How to School the Competition – Deck Building

Welcome to the next part of my How to School the Competition series. For the first part, I talked about LuxChomp and how to use it more effectively against a handful of the major decks. For this part, instead of talking about a certain deck and its match-ups, this will be a general guide that any deck can use on how to play the game. I’ll cover every step, from building your deck to playing in a tournament with it.

Note: Just like my LuxChomp article, which was aimed at players of all skill levels, this one is even more so. I believe that newer players will learn the most from this article. For more advanced players, you may just want to skip this article as it won’t do much for you apart from being a review of what you already know.

Deck Building

When you build a deck, there’s a huge list of things that you need to remember if you want a successful deck. So many, in fact, that I cannot go over each and every one here without taking this article to an 8,000 word count, so instead I’ll go over the most notable ones that prove to be either interesting, important, etc.

I. Focus
First off, you need to come up with the focus on what your deck will be. You will need to do one of three things:
A. Come up with a general strategy that you would like your deck to have (e.g., a spread deck)
B. Come up with a main card or cards to be the focus of your deck
C. Pick an Archetype

While most players choose to go with C, don’t feel discouraged to go with A or B.

II. Direction
Next, come up with a plan for your deck. If you chose A, you want to figure out which few cards you would like to include in your deck to help accomplish your strategy. If you chose B or C, now is the time where you want to choose which route you want to take with the deck. Would you like to go for a speedy-type list or go for one that is slower and more powerful? That decision is up to you.

For the sake of explaining each step easier, I will be using a LuxChomp deck as my example.

My Direction:
I would like to go with a faster, consistent list over disruption.

III. Goals
After you have a blurry idea of what your deck will be, before moving forward, it’s best you come up with a few goals for your deck, such as decks you want to beat. A few examples include:

* Having a superior match over every SP deck
* An edge in the mirror
* A good chance against each deck in the format
* No auto-losses.
* Simple to play
* Out-speed my opponent

You get the idea. Keeping your goal in mind will help you as you’re creating your deck.

My Goals:
Having an edge in the mirror and a list that offers lots of ways to outplay the opponent.

One thing to also note is that your goals should fit your playstyle and skill level. If you are a new player who is still learning, you will probably want a simpler list that is easier to play. I have been playing for almost 10 years, so a deck that offers a lot of complex options is usually (not always, but usually) best for my playstyle.

IV. Map
Next, come up with a general map of what cards you would like to include in your deck as well as getting an idea what sort of lines you want to run.

My Map:
I want a Garchomp C line that allows me to quickly get multiple Garchomp in play. I want to make sure I don’t run into energy shortages and I’ll probably want a 2-2 line of Luxray GL. I’ll obviously max out Poke Turn and Energy Gain, and play a higher count of SP Radar. I’d also like a few shuffle/draw supporters in the deck as well as quick recovery, which means playing 2 Aaron’s Collection may be a smart move.

V. Skeleton
For the next step, you want to come up with a nice skeleton for the deck of about 40-48 cards. Don’t include too many techs in this list, just focus on basing this on consistency as well as helping to achieve your Goals (III).

My Skeleton:

VI. Techs, Pt. 1
As you can see, my skeleton only includes 44 cards, which includes 18 slots for techs. This is one of the most difficult steps in the deck building process. First off, you want to remember the Direction you chose to go in and the Goals you made for your deck. For example, I chose having an edge in the mirror as one of my goals, so I will want to keep that in mind as I build my deck

In addition to those things, you will need to adapt your deck to be able to contend with the top decks in the format. Trying to do all of this and still create a consistent and fast deck is very difficult. It is something that takes years to master. Just when you think you mastered it, you will learn a whole new side to it. However, it is essential that you keep trying to do, otherwise you won’t improve at the game.

My Techs:
I’ll start by remembering the Goals for the deck, which included having options mid-game and an edge in the mirror. For that, the edge in the mirror, I’ll add in Dragonite FB and Promocroak to help KO their SP Pokemon, Premier Ball for speed and recovery, and another TGI Power Spray to negate “Healing Breath”/”Bright Look”. I’ll also add in a second Crobat G to help increase my OHKO ability and a Psychic Energy to allow Promocroak and Crobat G to attack.

+1 Dragonite FB
+1 Toxicroak G
+1 TGI Power Spray
+1 Premier Ball
+1 Crobat G
+1 Psychic Energy

VII. Techs, Pt. 2
That was only the very beginning of teching out your deck, you should still have 8-14 slots left, meaning there’s a lot more work to be done.

