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Posted by: ROMANA May 11 2009, 08:41 AM

I have never tried too build my own deck (I'm rather new to the TCG, was too old to collect cards as a kid!) and I'm not sure how best to start.

Where do you start from? Do you start with "I think I will be playing people with X pokemon" and work out what will beat them, or do you go for pokemon you definitely want and figure out how to win with those cards?

Is it worth buying booster packs, or do you mainly buy specific cards?

Would you start from a theme deck and mod it, if you were just starting?

Does it matter what sort of booster pack a card comes from? can I mix and match?

Posted by: Jypsom Jun 2 2009, 11:55 PM

my suggestion: start with booster packages. The pre-made decks are not of your own creation, so i dont like them. Make decks of two types, that are OPPOSITE, for example, a fire and water deck or something, so your pokemon have little weaknesses. here's what you should do for evolutions: one Final evolution card, two second evolution cards, three base evo cards, so that if one of the first two evo's are killed, you have backup. Also, remember to put in TONS of energy cards, more than pokemon, because some pokemon need more than one energy card for attacks. 60 cards only in a deck.
have fun!

Posted by: CyberJazzy Jun 3 2009, 12:25 AM

First, have a look through your cards. Get you're strongest ones out, and put them in a pile. Also have some useful ones. (Things like the blissy line, to heal injured pokemon, and pokemon with good pokebodies/pokepowers)
Second, Find their pre-evos, you cant play without base cards.
Third, What types are they? if you have all different types, try to bring it down to two/one types.
Small pile (about ten)? well, some cards are one type, but need completly different energys. look for those.
Fourth:When you have about 20ish pokemon cards, get the energys they need. You need a nice strong pile of energys, or you'll get thrashed.
Fifth:You should have some space left for trainer cards. Add you're best ones. (Energy search, Cards that heal pokemon, add strength... or you're own preferences.)

I think there's 60 cards in each deck. In some places its only 30, so find out how many you need.
theme decks (60 cards) Cost about $20-25 . If you look at the back, it says what cards are in it. Booster packs cost aroundish $5, and have 9-11 cards in them. The ones you get are completly rando

It doesn't matter what deck cards are from. Mix and match. Avoid all fake cards, they're not aloud. Only buy from places like target, k-mart, coles, big-w... And not 30 card decks from reject shops that cost $2.00.
Probably do buy a theme deck and mod it.
Booster packs are a yes. Once i got an azelf, garchomp, ralts, kirlia, and gardevoir ex ALL IN ONE PACK. Some times you get bad ones, but sometimes you're lucky.

Good luck!

Posted by: ROMANA Jun 3 2009, 08:30 AM

Thanks for the replies

We'll be on the lookout for fun booster packs! Can I ask approximately how many booster packs you would expect to buy to start to assemble a useable deck?

Posted by: Avegaille Jun 27 2009, 12:36 AM

I suggest you buy the whole box. You know, the box that contains 36 boosters per set. Authentic ones, of course. (if you have the money for it that is). That way, you'll guarantee yourself rare cards and super rare cards, plus all the cards you can possibly need for that set.

Posted by: ROMANA Jun 29 2009, 03:05 AM

That... sounds expensive. I shall investigate further, thanks for the suggestion *scurries off to eBay*

Posted by: Siduri Jul 7 2009, 11:22 AM

Keep in mind that only a few booster series contain energy cards, the latest being Diamond & Pearl (with no subtitle).

You should usually find one energy card in each, sadly, it's random which one you'll get (lightning, grass, dark...)

That's why I try to buy theme decks, to build up my energy reserve, since you'll need at least 15-20 energy cards of every color you're gonna play in your deck. It also builds you a reserve of basic cards to shuffle in your deck until you get better stuff from boosters.

Posted by: nukke Jul 19 2009, 06:20 AM

I would also be interested in making a deck. I'm not sure how specific questions can you ask here, but I would totally love to make a deck around Arcanine ex from legend maker. I know that only the newest decks are accepted in most of the places, however I'd make a deck for not official playing etc, but it still needs to be as good as possible.

I'm still not sure who would play well with Arcanine ex? Electric or Grass, that is for sure. At some point, I considered Jolteon ex or Dragonite ex (delta, the leaf one). But isn't that right that you are allowed to have all together 4 ex pokemon in your deck, or do I remember wrong? So I would at least need something more, or then consider something ellse..

And then I'm helpless due to my lack of knowledge of cards. Serebii and Pokebeach are helping, of course, but for the right trainers and wich pokemon should I get, sort of for helping, or should I?

