Standard Deck Tech: Banette ex+ Mimikyu VMax

In today's article, we brought an interesting proposal to take the old mechanic used in the Sun & Moon era with the Gengar & Mimikyu-GX TEU 53 that with its attack, Poltergeist, which did 50 times the damage for each Trainer card you could find in your opponent's hand.

With this same principle, our deck focused on Banette ex from the Scarlet & Violet: Base Set will have the same type of reasoning, and as a complement to damage, we will use Mimikyu VMax which, with its low cost of energy to attack, it's great for placing damage counters.

Decklist

Banette ex: main striker

The premise is simple: we lock the opponent so that they doesn't retreat using cards like Switch CRZ 144, Switch Cart ASR 154 or Escape Rope BST 125, using its first attack, so that later, then, we can use the second attack and deal massive damage. With 4 Trainer cards, you're dealing your opponent 240 damage for just two Energy!

As the pace of current decks is “slightly” slow, by focusing on evolutions, they usually have Rare Candy sv1 256 to evolve, so they already have 60 guaranteed damage. The tendency to use Supporter cards is very present, such as Professor's Research, Giacomo, Ionno, Judge, Boss's Orders, Miriam, not to mention Poké Balls such as Nest Ball, Ultra Ball and Hisuian Heavy Ball, which are also powerhouses of damage to Banette ex, being able to defeat many Pokémon with more than 300 HP with ease.

Mimikyu V & Mimikyu Max: damage with counters

Mimikyu VMax comes in to place those damage counters. With the raw part of Banette ex sv1 88, you can also use Radiant Alakazam SIT 59 as a helper to move these counters with Mimikyu VMAX BRS 69, of course, if possible to play Acerola's Premonition BRS 129 to put 13 damage counters.

Recursive Pokémon

- Bidoof CRZ 111 has Concealed Cards, which makes it not receive damage on the bench by attacks with “sniper” tactics, from cards like Kyogre CRZ 36, which is very useful to be able to gain time to evolve it into Bibarel.

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

- Skwovet sv1 151 has Nest Stash: if it's in play, you can activate its ability at any time during the game. If you declare the ability, you shuffle your hand and place all cards on the bottom of the deck, then draw a card from the top of the deck.

But with the combo of these Pokémon, if Bibarel draws up to five cards in your hand, the objective is to reduce your hand to less than five cards.

So, using Skwovet, reduce your hand to just one card and then combine the effect of Bibarel's skill, being able to always draw five cards.

That's the looping you need to do on your turns to look for the cards you need, even if your opponent plays Judge or Iono - and best of all, they're single prize!

- Klefki sv1 96 has Mischievous Lock, which, if this Pokémon is set to Active, makes all Pokémon abilities to be canceled. (except for Mischievous Lock).

It is effective against Lost Box decks, which need an instant action to set up sending cards to the Lost Zone with the Comfey LOR 79; as well as Hawlucha sv1 118 in Ting-Lu ex sv2 127 decks.

- Radiant Alakazam SIT 59 has Painful Spoons, which means that during your turn, you can transfer 2 damage counters between your opponent's Pokémon any way you want.

It is vital to also be able to close the damage of Banette ex sv1 88 which if it wasn't enough to knock out some of the opponent's Pokémon with Poltergeist, you will use Mimikyu VMAX BRS 69 to finish with counters.

- Lumineon V BRS 156 has Luminous Sign, which means that if you play it from your hand to the Bench, you search the deck for a Supporter card, reveal it, and put it into your hand.

Trainer Cards

Supporters

- Professor's Research (Professor Sada) sv1 189 has the function of discarding your hand and drawing 7 new cards.

- Serena SIT 164 enters here with the first option of the card, where discarding up to 3 cards from your hand, you draw until you have 5 cards.

- Acerola's Premonition BRS 129 has the function of drawing cards by the proportion of Trainers found in the opponent's hand.

Not to mention that this card is key to Mimikyu VMAX BRS 69's attack.

- Boss's Orders BRS 132 has the function of pulling some Pokémon from the opponent's Bench and bringing it as active, to close a knockout, and what we want in the deck is that Banette ex uses its Poltergeist attack to deal damage based on the Trainers you find in your opponent's hand.

- Serena SIT 164 enters here with the second option of the card, where you force an opponent's V-type Pokémon that is on the bench to the active position, as if it were a “Boss's Orders” against it.

This card works to hinder players who use a setup that fills the Bench for their own benefit - for example, if they use the same tactic as yours with card draws such as Bidoof CRZ 111, Bibarel BRS 121 and Skwovet sv1 151.

It is also useful in cases where the opponent uses a Lost Box deck, filling the space with as many Comfey as possible.

Items

- Fog Crystal CRE 140: You may search the deck for a Psychic Basic Pokémon or Psychic Basic Energy, reveal it, and put it into your hand.

- Super Rod BKT 149 is used to cycle up to 3 cards from the discard pile, which are a combination of Pokémon and Basic Energy.

Stadium

- Old Cemetery CRE 147 serves to put 2 damage counters on non-Psychic-type Pokémon when trying to energize an Energy card from your hand on these (yours and your opponent's).

This is a way to put damage counters on the board and even help Radiant Alakazam SIT 59 move damage between the opponent's Pokémon.

Advantages

- Fighting-type decks that have a weakness to the Psychic archetype.

- Decks that use many Trainer card techs, more than the usual, the kind have more than 30 Trainer cards.

- Decks that have Pokémon with low HP that can't take the damage transfers that the deck can do and are relocated or placed by Mimikyu VMax.

Disadvantages

- Dark archetype decks.

- Ting-Lu ex, which, with its ability, locks the abilities of your Pokémon (except ex). In this case, it sabotages Radiant Alakazam SIT 59 with its combo, and also its hand draw Pokémon, such as Bidoof CRZ 111, Bibarel BRS 121 and Skwovet sv1 151 .

- Pokémon that are immune to Rule Box damage, such as Miltank ASR 126, and the Mimikyu “baby” that was released in Paldea Evolved, which has immunity to damage from ex and V, only can take damage from counters.

It's an interesting deck that can transit both direct damage and counters.

Seeing that the Metagame has a huge number of Trainers, it is an interesting proposal to test this deck and see how it can do, since the psychic archetype will gain notoriety in the next sets, mainly in the special subset 151 Pokémon Card.