I hate to say this, but my 12 year old son is a better Pokemon trainer than
I am.

Why?

Because he has the courage and the spirit and the skill  to design and use
his own archetypes.  Not just in league play, but in tournaments.

If every trainer could do what he does, the quality of league and tournament
play would be a lot higher than I see it now.

He'll get an idea for an deck, build it, try it out, figure out what does
and doesn't work in it and change it.  If he loses to a Haymaker, so what?
He figures out why, and what to fix in his deck and keeps going.

A few weeks ago, he decided to try to make a playable deck just based around
one card artist.   Since Keiji was the artist
who drew the energy cards, he was the most likely choice.  So he made a
lightning deck with Electrode, Voltorb, Ditto, and Pikachu.

He played this for three or four weeks, winning more than losing.  I was
amazed.  Look at it in the Killer Deck Reports.  It doesn't look like much
to me.

We built a deck together a few months ago, Grass/Fighting
Hitmonchan/Scyther/Pinsir/Hitmonlee.  (Actually two identical decks).  I
played mine for a couple of weeks, but wasn't really happy with losing once
in a while to Fire.  He took it a tournament, and made it to the finals.
Along the way, he beat people 2 and 3 times his age.  He finished as well as
I did playing my
Moltres deck.

It's not that the decks that he builds are powerful in themselves, it that
he has the ability to make them work for him.  By playing the game
intelligently.  By playing the right cards at the right time.  By not
playing a trainer just because you just drew it.  By not evolving a Pokemon
before it is time.  By figuring out what his opponent might do in the next
turn and playing with that in mind.  By knowing what is in his deck, and
what he has already played.  By knowing when to stall for time.  By knowing
when to stick out his powerhouse.  By knowing when to end his turn without
an attack.

These are skills that add depth to the game.  These are skills that will
carry over into other games.  If more players had these skills, we would
automatically see less Haymaker and Wigglytuff decks.

My son says "It's not the deck, it's the way that you play it."

He's absolutely right.

Look for him at the Chicago Super Tournament.  He'll be the kid with the
really weird deck.  He'll beat you, and tell you "Good Game".