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Alt. Format (Budget) A Freindly Dual

lkmdude

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Last week my friend challenged me to a Pokémon card dual. I have never played the game before and I just read the rules PDF. A majority of my cards are base set through neo destiny. I have a few gen 4 and 5 cards, but nothing special. If you are wondering why I have so many cards I have "stolen" my brothers collection. When you find a rules violation do not worry, I hope my opponent will not notice. (ex. Vulpix evolving into Brocks Ninetales) I have probably spent around 5 hours sorting all of my cards and making a deck.
format (quantity)(name)(identification)
Pokémon
1 Giratina platinum
1 delta Typhlosion dragon frontiers
1 delta Quilava dragon frontiers
1 delta Cyndaquil dragon frontiers
1 Gardevoir secret wonders
1 Typhlosion hgss
1 Quilava hgss
1 Cyndaquil hgss
1 delta Kirlia dragon frontiers
1 delta Ralts dragon frontiers
1 Brocks Ninetales gym challenge
1 Vulpix hidden legends
1 delta Arbok dragon frontiers
1 delta Ekans dragon frontiers
1 Magcargo neo revelation
1 Slugma neo destiny
2 Reshiram next destinies
energy
2 double colorless second set
5 psychic energy
14 fire energy
trainer
1 Imposter Oak's Revenge rocket
2Gust of wind second set
2 potion various sets
3 Pokémon communication black and white
2 Energy Retrieval black and white
2 cheren emerging powers
1 Sabrina's Gaze gym heroes
1 Narrow Gym gym heroes
1 Pokedex second set
1 switch Base set
2 Roseanne's Research secret wonders
1 Here Comes Team Rocket! rocket set
2 bill second set
1 Lucian's assignment
1 professor elm
tactics
I do not have many better cards that I can use. I use Macargo, because it used to be the meta when it was printed. The ho-oh is inferior to what I can find now (not that I am buying much) but I can get it's attack to 60 damage while using the multi energy. For energy cards I used the amount that one would find in a box deck.
My tactic is to use a lot of benched Pokémon, that being said I have narrow gym to shut down that strategy for my opponents if necessary. Here comes team rocket is so I may be able to find the cards that I am looking for, and I do not have many duplicates. Roseanne's Research and Cheren are my "draw batteries". Energy Retrieval and Pokémon communication are for specialized draw. Sabrina's gaze, gust of wind, and 'oak's revenge are for messing with my opponent. The pokedex allows you to look at the top 5 cards of your deck and put them back in any order. the Potions are just for filling my deck.
I have an expert belt that is not in my deck which raises health and damage done by 20 and makes the Pokémon it is attached to cost an additional prize card.
~~~ signed Lkmdude
(ps. Sorry for grammatical errors.)
 
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bump. I have bought a Moltres box deck. By no cost I mean no individual card buying. If you do suggest cards to me that I can get in packs or whatever tell me the set that it comes from. I want to know your thoughts about anything. If you think the rules violation thing is getteng on your nerves tell me. If you think that power creep has made this deck obsolete tell me. If you think this deck has way too many energies tell me. I know that these sets are not well known. The fight will be this Friday, thank you for everything. I will probably replace the potions with bill. (basic trainer draw 2 cards)
edit 1 I have given up on getting replies, so I am repurposing this into a series of events. I have removed 2 energy, and have replaced the potions with bill. I have put the expert belt into my deck, and have put in professor elm.
updating the op
 
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Most players here stick to expanded or standard, which is why you haven't got any replies. To answer your power creep question, yes power creep will have made this deck obsolete. What are your goals for this deck? Just to play a friendly match with a friend? Then as long as they are playing similar cards from the era and are ok bending the rules for things like your Vulpix then you should be fine. If you are looking to take this to a league then you might run into trouble going against players using current standard or expanded decks.

Most decks run much fewer Pokémon than you have, and more trainers. Your energy count is a little high, but having too much is better than too few when just starting out.
 
Thank you so much. I am planning on using the moltres box deck instead of my homebrew. I deigned the deck after the old deck boxes. The reason why I have so little trainers is that the ones that I have are from base set through neo. I was going to use more gimmicks, to have a fun game. I know that standard and extended are the most popular, they are the competitive sets of the game. (I wish that there was a magic like legacy mode, but I digress) I believe that they are using newer cards. The power creep is kind of weird. The pokemon have gotten stronger, but some trainers have become weaker. I am 15, and he is 12 so I do not think that he even read through the rules.
As for league play, bah humbug to that. Semi-competitive decks start at around $50 US, I do not have that kind of money for a single pokemon deck. (yes I know that once you have the trainers you never have to buy them again)
edit. Score, I found a ton of old cards including 2 double colorless!
 
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Nice! And a few old trainers are still ok, like those double colorless (DCE for short) have been reprinted multiple times and are still technically standard legal. Same goes for a few others, like Switch I believe hasn't changed so the original base set is still standard legal. There's a few that have changed a little. The really old Potion I think only healed 20, but current ones heal 30.

Also, if you're looking for a quality deck and don't care about playing in tournaments you can pick up a world championship deck. $10-15 for the 2016 editions on Amazon and you get the highest level of competitive cards for last season in one complete deck. The downside is that they are not tournament legal so you can never take them to a tournament. They have a different cardback to differentiate themselves from normal cards. I would recommend also putting them in sleeves so you can't see the cardback when playing then you can incorporate cards you have if you want, at least when playing friendly matches.

Again, those are not tournament legal, but if that doesn't matter (And trading doesn't matter) then it's the cheapest way to get a quality deck. (I'm just reiterating the NOT LEGAL FOR TOURNAMENT fact over and over in case someone else comes along and thinks it's a cheap way to get expensive cards. It doesn't work that way. lol.)
 
I will look into the championship decks. I was actually planning on making fake cards. It is a good thing that I do not have to go through the effort. thank you for your time.
 
No problem. I don't believe the deck lists are on Amazon's product page, but if you go to Pokémon's official online store you should be able to see the decklist for each before you buy. Or of course you could go to a local store as they should have it. Be aware that these can sell out though, my local card store sold out of 3 0f the 4 World Championship decks before league this week.
 
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