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Expanded Deckbuilding Help and Advice on Fire Deck

Terben

Aspiring Trainer
Member
So I just recently started collecting cards again and I decided I'd start playing the TCG. I had a deck made for me and I went and played it at my local shop in a tournament. Obviously I lost because it was my first time playing it, but I decided to make some changes and add a few ex's and an ace spec card. I will put the card list at the end of the thread and please feel free to make any suggestions/ opinions on it to help it be better. Anyways, I don't fully understand how to make decks myself so could someone explain deck making or good cards for a water, electric and grass deck? I have seen things like "Talonflame deck" and things like that but I have no idea what those are either so if someone could explain that too that'd be awesome :) Thanks



Fire Deck:
Pokemon

Ponyta x3
Rapidash x3
Vulpix x2
Magmar x3
Magmortar x2
Fennekin x2
Braixen x1
Delphox x1
Moltres (Regular Rare) x1
Litleo x2
Pyroar x2
Victini EX x1
Charizard EX (Promo) x2
Mega Charizard Y (FA) x1
========================
Trainers

Energy Retrieval x3
Cilan x1
Battle Compressor x1
Healing Scarf x1
Potion x3
Professor's Letter x4
Victory Piece (ACE SPEC) x1
=========================
Energy

Fire Energy x19
Burning Energy x1
 

Alphahitman4

Quad Sylveon Master
Member
Wish you luck on making the deck.First off Id suggest cutting monster down to 12-15. Need more Trainers especially N, prof sycamores. You have more energies than you would need as well and playing only one burning energy does not seem useful. Also not sure which format you are going for, if standard than Victory piece and Victini EX are not playable and if you are going expanded and were looking for energy accelleration Id say you would want more than just the 1.
For start id add 3 Prof Sycamore, 2 N and 4 trainer mail. Id also play 4 max elixer, other than that as far as format goes I dont know which way to go at the moment without knowing that.
 

Terben

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Wish you luck on making the deck.First off Id suggest cutting monster down to 12-15. Need more Trainers especially N, prof sycamores. You have more energies than you would need as well and playing only one burning energy does not seem useful. Also not sure which format you are going for, if standard than Victory piece and Victini EX are not playable and if you are going expanded and were looking for energy accelleration Id say you would want more than just the 1.
For start id add 3 Prof Sycamore, 2 N and 4 trainer mail. Id also play 4 max elixer, other than that as far as format goes I dont know which way to go at the moment without knowing that.
Well like I said I just started playing the tcg so I don't know too much about whatever a "format" is for a deck. If you could maybe give me more of a detailed explanation that'd be great. But I do understand I need less pokemon and more trainers. What pokemon do you suggest I cut out and how many for each new trainer, burning energy?
 

TheGuardian118

Aspiring Trainer
Member
There are two popular formats officially recognized by Pokémon for tournaments, Standard and Expanded. Rotation typically occurs around September, and removes a few sets from Standard. To my knowledge, Expanded has not dropped any sets since it's creation, but that could change in the future or I could be wrong. (I only play standard for now)

Here is the link for the official information about the current formats if you're interested: http://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-news/pokemon-tcg-format-rotation-for-2017/

Standard uses cards from sets Primal Clash (PLC) to the current one, which is Evolutions (EVO). Promo cards XY36 and higher are also legal for standard. Expanded is everything from all Black and White to current sets, and all BW and XY promo cards, with the exception of two banned cards. (Lysandre's trump card, and a Shiftry from Next Destinies)

If you're playing expanded, which your current list is since you have some expanded cards, then I recommend adding in Muscle Band, Ultra Ball, Blacksmith, N, Professor Sycamore, and VS Seeker. Possibly add Double Colorless Energy (DCE), depending which Pokémon you keep. Consider adding another Battle compressor or two. Drop 2 or 3 of the Professor's letter. Also, focus the Pokémon you want a little more. If you want to convert it to Standard let us know and we can post some recommendations specific to Standard format. Burning Energy is only needed if you have Pokémon that specifically benefit from it. Many would be better off with DCE.

