Legendary Pokémon

Here's a guide for new PTCG players (or even returning players) on how to build a deck. Well, getting 60 cards together in a pile is technically a deck, so let's say this guide helps you make an effective, competitive deck. By the way, I assume that you know the basic TCG rules before reading this guide. If not, better go away, this will confuse you even more. So, let's begin.


Your first thing to do when building a deck is to choose the Pokémon that the deck will be based on. Usually, it's gonna be your main sweeping Pokémon. That Pokémon must be able to deal some good damage and still able to get out in the battle quickly. Great examples of main hitters are Kingdra LA, Garchomp MT and Empoleon MD. As you can see, all of them can hit for a respectable amount of damage to either the Defending Pokémon or to benched ones, with just 3 energy or less. If your main Pokémon is a Basic Pokémon, you'll want to have 4 copies of it in your deck. If it's a Stage 1 Pokémon, 3-3 and 4-4 lines are suggested (that means 4 of its Basic form and 4 of the Stage 1 Pokémon, like 4 Riolu and 4 Lucario). If it's a Stage 2 Pokémon, 3-2-3 and 4-3-4 lines are prefered (for example, 4 Chimchar, 3 Monferno and 4 Infernape). I'll explain later in this guide why you can drop a Stage 1 card in a Stage 2 Pokémon line. If your main Pokémon has a Lv.X form (like Lucario Lv.X MT and Infernape Lv.X DP), you may drop a card of its normal form and add a Lv.X card. For example, Lucario's 4-4 line will turn to 4-3-1 and Infernape's 4-3-4 line will turn to 4-3-3-1.

Of course, the main hitter alone won't get you anywhere. You need some Pokémon to support it while it tries to set up, or even after setting. These Pokémon are preferably Basic or Stage 1 ones so that they can come out really quickly and either help your main hitter set up or stall until it sets up on its own. For example, if Tyranitar SF is your main hitter, Weavile SW is an ideal support Pokémon for setting up, helping Tyranitar get the necessary amount of energy faster. As for a Pokémon that helps after setting up, Darkrai Lv.X GE is great, adding 10 more damage for each basic Dark Energy your Tyranitar has. To realise the difference, imagine having a Tyranitar with 5 basic Dark Energy cards attached to it. Instead of doing 30 damage to each of your opponent's Pokémon, you do 30 to each benched and 80 to their Active, something that not many Pokémon can do.

Obviously, your support Pokémon must co-operate well with your main hitter. That usually means that they are of the same type as your hitter or cover your hitter's weaknesses. We'll have an example later on.

It's not difficult to realise that, in the Pokémon TCG, the one who sets up his deck faster is usually the one controlling the flow of the game. To set up faster though, you need some Pokémon that can help you (either with Poké-Powers or attacks) by bringing you the cards you need, early in the game. They are usually basic Pokémon and, most of the time, you'll want to play 3 or 4 of them in your deck, having a higher chance of starting the game with this Pokémon.

Continuing the example of Tyranitar being your main hitter, Sableye SF is the ideal starter Pokémon. It lets you go first while using a Supporter card of your choice, like a Roseanne's Research for getting out a Larvitar and a Sneasel, or if you already got a Lavitar in your starting hand, you can use Bebe's Search to get Tyranitar. All in all, this Sableye is probably the best starter Pokémon of the current format.

If you want to guarantee the success of your deck, you must always have the cards you need in your hand. This can be done by constantly putting the unnecessary cards back in your deck while drawing new ones. That's called "hand refreshing". In the current format, there are 2 cards that can do this with great ease. Firstly, the infamous Claydol GE, which refreshes your hand each turn. The second one, Uxie LA lets you draw cards until you've got a hand of 7, but only when you play it on your bench. Not as consistent as Claydol, but it has the advantage that you can search for it with Roseanne's Research. Also, its attack makes you shuffle it back in your deck, making it reusable.

Before we move on, it is important that the number of Pokémon in your deck does not exceed 23-25. That way, you leave little room for trainers and energy, making your deck slow. So, choose your Pokémon wisely.

Ok, now you have chosen the Pokémon of your deck. But you need energy in order to get them to attack. Most decks nowadays run about 15-20 Energy cards. More are considered trouble, less means you may not have the necessary energy to attack. Of course, how many energy it will run depends on each deck.

Choosing the types of Energy cards you are going to use may be troublesome. If you are using a deck with a single Pokémon type, Dark in our example, Darkness energies are good to use. Using some Special energies that may help (like Cyclone Energy) is also good. If your deck is not based on a particular type, Multi Energy are good as they can be used as any type.

