A Guide to the Unlimited Format

Indeed; that strategy might be better suited to an Arceus Charizard deck, as you'll want plenty of Fire pokemon. The trick would be holding back while charging up Charizard, then dumping Houndour and Magby on your bench (alongside one of those Houndoom).
 
Your Master said:
I'm not really a big fan of Arceus myself unless I built an Arceus toolbox for league for fun.
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Oh, I didn't mean the pokemon Arceus, I meant:

http://pokebeach.com/tcg/arceus/gallery

That Charizard, from the Arceus set.
 
RedJackal said:
This is the thread I was looking for! I used to play in the WOTC Era, and have many of the old staples. Being that Charizard is my favorite pokemon, I'd like to build a deck utilizing it. I'm not sure which Charizard is the best option; I'm debating between Arceus Charizard, whose Fire Formation adds +10 to each attack for each Fire pokemon on my bench, and Boundaries Crossed Charizard, whose Split Bomb seems really good. If I used BC Charizard, I would need some kind of acceleration. I think 2 Stage 2 lines would be clunky, so that eliminates Emboar, leaving Victini EX and Entei EX as possible accelerants (alongside Double Colorless Energy). I'd like your opinions on which Charizard I should build around.

Protecting Charizard and getting Trainers off will be important; to that end, Neo Genesis Magby is excellent. Sputter shuts off all Pokémon Powers until the end of my following turn after attacking with Magby. As for gyms, there's Ecogym and No Energy Removal Gym; maybe a 1-1 on each of those? Lass also presents some Trainer control by forcing my opponent and me to shuffle our Trainers into our decks. With this in mind, here's a shot at Boundaries Crossed Charizard:

4 Charmander Boundaries Crossed
1 Charmeleon Boundaries Crossed
3 Charizard Boundaries Crossed
2 Entei EX
2 Victini EX
1 Magby Neo Genesis
3 Cleffa Neo Genesis

4 Poke Drawer +
4 Erika
4 Pokedex Handy 910 is
3 Professor Oak
1 No Energy Removal Gym
1 Eco Gym
1 Broken Space Time
1 Float Stone
1 Warp Point
3 Lass
3 Rare Candy
3 Item Finder

4 Double Colorless Energy
2 Holon Fire Fighting Energy
9 Fire Energy

I've tried to cover as many angles as possible with this deck; I'm just not sure which Charizard to build around! Back in WOTC era, I did use Neo Revelation Entei with Charizard; Entei's Howl lets me discard the top 5 cards of my deck and attach all Fire Energy to one of my pokemon; using the power ends my turn. That's another, albeit junky, way of charging up.
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Max out Broken Time-Space and add Emboar, pack up a lot of Pokemon Collector and Sableye SF, that would be a fast set-up.
 
Well, I think he is maybe aiming for a fairer unlimited deck not really comptetitive, although that would help.
 
Thanks, Luis. I'm aiming for a deck that's fun in that I can use my favorite pokemon, but I would like to make the deck as optimal as possible. Pitch Entei EX and Victini EX to fit in the Emboar line? Seems like Pokémon Communication would be a great Trainer card for the deck, too.
 
My personal PoryDonk list is much different. It has great variety and is shown by that.

19 Pokemon:
  • 4 Unown R LA
  • 4 Sableye SF
  • 3 Uxie LA
  • 2 Porygon GE
  • 2 Porygon2 GE
  • 1 Drifloon MD
  • 1 Drifblim UD
  • 1 Regice LA
  • 1 Rotom UD
39 Trainers:
  • 2 Broken Time-Space
  • 4 Seeker
  • 1 Pokemon Collector
  • 1 Oracle
  • 4 Poke Drawer +
  • 4 Level Ball
  • 4 Erika
  • 4 Item Finder
  • 4 First Ticket
  • 2 Pokedex Handy910is
  • 2 Junk Arm
  • 2 Scoop Up
  • 1 VS Seeker
  • 1 Pokemon Retriever
  • 1 Computer Search
  • 1 Windstorm
  • 1 Alph Lithograph FOUR
2 Energy:
  • 2 Boost Energy

Lots of draw and minimal techs; the techs that I have are needed to check the counters to this deck (e.g. Spiritomb, Cessation Crystal).
 
My list is almost exactly the same as that atm minus the level ball. Oracle, is one of the best supporters in unlimited imo. Good list though, but it sucks that Computer Search went to 1, doesn't it :D?!?
 
What? An Unlimited thread with no mention of Ditto B 18? I have the sadness now.

And if I remember reading this correctly, aren't Computer Search and ACE-SPEC Computer Search different cards? So why would you only run one?
 
Shinigami said:
And if I remember reading this correctly, aren't Computer Search and ACE-SPEC Computer Search different cards? So why would you only run one?
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Nope, because it has the same name as the old one, you can only have one in your unlimited deck. Thank god they changed Item Finder's name. :3
 
The only card that actually bypasses that is Pokemon Center from BS, and what were you wanting to do with ditto?
 
Computer Search (Base Set) -Bulbapedia

" Despite the near-identical text, the Boundaries Crossed edition is not considered a reprint (due to the Ace Spec designation) of the original card and neither version may be substituted for the other in deck construction."

As I understand from the article, and from playing many, many card games over the years, a reprinted card with a new designation, i.e. Base Set Computer Search and the new "Ace Spec" Computer Search, is a different card. However, I understand that we don't really have much of a ruling on that from POP (unless someone has a link,) so I'll leave it alone for now.

Back to my original statement about Ditto, what wouldn't you do with him? He's every Pokemon your opponent has. He evolves when they do. He's a great mirror, eats up spare Energy, is a hand resource in large numbers, and can be nearly unkillable in the right deck. What's funnier than killing a Mewtwo EX with a Ditto? Nothing, that's what. Ditto's great. I'm using him in a Psychic/Steel Casual build right now that is showing great promise, if I can just get the Pokemon base tuned right.
 
The thing is, the only thing you would use ditto for is for fun. There is no point to use him competitively because Porydonk is just that good. Also, I believe that the current ruling is that we can use one in the deck. The question isn't if we can use four, it is if we can even use the old one apparently.
 
Your Master said:
The thing is, the only thing you would use ditto for is for fun. There is no point to use him competitively because Porydonk is just that good. Also, I believe that the current ruling is that we can use one in the deck. The question isn't if we can use four, it is if we can even use the old one apparently.
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I'm not in an area where Unlimited is considered enough of a competitive draw to bother with tournaments. So yes, I do play Unlimited for fun.

And rulings like this are why Pokemon needs to take Unlimited seriously. One of the best cards in the game, and we're afraid to use it because we might eventually have to shell out $40 or more for a re-typed reprint. Give us a defined banned/restricted list, a bit of legitimate prize support... Heck, test it as a side event at Worlds. If it were a supported format, I'd play nothing but Unlimited. Rulings like this do nothing but confuse and annoy the player base.
 
Well, computer search is only about 8-10 bucks, so not to bad, and they will never support Unlimited. It is something to enjoy with friends or to annoy the crap out of people.
 
I wouldn't want to play more than 1-2 Computer Search anyways. I don't want to be discarding all of those; I already have too much discard in 2 Junk Arm, 4 Item Finder, and 1 Computer Search.
 
The old lists used to run 4 computer search, and they would NEVER fail unless that had the absolute worst hand you could possibly get, which would be very hard to do. Four computer search made it better, you didn't run junk arm with it you only needed the item finders.

does anybody have a deck request for me to do after school?
 
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