Searching Standard: Rampardos

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 Rampardos ASR 77, who has an attack that deals a massive 120 damage per Energy required to use it. Let's get started by taking a look at the deck list.

Rampardos ASR 77's Jurassic Hammer attack deals 240 damage, which is enough damage to Knock Out most opposing Pokemon. It only requires two Energy to use it, making it a very effective attack to use. It does have a drawback, however. If your opponent has 3 or fewer cards in their hand, Jurassic Hammer will do nothing. Luckily, as you'll see later, it can be possible for you to make it so that your opponent has more cards in their hand.

By using Mew CEL 11's Mysterious Tail Ability, you'll be able to filter through the top six cards of your deck for any Item you might need. Most of the time, you'll be looking for Unidentified Fossil ASR 157, but once you're set with a couple of Rampardos ASR 77, you can start looking for any of the other useful Items in this deck.

As a means of helping keep your hand full of useful cards, this deck includes Bibarel BRS 121. By using its Industrious Incisors Ability, you can usually draw a few extra cards each turn.

Ditto MEW 132 acts as a surrogate fifth copy of Mew CEL 11. If you draw it as part of your opening hand or on your first turn and Ditto MEW 132 is in your Active Spot, you'll be able to search your deck for any Basic Pokemon to replace Ditto MEW 132 with. This can be a great way of getting Cranidos ASR 76 into play. Both Luxray PAL 71 and Radiant Charizard PGO 11 are great backup attackers for this deck.

Both Jirachi PAR 126 and Manaphy BRS 41 are included in this deck for their Bench protecting Abilities. Jirachi PAR 126's Stellar Veil Ability prevents any damage counters from being placed onto your Benched Pokemon by the effects of your opponent's Basic Pokemon attacks. Manaphy BRS 41's Wave Veil Ability simply prevents any damage from being done to your Benched Pokemon.

As we look at Trainer cards, this first batch is the most important. When you play Iono PAL 185, each player will put their current hand at the bottom of the deck and draw a new hand based on the number of Prize cards they have remaining. Usually, you'll want this to reduce the number of cards in your opponent's hand, but in this deck, you want them to draw more than 3 cards so that Rampardos ASR 77's Jurassic Hammer will deal damage. Rare Candy SVI 191 is a vital component in being able to Evolve straight from Unidentified Fossil ASR 157 into Rampardos ASR 77. Colress's Experiment LOR 155 offers you a means of drawing extra cards, filtering the best from the top of your deck.

To utilize Mew CEL 11's Mysterious Tail Ability as much as possible, you can use this pair of Trainer cards to help it move to and from your Bench with ease. While Switch SVI 194 offers a one-time use, the Retreat Cost reduction that Beach Court SVI 167 can be used again and again.

To help ensure that you're able to Knock Out your opponent's Pokemon with ease, you can rely on these Trainer cards. While Escape Rope BST 125 forces your opponent to switch their Active Pokemon with one from the Bench, it also forces you to do the same. This can be very helpful when you have an attacker ready to go on your Bench. Boss’s Orders PAL 172 and Counter Catcher PAR 160 both allow you to choose one of your opponent's Benched Pokemon to move to their Active Spot, putting the power in your hand.

If you need help finding the Pokemon you need, Level Ball BST 129 and Ultra Ball SVI 196 can help. Level Ball BST 129 can only find Pokemon with 90 HP or less, while Ultra Ball SVI 196 can find any Pokemon but requires you to discard two other cards in order to play it.

Professor's Research SVI 190 comes with a pretty big drawback, requiring you to discard your hand of cards when you play it, but the reward is often worth it. No other card in Standard offers as much raw card drawing power as Professor's Research SVI 190 does. Raihan EVS 152 offers card quality instead of quantity when you're able to play him. He is a great way of recovering some lost momentum from having a Pokemon get Knocked Out. Finally, Super Rod PAL 188 is a great way of recovering Pokemon or Basic Energy cards (or both) that have gone to your discard pile.

Wrapping Up

As a deck that leans on a Stage 2 Pokemon as its main attacker, there are bound to be times that this deck runs a little slower than others. However, once everything is in place, this deck has the ability to give nearly any other deck a run for its money.

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