Expanded Deck Tech: Beedrill (151)

In today's article, we'll focus on Expanded and get some cards from the "151" special set, showing you new ways to play.

The Pokémon we chose was Beedrill sv3pt5 15, which focuses on the "No Hands" mechanic.

"But what is that?", you, reader, might be asking yourself.

"No Hands" refers to when the attacking Pokémon gets bonus damage or can only attack under the condition of having no cards in hand, like its predecessors, Granbull LOT 138 and Hisuian Arcanine LOR 84. In this article, I'll analyze two ways to play that focus on this strategy.

Beedrill: Understanding this Deck's Main Attacker

Its first attack is what interests us because, if you don't have any cards in hand, it will deal 30 + 120 damage, besides applying Paralysis and Poison to our opponent at the same time!

Decklist

About Recursive Pokémon

In this version of the deck, we focus on recursive Pokémon that provide card draw; Oranguru SUM 113 and Radiant Venusaur PGO 4.

The differences between the two are:

- Oranguru SUM 113 allows you to draw cards until you have 3 in your hand. Ideally, you'll be able to empty your hand before attacking, and also draw item cards that will help you set up your game plan, such as PokéNav CES 140, Ultra Ball SUM 135, Nest Ball SUM 123 and Great Ball XY 118.

- Radiant Venusaur PGO 4's ability is ideal after you attack. That is, after Beedrill sv3pt5 15 declares its attack, at the end of this step, you'll draw until you have 4 cards in hand. Like so, you'll always have more options to set up, set up others Weedle PRC 1 to evolve them to Kakuna sv3pt5 14 and keep this flow going.

Next, one of the most important Pokémon for this list is Magcargo CES 24, due to its ability to filter your deck and place any card you want in your deck on the top (of course, if your opponent doesn't sabotage you with cards like Judge FST 235, N FCO 105, and Roxanne ASR 150).

To defend your Pokémon against your opponent's "sniper" attack damage, it is essential to use Mew UNB 76, but this Pokémon won't defend them from damage "counters" (which is a different way to apply damage). This means, against decks that use Sableye LOR 70, this deck will have issues.

About Trainer Cards

Notice that this list only has two types of Trainer cards: Ball Guy SHF 57 and Guzma BUS 115.

Supporter to Search for "Poké-Balls"

Ball Guy is essential to look for three types of cards with "Ball" in their name in your deck and place them in your hand. This is one of the most efficient ways of setting up, for example:

- Search for Ultra Ball SUM 135 to look for the Pokémon you need, and discard two cards in your hand, which will increase your chances of attacking with your Beedrill sv3pt5 15 successfully.

- Search for Great Ball XY 118 to filter your deck, peeking at the top 7 cards in your deck and grabbing any Pokémon that is over there.

- Search for Nest Ball SUM 123 to look for a basic Pokémon and place it directly on your bench.

- And, finally, search for Hisuian Heavy Ball ASR 146, which searches for a basic Pokémon in the Prize Cards pile (in case any Pokémon that is essential to your strategies is stuck over there).

We still have the suggestions I added to my Maybe Board: Level Ball BST 129 and Quick Ball SSH 179, but they have their cons:

- Level Ball BST 129 looks for Pokémon with up to 90HP, which is around "85%" of your deck, except for Oranguru SUM 113, Radiant Venusaur PGO 4 and Beedrill sv3pt5 15 itself.

- Quick Ball SSH 179 is limited to searching basic Pokémon, but it demands you discard a card from your hand, which helps Beedrill sv3pt5 15's attack dynamic anyway, as it demands an empty hand.

Adding these cards to your deck will be a decision up to you.

Supporter to "Catch" the Enemy Pokémon

As an aggressive card that pulls an enemy Pokémon, Guzma is useful to set up surprise attacks, hitting big targets and "stalling" the game due to the Paralysis in Beedrill sv3pt5 15's attack. It's useful to knock down ultra-rare Pokémon, like Pokémon-EX, Pokémon-GX, Pokémon Tag Team-GX, Pokémon V, Pokémon VStar, Pokémon VMax, Pokémon VUnion and Pokémon ex.

