Standard New to TCG -- Piloswine swarming

[Kyrushi]

Hi! I've been a long time Pokemon fan and recently started playing Pokemon TCG with friends. I have a few decent decks e.g. Sharpedo/Dugtrio but this one stumps me. I was hoping to get some professional feedback on what can help this out!

The idea of the deck is to use a combination of Gathering Footsteps Piloswine with Team Aqua's Muk and Team Aqua's Secret Base to force everyone's retreat cost to increase, therefore increasing my damage overall and making it difficult for my opponent to retreat. When things are set up, it works fairly well and packs a punch.

The problem I am running into, however, is that if I do not set up fast enough to start KOing with Piloswine, I lose him and cannot set up another one fast enough to fight back against fast set-ups like Beedrill decks and accelerated electric decks. I have tried my best to make things faster using Korrina and a variety of search options that make it very easy to get what I need, but I still run into situations where the opponent deals damage before I can even start!

It should be noted that the card shop where I play Pokemon TCG is fairly fresh, so fear of facing huge meta decks like Darkrai isn't an issue.

This is my deck list (pardon if my format is wrong)

Pokemon: 15

• 4 Swinub (BREAKthrough)
• 3 Piloswine (BREAKthrough)
• 3 Mamoswine (BREAKthrough)
• 3 Team Aqua's Grimer
• 2 Team Aqua's Muk

Supporters/Trainers/Stadiums: 30

• 4 Korrina
• 4 Hau

• 3 Repeat Ball
• 3 Heavy Ball
• 3 Nest Ball
• 3 Rare Candy
• 3 Professor's Letter
• 2 Super Rod
• 2 Switch

• 3 Team Aqua's Secret Base

Energy: 15

• 4 Strong Energy
• 3 Double Colorless
• 8 Fighting

 

[Kietharr]

This is an expanded deck for reference.

Get rid of those Haus for Sycamores or Ns, that should increase your draw speed/consistency. Work in a set of VS seekers to extend the value of your Korrinas in particular. You're running a non-grass stage 1/2 deck so you're kind of naturally going to be a slow deck and there's not much you can do to solve that, even Wally's not a very good solution to that problem since he uses your supporter when you can Korrina for an evolution+an item that gets you another pokemon.

For future reference never use Hau/Tierno/Cheren, in any deck, they are the worst draw support options 9 times out of 10.

 

[Darkness3827]

Hau is a very bad draw supporter. Use a combination of N, Sycamore, Kukui, and Birch's Observations instead. Also you are going to want at least 6-8 draw supporters. That should help improve your consistency in getting the cards you need out. I'd also recommend VS Seekers if you can get them. I might consider running 1 or 2 Carbink to help stall EXs in the early game. Personally I'm not a huge fan of running uneven lines. I understand running a 4th Swinub, but running a 3-2 Muk line seems like a waste of a card (that could be a Carbink or an extra draw supporter) I would also consider running a 4-4-4 line of Mamoswine, dumping the rare candies, and running Shrine of Memories instead of Team Aqua's Secret Base. The advantages of this would be that you can have The extra 2 retreat cost on your attacker and you will be able to attack with any Mamoswine you have out. The disadvantages would be you lose 10-20 damage if you have 3 Mamoswine out out (although running a 4th counteracts that), also you won't be able to attack if Shrine gets removed so you would prolly need to run 4 Shrines. IDK if this option is definitively better or worse, so it would be something I would try if you run out of ideas to improve the deck.

 

[Kyrushi]

I appreciate the suggestions. I can see about replacing hau.. but i am not sure about sycamore. I originally ran psychic's third eye so I could toss cards I didnt need anymore and that didnt work out most of the time because id want to hold on to my hand. I feel N and Shauna would be safer since i simply shuffle for a new hand. Does that sound OK?

I unfortunately cannot afford VS. Seekers they are far out of my budget right now. And i tried Shrines originally and found that it was too difficult to keep going because my deck absolutely depended on it. It also made evolution far too slow. Meanwhile Aqua Base is something that is very convenient, but i can fight without it.

And finally, the big thing that bothers me is what am i supposed to replace to make room for another 2-4 trainers? I understand why hau should go but whst else can i sack? Do i have too many ball cards maybe?

