Fire Starter, Energy Grabber Deck

[Kaji Motomiya]

Since playing Yu-Gi-Oh!, I've learned a lot about playing TCGs....the hard way. You have to be strategic instead of being all gung-ho and attacking head-on, like "Graaar! I attack you directly!" or "I destroy your monster!" Blah blah blah.

Watching my friends play Pokemon TCG, I kinda thought it was the same thing. I stopped playing the game after Ruby and Sapphire first came out. I didn't know too much about it, since it's always just attacking and getting the prize cards, right?

So the other day (7/17/10), my friends coaxed me into buying myself a starter deck. I really didn't want to, but I don't wanna be doing nothing while watching them play. So I bought one, the HeartGold SoulSilver expansion's "Ember Spark" theme deck, aka the Typhlosion one. And for kicks, I bought a Typhlosion tin because they said the promo card in it is better than the Starter Deck one (I also got a binder, but that's another story lol).

While modifying the starter deck with the boosters and the promo card tat came from the tin, I realized that I REALLY had to know what I'm doing, when to play certain things, and when to react. After that, I wanted to play again.

Long story short: I bought myself some cards, messed around a bit, learned stuff, and got addicted.

And the result of my addiction?


Pokemon - 28
Charizard [Pt Arceus]
Charmeleon [DP Secret Wonders]
Charmeleon [Pt Arceus]
Charmander [DP Secret Wonders]
Charmander x2 [Pt Arceus]
Typhlosion Prime [HGSS, HGSS Promo]
Quilava x2 [HGSS]
Cyndaquil x4 [HGSS]
Blaziken [EX Power Keepers]
Combusken x2 [DP Great Encounters]
Torchic x4 [Pt]
Infernape [DP Stormfront]
Monferno [DP Majestic Dawn]
Monferno [Pt]
Chimchar x4 [DP Majestic Dawn]
Infernape lv.X [DP, DP Promo]

Trainer - 8
Energy Search x3 [DP, DP Majestic Dawn, HGSS]
Energy Restore x3 [DP, DP Majestic Dawn, Pt Arceus]
Energy Pickup [DP Legends Awaken]
Energy Switch [DP, DP Stormfront]
or
Energy Search x2 [DP, DP Majestic Dawn, HGSS]
Energy Restore x2 [DP, DP Majestic Dawn, Pt Arceus]
Energy Recycle System x2 [EX Dragon, EX Unseen Forces, EX Power Keepers]
Energy Returner x2 [HS Unleashed]

Supporter - 3
Lucien's Assignment x2 [Pt Rising Rivals]
Aaron's Collection [Pt Rising Rivals]
Interviewer's Questions [HS Unleashed]

Energy - 20
Fire Energy x20

Side - 1
Typhlosion [DP Mysterious Treasures]

This. This is my first REALLY thought-out Pokemon deck. I spent HOURS since I got into the game figuring out what cards to get, and what kind of deck to make. And yesterday (7/19/10), I knew what I was going to make.

I used Serebii's TCG database to figure out which Pokemon to use, and which packs to get them (the inability to right click to make new tabs was annoying, but the CTRL+Click works well =D), hence why you see the stuff in the brackets. After comparing each Pokemon with their different card counterparts, I evaluated them from their attack movesets, Poke-BODYs, and Poke-POWER differences, and picked specifically which Pokemon card to get (yes, I have no life). And after 12 to 15 to 17 hours, this is the end result.


Other than focusing on Fire Pokemon, I realized that some of these Pokemon's abilities revolve around the use of Energy and Types. Charizard from the Pt (Platinum) Arceus expansion gets a power-up from each Fire Pokemon in the Bench while the one from the DP (Diamond and Pearl) Secret Wonders expansion depending on the number of Prize Cards your opponent had. I went with the Pt Arceus one. The ones that are affected by Energy, ie Typhlosion Prime from the HGSS expansion, Blaziken from the EX expansions, and Infernape from the DP Stormfront expansion, as well as Infernape lv.X, were the ones that I was interested the most. At first, I thought I'd have to add a LOT of Energy cards, but then I realized that that wasn't needed.

