Trading Card Strategy - Pokemon - http://maxpages.com/monstergamer/Trading_Card

Pokémon Picks
Making Tradeoffs
When you build a Pokémon deck, you can't just throw any old group of
cards together and call them winners. If nothing else, you have to make sure
you restrict yourself to just one or two types of Pokémon (with maybe some
Colorless ones thrown in) and use the right type of Energy. But it's also
important that your cards cover for each other's Weaknesses as much as
possible. Here's a quick look at how certain cards let you take chances when
designing a deck, and how to protect those Weaknesses.

Avoid an Energy Crisis
One of the biggest risks you can take when deckbuilding is to cut back too
far on Energy. The reason to skimp on Energy is obvious: fewer Energy cards
means more room for cool Pokémon and Trainers. But if you cut back too
far, you won't draw enough Energy for those Pokémon to use their attacks,
and if that happens, even those extra Trainers won't save you.

The most obvious way to compensate for less Energy is to use cheap attacks,
but that's rather boring. A better solution is to include an Energy Retrieval or
three. You have to discard two cards (Energy Retrieval itself, plus one of
your choice) for two Energy, but you usually have at least one card you don't
really need (like that fourth Pikachu).

Energy Retrieval also frees up space in your deck. For example, suppose you
decide to put 28 Energy (about average) in your deck before adding Energy
Retrieval. If you replace one Energy card with a Retrieval, you increase your
deck to the equivalent of 29 Energy - more than you decided it needs. So
take out another Energy card, replace it with a Pokémon or Trainer, and
presto - your deck's gained a cool card. Don't include too many Retrievals,
though, because they're useless if you can't draw Energy in the first place!

Work the Bench
It's easy to think of the Bench as a place where your Pokémon cool their
heels until it's their turn to fight. But there's a lot more to Bench strategy than
just replacing an Active Pokémon who's almost Knocked Out or Poisoned
with a fresh one. If your Active Pokémon is basically fine but is Poisoned or
suffering from some other obnoxious attack, retreat it and bring out another
Pokémon. Then retreat the new one, bringing the original back. This refreshes
your Pokémon, but you have to pay the cost for both retreats.

Energy Retrieval can help here, but only slowly, because you still have to
reattach that Energy. For retreat gimmicks, you're better off using Switch to
retreat a Pokémon for free. Or you can stuff your deck with Pokémon that
have retreat costs of 0. These monsters are especially useful before the game,
when you and your opponent choose which Pokémon start on the table. How
often have you had more than one Pokémon in your starting hand, only to
choose the wrong one for your Active Pokémon? If you choose a 0-retreat
Pokémon as your Active one, you can simply yank it back free of charge.
Sure, you could use Switch to do the same thing, but that's a pretty lousy time
to use it.

An interesting deck tactic is to include a few Pokémon that have lots of Hit
Points - they can hold the fort while you spend a few turns building up the
Energy of the Pokémon on your Bench. Onix is especially good for this. With
its 90 HP and its damage-preventing attack, it can last a long time against
pretty much any monster that isn't Grass (to which it has a Weakness) or Fire
(which has big, cheap attacks compared to other types). Throw in a few
Potions, and it can sit out there forever. When you don't need it anymore, just
Switch it out!

Not Knocked Out Yet!
Often the most powerful combinations in the Pokémon TCG come from a
card with a really nasty drawback and another card that gets around that
drawback. While these combinations aren't always as useful as Switch or
Energy Retrieval, they pack a pretty big bang when you get to use them. Let's
look at Magnemite, a Pokémon whose big attack carries a pretty significant
drawback, and at how a variety of cards can combine with it to make it a
whole lot better.

Magnemite's attack does a lot of damage for its Energy requirement: for just
you get an attack that does 40 damage to your opponent's Active Pokémon,
and 10 damage to every Benched Pokémon. But that includes your
Pokémon; plus, Magnemite does another 40 damage to itself. Obviously you
need ways to prevent the damage you're doing to your team, or at least ways
to get rid of that damage quickly.

Defender is a Trainer card that reduces attack damage dealt to a Pokémon.
For Magnemite's purposes, it's important to remember that Defender reduces
damage from all attacks, including yours. So if you use Defender on
Magnemite and attack with it, it only takes 20 damage from its own attack,
which often won't be enough to Knock it Out. Best of all, Defender will still
be there on your opponent's next turn, preventing 20 damage from that turn's
attack! With enough Defenders and Potions, you can keep using the same
Magnemite's attack again and again.

A good way to eliminate the damage you're doing to your Bench is to use
Pokémon Center. This removes all damage from all of your Pokémon but
discards the Energy attached to any that were damaged. If Magnemite gets its
attack in early enough, there probably won't be Energy attached to your
Benched Pokémon, so you get to ignore the drawback.

There's another hidden drawback to Magnemite's attack: the attack does a
lot more damage to your opponent's Active Pokémon than to those on your
opponent's Bench. In particular, if your opponent's Active Pokémon is only
10 HP shy of being Knocked Out, you're wasting 30 of the attack's damage,
often at the expense of Knocking Out your own Magnemite. You can get
around this drawback with Gust of Wind, swapping the almost-KO'd
Pokémon for one with, say, 40 HP or fewer. This will enable your
Magnemite to Knock Out two of your opponent's Pokémon, not just one.

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Page Updated Mon Feb 14, 2000 1:09pm EST