Zoroark deck... Not sure where to go with it.

[Lycus]

I'm trying to build a deck with Zoroark, but I'm not sure what good support will be. I was kind of thinking some royal heal Serperiors, because when I was testing it I found he was easy to knock out with his low hit points, but IDK. I was kind of going for a "build quick and hit hard" sort of deal, and trying to build a 2nd stage pokemon who's only purpous is to sit on my bench doesn't seem like it would work with what I want to do.
I tested him out with some Muks, because I like muk, but found I wasn't really using him. I also had a Houndoom Prime, and the fire breath was nice and knocked some guys out for me, but I think I may be able to put something more useful in there instead.

Anyhow, disassembled that for the most part. Here's what I have so far

4-4 Zoroark
2-2 Houndoom Prime
4 Double Colorless
4 Special Dark
2 Expert Belts

Not much of a start. Any seggestions?

 

[donavannj]

Apparently it gets paired most often with Cinccino, though I usually only see it as a card added in to decks as opposed to being a star of its own deck.

 

[Rocket_Executive]

It's not often that a deck's main pokemon is zoroark, just because it doesn't have an attack that can reliably do damage. It's totally dependent upon what you are facing, and if the defending pokemon is something like gengar which basically doesn't do damage, you're totally out of luck. It's mostly for tossing out when you see something heavy-hitting like reshiram. Cinccino is an option, being a stage 1 makes it fairly quick and with cards like dual ball and pokemon collector, it's usually not difficult to set up the 100 damage with a full bench. However, compared to other pokemon which are popular in this format, 100 damage isn't that much and it will get knocked-out easily with its 90HP. Houndoom prime is alright if that's all you have, what other pokemon do you have available to put in the deck?

 

[Tanaki]

Yeah, as much as I do love Zoroark and have often toyed with the idea of playing a full-on Zoroark deck, there really isn't much point. It's subjectivity of relying on your opponent's active pokemon's attack can make it an extremely weak primary. A single Donphan would overwhelm you, Yanmega would obliterate you in any number of ways, and a Reshiram with a strong support will quickly overpower you.

I would say definitely run him as a tech, but in a 1-1 or 2-2 line only. When pokemon catcher comes out, it may change, since you can basically use pokemon catcher as a system of choosing which pokemon's attack you wish to use, but granted it still has to be against the one you choose, so you're better off just having a solid attacker.

The best offensive stage 1's in the game are Donphan and Yanmega, since Donphan's energy cost is low at 1 fighting energy and Yanmega's attacks are free as long as your hand matches your opponent's, and he also retreats for free, and Zoroark runs on a single DCE. However a playset of Donphan and/or Yanmega Primes ain't cheap. Beartic looks to be good in the future, but is still defeated by Yanmega, and requires some help from Feraligatr Prime.

Reshiram and Zekrom are the most solid basic attackers in the game, are easy to get a hold of, but are totally dependant on support cards that will cost you heavily.

To get solid attack quickly, you'll have to have lots of support pokemon on your side, things like candies and lots of search power, and scapegoats like Cleffa to take the fall instead of your main pokemon. An Emboar/Ninetales engine works well with Zoroark if you're dead set on using him, though.