Hi, it's Adam again. Today, I am going to write about beginning players'
decks, and how to upgrade them to better decks.
Someone who was a beginning player of Pokemon cards who I know had a deck
which was something like this:

1 Charizard
2 Charmeleon
2 Charmander

1 Arcanine
2 Growlithe

2 Magmar (base)

1 Venusaur
2 Ivysaur
3 Bulbasaur

1 Nidoking
2 Nidorino
2 Nidoran M

1 Nidoqueen
2 Nidorina
2 Nidoran F

1 Dragonair
2 Dratini

1 Potion
1 Lass
2 Gust of Wind
1 Switch

10 fire energy
16 grass energy

As you can all see, this is an example of a bad deck. If you have a deck
which has this many evolution families and so few trainers, change it! This
is what I would change this deck to.

2 Venusaur
3 Ivysaur
4 Bulbasaur

2 Nidoking
3 Nidorino
4 Nidoran M

2 Koffing

2 Computer Search
2 Pokemon Breeder
2 Item Finder
2 Prof. Oak
2 Nightly garbage run
4 Bill
3 Gust of wind
3 Energy Removal

20 Grass Energy

You see, this deck is an example of a good deck. Many beginning players
simply do not have the skill to build a good deck. Beginning players usually
take their favourite Pokemon(s) and build a deck around it. This is fine,
but often they take too many evolution lines into a deck, so that the deck
is hard to play with. They also tend to use less trainer cards than
experienced players, and cannot determine whether a card is good or bad.

So beginning players, listen to these guidelines:

No more than three evolution lines in a deck
No more than two different types of Stage 2 cards in a deck
Use AT LEAST 12 trainers
Think of a good strategy that will work
Have no single cards in the deck unless you only have one of that card
And MOST IMPORTANTLY, do not, I repeat DO NOT USE A WIZARDS OF THE COAST
PRE-BUILT THEME DECK!!!

Why, you ask, should you not use a Wizards of the Coast preconstructed theme
deck? Because they use rubbish cards! Let's take for example the 'Bodyguard'
fossil theme deck. It recommends Muk and Ditto in the same deck! Muk's power
cancels out Ditto's power, so Ditto is virtually useless! IT JUST SHOWS HOW
IGNORANT WIZARDS OF THE COAST REALLY ARE.

When you are playing against a half-decent deck (a Rain dance, haymaker,
damage swap, aeromew, turbo tuff, turbo arcanine...) your preconstructed
theme deck will be bad.

I totally agree with anyone who says that wizards of the coast are rip off
merchants. Beginning players sometimes can't afford cards, so they buy
booster packs and get Imposter Prof.Oak, Kakuna, Magikarp, Haunter, Gastly,
Onix, Starmie, Metapod, Caterpie, 1 fighting energy and 1 fire energy.

I bet nobody wants that lot in a booster pack, and you don't know what
you're getting in a booster pack...but you do know you're gambling money.

E-mail me:
hoodadam@hotmail.com

Adam