Ava has been playing Shuppet, and, while she knows the cards and how to play them rather well, I think she’s a bit timid about playing when it comes to battling an opponent she doesn’t know well. This is not good when playing a deck that will, ideally, take most of its play time in its first trainer turn. On top of this, it’s not a “fun” deck (especially to play against).
What I think she needs now is a deck that she play for fun that is able to compete with the good decks out there. Ava went 0-4 at her first tournament, so let’s work on building her a deck that can help her improve on that score. I still think she could do it with Shuppet, but let’s leave that on the back burner for now. Let’s give her a second option to train with (and hopefully more fun to play against).
My current thought is to build a deck based around Scizor from StormFront. SixPrizes has a good article on this strategy. Check out “Deck Spotlight: Scizor/Cherrim Beatdown!” I would build it a bit different both to account for HGSS cards and Ava’s playstyle. Here’s a quick decklist of something like I would consider.
Pokemon: 19 (12 basic)
2 Scyther (SF)
2 Scizor (SF)
4 Cherubi (DP)
4 Cherrim (SF)
1 Caterpie (GE)
1 Metapod (GS)
4 Unown R
1 Unown Q
Trainers: 25
4 Pokemon Communication
1 Luxury Ball
4 Pokedex Handy 910is
2 Expert Belt
3 Night Maintenance
3 Pokemon Reversal
4 Energy Search
4 Plus Power
Supporters: 10
4 Prof Oak’s New Theory
2 Professor Elm
4 Pokemon Collector
Energy: 6
6 Grass
The transition from Shuppet to this wouldn’t be so huge. There is a lot in there that Ava is already used to using. I do have some concerns, though.
Should she play the Expert Belt? I’m not sure that she understands the drawback, and how it effects HP. With Shuppet, she’s never had to concern herself with these issues, because, to that deck, it’s just like 2 PlusPowers.
Are the Unowns enough of a help here? They add to the count of basics without really changing the way the deck plays. The deck has a limited (compared to Uxie/Shuppet) draw engine, because I don’t want her to worry about BTS and Rare Candy and all that comes with those. The thought here is that she should be able to set up an attacking Scizor by turn 2. At some point, switching to Jumpluff would be an option. The deck is fairly single-minded.
Is Professor Oak’s New Theory worth anything at all? I put 4 in, and it’s the only real draw power the deck has. Buck’s Training is really for when you need 10 extra damage, but it’s draw-2 capability is always welcome. I’ve always liked the card Energy Search in decks like this. It just thins the deck so that, next time you draw cards, you have less of a chance of drawing energy (and you don’t need much at a time in this deck).
Before I put in the 1-1-1 Jumpluff line, I had some Pokemon Rescue in the deck. Now, it’s just 3 NM. What do you think about that? Should the deck run Pokemon Reversal, Warp Point, etc?
Ultimately, though, I don’t just want comments about how to make this deck perfect for Ava. Perhaps there’s another deck that’s better altogether. If so, I want to hear about that deck, and I’ll split this article into a Scizor/Jumpluff/Cherrim workshop and a workshop for Ava’s new deck.
Omar 
Ed 