Stuff like Poke-BODYs, Poke-POWER, and attacks that affect Energy allow me to recycle discarded Energy when I would need it, let me get it from my Deck if I'd have to. But I needed Trainer Cards, which is where all these Energy-based Trainer and Supporter cards come in. When I counted my Pokemon, that they took up almost half the deck, and it was heavily modified over and over to make sure I had enough active and usable Pokemon than stuff I couldn't use, such as Stage 1 and Stage 2 Pokemon. But that also meant that with the abundance of Pokemon, I wouldn't need cards that had to search or draw for them, so I focused on the Energies instead. I had to limit the Energies to fit into the deck while leaving room for Trainer and Supporter cards, so I only left 20 Energy, all uniform, and picked out the Trainer and Supporter cards that either recycled, searched, and/or moved Energy around between Pokemon.

You may have noticed that in the deck, there are two listings for Trainer Cards, each within the limit of 8.


Trainer - 8
Energy Search x3 [DP, DP Majestic Dawn, HGSS]
Energy Restore x3 [DP, DP Majestic Dawn, Pt Arceus]
Energy Pickup [DP Legends Awaken]
Energy Switch [DP, DP Stormfront]
or
Energy Search x2 [DP, DP Majestic Dawn, HGSS]
Energy Restore x2 [DP, DP Majestic Dawn, Pt Arceus]
Energy Recycle System x2 [EX Dragon, EX Unseen Forces, EX Power Keepers]
Energy Returner x2 [HS Unleashed]

When I first made the Deck, I selected only four Energy-based Trainer Cards I found in the Serebii TCG database, which were Energy Switch, Search, Restore, and Pickup. Originally, there were 12 Trainer Cards, so I had 3 of each. But after more research, I added two more cards: Energy Recycle System and Energy Returner. While the HS Unleashed expansion is very new, the EX expansion series are hard to find nowadays, so I created two lists based on if I find the Energy Recycle System and if I couldn't. In the end, to add Supporter cards, I ended up either lessening the amount of cards (Energy Pickup and Energy Switch in the first half) or removing them all together (said cards in the second half). The effects of the Supporter cards are self-explanatory. I don't think I'd have to keep repeating myself for the umpteenth time.

Now, out of all the Fire Pokemon I could have used, why did I choose the Starters from each game?
a) Because of their affects
b) It's easier to remember which Pokemon I have in my deck than Pokemon that aren't really memorable, ie Rapidash and Torkoal.
In hindsight, I think I should've put the Pt Supreme Victors Magmortar or a HeartGold SoulSilver Ninetails in it...

--

Oh god...that's so much explaining...

[Kaji Motomiya]

Also, I can't seem to edit because I keep getting an Internal Server Error every time I do. So I apologize for double posting.

If you notice the part that says "Side -1" and under it is a Typhlosion from the DP Mysterious Treasures expansion, that's something a friend suggested. If there's one thing I learned in playing Yu-Gi-Oh! as my (former) main TCG, it's that if you need a card outside of your deck in certain situations, then switch out the card before you battle. It's like a Side Deck.

[Kaji Motomiya]

Okay, so reading the deck posting tutorial a little more, I messed up on something. lol I forgot to put the format. I was so busy explaining everything that I forgot to do that.

I don't even know too much about formats in this game. Is there really a difference? Like, one is preferred in one place than the other?

Well...looking at the definitions of the format, I'd say this is mainly an Unlimited deck, since the cards required come from the EX series (Blaziken and Energy Recycle System).

Otherwise, without those two, it'd be a Modified deck.

[Nidoprince]

I'll give you some pointers before I start out:

Most of the time 20 energy isn't needed. Especially in a deck like this. The maximum in any deck you'll need is 18. No good deck goes over that ammount.
I would try having only 2 Stage 2s maximum. Even then you'd need techs such as Spiritomb from Arceus.

I'm not too good with unlimited, but Charizard with fire techs is pretty beast if you ask me. Try:

4-2-4 Charizard AR
3-3 Ninetails GS
2-2 Infernape 4 X/Blaziken FB X
1 Houndoom G/Relicanth SV

4 Rare Candy
4 Pokedex
4 Plus Power
4 Roseanne's
3 Bebe's
2 Pokemon Communicator
1 Lux Ball
2 Expert Belt
1 Palmer's
1 Night Maintenance

13 Fire

[Kaji Motomiya]

I...don't really understand the format of your suggested deck list, but if I interpreted it right...

