- 442
- Posts
- 20
- Years
- Age 37
- Seen Oct 24, 2005
Allow me to add on to that with a little article that I typed up not too long ago...
First, decide which Pokemon you want the deck to revolve around. If you want a standard Haymaker, find some Basics with 70 HP or higher, or run Sneasel. Now, find some backup for your main attacker, usually Cleffa and Tyrogue will be enough for that. We'll come back to this later.
Second, find a trainer set that you like and will use often. Your trainer set should include the best cards from each of the following catagories...
Card Drawing (Oak)
Searching (Computer Search)
Healing (Gold Berry, Focus Band)
Card Recovery (Town Volunteers, Item Finder)
Board Disruption (GOW, ER, SER)
Hand Disruption (RSA, Lass)
Gymbreaker (optional, a standard one is Sprout Tower)
Once you've got those figured out, balance your trainers according to importance. I believe that the order that I've listed above is generally accepted as best.
Now that you have your Pokemon and Trainers set, time for your energies. I usually count up the number of colored energies that each of my main attackers use, add 1, and use that as my Basic NRG count. If you are using Darkness, Metal, or Colorless, then max out on the specific energy type that you are using (Darkness, Metal, DCE)
By now, you have a deck that is well over 60 cards. Go back and trim out some of your Pokemon, using no more than about 3 of each type, and 2 for each of the Babies. Also, take out some of the trainers that you don't think will be worth your time in terms of their abilities. Finally, if you run out of things to trim from Pokemon and Trainers, take out some Basic Energy (never remove Specials if you are running a Special deck) until you have 60 cards, but always have at least 10 energy cards and at least 8 or 9 Basic Pokemon (which is the basic definition of the InSaNiTy deck). Work with that and repost as soon as you can put together a deck. gl, hf.
And then, another one, this one for Modified...
1. Choose a theme
This can be the hardest step in the entire process, mostly because there are so many different Pokemon out there to base a deck around. For this format, something that powers up fairly quick (3 turns or less) and has exceptional power (at least doing 70 damage, constantly). For the purposes of moving on with the article, I will choose the Expedition Feraligatr with the PokePower Major Tsunami.
2. Trainer Base
This gets easier. You have your standard draw engine, and some healing. You also need some searchers. If you believe this is not enough, then add in some Elm's Training Method, Dual Ball, or Master Ball. You then need some recovery trainers. 2 Town Volunteers is my standard recovery engine, but there are others out there. Also, I will need some switching trainers. There is nothing better than Switch for this job.
3. Support Pokemon
For support, you want something that both compliments your main attacker, and deviates from it just a little. Since I am playing a Water type that is weak to Lightning, I will include Wooper to combat lightning and those Pokemon that have only 1 attack. Also, to take out some Lightning Pokemon before they become a problem, I will put in some Tyrogue. Cleffa is a must in any and all decks. I am not just saying that just because it's in this deck, but because it is an absolute necessity. For some odd reason, I like Skarmory from Neo: Revelations, but only as a TecH card, to combat Grass even better. With Feraligatr, it is important to choose your evolutions wisely. I will put in 2 copies of each Genesis Totodile and Expedition Totodile. Also, 2 copies of each Genesis and Expedition Croconaw.
4. Energy
Energy is the one factor that must NOT be ignored under ANY circumstances. Make sure that you can have all of your main attackers powered up at one time, as well as power to the babies that you will throw down. However, don't go overboard on energy. In the case of 2 type decks, 19 energy cards should be used, MAX. For this deck, I am using 16 energy, because in this deck, I need 2 Metal energy to utilize Skarmory efficiently. 4 Recycle energy is also a good thing for this deck, seeing as all of my attackers can attack with uncolored energy. All other slots go towards Water Energy.
5. Trainers (again!)
Back to this. If you have any remaining slots left, fill them up with useful trainers. Stadium cards and semi-random searchers/disruptors should go into this spot. However, before you fill out this area, you must first have a solid original trainer base.
