Alright, first things first, welcome to the Pokémon Trading Card Game! I hope you'll enjoy it as much as countless of other people have done so far, and still continue to do!
Secondly, for your first deck ever in the competitive way of building, it looks really good to be honest! I remember my first ever competitive deck only had about 12 trainers, and people were making fun of me... *sniff* But those days are long gone too, and I actually won my last City Championship with a VileGar deck (masters), so I think I qualify to help you with your build.
However! Before we start, I'd like to point out something to you, and please keep this in mind not only now, but also in the future: My deck fixes are the way how I would play the deck, and matches my playstyle and strategy. It isn't impossible for you to play my version and make it work, but you should really adjust the deck to your personal style. Try other people's fixes, and see what works for you. No deck has a ''right'' or ''wrong'' decklist, but not every list will work with every person. My own list got a lot of bashes and whatnot, due to people suggesting other cards, but I liked how my version played, and it got me 1st place. Had I given the exact same list to someone else, they might have ended up doing far worse. Therefore, try the idea's and suggestions I give you, but don't see them as carved in stone; they're just tips for you to try out and to create your own personal, ''perfect'', decklist.
Well then, sorry for all the chit-chat before the actual tips, but Im just trying to help you out as much as possible, and even though I have no idea of how much of a ''beginner'' you are, I just thought you should know these things, as Ive seen other people make some of those mistakes in the past, and Im just trying to prevent you from making them, even though it's not even needed; I always rather prevent than heal anyways! But enough of my babbling for now, I'll break down my tips and whatnot in 4 parts:
1) Pokémon
2) Supporters/Stadiums/Trainers (or TSS for short)
3) Energy
4) Final word
Well then, let's get started!
1) Pokémon
Well, to start off, I must say your pokémon lines look perfect the way they are.
However, I personally detest the use of Unown Q, because if you start with it it's almost all already over, and the only thing you'd want to slap it onto is a spiritomb, which I personally rather see hitting the discard after it has done it's job than sticking around. I find that the way I play my list leaves me with small bench space as it is, and I certainly don't want any spiritomb clogging up one of them, seeing it has lost (most of) it's purpose back on the bench, and Garchomp C Lv X, Luxray GL Lv X, and some other snipers + Crobat G drops will consider it a free prize most of the time. Another selling point for Unown Q would be slapping it onto a Vileplume, but that still leaves it with a retreat cost of 1, and usually Vileplum get's dragged active and KO'd by a Zen Blade from Uxie Lv X, meaning the Unown Q is useless there. Besides, I have some other idea's to get that Vileplume away from the active spot, but more on that later. My personal advice is to not run Unown Q, but that's up to you.
Secondly, you could switch Gengar Prime for Gengar with the Curse poké-power. In my case it was purely because I didn't have the prime version yet and I only had 2 Fainting Spell ones, but it worked out pretty well in the end. The curse power came in really handy during mirror matches, swapping a damage counter from a Spiritomb to Uxie or the likes, and Shadow Room for the ko. Without the curse power and Crobat G's you'll find Uxie's, Azelf's, and the likes just out of KO reach, or at least without the proper preparations. On the other hand, the Prime can put 1 damage counter on Uxie and the likes and divide 3 others in any way you want with Cursed Drop, but it takes time to perform it that way as it takes more energy, ''wastes'' another attack, and as soon as that Uxie has 1 damage counter you could make some bets that it'll do it's best to Psychic restore the heck outta there. On the other hand, Cursed Drop nicely complements Gengar Lv X's Compound Pain better than the curse power, but both have something running for them. Personal style once again will have the final say in this, for me the curse version worked fine, but I prefer the Prime because it adds more disruption (yes, I finally got the prime as well and I replaced it with the curse Gengar).
2) Supporters/Stadiums/Trainers
I would like to start out by pointing out that this part of your deck will be influenced the most by your own playing style, as my TSS line-ups seem to vary a LOT from most other's, yet they work wonders for me. But once again, that doesn't mean it will work for you too, and probably it won't; keep that in mind!
Short things first, and it's about your 4 BTS; I'd drop 1 as you'd rarely need more than 3, and you're not thát dependant on them, seeing you got spiritomb as well to start with, and you should be able to build up safely behind your first gengar as soon as Vileplume hits the field anyways. (Ive included the BTS in the summary below too)
Now then, the ''backbone'' of any VileGar deck... the Supporters. I'll try to make this short and sweet, seeing it's christmas and all (yes, even I should be doing other things at the moment, but still), so here I'll give you a short summary of what to drop and add, with a small explanation for you. Note these are my changes, try what works for you!
