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Standard 2017 Standard Grass

Smitikus

Aspiring Trainer
Member
So I haven't played the TCG in about 15 years so be warned that this deck is probably pretty bad.

Lets kick things off with the deck list:

Pokemon: 26
4 - Chikorita
3 - Bayleef
3 - Meganium (overgrow)
3 - Lotad
2 - Lombre
2 - Ludicolo (captivating rhythm)
2 - Spinarak
2 - Ariados (Poisonous Nest)
3 - Remoraid
2 - Octillery (Abyssal Hand)

Trainer: 21
3 - Energy Retrieval
3 - Rare Candy
2 - Ultra Ball
2 - Wally
2 - VS Seeker
1 - Lysandre
1 - Steven
2 - Professor's Letter
2 - Professor Sycamore
2 - Tierno
1 - Pokemon Fan Club

Energy: 13
2 - Double Colorless Energy
11 - Grass Energy

I built this deck to comply with the 2017 Standard format (instead of buying into the current format). As far as play goes I saw Meganium as a sustainable attacker and built around getting it out and managing Energy for it. Ludicolo had a fun ability that apparently doesn't exist in an unlimited way (Gust of Wind) so it's there to set up knock outs or favorable trades.

Basically I built to the effect of the original Venusaur deck (yes the last time I played was in 1999-2000 era) which is energy Manipulation and 1-2 heavy hitters.

I should note that my game knowledge is pretty old, it was actually uncomfortable to build a deck with less than 20-24 Energy in it, so if there are better ways to go about building a basic deck feel free to let me know.

It should be said that I saw Ariados's ability of Poisonous Nest and liked it, but I don't see the room for the Spinarak and it.

e: Took the advice of other posters and reduced the Energy count to add in some more draw support and Spinarak/Ariados.
 
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Some things to consider:
•Removing the Focus Sash. It only works on Fighting types, as well as it being rotated.
•Removing the Rare Candies and the Wally's.You'll see why.
•Add 4 Forest Of Giant Plants. This stadium helps you evolve your Grass Pokémon on the first turn they are played.
•Remove two Energy Retrieval. You shouldn't need so many
• Remove the Tierno. There are better draw supporters.
•Add a 2-2 line of Spinarak and Ariados.
•Remove one DCE. You won't always use them all (usually)
•Remove two Grass energy. This is actually quite a lot for most decks
•Add two Professor Sycamores. This will help your draw support more
•Remove either a Brigette or a Pokemon Fan Club.
•Add two VS Seekers.
•Add 1 Revitaliser. This can help get Pokémon out of the discard pile
•Add either a Sceptile-EX as another attacker, an N or a 4th Sycamore

The overall changes are:
-2 Focus Sash
-3 Rare Candy
-2 Energy Retrieval
-1 Double Colourless Energy
-2 Grass Energy
-2 Wally
-1 Tierno
-1 Brigette/Pokémon Fan Club
+4 Forest of Giant Plants
+2 Spinarak
+2 Ariados
+2/3 Professor Sycamore
+2 VS Seeker
+0/1 N
+0/1 Sceptile-EX (Non-promo)
+1 Revitaliser

Hope this helped!
 
The reason you feel the need to use more energy is the lack of good draw support. Ideally you should play 1 supporter per turn. Without shaymin. You probably need like 8 draw support at least.

When you have a strong drawing engine. You can steadily draw into energy. Even with around 10 or less energy.
 
The advice given by hitmonlee22 and Ivy_Profen is great, but I'm going to chip in my two cents because you dropped by the TCG Help. ;)

Your deck looks a bit clunky. I feel like it would lack consistency when it is played, so let's see if we can fix that up with an improved draw engine. Secondly, I think the deck needs to be focused a little more on Meganium's Overgrow Ability. You ideally want to be tanking Meganium so it is 2-hit KO'd, and whenever it is attacked, its HP drops to 50 or less. I'd expect that in 2017 format the average damage output would be similar to that of these past few rotations, at around 170 or 180 damage per turn, or two turns of 90 damage. This is the "magic number", as it 1-hit KOs (or 2-hit KOs) the majority of Pokemon in the game. As such, we want to be able to survive the magic number with a little HP to spare, so we can use Overgrow effectively.

So, here's my recommendations:

