Otaku
Active Member
Okay, to start things off, this deck is for play in my current local environment, which is basically Unlimited plus the Nintendo cards under the Nintendo rules. Second, the deck was originally designed for use in (WotC's) Unlimited environment but was made in the Spring of 2001 when the only useful Neo Genesis Rares I had were Darkness energies. The reson I say this is becuase many people may think this is a bizarre Baby-porter deck... which to some extent it is.
Hit and Run v4.0
Pokemon x 20
Abra Lv14 x 3 (TR)
Cleffa Lv6 x 3 (N1)
Dark Alakazam Lv30 x 3 (TR)
Dark Kadabra Lv24x 2 (TR)
Dodrio x 2 (Jungle/LC)
Doduo Lv10 x 3 (Base/2/LC)
Tyrogue x 2 (N2)
Wobbuffet x 2 (E3)
Trainers x 22
Chaos Gym x 3 (GC)
Computer Search x 3 (Base/2)
Focus Band x 3 (N1)
Gust of Wind x 2 (Base/2)
Item Finder x 3 (Base/2)
Pokemon Breeder x 1 (Base/2/LC)
Professor Oak x 2 (Base/2)
Professor Oak's Research x 1 (E1)
Super Energy Removal x 2 (Base/2)
Town Volunteers x 1 (E2)
Trash Exchange x 1 (GC)
Energy x 18
Darkness Energy x 4
Double Colorless Energy x 1
Psychic Energy x 10
Recycle Energy x 2
Warp Energy x 1
Strategy
I'll start with the deck Focus: Dark Alakazam. His first attack, Teleport Blast, is central to the deck. For PPC it hits for 30 damage and gives you the option of switching DA with a benched Pokemon. With Darkness, this attack gets pretty good. With the new Darkness rules, this attack becomes just shy of broken. Costwise, it's fair, perhaps even a bit over-priced as this is a Stage Two Psychic Type with only 60 HP, weak lower stages, Weakness to Psychics (not the worst), no Resistance, and a retreat of 3. Not taking that into account, it would be fair: PP generally yields 30 damage, and C seems to be a fair cost for optional benching (maybe a tad under), but its stats are poor to pathetic and the second attack (coming up in a few more sentences) is also just "fair" at best, this looks to be a Pokemon for the shoe box. That is, until you remember it's a Dark Alakazam. Even in the old days, those Darkness Energies helped. Under the new rules, they put the attack over the top. Now you can Teleport Blast, and if you have any Darkness Energies, you can still hit Resistant Pokemon (under normal circumstances), due to the change in effect order. For those who don't know, before things like the effects of Darkness Energy were applied after the effcts of Weakness and Resistance. Since an attak has do damage, an attack that only did 10-30 damage before Resistance wouldn't get the Dark Damage bonus. Now though, the Dark Bonus is applied before Resistance, so it does go through. This is even better against Weakness, sicne you essentially get +20 damage per Darkness Energy. This has greatly helped, since the only other alternative was Alakazam's second attack, Mind Shock. It did 40 for PPP, but ignored Weakness and Resistance. That's a bit over priced-you are losing a potential 5 damage as PPP=45, and the extra effect should really pay for itself as it is not optional and you lose a great benefit to rid yourself of a great disadvantage. Anyway, now you can save this move for a coup de grace on any Pokemon that Teleport Blast won't KO and that will nab you the game. Otherwise, you leave Dark Alakzam open, silly. Backtracking a bit: two other new rules that help DA out are a)the new Confusion rules and b)the new retreat rules. Before, COnfsion was a death sentence, possibly stranding you in the active slot and causing you 40 damage on a failed attack. Under said new rules, the attack merely places 3 counters (ever little bit helps), and can be retreated out of sans flip.
Let us now examine the lower stages. Dark Kadabra suffers abyssmal stats for a Stage 1: 50 HP, Psychic Weakness, no Resistance, and a retreat of 2. It's attack is a bit better: it also possesses a Mind Shock, but for only PP that does 30 damage, again, ignoring only Weakness and Resistance. As stated earlier, 30 damage for two Psychic Energies is more or less fair, and the "effect" has fairly equal positive and negative aspects, so this time the attack is fair... on its own. For a Stage 1 with such poor stats, one would hope for more from this attack, or expect the card's other abilites to be better. For those who don't know, I propose that an evolution card should be better than an lower stage would be for the same "costs", barring Basics that can evolve from Baby Pokemon. The reason for this is that it takes more effort to get them into play, so in order to make them competitive, they need breaks that a Basic does not get. Since most basics can have any stat an Evolution has, this usually entails potent Pokemon Powers or attacks. With that out of the way, we look at what could be Dark Kadabra's saving grace: it's Pokemon Power. Matter Exchange, as it is called, allows your to discard a card from your hand to draw a card. It is usuable oncer per turn per Pokemon in play with the ability. Again, the power, while not bad, isn't that great. So, why use it? Because it's anti-Trainer Disruption. If someone shuts off or otherwise messes with Trainers, this is a bit of extra draw power and possibly the onlyw ay to evolve. Last up for our main hitter is the Abra from the Team Rocket sets. Porbably tied for best Abra, at least in my book. It has the most HP we've seen for a normal Abra: 40. It's Weakness, like the others, is no longer as bad as before, and in someways is an advantage: how many good offensive Psychics are their in Unlimited? Probably less than a dozen. Now how many are good basics? Four: Jungle Mr. Mime, Movie Promo Mewtwo, Mewtwo ex, and Rocket's Mewtwo. Retreat of one seems high, given the low 40 HP, but is still second best in the game. Psyshock (P, 10 damage with a flip for Paralysis is a nice, early stalling attack, and Vanish makes this thing harder to KO.
