Pokemon Deck Building Basics

Understanding Pokemon TCG Game Mechanics

Having a solid understanding of the rules of the game will always help when it comes to deck building. The rules are quite simple and, like most things, the more you practise, the easier it will become. It will also help you to decide how many of each card you will have in your deck.

Each player uses a 60 card deck, which sounds like a lot, but you will often find you don’t have room for everything you want. Players take it in turns to play cards and perform actions during the game. There are certain things to remember though, such as the player who goes first cannot play a supporter card and cannot attack during their first turn.

During the rest of the game, you may only play one Supporter card per turn. This is important to remember, because you don’t want to fill your deck with supporters when you can only use them once per turn. Each player can only attach one energy from their hand per turn. Again, this is important to remember and will help to find the balance of the right number of energy cards, depending on your deck’s strategy.

It is also important to know your win conditions. The most common way to win the game is to take all 6 prize cards and this is achieved by attacking, and knocking out, your opponent's Pokemon. There are other win conditions though, such as if your opponent cannot draw a card to start their turn then they lose.

Decks which aim to win on this condition are often referred to as Mill decks or Stall decks. There are also Control decks which aim to control your opponent's resources and get rid of the essential pieces that they need for their deck to work. These types of decks can be far more complicated and can be challenging to play, let alone play against. They also require a good knowledge of all the decks you will be facing and so are perhaps not great for beginners.

So, back to the cards in the deck. There are now 3 main types of cards in the Pokemon TCG; Pokemon, Energy and Trainers. Trainers are then broken down further into Supporters, Items, Stadiums and Tools. It is worth noting as well that you are limited to a maximum of 4 copies of an individual card (apart from Basic Energy cards, which you can have as many as you like. Special Energy cards are limited to 4 each).  

Choosing your decks core strategy

As we mentioned earlier, there are several different ways to win in the Pokemon TCG. Before choosing the cards for your deck, it is important to have a strategy for your deck and build around that. Your core strategy may be that you are going to take all 6 prize cards as quickly as possible and so you need a deck which is going to consistently set up.

Maybe you have a favourite Pokemon which you love to use and so your strategy will be based around whatever that card’s strength is. Whatever your main strategy may be, the most important thing for any deck is that it is consistent. You need to be able to find the cards you need on the turns you need them and being able to draw cards freely is the best way to do this. You do not want to rely on luck when competing, you need to give yourself the best chance possible to draw the cards you need.

Once you understand the way in which your deck is going to function, the next thing is choosing cards which will help you achieve that goal. It is important to choose your main attacking Pokemon and any support Pokemon which will help your deck run smoothly and consistently. Support Pokemon take many different forms; there are those that help you to draw more cards and some which help you to get your attacks off quicker by attaching extra energy cards during your turn.

The current most popular archetypes are all decks which focus on drawing lots of cards as quickly as possible and making sure that the attackers are ready to attack on turn 2. These types of decks apply so much pressure to the opponent that if they do not match the speed then they will be behind straight away. Once you are in that position, it can be hard to catch up again. Take Mew VMAX for example, it is an extremely strong attacker but wouldn’t be very effective on its own. This is where we select good support Pokemon and the Mew VMAX deck has immense draw power thanks to Genesect V. It is quite easy for the Mew player to see 15-20 cards in a turn. With this amount of draw power, it reduces the luck needed and makes sure you are regularly able to see the cards you need.

Arceus VSTAR is another powerful card that we have access to. This has in-built consistency with its ‘Star Birth’ ability which lets you grab 2 cards from your deck at any time. It also uses colourless energy to attack and so can be paired with any other attackers you want. It is these sorts of cards that allow people to find a good strategy which is going to work almost every single time.

Creating the Balance of Cards

Once you have selected your strategy and thought about your main attackers and support Pokemon, you need to work out the rest of your deck. We need energy cards to help us attack and trainer cards to help our deck run smoothly.

It is important to know how many energy cards you will need, based on the attacking Pokemon you are using and your decks overall strategy. This is mainly down to your attackers and if they have a very small attack cost, say 2 energy, and you think you will need 4 attackers during the course of a game, then 10 energy may be sufficient. This covers you if any are in your prize cards and for when your Pokemon are knocked out. You may try this out and find that you don’t need so many energy, or maybe that you need more to make sure you can attack more consistently.

Trainer cards are probably the most important part of a deck and they are the part that is most often overlooked. It’s great having the strongest Pokemon, but if they cannot get into an attacking position quickly then they are worthless. We mentioned earlier about Supporter cards and how you can only play one per turn. This may make you think that you only need a low Supporter count as the game may only last 6 turns. Well, think again! Like with all the cards, it is a good idea to include 1 more than you think you will need, just in case one of them is prized or you have to discard one early in the game.

