charmander
isn't. (: It's not quite that simple, but it's close. Using Eevee and
Flareon instead of Charmander and Charmeleon helps spread the weaknesses
of your deck out, too. If you run up against a Psychic player, there
isn't much they can do about Eevee, and Eevee's not weak against Water
like Charmander is.

Please feel free to copy, alter, and try this deck out! (: It's not
subtle at all, and it can be pretty vicious when you get an early
Flareon going. (: It's strong, and I've enjoyed playing it very much. If
you have any questions or comments, or wanna talk with me about budget
decks, I'd love to hear from you. You can reach me at lopaskar@san.rr.com.

==Leanne

(PS: A nice guy using AOL contacted me about my Psychic Blast deck. I
tried to email you back, but it bounced repeatedly. Sorry! Let your
sister know that that Psychic Blast deck is pretty strong and worth
trying ... it's a 75-85% winner for me.)

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Leanne Opaskar                  lopaskar@san.rr.com