For the 5 people still reading this, I promise the rest will be much more concise. Cleffa is for draw power and Tyrogue is for an early attacker/Fighting splash. They can also double as "Trading partners" for DA if need be. I prefer using my intended Defense of Dodrio and Wobbuffet. Retreat Aid is mainly for emergencies, as I don't ahve enough Dodrios to make everything a free retreater, and don't expect to have both of them too often. Rage makes a nice incentive to not attack, as with the single DCE I TecHed in, a Recycle clad Dodrio can Rage at a moment's notice (for the record, I don't have a Boost but might try one in the deck should I get one). No one else really needed Dodrio, and it just a potential Cleaner anyway. Wobbuffet's Mirror Coat helps against Posioner and Burners, though I don't know if if multi-counter poisons trigger it, and if they do, if they do just normal poison or match the count. Return Attack let's me use it as a Cleaner as well, though it's Retreat of 2 is one reason why I need Dodrio. Both ahve a solid 70 HP. Not as much as I'd like, but most of the alternatives I can find are worse choices. The Trainers are failry standard, except one: Chaos Gym. For those unfamiliar with it, it basically says that when somebody plays a Trainer other than a Stadium that is not put into play, that person flips a coin. Heads, it works as normal. Tails, the Trainer is essentially negated and sent to the discard pile and the opposing player may elect to utilize the Trainers effects should they be able to pay for it. Costs to play are always paid before the flip, so Computer Search, Item Fidner, and Super Energy Removal are quite risky. I basically have a fairly standard Trainer Engine just in smaller amounts. The energy should be self explanitory, but if you have questions, ask.
I will try to clarify some things later and let you know the results of a tournament I participated in with this deck yesterday (for fear of bias).
Hit and Run v4.0
Pokemon x 20
Abra Lv14 x 3 (TR)
Cleffa Lv6 x 3 (N1)
Dark Alakazam Lv30 x 3 (TR)
Dark Kadabra Lv24x 2 (TR)
Dodrio x 2 (Jungle/LC)
Doduo Lv10 x 3 (Base/2/LC)
Tyrogue x 2 (N2)
Wobbuffet x 2 (E3)
Trainers x 22
Chaos Gym x 3 (GC)
Computer Search x 3 (Base/2)
Focus Band x 3 (N1)
Gust of Wind x 2 (Base/2)
Item Finder x 3 (Base/2)
Pokemon Breeder x 1 (Base/2/LC)
Professor Oak x 2 (Base/2)
Professor Oak's Research x 1 (E1)
Super Energy Removal x 2 (Base/2)
Town Volunteers x 1 (E2)
Trash Exchange x 1 (GC)
Energy x 18
Darkness Energy x 4
Double Colorless Energy x 1
Psychic Energy x 10
Recycle Energy x 2
Warp Energy x 1
Strategy
I'll start with the deck Focus: Dark Alakazam. His first attack, Teleport Blast, is central to the deck. For PPC it hits for 30 damage and gives you the option of switching DA with a benched Pokemon. With Darkness, this attack gets pretty good. With the new Darkness rules, this attack becomes just shy of broken. Costwise, it's fair, perhaps even a bit over-priced as this is a Stage Two Psychic Type with only 60 HP, weak lower stages, Weakness to Psychics (not the worst), no Resistance, and a retreat of 3. Not taking that into account, it would be fair: PP generally yields 30 damage, and C seems to be a fair cost for optional benching (maybe a tad under), but its stats are poor to pathetic and the second attack (coming up in a few more sentences) is also just "fair" at best, this looks to be a Pokemon for the shoe box. That is, until you remember it's a Dark Alakazam. Even in the old days, those Darkness Energies helped. Under the new rules, they put the attack over the top. Now you can Teleport Blast, and if you have any Darkness Energies, you can still hit Resistant Pokemon (under normal circumstances), due to the change in effect order. For those who don't know, before things like the effects of Darkness Energy were applied after the effcts of Weakness and Resistance. Since an attak has do damage, an attack that only did 10-30 damage before Resistance wouldn't get the Dark Damage bonus. Now though, the Dark Bonus is applied before Resistance, so it does go through. This is even better against Weakness, sicne you essentially get +20 damage per Darkness Energy. This has greatly helped, since the only other alternative was Alakazam's second attack, Mind Shock. It did 40 for PPP, but ignored Weakness and Resistance. That's a bit over priced-you are losing a potential 5 damage as PPP=45, and the extra effect should really pay for itself as it is not optional and you lose a great benefit to rid yourself of a great disadvantage. Anyway, now you can save this move for a coup de grace on any Pokemon that Teleport Blast won't KO and that will nab you the game. Otherwise, you leave Dark Alakzam open, silly. Backtracking a bit: two other new rules that help DA out are a)the new Confusion rules and b)the new retreat rules. Before, COnfsion was a death sentence, possibly stranding you in the active slot and causing you 40 damage on a failed attack. Under said new rules, the attack merely places 3 counters (ever little bit helps), and can be retreated out of sans flip.
