“Rogue Fangs” - Lycanroc Claws Into Standard!

Hola, fellow trainers! I’ve been enjoying lots of time on vacation while competitors have been duking it out online for the top spot in grass-root tournaments and Chill TCG events alike. It’s been fun watching veteran players combat the strategies of up-and-coming rookies, both of whom have their own individual merits. I personally embrace the rogue side of things when a new set drops because it’s a bit of a shakeup to what was pre-existing around. I know many beginner players may not have a lot of budgets to start playing the game hyper competitively. However, today’s deck will go over a relatively affordable deck in the form of Lycanroc. In a world full of Shadow Rider Calyrex and Eternatus, we can take advantage of those weaknesses by utilizing a Single Strike engine. Single Strike Energy is very resourceful because it can provide both Darkness and Fighting-type energy (but not both at the same time, obviously). In doing so, it also provides a nice damage buff to the deck and can be accelerated! All of the above criteria allow us to build a pretty low-maintenance, single Prize Card deck that has a decent shot at taking down the current format. That being said, I wouldn’t expect stellar results from this deck as it is not as consistent as a Tier 1 deck (such as Shadow Rider Calyrex), but it can pack a punch and take down the titans of the format often enough for me to write about it. Let’s get into the underdog of the format, Lycanroc/Houndoom!

I booted up my Pokémon Trading Card Game Online app, loaded up some PTCGO codes, and then traded those Pokémon online codes in preparation to trade for these decks. I was very excited, and it honestly didn’t take that many PTCGO codes to make the deck. If you’re looking to buy some codes, we sell them here on PTCGO Store, and I highly urge you to check out our competitive pricing and swift delivery! Let’s talk about some concepts for the Chilling Reign format today.

For anybody who played around the 2017 era, this deck is very reminiscent of Vespiquen. Vespiquen’s Bee Revenge is basically a spiritual success by Rogue Fangs, Lycanroc’s attack. 

 

The main strategy of this Pokemon online deck is to setup a couple of Houndoom to accelerate Single Strike Energy cards onto your Lycanroc and then use Rogue Fangs to hit for big numbers. Rogue Fangs does additional damage for each Single Strike Pokémon in your discard pile, which means we’re going to want to play a lot of them! However, in this specific deck, we don’t need to play many Pokémon to hit high numbers because of a special Supporter, but we’ll get into that a little later. Generally, Lycanroc will get KOed which will fuel our attacks to do more damage later. Ideally, we aim to 2HKO a VMAX or Tag Team GX, and then OHKO another to end the game; this translates to roughly 2/3 attacks being needed in a game against most decks. 

4 Houndour BST 95

1 Seviper CRE 102

4 Houndoom BST 96

4 Rockruff CRE 86

2 Stonjourner BST 84

4 Lycanroc CRE 87

1 Dedenne-GX UNB 57

1 Mew UNB 76

2 Karen's Conviction CRE 144

2 Pokémon Communication TEU 152

2 Ordinary Rod SSH 171

4 Professor's Research SSH 178

1 Boss's Orders RCL 154

3 Tower of Darkness BST 137

2 Welcoming Lantern CRE 156

4 Quick Ball SSH 179

4 Bruno BST 121

2 Air Balloon SSH 156

4 Urn of Vitality BST 139

2 Evolution Incense SSH 163

3 Fighting Energy Energy 6

4 Single Strike Energy BST 141

4-4 Lycanroc - It is important to note that Lycanroc is a Single Strike Pokémon, so it benefits from Single Strike Energy and other pieces within the Single Strike engine! Being the spiritual successor to Vespiquen, this Pokemon has big shoes to fill; that being said, I don’t think this Pokemon is even close to reaching its peak potential and is only limited by the card pool it has been released alongside. With 120HP, our durability isn’t our strong suit, as we will most likely get KOed the turn immediately after attacking. Our Fighting-type capabilities are a massive strength on this card, seeming as you hit Eternatus, Pikarom, and Raichu & Raichu for weakness. Shadow Rider Calyrex has resistance to you, but we play a tech for that deck that we’ll discuss later. That being said, Lycanroc’s Rogue Fangs attack is the only attacking option on the card, and oh boy, is it good. For two Fighting Energy, you hit for base 80 damage plus 10 more damage for each Single Strike Pokémon in your discard. We don’t need many in the discard to get OHKOs thanks to weakness, but we aim to 2HKO high HP Pokémon. With the damage buff from Single Strike Energy, you can start your base damage at 100-120 and scale upwards from there, and if you have three Single Strike Pokemon in the discard pile, you will hit around 150 damage at the base. This is pretty much enough to 2HKO every single VMAX in the game, and you OHKO so many common Tag Teams, it makes this deck playable. Each time one of your Lycanroc is KO’ed, it fuels even more damage to your attack (because the Rockruff and Lycanroc are both Single Strike Pokemon)!

