Hi all Pojoheads reading this. If you read Pojo's TCG Strategies as avidly
as I do, you have seen that nearly everyone in the Pokémon world absolutely
hates the Zap! theme deck. Well, I'm here in its defense.

To me, Zap! is simply the best theme deck. OK, it has a few problems, but I
still say its the best. I'll point out common complaints about it and tell
you the way to look at them and see the true power of Zap!

Complaint: It uses base set Gastly and Haunter!
Answer: So? It was made BEFORE Fossil! Besides, they aren't as bad as all
that you say! Gastly: OK, Sleeping gas is pathetic. But Destiny Bond is one
of the best stallers there is, taking really high odds or incredible
strategy to get around. Everyone says "Oh, who's gonna attack while Destiny
Bond is on?" No one! That's what makes it such a great staller! And if they
send out some weak or heavily damaged sacrifice to kill it, well, you get a
prize too and eliminated a potential threat, like it evolving or getting
healed. And for Haunter: guaranteed sleep isn't too bad. While, for example,
the new Haunter is much better, he ain't BAD. If you still have a problem,
just take out the old and put in the new. Or just add a Gengar or 2.

C: Oh, and I HATE the Pika and Magnemite!
A: Again, it was made BEFORE FOSSIL AND JUNGLE! Pikachu: 30 damage for 2
energy isn't bad for a basic common. And Magnemite, well, as it was before F
& J, they had to put in more Electric than just Pikachu. They would lose
tons of $$$ if they used rares. Would you rather they used Voltorbs?

C: Oh Gawd, the Trainers are AWFUL! They only have 1 Oak and 2 Switches!
A: IT'S A STINKING THEME DECK!!! The TCG wouldn't be fun anymore if you
could just go out and buy a deck worthy of winning a tourney for 10-12
bucks! It's fun because you can IMPROVE ON THINGS AND BUILD YOUR OWN DECK.
Besides, they have a CPU Search, the best of them all. You want a perfect
deck? Go win the lotto and buy a thousand boosters. I'm just saying Zap! is
good FOR A THEME DECK. Besides, almost (repeat: ALMOST) any deck can be good
if you have a good enough player using it.


Now off the complaints subject and I'll just describe other reasons Zap! is
the best of the Theme Decks.

1) They use Psy & Elec, the single best combo. Why? Well, Psy can annihilate
almost anything except for resistant Colorless. However, it is almost
impossible to play a good TOTAL Psychic-resitant deck because of the
horrible Weakness to the strong, all-too-common Fighting. So, you have to
add either a color, which Psy can just rip through again, or add Flying
Colorless, which are NOT RESISTANT TO PSYCHIC AND ARE WEAK TO YOUR
ELECTRIC!!!

2) They have decent card ratios.  They have more than the 2-1 which almost
ALWAYS dies, and they don't have too many singles.

3) The trainers are the best of any Theme Deck. I think it's the only PTD
with any kind of card advantage beyond 1-2 Bills, and it has Switches and
GoW to round it out. I mean, look at Brushfire. 1 of just about every
non-rare Trainer. ER, Switch, GoW, Bill, and much more... just ONE will not
help you! And best of all, Zap! has CPU Search, the "wild card" of PKMN to
round out the unfortunate singles it DOES have.

4) It has a decent "theme" and sticks to it. OK, let's compare it to
Blackout now, which is not just me preying on a pathetic theme deck.
Blackout is shown to be the public's favorite Theme Deck and is actually not
bad. But lets dissect it a bit. Energy Denial, a decent theme. However, it
only has 5 CARDS TO SUPPORT IT! the 4 ERs and the SER, that's it. No
Dragonair, a better SER, and no Poliwrath, easily taking place of
Hitmonchan. 90% of the cards are just support in hopes that you get on of
those 5, a 1/12 chance. Now let's look at Power Reserve. It sticks to its
theme well. However, what is its theme? CALL FOR FAMILY!!! Oh wow, you have
a full bench of Oddishes and Bellsprouts. I'm SO scared. That is NOT a
decent theme! Now Zap!, Zap! has status changes as it's theme, as well as
mild "hard hitting" after they're Confused/whatever. Well, let's see what
Pokés it has.

Abra (Paralyze)
Kadabra (Hard hitting)
Gastly (Sleep)
Haunter (Sleep and hard hitting)
Jynx (Hard hitting)
Drowzee (Confuse)
Mewtwo (hard hitting and Barrier disables like Paralyze)
Magnemite (Paralyze and semi hard hitting)
Pikachu (Hard hitting, I think...)

OK, as you can see, it has a decent theme and sticks to it.

5) It has a good amount of Energy. Again, let's look at other PTDs.
Overgrowth gives you only 12 WATER ENERGY TO PUMP UP 3 DISCARDING STARMIES
AND A GYARADOS!!! And Water Blast! Its theme is "big beefy Water Guns". It's
chock full of energy hogs like Vaporeon and Poliwag. So, it got generous and
gives you 14 Water Energy! That's all! Now Zap! gives you 12 Energy to pump
up 7 Pokés that only need 1 colored energy, that's plenty. Also, it gives
you 16 energy to pump up 2 energy hogs and lots of Pokémon that are frugal
with energy. Finally, a good ratio!

There you have it. Lots of reasons why Zap is the best Theme Deck. Just
remember that this is only my opinion, even though I have evidence to back
me up, and after all, it Is only a Theme Deck. Later Pojoheads!

P.S.: Cut Wizards some slack when it comes to other, 'bad' PTDs and Base Set
2 and such. If it wasn't for them you wouldn't have any Pokémon cards in the
first place. So give 'em some credit :)


-Zach "Dr. Andonuts" Davis

windows_crash@email.com

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