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Big Guns


Ten list

:

    10. Mr. Mime - Mr. mime has one of the best pokemon powers in the game,

and his attacks aren't bad either

    9. Dewgong- He is a great pokemon!! for 3 it does 50 damage, and for 4 it

does 30 damage and a 50% chance of paralize, I think he is better than

gyrados because he doesn't need all water enegry, he has a better

pre-evolution and he is much easier to get

    8. Charizard- Some people say he is the greastist card, they are wrong,

Others say he is the worst in the game they are also wrong ( that award goes

to fearow) He has 120 hp, which is tied for best in the game, and his attack

can kill nearly every card in the game, ( but you usually only get one or two

firespins off anyway)

    7. Alakazam- Damage switch, nuff said

    6. Clefable- Although he doesn't have alot of hitpoints, and is weak to

the gaymaker, i mean haymaker, Clefable has a great attack for one enegry,

although minimize is rarely useful

    5. Chancey- 120 HP basic pokemon, with a retreat cost of 1, Chancey has

saved me many times while another pokemon was unavibile, or i was bulding it

on the bench, Although his attacks are useless

    4 Eletabuzz- 70 HP for a Basic is Beefy enough to take some damage, and

for 2 enegry is does 30+ damage, but you get hurt if you get a tails

    3. Blastoise- Blastoise is really a great card! It has the best pokemon

power in the game!! if you can get him out, you can do 60 damage on the

second turn!!

    2 Hitmochan- Don't dis the chan chan man. He has 70Hp which is great for

a basic and a attack that does 20 for 1 and 40 for 3

    Now Before i say the No. 1 choice, Here's a blaint Promotion

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Now the number one pokemon, This pokemon measures in at 3' 7" and is 44

pounds light our big winner is.....................................

1 Ninetales- this is THE most underrated card in the game. I pplay a mono

fire deck with 3 ninetales and have a current pokemon leauge record of 6-0 (

i joined last week)

Now let's look at ninetales stats

 Hitpoints- 80 not bad for a type one, but not great

 Attacks- This is where the power of ninetales is shown. Lure is a great

attack, i maininly use it on a pokemon being built on the bench, But

fireblast is SOO awsome

It takes 4 fire to use, which isn't small, but it's attack does 80 damage,

and only 1 enegry must be discarded it use it, unlike charizard, who must

discard 2 to do 100 damage.

Retreat cost- 1 that is SOO good, so when my most powerful pokemon is hurt, i

can easly retreat it

1. Charizard: It has 120hp, it can do 100 damage and it just needs to discard

2 fire energy, not that much to discard, it has a resistance to fighting to

keep it away from Hitmos and Machamps.

2. Gyarados: It is the only stage 1 pokemon to have 100hp(besides Arcanine),

it can do 50 or 40 and paralyze the opponent if the coin lands on heads. It

doesnt have a weakness to electric like most water pokemon do. It has a

resistance to fighting unlike other water pokemon.

3. Dragonite: One of the few good colorless pokemon. It has 100hp, Slam can

do 80 damage if you get 2 heads and step in can switch the active pokemon

with dragonite without the switch card or retreat cost.

4. Venusaur/Machamp: These are both even, they have 100hp and they can do 60

damage, many pokemon have resistance to fighting, Machamp makes up of that

with strikes back. Venusaur can take one of the G energies from someone who

doesnt need and can give it to someone who does need a Grass energy.

5. Blastoise: This is an excellent card, it can give a water energy to one of

your water pokemon and it doesnt waste the turn of energy attachments, it has

100hp and can do 60 damage, the downside, it need 5 water energies attached

to it to do 60 damage.

6. Ninetales/Raichu: These both has 80hp, Ninetales does 80 but it has to

discard 1 fire energy. Raichu can do Agility if the coin is heads, you

prevent all effect of attacks including damage done to Raichu and Thunder

does 60 damage and if the coin is tails, Raichu does 30 damage to itself.

7. Aerodactyl: 60hp and 30 damage sounds crappy and that he can only kill

basic pokemon, look at its pokemon power, the opponent can not use evolution

cards. It has a resistance to its own type so confusing it wont be a good

idea.

8. Gengar: This card is great! It can do 30 damage and 10 to one of your

opponents benched pokemon, its pokemon power is great. It can remove 1 damage

counter from one of your opponents pokemon and put it on another of your

opponents pokemon, even if it kills it.

9. Haunter/Venomoth: These 2 are so fun to use, as long as your the one

controlling them, Haunter has 50hp, nightmare does 10 damage and the defender

is automatically asleep. Its pokemon power can remove all effects of attacks

from Haunter if heads. Venomoth has 70hp, its Venom Powder does 10 and if

heads, the defender is Poisoned and confused. With shift, it can turn into

any type besides colorless.

10. Alakazam:  It has 80hp, damage swap and remove 1 damage counter from one

of your pokemon and put it on another as long as it doesnt kill it. Confuse

Ray does 30, flip a coin, if heads, the defender is now confused.

Top ten trainers:

1. Pokeball: Flip a coin, if heads, search your deck for any basic or

evolution card from the deck, and put it on your hand.

2. Recycle: Flip a coin, if heads, remove one card from the discard pile.

3. Energy Retrieval: Trade one of the other cards in your hand for 2 basic

energy cards from the discard pile

4. Defender: Reduces the attack from your opponent by 20

5. Pokedex: Discard one card in your handin order to draw 5 cards

6. Bill: Draw 2 cards

7. Gust of Wind: If the opponent has any benched pokemon, choose one and

switch it with the defending pokemon.

8. Switch: Switch one of your benched pokemon with your active pokemon.

9. Super Potion: Discard one enrgy card attached to your atcive pokemon in

order to remove 4 damage counters from it

10. Revive: Remove one of your basic pokemon from the discard pile and put

half damage counters on it from his life.

Top ten worst pokemon:

1. Staryu: Extremely useless, it is the worst card in the world because

evolve it and it is still useless, I reccomend you sell it.

2. Ghastly: This card SUX @$$!!!  I reccomend you use the fossil Ghastly

instead.

3. Mankey: Peek is the only card that is in good use.

4. Kabuto: If it werent for Kabuto Armorand evolution into the powerful

Kabutops, it would have been the worst.

5. Rattata: Useless.

6. Vulpix: It is sorry as hell. Makes up of that with evolution into

Ninetales.

7. Magneton: It sux because it kills itself to do fair damage, and in my

opinion, fair damage SUX.

8. Dratini: Useless, exept for Dragonair and Dragonite.

9. Meowth: Not very good, only 50hp and payday does 10 damage and you have to

flip a coin to draw a card.

10: Magikarp: If it werent for evolving into Gyarados, it would have been #1

in the worst cards of all time.

10)  Professor Oak - why Prof Oak, well, youve got that last card in your

hand, and you get the option to draw 7 more, sounds good to me, plus it will

help you get to the cards ya need faster. Nothing wrong with that

9) Mr. Mime - the power AWSOME, the attack is great, but there is something

about 40 HP that REALLY messes him up, i mean, to a Charizard or Zapdos, hes

god, but when hes up against Hitmonchan hes got the short end of the stick.

if he had maybe 10 or 20 more HP he would be in my top 3

8) Pinsir - awsome card, his attack that does 20 is great but the fact he can

be hitting for 50 is even better, truely annoying to fight against.

7) Zapdos - a lotta people think he sucks, but hes accually quite awsome, 90

HP for a basic is REALLY strong, Resitant to fighting (when most lighting

pokemon are weak to fighting) and 2 strong attacks, the 100 damage one

obviosly isnt always gonna help you, but when your hitting for 60 every turn,

it may come in handy, also try building up benched pokemon, then hitting for

100, then scoop up.

6) Gengar - This is one of those Pokemon where, the more, the better, can you

imagine having 3 of these on your bench while your Mime is reaking havoc on

the opponent?

5) Scyther - ANY deck can use him!  his sword Dance attack is FAR from

useless, and infact is extemely usefulwhen they got 60 HP you sword dance

(you would have delt 30 anyways) making them less able to retreat cause if

they do POW 60 damage on the new Pokemon!

4) Blastoise - one of the few stage 2 pokemon i like (other then Alakazam or

Gengar) hes one of the only stage 2 pokemon that i would accually make a deck

around, his pokemon power can mean a fully powered bench by the second turn,

scary.

3) Scoop Up - Scoop up? why Scoop up? well, its just the most annoying card

there is.  that kangiskhan has been drawing tem countless cards as they build

up the bench, while you have FINALLY done 80 damage to it, and scoop up, no

prize for you, and then can send out there strong force of pokemon.  it also

works in countless other situations such as Alakzam Decks, scoop up old

Chansey on the Bench plus, its prettyy good on any other basic pokemon.

2) Hitmonchan - This guy is lightning fast.  Jab will hit forf 20 damage, and

when youve got 2 more energy on him, POW 40 damage a turn, plus hes a basic

pokemon with a good amount of HP so he can take a few hits.

1) Electabuzz - Yup Electabuzz, Hes awsome, you can probably ass lighting

energy and hit in ANY deck, and it will be awsome.  10 damage for his first

turn attack, and a possiblity for 40 for his next. since he doesnt eat up a

lot of energy, you can start working on a tough bench while hes hitting for

30 or 40 every turn!

10)Energy Removal-this usually craps up there game for a

turn and its extra fun when your ER a DCE! =)

9) 3 way tie Blastoise,Alakazam,Gengar- The onl;y stage 3s

worth putting in a deck. Venusaur is okay but I wouldn't.

These three are so good! (pokemon powers) yep the only

stage 3s that should go in a deck.

8) Pinsir-underratted but I play 3 of these guys and you

dono how many times they saved my butt. there an all around

great card, try it in your grass deck! =)

7)Hitmonchan-the uncrowned haymaker king. I despise

haymakers but he is just to awesome.I would play him if

there weren't such thing as resistance

6)Scoop up- Switch and heal! I love it!! its letting me go

20-3! so scoop up should go in every deck!

5)Comp Search- I never realized their power until I

actually played one. They win me games! its

amazaing...hehe...my increadibly crappy deck does win

games...hehe

4)Professer Oak-The old man is incredibly good! thumbs up

to this old timer

3)Electabuzz-The uncrowned prince of Haymakers. as I said

before I dispise haymakers but I love this guy! he's so

cool! again I would play him if there was no such thing as

resistance.

2)Scyther-This guy is so amazing...when I first played him

I didn't get why ppl said he was good then he killed all my

opponents pokemon! it was so amazing!

1)drum roll please! *drum roll* the winner is.....BILL!

there is no downside to Bill, he IS the best card in the

game cuz the syco said so! and I do have many ppl to back

me up w/ that fact, Destiny's Child and Brian Brokaw and

many other ppl around here. I'm pretty sure even the pojo

himself agrees w/ me!

Top Ten Pokemon cards and reasons for placement

10 Electabuzz: Extremely good hit points for a basic Pokémon. Plus if used

correctly, he can do up to 50 damage before the opponent can even attack. For

example use Thundershock and it does ten then the defender is paralyzed. Then

use thunderpunch which does 30 more and flip a coin if heads then it does ten

more adding up to a total of 50 with 2 energies. Thats 100 damage to pokemon

with weaknesses to electricity.

9 Poliwrath: 90 Hit points plus the first move is almost as good as

Blastoises. 50 damage. Whirlpool can discard ANY energy card including double

colorless plus dealing 50 damage.

8 Hitmonchan: 1 energy dealing 20 damage and your probably thinking that

Rattatta and Machop can do the same thing but also with the addition of 70 HP

and another move doing forty he pretty much tops most basic pokemon. With a

weakness to an uncommon type of Pokemon its amost as if he doesn't even have

one.

7 Ninetales: While powering up for fire blast (80) you can use lure and stall

the opponent from attacking you. when you add the final energy, Boom! all

grass opponents are dead plus many others. Same hitpoints as damage dealt,

you don't see that very often.

6 Blastoise: Everybody thinks he out fights Venusaur but thy're pretty much

the same only Blastoise does the same damage with more energies and also the

pokemon power is more limited than Venusaurs. 100 HP is a nice touch though.

5 Mr Mime: Mr Mime is awesome because he can not be hurt by anyone that does

more than 20 damage because of his PP. Hit points bite but his only big

threats are abra and Mewtwo.

4. Zapdos: Most people think he's horrible but 100 damage is good because

discarding energies isn't bad because it would kill most pokemon anyway. 90

hitpoints is incredible for a basic. PLus another move providing convenience.

3. Venusaur: the same as Blastoise only dealing more damage for less energies

and the pokemon power over powers his. 100 HP kicks.

2. Clefable: Excellent card and goodbye Zapdos, dugtrio, diglett, ninetales

all in one hit and one energy. 70 HP okay for for stage 1 and minimize is

like a built in defender.

1. Charizard: 100 damage only discarding two energies. Small price to pay to

kill most any pokemon. Excellent HP, PP, and Move. Overpowers most pokemon

and once the fourth and final energy is attacthed, the games over.

Cream of the Crop 25

25. Pokemon Trader - Get out that Mr. Mime, Alakazam, Blastoise, whatever&

24. Gyarados - Crappy unevolved form, but very effective in Raindance decks

with

its Dragon Rage and Bubble Beam. Its Weakness to grass adds variety, and is

resistant to fighting which is very useful. Alternative? Dewgong.

23. Pluspower - Can make your kill one turn faster. If you need 50 damage but

you can only do 40, it saves you a turn. Use it wisely. Haymakers? Use 2-4

22. Clefable - Evolve it early and it can be very effective. Metronome is an

excellent attack and it costs 2 energy less than its unevolved form. 70 HP is

nice too.

21. Pokemon Breeder - Evolves twice. Nice for decks that rely on a certain

Stage

2 Pokemon, such as Blastoise, Alakazam, etc&

20. Computer Search - Get that Professor Oak, Blastoise, Alakazam, that was

hiding in your deck for all that time. Discarding 2 hurts but it can be well

worth it. Very useful with Professor Oak because you have to discard your hand

anyways. Also good with Bill to use 3 cards to draw 2.

19. Jigglypuff - Anti-Mr.Mime Decks. Massively Hurts Mr. Mime, doing exactly 20

damage and resistant to Psychic. Watch Out for Hitmonchan.

18. Farfetch d - Anti-Hitmonchan. Good Damage for a Double Colorless Energy and

any other energy. Not as good as Scyther though.

17. Pokemon Center - Potential game winner. Can turn the game around in a

second. Use with Alakazam or Venusaur.

16. Scoop Up - Combination of Devolution Spray, Switch, and Pokemon Center.

Steals one kill from your opponent, one of the best defensive cards for basic

pokemon, especially Hitmonchan and Chansey. A must for Haymakers.

15. Venusaur - Get him out and have almost infinite energy. Also, use with

Pokemon Center.

14. Energy Removal - Slows down opponent without slowing yourself down. Include

at least 1.

13. Kangaskhan - Good staller.Easier to kill than Chansey but can be a very

powerful card drawing machine. Ideal for Blastoise decks.

12. Double Colorless Energy - Use with Farfetch d, Scyther, Jigglypuff,

Kangaskhan, etc. Creates speed in colorless pokemon and some colored.

11. Super Energy Removal - Turns an opponent s attacker into a punching bag.

Stops all pokemon, but slows one of your own.

10. Chansey - Excellent for stalling and waiting for the right cards. Tip: Use

with Scoop Up or Pokemon Center.

9. Electabuzz - 30 - 40 damage with 2 energy. Beats Blastoise in a flash.

Weaknesses: Self-Damage, weak to Hitmonchan.

Gust of Wind - If used wisely, it is an instant kill. Can be used

defensively or

offensively. Effective against Blastoise, Charizard, Venusaur, Alakazam, and

any Pokemon that likes to warm the bench.

7. Bill - The only card in the game that you will always be happy to draw.

Though doesn t provide power, it is very useful. Use 4 in any deck.

6. Alakazam - Damage Swap works well with Pokemon Center to give you a huge

edge

on the game.

5. Blastoise - Raindance is extremely powerful with Professor Oak. Use Oak to

draw some Water Energy. Worth building a deck around this card.

4. Mr. Mime - Very defensive. Near invincible with Alakazam, Chansey, and

Pokemon Center. Beats Hitmonchan. Watch out for Jigglypuff though.

3. Professor Oak - Use with a bad hand, small hand, or better yet, no hand at

all. Gets the cards you need very quickly. Hand advantage equals game

advantage. Useful in all decks. Use 1-3.

2. Scyther - Can stop #1. Free Retreat Cost. Very fast with Double Colorless.

Can be played in any deck. Very important defensive card against Hitmonchan and

other Fighting Pokemon.

Hitmonchan - The best starting pokemon in the game. Incredible speed. Feared by

all. Beats most colorless cards, which are played in all decks. Excellent with

Scoop Up. A must in any Fighting Deck.

Honorable Mentions: Jynx, Ninetails, Dragonair, Kadabra, Item Finder

    TOP TEN (10):

(1)  TIE!!!  I THINK HITMONCHAN AND MR. MIME ARE EQUALLY THE #1 CARDS, EACH

FOR THEIR DIFFERENT PURPOSES.  MIME IS A GREAT CARD FOR HIS WALL AND HITMO IS

A FAST ATTACKER.

(2)  TIE!!!  ELECTABUZZ AND POLIWRATH!!!  I PERSONALLY LIKE HAYMAKERS, BUT

EVEN IF I DIDN'T I COULDN'T IGNORE MR. BUZZ OVER HERE.  CHECK OUT HIS T.

PUNCH ATTACK!!!  ONE WORD FOR POLIWRATH: WHIRLPOOL HIGH ENERGY COST BUT GREAT

MOVE!!!

(3)  TIE!!!  I WOULD PUT CHARIZARD + BLASTOISE ON THE SAME LEVEL HERE AGAIN

FOR THIER OWN REASONS.  CHARIZARDS ONLY BAD PARTS ARE ENERGY COST FOR ATTACK

+ RETREAT AND REMOVALS AND BLASTOISE IS GREAT BUT ONLY FOR ONE THEME.

(4)  ELECTRODE!!!  HIGHLY OVERLOOKED!!! GREAT FOR ENERGY LACKING DECKS.  ONLY

PROBLEM:  THE SACRIFICE OF A PRIZE.  HE'S ALSO GOT HIGH HP AND A GREAT

ATTACK-80 HP, 50 DAMAGE FOR 3 ELEC ENERGY WITH A 50/50 SHOT OF HURTING

HIMSELF 10.

(5)   SCYTHER!!!  I SAID I LIKE HAYMAKERS, MAN.  SWORDS DANCE RARELY HELPS,

BUT 0RETREAT + 30SLASH + BASIC + 70HP = GOOD POKEMON!!!

(6)  RAPIDASH!!!  AGILITY = GREAT.  ONLY PROBLEM IS THOSE DARN RAINDANCE DECKS

(7)  KADABRA!!!  IN PSY STALL DECKS.  ONLY WEAKNESSES ARE MIME AND LOW HP.

AH POO!

(8)  POLIWHIRL!!!  BEST STALLER IN GAME!!!  ESPECIALLY AGAINST PKMN WITH ONLY

1 ATTACK!

(9)  KOFFING!!!  NOT AS GOOD AS SOME PEOPLE HAVE BEEFED IT UP TO BE, BUT A

PRETTY GOOD CARD INDEED.

(10)  DODRIO!!!  IT HAS NO ACTUAL BAD POINTS, EXCEPT FOR THE FACT THAT IT HAS

A HIGH ATTACK COST FOR SEMI-LOW DAMAGE.

                            COMBOS:

JYNX + RATICATE:  JUST SUPER FANG TO TAKE OFF HALF OF DEFENDER'S HP, THEN

MEDITATE THE REST!!!  (EX. CHARIZARD SUPER FANG -60 MEDITATE -80 = DEAD)

MAGNIMITE + DEFENDER(S): EVERYONE KNOWS ABOUT THIS ONE

LASS + IMPOSTER OAK:  USE LASS TO SEE YOUR OPPONENT'S HAND, THEN IF IT'S GOOD

I.P.O HIM!!!!!

ALAKAZAM + PKMN CENTER:  SAME AS MAGNEMITE'S

15. Magneton- Will kill many monsters, put doun low cause it'll kill

it's self.

14. Mankey- Wussy, yeah but the power is excellent. Awesome first turn

attacker.

13. Rapidash- Good card, doesn't take long to power.

12. Pidgeot- Awesome card! Charizards worst night mare! Good luck

killing this card!

11. Jolteon- Death follows this card! Easy to power, awesome attack.

10. Koffing- How many times do you win regardless of the flip? Not many!

9. Electabuzz- Power enravles this card. Blastoises night mare! Will

kill just about any basic!

8. Poliwrath- Charizard haters get this card! Charizard stands no

chance!

7. Scyther- All colorless attack, basic, resistance, 0 retreat, sounds

like a winning combo!

6. Hitmonchan- Mr. Death! Not many can stand a good wallop from this

guy!

5. Mr. Mime- Ultimate against evolution decks! They don't stand a

chance.

4. Machamp- Pokemon power is awesome, no argument.

3. Venomoth- Killer! Leaves death in wake. A coin flip can leave your

opponent hopelessly lost!

2. Blastoise- Rain Dance! This guy is ultimate! Terrorizes the fire deck

owner. But not as good as...

1. Gyarados!!!!!!- Awesome power! Paralyzing chance. Grass hardly stands

a chance.Ultimate power


Fossil Strategy

.

                                                        DITTO ( colorless )

Ditto is going to effect us because of it's power which says it can turn into

the opponents active pokemon.The problem is that you could copy a weedle which

is'nt too good.To avoid this keep it in your hand until they get a good card

like a blastoise or a differn't pokemon.