4-4 Houndoom - This entire lineup is Single Strike Pokemon, which will obviously fuel Lycanroc’s Rogue Fangs attack. Being able to accelerate energy onto Lycanroc is a vital strategy for this deck, so Houndoom’s ability is essential to our success. We will want two Houndoom in play at all times in order to power up our attackers in a pinch, and the rest of them can usually hit the discard pile to increase the strength of Rogue Fangs. Houndoom is also great at poking a Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX since they’re weak to Dark-types. You can hit for 50 damage base, slap a couple of Single Strike Energy onto there, and you can hit for 90 bases. Multiply that by two because of weakness, and you can reliably 2HKO SR Calyrex with ease.

2 Stonjourner – This guy is Single Strike and is a basic Pokemon who can poke for decent damage onto the opposing Pokemon. Stonjourner doesn’t get used every game but can be useful for finishing off Pokemon that we couldn’t quite OHKO. 

1 Seviper – This is another Single Strike Pokemon that has a very important typing – Dark-type! This Pokemon is purely in here as a way to OHKO a Shadow Rider Calyrex, and it does a good job of that. If you played a Single Strike Supporter this turn, you deal 180 damage to the opponent, and since SR Calyrex has that Dark-type weakness we were talking about, you will effectively deal 360 damage. Seviper can be powered up in a single turn via Houndoom. 

1 Mew – Since we’re playing a lot of low HP basic Pokemon, we want protection against Pokemon such as Zeraora V and Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX.

4 Bruno – Bruno is a Rapid Strike Supporter that is quite strong when its clause is triggered by a KO. I like Bruno in the mid-late game, but it is fragile in the early game, so I’m unsure how I feel like a whole about it. It is necessary to trigger Seviper’s additional damage clause, so this deck can’t be too bad. We may require more draw Support to supplement Bruno’s weak early game performance, but let me tell you – this card is powerful once the game is rolling.

2 Karen’s Conviction – This is the card that initially sparked this deck to come to life. Karen is a Single Strike Supporter that boosts our damage for each Prize Card our opponent has played. Most Pokemon online decks can’t afford to play a ‘damage boosting’ Supporter because they need to rely on hitting cards off of a draw Supporter, but for us, we can take the turn to play Karen’s Conviction because our board state really sets itself up. I mean that if you have the necessary attackers in play, Houndoom searches and attaches the energy for you, which means you don’t need to play a draw Supporter to find as many resources as other decks. Karen, in combination with solid typing in order to hit weakness, is a very dangerous combo. You’re able to OHKO the likes of Shadow Rider Calyrex, Pikarom, Raichu & Raichu, Eternatus, and many more. Karen helps us to clean up OHKOs (or 2HKOs) on Pokemon that we don’t hit weakness on, such as a Mewtwo & Mew Tag Team, for example.

2 Welcoming Lantern – Ahh, yes, the card that ties the Single Strike Engine together. This card helps us recycle either a Bruno or Karen’s Conviction from the discard pile, meaning we can effectively use Karen up to four times in a game and consistently have more access to it. We can also use Lantern as an out to a draw Supporter. This card kind of enables an engine similar to Tag Call where you could grab a setup Supporter (like Guzma & Hala) or a draw Supporter (like Cynthia & Caitlin). This is like the new VS Seeker, but it’s exclusive to Single Strike decks. 

3 Tower of Darkness – I love this card so much, and I really want a fourth. Effectively a one-sided Stadium that allows us to draw cards is great, and it fuels Lycanroc’s attack too! This card is essential to block out Path to the Peak at times for us to use Dedenne-GX. It can also block other Stadiums in various decks and helps us to setup. 

4 Urn of Vitality – An essential card in any Single Strike deck, and I couldn’t imagine a world where I play any less than four. Some games come down to whether or not you can find Urn, and on turns you need it, it can be pivotal to the board state. Do yourself a favor and never cut a single copy of this card.

2 Ordinary Rod – Energy recovery for our basic Fighting Energy helps us streamline multiple Lycanroc back-to-backs. In some games, the opponent will target our Houndoom lines, and we need to be able to recycle those if that proves to be important in games.

1 Boss’ Orders – A key card to allow us to bring up our opponent’s benched Pokemon. We only play one copy because we usually OHKO a lot of stuff, so Boss is less important in here, but still, a great utility card to have.

This deck isn’t going to be sweeping future events from under the rug. However, it is potent enough to take occasional wins, and perhaps with the right amount of luck and tweaking, it could go onto win a massive event. As future iterations of Single Strike Pokémon are printed, this deck will become stronger and stronger because it will gain more options. That being said, I urge you to have a lot of fun with this one and don’t be scared to try out things! 

If you’re looking for codes for Pokémon TCG online play, feel free to pick some up in our shop once they are released. We offer Pokémon TCG online codes at a very competitive price and ensure instant delivery of your PTCGO codes directly to your email. Thank you for reading this article today on PTCGO Store! Have a great day.