Standard Machamp Break

[lt_tatter]

Hello I am a totaly new player to TCG and for my first ever attempt to play I want to run Machamp Break, mainly because I already have most of the cards for it. I got this deck list from someone I've been watching on youtube to get an idea of how the game works, get an idea of current popular meta decks, and learn to build decks.

Any suggestions for this build? I understand everyone runs their own version of decks by making slight changes to builds so just curious on other ideas.

Mainly i was thinking of adding one Assult Vest to the deck but don't know what card to remove.

x4 Machop (Evolutions)
x2 Machoke (Evolutions)
x2 Machamp Fighting Fury Ability (Generations)
x2 Machamp Counterattack Ability (Evolutions)
x3 Machamp Break
x3 Carbink (Fates Collide) Safeguard Ability
x2 Carbink Break
x1 Shaymin EX (I understand this is a staple to the standard and was fortunate enough to get one at no cost)

x4 Strong Energy
x8 Fighting Energy
x3 Scorched Earth Stadium
x1 Lysadre
x1 Exp Share
x1 Pokemon Center Lady
x4 N
x4 Sycamore
x1 Switch
x1 Escape Rope
x2 Level Ball
x3 Ultra Ball
x4 VS Seeker
x1 Brocks Grit
x3 Rare Candy

Like I said this isn't my own deck build because I don't have that experience yet, especially with my limited knowledge of what cards are out there, I will be using another I have seen.

But the hive mind of Pokebeach might be able to give me some ideas

 

[Asmer]

Welcome to PTCG!
I will start by suggesting a card I feel is very good for decks with high Retreat Costs and lots of HP as a whole: Olympia. She is a Supporter who allows you to switch your Pokemon (like Switch, but as a Supporter, you can use VS Seeker to get it back whenever you desire from your Discard Pile, which is very useful), and allows heals the Pokemon you switched out by 30 HP, which adds up. You would only need 1, but having it as an option is very good in a deck like this, which requires set up. Also, being able to switch out an injured Machamp or Machamp BREAK for Carbink BREAK to then accelerate more Energy is a nice little play.

Another card I will suggest that can be rather annoying for the opponent is Delinquent. It discards any Stadium in play, including yours, but if it successfully does so, your Opponent must discard 3 cards. Even if you discard your own stadium, they discard the cards, not you. This is good in this deck because there are times where your opponent is playing a Fire Deck (Volcanion, for example) that can use your Scorched Earth against you. It stops them from doing so and luckily, Scorched Earth isn't needed as a whole for your strategy to work.

Finally, I will suggest more stadiums to guide your mind to discovering new strategies. The first will be Parallel City. This card is a little more complex, as it has two different sides. The first side decreases your opponent's Bench space to 3 spots instead of 5. The other side reduces Fire, Water, and Grass damage by 20. When you play this card, you WILL be affected by one side, but luckily for you, neither of these sides really hurt your deck. However, both sides may hurt your opponent quite a bit! Typically, people only use 1, but you can use 2 if you would like.

The second stadium I will talk about is Sky Field. It is usually used with Parallel City and it's a very simple Stadium. All it does is increases both Players' Bench sizes to 8 Pokemon each. This is good to remove your Opponent's stadium in case they play something that benefits them only without punishing you at all. Also, there are times where the extra bench space may help. If you play this, I would suggest running 2 and then playing 1 Parallel City.

Finally, I will talk about Faded Town. This card acts like a 2 damage "Poison" for all Mega Pokemon. In between turns, every Mega Pokemon will take 2 Damage Counters. This is very good because you run zero Mega Pokemon, but you may face decks that do. This will give you a large advantage over those decks and allow your to OHKO Mega Pokemon when you normally could not.

As a final note, I would run no more than 3 Stadiums in total personally. You can also do 4 and be fine, but I like 3. I feel it's a solid number because of deck space and whatnot.

Anyway, I hope this helps! Enjoy the PTCG and if you have any more questions, feel free to ask!

-Asmer