Pokemon Trading Card Game: GBC Edition Discussion

[Gates]

You CAN get 3 promo mewtwo: you just have to get the 2 through normal means, and then after you beat the game random challenge cups will be held where you can get random promos.

Huh, I didn't know that.

I also don't like how the only thing he said about Hitmonchan is that it gets walled by Scyther: while this is true, Hitmonchan is still an essential part to most Haymaker decks, if only because of it's speed, fighting type, late-game(or mid-game for haymaker lol) power, and decent HP for a base pokemon.

I've run Haymaker without Hitmonchan plenty of times and done fine. It's really a metagame choice. And if you don't put in enough energy investment for it to use Special Punch (which is something that's typical for me since I run the bare minimum of energy) Hitmonchan does get walled by Scyther. So in the end it comes down to if you know your opponent is going to use flying and psychic types or not.

 

[ss118]

See that's something we would need to put in about Hitmonchan. xD

But separating the deck-types, what about doing it like this:

-Hyper Offensive(Haymaker, Wiggly, Rain Dance)
Generally runs a bunch of trainers with minimal pokemon and energy to quickly search through a deck and get either early kills or set up a pokemon dealing ~60 damage per turn by turn 2. Usually gets rolling fast and wins early or if the opponent does a good job "walling" them, they may deck themselves out.

-Offensive(Flamethrower-type, Your Energy Denial)
Runs more energy and pokemon but still stocks up on trainers. Has a more general-feel to it. While there is a centralizing strategy, it focuses more on an effect or control feel than pure damage output.

-Stallish(Anti-Haymaker, Wildfire style decks)

-Outlandish(No energy stall[meaning not running energy cards])

 

[Gates]

-Outlandish(No energy stall[meaning not running energy cards])

That is impossible good sir.

You should also put Damage Swap under Stall and Sponge under Aggro.

 

[ss118]

Not impossible: you could use cards such as Mr. Fuji, Imposter Professor Oak, and Poke Center to stall while you used your standard core of Chansey/ Mr. Mime/ Alakazam/ Scyther to stall. You can also throw in the legendary Articuno for a 100 HP fighting resist with a 50% chance of stalling for a turn.

Of course, if it wasn't hard as **** it wouldn't be in the outlandish section.

It would probably be a start to make a list of decks that can be used, then label them afterward. A good example would be a Toxic deck based off of Nidoking's Toxic attack: not the best strategy, but it's there and it could cause trouble for a couple of different archetypes(particularly stall as it becomes the only way to OHKO Mr. Mime).

 

[ss118]

OK Toxic deck failed. I just can't seem to use speed with a stage 2 pokemon unless I use it for either stall purposes or its name is Blastoise. =/

Right now I'm trying something new called "Pidgeot Control". Interesting concept, using his hurricane attack to put cards back in the opponent's hand. Very similar to energy denial, since I attempt to use Energy Removal Cards to hold the opponent's bench while using Hurricane to hold the active pokemon: the biggest issue atm is that I'm stalling myself out, since I don't get kills hitting 20 dmg max and hurricane actually HEALS the opposing pokemon.

 

[Gates]

That kind of deck seems like it would really only be good against really, really, slow deck or decks that rely a lot on evolutions.

 

[Son1cCh3f]

loved this game to death, too bad i lost it : (,i remember days where i would constantly make decks,four decks wasn't enough for me XD

 

[ss118]

Gates, I just got around to testing your energy denial deck and I found it very fun to play. Of course it won the majority of it's matches: the few it lost did in fact "de-energize" the opponent completely, but ended up decking itself out. I'm curious if the psychic base is REALLY necessary: I'm considering going:

-Energy Retrieval
-Legendary Dragonite

+2 Scyther

The single energy retrieval seems out of place and very odd. Of all my matches, Dragonite's healing powers came useful only one time. Since most decks are being held by Hyper Beam(s) and (Super) Energy Removals, I don't see why the recovery is absolutely necessary. I prefer the quick fighting resistance over both of these cards: what I'm curious about is how this will play against a good Rain Dance deck. Oh well.

 

[Underload]

This is my favorite non-main Pokemon game. Being able to build multiple decks and obtain so many cards was extremely satisfying to me when I was a kid, because I dabbled in the real Pokemon TCG and always had trouble acquiring cards.

 

[ss118]

You know what is a very underused card? Gambler

At first glance it looks like an inferior Proffessor Oak: and in most cases it is. But it's good in a couple of things:

1) it allows more draw power without discarding cards
2) anti-measure to getting decked out
3) makes a nice random filler(at worse it acts like any other card as discard fodder).

 

[Gates]

Gates, I just got around to testing your energy denial deck and I found it very fun to play. Of course it won the majority of it's matches: the few it lost did in fact "de-energize" the opponent completely, but ended up decking itself out. I'm curious if the psychic base is REALLY necessary: I'm considering going:

-Energy Retrieval
-Legendary Dragonite

+2 Scyther

The single energy retrieval seems out of place and very odd. Of all my matches, Dragonite's healing powers came useful only one time. Since most decks are being held by Hyper Beam(s) and (Super) Energy Removals, I don't see why the recovery is absolutely necessary. I prefer the quick fighting resistance over both of these cards: what I'm curious about is how this will play against a good Rain Dance deck. Oh well.

