Searching Standard: Double Charizard

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'm looking at a deck that was recently featured on the YouTube channel of LittleDarkFury. It features a pair of Charizards doing what they do best... dealing massive amounts of damage with their attacks. Let's get started by taking a look at the deck list.

We'll start off by looking at one of our Charizards in this deck. Charizard VIV 25's Battle Sense Ability allows you to look at the top three cards of your deck, putting one of them into your hand and the others into your discard pile. This can be a great way to get Fire Energy into your discard pile, which can be useful as you'll see later on. Charizard VIV 25 also has the Royal Blaze attack, which will deal a base damage of 100, plus an additional 50 damage for each Leon VIV 154 in your discard pile. That can allow you to deal a maximum of 300 damage with this attack, which is enough damage to Knock Out almost any opposing Pokemon.

The other Charizard in this deck, Radiant Charizard PGO 11, can deal 250 damage when it attacks with its Combustion Blast attack. This attack also has the potential to be used with only a single Fire Energy attached. The drawback is that if you attack with Combustion Blast, you can do it again on the following turn. That makes Radiant Charizard PGO 11 a great secondary attacker for this deck, and great to use later in the game.

The rest of the Pokemon in this deck are all used for their Abilities. With Cinccino SSH 147's Make Do Ability, you can discard a card from your hand to draw two new cards, once per turn. It's a great way to put cards into your discard pile while cycling through your deck to find the cards you need. Manaphy BRS 41 has the Wave Veil Ability, which protects your Benched Pokemon from taking damage from your opponent's Pokemon attacks. This allows you to keep your backup attackers safe while you power them up.

Both Leon VIV 154 and Choice Belt BRS 135 help you deal extra damage when you attack. With Leon VIV 154, your Pokemon's attacks will deal 30 extra damage this turn, no matter what Pokemon you are attacking. Attaching a Choice Belt BRS 135 only allows a Pokemon to deal extra damage if you're damaging an opponent's Pokemon V. Remember that having Leon VIV 154 in your discard pile allows Charizard VIV 25 to deal extra damage, so you'll want to play this Supporter whenever you can.

To find the Pokemon you need, you can use this group of cards to help. Quick Ball SSH 179 allows you to find any Basic Pokemon from your deck to put into your hand, while Evolution Incense SSH 163 does the same for any Evolution Pokemon. Ultra Ball BRS 150 allows you to put any Pokemon into your hand, regardless of whether it is Basic or Evolved. It also allows you to look through your deck, which can be helpful in figuring out what cards you have in your Prizes.

Since you'll want to make sure you have a copy of Charizard VIV 25 ready to attack with as quickly as possible, you can use Rare Candy PGO 69 as a quick means of evolving Charmander VIV 23 into it. Rare Candy PGO 69 allows you to skip playing Charmeleon VIV 24, making evolution much quicker.

Drawing extra cards is a great way to find whatever you need more quickly. Professor's Research BRS 147 allows you to draw seven cards, but you'll first need to discard your current hand. Make sure to play everything useful from your hand prior to playing Professor's Research BRS 147 for maximum usefulness. Bruno BST 121 also offers you the possibility of drawing either four or seven new cards, but instead of discarding your current hand, you'll shuffle it back into your deck before drawing these new cards. Because of this, you might draw some of the same cards you already had. Finally, Marnie CPA 56 also shuffles your hand into your deck before drawing a new hand of cards, but she also forces your opponent to shuffle their hand into their deck as well. This can set back their plans and can often slow down their momentum.

I mentioned earlier that you might want to get some copies of Fire Energy into your discard pile. That's because Magma Basin BRS 144 offers you a way to attach a Fire Energy card from your discard pile to one of your Benched Pokemon, but at the cost of taking two damage counters. Your opponent can also use this effect, but the extra damage they will take can certainly benefit you.

When you attack, you'll be hoping to score a Knock Out with a single attack. By playing Boss's Orders BRS 132, you choose one of your opponent's Benched Pokemon to move to their Active Spot, making this much more possible. You might also need a quick way to move one of your Benched Pokemon to your Active Spot. By attaching a copy of Air Balloon SSH 156 to one of your Pokemon, you reduce their Retreat Cost by two Energy, making retreat much easier.

The last pair of cards in this deck are useful for returning things from your discard pile. Klara CRE 145 offers you a way of returning up to two Pokemon and up to two Basic Energy cards from your discard pile to your hand, while Ordinary Rod SSH 171 returns the same cards to your deck instead.

Wrapping Up

Charizard is a favorite Pokemon of many people, and this deck allows you to play more copies of Charizard than most decks. If you're a Charizard fan, you might want to give this deck a try. It looks to be a lot of fun to play, as well as very powerful.

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