I have been wanting to write this article for several months. It's been one of those issues I just can't let go of. So, after spending Sunday afternoon giving several parents deck-building tips for their children, I made the commitment to myself to just get it done.

The goal of this article is to design and build a competitive deck for the younger players as a stepping stone to learn the game and to give them a positive experience in competing in a local Pokemon tournament. Is it possible for an 8-year-old to compete against a child 4 or 5 years older? Yes. It's been my experience that the really competitive games seem to come from the older kids and the kids with parents that support the hobby. It seems that if you help teach your child the rules and help them to build a balanced, competitive deck, he or she will do well against any age group. Just the look on my 7-year-old daughter's face after winning three games in a row against boys 4 and 5 years older was priceless and it shows that being involved with your children is a VERY positive thing.

With that stated, I must first point out you will not be able to meet your child's requirement for having one of each of his or her favorite Pokemon in the deck. It is unfortunate, but many of the most popular Pokemon do not actually play well in competition (take Charizard for example). In fact, one of the most common mistakes made in deck building is to use too many Pokemon and not nearly enough trainers or energy. Trainers win the game in Pokemon. So this brings us to our first rule:

• Rule 1. Use 15 Basic Pokemon, 21 Trainers, and 24 Energy.

Our purpose here is to start out with a good deck balance and then enhance and modify based on your child's skill, preferences, and experiences. This is, in fact, the subject of my next article: How to tune and enhance your deck for better gameplay success.

For the duration of the article, I am going to use the following energy abbreviations:

FE - Fighting Energy, GE - Grass Energy, RE - Fire or Red Energy, WE - Water Energy, EE - Electric Energy, PE - Psychic Energy, *E - Colorless Energy.

My background: I'm the father of three kids (9 and younger) who love to play Pokemon. In fact, and I must take a moment to brag, my 9-year-old has won his last 3 tournaments including two single-elimination tournaments against all age groups and my 7-year-old daughter came in 4th in her first eleven-and-younger DCI-sanctioned tournament. Her brother won the event.

With that said, on to the subject: "Deck Designing for Our Younger Players"

My first recommendation is to purchase a copy of

This book is excellent. It details the rules of the game, general deck-building strategies, provides single-card rules/strategies on their use and merits for all cards in both the Base and Jungle Sets, and details several competition-quality Pokemon decks.

With the idea of building a simple, easy-to-use deck that with help your child both learn the game and enjoy a good amount of success, we will start with some general guidelines:

• Rule 2. Use only basic Pokemon.
• Rule 3. Limit the number of different Pokemon types.
• Rule 4. Limit the type of Trainers.
• Rule 5. Start with a single-color (aka mono) deck.
• Rule 6. Limit the number of rules or game complexities to remember.
• Rule 7. Build the deck to hopefully allow them to do something each turn.

Finally, although not a rule, let's try to limit the number of rare and holofoil cards. This helps both the new player and the parent reduce the cost of newly constructed decks.

Simple, strong, and effective Pokemon requiring minimum energy to perform their attack. The game of Pokemon centers around the energy requirements for an attack. Each player may only play one energy per turn. Therefore, Pokemon with attacks requiring only a single energy can do damage on their first turn in play. I feel this is especially important for younger players who will struggle with any form of the word patience.

The list below highlights a number of basic Base, Jungle and Fossil pokemon which have both high hit points, simple attacks, and good damage.

Fighting:

Machop: Common, Base Set
50 hp, 1 fighting energy for 20 damage
Hitmonchan: Holofoil, Base Set
1 fighting energy for 20 damage, 3 energies for 40 damage.
Onix: Common, Base Set
90 hp, 1 fighting energy for 10 damage

Fire:

Growlithe: Common, Base Set
60HP, 1 RE, 1 *E for 20 damage
Magmar: Uncommon, Base Set
50HP, 2 RE for 30 damage or 3 RE for 50 damage, discard one RE
Magmar: Uncommon, Fossil Set
70HP, 1 RE for 10 damage & flip to prevent, 2R for 20D flip for poisoned
Ponyta: Common, Base Set
40HP, 2 *E for 20 damage or 2 RE for 30 damage

Grass:

Pinsir: Rare, Jungle Set
60HP, 2 GE for 20 damage, 2 GE 2*E for 50 damage
Scyther: Rare, Jungle Set
70HP, 3 *E for 30 damage

Water:

Lapras: Rare, Fossil Set
80HP, 1 WE for 10+ damage, + extra WE for 20 damage, 2 WE for 10 damage + flip for confused.

