AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Maybe a few more trainers and less pokemon. I dunno what all the cards in your deck do. Can you somehow check what the cards do when you make your deck on that site? Cause it's kinda hard to do if you don't know what any of the cards can do.

Edit: So I looked through some cards and let's say I want to build it around ND101 Chandelure and ND20 Chandelure. That's Fire and Psychic. The Fire one does 30 damage to the enemy pokemon and 30 damage each on 2 benched pokemon of the enemy for just 1 fire energy. And the Psychic one can do 3 times 10 damage distributed however I like additionally to attacking. So they basically destroy or at least weaken the enemy's bench before they switch in. What else would work good for this? It's hard looking through all of those cards.

Bought a booster pack for the first time in about 5 years. Got two Eviolites (one of which was a reverse Holofoil), a Conkeldurr, a Team Plasma Amoonguss, Foonguss, Purrloin, Combee, Swinub, Riolu, and Golbat.

I'm free pretty much any night after 7 CST, except for Mondays and Fridays. If I had to choose though, Wednesday would probably work best for me.

Anyways, looking over your deck, it took a bit to figure out what your strategy was, but I can see what you're up to, and it's a solid deck that might need some tweaking as far as the Pokemon lines go.

With stage 2 decks, it's very difficult to get multiple different stage 2 Pokemon out on the field. Klinklang is one of the decks that can manage it, but the deck has to be built around that to the very core, and, for better or worse, shares the base Pokemon needed for both evolutions.

With a deck like this, having 4 different stage 2 Pokemon is a bit hectic. Ideally, you should be able to cut it down to 2 (either straight Gigalith, or one of each line), but I think you might be able to get away with 3. Conkeldurr NVI 65 seems the weakest in this deck and could potentially be cut for space.

Now, the pre-evolutions are probably the best ones you can choose for this deck. The things to consider when choosing them are:

-High HP
-Low cost for attacks
-Ability to search them out easily with a ball engine (if you're using one).

I'm not quite fond of the split in the Timburr's being used, but I can see where each one might be useful and it's not a big deal.

The thing you want to consider though is that your Stage 2 Pokemon lines, when you're running so much Rare Candy, should ideally be Hourglass shaped. After all, you'll be skipping the middle evolution, and those cards will just clog your hand.

If I were you, I'd run 4-2-4 Gigalith (If you keep both) and 3-1-3 Conkeldurr (if you cut the second one).

In addition, since there's a lot of flipping involved with many of the cards, it'd be a good idea to stick in a couple of Fliptini.



This way, if you get some bad luck, you can reflip the coins. Maybe this will make the opponent discard 5 cards instead of just 1.

Other than that, adding a starter Pokemon or two might be a good idea. Emolga can get all of the Basics onto the field in one turn so you'll be ready to use them the next, and since it only needs Colorless energy, you don't even have to worry about putting anything else in. Tornadus would also be good for gradually powering up your Pokemon on the benches while it hits early on for good damage.

Durant could also be useful, even if just as a single card in the deck 9though for consistency, you can probably run 2, as it could fish back Rare Candies or search cards to get more evolutions out quickly. Sableye would likely be better, but this deck doesn't really want any Dark Energies in it, and Prisms wouldn't work for your evolved Pokemon.

Now, as far as trainers go in your deck...

Energy Switch is a must, and Scramble Switch is a great Ace Spec for this deck if you have a Gigalith fully loaded up and ready to pass onto a Conkeldurr.

Cilan isn't that great of a card to have here since you want the Energy in your deck to be pulled out by Gigalith. There may be value in having 1 or two Cilan, but 4 is a bit overkill. I would potentially replace Cilan with Pokedex so you'd be able to look at the cards before you decide to have Gigalith blast them away, or so you can organize the cards so your next draw will be the card you really want. If you don't want to run Pokedex, you could always run a couple of Lunatone.



Being able to look at the top two cards of your deck could definitely help you later down the line, plus if you ever decide to run Ether, it'll make things easier without having to hunt down a Pokedex to get it.

Rare Candy and Skyla are perfect for a deck like this, but I feel you need something a bit more. A ball engine is sorely needed to pull out Pokemon, so I'd put a combination of about 3 Level Balls and 3 Heavy Balls in to search for anything you might need. Ultra Ball really wouldn't be too good because of the wasted cards. A draw supporter would work well, so I'd suggest either N, or Colress to be put into the deck. Juniper is a bit too wasteful, especially with Gigalith tearing though your deck. You do need a way to switch your Pokemon around more, especially with the costly retreat. Catchers could make a Conkeldurr without energy a sitting duck to be pummeled.

