Standard Deck Tech: Iron Hands ex - Greedy Finisher

The release of the Scarlet & Violet: Paradox Rift set brought us more Paradox Pokémon. We have our eyes set on Iron Hands ex sv4 70, which brought us the possibility of drawing multiple Prize Cards with its second attack, which is this deck's goal.

To achieve this, we count on Pokémon that help us deal damage to our opponents with "sniper" strategies, such as Jolteon VMAX EVS 51 and Iron Jugulis sv4 158.

Decklist

Iron Hands ex: The Main Attacker and Its Goal

Our focus is its second attack, Amp You Very Much. Its cost is quite heavy ((L)(C)(C)(C)), so the solution we came up with in this list to help pay for it is by using Baxcalibur PR-SV 19 itself with its ability, Super Cold, which allows us to move as many Water energies as we want from our hand to our Pokémon. This process is faster than setting up energies on our Pokémon once per turn with that turn's energy.

120 damage might seem "weak" in this format, but, by using the Future Booster Energy Capsule sv4 164 tool, Future Pokémon get 20 extra damage and also zero retreat cost. This helps us deal even more damage. Considering the Pokémon in the metagame that are weak to the Electric type, this 140 (120 + 20) damage becomes 280 if we apply weakness and double it, which already knocks out two important Pokémon:

- Lugia VSTAR SIT 211;

- Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR CRZ GG67.

With these Pokémon knocked out, you can activate the attack's effect that states that "if any enemy Pokémon was knocked out through this attack, you can draw one extra Prize Card". Like so, instead of drawing two Prize Cards, you'll draw three Prize Cards!

Jolteon VMax: Assistant Attacker

Jolteon VMAX EVS 51's role is to assist Iron Hands ex sv4 70 with its "sniper" damage, that is, dealing 100 damage to the active Pokémon and also to one of your opponent's benched Pokémon. To help with the Electric energy cost, we have the Elemental Badge EVS 147 tool.

If your opponent is using Manaphy BRS 41, we'll go around this Pokémon and deal "sniper" damage by using Canceling Cologne ASR 136. This card states that, during that turn, your opponent's active Pokémon's ability, until the end of your turn, is disabled. Like so, ideally, you'll pull this Manaphy BRS 41, knock it out, and, like so, remove it from play and also deal damage to your opponent's bench.

This will help you complement knockouts with Iron Hands ex sv4 70's second attack. In the best-case scenario, if you have Future Booster Energy Capsule sv4 164 equipped, you'll be attacking on the next turn, and you'll be able to knock out these "damaged" Pokémon with 240 damage. It is possible to knock out a good portion of your opponent's basic Pokémon V, and a few basic Pokémon ex too.

Iron Jugulis: Makeshift Attacker

You might notice this Pokémon's attacks have very heavy costs, but they can be compensated with Baxcalibur PR-SV 19's ability, which sets up energies for this Pokémon very quickly with your basic Water energies.

Like so, its first attack, Homming Headbutt (C) (C) (C), is excellent as a makeshift measure, because it deals 50 damage to 3 Pokémon on your opponent's bench. It is quite strong for a "sniper" attack that doesn't need to discard energies, such as Radiant Greninja ASR 46.

You can also use it efficiently and complement combined attacks from "single prize" Pokémon, like so adding more 50 damage to the 90 damage among them. It is one of the possibilities.

Considering that, currently, in the format, players tend to use "baby" basic Pokémon with low HP to evolve the new Pokémon ex, which have their evolution lines as stage 2, Iron Jugulis sv4 158 is great against targets such as Charmander sv3 26 and Comfey PR-SW SWSH242 in Lost Box decks, and wreaks a lot of havoc.

Recursive Pokémon

Card Draw Pokémon

- Bidoof CRZ 111 has its ability, Carefree Countenance, which makes it immune to damage dealt to the bench through attacks, which is very useful to gain time and evolve it to Bibarel.

- Bibarel BRS 121 has Industrious Incisors, which allows you, once per turn, to draw until you have five cards in hand.

- Radiant Greninja ASR 46 comes in with its ability, Concealed Cards, which allows you, once per turn, to discard one energy from your hand and draw two cards.

Besides guaranteeing "draw power" to your game, discarding energies helps you filter this deck so you can use Superior Energy Retrieval sv2 189 in the future. With it, you'll guarantee card draw by using Bibarel BRS 121's ability alongside it, and you'll be able to use the energies discarded to the discard pile as if it were your "second deck".

