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 FlexDaddy. It's a deck that focuses on the power of Single Strike Pokemon and the benefits of playing Single Strike Style Mustard BST 134. Let's get started by taking a look at the deck list.
This pair of Pokemon are the main attackers for this deck. Most often, you'll be attacking with Hitmonchan EVS 81's Clean Hit attack. Against an Evolution Pokemon, this attack will deal a total of 70 damage. That's pretty good for only needing one Energy to use. And, as you'll see, there are a few ways you'll be able to increase the amount of damage done. Morpeko FST 179 has the Explosive Discontent attack which deals 30 damage for each damage counter on Morpeko FST 179. I'll take a look at an easy way to put a couple of damage counters on Morpeko FST 179 below.
In order to increase the amount of damage done with your attacks, you can look at any of these cards. With a copy of Emboar BST 25 on your Bench, you'll be able to use its Fighting Fury Stance to enable your Single Strike Pokemon to deal an additional 30 damage. As you can see, though, there are no copies of Tepig or Pignite for Emboar BST 25 to evolve from. A little further below, I'll mention a sure-fire way to get Emboar BST 25 into play. Choice Belt BRS 135 can be attached to a Pokemon to allow its attacks to deal 30 additional damage to your opponent's Active Pokemon V. Finally, simply by attaching a Single Strike Energy BST 141 to either Hitmonchan EVS 81 or Morpeko FST 179, you enable them to use their attacks to deal an extra 20 damage.
Since attaching a copy of Single Strike Energy BST 141 is so important to your overall damage output, you can use Houndoom BST 96's Single Strike Roar Ability to search your deck for this Energy card. This Ability also allows you to attach it to one of your Single Strike Pokemon, but comes at the cost of putting two damage counters onto that Pokemon. This is an easy way to get some damage on Morpeko FST 179 so it can begin dealing damage.
This last group of Pokemon help you draw additional cards, so you can find what you need from your deck more quickly. Cinccino SSH 147's Make Do Ability allows you to discard a card from your hand to draw two cards from your deck. Lumineon V BRS 40 allows you to search your deck for a Supporter card to put into your hand when you play Lumineon V BRS 40 onto your Bench. There are some good choices of Supporters in this deck, but you'll most often want to search for our next card.
Single Strike Style Mustard BST 134 can only be played if it is the last card in your hand. It allows you to search your deck for a Single Strike Pokemon to put onto your Bench. Remember earlier when I talked about Emboar BST 25? This is the sure-fire way to get Emboar BST 25 onto your Bench that I alluded to. After doing this, you'll also be able to draw five cards. Single Strike Style Mustard BST 134 is the gift that keeps on giving.
Every deck needs ways of finding the Pokemon it needs to run smoothly. That's what all of these Ball cards do. Quick Ball FST 237 can find any Basic Pokemon from your deck. Level Ball BST 129 can only search for a Pokemon with 90 HP or less. Finally, Ultra Ball BRS 150 can find any Pokemon you need, but requires you to discard two cards from your hand to do so. By using the best Ball for the situation, you can make sure to have the Item needed for other searches in the future.
We've come to the remaining Supporters in this deck. Boss's Orders BRS 132 allows you to set up an attack that is favorable to you. You'll be able to switch your opponent's Active Pokemon with one from their Bench, enabling you to score a Knock Out if desired. Both Professor's Research BRS 147 and Marnie CPA 56 can be used to draw additional cards. Marnie CPA 56 has the added benefit of being able to reset your opponent's hand, potentially slowing down their plans.
The last pair of cards in this deck help you return things from your discard pile back to your deck. Urn of Vitality BST 139 allows you to shuffle up to two Single Strike Energy BST 141 back into your deck, so they can be searched for by Houndoom BST 96 once again. With Ordinary Rod SSH 171, you can shuffle back either a pair of Pokemon or a pair of Basic Energy into your deck. You'll most often use it to return Pokemon, but having the ability to return Energy can come in handy.
Wrapping Up
In my opinion, this Single Strike Style Mustard BST 134 deck looks pretty spicy (pun intended). While your attacks don't deal a ton of damage on their own, there are plenty of ways to boost the damage being done. Since your main Pokemon all give up a single Prize card when they are Knocked Out, you should be able to compete with the heavy hitters with this 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