Charizard EX, which you have two, of can attack very quickly if you get the combo off. (Assuming it's the Combustion Blast one that takes 2 fire and 2 colorless for 150 damage, there's a few different promo Charizards) The combo is Battle compressor two fire energies and a blacksmith if you don't have it in hand. Play your DCE as your attachment for turn, then play blacksmith or VS seeker for the discarded one to attach the two fire energies and BOOM you have a fully powered up Charizard EX ready to do 150 damage. Add in a muscle band to make it 170, or on the next turn use a Spirit Link and Mega Evolve. (Not sure which mega you have)

Also, when listing your Pokémon it's more useful to also list the set it's from instead of if it's full art or regular rare. Many Pokémon have multiple prints. Charizard EX is a good example again, he has several Promo cards in the XY set alone, and his Mega has been printed in a couple different sets. Flashfire and Evolutions come to mind, both of which had full art printings for the Mega's.

Here's an example of how to list out the Charizards and Mega's that are Promo, Flashfire (FLF), Generations (GEN), or Evolutions (EVO). (Not listing all prints to save space, just one from each set. Promo's are either XY## or BW##. The numbers and set icon are in the lower right of each card. Some people format it a little differently, but putting it like this will let us know which sets you're working with.

M Charizard EX FLF108
Charizard EX XY29
Charizard EX GEN11
M Charizard EX EVO13

As far as if you should be playing Standard or Expanded, it depends what you want and what's available in your area. Around me, all the local tournaments are standard. At my local league I could play either as there's a few people that have Expanded decks, but everyone has Standard decks so to simplify things I don't run Expanded just yet. If you're unsure which format your shop uses just ask your tournament organizer or the person running your league. Some places even play "Unlimited" which is ANY card from any set. That's not usually an official tournament, but some places do it just for fun.
 

Terben

Aspiring Trainer
Member
There are two popular formats officially recognized by Pokémon for tournaments, Standard and Expanded. Rotation typically occurs around September, and removes a few sets from Standard. To my knowledge, Expanded has not dropped any sets since it's creation, but that could change in the future or I could be wrong. (I only play standard for now)

Here is the link for the official information about the current formats if you're interested: http://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-news/pokemon-tcg-format-rotation-for-2017/

Standard uses cards from sets Primal Clash (PLC) to the current one, which is Evolutions (EVO). Promo cards XY36 and higher are also legal for standard. Expanded is everything from all Black and White to current sets, and all BW and XY promo cards, with the exception of two banned cards. (Lysandre's trump card, and a Shiftry from Next Destinies)

If you're playing expanded, which your current list is since you have some expanded cards, then I recommend adding in Muscle Band, Ultra Ball, Blacksmith, N, Professor Sycamore, and VS Seeker. Possibly add Double Colorless Energy (DCE), depending which Pokémon you keep. Consider adding another Battle compressor or two. Drop 2 or 3 of the Professor's letter. Also, focus the Pokémon you want a little more. If you want to convert it to Standard let us know and we can post some recommendations specific to Standard format. Burning Energy is only needed if you have Pokémon that specifically benefit from it. Many would be better off with DCE.

Charizard EX, which you have two, of can attack very quickly if you get the combo off. (Assuming it's the Combustion Blast one that takes 2 fire and 2 colorless for 150 damage, there's a few different promo Charizards) The combo is Battle compressor two fire energies and a blacksmith if you don't have it in hand. Play your DCE as your attachment for turn, then play blacksmith or VS seeker for the discarded one to attach the two fire energies and BOOM you have a fully powered up Charizard EX ready to do 150 damage. Add in a muscle band to make it 170, or on the next turn use a Spirit Link and Mega Evolve. (Not sure which mega you have)

Also, when listing your Pokémon it's more useful to also list the set it's from instead of if it's full art or regular rare. Many Pokémon have multiple prints. Charizard EX is a good example again, he has several Promo cards in the XY set alone, and his Mega has been printed in a couple different sets. Flashfire and Evolutions come to mind, both of which had full art printings for the Mega's.

Here's an example of how to list out the Charizards and Mega's that are Promo, Flashfire (FLF), Generations (GEN), or Evolutions (EVO). (Not listing all prints to save space, just one from each set. Promo's are either XY## or BW##. The numbers and set icon are in the lower right of each card. Some people format it a little differently, but putting it like this will let us know which sets you're working with.

