Can You Play a Fire Deck without Ninetales?

Intro

In this article, I’m going discuss 4 topics discussing using, and not using Ninetales. They are: 1. Why we use Ninetales? 2. Draw without Ninetales? 3. Goals and Strategies (with a deck list), and 4. Pros & Cons of both. In conclusion, I will briefly sum up the 4 points, and hopefully convince you to think outside the box when it comes to draw power.

But before I go into the topics, let me give you a brief description of who I am, my history with Pokemon, my success with the game, and explain what type of articles you can expect to see from me in the future.

Biography

Hi!! I’m Sam R, I’m 30 years old, and I live in Charlotte, NC. I’m known on the forms as Amphy on here, Amphy#1 on the Gym and TCG Player, Yusei99 on PoJo, and MegaAmphy on YouTube. I’ve posted many deck lists, strategy articles, and trade posts on most of all of these sites. I started playing Pokemon back in late 2000- 2001. I was around 19, or 20, so I never had the chance to play this game as a child.

I quickly learned how to play Pokemon and shortly after that I became an assistant Gym Leader, at Underground Games. I then took over that league, and I’ve been the only Gym/league Leader in Charlotte, ever since.

I’ve helped place Pokemon Leagues in 2 other stores since then, and I’m starting up another one in Mount Holly as we speak. I’ve been a rogue type of player for most of my Pokemon career, due to limited resources and funds.

Playing competitively is pretty fun for me, and I love to help and teach kids how to play. I’ve won a couple of Prereleases, and I got top 4 at Battle Roads using Honchkrow. This was right after the Supreme Victors Prerelease.

The types of articles you can expect from me are deck profiles, strategy articles, card tech choices, tournament reports, and how to articles. My articles usually have catchy titles, like this one, and are pretty fun and exciting to read.

This will be my first front page article ever!! This topic is something that hasn’t been done before, so go easy on me, But give me your thoughts on this article, and how you think I did. I always want to improve, and get better. So without further ado, it’s on to the topics.

1. Why we use Ninetales?

Well, let me answer that question. We use it as a draw engine to hopefully get the cards we need, at the right time. That’s really a great card right? A Pokemon, with the power to do what Supporters do makes it easier for us to play with because, once we use 1 Supporter, it’s gone. With Ninetales’s Poke-Power, we can use it every single turn!

There only 2 decks that I know of that could possibly use Ninetales as a draw engine. They are: Reshiram/Emboar, and  Reshiram/Typhlosion. They can both use Ninetales for draw power, but 1 can work better with it, and 1 can work without it. That brings us to my next point.

2. Draw without Ninetales?

If you’re playing a Fire deck, or can abuse Fire Energy, then you should play with Ninetales Right? Sure!! Ninetales is the best draw supporter (other than Magnezone Prime) in the game. You’ll be crazy not to use it. This is just another option for you to take, if you choose to take it.

Now some people swear by it, and when they go to help players with Fire decks, it’s the first thing they mention. There are plenty of decks out there right now that don’t have a Pokemon draw engine, and they’re doing fine.

Here are some decks that can draw without a Pokemon draw engine: Blastoise/Floatzel, Donphan/Machamp, some Zekrom variants, Mew/Gengar, Tyranitar, Grass decks, Metal decks etc… Most of them are all good decks, and have great success without a Pokemon draw engine. Also, if these decks had a Pokemon draw engine like Ninetales, they would be right up there with Magneboar competing for the best deck in the format.

With that said, you can achieve the same goals as Ninetales, with cards like Professor Juniper, Professor Oak’s New Theory, Cleffa, Copycat, Engineer’s Adjustments, and Judge. All of these cards draw more than it does and can give you the same, or even better results.

Why take the risk of wasting your Supporter for the turn? Look at what Ninetales does. Her Poke-Power says, you have to discard a Fire Energy in order to draw 3 cards. Discarding an Energy card is crucial for some decks.

