I have lots of cards and no idea on how to get a decent deck

[AngelArsenic]

So I bought all these cards to resell them at a profit. Not happening since there is no demand. I have always loved Pokemon so since I cannot make any cash I would like to play with them, possibly going competitive. I have no cash to buy new cards at this point in time and I know I am low on energy and supporters. Can yall help me devise a deck and strategy with what I have and I will purchase the other cards when I can?

Cards:
Clefairy - Diamond/Pearl #77
Jigglypuff - Great Encounters #72
Eevee - Majestic Dawn #63
Teddiursa x2 - Mysterious Treasures #105
Koffing - Great Encounters # 74
Gastly - Diamond/Pearl #82
Espeon - majestic Dawn #18
Haunter - Diamond/Pearl #50
Unown H - Great Encounters #29
Growlithe x2 - Secret Wonders #89
Unown Z - Secret Wonders #72
Unown K - Secret Wonders #68
Exeggutor - Mysterious treasures #24
Bellsprout - Legends Awakened #85
Sunkern - Secret Wonders #114
Weedle - Great Encounters #93
Yanma - Legends Awakened #128
Snorlax - Dragon Frontiers #10
Scyther - Majestic Dawn #46
Goldeen - Deoxys #61
Stantler - Secret Wonders # 113
Flaaffy Delta Species - Dragon Frontiers #30
Spearow - Crystal Guardians #61
Scizor - Majestic Dawn # 29
Pinsir x2 - Secret Wonders # 59
Azumarill - HeartGold/SoulSilver #2
Mantine - HeartGold/SoulSilver #45
Hoothoot - Diamond/Pearl # 85
Doduo - Mysterious Treasures #80
Mareep - Secret Wonders #94
Flaaffy - Secret Wonders #50
Pikachu - Mysterious Treasures #94
Geodude - I don't know it's set. HP60 Only Move is Stone Throw 1/11
Seel Delta Species - Dragon Frontiers #62
Squirtle - Secret Wonders #112
Mantine Delta Species - Dragon Frontiers #20
Electabuzz - Secret Wonders #87
Machoke - Diamond/Pearl #53
Larvitar - Mysterious Treasures #87
Hitmontop - Legends Awakened #101
Wigglytuff - Great Encounters #5
Machop - I don't know it's set. HP60 Only move is Low Kick 5/11 same set symbol as Geodude.
Kabuto - Power Keepers #51
Porygon - Great Encounters #81
Dodrio - Mysterious Treasures #46
Jolteon - OP Series 3 #3
Granbull - Great Encounters #39
Lickitung - Majestic Dawn #39
Blissey - Mysterious Treasures #5
Bissey - HeartGold/SoulSilver #36
Dewgong Delta Species - Dragon Frontiers #15
Murkrow x2 - Mysterious Treasures #90
Persian Delta Species - Holon Phantoms #48
Pikachu - HeartGold/SoulSilver #78
Vulpix - Mysterious Treasures #107
Houndour - Great Encounters #69
Unown T - Mysterious Treasures #67
Spinda - Secret Wonders #111
Electrike - Mysterious Treasures #81
Pachirisu - Diamond/Pearl #35
Torchic - Crystal Guardians #65
Magby - Mysterious Treasures #88
Feebas Delta Species - Dragon Frontiers #49
Taillow Delta Species - Dragon Frontiers #66
Bidoof - Diamond/Pearl # 70
Pupitar - Mysterious Treasures #59
Numel - Holon Phantoms #72
Gabite x2 - Mysterious Treasures #48
Munchlax - Majestic Dawn #68
Bonsly - Diamond/Pearl #71
Carvanha - Deoxys #56
Sharpedo Delta Species - Holon Phantoms #53
Hippopotas - Diamond/Pearl #51
Hippowdon - Majestic Dawn #21
Hippowdon - Diamond/Pearl #29
Totodile - Mysterious Treasures #106
Bagon - Deoxys #52
Bagon Delta Species - Dragon Frontiers #43
Zangoose - Great Encounters #59
Buizel - Mysterious Treasures #75
Cyndaquil - HeartGold #61
Quilava - Mysterious Treasures #60
Starly- Diamond/Pearl #101
Starly x2 - Majestic Dawn #75
Staravia - Diamond/Pearl #64
Grotle - Diamond/Pearl #49
Prinplup - Majestic Dawn #44
Lombre - Secret Wonders #54
Purugly - Great Encounters #50
Chatot - Majestic Dawn #55
Shellos East Sea - Majestic Dawn #73
Shellos East Sea x3 - Secret Wonders #106
Mantyke - Diamond/Pearl #55
Sableye - Secret Wonders #63
Stunky - Majestic Dawn #76
Slakoth - Mysterious Treasures #99
Shieldon - Mysterious Treasures #63
Duskull - Power Keepers #50
Chingling - Mysterious Treasures #42
Trapinch - Power Keepers #68
Trapinch Delta Species - Dragon Frontiers #68
Mime Jr. -Diamond/Pearl #90
Croagunk - Majestic Dawn #60
Drifloon - Majestic Dawn #61
Drifloon - Diamond/Pearl #46
Burmy Sandy Cloak - Majestic Dawn #54
Roserade - Secret Wonders #17
Surskit - Holon Phantoms #82
Combee - Majestic Dawn #59
Masquerain - Mysterious Treasures #55
Kecleon - Secret Wonders #52