6. Playtest
This is the most important step in creating a good deck. The more you work with and improve a deck, the better you will be with that deck. This deck I have not had time to playtest, so I don't know how it will perform in actual battle.
7. Fix and modify
Another of the important steps. If you see that something doesn't work in your deck, then you want to take it out and replace it with something better. Again, I can't sample this area because of the amount of time that I have taken to write this article.
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7
This step should be done every single time you play. Your deck should always be in a constant state of change, it should never be exactly the same twice after you start it. However, if you find that you are beating everyone around you and not getting a good enough workout with a particular deck, then sit that deck out for a few weeks, work on another deck, and come back to it. You could be amazed as to how much it has degraded over those weeks, and how much you now have to improve it.
My last little piece of advise is to never give up on any deck idea that you have, no matter how strange it sounds. I have been working on my own version of a Riptide deck for several months now, and people have called me crazy for trying to hold onto the past like that. Does first place in an 8 person tourney sound like crazy to you? I know that it doesn't for me.
And, the third one...
Pokemon:
Start out with a central Pokemon theme or a particular Pokemon that you like to work with (for my example, I'll use Feraligatr, Genesis, 100 HP). Work out the evolution chains first(4 Totodile, Genesis, 50 HP; 4 Croconaw, Expedition, 3 Feraligatr). Now, find some good support Pokemon. These guys will almost always be Basic Pokemon, with at least 60 HP, cannot evolve, and have either a big-time attack or a gamebreaking Pokemon Power (2 Suicune, Revelations, 60 HP). Before I forget, make sure that every deck that you build has at least 2 Cleffa from Neo Genesis and 1 Tyrogue from Neo Discovery (3 Cleffa, 2 Tyrogue). Also, make sure that you are using somewhere around 10-12 Basic Pokemon. One of the biggest mistakes that I see younger players making is using multiple types. At your level, it will be much too hard to manage more than one type, unless you're running either Darkness or Metal Pokemon in the deck. Also, NEVER play more than ONE (1) type of Stage 2 Pokemon in a given deck. They are extremely difficult to manage, even for an experienced player, and almost never work. You should have somewhere between 10 and 20 Pokemon cards in total in your deck, with 12-16 being the optimal area.
Trainers:
Now that you've got your Pokemon core established, you have to work on your trainers. This should be the bulk of your deck. In here, you need to fill these main catagories:
Card Drawing
Searching
Healing
Card Recovery
Board Control
Opponent Hand Disruption
Gymbreaker (Optional)
Now, you're wondering what each of these terms mean. Card Drawing is fairly straightforeward: get cards into your hand. The best cards for this job are Oak from Base, Elm from Genesis, and Copycat from Expedition. Searching is getting the right card into your hand at the right time. Computer Search is the best searching trainer out there, but, since it is not legal in Modified, Pokemon Trader is used instead in that format. Healing is removing damage from your Pokemon. The best cards for this are Gold Berry from Genesis, Focus Band from Genesis, and Pokemon Center from Base. All of these healers are deck-specific. For example, Gold Berry only works if your main attacker has more than 100 HP. Focus Band is just for Pokemon saving purposes. Pokemon Center is for the Swarm and Stall decks, which don't have much energy for the Pokemon that they use. Card Recovery is the returning of cards from your discard pile. Item Finder from Base, Town Volunteers from Aquapolis, and Fisherman from Skyridge are the best card recovery trainers out there. Item Finder should be used in every deck. Town Volunteers and Fisherman are deck specific. Read their texts and figure out which decks would suit them best. Board control is just the ability to move anything on the playing field when you want to or need to. Gust of Wind from Base, Switch from Base, and Double Gust from Genesis are the best out there. Double Gust should only be used if you have a deck full of free-retreaters, at least in Unlimited. Gust is your all-purpose disruption card. Also, I would place Energy Removal and Super Energy Removal in this catagory, and you should play AT LEAST 4 of these cards in total, if not more. Trust me on this, they are brutal when unleashed in swarms of 2 or 3. Opponent Hand Disruption is available only in Unlimited, and only through the Lass/Eeeeeeek combo. For now, don't concern yourself with this particular technique. A Gymbreaker is a Stadium card that either helps you or hurts your opponent, but you can win without actually playing it. This is generally optional, and is used when you have extra spots left. You should have anywhere from 22-34 Trainers in your deck. I know this sounds like a little much, but here is my standard Unlimited trainer engine:
Trainers (31)
3 Oak
2 Elm
3 Copycat
3 Gold Berry or Focus Band
3 Computer Search
3 Item Finder
3 Gust of Wind
4 Energy Removal
3 Super Energy Removal
3 Switch
1 Town Volunteers or Fisherman
This is just a sample of what my trainer engine is like. You should modify this to suit your own needs.