                                                        MUK ( grass )

This is another pokemon that has a good pokemon power.He can stop all  pokemon

powers not including his.I think this will make raindance decks go a lot slower

because Blastoise can't use his pokemon power.This will also go good against

decks who are centered around alakazam.

                                                        AERODACTYL ( fighting )

This card will probaly be seen in some Haymaker decks.It's a good fighting

pokemon with resistance to fighting what makes it even better is its pokemon

power.His power says that no pokemon can evolve any more as long as this card

remaines in play.This card will probaly stop raindance decks because you can

stop them from getting Blastoise out.

People are wailing over two new fossil cards that will supposedly

destroy any possibility of effectiveness by the ol' damage swap and

raindance decks, but I think these are a bit exaggerated...

For starters, Muk is weak against psychic.  This means that the Base

Set Haunter, and better yet, Kadabra (and you would have to be

strange not to include one in a deck w/ Alakazam!) can kill it in ONE

HIT!  Mr. Mime and Jynx can, too, if it has at least two damage

counters on it.  Drowzee and Alakazam can confuse, and the Haunters

can put it to sleep.  Also, most Damage Swap players I've met use

Chanseys, which can barely kill it in one hit (80 damage to

itself is a small sacrifice for getting your PPs back)  This means

that a good player with a gust could smack down a Muk with ease...

Similarly, Aerodactyl will hurt non-haymaker decks...but the simple

solution is, put in some Pokemon that don't need to evolve!  Don't

make your deck ONLY evolutions (I think this is why Lapras and

Articuno showed up in Fossil...before them, a Raindance deck couldn't

really follow this advice...)  Put Pinsirs in your evo-grass deck!

Put a couple Jynx in your psychic deck!  Get some Scythers!  A

scyther can kill an Aerodactyl in one hit, due to weakness!

With the release of Fossil the deck scene is going to be in for some

major

changes.  Although I hate to admit it my Damage Swap will be dead, as

will

most Pokémon Power based decks.  However Raindance will probably be an

exception, due to Lapras and Articuno.  But the real winner will be

Haymaker,

so with that in mind, lets take a look at the best of the set...

Lapras: This card will be the salvation of Raindance, with a pretty

typical

Water Gun its an obvious card, but, the real great thing is Confuse Ray.

Confuse Ray pretty much ruins Mr. Mime's Invisible Wall.  Lapras is also

water's first BBP, something water desperately needed.

Magmar L 35: This card is in my opinion, the most useful in the set.

His

attacks aren't the most impressive, but the great thing is, Scyther now

has a

rival!  Although Magmar's attacks aren't amazing they are nonetheless

good,

and he is a great starter.  This guy will be in almost every deck,

especially

decks with Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan, Haymakers.

Hitmonlee: Not much to say here, he's a bench destroyer, although I

won't be

using him.  With only 60 HP he's way too vulnerable to Scyther.

Moltres: This card is pretty average at first glance.  But it's first

attack

is what really stands out, finally a way to destroy the opponent's

deck!  I

will personally run two, they are energy intensive which can be a

problem,

although that problem is muted by our next card...

Energy Transfer: This one lets you search for any basic energy card, no

drawbacks!  This is a must for multicolor decks, and I will run three.

I

really can't say enough about how useful this card is.

Articuno: This is the other Raindance savior.  The second water BBP, it

has a

resistance to fighting and no weakness!  Really useful, if its attacks

were a

bit cheaper it would make a great starter.

Muk: This is the one that will ruin most peoples decks, his power

cancels all

powers except his own, a sad day for Damage Swap...

Aerodactyl: Personally I hate this card and will not use it.  One hit

from

Scyther and he's gone.  However he's noteworthy, a solid Pokémon Power.

But

too risky, almost all decks run Scyther's, kind of ruining him.

Mew: Great combo for Aerodactyl, really great combo.  Too bad I won't be

using any.  Still, his first attack can come in handy.  One or two in

any

Psychic deck.

Old Man Fuji: This card is debatable, however I will probably use a few,

good

for saving Zards and things like that.  Too bad it goes back in your

deck,

although it can save you from stall decks!

Recycle: I like this one, its a chance, but I'll still use one or two.

Getting a card from your discard pile can be really helpful.

Haunter: Turns all attacks into coin flips...people are really gonna

hate

this one!  A perfect opportunity to use that Muk or Gust Of Wind!

Gengar: Great power, great attack, need I say more?

Gastly: He's way better than the other one!

Ditto: This one is questionable, but it has it's uses, a real danger to

Psychic decks.

Magneton: A HUGE improvement over the other one, this one has an attack

that

ignores resistance.  And it has a much stronger Self Destruct, I like

him a

lot.

Raichu: Useful in bench destroyers, although his attack is overcosted, I

liked the first one better.

Hypno: Another bench destroyer, with a power like Mankey's peek but

better,

this guy deserves a look, too bad Drowzee stinks so much.

                   Clefairy/Clefable vs. Ditto

Ditto Clefairy/Clefable

Basic                requires less energy

Never able to use it's own weakness

         and resistance*

OUTCOME- ??

Switch vs. Full Heal

     Back to Ditto, Swith will let you bring someone else up AND will

delete any status effects.  But, Swith can also help switch other

pokemon if you cannot retreat.

OUTCOME-Switch

Muk

   This is a powerful pokemon.  Muk has a pokemon power that will

prevent any other pokemon from using a pokemon power.  Raindance, Stall

decks, Invisible wall decks will be shutdown.

Hitmonlee

   THis pokemon is pretty good but lacks attacking ability.  It will

take 3 energy cards to attck the oppenent's active which will do 50

damage.  It's other move, 2 energy, will do 20 damage to one of the

opponents benched pokemon no matter the weakness and resistance.

Articuno

  This is ALRIGHT.  3 energy to do 30 and a chance of paralysis.

Blizzard, 4 energy, will do 50; flip a coind, if heads 10 damage to the

opponenets bench; if tails, the opposite.  Not bad team up with

Blastoise or Gengar.  Pretty good bench disruptor.

Haunter/Gengar

   When ever a pokemon tries to attack Haunter, your opponent has to

flip a coin.  If heads, that attck fails.  No retreat cost or weakness.

Other move does 10 and the pokemon is asleep without flipping.   Gengar

has a pokemon power that you can use once per turn.  You may move 1

damage counter from of your opponenet's benched pokemon to another.

Other move is like jungle pikachu's except that does 30 and requires 3

energy.


How to Become an expert

the top six tips to becoming an expert player.

1)Play:  You have to play good players and a variety of players. You are

only as good as the players you play.  Your win/loss record shows nothing.

Even if you are undefeated.

2)Test:  Try new things, nothing is as rewarding as making your deck.  Then

winning with a new idea.

3)Patience:  I cant stress this enough.  You have to be patient and keep

working on the decks you are making.  Don't give up just because your deck

isn't working.

4)Study:  Look at your deck and cards that may help you.  Learn how certain

decks are played.

5)LOSE:  The best teaching aid is losing.  You learn nothing by winning.

When you lose you get to see what hurts your deck.  Then you can make your

deck better.  I personally like losing and when my deck is hard to beat,I

put it up and work on a new one.

6)Variety: Learn to play a of decks.  Nothing is a s scary as a player

people know can play multiple decks.  (Chipmunk needs to learn this)


Deck Construction

     First off, I like this site very much. Now I always see people with to many pokemon or to less. Another thing, you do not have to make a deck whith only basics. I've seen decks that evolve a lot win aginst decks that do not. I go by these Rules:

1. 12-15 basic pokemon

2. 3-6 evolved pokemon

3. 18 pokemon total

4. 20-25 energy

5. 15-22 trainers

6. one color with multiple weaknesses

7. base your deck around 2-3 pokemon

     Let us make a deck with say grass. Good grass pokemon are: Nidoking, Vileplume, Scyther, Buterfree, Pinsir, Exeggutor. Lets chose Nidoking and Exeggutor.

Now that we have are stars lets get their lower forms.

Now we need some help with colerless or grass pokemon.

Jiggly and Wiggly are more than a match for psycic. Scyther has resistance to fighting(Jiggly's and Wiggly's weakness). I prefer to use resistance to counter weakness. Now for energy. Lets have 20 grass energy and 4 dce.

Our deck should look like this:

20 Grass Energy

4  dce

4  Nidoran(M)

2  Nidorino

1  Nidoking

3  Exeggucte

2  Exeggutor

3  Jigglypuff

1  Wigglytuff

2  Scyther

     This is 24 energy 18 pokemon. Now for trainers. Some trainers that would work good in this deck are: Proffesor Oak, Bill, Pokemon Breeder, Computer Search, Plus Power, Potion, E.R., S.E.R. A pokemon breeder helps Nidoking out. Bill, Proffesor Oak and Computer Search helps get cards out faster. Potion cause your own pokemon get dameged to. Plus Power helps kill your opponet faster. So lets have, 1 Pokemon Breeder, 2 Proffesor Oak, 3 Bill, 2 Computer Search, 4 Potion, 4 Plus Power. Now our deck looks like this:

20 grass energy

4  DCE

4  Nidoran(M)

2  Nidorino

1  Nidoking

3  Exeggucte

2  Exegguctor

3  Jiggly

2  Wiggly

2  Scyther

1  Pokemon Breeder

2  Poffesor Oak

3  Bill

2  Computer Search

4  Potion

4  Plus Power

And there you have it, a great deck. I play with almost

the same deck and it has gone 19 wins, 1 loss(do to a no good cheater that dosen't no how to use clefairy doll).


6 Type of pokemon

This time, I would like to talk about the 6 types of pokémon (I'm not

sure if Colorless counts as a color).

I'll start off with the theme to each Type:

Psychic: Psychics mostly do something with damage counters, like Meditate

attacks or Alakazam's and Gengar's Pokémon Powers.  Two thing I go by with

Psychic pokémon:

Psychic: Regular Psychic pokémon with a Weakness to Psychic.

Ghost: Psychic pokémon with a Resistance to Fighting and no Weakness.

Fire: Many people think that Fire pokémon are bad because they have to

discard energy to use strong attacks, but that's what they go by.  This will

be greatly amplified when Gym Leader Blaine cards come out.

Grass: Negative status effects are Grass pokémon specialty.  Poison,

Paralyze, Confusion you name it.  Some pokémon also go by "draining" the

defending pokémon HP, like Butterfree or Venonat.  I categorize Grass by two

things:

Grass: Regular Grass pokémon that have a weakness to Fire.

Poison: Grass pokémon that have a weakness to Psychic.

Electric: Bench destroying is Electric pokémon specialty, like Jungle

Electrode, Jungle Pikachu, or Fossil Zapdos.  Self-damage is also another of

their theme.  Some examples are Base Zapdos, Electabuzz and Magneton

especially.  Many Electric pokémon also have the ability to Paralyze.

Water: Strong attacks that require lots of energy.  Water pokémon requires

lots of Water energy to do attacks like Water Gun and Hydro Pump.  Luckily,

Blastiose clears up this Con.  Water pokémon are also good against Energy

Removals.

Fighting: Strong attacks for little energy.  Hitmonchan is a great example of

this.  One Fighting energy for 20 damage is good.  But, I categorize Fighting

pokémon by three things:

Fighting: Regular Fighting pokémon that have a weakness to Psychic, like in

the gameboy game.

Rock: Fighting pokémon that have a weakness to Grass, but no Resistance to

Electric (examples are Geodude, Onix, and Kabutops)

Ground: Fighting pokémon that have a Weakness to Grass and a Resistance to

Electric.  Lots of Ground type pokémon require a lot of Fighting energy to

use strong attacks.

Just for fun, I'll do Colorless:

Colorless have a wide verity when it comes to what kind to choose, though,

Colorless is not really the best when it comes to negative status.  These are

the categories I go by for Colorless pokémon:

Normal: Colorless pokémon that have a weakness to Fighting and a Resistance

to Psychic.

Flying: Colorless pokémon that have a Weakness to Lightning and a Resistance

to Fighting.

Dragon: Colorless pokémon that have a Resistance to Psychic or Flying with no

Weakness.

Now to the Good and the Bad:

Psychic:

The Good:  The Ability to amplify damage to high attack damage is really

good.  Recovery is also another theme to Psychic.  Kadabra and Alakazam are

great examples of this.  Also, with the weakness to it's own type, the only

weakness to a Psychic deck is another Psychic deck.  The Ghosts are also a

great Fighting AND Psychic "Knock Outer." (I will not use the term "killer"

or "killed")

The Bad: A Psychic weakness is Confusion.  If you get a Tails while Confused,

it gives 40 damage instead of 20 because of the weakness to it's own type.

Except to the Ghosts.  The low HP on most Psychics are bad.  The high Retreat

Cost is also bad.  Plus a big baddie is the Resistance on many Colorless

pokémon.  Almost all decks have a Colorless pokémon with a Resistance to

Psychic making Psychic pokémon decks almost useless without another color to

help it out.

Fire:

The Good: Very strong attacks that can even take out Water pokémon and

especially Grass pokémon.  Fire's theme is also about fast damage.  It was

meant for an all out attack with damage.  I will not talk about Charizard and

how it's good/bad.  All I want to say is that Charizard was meant for just

attacking and probably some other stuff, but I won't get into that...

The Bad: Fire pokémons big weakness is Energy Removal since most Fire pokémon

have to discard.  Discarding energy is bad, period.  Though, almost all Fire

decks have Energy Retrievals to counter this.  Another is the Weakness to

Water.  Water has very strong attacks making Fire decks rare to find in a

tourney.

Just to let everyone know when Blaine cards come to the U.S. there's this

great Stadium card which does this:

Cinnabar Island Gym (I think)

Type:  Trainer (Stadium Card)

Effect:  Each player's Blaine Pokémon ignores its Weakness to Water.  If

another Stadium card is played, this card is discard this card.

In my opinion, this card is great against Water.

Grass:

The Good: With Nidoking as literally the king of Poison damage and Venusaur

with it's Pokémon Power to protect against Energy Removal, Grass is a little

hard to defeat.  Also, with the Jungle Expansion out, Grass has been greatly

powered up.  One great thing is that some Grass pokémon have a Resistance to

Fighting.  Pretty much a great type to use.

The Bad: The weakness to Fire is a big problem since Fire have really strong

attacks and since lots of Grass pokémon have big evolutions, the Basics are

most likely to get Knocked Out.

Electric:

The Good: Bench destroying is great in battles since there's not that much

your opponent can do to prevent this.  The best thing I like about Electric

pokémon is how fast they are, as in they have low Retreat Cost except for

Zapdos.  They are also fast with Evolution since there aren't any Stage 2

Electric pokémon that I know of.  "Average" HP is also ok.

The Bad: Fighting has lots of strong attacks with some Fighters having

Resistance to Electric, meaning Electric is powerless against Fighting.  Even

though Electric have lots of strong attacks, it takes a lot of energy to use.

 And since the only strong Electric pokémon are rare, Electric decks are

expensive.  The one thing that turns people off to Electric pokémon, I think,

is the fact that lots of Electric damage themselves leaving them more

vulnerable to Fighting

Water:

The Good: Having some of the strongest attacks in the TCG, Water is a great

type to play.  Even Common and Uncommon Water pokémon are strong.  Because of

the need to use lots of Energy, Energy Removal does little effect, especially

Rain Dance Decks.

The Bad: Having the need to use more energy for strong attacks also means

having to add lots of Water Energy to decks making less room for other cards

and Water isn't good with Negative Status except for a couple Paralyzation

attacks on a few.

Fighting:

The Good: Having lots of strong attacks make Fighting go by it's title.  Some

attacks don't take that much energy to attack.  Ground pokémon, like Cubone

and Rhyhorn, take a lot of energy to use attacks so the have stalling attacks

for until it has enough energy to attack.  Also the "higher than average" HP

is the best when you first start the battle.

The Bad: Many pokémon have Resistances to Fighting, especially lots of Grass

pokémon from Jungle.  Flyers are more of a staple in a lot of decks now.

As you can see, I showed all the types of pokémon without being bias to a

type I don't like or a pokémon I don't like and I looked at everything

equally.  I did this color analysis is to show you that no type of pokémon

"sux."  Oh, and here's my Top 10 Pokémon Cards:

10)

9)

8)

7)

6)

5)

4)

3)

2)

1)

Why are they blank, you say?  Because there are no Top 10 pokémon cards.

Maybe a Top 10 Useful, but not the Top 10 in your opinion.  I think all

pokémon cards are equal and unique in their own way (at least in battle).

Hopefully, this article has taught everyone a lesson about not being so bias

about so many cards and about how to use your spell checker ;-)

Pokemon is very difficult game to understand beginners so dont be

discouraged.  Also as we know the new merger is going to happen which will

help us be able to actually see booster packs.  And also for you intense

expert fans the fossil packs will come out so just stay cool.  Another of my

ideas that I personally think is good is to go with making two kinds of

Pokemon for each deck.  Below I will tell you what you have to do to get

these kind of decks.

Fire= I recommend fire for the intense and expert Pokemon players.  Also you

have to know how to use those energy burn attacks that almost all of those

fire Pokemon have.  I suggest to have your energy retrievals and Pokeballs

because that is important to find those evolution cards.

Water= I recommend expert but not so intense players.  You will need a lot of

switches and alot of time to get good enough cards to play with this deck.

You want this kind of deck you have got to find some of those hard to find

ones suck as Blastoise and Poliwrath.  Pokeballs and switches are the

trainers I most recommend.

Fighting=  Recommended for experienced players.  For using fighting

successfully you will have to get the new fossil or the Japanese cards to use

this.  If you dont want to use Japanese or you dont want to wait add some

colorless. The fighting can make you very strong though.  I recommend lots of

potions because many things have resistance to fighting Pokemon.

Phycic=  Recommended for players that are expert.  The reason for being

expert is that there are not very many physhic and you will need to pull

every string though.  Mr. Mime is a must.  Some of the hardest cards to find

are physhic.  And remember to use  enough switches.

Electric= Recommended for advanced players.  These cards arent as hard to

find and there are enough to make a deck of.  If you choose to use all of the

lighting Pokemon put in plenty of energy and potions.  Zapdos can be very

useful if used correctly.

Grass=  This is good for every player from beginner to expert.  There are

plenty of grass Pokemon to choose from.  Because of there numbers you will

have to leave out some of them.  Venusaur leads this group and is the best

one and hardest to collect of them.  I recommend plenty of Pokeballs because

of the evolutions of most of them.

Colorless=  Mostly for beginners because you can use any energy card after

you get a starter set.  There are many good Pokemon in this group but I

cannot choose.  If you know email me and I will tell you that below.  I

highly recommend this for beginners.  They all have pretty high energy

retreat cost so have some switches.  Remember you can through any kind of

energy card in there.

Remember Pokemon lovers not to lose hope and keep trying until you can kick

other decks ***.

Grass:  Attacking: Vileplume-Can do 40 or 80 with a CHANCE of 120 or 0.

                           Venusaur- CAn do a Solid 60 like Machamp.

                            Pinsir and Scyther-50 and 30/60 for a Basic is

good.

                            Nidoking-Toxic-20 Poison...That's an extra 40

each round!

                            Exeggutor-Big Eggsplosion...Need I say more?

            Stalling:Grass doesn't really have a GOOD Staller.

            Bench: Venusaur-Energy Trans

                        Maybe Vileplume-Heal

Fire:     Attacking: Charizard-100 attack.

                           Magmar- 50 for a basic

                           Ninetales- Lure and Fire Blast are Great!

                           Flareon-60 for a stage 1.

                           Arcanine-80 damage, Stage 1

                           Moltres- Can do 80 damage w/ a 50% chance of

failing, it's ok

                           Magmar(Fossil)- Can poison, and can have a chance

of not being attacked.

            Stall:  Maybe Charizard(120 HP)

                     Maybe Rapidash (Agility)

            Bench:None

Water:  Attacking:  Blastoise- can do 60

                            Dewgong-A Stage 1, can paralyze or do 50

                            Gyarados-Same as Dewgong

                            Poliwrath- 40 Damage, and an automatic E.R.

                            Articuno-can paralyze or hit opponent's bench but

can hit your own.

            Stalling:Wartortle(withdraw, 70 HP)

            Bench:  Blastoise-Raindance

Fighting:     Attacking:  Hitmonchan-Basic, 20 and 40 Damage, etc.

                                  Machamp- 60 Damage attack, Strikes BAck

                                  Golem- 60 Damage attack, 100 damage but

selfdestruct

                                  Hitmonlee- Basic, can hit Bench, and 50

Damage

                                  Rhydon- 50 damage, can destroy their bench

                                  Aerodactyl- Noone can evolve...

                  Stall:  Onix-90 Hp, Harden

                           Rhyhorn- 70 HP, Leer

                  Bench:None, really

Electric:    Attacking:  Zapdos- 60 And 100 damage attacks

                                Raichu- 60 Damage attack

                                Zapdos(Fossil)- can hurt their bench

                                Electabuzz-Fast Damage

                                Raichu(Fossil)-Can hurt their bench

                Stall:None, really

                Bench: None

Psychic:   Attacking:  Mewtwo-10+10 for each energy...good against water guns

                                Jynx- 20+10 for eachdam. counter on them

                                 Kadabra-50 damage

                Stall:  Mr. Mime-Invisible wall

                         Kind of Alakazam-Damage Swap

                         Maybe Gastly-Destiny Bond

                         Maybe Haunter(Fossil)- Transparency

                 Bench:  Alakazam- Damage Swap

colorless:    Attack:  Kangaskhan- Vomet PUnch, 20x4

                              Clefable-Metronome

                              Persian-Pounce

                              Farfetch'd-30 damage attacks, basic

                              Dragonair-30x and energy removal

                              Dragonite-40x

                              Raticate-Super Fang

                              Pidgeot-Hurricane

                 Stall:  Chansey-120HP, scrunch

                           Lickitung-90HP, Paralyze, Confuse

                           Porygon-Conversion, change resistance

                          Snorlax-90HP, Paralyze

                 Bench:   Dodrio- Retreat Aid

                               Kind of Dragonite-Rush to Aid

I may have missed some, but still...