4-2-4 Charizard AR means 4 Charmander, 2 Charmeleon, and 4 Charizard, correct?
And 2-2 Infernape 4 means 2 Elite Four (Flint) Infernape and 2 Elite Four (Flint) Infernape lv.X, right? Same thing with Blaziken FB?

Now Houndoom G and Supreme Victors' Relicanth, I do not understand. These Pokemon do not use Fire Energy and won't be able to be used properly in the deck.

Can you explain some of these changes and suggestions to the deck a little more clearly?

[Kaji Motomiya]

Ugh, I'm really annoyed that I can't edit my first post, no matter how many times I try. Okay, here is an explanation of the deck ALOT shorter than the one I have in the first post so you can understand why I built the deck the way I did:

This deck is designed to reused and recycle Energy due to the staggering difference in the types of cards in the deck.

The Pokemon in the deck consists of a standard theme: each Pokemon are starters from the games, from R/G/B/Y to D/P/Pt. Other than that, each Pokemon have specific role with what to do with Energy, most of which aren't realized until their Stage 2 forms. While most of the Pokemon discard Energy, Pokemon with the Firestarter Poke-POWER (DP Mysterious Treasures Typhlosion and EX Power Keepers Blaziken) recycle discarded Energy (in this case, Fire) and attach them to reserved Bench Pokemon. Self-efficient Pokemon include Typhlosion Prime with its Afterburner Poke-POWER (HGSS or HGSS Tin) and Infernape with its Blaze Dance Poke-POWER (DP Stormfront) allow it to recycle Energy and attach it to ANY Pokemon, including itself. Finally, Infernape lv.X (DP or DP Tin) can either use its Burning Head Poke-POWER to look for cards from the top of the deck (in this case, Energy or anything else besides Energy) while its Flare Up attack can recycle 8 Fire Energy (no more, no less) and return it into the deck.

The non-Fire Pokemon in the deck, the Normal/Colorless Pokemon Smeargle (DP Stormfront) can search for Energy without the use of any from the deck. Meaning that it can unlimitedly gather and collect up to 3 Energy each turn without the cost of Energy.

The Trainer and Supporter cards add further Energy-related support if the Stage 2 Pokemon cannot come out to fulfill their roles yet.

Though there are no Pokemon-searching cards in the deck, this is where Charmander (Pt Arceus) comes in. The Call for Friends move allow the player to search for basic Fire Pokemon and add it to the hand. This increases the chances of drawing Stage 1 and Stage 2 Pokemon in the Deck by eliminating the chances of drawing Basic Pokemon because Charmander is doing all the work. The other Basic Pokemon just attack until a chance of Evolution comes.

There, I just shortened the whole deck explanation without having to get into too much detail by being as blunt as possible.

[Nidoprince]

Oh yea sorry, forgot to tech in some fighting and Dark

-3 Fire
+2 Dark
+1 FIghting
or
+2 Fighting
+1 Dark

depending on your area.

And yea, you have the format right.

[Kaji Motomiya]

...Again, I have NO idea how that's supposed to help my deck's initial strategy. Can you PLEASE explain how your changes should work?

[blaZofgold]

i find it rather amusing that most of the posts on this is by kaji yourself......hehe.....

ok, i'll try to explain nidoprinces actions (he really isnt treating you like a newb...with his language at least....)

when he says "unlimited", he means cards in your deck range from before the DP-era. Of course, this changes annualy due to rotation of cards from the MODIFIED set, so the new unlimited cards will be before the "Great Encounters" expansion of the DP series

Having too many Stage2's can make your deck slow to setup. Spritomb AR helps to evolve pokemon, but even then it's hard to setup with too many evolutions (check up the pokemon on the cardex on pokemon.com or on serebii's cardex)

abbreviations rule TCG. get used to them. Nobody cares if Infernape 4X is owned by FLint or not. It's a freakin slave in our decks

I am a little questionable of the Houndoom G (nidoprince personally loves this card it seems) , but I know why Relicanth SV should be "teched" (adding a pokemon card that seems to be irrelevant to the general strategy to help agains other "meta"[decks that are popular] decks). Relicanth in particular helps by killing enemy Luxray GLXs which would probably bring up some benched weaklings and kill them. It helps, with only one fighting energy necessary

Ugh, I hate to be so blunt, but the best your initial deck strategy can claim to its own is "n00b". Indeed it IS a strategy (which is better than some fools [like me when i started] could claim), but its not good enough. WHat Nidoprince has decided to do is to put some of the pokemon from your deck into a common meta deck: Charizard AR. THIS CARD IS REALLY GOOD. It can deal about 100 damage with only ONE fire energy, and....it is beast.