M Charizard EX FLF108
Charizard EX XY29
Charizard EX GEN11
M Charizard EX EVO13

As far as if you should be playing Standard or Expanded, it depends what you want and what's available in your area. Around me, all the local tournaments are standard. At my local league I could play either as there's a few people that have Expanded decks, but everyone has Standard decks so to simplify things I don't run Expanded just yet. If you're unsure which format your shop uses just ask your tournament organizer or the person running your league. Some places even play "Unlimited" which is ANY card from any set. That's not usually an official tournament, but some places do it just for fun.
Ok thank you for the suggestions on trainers and such, the charizard ex I have is xy17 with Mega Ascension and Brave Fire and my mega charizard is from evolutions, so the strategy you listed is helpful but not the same charizard card. Any recommendations on what pokemon/ trainers I should remove and what should be replaced with what?
 

TrevGallade

Trevterra!!!
Member
Well, the first step in editing your deck depends on how competitive you want the deck to be. If you want a super competitive deck, you will have to change a lot of things, but for a deck that might not be World's level, but could still do well at your local League (or PTCGO) then the following changes should be a good start. (I'm only posting semi competitive changes, because I don't know your budget, or how competitive you want the build).
First of all, your deck needs a strategy, and seeing as you're using Mega Charizard from Evolutions, your strategy will rely on getting one hit ko's. I recommend adding some healing, just to nullify the 50 damage recoil.

- 3 Ponyta
-3 Rapidash
-2 Vulpix
-3 Magmar
-2 Magmortar
-2 Fenekin
-1 Braixen
-1 Delphox
-1 Moltres
-2 Litleo
-2 Pyroar
-3 Energy Retrieval
-1 Cilan
-1 Healing Scarf
-2 Professor's Letter
-7 Fire Energy
-1 Burning Energy

+4 Jynx from Furious Fists/Generations
+1 Victini EX
+1 Charizard EX
+2 Mega Charizard EX
+3 Sycamore
+3 N
+1 Pokémon Center Lady
+1 Skyla
+1 Lysandre
+3 VS Seeker
+4 Ultra Balls
+2 Super Rod
+4 Trainer's Mail
+3 Double Colorless Energy
+1 Escape Rope
+3 Mega Charizard Spirit Link

These changes are to make your deck more consistent, and get rid of any cards that are useless with getting your Charizards ready to one hit KO your opponents Pokémon. These are just changes that I recommend though, so you should take my advice however you want based on how your deck currently plays and how you want it to play. If you need any information about these cards and how they might help you, I can justify why I though the changes might help. Hope this helps!:)
 

fr33land

Weak competitive trainer.
Member
Crazy, you think that would work?
Jinx spammed own bench to heal the backlash from Crimson dive?
I love the idea. Lead victinI EX and turbo energize charizard, then mega evolve and keep charizard mostly healthy with victory kiss???
I like it.
I might want the battle compressor blacksmith thing going on too.. . I can see the turn 2 Crimson dive in my mind's eye. it's beautiful.
 

TrevGallade

Trevterra!!!
Member
Crazy, you think that would work?
Jinx spammed own bench to heal the backlash from Crimson dive?
I love the idea. Lead victinI EX and turbo energize charizard, then mega evolve and keep charizard mostly healthy with victory kiss???
I like it.
I might want the battle compressor blacksmith thing going on too.. . I can see the turn 2 Crimson dive in my mind's eye. it's beautiful.

Those are some other cards that would definitely help the Charizard Setup. Also, with 4 Jynx, or a 3-3 Ribombe line from the Sun and Moon set, I think Charizard's recoil wouldn't amount to anything. (Ribombe's ability let's you heal 20 damage).
 

Asmer

Keep the High Tide on the Flipside
Member
Something I noticed among everything I've read here so far is that Victini EX is no longer Standard Legal. If he were to play Standard, that would have to be dropped. If, however, he were to play Expanded, I will highly recommend grabbing Blacksmiths for the deck. I will also toss in the recommendation of things such as more Battle Compressor, Computer Search as an ACESPEC, and maybe 1 or 2 Scorched Earth (or any stadium you would like), but I'm sure that you'd have a much better time as a whole in Standard, anyway... so, simply drop the Victini-EX for another good Fire Pokemon. xP

As far as something that helps charge Charizard goes, Volcanion STS (non-EX) is a very strong Pokemon that is incredibly easy to obtain (2 come in a Starter Deck and that's all you really need for a deck like this). Also, if you don't want to buy a full Starter Deck, I'm sure there are plenty of people who have them sitting in binders.

Anyway, I wish you well! Once you start structuring a deck more, re-post the list on here. We'll be able to help you further from that point.

Finally... Welcome to Pokemon TCG! We are very glad you are playing and as a community, I'm sure we all hope you have a blast! ^^

-Asmer
 
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