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Written by Grand Master Scyther
December 3rd, 2001
Greetings Pokemon TCG trainers. Welcome to Part One of my TCG Strategies section. In this part, I'll discuss the basics of putting together a deck to play with from scratch. I am aware that a lot of people prefer playing with preconstructed decks, and sometimes (especially for beginning trainers), that's okay. However, the more you play, the more you want to edit those decks. That's also fine. I'm going to teach you how to put together a deck similar to the ones I use in battles.
The first thing is to decide what types to use. Try to limit yourself to two types (for instance, Water and Electric). No more, no less. Try not to make like a Gym Leader and only use one type. More than likely, that'll make you completly weak to one type, and if your opponent uses that one type, you stand little chance of a victory. If you use too many types, you run the risk of not getting the energy you need.
After that, plan how many of each type of card you'll use. Try to run about 24-28 energy cards (I use 28). This way you'll have the energy you need to power up your pokemon. Only use fewer than 28 if you have the Trainer cards to make up for it, like Energy Retrieval and Energy Search. Next, use about 20-22 Pokemon. Sometimes, it's good to use a complete evolution chain for each type in a 4-2-1 pattern or a 4-3-2 pattern, and throw in a couple other pokemon on the side with good HP. What I mean by a complete evolution chain is a Basic, Stage 1, and Stage 2 chain. You can also throw in some colorless if you wish. With the above example, you can fool your opponents a little by using 4 Eevees and then one Jolteon and one Vaporeon. After throwing out one, they may start thinking you have another like it, until you throw it out and they see they were wrong.
Fill the remaining slots with trainers, but use them to go along with your deck. I usually run 4 Pokeballs to get my powerful Pokemon out early. If you're running a low energy deck, use Energy Retrievals and Energy Searches. Also, include maybe one or two Professor Oaks. However, I like to use the term here that comes in handy in the TCG Gameboy game. Do not "Oak" yourself. In my words, to Oak yourself means to basically deck yourself (run out of cards in your deck), but mostly cause you played 3 or 4 Professor Oaks, thus running through your deck to quickly.
These are simply guidelines to deck building. If you have any questions about what I just explained, or if you think you have a great deck idea and want me to take a look at it, email me at Scyther879@yahoo.com. I check my email about everyday and guarentee that I'll respond within 24 hours. For deck checking, send me a list of cards in the deck. See ya later.