Searching Standard: Machamp VMAX / Annihilape

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 Machamp VMAX ASR 73 as a great early attacker, followed by Annihilape SVI 109 for the late game. Let's get started by taking a look at the deck.

Machamp VMAX ASR 73 is the main attacker, at least in the early stages of the game, for this deck. You'll most often want to use its Revenge Buster attack, which will deal a whopping 220 damage, provided that you have any Benched Pokemon with damage counters on them. As you'll see, this deck includes a couple of ways to help ensure this extra damage will happen. Machamp VMAX ASR 73 also has the G-Max Chi Strike attack, which will deal 240 damage. Using this attack will force you to use a different attack on your next turn.

This next pair of cards helps ensure that you'll have a Benched pokemon with damage counters on it. Thanks to Gengar LOR 66's Netherworld Gate Ability, you can put Gengar LOR 66 onto your Bench from your discard pile with three damage counters on it. Alternatively, if you get a copy of Gapejaw Bog ASR 142 into play, all newly played Pokemon that are put onto their Bench will get two damage counters. Both of these can help ensure that you'll do maximum damage when using Machamp VMAX ASR 73's Revenge Buster attack.

For the late game, you can rely on Annihilape SVI 109 as your main attacker. Once your opponent has taken a few of their Prize cards, you can begin attacking with Annihilape SVI 109's Rage Fist attack. This attack deals 70 damage for each Prize card your opponent has taken. So, for a single Energy, you'll be able to deal up to 350 damage with this attack. This can definitely help catch you back up.

The combination of Skwovet SVI 151 and Bibarel BRS 121 shows up in most decks in Standard. Basically, you'll activate Skwovet SVI 151's Nest Stash Ability, followed up by Bibarel BRS 121's Industrious Incisors Ability. This helps ensure you're always seeing as many new cards each turn as possible.

To deal extra damage, you can attach Choice Belt BRS 135 to your attacking Pokemon. Playing Grant ASR 144 also helps increase your damage output, and he can be played turn after turn, as long as you have cards to discard.

Arven SVI 166 is another card that shows up in many decks. His ability to help you find an Item and a Pokemon Tool from your deck can really help a lot. If you're ever stumped for what to find, you can always search for Rare Candy SVI 191 and Forest Seal Stone SIT 156. Rare Candy SVI 191 is important to help you evolve Mankey SVI 107 into Annihilape SVI 109, since there's only a single copy of Primeape BST 67 included in this deck. Forest Seal Stone SIT 156 can be used by Machamp VMAX ASR 73 or Machamp V ASR 72 to help find a card from your deck you desperately need.

To make sure you have the Pokemon in play that you need, you can use these two Items. Nest Ball SVI 181 puts any Basic Pokemon from your deck onto your Bench. Ultra Ball SVI 196 helps you find any Pokemon you need, to put into your hand. It's a great way to find those Evolutions from within your deck.

Playing Judge SVI 176 is a great way to reset your opponent's hand, especially if they're holding a bunch of cards to play on future turns. It can also help you draw additional cards when your hand is small. Playing Professor's Research SVI 190 is another great way to draw additional cards, but playing it comes with the cost of discarding your current hand first. Finally, Raihan EVS 152 can only be played if you just had a Pokemon get Knocked Out, but doing so can help catch you back up. Never underestimate the power of being able to search your deck for any card.

By using Boss's Orders BRS 132, you can pick one of your opponent's Benched Pokemon to attack, and if you choose one you're sure to Knock Out, this can be a great way of drawing multiple Prize cards. Escape Rope BST 125 is a less powerful Boss's Orders BRS 132 in a sense, as your opponent must switch their Active Pokemon with one from their Bench. You'll also have to do this after they have, so make sure you have a Benched Pokemon powered up for attacking. Finally, with Switch SVI 194 you have some protection for those times your opponent plays Boss's Orders BRS 132 against you, or for when you need to send in a more powerful attacker.

The final card in this deck is Klara CRE 145. She gives you the means of putting Pokemon or Energy (or even both) from your discard pile into your hand. This is a great way to get an additional use out of something you previously discarded.

Wrapping Up

It's appropriate that this is a Fighting type deck, as it packs a powerful one-two punch. Machamp VMAX ASR 73 and Annihilape SVI 109 work well together to provide you with a powerful attacker all throughout the game. Plus, some of the current top tier decks in Standard have a Weakness to Fighting Type Pokemon, making this deck a nice anti-meta deck.

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