Getting Competitive

S

sardO

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Sorry if threads like this pop up all the time, but I made a few searches and didn't find much that helped me.

I recently started playing Pokemon and I really enjoy the game, so naturally I now desire to start playing competitively starting next season. First, is it true that there won't be any sets rotating out for next season? Or is this still in the rumour stages?

Next, mainly what I want to know is: what is a good, competitive deck for a newer player to pick up? I want something that will compete, but is relatively easy to pick up and if possible, a deck that will be around for a while (ie. I don't have to scrap the whole deck when the next season starts and buy more cards). Also, a relatively cheaper deck would be nice too - I don't mind spending the money for the staples like Claydol because I know that they are needed for any deck, but for the rest of the deck I'd like it to be a bit on the cheaper side (I don't mind spending money for it, but I would rather invest in a cheaper deck).

I've been testing out a Dark Flygon build and I like it a lot and I find it fairly easy to use because the strategy is very straight-forward. I'm wondering if it's a good idea for a player like me to start with Flygon, but I keep hearing how Flygon is pretty easy for a lot of the top decks to counter and how it can be inconsistent because it's a stage 2 deck (I have noticed that some games I just am not able to set anything up or mount any offense).

I'm just looking for any competitive decks that would be relatively easy for a newer player to pick up. Keep in mind I won't be getting competitive until next season if that will have any effect on what decks are good. If you could provide me with a decklist just so I get the main idea of the deck and can use it as a foundation for testing the deck online to see how it runs, that would be awesome as well.

Thanks in advance to anyone who is able to help me out, and hopefully this thread can also help other new players like me who want to start getting into competitive play.
 
Flygon is a great deck to start with. It's not the cheapest to buy cards for but they have great value if you want to trade them away. It also will proabbly not be rotated out next season. If you want any help I am very experianced with dark flygon so if youi have any questions bout the list feel free to PM me as I am on alot of the time and will be able to help you.

Also it is true tha tno sets are getting rotated this year.
 
sardO said:
Sorry if threads like this pop up all the time, but I made a few searches and didn't find much that helped me.

I recently started playing Pokemon and I really enjoy the game, so naturally I now desire to start playing competitively starting next season. First, is it true that there won't be any sets rotating out for next season? Or is this still in the rumour stages? There will be no set rotation this year. Try going to small events like BR's for practice in competitive play. League is also a highly reccomended thing to participate in.

Next, mainly what I want to know is: what is a good, competitive deck for a newer player to pick up? I want something that will compete, but is relatively easy to pick up and if possible, a deck that will be around for a while (ie. I don't have to scrap the whole deck when the next season starts and buy more cards). Also, a relatively cheaper deck would be nice too - I don't mind spending the money for the staples like Claydol because I know that they are needed for any deck, but for the rest of the deck I'd like it to be a bit on the cheaper side (I don't mind spending money for it, but I would rather invest in a cheaper deck).Check the deck garage, or tier threads for Ideas. Goig rouge is a good money saver.

I've been testing out a Dark Flygon build and I like it a lot and I find it fairly easy to use because the strategy is very straight-forward. I'm wondering if it's a good idea for a player like me to start with Flygon, but I keep hearing how Flygon is pretty easy for a lot of the top decks to counter and how it can be inconsistent because it's a stage 2 deck (I have noticed that some games I just am not able to set anything up or mount any offense). And in this meta-game, slow starts lose games. Flygon takes quite a bit to use properly. I wouldn't reccomend it to a new player, but if it works for you, great!

I'm just looking for any competitive decks that would be relatively easy for a newer player to pick up. Keep in mind I won't be getting competitive until next season if that will have any effect on what decks are good. If you could provide me with a decklist just so I get the main idea of the deck and can use it as a foundation for testing the deck online to see how it runs, that would be awesome as well.

