In PTCG, there are many deck engines. Most people opt for the most standard Sycamore/Juniper || N || Colress || VS Seeker line up... but what about the others out there? Although the standard engine may be the most efficient, is it really the best for your deck?
Go to the bottom of the page for the discussion.
Engines
Standard Deck Engine:
This is a norm deck engine. Most people know how this deck engine works:
-You hope you start of with a draw supporter in your hand
-You use it, and basically hope you get a draw supporter/VS Seeker in your next hand.
Some decks opt out Ultra Ball for a specialist Pokemon searcher, such as Dive or Plasma Ball, or run a 3 Ultra Ball and 2 Repeat Ball line.
I find the main benefit of this engine the consistency. With the amount of supporters included, you often are able to refresh your hand easily. Ning your opponent's hand, disrupting it, is also really beneficial and can be game changing.
A notable disadvantage of this engine is that Juniper/Sycamore is really the only card you want to draw in your first hand. N refreshes your opponent's hand (generally not a good thing Turn 1), Colress draws low amounts of cards (normally) turn 1/2, and VS Seeker is primarily useless until a supporter is used.
tl;dr
Budget/XY-on Deck Engine
This deck engine works in the same way as the Standard Engine, and although is less superior, it is normally cheaper for someone starting out competitively.
Although this deck is a bit of a downgrade, Professor Birch's Observations can be ideal. Flipping a heads on this card can be really beneficial, as you are not required to discard anything. There is also less situational cards like N and Colress, making the starting hands of these decks more viable.
The primary disadvantage of this engine is the lower draw power. Colress is normally superior due to drawing up to 10 cards. N has the disruption, and is still a nice card for refreshing (more than Shauna, and often more than Birch), especially when a player is behind on prizes.
tl;dr
Cancer Deck Engine:
Personally, this is one of my favourite deck engines (minus the Jirachi-EX). The primary basis is to burn through your resources using Juniper, Skates and Bikes. With Random Receiver and VS Seeker (and Jirachi if chosen), you can find a Juniper pretty easily in your deck, allowing for a really quick and consistent engine. Once you burn through your resources, you can Trump Card your discard back in, and restart.
A main gimmick of this engine is the lack of supporters. This Juniper-based deck can't contain anymore supporters, as they get in the way of a Random Receiver.
The main advantage of this engine is how quickly it moves. Unless you get a really, really dead draw, you should always have that Juniper, and with the abundance of draw cards, you burn through your deck nicely. This allows you to always get out those tools and cards you need.
This type of engine has a few primary disadvantages. Firstly, Toad. The item lock can be devastating, although there are ways around it. Try and use most of your items Turn 1, and anticipate a lock the following turn. Secondly, the rate of discard. Much of the engine requires hefty discard, so if your deck needs a lot of gimmicks and/or cards to function, don't use it. Care also needs to be taken in case of a prized Trump Card. Thirdly, the space required is hug - around 10 more cards than an average deck.
Also, although not highly important, this engine uses a lot of cards that are anticipated to be going out of format, unless a reprint occurs.
tl;dr
Pokemon Drawers
There are three main types of Pokemon that provide nice draw power.
Slurpuff PHF
Tasting. Drawing an extra card a turn. Awesome! What makes this card even better is that it stacks. You can have 2/3 on the bench, and end up drawing 2/3 each turn. Even better, you can promote a float-stoned Slurpuff to the active on KO, and draw yet another card!
Obviously, the main problem on Slurpuff would be that it takes up bench space. Many decks can't utilise this guy as they need bench space. Nevertheless, Toad is a common companion with this thing.
tl;dr
Swampert AT
If you can get this guy set up, you have both a Computer Search and a decent attacker. Searching your deck for any card and putting it at the top of your deck is amazing, and with 3 water energy piled on (and taking only two turns to set up) this thing can be hitting for huge 130s (or even 180s with band and 4 [W] energy). With Dive Ball for support, this drawer can appear really quickly in water decks.
Nevertheless, Toad really slows down getting this Pokemon out, since Swampert relies on both Rare Candy and Dive Ball for consistency. This guy also needs the bench space, although when you consider Swampert's attack, this problem sorta nullifies!
tl;dr
Electrode PLF
This is a basically a Bicycle. Drawing cards to four can be huge, especially when coupled with other engines. Once again, this card falls to Garbodor, and requires the space. It is going out of format, however.
tl;dr
So, which engine do you like? Is there any cards that you prefer to use more of, over another (like Skates over Bicycle)? Is there any other engines you find really prominent?
Go to the bottom of the page for the discussion.
Engines
Standard Deck Engine:
- 4 Professor Sycamore
- 4 N
- 1-3 Colress
- 0-3 Skyla || Korrina
- 2 Lysandre
- 2-3 VS Seeker
- 3-4 Ultra Ball
- 1 Computer Search
This is a norm deck engine. Most people know how this deck engine works:
-You hope you start of with a draw supporter in your hand
-You use it, and basically hope you get a draw supporter/VS Seeker in your next hand.
Some decks opt out Ultra Ball for a specialist Pokemon searcher, such as Dive or Plasma Ball, or run a 3 Ultra Ball and 2 Repeat Ball line.
I find the main benefit of this engine the consistency. With the amount of supporters included, you often are able to refresh your hand easily. Ning your opponent's hand, disrupting it, is also really beneficial and can be game changing.
