The Electric Surprise.
 
This is a deck that I thought up after realizing that
I had never managed to create any sort of Lightning
Deck.  Mostly because I had never really found an
electric Pokemon that had it all, that is, until Gym
Heroes came out.  And I built this deck around Lt.
Surge's Electabuzz Lv. 28
 
The specs:
 
4 Lt. Surge's Electabuzz Lv. 28
4 Scyther
4 Porygon (Rocket)
4 Chansey
4 Zapdos (Base)

20 Lightning Energy
 
4 Energy Flow
4 Pokemon Center
4 Switch
4 No Removal Gym
4 Double Colourless Energy
 
Strategy:
 
Like I said in the introduction, Surge's Electabuzz is
the foundation of this deck because when they made
this card, I think they REALLY messed up.  Lt. Surge's
Electabuzz has three things which make it a great
attack Pokemon.  One, it's basic and it has enough HP
to survive as the Active Pokemon for multiple turns.
 
Two, it's first attack enables you to get cards out of
your discard pile without using an energy retrieval.
 
Three, it's second attack is almost as good as Dark
Charizard's Continuous Fireball and it's a BASIC
Pokemon.  I can't stress this enough.  Dark Charizard
(like most Stage 2 pokemon) can take forever to get
into play and when you get to a certain level of play,
you don't have a lot of time to get the big time stage
2 guys into the game (without Pokemon Breeder).
Surge's Electabuzz is immediately playable and is
fully capable of doing 240 damage one round after you
put it into play.  But I'll get to how THAT is
possible in a minute.

Like most of my decks, this one has benefitted greatly
from the additions of Energy Flow and No Removal Gym
to the pokemon card game universe.  I'll briefly
explain how:

The combination of Energy Flow with Pokemon Center is
so natural that it's a wonder most decks aren't
currently integrating it.  As you may or may not know,
Energy Flow allows you to move any number energy cards
off of any of your pokemon.  So when you play a
pokemon center, nothing gets discarded.  It's like
being able to start the match over, except you have a
bench (hopefully) and you have a hand full of energy.
And if you did it right, you'll still be able to
attach an energy that turn.
 
No Removal Gym is another great component in this
deck. By forcing your opponent to discard 2 cards for
every energy removal or super energy removal, you
definitely give them something to consider.  And
because of the sheer number of Stadium cards out
there, having four makes it easy to make sure the
Stadium in play is always the one *you* want.

The basic pokemon strategy of this deck involves a
combination of attacks from two of the five pokemon
in it.  Because they're all basic pokemon (and usually
have fairly high HP) it's easy to get all of them into
play at any given point.
 
One of the first things you'll want to do is put out
Chansey.  Chansey is still the ultimate stall card,
which allows you to concentrate on your bench, which
in a perfect scenario will have a Zapdos, a Surge's
Electabuzz and a Porygon on it.  If you don't have
Chansey, you can use Scyther as an alternative, but
don't bother attaching a whole bunch of energy to
either of them because they're not your attack pokemon
(this ain't no Haymaker deck) and both have low
retreat costs (Chansey 1, Scyther 0).

Once you have 1 energy on Porygon, 3 on Zapdos and
1 on Electabuzz, retreat Chansey (you may have to use
a Pokemon center on Chansey beforehand, but it's worth
it at this point).  Remember...you are discarding an
energy to retreat Chansey, don't use Energy Flow just
yet.  Bring out Porygon and use Conversion I to change
your opponent's weakness to Lightning.  If your
opponent knocks out Porygon on his next turn, then
it's time to bring out Surge's Electabuzz as your
active Pokemon.  Attach an electric energy to Zapdos
(bringing it to four) and use Surge's Electabuzz's
first attack to take the two energy cards that were
discarded by the retreating of Chansey and the
knocking out of Porygon and attach them to Surge's
Electabuzz.  Unless your opponent has a massively
charged up Pokemon on his/her bench or in play,
there's no way Surge's Electabuzz will be knocked out
next turn.  If your opponent retreats the active
pokemon that you converted to be weak against
Lightning, you still have a chance of doing 120 damage
to whoever comes out to replace it (or at the very
least, 90 if they're resistant).  Whether your
opponent retreats or not, attach a fourth energy to
Lt. Surge's Electabuzz and nail them with its
secondary attack, Discharge.  Because you have four
energy cards attached by this point, you can flip
four coins.  If they didn't retreat and you get four
heads, you do 240 damage.  Three heads, 180 damage.  2
heads, 120 damage.  Even ONE head, 60 damage.
Starting to see why No Removal Gym is one of the best
things
about this deck yet?
 
After using Discharge, it's time to get the heck out
of there.  If your opponent takes down Surge's
Electabuzz in the next turn, don't even worry.  You
have a fully charged Zapdos on your bench capable of
firing out 100 damage as soon as it's put into play.
 
If Electabuzz remains in play, use a switch to bring
out Zapdos.  You can choose between Thunder and
Thunderbolt.  Thunderbolt is way more powerful, but
requires the discarding of all four energies to use
it.  I would use Thunder, which does 60 damage,
doesn't require any discards and only lowers your HP
30 if you flip tails.  You'll need those energy cards
to retreat Zapdos.  Next turn retreat Zapdos, and
bring Surge's Electabuzz back out.  Use Energy Flow,
returning Zapdos' two remaining energy to your hand
and then play Pokemon Center.  Zapdos and Surge's
Electabuzz are now fully healed. 
 
Attach an energy to Zapdos and use Surge's Electabuzz'
first attack to put Zapdos' discarded energy onto
Surge's Electabuzz.  After your opponent's next turn
is a good time to bring another Chansey or Scyther
back out using switch.  If you don't have a switch you
can still retreat Surge's Electabuzz because of your
previous attack.  And once Chansey or Scyther is out,
begin the same strategy all over again.  The most
beautiful thing about this deck is that even if they
see it coming, they still can't do a thing about it.
 
Now, personally, I have yet to find fault with this
deck design, but I know there are people out there
who can and will.  So give Electric Surprise a
playtest
or four and let me know how it works for you.  You can
email me your success stories at: nbarnold@yahoo.com
 
Charbro


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