     Here is what I think is the best for each type(all around).

   Grass-Venusaur or Scyther

   Fire-Ninetales or Magmar(FOSSIL)

   Water-Blastoise or Gyarados

   Fighting-Hitmonchan or Hitmonlee or Rhydon

   Electric-electabuzz or Raichu

   Psychic-Alakazam or Mewtwo or Jynx

   Colorless-Chansey or Kangaskhan or Wigglytuff or Clefable


Psychic Deck

So, you've finally gotten past the stage of including 5 colors in a deck, (Or

like most, you've totally skipped it.) and have a decent supply of cards

built up.  So you decide, "Hmm...  I want to make a deck with Alakazam and

Jynx is it.  I'll make a psychic deck." and you put a fair amount of time

into it, and you think you have a good deck.

However, then you run into a fatal flaw, some little thing that makes your

psychic deck a lot harder to play.  You get disgusted and decide to move back

to 2 color decks.  But don't throw away these mono-decks just yet!  All of

them have some problems no matter how you build them, and this article will

take each color one by on, discuss it's problems, then try to solve the

problems.

Psychic:

Fatal flaw:  Sure, everyone loves playing their Mr. Mimes, Jynxs, and

Alakazams, but they seem to run into a wall somewhere most of the time.  This

horrible problem is that colorless is strong to it, and almost -everyone-

plays some.

Solution:  You're going to have to either throw in some colorless to deal

with this problem, (Which is one reason why Chancey is so popular in

psychic.) or work around it with gusts of wind to get their colored baddies

out.

Fire:

Fatal Flaw:  My personal fave.  A hard color to play right, and with no

pokemon with resistance to it, it looks solid.  The only problem is that one

of the greatest decks in existance, Rain Dance, will have the advantage

before first damage is even dealt.

Solution:  Either speed up your fire deck, (Mine can do 80 second turn and

every turn thereafter) or throw in gusts.  The problem with rain dance it

commits on energy decisions very early on, so using gusts to pull out pokemon

with no energy on them will get you a long way.

Water:

Fatal Flaw:  Everyone knows raindance, and the other big baddies like

Gyarados and Dewgong are also awesome.  But water has a very nasty problem it

must deal with before it gets its big baddies; water is very, very lacking in

good, big basic pokemon to hold off until a big pokemon can come out.

Solution:  Energy Removal fits into almost every water deck, and a majority

also fit in 1 or 2 SERs.  This should buy the time to get out the big guys.

Also, with the release of fossil, Lapras and Articuno have given blue the big

basics to compete early on.  Expect one of these two in almost every water

deck from now on.

Fighting:

Fatal flaw:  I assume I don't even have to mention haymaker.  It is the big

bad deck type out there now, curing almost everything else.  Only flaw is

it's no secret!  Everyone knows they'll play a lot of fighting in the average

tourney, and with birds out there, as well as the favorite splash card of all

time, Scyther, fighting can have some real problems.

Solution:  I assume all fighters out there use 3 of 4 gusts because of this.

This is the best solution to the problem.  Also, some haymaker stoppers have

become so common that haymakers come back and cure them!  Haymaker decks

everywhere are finding a new friend in ponyta.

Grass:

Fatal Flaw:  Almost none.  Grass has no big weaknesses, has the basics it

needs, good evolutions, really everything.  The only kind of problem is that

green cards don't sem to work together very well.  You have Vileplume,

Exeggutor, Beedrill, Butterfree and others which just don't seem to click

together.  Because of so many pokemon you have to get up to level 2 before

they do much, it is also a very energy intensive color.

Solution:  The ultimate grass card, Venusaur.  His energy re-distribution can

make any green deck a killer, solving your energy problems and letting you

work any theme you have on the table.  However, without one, I think grass

will be doomed to just be the ultimate splash color.  Expect green decks to

drastically change after Muk comes in.

Lightning:

Fatal Flaw:  It could be so good.  Electabuzz, the hard to kill Raichu, and

Zapdos as a finisher, with the best (as far as I'm concerned) splash card

ever, Electrode.  However, lightning is killed by fighting.  And if you don't

think fighting is everywhere, I'd be interested in selling you real estate.

Solution:  Almost every Lightning deck there is now plays birds standard to

stop fighting.  A pair of Zapdoses are great, but a ton still trhow in

Spearow, Farfetch'ds, and Dodous just to stop fighting.  I reccomend you do

to.  If you are weak to the fastest deck out there anyway, it takes special

precautions to win.

Well, I guess that's about it.  I hope this encourages you to pull out the

old psychic deck of yours and tweak it a bit more.  It could be a killer.


Good Cards low Price

This isn't about how cards

suck or how cards rule or about haymaker or raindance.  It's about making

good decks using less money (attention parents! teach your kids this).  If

you get low allowance or your parents dont want you buying too many cards or

if you just dont wanna spent too much money, this article's for you. I read

a few great articles recently and made me come up with this idea.  Those 2

were "Are all americans rich?" (10.16.99) and the one that touched me was

"Unoriginal Decks" by Brett (10.16.99).  Ok enuff with the introducing.

Here are some great cards you can make without going broke:

Farfetch'd:  Hey this guy is awesome for $1.75. He has 50hp and 2 30damage

attacks.  they are very energy efficient.  also 1 retreat aint bad and

resistance to fighting is sweet.  This guy should be 1 of your main

attackers in your less expensive deck.  Read more about him in older

articles.

Jynx: Probably the best psychic card if you count the price.  for $1.75 he's

1 of the best.  whooping 70hp with heavy attacks.  only bad thing is his

retreat and no resistance.  You can load tons of damage for low prices

(moneywise).

Magmar:  Another uncommon $1.75 card.  He's pretty darn good for a fire

basic.  downside is his retreat and no resistance but other than that, he's

another good choice less expensive decks.

Koffing:  One of the most overlooked cards in TCG history (lil bit

exagerated) made it's way into this list.  50hp is not bad and with a deadly

status change attack.  Look in an old article for more details.  some of you

are saying "hah scyther can whoop him" but he's almost 8% of the money you'd

spend on scyther.  think about using him.

Electabuzz: I know i know he's a rare card but there are many ways to get

this great card.  First off all Electabuzz is 1 of my favourite cards

because of his 70hp and 3+/- attack with only 2 enegies and 1 energy for 10

damage and status effect.  Ok even though electabuzz is a little expensive

he's very easy to get from people who dont read the pojo *grin*.  Trade a

useless holo for a few electabuzzes to someone who likes stuff shined up

real nice.  then you can turn it sideways and st....ahh nevermind.  also

he's 1 of the less expensive rares.

Machop:  This guy is the small version of the legendary hitmonchan.  great

starter with 1 hit 20 damage and ok 50hp.

Dewgong:  1 card that's comparable to gyardos is dewgong.  He's only

uncommon $1.75 that can deal some serious damage.

Dodou/Dodrio:  These guys are great.  Doduo is a $.75 card that can do

damage fast and get out fast without getting jabbed on the first turn and

dieing on the second (becareful of buzz tho).  He's also great cause he's

the basic of a very essenial cardd, Dodrio!  Dodrio has great attacks, no

retreat cost, whoopin 75hp, resistance to fighting and has the PP to switch

using 1 less energy.  with only about $2.25 you can get this great combo,

remember get multiples!

Mankey:  Another overlooked card but he's good when you are looking for

cheaper cards.  Leave him on the bench as a spy, only disadvantage is that a

GoW from your opponent can be badd.  Only use when you've got some empty

space.  Mankey is like $.75 so it's worth it.

JigglyPuff:  He's one of my favourites also.  1 energy to sleep and 2 energy

for 20 damage, dont forget the colourless.  50hp aint bad either plus the

low retreat.  He's a .$75 monster you can get easily and he is effective

even without he's big bro.

Spearow/Fearow:  Awesome cards, heavy attacks, ok hp, resisitance and no

retreat.  They are great when you think about it.

Bill:  draw's 2 cards with no drawbacks, 1 of the best trainers.  75cent

card.

Energy removal: a $.75 disruption card that takes an energy away from your

opponent's pokemon even on the bench with no drawbacks. Great common card.

Gust of Wind:  Another awesome common card that can win you a prize or 2.

This is a list of just some of the cards you should use for low prices.  Im

sure there are many more, this is just for you to start with.  Good luck!


Water Strategy

! This time I'm going to give my

thoughts on water. They are in loose order from

favorites to not so favorites.

About the color Blue:

  Most of the big cards desperatley need a swich if you

want to keep some energy on them and nearly all of the

pokemon require a flip of a coin or have an attack that

depends on something. It is a good color for its attacks

and health.

  I think water decks should not be in combination with

others. A good idea is to have a Blastoise in water and one

or two other families, and putting in three or four of EACH

card isn't a bad idea- (4 squirtle, 4 wartortle, 4

blastoise). Traders (for other cards), Breeders (to speed

up the turtles and tadpoles), Oaks and Bills(for lots of

cards) are also a good thing to have if you want speed on

your side.

Blastoise:

Great card! If you have him in your deck put in extra

energy or you'll find yourself short. GREAT help for

pokemon like Gyarados, Poliwrath and Dewgong.

Dewgong:

Low cost card with attacks to match a Gyarados. I'd rather

have four of these than one of the water dragons.

Poliwrath:

Great card. Whirlpool is AWSOME! The power to discard the

opponent's energy AND do 40 damage is great! I don't use

him but from the benifits I've gotton from dragonair's

attack I'd say he's quite good.

Gyarados:

OK card. The attacks and HP are very good. I'm not really a

fan of him since I use Dewgong instead. Better basic.

Polywhirl:

OK card. The Amnesia attack is a good staller, and

Doubleslap is nice.

Wartortle:

Good card. Bite is a pretty good attack for a stage 1 yet

to evolve. I'm not too fond of Withdraw however, or any

blocking attack in which you have to flip- except for

Agility.

Polywag, Seel, Squirtle Goldeen and Staryu:

OK cards. As good as any other evolving basics.

Starmie and Seaking:

Both are between what a basic and stage 1 should be. I

don't like them too much.

Magikarp:

It sucks. Most of the ones that evolve once are quite good.

Not in this case. His only use is for Gyarados.


Fire Strategy

Magmar(fossil)

Basic Pokémon

Type: Fire

Spitfire Pokémon

70 HP

Weakness: Water

Resistance: None

Retreat Cost: 1

ATTACK: R - Smokescreen(10): If the defending Pokémon

tries to attack during your oppents next

turn, your oppent flips a coin. If tails, that attack

does nothing.

RR - Smog(20): Flip a coin. If heads, the defending

pokémon is now paralyzed.

Pokedex: Found at the mouths of volcanoes and

extremely hard to spot. There are very few instances

of capturing this Pokémon. LV. 31 #126.

Card: 39/62 UNCOMMON

The Pokédex entry isn't really important, just

probably there to add some collector's value. If

you just look at this card and don't pay attention to

its print, you might think this card

sucks. But just look at it carefully, you'll see its

like a fire type electabuzz. 70 HP is a

good HP for basic pokémon (Hitmonchan, Scyther,

Electabuzz, Jynx, etc...). Its first attack

is similar to electabuzz, both does 10 damage,

requires 1 energy and has the ablility to

prevent the oppent from damaging you the next turn.

Although paralyze is harder to get out of,

if magmar is lets say... against a charizard or a

Zapdos or any pokémon who has to discard

energies when they attack. If a Zapdos uses

thunderbolt for some reason, it'll have to discard

all its energies first, then flip a coin to see if

they can attack. IF tails, then they discarded

those energies for nothing.... hahahahaha. But you'll

get killed if its heads. Electabuzz

and magmar's second attacks are similar too. Both has

2 energy requirements(electabuzz's

requirements are a bit better) and the ablility to do

40 damage if heads, and do less if tails

(magmar does 20 and electabuzz does 30 and 10 to

self). You can easily understand that electabuzz

can do 40 damage, but how can magmar do 40? If you

flip a heads, the defending pokémon will be

poisoned! That means that they will have to take 10

damage after each person's turn. So its 10

more damage(30 now) after you used smog and flipped

heads. If they don't retreat or anything,

then its you're turn again, and they do 10 more damage

and end up with 40 damage... and its

you're turn again! But magmar's retreat cost is better

than electabuzz. By the way, heres

electabuzz's stats...

Electabuzz

Basic Pokémon

Type: Lighting

Electric Pokémon

70 HP

Weakness: Fighting

Resistance: none

Retreat Cost: 2

ATTACK: L - Thundershock(10): Flip a coin. If heads,

the defending pokémon is now paralyzed.

1L - Thunder Punch(30+): Flip a coin. If heads, this

attack does 40 damage, if tails, this attack

does 30 damage and electabuzz does 10 damage to it

self.

Pokédex: Normally found near power plants, they can

wander away and cause majof blackouts in

cities. LV. 35 #125

Card: 20/102 RARE

Thats not all the good fires, for example:

Magmar(Base Set)

Basic Pokémon

Type: Fire

Spitfire Pokémon

50 HP

Weakness: Water

Resistance: none

Retreat Cost: 2

ATTACK: RR - Fire Punch(30)

1RR - Flamethrower(50): Discard a R energy card

attached to Magmar in order to use this attack.

Pokédex: Its body always burns with a orange glow that

enables it to hide perfectly among flames.

LV.24 #126

Card: 36/102 UNCOMMON

Wow, another magmar? Although the fossil Magmar is

better, this magmar is still a good pokémon.

Unlike the other magmar, this one requires more energy

and is more of a pokémon to build on the

bench. Its basically a beefed up ponyta. Fire Punch is

a awesome attack for 2 energies(its not

the best, but its still a good attack). Flamethrower

is okay. Use flamethrower only in needed

situations(venusaur, beedrill, etc).

Lets see what else? Oh yeah, here are some fire

pokémon to consider putting in!

Ninetales

Stage 1 Pokémon

Type: Fire

Fox Pokémon

80 HP

Weakness: Water

Resistance: none

Retreat Cost: 1

ATTACK: 2 - Lure(): If you're oppent has any benched

pokémon, choose one and switch it with they're

active pokémon.

RRRR - Fire Blast(80): Discard 1 R energy card

attached to ninetales in order to use this attack.

Pokédex: Very smart and very vengeful. Grabbing one of

its many tails could result in a 1000-year

curse. LV. 32 #38

Card: 12/102 HOLO-RARE

and...

Arcanine

Stage 1 Pokémon

Type: Fire

Legendary Pokémon

100 HP

Weakness: Water

Resistance: none

Retreat Cost: 3

ATTACK: 1RR - Flamethrower(50): Discard 1 R Energy

card attached to arcanine in order to use this

attack.

2RR - Take Down(80): Arcanine does 30 damage to it

self.

Pokédex: A Pokémon that has been long admired for its

beauty. It runs gracefully as if on wings.

LV.45 #59

Card: 23/102 UNCOMMON

Well, those 2 pokémon are okay... that all the time I

have, remember these are just my opinions,

so if you hate fire pokémon... that all up to you.

\


Grass Strategy

Cards

      Grass cards are my favorite, so I decided to rate the cards.  (not all

of them)

1. Venusaur-My favorite, I think it's the best.  Pokepower lets you transfer

grass energy around your pokemon.  Just transfer all your energy to the

attacking pokemon.  This helps cards like Exeggutor and Charizard.  If your

opponents GOW out an energyless pokemon, who cares?  100 Hp- Very good. 2

retreat-good for stage 2(compare to charizard, blastoise).

2. Ivysaur-  Good if used correctly.  first poison then vine whip. Best of

all, NO COIN FLIPPING!  I kill jynxes all the time with this baby!  60 HP-a

little low.

3. Vileplume-Nice damage.  Good power.  It just confuses itself, but that's

what full heal is for. 80 Hp-OK.

4. Gloom- Good.  poison and confuse.  then stop attacking.  Let them kill

themself.

60 HP- a little low, but they're confused-It's like scrunch, only better!

5.Nidoking-  Auto poison.  Decent attack,just a little overpriced.(Electabuzz

does that for 2)  90 HP- good.  I like this card.

6. Nidorino- almost like a stage 1 pinsir.nice second attack.  good in the

early game.  60hp-little low

7. Pinsir-  good basic. 60hp-good for basic.  50 damge-alot-can kill most

basics.

8. Scyther-  Awesome!  colorless attack. 70hp good.

9. Victreebell- bad. 80hp-ok.  needs to do more damge though.

10.Weepinbell- Good card.  30dam for 2.  poison for 1.  70 hp-good.  good

inthe early game.


Winning Mind Set

In a tournment, or even playing against a friend, you have to

employ all your strategy into beating your opponent. This does not always

mean having the best pokemon or the better Trainer Cards. You have to use

the seldom used "Tricks of the Trade". To start off with, when you are

picking your first Active Pokemon to send out, you want to make sure that

your Active Pokemon can do damage on 1 energy, that way, while your

opponent is struggling to get Pikachu 2 energy, you can attach one energy

and hit him. That way yuo can probably get up to 20 damage on your

opponent's Pokemon before he knew what hit him. Also, an important factor

is to make sure that your Pokemon's heath is good. You don't want to

waste energy on a Pokemon that is about to be K.O.'ed unless its going to

go out with a bang. And I mean a big bang. For example, if you have a

Weedle out and your Opponent had a Charmander out I would say attack

energy to Weedle, deal 10 damamge with a possibility of poison, and then

let Charmander kill Weedle. If the poison goes through than Charmander is

stuck poisoned and will slowly die. On the other hand, if your Opponent

has a benched pokemon that he could swap with Charmander, I would say

leave Weedle energyless and work up another Pokemon on your bench. In

cases like these you should use your best judgement.

Another factor you have to consider is how you hold your hand.

Don't splay them out like a poker game. That way your oppponent can tell

how many cards you have and can then tell what your options are. If you

stack them, one behind the other, and memorize where they are in your

hand, then your Opponent won't have a clue how many cards are in your

hand.

Also, you must keep a "poker face". Don't crack a smile when you

get a good card or frown when you get a bad card. You might want to do

just the opposdite. Smile when you get a bad card and groan when you get

a good card to screw around with your Opponent's mind. Sometimes, yuo

might want to sing or hum an anoying tune or jingle and mess up the

players concentration. If you can, do something that will make your

opponent mess up so he will forget to attack.

Next, Always stude your Opponent's Pokemon carefully. Even on the

bench. If your Opponent's active Pokemon is 10 or 20 HP away from being

knocked out, plan ahead. Don't think about using you trainers, think

about attacking. I have seen too many kids use Energy Removals on a

Pokemon that is about to go comatose, wasting their Energy Removal.

Always think about what the HP or status of your Opponent's Pokemon will

be after you attack before you actually do anything. And watch the

benched Pokemon of your Opponent, he might be building up his Blastoise

or Gyarados, ready to send him out after you K.O. his puny Seel. Don't

always look at the Active Pokemon, the Bench is an important part of the

game that you should not overlook. Often a well placed Energy Removal can

make building up that Gyarados take a few extra turns and enable you to

Gust it out in front pounding it to death while its trainer tries to get

enough energy to attack.

When you are setting up you bench, do not put down too many

Pokemon. When I was first starting, I thought that a full bench was a

good bench. But if you have 5 pokemon on your bench that are energyless

and your Active Pokemon goes to the discard pile, then your stuck. Always

put down one Pokemon, build it up, and then put down another one. With

this effective method you can have a full and healthly bench.

-FireFlick


The BIG Picture

Today I'm going to be talking about the different

deck strategies that are out there today in the world. These strategies have

won thousands of tournaments for people all over the world! Since your site

is brand new (looks great too!), I'll give you the basic run down on all the

current decks that are in wide use.

     First I'll start with my personal favorite, the "Raindance" deck. These

decks are 100% water and use Blastoise's Raindance Pokémon Power to charge

up newly evolved Pokémon in 1 turn! These decks are fast, efficient, and

vicious... They play style of this deck is to attack early with Pokémon like

Gyarados that can tear through Basics with a 40, 50, or higher damage

attacks. Usually these decks will use 2 or 3, even 4 Blastoise's on some

occasions, either 2 or 3 Gyarados, or 2 Poliwrath, or even both at the

sacrifice of some Trainers. The evolutionary chains use the Pyramid scheme,

though sometimes you'll see Wartortles replaced with Breeders, but that's

kinda risky to run. As for the Trainers, mostly card drawing and card

finding with some Breeders. Sometimes if they are running less Pokémon,

you'll see them with some Energy Removals, Potions, and whatever else they

see as handy.  The rest of the space is filled with anywhere from 2 to 25

water energy. Warning to anyone who challenges this deck, on a good draw

they can have there deck fully going in 2 to 3 turns! And almost with any

draw by the 6 or 7. So be careful if playing against this deck, you must

beat it to the punch in order to win!

     The next deck I'll be telling you about is called a Haymaker. Anyone

who plays good size tourneys will know all about this one, and is probably

using it! Though these decks are exactly my specialty, I'll give my best

shot on explaining it. Haymakers have variated in dozens of ways since it's

birth in early June, but I'll give you the basic run down. It usually uses

Fighting/Electric, but can variate between Psychic/Electric,

Psychic/Fighting, or on a few occasions all 3(which wasn't a total success).