-3-2-2 Ludicolo PRC (While at face value these look like really effective cards, they are far less superior to just two copies of Lysandre. This is because Ludicolo is clunky, takes up space and requires two turns to evolve, and then there is only a 50% chance of it working. If we include 2 Lysandre instead of this line (the ideal number in many decks), we have made room for 5 more cards. Also, Ludicolo's attack is hopeless, so we can replace it with some stronger Pokemon.)
-1 Remoraid (Making some space. You don't need 3.)
-2 Energy Retrieval (I don't think you need this many. The 8 Grass Energy is (surprisingly) a lot. I'm also suggesting Exp. Share, so with that inclusion you should need Energy Retrieval much less.)
- 2 Rare Candy (The Forest of Giant Plants Stadium is a superior choice, as we can get our Meganium into play within a single turn! The Stadium makes a large count of this a bit redundant, so let's use this space a bit better.)
-2 Wally (Same deal as for Rare Candy. The Forest of Giant Plants Stadium is virtually Wally on steroids. :p)
-1 Steven (You can only use one Supporter per turn, so you must always make sure using your Supporter is worth the turn's slot. Steven unfortunately is not all too great, as we can use other Supporters to reliably draw into the cards you need instead.)
- 2 Professor's Letter (You've got a lot of Energy already, and with my Supporter suggestions and Octillery,you will be able to consistently draw into the Energy. Thus, I think we can use this space a bit better.)
- 2 Tierno (Tierno is not as good as a few other supporters (Sycamore and N). Tierno is only efficient in the right decks, and unfortunately this deck is not one of those.)
- 1 Pokemon Fan Club (Replace this with Bridgette. You don't have any EXs at the moment, so this card is better.)
- 3 Grass Energy (With the right draw, you won't really need this much Energy.)
-2 Double Colorless Energy (We have no use for this in this deck. Using DCE makes you a target for Enhanced Hammers and Jirachi Promos.)


+2 Sceptile-EX AOR or Virizion AOR (If you can get ahold of Sceptile-EX from Ancient Origins, than it would be a really good secondary attacker. It has a cheap attack that has nice synergy with Ariados. Otherwise, Virizion AOR is a pretty solid basic non-EX [G] attacker good if you fall behind in the prize trade, however it isn't all too great if you're ahead. Hence why Sceptile is much,much better.)
+2 Professor Sycamore (This is a great Supporter. So great, that we want four copies of it so we virtually always have the opportunity to use it, with the help of VS Seeker. You want to be using this Supporter quite often early on.)
+2 N (This Supporter is also great, but we don't need as many as Sycamore. N is useful for shuffling away hands that you really don't want to discard, as well as disrupting your opponent, especially when they're on less prizes.)
+2 VS Seeker (VS Seeker is an amazing and versatile card that lets you reuse many Supporters. Definitely a four-copy inclusion.)
+1 Lysandre (A bit of consistency. This isn't a necessary inclusion, however, but this consistency is really good for those clutch situations.)
+1 Teammates (Despite all our efforts, we're going to faint a lot. Teammates is great for non-EX decks in particular, so they can recover after being KO'd easier. With VS Seeker, we'll have access to this card for most of the game, even with just one copy.)
+1 Ultra Ball (Consistency.)
+3 Level Ball (This allows us to search for virtually all Pokemon in our deck for free. Running this alongside of Ultra Ball gives us much needed consistency.)
+2 Assault Vest (If our opponent runs Special Energy, we will be able to tank a bit easier.)
+3 Exp. Share (An issue with Stage decks, and especially this one with the higher energy-costs, is that they have difficulty streaming. With Exp. Share, this makes the streaming task a little less daunting.)
+1 Bridgette (To replace Fan Club.)
+3 Forest of Giant Plants (To evolve much, much quicker.)
+2 Training Center (This will allow us to tank better. While Forest of Giant Plants is more vital early game, this Stadium is better when we have set up.)
+2 Revitalizer (If we discard our Pokemon via Sycamore or Ultra Ball, or they simply get KO'd, we still have a nice way to get them back.)

Some good options, but I haven't recommended them due to space:
- A second Bridgette (Bridgette is a nice card to have Turn 1, so two copies boosts that chance.)
- A Skyla (Is a nice Jack-of-all-Trades type of card so you can complete a combo.
- Bunnelby AT (So you can get back a few cards late game that you really need. I'm thinking of Stadiums mostly.)
- A few Max Elixir and some extra [G] Energy (This would be nice for streaming, but I have absolutely no idea how to find space for this. You'd need space for about 5. :p)
- 1/2 copies of Float Stone/Switch/Escape Rope (If any of your Pokemon are Lysandre'd (especially your high retreat ones), you have these cards as a bit of a safety net.)
- and lastly, Mega Sceptile-EX:

M Sceptile-EX is a different way to look at your deck. Both M Sceptile-EX and Meganium are tanks, which means they work together nicely. M Sceptile-EX is really good for its Energy acceleration and it heals nicely, so it'll make streaming much better! Taking this approach would take a bit of focus off Meganium (which is not necessarily bad). This approach requires 3-3 M Sceptile-EX and 3 Spirit Links. You'd need to add some extra [G] Energy (bring it back to 11), keep the Energy Retrieval and add a fourth Ultra Ball. Assuming you go by all my suggestions (which is probably not likely =P), to make space I would recommend taking out the Ariados line (if you are looking for defensive over aggressive) OR Training Center (if aggressive over defensive), the Exp Shares, Level Ball, 1 Chikorita, Bayleef and Meganium, and a Rare Candy.

Anyways, I hope you find this feedback at least remotely helpful! =D
 
Anyways, I hope you find this feedback at least remotely helpful! =D
Well reasoned walls of text are always helpful, thanks. :p

And like I pointed out at the opening of the OP, I don't actually know what I'm doing. This entire thread is more of an exercise for me to get in the mindset of building a current deck. Nothing top tier but good ideas for why things are going in and others are not.
 