Posted by: Jypsom Jul 19 2009, 06:47 AM

but keep in mind not all EX's are that good and if they're killed the opponent gets two prize cards.
my EX's I use are
Kyogre (<3)
Kabutops
Metagross (<3)
Celebi
Sceptile

but some that I have only have 50-80 HP and they're killed easily

Posted by: nukke Jul 20 2009, 11:40 AM

Yes I know they aren't all good and about prize cards ^__^

And I also happen to know Arcanine ex and Dragonair ex (delta) happen to be very good cards, just don't know if they work together very well :s (Those happen to be also one of my favourite pokemon )

Buut I don't know basicly anything about the newer cards, when the levels come in etc, so if you have any suggestions who play well with Arcanine ex from the base set to the newest released set I'd happily think of those. Best types would be Electric or Grass, no? :ss



EDIT ok I looked some cards up and I've never done a deck before, so please don't be mean I AM a total noob with these. And this isn't trying to be anything final (especially not trainer-wise), but a raw start.

As you can soon see, I don't mind about the modified decks, wich are in and wich out. I wouldn't have money anyway to maintain a new deck all the time when my cards get old.

3 x Growlithe
3 x Vulpix
3 x Dratini
2 x Dragonair
3 x Arcanine ex LM
3 x Dragonite ex DF
2 x Ninetales (d) DF
= 19

3 x Mr. Stone’s Project 77 DF (search for 2 basic energy cards from deck or discard pile)
2 x Castaway 72 CG (search for supporter, tool and basic energy)
3 x Professor Oak’s Visit 122 SW (draw 3 cards and then put one to the bottom of deck)
3 x Roseanne’s Research 125 SW
3 x Bebe’s Search (discard a card and search for pokemon)
2 x Pokemon Nurse (take off all damage counters and energy cards from one pokemon)
1 x Town Volunteers 136 Aquapolis (search for 5 pokemon and/or basic energy from discard pile and shuffle to deck)
2 x Warp Point 84 CG
2 x Pokedex
2 x Lake Boundary 112 MT
2 x Leftovers 99 GE
=25

4 x React Energy
4 x Grass Energy
8 x Fire Energy
=16

I don't even have any special tactics here :ss Just staigh-forward with Arcanine and Dragonite, if the opponet decides to be water. Ninetales is there to give time for the sweepers. and Lake Boundary makes up for my old sets' pokemons. With all the trainers I try to search whatever I need whenever I need. But I couldn't find anything to search me react energies :s

Anyways I'd love your (nice) advises!

Posted by: rt117 Aug 5 2009, 02:22 PM

Cut back to 1 Dragonite, if you've only got 2 Dragonairs, the most you'll be able to field is 2 Dragonites. Also try to stick to a dual-type deck that focuses on covering weaknesses (example: Fire and Grass types with Psychics as a weakness [so poison tyes], then have a few Normals as well. That way, Grass can cover some of Fire's weaknesses, and Normals can cover the psychic weakness of the grass types. Electric can be used in place of Grass, but be careful of fighting types).

There's another type of deck I'm looking at testing, as it can fit into any element deck. Basically you take as many Imposter Professor Oaks as posible, and have a combination of Recycle, Nightly Garbage Run and Trash Exchanges. The idea is to force the opponent to run out of cards, thus allowing you to win through default. As Impostor Professor Oaks are used, Recycle brings them back. After running out of Recycles, Trash Exchange has a decent chance of bringing both of them back, while Nightly Garbage Run can pick up important pokemon cards that might have been sent to discard. With these cards, you can make it near impossible to ever run out of your deck, as well as being able to keep bringing back your heavy hitters, and force your opponent to run through their entire deck.

Posted by: nukke Aug 6 2009, 03:02 PM

Good luck testing on it, even though I don't think I would get it working - since after 3 of my ex's are down I lose anyway :/ The weakness of ex's I guess..

And that was my idea, to cover Arcanine's weakness with Dragonite ^__^ And see, I run the 3-2-3 line because I can allways search Dragonair from discard pile - so it's just to save some space

Anyway I got a better "idea", now that I spend some time looking at the cards - still with the same pokemon though.

