Standard Help with Homemade Deck (Lucario EX / Emolga EX)

[whoalookitsme]

Pokemon: 20

• 2 Lucario EX
• 2 Hitmonlee (FFI)
• 3 Machop (FFI)
• 1 Machoke (FFI)
• 4 Machamp (FFI)
• 1 Eevee
• 1 Jolteon (PLF)
• 1 Zekrom
• 2 Tynamo (PLB)
• 1 Elektrik (PLB)
• 2 Elektross (PLB)

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums: 20

• 2 Tierno
• 3 Korrina
• 1 Pokemon Center Lady
• 2 Switch
• 2 Energy Switch
• 1 Hard Charm
• 1 Professor's Letter
• 1 Pokemon Catcher
• 3 Rare Candy
• 1 Max Revive
• 1 Energy Retrieval
• 1 Fighting Stadium
• 1 Sacred Ash

Energy: 20

• 14 Fighting Energy (including a Fighting Special Energy)
• 6 Lightning Energy

Strategy:

Used to play the card game in tournaments a looong time ago (when Toys R Us would host them in my elementary/middle school days) and have just got back into it with my boyfriend. We both started out with the pre-constructed decks. Mine being ground/electric and his being grass/fire. I first based it off of a holo groudon card i got but have since removed that card. Since then we have been buying single and multi packs and he has come up with a pretty strong deck that I am finding it hard to beat. His big ones being Magcargo (with ram and indomitable blaze), Two Talonflames (with acrobatics and jet shoot), and a Trevenant EX (with dark forest and wood blast).

For this deck I mainly just like playing with him although we have found a local card shop and may start going on their pokemon tcg days. I know that a deck is supposed to have a strategy but im having a hard time figuring out what mine should be or how to achieve it. Ill list my cards below and hopefully someone can help.

I havent pulled any special energy out of packs (only my boyfriend has and he didnt give me any). We mainly use what we pull and i havent bought specific cards online but am seriously considering getting a zebstrika EX since i have blitzle.

Thank you so much to anyone that reads this and tries to help! Also let me know if i am getting anywhere with this deck or if i should just change it up completely. haha just realized i have 1 too many cards oops. Sorry about that

 

[leobandit121]

One thing that might help you is to lower your energy, and pokemon count, as trainer cards are very important. I would also strength up some of your pokemon lines. One thing that might help a lot is the Furious Fists Dark Hammer theme deck. I think that only two of them (approx. $12-13 each) will help a lot. From both of them combined, you will get 4 Roller Skates, 4 Sycamore, 4 Korrina, 2 Evosoda, 2 Energy Switch, and much more. Combined with your deck right now, it will give you a solid 4-4-3 Machamp line. Take this seriously, Machamp is a very good card. Take this for example: Missile jab on lucario is doing 30. Machamp boosts fighting attacks by 20. Having all three out will have a total of +60 damage. That means Lucario will do 90 damage for one energy, setting up a two hit K.O. I think you can also incorporate these electric types two as Emolga can be a good counter two Lugia and Yveltal EX, two cards that are heavy hitters. I think this deck has a lot of potential and I hope you have fun with it.

 

[whoalookitsme]

thank you for your help! I definitely like the sound of adding more machamps so I will look for the dark hammer theme deck. I changed up my energy to 12 ground and 8 electric. I also increased my trainer cards. I found 2 korrinas and 2 Energy switches from previous packs so I added those in. Took out thundurus, druddigon, and one copy of the teddiursa/ursaring. I also added another Evosoda and a team flare grunt (he's been using those against me so might as well return the favor lol). I probably won't add roller Skates in since I have tierno (instead of flipping a coin I automatically draw 3 cards).

Are there any electric pokemon that I could add to my deck to make that part stronger or any abilities I should look out for similar to machamps but with electric?

 

[Mora]

Could you please update your original post with the changes you made to your deck? Thanks!

 

[leobandit121]

Personally, I'd add roller skates because it's an item card, as Tierno is a supporter, but that can rely on play style. If you can find any of them, I think Zekrom would work very will in this deck, possibly a replacement to Reshiram. Also, the new Primal clash Earth Pulse deck can help, but probably not as much as the Dark Hammer deck. One electric type that will help is Raichu from XY. For a two colorless, it does 20 times your number of benched pokemon. You might have to get lucky in packs, but it might help you out. Zapdos will also help a bit. For two colorless and one electric it does 50 to anything. For just one more colorless than that, it does 50 times the number of heads on four coin flips. There aren't many other electric types to add. In my opinion, but there might just be some with hidden potential.

