Speed.  The main focus of almost every single deck in today's TCG playing
environment.

Second turn Blastoise.
Second turn fully powered Movie Promo Mewtwo.
Second turn Wiggly with a full bench.
Twenty damage on the first turn.

It's very hard to overcome many of these things, unless you are countering
them with another.  A Hitmonchan Jabbing away from the start of the match is
dangerous.  Electabuzz Thunder Punching this way and that on turn two can be
deadly.  A Wigglytuff with a Double Colorless, a different Energy, and plenty
of Oaks spells out "The End".

Decks such as these make playing with an actually fun, creative deck almost
impossible.  If you're not using Rain Dance, TuffStuff, Haymaker or one of
its many clones, you're almost as good as dead at a large scale tournament. 
It's almost sickening.  I now see why cards such as Computer Search, Item
Finder, and Super Energy Removal have been banned in Japan.  They drain the
fun out of the game.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game was originally created for the purpose of
having fun.  The Japanese realized this, and took action to keep the cards
that remove the fun from the game out of the playing scene.  And it worked. 
People in Japan still have fun with the game.  The same can not easily be
said in America.

In my gaming area, there are almost no evolutions, and when there is, it's
usually a Wigglytuff.  The stores are overrun with Movie Promo Mewtwos,
Nintendo Power Mewtwos, Scythers, Dittos, Fossil Magmars, Electabuzzes, and
all their basic, 60-70 HP kin.  Playing with something original and
fun--Things such as the Eevee evolutions, and Dark Arbok--can't be done and
win on a steady basis.

For instance, I had a rather creative deck, using Dark Arbok to put damage on
all of your opponent's Pokémon, and then use Jynx to clean up with it's
Meditate attack.  It would work fairly well, but when I went to a local
tournament with it, MP Mewtwo and Hitmonchan tore the deck to shreads.  The
only solution was to make a speed deck of my own.  At first, I turned to a
classic Haymaker, and found it far too boring--Mainly because it won far too
often.  Then I turned to my own style of TuffStuff, and while more
interesting, was still nothing but another clone of decks that everyone use.

I now carry a Rain Dance varient everywhere I go.  Although, I also have two
other decks.  A Psychic beatdown, using Dark Hypno and, yes, MP Mewtwo, and a
deck I built for fun, using Dark Flareon and Dark Jolteon.  Most people would
look at those two cards and say "They only have fifty HP! They're as useless
as that Metapod on the floor about to be vaccumed up by my mom!"  When, in
reality, they are two of the strongest attackers in the game.

So I urge you, don't fall prety to the endless amounts of clones.  There are
ways around archetypes without using other archetypes.  Take the time to look
at every single card and find new uses.  I even use TR Porygon... and because
of the high number of Mewtwos in my area, he is almost unstopable. So take
the time, look at every aspect, and find for yourself the hidden powers
within each card.

~Hawk
blazinghawk@aol.com