Flaming Mist - Fire and Water Deck

[Rytaran]

Ok. I'm in need of some suggestions for this deck before I decide to buy all the cards:

Quantity - Name - Series - Species

3x Feebas - Dragon Frontiers
2x Milotic - Dragon Frontiers - Delta Species
3x Togepi - Dragon Frontiers
2x Togetic - Dragon Frontiers - Delta Species
3x Mareep - Dragon Frontiers - Delta Species
2x Flaaffy - Dragon Frontiers - Delta Species
1x Ampharos - Dragon Frontiers - Delta Species
2x Mewtwo - Delta Species - Delta Species
1x Latias Ex - Dragon Frontiers - Delta Species
1x Latios Ex - Dragon Frontiers - Delta Species

10x Fire Energy
8x Water Energy
4x Metal Energy - Basic or special... need help deciding that

4x Energy Restore
2x Energy Search
2x Holon Mentor
4x Solid Rage
2x Holon Explorer
2x Holon Farmer
2x Holon Researcher

[Bullados]

Are you trying to make a Modified deck, a New Modified deck, or an Unlimited deck? The various descriptions are in my sig. That will help greatly in helping you decide how to run this thing.

I'll start with my first major recommendation: Drop the Energy down to about 15-17 and find some Trainers that get you more cards. TV Reporter, Holon Adventurer, and Bill's Maintenance are some fairly cheap-ish New MOdified cards, and they're pretty good too.

There are a couple of articles in my signature about the basics of deckbuilding. It's a good idea to read them over. They basically outline the steps that I generally take when I'm building decks.

[Rytaran]

New Modified type I think

As for the energy drop, I want to keep it high enough so that I don't end up losing it to trainer cards/poke-powers, and so that I can put enough on mewtwo so he can do major damage.

I can switch out the training method's for the holon adventureres I suppose.

I also forgot to tell the strategy of my deck, so here it is:

Get Ampharos on the bench, with Togetic in the active pokemon space. With Ampharos' pokebody, every pokemon on the field is a deltspecies. This allows togetic to copy their attacks.

While togetic is up there, having fun using their own powers against them, Milotic will be on the bench in reserve once togetic falls. Milotic's pokepower will allow me to use good supporters without having them in my deck, which is why I'm not going to need TV Reporter or anything like that.

Latios Ex and Latias Ex work well when both are on the field because of Latios providing a free retreat, and Latias giving them energy when they need it badly.

Mewtwo is a bit of a throwaway card due to his low HP, but his powers can exceed any of my other pokemon if he's used correctly.

As for my trainers, I'm using cards that will let me get quick wins like the Solid Rage, and I'm also using cards that will allow me to get cards back into my deck, allowing me to keep supplying my cards with energy, and possibly outlast my opponent due to his continual card drain, and my continual card gain.

[Rytaran]

Oh, and I'm having trouble deciding on a card to replace Mewtwo, since he's not in the New Modified version. Would someone mind helping me out with that too?

[Bullados]

Let's start by changing an assumption that you're making. Here is a ruling from the Compendium about Ampharos:

== HOLON VEIL (Ampharos - EX: Dragon Frontiers)
Q. Does Ampharos' "Holon Veil" Poke-BODY make both players' Pokemon in play delta-species type, or just your own?
A. Holon Veil only affects your own Pokemon. It's implied that it's only your own Pokemon in play as well. (Nov 30, 2006 PUI Rules Team)

What changes do you think you want to make based on this new information?

[Rytaran]

Ouch... now there's quite a bit I should change. Since 3 out of the 4 series allowed don't have any, or many delta species, it would probably be unwise to use the togetic anymore. And the Ampharos should probably be taken out too....

So, I would probalby change my deck to:

3x Feebas - Hidden Legends
2x Milotic - Dragon Frontiers - Delta
3x Krabby - Team Rocket Returns
2x Kingler - Dragon Frontiers - Delta
2x Mewtwo - Delta Species - Delta
1x Latias Ex - Dragon Frontiers - Delta
1x Latios Ex - Dragon Frontiers - Delta

12x Fire Energy
4x Water Energy
4x Metal Energy - Basic

4x Energy Restore
2x Energy Search
2x Holon Mentor
4x Solid Rage
2x Holon Adventurer
4x Holon Farmer
2x Holon Researcher

And then I have 5 cards left over that I don't know what to do with... btw, do you have Windows Live Messenger? It would probably be easier to work on this on that...

