Trapper (TCG)

The Trapper is a widely popular playset from the and expansion era.
==Strategy==
Trapper is an hyper-offensive decks that makes use of a large amount of s to fill up the user's hands on turn 1, while sabotaging the opponent leaving their hand empty. This is done with a combo of to draw up to 12 cards, followed by to reduce the opponent hand to 4 cards, to bring them down to 3 and finish it up with leaving them empty handed.
For the offensive side of the deck, Trapper relied on powerful Pokémon of the era, with similar strategies to other common deck archetypes of the era, like and . and can start dishing massive amounts of damage by turn 2 with support from to fill their energy needs and .
Other support cards include and for additional card drawing madness; and to find specific cards by sacrificing no longer needed drawers and a combo of and to peak at your prize cards and recover them in case there is something useful.
==Key Cards==
*, and - The main nasty combo of trapper, these 3 cards in sequence will drop the opponent's hand from 4 cards, then 3, and finally leave them empty handed with Rocket's trap, mildly unreliable due to the coin flip, but it's mitigated with a large number of them and the use of several s.
* , and - Multiple card drawers allow the user to fill their hand with all the necessary tools to enable the trapping and power up their own Pokémon. 
* - Do The Wave has great potential to start hitting with 60 damage early in the game, enough to beat most common basic Pokémon with little investment. As an |Colorless||Common}} it can also dish 40 damage in turn one with ease.
* - Primarily valued for its combination of 70 HP with Fighting Resistance and a free Retreat Cost. With the addition of , Scyther could deal a consistent 30 damage from turn 2 with its Slash attack, 60 with a turn 1 Sword Dance on top.
* - The additional damage allow the attackers to OHKO most of the remaining Basic Pokémon with 70HP.
* and - Two basic bench fillers to power-up Wigglytuff's Do The Wave with great Pokémon Powers allowing the user to recover any useful tools from their price cards.
==Typical deck list==
==Possible tech cards==
The following cards are often used in Haymaker in place of certain cards included in the above list.
* - A solid choice with 70HP and the ability to deal 40 damage for . So long as there is Energy in the discard pile, its Energy Absorption attack allows Mewtwo to set up quickly allowing players to choose up to 2 Energy cards from there.
* - The ability to Paralyze with Thundershock on turn 1 allowed Electabuzz to set up for Thunderpunch on turn 2, with the possibility of dealing 40 damage fast.
* - Hitmonchan could use its Jab attack on turn 1 for 20 damage. Its second attack, Special Punch, could deal 40 damage for three Energy. Important for hitting the Weakness of many Colorless and most Lightning Pokémon. 
==Restriction==
 introduced a card that counters Trapper with little effort thanks to, being able to recall a full hand after using the Trap combo with it's move Eeeeeeek, weakening the deck moving forward.
The Trapper deck, being comprised mostly of cards made in the first few sets of the TCG, was one of the first to be essentially, but not explicitly, banned from play as the cards were taken out of Pokémon Organized Play. Due to its loss, however, the TCG was allowed to grow, and new strategies were eventually able to take root.
Category:Deck archetypes