Standard Deck Tech: Chi-Yu ex

With the recent release of Scarlet & Violet: Paldea Evolved, I'll discuss the decks referring to the "Treasure of Ruin Pokémon".

To give you all some context: in Paldea, there are these legendary creatures from the Pokémon world which, according to local legends, were responsible for the destruction of that continent. They were fed by their ill-intent towards humanity, due to a tyrannic king who used them as a source of war power, until, after wars in the region, these four creatures were finally sealed.

Today, we'll discuss the fish Chi-Yu, which is marked by humanity's envy involving the use of the jewels in its eyes, in Paldea's story.

Decklist

Chi-Yu ex: The Star of the Deck

This Pokémon is an excellent recursive Pokémon for the Fire archetype, both for Standard and even for Expanded - and, I dare say, one of the best Fire recursives in recent times, as it has the role of burning the opponent's deck (the famous "mill" strategy - even if in small quantities). All of that happens at the same time it deals damage and simultaneously energizes your benched Fire Pokémon.

Ideally, you'll use its second attack to prepare your Pokémon, as this archetype demands a certain energy cost.

Charizard-V & Charizard-VStar: An Attacker with Brute Force

Charizard-V

The first attack is interesting, as it can discard one of the most useful tools in the game, which is Bravery Charm sv2 173, a common tool in many decks.

Charizard-VStar

Using the combo of the stadium Magma Basin BRS 144 to energize Charizard VStar, it will get a damage counter, as the stadium does, and it'll still take advantage of this play to have the first attack's effect to get the added 130 damage, totaling 230 damage.

And, in extreme cases, when there's a Pokémon with high HP, Charizard VStar's VStar attack can take down many Pokémon, as 320 damage is excellent, but it gets even better with Choice Belt BRS 135, in case there are V-type opponents - totaling 350 damage.

Entei V: Alternative Attacker

With some basic math, we have virtually 220 damage with Entei V BRS 22. The current metagame strongly values the use of many Pokémon in play, with as many as you can have benched, so you'll always have 100 damage on each board.

The damage can also be amplified with Choice Belt BRS 135, getting 30 extra damage against V Pokémon, reaching 250 - not to mention the practicality of being taxed by two energies, which is easy to set up.

Radiant Charizard: Emergency Aggressive Attacker

Here we have a situation of extreme measures when the game is reaching its final moments, with its ability which allows for the cost of colorless energies to be reduced when the opponent gets a proportional number of Prize Cards.

The attack is quite strong, 250, but it has the downside of only being able to be used in the next turn - however, you can cheat that attack effect, by retreating Radiant Charizard and promoting it again to the active position.

Heatmor: Sniper Attacker

Though the setup of six energies for this Pokémon is a bit complicated, considering the current metagame isn't favorable for the Fire archetype to have such a fast energization, you can't discard the possibility of using it in a specific situation.

Recursive Pokémon

- Armarouge sv1 41 has its ability, Fire Off, which allows you, during your turn, to move the Fire energies from one of your benched Pokémon to your active Pokémon.

- Bidoof CRZ 111 has Carefree Countenance, which allows it to not take damage when benched by "sniper" tactic attacks, from cards such as Kyogre CRZ 36, gaining you time to evolve it to Bibarel.

- Bibarel BRS 121 comes in with Industrious Incisors, with which you, per turn, can draw until you have five cards in hand.

The good part of this Pokémon being in play is that, with the use of Iono sv2 185, at certain moments, you don't suffer from having no cards, as Bibarel will get you some card draw, only putting your opponent at a disadvantage, in case they draw too many Prize Cards. And it even helps with your Radiant Charizard CRZ 20 to attack at the end game.

Trainer Cards

Supporters

Professor's Research (Professor Sada) sv1 189 is useful as "draw power": discard your hand and draw 7 cards.

Raihan EVS 152 is useful as "gas" at the moment one of your Pokémon is knocked out, when you'll be able to activate this card's effect. If that happens, you can attach one basic energy from the discard pile to one of your Pokémon, and still search in your deck for any card you'd like and place it in your hand.

Boss's Orders (Ghetsis) sv2 172 is useful to pull a specific Pokémon from the opponent's bench to deal the damage to victory, speeding up your drawing of Prize Cards.

