Ecard tier list

Gates' E-Card Format Deck Tier List 6/30/15

Introduction:
I got the idea to make this tier list after a discussion with darkmaster1415 about what decks were good in the ECard format (Expedition, Aquapolis, Skyridge).
I am not claiming to be an expert on ECard (in fact there are a lot of things I don't like about the format - in particular the lack of good basics is frustrating), but I've spent enough time with the format that I feel like I can provide an accurate description of what is and is not viable in the metagame.
I'll start with some notes/guidelines for people who don't know what tier lists are, post the list itself, and then go into detail about specific decks.

General Notes:
- Tier list is ranked from S to D with S being the most viable decks and D being the least viable.
- Decks aren't really ordered within tiers.
- Generally speaking, everything above C tier is viable, but some decks are more viable than others.
- Anything not mentioned in here you can just assume is in D tier.
- Deckbuilding in this format basically amounts to picking a strong stage 2 (in some cases stage 1) and building the rest of the deck to support it.
- Don't treat this as the final word on the format.
- Don't select your decks based on this, just play what you want. If you want to build a deck around Ursaring, don't let me stop you.

S Tier:
Vileplume/Butterfree

A Tier:
Scizor/Furret
Tyranitar (with Machamp and/or Furret)
Typhlosion (with or without Ampharos)
Suicune/Lanturn

B Tier:
Ampharos
Machamp
Gengar (EXP)
Alakazam (SKR)
Beedrill/Starmie
Houndoom (SKR)
Charizard/Clefable

C Tier:
Arbok
Nidoking
Feraligatr
Dragonite
Blastoise
Golem
Poliwrath
Exeggcutor
Dewgong
Meganium
AQP Magneton
Nidoqueen
Starmie (SKR 44)
Beedrill
Electrode (AQP)
Victreebel
Xatu/Espeon (with or without Clefable)
Golbat/Noctowl
Praise Dome! (Donphan/Dugtrio/Forretress & Kabuto)
Ariados/Muk
Fire Houndoom/Octillery
Jumpluff
Electric Magneton

D Tier:
Eeveetron
Venusaur
Bellossom
Politoed
Azumarill
Slowbro
Steelix (SKR)
Colorless Bird Pokemon (Pidgeot, Fearow, Noctowl)
Fire decks without Typhlosion
Psychic decks without Gengar/Alakazam/Espeon
Xuper Xatu (4-4 Xatu, 10+ Miracle Spheres and a whole lot of support)

Commentary:

Vileplume/Butterfree - Best deck in the format by far IMO.
This is a deck that can inflict two different types of status while being immune to status itself, it can stall with Metapod/Butterfree and Metal energy, doesn't get hard-countered by a single type since Vileplume (EXP) is weak to psychic and not fire, and can do up to 100 damage with only 2 energy after poison, instantly killing your opponent's stage 2.
The latter scenario is very unlikely but I have seen it happen and it speaks to the strength and efficiency of the deck.
It only takes playing this deck a few times to see why it's so strong.
The only deck in the format that's a hard counter (and even that's debatable) to it is Scizor/Furret, which is weak against many other decks and can be easily disrupted as I'll discuss more below.
Typhlosion can also give it some headaches but I would only say that the matchup is even.

Scizor/Furret - If you're sick and tired of facing Vileplume/Butterfree this is the deck you go to.
Because of Metal energy and immunity to poison, Scizor is a tank, and for the same reasons it also hits like a truck.
It's a lot like the Steelix deck from Rocket-On but with even higher damage potential.
Furret is a great support pokemon for this deck and for any deck that relies heavily on special energies.
The two problems with the deck are its vulnerability to Energy Removal 2 and it's weakness to fire.
ER2 can be sort of mitigated by using Energy Charge, but that solution is inconsistent (although so is ER2 I suppose).
The lack of strong water-type basic pokemon in the format makes dealing with fire-type pokemon extremely difficult, with one of the best examples I've seen being Psyduck of all things (not surprising given its MASSIVE 50 HP and its BEASTLY 20 damage attack and I'm not being sarcastic here...seriously though Quagsire is probably better if you have the space).
Weakness Guard is basically required but it still only gives a temporary answer.
Despite these limitations, the deck is still very solid and does incredibly well against most of the format.
It's generally harder for most decks to beat Scizor than other decks because you need a different set of tools to play against it.
Before going to a dedicated counter deck, try using 4 Energy Removal 2 in your deck and see how it goes.

