Help The "What Deck Should I Play?" Thread

Some posts have been moved to here as the conversation on Beedrill is better suited in its own thread discussing Beedrill's viability.
~ bbninjas
 
Hello fellow Pokemon fans,

I am a new TCG player. I have been playing PTCGO for quite a while. I am familiar with the rules of Pokemon TCG but in dire need of a deck. I have a lot of cards. I have a few EX's under my belt and have been searching for a deck to build. However the decks I have found are EX heavy and are generally good for returning players. I need help building a little to no EX deck. Any suggestions would be nice. Thank you

Vespiquen is a nice, fairly inexpensive deck in the Standard format that uses no EXs bare Shaymin-EX, but can hit quite hard and has reached top tables in major tournaments. You could also try Donphan or Night March in the Expanded format. You could also look around the Deck Garage for some decks created by the community.
 
Hi, I am new to poke beach. I am having trouble finding a standard deck to play for cities. I have around $50 to $70 and am open for suggestions. I enjoy playing any kind of deck. I have multiple copies of Giratina ex AOR and Raichu XY, I also have a full 3-3-3 bats line. I have all of the desired staples too. I am open to most suggestions.

-Thanks
 
LAst weekend my friend nearly made top eight (he was one win away) using a Raichu / Bats deck. What got him in the end, and the main reason I'm not a fan of Raichu / Bats in this format is that it does have consistency issues, can you can expect to dead draw every so often, and sometimes at the worst possible moment. This deck is better suited for a larger, best-of-three events like State and Regional championships.

That in mind, if you have Giratina already, you can probably pick up the essentials for the Giratina-EX / Tyrantrum-EX / Bronzong deck without too much trouble. The biggest question with any of thse is how many Shaymin-EX you have and/or are willing to obtain above and beyond what other cards you need. Shaymin-EX can easily go for $30 or more, and almsot every competitive deck requires at least two right now. If you can't increase your budget, then I'd spend the moeny you have on Shaymin-EX and go for a Raichu / Bats deck anyway, since you do have the core cards. If you already have Shaymin-EX, or are willing to spend the extra money, Tyrantrum-EX / Bronzong, Night March and Vespiqueen are well within your price range, and if you are a savvy shopper you can probably get everything you need for Yveltal-EX / Zoroark or Fighting/ Bats. That actually covers a sizable portion of the metagame right now. The only competitive Standard deck that requires a significantly investment at this time would be M-Manectric-EX variants. Shaymin-EX aside, most other Standard decks can be built on your budget.
 
LAst weekend my friend nearly made top eight (he was one win away) using a Raichu / Bats deck. What got him in the end, and the main reason I'm not a fan of Raichu / Bats in this format is that it does have consistency issues, can you can expect to dead draw every so often, and sometimes at the worst possible moment. This deck is better suited for a larger, best-of-three events like State and Regional championships.

That in mind, if you have Giratina already, you can probably pick up the essentials for the Giratina-EX / Tyrantrum-EX / Bronzong deck without too much trouble. The biggest question with any of thse is how many Shaymin-EX you have and/or are willing to obtain above and beyond what other cards you need. Shaymin-EX can easily go for $30 or more, and almsot every competitive deck requires at least two right now. If you can't increase your budget, then I'd spend the moeny you have on Shaymin-EX and go for a Raichu / Bats deck anyway, since you do have the core cards. If you already have Shaymin-EX, or are willing to spend the extra money, Tyrantrum-EX / Bronzong, Night March and Vespiqueen are well within your price range, and if you are a savvy shopper you can probably get everything you need for Yveltal-EX / Zoroark or Fighting/ Bats. That actually covers a sizable portion of the metagame right now. The only competitive Standard deck that requires a significantly investment at this time would be M-Manectric-EX variants. Shaymin-EX aside, most other Standard decks can be built on your budget.

Thanks so much for the help! I might be getting a Shymin or toads for christmas. Raichu/Bats sounds great! Giritina/Tyrantrum/Bronzong also sound like a great deck. I will get the essentials for Raicu/Bats at a league on saturday. Again, thanks so much for the help!
 
Fairy toolbox? XY Aromatisse and mega man are actually pretty good. Mega Ampharos rough seas? Primal Clash beedrill is good with forest of giant plants and free retreat. Also primal groudon and maxies work real well.

What goes in Fairy Toolbox these days, anyway? Also, Primal Groudon is aggressive, but too slow for the current format.
 
Hi. I am a long time MTG/Yugioh player looking for some advice on what decks to make for me and my brother. I have a little over $100 budget per deck and was looking to build some semi-competetive decks (that may need to be upgraded later to go to a tournament) more or less so I don't have to keep dropping money on starter decks that don't build into anything. I haven't played the Pokemon TCG in a long time, I made a Swoobat/Gardevoir mill deck that I played around with (no tournaments or anything) so I have a couple of Ns laying around, but most of my experience comes from the gameboy Pokemon TCG game.

Overall what I am looking for is 2 decks, at least one being easy to pilot (for my brother), and that have a fairly even matchup (so when we play together we don't stomp each other).

A little off topic for this part but if anyone can answer this it would be great, how do the formats work in Pokemon, how often do the rotations happen and such? What are considered the overall best decks and how much do they cost?

Sorry for all the questions, I keep having trouble finding information on the Pokemon TCG and I am relatively new to the game so I am not sure how different decks perform and have a lot of questions about it.
 
