How to make deck faster

[Andromecorn]

So I was thinking about making a superfast deck with squirtle line, 2 keldeo EX, emboar line, and 2 reshiram full arts. However, it hasn't been very successful lately. I'm guessing its because it's too slow to be fast. Can anyone help me? (oh, and i only have 2 rare candies and 2 evosodas)
Pokemon
Keldeo EX x 2
Squirtle BCR x 1
Squirtle PLB x 1
Wartortle PLB x 2
Blastoise PLB x 1
Reshiram Full Art BW x2
Tepig BCE x 2
Pignite BW x 2
Emboar 20/114 BW x 1

Trainers
Energy Search x 3
Energy Switch x 1
Evosoda x 2
Pokemon Catcher x 2
Prof Letter x 4
Switch x 3
Ultra Ball x 2
Caitlin x 2
Cilan x 4
Team Flare Grunt x 1

Energy
Fire energy x 11
Water energy x 11

 

[shaswatdgr8pokefan]

Too many energies!! Cut down 8 energies and add 4 Energy retrieving/searching cards!! No more than 14 energies!! 2 Stage 2 lines are a bit hard to rub if you dont have Rare Candy, i am afraid. And Cilan is a bad card. Use Prof's letter only. Add N and Junipers for drawing/refreshing your hand.

 

[donavannj]

Moving this to the appropriate section, but a lot of what shaswatdgr8pokefan says is true. Running 2 Stage 2's is a challenge in the modern format and slows a deck down significantly, and 22 Energy are just taking up space that you could use for useful Trainers like N and Professor Juniper/Professor Sycamore (can only use one or the other of Juniper/Sycamore - if one is in your deck, the other can't be)instead. Also, for the Stage 2 lines, having just a single copy of the final stage will slow you down significantly as well, and hamper you severely if you lose either one.

Although Cilan isn't a terrible card. It's just not as good as instead using it for one of the Professors or Skyla. Speaking of, get some Skyla in your deck. She's extremely handy. And also, use Float Stone instead of Switch. It lasts longer since it's a Tool card.

Just issues I've noticed at a glance.

 

[FurretFTW!!1!]

If you want a faster version of this deck, pick either Emboar or Blastoise and focus on building a deck around just that Pokemon line. Then you only have to worry about one evolution line. EvoSoda is slower than Rare Candy if you have a thick line like 4 Squirtle, X Wartortle, and 4 Blastoise, all you need is to grab the Stage 2 and the Candy and you're set, it sure saves time. Keldeo is a great attacker, so focus on that. Supporters are key for consistency and speed, so play plenty. Typical lines look like 4 Juniper, 4 N, 4 Skyla, 2 Colress, 3 Tropical Beach (for the few that have hundreds of extra dollars). Trainer cards are incredibly important, too. Different types of PokeBalls, Energy Search cards (for this deck in particular), and other deck-specific trainers are important for success in high-end tournaments. Here's a Blastoise list that won a recent George Regionals. Notice the heavy trainer lines and focused list:

Pokémon: 15

3 Squirtle BCR
1 Wartortle BCR
3 Blastoise BCR
2 Keldeo-EX
2 Black Kyurem-EX PLS
1 Black Kyurem BCR
1 Suicune PLB
1 Voltorb PLF
1 Electrode PLF

Trainers: 33
3 Professor Juniper
3 N
4 Skyla
1 Colress
3 Ultra Ball
1 Level Ball
1 Heavy Ball
4 Rare Candy
4 Superior Energy Retrieval
2 Pokémon Catcher
1 Super Rod
1 Tool Scrapper
1 Professor's Letter
1 Dowsing Machine
3 Tropical Beach

Energy: 12
9 Water Energy
3 Lightning Energy

If you have any questions about the list, feel free to ask. I'll do what I can to clarify deck choices.

 

[Andromecorn]

Thanks for everything, and even if I don't have a super rod or float stone, I managed to make it a bit faster... I realized that the deck shouldn't have two main attackers when I got a squirtle line and reshiram

 

[Inkblots]

I've got a squirtle line as well. Something that I've been finding extremely helpful in speeding up my deck: have a pokemon with "Call for Family" and get it active quickly (I've been using Kangaskhan because it can take a few hits), then you can find all the basics you need within 3 turns at most. You would need three Pokemon Fan Clubs and/or a lot of pokeballs/ultraballs/masterballs/etc. to accomplish the same thing. This way, you can save your pokemon-searching cards for purely for evolutions, or free up space for other useful cards.

Also, I would recommend extra Caitlins or Shauna over Juniper or N (you might get fewer cards, but you can control which cards you get rid of with Caitlin, and with both your hand gets shuffled back into your deck rather than being discarded), and replace the Pokemon Catchers with Lysandre if you can (same effect, but not dependant on a coin flip)

 

[FurretFTW!!1!]

