Starting Competitive Play

[DragonFlames]

Hi there, kind person(s) reading this. I took a look at a lot of competitive and tournament winning decks and I was thinking 'hey, maybe I should start playing competitively, too'. But there was something I noticed: all decks use very few Energy cards for sometimes very costly attacks (Primal Groudon's Gaia Volcano comes to mind). May I ask why that is the case? I always thought it would be best to have 24-30 Energy cards in your deck, because this way, you could have enough to set up faster and for the deck to even work.
But I have seen professionals that use only 7-8 Energy cards in their decks and I wondered why they'd do that. Maybe one of you could explain that to me, because I don't really get it.

 

[bbninjas]

I think it is because of two reasons. One, you only use (and ideally attach) around 8 energy game, even for an attack like P-Groudon (you only want to set up 2 at the very most). Note that you often you find 6-8 Basic Energy + 2-4 Special Energy. Energy is often recycled through attacks like Landorus FuF, abilities like Bronzong PHF and Trainers like Mega Turbo. Secondly, too much energy clunks up decks, since you can only attach 1 a turn, and wastes space - there are countless trainer cards that would work much better. Decks should have enough draw power to sufficient to find energy, even when less amounts are included in decks. With draw like Sycamore and search like Professor's Letter, you have an above 50/50 chance of getting the energy you want when you want it.

I also recently came across an article (Parts 4 and 5) about energy and probability (although is very outdated!) they you may find interesting here.

 

[DragonFlames]

I think it is because of two reasons. One, you only use (and ideally attach) around 8 energy game, even for an attack like P-Groudon (you only want to set up 2 at the very most). Note that you often you find 6-8 Basic Energy + 2-4 Special Energy. Energy is often recycled through attacks like Landorus FuF, abilities like Bronzong PHF and Trainers like Mega Turbo. Secondly, too much energy clunks up decks, since you can only attach 1 a turn, and wastes space - there are countless trainer cards that would work much better. Decks should have enough draw power to sufficient to find energy, even when less amounts are included in decks. With draw like Sycamore and search like Professor's Letter, you have an above 50/50 chance of getting the energy you want when you want it.

I also recently came across an article (Parts 4 and 5) about energy and probability (although is very outdated!) they you may find interesting here.

Ah, thank you! I'll remember it when building my deck.
So, it's safe to assume that decks/types with some kind of Energy acceleration (like, say, Base set Blastoise) have an edge over decks/types with none (like any Electric type deck)?

 

[bbninjas]

Ah, thank you! I'll remember it when building my deck.
So, it's safe to assume that decks/types with some kind of Energy acceleration (like, say, Base set Blastoise) have an edge over decks/types with none (like any Electric type deck)?

Energy acceleration is certainly one thing that measures a deck's success. Here are some of the most popular decks (you can find more details here):
VirGen - Has acceleration in the form of Virizion-EX's Emerald Slash (and the upcoming M-Sceptile-EX)
Yveltal - Has baby Yveltal XY that retrieves energy from the discard
Fighting - Has baby Landorus FuF that also retrieves energy from the discard
Fire - Has a cool Supporter named Blacksmith
Bronzong - Bronzong is what makes these decks function, allowing you to reuse energy from the discard through abilities
M-Manectric - Mega Manectric has an attack very similar to Virizion
Aromatisse - Can conserve energy by moving it around with Aromatisse XY's ability
Psychic - Have Dimension Valley to reduce cost by 1 [C]
Water - Currently have Blastoise BCR, but no XY-on acceleration

Megas, of course, also have Mega Turbo to use to its advantage.

Decks like Flareon, Seismitoad-EX, Raichu, LandoBats and NightMarch rarely run an energy accelerator due to their very low attack costs that can be powered through a single attachment.

 

[bbninjas]

Hi!I am not a professional, but I have been playing for quite a while. My deck uses 4 energy total. 4 Double Colorless Energy. I play Seismitoad. I use no forms of energy acceleration mentioned above. Why does my deck work? Item-based draw support, draw supporters, and Shaymin-EX. Toad Only needs 2 colorless energy to attack, so naturally, you can get your lock ready in 1 turn. Using cards such as Acro Bike, Trainer's Mail, Professor Sycamore, and Shaymin-EX, which can fill your hand up to 6 when you put it down onto your bench. Just when you think you've ran out of ways to draw cards, you play a Super Scoop Up, and you pick up a Shaymin-EX to draw even more cards! As you can see, I can draw through my deck really fast, which allows me to grab the cards a need consistently, without any setup required. It is a very rare occasion that I don't get a DCE turn one.


Hope I provided some insight on the topic of energy!

-Emskas

This is somewhat less viable now LTC has been banned, as you cannot recycle your DCE. You have to be very careful playing and moving around DCE in combination of not decking yourself out. This strategy is honestly only viable is Seismitoad because the deck locks things like Enhanced Hammer from being used, which generally would be a huge threat, and even then, there's Xerosic that can be detrimental.

 

[thom ye]

to steer it back to the original question.
the energy count is typically fairly low. but its dependent on the type of deck.
but rarely more than the teens.
same with pokemon.
the name of the game is in supporters/trainers. typically in the 35+ range.
most decks are about moving as many cards thru your hand as possible a turn (whether you have energy accel or not).
you definitely don't want to just rely on drawing 1 card.
you want ultraball, level ball to get your pokemon. Sycamore, Shauna, etc... to get more cards thru your hand and more options.

I think those decks with high energy counts are theme decks, which really aren't that competitive...

I've seen a move away from special energies. they are too susceptible to Hammer, Xerosic, etc...
I use to run Cobalion, Hammer, Flare Grunt disruption deck just to dump the opponents energy....