Searching Standard: Drednaw

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 Drednaw SCR 44, a Pokemon capable of taking no damage from your opponent's attacks. Let's get started by taking a look at the deck list.

With its Impervious Shell Ability, Drednaw SCR 44 might not be able to be damaged by your opponent's attacks. This Ability prevents all damage done to Drednaw SCR 44 by your opponent's attacks that deal 200 damage or more. Against some decks, you'll find that it will be nearly impossible for you to lose due to this Ability. Drednaw SCR 44's Hard Crunch attack will deal a base amount of 80 damage, but if your opponent's Active Pokemon has any damage already on them, this attack will deal 160 damage instead.

To help ensure Drednaw SCR 44 deals as much damage as possible when it attacks, you can put a Froslass TWM 53 into play. It has the Freezing Shroud Ability, which will put 1 damage counter on each Pokemon that has an Ability during Pokemon Checkup. Since this Ability will also put damage counters on your own Drednaw SCR 44, you'll only want to have one in play at any given time.

To make Drednaw SCR 44 even more difficult to Knock Out, you can attach either Hero's Cape TEF 152 or Luxurious Cape PAR 166 to it. Each of these will add 100 HP, making your opponent have to attack Drednaw SCR 44 multiple times to score a Knock Out.

Colress's Tenacity SFA 57 allows you to search your deck for a Stadium and an Energy card. Note that the Energy you find doesn't need to be a Basic Energy. Both Bianca's Devotion TEF 142 and Saguaro PAL 187 can be effective ways of healing Drednaw SCR 44, forcing your opponent to use additional attacks to Knock it Out.

To help find the Pokemon you need, this deck has a typical assortment of Trainer cards that are found in most Standard decks. Both Artazon PAL 171 and Nest Ball SVI 181 can help you find the Basic Pokemon you need. Ultra Ball SVI 196 can too, but it should be primarily used to find evolution Pokemon.

By using Boss’s Orders PAL 172 and Counter Catcher PAR 160, you can force a Pokemon that is only able to deal 200 or more damage with its attack into your opponent's Active Spot. Trap that Pokemon there, and take multiple Prize cards when you Knock it Out whenever possible.

Since this deck doesn't have any Pokemon that help you draw extra cards, it must rely on Supporters like this batch of cards to help with this. Playing Professor's Research SVI 190 results in you discarding your current hand and drawing a new hand of 7 cards. Colress's Experiment LOR 155 allows you to filter the top 5 cards of your deck for the best 3 to put into your hand, with the rest going to the Lost Zone. Finally, you have Iono PAL 185 who has the potential of drawing you up to 6 new cards. She also forces your opponent to draw a new hand of cards based on the number of Prize cards they have remaining, which can help to slow down any momentum they might have gained.

Additional ways to search your deck include both Arven SVI 166 and Pokégear 3.0 SVI 186. Use these cards to help find Items, Pokemon Tools, and Supporters that will help you as you attempt to defeat your opponent.

Once cards hit your discard pile, they're gone for good. Unless you happen to have either Night Stretcher SFA 61 or Super Rod PAL 188, that is. Night Stretcher SFA 61 lets you return a Pokemon or Basic Energy to your hand, while Super Rod PAL 188 shuffles Pokemon and Basic Energy back into your deck.

The final pair of cards in this deck help with mobility and powering up your team. Attaching a Rescue Board TEF 159 to a Pokemon enables it to retreat more easily. By attaching Technical Machine: Turbo Energize PAR 179 to a Pokemon and using the Turbo Energize attack it enables, you are able to search your deck for up to 2 Basic Energy cards to attach to your Benched pokemon however you would like. This can help set you up for a future attack.

Wrapping Up

While not every deck will be unable to attack your Drednaw SCR 44, a fair amount will be. That makes playing this deck such a great choice depending on the decks you expect to encounter. It will often catch players by surprise, making winning a game that much more sweet.

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