The idea is to use Basic Pokémon like Hitmonchan, Electabuzz, Jynx, and the

unforgettable Farfetch'd, to attack, fast, with heavy damage. Since these

Pokémon can attack early, and then finish up with a bigger attack, they work

great for this strategy. Trainers include lots of Potions, plenty of

PlusPowers, Bills and Oaks galore, along with Gust of wind, Switches, and

whatever else is handy to the deck. I am not fully versed in this deck's

history, but I belive that this deck first saw action after Dan Mayo made it

for Gathering Grounds tourney on 5/29/99. Since then this deck has been used

by the great Tyler Grund, and many others that realized it's power. I have

never used this deck(couldn't acquire the cards I needed for it! Terrible

luck in booster, and no one wanted to trade!)

This deck is super fast, since all it needs are basics and doesn't have to

wiat for some Stage 2 before the strategy can kick in! This deck is

powerful, so NEVER under-estimate it.

     The next deck was created by the addition of Jungle cards and is nearly

unbeatable! It is the Mr. Mime deck. Amazing that a stupid clown Pokémon

could be put in a strategy so deadly, that people tremble at it's name. This

deck's strategy uses the Jungle's Mr. Mime Active using his Invisible Wall

Power while attacking with his can-be powerful Meditate attack. His

Invisible Wall Pokémon power simply states that any attacks over 20 don't

touch him. So most big damage decks are ended right there. And since only 10

and 20 damage attacks hurt him, with 40 HP he can only be KOed by one attack

in one turn. And when paired with Alakazam, using Damage Swap, any and all

damage is simply switched to a Chansey for storage until a Scoop Up or

Pokémon Center are available. Now when you create a deck with 4 Mimes, a

couple of Alakazams, along with a slew of Potions, Superpotions, Pokémon

Centers, Scoop Ups, etc., you get the idea. Now when playing against this

deck, keep your head on straight. Focus on the 2 hearts of this deck, Mr.

Mime and Alakazam. Taking out either one will stop the whole thing. But if

the deck really get rolling before you can retaliate, your are in deep

trouble. About the only deck you can beat Mr. Mime with a Status Effect

deck. You know, ones with Koffings and Tangelas. See, you just poison the

Mime. If he can't be healed of Poison, after his turn, 10 damage. Your turn,

pull of a 20 damage attack, 10 for poison after your turn, he's KOed!!!

Sounds easier than it is to pull off. All it takes to end that is a retreat,

but that's about the only way to do it, except for 1 Pokémon, Nidoking.

Toxic is a 20 damage attack, so it goes through, then it does 20 for poison,

which equals 40 before Mr Mime can be healed.

But the problem with that is the fact that Nidoking is weak to Psychic, so

he won't last too very long against the Mime.

     The last deck I'll tell you about isn't as popular as it used to be. It

hasn't showed up in many tournys lately, but is still very effective. It is

the dreaded Energy Removal deck. These decks, in my opinion, are the most

difficult deacks to get by. The name tells you the main idea, it energy

removals your opponents Pokémon so they can't attack or retreat. They can

use almost any Pokémon, but rely on a few like Dragonair. Usually containing

water and fighting, they also use the Poliwrath set as well. Filled with 4

ER, and 4 SERs, decks like Charizard decks are stopped in there tracks.

These are effective against all decks, but slaughter decks that require

lot's of energy. This deck has no really solid design that I can give you,

since they vary from place to place, person to person. But I have given you

the main cards, and the strategy, so if you feel this deck is for you,

design it in whatever way you want!

     I hope you get the big picture from this article, of all the kinda

decks you'll run into. But with the info that I've given you, you'll be able

to face them with confidence.


KnowLedge Is the Key

Knowledge is Power

Hello,

    I would like to address a few facts about pokemon. Now we all know that horrible felling we get when a pumped up archanine or ninetails comes out, or when that weak little magikarp you just g.o.w.ed suddenly evolves before your eyes into a not so weak gyrados. Theses are two examples of the different types of pokemon displaying there specialties. Lets take a look now, shall we?

1. Grass: (my fav. so take this with a grain of salt) Grass, as everyone knows this is the king of all status effects, in fact a grass pokemon without a status changing move is in the minority. Now grass is also the only type who can heal itself, with the exception of kadabra and starmie, All grass guys are on the lower end of retreat cost, exempt eggxecutor; but then again how fast could a coconut tree run? A major flaw with grass is its weakness to fire, as if they weren't doing enough damage to begin with, now there doing double. But with careful planing, and using koffing, and nidorans you could get around it. There are no low hit point grass guys, there average through and through. Also grass contains the most damaging pokemon (and you thought it was charizard) Vileplume, for 3 grass energy he can do up to 120 damage, but its a coin flip basis, the average being 40 to 80. Grass could be easily mixed in a hybrid deck, depending on which guys you chose, there are some you take very little energy, or who need vary few grass energy, like scyther.

2. Water: Now we get to the heavy hitters. Water is big and powerful. Certain water pokemon can cause paralysis, but that's it. All the higher up water guys have high hit points and powerful attacks, if expensive at times, but water has no back flaws, no hitting ones self or discarding. Water is a fairly strait forward color, no frills on these guys. Water has only one flaw but its a major one. There is no good basic water guy. NONE. this can be VERY compromising if you don't get those evolution cards. Water could be mixed, but I wouldn't recommend it. Not many water guys take colorless, ad there are usually high energy costs.

3. Fire: The speed high hit point hell demons. Almost all fire pokemon are very high on hit points and damage. Find me the fire pokemon that doesn't have a move that does 30 or more. Fire does not cause status effects, at all, And the is the second fewest total fire guys in the whole game. Fire burns off energy like there's no tomorrow. A fire guys second attack usually won't do much damage, around 30. So if you want to play with the big boys, your gonna lose some energy. Another problem with fire is that all fir guys have the exact same weakness, no other type is like this, so in a mono fire deck you can't avoid water. Fire should never be mixed, ever. The energy costs are just to great. If you don't draw a fire energy when you need it most, you just lost the game.

4. Electricity: Greased lightning!! Electric is THE fastest type, that's why zapdos is so standoff-ish, he need so much energy compared to everyone else. Aside from him, all other basic electric guys can function on a single electric energy and a colorless. But all this speed comes at a cost. can you say kamikaze? All electric moves that do the better damage cause suicide, or at least injury. Some electric guys can paralyses but that's it. Evolution is a dead end with electric, with the exception of voltorb, I wouldn't bother evolving. Raichu is OK but that's it, O.K.. Electric guys run into the same problems as fire, same weakness syndrome. Except zapdos, they all have a weakness to fighting, who happen to do allot of damage to begin with. Electric mixes the best out of any type, because of the extremely low energy cost and the fact that half of it is colorless

5. Psychic: Now this type is weird, it doesn't serve any purpose, unlike fire who concentrates on damage and electric on speed, psychic just does nothing. It can confuse and paralyses and put to sleep, so there almost like grass but they can't poison. Haunter is a fast little pokemon, only needing 2 energy to pull off his moves, but he's the only fast one. Kadabra can heal him self using recover, but none of the other ones can. A good thing would be that the only guys psychic has a weakness to is its self, so if he's hitting you hard, your hitting him hard. The only thing I've ever seen a psychic deck do that wasn't just a jack-of-all-trades deck, is the stall deck, but that's not exactly what I think psychic was designed for, if anything. Psychic mixes adequately, but not the best choice for a hybrid deck.

6. Fighting: A combo of fire and electric. They cannot pull off any status changes. But they have the hit points, the speed and the power of all the other decks. Just a few glitches and this would be the best type. One would be that, even for its namesake, fighting never actually does that much damage, the most damage you can do without a flaw is 60 damage with machamp, or 70 with dugtrio and an empty bench. But both those moves are on the expensive side. But this is offset by the fact that fighting does more damage, without flaw in the early game with 20 damage for 1 energy or 30 for 2. Think of fighting as a backwards water. The basics are good, but they improve only a little through evolution. Fighting mixes well for its cheap energy costs and good variety.


Deck Types

Dominant Decks

    Unlike a game like Magic, years in the making.  The pokemon tcg has a very limited card pool.  This creates the use of limited deck types.  The jungle expansion has added many cards to the game.  Fossil will come next.  But despite these new cards, many decks remain the same.  I frequently see many decks that all have the same basic idea with slight variations.  When building a deck it is a good idea to look at a dominant type of deck, like a haymaker or raindance deck, and put your own twist on it to make it original.  Also keep in mind that other people will use these decks, so don't make mono fire decks where rain dance is popular.  These decks all can use the 60 cards they have to their maximum potential.  There will be decks added to this list in the future, but I think most of them will stick around for awhile.

The Haymaker

These decks are very strong.  It is all about speed.  4 Bills and at least 2 Oaks are necessary for card drawing.  The pokemon are very fast.  The top ones are hitmonchan and electabuzz.  I would also include others like jynx, scyther, farfetch'd, and tauros on the list.  Plus powers are added to these decks for extra punch.  Energy and super energy removal are included to keep the opponents heavy hitters down.  Gust of winds help their pokemon get the advantage, surprise the opponent, and take out powerful pokemon early.  Haymakers often when battles in the first turns and are very hard to stop.  These decks are everywhere, so make sure your deck will have a chance against them.  To do this your deck always has to have speed.

Rain Dance

Blastoise could be a broken card, meaning it is too strong.  This is because of the power it gives water decks to put as much energy as they want on their water pokemon.  A rain dance deck uses that power perfectly.  It is usually a mono water deck, otherwise the rain dance power is almost useless.  These decks are also very fast, maybe even faster than haymakers.  The idea is to get blastoise as soon as possible, and back him up with powerful evolutions like gyarados and poliwrath.  To get blastoise out rain dance decks have breeders, traders, and computer searches.  Then at least two oaks are added to get all that water energy.  This is the type of deck I use, and people find it frustrating to beat.  Again, to even compete with a deck like this, your deck must have a good amount of speed.  The only time I lose with my rain dance deck is when I am up against a fast deck that contains a good amount of grass and/or lightning pokemon.

Damage Transer

Rain dance decks have blastoise; damage transfer decks have Alakazam.  Damage transfer is another very useful pokemon power.  This deck is similar to rain dance in one way.  Getting Alakazam.  Computer searches and traders are used to get Alakazam as soon as possible.  Chanseys are the backbone of these decks.  The damage goes to energyless chanseys on the bench, and then a pokemon center or scoop ups are used to heal the poofball back to 120 hp.  Chansey also serves the purpose to stall the opponent out of cards or do some damage if necessary.  Switches have to be included for when Alakazam is gusted up front.  Impostor oaks can run the opponent out of cards.    That was about all for this deck until jungle came out.  Now these decks often contain mr. mime.  Why?  Only one pokemon can kill him in one hit, Nidoking, but he most likely wouldn't last that long.  Mr. mime is an advantage because the damage is smaller, and it can be transferred each turn.  Now switches are extremely important, full heals are even a good idea, because Mr. mime is extremely prone to status effects.  These decks can be hard to make and play, and they are not as popular as rain dance, but they can be powerful.  Rain dance decks now have trouble against these because what can a blastoise or gyarados do against mr mime?  The answer is to include colorless pokemon with resistance to psychic that do 20 or less damage.  I think jigglypuff or lickitung would be a good choice.

Do the wave decks

These decks are based on wigglytuff's "do the wave" attack.  Most of these decks are haymakers, with powerful basics to fill the bench quickly, and do the wave for 60 damage.  They are quite simple, and fun to play, but wigglytuffs weakness is the deck's weakness: fighting.  To counter this weakness basics with resistance to fighting are included, like farfetch'd and scyther.  If you play what looks like this deck, be sure to take out jigglypuffs quickly, next turn the bench could be filled with wigglytuff out front.  I would not suggest this for competitive play, but adding poke flutes can be very useful.  Many players can be stupid and fill their bench with weaklings to do quick damage.  When you are about to kill wigglytuff and there are no jigglypuffs on deck, fill their bench so they can't play another one and catch them by surprise.

Energy transfer decks

Venusaur's power is the core of these decks.  The idea is simple, never let your energy die.  many powerful grass pokemon need a lot of their own energy to do reliable damage.  Power them up quickly with the transfer.  Another aspect to this deck is healing.  With pokemon center, all of your pokemon can be healed without losing any energy.  It is a must to add pokemon centers in this deck.  I have seen people put a Charizard line in, because it is possible to powerful him up quickly.  Another idea is to use alakazam and damage transfer.  These are both good ideas, but more than one stage two lines just doesn't work well enough in a deck with more than one color.

Well, those are the decks that I think are dominant decks.  The most powerful in my opinion are rain dance, haymaker, and mr. mime damage transfer decks.  Rain dance beats haymaker, haymaker beats mr. mime, and mr. mime beats rain dance.  That is just a general comparison, any well made deck has a chance against another.  To make a competitive deck to stand up against a variety of decks, the main things to remember are speed and card drawing, and to follow a plan (theme) with your deck.  Have fun with different deck ideas!

                                                                                                                        Chad Nykerk


Key To Success

THE KEY TO SUCCESS

Chris LaBanca

"Know yourself, know your opponent and you hold the key to victory." - Ash's Pokédex, Dexter.

Sounds simple and some might believe this to be nonsense. These are the people who fall prey to the deck ideas of others or fail in the attempt to create their own "killer deck." The people who believe in this philosophy are those that create the unbelievably popular and successful deck archetypes, such as Brian Brokaw and his creation, the Haymaker deck. You may now be asking where I intend to go with this. Well I've decided that throughout this article, I will explain how I built my deck and why it wins along with major deck archetypes such as Rain Dance and Haymaker.

Allow me to begin with the most widely used deck, the all-powerful Haymaker (which at this point has evolved into the Haymaker Potpourri, which is equally potent). The power of fighting lies within the speed mainly. For one fighting energy, Hitmonchan can do twenty damage, definitely a cost-worthy attack. Another thing to consider is that every colorless Pokémon (with the exception of the bird Pokémon) are weak to fighting, not to mention all electrical Pokémon except Zapdos. Then again, how many people do you know use a good deck with the Zapdos from the basic set? Anyway, Fighting is definitely a bad weakness to have and people like to exploit it. Therefore, in every good Haymaker deck, you will see four Hitmonchans.

Something that I've always believed is that EVERY deck must have at least twelve basic Pokémon. So far, I've listed four Hitmonchans. Now, with a hefty seventy hit points, that Hitmonchan should last a long time. Hey, wait a minute, if we use four Scoop Up, then they can last even longer! Excellent, but hey, what happens if you should encounter another Pokémon with fighting resistance? Good examples of such are Farfetch'd and the dreaded Scyther. Well there are two simple solutions that are used by many. The first is to add in Electabuzz. They are fast attackers, can do a lot of damage, have a load of hit points and all for a very low amount of energy. Also, they are of the electric type, which means that it can do double damage to the birds which have fighting resistance, such as Farfetch'd and Fearow.

The second solution is as simple as the saying, "If you can't beat them, join them." Add four Scythers (or if you don't have them, Farfetch'd will do) and your winning Pokémon team is chosen, four Electabuzz, four Hitmonchan and four Scyther (Farfetch'd). Now we want this deck to be fast, cheap and powerful. Therefore, in order to help satisfy two of those requirements, we add in four Plus Powers in order to do more damage in less time. Add in the standard two Bills, two Professor Oaks, the needed energy and a few other trainers like Computer Search and Item Finder. There you go, you have yourself a standard Haymaker deck. As for the Haymaker Potpourri deck, there are only a few slight changes. There is double colorless energy in there for your Scythers already, but now you put in one or two Ponytas as well.

Now we may move on to the famed Rain Dance deck. The goal of this deck is simply to get out a Blastoise and drop as much water energy on it as possible, also using the Pokémon Power to drop water energy on other stong Pokémon of the water type such as Gyrados or Poliwrath (or in the case of the upcoming set of Fossil set, Articuno should make an appearance in such decks). Obviously, in this deck, three or four Professor Oaks are necessary in order to insure that you get the energy that you need along with the cards. Usually people also use Pokémon Breeders for speed. Bills are a part of the deck and then obviously a load of water energy. While these decks were the most popular for a while and still are popular, they are not as effective as believed. In my opinion, out of the archetypes, this is probably one of the weakest. Any well built quick deck, electric deck or a deck involving the Mime is bound to defeat this deck.

This brings us to the DamageSwap deck, another varient of this is the DamageSwap/EnergyTrans deck. Taking advantage of Alakazam's Pokémon Power of shifting damage counters amongst your Pokémon, you shift it onto Pokémon with really high hit points like Chansey and then run out their deck. The other varient includes Venusaur, so you move energy around from Pokémon to Pokémon so you don't lose energy when a Pokémon faints or you use Pokémon Center to eliminate all of that damage that you've taken. Now this can work as a stall deck, however, the deck usually works rather slowly as it depends entirely on the evolution of one Pokémon or in some cases two. Not to mention the fact that Alakazam and Venusaur evolve from really horrible basic Pokémon. Another deck archetype that in my opinion, is rather weak. Again, a well built quick deck would really wipe this deck out.

However, the following is a rather strong deck archetype, a deck based around Wigglytuff's attack, Do the Wave. Filled with powerful, hard-hitting basic Pokémon such as Hitmonchan, Scyther, Pinsir and Electabuzz, this deck is considerably powerful. They keep hitting you with the powerful basics while building up their bench and evolving Jigglypuff into Wigglytuff. Then Wigglytuff comes out, puts the opposing Pokémon to sleep and pounds on it for sixty damage each turn. Four Hitmonchans, four Scythers, four Jigglypuffs, three Wigglytuffs and four Electabuzzes can often be seen in these types of decks. Computer Searches are of course necessary, along with the Professor Oaks and the Bills. Gusts of Wind in order to make sure your opponent can't pull any fast ones on you and then four Scoop Ups in order to save your hard-hitting basics and keep your bench full at all times. In my opinion, this deck is probably one of the top three most formidable out there.

The final one that I will cover is the EnergyTrans/EnergyBurn deck. This involves Venusaur and Charizard obviously, transfer all of your energy over to Charizard, burn it all into fire energy and use Fire Spin. Now from the very beginning of the game, I've been against Charizard, the card just isn't practical. It's energy cost is way up there, it's retreat cost is huge, it's attack contains a huge setback and it is obvious what you are attempting to do. Super Energy Removals or even regular Energy Removals totally demolish any attempts to use Charizard. Plus the fact that this deck totally relies on the evolution of BOTH Pokémon, and it's rather hard to pull that off in a short amount of time. The deck does use Oaks and Bills, as usual, along with Pokémon Breeders and Computer Searches for speed. The usual compliment of Gusts of Wind is in there and sometimes you'll find Switches too. Again, another weak deck archetype.

Now out of the five deck archetypes that I listed, I mentioned that three of them were really weak and really weren't that good. Now you should be asking me, "If they're so bad, why do people use them and win?" A simple question deserves a simple answer, not everyone knows how to play the game. A deck with Charizards and Venusaurs becomes popular because it uses rare holographic cards and people hop on the boat. They ALL play with the deck because it looks kind of cool and it beat their preconstructed deck. This means that if everyone is playing with a bad deck, then it will also remain the dominant one simply because everyone wins with it against exact copies. People don't understand that you can try and make your own deck and they don't understand how to make a deck. Since they don't know how to make their own deck work well, they copy the decks of other people. How do you prevent this from happening in your area? Simple, teach them how to play and build their own decks. Teach them how you built your deck, why it works and why some cards that are so popular really aren't so great, such as Charizard and Snorlax.

These statistics may be found in Inquest Gamer, issued August 1999. Twenty-five Pokémon are weak to Fighting, twenty-four are weak to Fire, twenty are weak to Psychic, nineteen are weak to Electric, twelve are weak to Grass and a mere eleven are weak to Water. Using this, you should get an idea of what types are good to use in a deck. The way I build a deck is to ask myself a few questions. First off, what power do I want to do the most damage? If I want my fire Pokémon to do the most damage, then I should really put in some electrical Pokémon such as Raichu and Electabuzz or grass Pokémon such as Scyther or Pinsir in order to cover fire's weakness to water.

If I would like electricity to be my main power, then I should put in psychic Pokémon to exploit the weakness of fighting and/or include Pokémon that are resistant to fighting, such as Farfetch'd or Scyther. The next question that I ask myself is what types of Pokémon can be most dangerous. Pokémon that do damage but also have an ability are a pretty nice answer, such as Mr. Mime or Lickitung.

Finally, my decklist for my tournament deck, why I built it that way and how to play it...

11X-Psychic Energy

13X-Fighting Energy

4X-PlusPower

2X-Computer Search

2X-Bill

2X-Professor Oak

3X-Switch

2X-Gust of Wind

3X-Energy Removal

2X-Super Energy Removal

3X-Mankey

2X-Mr. Mime

2X-Tauros

2X-Jynx

2X-Hitmonchan

2X-Primeape

3X-Lickitung

Now you may ask me why I'm so diverse in my choice of Pokémon. While I do have an answer to that, I'm not going to answer just yet. First I'm going to cover the other cards in my deck.