3xGrowlithe (sandstorm)
3xArcanine ex (legend maker)

3xDratini
2xDragonair
3xDragonite ex d (dragon frontier)

2xMewtwo d (delta speices)
2xHo-oh (neo revelation)
=18 Pokemon

3xHolon Mentor (delta speices - discard a card from hand, then search 3 basic pokemon hp 100 or less)
4x Professor Elm's Training Method (search for evolution card from deck)
3xScott (search up to 3 supporter/stadium cards from deck)
3xTown Volunteers (search 5 basic/evolution pokemon and/or basic energy from discard pile)
2xBill (draw 6 cards)

3xWarp Point (opponet swithes pokemon, then you do)
3xEnergy Search (search for 1 basic energy)
1xImposter Professor Oak's Invention (neo destiny - look at opponet's prize cards - you may shuffle them into his deck and he takes new from top of deck)
1xImposter Oak's Revenge (Team Rocket - discard a card. then the opponet shuffles his hand to his deck and draws 4 cards)

2xLake Boundary (Majestic Dawn - both yours and opponet's pokemons' weakness are 2x)
2xPower Tree (legend maker - search basic energy from discard pile if it doesn't contain any special energys)
=27


10xFire Energy
5xGrass Energy
=15 Energy



The idea is to get Ho-oh to active as fast as possible. (He searches fire energies from deck 1 per turn)
Then search Mewtwo d and Growlithe + Arcanine ex as fast as possible (perhaps w/ Holon Mentor and Elm)
Then start collecting fire energys for Ho-oh. When he has enough (5ish), put Mewtwo from hand to bench to activate his pokepower
(switch as many energies from to pokemon to another as you wish) switch all fire energies from Ho-oh to Arcanine ex.
Then start looking for backup Arcanine ex (or Dragonite ex if he works better) and sweeping with Arcanine ex.
Or if the opponet is water, Dragonite shall take care of those.

Some good trainers to get the right pokemon up and get the used up energy cards back to deck for Ho-oh or to hand - depending on the need.

For stadiums, Lake Boundary to compensate new decks' lesser weaknesses
and Power tree, since I don't use any special energys (mostly to look for Grass Energys).


What do you guys think? I'm still unsure of the trainers, especially is there a better version of Energy search without it being a supporter? And are Imposter Oaks supporter or normal trainers? Bill is a supporter, right? And feel free to suggest any changes for better playing, this is merely a rough version.

Posted by: kingbirdy Nov 26 2009, 05:35 AM

I second this

EDIT: also, nukke, that deck isn't legal as you can only have one of each type of EX in each deck

Posted by: Jaken Nov 13 2010, 12:02 AM

I've always wanted to play pokemon. I used to play yugioh but just couldn't understand pokemon. i'm a bit older now and i would like to play pokemon but i don'y have a clue on how to start. Could anyone help me? I'm also wonder about which booster set i should pick from the oldest the newest the most popular the least popular what? ur help would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

Posted by: Mack and Genex Ally Remote Jan 27 2011, 09:50 PM

wut.
thats for Stars and Shinings, not EXs.

Posted by: Mack and Genex Ally Remote Feb 7 2011, 10:30 PM

also...use rare candies if you are planning to make a deck with 2-stage evo lines, and have a
4 basic
1-3 1st stage(Preference)
and
4 2nd stage.
(Called 4-2-4 if its 4 basic, 2 1st and 4 2nd, just for example.)
and it's good to have 12-21 energy per deck. You NEVER want more than pokemon unles it's REALLY demanding, like you have to discard for each attack.
Good luck!

Posted by: rileyup Jun 19 2011, 03:54 PM

my decks i made up the names:

grass vision:(unofficial)

2 energy retrival
1 energy search
1 holo energy swich
1 holo galactic porygon z
1 unown w
1 revive
1 cynthias feelings
1 herdier
2 treeko
1 seedot
2 cherubi
1 solosis
1 volbeat
1 joltik
7 phycic enerhy
1 meowth
1 cherrim
8 grass energy
1 holo ledyba
1 munna
1 potion
1 erikas eggzecute
1 swich
1 duosion
1 professer juniper
and 2 lillipup

and my fire deck is secret many of my cards are gifts from friends ,cards i got from a trades,and from prearranged booster packs i only buy a few booster packs a year

Posted by: Empoleon144 Jun 29 2011, 11:52 AM

Actually, my two cents are:
Start with a GOOD pre-made deck.
What makes it good, is having two types that balance each other (water + electric or water + fire or metal + dark)
Also if it has your favorite pokemon in it, it boosts confidence.

Then just booster packs, and Lv X boxes

Posted by: YellowHusky Jul 6 2011, 03:14 PM

Try to put in at least 4 more energy cards. I've ran out of energy cards and energy searchs when I've had 25+- energy cards in my deck.