There's a reason that I would bet a thousand dollars that no States-winning Master division deck played a single Caitlin, and very few even touched Shauna while almost all of them played Juniper and N. They are far more powerful and add much needed speed to a deck. Life advice: it takes too long to be a perfectionist unless you have the skill. Too bad the format doesn't include supporters with enough "skill" to prevent you from losing some cards to an unfortunate discard. Good thing you're moving faster than your opponent is, though.

 

[Inkblots]

I can understand using Juniper or N over Shauna because of extra cards, but why would they be superior to Caitlin? Early on in the game, N might have an advantage because that's when you're most likely to have few cards in hand, but you're also potentially helping out your opponent. Later in the game, unless you've gotten few/no prizes and/or your opponent has taken all but one or two, it's not going to help you out all the much. Caitlin gives you control, while potentially getting you more cards - and therefore being more likely to draw what you need - than N or Juniper if you've been having a really bad time of things. Sure, it's not that useful if you don't have many cards in your hand, but neither is N if you've only got a couple prize cards left, and at least in my own experience, the times when Caitlin is least useful are also the times when I don't need a refresher.

I mean, I'd love to hear the reasoning behind Juniper/N being superior and would consider changing my opinion, but having used all three, I've found Caitlin much more useful in setting up quickly if I've started with a bad hand and in saving my butt late in the game when I most need a hand refresh.

 

[donavannj]

N's best use is really as late-game disruption and is best utilized when behind, and always has been. Disruption is rare in Pokemon, and it's extremely valuable when it happens to disrupt your opponent's meticulously procured hand, especially when the side-effect is that you get to refresh your hand.

As for Caitlin, she is just way too slow. Drawing in the offline metagame has always been blazing fast, and wasting a supporter slot on a card that swaps out rather than just outright plowing through your deck will slow you down considerably, especially since a large unplayed hand is not terribly desirable in the offline metagame. Juniper/Sycamore allow you to draw 7 cards to your hand no matter how little or how many cards you have in it at the time you play it, while Caitlin is dependent on how many you think you can afford to part with. Caitlin would be an amazing card if it were on a Item card rather than a Supporter. It would be even better if it were an Ability, like it was back in the DP era.

N and Juniper/Sycamore (pick one or the other - the rules say you can't have both Juniper and Sycamore in a deck) are by far the best ways available to speed up a deck while giving it some teeth.

 

[FurretFTW!!1!]

The reason to play Juniper is because it gives you a solid seven card hand that you can play, which is massive card advantage, while Caitlin gives you one less card than you had. It's minus cards that you're able to play. If your hand is atrocious, like three Professor Juniper and four Double Colorless, then yes, I'd wish I had a Caitlin. However, there is always a situation in which one card is better than another, and Juniper is more useful in the vast, vast majority of situations than Cailtin is. Even in the above situation, I'd rather have the far better Cheren to draw me three cards until I grab the N to send the hideous hand back into the deck.

You get the best starting hand imaginable. You play every single card in your hand, search your deck for awesome basics, attach the energy you need, set up your discard pile, and now you have one supporter in your hand. Do you want a Caitlin, or do you want Professor Juniper?

Your hand has junk in it, none of these cards help you in any way, and off of your last turn supporter, you have a four card hand and one supporter. Do you want Caitlin, or do you want Juniper?

If everyone plays N, and you're somehow ahead with your Caitlin deck, and the opponent N's you to three cards, and you have a supporter in your hand, would you want a Caitlin or Juniper?

Here's why people use N:

You get the best starting hand imaginable. You play every single card in your hand, search your deck for awesome basics, attach the energy you need, set up your discard pile, and now you have one supporter in your hand. Do you want a Caitlin, or do you want N?

Your hand has junk in it, none of these cards help you in any way, and off of your last turn supporter, you have a four card hand and one supporter. Do you want Caitlin, or do you want N?

You're behind with your Caitlin deck, and the opponent has an eight card hand and three prizes left. You have five prizes left and an okay hand and one supporter. Do you want to play Caitlin, or do you want to play N?

So, yes. Caitlin is pretty weak when your opponent can do 100+ damage on turn 2 and you're still doing weak hand refresh digging through your deck two or three cards at a time, effectively netting +0 cards by the end of your turn because you get minus card advantage with it. Shauna is a good card for Speed Lugia EX in place of some N, but even then, it's a big niche. Not Caitlin, though. You trade them to your friend named Caitlin for the sake of novelty.

 

[Inkblots]

Okay, that makes sense. I think my experience with these cards is partly from playing exclusively in the TCGO. To be honest, I've rarely had any of the problems you described Furret, and I've never had an opponent with a card doing 100+ damage early on in the game, and I rarely need a hand refresh early in the game. I can really only attribute that to differences in the meta (which, well, is all over the place in the TCGO). The problem I have most often is mid- to end-game I find myself with two or three cards in my hand that I need, and a bunch that I don't, hence my choice to use Caitlin, and why I no longer use N or Juniper in my deck. 90% of the time, they simply aren't as efficient at solving the problems I encounter as Caitlin.

But yes, I can see how Caitlin would not be as useful in "real world" meta. Thank you for the explanation.