Good evening class

Today I am going to discuss with you a much overlooked aspect of the game: the Bench. For now I just want you to take notes in your head and when i'm done I will split you up into groups of two and then you can try these strategies out on your own.

Now, those of you with some experience are certainly aware of the bench as a place where you can retreat to get rid of those pesky things like confusion and poison on the defense side of things or gone head to head with those kamikazi's of the bench attack, electric pokemon. I have a good friend who tried to make a deck that revolved around hitting the bench which he called rail gun. He soon found that he didn't exactly have the pokemon to back it up in an effective fasion. Team rocket has changed this and allowed for some new Archetypes (for those of you sick of seeing Hitmochan, Scyther, and electrobuzz in every deck you face) and opened the field up for more creative play.

1. The Rail Gun: The basic strategy here is to not only spank your opponent, but to spank as much of his bench as possible while you're at it, keeping your opponent weak. This type of attack strategy has always been the province of Electric types. At least in their most controlled. Pikachu and Zapdos come to mind. In a less controlled vein there is always Articuno and the various Self-Destructors. Team Rocket hasn't revolutionized this attack method, but it has added a couple of pinch hitters. Primarily the new Diglett's Dig Under, Dark Golbat's Flitter, And Meowth (Either Coin Toss or Cat Punch.. cat punsh is much better though). all you to attack and do direct damage to the bench.

2. Sneak Attack: The strategy to a good sneak attack deck is pokemon powers. Anything that let's you do damage or status changes from the bench. In the past, you really only had one good toy for that kind of damage.. Gengar's curse. Put a couple of these guys out and you could go knocking the bench out cold and never once have to get off the bench. Rocket has added a number of fun little powers Once again, Dark Golbat's sneak attack does some quick damage from the bench when you put it out. Also seeing much use now is Rocket Drowzee and Dark Gloom.. both of whose pokemon power allows them to mess up the active pokemon. Perhaps those full heals might come in handy afterall.

3. The wave: Also known as the tried and true wiggly deck. Figure out a quick way to fill up your bench and then do the wave for quick and painful damage. It's been done and everyone knows the usages of things like 'call for familiy' to fill your bench up right quick... so I won't bore you with it. There are two team rocket cards that are going to double the popularity of this deck. Dark Hypno and Challenge. Dark Hypno is the anti-Wiggly Tuff and challenge fills up both benches.

4. Hit and Run: This is my own personal baby. I tried making one of these a while back and just did not have the pokemon to pull it off effectively. The idea is to get in there, do some damage and get out before they can hit back. Back in the day, switches, low retreat costs and dodrio/Dragonite to lower the retreat cost. The main attacker in this category has always been Scyther.. why do you think he's so popular? Team Rocket gives us the new god of this genre: Dark Alakazam. Alakazam moves up to deliver that one hit (sadly psychic resistance knocks it down to nothing) and then teleports out, leaving someone else to take the next attack.

5. Drag out: Last, but certainly not least, is the drag out deck. In the old days, this type of deck relied upon the trainer 'Gust of Wind'. The idea is to yank those annoying guys off the back deck to where you could get your hands on them. In the past, this has been something of an inexact science. Pretty much any attack that knocked someone back to the bench allowed your opponent to choose which pokemon from their bench they wanted to send forward and Rhydon's even did damage to yourself. Now TR has the more or less underrated Dark Machoke. Drag out and Knock back are two complimentary powers that allow you to pretty much hit anyone when you want where you want. That Alakazam in the back switching all sorts of damage around? Gust him forward and then knock him back.. Sure he'll move some damage around.. but if you do it right, your opponent might be dumb enough to have put some of the active's damage on Alakazam in the first place.

Ok Class. Now take out your cards and get together with a partner. I'll be around in just a moment to see if you've learned anything. If any of you have any questions, thoughts, or aditional combos. Please get in touch with me at DarkTouch@unbounded.com