Searching Standard: Chandelure Mill Deck

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. I'm continuing my month-long look at some decks featuring spooky Ghost Type Pokemon. Today, I'm looking at a deck that was recently featured on the YouTube channel of LittleDarkFury. It's a mill deck featuring Chandelure LOR 26. Let's get started by taking a look at the deck list.

Chandelure LOR 26's Mountain Roasting Ability is your hopeful route to victory in this deck. When you evolve into Chandelure LOR 26, Mountain Roasting allows you to discard the top three cards from your opponent's deck into their discard pile. Discarding from the deck into the discard pile is more commonly known as milling. In order to make sure you can evolve into Chandelure LOR 26 as much as possible, you'll need a little help from your Trainer cards as well as a steady supply of Lampent RCL 32 and Litwick LOR 24 on your Bench.

Crabominable V FST 76 can help with the mill plan by attacking with its Trigger Avalanche attack. For a single Energy, you can use this attack to mill your opponent of two cards. While two cards might not sound like much, it does add up over time, and since most Pokemon decks love to play Trainer cards that allow them to draw extra cards, you'll often find that the number of cards you'll need to mill in order to win will be relatively small.

Both Miltank ASR 126 and Snorlax PGO 55 are great choices for Pokemon that will stall your opponent. Miltank ASR 126 has the Miracle Body Ability, preventing all damage done to it by your opponent's Pokemon V. Snorlax PGO 55 has the Block Ability, which prevents your opponent's Active Pokemon from retreating while Snorlax PGO 55 is in your Active Spot. Miltank ASR 126 and Snorlax PGO 55 also both have a decent amount of HP, which is only enhanced by attaching a copy of Cape of Toughness DAA 160.

This final batch of Pokemon all help you draw additional cards. Snorlax VIV 131 has the Gormandize Ability, allowing you to draw cards at the end of your turn if you have Snorlax VIV 131 in your Active spot. It's also a great Pokemon to stall with, and a great target for Cape of Toughness DAA 160. Radiant Venusaur PGO 4 has the Sunny Bloom Ability, ensuring that you can always have a minimum of four cards at the end of your turn. Finally, while Pyukumuku FST 77 doesn't give you card advantage, it essentially acts as a blank card, as you'll always want to use it's Pitch a Pyukumuku Ability to draw a card, putting Pyukumuku FST 77 at the bottom of your deck as a result.

In order to maximize the number of times you can mill your opponent with Chandelure LOR 26's Mountain Roasting Ability, you'll want to use Scoop Up Net RCL 165 to return it to your hand. This allows you to play it again, milling additional cards. Miss Fortune Sisters LOR 164 can also help mill cards from your opponent's deck, assuming they are playing any Item cards. Since most decks play a fair amount of Items, you're likely to discard two or three on average. Galar Mine RCL 160 is included in this deck to help stall things for a while, giving you additional time to get set up and to mill cards.

If you have a copy of Galar Mine RCL 160, it can be easy to make it so that your opponent is unable to attack. By using Boss's Orders BRS 132 to move a Pokemon with no Energy attached to your opponent's Active Spot, they'll be forced to attach Energy to that Pokemon so that it can retreat and a powered up Pokemon can move to attack. Bird Keeper DAA 159 allows you to switch your Active Pokemon with one from your Bench and draw three cards. This is very helpful if your opponent switches your Pokemon.

Pal Pad SSH 172, Team Yell's Cheer BRS 149, and Cyllene ASR 138 all help you get things back from your discard pile. While Pal Pad SSH 172 and Team Yell's Cheer BRS 149 shuffle cards back into your deck, Cyllene ASR 138 puts cards directly back into your hand. The catch is that you'll need to win one or two coin flips when you play Cyllene ASR 138, otherwise you'll get nothing.

Both Rescue Carrier EVS 154 and Ordinary Rod SSH 171 help you get back Pokemon from your discard pile. Rescue Carrier EVS 154 can help return Litwick LOR 24 or Lampent RCL 32 to your hand, while Ordinary Rod SSH 171 can be used to shuffle back Chandelure LOR 26 into your deck.

Quick Ball SSH 179 and Ultra Ball BRS 150 are both staples in most Standard decks. They help you find the Pokemon you need quickly. Their main difference is that Quick Ball SSH 179 can only search for a Basic Pokemon, while Ultra Ball BRS 150 can find any Pokemon, regardless of its Evolution Stage.

Since this deck relies on Evolution Pokemon, it should come as no surprise to see Evolution Incense SSH 163 and Rare Candy PGO 69. Evolution Incense SSH 163 can be used to help find Lampent RCL 32 or Chandelure LOR 26. Rare Candy PGO 69 can be extremely helpful, allowing you to evolve Chandelure LOR 26 from Litwick LOR 24 without needing to evolve into Lampent RCL 32 first. This can be a surprising way to mill your opponent for three cards when they're not expecting it.

We'll finish our look at this deck by discussing a pair of Supporter cards. Bruno BST 121 can be extremely helpful if played on the turn after one of your Pokemon was Knocked Out. Drawing seven cards can help a lot after the setback of having a Pokemon get Knocked Out. Peonia CRE 149 acts as a sort of insurance policy, allowing you to make sure that your most important cards aren't out of reach by being your Prize cards.

Wrapping Up

If you're looking for a challenging deck to play, you'll want to try this one out. By focusing on an alternative way to win, playing this deck will require you to use different tactics. You'll be focusing on discarding the cards from your opponent's deck rather than dealing damage to their Pokemon. You'll win, not by taking your Prize cards, but by forcing your opponent to be unable to draw a card at the start of their turn.

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