Now when I first decided to build this deck, I wanted it to be a quick, psychic/fighting deck. If it's speed that I wanted, four PlusPowers were almost necessary, so they are included. Now in order to make sure that I get everything I need, I use two Professor Oaks and two Bills. However, as we all know, sometimes you don't draw them and when you do, you don't always get the clutch card that you need to win the game. Therefore, I believed that I had to include two Computer Searches. Now in every deck that I've ever made, I've ALWAYS included Gust of Wind simply because there are too many times that people use the card on me or I lose because I don't have one in my hand in order to pull out that Magikarp for the win or something. The reason why you see Switches in there is because almost all of my Pokémon, such as Tauros, Lickitung, Hitmonchan and Jynx have high retreat costs. I don't want to use Scoop Up because that messes up my Primeape and it also eliminates all of the energy on my active Pokémon. I find that they work quite well in this deck, a lot better than Scoop Up in my specific case. Then of course, I have lots of energy denial. See, if they have to pump up something huge, like a Charizard, using Energy Removal and Super Energy Removal buys me so much time that by the time they can use it, they can use it only once or it faints without attacking. As for the amount of energy I put in for each type, I simply counted up what each one needed, subtracting a few and then playing. I was drawing too much energy, so I took some out accordingly, it is as simple as that. Now onto my choices of Pokémon and why.

Hitmonchan was an obvious choice, but I wasn't really positive on anything else, even though I was pretty sure I was going to use Jynx and Mewtwo. I knew I needed more backup for fighting, so looking at my options, I decided on Mankey and Primeape. The reason why I decided on them specifically instead of just four Hitmonchans and maybe some Machops was because of several advantages. The first two have to do with Mankey. Mankey's Pokémon Power "Peek" gives you a huge advantage, as it allows you to choose which prize you would like to take. It also has free retreat while Hitmonchan has two. As for Primeape, it has the same amount of hit points as Hitmonchan, but one less retreat and also, Fury Swipes is better than Jab, as you flip three coins and for each one that comes up heads, you do twenty damage to the defending Pokémon for only two fighting. Then for as much as Hitmonchan's Special Punch, Primeape uses Tantrum, which does fifty with a chance of confusion. I then chose Jynx, as it has seventy hit points and while Double Slap isn't a good attack, Meditate is very effective. I knew that I'd also need some colorless Pokémon in order to cover against psychic attacks since all of my Pokémon are weak to that. That led me to Lickitung, chance of paralysis, ten damage, ninety hit points, it's unbelievably effective against Mr. Mime. Now while I did play this deck with Mewtwo in it for a while, I found that Mewtwo was just more trouble than it was worth. It's three retreat cost could really kill me and for it's number of hit points, the damage just wasn't sufficient. I then replaced Mewtwo with Tauros and Tauros is definitely more effective.


Becoming a better deck buildr

Becoming a Better Deckbuilder

Sean Comerford 09/02

Deck building skills in Pokémon are required to make a coherent deck that really comes together. It won't do you any good just to have lots of good cards thrown in your deck; you need to know how to optimize your card setup in your deck to allow the deck to function at its highest efficiency. Becoming a really good deckbuilder takes time, but here are some tips that I think will help any player, new or veteran, when they are making a deck for the Pokémon TCG.

Tip #1 - Use good card ratios.

This tip is one of the most important tips when you build a deck, and it pertains mostly to the amount of Pokémon that you use in your deck when you are using different stages of the same breed. Since each stage requires the previous stage to be present on the table when you evolve, it is best to use card ratios from Basic - Stage 1 - Stage 2 in a descending order. For example, having 1 Bulbasaur, 1 Ivysaur, and 1 Venusaur in your deck gives you virtually no chance of getting to that evolved Venusaur. A more desirable ratio would be 4 Bulbasaur, 3 Ivysaur, and 2 Venusaur (or 3-2-1.) These ratios work the best because they give you the highest chance of getting an even succession through the stages. When using Pokémon that evolve only to Stage 1, I like to use 4-3 or 3-2 ratios the best; 2-1 tends to not allow you to get the Stage 1 Pokémon out enough of the time. When concerning Basic Pokémon (while not using their evolved stages) any number except 1 usually works. 1 just doesn't give you a large enough chance to get that Pokémon out. There are exceptions to these "rules" though. You can usually break these ratios if you play with Pokémon Breeder or if you play with many search cards. For example, in my Nidorama deck, I use 4 Nidoran Male, 1 Nidorino, and 3 Nidokings, and this is made possible by the inclusion of 4 Pokémon Breeders in the deck.

Tip #2 - Use Trainer Cards that are specific to your deck's theme.

This is another very important tip. You should only use Trainers that help your deck's theme, otherwise you will have marginally useful cards in your deck. Is your deck an aggressive, quick deck? Use PlusPower for earlier kills. Is your deck a slow, methodical deck that attempts to stall out your opponent? Use Pokémon Center to heal those wall Pokémon.

Tip #3 - Use Pokémon that are specific to your deck's theme.

As above, you should also use Pokémon that support your theme. For example, quick decks should use Pokémon that can do heavy damage early, stall decks should use high-HP Pokémon preferably with damage-preventing attacks (Scrunch, etc.), and power decks should use Pokémon that can do extremely high amounts of damage in one shot.

Tip #4 - Make decisions about which cards are more useful to your deck as you play (Tuning.)

This is a very important aspect of deckbuilding. "Tuning" is when you play with your deck often in an attempt to discover what cards do more for your deck and which cards do next to nothing for it. Suppose you were playing a deck that used both Pokédex and Bill. After playing many matches, you would be able to see which card is more powerful through your own personal experiences. You would most likely see that Bill is better because it grants you instant card advantage while Pokédex only grants you limited control over your next 5 card draws, and because of this you would be able to take out your Pokédexes and increase the number of Bills. If you use methods like these, a seemingly weak deck can become extremely powerful over time.

Tip #5 - Use cards that counter popular cards in your area.

Otherwise known as "metagaming," using cards that are strong against cards in your area can be used to your advantage. For example, since Hitmonchan is a very popular card, tournament-attending people usually pack Scythers, Farfech'd, etc. into their deck to deny the Hitmonchans of large amounts of damage. When you are not defending against certain Pokémon, cards like Lass and Energy Retrieval might be used to counter heavy Energy Removal decks if they are popular in your area.

Tip #6 - Know your deck!

This is of the utmost importance if you expect your deck to have any success. You must know the weaknesses of your deck, the contents of your deck, the best strategies to use with your deck, and other things to make your deck work at maximum efficiency. This necessary part of deckbuilding is why people who create creative decks and play them for a long time can beat people who copy and build a deck blindly off of the Internet the morning of the tournament. If you know the intricacies of the deck, then you also know which of your deck's possible actions will most effectively deal with what your opponent is throwing at you at the moment. As the old GI-JOE cartoons used to say, "Knowing is half the battle" or something like that. :P

Well there you go folks. If you follow these simple six rules when constructing, testing, or tuning a deck, you will have a much higher success rate. And remember, these tips are not only for hardcore tournament gamers; all of the tips will help any casual Pokémon player as well. Good luck!


Best Cards of Each color

Best Cards of Each Color.

Psychic: Gengar or Kadabra i would have to say Kadabra causes the most damage with super psy plus has the ability to recover Gengar has the nice ability to Move Damage Counters Around on Pokemon too So i have to say its pretty split on that part of the Comparison

Grass: Its Between Sycther and Muk Sycther has quick attacks so does pinsir but i like how Sycther Has the sword dance u use it first turn and than attatch a double cololress there is 60 damage in two turns. Muk is great Against Psychic and Aero Decks U have to love him Cause Haunters Transpercy and Gengars Curse dont work when hes even on bench And His ability to Poision and do 30 damage One great Card even though he has a weakness to psychci he works pretty well against psychic.

Fire: The Great Magmars Smoke Screen Ability and Smog are a must in a Fire deck The Fossil Ones are the ones to get not the ones from the base set need i say more.

Water: Articuno gets my Praise no weakenss and resistance to rock what a card with Freeze Dry and Blizzard it just causes Havok all break out Its Pretty hard to Stop Articunos.

Colorless : I have to say Chansey with its great Double Edge move and high hp u could basically sacrafice it for 2 of ur oppenets pokemon depending on the situation Its just a Great Card.

FIghting: I have to Say HitmonChan or HimonLee U got to love these two Hitmonlee better for Bench Destruction while HitmoChan is good to start out with only problem is alot of pokemon have resistance to fighting these days so only Hitmonlees High Jump Kick could do 20 damage to these pokemon Fighting is just not got in these days now in big competitions people anticapate your going to play it.

Electric: i have to say Electabuzz is the best Electric Card His Attacks are great Just be sure to never match him up to Fighting unless the Fighitng Pokemon have already been damaged

By And1


Best Trainer cards

Best Trainer Cards

Bills Always Great to play with 4 bills

Plus Powers are awsome expecially to add to ur pokemons Attack TO maybee win the game for you maybee that 10 hp might be Ur chance to win the big one

GOW good always use Gows To choice ur oppents most Banged up pokemon or energyliess pokemon or Pokemon with the Most Retreat cost he wouldnt want out

Energy REmovals Good in every deck its stalling ur oppent making him have to look for that 1 more energy which he made need which might just be enough to stall himfor you to win.

Super Energy Removals are good but i wouldnt put them in my deck i like to conserve my energy just in case im going against a Energy Removal Deck.

Proffesor Oaks are good I usualy Computer search for one when i use up my hand to 3 cards with a Computer search to get a Oak

Computer Search great way to pull out a Oak or a Card u might need in a situation.

And1


Secrets To A Good Deck

Secrets to a Good Deck

In every card game quickness and combos are the key to victory. Most games use combos to help with speed of a deck,but Wizards on pourpose did not put any combos in Pokemon that would win a game for a player. So how do you win in Pokemon? Use some of the se not-so Secrets.

The 1st secert to a good deck is to use Pokemon that strike quickly. (Ex.Machop 20 damage for only one fighting energy).Quick Pokemon can KO your opponents Pokemon before he gets his deck going, maybe you`ll even get a prize card you needed.

The 2nd seceret is "Card Advantage". Card advantage is very important in Pokemon.There are two types of card advantage; The first is Offensive card advantage,using one card to get rid of several of your Opponents cards.(Ex.Using gust of wind to put a weak Pokemon in play than KO`ing that weak Pokemon and all the energy cards on it). The second type is Drawing advantage, Using 1 card like Bill to get 2 more, You end up with one more card in your hand than before.(Ex. Kangaskahn from the Jungle expantion lets you draw multiple cards.)

The 3rd Secret is Energy. Energy is the MOST IMPORTANT part of Pokemon.Too little energy wont let you do anything and too much energy will give you less Pokemon or Trainers to draw.Never have less than 20 energy in a deck,it just wont work.The max amont of energy you should have is 30.

The 4th secret is game control. Game control is an Attack, Ability, or

Trainer that prevents an opponents deck from doing what its supposed to do. An Example of good game control is energy removal, if you remove alot of your opponents energy it makes it difficult for him to win. Another example is Gust o Wind .If your opponent has a charizard in play use a well timed Gust o Wind to get rid of that pesky Pokemon.

Well thats all I hoped I`ve made you think about how a deck should be built.


Wall Pokemon

In the Pokemon there are cards that are just bitches to kill.They hard to kill because they have damage prevention attacks that let very little or no damage in the next turn. These are called "Wall" Pokemon. Wall Pokemon are best used in a slow deck to stall until you can get your deck going.

 A prime example of a Wall Pokemon is Chansey. Using her scrunch move Chansey takes damage about half the time and has 120 HP so even if you do damage her,It probably didnt KO her.

Unless your deck is ment to be very fast you should have a Wall Pokemon in it.Here are some good Wall Pokemon for each energy type.These are the best for each color but maybe not hte best in the game.

Colorless: Chansey (120 HP and the Scrunch move she is hard to kill,should be in every deck)

Psychic: Mewtwo  (You can discard a energy card to remove a all damage counters from him)

Grass: Bulbasur (Leach seed does wonders for Bulbasaurs life span)

Fighting: Onyx (Both the 90 HP and Harden make Onyx a good wall)

Water: Squirtle (Squirtle may have only 40 HP but withdraw prevents the damage half the time)

Fire : (There are no real good Walls with Fire Pokemon)

Electric : Zapdos (May not be the best wall in the game but at 90 HP is good for an electric Pokemon.


The Pokemon Engine

THE POKEMON ENGINE

This Stuff is pretty advanced If you understand the gamereally well read on....

What does the term engine mean?

In the Magic: The gathering the term "Engine" means; playing a combo that keeps going and going often leading to a win.Most "Engines" are unpopularbut players use them because they win so much.

Huh?

Let me show you:Here are the core cards (Pokeball is from the Jungle expantion) X= Any Pokemon you want

(28) Trainer cards

4 Bill                4 Pokedex

4 Prof. Oak      4 Pokeball

4 Item Finder    4 Computer Search

4 Pokemon Trader

(12) Pokemon

4 Basic "X" (Mulligan as much as possible it dont matter)

4 stage 1- "X"    4 stage 2- "X"

(20) Energy

20 Energy that goes with Pokemon "X"

I made a fake version of this deck.Im going to play it aginst a fake opponent. Let me see how many turns it takes to get out the Stage 2-"X" out:

1st Turn:

Hand:              Pokemon in play:

-Bill                 Basic "X"

-Energy

-Pokedex

-stage 1- "X"

-Prof. Oak

-energy

-Pokeball

Ill play an energy on Pokemon "X"

Hand:                 Pokemon in play:

-Bill                    Basic "X" (1xEnergy)

-Energy

-Pokedex

-stage 1- "X"

-Prof. Oak

-Pokeball

Use Pokedex to Arrange the Top 5 cards of my Library

Computer Search (you can draw this with Bill)

Item Finder          (you can draw this with Bill too)

Pokemon Trader

energy                  (put the energy last because you cantenergy play it until then)

energy

Then use bill to draw computer search and item finder

Hand:                           Pokemon in play:

-computer search         Basic "X" (1xEnergy)

-Energy

-stage 1- "X"

-Prof. Oak

-Pokeball

-item finder

Use computer search to search for Stage 3-"X" discard

pokeball (beacuse you already have your pokemon) and

an Prof oak (you can get it back later with item

finder)

Hand:                     Pokemon in play:

-Energy                  Basic "X" (1xEnergy)

-stage 1- "X"

-item finder

-stage 2-"X"

That was the 1st Turn...Big combo huh?

2nd Turn

Draw your card then evolve "X" and put energy on him

Hand:                         Pokemon in play:

-Pokemon Trader       stage 2-"X" (2xEnergy)

-item finder

-stage 2-"X"

Hmm you know your going to draw 2 more energy the next 2 turns so just end your turn now

3rd turn

Draw,Evolve again,and Play another energy

Hand:                           Pokemon in play:

-Pokemon Trader         stage 2-"X" (3xEnergy)

-item finder

Hmm? Your gonna get another energy next turn too.

4th Turn

Draw,Play the energy and kick butt (most major decks dont need more than 4 energy cards.You could keep on going with this combo if you need more energy.

POKEMON IN PLAY

STAGE 2 "X" (4xENERGY)

4 turns thats VERY FAST! This may be a Major deck type in the future.I played this 2 more times it averages a 5th

turn STAGE 2


Card Combos

CARD COMBOS

In pokemon there are very few combos that are effective.Here are some that may help your deck

Bill and Pokedex

Use Pokedex to look and rearrange your top 5 cards of your library,put the 2 best cards on top, then use Bill.

Pokemon Flute and Gust o` Wind

Use the flute to return one of your opponents lame Pokemon to his bench ,then use Gust o` Wind to switch his good Pokemon in play for a crappy Pokemon on his bench.

Prof Oak and Item Search

Use Prof. Oak to draw 7 cards.If you get an Item search in those 7 cards you can use it to bring back Prof Oak to use him again later.

Venusaur and Pokecenter

Useing Venasaur rearrange all enengy on a pokemon with no damage counters then play Pokecenter and all your damaged Pokemon are healed.Then rearrange all the energy back to the healed Pokemon.

Charizard and Blastoise

Dont Work.

Magnimite and Defender

Protect Magnemite from 20hp of the 40hp Selfdestruct damage, so it can Selfdestruct again!

Chansey, Switch,And a Powerful Pokemon by Pidgeot458

Use Chasney to take alot of HP and build up your powerful Pokemon on the bench. When he is ready to come out use Switch to switch the Chansey for a good Pokemon.


Chumply Charizard

Okay, just ask anyone who collects or plays Pokemon CCG about what the card they'd most want, and the answer would 9 times out

                    of 10 be charizard. Possibly the most valuble American card, and maybe even Japanese ( but I don't know about those ultra rares..).

                    1st edition charizard I've heard go for as high as a ludicrious 70$ American! That's higher than a black Bordered Darth Vader! But

                    why does it go for that much? Why not the 10 odd dollars that the likes of Hitmonchan go for?

                    Let's look at the facts: 120 hit points. Great! 100 point attack. Excellent! Resistance to fighting? Shweeeeeeet! Discard 2 energy cards

                    to attack? Bogus! Weakness to water? That Krabby looks a little more dangerous now. From a player's Point Of View, I would say

                    Charizard is not one of the Best pokemon to play with. Much too expensive to attack. A Dewgong does half the damage for 3 energy

                    without discarding any! The 100 point attack is mostly for show, seeing how only a small portion of pokemon have 100or over 100 hit

                    points. Most pokemon have around 50 -60 hit points, and are KOed by normal means or evolved attacks (Ice Beam, flamethrower)

                    just as, if not more effecttively.

                    In all, Charizard is a good card for those of you who are collectors, but the players, would stay away unless they have an abundance of

                    energy. I also didn't like that Charizard's attack, one of the most powerful in the game, was named after the pathetic Fire Spin that was

                    unspeakably terrible in the video game.

                    ~~~Steve Wass


The Overuse of the Bench

Overuse of the bench is perhaps the most common strategic error. I have witnessed many players put themselves into a stalemate

                    because they have filled up their bench. It seems to me that a bench should never have more than two Pokemon on it. First, benching

                    more than two Pokemon means that one is committing 8 to 12 energy to his bench. Second, a full bench makes one extremely

                    vulnerable to Gust of Wind. Thirdly, it puts one in danger of being forced to sacrifice energy cards or trainers when using cards like

                    Computer Search, Item Finder, and Maintenance. The bench, properly used, should have one or two powered Pokemon, not four or

                    five unprepared Pokemon. Again, a full bench means an energy crisis. And this is for two reasons. Let us assume that a player is using

                    fairly good Pokemon that have attacks that cost three energy cards. Let us also assume that the player is using a deck with twenty-four

                    Energy, which is a common number. If that player benches four Pokemon, he must then commit twelve Energy to the bench. If he

                    benches five, he must commit fifteen Energy. Fifteen energy is more than half of what the player has in his deck. Even twelve is exactly

                    half. One simply cannot afford to attach that many energy cards. Now, one could make the argument that the player does not have to

                    fully power up all of his benched Pokemon. But this is not true. If he does not fully power all of them, he is completely vulnerable to

                    Gust of Wind. An opponent could simply Gust of Wind one of the unpowered Pokemon into play and attack it freely without risk.

                    Even a relatively fast Pokemon like Hitmonchan will be hit twice before he can do a substantial amount of damage if he comes into play

                    unpowered.

                    This is the major problem: Once a player fills his bench and attaches the necessary energy cards, the opponent can use energy denial

                    trainers at will. In combination with Gust of Wind, the energy denial trainers allow the opponent to once again force an unpowered

                    Pokemon into play. If I have 4 powered Hitmonchans on my bench, my opponent can simply use an Energy Removal and a Super

                    Energy Removal to render one Hitmonchan powerless. Then my opponent can Gust of Wind it into play, where it is vulnerable and will

                    probably die. Now, I realize that the opponent could do this even if I only had one Hitmonchan on my bench. But, if I only have one

                    the chances of me powering it are much greater than if I have four in play. Remember, if I have four Hitmonchans on my bench, I must

                    power them immediately to avoid being susceptible to Gust of Wind in the first place. Now, if my opponent uses energy removing

                    trainers to make his Gust of Wind effective, I am stuck with a powerless Pokemon in play and 12-15 energy combined on the bench

                    and in the discard pile. Therefore, I do not have a good chance of repowering the Hitmonchan that my opponent rendered useless and

                    then forced into play. There is the energy crisis. It is not that you do not have enough energy to begin with. It is that you commit so

                    much energy to the bench that a simple Super Energy Removal can get you stuck for several turns because you do not have much

                    energy left in the deck after putting so much on the bench.

                    A full bench also decreases the versatility of the active Pokemon for the same reason. If there is more than half the deck’s energy on

                    the bench, one cannot save his active Pokemon if it is victimized by an Energy Removal or Super Energy Removal. This is the same

                    energy crisis. Having a full bench means that you cannot save an active Pokemon because you do not have the available energy. The

                    deck has plenty; it is just tied up on the bench. That active Pokemon become a free kill. And, for the opponent, the energy

                    denial—Gust of Wind process can be repeated, enabling the opponent to kill up to four Pokemon with minimal retaliation.

                    Consider as well that while most people who like to fill their bench do so by the fourth or fifth turn, those people are not going to get

                    the energy required to power those benched Pokemon until perhaps the fifteenth or twentieth turn. So those Pokemon are just going to

                    sit there, attackable and vulnerable, until the player finally draws enough energy to power them. And then at that point, the opponent

                    can simply start the energy denial—Gust of Wind trick.

                    Also, a full bench means that one must sacrifice too much for a discard trainer like Computer Search. Ideally, most Pokemon should

                    stay in one’s hand until they are absolutely needed in battle. That way they can be discarded for a Computer Search or Item Finder.

