Standard Deck Tech: Hisuian Zoroark VStar - Damage Manipulation

Hello everybody. I'm Rodrigo, and I'm here to bring you more ideas and deck possibilities for the Standard format in the Pokémon TCG.

In this article, with the hype of the expansion of Lost Origin, let's talk about another deck with the highlight of manipulation and damage distribution that solidify the base damage of this Pokémon: Hisuian Zoroark-VStar, which was favored by the Japanese when it was released in the Dark Phantasma expansion.

Deck Analysis

The deck consists of you manipulating the damage counters your Pokémon take so that Hisuian Zoroark can attack, that is, with its Ticking Curse attack, which does 50 times the damage for Pokémon you have with a damage you counter. So if you have six Pokémon with damage counters, you're guaranteed 300 damage for just two colorless energies, which is a considerable damage!

In this deck, the only way to guarantee this damage boost is to put Gengar LOR 66 in the discard pile so that it activates the effect of its Netherworld Gate ability, where during your turn, if it is in your discard pile, you put it on your bench, and in doing so, put 3 damage counters on Gengar.

With Damage Pump LOR 156, you can move two damage counters from one of your Pokémon to another, so it and Gengar have great synergy.

With two Gengar put into play, you can have 100 damage, and as the deck has a third Gengar, we can go further, being able to reach 150 damage. With thw Damage Pump and redistribucting the counters, we can reach that 300 damage.

Let's get to know a little about Hisuian Zoroark-V and VStar:

Recursive Pokémon

1) Radiant Greninja ASR 46, which with its Concealed Cards ability, you discard an energy card from your hand to draw two cards.

2) Lumineon V BRS 40 is like the "Tapu Lele-GX" of the new generation because of its Luminous Sign ability, where if it is played from your hand to your bank, you can look for a Trainer Supporter card in your deck and put it in your hand.

3) The Crobat V DAA 104 card with its Dark Asset ability, which if played from your hand to your bank, you can draw until you have 6 cards in your hand.

4) And as a complement to draws with the effect of "Draw Power", the Bibarel BRS 121 with its Industrious Incisors ability that during your turn, you can draw up to 5 cards in your hand during your turn (only performed by a Bibarel in play).

Trainer Cards

- Professor's Research BRS 147 is used precisely to have the “Draw Power” accelerated, to discard the hand and draw 7 cards in a row. The ideal is to discard the copies of Gengar LOR 66 in your hand to have a good set-up during the game.

- Melony CRE 146 to power up a Pokémon V of yours, taking that water energy from the discard and powering it on, and in the process drawing 3 cards. The Capacious Bucket RCL 156 is ideal for this combo.

- Capacious Bucket RCL 156 is for taking two water energies from the deck and putting them in your hand.

- Damage Pump LOR 156 is useful for moving two damage counters from one of your Pokémon to another.

- Gapejaw Bog ASR 142: When one of the players, you and your opponent, play any Basic Pokémon on their respective benches, put two damage counters on it.

And of special energy we have:

Double Turbo Energy grants the effect of two colorless energies, however the Pokémon it has this card attached to has its damage reduced by 20 points.

Advantages

It's mainly a concern in the current format. With its fighter-type, Hisuian Zoroark does great damage, and can rival many competitive Standard decks, as stated, with this deck being able to have damage bonuses of 300.

Disadvantages

The slow progress of trying to discard the Gengar LOR 66 as quickly as possible and hoping they aren't on the prize cards, so it can't crash your game.

Due to Lost Zone decks that can send any Gengar LOR 66 to the Lost Zone and can no longer recycle those cards that are the fundamental gear to work consistently, Hisuian Zoroark's damage can vary.

It's a good and friendly deck to play, and many players would like to pick up this deck to try it out, given the ease of resources, script to follow and how dynamic it is.

It's really worth a consideration, as it was loved in Japan, I believe it will make a good approach in the next regionals.