Trainer- Armor Fossil HP50 #116
Trainer- Dome Fossil HP50 #89 ~ Majestic Dawn
Double Rainbow Energy - Crystal Guardians #88
Fighting Energy x2 #11
Fire Energy - Holon Phantoms #106
Grass Energy
Trainer- Holon Fossil~ Holon Phantoms #86
Trainer- Night Maintenance~ Mysterious Treasures #113
Lightning Energy x2 - Diamond/Pearl
Trainer- Old Rod~ Dragon Frontiers #78
Trainer- Poke Ball~ Diamond/Pearl #110
Supporter- Pokemon Collector~ HeartGold/SoulSilver #97
Trainer- Potion~ Secret Wonders #127
Trainer- Premier Ball~ Great Encounters #101
Trainer-Quick Ball~ Majestic Dawn #86
Scramble Energy~ Dragon Frontiers #89
Stadium- Speed Stadium~ Diamond/Pearl #114
Trainer- Skull Fossil x2~ Mysterious Treasures #117
Trainer- Strength Charm~ Dragon Frontiers #81
Trainer- Time-Space Distortion~ Mysterious Treasures #124/123 ?
Trainer- Warp Point~ Majestic Dawn #88
Water Energy x5 #12


I prefer fire pokemon but any help will be much appreciated.


Ok my boyfriend's step-brother gave me a bunch of Pokemon cards and so here are the new ones I have.

Donphan - Ruby/Sapphire #17
Drowzee - Base #49
Drowzee - Base Set 2 #73
Parasect - Jungle #41
Caterpie x2 - Base Set 2 #68
Metapod - Base #54
Butterfree - Jungle #33
Exeggutor - Jungle #35
Rattata - Base #61
Raticate - Base #40
Magikarp - Base Set 2 #50
Magnemite - Base Set 2 #79
Magnemite - Team Rocket #60
Rhyhorn - Jungle #61
Eevee - Team Rocket #55
Jigglypuff - Jungle #54
Oddish - Jungle #58
Diglett - Base Set 2 #71
Psyduck - Team Rocket #65
Poochyena - Ruby/Sapphire #64
Team Aqua's Mightyena - Teams Aqua/Magma #30
Poliwag - Neo Destiny #62
Poliwag - Base #59
Charmander - Base #46
Dark Charmeleon - Team Rocket #32
Bellsprout - Jungle #49
Mankey - Jungle #55
Staryu - Base Set 2 #95
Starmie - Base #64
Weedle - Base Set 2 #100
Team Aqua's Spheal - Teams Aqua/Magma #56
Totodile -Neo Genesis #81

Trainer-Challenge~ Team Rocket #74
Trainer-Potion~ Ruby/Sapphire #91
Trainer-Poke Ball~ Base Set 2 #121
Trainer-Berry-Pokemon Tool~ Neo Genesis #99
Trainer-Imposter Oak's Revenge~ Team Rocket #76
Trainer-Mail From Bill~ Neo Destiny #105
Trainer-Super Potion~ Base Set 2 #117

Psychic Energy~ Base #101
Fighting Energy x6~ Base #97
Fire Energy~ Base Set 2 #126
Grass Energy~ Neo Genesis #99
Grass Energy x3~ Base Set 2 #127
Water Energy x2~ Ruby/Sapphire #106
Water Energy~ Base #102
Water Energy~ Base Set 2 #130

[Tanaki]

In terms of competitive play, I don't really see a whole lot of stuff that would stand up to the current meta. Which is another issue in itself because, outside of the basic energies which are always legal, none of these cards are legal for tourney play.

