Searching Standard: Nidoking - 0 Energy

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 ForTheWinTCG. It features Nidoking MEW 34, and includes absolutely zero Energy in the deck. Let's get started by taking a look at the deck list.

Nidoking MEW 34's Venomous Impact attack deals a whopping 190 damage and Poisons your opponent's Active Pokemon as a bonus. The drawback to this attack is that it requires four Energy to use. However, you can get around that by having a Nidoqueen MEW 31 in play. That's because Nidoking MEW 34's Enthusiastic King Ability allows you to ignore the Energy costs of attacks it uses while a Nidoqueen is in play. Massive damage plus Poison for zero Energy? Sounds good to me.

As mentioned earlier, Nidoqueen MEW 31 is only included to allow Nidoking MEW 34 to attack for free. You'll never be able to attack with Nidoqueen MEW 31, so try to keep her safe and sound on your Bench.

The remaining Pokemon in this deck are all included because of their helpful Abilities. Mew CEL 11's Mysterious Tail Ability can be a useful way to find an Item card you need, such as Rare Candy SVI 191. With Radiant Hisuian Sneasler LOR 123's Poison Peak Ability, your opponent will place a total of three damage counters on their Poisoned Pokemon in between each player's turn. That Poison damage will add up quickly. Finally, Manaphy BRS 41's Wave Veil Ability will keep your Benched Pokemon safe from any damage your opponent's attacks might send their way.

In order for this deck to run smoothly, you need to get both a Nidoking MEW 34 and a Nidoqueen MEW 31 into play as quickly as possible. To assist with this task, there are a variety of Trainer cards in this deck that will help get your Basic Pokemon into play ASAP. With a bit of luck, you'll be able to play Battle VIP Pass FST 225 on your first turn to search your deck for up to two Basic Pokemon to put into play. You also have Artazon PAL 171, which allows each player to search for a Basic Pokemon that doesn't have a Rule Box to put onto their Bench. Finally, you can use Nest Ball SVI 181 to find any Basic Pokemon from your deck to put onto your Bench. All of these do a fine job at getting things started.

Level Ball BST 129 is a great Item to use to find the Stage 1 Evolution Pokemon, but it can also be used to find most Basic Pokemon as well. The final Item that helps you search for the Pokemon you'll need is Ultra Ball SVI 196. You can search for any Pokemon when you play Ultra Ball SVI 196, so if you need an Evolution, you have a way of finding it. This deck also includes a full playset of Rare Candy SVI 191 to help you Evolve into your final Evolutions more quickly.

Drawing additional cards during your turn is always helpful, allowing you access to more of the cards in your deck. When you play Professor's Research SVI 189, you'll need to discard your current hand before drawing a hand of seven new cards. Make sure you've played everything you want before playing Professor's Research SVI 189. While Colress's Experiment LOR 155 doesn't give you the same quantity of cards that Professor's Research SVI 189 does, it instead opts for quality. Take the best three cards from the top five cards of your deck to put into your hand. The other two cards go to the Lost Zone, where they're out of play for the remainder of the game. Finally, there's Iono PAL 185, who is not only good at helping you draw a new hand of cards for those times when your options are limited, but she also disrupts your opponent's hand, and they might have a hard time regaining any momentum they had now that their plans have changed.

Since this deck only has one attacker, you'll want to make the most of your attacks. You can help with this by playing Boss’s Orders PAL 172. Boss’s Orders PAL 172 allows you to choose one of your opponent's Benched Pokemon to move to their Active Spot. By doing this, you can choose a Pokemon you're sure to Knock Out, allowing you to take some valuable Prize cards. Alternatively, you can play Escape Rope BST 125 to force your opponent to switch their Active Pokemon with one from their Bench. They get to choose which Pokemon moves to their Active Spot, and you'll also be forced to switch your Pokemon. So be sure you have a Nidoking MEW 34 on your Bench, ready to attack, when you play Escape Rope BST 125.

The final pair of cards in this deck help you get extra value from cards you've already played. Miriam SVI 179 lets you shuffle up to five Pokemon from your discard pile back into your deck. As long as you shuffle back one or more Pokemon, you can then draw three cards. Super Rod PAL 188 can also be used to shuffle back Pokemon into your deck. Alternatively, it can also be used to shuffle Basic Energy back, or any combination of Basic Energy and Pokemon, up to a limit of three cards.

Wrapping Up

I have a fondness for decks that are able to operate without needing any Energy, so I'm looking forward to trying this out. While it might not have the variety of attackers that some previous 0-Energy decks had (I'm looking at you, Caturday), it certainly seems to have the power and damage potential.

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