Searching Standard: Swim Freely Seaking

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 Seaking MEW 119, one of the few Pokemon that has the Swim Freely attack. Let's get started by taking a look at the deck list.

Seaking MEW 119 is the main attacker in this deck. Its Aqua Horn attack deals a scaling amount of damage based on the number of Water Energy you have attached to Seaking MEW 119. Luckily, Seaking MEW 119 has the Swim Freely attack, which will enable us to attach as many Water Energy as we'd like from our hand with the help of Finneon LOR 40's Oceanic Accompaniment Ability.

To help keep a continuous stream of new cards flowing into our hand, this deck utilizes Bibarel BRS 121's Industrious Incisors Ability often to keep your hand filled to five cards.

Rounding out the Pokemon in this deck are Jirachi PAR 126 and Manaphy BRS 41 who each have Abilities that keep your Benched Pokemon safe from damage. Manaphy BRS 41's Wave Veil Ability protects your Benched Pokemon from taking any damage from your opponent's attacks, while Jirachi PAR 126's Stellar Veil Ability protects your Benched Pokemon from having any damage counters placed on them. While you have both of these Pokemon in play, your Benched Pokemon should be safe and sound.

In order to make sure you have Water Energy in your hand, you can use Earthen Vessel PAR 163 to search your deck for two Water Energy to put into your hand. You can also use Letter of Encouragement OBF 189 to search for three Water Energy cards, but Letter of Encouragement OBF 189 can only be played if one of your Pokemon were just Knocked Out on your opponent's previous turn.

Being able to reuse any Water Energy that has gone to your discard pile is very important for a deck like this. You can play Superior Energy Retrieval PAL 189 to return up to four Water Energy back to your hand. Similarly, Super Rod PAL 188 can return three Water Energy from your discard pile, but instead of those cards going to your hand, they will be shuffled into your deck. You can also choose to return Pokemon when you play Super Rod PAL 188. Klara CRE 145 offers you the best of both worlds, allowing you to return up to two Water Energy cards and up to two Pokemon from your discard pile to your hand.

To help you find the Pokemon you need, there are a variety of cards that you can play. Artazon PAL 171 allows you to search your deck for any Basic Pokemon without a Rule Box to put onto your Bench. Each player can do this once per turn. There's also a single copy of Battle VIP Pass FST 225, which offers you the chance to search your deck for two Basic Pokemon to put onto your Bench, but only during your first turn of the game. There's also a playset of Irida ASR 147, who allows you to search your deck for any Water Type Pokemon and any Item card to put into your hand.

In addition to the previous batch of cards, this deck also includes a pair of different types of Poke Balls that you can use to help find the Pokemon you need. Nest Ball SVI 181 can only search for a Basic Pokemon, but Ultra Ball SVI 196 can find any Pokemon you need, regardless of its Stage.

The next trio of cards all help you attack more effectively. Both Boss’s Orders PAL 172 and Counter Catcher PAR 160 allow you to choose which of your opponent's Pokemon you'd like to attack. The difference between these two cards (other than the fact that one is a Supporter and one is an Item), is that you can only play Counter Catcher PAR 160 if your opponent has taken more Prize cards than you have. Escape Rope BST 125 forces both players to switch their Pokemon, and offers you a way of moving a fully powered Pokemon from your Bench to your Active Spot without having to pay a Retreat Cost.

The final pair of cards in this deck are Supporters that can allow you to draw extra cards during your turn. Professor's Research SVI 190 lets you draw seven new cards, but you have to discard your current hand first. Iono PAL 185 forces each player to shuffle their current hand to the bottom of their deck and then draw a new hand of cards. The number of cards each player draws is based on the number of Prize cards they have remaining, so this can help slow down your opponent's momentum, especially if they only get to draw a new hand of one or two cards.

Wrapping Up

Seaking MEW 119 is one of the better one-Prize attackers currently in Standard. Since its Aqua Horn attack can do a variable amount of damage, it has the potential to take out any opposing Pokemon with a single attack, while only risking one Prize card if it were to get Knocked Out.

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