Searching Standard: Wugtrio Mill

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 Wugtrio SVI 57, who, with a bit of luck, can mill through your opponent's deck in a few turns. Let's get started by taking a look at the deck list.

Wugtrio SVI 57 is the main attacker for this deck. You'll want to use its Undersea Tunnel attack each turn to hopefully mill up to 9 cards from your opponent's deck. Milling this many cards will take a bit of luck, though, and most times you'll need to be satisfied with just milling 3 or 6 cards. There will be times 0 cards are milled, but hopefully this won't happen too often.

As a means of drawing extra cards, this deck utilizes the Industrious Incisors Ability of Bibarel BRS 121. By being able to refill your hand to 5 cards each turn, you'll be able to cycle through your deck easily to find the cards you need.

Skwovet SVI 151's Nest Stash Ability helps you cycle through your deck more quickly, when used in conjunction with Bibarel BRS 121's Industrious Incisors Ability. Use Nest Stash first, putting the current cards in your hand on the bottom of your deck, then drawing 1 card. Then use Industrious Incisors to draw 4 more new cards.

Manaphy BRS 41 is included in this deck solely for the use of its Wave Veil Ability, which can help keep your Benched Pokemon safe from receiving any damage when your opponent's Active Pokemon attacks.

The final pair of Pokemon are backup attackers. Mimikyu PAL 97's Safeguard Ability prevents all damage done to it by attacks from your opponent's Pokemon ex and Pokemon V. Against certain decks, this Pokemon equates to an auto-win. You can use its Ghost Eye attack to put 7 damage counters onto your opponent's Active Pokemon. This is not the same as dealing damage, as it's placing counters. Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex TWM 141 gets better as your opponent takes more and more of their Prize cards. Its Seasoned Skill Ability reduces the amount of Energy needed for you to attack with its Blood Moon attack. This can be a great attack to Knock Out your opponent's Active Pokemon, especially if your opponent doesn't have a fully loaded Bench. Remember, though, that the goal of this deck is to defeat your opponent by milling their deck, not by Knocking Out all of their Pokemon.

Colress's Tenacity SFA 57 is a great new card that allows you to search your deck for a Stadium card and an Energy card to put into your hand. Neutralization Zone SFA 60 is the Stadium you'll most likely want to search for. Having it in play will turn your Wugtrio SVI 57 into a pseudo-Mimikyu PAL 97. Since you're likely to be behind your opponent on taking Prize cards, grabbing a Reversal Energy PAL 192 with Colress's Tenacity SFA 57 makes the most sense, as it allows you to use Wugtrio SVI 57's Undersea Tunnel attack with only this Energy attached.

Most deck use Boss’s Orders PAL 172 and Counter Catcher PAR 160 to be able to attack a Pokemon that you'll be sure to Knock Out, but since you're typically not trying to Knock Out your opponent's Pokemon with this deck, the plan for these cards changes. You'll want to choose to move Pokemon that don't have enough Energy to attack, or if you happen to have Neutralization Zone SFA 60 in play, you can move one of your opponent's Pokemon ex or Pokemon V to their Active Spot. There's a single copy of Switch SVI 194 that you can use if your opponent swaps out your Wugtrio SVI 57 for a different Pokemon that they don't Knock Out.

This batch of Trainer cards can all help you find the Basic (Non-Pokemon ex) cards you need. Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144 can put a pair of Pokemon with 70 HP or less onto your Bench. Artazon PAL 171 lets each player search their deck for whatever Basic Pokemon that doesn't have a Rule Box to put onto your Bench. There's also a copy of Nest Ball SVI 181 you can use to search your deck for any Basic Pokemon you need, including Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex TWM 141. Remember that all of these put Pokemon directly into play onto your Bench, and not into your hand.

If you need any of your evolutions, but don't want to wait to draw them, you can use Ultra Ball SVI 196 to search your deck for them. While it can also be used to find Basic pokemon, as you've seen, there are many other options to search for Basic Pokemon in this deck that you'll want to use before resorting to Ultra Ball SVI 196.

Both Colress's Experiment LOR 155 and Iono PAL 185 can help you draw additional cards. Colress's Experiment LOR 155 gives you the choice of three of the top five cards from your deck, with the other two being sent to the Lost Zone. Iono PAL 185 shouldn't be played unless absolutely necessary, because you'll basically be adding cards to your opponent's deck (which you're trying to mill out). There will be times that playing Iono PAL 185 is just what you need to do to be able to get rid of some of the options in your opponent's hand.

By playing Miss Fortune Sisters LOR 164, you'll get to discard any Items you find from within the top 5 cards of your opponent's deck. Since Items are generally used to help find important things from your deck or to return things to your deck from your discard pile, this effect can be quite useful. Eri TEF 146 also lets you discard up to two Item cards from your opponent's hand. Make sure to choose any items that would allow them to return cards from their discard pile to their deck, if possible. There's also a copy of Xerosic's Machinations SFA 64 in this deck, which forces your opponent to discard cards from their hand until only 3 cards remain. Fewer cards in their hand equal fewer options for them.

The final batch of cards are all Trainer cards that help you reuse cards that have gone to your discard pile. Night Stretcher SFA 61 and Super Rod PAL 188 can return Pokemon or Basic Energy to your hand or deck respectively. Pal Pad SVI 182 lets you shuffle back a pair of Supporter cards into your deck. Finally, with Roseanne's Backup BRS 148, you can shuffle back a Pokemon, Stadium, and an Energy card (there are no Pokemon Tool cards in this deck). Remember that Roseanne's Backup BRS 148 can return Neutralization Zone SFA 60 to your deck due to the text on it that disallows it to be put into your hand or deck from the discard pile.

Wrapping Up

Mill decks are some of the most fun decks you can try in this game. They play so differently from a regular deck, since their end goal is vastly different than usual. If you're not afraid of playing a deck that relies on coin flips to succeed, you should give this deck a try.

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