Psychic Assault (TCG)

Psychic Assault was a Standard Deck found on the Wizards of the Coast website and was composed by Shawn F. Carnes.

Description

The main goal of this deck is to get out a beefy Pokémon who can deal out some serious damage and keep it out there. The deck focuses on 4 Pokémon specifically: Hitmonchan, Machop (and potentially Machoke), Mewtwo, and Kadabra (the Stage I evolution of Abra). These Pokémon can dish out some serious punishment while taking damage in turn. The deck also provides some useful tools for keeping your active Pokémon in play or easily substituting a benched Pokémon in case the active one needs to take a breather.

The strengths of the deck are fairly numerous. The Pokémon you bring into play can dish out damage quickly while taking some damage any opposing Pokémon might hand out. Hitmonchan and Machop (the Fighting Pokémon of the deck) both do a base 20 damage for F-some pretty solid damage. Hitmonchan does better damage of 40 when FFO is attached to it. Both Hitmonchan and Machop can take damage as well, having 70 and 50 hit points respectively. Mewtwo is a nice Pokémon to make active later in the game, especially against a Pokémon that has a lot of energy cards attached to it; Mewtwo does 10 damage plus an additional 10 for each energy card attached to the opposing Pokémon. It also helps that Mewtwo doesn't get knocked out at 60 hit points.

Abra/Kadabra/Alakazam is perhaps the most interesting element of the deck, offering multiple tools for getting a win. Abra can get knocked out easily at 30 hit points, but you can paralyze your opponent's active Pokémon with its attack, offering some time to get the deck up and running should you need it. The main attack power comes from Kadabra, at 60 hit points. For PPO, Kadabra can do 50 damage; not many Pokémon can stand up to that kind of attack. Alakazam's use in the deck is focused around its special power of Damage Swap, redirecting damage that the active Pokémon has taken on to a benched Pokémon that won't be seeing any action soon. This ensures that your active Pokémon remains active.

The trainers in the deck are designed not only to get to Pokémon you need quickly, but to keep them happy when they're active. Bill and Professor Oak are to get through your deck in a quicker fashion than normal, getting to what you need. Pokémon Trader also helps you get what you need by going right into the deck. Make sure to use cards you won't mind missing to pay for its cost. Energy Removal keeps an opponent's Pokémon down while you lay down the assault, thought using it on your opponent's active Pokémon while Mewtwo is fighting for you is counter-productive. Switch gets around some of the steeper retreat costs you will have, though always remember that Abra can retreat for free; if one of your Pokémon gets knocked out and you don't know who to send out, send Abra out-you can always retreat it for free later. Finally, Gust of Wind is to ensure that your opponent won't get away with sending damaged Pokémon out of harm's way by sending them to the bench.

There are a couple of things you will need to look out for when making and playing Psychic Assault. It might be hard to construct the deck if you have access to a very limited number of cards; there are a fair number of rares and holograms in the deck. Trading cards is one of the best solutions to fill out the requirements for the deck. When playing the deck, be careful against Psychic Pokémon, as all your Pokémon are weak against Psychic. The up side here is that you have Psychic Pokémon as well in the deck, so an opponent who uses a lot of Psychic Pokémon will face the same difficulties as you. Finally, make sure you use your trainer cards to their maximum effectiveness. For example, don't use an Energy Removal on a Pokémon you are about to knock out anyway. It is better saved on a Pokémon that has some energy attached to it on the bench or on an active Pokémon that you aren't going to be able to knock out right away.

Deck list

Quantity	Card	Type	Rarity
2×	Alakazam
4×	Hitmonchan
4×	Mewtwo
3×	Kadabra
1×	Machoke
4×	Abra
4×	Machop
2×	Pokémon Trader	T
2×	Professor Oak	T
2×	Bill	T
4×	Energy Removal	T
2×	Gust of Wind	T
2×	Switch	T
12×	Fighting Energy	E
13×	Psychic Energy	E

External links

• Psychic Assault (archive)

This article is part of Project TCG, a Bulbapedia project that aims to report on every aspect of the Pokémon Trading Card Game.