Searching Standard: Marowak

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 Marowak SCR 73, who can dish out a ton of damage for just two Energy. Let's get started by taking a look at the deck list.

For only requiring two Energy to use, Marowak SCR 73's Bone Vengeance attack can deal out a lot of damage. Normally, it will deal just 60 damage, but if you have a Cubone MEW 104 on your Bench with any damage counters on it, Bone Vengeance will deal 180 damage instead. In order to ensure that your Cubone MEW 104 have damage counters on them, you can use Gapejaw Bog ASR 142 to put two damage counters on any Basic Pokemon that is played from a player's hand to their Bench. Cubone MEW 104 also happens to have the Cheering Bone Ability, which provides an additional 30 damage to your Marowak SCR 73's attacks. It's possible to have three copies of Cubone MEW 104 on your Bench, making Marowak SCR 73's Bone Vengeance attack deal a total of 270 damage. Plus, as you'll see, there are even more ways included in this deck to deal extra damage.

In order to draw extra cards and cycle through your deck better, this deck relies on the use of the Skwovet SVI 151 / Bibarel BRS 121 combo. Use Skwovet SVI 151's Nest Stash Ability to put your current hand on the bottom of your deck, then draw one card. Then, use the Industrious Incisors Ability of Bibarel BRS 121 to refill your hand to five cards. Doing this each turn helps you find what you need more quickly.

Cleffa OBF 80's Grasping Draw attack is a great attack to use to refill your hand to seven cards. It requires no Energy to use, and if Cleffa OBF 80 gets Knocked Out, you're only out one Prize card. Manaphy BRS 41 is included in the deck for the use of its Wave Veil Ability, which helps protect your Benched Pokemon from taking damage when your opponent's Active Pokemon attacks.

The final pair of Pokemon in this deck are great backup attackers. Thanks to Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex TWM 141's Seasoned Skill Ability, in the late game, you might be able to attack with its Blood Moon attack for little to no Energy. Luxray PAL 71 can be played straight from your hand to your Bench as long as your opponent has taken more Prize cards than you have, due to its Swelling Flash Ability.

In order to find the Pokemon you need, this deck uses a variety of Items. Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144 is a great way to find the Cubone MEW 104 you need, but it will put the Pokemon you find directly onto your Bench, leaving them undamaged by Gapejaw Bog ASR 142. So, you're better off searching for Bidoof BRS 120, Bidoof CRZ 111, or Skwovet SVI 151 with Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144, and using Great Ball PAL 183 and Ultra Ball SVI 196 to find Pokemon that will be placed into your hand.

Colress's Tenacity SFA 57 allows you to search your deck for a Stadium, making finding a copy of Gapejaw Bog ASR 142 easy. You also get to search for an Energy card to put into your hand, quickly powering up any attacker. Arven SVI 166 lets you search for an Item and a Pokemon Tool. As you'll see, there are a number of useful Pokemon Tools that you might want to find, such as...

Maximum Belt TEF 154, when attached to a Pokemon, allows that Pokemon to deal an additional 50 damage to an opponent's Active Pokemon ex. Defiance Band SVI 169 only adds 30 damage to the attacks of the Pokemon it is attached to, but that damage is added regardless of whether your opponent's Active Pokemon is a Pokemon ex or not. The catch is that you need to have taken less Prize cards than your opponent for this Pokemon Tool to work.

To maximize the effectiveness of your attacks, you can use Boss’s Orders PAL 172 or Counter Catcher PAR 160 to choose which of your opponent's Pokemon to move to their Active Spot. If your opponent happens to move one of your Pokemon to your Active Spot, and you want to attack with a different Pokemon, there's a single copy of Switch SVI 194 in this deck that can give your team some mobility.

If the use of the Skwovet SVI 151 / Bibarel BRS 121 combo isn't enough to find what you need, this deck has a couple of other ways to draw extra cards. Professor's Research SVI 190 lets you draw seven new cards, but you'll need to discard your current hand before you draw those new cards. Iono PAL 185 also forces each player to draw a new hand of cards equal to the number of Prize cards they have remaining. While this can allow you to see new cards, it also resets your opponent's hand and can help to slow down their momentum.

In the event that one of your Cubone MEW 104 gets Knocked Out, you can use Night Stretcher SFA 61 to return it to your hand from the discard pile, giving you the opportunity to have it receive two damage counters from Gapejaw Bog ASR 142. A single Potion SVI 188 is in this deck to provide a smidge of healing, for those times when you need it. There's also a pair of Super Rod PAL 188 that you can use to shuffle back Pokemon from your discard pile into your deck.

Wrapping Up

While it takes a little effore to set things up, this deck has the potential to Knock Out many Pokemon ex with a single attack. Luckily, it has the tools you need to find the pieces that are missing in your starting hand to allow this deck to run smoothly.

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