There are some Supporter cards which are included in every single deck regardless of strategy, because they are so damn good! Take ‘Boss’s Orders’ for example. This card has been a staple of every deck in varying degrees. Some play a single copy, others play the maximum of 4 and everything in between. Having the ability to switch your opponent's active Pokemon with one of their benched Pokemon is so good and is a great way to close out games. You can bring in an already damaged Pokemon to knock it out easily or switch in a 2 prize Pokemon for those last 2 prizes you need.

There are also some powerful item cards in Standard format currently. Cards such as ‘Electric Generator’ are great for helping your electric Pokemon get their attacks off earlier and more consistently. ‘Trekking Shoes’ allows you to draw a card, if you don’t need that card then you can discard it and draw another. That is a great way to simply draw more cards and potentially get cards into the discard pile if you need to. The best thing about Item cards is that you can play them as often as you like during your turn. Make sure you are running high counts of Item cards which are going to help you achieve the decks goals.

Tool cards now have their own classification. Where they were once classed as Item cards, from the beginning of Scarlet & Violet, they are now their own type. Tool cards are likely to be the least common part of your deck, alongside Stadiums which we will look at in a minute. You can only attach one tool to each Pokemon and so you need to decide which will be most useful. Do you need ‘Choice Belt’ to deal an extra 30 damage to Pokemon V, or perhaps ‘Forest Seal Stone’ would be more useful as it allows you to search for any card from your deck? Again, it’s important to think how many you are likely to use during a game and if they are an integral part of your deck winning games.

As we mentioned, there are also Stadium cards. While you don’t want to clog your deck up with lots of them, they can be a really important part of lots of decks’ strategies. ‘Path To The Peak’ shuts off all abilities of rule box Pokemon, which in today's game is a huge benefit. If you are playing a single prize deck or a deck with no rule box Pokemon then it is probably a card to include regardless of strategy as it will have such a detrimental effect on the efficiency of so many decks in the format. There are others such as ‘Beach Court’ which give Basic Pokemon one less retreat cost which again can be a massively strong benefit.

All of your Trainer cards will play their specific roles but it can’t be stated enough how important deck searching cards and draw support cards are. Most of the most consistent decks are built around them and they are usually the most successful.

Tips for Creating a Competitive and Consistent Deck

So you’ve chosen your strategy and you’ve got your card counts worked out. But there are a couple of other things you need to think about. First of all, the current meta game; what are the most popular decks around at this time? Which decks are winning tournaments? If you are going to a tournament, chances are these decks will likely be the most popular there as well. If your deck is hard countered by the most popular decks then you are going to have a pretty rough time!

If you know your local meta and think you will play against Mew VMAX all day then it could be worth adding a ‘tech’ for Mew. A tech is simply a card, or combination of cards, that is effective against that one deck. For Mew, that is likely to be a Drapion V. It is always a good idea to think, “will the tech help me overall? Will the tech help me in a specific match up that I am either worried about, or think I will run into all day?” It’s important to find a balance when choosing techs for certain matchup because every tech you add in means taking out some of the consistency of your deck.

There is another way of deck building and it is simply copying someone else. Maybe there is a deck that won a tournament and it just strikes a chord with you. Copy the list and then either keep it as it is or tweak it to adapt to your local meta game. It may be that you’ve built a very similar deck and just can’t find that last spark to make it top tier but then you see one online that looks like it has what you need. No one is going to complain if you copy winning decks and refine them down to your own taste.

Some people are restricted by budget when it comes to deck building and you should be reassured to know that you don’t have to spend the most money to have the best deck. There are several single prize archetypes that only cost a few pennies per card to pick up online or at your local store.

Testing and Refining Your Deck

Testing is very important when it comes to getting the most out of your deck. It will help you to understand which cards are most important for certain situations. It helps you map out your prizes and understand your opponents decks and their strategies. The most common ways of testing are both in person and online using the Pokemon Trading Card Game Live. Both are great for getting experience with your deck and practising those tough matchups.

Talking of tough matchups, you might play lots of games and decide that you don’t need as much energy as you play and can cut one to add in a ‘Professor's Research’ for that extra consistency.

Maybe you were undecided on whether a ‘Drapion V’ would help and so far it would have won you a dozen more matches, well then make room for it. This is the beauty of the testing grounds, they allow you to work out your decks strengths and weaknesses in real time and make those changes without penalty. Remember, once you start in a tournament, there is no changing your deck list, so it needs to be spot on before you start.

That’s quite the comprehensive read there, but I hope you have managed to take something away from it. Remember, above everything, make sure your deck is consistent. Make sure that you have the cards you want, when you need them and you are attacking every turn.

Deck search cards and draw support are just as important as your powerful attackers. Follow these tips and you’ll be taking down tournaments in no time!