Items to Look for Pokémon and Energies

This card is excellent to filter your topdeck, searching not only Pokémon but energies too. It can also speed up Weedle PRC 1's setup, or even its evolution's setups. It also grabs special energies, such as Double Colorless Energy SUM 136 and Counter Energy CIN 100.

Item to Look for Special Energies in the Discard Pile

With three copies of this card in this deck, each copy recycles 2 special energies in the discard pile, totaling 6 recycled energies. This perfectly matches the math regarding your deck's special energies: 3 copies of Double Colorless Energy SUM 136 and 3 copies of Counter Energy CIN 100.

Item to Recycle Pokémon

Item to Recycle Supporters

Item to "Catch" Enemy Pokémon

As this deck tends to be knocked out faster because it takes longer to set up, you'll be behind in the Prize Cards race. Like so, you'll activate this item's effect to use it as a sort of "Boss's Orders" - pulling your opponent's benched Pokémon to the active position and locking it down with Beedrill sv3pt5 15's Paralysis.

Item to Sabotage your Opponent

- Startling Megaphone FLF 97 is useful to remove all the tools your opponent has equipped on their Pokémon.

- Field Blower GRI 125 allows you to discard stadiums and tools, and you can choose to remove two cards like so (you can remove two tools or a stadium and a tool). Your priority will always be a stadium, if your opponent decides to play stadiums like Silent Lab PRC 140 (because of Oranguru SUM 113, Mew UNB 76 and Radiant Venusaur PGO 4 itself) or Path to the Peak CRE 148 (because of Radiant Venusaur PGO 4).

Item to Triple your Beedrill's Damage

In a good scenario in which your Beedrill sv3pt5 15 has dealt 150 damage, by using this tool, you'll deal 450 damage to Pokémon with a weakness to the Grass type (and I'm not even considering the Poison effect, as the damage is already significant and takes down many Pokémon in the format with this weakness). Among the Pokémon with this weakness, we can list the most recent one: Charizard ex sv3 125.

Stadium

Sea of Nothingness CIN 99 retains the bad status that are affecting your opponent (Poison and Paralysis applied to the opponent's active Pokémon) even if they retreat or evolve the Pokémon in question.

The Paralysis only lasts one turn, but your opponent won't be able to attack you until the end of their turn, and this is one of the strongest "bad status" in this TCG.

Decklist

About Recursive Pokémon

We've kept Oranguru SUM 113 with its ability to draw cards and Magcargo CES 24 due to its ability to filter your deck and place any card you want on the top. The new addition is the focus on Poisoning enemy Pokémon, with the help of Radiant Hisuian Sneasler LOR 123 with its ability that places damage counters on Poisoned Pokémon during the "check-up" phases (the current description of "between turns", which the Pokémon Company changed recently).

This is quite effective because, if your Beedrill sv3pt5 15 deals 150 damage (30 +120 if you have no cards in hand), you'll also have the Poison damage on that turn, and a counter between turns (10 damage, to be exact).

Therefore, Radiant Hisuian Sneasler LOR 123's ability boosts Poison strategies and adds two counters. Like so, it will be three damage counters between turns per Poison status (30 damage).

About Trainer Cards

We've kept the same Trainer cards as the list before, but we changed the stadiums, which we'll list below.

Stadiums

I removed the safety version that included three copies of Sea of Nothingness CIN 99 and chose to focus on Poison with Virbank City Gym PLS 126. With this stadium in play, the Poisoned Pokémon gets two extra damage counters between turns, and like so, with the benefits from Radiant Hisuian Sneasler LOR 123 we listed above, you'll be applying, by attacking with Beedrill sv3pt5 15, five damage counters per Poison status.

