Thread: My Dratini Deck

First of all,
Nice to meet you all, just registered a few minutes ago.
I started collecting Pokemon cards when I was 12.
I stopped collecting a few years ago but Ive started again about 8 months ago.

I bought my last pack when I was about 14 years old, it was a Neo-Gen booster.
When I got back into all this I had no idea the amount of cards there are now!! WOW!!! its amazing!

Anyway, I still play in this local league near home, more of a friends league to be honest, but really good fun.

We change a rule or 2: imagine Ive got a Charmander, a Dark Charmeleon and a normal Charizard, this would be legal.

We can use cards from any edition! old ones too!

And regarding Baby Pokemon we can either start with the Baby Pokemon or with the next stage: for example: I can start with either Smoochum or Jynx.

Bare this in mind please!

My deck: (Ive bought lots of new boosters but still is probably quite crappy!)

x3 Dratini (2 from the Team Rocket edition)
x1 Dark Dragonair (Ive got no more Dragonair)
x1 Dragonite (triumphant, awesome card)
x2 Misdreavus
x1 Mismagius
x2 Mareep
x1 Flaafy (HGS)
x2 Eevee (1 from Rising rivals, the othe from NeoGen)
x1 Espeon (Neo)
x1 Tauros (unleashed)
x1 Electrike
x1 Manectric
x1 Smoochum
x3 Jynx
x1 Spoink
x1 Grumpig
x1 Rotom (supreme victors)
x1 Mewtwo (Base set 2)

x1 Judge
x1 Engineers Adjustments
x1 Team Rocket's Trickery
x1 Defender
x1 Hyper Devolution Spray
x1 The Boss's Way (fantastic way to put Dark Dragonair in my hand)
x1 Bill
x1 Recycle
x1 VS Seeker
x1 Enery Ark
x1 Nightly Garbage Run (Team rocket set)

x15 Psychic Energy
x9 Electric energy

Please comment, I need to improve this deck!

Cheers

Originally Posted by Anon Fisher

And regarding Baby Pokemon we can either start with the Baby Pokemon or with the next stage: for example: I can start with either Smoochum or Jynx.

This isn't actually any different to the rules everyone else plays. Although you may evolve a baby pokemon into a basic, the baby is not actually required in the first place.

Your deck is suffering from a limited pool of cards, which of course you know. Unfortunately, securing specific cards for a deck often isn't cheap. However, in this Unlimited format you play, older cards tend to be cheaper (as they are not legal in the popular Modified format).
Assuming you had unlimited access to cards, the main thing to learn is that the setup we are given in theme decks (e.g. a 4-2-1 Beedrill line) is NOT the optimal setup. Instead, 4-2-4 or 4-3-4 lines are often used. (In extreme cases, 4-0-4 when such cards as Pokemon Breeder are used!)
Your Triumphant Dragonite wants to beef up its attacks faster. Notice, all it requires for Dragon Stamp is four colourless! This is easily achieved through 2 Double Colourless Energy, effectively halving the amount of energy required. (Note: Limit of 4 double-colourless per deck.)

So the first comments are to flesh out your lines (if you can find the cards) turning a 3-1-1 Dragonite into 3-3-3 or similar. Of course, you can use different Dragonites if you wish. The other comment was the addition of double colourless energy.

The final thing I will touch on in terms of build is your large variety of Pokemon. You have 25 Pokemon, which is quite a hefty number. Your various 1-1 lines (e.g. Manectric) are severely reducing the chance that the evolution will ever be played. A way to fine-tune the deck would be to cut down on your number of species; for example, remove Spoink and Grumpig, and add another Electrike and Manectric.
Overall, it is probably better to cut out some Pokemon completely and add some trainer/supporter cards which improve deck searchability, e.g. Pokemon Collector.

And now for my last comment; the deck seems to be missing a particular direction or theme. This isn't really surprising due to the comparatively small pool of cards for you to draw from, and of course you're just playing for fun, it's all personal taste. But if you ever want to move into competitive battling (championships and such) it is best to pick a particular pokemon or idea to base your deck around, and build up around that, choosing cards that support your original theme. (Note that championships, at all levels, are Modified format, so old cards are continually rotated out.)

Anyway, I think I rambled a fair bit on some of those points, and you're welcome to disagree with me, but I hope you found this post helpful either way!

Wow!!!
Thanks for the answer!!!
Its gonna really help me!!

Pokemon breeder! Damn, I've only got one!!! Do they appear in the triumphant set?? I get your point though!

I will def add another elektrike/manectric

And regarding the double colourless energy....I've got none....do they appear in a certain set of cards? Are they expensive to buy on their own?

Thanks a lot!!!!

Originally Posted by Anon Fisher

Wow!!!
Thanks for the answer!!!
Its gonna really help me!!

Pokemon breeder! Damn, I've only got one!!! Do they appear in the triumphant set?? I get your point though!

I will def add another elektrike/manectric

And regarding the double colourless energy....I've got none....do they appear in a certain set of cards? Are they expensive to buy on their own?

Thanks a lot!!!!

Double Colorless energies can be found in HeartGoldSoulsilver packs... Pokemon breeder was actually long ago replaced by Rare Candy. The newest pack with Rare Candy is Unleashed. As states before, you have too many different lines of pokemon, and probably not enough trainers. Remember that Theme Decks that are released in stores actually decieve you. Competetive decks are built completely differently. Most decks use less than 15 energies, and you have 24, similar to theme decks

Fewer Pokemon lines and more drawing/searching Trainer and Supporter cards will be your best bet here. To be honest, unless you have the money to buy some singles online, I don't see this happening...

You have far too much going on. I'd tell you to scrap most of the other stuff in favor of a heavier Dragonite line, but are you aware that Dragonite cannot evolve from Dark Dragonair? Only Dark Dragonite, from the EX Team Rocket Returns series, can evolve from Dark Dragonair.

Originally Posted by Politoed666

Fewer Pokemon lines and more drawing/searching Trainer and Supporter cards will be your best bet here. To be honest, unless you have the money to buy some singles online, I don't see this happening...

You have far too much going on. I'd tell you to scrap most of the other stuff in favor of a heavier Dragonite line, but are you aware that Dragonite cannot evolve from Dark Dragonair? Only Dark Dragonite, from the EX Team Rocket Returns series, can evolve from Dark Dragonair.

Thanks for your advice! Yep, Im looking into it, adding another Dragonite or 2 and adding more drawing / searching cards.

Im aware that legally I would not be able to evolve Dark Dragonair into Dragonite but in tournaments with my friends its legal!!

Thanks again!