                    When I use a Computer Search, I commonly discard an energy card along with a Pokemon. Sometimes I will also discard two

                    Pokemon. I certainly do not want to discard two precious Trainers or Energy cards to only get one with a Computer Search. If this

                    sounds absurd, recall the rules of the game: If six of a player’s Pokemon die, that player loses. Therefore, you only ever need six

                    Pokemon a game. Any extras in you deck (Pokemon beyond the sixth) are available for discard.

                    And so, just to repeat, one should never have more than two Pokemon on the bench. None is actually the best, although it is

                    dangerous. That way you will have plenty of Energy cards in your hand to use if your active Pokemon has its energy taken away.

                    You’ll also have plenty of extra Pokemon for discarding with Computer Search and Item Finder. Attacks like Hitmonlee’s stretch kick

                    and Jungle Pikachu’s Spark become far less effective attacks. Attacks that cause you to switch your active Pokemon with a benched

                    Pokemon also become ineffective. Pokemon does not have a limit on card size. Take advantage of this. Do not be in a hurry to empty

                    your hand and fill your bench.


Five Ways to be an Effective Trainer

1.Be Original in your ideas- Chances are you have seen a deck on this page or another or even in magazine articles but truth is if

                         everyone has the same deck what fun is that! Be original with your decks. I know it is a little difficult to do because well, there

                         just arent enough cards out there right now. Who knows you might be able to discover the next fad in pokemon decks!

                      2.Always keep 2 or less energy and pokemon types not including colorless- I have reviewed count- less decks that have a ton of

                         rares in it and think they could take on anyone. But when they play they get out two pokemon and die on five turns because of

                         energy problems or they dont have the pokemon to match the energy they do have.

                      3.Always try to follow the evolution ratio of 4-2-1 (4 of the basic , 2 of stage 1's and, 1 of stage 2's) if stage two does not apply

                         to your pokemon than 3-2 on stages will do . I hear players all the time well what good does a basic do that doesnt have an

                         evolution left in the deck but these are also the people who let there opponents draw free cards from mulligans. This method is

                         the most effective one I have found.

                      4.Playtest! Playtest! Playtest!- Any and all good trainers playtest their decks to fine tune them . No one should know your

                         pokemon, your strategy , your decks better than you ! know what cards are in you deck still . Play your deck against other

                         strategies , your own stategy type and both your weakness and your opponents weakness find out what combo of cards make

                         your deck its best once you find the perfect mix of pokemon , trainers and energy , and have your deck memorized in play then

                         no one can surprise you or stop you from owning that game!

                      5.Confidence- this comes from each of the above. once you have complete confidence in both your deck and yourself you will be

                         that much tougher to beat! And play for the love of the game and with a competitive yet sportman attitude you cant win all the

                         time but you shouldnt lose all the time but learn to accept what comes to you in the flow and learn to pick your striking points

                         and to know when your opponent makes a crucial mistake (which will happen in every game ) The winner is either he who

                         overcomes his mistake or the one who takes advantage of it .


Electric Tips

Most people who play electric decks are faced with the same problem my brother just overcame. There just isn't enough electric

                    pokemon for in the game to make a tournament class deck! However, with carefull planning, as well as a few lucky draws, anyone can

                    turn electric into a tournament class deck.

                    Fisrt of all, you need Raichus. They have a great ability called Agility, which deals 20 and gives a fifty percent chance of invincibility for

                    one turn. They evolve from Pikachus, which are good in their jungle or promo form. (Promo Pikas have tailwag and thundershock with

                    fifty percent chance of paralyzation.)

                    Secondly, you have the Eevees. You should include four Eevees, with two Jolteons, a Vaporeon, and a Flareon. The Jolteons are

                    Electric anyways, and the Vaporeon and Flareon give you an edge against Fire and Grass. (Both of which get paired with fighting,

                    electric's weakness, an awful lot.)

                    Third is Electrode, which is not a star card. Still, put three in because they can be useful at times. If your opponent is playing one of

                    your types, use tackle. If not, use Chain Lightning.

                    Fourth, you should put in three Electabuzzes. They can knock out a pokemon early, and give you an early advantage, a must for any

                    deck.

                    Fifth is my personal favorite, Magnemite. Magnemite can use self destruct, but if you have a Defender on him, it won't kill him. (This

                    won't work with Magneton. It does 80 and only has 60.) with a Potion and a Poke Center, You're cleaned up and ready to do it again.

                    If you remember my tips, winning will be easier. Of course, You'll lose sometimes, mostly against fighting. But usually, you can start fast

                    and finish faster with electric.

                    Louie


What Jungle Will Do to Other Decks

Ok ok. Jungle is out now and at first people couldn't wait for Jungle to come out. And now that it is out some people are having a cow.

                    Well all i have to say is Jungle improves all decks.

                    Psi/ Electric:

                    Mr. Mime is a great basic card, but don't put him out too early. For example your opponent has a Blastoise, a Venosaur and lets say

                    Nidorino. Since Mr. Mime's pokemon power say that all attacks above 30 does no damage on Mr. Mime, Mr. Mime is now

                    invinicible to these pokemons and unless your opponent has a devolution sprary he is dead. Now to the second card Pikachu.

                    Pickachu is a good card to start. Why? you ask because most basic pokemons have low hp so Pikachu's 10 damage can easly kill

                    them after a while. (this will be useful to stop those Charmanders, or a Machop ( which is a deadly card to an electric pokemon)).

                    Now to the third an last card Jolteon. Jolteon has that killer 80 damage attack. This is very useful to kill those lethal (to electric

                    pokemons) fighting pokemons. I would also like to say that even though Zapdos sucks he is very useful to a electric deck because he is

                    resistance to fighting and has that killer 100 damage attack. Also now not only are psi/electric pokemons stronger but they still pack a

                    punch fast because Mr. Mime, Pikachu, Zapdos and Mewtwo are all basic.

                    Mono Plant

                    I can't decide whether water is still the strongest pokemons or is grass now the strongest. Well let just say Vileplume has a killer 120

                    damage ( 1 out of 3 ) attack and a 50 % chance of healing 1 of your pokemons. Second Butterfree now this is a good card 40 damage

                    for a Stage 2 Pokemon is bad however it removes 2 or 4 (opponenet weakness) damage counters from Butterfree so this is a useful

                    card. Now on to Pinser this is an excellent card because it is basic. It purpose is to obstract your opponent while you evove your

                    pokemons. Scyther is a good basic pokemon but he isn't useful late in a game. His purpose is the same as Pinser. Now the entire

                    Nidoran (Female and Male) is good. Nidoran (female) fury swipes is a great attack that does 30 possible for 1 energy and call can be

                    useful. Now NidoQueen is boyfriend can become a very good attack but her other attack is still great. Also i would like to say

                    NidoKing is a very dangerous card. Now there are other new plant pokemons but they aren't worht mentioning.

                    Fighting

                    Fighting deck also benifits because of additions like Primeape who's fury swipes and tantrum are good attacks Also Marowak who's

                    call for friend attack is very good. Using this attack you can bring out out a Hitmochan or even a Ryhorn or Onix. While the Hitmochan

                    can deal all the damage Rhyorn and Onix can be useful to take a beating while you evole a Machop to Machoke then Machamp, or

                    until you get a Rhydon or Primeape or even just to charge up your Hitmochan.

                    Overall

                    I think these are the only decks that have gained strenght. Why? because all water pokemons has gained is Goldeen, Seaking, and

                    Vaporeon (who is effective but takes some energy). Fire however has gained 2 pokemons and will fire is already strong, but the reason

                    fire still suxs is a Gyrados, Dewgong, or Blastoise (even Vaporeon) can practically take out an entire fire deck. And well i never heard

                    of an all colorless deck but come to think of it that should be an interestign thing.

                    Bye-bye

                    Shivanan86@yahoo.com

                    i gotta go plan a colorless deck.......


Strategy Disruption

Many of the most popular decks rely on very heavily on a simple, but focused strategy. For example, the Raindance deck, this deck

                    relies on getting out Blastoise as quickly as possible, and Haymaker relies on killing off weaker Pokémon with the overrated

                    Hitmonchan. So what is the best way to beat these killer decks? Disruption, it is very hard to overpower either of these decks, or any

                    of the many decks they have spawned. The basic idea of disruption is to stop the goal of a deck from being accomplished, the simpler

                    a strategy a deck has, the easier it can be disrupted. Take for example one of the main components of the Raindance strategy,

                    evolution. The basic Pokémon in the Raindance deck are all very weak, Squirtle and Magikarp on most occasions. So how do you

                    disrupt this deck? Destroy the basic. Thus was spawned the Haymaker, but yet again this deck has too simple a strategy, and is easily

                    disruptable. Haymaker's have little or no evolution cards, and rely only on heavy hitting basic such as Hitmonchan, Kangaskhan and

                    Electabuzz. All these Pokémon, although they have high HP rely mainly on Chansey to defend them until they are built up, also they all

                    require large amounts of energy, with the exception of Electabuzz. So how to disrupt this deck? Three things: resist fighting, kill

                    Chansey and Mewtwo. The best types to use against this deck? Grass, Psychic and Colorless. All three of these types have Pokémon

                    that resist fighting and all three are major disrupters. The two most disruptive cards are Psychic and Colorless, Mewtwo and

                    Dragonair. Mewtwo is in my opinion one of the best American cards yet, I love using Psychic to do 80 damage to Hitmonchan for two

                    energy and Barrier (if you don't mind discarding the energy) is a very effective delay tool. Dragonair is an energy flow disrupter and in

                    combination with Energy Removal can be VERY dangerous. Grass is useful because of Beedrill and Butterfree, both have a resistance

                    to fighting, relatively high HP and a retreat cost of zero, retreat being one of the most disruptive actions of all. Also none of the common

                    decks are strong against any of the types, accept colorless, and only in a few cases. Everyone uses Rain Dance and Haymaker, or

                    increasingly grass-type decks. When Fossil arrives disruption will most likely become a very mainstream strategy, due to the addition of

                    Aerodactyl and Muk which will both nullify Raindance completely. The main point in disruption is that you must not rely too much on

                    evolution if you do you may be destroyed before you have a chance to disrupt. So in closing I ask you all to go out with your Mewtwo

                    and conquer.

                    Written By

                    Jim McGarity


Tips on Playing Effectively

The pokemon trading card game definitely depends on the quality of the cards of you and your opponent. However the manner in

                    which you play the game is also very important; one wrong turn and it may lead to a loss.

                    The strategy of actually playing the game is almost totally based on calculations. You have to not only focus on the present situation, but

                    more importantly the future. You must be able to calculate how much damage your active pokemon can take before you need to

                    replace it(with a ready and able pokemon).You have to be able to use your bench effectively, stall and make sacrifices for future

                    benefits. It is okay to sacrifice one or two pokemon to pump up your bench, which gives you a very big advantage in the game.

                    In terms of your deck you should keep many options(ways to approach defeating your enemy) open, by having various types of

                    pokemon of course(This does not mean you should have thirty pokemon from 5 different colors in your deck). One would be very

                    surprised by the variety of ways one can approach defeating an opponent with a couple of good pokemon. You can try for quick

                    attacks, delayed but powerhouse attacks, or confusions, sleep, and paralysis.

                    To give an example to sum up my points: Suppose you have a lickatung in your hand. Definitely use it as an opening pokemon. Basic,

                    90 HP, ability to confuse or paralyze doing ten damage. The only problem is its high retreat cost (3). But this will not be a problem

                    because it is out there to die. Your opponent will have a lot of trouble beating out the tough pokemon, and by the time your opponent

                    does, your opponent will have drawn one prize while you have a fully able Venosaur or Blastoise ready to attack. In the end you will

                    be at the advantage and most probably you will win.


Some Cool Card Combos

Card combos, oh yes. I love them, and my opponents hate them. Basically, a combo is two or more cards used in a row to get a

                    devestating effect. They are really annoying, and can turn a game around immediately. These are some of my favorites:

                    Poké Flute + Gust of Wind =

                    Pick a Magikarp from their discard pile and Knock it Out! Multiple copies of this combo can get many prizes instantly. The problem is,

                    when you get Poké Flute, you have to wait until you get Gust of Wind to use it. Still, I like this combo.

                    Poké Center + Venusaur or Blastoise =

                    ALL damage counters removed, and get back the energy on one turn! For Venusaur, you better have plenty of Leaf Energy out. Try

                    putting Leaf Energy on something like a Chansey for a good effect. For Blastoise, get lots of Energy in your hand using Bill, Computer

                    Search, Maintenance, Pokédex, Professor Oak, cards like that, then Rain Dance.

                    Pokédex + Maintenance =

                    Look at 5 cards, get the one you want on the same turn, while returning cards to your deck! Actually Computer Search gets the card

                    you want in one card, but Computer Search is rare. Maintenance and Pokédex are both only uncommon. Also, this combo puts cards

                    back in your deck and looks at the top 5 cards, too. And I don't know why people say Maintenance is a bad card (Great Kadabra),

                    but that's a different article for another day.

                    Clefairy + Defender =

                    This combo requires the opponent to do 60 HP worth of damage to knock out Clefairy. Since Clefairy normally only needs 40 HP to

                    be Knocked Out, you can't really use Metrenome on a really powerful attack the turn after Clefairy is attacked.Now, you can

                    Metronome for up to 50 damage! Before, 50 damage would have knocked ot Clefairy, thus Clefairy wouldn't have been able to

                    Metrenome for 50 damage with the attack. You can also use

                    Pidgeotto + Defender = Mirror Move for more!

                    or even

                    Magnemite + Defender = Self-Destruct without Knocking Magnemite Out!

                    Machoke + Defender = Submission becomes a risk-free attack!

                    Arcanine + Defender = Take-Down only does 10 to Arcanine! Clefairy Doll + Defender?

                    Revive + Clefairy Doll =

                    No damage counters on Clefairy doll! Actually this might be a pretty stupid combo...

                    Also, try looking for your own combos. I've just scratched the surface of combos. Try cards like PlusPower, Electrode, Item Finder,

                    Switch, who knows?

                    E-mail me your comments and combos at:

                    erc7207005@aol.com


Bench Strategies

 What exactly is the Bench, you ask? Well, just to make sure people fully understand, I'll explain what is written in the Wizards of

                    the Coast Online Rulebook. In the Glossary, it says," Bench: Your Pokémon that are in play but aren't actively fighting sit here. They're

                    ready to come out and fight if the Active Pokémon retreats or is Knocked Out." Other than the fact that you can only have 5 benched

                    Pokemon, it doesn't say much more. Seems pretty cut and dry, right? So why am I writing an article about this?

                            Well, when I first started playing Pokemon, my opening turn would go something like this (probably all of yours did, or still do,

                    too). I would put down my active I wanted to use and then pile all of my other basics right onto my bench. It was great to try to hit that

                    lucky number of 5 benched Pokemon, that way if my Pokemon start getting knocked out, the only way they can beat me by drawing

                    all of their prizes, not by me having no benched Pokemon. This strategy seemed flawless. I would have a full bench, nothing to worry

                    about. Every time a drew a new basic, I'd throw it right down on the bench. Unfortunately though, I soon learned the problems with

                    this strategy.

                            First, only a very few number of decks have the resources to power up so many benched Pokemon. If you have five Pokemon on

                    your bench, and one active, only using one energy per turn will leave most of your Pokemon useless and unable to attack if they were

                    called upon to be your active. In addition, spreading out your energies to make sure that your 5 benched Pokemon can attack will

                    often lead you to make the mistake of not powering up certain Pokemon to their fullest capabilities. For example, say you are playing

                    with a mono-fighting deck. Your active Pokemon is a Hitmonchan, and on your bench (we'll make it just four Pokemon to show that

                    even that is too many) you have two Machop, one Diglett, and one Sandshrew. If there was already one energy on the Hitmonchan,

                    people would have to make the decision whether or not to put another energy on the Hitmonchan. This possibly leaves the other ones

                    useless because they won't have enough energy to come out fighting. Another option is to put one energy on each of the benched

                    Pokemon for all of his upcoming turns so that when the Hitmonchan becomes KO'd, a benched Pokemon can come out fighting. Both

                    of these options leave the player at a HUGE disadvantage because Hitmonchan is capable of so much for than the 20 he does with

                    Special Punch.

                            Now look what would happen if player's bench had only one Machop, maybe two TOPS. Instead of the resources of the deck

                    being spread so thin, the player could afford to put an energy on Hitmonchan every turn. Because Machop only needs needs one

                    fighting energy for his attack, the player does not have to worry about him as much and can concentrate on getting the most out of his

                    active Pokemon. The best part about this though, is that there is another option. The player can leave the one fighting energy on

                    Hitmonchan, while on the bench, powering up the lonely Machop. They, when the player draws his Machoke, and later Machamp, he

                    can come out swinging. In this situation, with less benched Pokemon, both of the players choices are positive choices and their choice

                    can be based on playing style.

                            When using benched Pokemon, it is important to remember that you should only be putting Pokemon on your bench that you can

                    afford to power up or that would benefit you very greatly. An example would be if the deck you are playing against has a Farfetch'd as

                    their active Pokemon and you are still playing your mono fighting deck. Because of the fact that Farfetch'd has resistance to fighting,

                    you are having a lot of trouble taking him down. As a result, a smart move would be to put either an Onix or Chansey on your bench

                    so that they can soon become your active and stall for a while until you can get a big Pokemon powered up to be able to fight the

                    Farfetch'd.

                            Another good example of a reason to put a Pokemon on you bench would be as a scare tactic and to counter what your

                    opponent might be doing. If I was playing against a deck w/ a Ninetails being powered up on their bench, a great move for me would

                    be to put a Clefairy on my bench and start powering up the Clefairy. Because of Clefairy's metrognome attack, if my opponent was

                    smart he would be very reluctant to bring up his Ninetails and make it his active Pokemon. Clefairy would kill it in one shot. So just by

                    putting that Clefairy on my bench, I just rendered my opponents Ninetails and all the energy attached to it useless with just my one

                    card. Likewise, if your opponent is powering up a Hitmonchan on their bench, throw a Farfeth'd on yours. It'll render the same effect.

                            Lastly, when putting your Pokemon on your bench, you have to keep one important card in mind: GUST OF WIND. When

                    putting them down, take a second to think of what effect a Gust of Wind will have if you opponent decides to use it. Will they K.O

                    your Pokemon in one shot? Will you be able to fight back or will you need too much energy? Will they be able to get a free turn or two

                    to rebuild their bench?

                            It's important to remember that the bench is where the magic happens. Deciding what Pokemon to lay down on the bench, almost

                    always decides the outcome of the game and must be taken pretty seriously and given a lot of thought. And remember, unless you are

                    POSITIVE that your active Pokemon can not be knocked out, be sure to ALWAYS keep at least one benched Pokemon there for

                    back up, or it is going to be one easy win for your opponent. I hope you enjoyed my random thoughts.


The Story Of Pokemon

Pokémon is a very popular adventure game for the Nintendo Gameboy. It originated from Japan where it was originally called Pocket

                    Monsters. There are two version's of Pokémon, a red and a blue (Where as the Japenese version contains yellow and green). Each

                    version has the same game play and the only difference between the two of them are the Pokémon. You can only find some types of

                    Pokémon in a particular version. That's why you need to swap Pokémon with other people through a game link cable. There is a total

                    of a 151 Pokémon in the two versions put together and 139 in one version.

                    So what are Pokémon? Pokémon are little creatures that you find in the game. When you start the game, you recieve one Pokémon

                    from Professor Oak. The Pokémon will help you capture more Pokémon by battling them so they become weak enough for you to use

                    a Poké Ball to capture it. When you do capture a Pokémon you may use it to fight other Pokémon and other trainers. The point of the

                    game is to collect all 150 Pokémon and deafeat the Gym Leaders. When you use Pokémon to battle they recieve experience points

                    and their levels go up. If you get enough experience points your Pokémon will evovle and change appearence and become stronger.

                    If you like the game, you'll love the show. Pokémon is also a Cartoon series. It is based on a 10 year old boy named Ash who

                    declaires he will be the greatest Pokémon Master in the world. He has fun adventures with his friends, Misty, Brock and his first ever

                    Pokémon, Pikachu. They're are often stopped and hassled by the devious Team Rocket who are often trying to steal rare Pokémon

                    from trainers like Ash.

                    Overall, Pokémon is a excellent game.


Good Cards for Beginners

We all know that rare and holofoil cards are some of the best cards out there. Just look at a Kangaskhan, Wigglytuff, or Dragonair and

                    you'll see what I mean. But what if you can't afford to buy expensive holos to add to your deck? Well, I've got good news for you.

                    There are some excellent uncommon and even common cards out there! Don't believe me? Let's take a look at a few new Fossil

                    cards, Golduck and Geodude.

                    Golduck is perhaps one of my favorite cards. First off, he has a nice 70 HP, about average for a Stage 1, but not bad. Secondly, he

                    has two attacks, one of them requiring Psychic Energy and the other requiring Water. This makes him easy to place in either Psychic or

                    Water Decks. Finally, he has a retreat cost of one, which is really nice for a Stage 1.

                    OK, you're probably thinking, I guess Golduck's alright, but not as good as most rares. Think again! If you look closely at Golduck's

                    second attack, Hyper Beam, you'll notice that is simply a cheaper version of Dragonair's (a rare card) Hyper Beam attack, requiring

                    just two Water Energy and one Colorless! Lastly, the point that makes Golduck so appealing--he is an uncommon card, usually priced

                    at a very inexpensive 75 cents!

                    Next, we'll look at Geodude, another Fossil card. At first glance, Geodude doesn't seem like much, with 50 HP and a retreat cost of 1,

                    which, I'll admit, is pretty bad for a Basic. However, he makes up for all his weaknesses with a nasty attack: Stone Barrage. It reads:

                    "Flip a coin until you get tails. This attack does 10 damage times the number of heads." WOW! I was impressed when I read that one!

