Zoroark & Weezing Smog Burst

Capitalizing on the high percentage of decks featuring Darkness-weak Pokemon in the current meta, this deck partners the tried-and-true Zoroark (used for its Phantom Transformation ability, allowing you to swap out Zoroark for any stage 1 Pokemon from your discard) with the Weezing cousins from Chilling Reign. Stage 1 Galarian Weezing (CRE 96) has the Energy Factory ability, which allows all Darkness energy attached to Pokemon with "Weezing" in their name to be counted double. This allows Weezing

Capitalizing on the high percentage of decks featuring Darkness-weak Pokemon in the current meta, this deck partners the tried-and-true Zoroark (used for its Phantom Transformation ability, allowing you to swap out Zoroark for any stage 1 Pokemon from your discard) with the Weezing cousins from Chilling Reign. Stage 1 Galarian Weezing (CRE 96) has the Energy Factory ability, which allows all Darkness energy attached to Pokemon with "Weezing" in their name to be counted double. This allows Weezing (CRE 95) to use its Smog Burst attack, which dishes out 20 damage + an additional 20 damage per Darkness Energy attached to your Pokemon, for only a single energy.

Facing a large, 310 HP psychic-type behemoth like Gardevoir ex or Mew VMAX? With only 4 energy attached to your Weezings (either type) in play (which is feasible as soon as you're able to attack with Weezing on turn 2, if you get a bit of luck and draw into a pair of Dark Patches, and is consistently achievable by turn 3), you're smacking Mew and Garde for a whopping 360 damage with a one energy attack on a single prizer. If you play a copy of Cleansing Gloves in your deck, you can reach the magic number of 310 damage with just 3 energy between your two (or more) Weezings. Up against a big Pokémon without weakness, like Giratina VSTAR? 7 energy becomes the magic number. It takes a few turns to get there, for sure, but it's consistently doable. What about Arceus or Lugia VSTAR? When you find yourself up against a lighting or fighting weak Pokemon, you can certainly swing with Weezing if one is set up, but the simpler solution is to dig into the decks small toolbox and transform Zoroark into Raichu (SIT 50; dealing a respectable 140 damage after your opponent has used their VSTAR ability for game for a single colorless energy. Of course, against Pokemon like lighting-weak Lugia VSTAR, damage doubles to 280, which is precisely what you need for the KO) or Hisuian Arcanine (LOR 84 dealing a solid 160 damage for zero energy, but with the stipulation that you can't have any cards in your hand. Fortunately, Skwovet provides a second chance to empty your hand, if you failed to whittle it down the old fashioned way, by placing your hand at the bottom of your deck and then drawing you a single - hopefully playable - card. Then use Bibarel at the start of your next turn to fill your hand and keep things moving). The first version of this deck played Kleavor (ASR 85), which has the attack Rout, smacking your opponent's active for 10 + 30 damage for each Pokémon on your opponents bench. While it has potential against fighting-weak decks, it really should be played with Double Turbo Energy and Choice Belt to truly shine and those cards simply aren't otherwise needed in this deck. Hisuian Arcanine requires careful planning/sequencing and often a bit of luck to use, but, surprisngly, I've found it to be more consistent than Kleavor in my testing. Okay...moving along...at this point you may be saying: "This deck might have an answer for many of the most common heavy hitters, but what about Goodra VSTAR? Goodra has been finding its way near the top of the leaderboards at numerous recent regional tournaments and it has no weakness, like Giratina, has only 10 fewer HP than Giratina, and the real kicker is that Goodra often has an additional 80 damage buffer protecting it thanks to its Rolling Iron attack." That's a fair question. Your go to move in this situation is to click or say "concede!" In all seriousness, if the Goodra is at full health and has just used Rolling Iron for the 80 damage shielding, you'll need 9 energy on your Weezings for a OHKO. Not impossible, but definitely improbable. Goodra is a tough matchup for this deck and one where you'll need a great start, a consistent stream of attackers to chip away at the Goo, a mistake or two from your opponent, and a well timed Judge and Roxanne, just to give you a shot at winning.

Give the deck a spin and let me know if  you discover any major improvements! While this deck is far from meta-defining, it's not much more than a meme deck. It can definitely hold its own on the ladder and the lack of two prize liabilities coupled with OHKO potential on 2 and 3 prize Pokemon offsets the slower set up speed of this deck.