 

[Darkness3827]

Yeah 9 balls is a lot especially since you run 4 Korrina as well, my guess is once you replace Hau with a better draw supporter you will find that they will often be dead cards in your hand. I tend to like having Pokémon search cards equal to about 50-60% of Pokemon I am trying to get out. You prolly want to be on the higher side of that since you are going to be putting Pokémon back into your deck with Super Rod. Currently you have 13 including Korrina. I'd say you could easily cut 3. I'd personally cut the Repeat Balls or the heavy balls, you could cut both for Ultra Balls though as well.

I think you could also probably cut 1 Professors Letter and/or maybe 1-2 energy. Having better draw supporters makes getting the energy you need much easier. Another option would be cutting the strong energy for a couple Kukui. It loses some of its value because you won't have Seekers to get it back, but it deals a nice chunk of extra damage to make up for losing the strong energy and gives you some extra cards like Hau.

I understand your reservations about Sycamore, but it is incredibly good at replenishing your hand and most of the time you are going to be using it when you have only 1 or 2 other cards in your hand. Yes on rare occasions (mainly if you get a terrible starting hand) you might have to dump a few good cards, but there aren't many cards you should be too worried about discarding, mainly Switch and Super Rod. That is also the reason you run other supporters as well like N or Birch's Observations, in case you want a fresh hand but don't want to discard your current one.

Also one thing that I'm surprised I didn't notice, you prolly want to run 2-3 Lysandre. It's a very good card at stalling by forcing the opponent into a Pokémon they can't switch out of and can also give you easy prize cards if your opponent plays any sort of supportive Pokémon like Shaymin or Hoopa.

In short:
-4 Hau
-3 Repeat Ball or Heavy Ball
-1 Professor's Letter or -1 to 2 Fighting or Strong Energy

+2 to 3 Sycamore
+3 N
+2 to 3 Lysandre

Additonal Option:
-4 Strong Energy

+2 to 3 Kukui
+1 to 2 Fighting Energy
+0 to 1 DCE

Another Option:
-3 Repeat Ball or Heavy Ball (whichever is left)
-0 to 1 Nest Ball

+3 to 4 Ultra Ball

 

[Kyrushi]

Ultra Ball isnt too good of an option for this deck, because of how important it is for me to have most of my cards, but i definitely agree i could sack repest ball. Heavy Ball already finds both evolutions i need alongside korrina. That alone is plenty of pokemon searching. I also agree it nay be OK to sack a letter. I cant really risk using sycamore, but i could use shauna instead. I dont have lysandres to spare as of now but i definitely see the advantage both in bidng time and picking off targets.

Do you think its really that worth it to use sycamore over shauna in this case? Either way i will look to making adjustments soon. Thank you very much for being thorough with nr!

 

[Kietharr]

Shauna is kind of a bad card in general. N is better for reliable, early game shuffle support and Birch's expected draw value is higher than Shauna (50% for 4 cards, 50% for 7 averages to 6). Sycamore's way more consistent though which is why it's used as a 4 of in like 99% of lists. I mean, you have super rods, you can afford to trash the occasional pokemon or basic energy, and with VS seeker the only things you need to worry about discarding are items.

Korrina kind of helps with that in that she pulls items, particularly tools and balls out of your deck so you can sycamore more freely midgame then ideally recycle any discarded resources you need later in the game.

 

[Kyrushi]

I guess i'm just paranoid about the potential of me throwing something good away and not running into my Super Rods for a while. The Super Rods are more-so to get back lost piloswine in the case I don't set up fast enough. Not to mention, unlike stuff like Fisherman, it's not going directly back to my hand. I feel that overall some enemy disruption like Lysandre and N will be the most important cards to help me bide some time. Instead of Sycamores I typically like using Psychic's Third Eye so I can toss stuff I don't need anymore (e.g. if I already have a lot of Pokemon set up, I can sack Pokeballs and extra 'mons or if I have Fisherman, i'll toss energies) but I don't have as much room to do that in this deck because most of these cards are vital.

All in all, i've been experimenting with some stuff at my local card shop and a few cards in particular that have been VERY helpful are:
Lysandre (I need some more though)
Max Elixir, so I can potentially get Piloswine attacking turn two
N, particularly early game so I can shuffle more cards and disrupt my opponent if they get an early lead.

I am also considering to replace Shaunas I put in for Birch once I can get some. I absolutely agree they would be a huge help to my deck since I am not willing to discard.
I cannot afford Vs. Seekers, however. Spending 6-9 dollars on a single card is way out of my budget, especially since i just spent a good 120 on trainers, special energy, and EX 'mons two weeks ago. So while I understand how great they are, I unfortunately cannot run those.