Rocket-On

Typhlosion's stackable Fire Recharge Pokémon Power not only unlocks a variety of strategies previously made impossible by Energy shortage, it makes the Pokémon itself a force to be reckoned with since it's able to extremely quickly fuel its own powerful Flame Burst attack.

The most straightforward way to play this versatile deck is of course to simply go on the offensive with Typhlosion. Alternatively, however, you always have the option to shift into a control strategy by depriving your opponent of Energy using Blaine's Charmander's Kindle attack. And if you want to push this deck even further, Moltres Wildfre attack allows you to mill your opponent's deck and leave them without any cards to draw.

Crobat has a a very advantageous set of specs in the context of this format: it's a Grass type, making it strong against the best deck in the format (Feraligatr) but it isn't weak to fire, making it easier to resist another very strong deck (Typhlosion). On top of that, all the Pokémon in the deck have zero retreat cost, making the player able to use Double Gust without any downsides. The deck is also very low maintenance since it has very straightforward attackers and doesn't rely on Pokémon Powers. This makes it ideal for the inclusion of Pichu to counter the opponent's Pokémon with Pokémon Powers and Chaos Gym to counter more Trainer-dependent decks.

The Gastly > Dark Haunter > Dark Gengar might just be the best evolution line in all of early formats. Ghastly is able to recover discarded Energy, Dark Haunter can bring back opponent's Baby Pokémon, and Dark Gengar can fprce them into the active spot and KO them in a single attack - without even needing to flip for the Baby rule. Add to that Noctowl's Glaring Gaze Pokémon Power and Rocket's Sneak Attack and you've got yourself one of the most annoying decks in the format.

This is one of the most unique decks in the WoTC formats, in my opinion. Your goal is - counterintuitively - to get as many Water Energy cards into the discard pile as quickly as possible, powering the massive Feraligatr's Riptide attack. To help you achieve that, the deck uses various methods: Feraligatr's Downpour Pokémon Power, trainers like Secret Mission and the hyper aggressive Misty's Wrath, and The Rocket's Training Gym Stadium which forces you to discard any unproductive Energy cards stuck on your Baby Pokémon when retreating. Since Riptide requires you to shuffle the Energy cards back into the deck after use, you need a way to consistently and quickly fish them out. This is where Trash Exchange comes in, effectively allowing you to loop the cards that have already been played.

Steelix has the highest HP of any Stage 1 Pokémon of the Neo era and one of the highest overall. Equip it with two or three Metal Energies and a Gold Berry and it becomes almost impossible to KO in a single round. It also has the highly coveted Grass resistance, a fantastic trait in the format overrun with Grass decks. To make things even more annoying for your opponent, the deck also runs Muk, downright crippling many decks which rely on Pokémon Powers.

Venusaur's Energy Trans Pokémon Power allows you to arrange Grass Energy cards on your Pokémon however you like, allowing you to preserve the Energy of Pokémon on the verge of being knocked out or quickly powering up any Pokémon's attack. Even better, it allows you to use Pokémon Center without the high cost of discarding Energy since you can just move them to the Pokémon with no damage counters. If you somehow run out, thanks to Rainbow Energy, Mewtwo help you pull the Energy cards out of the discard pile. Since the deck takes a while to set up, Mew is there to help you stall while Promo Venusaur's Pokémon Power allows you to keep Mew free of special conditions.