And now, it's time for the trickiest part, the Trainer line. Trainers are divided into three categories, Trainers, Supporters and Stadiums. Which and how many of each kind you'll use depends solely on the deck you are using, however there are some Trainers that are considered standard in most decks. Since each deck needs to set up as fast as possible, having Trainers that help you take your Pokémon out of the deck should be used. Examples are the aforementioned Bebe's Search, Roseanne's Research as well as Luxury Ball. Having Trainers like Felicity's Drawing or Professor Oak's Visit that let you draw more cards increases your chances of finding the cards you need quickly. Other searching cards like Poké Drawer + are also very useful. Stadiums should be also used, choose those that help your deck the most. For instance, if you have a deck based on the Psychic type, having some Moonlight Stadium cards is suggested. In case you are running any Stage 2 Pokémon in your deck, Rare Candy is a must-have card, letting you evolve your Basic Pokémon to its Stage 2 form (hence the 3-2-3 and 4-3-4 lines mentioned above). There are many more kinds of T/S/S cards, see your deck's needs and choose the ones you are going to use accordingly.

• Strategy. You now have a deck, but is there a strategy behind it or is it just a deck? Is it built to work in a certain way or just bring whichever Pokémon out and hit till you win or lose? Well, an effective deck needs to have a strategy. An example is to use Porygon-Z GE with a lot of different types of Energies, allowing it to take advantage of your opponent's weakness. Add Lake Boundary to this for further exploiting their weakness and you'll have a nice combo.
• Know your enemy. Knowing what decks are famous always helps as you will be prepared when you get to face one of them. The best way to find out what decks are famous is seeing yourself what other players play (by going to tournaments and learning their "style"). Having some "tech" cards in your deck that help you beat a certain deck may prove really useful sometimes.
• Test your deck. If you go to a tournament without knowing if and how your deck works, you are not going to win, that's sure. See if the strategy that you thought of works. And if it does, see how fast your deck sets up. If it doesn't work, swap in some cards, taking out the ones that don't work and test it again. It may take some time but that's how you are going to build a powerful deck.

Ok, the Tyranitar example we've been using throughout this guide will be our sample decklist.

Pokémon: 21
3x Larvitar SF
2x Pupitar SF
3x Tyranitar SF
2x Sneasel LA
2x Weavile SW
1x Darkrai MD
1x Darkrai Lv.X GE
3x Sableye SF
2x Baltoy GE
2x Claydol GE

T/S/S: 24
- Trainers: 12
3x Rare Candy
4x Poké Drawer +
1x Luxury Ball
2x Night Maintenance
2x Warp Point

- Supporters: 10
3x Roseanne's Research
4x Bebe's Search
3x Felicity's Drawing

- Stadiums: 2
2x Moonlight Stadium

Energy: 15
12x Darkness Energy
3x Special Darkness Energy

Let's see now if it is built according to what was said before.

Does it have a main attacker? Yes, Tyranitar.
Support and starter Pokémon? Yes, Weavile for energy acceleration, Darkrai Lv.X for more power, Sableye for the beginning and Claydol for consistency.
Energies are enough and with Tyranitar's PokéBody, even the discarded ones are usable.
Trainers, really enough. Rare Candy for getting Tyranitar out quickly. Roseanne's Research, Bebe's Search, Poké Drawer + and Luxury Ball can bring anything out. Warp Point for annoying and works well with Moonlight Stadium. Felicity's Drawing draws more cards while discarding energy that can be used by Tyranitar. Finally, Night Maintenance recovers what was lost in the battle.
Strategy? Yes. This deck's strategy is to hit anything on your opponent's side of the field with a strong Spinning Tail attack scoring a bunch of KOs with one hit, while still being able to one-hit KO a bulky Active Pokémon with Grind.

So, to sum up, that's a pretty good deck to use, in theory. All that remains now is to test it to see if works, something that I can't do for you.

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That was it. Get your cards and go build a deck. I hope I didn't write this τσάμπα. Will go to the main site eventually, when I get to write it in PHP.

If I see a single useless post after the guide saying "nice guide NM2!!11!!" or "you suck NM2!!!111!", this thread gets locked (excluding posts by Billaros). If you think I missed something or whatever else, inform me (mainly @ Darvor, Billaros and whoever else plays the PTCG).

Note: Abbreviations are used to show the set (expansion) each card comes from. The sets allowed in the modified format right now are:

• DP: Diamond and Pearl
• MT: Mysterious Treasures
• SW: Secret Wonders
• GE: Great Encounters
• MD: Majestic Dawn
• LA: Legends Awakened
• SF: Stormfront

(Credit to http://www.pokebeach.com for the card scans.)

WOWOWOW YEAH THAT WAS AWESOME YES YES WOO WOO