Energy:
This is either the simplest or most complex part of the deck. By now, you should have 10-18 spots left open. If you are playing a two-type deck, the challange here is to find the right combination of energy, and this takes nothing short of playtesting. If you are running either Darkness or Metal, 4 of that energy and 0-4 Rainbow Energy are a requirement, depending upon how much you depend on that particular Pokemon. If you just have a single type of Pokemon (excluding colorless), then just fill the rest in with that type of energy.
Now you have a deck to work with. That's good, you're about halfway to your goal. Now, you have to play with this deck, and improve upon it. You might discover that certain combos don't work as well as you might have planned, or that there's something missing that you didn't even know was not there. Until you get to the point where you are winning almost all the time, you should change the deck after almost every time you play it. Unless the deck completely bombs, you should not completely tear up a deck and start from scratch. Just change around the numbers or types of cards that you have in the deck until you get the number that seems to click right for you. Once that happens, congratulations!!! You have just completed stage 1 of your training!!! Start working on a new deck, and come back to your original deck in about a year. You'll be surprised as to how much it has deteriorated in that year, and you'll want to change it again. Good luck, and have fun with this game!!!
First, decide which Pokemon you want the deck to revolve around. If you want a standard Haymaker, find some Basics with 70 HP or higher, or run Sneasel. Now, find some backup for your main attacker, usually Cleffa and Tyrogue will be enough for that. We'll come back to this later.
Second, find a trainer set that you like and will use often. Your trainer set should include the best cards from each of the following catagories...
Card Drawing (Oak)
Searching (Computer Search)
Healing (Gold Berry, Focus Band)
Card Recovery (Town Volunteers, Item Finder)
Board Disruption (GOW, ER, SER)
Hand Disruption (RSA, Lass)
Gymbreaker (optional, a standard one is Sprout Tower)
Once you've got those figured out, balance your trainers according to importance. I believe that the order that I've listed above is generally accepted as best.
Now that you have your Pokemon and Trainers set, time for your energies. I usually count up the number of colored energies that each of my main attackers use, add 1, and use that as my Basic NRG count. If you are using Darkness, Metal, or Colorless, then max out on the specific energy type that you are using (Darkness, Metal, DCE)
By now, you have a deck that is well over 60 cards. Go back and trim out some of your Pokemon, using no more than about 3 of each type, and 2 for each of the Babies. Also, take out some of the trainers that you don't think will be worth your time in terms of their abilities. Finally, if you run out of things to trim from Pokemon and Trainers, take out some Basic Energy (never remove Specials if you are running a Special deck) until you have 60 cards, but always have at least 10 energy cards and at least 8 or 9 Basic Pokemon (which is the basic definition of the InSaNiTy deck). Work with that and repost as soon as you can put together a deck. gl, hf.
And then, another one, this one for Modified...
1. Choose a theme
This can be the hardest step in the entire process, mostly because there are so many different Pokemon out there to base a deck around. For this format, something that powers up fairly quick (3 turns or less) and has exceptional power (at least doing 70 damage, constantly). For the purposes of moving on with the article, I will choose the Expedition Feraligatr with the PokePower Major Tsunami.