[Bullados]

I don't use IM software. Either way, I like this better, because it's more informative to the general community.

Look again at the New Modified listing. I can count at least a dozen cards in that deck that are not legal in the New Modified, and about half a dozen aren't even legal in the current Modified format. Start from there. Look at the cards that you think might be interesting to use, and build from there.

[Rytaran]

4x Feebas - Dragon Frontiers
3x Milotic - Dragon Frontiers - Delta
4x Krabby - Dragon Frontiers - Delta
3x Kingler - Dragon Frontiers - Delta
1x Latias Ex - Dragon Frontiers - Delta
1x Latios Ex - Dragon Frontiers - Delta
2x Raquaza - Holon Phantoms - Delta - Water/Metal version


10x Fire Energy
6x Water Energy
4x Metal Energy
2x Holon Energy WP

4x Energy Restore - D&P
4x Energy Search - D&P
2x Holon Mentor - Holon Phantoms
2x Holon Adventurer - Holon Phantoms
4x Switch
4x Warp Point

That's my new version. What do you think now?

[Bullados]

OK, a Kingler/Milotic deck. Let's get started with this...

First, let's dump all the stuff that either sucks or you won't be using. Energy Restore, sucks. Energy Search, sucks. Switch and Warp Point do not suck, but you probably won't use more than 2 of them in any given game. Rayquaza Phantoms, sucks.

OK, now that all of that is out of the way, we have 16 spots to work with. Let's make it 18 by dropping your evolution chains to 3-3. 19 by dropping the Latias, which is largely useless unless in a deck designed to abuse it. You now have nothing requiring Metal Energy, so let's drop those as well.

Oh, heck. Now that I think about it, I'm probably just better off rebuilding this thing and explaining what I'm doing as I go...

Pokemon (17):
3 Krabby
3 Kingler (there is none in DF. Do you mean CG?)
3 Feebas
3 Milotic Delta
4 Mawile (replace with Chingling when it comes out)
1 Latios ex Delta

Mawile makes for a very good starter, and Chingling does it one better. Searching and drawing are always a plus. 3-3 lines are pretty standard, even in the fabled RaiEggs these days.

Trainers (27):
4 Castaway
2 Scott
4 Cessation Crystal (Kingler *loves* this thing!)
1 Strength Charm
1 Crystal Shard
3 Holon Mentor
3 TV Reporter or Holon Adventurer
3 Steven's Advice
2 Switch/Warp Point
4 Celio's Network

This is a fairly standard speed stage 1 Trainer engine. Lots of card drawing, searching, and a nice little bit of disruption that compliments Kingler's attack QUITE nicely! Castaway is basically a 4xPlusPower for your Kinglers, and the various Tools make Castaway stocking a very nice idea with an early Scott. Plus, with Mawile in the deck, you can get virtually all of your key Supporters into your hand on turn 1! How kool is that!?!

Energy (16):
4 Double Rainbow
2 Scramble
3 Metal (SPECIAL)
7 Water

Standard speedy stage 1 energy line. Double Rainbow ROX to the point of being broken. You say I've only got one Energy on my Kingler? WRONG! I'm hitting you for 70 damage right now!!! Scramble is also very nice in a low-HP deck like this one. You're going to get KO'd quite often. Scramble means that you can one-turn yourself back into contention. I didn't realize that Kingler was a dual-Metal type, so disregard my comment about Metal. You use it for defensive measures only, and that's about it.

[Rytaran]

Very nice.... and yes I did mean CG for the Kingler. My only worry is that several pokemon(some the most powerful) can use derail, or something similar. That could wreck my strategy with so many special energy types. And why is the Raquaza so bad? It looks like it could really wreck things quite easily, and with it's poke body it could help all water type in my deck.