Tyranitar (with Machamp and/or Furret) - In the early days of ECard on TCGOne, Tyranitar dominated the format.
A 50+ damage attack on a 120 HP pokemon that can use any type of energy (notably metal) for free with Machamp on the bench smoothing out your draws and being a backup attacker? Fantastic!
So why is it barely used anymore? A lot of reasons, but mainly because it's kind of slow.
With the increase in decks with fast stage 2 pokemon like Vileplume and Typhlosion, the power of Machamp, and the increasing frequency of Energy Removal 2, Tyranitar slowly fell off the radar.
It's still a strong deck and a force to be reckoned with though. Oh and AQP Tyranitar is good too I guess.

Typhlosion (with or without Ampharos) - Both Typhlosions are great.
Heat Up is a great way to catch up on energy and is the best acceleration tool in the format, while the other Typhlosion has a good 1-energy attack and an even better attack that can hit the bench.
It also has key type advantages (at least partial type advantages) over the two best decks in the format.
The two main variants running around are Typhlosion/Ampharos and a pure fire build, and I can't really say that one is better than the other.
Running Ampharos (and other electric types) can mitigate the water weakness somewhat but opens you up to being weak to fighting types.
Typhlosion is also so good that you can run just about any fire type with it. The most common pokemon are Rapidash and Ninetales, but just about anything is viable.
The only things that really hold it back are the rare water decks and the fact that it can't match Vileplume and Tyranitar in terms of damage. Other than that it's a really solid deck.

Suicune/Lanturn - This is a relatively new combo that has been popping up more and more lately.
The combo is to use Ion Coating to turn all the lightning energy on Suicune into water energy so that it can attack.
Electabuzz is used as acceleration and Zapdos can be used to mitigate the fighting weakness.
Lanturn is no slouch as an attacker either, being able to hit for 40 damage as early as turn 2.
The thing holding this deck back (aside from the weakness to Machamp) is its low damage potential compared to the other top-tier decks.
Hitting for 50 damage for 3 energy is good, but you only have a 50% chance to do so without taking damage.
Meanwhile the other top decks can break this damage limit easily.
Many pokemon also resist Lightning and Water in Ecard, and although they're rarely run together they can still give this deck a hard time.
Otherwise it's a solid deck and more flexible in construction than many of the other top-tier decks.

Ampharos - Ampharos decks are kind of hybrids of Typhlosion decks and Suicune/Lanturn.
They're like Typhlosion in the sense that both Ampharos are good and both are often played together.
They're like Suicune/Lanturn in the sense that the general idea of the deck is to load up Flaaffy or Ampharos and start hitting for 50 damage a turn.
The main limitations are the weakness to fighting and the difficulty in dealing with pokemon that are resistant to Electric.
The former can be solved by running any flying type, but the latter is hard to solve since there are few strong colorless attackers that are resistant to Fighting.

Machamp - Machamp is arguably the best support pokemon in the format because of its high HP, strong attack, and excellent pokemon power.
It's such a good support pokemon that it can carry a deck by itself.
Whether or not this actually makes Machamp a support pokemon is debatable, but the point is that it's extremely strong and versatile.
The main problems with Machamp, like so many other pokemon, are that it's slow and the psychic weakness can come into play from time to time.
I'm talking mostly about EXP Machamp because it's the better one in my opinion due to its ability to smooth out your draws. SKR Machamp is also viable because of its high damage potential.

Gengar (EXP) - The best psychic pokemon in the format. Gengar's attack is strong and makes it hard to kill since it's rarely active.
Its power can steal games and ruin comebacks, making it by far the dirtiest pokemon in the format.
It also can partner well with just about any pokemon with free retreat cost (or who can get to the bench in other ways like Feraligatr EXP 12).
It's more weak than other psychic types to dark pokemon because it's actually weak to dark types, but if you can keep Gastly and Haunter alive and have a backup attacker you should be fine.
Big thanks to admin for fixing the early exploit where you could move a damage counter from one of your pokemon to one of your opponent's, that was broken.

Alakazam (SKR) - The second best psychic pokemon in the format and the best at dealing with dark and steel types. Psychic is always a great attack on any pokemon it's on, and that's true here too
It's made even better with its ability to transfer energy around and be a colorless attacker. It still has trouble with Tyranitar, but I feel like Alakazam has a lot of untapped potential.