Pokémon to Search for a Supporter

Lumineon, when played from your hand to the bench, activates its ability, Luminous Sign, which allows you to look for a Supporter card in your deck and place it in your hand.

Besides this, it also serves as a makeshift attacker and escapes from play, dealing 120 damage and returning itself to your deck to avoid being targeted by your opponent. That is, if you have the 3 energies required to attack with it, which isn't hard, because you have Baxcalibur PR-SV 19 to set up energies.

Dynamic Energy Set Up Pokémon

Starting Hands

In this simulation, we'll start with:

1) Place one of the Iron Hands ex sv4 70 as the active Pokémon by using the Future Booster Energy Capsule sv4 164 tool to guarantee its retreat. Then, we'll place the second Iron Hands ex sv4 70 on the bench, just like Bidoof CRZ 111.

2) If you're second to play, you'll be able to use your Supporter in your turn, Arven sv3 186, because it will filter a tool and an item. Like so, you'll look in your deck for:

- The second copy of Future Booster Energy Capsule sv4 164, for the second Iron Hands ex sv4 70.

- Ultra Ball BRS 150 to set up the energies in your hand, and Peonia to look for a Lumineon V PR-SW SWSH250, if you want to get a Supporter with its ability, or Bibarel PR-SW SWSH188 for the next turn, and evolve it to Bidoof CRZ 111.

In this second simulation:

1) We'll promote Iron Jugulis sv4 158 to the active Pokémon position and place Bidoof CRZ 111 on the bench.

2) We'll play, without thinking twice, Battle VIP Pass FST 225 to look in our deck and check if the entire Jolteon V evolution line is there (both its base form and its VMax form), so we can administer our game plans better.

After this "look", try to search for a Frigibax sv2 57 to set up a Baxcalibur PR-SV 19 in the future, and the second Pokémon, Jolteon V PR-SW SWSH151 (keep in mind: this is only if you've seen its VMax form in your deck).

3) With them set up in play, you can keep the Ultra Ball BRS 150 in your hand for the next turn.

Getting to this turn, evolve your Bidoof CRZ 111 to Bibarel PR-SW SWSH188. Like so, you'll be able to use Ultra Ball BRS 150 with the Water energy in your hand or with another new card that you drew this turn to look for Iron Hands ex sv4 70, or speed up the game by searching for Baxcalibur PR-SV 19.

If you look for Baxcalibur PR-SV 19, you'll be able to use Bibarel PR-SW SWSH188's ability to draw new cards and possibly draw one Rare Candy PGO 69 to speed up Frigibax sv2 57.

In this simulation, we got a generous hand:

1) We'll promote Iron Hands ex sv4 70 to the active Pokémon position, then place the Water energy on it as the energy we add in our turn.

2) We'll play Battle VIP Pass FST 225 and set up the bench with a Bidoof CRZ 111 and a Frigibax sv2 57. In our next turn, if our opponent doesn't play Iono or Judge to sabotage our hand, we'll already have Rare Candy PGO 69 and Baxcalibur PR-SV 19 to progress our game plan.

3) In our next turn, besides evolving Frigibax sv2 57 into Baxcalibur PR-SV 19 by using the Rare Candy PGO 69, we'll still have Earthen Vessel sv4 163 to filter the basic energies in our deck (getting one Electric energy to set up this turn and a Water energy too). Next, play Iono sv2 185 without thinking twice and renew your hand, besides sabotaging the enemy hand.

Trainer Cards

Supporter to Search for Items and Tools in your Deck

Supporter with the "Catcher" Role against your Opponent's Pokémon

Supporter to Sabotage your Opponent's Hand

Supporter to Swap Cards in your Hand with Prize Cards

Peonia comes in as a conditional card in case the Jolteon V PR-SW SWSH151 and Jolteon VMAX EVS 51 lines are in your Prize Cards, as it is a 1-1 evolution line. It is very risky, but it is enough for us to not risk our opponent getting 3 Prize Cards due to a random knockout.

Like so, it has this "deck observation" role to make it easier to draw Pokémon, or specific Trainer cards. You can also draw energies that are in your deck that can limit your plays, considering you have an almost exact quantity of them to set up the combos with Iron Hands ex sv4 70 and Jolteon V PR-SW SWSH151.

