Power Burn [TCG Online]

[Warrior Rapter]

This is one of my first competitively focused decks I've made on TCG Online, and while I feel like it's a good deck, it still seem to fall behind sometimes. My current win/loss with it is 52/22. What my goal was is a sort of anti-meta deck, as I wanted to have something that fit my style without using any EX pokemon, which to make a comparison, my favorite style of deck in other TCGs is a burn deck. I also wanted to try out having a dragon in the deck, as I haven't really had the chance in the past. I appreciate the help.

Decklist:
B/W 23/114 Darumaka x3
B/W 25/114 Darmanitan x2
Dragons Exalted 38/124 Mareep x3
DE 39/124 Flaaffy x2
DE 40/124 Ampharos x1
Boundaries Crossed 51/149 Voltorb x3
Plasma Freeze 33/116 Electrode x2
Legendary Treasures 93/113 Rayquaza x4

Pokemon: 20

Energy Retrieval x2
Pokemon Catcher x3
Cheren x2
N x4
Professor Juniper x2
Frozen City x2
Plasma Badge x3

Trainers: 18

Double Colorless Energy x4
Fire Energy x9
Lightning Energy x9

Energy: 22

 

[donavannj]

22 Energy seems a bit high. You'd probably be better off in the 16-18 range.

And what's the deal with only one of the Ampharos? If you're going to commit 5 spots to Mareep and Flaaffy, why only include 1 Ampharos?

 

[Warrior Rapter]

I'm so use to doing a 3-2-1 setup for evolutions with my experience with actual cards, which means I never had access to things like rare candy, sadly. I know I could put them in here, surely, especially with the energy range fix you suggested, I just worry it'll end up being one of those things that, means I'm not experienced with it, I will somehow end up using it wrong.

 

[donavannj]

Pyramid setups aren't typically good in the physical game, either, but if you're only playing among friends they're typically more than serviceable, although the moment one friend goes full 3-3-3, 4-3-3, or 4-3-4 setup, that friend will instantly wreck everyone else's deck in the circle (I know this from playtesting I've done against myself in the past, with some decks using the pyramid setup and others using 4-3-3 evolution lines). Consistency is the focus of not using a pyramid setup.

The non-pyramid setup is actually very, very hard to screw up, because its entire purpose is to increase consistency. You can get away with a 2-2-2 evolution tree because a 2-2-2 is far more consistent at getting to the end stage than a 3-2-1. I guarantee that you won't screw it up. Setting up the most useful stage in an evolution line as soon as possible is the most important thing in an evolution deck.

 

[Warrior Rapter]

So... maybe try to get 3-3-3 for the Ampharos evo, and maybe add another Cheren for extra card draw? Which would put me at the 18 energy mark.

 

[donavannj]

That sounds like a decent place to start and see if the deck plays any better or worse.

 

[Profen]

In my opinion. When you are using a pokemon like ampharos. Who's ability only works while in the active position. Your deck is better off focusing on only having that pokemon in the active if at all possible. So having secondary attackers is generally a bad idea, since the moment you take ampharos out of the active, your opponent is free to attach energy again. My ampharos deck also runs frozen city to increase the energy attachment damage, but also damaging my pokemon in the process. So including pokemon with outrage for other element damage for coverage can be helpful. Especially during the early turns when ampharos is not out yet.

Pokemon like electrode with magnetric draw are something you can add in. It just sits on the bench and you abuse its ability.

Either way, ampharos does a solid 70 to active and 20 to bench pokemon. Most pokemon need to at least attach 1 energy, instantly dropping 3 damage counters on that pokemon. 70 + 30 is 100 damage if they are the active, if the pokemon is on the bench it can be 20 + 30 for 50 damage, while on the bench. Now that doesnt seem like much at first but if you also add in frozen city. That is 50 damage per energy attached to the pokemon manually.70 + 50 to the active is already 120. Now if you also attach silver bangle to ampharos and you attach an Ex pokemon that would give you a total of 150 damage with only 1 energy attachment and 1 attack. If they need to attach more energy, they are pretty much dead in the water.

As donavannj was saying before. Consistency is the name of the game for competitive decks. So getting out that ampharos on turn 2 almost every time you play is the only way this sort of deck has a chance of being competitive.

This deck https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=314611 has been by far the most successful that i have had while using ampharos. If you are planning on keeping ampharos, something along the lines of this deck list is the way to go. If not, you aren't getting the full use out of it and might as well build a different deck.