Yeah, Energy Retrieval and Dragonite were mostly just filler. I'm not really keen on running Scyther when you can't use SD to get him to 60 damage but that's a minor issue. Why do you need a fast fighting resist though? None of your pokes are weak to it really. If you just want an attacker there are better options (though not many, Scyther is quite good). Heck, why not use 2 Gamble if you love it so much? lol.

And I imagine Energy Denial vs Raindance would be something like this.

ED T1: Dratini, Energy, Pound
RD T1: Squirtle, Energy, Comp Search for Blastoise/Breeder, Bubble
ED T2: Energy Removal, Energy, Pound
RD T2: Breeder -> Blastoise, Energy, Oak, 2 Energy, Bill, Energy, Hydro Pump, ggs.

Rain Dance is probably the most difficult matchup for the deck since it can just use its brokenness to win. Maybe you could include Lass to get rid of their trainers since RD can't really get started without them.

You know what is a very underused card? Gambler

At first glance it looks like an inferior Proffessor Oak: and in most cases it is. But it's good in a couple of things:

1) it allows more draw power without discarding cards
2) anti-measure to getting decked out
3) makes a nice random filler(at worse it acts like any other card as discard fodder).

This basically translates to "Gambler is a good card for stall decks", which is accurate. I'd never use it in an aggressive deck though. Once you have Wigglytuff+3 energy+full bench you don't need any draw until she dies. Same thing with Blastoise+5 water energy or Jason Zimmerman+1 Psychic energy+2 more energy in the discard pile.

 

[ss118]

Energy Denial could also involve Psyduck using Headache till it gets Paralyzed by Bubble. By which case(unless it is first turn) you should be able to get a Golduck out there and stop them.

The thing that Gambler is best for is stopping yourself from getting decked out when you require a lot of draw power to be effectively quick enough to be usable(Energy Denial), but don't have the power behind it to end games quickly.

Here's a revised version to my Legendary Zapdos deck. I think I actually went too low on the amount of Energy I'm using, but it's yet to lose and because of the defensive backbone it can actually keep itself alive for a few turns as I get the necessary energy.

Zapdos Lv68 x2

Professor Oak x4
Bill x4
Energy Removal x4
Super Energy Removal x4
Computer Search x4
Defender x4
Item Finder x4
Gust of Wind x4
Potion x4
Super Potion x4
Full Heal x4
Pokemon Flute x4

Lightning Energy x10

So the basic idea remains, but it uses a much more aggressive approach in draw power to be able to stay alive more consistently rather than hoping for the right cards at the right time, which was the major weakness to my last deck. 2 Zapdos(which is what you can max out at) is there if only because I don't feel like waiting through the endless mulligans of only one, because the second one becomes discard fodder whenever it comes up(unless I'm versing something like energy denial which would prove to be SUPER troublesome: also, RD and Wigglytuff might end up doing too much damage too fast for me to handle). Thankfully, I have ways to take advantage of the general metagame's low energy account as well with my own Energy Removal cards. Defender saves me from random stuff like self-destruct and other random big-hitters that would prove troublesome. Pokemon Flute is my main way around Mr. Mime: but if I'm versing a stall team, I'm likely to verse it in conjunction with Chansey. Meaning I need to hurry and obliterate it before they Scoop Up or Mr. Fuji it away: otherwise, Mr. Mime will just easily chip at me till I succumb. Thankfully, stall isn't common at all. Though I would predict the way the "metagame" would shift if it had enough popularity would create a cycle in which they would be anti-metagame. In which case this deck would suck. xD

Also I have my "basic" structure for a Toxic deck, which would be the perfect weapon against these stall teams should they appear.

Nidoran(m) x4
Nidorino x2
Nidoking x4
Scyther x4
Professor Oak x4
Bill x4
Pokemon Breeder x2
Energy Removal x4
Computer Search x4
Item Finder x4
Gust of Wind x4
Gambler x4

Grass Energy x12
Double Colorless Energy x4

Nidoran(m) is one of few cards that can threaten to deal 30 damage by first turn without any Pluspowers: this by itself makes it troublesome to Damage Swap decks that rely on getting a quick alakazam out, since you can(ideally) OHKO the ABra beforehand. Not the most reliable, but it is there. Otherwise, get Nidoking out asap and start spamming Toxic. Scyther is just a general beast that helps with taking hits while Nidoking gets set up. I think that while this team is a perfect answer to stall teams(especially ones that rely on Mr. Mime), it would lose against decks like Wigglytuff, RD, and Haymaker super easily(though tbh, everything does unless you plan specifically to beat them).

Yeah I have ~31 hours on my cartridge now. Finally found all of the cards, and then found my friend's old gameshark(was sooooo happy!) and got the extra phantom cards. So basically I'm waiting until pokebeach is running again so that I can play this against other people. Though I doubt the Zapdos would be on there...... ='[