                    I saw it only required one Fighting Energy and one Colorless, and Geodude became an excellent "splash" card in my mono-Fighting

                    deck, Powersweep.

                    You don't have to be restricted to Fossil to find good, inexpensive cards, however. Jungle has some great cards also (in the 25 to 75

                    cent range), namely, Jigglypuff, Nidoran Female, and Butterfree.

                    So, next time you design a new deck, don't forget about the "little guys:" they can make all the difference!

                                                                  -Amanda P.


The Art of Deckbuilding

                                                                 by Pokemaster

                    By now all of you are probably familiar with the Basic Archtypes of Pokemon: Haymaker,Rain Dance,Damage Swap, and the newer

                    ones in jungle: All Colorless,Nidorama,(and I am glad to say, I helped form that deck) and Jungle Haymakers with Schythers.I am

                    going to deal with the subject of how to beat each of these.Some are easy to beat-and others are hard to beat, this artical is meant to

                    help you understand how to play with (and beat) each one, so here goes!

                    Haymaker

                    This, my friends is simply the best of the Archtypes, plain and simple.Why?Because of the word I just said "simple".Friends, this is the

                    simplest deck imaginalbe.(That is why it took a kid to come up with it) It uses the simple strategy of beatdown.You kill there pokemon

                    6 times and, thus, draw you're 6 prizes.There is not much to playing this deck, just kill thier pokemon.Period.The best way to beat this

                    deck is to race it, and beat it at it's own game.This can be difficult, at best, but It can be done with a Psi deck.Another way to beat this

                    deck ois to wait it out and stall.This is tricky, but if done correctly can beat a haymaker.When using this strategy, do a Damage Swap

                    deck.

                    Rain Dance

                    The answer to beating this deck is simple:use electric pokemon.They can beat the snot out of Blastiose.You should always include a

                    few Schythers, because most Rain Dancers Rely on Gyrados(I have no Idea how to spell that) as an attacker.Haymaker can beat

                    these decks because of Electabuzz, and some,newer, varients use Schythers instead of Farfech'd.If you are playing one I'd recomend

                    splashing and Alakazam or something for defence.You can also use the new attacker:Vaporion.(again, I have no idea how to spell that)

                    Vaporion is good because he is so new, most people don't know how to deal with him.Another thing I must say is that I haven't seen

                    enough of Dewgong in these decks.

                    Damage Swap

                    All I can say about beating this deck is be very,very wary of Mr. Mime and Mewtwo.If they are using an Alakazam to swap damage

                    onto your pokemon(some areas alow this, while others don't) Concentrate on killing the Alakazam.Mr. Mime is a very powerful

                    card...Kill it or else it could be very annoying(and often deadly) later on.Make sure you play with gust of wind when playing against this

                    deck.If you are th one playing this deck, be very wary of the new colorless pokemon, mainly jigglypuff.Use Mr.Mime with caution and

                    you will go far.

                    Well thats it for now, I hope I helped.Look For Part two of this artical very soon. I the conclusion to this artical I will deal with the 3

                    new jungle Archtypes.E-mail me at pokemaster@ratedg.com for questions, comments, and suggestions.Until next time.

The Art of Deckbuilding (continued)

                                                                 by Pokemaster

                    Well how was my first artical? Sorry about the spelling, though.In this continuation I will discus the 3 new archtypes that I have seen in

                    the Jungle expantion.They are: All Colorless, Nidorama, and Jungle Haymaker.These are all very good decks, but they can be beaten.I

                    will explain each one in enough detail to show you what you will be dealing with.So here goes:

                    All Colorless

                    This is a surprisingly good deck, despite the weakness to fighting.The reason for this is the Birds who are resistant tofighting are usualy

                    used along side with the usual jigglypuffs ang Kangaskhans.When using this deck go for early drawing with Kangaskhans.Schythers can

                    also be used in this sort of deck because they don't really need colored energy.Most of the decks I've seen use Wigglytuff for

                    late-game kills, but I think Pigeot could work equaly well.Gust of wind can kill the benched pokemon which the Wigglytuffs rely on for

                    power.And energy removal can take out a Pigeot with ease.Decks like this that rely on the jiggypuff/wigglytuff line are very vuneralbe

                    to Rydon.Use this deck with caution and beware Haymakers.

                    Nidorama

                    This is a very nice deck that makes use of the best attaker in the game: Nidoking.I play one of thes and it never loses unless I fight a

                    haymaker or a Damage Swap.(For obvious reasons) This is a very good deck and that is about all there is to say about playing it.Now

                    to beating it.If you're not playing a Haymaker or a Damage Swap you're in for it.Since most of these decks rely on Chaney, Likitounge,

                    Kangaskhan, ext. it would be a good idea to open up with a fighting pokemon, any fighting pokemon will do.

                    Try to kill the nidoran males early with gust of wind, because Nidoqueen can't do much without Nidokings support.(or DCE)

                    Jungle Haymaker

                    OK, I admit, I'm still working on a way to beat a Jungle Haymaker without useing one yourself, but If you treat this like a normal

                    Haymaker then you are doomed to fail...Kangaskhan has resistance to psi, so psi will now work, the only thing I can think of is a

                    mono-fighting, with Alakazam splashed in.Another Jungle Haymaker can beat this deck, but the odds of winning are 50-50.The

                    strategy of raceing a haymaker works to some extent, but this is sill the best deck around...


How to Build a Perfect Deck

                    Okay. Here I am again to discuss not about a certain Pokemon card (phew!) but to discuss on how to make a perfect deck. Step 1:

                    Sort all your cards out by making a pile of Fire Pokemon cards, then Water Pokemon cards etc. After that, make a pile of all your

                    energies of each type.

                    Step 2: Make a list of the types you want in your deck. Colorless does not count as a type.

                    Step 3: Make sure you have enough energies for that type. Eliminate the other types. If you have 1 or 2 types that fit your list, that's

                    great! But if you still have 3 or more types, choose which 2 types you want in your deck.

                    InteracT's Tips- Always have colorless Pokemon in your deck! You will surely have trouble or lose if against a Psychic Deck.

                    Colorless Pokemon have a weakness to Psychic. PUT COLORLESS POKEMON IN YOUR DECK! It helps. J

                    Here are some of the combination types you should use. These combo types are rarely defeated or are invincible!

                         · Colorless Pokemon included in each combo

                         Fighting        Psychic

                         Fighting        Fire

                         Fighting        Grass

                         Fire            Grass

                         Fire            Lightning

                         Fire            Psychic

                         Grass           Lightning

                         Grass           Psychic

                         Lightning       Psychic

                         Psychic         Water

                    Step 4: Now, from the 2 types you chose, pick the Pokemon you want in your deck. If a Pokemon is a Basic Pokemon, you can pick

                    as many as you want in the deck. If a Pokemon is Stage 1, then have 1 of the Stage 1 Pokemon and 2 or 3 of its Basic. If a Pokemon

                    is Stage 2, have 1 of the Stage 2 Pokemon, 2 of the Stage 1 Pokemon, and 3 or 4 of its Basic Pokemon. Try not to have too many

                    Pokemon.

                    InteracT's Tips- Always have an equal amount of Pokemon for each type for the very best results.

                    Step 5: Read the attacks of every Pokemon and make sure you have enough energy for every single Pokemon.

                    Step 6: After completing steps 1-5, count all the Pokemon cards you have so far.

                    InteracT's Tips- You can have a maximum of 60 cards in a deck.

                    Step 7: Now make a pile of all your trainers (if you didn't already do so) If you have these cards, I suggest you put them in. If you don't

                    have enough room (which I'm sure you won't), take out some Trainers from the list.

                         1-4     Pokeballs

                         1-2 Computer Search

                         1-2 Itemfinder

                         1-3 Super Energy Removal

                         1-4 Defender

                         4 Full Heal (Never take away ANY Full Heals)

                         1-4     PlusPower

                         1 Pokemon Center

                         4       Revive

                         1-4     Super Potion

                         Note- You may not have enough cards for Trainers

                    Step 8: Count your cards to see if you have 60 cards. If you have less, put in another energy. If you have more, take out some

                    Trainers.

                    Step 9: If you have a friend that lives close by and already has a Pokemon deck, ask him to play a match against you. It's okay if you

                    lose or win. Just keep making changes until it's a guaranteed winner!

                    Step 10: Now take a look at every single Pokemon card. From your deck, see what Pokemon could defeat that type. Keep doing this

                    for all the rest. It may take a lot of time but the effort is worth it.

                    Step 11: After completing all 10 steps, you're ready to enter tournaments. Happy battling!

                    I hope this article has helped you in making a perfect deck.

                    -InteracT


Deck Building Strategies

First off...

                      When building your deck, personally, I like to center it around 1 to 2 main Pokemon, such as Hitmonchan and Electabuzz, Arcanine

                    and Dewgong, Blastoise and Gyarados, and Venusaur and Tangela for a few examples. NEVER try to play a deck that has over 3

                    types of Pokemon (except colorless) UNLESS the extra Pokemon (and their respective evolutions) you are adding have attacks that

                    require colorless energy or (in the case of Charizard) can turn the energy on them into the energy needed. I recommend playing with

                    only 2 types of Pokemon, such Fighting/Fire or Psychic/Electric, so you have a better chance of drawing the right energy. If you have

                    24 energy cards and you are playing a 3 type deck, and the energy is divided equally, then you have a 8 in 47(after drawing your

                    starting hand and placing prizes) chance of drawing the right energy needed. And if your opponent plays with Energy Removal cards,

                    then he/she will most likely get rid of that 1 fighting energy before your Machamp has enough to seismic toss. If you want to be

                    guaranteed to draw the right energy play with only 1 type and colorless Pokemon.

                      Once you decide what Pokemon and energy you want to center your deck around, you must choose supporting Pokemon that help

                    fill out your team more evenly. If you choose, lets say, Venusaur and Beedril as you primary Pokemon you must first add their

                    de-evolved forms, Ivysaur/Bulbasaur and Kakuna/Weedle respectively, in order to get the evolution cards out. There is one exception

                    to this rule, however. POKEMON BREEDER. With this card you can skip the whole middle evolution phase for 3 stage Pokemon.

                    Next, add cards to counter weaknesses or that have different weaknesses of the Primary Pokemon. For this grass deck that I have

                    started to make, we could add Koffing(weak to psychic) and Nidoran(male) (weak to Psychic) and Clefairy (resists psyche) and

                    Tangela (weak to fire, as is Venu and Beedrill). Make sure you have enough basic so you won't run out. 14-16 should be enough. also,

                    don't go overboard on Pokemon, you will need room for trainers after the energy, since they are probably one of the most important

                    aspects of your deck.

                      After that, add your energy amount. i have found that 21 to 23 energy is sufficient for most decks, except fire decks which need a

                    maximum of 25. the ratio should be equal to the number of Pokemon of each type you choose. Example:there are 20 Pokemon cards

                    in your deck. 1/4 of the Pokemon you choose were colorless(can use ANY energy), 1/4 was fire and 2/4 were fighting, so you add 23

                    energy, 3 are double colorless energy, 7 are fire energy, and 13 fighting energy.

                      Last is your trainer content. In my opinion, every deck must have a drawing/search engine: bill, professor oak, computer search and

                    pokemon trader make up these cards. and then it picks a theme(most times the Pokemon you choose affect this), such as Energy

                    Removal(if you use Dragonairs and Poliwrathes), Healing(Usually uses Pokemon center with Venusaurs, or alakazam's Pokemon

                    power), Quick Knock outs(uses mostly basic Pokemon that can deal 20 damage for one energy card with pluspowers and gusts of

                    wind to Knock out the opponent's basic or weak pokemon on the bench before they can evolve) or stall(has few Pokemon(usually just

                    cards like chansey, zapdos, and onix) so your opponent gets to draw more cards from no pokemon mulligans, uses TONS OF

                    TRAINERS, around 25, and uses maintenance, Lass, and imposter oak to run the opponent out of cards while making your deck

                    bigger, usually lacks the drawing engine but keeps computer searches). In this grass deck, since there are venusaur, i will use Pokemon

                    centers for a healing theme along with the drawing engine, Pokemon Breeders, and energy retrievals to bring back lost energy.

                    The final deck looks something like this:

                    Pokemon:

                         2x Venusaur

                         2x Ivysaur

                         3x Bulbasaur

                         2x Beedrill

                         2x Kakuna

                         3x Weedle

                         1x Clefairy

                         3x Koffing

                         2x Tangela

                         2x Nidoran(male)

                    Energy:

                         22x Grass Energy

                    Trainer:

                         2x Professor Oak

                         4x Bill

                         2x Pokemon Trader

                         2x Pokemon Breeder

                         4x pokemon Center

                         2x Energy Retrieval

                    I hope this will help you become more successful in the Pokemon Card game.

                    Thanks for reading my spam,

                    Chris Kuehl, a.k.a. Tyrant

                    tyrant_84@hotmail.com

                    or

                    trader84@mailcity.com


Playing Types for Pokémon

                    Yes, the title of this article isn't exactly an open book, but it's the best I could think of. This article is about how a player's personal

                    playing style ties in with certain types of Pokémon. Some of the things in this article may be a little obvious, but they might help

                    someone.

                    If you played Magic, you probably know what kind of a player you are. You play counter if you are patient, Necro if you are

                    aggressive...etc. If you don't play Magic, you don't know what I'm talking about here, so I'll continue.

                    If you and your deck aren't aiming to play the same way, then you might not make it. That's the reason a player needs to examine the

                    way he enjoys playing and play with a corresponding deck.

                         Psychic - Psychic's are slow and methodical. If you enjoy stalling while you build up a nice combo, or just plain enjoy strategy,

                         this type is for you. Psychic has probably the closest thing to a Counterspell of Pokémon.

                         Fighting - Pure strength. Quick damage for relatively cheap costs. If you think you'd like to just overwhelm the opponent with

                         extremely quick attacks, this is probably your deck, definitely for an aggressive player I would dub this type Zoo if it was Magic.

                         Water - As most of us have found, the only way to play a Water deck is through Rain Dance. When Rain Dance is out, large

                         Pokémon can instantly attack for huge amounts. This type is Zoo, and totally made for an aggressive player.

                         Grass - Grass doesn't usually concentrate on damage. It seems to love to disrupt your opponent with countless effects, which is

                         very fun. At times, this type can come down to having quite a lot of luck revolving around it's winning, since there is much coin

                         flipping. This type will play a bit slower than some, so it is for more of a strategic and patient player. There isn't a deck I can

                         think of that would describe Grass, because there is nothing like it in Magic.

                         Fire - This type gives you added damage if you discard Energy Cards. This is an aggressive color as well. This is a very

                         Necro-like deck.

                         Lightning - This color has several effects that can go along with attacks, but this type concentrates on large damage with

                         attached disadvantages. However, since many of the large attacks cost a lot of Energy, it is not exactly an aggressive deck. This

                         type is made to stall a little while building up on the bench, so it should probably be played by a player that is patient and

                         strategic. This color is probably the Green deck of Pokémon.

                         Other things - Later in the game, almost every color has Pokémon that can shoot at benched Pokémon, which would be

                         considerred Direct Damage. However, this type of play in Pokémon is slower and less-aggressive than it's Magic Equivalent.

                    Energy Removal can be used in any deck. This is a horribly powerful card, and in Magic there is nothing like it. To say the least, this

                    card is similar to a Stone Rain, Counterspell, and Fog built into one card.

                    That's about all. I hope you can see just a little now how your personal playing style could affect the outcome of your next game. Good

                    luck!

                    -Branden Bean


Welcome to the Jungle

                    Ratings:

                    * - Disease! Trade it! Trade it! (Devolution Spray)

                    *1/2 - Poor

                    ** - Fair

                    **1/2 - Decent, but barely sub-par for some reason

                    *** - Good

                    ***1/2 - Excellent

                    **** - Outstanding (none in this set; cards I rate **** are Bill, Electabuzz, Professor Oak and Hitmonchan)

                    Bellsprout **

                         Fast and interesting, an effective deck thinner. But do you really want to line up a series of 40 HP critters with Weakness to Fire

                         as quickly as you can?

                    Butterfree **1/2

                         Mega Drain seems too Energy-intensive to ever see the light of day, unless you're in love with the idea and using Venusaur in a

                         mono-Grass deck. Whirlwind is amusing, and I'd love to have the unlimited "Gust" power, but I'm not going to recommend this

                         one because then you have to use boring, mediocre ol' Metapod in your deck, when there's just so much better.

                    Clefable ***

                         Wow! Resistance to Psy, a cheap, nasty attack, high HP, and colorless! Only the Weakness to Fighting, the slow development,

                         and mediocre Retreat Cost keep this one from being perfect. Will see a lot of play, especially since Metronome is a colorless

                         attack... but the fragility issues (***1/2 if he wasn't Weak) may make this one a bit too difficult to use until you've done some

                         playtesting. "Deck-intensive," since you'd have to build your entire deck around using this.

                    Cubone **

                         Personally, I won't be using him. Resistance to Lightning is nice, but Cry isn't quite enough to protect the poor guy. And Rage

                         simply isn't cost-effective for the Energy investment involved (to a fragile Pokemon no less!).

                    Dodrio ***

                         My first impression was that was "Pretty decent, but I think I'll continue to rely on Switch so that I can fill my deck with cooler

                         Pokemon than Doduo." Now, though, looking at all of the cool Pokemon that have a retreat cost of 1, I'm warming to this one

                         as a potentially deadly center to a new deck archetype. Will make a very nice "utility swap" ally for Alakazam. Quite promising,

                         I like it!

                    Eevee ***

                         Beautiful versatility and a nasty, fast attack. Will see a lot of use, even though he's fragile. Metagamers of the world, unite!

                    Electrode **

                         I hate using Voltorb, and the attacks just don't appeal. Gimme my Electabuzz!

                    Exeggcute ***

                         Lots of potential. May be hard to use, but a 100% Paralyze early in the game can mess up just about anyone. I think he'll see

                         some play, especially as an early hitter in the Alakazam/Venusaur combo decks.

                    Exeggutor ***

                         Very nice! And MAX Barrage - combo with Venusaur, anyone? Another partner in crime for Alakazam, as if he needed one.

                    Fearow ***

                         I like Agility powers, but this one seems a bit flat. Promising and all, but I like Raichu better.

                    Flareon **

                         Quick Attack seems kind of pointless, considering that you have to evolve your Pokemon to a Stage 1 before you can use this,

                         and 15 average damage for 2 Energy isn't very enticing (compare Hitmonchan). For a fast slap, I think I'll continue using

                         Farfetch'd, thanks.

                    Gloom **1/2 or ***, can't decide

                         Automatic Poison is very cool. Considering that this is Stage 1, however, and Oddish is somewhat dangerous to use, I think I'll

                         stick with Koffing; I can get 2 Energy, I know it! ;)

                    Goldeen *

                         What a piece of crap!

                    Jigglypuff ***

                         Wow, guaranteed Sleep for 1! That's REALLY annoying. Weakness to Fighting will keep this guy under control, though; maybe

                         a splash card for mid-game ambushes. Early use, yes, but not against Haymakers!

                    Jolteon **1/2

                         Ah, I'm not that much of a gambler. The attack is extremely impressive, but I think there's still better options. Hitmonchan for

                         me!

                    Kangaskhan ***1/2

                         Possibly my favorite card in the set. Who won't be using this? Not only can he be used in any deck and be a HUGE asset, but

                         he also strengthens the major deck archetypes (Haymaker, Raindance, etc). The only reason I don't rate him as **** is that he

                         might put the established deck types totally out of competitive reach and quash some exciting new ideas. Paradoxically, though,

                         he opens up LOTS of possibilities. Card of the year?

                    Lickitung **1/2

                         I really don't like 50% powers, and I like Weakness to Fighting even less, but I still kinda like this one because he gives any

                         color the ability to experiment with Grass-quality control tactics. Add in a 3 Retreat Cost, though, and I just don't think he'll cut

                         it.

                    Mankey ***

                         Extremely vulnerable to Gust of Wind. But, he can basically be used as a Colorless Pokemon, so he's versatile and can be

                         splashed as a surprise in any off-color deck. And way too much fun!

                    Marowak **1/2

                         A decent card, and Cry For Help gives you some great, much-needed deck manipulation in a Fighting deck. But, considering

                         you're probably just using him to dig out a Hitmonchan, why not just use Hitmo in the first place?

                    Meowth ***

                         Nice! A living Bill, though, who has to be out front to function, with Weakness to Fighting, is begging for trouble.

                    Mr. Mime ***1/2

                         One of the best cards in the set. He's probably going to be the least thrillingly embraced Pokemon in Jungle... by opponents, that

                         is! Huge potential to come out of nowhere and use either power to mess up the opponent. A deadly attacker for Psychic decks

                         - PsyLightning just went from "nise deck" to "horrifying." HP are low, though, so I doubt using more than 2-3 would be

                         worthwhile unless you build the deck to compensate (Chansey / Damage Swap?).

                    Nidoqueen ***

                         First impressions: "Love Love has just too much potential amusement value to pass this up. But, if it combos with Nidoking, I

                         don't want it anywhere near my deck!" Further analysis, though, makes me think that this has potential. "Nido" decks will sprout

                         up everywhere, but I think they'll be carried more by the excellent Nidoran Female than by the Queen/King combos.

                    Nidoran Female ***

                         I like Fury Swipes. Grass needs a quick attacker, and here she is! And 60 HP is good for a Basic, even with weakness to Psy.

                         Not bad! I would rate her ***1/2 if I could, simply because she opens up new potential for a wonderful, under-utilized color.