Items to Search for Pokémon

Item to Search for Energies in the Discard Pile

This card is vital for this deck, because, as we only have 10 copies of energies in this deck, ideally you'll place them all in the discard pile so that drawing cards with this deck is more precise. So, when Iron Hands ex sv4 70 is ready to attack, and your Baxcalibur PR-SV 19 is set up, use, without thinking twice, Superior Energy Retrieval sv2 189 to recover these energies, speed up costs and attack.

Item to Search for Energies

This is also an important card, and is ideal to get Electric energies, which we only have 4 in our deck, helping you filter your turn to set up Iron Hands ex sv4 70 or Jolteon VMAX EVS 51. Besides the second basic energy, the Water one, which will help you with the energy transfer made by Baxcalibur PR-SV 19.

Item to Recycle Pokémon and Energies

Item to Recycle Supporters

Item to Remove Abilities from your Opponent's Active Pokémon

This card is useful to use against your opponent's Manaphy BRS 41 to execute our strategy of dealing "sniper" damage to the enemy board. This will really disrupt them and will lay the land for Iron Hands ex sv4 70 to come later on.

Item with the "Catcher" Role against your Opponent

This card is very strong when used against your opponent as a sort of "Boss's Orders", in case you're losing the game. This is this card's requirement, and like so you won't have to waste the Supporter, Boss's Orders BRS 132 itself, on that same turn.

Because your opponent will want to target your lowest-HP Pokémon, such as Radiant Greninja ASR 46 and Bibarel PR-SW SWSH188, using this card will be quite useful for Iron Hands ex sv4 70 to finish an opponent's Pokémon in a very specific way, depending on how damaged we left the opponent's side of the board.

Tools

- Earthen Seal Stone SIT 154 can be equipped both to Jolteon V PR-SW SWSH151 and to Lumineon V PR-SW SWSH250, to use their VStar attack. If it is equipped, for just 3 colorless energies, it is ideal to get your opponent's type V Pokémon (be them V, VStar, VMax, VUnion) down to 100 HP. You can complement this play with Iron Hands ex sv4 70's finishing attacks.

- Future Booster Energy Capsule sv4 164 grants 20 extra damage and zero retreat cost to your Future Pokémon, which makes your Iron Hands ex sv4 70 stronger and removes its 4-energy retreat cost.

- Finally, Elemental Badge EVS 147 is useful just to Jolteon VMAX EVS 51, if you're dealing with Manaphy BRS 41.

Advantages

- Against Charizard ex sv3 125 decks.

- Against decks with low HP Pokémon. They'll usually be Lost Box decks that only use "baby" Pokémon, such as the classic Sableye LOR 70, Ditto CRZ 107, Zamazenta CRZ 97 and Kyogre CEL 3.

- Against Water archetype decks, such as Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR CRZ GG67 and Blastoise ex sv3pt5 9.

- Against decks that use Lugia VSTAR SIT 211 and any colorless Pokémon considered a "Flying" Pokémon that is weak to the Electric type, such as Bombirdier ex sv4 156, which has been used in decks as a good recursive setup Pokémon, even though it is quite fragile.

- Against Gardevoir ex sv1 86 decks, because usually this type of deck places several damage counters on their own Pokémon, which makes them easy targets.

Disadvantages

- Roaring Moon ex sv4 229 decks, due to their "instant K.O." effect.

- Control decks, such as Alakazam ex PR-SV 50, if your opponent locks you down with Mimikyu sv2 97.

- Control decks such as Tsareena ex sv4 46 with Panic Mask LOR 165.

- Decks that are explosive and attack fast, such as Garchomp ex sv4 38 with Lucario PR-SW SWSH186.

- Fighting archetype decks, such as Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX BRS TG30.

It is a deck that has only one goal and role: deal as much damage as you can to knock out Pokémon later with Iron Hands ex sv4 70 and draw Prize Cards as fast as possible. The only risky part might be to depend on Jolteon's 1-1 evolution line.

This can be compensated with the other Pokémon, such as the combination of Lumineon V PR-SW SWSH250 with Earthen Seal Stone SIT 154 to make this whole process easier; Iron Jugulis sv4 158 as the assistant; or Radiant Greninja ASR 46 as another attacker.

But its goal is great for those players who enjoy pragmatic actions, and it's worth the investment.

See you next time!