Mind you, these tips are for people who want to play in touraments TO WIN, and not for people who just don't care if they win or lose. I'm trying to brew some competitiveness out of people. Good times.

Oh, and if you have any tips of your own, feel free to email them to me.

Nick15's Golden Rule:
• SHOW NO MERCY. I'm serious. .... Now you can still have fun; I'm not saying that being competitive comes at the cost of not having any fun. However if you intend to win, you can't be some lightfooted, dilly-dally player who made a Eevee-eon deck because it's cute. Players that win really don't take their opponent's opinion into account all that well during play. If you think you might make the opponent feel bad if you do something in game, then there's no way you can win. Obviously there are always acceptions to this, but not very often.

General Tournament Tips:
• Stick with archetypes, which are decks that use a popular theme (or decks that everyone else uses). Archetypes are tried and true, and are popular for a reason. Going Rogue is risky, and if you don't like risk, don't bother.
• BUT, this also means you have to metagame, and metagame often. Metagaming means altering your deck to counter other decks. If for example the big deck everyone plays is a Psychic deck, you too should play a Psychic deck, but alter it slightly to take advantage of a weakness in that deck.
• Try to assume your opponent's next few moves. If, during your turn, they have a powered-up Pokémon on their bench and a Baby as their active, you can safely assume that they will most likely bring out the powered-up Pokémon out during their next turn. By assuming such, try to take your turn in a way that takes that assumption into account. Maybe by Gusting out a Pokémon with a 2 or more retreat cost just so it would take a little longer for them to switch it out.
• As evil as it may seem, if your opponent makes a mistake that give YOU an advantage and they don't catch it, don't tell them about it. As a player, they're supposed to know when they've made a mistake and correct it. Nor is it your responsibility as their opponent to tell them about their mistake.

Deck Building Tips:
• It has worked in Magic and it does help in Pokémon; For each 2 cards in your deck, put 1 Energy card in it. In general, you should be able to get a good amount of Energy in your draws.

Draft Tournament Tips:
• When building a 40-card Draft deck, throw all other deck building tips out the window. You'll need to work with a new set of rules for this. Trust me, you'll see Pokémon that you once though as useless in a totally different light.
• You should have at least 20 energy in the deck. Even if it's a 40 card deck. Draft tournaments are a lot faster and you'll always need a lot of Energy. You'll always have that opponent who has 3 Charizards ready to pelt you with 120 damage worth of pain, but have no Energy to use them with.... while my "wimpy" Tangela are doing some major damage at 20 damage a turn. All because I had energy and they didn't.
• Which comes to tbe big tip; stick with Basic Pokémon. You may have time to work out a Stage 1 Pokémon if you plan it out correctly, but it's normally not worth it.
• Special Conditions are your friend. Grab Pokémon that do a special condition, preferably ones that automatically do an effect (like Poisonpowder for example). Poison is exceptionally more lethal in Draft.
• Generally you'll want to avoid having more than two or three Pokémon with high Energy cost attacks. Stick with ones that have say a 1 or 2 Energy attack. However having two or three will help, because there will be a time when you have a lot of Energy in your hand and no Pok&eactue;mon to make it useful with.
• On the other hand, high HP Pokémon are always useful. If you find a Basic with 70 or more HP, you might want to stick it in your deck. And if you find one that has a small energy attack that does a Special Condition, you should most DEFINITELY add it to your deck. Mwhahaha!!

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