Okay, this might be long, so i won’t be spellchecking everything and there might be a few errors, but please try and read it for your own good :3.
What I’m seeing here is that you get the basics of the game, just not how to play properly. Maybe you used to play the pre ex (lowercase) era, or jumped from another game like Magic, and try to apply the same basis here.
What you must get is that while Pokémon offers a wide gamma of either weak or powerful attacks, the main goal in your deck is for it to have synergy with any other card. It isn’t about having the strongest card or playing your Stage 2 Pokémon first.
What do I mean with synergy?. Every single card must work on the sake of your next card. Clear examples are CMT (Celebii, Mewtwo EX, Tornadus), ZekEels (Zekrom/Zekrom EX, Eelektrik), where the energy acceleration is the basis of synergy. There’s Energy Spread with decks like Reshiphlosion (Typhlosion Prime, Reshiram/ReshiramEX) and Reshiboar (Inferno Fandango Emboar, Reshiram/Reshiram EX). There are also other kinds of synergy, such as Mew Prime decks which “See Off” Jumpluffs, TM Muks and Crobat Primes (rarely seen later). And a more clear example: VVV, which uses Victini’s Victory Star along with NV Vanilluxe’s Frost Breath to paralyze while Vileplume locks the trainers. The list could go on and on, but having synergy has proved to be effective on both casual and competitive levels.
Why am I explaining this? Because your deck lacks any Synergy. Having so many shaymin only makes you draw it when you don’t want it, and there’s no way to prevent your opponent charging faster than you. X_empoleon_X kindly made you a deck which has a synergy, using Ferraligatr’s Prime Raindance to charge your Pokémon while spreading with Kyurem while you charge Kyurem EX. If it was me I would add 2-1-2 of Vannilluxe ND to Switch between Kyurem and Kyurem EX, abusing Hail Blizzard and having no problem on your opponent switching because of Kyurem’s Spread. This is a deck with Synergy.
Now, going back to my first point about Pokémon being different to other card games, you might notice how everyone keeps telling you to drop a lot of cards in exchange of trainers This is because in Pokémon, whoever sets up faster, wins. There is no other way around except you’re extremely lucky. That’s where Rare Candies go. To help you set up your Vanilluxes and Feraligatrs faster. One of the most important things in Pokémon TCG right now is to ALWAYS (and I mean ALWAYS) refresh your hand. This is why everyone was telling you to drop so much energy. I bet a lot of your plays had the situation of you needing a certain card, (let’s say a :water: energy), only to end up drawing a Croconaw, passing and losing the game. The idea here is to always refresh your hand, especially during the first turns. Cards such as “N”, “Professor Juniper”, “PONT, “Cheren” and Cleffa are always really useful. PokeGear 3.0 will also help you get those supporters.
Why Refresh? So you get more cards to play. Let’s put this situation:
Game Starts, you go first. You draw 2 :water: Energies, a Kyurem, A Vanillite, a Cleffa, a Feraligatr and a Cheren.
The obvious choice here would be to play Cleffa as active. You put down the Kyurem and Vanillite on the bench, play Cheren and draw another :water: Energy, a Rare Candy and a Totodile. Using Cleffa’s Free Retreat you put it down and select Kyurem as your active. Attach and energy to Kyurem and Pass. Let’s say your opponent’s got an active Mewtwo EX, he attaches a double Colorless energy and does X-Ball for 60. So it’s your turn again and draw a Pokegear. You play Rare Candy to evolve your Totodile into Feraligatr. Use it’s Rain Dance Ability (Put as many :water: energies as you want during your turn to your :water: Pokémon) You attach both energies to Kyurem and start Spreading (Or Outrage for 80, your choice). You’ll get killed next turn, so you’ll need something to counter this, otherwise you woud just lose, drawing a card per turn, watching Mewtwo KO all your Pokémon.
In this case, you MUST have Cleffa, PONT, Juniper or N to refresh your hand. Why? To get another Kyurem, More Energies (Cilan or Fisherman) and not lose. And if you notice on the previous example you were pretty lucky drawing that Totodile, otherwise Mewtwo EX would have destroyed you in even less turns. That’s why we needed Cleffa’s Eeeeeek, or, at the lack of a Supporter, use Pokegear to get one and get a Kyurem and energies.
What I’m trying to get here is that you must ALWAYS refresh your hand to be able withstand whatever your opponent is preparing against you. Remember that in the current format, whoever sets up first, wins (which could be also the reason why Luxray keeps beating you, being one of the fastest, most annoying Pokémon ever).
Sorry for being repetitive, but I hope you get my point.
So, now that you understand why the “If I don’t put X cards, I’ll not be able to draw them” excuse is out of the equation, I hope you’re getting a little more used to how the Metagame works now.
I’ll try to improve Empoleon’s list a bit, so you can get some easy cards and improve your deck.
3-2-3 Feraligatr Prime
3 Kyurem (Noble Victories)
2 Kyurem EX
1 Manaphy (Unleashed)
2-1-2 Vanilluxe (Next Destinies)
1 Cleffa (HGSS/Call of Legends)
3 Prof Oak's New Theory
3 Rare Candy
2 Cilan (Searches your deck for 3 basic energy cards)
2 N
3 Cheren
1 Fisherman
2 Heavy Ball (for Kyurem EX, Feraligatr Prime
2 Pokemon Communication
3 Pokémon Reversal (try and switch them for Catchers)
3 PlusPower
2 Pokegear 3.0
2 Xtransceiver
2 Professor Juniper
11 Water Energy
2 Double Colorless Energy
I hope this little guide helped you to understand a bit how Pokémon works on the current format. The deck I made isn’t the best deck around, but it’s one that will work fine and isn’t hard to build with the cards you already have.
And let me be the first one to welcome you to the world of Pokémon ;D.
EDIT:
No, you don't need Bills, they were just messing with you. Hope the "guide" worked for you. If you've got any other question feel free to ask here of via PM, i'll be glad to help. We were all first timers at least once