Beedrill/Starmie - I've experimented a lot with Beedrill decks and I feel like Starmie is the best partner for him for a number of reasons.
Starmie is a strong attacker, being able to deal 50 damage with water gun and punish the opponent for using special energies.
This is needed for the deck because Beedrill is resisted by steel types. Beedrill's power also instantly poisons and paralyzes the opponent, giving Starmie a free turn to attack.
Butterfree and Scizor are the bane of this deck, but otherwise it's quite solid.

Houndoom (SKR) - Houndoom is one of the more notable pokemon from SKR because of its high damage potential.
Many of the strongest decks in the format need pokemon like Machamp, Butterfree, Clefable, or Furret on the bench to support them as well as one or two backup attackers.
Houndoom is able to punish these strategies by hitting for 60 damage or more with Lonely Fang.
The deck is not without its faults though - it can't run many benched pokemon since it needs to max out its damage on Lonely Fang meaning that your deck has to be built around supporting a single Houndoom and it gets OHKO'd by Machoke and Machamp.
Still very strong though.

Charizard/Clefable - I always wrote this deck off as being nothing more than a scrub magnet since Charizard is such a popular pokemon in general yet tends to only be fringe playable at best, but mewtwoandfriends was the one who convinced me to try it out after he mentioned the magic number of 60 fire damage, which allows you to OHKO a full health Scizor with 4 metal energy on it after weakness.
Of course most Scizor decks run Weakness Guard...but still it's extremely good against most other decks - as mewtwoandfriends would say "60 damage for 3 energy just isn't fair", and pokemon, being a multiplayer game, is all about being unfair.
It only take a couple of games with the deck to realize how high its damage potential really is and how quickly and consistently it can achieve it.
The big thing slowing this deck down isn't that it's weak to Suicune and Starmie (although that certainly doesn't help), but that since you have to invest so many resources into Charizard, you don't have time to develop any backup attackers.
A typical game for this deck will start off with the Charizard player getting a massive lead, taking as many as 5 prizes uncontested, before Charizard dies and you have to push your other basics in front of their attackers while you desperately rebuild to close out the game.
A true glass cannon deck. It's a shame that Charizard doesn't resist fighting, otherwise he'd give Typhlosion a run for his money.

Arbok, Nidoking, Feraligatr, Dragonite, Golem, Poliwrath, Exeggcutor, Blastoise, Magneton, Dewgong, Meganium - I lumped all of these pokemon together because I basically am going to say the exact same thing about all of them - they can carry a deck, but they need lots of support and even then they're still not as strong as the top tiers.
Arbok needs a way to poison without wasting an attack (so basically Beedrill or Vileplume), Charizard (EXP 39), Blastoise (EXP 4), Magneton (AQP), Magcargo (either) and Dragonite need energy support, and Nidoking, Poliwrath, Golem, Dewgong, and Feraligatr (EXP 12) all need help staying alive until they have 4 energy.
Out of all of the ones listed here, Feraligatr (EXP 46) and Meganium (EXP 53) need the least support, but they still greatly benefit from it and using them without a support pokemon or a backup attacker is a bad idea.
Nidoking, Golem, and the Magcargos are also notable since fire and fighting types tend to do quite well against the top decks (Magcargo can even hit the magic 60 fire damage to knock out a fully loaded Scizor and if Nidoking gets heads he can kill a Tyranitar with 4 metal energy attached!).

Nidoqueen, Starmie (SKR 44), Beedrill, Electrode (AQP), Victreebel - Unlike all the pokemon I just mentioned, these pokemon CANNOT carry a deck on their own and are only good as support pokemon or backup attackers.
Starmie is the best water-type stage 1 in the format but its HP is too low to carry a deck on its own.
Beedrill's pokemon power is great, but its attack is inconsistent and can't break through steel types.
Nidoqueen has a good power but offensively she's just a Feraligatr that folds to steel types.
Electrode would be good if his power worked while he was on the bench but as he is now he's barely worth considering for a deck.
Victreebel is good for sniping support pokemon and not much else.

Xatu/Espeon (with or without Clefable) - The best Xatu variations I've seen use Espeon as a support pokemon/backup attacker.
The idea is to load up Xatu with a bunch of different types of energy and attach Miracle Spheres to him to attack with.
The most commonly used ones are Alpha (for healing and confusion, but mostly healing) and Beta (for energy removal and burn), but Gamma is also notable because of poison and bench damage.
The main problems this deck has are loading up Xatu and keeping him healthy.
Many players use Clefable as an energy search outlet, but I think the deck can still work with only using Energy Search and Mystery Plate Delta.
The deck's main weaknesses are it's vulnerability to stronger psychic and dark types.

