[NXD-On] JRs Delay/Disrupt Deck Ideas

[TAndrewT]

(Inspired by a couple of recent posts by bulbasnore)

I have a couple of new, 7-year-old players at league that are excited to participate in the dense season of tourneys we have right now, but don't have the play skills to survive even 2-3 turns against our more experienced Juniors. They have been losing gracefully at league for the last month, and both went 0-3-drop at out most recent LC. Their parents aren't on-board with purchasing EX's as singles yet, so I'm trying to assemble decks for them from donated and relatively cheap cards. Rare-Candied Stage 2's are still a little tricky for them to play (I tried), so Blastoise/Emboar ideas are out for now.

Pokegym deckbuilders, do you have any suggestions of inexpensive cards or combos that would give my JRs some extra turns to set up and attach energy? One example of what I mean would be Noctowl PLF 92/Fliptini, where Noctowl's "Fly" attack prevents damage & effects from the opponent's next attack on flipping heads. (Yes, Escape Rope/Catcher/Red Signal gets around this, but JR opponents will be slower to line up these counters.) For example:

4-4 Noctowl PLF 92
2 Manaphy PLS 34
2 Suicune PLB 20
2 Victini LTR 23
1 Mr. Mime PLF 47 (maybe. kind of expensive now.)

3 Professor Juniper
4 Cheren
4 N (league promo, or a less expensive alternative)
2 Skyla (league promo or less expensive alternative)
4 Level Ball (or a less expensive alternative)
2 Ultra Ball
3 Giant Cape
2 Silver Bangle
2 Super Rod
1 Tool Scrapper
2 Aspertia City Gym
3 OPEN SLOTS

9 Water Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy

Manaphy recovers Water Energies from the discard on Victini-aided flips. Even opening solo Hoothoot (PLF 91) is not the end of the world, because it has a 1-colorless Dual Draw attack (though I guess it gives your opponent 2 cards in the bargain). I've also thought about configuring the deck with Lightning and the two in-format Manetrics for energy recovery/low-energy attacking, and/or with Delcatty for energy acceleration from the deck.

Can you guys suggest any partners for Noctowl (low-energy attackers? hand refreshers?)? Or alternatives to Noctowl that you think would be better suited to my inexperienced but eager JRs? And what should I do with those 3 open slots? Hammers? Lasers? Switches?

Any input is appreciated! Thanks in advance!

 

[TuxedoBlack]

Pokegym deckbuilders, do you have any suggestions of inexpensive cards or combos that would give my JRs some extra turns to set up and attach energy?

I've often used Call for Family basic Poké like Kangaskhan which is a 100 HP Colorless Poké whose CfF attack only requires C energy cost. There are a few other CfF Poké like Emolga (70 HP,L type), Genesect (100 HP,G type; but will only get G basic Poké), and Lapras (100 HP, W type). Starting with any of these CfF Poké can definitely help facilitate bench setup, as well as, provide some time to attach energy onto those benched Poké.

As a Poké Dad, huge advocate of the game, as well as a competitive player, I know how IMPORTANT it is for new Jr players to not get easily discouraged. I completely understand your situation too in trying to keep their spirits up while other players may not be necessarily contributing to your positive efforts...

If you'd like, I'd be happy to contribute some of the aforementioned cards I have to your league and new Jr players. Just PM your address to me.

Thanks for your efforts in promoting this great game and trying to grow new players!

 

[Kalyst]

A fun deck that is (relatively) easy to play and is pretty fun (at least I think it is) is a Ciccino/Munna deck. If you can find a way to get Virizion EX's it eases the deck a bit, but since you said its hard to get anything expensive like that, you can sub Munna's for other stuff. The list I ran splashed a Tropius and a Bouffalant and some Audino BCR. The deck does well in teaching games (though the Virizion is pretty intimidating) and its something I like to pack if I'm expecting alot of new players and I want to teach various mechanics of the game including evolution, abilities and status (Sleep and Poison) but with Virizion ex it makes it a wanna-be competitive deck haha!

A sample deck list you could start with would be something like-

Pokemon 15
4-4 Ciccino (Minccino CFF+ Smooth Coat shenanigans)
2 Tropius (Hand refresher attack + Energy Press thingy)
4 Audino BCR
1 Munna (Long Distance Hypnosis)

Supporters 13
3 Juniper
4 N
4 Cheren
2 Skyla

Traners 12
4 Level Ball
2 Ultra Ball
3 Eviolite
1 Tool Scrapper
2 Asperita City Gym

Energy 11
7 Grass Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy

[9 free slots]
These can be filled with Bouff (if there's some floating around), Switch, Escape Rope (again, if you can get ahold of them), Pokemon Catchers (Should be not as expensive to get now since the errata change?), Energy Search, Phione ( Discard pile recovery ), Lasers

Also if you have alot of spare Eeveelutions that people don't mind donating, a Plasma Eevee deck is pretty awesome to start on and they have some pretty sweet attackers that are nice for beginners. Plasma Espeon hand refreshes, Plasma Umbreon adds HP, Plasma Vaporeon helps heal Flareons and Leafeons might be a pain to get because Empire is a thing now but there is a Leafeon starter deck so they can always grab one or 2 of those and still have cards that are useable when they start wanting to play at a higher level. Since everything pretty much is a one costing energy attack and combined with using Eeevee that does Signs of Evolution (and having multiple targets) it's easy enough for beginners to pick up. You could toss in some other stuff, some DCE's for Flareon, possibly do a mix of basic water (for Vaporeon's attack and all the colorless energy requirements) and basic psychic ( for Plasma Espeon ). Hard to think of alot of stuff at nearly 2 in the morning, but if you need any assistance with building either of these two types of decks never hesitate to ask. I help run 2 leagues and alot of the jrs that go play at the fun league level, so I'm always trying to build league level friendly decks. Hope this helps!

 

[FunnyBear]

Tool Time is not that expensive to build either. Neither is that Darmaxitan, Gardevoir, Victini flipstrosity.

 

[shiny mewtwo]

the best(cheap)pokemon i can think of for setting up is delcatty from BCR, its gather energy attack does 30 damige and lets you search your deck for a energy and put it down on a pokemon(benched or active)

 

[louist200]

If you think they are up for it Accelgor would be great for em. Keldo is the only EX I play and it isn't even needed I will post a list later.