Searching Standard: Stonjourner

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 Stonjourner SIT 101, who sports a powerful attack, provided that you have no Supporter cards in your discard pile. Let's get started by taking a look at the deck list.

By attacking with Stonjourner SIT 101's Mystery Press attack, you'll be able to deal a total of 190 damage, as long as there are no Supporter cards in your discard pile. Most of the time, this will be easy to accomplish, since there's only a single Supporter in this deck. That makes Stonjourner SIT 101 a great main attacker.

Continuing the trend of Pokemon that are great as long as there are no Supporter cards in your discard pile, we have Claydol SIT 94. You can use its Mystery Charge Ability to attach a Fighting Energy from your discard pile to one of your Pokemon, but you can only use this Ability if there are no Supporter cards in your discard pile. With luck, you can get two or three copies of Claydol SIT 94 on your Bench, allowing you to outpace your opponent in attaching Energy.

This deck also includes a few secondary attackers. Galarian Zapdos EVS 82's Zapper Kick attack allows you to discard all of the Energy attached to Galarian Zapdos EVS 82 to make your opponent's Active Pokemon become Paralyzed. Terrakion SIT 97 has the Cavern Tackle attack, which deals 120 damage and allows Terrakion SIT 97 to prevent all damage done to it on your opponent's turn. Finally there's Mew ex MEW 151, who is both a great attacker and a means of drawing additional cards.

The final Pokemon in the deck is Manaphy BRS 41, who is included solely for the Bench protection provided by its Wave Veil Ability.

As the only Supporter in this deck, Grant ASR 144 provides a bit of additional damage when you attack, as well as the means to continually return to your hand (thereby leaving your discard pile Supporter free).

Since you can't rely on Supporters to help you draw additional cards, there are a variety of Trainers to fill that gap. PokéStop PGO 68 can help you find Item cards from the top of your deck. It can also help discard Fighting Energy cards that you can return to play with Claydol SIT 94's Mystery Charge Ability. Gutsy Pickaxe ASR 145 can potentially help accelerate your Energy attachment, or draw you a card instead. Trekking Shoes ASR 156 can be played to help put Fighting Energy into your discard pile and draw you an additional card.

This deck includes a variety of ways to help you find the Pokemon you need. Battle VIP Pass FST 225 is a great help on your first turn of the game. After that, it's simply discard fodder. Artazon PAL 171 helps both players find Basic Pokemon without Rule Boxes to put onto their Bench. There's also a copy of Hisuian Heavy Ball ASR 146, which helps keep important Pokemon from getting stuck in your Prize cards.

If the previous batch of Trainers weren't enough help for finding the Pokemon you need, there's a variety of Poke Balls you can use. Nest Ball SVI 181 lets you search for any Basic Pokemon to put onto your Bench. Great Ball PAL 183 lets you put any Pokemon from the top seven cards of your deck into your hand. Finally, Ultra Ball SVI 196 requires you to discard two other cards when you play it, but with it you can put any Pokemon from your deck into your hand.

This deck also includes a way to search your deck for Basic Energy cards in the form of Earthen Vessel PAR 163. There are also a pair of Super Rod PAL 188 cards that you can use to shuffle back Pokemon and/or Basic Energy cards from your discard pile into your deck. You'll most often choose to shuffle back Pokemon, but it's nice to have the option to shuffle back Energy.

The final pair of cards help you in combat against your opponent. Counter Catcher PAR 160 can only be played if your opponent has taken more Prize cards than you have. It allows you to switch one of your opponent's benched Pokemon to their Active Spot. This can allow you to score an easy knock Out. There's also a copy of Technical Machine: Devolution PAR 177 which can potentially net you multiple Knock Outs at once, if your opponent's Evolution Pokemon have more damage on them than their more basic forms can handle.

Wrapping Up

For a deck that doesn't run the majority of Supporters currently seen in most Standard decks, this deck runs remarkably smooth. By having a restriction like this, you're forced to play with cards that you might otherwise overlook. I like playing decks like this every now and then as a reminder to not judge a book by its cover.

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