So, i will do what nidoprince has also done and *cough* scrap your first deck idea (sorry!!!!!). but unlike nidoprincel, i will keep most of the same pokemon and not put in so many cards that are hard to get or expensive, ok???

3-2-2 Charizard AR (YOU HAVE THESE????? AWESOME!!!!!!!!!)
2-2-1 Typhlosion HGSS Prime (if you wanna put in a regular HGSS Typhlosion for quick bursts of power that's fine)
2-2 or 3-3 Ninetales HGSS (the draw power of your deck, plus it burns off fire energy which is awesome....)

Now I'm not gonna list all the Supporters and trainers, but I will list key ones: (i'll be using MD-ON modified format, if you prefer Unlimited i would also recommend Roseannes Research)

One Pokemon Collectors: Gets fire basic pokemon just in case your bench is running low to keep your charizard powered up
Pokemon COmmunications: using this gets you more pokemon you want
Bebe's Search: same as above, with slight differences
Fisherman: Use this to retrieve discarded FIre energies
Rare Candy: This will evolve your pokemon faster without having to use Stage 1s, if you have a lot you can skip some Stage 1s like Quilava and Charmeleons, so you wont have to have so many in your decks

and about 15 or slightly more fire energies =]

I hope i helped you

[Nidoprince]

I'll try and explain it more in depth.

Charizard's your main attacker. You want to lay down as many Fire Pokemon to use Charizard's Pokebody, which allows you to add 10 for each fire Pokemon on your bench. What you want to do is add Pokemon that give you a nice support. These are what's called a tech. Techs fix all your problems.
Ninetales fixes your speed problem. You draw cards with it's Pokepower by discarding fires.
Infernape would be nice to do what's called sniping. Sniping is hitting the bench for lots of damage. It's Pokepower forces your opponent to switch out with a Pokemon.
Blaziken also does this with it's Luring Flame attack. Except you get to decide what they switch out, and burn it. Then you can level it up for Blaziken FB X's Pokebody, which makes damage done to a burned Pokemon increased by 40. After that you can retreat and attack with Charizard.
Now for Relicanth, this is mainly for Luxray, as it will snipe your techs and cause a lot of trouble.
Houndoom is for Dialga G X, which completely negates any Pokebodies that don't belong to SPs, so you'll be really toast without Houndoom if you run across them.

[Kaji Motomiya]

Well I'm sorry that every time I try to edit the first post, I get an "Internal Server Error" error that won't leave me alone.

So my deck idea is kind of n00bish? Like...not noob or newb, but n00b? Ouch...well, I guess I can try these ideas. But these kind of this are very complicated. I've actually never heard of "sniping" or "techs" and stuff. Well, not in Pokemon, at least.

[Lucario_X_Froslass]

You seem like you know what you're trying for, so I'll help you ^.^ Don't worry; this deck is tons more mainstream than other decks people try playing. You're not a n00b. You're smart ;3 Oh, and there are no side decks in Pokemon.

'kay. My suggestions are to cut down on your Pokemon lines. I say to keep your Typhlosion and Charizard and add more trainers that give you draw power. Typhlosion has the best support for your deck with the energy acceleration, and the Charizard line has the Charmander which gets you Pokemon to play. If you can get more Charmander AR, then it would really help your deck run better.

The Typhlosion should be played like this:

4/3 Cyndaquil
3 Quilava
As many Typhlosion as you can get [2 Prime, 1 MT, and one GS normal sounds good]

This lets you draw into your Typhlosion quickly and is the best way to have a field set up. The Prime's power is extremely good to keep energy in play without having to draw it. Energy are mostly dead draws after you get about 7 to play with, but playing only 7 won't give you any, so play more to get them. 14-16 is a decent number to start with. Typhlosion will take the liberty to give you more when you need them.

Charizard should be played in a smaller line because it doesn't add much to the consistancy of your deck. Until you get your good stuff, it's not worth playing in huge amounts.