Thanks in advance to anyone who is able to help me out, and hopefully this thread can also help other new players like me who want to start getting into competitive play.
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PokeKid Brandon said:
Flygon is a great deck to start with. It's not the cheapest to buy cards for but they have great value if you want to trade them away. It also will proabbly not be rotated out next season. If you want any help I am very experianced with dark flygon so if youi have any questions bout the list feel free to PM me as I am on alot of the time and will be able to help you.

Also it is true tha tno sets are getting rotated this year.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the help, I may need some help soon, but I may be leaning towards not starting with Flygon for the simple fact that I keep hearing people say how inconsistent stage 2 decks can be. Sometimes, you just can't set-up fast enough and lose because of it. I have noticed that when using Flygon online that this has happened to me, where for several turns I literally mount no offensive attacks. I'd prefer to start with some type of SP deck that can be competitive. It doesn't need to be LuxApe because it sounds like that can be a hard deck for a newer player to grasp. Also, Pokemon SP should be around for a while, so picking up a good core of the SP Trainer and staples is probably a good investment.

Thanks for the help and anyone else with any thoughts on good, competitive decks for a newer player that would be appreciated.
 
^You named one of the hardest-to-play decks out there. SP decks are rather difficult.
I'd say Speedrill is a good deck to begin with (although to really win with it, you must have some experience). It's also very cheap since it can use Pory-2 GE instead of Claydol if you're on the money-saving tour and you only need 4 rares (3 GE 1 RR Beedrill) and 0 LV Xes. And a single Azelf, but those are cheap too. That's already a decent deck right there, for perhaps 25 dollars (for all 60 cards) that's the best price/quality ratio you're going to get.
Also buying Claydols for >9000 dollars isn't worth it imo, because next year you can use them as toilet paper. Same goes for Uxie LA. You'd be better off investing 25$ in a SV prerelease and trade for some new cards.
 
^You named one of the hardest-to-play decks out there.
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I agree. I've played against LuxApe once before, and after rotating over the cards in my head again and again, I still can't understand the synergy in it.

Some SP decks are better than others, and some cards for SPs are harder to get than others. Two of the ones I can think with involve Skuntank G: Toxicroak G + Skuntank, and Mightyena + Skuntank.

With Toxicroak G, if you go second, given the correct cards (Skuntank G, any stadium, a Psychic energy, and Energy Gain), you can crank out 60+ damage per turn as early as your first turn using Toxicroak G's Deep Poison.

Mightyena works similarly, but the difference is that Mightyena will get poisoned by Skuntank G, and as such his 90 HP needs to be watched. The upshot is that he can do 80 damage for no energy, and since he's Dark-type he gets an extra bonus against such popular cards as Gengar or even Dusknoir.

There's also the SP deck that focuses on Weavile G and his Team Attack, which, within a few turns, plus proper Energy Gain and Snowpoint Temple set-up (and a Poke-Turn or two), can hit up to 90 or so with Special Dark energies. (It's generally run with the coveted Dialga G, Level Max, and his X form.)

...Those are the decks that come to mind for me that are relatively easy to get (I think Mother-Gengar is also fairly easy to get, but it has a slower start than SP decks), besides the ones that have already been mentioned (like Dark Flygon). That's all I have to say on it for now; I'm sure the others could do better contributions than I could.
 
There is no set rotation this year, so you're good there. :p

I LOVE going rogue. It's so much fun! (Primeape SV is a nice choice IMHO) Speedrill is a great deck to play if you're a beginner, because it's straightforward, and there are no LV.X's to go buy. A very decent deck.

Check out the Deck Garage and the Combo Library for more ideas.
 
Thanks for the help guys, but based on responses I've been getting lately about this topic, people seem to be directing me towards a simple stage 2 deck, rather than any SP builds. Just like I have been from the beginning, I'm leaning towards making Dark Flygon just because the strategy is fairly straight-forward. Beedrill seems a bit too advanced for me (although the cheap price tag is attractive) and Mother Gengar takes a little too much skill and finesse for me to handle.

Dark Flygon seems to be the clear-cut choice for me. What do you guys think?
 
