My new favorite past-time is playing Pokémon TCG with my son. His encyclopedic knowledge of Pokémon is pretty impressive. It translates pretty well to the card game, even if there are some inconsistencies with the lore vs. the balance of the game.
Because I am a game nerd, and a former MtG player myself, I also like looking at deck ideas and coming up with strategies and themes. Most of the time, they exploit obvious mechanics, some better than others. I’m also on a kind of strict budget. My wife would kill me if we spent hundreds of dollars on cards.
So, what’s a guy to do? Budget decks!
Honestly, these sort of category is one of my favorite types of deck building. It requires creativity, knowledge of game mechanics and card functionality budgeting to ensure your deck plays well. It also reminds me of the “White Weenie” decks of the past (basically: a bunch of small creatures that either, en mass or with powerful stacking buffs becomes a powerhouse).
So, on to my recent purchase! Here’s the blog article I read that got me started:
The basic premise of this deck is to cycle through your deck with search cards like “Nest Ball” and “Lady” to pull Mudsdale and some energies out. This allows you to get a heavy hitter out decently early. Additionally, since you’ve only got a stage 1 out, you’re not going to give your opponent two prize cards should he get momentum faster than you.
The deck comes out to be about $16.82, which is just shy of one of those starter decks and significantly better tuned. It has the ability to be adapted with the removal of “Cutiefly/Ribombee” with something that has faster or more consistent energy retrieval. You can also better defenses or a “Rescue Stretcher” to keep the “Mudsdales” cycling in if you have to rely on their second attack a lot.
I can’t wait to try it with my son. The “Pikachu/Raichu GX” deck I pieced together, and have been playing, on my own seems to be very draw dependent and can struggle if energy doesn’t come in quick enough. I’ll post that one later.
Any budget decks I’m missing out on? I don’t currently have very many fire-type, metal-type or fariy-type cards, so those decks seem more interesting to me.
