Standard Deck Guide: Wo-Chien ex

With the recent release of Scarlet & Violet: Paldea Evolved, I'll discuss the deck 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 snail Wo-Chien, which is marked by the grudge of the people who were punished by this king in the history of Paldea.

Decklist

Wo-Chien ex: The Star of the Deck

Here, Wo-Chien is useful as the final card in a match to reach one of your opponent's Pokémon, which, in case they retreat it, Wo-Chien can deal it "sniper" damage, reaching upwards of 300 damage - in case the opponent has won 5 Prize Cards throughout the match.

Shaymin-V & Shaymin VStar: The Main Attackers in the Deck

Shaymin V

Our focus is the second attack, as it will have your action power to deal more damage than the opponent. The strategy is using Forretress ex sv2 5 to activate its "sacrifice" ability to energize your Grass(G) Pokémon with 5 basic energies from this type to your Pokémon in any way you'd like, and which, instantaneously, will knock out Forretress ex when this ability is used.

With that, you'll give your opponent two Prize Cards due to Forretress ex's "sacrifice" effect, this way boosting Shaymin-V's attack effect, which will deal 60 + 80, for a total of 140 damage initially, and being able to be increased as the opponent gets more Prize Cards.

Shaymin-VStar

Shaymin-VStar's ability is just a palliative measure to heal your Pokémon, as most have much lower HP, averaging 230 to 250 at most, and are quite fragile. So, with the combination of Radiant Tsareena SIT 16 with your healing ability per turn of 20 points, that can help a ton in a single play, allowing you to heal 140 points of damage in a single turn!

And, of course, don't forget this Pokémon's main attack, Revenge Blast, which depends on the amount of Prize Card to deal higher damage. And, as quoted here: use Forretress ex sv2 5 to activate its "sacrifice" ability to energize your Grass (G) Pokémon and take advantage of this effect throughout its knockout, giving them two Prize Cards per "sacrifice" effect. This way, you'll boost Shaymin-VStar's damage, so it can deal 120 + 80 = 200 damage for two energies!

Drapion-V: The "Counter" to Fusion Strike, Single Strike and Rapid Strike Styles

Your goal is to deal double damage to Mew VMAX LOR TG30, due to its weakness to the Dark type, adding up to 380 damage, which is more than enough to take down this Pokémon, which has 310 HP.

However, with the rising popularity of decks themed around using Lugia VSTAR SIT 139 using its VStar ability to summon Archeops PR-SW SWSH272, they can energize decks which use Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX BRS TG30, or Single Strike Urshifu VMAX BRS TG29, and even if Drapion is vulnerable to the Fighting(F) type, it can still be useful to deal some damage to the opponent's game plan.

Recursive Pokémon

- Forretress ex sv2 5 has its ability Exploding Energy which allows you to look for 5 basic Grass (G) energy in your deck and energize your champions in any way you'd like. If you do, you'll knock out that Pokémon and your opponent will get 2 Prize Cards, due to the "Rule Box" applied to a Pokémon EX when it is knocked out.

It is a similar version to the old Electrode-GX CES 48, only getting energies from your deck, and only energizing basic Grass energies.

This is the heart of the deck, not only to energize your Pokémon, but also boost their (Wo-Chien ex and Shaymin-VStar) damage to deal more damage for each Prize Card your opponent has won.

- Radiant Tsareena SIT 16 has Elegant Heal, which allows you, in your turn, to heal 20 points of damage from all your Pokémon.

It is very useful if combined with Shaymin-VStar's ability, which heals 120 damage from your Grass Pokémon benched, allowing you to heal, in a single turn, 140 damage!

- Bidoof CRZ 111 has Carefree Countenance, which allows it to not take damage on the bench due to sniper tactic attacks, from cards such as Kyogre CRZ 36, which is very useful for you to gain time, so you can 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.

The good part of having this Pokémon in play is that, with the use of Iono sv2 185 at certain moments, you won't suffer from having no cards in hand, as Bibaral will get you the ability to draw. This also only hurts the opponent, which will always benefit from Forrestress ex's self-destructive effect to draw more Prizes, and make Iono sv2 185's effect even more aggressive.

Trainer Cards

Recursive Supporter of Searches and Draws

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

- Gardenia's Vigor ASR 143 is useful as "draw power" and simultaneous energizing: draw two cards from the top of the deck and if, by chance, you have 2 basic Grass energies in hand, you can attach these energies to one of your benched Pokémon.

That will make energizing any Pokémon in your bench easier when you're setting up, particularly if they are Shaymin-V or a VStar, which only need two energies to attack.

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

- Iono sv2 185 is extremely powerful, as it is the fusion of its predecessors N FCO 105 and Marnie SSH 169's 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 equivalent to the number of Prize Cards you have in play, in that case, on each player's board.

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

- Roxanne ASR 150 is also efficient to control the opponent's hand, but it can exclusively be used from the moment your opponent has 3 Prize Cards won or less: in case that happens, you can play this card. You and your opponent will shuffle your hands back into the deck, and, afterward, your opponent will draw only 2 cards and you'll draw 6 cards.

Items

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

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

- Ultra Ball sv1 196 is useful to search for any Pokémon, evolution or basic, common or ultra-rare (it really doesn't matter), as long as you fulfill the requirement of discarding two cards from your hand to play it.

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

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

- Energy Recycler BST 124 is essential, because as the deck only counts with 11 Grass energies, it is a precious resource that can't be lost; so it is ideal that, if one of your Pokémon is knocked out with a massive volume of energies, such as Wo-Chien ex sv2 27, and you need to use a second Forretress ex sv2 5 to redo its ability, you already have the energies in your deck guaranteed.

Estadiums

- Mesagoza sv1 178 is useful to search for a Pokémon, be them basic or evolutions, which is very good to optimize your game to look for Bidoof and Bibarel, for instance. Or even to look for Forretress ex and Shaymin-VStar.

- Lost City LOR 161 is useful for both players. If a Pokémon is knocked out, be it yours or the opponent's, instead of being discarded as usual to the "discard pile", it will go to the "Lost Zone", and won't be able to be recycled.

That is very strong to remove some of your opponent's essential Pokémon, but be very careful, as it is a double-edged sword which also applies to you, and, as there is only one copy, it needs to be played when you have a very well-equipped enemy Pokémon on the other side of the table.

It is important that your damage can knock it out and that it sabotages their game plan in a way that they can no longer recover that Pokémon or get back into the game.

Advantages

- Dark type decks which are weak to the Grass type.

- It is relatively easy to face the Mew VMax deck due to Drapion-V being on this list.

- "Fighting" type decks (which go into the spectrum of Rock and Ground types), particularly against Ting-Lu ex sv2 127.

Disadvantages

- Fire type decks.

- Ushirfu VMax decks (both Single and Rapid Strike) which can set up very quickly, and destroy Drapion-V just as quickly.

It is a very simple deck, relatively cheap, and even good for those who like the Grass type or those who are keen to learn how to use decks with the tactic of "the more you lose, the stronger you get", if we look at the potential of Shaymin VSTAR BRS 14.

Not to mention Wo-Chien ex sv2 27 itself can even deal 300 damage (60 x 5), to an opponent's benched Pokémon in a sniper attack.

See you next time!