The only other thing you might need is a couple of Super Rods to pull any energy from the discard back into your deck. This will give it a bit more staying power, and in the late game, boosting your deck with energy is perfect for Gigalith.

However, this deck is going to be pretty tight for space, so while it's "ideal" to have some things, we might need to cut down on others. I would reduce the energy to 16 to free up 3 spaces, and since you're running nearly over 1/4th energy, I'd cut Cilan entirely. While reducing energy is bad for Gigalith, ideally, you'll be stripping out all of the trainer cards into your hand and discard by the time Gigalith is ready to start barreling through the deck, making Pokedex and Lunatone obsolete.

With all of this in mind, here's my tentative suggestion:

Pokemon
4-2-4 Gigalith (4 EPO 49, 4 DRX 66, 2 EPO 53 - 2 NVI 61)
3-1-3 Conkeldurr (you can choose the Timburrs, the Conkeldurr should be the one with the ability).
2 Emolga
2 Fliptini
2 Durant

23 Pokemon

4 Skyla (likely to be used solely for getting either a Heavy Ball or a Rare Candy out, whichever is most needed)
3 N

3 Energy Switch
1 Scramble Switch
3 Switch
2 Level Ball
2 Heavy Ball
3 Rare Candy
2 Super Rod

23 Trainers

16 Fighting Energy

16 Energy

60 Total

If you decide to cut the deck down to 2 Stage 2 Pokemon (Dual Giga or Gigadurr), you can use the cards cut to make the deck a bit more stable. Fliptini could be cut if you're not expecting to depend on flips in the deck, and if you cut it, I'd put cards back into the important trainers.



When you go to look at a card when you're building a deck, you have a magnifying glass to bring a pop up of it. However, when making your deck public, it seems to get rid of it, so I'm not sure what's up with that.

For your deck, I'd look into using the Fire type Chandelure for attacking, and use the Psychic Type one for switching in and out each turn to distribute damage as you like. You'd want to max out Switches and probably put in a decent amount of Escape Ropes, as you'll be burning though them like crazy. Skyarrow Bridge wouldn't be a bad idea either, since you can just use a Switch/Escape Rope, then burn an energy to get ready to attack again.



This disadvantage of this deck is that both Pokemon that are useful to it are based in the same line, which minimizes the amount of them that can be on the field. Losing a Fire Chandelure means losing an attacker, and losing a Psychic one means losing some extra damage. In that case, I'd run plenty of Rescue Scarves so you can get the Pokemon back, and I'd likely run the Pokemon line as 4-3-4 Even with 4 Rare Candies so that you can keep evolving (after all, the Rare Candy will eventually run out, and lacking Stage 1's will stall your deck with this deck). Max Potions might be a good idea, and a second attacker like Tornadus might be beneficial for knocking out Pokemon within its KO zone.

As far as search engines go, you're going to need to find a way to put Ultra Balls into the deck for Chandelure (and maybe Tornadus), which means you might need to consider working with Professor Juniper for draw power, or even Bianca/Cheren (Bianca will likely work better for this deck's small hands).



As far as energy goes, I'd run straight fire energy, and maybe put in a few Blend GFPD, in case you need to use the Psychic Chandelure for whatever reason.



Because of this, I'd choose fire type pre-evolutions in case you need to use them at some point.

So with that, play around with the idea a bit, and see what you come up with for a deck.



Those Eviolites will be pretty helpful for a deck with powerful basic Pokemon, though they've lost a bit of their power since Tool Scrapper came along to peel them off easily.

Plasma Amoonguss is a fun card, though I'm not sure what it'd be best used for besides general disruption. Grass Pokemon haven't exactly had a fair shake in awhile, unfortunately.

I will hopefully be updating again within the next day. Things are getting busy with me getting ready for my trip.

I've found this to be p. useful in bringing out Stage 2 evolutions.

Elm is a pretty good card, but for many cases, there's a perfectly good ball engine out there for it, and you'd rather use the supporter for the turn on a draw supporter or on something like Skyla to get a trainer you need out.

Also, if you're working with the Modified Format, Elm has been cycled out and is no longer tournament legal, so keep that in mind if you're looking for a current format deck.

Working on it now.

Alright, my deck right now would be...

