Expanded Deck Build (Newbie Needs Advice)

[Boomer34]

So my 7 year old son and I have just gotten into PTCG. We have really enjoyed it after playing with some training decks and then the Ray/Kel Battle Area deck. We are now looking forward to building our own decks, which is why I am here (I hope this is the right spot for this question).

We are currently living in Beirut, and the Pokemon community is very new here. A local gamestore was just licensed to carry and sell it, so it has only been around 4-6 months. There are about 15 or so who have been meeting and playing over the past few months.

After meeting them today for the first time, they told me that they play the Expanded format, since there is not much offering here yet, and it is harder to get stuff through the mail...

So the past week, I spent all this time researching which standard decks would be good for me and my son, but after today, learning that everyone here plays the Expanded version, I feel like I am back at square 1 in which decks to build. I have a friend coming to visit in a few weeks, so I will be ordering all my singles online and have him bring them to me...so I need to get some deck advice for Expanded. (It would be nice to not have to buy 3 Lele's for the deck...only 1 of the guys here has one, and he's just running 1 in his deck).

Thanks for some insight or direction!

 

[Boomer34]

I guess to add in a little more detail...because we aren't able to order/trade/buy singles where we live, I need to place a pretty big order for my dad to bring over in a few weeks. With this order, I would like to order all the potential trainers and energies I would need to build maybe around 6 different decks that my son and I could play with. So I would also look to order a number (10-12?) of the top Pokemon that you would build various decks around/with...so we can mix and match and have fun building some decks and playing against each other. Like I said above, the community where we live is small (10-15 guys), and they play expanded...so much of our game play (my son and I), will be at home between ourselves...so a lot of the fun will come in building different decks to battle against each other with...

Thanks for your thoughts...

 

[HouchinsDJ]

I would look at decks that have placed well at recent tournaments. I use limitlesstcg.com after big tournaments to see what was played. Night March and Zoroark variants are the top decks in Expanded at the moment. I think investing in Zoroark GX is a good idea because there are a number of decks that use it. I've seen in included in Night March, Lycanroc, Seimitoad, and a few other decks.

 

[thom ye]

I agree with the post to look at typical decks and deck list from the recent expanded tournaments. it will give you good idea of what decks do well in expanded.
chances are, your standard deck may also do well in expanded with some tweaks. One is the use of VS Seeker.
try to stick with the basics re trainers and supporters. most are pretty universal to most decks (like ultraball, sycamore, etc..).
like a tell a lot of new players. stick with 1-2 decks and learn it well. play it 20, 30, 40+ times. play it so many times, that you know all the cards and what is prized.
try not to get discouraged... every deck has a weakness. the key is to minimize your misplays and mistakes and learn how to run any deck the way it was designed, so that the play and strategy is optimized. good luck. AND have fun.