Standard Deck Tech: Radiant Charizard + Sableye (Lost Box)

With the hype of the Lost Origin expansion with new cards with the mechanics destined for Lost Zone, let's talk about one of the decks that has great damage strength being "Single Prize". This deck type even worked at the Peoria regional!

It is worth remembering that this suggestive list is by the Brazilian competitive player, Alex Silva.

Deck Analysis

Here we have 3 main attackers:

1) Radiant Charizard enters as a Mid-Game, Late-Game and End-Game attacker, because of its Excited Heart ability where the colorless energy cost of its attack is decreased for each prize card the opponent has taken. Its attack Combustion Blast, for one fire energy and four colorless energies, does 250 damage and during the next turn, it cannot use that same attack.

2) Cramorant serves as another attacker thanks to the Lost Provision ability, which this Pokémon ignores its attack's energy costs if there are 4 or more cards in the Lost Zone, so it can use its Spit Innocently attack, which deals 110 damage and is unaffected by weakness.

3) Sableye is the attacker who uses damage counter, making a "spread" effect thanks to his attack Lost Mine, for a psychic energy. If you have at least 10 cards in the Lost Zone, you can put up to 12 damage counters between your opponent's Pokémon.

Recursive Pokémon

1) To protect your game against “Sniper” decks that can destroy your Cramorant, Comfey and Sableye, we have to Manaphy BRS 41 because of your Wave Velt ability, that grants protection to your Benched Pokémon if they take direct damage from your opponent's attacks.

2) Galarian Zigzagoon SSH 117, which with its Headbutt Tantrum ability, you deal a damage counter (10 damage) on one of the opponent's Pokémon, trying to close any remaining damage.

3) Comfey LOR 79 is essential to run the process of discarding the Lost Zone, because of its Flower Selecting ability, which if it is the active Pokémon, you look at the top two cards of the deck and chooses one for your hand and the other is sent to the Lost Zone.

Trainer Cards

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

- Klara CRE 145 is almost equal to the effect of the Ordinary Rod, only being a Supporter card and more efficient, and of course choosing one of the two options or both:

1) Take two Pokémon from your discard pile and put them into your hand.

2) Take two basic energies from your discard pile and place them in your hand.

- Battle VIP Pass FST 225 is for putting 2 basic Pokémon on your Bench only during your first turn.

- Fog Crystal CRE 140 is for searching for a basic Pokémon or a basic psychic energy.

- Level Ball BST 129 is searching for a Pokémon with 90 HP or less from your deck, revealing it to your opponent, and putting it in your hand.

- Scoop Up Net RCL 165 is used to pick up a Pokémon from your game and return it to your hand (provided it is not a Pokémon V or GX); and in this case must use this card to loop the combo with Comfey LOR 79 to speed up the process of putting cards in the Lost Zone.

- Cross Switcher FST 230 is a “Boss’s Orders” in Item form. You must play two copies of these cards to fulfill the tribute: if you do, you choose an opponent's Benched Pokémon to go into active position.

- Escape Rope BST 125 is used to change the position of your Pokémon from the bench to the active position, as well as your opponent afterwards. You make the switch first, and then the opponent makes theirs. This is to force the opponent to put some Pokémon that they try to use as a "bluff" so as not to have some important knocked out and then play a Boss's Orders to really pull whoever you want or even use the Cross Switcher for the same purpose to frustrate the opponent.

- Switch Cart ASR 154 is a Switch that only works for basic Pokémon, and also heals 30 damage.

- Echoing Horn CRE 136 is an Item card that forces the opponent to put a basic Pokémon from the discard pile, of your choice, to the opponent's Bench, just to have one more knockout option with a Low HP Pokémon like Crobat V, Eldegoss V or Lumineon Valongside a Boss's Orders or Cross Switcher to pull them into active.

- PokéStop PGO 68 serves between turns (yours and your opponent's) to look at the top 3 cards of their respective decks. If some of these cards have Item cards, you can draw them and put them in your hands, but if you don't, they will be discarded.

This stadium is good for trying to get cards like Escape Rope BST 125, Switch Cart ASR 154, Echoing Horn CRE 136, Fog Crystal CRE 140, Level Ball BST 129, Lost Vacuum LOR 162, Pal Pad SSH 172 and Cross Switcher FST 230, for example.

Advantages

As a purely Single Prize deck, it is good at dealing with ultra-rare decks, and can respond against ultra-rare Pokémon from recently trending decks like Giratina VStar, Origin Forme Palkia VStar, Arceus VStar and even VMax like Kyurem VMax and Mew VMax.

Disadvantages

The acceleration of the use of the Lost Zone without due care and which cards that can be taxed can hinder the development of the game a little without resources at specific times or burn the deck a lot and reach the Late Game and End Game not having enough to respond to some situations and being close to the deckout. This is a weakness of decks that make up the “Lost Box” archetypes in general.

Decks that feature “Spread” with massive damage counters like Mewtwo VUnion, Mimikyu VMax, Dragapult VMax + Sableye which we talked about here.

Decks that have more aggressive “Spread Sniper” power like Greninja VUnion, Urshifu VMax -Rapid Strike-, Magnezone VStar.

Pokémon that inhibit damage from basic Pokémon like Flying Pikachu VMax in Arceus VStar decks can usually end the game as well, in addition to Eiscue EVS 47, which is often in Kyurem VMax decks, also because of its second attack Blockface, which prevents attacks from its opponent's basic Pokémon.

It's an expensive deck (due to mainly Radiant Charizard, and Comfey and Sableye which increased in price due to the Regionals).

It's an aggressive, dynamic, consistent deck that responds to 90% of the cases in the current Metagame, and it's no wonder that its concept was taken to the Peoria regional, Illinois, on 10/01/2022, where Tord Reklev was the winner.

It's a deck that I would play with ease and would definitely approve of to enter the competitive scene, since it offers a strong strategy and can go well against the big decks of the format.