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 Venomoth MEW 49, one of the most frustrating Pokémon to play against. Let's get started by taking a look at the deck list.
Venomoth
LittleDarkFury
Pokemon
1 Maractus 8
4 Venonat 48
2 Froslass 53
3 Venomoth 49
2 Budew 4
3 Munkidori 44
3 Snorunt 37
1 Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex 141
Trainers
4 Lillie's Determination 119
1 Unfair Stamp 165
1 Super Rod 188
2 Artazon 171
1 Air Balloon 79
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin 144
1 Nest Ball 181
1 Earthen Vessel 106
1 Ultra Ball 131
1 Pokégear 3.0 84
2 Night Stretcher 61
4 Iono 185
1 Technical Machine: Devolution 177
4 Counter Catcher 160
1 Professor's Research 124
4 Arven 166
Energy
2 Luminous Energy 191
2 Darkness Energy
4 Grass Energy
Venomoth MEW 49 is the main attacker for this deck. By using its Perplexing Powder attack, you'll deal a bit of damage to your opponent's Active Pokémon, plus Confuse it. Your opponent also won't be able to play Item cards during their next turn. While their Pokémon is confused, they will have a 50% chance of damaging themselves if they choose to attack. Since they can't play any Items to retreat to their Bench (which would remove the Confused condition), they'll need to discard Energy to pay that Pokemon's Retreat Cost, and since most decks don't run a lot of extra Energy, this could cause them problems.
Helping to add pressure to your opponent is Froslass TWM 53. With its Freezing Shroud Ability, Froslass TWM 53 will place a damage counter on each non-Froslass Pokémon in play that has an Ability. This will affect your team as well, but your plan is to move that damage to your opponent's team with the use of Munkidori PRE 44's Adrena-Brain Ability.
Budew PRE 4 is a great Pokémon to have in the early game. With its Itchy Pollen attack, you'll only deal a small amount of damage, but you'll prevent your opponent from playing any Item cards during their next turn. Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex TWM 141 is a great late game Pokémon. You'll often be able to attack with its Blood Moon attack for free thanks to its Seasoned Skill Ability. The lone copy of Maractus JTG 8 is included as a means of stalling things out, giving you time to set your team up. Maractus JTG 8's Exploding Needles Ability will place 6 damage counters on your opponent's Active Pokémon if they Knock Out Maractus JTG 8 with damage from an attack.
The ACE SPEC for this deck is Unfair Stamp TWM 165, which can cause your opponent a lot of grief. You'll usually want to play Unfair Stamp TWM 165 after attacking with Venomoth MEW 49's Perplexing Powder attack, which will reset their hand to 2 cards, keeping any answers they might have to their Confusion away from their hand for a while. Iono PAL 185 can also reset their hand, although the number of cards is tied to the number of Prize cards they have remaining, which could be a lot. Since this deck can deal damage outside of attacking, the single copy of Technical Machine: Devolution PAR 177 can be used to devolve your opponent's Evolved Pokémon, potentially Knocking them Out if they've accumulated too much damage.
This next batch of Trainer cards all help you find the Pokémon you need. Artazon PAL 171, Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144, and Nest Ball SVI 181 all can help you find Basic Pokémon from within your deck, while Ultra Ball MEG 131 is able to find any Pokémon.
Card drawing is always essential for winning matches, and both Lillie's Determination MEG 119 and Professor's Research PRE 124 are able to draw you a lot of cards. Just remember that Lillie's Determination MEG 119 has you shuffle your current hand back into your deck when you play it, while Professor's Research PRE 124 has you discard your current hand.
Searching your deck for what you need isn’t limited to finding just Pokemon. Arven SVI 166 is one of the most versatile searching Supporters in Standard, allowing you to find both an Item and a Pokemon Tool. If finding Supporters is what you need, Pokégear 3.0 BLK 84 has you covered. A copy of Earthen Vessel PRE 106 is included in this deck to help you find the Energy you need.
Both Counter Catcher PAR 160 and Air Balloon BLK 79 affect a Pokemon’s mobility. With Counter Catcher PAR 160, you get to choose which of your opponent’s Pokemon you want to attack. Air Balloon BLK 79 offers your Pokemon more mobility, often allowing the Pokemon it is attached to to be able to Retreat for free.
The last pair of Trainer cards in this deck are all about card recursion. Both Night Stretcher SFA 61 and Super Rod PAL 188 offer cards in your discard pile a second chance to be played. While they serve a similar role, each of these is able to find different amounts of cards. Where those cards go is also a major difference between these Items.
Wrapping Up
While making things difficult for your opponent might not be a strategy everyone wants to employ, for those that do want this, this deck is wonderful. In my opinion, this is a game and you should do whatever is necessary (within the rules) to win, so this deck is fair game.
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
