Why on Earth are There So Many Energies in Theme Decks?

[LoneWolf2113]

Hey so I was helping one of my friends get into the game. After trying to help him build a deck with the little variation of cards that he has, we have him one built. His question was why I put "so few" energy in his deck (I put in about 10). I attempted to explain and asked him where he had gotten the idea that you need like 20 energy cards in a deck. He said that the Theme Deck he had gotten had around 20. That leads me to my question, why does Pokemon have so many energy in their Theme Decks?

 

[Teal]

RE: Why on Earth are there So Many Energies in Theme Decks!!!

1) Because Theme decks don't have that good draw and they need more Energy to work (to draw Energy to use) than a deck with a consistent/competitive Supporter/Item lineup.
2) Because you need a lot of Energy cards in general and Theme Decks are for new players and they will need Energy Cards. For a long time Theme decks were where you got most of your energy from. (I believe now you can get Energy also in stuff like Trainer Boxes.)

 

[RiverShock]

Honestly, I'd probably recommend a new player use something like 15-18 energies at first anyway. More experienced players can get away with far fewer, but it takes experience to learn how to conserve them.

 

[MrSquarepants]

Wow you use only 10? I need at least 16-18. My heavy guys get killed sometimes and there goes 4 energies and I'm stuck with something that can't attack. I also have horrible drawing monsters with no energy or the energies get discarded from my hand so I always find myself with no enough energy.

 

[LoneWolf2113]

Yeah. Tried to build him a Darkrai/Garbodor deck in which there are normally 10 or 11 energy. In my Flareon deck, I only play 9: 5 Fighting Energy, 4 Double Colorless Energy. If your energy keeps getting discarded, try running a copy of Superior Energy Retrieval to get your energy back from the discard.

 

[signofzeta]

It is better to have more energy for newer players. As that player becomes a pro, that player would probably use less and less energies.

Here's a fact. Ever since HS Undaunted, theme decks ALWAYS have 18 energy.

An exception is Kalos Starter set, if you count that as "legendary treasures theme decks". I am kind of sour over the fact that legendary treasures never got theme decks, and we got Kalos starter set, which doesn't follow the theme deck construction rules that have been in place since HS Undaunted.

 

[GadgetJax]

Unless you run heavy energy acceleration or lots of ways to get energy out of the discard pile (Or lost zone, for the hip gen. 4 players), I'd reccomend about 12-15 in a deck, depending on how much you actually need in order to pull off neccesary attacks. Otherwise, most Tier 1 decks these days run about 6-10, depending on acceleration, discarding, Special Energy, etc

But to answer your question, it's because they want newcomers to be able to have an amout that they feel is most suitable to their play style. That's why most modern theme decks come with about 15-20. Hey, at least it isn't as bad as Base Set. Most of THOSE came with 25-30!!!!

 

[ryter78]

I think it's filler for you to upgrade and hone(claws) your deck however you like. Maybe the new player wants to add more evolutions for power or trainers for consistency,

 

[WhatsAUsername?]

Theme Decks are usually the first thing a new TCG player well buy, I started out with one before slowly turning it into what is now my mainly used Grass/Physic deck, and without the energy included in the theme deck I'd have to make cuts or buy energy online, which usually a newer player would not like doing.

 

[skullvarnish]

I actually also find this useful if your part of a group and multiple people need energies of the same type, or the deck comes with enough of 2 different energy types. I can't tell you how useful the Red Geneect box was when I wanted to build some Psychic deck and my friend wanted to build a Grass deck. It came with enough for both of us.

 

[EricDent]

Even though these come with so many energy cards, people still want energy in those Elite Trainer Boxes.
If you are an "Elite Trainer" you should have more energy than you will ever use by now.

 

[xxashxx]

The reason they do this is because some attacks like on Charizard for example require 4+ energy cards to use his attacks and other Pokemon as well require this too. Each Pokemon in the deck requires energy for most attacks. This also helps to have more energy around for your other Pokemon and build your deck wisely to be able to win agaist your opponent too XD. The more energy you have the better you will be at building your deck(s) too.

 

[Pikachu6319]

For those who have been around for quiet a while, I'm talking beginning of R/S or earlier (at least Neo era for me), the fact is that the amount of energy in theme decks (if not the type) was typical of decks at that time, anywhere between 20-24. My old Rain Dance deck ran about that much for all of the Pokemon.

To be fair though this was long before the game had so many trainers, like it does now. In those days trainers were pretty basic with card draws, healing, energy removal/denial, some Pokemon search stuff and the occasional fossil thing, along with later on some stadiums. But they didn't have several cards to the same thing, like they have with Juniper and Sycamore, or having as many variances in pokeball cards like now, nor at that point had they seperated trainers out like they do now (basic, supporter, items), At that point Mysterious Fossil was for all fossil Pokemon and not given individual fossils. In short trainers were a lot less 'complicated' in those days and so having that kind of energy wasn't as hard to see.

That being said, it's true that with the possible exception of fairy energy, players who have been in it for a while should have all the energy they will ever need with no way to get rid of them short of out right throwing them out, making it kind of annoying. In another set or two we might have all the fairy energy we need too.

 

[xxashxx]

Yeah I have been around since gen 1 and yeah they do that so you have enough energy for every Pokemon in the deck to power all their attacks. That is why they do that XD.