You might consider playing Serperior from Fates Collide (FCO). This card is better than any card in your deck. bbninjas may argue that Sceptile is better. I disagree. 1 energy attacks with paralyze AND poison can pack a punch.
 
You might consider playing Serperior from Fates Collide (FCO). This card is better than any card in your deck. bbninjas may argue that Sceptile is better. I disagree. 1 energy attacks with paralyze AND poison can pack a punch.
Serperior requires a lot of space (9 more cards at least) that this deck doesn't have. It also is a second Stage 2, which should be avoided in decks to prevent clunkiness. Multiple Stages can be used effectively sometimes, but I don't think this is the deck for it. If you're going to add Serperior, you may as well remove Meganium altogether, because they don't really compliment each other. With paralysis, Serperior prevents attacking, but our aim with Meganium is to be attacked (and survive), so Serperior would completely change the deck.
 
Serperior requires a lot of space (9 more cards at least) that this deck doesn't have. It also is a second Stage 2, which should be avoided in decks to prevent clunkiness. Multiple Stages can be used effectively sometimes, but I don't think this is the deck for it. If you're going to add Serperior, you may as well remove Meganium altogether, because they don't really compliment each other. With paralysis, Serperior prevents attacking, but our aim with Meganium is to be attacked (and survive), so Serperior would completely change the deck.
Total replacement was exactly what I was suggesting. My bad, should've made that clear.
 
@bbninjas So I know you saw my post in the deck potential thread and it probably didn't make sense that I suggested the deck but then said it was going to be bad. I thought for a second just now and there's no way another Super Scoop Up isn't going to be printed. It's a true staple. But the question is: when will it come back? XY 12? SM1? Who knows? I personally think SM1, but until then, Serperior will be just like any other snake, lying in wait, ready to pounce at a moment's notice.
It still fits to be discussed in this thread as this says 2017 and not specifically as the season starts.
 
I have tried to build a deck around Meganium a few times, but I keep coming up short. The trouble is that it's energy cost of GGC instead of GCC means three attachments somehow, and unfortunately Grass is painfully short on energy acceleration options. This Sceptile might be your best bet, but that means two Stage 2 lines in the deck, which is clunky despite Forest of Giant Plants allaying the speed factor. Vivillon can fulfill the same role but raises the same issue.

However, because Meganium is so great once it's stacked and going, it's worth pursuing as an idea all the same. Grass is a pretty good meta call right now too, with Fighting & Water decks springing up all over. Your talk of planning for the future though, might get into trouble once the Volcanion set comes out in a few months.

The best build I've come up with, plays into Grass' supposed tactics of stall and heal. I run a 2-2-2 line of Meganium, alongside 3 Leafeon-EX. 2 Shaymin for draw and importantly, a 3-3 line of the Floette that boosts Grass Pokémon HP. (Be warned however, this will rotate in September).

The plan being to get two of these Floette onto the bench to boost Meganium to 190HP, and Leafeon to 210 (or 250HP with a belt on!). A full compliment of Max Elixir for acceleration to the bench, plus three Energy Switch to hopefully move these to the active at the right time. Alongside Belts for Leafeon, I have one Exp Share to try conserve energy too. Add to these the usual draw Support, Vs. Seekers and switching items and the deck is pretty full already. But do make room for as much healing as you can manage, as keeping the Energy on the board once you get it there is pretty crucial to build up your next attacker.

It's still not amazing, but I feel like it's as good as it gets with Meganium.
 
Training center rotates out. Also I think you should consider trying to turn this into expanded. Muscle band will make you hit for 140 and fully heal itself. Also people will still run toads that are easy to beat, considering you hit for 100 and heal for 100. Grenade Hammer puts you in overgrow making you one shot it and fully heal. No one muscle bands toads, since they need to maximize hp over damage. Night March would screw you since it does 1 hit KO. Your deck might have hope in expanded if you could get around Night March.
 
Training center rotates out.
Whelp, that's a bad miss on me. xD

In that case, I would recommend +2 Parallel City to survive [G], [L] and [W] attacks a bit better. The remaining card slot can go towards something else, like Skyla.
 
Eh, I might take the whole deck back to the board until I can make it better.

What I'm building towards is a newer playgroup (being one of the few players at the local game store) and improving my decks and playing ability as I can. So I was wanting to do more of the 'simple' decks, from what I remembered Grass was the type to do that with.

Thanks for the help all (I will probably end up building this if I can tbh).
 
Download the online game, go through the tutorials, learn how the game works, read some articles and watch a ton of youtube videos of other people playing strong decks online (yellowswellow is a great youtuber who is good at explaining his decision making and why he builds his decks how he does) and then you will get a feel for how the game is actually played now adays. It's very different from the old days of draw, energy, pass. Draw, energy, pass. repeat four times attack for 40.
 
Another good place to test is TCG ONE, but only after you've practiced the game. Yellow Swellow has a few videos on it. TCG ONE is unlike the online game in which you can play with any card you want, when you want to for free. It also has classic formats in Career mode, meaning you can play BS and Rocket
 
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