                    Nidorina *1/2

                         I evolve, and get a measly +10 HP? Supersonic deals no damage? Double Kick does only twice as much average damage as

                         Fury Swipes, for triple the Energy? Hey, at last, a use for Devolution Spray - give me back my Nidoran Female! ;)

                    Oddish ***

                         I REALLY like this guy. Weakness to Fire scares me, though, especially since you'll be tempted to keep this guy out for multiple

                         turns while you thin your deck, potentially bringing out even more fragile Oddishes for your hungry opponent... hmm. I don't

                         think I'll use this much in tournaments, but I wish I could.

                    Paras **

                         Hmm, 40 HP and weakness to Fire. No thanks!

                    Parasect **1/2

                         Decent, but there's no way I'm gonna use Paras.

                    Persian **1/2

                         Effective, but I'm not giving up my Meowth's ability for this!

                    Pidgeot **1/2

                         Hurricane has huge potential, but when I look at the other colorless Pokemon available already (Chansey, Dragonair,

                         Farfetch'd), I just can't see it. I want to see this work, though, even if you have to design the entire deck around doing it,

                         because winning by Hurricaning a Benchless opponent would be priceless!

                    Pikachu ***

                         The sniper! I see this one possibly making an appearance in Haymakers as a finisher, especially since he can overcome an

                         enemy's Resistance. Gust of Wind is a one-shot, but Pikachu is forever! ;) Nasty.

                    Pinsir ***

                         I like him, but with no Resistance, I like Scyther better. Still, if you're going to use both, Haymakers are going to be in trouble!

                         Has good synergy with Double Colorless Energy. And now, with Pinsir, Scyther and Nidoran Female, are we going to see

                         Grass Haymakers? Egad, Stanley...

                    PokeBall ***

                         A nice alternative to Pokemon Trader. The only reason I slightly prefer the older card is because if I need a Pokemon (usually a

                         Stage 2), I want to make absolutely sure I get it. Will still see lots of use, though, since you can change a Pokemon-less hand

                         into a winner with this one. A life-saver.

                    Primeape **1/2

                         Doesn't seem worth the trouble of chaos (randomness), especially with Hitmonchan in the game. A heavy hitter, though, and the

                         retreat cost is nice for a Stage 1. Will definitely see some use, and get some lucky knockouts. He's a powerhouse waiting to

                         happen - *** if I didn't have so much fun with Mankey, and wasn't so bad with coin flips! :-( I'll be using him for Fury Swipes.

                    Rapidash **1/2

                         I like Agility a lot, even though Fire decks are already Energy-hungry. The only reason I won't consider using him is because it

                         means the weak Ponyta is in my deck then.

                    Rhydon **1/2

                         Crash is great, but it's so Energy-intensive that it's just not worth the while - especially considering that you would have to use a

                         monochrome Fighting deck to ever manage to use it. It seems like some better Fighting Pokemon and some Gusts of Wind

                         would be a better choice.

                    Rhyhorn ***

                         A fun "wall" Pokemon, and resistance to Lightning is wonderful. I expect to see him replacing Onix in the near future. Will also

                         be a popular "splash" in any deck if Leer is colorless to activate!

                    Scyther ***

                         My choice for most fun Grass Pokemon in the set. Resistance to Fighting, high HP (especially for Basic Grass!), and big

                         potential, especially if you're slowing your opponent down with Energy Removals. Haymakers will dread seeing this thing on turn

                         1, especially if you start it up right away and slam them for 60 on turn 2. Yeah!

                    Seaking *1/2

                         You've GOT to be joking. They print Blastoise and Gyarados, and I'm supposed to be excited about evolving into this? ;)

                    Snorlax ***

                         An amazing defender, with lots of weaknesses that need to be understood and compensated for. Body Slam is too expensive.

                         But, I'll be using at least 1 of these in all my decks for Immunity, since Grass decks are going to be everywhere after Jungle

                         comes out.

                    Spearow ***

                         Serious potential, and will probably see extensive use after being initially dismissed. Probably won't be as popular as Farfetch'd,

                         though, due to the Weakess to Lightning. Inferior to Clefable?

                    Tauros **

                         Cute! But if I want fast colorless attacks, I'll use Farfetch'd; if I want colorless defense, I'll use Chansey; if I want colorless

                         utility, I'll use Kangaskhan. Doesn't make the cut for me.

                    Vaporeon **1/2

                         I can see this guy getting some play thanks to the synergy with Blastoise, but I think I still prefer Dratini and Dragonair in a

                         Raindance. Tri-color Eevees will be fun to see, though! ;)

                    Venomoth ***

                         Color change is very interesting, especially if you can use it from the Bench, but if I'm going to spend the time to evolve a Grass

                         Pokemon, I want Venusaur! But I'm still going to use this, because Phosphor Powder is one of the nastiest cost-effective attacks

                         I've ever seen.

                    Venonat **1/2

                         I like this guy a lot. The attacks are very cool. But 40 HP and weakness to Fire just shuts down all possibility for me. :-( I will

                         experiment in casual play, though, because I've just GOT to use Venomoth. Woohoo!

                    Victreebell **1/2

                         Pretty cool. Won't use him, though, because I'm not touching Bellsprout!

                    Vileplume ***

                         This guy rocks, especially in control-oriented defensive decks. I might experiment with Oddish and Pokemon Breeder, although

                         Petal Dance is very Energy-intensive and dangerous. Great synergy with Alakazam/Venusaur decks, especially if you're "walling

                         with Chansey."

                    Weepinbell **

                         Yes, I like Koffing a lot. But this guy's no Koffing - he's a Stage 1! And Bellsprout is a lightweight, pure deck clutter you're

                         trying to thin out as quickly as possible. These guys seem like they're the solution to their own problem, and nothing else. No

                         thanks.

                    Wigglytuff ***

                         I like Friendship Ring a lot, and Jigglypuff is cool. This guy will have nice teamwork synergy with Scyther, probably, and looks

                         like a nice "feature" Pokemon in a fast-hitting deck.

                    OK, here's my most current impression of a top 10:

                      1.Kangaskhan

                      2.Scyther

                      3.Mr. Mime

                      4.Wigglytuff

                      5.Exeggutor

                      6.Pinsir

                      7.Snorlax

                      8.Nidoran Female

                      9.Dodrio

                     10.Clefable

                    Wildcard Award: Eevee! A couple decent coin flips in the first few turns, and this guy is ****.

                    Al


Pokemon Type List

                    This is a brief summary of monster types and their weaknesses (andresistance). Based on the Gameboy version.

                    Plants and Insects (Grass): Weak against fire. Evolved insects fly,with resistance against Fight and cheap (no) cost to retreat.Generally low

                    attack strength with bad status effects.

                    Science (Grass): Weak against Psych. Also mostly low attack strengthwith bad status effects. Bats fly and are resistance against Fight.

                    Fire (Fire): Weak against Water. High attack strength, but manyattacks require trashing of Fire energy. Fast decks.

                    Water1 (Water): Weak against Lightning. High attack strength(sometimes with bad status effects) when evolved, but requires lots ofWater

                    energy. Slow but very powerful decks.

                    Water2 (Water): A few water pokemons are weak against Grass.

                    Lightning (Lightning): Weak against Fight (except for flyingmonsters). Rich in attacks which cause Paralyse and self-destructionattacks.

                    Rock (Fight): Weak against Grass.

                    Ground (Fight): Weak against Grass but resistant against Lightning.Very powerful against Lightning monsters.

                    Fight (Fight): Weak against Psych. Powerful, damaging attacks.However, a good number of monsters, especially the more powerful

                    ones,are flying and resistant to Fight. Fast decks.

                    Psych (Psych): Weak against Psych. Powerful attacks, but low HPs. Colorless monsters are resistant against Psych, which is a big minus.

                    Ghosts (Psych): No weakness, and resistant against Fight. But attackstrength is low.

                    Colorless (Colorless): Weak against Fight but resistant against Psych.Large variety. Can be included in any deck since the attacks

                    requirecolorless energy.

                    Birds (Colorless): Weak against Lightning and resistant against Fight.Generally low retreating costs. Attack strength is only average.

                    Dragons (Colorless): No weakness, and resistant against Psych. Butattacks are not very energy-effective. Rare.


Attack Database

                    Note: All powers depend on the Pokemon (PKMN) being not Confused,

                    Paralyzed, or Asleep.

                    DC = Damage Counter

                    Colorless:

                    Cost Name Damage Pokemon Effect

                    1 Fury Attack 10x Doduo Flip 2 coins.  Damage = 10x no. heads

                    1 Pound 10 Dratini

                    1 Bite 20 Rattata

                    1 Bite 20 Raticate

                    1 Leek Slap 30 Farfetch'd 50% Fail; Use only once (even after benching)

                    1 Conversion 1 --- Porygon Change Def.'s weakness to non-colorless type

                    1 Sing --- Clefairy 50% Asleep

                    2 Whirlwind 10 Pidgey Switch Defending PKMN with one on bench

                    2 Whirlwind 10 Pidgeotto Switch Defending PKMN with one on bench

                    2 Conversion 2 --- Porygon Porygon's resistance is non-colorless type

                    2 Scrunch --- Chansey 50% Immune to damage until your next turn

                    3 Pot Smash 30 Farfetch'd

                    3 Slam 30x Dragonair Flip 2 coins.  Damage = 30x no. heads

                    3 Super Fang ? Raticate Damage = half of defender's remaining HP

                    3 Mirror Move --- Pidgeotto Do effect of attack on Pidgeotto last turn

                    3 Metronome --- Clefairy Copies 1 Defender Attack (no energy/reqs)

                    4 Hyper Beam 20 Dragonair Discard 1 Energy from defending PKMN

                    4 Double-edge 80 Chansey Does 80 damage to self

                    Fighting:

                    Cost Name Damage Pokemon Effect

                    Power Strikes Back --- Machamp 10 damage to PKMN damaging Machamp (no W&R)

                    F Dig 10 Diglett

                    F Rock Throw 10 Onix

                    F Sand-Attack 10 Sandshrew Opponent 50% Fail attack next turn

                    F Low Kick 20 Machop

                    F Jab 20 Hitmonchan

                    FF Mud Slap 30 Diglett

                    FF Harden --- Onix Prevent 30 damage or less during next turn

                    1FF Special Punch 40 Hitmonchan

                    1FF Slash 40 Dugtrio

                    1FF Karate Chop 50- Machoke -10 damage for each DC on Machoke

                    2FF Submission 60 Machoke Does 20 damage to self

                    1FFF Seismic Toss 60 Machamp

                    1FFF Earthquake 70 Dugtrio Does 10 damage to your bench

                    Fire:

                    Cost Name Damage Pokemon Effect

                    Power Energy Burn --- Charizard Turn all energy on Charizard to R

                    1 Scratch 10 Charmander

                    2 Smash Kick 20 Ponyta

                    2 Lure --- Ninetales Switch active PKMN with bench

                    1R Flare 20 Growlithe

                    1R Ember 30 Charmeleon Discard R

                    RR Confuse Ray 10 Vulpix 50% Confuse

                    RR Fire Punch 30 Magmar

                    RR Flame Tail 30 Ponyta

                    3 Slash 30 Charmeleon

                    1RR Flamethrower 50 Arcanine Discard R

                    1RR Flamethrower 50 Charmeleon Discard R

                    1RR Flamethrower 50 Magmar Discard R

                    RRRR Fire Blast 80 Ninetales Discard R

                    RRRR Fire Spin 100 Charizard Discard 2 Energy Cards

                    Grass:

                    Cost Name Damage Pokemon Effect

                    Power Energy Trans --- Venusaur Move 1 Grass Energy from 1 PKMN to another

                    G String Shot 10 Caterpie 50% Paralyze

                    G Poison Sting 10 Weedle 50% Poison

                    G Horn Hazard 30 Nidoran (M) 50% Fail

                    2 Stiffen --- Kakuna 50% Immune to damage until your next turn

                    2 Stiffen --- Metapod 50% Immune to damage until your next turn

                    1G Bind 20 Tangela 50% Paralyze

                    GG Foul Gas 10 Koffing Heads Poison; Tails Confuse

                    GG Leech Seed 20 Bulbasaur Unless all damage is prevented remove 1 DC

                    GG Poisonpowder 20 Kakuna 50% Poison

                    GG Stun Spore 20 Metapod 50% Paralyze

                    3 Twineedle 30x Beedrill Flip 2 coins.  Damage = 30x no. heads

                    2G Vine Whip 30 Ivysaur

                    2G Thrash 30+ Nidoking +10 damage if heads,10 damage to self if tails

                    2G Double Kick 30x Nidorino Flip 2 coins.  Damage = 30x no. heads

                    GGG Poisonpowder 20 Ivysaur 100% Poison

                    GGG Poisonpowder 20 Tangela 100% Poison

                    GGG Toxic 20 Nidoking 20 Poison damage each turn

                    GGG Poison Sting 40 Beedrill 50% Poison

                    2GG Horn Drill 50 Nidorino

                    GGGG Solarbeam 60 Venusaur

                    Lightning:

                    Cost Name Damage Pokemon Effect

                    Power Buzzap --- Electrode KO Electrode to attach as 2 Energy of any type

                    1 Tackle 10 Voltorb

                    1 Gnaw 10 Pikachu

                    L Thunder Wave 10 Magnemite 50% Paralyze

                    L Thundershock 10 Electabuzz 50% Paralyze

                    1L Thunderjolt 30 Pikachu 10 damage to self if tails

                    1L Thunder Punch 30+ Electabuzz +10 damage if heads,10 damage to self if tails

                    1L Selfdestruct 40 Magnemite does 10 to both benches, 40 to self

                    2L Agility 20 Raichu 50% Immune to all effects of attacks & damage

                    1LL Thunder Wave 30 Magneton 50% Paralyze

                    LLL Electric Shock 50 Electrode 10 damage to self if tails

                    2LL Selfdestruct 80 Magneton does 20 to both benches, 80 to self

                    1LLL Thunder 60 Raichu 30 damage to self if tails

                    1LLL Thunder 60 Zapdos 30 damage to self if tails

                    LLLL Thunderbolt 100 Zapdos Discard all energy on Zapdos

                    Psychic:

                    Cost Name Damage Pokemon Effect

                    Power Damage Swap --- Alakazam Swap 1 DC from 1 PKMN to another (no KO)

                    1 Pound 10 Drowzee

                    P Psyshock 10 Abra 50% Paralyze

                    P Doubleslap 10x Jynx Flip 2 Coins.  Damage = 10x No. heads

                    P Sleeping Gas --- Gastly 100% Asleep

                    P Hypnosis --- Haunter 100% Asleep

                    1P Psychic 10+ Mewtwo +10 for each energy on defender

                    1P Destiny Bond --- Gastly Discard P; KO Pokemon KOing Gastly

                    PP Confuse Ray 10 Drowzee 50% Confuse

                    PP Dream Eater 50 Haunter Can't use unless Defender is asleep

                    PP Barrier --- Mewtwo Discard P to Immune to damage/effects attacks

                    PP Recover --- Kadabra Discard P to remove all DCs from Kadabra

                    1PP Meditate 20+ Jynx +10 for each DC on defending Pokemon

                    1PP Super Psy 50 Kadabra

                    PPP Confuse Ray 30 Alakazam 50% Confuse

                    Water:

                    Cost Name Damage Pokemon Effect

                    Power Rain Dance --- Blastoise Attach 1 Water En. to any Water PKMN

                    1 Tackle 10 Magikarp

                    W Headbutt 10 Seel

                    W Bubble 10 Squirtle 50% Paralyze

                    W Water Gun 10+ Poliwag +10 for each extra energy (2 max)

                    W Flail 10x Magikarp Damage = 10x no. DCs on Magikarp

                    W Slap 20 Staryu

                    1W Withdraw --- Squirtle 50% Immune to all effects of attacks & damage

                    1W Withdraw --- Wartortle 50% Immune to all effects of attacks & damage

                    WW Amnesia --- Poliwhirl 1 attack of Defender cannot be used next turn

                    WW Recover --- Starmie Discard W to remove all DCs from Starmie

                    2W Star Freeze 20 Starmie 50% Paralyze

                    2W Bite 40 Wartortle

                    1WW Water Gun 30+ Poliwrath +10 for each extra energy (2 max)

                    1WW Doubleslap 30x Poliwhirl Flip 2 coins.  Damage = 30x no. heads

                    1WW Aurora Beam 50 Dewgong

                    WWW Hydro Pump 40+ Blastoise +10 for each extra energy (2 max)

                    WWW Dragon Rage 50 Gyrados

                    2WW Ice Beam 30 Dewgong 50% Paralyze

                    2WW Whirlpool 40 Poliwrath Discard 1 Energy on Defending PKMN

                    WWWW Bubblebeam 40 Gyrados 50% Paralyze


San Jose Team Pokemon Rules

                    This is the way that we almost always play Pokemon around here, unless it's only 1 on 1. What we do is called a team variation. This

                    is how it works.

                         A) If an even number of people, choose teams in whatever way you wish.

                         B) If an odd amount, have the strongest decks together on the weaker team.

                    NB: Either way of the rules i perfectly adjustable to 3, 4 or even 5 teams of 1 or more players.

                    For simple explanation's sake, we'll take the example of two teams, Team A, and Team B, each with 2 players (p1, p2).

                    Turn Sequence: Team Ap1, Team Bp1, Team Ap2, Team Bp2, etc.

                    Play just like you would under normal rules. For defining an opponent, it cannot be someone on your team. The effects of "each ter, or

                    per turn," etc, only happen during the player who is getting affected and the player that made it happen.

                    To win is simple, the team must get all of their prizes. If one team member is eliminated, then the team must either eliminate all of the

                    opponents, or eliminate down to the number of current players still in the game and draw up the remainder of the prizes.

                    An example of this could be:

                         Ap1 is out, with Bp1, Ap2, and Bp2 in the game.

                         For Team B to win, their either can draw all their prizes, or they can eliminate Ap2.

                         For Team A to win, Ap2 must eliminate both Bp1 and Bp2, or eliminate just 1 of them and then draw up the rest of their prizes.

                         If Ap2 draws up all of his/her prizes and both Bp1 and Bp2 are still in the game, a win is not awarded.

                    This method has been perfected through lots of time, just give it a try.

                    FAQ:

                    Q: If I self KO, who gets the prize?

                    A: If you are attacking, then it is the person you attack. If you are not attacking, you may choose.

                    Q: Would self destruct affect all players' benched Pokemon?

                    A: Yes.


Misty Jim's Multiplayer Mania Rules

This is how me and my friends play when we do a 3 player game. We generally don't play with prizes, see rules 4, 5 and to clarify how

                    to win, and be out of the game.

                      1.Begin by drawing 10 cards instead of 5.

                      2.If you can't decide who to attack, flip a coin.

                      3.Cards such as Impostor Prof. Oak, etc., affect all players.

                      4.Play with your deck until you run out of cards, then reshuffle ONLY energy for as long as you have pokemon to attack with.

                      5.You lose when you have no more pokemon to battle with.

                      6.For each Pokemon you put on your bench, you may draw one card

                      7.For multi-bench attacks such as Articuno's blizzard attack, damage and/or effects effect both players benched Pokemon.

                      8.You win the game when you defeat all of both players Pokemon.

                    Have fun playing with my "Multiplayer Madness" rules. =)


Official FAQ

Q: When I retreat my Pokémon, do I discard the Energy from my hand or from the Pokémon?

                    A: Anytime a Pokémon does something that requires Energy to be discarded it comes off the Pokémon.

                    Q: Can I place Energy cards on Benched Pokémon?

                    A: Yes.

                    Q: Why didn't I get the Pokémon in my deck that are listed in the "ADD" column?

                    A: In the top half of rulebook pages 18-21 are listed the contents of the 60 card Theme decks. The bottom half of each

                    page contains suggestions for improving the deck once you have collected more cards. The cards listed in the "ADD"

                    column can be found in other Theme decks and booster packs.

                    Q: How can I evolve a Pokémon?

                    A: You have to have a Basic Pokémon in play that has evolved forms. A Stage One Pokémon is placed on top of a

                    Basic Pokémon and a Stage Two Pokémon is placed on top of a Stage One. Look in the upper left corner of the

                    evolved forms to see which Pokémon it replaces. You can evolve an Active or Benched Pokémon.

                    Q: Can I still use the abilities of the Basic Pokémon after I've evolved it?

                    A: No.

                    Q: Can I use the "Pokémon Power" of a Benched Pokémon?

                    A: Yes.

                    Q: Why didn't the booster pack with Charizard on it have Charizard in it?

                    A: The pictures are just there for flavor. The boosters are all random cards. Two packs with the same picture won't

                    have the same cards in them.

                    Q: If I Knock Out my own Pokémon does my opponent get to draw a prize?

                    A: Yes.

                    Q: How do I win?

                    A: You win when you draw your last prize or when your opponent doesn't have an Active Pokémon to defend against

                    your attack.

                    Q: How long does Porygon's "Conversion" ability last?

                    A: Just while the Converted Pokémon remains the Active Pokémon.

                    Q: Do I flip a coin to see if my Sleeping Pokémon wakes up at the end of the same turn that it fell asleep?

                    A: Yes. You also take Poison damage at the end of the same turn a Pokémon got poisoned.

                    Q: Where are the rest of the Pokémon?

                    A: There will be more Pokémon coming out in future sets.

                    Q: Since Double Colorless Energy isn't basic Energy, can I place more than one a turn?

                    A: No.

                    Q: Can I play more than one Trainer card during my turn?

                    A: Yes.