Standard Manectric EX / Crobat

[VapourTrail]

So, I've finally got enough cards together to make a deck and I put one together and I'm going to try it out this weekend at my local card shop. But, if possible, I would like your opinions on the list I'm thinking of. I've detailed it below. Pretty much a basic skeleton with some other stuff I've added.

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Manectric / Bats
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Pokemon (16):

• 3 Manectric-EX
• 4 Zubat
• 4 Golbat
• 3 Crobat
• 2 Shaymin-EX

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums (35):

• 4 Professor Sycamore
• 2 Lysandre
• 1 AZ
• 1 Skyla
• 1 Judge

• 4 Ultra Ball
• 4 Trainers' Mail
• 4 Super Scoop Up
• 3 VS Seeker
• 3 Muscle Band
• 2 Level Ball
• 2 Head Ringer
• 1 Target Whistle
• 1 Super Rod

• 2 Dimension Valley

Energy (9):

• 3 Flash Energy
• 6 Lightning Energy

Strategy:

Here are some cards I have that I also considered with the number extra that I owned in brackets.

Teammates (1)
Giovanni's Plan (1)
Buddy-Buddy Rescue (1)
Miltank (2)
Seismitoad-EX (2)

I really new. I have card game experience in the form of Hearthstone, and I played some early Pokemon cards as well, but I'm aware that there very well could be some obvious card choices I've omitted. Also, I live in Japan, so I'm aware that the meta might also be a bit different, and that that is also a factor. However, it seems from a brief glance that many of the same cards are used.

Any help would be much appreciated.

PS. I have another topic with a Manectric / Bats deck list here in another topic. I'm not sure which one would be better for me as a beginner. Any advice on that would also be appreciated, thanks.

 

[PokeDad5]

Ok. Batman deck. What you have there is a good decklist for Batman. I'd take out a flash energy and add a Brigette to be able to get 3 bats out right away. That's always nice to have. Other than that the only thing I would consider would be adding another VS seeker and/or another manetric. You should really almost always run 4 of whatever your main attacker is. Other than that it's a solid deck, very fun to play and is successful. You'll probably get 100's of different options on how to play it, but how you have it now is very playable and will work well.

Night March Deck. So one thing I see right off the bat that isn't going to work is the addition of Vespiquen and Bronzong. I dont feel these two should be in the same deck together. Reason I say that is, what are you going to discard to build up Vespiquen's attack if you have Bronzor and Bronzong on the bench. If you're going to run Queen, I'd recommend x4 Unknowns that give you draw power and damage in the discard pile. You can play aggressive with just a line of x4 DCE, but then I would recommend x4 puzzel of time. The easier decklist to run would be to remove the combee/vespiquen combo as well as the 2 switch then add:

+1 VS Seeker
+1 Sycamore
+1 Lysandre
+3 Muscle Bands
+2 Float Stone

This will give you the ability to maintain energy on your pokemon with Bronzor/Bronzong even if it's dicarded or your DCE gets shot down. Just be selective on what pokemon you discard. x4 Lampents in discard of course, but split the Joltik/Pumpkaboo's in the dicard so you dont short yourself to just one or the other for attacks. This is probably the easiest Night March deck to run.

 

[VapourTrail]

Okay, thanks for all your help.

I'll be sure to pick up a Brigette from the shop at the weekend. Also, I only have 3 Manectric EXs, so 3 will have to do for now, until I come across one in a shop. I do however, have a 4th VS Seeker. I was also having some doubts about the Skyla and Target Whistle in the deck. What do you think about those?

Thanks for the comments about the night march deck too. I was essentially trying to run something that seemed like it only needed 2 Shaymin EXs. Also, I don't have any Float Stones which is why I included the Switches to accomplish a similar thing. There aren't any down at my local shop (also no Puzzle of Times), either so I'll have to get them at a later date.

 

[PokeDad5]

I don't think you'll need target whistle in the deck, but the skyla is nice if you want to dig for a head ringer, muscle band or whatever. Doesn't hurt the deck.

Do you have any local Pokemon leagues near you? You can always go to one of them and trade people for the cards you need.

 

[VapourTrail]

I'm not sure how the system works here in Japan as far as if leagues or anything exist. The Pokemon card game seems to me to be more popular in the west, as most people seem to be playing stuff like Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic, and Vanguard. There are two local shops I know of. One is a chain and doesn't even sell Pokemon cards, and the other is a much nicer independent one that does. They have small casual tournaments every Saturday and Sunday, I they have the official tournament poster up, which means the prizes are limited card sleeves that you only get from tournaments. Since I don't know any of the Pokemon players there yet, I was planning on just going down and entering the tournaments this weekend (and probably get my behind kicked) just to get to know the people. But for now I don't have anyone to trade with.

As for the Target Whistle, it was there to be comboed with Lysandre if I needed it to grab a KO. Maybe I should take it out for the Brigette, though.

Again, thanks for all your help.

 

[PokeDad5]

If you go to pokemon.com you can look up if there's any leagues in your area by using the event finder. I find it very hard to believe pokemon wouldn't have leagues in Japan since it seems to be to be huge over there, but maybe that isn't the case. Yu-Gi-Oh I get, but I'm shocked that pokemon wouldn't be bigger.

As far as tournaments go, I think you'll be surprised how well you do with these decks. They're competitive decks and have the potential to win. The key for you is knowing all the other decks out there, practicing against those decks and know how they work. That way when you play that deck you'll know what they're trying to do and can modify your strategy against each specific deck. For example, if you're using BATMAN against a deck without EX's head ringer then becomes useless because that can only attach to EX's. BUT, overrun with a muscle band on BATMAN will give you a 50/20 spread damage then you can utilize your bats to do more damage on their benched or active pokemon. The additional combo to play would be to use AZ and/or super scoop ups on your BATS to pick up and evolve your other bats for additional damage that turn.

Target Whistle/ Lyasdanre combo is great for closing out games or getting those two additional prize cards by bringing back a Shaymin EX that may have been discarded or KO'd previously. The problem you may run into with the BATMAN deck is getting the 1 target whistle you have to be able to play it. It does make for a great combo, but without using your one supporter for the turn and digging for that whistle, it's difficult to use that combo. It's easier in the night march deck because you can discard it with battle compressor or ultra ball and pick it back up with puzzles.

 

[VapourTrail]

Pokemon is definitely big here, but that doesn't necessarily include the card game, which isn't unpopular, but doesn't enjoy the same level of popularity that other card games do among an adult audience. And about getting my butt kicked. It's got nothing to do with the decks. I just know that I'm inexperienced and don't know the meta yet. I've had a look on the official Japanese Pokemon trading card game website and they have something called the Pokemon Card Gym. I'm not sure what a Pokemon League consists of abroad, but the Pokemon Card Gym events listed for me locally are the tournaments I talked about in my previous post. It sounds fine for me anyway, since I just want to play for fun in these kind of small tournaments and maybe just play some people at the shop.