Standard Lots of options! Which way to go?

[CarolinaDyrty]

hello all, im new to the forums and discovered this site trying to research. i have an 8 year old who got us into this hobby just a few months ago, we have built decks and have had mediocre success. we have an ok collection but i struggle putting a working deck together. his favorite pokemon was rayquaza and i have tirelessly rebult this deck to make it playable, without shaymins. i cant drop 40 bucks on one card, and it should rotate out later this year. should i move on from trying to make it work?
we also have a mega mewtwo deck which has changed a lot but once again struggling with consistency.
we are trying also to build a volcanion deck, and im trying to understand a little better how to power and recycle the energy to make it effective.

im willing to invest in cards of modest value if it means my son can have a good consistent deck, and he wants to go to play in the tournaments. im up for anything. i have amassed enough trainers except for vs seekers (only 1).

maybe i just need a crash course or i dont have enough knowledge to put cards together.

help me be a cool dad! lol. heres some of the cards we have all ex

rayquaza x5
mega ray x5
mewtwo x7 in different forms
mega mewtwo x3
gumshoos gx
solgaleo gx
lunala gx
snorlax gx
magerna x3
volcanion ex x 4
volcanion 4
houndoomx 4
mega houndoom x 4
garbodor x 2
zoroark 2 and break 1
giratina x2
darkrai breakpoint x 1
dragonite ex x2
manaphy
blastoise x4

i have most cmmon and uncommoncards from sets breakpoint forward.

general advice or specific is appreciated. dont need anyone to hold my hand, just have no clue lol

 

[WastedSkyPirate]

Hello @CarolinaDyrty and welcome to the forums!

Rayquaza, Mewtwo and Volcanion are three strong decks, however, from a budget perspective, I would rule out Rayquaza straight away - it's widely regarded as one of the most expensive decks in the Standard format, as it relies on multiple copies of cards such as Shaymin-EX (Roaring Skies), Hoopa-EX (Ancient Origins) and Dragonite-EX (Evolutions). Mewtwo and Volcanion, meanwhile are a bit easier on the wallet!

That said, my recommendation is Volcanion.

Volcanion, is a consistent, relatively straightforward deck to use (therefore good for beginners) and it's in a strong position in the metagame. With the release of the Sun & Moon expansion, Grass decks seem to have risen in popularity leaving Volcanion, as a Fire deck, to take advantage of the trend.

Here is my suggested, budget-friendly list:


Pokemon (11)

4 Volcanion-EX (Steam Siege 26/114, 107/114, 115/114 or XY Promo #173)
3 Volcanion (Steam Siege 25/114)
2 Remoraid (BREAKthrough 32/162)
2 Octillery (BREAKthrough 33/162)

Trainers (37)

4 Professor Sycamore
2 N
2 Lysandre
1 Fisherman
1 Olympia

4 VS Seeker
4 Ultra Ball
4 Trainers' Mail
4 Max Elixir
2 Energy Retrieval
2 Float Stone
2 Fighting Fury Belt
2 Escape Rope

3 Scorched Earth

Energy (12)

12 Fire Energy


Some notes and tips:

• Use Volcanion-EX's 'Steam Up' Ability to discard Fire Energy and power up your attacks.
• Use Volcanion's 'Power Heater' attack to attach discarded Fire Energy to your benched Volcanion-EX.
• Use Float Stone, Escape Rope and Olympia to retreat your Volcanion-EX after using 'Volcanic Heat'.
• Use Scorched Earth as another method of a) drawing cards; and b) getting Fire Energy in the discard pile for 'Power Heater'.
• Octillery works well in this deck as you can reduce your hand-size by using 'Steam Up', then use Abyssal Hand' to draw more cards.
• Fisherman and Energy Retrieval ensure you have access to the Energy in your discard pile so that you can use 'Steam Up' when you need to take big knockouts.

I hope that gives you some ideas to work with for now. Feel free to ask me any questions you may have

 

[Kietharr]

I agree that Volcanion is probably the best option from the cards you have if building a deck for an eight year old. My only comment on the above list is that a few dive balls can be useful in no-shaymin Volcanion decks because they can search Volc-EX and Octillery pieces.

 

[Laurier_Ex]

I do like volcanion too. If you want to play a mega deck or Volcanion, consider Hoopa-Ex if not Shaymin. A bit less expensive but gets cards out of your deck and ready to go. Both Mega decks and Volcanion-Ex decks do require your pokemons to set up as quickly as possible on the bench ence Hoopa-Ex.

 

[CarolinaDyrty]

we made a trial run at league play today, but had a hard time. we had one flareon ex in and what are the thoughts of having 3-4 flareon in as a main atacker,using volcanion to power? his attack does 50 plus 20 for each fire energy. we got beat by a rainbow road deck

 

[Kietharr]

Flareon-EX heavy volcanion is generally bad imo, the deck is already very pressed for bench space, especially if you don't run sky field. It's a good one or maybe two of card to move energy off of injured volcs which can let you max potion them if you run that card and as a late game attacker that doesn't need ropes/float stones/rangers to attack multiple times in a row but you never really want to bench more than one of them since you need room for lots of Volc EX , your draw support and a back up babyvolc, ideally.

What exactly was the hard time? Just losing to Rainbow Road isn't necessarily an issue worth fretting over, the match up isn't great for Volcanion there. Especially if it was running Shaymins.