Hey all,
I played Pokemon for about two years from 2004 to 2005, and i recently found my old collection and thought it'd be cool to see how the game's progressed. To my joy, I found it's still going as strong as ever, and I'm seriously considering getting back into competitive play. I would really appreciate some knowledge about what kinds of decks are out there and being used at the moment (Deck Lists would be very helpful) as well as just an idea of some of the key cards in the game (in my day, they were Dunsparce, FRLG Pigeot, and Rare Candy) Thanks!
Ignore Lucario...that sounds like the sour grapes are a talkin'. ;/
I remember those days. Good days to be in the game. As for the current format and game state, now isn't a bad time to get back in, the format is actually getting better. Right now game is revolving around pokemon called SP's - there's different variants like Luxray GL/Garchomp C, Blaziken FB/Garchomp C, Dialga G/Garchomp C, and Sableye (Stormfront)/Garchomp C. I think you can see the pattern here - Garchomp C/Garchomp LV. X C are key cards. I know the gym has a front page article about Luxray GL/Garchomp C that didn't look bad, and it'll actually be helpful for a Blaziken FB/Garchomp C type build as well.
The main cards you want to look for, trainer wise, would be Cyrus's Conspiracy, Poke Turn, Energy Gain, Power Spray, SP Radar, Aaron's Collection, Pokemon Collector, and Bebe's Search. A lot to take in, I realize, but a bulk of these cards can be found in Platinum, while Aaron's and Bebe's can be found in Rising Rivals. Pokemon Collector can be found in HeartGold/SoulSilver (HGSS has other useful trainers as well, over all solid set for the supporters and trainers it has in it). But, all these trainers and supporters are very key cards for SP's.
Or, there's also other decks that you can look at playing if those should be hard to obtain - which are more anti-SP type decks. Machamp variants (Machamp from Stormfront) aren't bad, and Machamp is good against the rampant SP variants, as Machamp can knock out basic pokemon in one shot. There's also Gengar (Stormfront)/Vileplume (Undaunted), which focuses on locking trainers and doing huge damage from these trainers building up in the opponents hand with Gengar's Poltergeist. Key cards for these types of decks include Broken Time Space, a stadium that breaks the evolve rule and allows one to evolve without having to wait a turn (Like playing a Machop straight from your hand - if you have Machoke and Machamp, and Broken Time Space in play, then you can evolve right into Machamp). Rare Candy is also vital for Machamp variants. Spiritomb is vital for Gengar/Vileplume.
For more help, you can go on Youtube and look up videos from Jwittz. He analyzes decks, gives skeletons of decks, and, I think his videos would help you greatly for getting back into the game. Hope this helps!