4 Charmander [or as many as you can get from Arceus; I say don't play any others]
2 Charmeleon
1-2 Charizard

This is fine for now. Once you have to cards to let you play it on its own, you can built the line up more. The Charizard is second-priority to play unless you have the Charizard able to be played in the next few turns, and the Pokemon won't die in the middle of setting them up. Typhlosion Prime is the most important to get in play with this deck. It keeps the deck running well. Play safe and it should work fine.

Oh, yeah. Pokemon engines are Pokemon that give you good hands or good fields. Just look at the scans of the listed cards and find out why:

Claydol GE
Uxie LA [and Lv.X]
Ninetales GS
Spiritomb AR
Chatot MD
[less important: Noctowl GS/Dodrio SV]

Now, onto trainers.

Trainers are way too important to the game to not be played. Good trainers always give you more stuff to play, and that's the only reason we use them. Supporter cards can only be played once per turn, but that's because they have much stronger effects, so they're important to play. They sometimes change the field, but that's not as important in most deck's strategies. The best include:

Roseanne's Research [amazing search ability; it gets energy and a Pokemon]
Bebe's Search [Gives you any Pokemon you need whn you need it]
Palmer's Contribution [Amazing recovery by giving you 5 cards you wanna reuse]
Aaron's Collection [in SP decks, it's amazing recovery. You shouldn't use it anywhere else, though]
Luxury Ball [Gives you anything not a Lv.X for a trainer is amazing]
PokeDrawer+ [Not a staple, but it's a crazy-good option to play]

Just look through your collection of cards and play everything that gives you more cards to play. Avoid the energy recycling because you already have that in your Pokemon. Until you learn more about the game, that's the best advice I can give.

Hope it helps ^.^

~L_X_F

[koolkidhp]

if i were you i would have less pokemon most decks only have about 20 cards in them

[tuvw557]

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[ven?]

4-2-4 Charizard AR
3-3 Ninetails GS
2-2 Infernape 4 X/Blaziken FB X
1 Houndoom G/Relicanth SV

no

Pokemon - 28 -(nooooooooooooooo)
Charizard [Pt Arceus]
Charmeleon [DP Secret Wonders]
Charmeleon [Pt Arceus]
Charmander [DP Secret Wonders]
Charmander x2 [Pt Arceus]
Typhlosion Prime [HGSS, HGSS Promo]
Quilava x2 [HGSS]
Cyndaquil x4 [HGSS]
Blaziken [EX Power Keepers]
Combusken x2 [DP Great Encounters]
Torchic x4 [Pt]
Infernape [DP Stormfront]
Monferno [DP Majestic Dawn]
Monferno [Pt]
Chimchar x4 [DP Majestic Dawn]
Infernape lv.X [DP, DP Promo]

no

if i were you i would have less pokemon most decks only have about 20 cards in them

and no

I don't mean to be mean spirited but nooo, nidoprince has give a good skeleton, but there needs to be more beef on the bone

4-3-4 Charizard AR (idc 4-3-4 is better the 4-2-4, the more you draw what you need the faster it gets out)
3-3 Ninetails GS
1-1 bronzong SF (no matter how many fishermans, energy restore, or whatever, you have bronzong sf is the best tech for ninetails hs)
2-2-2 typhlosion prime
1-1 ho-oh legend (oh no u did, yes I did, typhlosion + ho-oh 2 fire energy and a dce = 100 dmg per turn)

additional lines then charzard are always good to consider, typhlosion is good tech against energy tossing and discarding deck's, ho-oh deals a necessary 100 base dmg which comes in handy more then most people give credit to, i've been saved by raichus 100 more times then I can list. I tossed in ho-oh as an extra but typhlosion is a good tech to consider, it's attack is slow but it does the trick.

as for T/S/S, increase the usage of supporter's in your deck, against cards like vileplume Ud trainer's are useless (and vileplume is in extremely high demand right now), if you want energy switch consider shaymin UL over lucians and energy switch,. my reason why, lucians wastes a supporter turn energy switch only works for one, shaymin can just be ssu'ed, palmer'ed and or flower shop lady'ed back to your deck or hand.

and lastly no more then 17 energy per deck or it slows down your pokemon and T/S/S draw power and speed, yes 50-70% of effective pokemon support engines have been taken out due to rotation but it just means were doing things old school using T/S/S to get what we need and pokemon to attack.

[ven?]

i double posted apparently, sry.