Ready. Set. Draw! [Article][Pokemon]

[Jedi]

I've decided to try my hand at writing some article for the forum. Despite what seems to be popular belief, Pokemon posts are still allowed here. As far as I know anyway.

For this particular piece I want to talk about the drawing engine in decks. This is restricted to unlimited play since that’s all that I play. Sorry, but I don't have the information about modified format to make any decent deductions about good draw engines. This of course is just based on my thoughts and opinions.

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At first I was using just a boring, generic set up; as follows.

4x Professor Oak
4x Computer Search
3x Item Finder

I've also tried this with slight variations such as three Oaks and an Elm, or three Oaks and two Elms. Four Item Finders if it suits the deck. Now this is an alright engine in its own right. However, it just doesn't give enough speed that some decks need. This works pretty well in an evolution deck because you need some set up time and you don’t want to be burning your deck in the first 3 turns.


My decks generally follow the same theme, go for prizes, and do it as fast as possible. The main point is speed. The speed is of course directly related to the draw engine. To improve upon the fore mentioned set, I would need to find some way to get more cards without some crushing draw back like Elms extra effect:
"You can not play any more trainer cards this turn."
That sentence is the reason not to play Elm. It's quite exasperating when people tell you that they use four Elms instead of four Oaks since Elm is better because you don't discard.

Anyway, how can you have broken cards like Oak and keep it from not being broken? The e-cards answer with supporters. Yes, these watered down cards make great companions for Oak. Sure, you can only play one supporter card per turn, but that doesn't stop you from playing normal trainers. For that reason, my next engine includes these:

4x Professor Oak
2x Professor Oak's Research/Copycat
4x Computer Search
3x Item Finder

Supporters aren’t the predominant cards here; they just add a little aid in drawing. This build is faster then the first one, but it still works for evolution decks if you'd like. Perhaps it would be more suitable for stage ones rather then stage twos.


Onto my reason for writing this. Always looking for ways to improve my decks, I decided to try something a little different. To my surprise, it actually worked out. This hasn’t really been tested much, so it may or may not work; only more testing well tell I suppose. I was going to wait a while before posting this so that I had more time to test it, but this forum does need something now. I modeled this engine after the "direct-draw" engine used in certain modified decks. The plan was to basically just draw cards rather then replenishes your hand like Oak does.

2x Professor Oak
4x Bill
4x TV reporter
4x Computer Search
3x item Finder

First thoughts when seeing this is probably something like, "Damn, that's 17 cards, almost a third of the deck." (18 if you spring for that fourth Item Finder.) Because you have more drawing power, you can cut down on the number of other things needed in the deck, like energy and Pokemon.
Two other things to note about this engine are: It takes a lot of cards out of your deck, and it's using 4 supporters. There can be problems when there are too many supporters in a deck. You some times get two TV reporters in your hand at once, it's not really that big of a deal though. Use one, save the other for your next turn. Using a TV reporter doesn't stop you from using Bill or Oak. You shouldn't use any other supporters in the deck except one; I'll get to that.
At first I tired this without the two Oaks, but there was too much improvement when I added them to take them out again. Some times you just need to use a Computer Search to get an Oak and a new hand.
The one other supporter card that I recommend is used with this deck is Town Volunteers. I'd say use one, probably two of these in the deck. The deck I'm using only has one, but I know another one is needed. This card can be a game saver, it has saved me more then once. Something to remember though, you need to get exactly 5 cards with it, you can't get less.

As I mentioned, that last engine is one that I'm testing. Maybe it just worked really well with the deck I was using. Someone might want to try it out though, see how it works.

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The deck

-Energy-10
9x Lightning Energy
1x Recycle Energy

-Pokemon-12
3x Slowpoke
3x Slowking
3x Electabuzz
3x Rocket's Zapdos

-Trainers-38
2x Professor Oak
4x Bill
4x TV Reporter
4x Computer Search
3x Item Finder
4x The Rocket's Trap
3x Energy Removal
3x Gold berry
3x Imposter Oak's Revenge
3x Gust
2x Switch
1x Sprout Tower
1x Rocket's Training Gym
1x Town Volunteers


Anyone that's going to reply with how trapper decks are dead because of Cleffa, don't bother posting it. Cleffa is being used less then it was, so it really isn’t a concern of mine.