A notable disadvantage of this engine is that Juniper/Sycamore is really the only card you want to draw in your first hand. N refreshes your opponent's hand (generally not a good thing Turn 1), Colress draws low amounts of cards (normally) turn 1/2, and VS Seeker is primarily useless until a supporter is used.
tl;dr
- + Consistent
- + Possible disruption
- - Most of the supporters are not wanted on the first hand
Budget/XY-on Deck Engine
- 4 Professor Sycamore
- 4 Professor Birch's Observations
- 1-3 Shauna
- 0-3 Korrina
- 2 Lysandre
- 2-3 VS Seeker
- 3 Ultra Ball
This deck engine works in the same way as the Standard Engine, and although is less superior, it is normally cheaper for someone starting out competitively.
Although this deck is a bit of a downgrade, Professor Birch's Observations can be ideal. Flipping a heads on this card can be really beneficial, as you are not required to discard anything. There is also less situational cards like N and Colress, making the starting hands of these decks more viable.
The primary disadvantage of this engine is the lower draw power. Colress is normally superior due to drawing up to 10 cards. N has the disruption, and is still a nice card for refreshing (more than Shauna, and often more than Birch), especially when a player is behind on prizes.
tl;dr
- + Consistent
- + Have better starting hands (in theory)
- - Less draw
- - Can be luck based
Cancer Deck Engine:
- 1 Jirachi-EX
- 4 Professor Sycamore
- 1 Lysandre's Trump Card
- 4 Random Receiver
- 4 Roller Skates and/or 4 Acro Bike
- 3-4 Bicycle
- 4 Ultra Ball
- 3 Pokemon Catcher
- 4 VS Seeker
Personally, this is one of my favourite deck engines (minus the Jirachi-EX). The primary basis is to burn through your resources using Juniper, Skates and Bikes. With Random Receiver and VS Seeker (and Jirachi if chosen), you can find a Juniper pretty easily in your deck, allowing for a really quick and consistent engine. Once you burn through your resources, you can Trump Card your discard back in, and restart.
A main gimmick of this engine is the lack of supporters. This Juniper-based deck can't contain anymore supporters, as they get in the way of a Random Receiver.
The main advantage of this engine is how quickly it moves. Unless you get a really, really dead draw, you should always have that Juniper, and with the abundance of draw cards, you burn through your deck nicely. This allows you to always get out those tools and cards you need.
This type of engine has a few primary disadvantages. Firstly, Toad. The item lock can be devastating, although there are ways around it. Try and use most of your items Turn 1, and anticipate a lock the following turn. Secondly, the rate of discard. Much of the engine requires hefty discard, so if your deck needs a lot of gimmicks and/or cards to function, don't use it. Care also needs to be taken in case of a prized Trump Card. Thirdly, the space required is hug - around 10 more cards than an average deck.
Also, although not highly important, this engine uses a lot of cards that are anticipated to be going out of format, unless a reprint occurs.
tl;dr
- + Pretty consistent
- + Extremely fast
- - Unusable after the next format
- - Can't have many gimmicks due to discard
- - Can't add any extra supporters
- - Easily Toad-locked
- - Hugely devastating with a bad hand, and can cause a loss to deck-out if Trump Card is prized.
Pokemon Drawers
There are three main types of Pokemon that provide nice draw power.
Slurpuff PHF
Tasting. Drawing an extra card a turn. Awesome! What makes this card even better is that it stacks. You can have 2/3 on the bench, and end up drawing 2/3 each turn. Even better, you can promote a float-stoned Slurpuff to the active on KO, and draw yet another card!
Obviously, the main problem on Slurpuff would be that it takes up bench space. Many decks can't utilise this guy as they need bench space. Nevertheless, Toad is a common companion with this thing.
tl;dr
- + 2-3 Extra cards every turn for nearly free
- + Ability stacks
- - Takes up 4+ deck space (generally 8)
- - Blocked by Garbodor
- - Needs setup and bench space
Swampert AT
If you can get this guy set up, you have both a Computer Search and a decent attacker. Searching your deck for any card and putting it at the top of your deck is amazing, and with 3 water energy piled on (and taking only two turns to set up) this thing can be hitting for huge 130s (or even 180s with band and 4 [W] energy). With Dive Ball for support, this drawer can appear really quickly in water decks.
Nevertheless, Toad really slows down getting this Pokemon out, since Swampert relies on both Rare Candy and Dive Ball for consistency. This guy also needs the bench space, although when you consider Swampert's attack, this problem sorta nullifies!
tl;dr
- + A free computer search
- + A possible (and decent) attacker
- + Ability stacks
- - Blocked by Garbodor
- - Weaken by Item lock
- - Needs setup and bench space
Electrode PLF
This is a basically a Bicycle. Drawing cards to four can be huge, especially when coupled with other engines. Once again, this card falls to Garbodor, and requires the space. It is going out of format, however.
tl;dr
- + A replenishing bicycle
- + Ability stacks
- - Takes up 4+ deck space (generally 8)
- - Blocked by Garbodor
- - Going out of format
- - Needs setup and bench space
So, which engine do you like? Is there any cards that you prefer to use more of, over another (like Skates over Bicycle)? Is there any other engines you find really prominent?
