Deck Building Guides

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LilligantEX

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I've never actually built my own deck before as I'm usually more into the collecting side of things. However, I've been more interested in playing recently and want to build something of my own. I've had a look through the forums with built decks, and referred to some of the theme decks too, for advice, but I'm a real beginner and don't really know where to start.

Is anyone anywhere of any guides or articles that give some basics tips and tricks for deck building? Even something basic like an energy to pokemon to trainer ratio (well a rough idea, I know that can be majorly different depending on your strategy).

Thanks!
 
I know there are plenty of articles floating around, couldn't find the ones on the beach but I'm sure someone else will direct you.
As for trainer/Pokemon/Energy lines, I personally feel like the trainer line is most important to the deck, tied possibly with Energy acceleration/cost options.

Most people run about 30 Trainers/Supporters overall, with about 10-12 Supporters that help you draw cards. The other half of your deck can be Pokemon and Energy depending on how you want to build your deck. And never let anyone's suggestions decide exactly what you put in or remove; everyone plays differently and a card that doesn't work for someone else may work very well for you.

Hope I helped, and good luck!
 
A good place to start is with 20/20/20. most decks cut energy first, making it 20ish Pokémon, 30ish trainers/supporters/stadiums, and 15ish energy.

Then more competitive decks go as low as 12 energy. They used to run as low as 8 in the SP days, but now that the bench isn't safe and energy acceleration wins games, energy counts are higher.
 
Start around 20/20/20 and work to about 50% T/S/S and 25% Pokemon, T/S/S is pretty much a definate while pokemon could go to as low as 20%. Fill the rest with energy.
 
Ah, right. Thanks!

So, basically... Start off with a basic idea for a deck with 20 energy/20 pokemon/20 trainers. Then work on lowering the energy and upping the trainers. That it in a nutshell?
 
Your deck needs to be consistent and have synergy; you want to have an overall strategy. You don't want Vileplume in Mewtwo/Celebi. You should probably only run one type of energy (Prisms and DCE's are fine) with few exceptions. Try not to run too many Pokemon lines. The first deck I ever built had Infernape, Typhlosion, Arcanine, Ninetales, and probably something else. Now, I run a deck that has only one Stage 2 line, and various Basics with similar energy requirements. In this format, you may have more success using the divinely powerful Basics which are currently plauging the metagame and some form of energy acceleration (Pachirisu/Jirachi + Shaymin, Typhlosion Prime, Emboar, Tornadus, Eeletrik, Celebi). Those are the general basics of deck building, for advanced help, you can always post your decklist on the forums for advice. Good luck
 
Here's a pretty good article on pokebeach.
http://www.pokebeach.com/forums/thread-the-art-of-deckbuilding--105134
 
LilligantEX said:
Ah, right. Thanks!

So, basically... Start off with a basic idea for a deck with 20 energy/20 pokemon/20 trainers. Then work on lowering the energy and upping the trainers. That it in a nutshell?
Click to expand...

That's not how it works anymore. That will give you a deck, but it will not give you anything near competitive. Nowadays, decks are based on strategy. A great strategy to start with is energy accel. This is the best kind of deck IMO and it is pretty easy to start out with. Energy accel allows you to keep energy on the field and attack with pokemon that do a lot of damage. Here are some acceleration pokemon that people use:
Eelektrik NV
Celebi Prime TM
Emboar BW
Feraligatr HS
Typhlosion Prime HS
Electrode Prime TM
These are the main ones. Just try using different attackers with these guys and see what works for you. The 20/20/20 is great for building a deck, but it gets you nowhere in the long run.
 
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