Which means, you'll have a total of 150 base damage plus 10 from the attack's usual effect, plus 20 more from Hisuian Sneasler and 20 more from this stadium's effect: it's around 200 damage!

Decklist

About Recursive Pokémon

In this version of this deck, I was bolder and removed Magcargo CES 24, which allows you to place any card you want on the top, and Oranguru SUM 113, which allows you to draw up to 3 cards, to add Bibarel PR-SW SWSH188. It can draw you up to 5 cards, and matches Skwovet sv1 151, which, with its ability, shuffles your hand and leaves you with only one card. This makes it even easier to attack with Beedrill sv3pt5 15.

We've kept Radiant Hisuian Sneasler LOR 123's Poison strategies.

About Trainer Cards

I slightly changed the Trainer cards:

- I removed one copy of Ball Guy SHF 57 because, as Bibarel PR-SW SWSH188 is your new source of card draw, you might end up with too many Supporter cards in hand. It will be inefficient if you have too many Supporter cards in hand, so this version of this deck counts with literally only four Supporters (two copies of Ball Guy SHF 57 and two copies of Guzma BUS 115).

- I added Quick Ball SSH 179 to have more "item" type cards in this list and to make it easier to search for Pokémon.

- I replaced PokéNav CES 140 with Trainers' Mail ROS 92a.

- I added Float Stone PLF 99 to support Bibarel PR-SW SWSH188 and have mobility, in case your opponent focuses on "stalling" it.

- I added Rescue Stretcher GRI 130 to return 3 Pokémon to the deck, focusing on Beedrill sv3pt5 15.

- I put back in the three copies of Sea of Nothingness CIN 99 to guarantee the durability of the opponent's Paralysis and Poison "statuses".

- It guarantees you'll lock down your opponent by "stalling" them, abusing Paralysis and Poison as bad statuses.

- This deck is made of practically only "single prize" cards, and won't be severely harmed by being behind in the Prize Cards race, if by any chance we add an "ultra rare" Pokémon to fill in a recursive Pokémon role.

Favorable

- Against decks that have weaknesses to the Grass type, which include Pokémon like:

1) Charizard ex sv3 125.

2) Galarian Moltres V CRE 97.

3) Darkrai VSTAR ASR 99.

4) Hoopa V PR-SW SWSH176.

5) Rhyperior V DAA 95.

6) Sandaconda VMAX CRE 90.

7) Stonjourner VMAX SSH 116.

8) Blastoise-GX UNB 35.

9) Blastoise & Piplup-GX CEC 38.

- Against decks that use "ultra rare" Pokémon, such as Pokémon-EX, Pokémon-GX, Pokémon Tag Team-GX, Pokémon V, Pokémon VStar, Pokémon VMax, Pokémon VUnion and Pokémon ex.

Unfavorable

- Against Fire archetype decks.

- Against decks that use mechanics like United Wings, Lost March, Mad Party, Night March because they are "single prize" strategies and are easy to set up. They can explode with enough damage to take down your Pokémon.

- Decks that use cards like Big Parasol DAA 157 or Sparkling Robe FFI 99.

- Decks that have Pokémon that aren't affected by "bad statuses", such as Virizion V PR-SW SWSH295, Virizion-EX PLB 9, and Cobalion-GX TEU 106.

- Lost Box decks that use Sableye LOR 70.

- Decks that drastically reduce Pokémon's HP to use "instant K.O." strategies, such as Raticate BREAK BKP 89, Raticate BCR 105 and Alolan Raticate PGO 42.

For those who enjoy decks that work with the bad status strategy and locking down opponents, with a sort of "mini control" strategy guaranteed by Paralysis, it is an excellent choice.

Its only negative side is that it takes time to set up because we will focus on a stage 2 Pokémon. This delays this deck's dynamic a bit, and, for this reason, we use Rare Candy PGO 69 in this list.

See you next time!