[AngelArsenic]

Ok what about outside of competitive?

[donavannj]

Too many instances of just 1 copy of a card here. Using just 1 or 2 of a card usually isn't a good idea in decks.
d
What's your favorite Pokemon?

[AngelArsenic]

Favorite Pokemon is the Cyndaquil and it's family.

[donavannj]

There's a fair few of that family that can be fun to play... what era are most of the cards you mentioned that you were gifted in your other thread from? And is there any of that Pokemon family in them?

[AngelArsenic]

What do you mean by era? Also I posted the cards I was gifted under the other list via edit. I only have Cyndaquil and Quilava from the original list and the one fire energy. With the gifted cards I only gained one fire energy. It is my favorite family and fire Pokemon are my favorite in general but I realize I don't have the energy cards for a deck based around them.

[donavannj]

By era, I mean the years they were printed in. Diamond & Pearl era is 2007 to 2009 for printings, Advance Gen era is 2003 to 2007, Metal/Color is 1999 to 2002.

EDIT: Looking at both lists, the only option I really see for a deck type is Water, maybe with a splash of the Fighting type. Though I don't really see any Pokemon of either type, and certainly not enough to make a decent deck with (almost all of them seem to be Basic Pokemon with low HP).

[AngelArsenic]

That sucks. Most are copyright 2007, followed by 2008 then 2006, 2010, 1999 and 2000 are tied, 2003, 2005, 2004, and only one 2001. This is in order of greatest amount to least.

[AngelArsenic]

Ok I want a fire deck based around the Cyndaquil line and I plan on getting more copies on Cyndaquil and Quilava and getting a few copies of Typholsion. I will run one electric type and one grass type family as well to counter any water decks.

So my question being what would be the best electric/grass families to run and what copies of the Cyndaqui family? Also what Trainers/Supporters/Tools should I have? and About how many various energies. I would like to use some of my existing cards if at all possible and if not I want to know a good deck based around this thought process so I can start trading/buying the cards I need for this deck.

[donavannj]

Tri-type decks usually don't work very well. My personal preference for a combination between the three types would be Fire/Electric, though. Are you still looking for a casual deck? Presently, there are no tournament legal Cyndaquil family Pokemon (the most recently released one gets rotated on September 1st, and the next tournaments are held sometime in late September/early October). A local Pokemon league might let you use your deck to just play against its members, but that'll depend on the league's strictness regarding which sets can be used.

Anyway, my personal favorite Cyndaquil family line is the one that centers around Typhlosion Prime (HeartGold SoulSilver 110/123 and also was printed as an HGSS09 promo), but that guy was a bit more of a support Pokemon than anything. It could be combo'd with the Charizard from Platinum Arceus, as that family has the Fire Formation PokeBody on its final evolution, which gives that active Charizard a bonus of 10 damage for each fire Pokemon you have on your bench. With 5 Fire Pokemon on your bench, that gives you a whopping 130 damage for 3 energy with Burning Tail and a coolly efficient 80 for 1 energy with Fire Wing.

If you go the Charizard/Typhlosion route, I suggest forgoing the whole dual type deal and focusing on fire types. Ninetales from the HGSS set (as well as the reprint of this Ninetales in Call of Legends) has a PokePower that allows you to discard 1 fire energy to draw 3 cards, once per turn per Ninetales. Where this works well is when combined with Typhlosion Prime, which can bring those fire energy back from the discard pile one at a time and attach them to one of your Pokemon (albeit at a cost of 10 damage to that Pokemon). Combining these two with Charizard keeps the fire energy circulating about your play area, going from your hand to your discard, then back into play, then bouncing between the discard pile and the playing field. Trainer cards I recommend using are Max Potion and Potion. Supporters I recommend are Roseanne's Research and Bebe's Search.