- 1 Looker's Investigation
- 1 bebe's search
- 1 Pokémon Collector
- 2 professor Oak's New Theory (PONT)
- 2 Cyrus' Conspiracy
- 1 BTS
+ 2 Seeker
+ 2 Cynthia's Feelings
for my 3 of any given card (other than certain staples for any given deck, eg, Cyrus for Sp's) is a maximum. mainly because after you've pulled off ''that'' trick (read as ''played [supporter name here]'') 3 times, and you still didn;t get what you want(ed), you're doing something wrong to begin with. That, plus the fact that if you cut your maxed out line from 4 to 3, it leaves you with more options for different cards, meaning more tactical flexibillity. Sure, I could run 4 Collector and 4 Bebe, but 2 (or at least 1) Collectors will always be ''dead weight'' during the game, and you probably aren't going to play 4 Bebe's during the match either. Instead, why not run 3 Bebe & Collector, and cram in 2 Cynthia's Feelings? you still have plenty of options to fetch you basics and/or other Pokémon by 3 Collector and Bebe, yet you also got some hand refresh (with which you could also grab some Basics/other Pokémon in the process, along with some other cards), which means you have more options to respong with to your opponent.
''But James, maxing out my cards increase the odds of drawing them!'' I've heard this countless of times, and yes, you are right with that statement. However, do you need to max out the chance of drawing one specific card, or could you just work with what you get? from experience I can tell that maxing out certain cards still won't allow you to get them consistently, but you've got only Lady Luck to blame that I suppose? The question is if you are willing to ''give up'' a little consistency for more ''tactical flexibillity''? I for instance prefer tactical flexibillity, as I'd rather Cynthia's Fellings than Bebe's after one of my pokémon went down for example, but you'd need room for a Cynthia's Feelings in your deck first then to begin with, no? And I've already explained how to make that room in your deck (or at least, my way of doing so).
''But James, we sliced out 8 cards, but only added in 4!'' Gee, aren't you paying attention? :3 Yes, we did. I have multiple reasons for that, but I'll explain them later on, be patient! On to the energy!
3) Energy
Your energy line up could use some more work I think.
First of all, when you're running this many basics AND Collector, I think call energy becomes a waste of deck space. I'd rather include stuff like Rescue energy and Warp energy to help me in the actual game rather than only during setup.
Rescue energy is great for getting angry faces from your opponent; Let one of your gengar's bite the dust, drag something down along with it by fainting Spell, and let your opponent watch your gengar bounce back into your hand, ready for another turn next time! BTS really helps here, and hopefully they KOed your Gengar by an attack, else Rescue energy won't trigger. Also note that Gengar must be discarded, in the mirror any active Gengar prime will laugh at your Rescue energy. Rescue energy could also be used to save your Vileplume from an KO, and as with gengar, if there is a BTS active, you can drop it back next turn without any problems, keeping the trainer lock active.
Warp energy on the other hand is to get those active (and still quite healthy) Vileplume's back to your bench, or that stubborn Spiritomb that just wont come back out of it's own. While switching them back at attachment, the {C} energy can later be used to retreat them manually, or in Vileplume's case you maybe ''waste'' two Warp energy on it, and the thrid time you need to retreat it you can just discard the Warp energies (yes, this can happen, and though it might be laughable, I managed to get a Vileplume back three times to my bench in a row without too much hassle!).
The last thing I want to say about your energy is that I think 10 is a little short of being enough; my own list runs 14, but I suppose 12 is a minimum either way; even when recycling your Gengar's by rescue energy, don't forget you lose any energy attached anyways, and some energy could be prized. And no one likes to lose a game simply because he can;t attack because he has no energy?
''But James, Gengar uses maximum 2 energy to attack..?'' True once more, but once again energy can be prized, needed to be sacrificed for retreat, or sometimes an unexpected KO rips you clean of it, and having only 10 really isn;t the best idea then, now is it?
4) Final word
Well then, we've reached the finish of my ''deck fixing''. I hope these tips come in handy for you!
I'm aware that I still ''chopped out'' more Supporters than that I added cards, but see the remaining 4 cards as ''free slots'' for you to fill in with what you want...! I personally use them for energy as stated earlier, but then again my TSS line up varies quite from yours too, so just look for yourself what to add!
For more help or whatever you'd like to discuss with me, you can always PM me, and I'll come back to ya as soon as possible!
Good luck, and have fun playing with, the deck!
Greetz, James
