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 Unfezant BLK 73, a Pokémon with the ability to prevent all damage and effects from your opponent's attacks done to Unfezant during their next turn. Let's get started by taking a look at the deck list.
Invincible Unfezant
LittleDarkFury
Pokemon
1 Budew 16
4 Drakloak 159
4 Dreepy 158
1 Munkidori 99
4 Pidove 133
1 Shaymin 10
1 Tranquill 72
4 Unfezant 73
Trainers
1 Air Balloon 181
4 Backtrack Badge 74
2 Boss's Orders 183
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin 184
2 Colress's Tenacity 57
2 Crispin 105
4 Lillie's Determination 192
1 Night Stretcher 196
4 Poké Pad 81
4 Risky Ruins 127
1 Rosa's Encouragement 84
1 Sacred Ash 168
1 Ultra Ball 213
Energy
3 Darkness Energy
2 Fire Energy
1 Neo Upper Energy 162
3 Psychic Energy
By attacking with Unfezant BLK 73's Swift Flight attack, you'll deal a modest 120 damage for just 2 Energy. While that's nothing special, the effect the attack has is what makes this deck great. This effect has you flip a coin. If the results are heads, during your opponent's next turn you'll prevent all damage and effects of attacks done to Unfezant BLK 73. It's essentially invincible. If you can flip heads turn after turn, your opponent will become very frustrated and might concede on the spot.
By attaching Backtrack Badge PBL 74 to your Unfezant BLK 73, you'll be able to reflip the results of an unlucky coin flip. This gives you twice the amount of tries to flip heads and become invincible. As you might have noticed, evolving into Unfezant BLK 73 might be a challenge, considering there's only 1 copy of Tranquill BLK 72 in the deck and no copies of Rare Candy. That's where Risky Ruins MEG 127 comes into play. This Stadium puts 2 damage counters on any Basic non-Darkness Pokémon that is played to a player's Bench during their turn. Those 2 damage counters work wonderfully with Pidove TEF 133's Emergency Evolution Ability, allowing you to search your deck for an Unfezant BLK 73 to immediately evolve into.
Drakloak ASC 159's Recon Directive Ability helps you with some additional card draw during your turn, but its true purpose is to offer you a way of putting any copies of Unfezant BLK 73 you draw back into your deck. Since you can't evolve Pidove TEF 133 with its Emergency Evolution Ability unless you have a copy of Unfezant BLK 73 in your deck, you'll need Drakloak ASC 159's Recon Directive Ability to put them back if they end up in your hand.
Budew ASC 16 is a great early game attacker. Its Itchy Pollen attack can be used without needing to have any Energy attached. While this attack only deals 10 damage, it prevents your opponent from playing any Item cards from their hand during their next turn. This effect can really slow down your opponent, as they might have no way of finding Pokémon or Energy they need from their deck. Munkidori ASC 99's Adrena-Brain Ability offers you a way of moving any damage you might take, whether it's from an opponent's attack or from Risky Ruins MEG 127, from your Pokémon to one of your opponent's Pokémon. The lone copy of Shaymin DRI 10 is included for the use of its Flower Curtain Ability which protects your Benched Pokémon without a Rule Box from taking any damage from your opponent's attacks.
To help power up Unfezant BLK 73 quickly, you can play Crispin PRE 105 to search your deck for up to 2 Basic Energy cards of different types. Rosa's Encouragement POR 84 also helps accelerate your Energy attachment, providing you a way to reuse Basic Energy cards that have gone to your discard pile. Colress's Tenacity SFA 57 also allows you to find a Basic Energy card from your deck to put into your hand, however he also allows you to find a Stadium card as well. Find your Risky Ruins MEG 127 and then start filling your Bench with Pidove TEF 133.
Other cards that help you find the Pokémon you need include Buddy-Buddy Poffin ASC 184, Poké Pad POR 81, and Ultra Ball ASC 213. All of these Items see a lot of play in Standard decks, so chances are you've seen them before. Just remember, each of them has some sort of limitation, so keep that in mind before searching for the Pokémon you need.
Most of the time you won't need to worry about mobility on the battlefield, but if your opponent switches your Active Pokémon with one from your Bench that has a Retreat Cost, you can count on Air Balloon ASC 181 for help. Speaking of switching an Active Pokémon with a Benched Pokémon, you'll want to use Boss's Orders ASC 183 to do just this, moving a Pokémon that is unable to attack or that has a high Retreat Cost. Lillie's Determination ASC 192 is the best Supporter in Standard for drawing a new hand of cards. Plus, she offers you a way of shuffling any copies of Unfezant BLK 73 you've drawn back into your deck.
The last pair of cards offer you ways of reusing cards in your discard pile. With Night Stretcher ASC 196, you can put either a Pokémon (of any evolution level) or a Basic Energy card into your hand. Sacred Ash DRI 168 trades out quality for quantity by letting you shuffle up to 5 Pokémon from your discard pile back into your deck. Both of these can be very helpful, especially if the game goes long.
Wrapping Up
Not everyone enjoys games of chance, and a deck like this is all about chance and playing the odds. If your idea of fun is flipping a lot of coins and preventing a lot of damage, you should give this deck a try.
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 Pokémon TCG. I'll see you then!
- Mike Likes