2. Trainer Base
This gets easier. You have your standard draw engine, and some healing. You also need some searchers. If you believe this is not enough, then add in some Elm's Training Method, Dual Ball, or Master Ball. You then need some recovery trainers. 2 Town Volunteers is my standard recovery engine, but there are others out there. Also, I will need some switching trainers. There is nothing better than Switch for this job.
3. Support Pokemon
For support, you want something that both compliments your main attacker, and deviates from it just a little. Since I am playing a Water type that is weak to Lightning, I will include Wooper to combat lightning and those Pokemon that have only 1 attack. Also, to take out some Lightning Pokemon before they become a problem, I will put in some Tyrogue. Cleffa is a must in any and all decks. I am not just saying that just because it's in this deck, but because it is an absolute necessity. For some odd reason, I like Skarmory from Neo: Revelations, but only as a TecH card, to combat Grass even better. With Feraligatr, it is important to choose your evolutions wisely. I will put in 2 copies of each Genesis Totodile and Expedition Totodile. Also, 2 copies of each Genesis and Expedition Croconaw.
4. Energy
Energy is the one factor that must NOT be ignored under ANY circumstances. Make sure that you can have all of your main attackers powered up at one time, as well as power to the babies that you will throw down. However, don't go overboard on energy. In the case of 2 type decks, 19 energy cards should be used, MAX. For this deck, I am using 16 energy, because in this deck, I need 2 Metal energy to utilize Skarmory efficiently. 4 Recycle energy is also a good thing for this deck, seeing as all of my attackers can attack with uncolored energy. All other slots go towards Water Energy.
5. Trainers (again!)
Back to this. If you have any remaining slots left, fill them up with useful trainers. Stadium cards and semi-random searchers/disruptors should go into this spot. However, before you fill out this area, you must first have a solid original trainer base.
6. Playtest
This is the most important step in creating a good deck. The more you work with and improve a deck, the better you will be with that deck. This deck I have not had time to playtest, so I don't know how it will perform in actual battle.
7. Fix and modify
Another of the important steps. If you see that something doesn't work in your deck, then you want to take it out and replace it with something better. Again, I can't sample this area because of the amount of time that I have taken to write this article.
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7
This step should be done every single time you play. Your deck should always be in a constant state of change, it should never be exactly the same twice after you start it. However, if you find that you are beating everyone around you and not getting a good enough workout with a particular deck, then sit that deck out for a few weeks, work on another deck, and come back to it. You could be amazed as to how much it has degraded over those weeks, and how much you now have to improve it.
My last little piece of advise is to never give up on any deck idea that you have, no matter how strange it sounds. I have been working on my own version of a Riptide deck for several months now, and people have called me crazy for trying to hold onto the past like that. Does first place in an 8 person tourney sound like crazy to you? I know that it doesn't for me.
And, the third one...
Pokemon:
Start out with a central Pokemon theme or a particular Pokemon that you like to work with (for my example, I'll use Feraligatr, Genesis, 100 HP). Work out the evolution chains first(4 Totodile, Genesis, 50 HP; 4 Croconaw, Expedition, 3 Feraligatr). Now, find some good support Pokemon. These guys will almost always be Basic Pokemon, with at least 60 HP, cannot evolve, and have either a big-time attack or a gamebreaking Pokemon Power (2 Suicune, Revelations, 60 HP). Before I forget, make sure that every deck that you build has at least 2 Cleffa from Neo Genesis and 1 Tyrogue from Neo Discovery (3 Cleffa, 2 Tyrogue). Also, make sure that you are using somewhere around 10-12 Basic Pokemon. One of the biggest mistakes that I see younger players making is using multiple types. At your level, it will be much too hard to manage more than one type, unless you're running either Darkness or Metal Pokemon in the deck. Also, NEVER play more than ONE (1) type of Stage 2 Pokemon in a given deck. They are extremely difficult to manage, even for an experienced player, and almost never work. You should have somewhere between 10 and 20 Pokemon cards in total in your deck, with 12-16 being the optimal area.