I'm sure this is a very annoying deck to play against. It's pretty much a slowking trapper with lots of disputation. The Pokemon are good kill cards because of the damage they do quickly, so they fit the draw engine well. It’s pretty self-explanatory.

I'll just end this very long post on that I think.

~Jedi

[Roarkiller]

I believe absol can fit into ur deck.

Yes, i agree with the point that drawing is better than replenishing or changing ur hand. But the thng is most card drawers dont draw more than 2 cards, and sometimes, like TVR, still forces u to discard, and u know there r times when u have nothing to discard because u need every card in ur hand to execute a critical move.

Compared to drawing a very small amount, id say reshuffling ur hand is still a better option. My engine for unlimited:

3 oak
2 copycat
4 c.search
3 item

Oak is essential, and i always build my deck with this card in mind. Copycat is good because hands r getting bigger, and in modified, hands can get really big more often. And since this idea, coupled with the fact that i still draw a card every turn (if u remember this), to me it is very sufficient. Drawing is crucial, yes, but u have to learn that drawing isnt everything.

Theres also the fact that since hands can get big, and that copycat is rampant, constant card-drawing is NOT very helpful. Unfortunately, it is to ur opponent. Its a double-edged sword, if u notice.

Also, i like to believe that if u dont reshuffle ur deck but use cards like bill instead, copycat can only get more dangerous, especially in the early stages of the game where getting the cards fast equates to control of the game early. Which also means u have a better chance of winning.

Another point u fail to mention is one that ppl either never noticed or see it as redundant; winning by removing all the defending pkmn.

See, if u can get the cards u want fast, the best thing to do is to attack fast, and believe it or not, unless ur opponent can regenrate his bench quickly, he will fce the danger of having no pkmn to use, and thus winning by this method is faster than obtaining 6 prizes. In fact, THIS is the strategy i have been using for years, to aim for a win before getting 6 prizes until it is impossible. It controls the speed of my game very nicely during the peak of my career.

[Dark-San]

Speed is good for any deck. However it comes to a matter of control. If ya can't control your deck, you will be gone in abt 15 turns. Yupz with all those oak'ing and computer searching lolz. So to prevent that I limited myself to the search engine as stated below:

3 Oak
4 Computer Search
4 Item Finder
1 Oak's research

Well you see here, the above combination might not work for you doods but I find it rather comfortable. My search engines are targetting on getting specific cards rather than a new fresh of hand. Well of cos, getting a new set of hand would also be the job of cleffa right?

As for Professer Elm, I played it as a tech for several weeks and dropping it instantly when the supporter series is out. Elm prevents me from playing my all important trainer denial, Chaos Gym. I don't normally played Slowking so the next best card would be this.

Copycat is good but in unlimited. Its rare to see your opponent with a hand size of more than 5. Normally when I played with my friends, they usually end up with hand sizes of ard 3 cards. so wats the use right? So I choose the safer path and used Oak's Research.

[YoMomMa]

are you sure that only 9 enrgy is enough?

[Jedi]

Yea, nine (ten actually) energy works pretty well in this deck. It seems pretty low, but the pokemon here aren't too bad on energy.

I tried using my new engine with a different deck today.. That went badly.. I also used this deck with 4x oak, 2x research. That also didn't go well. Maybe it just happens to work with this deck. It works so well like I posted though, too good to try and make it work with oaks.

I dunno

~jedi

[Dark-San]

are you sure that only 9 enrgy is enough?

When you are here long enough, you will notice that ppl here will stick with energies at ard 10 to 14. I myself hav a deck that has 14 energies. So yupz nothing interesting actually...

[Roarkiller]

Yeah, believe it or not, among all the old vets, i played with the most energy, and thats only a total of 15.

Copycat indeed may not work in unlimited, but then theres such thing as waiting for the right mment. Plus, u know how i always like to but my money on luck and chance. Id rather have a chance of having a chance to draw a bigger hand while risking a smaller hand than having no chance at all.