Searching Standard: Invincible Cramorant

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 FlexDaddy. It features Cramorant SV030 and has the potential to become untouchable. Let's get started by taking a look at the deck list.

Cramorant SV030 is the main attacker in this deck. By using its Dive attack, you'll only deal 20 damage to your opponent's Active Pokemon. You'll also flip a coin, which might allow you to prevent all effects of attacks done to Cramorant SV030 during your opponent's next turn. This will include damage dealt to it. To further help boost your chances of winning this coin flip, this deck includes a playset of Glimwood Tangle DAA 162, giving you a second chance in the event that your first flip is tails.

In order to boost the amount of damage you'll be doing to your opponent's Pokemon, you have a variety of support Pokemon. First is Articuno PGO 24. With a copy of Articuno PGO 24 on your Bench, Cramorant SV030  will deal an additional 10 damage when it attacks, thanks to Articuno PGO 24's Ice Symbol Ability. This Ability will stack, so with each additional Articuno PGO 24 you have in play, you'll deal an additional 10 damage. You can also use Radiant Blastoise PGO 18's Pump Shot Ability to put two damage counters on one of your opponent's Benched Pokemon. Doing this comes at a cost, though, as you'll need to discard a Water Energy card to use this Ability.

For a less costly way of dealing additional damage to your opponent's Pokemon, you can use the Quick Shooting Ability of Inteleon CRE 43. Getting this Ability does require evolving into a Stage 2 Pokemon, but you won't need to discard any Energy to use it and it can deal damage to any of your opponent's Pokemon, not just Benched Pokemon.

Finding the Pokemon you need is always essential for any deck, therefore most decks run some number of these cards. Quick Ball SSH 179 can find any Basic Pokemon from within your deck, while Evolution Incense SSH 163 can only find Evolution Pokemon. Level Ball AOR 76 can only find Pokemon with 90 HP or less, so it will help in setting up an Inteleon CRE 43 by finding Drizzile SSH 56 or Sobble CRE 41, but won't be able to find anything else.

Irida ASR 147 can also help you find any Water-Type Pokemon from your deck, as well as an Item card. While searching your deck, it's worthwhile to take note of the Pokemon you find there, so you can know what Pokemon are included in your Prize cards. This will allow you to play Hisuian Heavy Ball ASR 146 without worry. This allows you to put one of the Basic Pokemon in your Prize cards into your hand, replacing it with Hisuian Heavy Ball ASR 146 as a Prize card.

Having access to the Energy you need is very important. Without Energy, you likely won't be able to attack. Capacious Bucket RCL 156 helps you find the Water Energy from within your deck to put into your hand. If you've used Radiant Blastoise PGO 18's Pump Shot Ability to deal damage to your opponent's Benched Pokemon, you might end up low on Energy. Playing Energy Retrieval SSH 160 allows you to reuse a pair of Water Energy cards from your discard pile, putting them back into your hand to be used again.

When you play Boss's Orders RCL 154, you'll choose which of your opponent's Benched Pokemon to move to their Active Spot. This can allow you to Knock Out a Pokemon that already has some damage on it. Attaching a copy of Choice Belt BRS 135 to Cramorant SV030 will boost the damage it does when facing an opponent's Active Pokemon V. Using these cards together can help you take multiple Prize cards when you Knock Out a Pokemon V. Scoop Up Net RCL 165 provides you a way of protecting Cramorant SV030 from getting Knocked Out. Since Cramorant SV030's Dive attack only requires a single Energy to use, you won't lose much by playing Scoop Up Net RCL 165 on it.

This final batch of cards all help you draw additional cards throughout the game. Professor's Research SSH 178 allows you to draw seven cards, but at the cost of discarding your current hand. Make sure to play any relevant cards prior to playing Professor's Research SSH 178. Playing Cynthia's Ambition BRS 138 will draw you either five or eight cards, depending on whether one of your Pokemon was Knocked Out during your opponent's last turn. Finally, Marnie SSH 169 has you shuffle your current hand back into your deck and then draw a new one. It does the same to your opponent. While this can help refresh a stagnant hand for you, it can also mess with your opponent's plans for upcoming turns.

Wrapping Up

While decks that rely on winning coin flips may not be for everyone, they can be a lot of fun to play. They can also be very challenging due to their unpredictability. If you're looking for a fun, challenging deck, give this one a shot.

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