Trainers:
Now that you've got your Pokemon core established, you have to work on your trainers. This should be the bulk of your deck. In here, you need to fill these main catagories:
Card Drawing
Searching
Healing
Card Recovery
Board Control
Opponent Hand Disruption
Gymbreaker (Optional)
Now, you're wondering what each of these terms mean. Card Drawing is fairly straightforeward: get cards into your hand. The best cards for this job are Oak from Base, Elm from Genesis, and Copycat from Expedition. Searching is getting the right card into your hand at the right time. Computer Search is the best searching trainer out there, but, since it is not legal in Modified, Pokemon Trader is used instead in that format. Healing is removing damage from your Pokemon. The best cards for this are Gold Berry from Genesis, Focus Band from Genesis, and Pokemon Center from Base. All of these healers are deck-specific. For example, Gold Berry only works if your main attacker has more than 100 HP. Focus Band is just for Pokemon saving purposes. Pokemon Center is for the Swarm and Stall decks, which don't have much energy for the Pokemon that they use. Card Recovery is the returning of cards from your discard pile. Item Finder from Base, Town Volunteers from Aquapolis, and Fisherman from Skyridge are the best card recovery trainers out there. Item Finder should be used in every deck. Town Volunteers and Fisherman are deck specific. Read their texts and figure out which decks would suit them best. Board control is just the ability to move anything on the playing field when you want to or need to. Gust of Wind from Base, Switch from Base, and Double Gust from Genesis are the best out there. Double Gust should only be used if you have a deck full of free-retreaters, at least in Unlimited. Gust is your all-purpose disruption card. Also, I would place Energy Removal and Super Energy Removal in this catagory, and you should play AT LEAST 4 of these cards in total, if not more. Trust me on this, they are brutal when unleashed in swarms of 2 or 3. Opponent Hand Disruption is available only in Unlimited, and only through the Lass/Eeeeeeek combo. For now, don't concern yourself with this particular technique. A Gymbreaker is a Stadium card that either helps you or hurts your opponent, but you can win without actually playing it. This is generally optional, and is used when you have extra spots left. You should have anywhere from 22-34 Trainers in your deck. I know this sounds like a little much, but here is my standard Unlimited trainer engine:
Trainers (31)
3 Oak
2 Elm
3 Copycat
3 Gold Berry or Focus Band
3 Computer Search
3 Item Finder
3 Gust of Wind
4 Energy Removal
3 Super Energy Removal
3 Switch
1 Town Volunteers or Fisherman
This is just a sample of what my trainer engine is like. You should modify this to suit your own needs.
Energy:
This is either the simplest or most complex part of the deck. By now, you should have 10-18 spots left open. If you are playing a two-type deck, the challange here is to find the right combination of energy, and this takes nothing short of playtesting. If you are running either Darkness or Metal, 4 of that energy and 0-4 Rainbow Energy are a requirement, depending upon how much you depend on that particular Pokemon. If you just have a single type of Pokemon (excluding colorless), then just fill the rest in with that type of energy.
Now you have a deck to work with. That's good, you're about halfway to your goal. Now, you have to play with this deck, and improve upon it. You might discover that certain combos don't work as well as you might have planned, or that there's something missing that you didn't even know was not there. Until you get to the point where you are winning almost all the time, you should change the deck after almost every time you play it. Unless the deck completely bombs, you should not completely tear up a deck and start from scratch. Just change around the numbers or types of cards that you have in the deck until you get the number that seems to click right for you. Once that happens, congratulations!!! You have just completed stage 1 of your training!!! Start working on a new deck, and come back to your original deck in about a year. You'll be surprised as to how much it has deteriorated in that year, and you'll want to change it again. Good luck, and have fun with this game!!!