Hey trainers! Today’s article is about a current work in progress…my first deck I’m building from scratch. I’ve been playing a while now, and have wanted to see if I could design my own deck that would at least be fun to play at league nights. So far, this has been the process.
Step One: The Question
As with most things I pursue, it started as a question. When I started playing Pokemon, I kept asking myself one question:
“Why doesn’t anyone mess with status effects?”
The most common answer is that in the current rotation there aren’t any competitive cards that use status effects, at least going by the meta.
In one of my previous articles “Meta vs. Fun,” I go into why the above is REALLY not a satisfying answer to me. In my opinion, using status effects and creating chaos seemed fun, so the idea lingered.
Step Two: The Inspiration
I thought this would stay as a thought exercise, until I saw this lil guy at a card show:
As someone who plays either TR Mewtwo/Spidops, or my current deck the TR Murkrow/TR Porygon, I was immediately drawn to it. It poisons and does more than the single counter of damage?! But I knew I couldn’t build a deck around him alone; he needed support and another pal to battle with.
And then Chaos Rising came out and gave me the perfect partner:
With that and some new poison-focused supporter cards, I felt like it was time to get something cooking.
Step Three: The Process
So I looked at some deck lists and figured out a base ratio of Pokemon to trainer cards, and came up with this as a first draft.
“The Bell Biv Devoe Special”
Josh Heake
Pokémon: 6
4 Team Rocket's Nidorino 118
4 Team Rocket's Nidoran♂ 117
4 Skrelp 58
1 Team Rocket's Articuno 51
4 Mega Dragalge ex 65
4 Team Rocket's Nidoking ex 119
Trainer: 13
1 Team Rocket's Proton 208
1 AZ's Tranquility 76
2 Special Red Card 113
2 Team Rocket's Petrel 207
1 Battle Cage 116
2 Rare Candy 125
2 Buddy-Buddy Poffin 223
2 Night Stretcher 251
1 Team Rocket's Transceiver 209
3 Lillie's Determination 184
3 Roxie's Performance 81
2 Crispin 133
1 Scramble Switch 186
Energy: 4
4 Team Rocket's Energy 217
2 Bubbly {W} Energy 84
5 Basic {D} Energy 7
5 Basic {W} Energy 3
I then took this deck list to Pokémon TCG Live… and got absolutely wrecked. I soon realized the following:
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I have way too many Pokémon,
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I read Bubbly Energy wrong,
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It moves REAL slow, and I need more search options.
So then I started making some tweaks - adding cards, removing cards, taking cards already in there and using fewer or more, etc. As well as constantly editing, I also play it on Pokémon TCG Live using it as a laboratory. Because, as with rocket science, failures give the most data. So now I have SO MUCH DATA, because this deck still bricks a lot. But when I do get it to work, we’re talking about Max Janky Fun, which is my vibe.
So that’s the process of a new trainer trying to build his own deck. Feel free to chime in on the comments with suggestions to add or change.
Let’s have fun,
Josh H.
