Standard Krickets (Kricketune/Fossils)

[Yog]

My favourite card out of CEC hands down is Cradilly. I've tried out a lot of conditions decks to try make the most of him, but this is by far the most fun and winningest one I've managed to cobble together. Even in this Fire meta o.o

Advice please, on how to make it a tad more consistent. It occasionally bricks despite having what seems like a solid engine. If I could find room for some switches, a Shadow Box Mimkyu, Reset Stamp or even 3-4 Custom or Great Catchers, that'd be fab.

Spoiler: Text list

Pokémon (20)
4-3 Kricketune
3-3 Parasect (Panic Spores)
2-2 Cradily (Swaying Strangle)
1-1 Carracosta (Ancient Custom)
1 Ditto Prism (Almighty Evolution)

Supporters (15)
1 Professor Elm
2 Apricorn Maker
3 Cynthia
3 Bill's Analysis
2 Guzma & Hala TT
1 Koga
3 Pokégear

Tools/Items (13)
4 Ear-Ringing Bell
1 Adventure Bag
4 Net Ball
1 Lure Ball
1 Pokémon Communication
2 Lana's Fishing Rod

Stadia (5)
4 Pokémon Research Lab
1 Stadium Nav

Energy (7)
* 5 [G] Energy
* 2 Rainbow Energy

Spoiler: Image list

A lot of these cards may be unfamiliar so a crashcourse in how the deck works:
Cradily blocks anything with a special condition from retreating. Yes, even pesky Escape-Boarded Jirachi. Kricketune & Bells cause confusion, as do Lileep and Parasect in a pinch. Parasect's real job is to pile on damage counters if the active is confused.
This is all very effective in the current format with no way to turn off non-GX abilities, and precious little tool removal. Your biggest obstacle are switching items, but you won't find many decks with more of those than your six little one-prizers. Which you can recycle, along with the bells thanks to Lana's Rod arriving into format. And Guzma & Hala TT has made it more consistent to get the fossil stadium out on T1.

Grass is unique too, in that it benefits from Nest Ball. These additionally allow you to skimp on the energy requirements of your single [G] attackers.

Three cards might seem odd here. Elm is in instead of a third Apricot Maker as occasionally you will just want Ditto (no Paras exists >60 HP, and it can be used as a substitute fossil). The 1-1 Carracosta line is there specifically to turn off Spirit Tags, as you have a very frail bench otherwise. You can fare very well against Mally and other one-prizers so long as the dreaded Mew doesn't appear. The deck has a lot of items that can either increase or decrease your hand size on command, to avail of spread damage (30 to all!) whenever possible. Hence why I'd like some Catchers in. Obviously you also do poorly against Cobalion/Herb/Nurse Joy decks too, but they are a rarity.

 

[JFlo]

If the main cards from this list are still in standard I can help to make maybe a Butterfree RCL deck utilizing Parasect and Cradily.

 

[Yog]

If the main cards from this list are still in standard I can help to make maybe a Butterfree RCL deck utilizing Parasect and Cradily.

Most of the cards are good, particularly the stuff you need to rush fossil mon set up early - the Lab & Stadium Nav, Guzma/Hala & tag whistle. The two biggest losses are Net Ball & Ditto Prism.

Since rotation I've been using Cradily in a (baby) Venomoth deck. Get someone stuck in the active with confusion and then use Assassin's Flight to pick the bench apart. 90 to bench for energy is decent, especially with so many support mons around - a prize per turn or a pair of prizes in two turns is pretty good going in this meta.

I run that with a single Venomoth GX (can freeze out basics), and a Snivy/Venusaur TT for the gust effect.


It won't be winning any tournaments, but it's a fun one to run.

 

[JFlo]

Thanks. I'll post my Butterfree version here. I'll keep in mind the snivysaur as a tech.

 

[JFlo]

Spoiler: "Cradily-Butterfree"

3 Butterfree RCL 3
3 Metapod RCL 2
3 Caterpie RCL 1
1 Venusaur & Snivy-GX CEC 1
2 Cradily CEC 11
2 Lileep CEC 10
2 Parasect TEU 7
2 Paras TEU 6
1 Marshadow UNB 81
1 Mimikyu DAA 81

4 Pokemon Research Lab UNM 205

3 Professor's Research SSH 178
2 Boss's Orders RCL 154
2 Bird Keeper DAA 159
1 Erika's Hospitality TEU 140

3 Pokemon Communication TEU 152
3 Quick Ball SSH 216
3 Evolution Incense SSH 163
4 Switch SSH 183
3 Pokegear 3.0 SSH 174
1 Stadium Nav UNM 208
1 Ordinary Rod SSH 171
1 Reset Stamp UNM 206
1 U-Turn Board UNM 211
1 Giant Bomb UNM 196

7 Grass Energy 1

So while I was searching for a draw engine I Found "Dana" but I read the card wrong and thought it said "If your active pokemon is a stage 2 search your deck for any 2 cards" but its actually if your opponents active is a stage 2. This discouraged me a bit since I had already finished the deck, but I replaced it with a poke gear engine and it doesn't look too bad.

I think this deck's biggest weakness is "Switch". I think in an item lock deck like vikavolt this could actually be super nice since they can't play switch AND they can't retreat.

Outside of switch, I think this deck so far looks good enough to try out in PTCGO, It also gave me lots of other ideas.

 

[Yog]

This looks good. I'll give it a spin once I get my hands on some Butterfree. Switches, MallowTT, now Bird Keeper all definitely slow down the master plan. But most decks only have 3-4 of that type of card unless they are specifically built around some switching effect. Part of the beauty of Krikits or baby Venomoth is that they have six prizes to get and only four switches to do it with.

I would love to try a similar build around energy-attach Arctozolt/Cradily both as fossils, plus Vikavolt. But unfortunately Arctozolt evolves from a different fossil altogether.

Once you see how much these cards let you get the fossils out though, you can start thinking about the other guys that evolve from Rare fossil. Omastar could lock out items if you can keep your bench count low.