Colorless:

Farfetch'd: Uncommon, Base Set
50HP, 1 *E for 30 if heads, only use once, 3 *E for 30 damage
Jigglypuff: Common, Jungle Set
60HP, 1 *E for asleep, 2 *E for 20 damage
Spearow: Common, Base Set
50HP, 1 *E for 20 damage

Proper use of trainers can be especially complex and, in my opinion, is what separates good players from the true masters of the game. In the hands of a talented player, many decks can be winners. Some decks are quick attacks, some stall and others take patient to play and develop. It is the understanding of the deck's strategy or theme and its implementation that will ultimately determine the games outcome.

To accomplish our goals we must select effective cards that require minimum implementation strategy and, once again, patience. Sidebar: I remember asking my 7-year-old daughter, "Why did you use the 'Computer Search' trainer to find and retrieve 'Jigglypuff' and discard an 'Energy Removal' and a 'Double Colorless Energy'?" Her answer: "He's my favorite card and I wanted him on my bench." Point made? Simple cards with simple implementation strategies will help the player both learn the game and lead to early success.

Bill: Common, Base Set

Easy; the player should always draw two more cards.

Energy Removal: Common, Base Set

Quick play. One strategy: First remove energy from the active Pokemon; if it doesn't have any energy then remove energy from the benched Pokemon with the most energies.

Gust of Wind: Common, Base Set

Gust or move up your opponent's weak Pokemon and then attack to knock it out.

Professor Oak: Uncommon, Base Set

Discard current hand in order to draw seven more cards. This is the most complex card in the deck, but is needed in order to keep up the action and speed of the game. My rule was to use it only if you have 4 or less cards in your hand to discard. This seemed to work pretty well for the first month or two. If your child begins questioning why, for example, "I have only Pokemon and I need more trainers," I believe this is a clear sign that he or she has advanced to the next level and will be able to appreciate a more advanced deck.

Plus Power: Uncommon, Base Set

Attach Plus Power to active pokemon and attack does 10 more damage this turn. Again, a quick, surprise card that is hard to use wrong.

Potion: Common, Base Set

One strategy: Remove damage on the active Pokemon first. Otherwise remove damage from the benched Pokemon with the most attached energy cards.

Switch: Common, Base Set

Switch the active damaged or weak Pokemon for one on your bench.

Super Energy Removal: Rare, Base Set

Same as Energy Removal.

Double Colorless Energy: Uncommon, Base Set

A must for speeding up play and assisting with paying for Pokemon retreat costs.

Fighting, of course. Let's look at the deck and how well it meets our goals.

Pokemon: 15

4 Machops
4 Hitmonchans
3 Scythers
4 Farfetch'd

Energy: 24

20 Fighting Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy

Trainers: 21

4 Bills
4 Energy Removals
3 Super Energy Removals
3 Potions
2 Plus Powers
2 Gust of Winds
2 Switches
1 Professor Oak

So, how did we do? Pokemon: we have 4 Common, 4 Uncommon, and 7 Rares; Trainers: 15 Common, 3 Uncommon, and 3 Rare; Energy: 20 Common and 4 Uncommon for a grand total of:

39 Common
11 Uncommon
10 Rare

Not bad.

What I have developed and detailed above is a simple, disruption Haymaker deck designed for quick attacks. In play, it will give the player a good amount of choices each turn and will limit exposure to many of the games more complex components. Furthermore, it should reduce the amount of player mistakes and arguments such as, "You rolled twice to see if your Pokemon is awake." I hear this argument in every tournament.

For successful game play, we need to quickly establish a consistent method of play and to reinforce the basic principles of the game.

• First: Always draw a card.
• Second: Play your trainers.
• Third: Attack.

Every tournament I attend, I see players consistently forget one of the actions above. When they're nervous or their opponent asks "Are you done?" they want to answer yes and often do. My best advice is to practice, practice and practice and continually remind them of the three actions above.

Finally, I feel I must end this article on a rather sad note. Some players cheat. WotC has developed a wonderful, positive game and I recommend to them to update their rules and require opponent deck cutting in their next release of DCI tournament rules. Actually, I'm a little disappointed with WotC for not requiring and highlighting the rule of opponent deck cut from the beginning.

Teach your child how to cut their opponents cards and insist on it every time he or she plays a game.

• Rule 8. Cut your opponent's cards before they draw their hand or lay out their prizes.

I hope you find the pleasure and enjoyment I have found teaching, playing and coaching my children in successful tournament play of the Trading Card game called Pokemon. Please email me with your thoughts, opinions, and experiences. I would love to hear them.