EDIT: I just forgot, Electrode PLF has a really good ability. it lets you draw to a four card hand once per turn. Probably a card you might wanna check out.

 

[whoalookitsme]

Hey everyone! Went ahead and updated my deck. We both went to a pokemon night at the local card shop and that helped a ton! I got some more machamps and a fighting stadium which helps ALOT. I took out emolga and added in zekrom. My deck works alot better with these changes! Thank you leobandit your idea of using machamps ability which really helps with lucarios attacks.

My boyfriends deck also got alot stronger. He took out his fire cards and the guys had him add in TWO Yveltal EX cards and some dark energy. He was killing me until i added zekrom in there! Now i just work my switch and pokemon catchers to kill those dark cards. We will see how it keeps going but so far its doing pretty well.

The rare candys help alot as well cause i dont have to keep a bunch of stage 1 pokemon in my deck. I do want to add more rare candys and also some more special energy.

We do have raichu and electrode so i will check out their abilities. We dont have zapados though. I kind of like just playing my supporter tierno card. My luck isnt good when it comes to chance so id be nervous to always get tails (because this is what my boyfriend kept doing when he had it in his). So far i havent had issues with needing to play more than 1 supporter. Raichu might be good to have since now i just have machamps sitting on my bench

 

[appleatingoat]

Hmm I would add N, Professor Juniper, or Colress if you have any, though if you don't then maybe Shauna? I find Tierno mediocre compared to supporters that shuffle your hand into your deck (Juniper being the exception)

 

[whoalookitsme]

I Actually have much more Use of tierno than anything having to do with getting rid of the cards in my hand. Rarely do I want to just discard or get rid of many cards in my hand in one move. Unless I find that changes when battling other people for now I think I'll stick with the draw 3.

I usually have more than one energy and some stage twos with rare candy but no basic for the stage 2. I don't exactly want to discard those things but that's just me?

 

[appleatingoat]

I guess if that works for your strategy.... but I still think refreshing your hand is much more useful than drawing 3 cards. because when ever I battle I try to use all the useful and needed cards in my hand before using a supporter (like N) so if I have cards that I know I need later but not at the moment then I can just shuffle them into my deck to refresh and have a greater chance of drawing the cards that I know that I need now.


Dislike for juniper is normal if your using stage 2's, rare cadies, and a slower moving deck. At first I didn't like it either because it discarded a few cards that I could have used later but as I gained experience I realized that professor juniper was one of the most essential cards in any of the decks that I had. This is because when you play juniper, it is most likely that you have used all the cards that you can that are in your hand, but cards that are not necessary at the moment like rare cadies and stage 1s/2s with out their basics on the field, will most likely have other copies inside your deck (if your deck is built well) and can be afforded to be discarded, in order to gain the 7 card draw power that works wonders when looking for certain cards.


Another recommendation I have, is adding some sort of search mechanism (besides Korrina) because having the right Pokémon at the right time is crucial in order to win. I would recommend ultra ball, though if you don't like discarding and because you have so many Pokémon in your deck I think great ball could work well.

 

[Joseph Redd]

Pokemon Fan Club would be a great way for you to get out multiple basic Pokemon that you run. Also, if you run Machamp and Lucario, see if you can get your hands on a couple of Hawlucha and a couple of Focus Sash from Furious Fists. If you are able to get a booster box or an elite Trainer box from furious fists, you have a pretty good chance of pulling these cards, as well as a bunch of good Fighting support, such as Strong Energy,Fighting Stadium, and others.
I really admire what you and your husband are doing, BTW. This is how my wife got started in the game. We started with the Resilient Life and Destruction Rush Theme decks, and my wife still plays the Fairy decks at tournaments. She has changed a few cards, of course, but it all started(at least for her) with that theme deck. She, like you, is not fond of discarding her cards, but she has warmed up to the idea over the years. It is not an easy thing to be comfortable with, but if you don't like to discard, you could always use Great Ball, Professor Birch's Observation, and Shauna. I would still recommend AT LEAST 1 copy of Professor Sycamore (there is nothing like top-decking Sycamore when you have an empty hand or a hand full of things you don't want/need). Also, Bunnelby from Primal Clash and Sacred Ash from Furious Fists (to name a couple of cards) helps out a lot to recover cards that have been discarded.