>The strategy of this deck is to use Poliwrath's
whirlpool, and
>Golduck's and
>Dragonair's Hyper Beams to keep my opponent from
getting any energies
>out.  I
>have not had a chance to use this deck yet, but I
would like to use it
>in an
>upcoming tournament and I am wondering how I can make
it better.
>Here's the
>deck.
>
>22 x Pokemon
>4 x Poliwag
>3 x Poliwhirl
>2 x Poliwrath
>4 x Psyduck
>3 x Golduck
>3 x Dratini
>2 x Dragonair
>1 x Lapras (added the Lapras because I needed some
more basic)
>
>22 x Energy
>18 x Water Energy
>4 x DCE
>
>16 x Trainers
>3 x Gust of Wind
>2 x Bill
>2 x Professor Oak
>4 x Energy Removal
>2 x Super Energy Removal
>3 x Computer Search
>
>Let me know what you think of this deck and what you
think I should
>change,
>thanks.

***

Hmm, for some reason I got three decks with the Energy
Removal theme this week. Two of them were rather
ordinary, if well-constructed, while the third was
anything but (read it and you'll see what I mean.)
Anyway, what can we say about this deck?

1) First of all, you may want to think about dropping
either the duck or the dragon and having some more
Lapras or other strong basics. I'd drop Golduck,
simply because with so much water already in this
deck, it'd kinda be redundant to have him--plus, a lot
can be said for Dragonair--he has greater HP and psy
resistance, he can dish out heavy damage when need be,
etc. Nobody denies that Golduck suits the theme, but
we'd like to keep it at two families if we can. That's
about it. One of the other ER decks I'm fixing this
week added a colorless staller, which is not a bad
idea at all, but you don't need to mess around with it
if you don't want to. We've created 5 slots (dropping
Golduck and boosting Dragonair to 4-3) into which
we'll put some Lapras or something at the end. But
let's see what else we need first.

2) Your trainers. Well, first of all, there are a
number of trainers that are pretty much integral to
the ER theme, so we can't take those out. Since we
still have 5 card slots, why don't you start by adding
in another Bill and two more SERs. A lot of Energy
Removal decks I have seen run Item Finder in large
amounts, simply to be even more annoying, but I
question where we'd find the space. Since your
trainers are pretty good now, let's just leave them,
and we'll take another look at the end.

3) Energy is where most decks run into problems. 18
water is a bit low, but I honestly don't know how we'd
bring that up. If you manage to make a couple of slots
(maybe by cutting, say, a GOW and an SER) you should
think about using Retrieval instead of simply putting
in more energy. For now, don't fix it if it ain't
broke.

***

19 Pokemon:

4 Poliwag
3 Poliwhirl
2 Poliwrath
4 Dratini
3 Dragonair
3 Lapras (added the Lapras because I needed some more
basic)

19 Trainers:

3 Gust of Wind
3 Bill
2 Professor Oak
4 Energy Removal
4 Super Energy Removal
3 Computer Search

22 Energy:

18 Water Energy
4 DCE

***

And lo and behold, it all fits together neatly. The
one problem I think you may have is with card drawing,
which is why another Bill or Oak might not be a bad
idea. You could create a slot or two pretty easily by
dropping maybe an SER, a GOW, or a Search. That's a
good way to create space in decks--cut one or two
trainers that you have 3 or 4 of--more often than not,
your deck will still run fine, and you'll have the
space you need. Should you decide to create this
space, many things would be good to fill it; as stated
before, Item Finder and Energy Retrieval both come to
mind. That's about it.

By the way, I fixed two of these decks this week, and
I fixed them each a little bit differently. There's no
one perfect format for such a deck--it all depends on
your playing style. I would encourage you to read the
other deck "Dragon Wrath" for some alternate ideas.

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