Searching Srandard: Charizard VSTAR

Hello and welcome to another episode of Searching Standard, where each and every week I look for new, innovative decks for you to play in Standard. This week, I have a deck that was recently featured on the YouTube channel of The Sableyes. It features the new Charizard VSTAR BRS 18 and is capable of Knocking Out an opposing VMAX Pokemon with a single hit. Let's start by taking a look at the deck list.

Charizard VSTAR BRS 18 is the star of this deck. By attacking with its Star Blaze attack, you'll be able to deal a whopping 320 damage to your opponent's Active Pokemon. This is enough to Knock Out the majority of opposing Pokemon with a single attack. Charizard VSTAR BRS 18's secondary attack, Explosive Fire, will deal 130 damage, but if you have any damage counters on Charizard VSTAR BRS 18, it will deal 230 instead. As you'll see, there's an easy way to get a little damage on Charizard VSTAR BRS 18 while also powering up.

Both Entei V BRS 22 and Moltres BRS 21 make good backup attackers in this deck. Entei V BRS 22's Burning Rondo attack will deal 20 damage for each Benched Pokemon in play. When both players have pretty full Benches, this attack can be quite effective. Moltres BRS 21 has the Inferno Wings attack, which will deal 90 damage as long as you have any damage counters on Moltres BRS 21. Again, it can be quite easy to get damage counters in this deck, as you'll soon see.

Cinccino SSH 147 is included in this deck simply for the use of its Make Do Ability. This Ability will let you discard a card from your hand in order to draw two cards. You'll often find that discarding a Fire Energy will be the correct choice, but there will be times that you'll want to discard other cards instead.

Like Cinccino SSH 147, Crobat V DAA 104 serves but one purpose in this deck. That's for the use of its Dark Asset Ability which will allow you to refill your hand up to six cards when you play Crobat V DAA 104 onto your Bench. You can never attack with Crobat V DAA 104, so keep it safe and sound on your Bench.

As I mentioned earlier, it can be pretty easy to get a small amount of damage on your Pokemon while also powering them up. That's because of the new Stadium, Magma Basin BRS 144. It offers you a way to reuse Fire Energy from your discard pile, freeing up space in this deck for useful Trainer cards.

This batch of cards has been played together in most decks for the past few months. All of these Items allow you to find the Pokemon you need from your deck. Quick Ball FST 237 can find any Basic Pokemon, while Evolution Incense SSH 163 can find any Evolution Pokemon. Level Ball BST 129 can only find Pokemon with 90 HP or less.

Now that Brilliant Stars has been released, we have a better type of PokeBall that can be used to search out Pokemon from within our deck. Ultra Ball BRS 150 allows you to put any Pokemon from your deck into your hand, regardless of whether it is Basic or an Evolution. It comes at a steep cost, though, as you'll need to discard two cards when you play Ultra Ball BRS 150.

Switch SSH 183 offers you a way of moving your Active Pokemon back to your Bench. It's especially useful after your opponent has played a Trainer such as Boss's Orders SHF 58, which allows them to switch your Active Pokemon with one from your Bench. Each of these cards allows you to gain an advantage when attacking. Choice Belt BRS 135 also provides you with an advantage when attacking an opponent's Pokemon V (which includes VMAX and VSTAR). Dealing an extra 30 damage makes getting a OHKO (One-Hit Knock Out) even more possible.

Having card advantage will often result in winning more often. You can use Professor's Research CEL 23 to draw a new hand of seven cards, but you'll need to discard your current hand to do this. Marnie CPA 56 can also offer you card advantage, but it serves a dual purpose of resetting your opponent's hand. This can cause them to stumble if the new cards they draw aren't what they currently need.

The final batch of cards are all useful cards in the right situations. Raihan EVS 152 can be a lifesaver if you're able to play him on the turn after one of your Pokemon was Knocked Out. Air Balloon SSH 156 offers you a way to retreat your Pokemon easier. This will be helpful for those battles where you need to keep switching your Active Pokemon up, but for those battles where you're ahead of your opponent, you might not find playing this to be useful. Finally, Ordinary Rod SSH 171 can be used to shuffle either a pair of Pokemon or basic Energy cards back into your deck. When you need this, you'll be happy to have Ordinary Rod SSH 171 in your hand, but there will be times that you're okay discarding it to pay the cost of other cards.

Wrapping Up

There's no doubt, Charizard VSTAR BRS 18 is a very powerful Pokemon. With our last Standard rotation, Fire Type decks lost a lot of the tools that made them so potent. Will the addition of cards such as Charizard VSTAR BRS 18 and Magma Basin BRS 144 allow Fire Type decks to reign again? Time will tell.

What do you think of this deck? Do you have any suggestions for improvements? Let me know by leaving a comment below. And be sure to join me here again next week as I continue my search for innovative decks in the Pokemon TCG. I'll see you then!

- Mike Likes