Standard Deck Tech: Raikou Amazing Rare + Lost Zone Turbo

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.

With the hype of the expansion Lost Origin with new Trainer cards that can complement old cards from the Sword/Shield format, we have the power-up combination with Mirage Gate with Reshiram Amazing Rare, which you can check here.

But now, the combination of Mirage Gate is with Raikou Amazing Rare, focusing on “Sniper” damage.

Deck Analysis

In the same way that the Reshiram Amazing Rare deck needed the use of the Mirage Gate for power-up because Amazing Rare cards require tributes of diversified energies, the Mirage Gate asks for the tribute with a minimum of 7 cards in the Lost Zone to activate, and if activated, it allows you to search your deck for two different Basic Energy and attach them to one of your Pokémon.

But to speed up this effect of sending stuff to the Lost Zone, Comfey LOR 79's Flower Selecting ability is used where you look at the top two cards of the deck, choosing one for the hand and one for the Lost Zone.

It is possible to reset this effect constantly by using Scoop Up Net RCL 165 to put it into play and replicate this effect several times until you put at least 4 cards in the Lost Zone. We also have Colress's Experiment LOR 155 as another resource that can send cards to the Lost Zone.

With that, Raikou Amazing Rare uses the attack Amazing Shot, for an electric energy, a grass energy, and a metal energy, to deal 120 damage to the opponent's Active Pokémon and deal 120 damage to one of the opponent's Benched Pokémon.

As an early and "Mid-Game" attacker, we have Cramorant LOR 50 with its Lost Provision ability, where this Pokémon ignores its attack's energy costs if there are 4 or more cards in the Lost Zone. Serves as a combo for the Spit Innocently attack, which deals 110 damage and is unaffected by weakness.

And to close “Sniper” damage, but now swinging with the “Spread” type, using the damage counters instead of massive raw damage, we have Sableye LOR 70 with the Lost Mine attack. For a psychic energy, he can only attack if the tribute is paid with 10 cards in the Lost Zone, and if fulfilled, he puts 12 damage counters on the opponent's Pokémon in any way you prefer, closing the initial 120 damage of Raikou Amazing Rare on a specific Pokémon.

And as a power-up complement, we have Leafeon V EVS 7 that with its Greening Cells ability, which during your turn, you can search your deck for a grass energy and power up one of your Pokémon in game, and if you do, your turn ends.

It is precisely this energy that must be linked with Raikou VIV 50, to prepare it on the bench.

And now, with its VStar evolution, Leafeon VSTAR PR-SW SWSH195 comes in handy due to its VStar ability, Ivy Star, which forces your opponent to switch a Benched Pokémon to active position.

It's basically the same effect as Guzma BUS 115 from the Sun/Moon era.

Recursive Pokémon

1) To protect your game against “Sniper” decks that can destroy your Raikou Amazing Rare, Cramorant, Comfey and Sableye, we have Manaphy BRS 41 with its Wave Velt, which grants protection to your Benched Pokémon if they take direct damage.

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

3) Crobat V DAA 104 uses its Dark Asset ability that, if played from your hand to the bench, you draw cards until you have six in your hand.

Trainer Cards

- Colress's Experiment LOR 155 is for looking at the top 5 cards of your deck, put 3 cards in your hand and the rest for the Lost Zone.

- Boss's Orders SHF 58 to pull a Pokémon from the opponent's Bench to bring it as Active and the Raikou deals that damage to the opposing Pokémon, giving a Knockout.

For example, in a hypothetical situation where the opponent has a Manaphy that protects their bench, you pull it forward, knock it out of play for promoting it as an active Pokemon taking 120 damage and still break does 120 damage against an opposing Benched Pokémon.

- Mirage Gate LOR 163 is the key to power up, as it can take two different basic energies and put it in your Raikou Amazing Rare. But for that, you need to have at least 7 cards in the Lost Zone.

- Scoop Up Net RCL 165 is used to pick up a Pokémon from your game and return it to your hand (granted it is not a Pokémon V or GX).

It is essential to have this card to loop the combo with Comfey LOR 79.

- Ordinary Rod SSH 171 is precisely the recycling of basic energy resources and Pokémon in your discard, being able to choose one of the two options or both.

And since there are two cards in the deck, it's always good to come back with wisdom at least the Raikou, which are keys to the deck's damage.

- The Stadium Training Court RCL 169 serves precisely to get a basic energy from the discard pile and put it in your hand; thus contributing to the energy management, which has few copies and even 4 different types.

Advantages

As a purely Single Prize deck, it is good at dealing with ultra-rare decks. Even if it has an ultra-rare with Leafeon V, it's just situational against some Pokémon, but it doesn't compromise the deck.

It excels against water decks like Dewgong, Greninja VUnion, Suicune V with Ludicolo, Origin Forme Palkia VStar due to its double weakness.

And even if some deck has Manaphy like Bench Protector, there are ways to circumvent it to pull active and knock it out, causing Sniper at the same time on an opponent's Benched Pokémon. Not to mention that we have the Sableye that uses damage counters, bypassing the Manaphy's ability.

Disadvantages

Decks that feature “Spread” with massive damage counters like Mewtwo VUnion, Mimikyu VMax and Dragapult VMax + Sableye [link]https://pokemon.cardsrealm.com/en-us/articles/standard-deck-tech-dragapult-vmax-sableye)(as in this example).

Decks that have more aggressive “Spread Sniper” power like Greninja VUnion, Urshifu VMax -Rapid Strike-, Magnezone VStar, plus some fighter-type strategy like Hisuian Decidueye VStar.

Archetypes that can inhibit attacks from basic Pokémon, such as Flying Pikachu VMAX CEL 7 and Eiscue EVS 47.

It's a good deck for the "Sniper" style mixing with Sableye's indirect "Spread", being even faster for deck building than Greninja VUnion (which is a bit slower as it's about assembling 4 parts).

It has the ideal versatility to be able to hit in 3 ways in the TCG: by direct damage, "sniper" damage and "spread" damage, which is a good combination, even if it doesn't deal great raw damage like 230 or 300 damage at once.