Golbat/Noctowl - Golbat is the closest this format will ever get to Wigglytuff, and he's not that bad considering that he can do 60 damage for only 3 energy.
Noctowl is pretty much a necessity in this deck since it's the only thing in the format that allows you to look at prizes to see if one of your Zubats is prized.
Crobat (or Crystal Crobat if you're fancy) is also worth running for the free retreat cost, a decent attack, and a decent power.
The deck is weak to psychic and has trouble hitting through steel types and very large stage 2s.

Praise Dome! (Donphan/Dugtrio/Forretress & Kabuto) - Fuck Helix. Dome is where it's at.
This deck is built around the synergy between pokemon whose attacks damage your bench and Kabuto, who takes reduced damage on all attacks.
Originally I built the deck around Dugtrio, but I think Donphan might be a better option here due to its higher HP and damage potential.
Forretress is worth considering too because of the grass resistance and steel typing.
Kabutops is also worth running in this deck as preventing evolutions is extremely useful for slowing your opponent down.
Overall, the deck just doesn't deal enough damage to be particularly good and is weak to the best deck in the format.

Ariados/Muk - I played against a deck like this once and thought it was worth including here. It's decent enough but not particularly amazing.
Giving your opponent status isn't always great in a format with Butterfree and evolutions and there are matchups where Ariados' ability will be almost completely irrelevant (Dragonite, Holo Feraligatr, etc.), but it's not terrible.

Fire Houndoom/Octillery - Shoutouts to mewtwoandfriends for making me almost ragequit every time he plays this deck.
This is the premier hax deck of the format and like most hax decks it's limited by just how much hax it can get.
It's worth noting that Houndoom can hit the magic 60 fire damage to KO a fully loaded Scizor, but he gets set back further than Charizard and Magcargo do if you flip tails on his attack so don't expect miracles to happen.
Octillery can also deal with just about all the stage 1 fire types in the format but comes just short of beating the stage 2s.
I can't say that it's a terrible deck or even a bad deck by any means, but it's too reliant on coin flips for me to be able to say that it's a particularly good deck either.
It's also worth noting that Suicune/Lanturn can give this deck an atomic wedgie on top of the flagpole while all the girls in the school are watching and then slash the tires on its new bike.

Jumpluff - This is the other hax deck of the format. It's not as good as Houndoom/Octillery because killing Hopip or Skiploom puts you in a good position to win, but it's still worth mentioning.

Electric Magneton - I'm surprised I don't see more of this deck. With a decent damage attack, some pseudo-acceleration, and the ability to attack the bench, Magneton is not a bad pokemon at all.
I guess he is weak to Machamp though so that'll do it.

Eeveetron - lol

Venusaur, Bellossom, Politoed - Attaching multiple energy a turn is great, right? Attacks and abilities like this have always been good before, so they must be good here, right? Well no.
While Rain Dance was one of the defining decks of Gen 1 and energy acceleration decks can be found in just about any format, those decks need a lot of draw power from trainers to be successful, which is something that ECard just doesn't have.
There's no draw 7 effects (unless you get lucky on Copycat), so barring some sort of build that heavily uses Mystery Plate Delta (or 30+ energy...good luck with that), I don't see any builds based around these pokemon being successful.

Azumarill, Slowbro - Azumarill has a good attack but a pokemon power that is very limited in usefulness.
Slowbro also has a good attack and he seems bulky, but when you realize that he only reduce damage done by basics he seems less valuable in a format centered around evolved pokemon.
Starmie is a better attacker than both of them, and Starmie can't even carry a deck.

Steelix (SKR) - Wow, he's like Tyranitar only with lower damage potential and no bonus from darkness energy...so basically he's nothing like Tyranitar, despite what you may initially think.

Colorless Bird Pokemon (Pidgeot, Fearow, etc.) - Unless you're running Gengar, you have no reason to run these pokemon. Even if you are running Gengar, there are better options to use than these.

Fire decks without Typhlosion; Psychic decks without Gengar/Alakazam/Espeon - I just don't know why you would do this.
Why would you run a deck without the best pokemon in that type?
I just don't get it.

Xuper Xatu - This is my pet deck.
I'm not going to give away the entire list, but it's basically a 4-4 Xatu line with no other pokemon, 10 Miracle Spheres, and a whole lot of energy searching.
This is not a good deck, but it's fun to play and you can do a lot of crazy stuff with it, so I've probably played it more than any other deck in the format.