Standard Flareon EX (New)

[George]

Pokemon: 8
Flareon EX (GEN RC6)-4
Charizard EX (XY 121)-1
M Charizard EX (EVO 101)-1
Pidgeot EX (EVO 64)-1
Oricorio (GUR 14)-1

Trainers: 27 (Supporter, Item, Stadium)
Skyla (BKP 122)-4 (A lot of people have asked me, "Why 4 Skylas?" Well, I just said, "Just because"
Lillie (SM 147)-1
Pokemon Fan Club (GEN 69)-1
Hau (GUR 144)-1
Shauna (FC 111)-1
Team Flare Grunt (GEN 73)-1
Ultra Ball (SM 135)-3
Max Elixir (BKP 102)-3 (Get Flareon powered up turn 1)
Float Stone (BKT 137)-2
Super Rod (BKT 149)-2
Professor's Letter (BKT 146)-2
Trainer's Mail (ROS 92)-2
Nest Ball (SM 123)-1
Charizard Spirit Link (EVO 75)-1
Altar of the Sunne (GUR 118)-2

Energy: 25
Basic Fire Energy-22
Double Colorless Energy (SM 136)-2
Rainbow Energy (SM 137)-1

-I played this deck list at my Pokemon Leauge last weekend, and I got First Place, so I think it is O.K., but I still want other people's opinions on it. Thanks!

 

[DragonFang101]

I think I can see how this would do well, at a league, but I must admit this is a rather unconventional deck... maybe give up a professor's letter for Turtonator GX?

 

[George]

I think I can see how this would do well, at a league, but I must admit this is a rather unconventional deck... maybe give up a professor's letter for Turtonator GX?

ok!

 

[DragonFang101]

And if you have an oranguru you can fill your hand without using your supporter cards as much.

 

[Chris Teves]

I think the trainers are alright, but I would run just straight quad Flareon EX. I could see the Oricorio, but I would drop the Charizard line.

 

[George]

ok, because It felt too light when I just ran the Flareons so, I added the Charizard as a Worst Case Scenario type thing, do you have any recommendations for other Pokemon to run besides Flareon possibly?

 

[TuxedoBlack]

To be honest, I see quite a few "holes" in your deck that do not make your deck very competitive, IMO. For example:

• 25 energy definitely "clogs" your deck (more than help, IMO) especially since you are not running any type of energy-attachment acceleration engine (chances are you do not draw into your Trainer's Mail fast enough). Further, chances are your deck will be inconsistent and "slow" (e.g., to power-up attackers and/or get Pokémon into play fast) due to your "clogged" deck.
• IMO, the card-draw support of 1 Hau, 1 Lillie, and 1 Shauna are woefully insufficient.
• Chances are, given the count of your Pokémon, you will tend to start with a Flareon EX which is not a good starter, IMO. That starting Pokémon will take some early hits and may even be KOd; so, you could fall behind in the prize count early.
• Also, with only 7 basic Pokémon, chances are you will mulligan a few times resulting in your opponent drawing, most likely, extra cards at game start - this could lead to an advantage for your opponent.
• The 1 Pidgeot EX and the 1 Charizard EX don't seem very helpful... How do these Pokémon enhance your game strategy?
• Why no Lysandre??? This Supporter is just too important to exclude.
• Why no Field Blower(s) to remove your opponent's attached Tool(s) and/or Stadium(s)?
• Why no VS Seeker??? This Item is also critical to maintaining smooth deck operations.

Suggested initial changes for your consideration:

-1 Charizard EX - not that helpful
-1 M Charizard EX - not that helpful
-1 Pidgeot EX - not that helpful
-1 Charizard Spirit Link - not that helpful
-1 Hau - "stronger" card-draw support needed
-1 Shauna - "stronger" card-draw support needed
-2 Skyla - 4 seem excessive
-2 Super Rod - not critical
-7 R - not critical
-2 DC - not really needed
-1 Rainbow - not really needed​

+4 Talonflame - its sole attack (for C energy cost) inflict 40 damage and allows you to search your deck for any 2 cards and put them into your hand. Further, it has 130 HP and free Retreat Cost.
======== or ========
+4 Volcanion - for just R energy cost, this Pokémon's first attack inflicts 20 damage and recovers and attaches a discarded R energy onto 2 different, benched R Pokémon.

+1 Brock's Grit - to recover and recycle discarded resources

+1 Field Blower
+2 Lysandre - to bring opponent's benched Pokémon to active position
+1 Max Elixir - should be maxed out
+3 N - card-draw support and hand disruption
+3 Professor Sycamore
+1 Trainer's Mail
+1 Ultra Ball - should be maxed out
+3 VS Seeker - to recover and reuse discarded Supporters​

Note that some Supporters and/or their counts should be changed given the suggested Talonflame you might choose as your preferred starter. Similarly, Scorched Earth can be used as a Stadium to help support card-drawing. using this Stadium may also affect other card-draw Supporters and their respective counts.

I hope you find these comments helpful.

 

[Kietharr]

most of Tuxedo's comments capture what I have to say. I'd say also look at Volcanion-EX and Turtornator-GX, Flareon is mostly used as a one of card for moving energy around in Volcanion but it's not bad on its own keeping in mind that every local league is at a different level of competitivity.

For supporters, you never, ever want to run 4 Skyla, there's a reason people asked you about those. Skyla is a card for two kinds of decks, decks that depend on having multiple different trainer cards in the same hand to make plays (rare candy decks, puzzle of time decks) and decks that are content to play extremely slow (I don't even think there is one left in standard). This deck is neither of those things, I wouldn't even run one Skyla here, a Sycamore or N will be a better play basically 100% of the time.

You should be running 3-4 Professor Sycamore and 2-4 N in every deck unless you have a specific reason not to.

Also 20+ energies is quite a few too many. 12-14 is generally considered the maximum number of energy cards you should play in any deck aside from a few gimmick decks like Typhlosion.

 

[TCG_Destory]

While this is certainly a way to set up without using many Item cards, I think that running 25 Energy is way excessive. Cutting roughly half of them would give you lots of space for things you need to have in order to have consistency, or to be able to have some control on the opposing side. I went to a League Cup recently and I had fourteen Energy in my deck. It was a mistake, I should have run thirteen, the Energy were too cloggy. It is hard for me to imagine doing very well with 25 Energy, but then again an Evolution Pokémon was part of my strategy (I was playing Lurantis/Yveltal). The point is, I think a big change should be made to that list, so that you can do well in more serious events.

Here is the list I suggest that you use as a starting point:

Pokémon - 12

4 Flareon-EX GEN
3 Volcanion STS
2 Volcanion-EX STS
1 Turtonator-GX GUR
2 Shaymin-EX ROS (1 or both can be changed to Tapu Lele-GX if you have them)

Trainer - 36

3 Sky Field

1 Brock's Grit
1 Delinquent
1 Hex Maniac
2 Lysandre
3 N
1 Pokémon Fan Club
4 Professor Sycamore

3 Choice Band
1 Energy Reset
1 Fighting Fury Belt
1 Professor's Letter
3 Switch
3 Trainers' Mail
4 Ultra Ball
4 VS Seeker

Energy - 12

12 Fire Energy

You can change it the way you like, this is just an example of a Volcanion/Flareon list I came up with. You also should consider Kiawe once it comes out.