Well Speedrill is not complicated at all, Its more of a beginners deck so you can invest time in that and still do good. However Dark flygon is a good choice, its slightly advanced compared to speedrill but if you can handle it fairly well then dont worry :)
 
Some up there were saying 3 GE Beedrill 1 RR. Never. Ever. Run that line.

2 GE and 2 RR. It gives you much faster setup and after a Bee gets KO'ed you can easily get it back(4-4-2-2 line, 4 NM, pretty standard)

I'd say go with Gengar/Metagross. It won't really be tier one or anything like that, but sounds like a cool deck to try.

Also, Machamp is great for new players. It's pretty easy to play, and it can win many games.
 
kashmaster said:
Well Speedrill is not complicated at all, Its more of a beginners deck so you can invest time in that and still do good. However Dark flygon is a good choice, its slightly advanced compared to speedrill but if you can handle it fairly well then don't worry :)
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Hmm, for some reason I think Speedrill is more complicated than Dark Flygon just because it seems harder to set-up and maintain 4 Beedrill than it does to maintain 2 Flygon (active and backup). Ya, I think I'm just going to stick with Dark Flygon, also because now that a Speedrill variant won Worlds more deck are going to be made to either counter Speedrill or it will be Speedrill. Mirror matches are no fun. :rolleyes:

Brawler said:
Some up there were saying 3 GE Beedrill 1 RR. Never. Ever. Run that line.

2 GE and 2 RR. It gives you much faster setup and after a Bee gets KO'ed you can easily get it back(4-4-2-2 line, 4 NM, pretty standard)

I'd say go with Gengar/Metagross. It won't really be tier one or anything like that, but sounds like a cool deck to try.

Also, Machamp is great for new players. It's pretty easy to play, and it can win many games.
Click to expand...

Never really heard of Gengar/Metagross, but I don't like Gengar, it's not a good fit for my playstyle and I'm only interested in tier 1, or at least competitive decks (not tier 1 but can compete with tier 1 decks).

Machamp is probably good for newer players, but I don't like how its inconsistent and can just be plain cheap and donk people. That's not fun for me or my opponent. Machamp gets bashed all the time, I'll steer clear of it for now... ;) someone did PM me the idea of FlyChamp though, I wonder if that's a good choice for me. Apparently 2 of the top 4 decks at Masters Worlds were FlyChamp.
 
sardO said:
Hmm, for some reason I think Speedrill is more complicated than Dark Flygon just because it seems harder to set-up and maintain 4 Beedrill than it does to maintain 2 Flygon (active and backup). Ya, I think I'm just going to stick with Dark Flygon, also because now that a Speedrill variant won Worlds more deck are going to be made to either counter Speedrill or it will be Speedrill. Mirror matches are no fun. :rolleyes:

Brawler said:
Some up there were saying 3 GE Beedrill 1 RR. Never. Ever. Run that line.

2 GE and 2 RR. It gives you much faster setup and after a Bee gets KO'ed you can easily get it back(4-4-2-2 line, 4 NM, pretty standard)

I'd say go with Gengar/Metagross. It won't really be tier one or anything like that, but sounds like a cool deck to try.

Also, Machamp is great for new players. It's pretty easy to play, and it can win many games.
Click to expand...

Never really heard of Gengar/Metagross, but I don't like Gengar, it's not a good fit for my playstyle and I'm only interested in tier 1, or at least competitive decks (not tier 1 but can compete with tier 1 decks).

Machamp is probably good for newer players, but I don't like how its inconsistent and can just be plain cheap and donk people. That's not fun for me or my opponent. Machamp gets bashed all the time, I'll steer clear of it for now... ;) someone did PM me the idea of FlyChamp though, I wonder if that's a good choice for me. Apparently 2 of the top 4 decks at Masters Worlds were FlyChamp.
Click to expand...
Imo, they are fun, but in a different way!
 
I just started too, and I am working on a Flychamp deck. I think it's a little easier to play and better than dark flygon... maybe you could try it? If not any type of Flygon is really fun imo. Good luck!
 
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