Searching Standard: Kyurem VMAX

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 Kyurem VMAX LOR 49 along with 27 Basic Water Energy. Let's get started by taking a look at the deck list.

As I mentioned before the deck list, this deck includes 27 Basic Water Energy cards. That's way more than most decks have, but all of that Energy is included because of Kyurem VMAX LOR 49's Glaciated World Ability. This lets you discard the top card of your deck, once per turn. If the discarded card is a Water Energy card, you can attach it to one of your Pokemon. The goal is to have multiple copies of Kyurem VMAX LOR 49 in play, so that you can use each of their Glaciated World Abilities to accelerate your attached Energy quickly, allowing you to use some powerful attacks. Kyurem VMAX LOR 49's Max Frost happens to be one of those attacks, capable of dealing a variable amount of damage based on the number of Water Energy you discard from Kyurem VMAX LOR 49 when using this attack. Score some big Knock Outs with this attack against your opponent's most powerful Pokemon before they get up and running.

The remaining Pokemon in this deck are all suitable backup attackers. Iron Bundle PAR 56's Refrigerated Stream attack can be particularly effective if your opponent is relying on the attacks of Evolved Pokemon. It also has the Hyper Blower Ability, which can allow you to switch your opponent's Active pokemon with one from their Bench of their choice. Kyogre CEL 3's Aqua Storm attack can potentially deal up to 250 damage to two of your opponent's Benched Pokemon. That can be devastating to your opponent's strategy and can allow you to take multiple Prize cards. Finally, Radiant Greninja ASR 46 offers you a way of drawing extra cards with its Concealed Cards Ability, plus its Moonlight Shuriken attack is similar to Kyogre CEL 3's Aqua Storm attack, as it can target two of your opponent's Pokemon (in any location, not just their Bench), but it will only deal 90 damage to those Pokemon.

This deck includes numerous ways of finding the Pokemon you need to succeed. Battle VIP Pass FST 225 and Nest Ball SVI 181 are very useful in helping you find the Basic Pokemon you need. Adventurer's Discovery FST 224 lets you search your deck for up to three Pokemon V (including VMAX's) to put into your hand. If possible, use this Supporter to help find copies of Kyurem VMAX LOR 49 to play.

Since some of your attacks require you to discard Energy when using them, it's important to have a way to reuse some of the Energy that has gone to your discard pile. Energy Recycler BST 124 lets you shuffle up to five Basic Energy cards from your discard pile back into your deck. With Super Rod PAL 188, you can shuffle back up to three Basic Energy cards, however you can also choose to shuffle back some Pokemon as well. The versatility this card provides is why it is played in so many Standard decks.

With the help of Forest Seal Stone SIT 156's Star Alchemy Ability VSTAR Power, you're able to search your deck for any card you might need to put into your hand. Forest Seal Stone SIT 156 is an item you can search for when you play Irida ASR 147, as she allows you to find an Item and a Water Type Pokemon from your deck to put into your hand.

The final pair of cards are general purpose cards. Escape Rope BST 125 offers you the means of switching both your own and your opponent's Active pokemon with a Pokemon from the Bench. This can be helpful for those times your opponent forces you to switch your Pokemon. Lost Vacuum LOR 162 is included as a means of countering Path to the Peak CRE 148, since this deck is pretty reliant on being able to use Kyurem VMAX LOR 49's Glaciated World Ability.

Wrapping Up

Needing to have a large amount of Energy forces this deck to utilize its non-Energy cards as efficiently as possible. While there are certainly cards that could help make this deck more resilient, adding those cards would come at the cost of lowering the Energy count, thereby reducing the effectiveness of Kyurem VMAX LOR 49's Glaciated World Ability. With that having been said, this deck is still very fun to play and can perform remarkably well much of the time.

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