[AngelArsenic]

That sounds perfect but how would I counter a water deck. Major disadvantage there. Also can you write up a list so I can start researching the cards to find what would work for my personal style and how much they will cost in cash/trade? And it will have to be casual until I can buy tournament legal cards which will be quite a while.

[donavannj]

Really, your best counter for water type decks would be speed. Maybe you could fit in some electric type, but I can't think of one that uses only colorless energy off the top of my head.



3 Charizard Arceus
2 Charmeleon Arceus
3 Charmander Arceus
3 Cyndaquil HGSS
2 Quilava HGSS
3 Typhlosion Prime
2 Vulpix HGSS
2 Ninetales HGSS

4 Roseanne's Research
3 Bebe's Search
3 Rare Candy
4 Junk Arm
2 Revive
4 Pokemon Catcher
3 Plus Power
3 Professor Oak's New Theory

14 Fire Energy

Might run you a fair bit more than you want it to, but I can almost guarantee you'll have fun with it. I've run some variant of this for a while, myself.

[AngelArsenic]

Thank you very much for all your help. Now I just have to find people willing to trade and if not a way to get my hands on some money to get the cards. lol

Going to go Google these cards see what I can learn about them and how they work and where I can get them at. If you know of any good websites please tell me and once again thank you so much. Wouldn't know what I know now if you hadn't taken the time to answer all my questions.

[AngelArsenic]

*Does a happy dance!*

So I wrote down that list you gave me and started to google the cards to see what they looked like and see how other people played them. When One looked familiar. So I go through the cards I have and I have a Cyndaquil HGSS already! on top of that I got 2 fire energy which I pulled along with the Cyndaquil out of the rest . I also have Pokemon Collector which if I understand correctly is like Pokemon Catcher. So can you tell me what the difference is and if I can use it as a substitute? I don't want to buy/trade for cards if I have something already that would work. I also have Scramble Energy and Double Rainbow Energy. If I understand these cards I could use them for Fire/Colorless energies. Can you explain how these cards work and if I could use them in the Deck you gave me above?

[donavannj]

Pokemon Collector is different from Pokemon Catcher. Pokemon Collector retrieves Pokemon from your deck like Roseanne's Research does, but Roseanne's Research can also fetch basic energy cards, so Pokemon Collector is a slightly less versatile version of Roseanne's Research. Pokemon Catcher allows you to force your opponent to change their Active Pokemon to a Pokemon of your choice. Basically Gust of Wind from the Base Set with a different name.

You can use those two energies in your deck, however, they cannot be discarded for Ninetales's Poke-Power and Typhlosion cannot retrieve them from the discard pile to attach to your Pokemon with its Poke-Power.

[AngelArsenic]

Thanks. I will just put them with the rest of the cards and just keep my Cyndaquil and 2 fire energies out.

[donavannj]

To add Reshiram in, your options are to either drop the Charizard line entirely, or to simply add 2 Reshiram to the list and drop the counts for Charizard and Charmander down to 2 apiece. There are other ways you can add it in, but just adding in two is my personal preference.

[AngelArsenic]

Do you think dropping the Charizard line would be the best way? I really like his PokeBody so I don't know.

[donavannj]

My personal preference is to just drop the counts of Charizard and Charmander, not to drop the whole family out entirely, so you'd have 2 of each in the line. You could drop 1 Charmeleon in favor of a 3rd Reshiram, though, since the decklist has Rare Candy.

[AngelArsenic]

If I drop a Charmeleon would I need extra Rare Candy then since there is only 3 and lots of evolving?

[donavannj]

Not necessarily, since with Junk Arm in there, you can bring a Rare Candy to your hand from your discard pile using that. But if you did add one in, you'd have to take out another card.

[AngelArsenic]

Think I will drop 1 of each of the Charizard line and add in 3 Reshiram. And when I get all the cards try to find someone to play test against. Thak you so much for all your help.

[donavannj]

If you have MSN or Skype, I'd actually be willing to playtest with you, depending on when you're available and when you get the deck together.

[AngelArsenic]

I have absolutely no clue about those 2 things. lol. I am really not techno savvy and can only do the most basic things on a computer. It just doesn't make any sense to me.