Searching Standard: Meowscarada EX

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 Popsicle Knight. It features Meowscarada ex PAL 15 and is quite capable of dealing a lot of damage. Let's get started by taking a look at the deck.

Meowscarada ex PAL 15 will generally be the main attacker for this deck. You can use its Bouquet Magic Ability to place three damage counters on one of your opponent's Pokemon. To do this, though, you'll first need to discard a Basic Grass Energy card from your hand. The main reason to do this is to help set up additional damage when you use its Scratching Nails attack. This attack will deal 100 damage, but if your opponent's Active Pokemon already has any damage counters on it, Scratching Nails will deal 220 damage instead. That's a great amount of damage for just two Energy. However, Meowscarada ex PAL 15 is a Stage 2 Pokemon, and there's no way to evolve into it within this deck... But that's a problem solved by our next Pokemon.

By attacking with Orbeetle BST 65's Evomancy attack, you'll be able to put a Stage 2 Pokemon directly onto your Bench from your deck for each Energy attached to Orbeetle BST 65. Since Double Turbo Energy BRS 151 provides two Energy and Reversal Energy PAL 192 is able to provide three Energy, you can usually search for multiple Stage 2 Pokemon when you use this attack. We'll take a look at the other Stage 2 Pokemon this deck has to offer, but first we need to look at a Stage 2 Pokemon that you can play when setting up to play.

Of course, I'm talking about Luxray CRZ 44. Thanks to its Explosiveness Ability, if Luxray CRZ 44 is in your starting hand, you can play it as your Active Pokemon at the start of the game. In this way, it serves a double purpose in this deck, as it can either be your initial starting Pokemon or it can be found with Orbeetle BST 65's Evomancy attack.

The remainder of the Stage 2 Pokemon are found here. Inteleon CRE 43 can use its Quick Shooting Ability to put two damage counters on one of your opponent's Pokemon each turn. Archeops SIT 147 has the Primal Turbo Ability, which helps you find Special Energy cards from your deck. With Gallade ASR 62's Buddy Catch Ability, you are able to search your deck for a Supporter card each turn. Finally, while you have Florges SVI 93 in play, all of your Pokemon have no Weakness, thanks to the Blooming Garden Ability. Each of these Pokemon can also attack, making them formidable threats, while only risking one Prize card if they are Knocked Out.

Since Orbeetle BST 65's Evomancy attack searches your deck for Stage 2 Pokemon, if you have some in your hand that you'd like to put into play, you'll need a way of returning them to your deck. That's where Iono PAL 185 comes in. As an added bonus, Iono PAL 185 is one of the best ways to disrupt your opponent's hand.

Since you want to get a copy of Orbeetle BST 65 into play quickly, you can use this batch of Item cards for help. Level Ball BST 129 can help find either Dottler LOR 19 or Blipbug BST 17. Ultra Ball SVI 196 can be used to find any Pokemon you need from your deck. Hisuian Heavy Ball ASR 146 is included in case a Pokemon you need is locked as one of your Prize cards.

This batch of Trainer cards all help you return things from your discard pile to your deck. Pal Pad SVI 182 shuffles back a pair of Supporter cards. Super Rod PAL 188 shuffles back up to three cards in any combination of Pokemon or Basic Energy cards. Roseanne's Backup BRS 148 is the most versatile of all, and can shuffle back up to four different cards into your deck.

Bravery Charm PAL 173 can be attached to Blipbug BST 17 to increase its HP to 100, which can give you extra time toEvolve it if you need to find a Rare Candy SVI 191 or an Orbeetle BST 65. Cheryl BST 123 helps heal all damage from each of your Evolution Pokemon, but you'll need to discard any Energy attached to a Pokemon that receives healing in this way.

The next batch of Trainer cards are all cards that I find useful when attacking. You can play Switch SVI 194 to move one of your Benched Pokemon to your Active Spot. Attaching a copy of Vitality Band SVI 197 will increase damage that Pokemon will do by 10 points. Finally, playing Boss’s Orders PAL 172 allows you to switch your opponent's Active Pokemon with one from their Bench, allowing you to choose which Pokemon you want to attack.

The next group of cards can help you find specific things you might need from within your deck. By playing Arven SVI 166, you'll usually want to get Vitality Band SVI 197 along with any Item you might need. It can be a useful way to find a Rare Candy SVI 191 if you need one. Energy Search SVI 172 puts a Basic Energy from your deck into your hand. Mesagoza SVI 178 can allow each player to search for a Pokemon to put into their hand, if they win a coin flip.

The final Trainer in this deck is Raihan EVS 152. While you can only play Raihan EVS 152 on the turn after one of your Pokemon was Knocked Out, doing so will help you recover immediately. The ability to search your deck for any card, plus Energy acceleration, makes this card see a lot of play in Standard. While having a Pokemon get KO'd is never a good feeling, Raihan EVS 152 helps you get right back into the game.

Wrapping Up

This deck is very challenging to play. Since the only Basic Pokemon in the deck is Blipbug BST 17, you're likely able to start the journey towards attacking with Orbeetle BST 65's Evomancy attack right away. However, you might start with Luxray CRZ 44 instead, which can give you an edge up while attacking, but might make getting Orbeetle BST 65 into play take a little longer. Regardless of the way the match starts, once you're able to get Meowscarada ex PAL 15 into play and powered up, you should begin to stabilize and be able to start dealing tons of damage with it and its other Stage 2 friends.

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