Searching Standard: Torkoal

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 Popsicle Knight. It relies on flipping a lot of coins to deal a lot of damage with Torkoal SVI 35. Let's get started by taking a look at the deck list.

Torkoal SVI 35 is the main attacker in this deck. By using its Concentrated Fire attack, you can deal a massive amount of damage to your opponent's Active Pokemon. Concentrated Fire requires three Energy to use, and with it you'll flip a coin for each Fire Energy attached to Torkoal SVI 35. For each head result you get, you'll deal 80 damage. As you'll soon see, once things are set up, you'll have no trouble regularly flipping six, eight, even ten coins when you use this attack.

The best way to get Energy attached to Torkoal SVI 35 is with the help of Armarouge SVI 41's Fire Off Ability. This Ability allows you to move a Fire Energy from one of your Benched Pokemon to your Active Pokemon, and you can use this Ability as often as you'd like during your turn. This allows you to move all of your Fire Energy onto Torkoal SVI 35 for a very large attack.

In order to turn Torkoal SVI 35's Concentrated Fire attack into something truly massive, you'll want to Evolve Charmander PGO 8 into Charizard PGO 10 right away. That's because Charizard PGO 10 has the Burn Brightly Ability, which makes each Fire Energy attached to your Pokemon provide two Fire Energy. By doubling the effectiveness of your Fire Energy, Torkoal SVI 35 has the potential to attack for a massive amount of damage. Keep in mind, though, that the only way this deck has to Evolve Charmander PGO 8 into Charizard PGO 10 is with the use of Rare Candy SVI 191.

Next, we have a pair of backup attackers. Heatmor FST 41 can use its Exciting Flame attack to deal 90 damage to your opponent's Active Pokemon. If you also have three extra Energy attached to Heatmor FST 41, this attack will also deal 180 damage to one of your opponent's Benched Pokemon. Radiant Charizard PGO 11 has the Combustion Blast attack, which deals 250 damage. You can also reduce the cost to use this attack depending on the number of Prize cards your opponent has taken. Remember, though, that this attack can't be used during your next turn, leaving Radiant Charizard PGO 11 a sitting duck.

As a means of drawing extra cards, this deck plays Bibarel BRS 121. Its Industrious Incisors Ability lets you draw cards until you have five cards in your hand.

Another way to draw additional cards is by activating Kricketune V BST 6's Exciting Stage Ability. This Ability lets you draw cards until you have three (or possibly four) cards in your hand. You can also attach Forest Seal Stone SIT 156 to Kricketune V BST 6, providing it with the Star Alchemy Ability VSTAR Power. This Ability allows you to search your deck for any card to put into your hand, but this Ability can only be used once per game.

Another means of seeing additional cards each turn is with Skwovet SVI 151's Nest Stash Ability. This Ability has you shuffle your hand and put it onto the bottom of your deck. You'll then draw one card. This Ability pairs very nicely with the Abilities of both Bibarel BRS 121 and Kricketune V BST 6.

The final Pokemon in this deck is Manaphy BRS 41. While Manaphy BRS 41 is in play, its Wave Veil Ability protects all of your Benched Pokemon from taking any damage from your opponent's attacks.

This deck needs to have certain Pokemon in play to run smoothly. You can use both Nest Ball SVI 181 and Ultra Ball SVI 196 to help find the Pokemon you need. Keep in mind that Nest Ball SVI 181 can only search for Basic Pokemon, while Ultra Ball SVI 196 can find any Pokemon regardless of its Stage.

By playing Arven SVI 166, you can search your deck for an Item and a Pokemon Tool to put into your hand. This can be a great way to find the Rare Candy SVI 191 you need to Evolve into Charizard PGO 10. Both Thorton LOR 167 and Klara CRE 145 are very useful to play if your Torkoal SVI 35 has been Knocked Out. Thorton LOR 167 simply switches a Pokemon from your discard pile with a Basic pokemon you have in play. Klara CRE 145 lets you put a pair of Pokemon from your discard pile into your hand. She can also get back Energy cards, but, as you'll see, there are other ways of reusing those discarded Energy cards.

Both Escape Rope BST 125 and Boss's Orders BRS 132 see a lot of Standard play, as they help you set up favorable attacks. Defiance Band SVI 169 is a Pokemon Tool that you can attach to a Pokemon that allows it to deal an additional 30 damage to your opponent's Active Pokemon if they are ahead of you in taking Prize cards.

Professor's Research SVI 189 is another card that sees play in the majority of Standard decks. It allows you to discard your current hand to be able to draw a new hand of seven cards.

Both Raihan EVS 152 and Exp. Share SVI 174 are only effective when one of your Pokemon gets Knocked Out. Raihan EVS 152 will let you attach a basic Energy card from your discard pile to one of your Pokemon. As long as you're able to do this, you can then search your deck for a single card to put into your hand. Having Exp. Share SVI 174 attached to a Pokemon allows you to transfer an Energy from a Pokemon that gets Knocked Out to the Pokemon that has the Exp. Share SVI 174 attached.

The final card in this deck is Magma Basin BRS 144. This Stadium helps us by allowing us to attach a Fire Energy card from your discard pile to one of your Benched Fire Type Pokemon. Doing this, though, causes that Pokemon to receive two damage counters. It's a great way to return Energy to play, keeping that Energy available to be transferred to Torkoal SVI 35 with Armarouge SVI 41's Fire Off Ability.

Wrapping Up

Since this deck relies on flipping coins, it won't be for everyone. However, if you're not afraid of relying on a little luck to gain victories, you'll want to try out 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