See, Reshiram/Emboar decks needs Fire Energies in the hand. So in order to use Ninetales, you have to risk getting rid of the Energy you’ll need to power up your Pokemon possibly for that turn. Or, you put extra Energies in your deck, just to have them be discarded by Ninetales.

Or, you can add extra Energy Retrieval‘s and Fisherman to your deck to get back the Energies you lost. None of those options sounds really good, but players are willing to take that risk.

3. Goals and Strategies

In this topic, I will go over a deck that normally would use Ninetales, and explain how to achieve the decks goal and strategy without it. I will also give you a list to look at so you can see it from that angle as well. The first one I’m going to go over, is Reshiram/Emboar.

Reshiram/Emboar

Now what is the goal and strategy of this deck? The goal and strategy, is to get out Reshiram quick, and power it up with Emboar (Ability), so you can use its Blue Flare attack. Then use Energy Retrieval, and Fisherman to pull Fire Energy from your discard pile to your hand, so you can do Blue Flare again. Now we already know how Ninetales helps us to achieve this. So how do we do it without Ninetales?

You do it with cards like Professor Juniper, Professor Oak’s New Theory, Cleffa, Copycat, and Judge. With these cards, you’re going to have to play smart, and I’m going to discuss how to do that. With Professor Juniper you have to get rid of your entire hand. That’s not bad if you barely have a hand in the first place. See, you’re going to be using up most of the cards in your hand.

Like Energy Retrieval, Dual Ball, Pokemon Communication, dropping Fire Energy with Inferno Fandango, etc… That’s perfect for you to use Professor Juniper. So then you draw 7 new cards!! What could those cards be? They’re more of the stuff that you need to use, like the cards I mentioned a couple of sentences ago. You can use them right on that turn, or you’ll have them for next turn. You may also draw into more discard/shuffle draw cards with it.

With the rest of those cards I mentioned, you basically just shuffle what little hand you have (because you used most of your stuff) back into your deck, then draw 6, 4, or your opponent’s hand. This should be simple right? Well it is. After your first 3-4 turns, you’ll have out all of the Pokemon you need.

Reshiram’s are super easy to get with Dual Ball, and Pokemon Collector. And you should have Emboar (Ability) set up by that time. That’s the stuff you’ll be shuffling/discarding. Dead Collectors, Communications, things you don’t need because you already have them out. Here’s a list for you to see what it would look like on paper.

I would have done a list, and explained more info for Reshiram/Typhlosion, but that deck really works better with Ninetales, and there’s no point in doing it, since we all agree with that, and know what it does. Now on to my next topic.

4. Pros & Cons of both

Well, let’s look at them one at a time shall we. What are the pros for Ninetales?

1. It’s Fire, so it pairs well with all of the Fire types.
2. You draw cards off of it every turn and can still use a Supporter as well.
3. Cost for using its Poke-Power is minimal.

The cons are:

1. Takes up bench space.
2. Discards an Energy card from your hand.
3. You have to add more energy recovery in decks (except Typhlosion) to get back the Energy you discard, which takes up space in your deck.
4. It’s a target for snipers and Pokemon Reversal.

As I said before, this is just another option, just like Shuckle is another option for draw power. That’s the beauty of this deck. It doesn’t matter what you play with it. I just wanted to show you another way of winning that’s all

In conclusion, I’ve explained why we use Ninetales, and how we can draw without it. I also explained the goal and strategy of a deck, and how you can achieve that without Ninetales. I’ve also explained the pros and cons of Ninetales, and Supporter draw to show you how balanced they are. It is truly an amazing card, and it deserves every bit of praise that we give it.

I just hope that by doing this article, you’ll think outside the box a little bit, and consider all possibilities when it comes to choosing your draw engine for the deck. And with the Pokemon National Championships around the corner, you’ll need all the help you can get. I know I will. Until next time. Amphy out!! :)