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Dark Master Trainer Mike's Corner: DMTM's Perfect Sealed Deck
By Dark Master Trainer Mike
Now that you have had a chance to review the cards I got from my sealed deck and maybe build your own decks, I will give you the details of how I went about building my deck. Thanks to all who sent in your decks!
Pokémon
The first thing you have to do when building your sealed deck (or draft deck, for that matter) is take out anything you can't use. In a sealed environment like this, this usually hurts quite a bit. Here is my list of completely unplayable cards: The Charizard A-12-#, Fearow B-94-#, Scizor D-71-#, Dragonite B-93-#, Flaaffy B-38-#, and both Exeggutor cards (Exeggutor D-42-# and Exeggutor D-58-#) have no basics or Stage 1 Pokémon to support them. So they are out of there! The two Houndour C-35-# cards require Darkness Energy to use their attack. They are totally useless. That is a total of 9 cards out of the 6 packs. That leaves me with 45 cards from which to build a 40-card deck.
The next thing to do is arrange the cards by color so that we can see what is worth playing.
Fire: I can immediately eliminate Fire because I have only 1 Fire Pokemon: Vulpix D-12-#.
Lightning: Lightning is weak in the list of cards I got; it has only 4 Pokémon there. But there is the Electabuzz B-39-#! Let's come back to it.
Fighting: Fighting is weak as well. But there is the Colorless attacking Hitmonchan C-26-# and Machop B-21-#! Let's come back to these, also.
Grass: I have only 6 cards here, and nothing is very good. There is not much poison. In fact, I don't see enough here to build anything.
 Psychic: Here we go. This is what I have been looking for! I see a Mew B-85-# that can attack anywhere with only 2 Energy to power it and that places 1 damage counter on the Defending Pokémon for each Energy attached to that Pokémon. It's great in a sealed environment! Then I have 2 Mr. Mime C-22-b cards with the PokéBody that allows you to take 10 less damage for every basic Energy card attached to it. Its attack does only 20, but it is a great card in this damage-poor environment. The Gastly B-19-# does not make the cut.
Water: I have 8 cards to look over here. The Wooper C-17-# does not do much damage. The Squirtle A-18-# is not bad, but it has only 40 HP. Let's drop that one, as well. Both Chinchou cards (Chinchou D-19-# and Chinchou D-21-#) have Colorless attacks. The 60 HP Corsola B-15-# has an attack that lets you flip 3 coins to see if you can do 20 times the damage of heads that show up. I need that. Totodile A-21-# does something similar to the Corsola B-15-#, but with only 2 flips. It is in. Next I get to my only Evolution chain: the Poliwag B-12-# and the Poliwhirl B-36-#. They are pretty good. I just wish I had 2 Poliwag B-12-# cards. The Poliwhirl B-36-# has 70 HP and does 30 with the added Paralyzed condition.
Colorless/Metal: The Chansey C-30-# is a must; it is a 100 HP Colorless basic Pokémon. It has "sealed" written all over it. The Rattata B-25-# is not worth a look since it has only 30 HP. Magnemite C-36-# is also weak with no Metal Energy to power it.
Now let's add some finesse in the mix. Let's go back and look at the Electabuzz B-39-#. Very interesting. Its first attack is Colorless and pulls an Energy from your deck to put on it! I can play it with only 1 or 2 Lightning Energy in my deck! Its second attack moves an Energy from it to a Benched Pokémon. This is a good way to pull Energy from my deck and then put it on a Pokémon. Then I can do damage and move the Energy to a benched Pokémon! I can't pass Electabuzz B-39-# up! Last of all, I have to agonize over the Hitmonchan C-26-#. His second attack is Colorless, but it is one of those all-or-nothing flips for 50 damage. His 60 HP and potential for damage are too good to pass up, so let's add it in as well as the Machop B-21-#.
Trainers
 Now it's time to take a look at the Trainers. I see a bunch of good ones for sealed play. I can choose Forest Guardian D-47-#, and Mary's Impulse B-62-# as my go-get-thing cards. I should take both the Seer C-45-# and Energy Search A-28-# to get Energy from my deck. These four are a must in this environment! Now it gets tougher. Let's take both Switch A-27-# cards to get out of trouble without discarding precious (yes . . . have it I will, my Prreecciousss!) Energy. Oops, sorry about the Lord of the Rings lapse there. I can't pass up the Pokemon Reversal B-55-#, which may allow me to gust up from my opponent's bench! Now I have a dilemma: Super Scoop Up B-52-# could possibly get me out of trouble, but that is also true of Energy Switch D-44-#, which allows me to move an Energy from one Pokémon to another. I have to say no to the Power Charge B-53-#. I believe I will have enough Energy and ways of getting it so I don't need it. I must also say no to the Apricorn Forest D-52-#. (That's mostly because I don't like apricorns.) It actually benefits both players, so I don't want to waste space on it. I have enough Pokémon not to need it. The last Trainers to look at are the Technical Machines. I do not have enough Fighting Energy for the Fighting Cube 01 C-53-#, so it is out. The Water Cube 01 C-50-#, however, does 20 damage to the Bench, so it is in!
Energy
I now have room for 17 Energy cards. As a rule of thumb, I like to have 18 Energy cards in a sealed or draft deck. This time, however, I have enough cards that search for Energy that I can break my rule.
I can break another of my rules, which is that I play with only 2 colors (or 1 if I get lucky enough to build a good 1-color deck). I believe I can do this because of the Electabuzz B-39-# that searches for Energy. I can search for my Lightning Energy with this card so that I can make the Electabuzz B-39-# card's second attack work. I also allow 1 Fighting Energy on the off chance I can use it with the Hitmonchan/Machop. I have an Energy Search and an Energy Switch, so this is likely.
So here is the finished product:
 Pokémon (13)
1 Chansey C-30-#(Aquapolis)
2 Chinchou D-19-#(Aquapolis)
1 Corsola B-15-#(Expedition)
1 Electabuzz B-39-#(Expedition)
1 Hitmonchan C-26-#(Aquapolis)
1 Machop B-21-#(Expedition)
1 Mew B-85-#(Expedition)
2 Mr. Mime C-22-b(Aquapolis)
1 Poliwag B-12-#(Expedition)
1 Poliwhirl B-36-#(Expedition)
1 Totodile A-21-#(Expedition)
Trainers (10)
1 Energy Search A-28-#(Expedition)
1 Energy Switch D-44-#(Aquapolis)
1 Forest Guardian D-47-#(Aquapolis)
1 Mary's Impulse B-62-#(Expedition)
1 Pokemon Reversal B-55-#(Expedition)
1 Seer C-45-#(Aquapolis)
1 Super Scoop Up B-52-#(Expedition)
2 Switch A-27-#(Expedition)
1 Water Cube 01 C-50-#(Aquapolis)
Energy (17)
1 Fighting Energy
2 Lightning Energy
7 Psychic Energy
7 Water Energy
The deck goes 6 and 1 losing because I could get only 1 Pokémon out once. As suspected, it survives mainly on Mew B-85-# and Water Cube 01 C-50-#, as well as the big power of the Chansey C-30-#/Electabuzz B-39-#/Hitmonchan C-26-#combos. The Mr. Mime C-22-b cards make it very hard to do much damage to them. They also prove to be a very worthwhile addition.
Well, there it is. Gengar is still sulking because I would not use the Gastly! Oh well, you can't please everyone. Good luck with all your deck building!
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