It is quite useful to combine the use of this card to enable your Charizard VSTAR CRZ 19 as an attacker in that round, as it is your deck's highest damage output Pokémon, capable of knocking out 95% of the metagame; and also, as a second option, we have Radiant Charizard CRZ 20, which is another excellent attacker.

- Iono sv2 185 is extremely powerful, as it is the combination of its predecessors', N FCO 105 and Marnie SSH 169, effects together: you and your opponent shuffle your hands and place them at the bottom of the deck. After that, you'll draw cards from the top of the deck equal to the number of Prize Cards you have in play, in that case, on each of the player's game.

Example: if your opponent has 2 Prize Cards and you have 4 Prize Cards and use this card as an effect, you'll shuffle your hands to the bottom of the deck, and, in that, your opponent will draw only 2 cards and you'll draw 4 cards.

Items

- Pokégear 3.0 sv1 186 is an item to filter the 7 cards on the top of your deck to look for any Supporter card, reveal it, and this way, place it in your hand.

- Escape Rope BST 125 has a "similar" effect to Guzma BUS 115: your opponent will choose a Pokémon on their bench which will be promoted to the active position, and, next, you'll do the same with your Pokémon. The opponent will do this swap first (and, if they don't have any Pokémon benched to swap, they won't need to.)

- Ultra Ball sv1 196 is useful to look for any Pokémon, evolution or basic, common or ultra-rare, as long as you fulfill its requirement of discarding two cards from your hand to play it.

- Nest Ball sv1 181 is useful to look for a basic Pokémon in your deck and place it directly on the bench.

- Battle VIP Pass FST 225 is useful to be used only on your first turn in the game: look for two basic Pokémon in your deck, and then place them directly on your bench.

- Energy Recycler BST 124 is essential, because, as the deck counts on a few Fire energies, they are a precious resource which can't be lost.

The deck has a limited number of energies for Fire Pokémon standards, which demand many energies as fuel, and you still need to discard them to attack, which is quite common with Charizard. As a result, I included one copy of this card in the deck.

- Choice Belt BRS 135 is a tool which, if equipped to a Pokémon, deals 30 extra damage against the opponent's active Pokémon if it's a V-type (be them V, VMax, VStar or VUnion).

That is good to complement Charizard VSTAR CRZ 19's damage, particularly its VStar attack, which can grow from 320 to 350, this way making it able to knock out all Pokémon V in Standard.

Tool Suggestions

A suggestion to put in the list, if you'd like to, is Defiance Band sv1 169, as it grants a benefit of 30 extra damage to the Pokémon which has it equipped. However, that effect can only be used in case your opponent has less Prize Cards than you, which means, in case you're winning the game.

As the Fire deck will always face the issue of the Water archetype, this card fits in like a glove, in case you want to replace Choice Belt BRS 135, as it is only useful against Pokémon V, unlike Defiance Band sv1 169, which contains broad damage and can fit against any opponent.

Stadium

Magma Basin BRS 144 is useful to energize your Fire Pokémon in the following way: you look for a basic Fire energy from your discard pile and attach it to a benched Fire Pokémon in play, and, if you do, that energized Pokémon will get 2 damage counters.

For the current meta, this card for the Fire type is a must, in case we are looking for something like a dynamic energization for your Pokémon in this archetype.

And, taking advantage of the downside of getting 2 damage counters on the benefitted Pokémon, remember Charizard VSTAR CRZ 19's first attack, Explosive Fire, which hits 230 damage in case Charizard has any damage counters on it.

Advantages

- Grass type decks, such as Wo-Chien ex sv2 257.

Disadvantages

- Water type decks, such as Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR CRZ GG67, Chien-Pao ex sv2 261, Kyurem VMAX LOR 49, Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX ASR TG29 and Greninja VUnion.

It is a very practical deck considering its strategy: deal lots of damage, as any good Fire archetype.

And, it still counts on the presence of Chi-Yu ex sv2 40, which, besides being a great energizer on your bench, acts as a "mill" attacker. Even though it's only two cards that your opponent loses from their deck, that can be useful in many ways. That happens because the current trend is to use many Professor's Research cards, with which the opponent needs to draw 7 new cards when their hand is bad. With Chi-Yu, we can reduce not only the deck, even if bit by bit, but also take from them some good resources from the top of their deck, sabotaging the opponent.

And we still have two Charizard: Radiant Charizard CRZ 20 and Charizard VSTAR CRZ 19, which have one of the highest base blunt damages in the current format.

See you next time!