Let us now examine the lower stages. Dark Kadabra suffers abyssmal stats for a Stage 1: 50 HP, Psychic Weakness, no Resistance, and a retreat of 2. It's attack is a bit better: it also possesses a Mind Shock, but for only PP that does 30 damage, again, ignoring only Weakness and Resistance. As stated earlier, 30 damage for two Psychic Energies is more or less fair, and the "effect" has fairly equal positive and negative aspects, so this time the attack is fair... on its own. For a Stage 1 with such poor stats, one would hope for more from this attack, or expect the card's other abilites to be better. For those who don't know, I propose that an evolution card should be better than an lower stage would be for the same "costs", barring Basics that can evolve from Baby Pokemon. The reason for this is that it takes more effort to get them into play, so in order to make them competitive, they need breaks that a Basic does not get. Since most basics can have any stat an Evolution has, this usually entails potent Pokemon Powers or attacks. With that out of the way, we look at what could be Dark Kadabra's saving grace: it's Pokemon Power. Matter Exchange, as it is called, allows your to discard a card from your hand to draw a card. It is usuable oncer per turn per Pokemon in play with the ability. Again, the power, while not bad, isn't that great. So, why use it? Because it's anti-Trainer Disruption. If someone shuts off or otherwise messes with Trainers, this is a bit of extra draw power and possibly the onlyw ay to evolve. Last up for our main hitter is the Abra from the Team Rocket sets. Porbably tied for best Abra, at least in my book. It has the most HP we've seen for a normal Abra: 40. It's Weakness, like the others, is no longer as bad as before, and in someways is an advantage: how many good offensive Psychics are their in Unlimited? Probably less than a dozen. Now how many are good basics? Four: Jungle Mr. Mime, Movie Promo Mewtwo, Mewtwo ex, and Rocket's Mewtwo. Retreat of one seems high, given the low 40 HP, but is still second best in the game. Psyshock (P, 10 damage with a flip for Paralysis is a nice, early stalling attack, and Vanish makes this thing harder to KO.
For the 5 people still reading this, I promise the rest will be much more concise. Cleffa is for draw power and Tyrogue is for an early attacker/Fighting splash. They can also double as "Trading partners" for DA if need be. I prefer using my intended Defense of Dodrio and Wobbuffet. Retreat Aid is mainly for emergencies, as I don't ahve enough Dodrios to make everything a free retreater, and don't expect to have both of them too often. Rage makes a nice incentive to not attack, as with the single DCE I TecHed in, a Recycle clad Dodrio can Rage at a moment's notice (for the record, I don't have a Boost but might try one in the deck should I get one). No one else really needed Dodrio, and it just a potential Cleaner anyway. Wobbuffet's Mirror Coat helps against Posioner and Burners, though I don't know if if multi-counter poisons trigger it, and if they do, if they do just normal poison or match the count. Return Attack let's me use it as a Cleaner as well, though it's Retreat of 2 is one reason why I need Dodrio. Both ahve a solid 70 HP. Not as much as I'd like, but most of the alternatives I can find are worse choices. The Trainers are failry standard, except one: Chaos Gym. For those unfamiliar with it, it basically says that when somebody plays a Trainer other than a Stadium that is not put into play, that person flips a coin. Heads, it works as normal. Tails, the Trainer is essentially negated and sent to the discard pile and the opposing player may elect to utilize the Trainers effects should they be able to pay for it. Costs to play are always paid before the flip, so Computer Search, Item Fidner, and Super Energy Removal are quite risky. I basically have a fairly standard Trainer Engine just in smaller amounts. The energy should be self explanitory, but if you have questions, ask.
I will try to clarify some things later and let you know the results of a tournament I participated in with this deck yesterday (for fear of bias).
