Searching Standard: Pikachu V-Union

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 Raikou V BRS 48 as the main attacker, while using Pikachu V-UNION as a terrific finisher. Let's get started by taking a look at the deck list.

As I mentioned before the deck list, Raikou V BRS 48 is the main attacker in this deck. Its Lightning Rondo attack will deal 20 damage, plus an additional 20 damage for each Benched Pokemon you have. As you'll see, you'll want to have a full Bench with this deck anyway, and Lightning Rondo is a great attack to take advantage of that. Raikou V BRS 48 also has the Fleet Footed Ability, which allows you to draw a card if Raikou V BRS 48 is in your Active Spot. Drawing additional cards is always useful, so remember to use this Ability each turn you're able to.

Pikachu V-UNION is the finisher for this deck. Throughout the match, your goal should be to get all four parts of Pikachu V-UNION into your discard pile so those parts can be combined and put onto your Bench. Once there, you can begin powering them up in various ways, as you'll see below. You can also attack with Pikachu V-UNION's Union Gain attack to fully power up, enabling you to use Pikachu V-UNION's most powerful attack on the following turn, Electro Ball Together. This attack deals a whopping 250 damage, which is nearly enough to Knock Out most Pokemon with a single attack.

Flaaffy EVS 55 is the engine that keeps this deck running smoothly. Each turn, you can use Flaaffy EVS 55's Dynamotor Ability to attach a Lightning Energy card from your discard pile to one of your Benched Pokemon. This can ensure that you always have a back up attacker fully powered up.

Crobat V DAA 104 has a couple of purposes in this deck. First is its Dark Asset Ability. This Ability allows you to draw cards until you have six in your hand when you play Crobat V DAA 104 from your hand onto your Bench. Even though Crobat V DAA 104 won't be able to attack, another purpose for it is simply to sit on your Bench, adding to the damage that Raikou V BRS 48's Lightning Rondo attack will deal.

Nearly every deck I've looked at has included a variety of Ball cards to use that help them find the Pokemon from within their deck that they need. This deck is no exception. Level Ball BST 129 can be used to find either Flaaffy EVS 55 or Mareep CRE 47. It is the least useful of the Balls in this deck. Quick Ball FST 237 can find any Basic Pokemon, while Ultra Ball BRS 150 can find any Pokemon you need from within your deck. The added bonus for these Balls is that they both allow you to discard one or two cards from your hand. By doing this, you have a way to get parts of Pikachu V-UNION into your discard pile while still advancing your game.

Stormy Mountains EVS 161 is another way for you to search for a Basic Lightning-Type Pokemon to put onto your Bench. Remember that Stadium effects can be used by both players, so you might not want to play Stormy Mountains EVS 161 if it could greatly benefit your opponent.

Both Adventurer's Discovery FST 224 and Professor Burnet PR-SSH SWSH167 offer you additional ways to search your deck for the parts of Pikachu V-UNION. Adventurer's Discovery FST 224 can also help you find Raikou V BRS 48 if you need it. Similarly, you could play Professor Burnet PR-SSH SWSH167 to put two Lightning Energy cards into your discard pile, if you don't need to search for any parts of Pikachu V-UNION.

This next pair of Trainer cards help you attack more effectively. With Boss's Orders BRS 132, you get to choose a Pokemon from your opponent's Bench to move to their Active Spot. Escape Rope BST 125 forces them to switch their Active pokemon with one from their Bench. Once they do, you also have to switch your Active Pokemon with one from your Bench, but you can choose whichever Benched Pokemon you feel would be best based on their choice.

In order to find the cards you need quickly, most decks rely on a combination of these two Trainers to draw extra cards. Professor's Research BRS 147 allows you to draw seven new cards, but at the cost of discarding your current hand. In a deck like this one, that drawback can be used advantageously, allowing you to discard multiple parts of Pikachu V-UNION at once. Marnie CPA 56 is a way to reset both your hand and your opponent's hand. It can often buy you some time to get back into the game if you fall behind.

The final pair of Trainer cards work wonderfully with Pikachu-V-UNION. By attaching Choice Belt BRS 135, you'll increase the amount of damage done to your opponent's Pokemon V by 30 damage. That allows Pikachu V-UNION's Electro Ball Together attack to deal 280 damage, which is enough to Knock Out any of our current Pokemon VSTAR's. By attaching a copy of Air Balloon SSH 156 to Pikachu V-UNION, you'll enable it to retreat for free. Since there are multiple copies, you can attach Air Balloon SSH 156 to any other Pokemon in this deck, and it will also allow that Pokemon to retreat for no cost.

Wrapping Up

All of the Pokemon V-UNION are very powerful, but that power comes at a cost. By needing to get all four parts of Pikachu-V-UNION into your discard pile before it can be played onto your Bench, you relegate this Powerful Pokemon to the role of being a finisher. That works in this deck, though, because of the attacking power of Raikou V BRS 48 and the Energy engine of Flaaffy EVS 55.

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