We have an upcoming cities. So I was wondering waht would be the Play! if my area is filled with mostly yveltal/zoroark/gallade, M-mewtwo X, some Manectric/Bats, Mega man variant and Bronzong dragons. And few colorless ray and lucario bats.

Thanks in advance :)
 
The above post originally a thread in the Competitive Play forum has been moved to the "What Deck Should I Play?" Thread in the TCG Help & Advice as the member is asking for help on choosing a deck. ~bbninjas
 
I want a competetive deck that's fast paced. I currently play KyuremEX+Lapras. I like quick KO's with a little disruption. My current choices are...

GengarEX+TrevenantXY+(Maybe) Bats
Raichu+Vespiquen (Or any other Raichu variant or a Vespiquen variant)
Wobbufet+Bats
Beautifly+Shiftry(FLF)+Miltank

Some things to note...
I'm open to other deck ideas
My budget is $75 with a little headroom
I don't like M Manectric, M Ray, or Toad
I do like Psychic and Grass types
I will NOT run more than 2 Shaymin EX's
Skeleton Lists would help greatly but I can build decks fairly well
 
Which deck should have a high energy count? or a pokemon that count on you having alot of energy on your side? An energy based deck..aka like virizion EX, trevanaut EX, Camerupt EX Houndoom EX, Keldeo EX Yvetla EX, Mewtwo EX ,my girlfriend makes deck with alot of energy in them 10-15 sometimes more. and she does them well, I like them. its different , than the high count of trainers.
 
Which deck should have a high energy count? or a pokemon that count on you having alot of energy on your side? An energy based deck..aka like virizion EX, trevanaut EX, Camerupt EX Houndoom EX, Keldeo EX Yvetla EX, Mewtwo EX ,my girlfriend makes deck with alot of energy in them 10-15 sometimes more. and she does them well, I like them. its different , than the high count of trainers.
So... What's your question?
 
Which deck should have a high energy count? or a pokemon that count on you having alot of energy on your side? An energy based deck..aka like virizion EX, trevanaut EX, Camerupt EX Houndoom EX, Keldeo EX Yvetla EX, Mewtwo EX ,my girlfriend makes deck with alot of energy in them 10-15 sometimes more. and she does them well, I like them. its different , than the high count of trainers.
M-Gardevoir decks and many Fairy decks like high energy counts, as well as Blastoise, Mewtwo-EX, Camerupt-EX and Yveltal-EX variants. I think you're more saying that you'd just like to make decks have more energy for the sake of having more energy, however this has been proven through many tournaments that 7 to 12 energy is best, using the remaining space for trainers that will make your deck more consistent.
 
I am trying to find a competitive deck for my son following standard format. He started out on theme decks then I bumped him up to landy bats deck which he plays very well. My issue is that the current competitive decks might be a little over his head since the landy deck is fairly simple compared to something like mega man or yveltal ex decks. I have been leaning toward a night march since there doesn't seem to be many 1 energy decks doing to well in standard format. Maybe I have missed something but some suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm trying to keep him in the same play style as landy bats.
 
I am trying to find a competitive deck for my son following standard format. He started out on theme decks then I bumped him up to landy bats deck which he plays very well. My issue is that the current competitive decks might be a little over his head since the landy deck is fairly simple compared to something like mega man or yveltal ex decks. I have been leaning toward a night march since there doesn't seem to be many 1 energy decks doing to well in standard format. Maybe I have missed something but some suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm trying to keep him in the same play style as landy bats.

You may like try out Donphan. Although Yveltal has risen (again) and is one of Donphan's poorer matchups, it could be a nice deck for your son to try out, being a defensive deck but somewhat aggressive, and is a one energy deck.
 
You may like try out Donphan. Although Yveltal has risen (again) and is one of Donphan's poorer matchups, it could be a nice deck for your son to try out, being a defensive deck but somewhat aggressive, and is a one energy deck.
Donphan would be a good choice for extended, but I am looking for a standard format deck. Thanks for the input though I hadn't thought about a donphan deck for extended.
 
So States is coming up and I have no idea what to play! It is haunting me. Like what I want to play. Haunter. Here is what I want to play. (Including Haunter)

Regice/Bunnelby
Yveltal/Gallade/Zoroark
Tyrantrum/Giratina
Seismitoad/Haunter
Regice/Haunter/Bunnelby
Mewtwo/Bronzong
Vespiquen/Friends
NightMarch/Milotic

Note that this is a standard list. Please help!
 
Donphan would be a good choice for extended, but I am looking for a standard format deck. Thanks for the input though I hadn't thought about a donphan deck for extended.

You could try a Mewtwo deck or some other Psychic deck (Wobbuffet and friends perhaps) with Dimension Valley, but I'm not too sure what similar Standard decks there are.
 
I am trying to find a competitive deck for my son following standard format. He started out on theme decks then I bumped him up to landy bats deck which he plays very well. My issue is that the current competitive decks might be a little over his head since the landy deck is fairly simple compared to something like mega man or yveltal ex decks. I have been leaning toward a night march since there doesn't seem to be many 1 energy decks doing to well in standard format. Maybe I have missed something but some suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm trying to keep him in the same play style as landy bats.
I have never played Land Bats but maybe try Raichu Bats. It seems to be a simple deck that can hit hard. It also has a relevant type due to so many electric-weak Pokemon like Lugia, Yveltal, M Ray. And it uses bats which he's obviously had experience with! Another simple deck would be Gengar Trevenant. Those are my suggestions but I'm not exactly sure of the play style you want.
 
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