2 ND20 Chandelure
2 ND 101 Chandelure
1 PS 22 Lampent
2 NV 59 Lampent
4 BWP 27 Litwick
2 EP 89 Tornadus
2 DR 58 Golett
1 DR 46 Mew EX

16 Pokemon

4 BW104 Switch
4 PS 120 Escape Rope
2 ND 91 Skyarrow Bridge
4 DE 100 Rare Candz
2 EP 94 Max Potion
2 EP 90 Bianca
2 EP 91 Cheren (I guess I could make that 4 Biancas)
4 DE 102 Ultra Ball
2 DR 115 Rescue Scarf

26 Trainers

10 BW 106 Fire Energy
4 BW 109 Psychic Energy
4 DR 117 Blend Energy GRPD

18 Energy

The Litwicks don't have many HP but their attack can get me any Basic Pokemon from my deck and put it on the bench.
Golett is in there should I ever need to stall for a bit. 90 HP and a 2 colorless move that heals him for 40.
Mew EX works as an extra Chandelure thanks to its ability, can change around my energies however I like, has no retreat if Skyarrow Bridge is out, and can be gotten with Litwick's attack without need for Ultra Ball. So all in all a really good addition. Opponent getting 2 prizes if it faints is obviously not so nice, but that's what Rescue scarves got invented for. If it's going to get knocked out next turn I'll just shift all his energies to benched pokemon and get it back in my hand.
You Told me to get Tornadus, also good for getting called by Litwick, color doesn't matter and can shift around some energy while still doing damage.
NV59 Lampent can force the opponent to switch, PS 22 Lampent doesn't have retreat costs if it doesn't have any energy on it, though when that's ever going to happen I don't know. (But really, the Stage 1 evolutions are only in there for if I don't have Rare Candy anyway.)
Chandelures obviously. I might have gone with only the fire Chandelure, if not for the problem I would face every time I'd be against a water deck. I would have needed less Switch and Escape Rope. Also the Psychic Chandelure's attack, while much more expensive than the 3x 30 damage for 1 Fire Energy of the other one, Burns and Confuses which is very nice.

Switch and Escape Rope to cheaply flip between the 2 different Chandelures, Skyarrow to make switching without the aforementioned cards cheaper, rare candy to evolve, max potion to heal, Bianca and Cheren to draw, Ultra Ball to get my Chandelures (or Lampents) and Rescue Scarf mostly to not let Mew die.

Any objections, Professor?

Actually, as I look at that other deck you've shown, I should probably put a few less trainers and energy cards and put in the Volcarona line to get discarded energy back.

Also about your Deck for Dan, 23 + 23 + 16 is 62.

Hmmm... I still don't know if that's good as is.
2 Chandelure (ND 20)
2 Chandelure (ND 101)
1 Lampent (PS 22)
2 Lampent (NV 59)
4 Litwick (BWP 27)
2 Tornadus (EP 89)
2 Golett (DR 58)
1 Mew EX (DR 46)
2 Volcarona (NV 21)
3 Larvesta (NV 19)
21

4 Switch (BW 104)
3 Escape Rope (PS 120)
2 Skyarrow Bridge (ND 91)
4 Rare Candy (DE 100)
2 Max Potion (EP 94)
4 Bianca (EP 90)
2 Ultra Ball (DE 102)
2 Rescue Scarf (DR 115)
23

8 Fire Energy (BW 106)
4 Blend Energy GRPD (DR 117)
4 Psychic Energy (BW 109)
16

The deck looks good, though I will say, most decks want to run as few Pokemon as they can get away with. In Dan's case, they need not only the main Pokemon, but supporting Pokemon, so the numbers are a bit overinflated compared to other decks, especially with the 3 Stage 2 Pokemon being run.

The goal for a lot of current decks (though it's always adjustable) is about half a deck of Energy and Pokemon (sliding back and forth depending on the deck), and half trainers. Some run effectively without lots of trainers, but generally, you want a consistent stream of them. You mention being afraid of running out of energy, but you run 16, which is usually a little bit high, especially for Pokemon that generally need only a 1-2 energies to attack (you'll be focusing on using the Fire Chandelure). Rather than putting the Volcarona and Larvesta in, I'd think about putting in a couple of Super Rods to get cards back to your deck, and Energy Retrieval to pull basic energy out of the discard straight to your hand.

Golett is a bit of a weird choice, though it's a good stall card. I'm just not sure it'll be better than what you could put in instead.