A good idea for your deck is to include techs that serve more than one purpose, or one that requires you to give it the least amount of space as possible. For example, Honchkrow SV is a common tech in Sablelock. Why? Because it serves a number of roles for the deck. First of all, it acts as a Machamp SF counter as well as a much needed secondary attacker that can actually whip out big damage. Second, it has great synergy with the deck because it uses Darkness Energy (which Sableye also uses), Double Colorless Energy (which Garchomp C uses), and just SP in general (it gains attack power for having Basics in play).

For example, a smart card for me to play in my deck would be Purugly G, as it serves a number of uses. First of all, it corresponds perfectly with my goals, helping with both the mirror match as well as giving the deck more options. Second, it also improves my matches against Gyarados and other SP variants, which means it serves more than one purpose, and that’s always a good thing.

+1 Purugly G

VIII. Consistency
Now that you have a number of slots filled up on your deck, you still need to add more consistency cards to your deck, which is what the last cards in the deck are for. There are a lot of different ways to add consistency to your deck, some that are better than others. For example, Professor Oak’s New Theory would help my deck’s consistency as well as helping my VileGar match-up, which makes it a multi-function card.

There are, of course, other cards to add to your deck that both add consistency and help with a match-up. The best example of this type of card is Uxie LV.X, which helps with both consistency and the Machamp match-up. If your deck isn’t consistent, it isn’t good. If you cannot set up each game, then there’s a very low chance of you actually winning the match.

My Consistency:
To make my LuxChomp list more consistent, it’s probably a good idea to add in Pokemon Communication and another PONT. To help further power my attacks, I’ll also add in an SP Energy. Most players have dropped this card, but I find it to be very useful as it can power Luxray GL, Toxicroak G, and Crobat G, making it very useful in almost every situation.

+1 Pokemon Communication
+1 PONT
+1 SP Energy

My Current List:

Total: 56 Cards

IX. Playtesting
After you have come up with a useable deck list of at least 55 cards, I often find it a good idea to stop there and test out your deck. While you won’t be able to use it at a tournament, play some matches against a friend or even solitaire matches. Try it out against a wide variety of decks to figure out which matches you have a hard time against and which you are able to easily win.

A good idea to keep track of what you learned through your testing is to simply have a pen and paper handy where you can write notes that vary from “Deck sucks late-game” to “Energy drought mid-game”. Instead of rewriting the same note over again, simply put a tally after a note, which symbolizes another time you experienced that problem.

X. Post-Playtesting
To help with the VileGar, I tested out a variety of techs that would work well in my deck, in addition to fitting my playstyle, and came up with a number of good options. First off, Pokemon Contest Hall, which is great for forcing through to my Energy Gains and Basic SP Pokemon. Another card that really helps here is Bebe’s Search, which excels at adding consistency to the deck as well as a good way to shuffle away trainers. In addition, I opted for a 1-1 Smeargle UD and Unown Q line to help me recover each time one of my attackers is KO’d.

+2 Pokemon Contest Hall
+2 Bebe’s Search
+1 Smeargle
+1 Unown Q

XI. More Testing
Now that you have completed a 60 card list, take it to your league! Leagues are a great place to work through all of the kinks in your deck. Not only do you work out the problems in your deck, you will improve your skill level as a player, learn how to better play certain match-ups, and master your deck.

If you are unable to go to league or there isn’t one near you, there are a few things you can do. One great way is to create a team or group of players that you can playtest with often, either in person or via Apprentice, Redshark, Skype, etc.

XII. Closing
Great job, you reached Step XII, which means that you have created a 60-card deck and have done a fair amount of testing with it. Now comes the time that you must make a choice: whether or not to keep the deck.

If you are making a Rogue deck, you may decide that it’s just not good enough, or, if you’re playing Gyarados, that it’s just not your style. If you decide to scrap the deck, you’ll need to start over with Step I to come up with your idea, create your deck list, and test it out again. It’s possible you may have to do this process 10+ times to find the deck that fits best, but when you do, it will be worth it.

However, if you have come to the decision that you would like to continue to use the deck you selected, congrats. Now comes the hard part: perfecting your deck, which will require a lot more testing and you’ll probably end up editing your list quite a bit.

Well, that’s it for now, I hope you enjoyed this article. Until next time,

-Dakota Streck