I love your suggestion of putting Mew EX in it. It's the perfect card for a deck like this, because it gives you another attacker without many drawbacks. With Golett, you can also heal and stall with Mew EX, but the two prizes is a concern.

Other suggestions include inserting a couple Skyla, so you can get out whatever trainers you need, or N for a whole hand refresh (Bianca might be a bit bad if your hand is clogged full of cards you can't/don't want to use right now).

So, personally, here are my initial suggestions for the deck:

-2 Volcarona
-3 Larvesta
-2 Bianca
-2 Psychic Energy

+3 Energy Retrieval / Super Rod (you can adjust these as you like)
+1 Ultra Ball
+3 Skyla and/or N.
+2 Double Colorless Energy (for Tornadus and possibly Psychic Chandelure)

And tentatively:

-2 Golett

+1 Mew EX (in case one gets prized)
+1 Ace Spec (likely Computer Search, or maybe Dowsing Machine) or add to a trainer already in the deck.



Oh butts. I guess just take out Fliptini and see how things go. Play around a little bit and adjust accordingly.

Next update should be tomorrow morning, because urgh, tired from working on a car all day. It will be up soon though, come hell or high water.

Hmm, alright. The thing I liked about Volcarona was that it directly attaches the energy to a pokemon instead of getting it in the hand/deck.
I did what you said, left Golett in though.

Also I have a question about Blend energy. Can I change what energy it provides?
Like can I have it as psychic one turn and Fire the next? Cause that would be super useful for Mew.

Thanks for the help guys, I'm really looking forward to testing it out.

That said, I'm usually working Wednesday nights. We could always just set up impromptu matches through PM. I thought that a group chat would work if we had more people willing to play, but it doesn't seem that way do...

I'd be up for some free online play.

Blend Energy is all of the types of energy it represents at once. But since it's only 1 energy, it can only count to an attack cost once. The same can be said of Prism Energy, provided Prism Energy is not attached to a evolved Pokemon.

This distinction is important for a popular deck archetype:



Dark Trance allows you to move Darkness Type energy around, and luckily enough, Blend GFPD and Prism are both considered Darkness Energy (among other types). The only thing they don't count as is BASIC energy. If a card asks for basic energy, such as:



They do not count towards effects.

In Mew's case, if it has a Blend GFPD Energy attached to it, and a Psychic energy, it can use an attack that:

Requires 2 Psychic energy
Requires a Psychic Energy and a Grass Energy
Requires a Psychic Energy and a Fire Energy
Requires a Psychic Energy and a Darkness Energy
Requires a Psychic Energy and a Colorless Energy
Requires a Grass Energy and a Colorless Energy
Requires a Fire Energy and a Colorless Energy
Requires a Darkness Energy and a Colorless Energy
Requires 2 Colorless Energy

The distinction of what they count as really only exists arbitrarily to determine if the Pokemon can attack.



I'll gauge interest over time and see what people want. We might be able to start an unofficial league over the summer when more people are free, or sooner if we can come up with a decent time.

That being said, feel free to use this thread to get attention to the fact that you're open to battle. For now, this thread is quiet enough to hold matchmaking.

Anyways, as much as I'd love to give you the update I've been talking about, it's currently 5 am, and I need to get up my 11 to leave for States. I haven't quite playtested the Raticate deck enough to discuss alterations I'd make to it, and teching hasn't even really started on the deck.

I'll be doing some testing on the trip though, so maybe once I get back, that'll all be squared away.

Anyways, for now, I'm signing off, players. I'll be joining your ranks as a competitor for this event. So who knows, maybe I'll take home the Gold for AZ.

pop flyin' Gaming.

-Ace Trainer Kamak

You need to get back on the ball Prof. I crave knowledge!

Yeah, sorry for the delay. College has decided to take the proverbial dump on me in the course of one week, and I'm still getting over a cold.

I should have something up later tonight, after I finish this term paper for Plant Eco.

Playtesting and Teching is still coming up next, but soon after I hope to have a report on my adventure in States, hopefully in a way you guys will understand, since there's a lot of deck archetypes and strategies and meta jargon.

I guess I can call this my spring break for this thread, even though I'm not on break. :P

We need to get a few matches up soon here. Even though there's only like 3 people following this thread.

Just went through my cards, Every stage 2 card has like 3 basics for each, yaaay.

I have an edition one Pokemon Center and Pokeball.