“Knockout Palooza!” – Mad Party Updated with Battle Styles

What’s going on, Trainers? The dust has settled after a few weeks of playing Pokemon online, and it seems a few decks have really situated themselves high at the top of the tier list. Namely, Victini V, ADP, and Rapid Strike Urshifu decks seem to be doing the best, with the odd Decidueye winning some events where people were unprepared. With ADP being the unofficial “best deck in the format,” we find old answers coming back into the format in an attempt to take it out (such as Pikarom and Eternatus). As far as I can see, there’s a lot of room for creativity in the standard format, and really any deck can win a tournament right now with the right amount of luck on your side. That’s why I wanted to talk about a deck that has undeniable strength right now, Mad Party. Gaining Level Ball, this deck is easily the most aggressive deck that standard has seen in a while and can hit for hundreds of damage on a single Prize Card attacker. The deck is fairly cheap and doesn’t take a lot of PTCGO codes for a beginner to create either! Let’s hop into why I think the tides are turning in favor of the Mad Party.

The strategy behind Mad Party is one that is simple and reminiscent of its ancestor, Night March: get Mad Party Pokemon into the discard pile, and do a very high amount of damage very quickly. All Mad Party Pokemon are extremely frail, sporting low HP counts of 40 and 60 respectfully for our two main attackers, Bunnelbyand Polteageist. We achieve this goal by playing loads of search cards to fish those Pokemon out of the deck, and then we discard them with Professor’s Research,Dedenne-GX, and other methods. We also fuel the fire by 20 more damage every time one of our Mad Party Pokemon gets KO’ed because that contributes another MP to our discard pile. As you can see, once this deck sets up, it really can’t slow down. Since our Pokemon are all single Prize Card attackers, our games are a little longer than usual. However, we almost always win the Prize Trade by being able to take out Tag Teams, GXs, and VMAXs in a quick fashion. Let’s check out what a Mad Party decklist looks like with the release of the newest set, Battle Styles.

4 Bunnelby– Bunnelby is the most important attacker in the deck because it is what will allow us to attack the first turn and apply pressure on our opponent. Being able to attack with a single Twin Energy, all you need to do is get our Bunny into the active spot, slap energy on it, dump a few attackers in the discard pile, and *BOOM*! We have damage on our first turn! Sporting the only 40HP makes us a bit of a glass cannon, but we compensate by dealing high amounts of damage. Bunnelby serves the same purpose as Joltik PHP did for Night March – it’s the go-to attacker. Important to note is that Bunnelby is searchable with Level Ball now, and that’s such a huge boost! Bunnelby can be threatened by Max Phantom from a Dragapult or a Strafe on the first turn from an RS Urshifu V. When you use Bunnelby, expect it to get KO’d the following turn! But don’t worry – with the speed and searchability this deck now has with Battle Styles, you’ll be able to hit fast and hard.

3-4 Polteageist – I know previously I was preaching that a 4-4 line was the best way to go, but as speed becomes a more important factor, I find myself applying lots of pressure with Bunnelby. That being said, I think Polteageist is a vital part of our deck because, without a secondary attacker, we would only be restricted to four Bunnelby and four copies of Twin Energy. Polteageist is a Stage 1 and allows us to use Triple Acceleration Energy (TAE) since we can only attach it to evolved Pokemon. Polteageist offers an additional way to discard extra Mad Party Pokemon via its Tea Break ability – it also allows us an additional way to draw out of poor Marniehands, Reset Stamp, and just natural brick hands. Polteageist also gives us a very relevant typing, meaning we can hit Psychic-weak Pokemon for a ton of damage (think Mewtwo and Mew TTGX). More recently, the new Urshifu VMAX (both Rapid Strike and Single Strike Urshifu) are weak to Psychic-type and struggle against Polteageist, so in that matchup, you should attack them for weakness accordingly. On an aside, do be sure to watch out for their Jirachi GX, as its ability will remove Psychic-weakness from all Pokemon in play. In regards to Psychic-typing, this can also hinder us, as some Pokemon are resistant to Psychic-types (think Lucario and Melmetal TTGX). Either way, this Pokemon is an important part of the crew!

4 Galarian Mr. Rime – Another piece of the Mad Party crew, Mr. Rime, is just discarded fodder to fuel our Mad Party attack. This is an ideal card to throw away with Tea Break and is easily the most useless Mad Party Pokemon in our entire deck. Searchable via Evolution Incense, it’s only relevant because it has the Mad Party attack – hence why we did play Galarian Mr. Mime! This is the only Mad Party piece that we can’t search out with Level Ball, so if you’re given a choice with a Great Ball, I’d opt to discard this Mad Party Pokemon before a Dedenne(or a more easily searchable Mad Partier).

4 Dedenne – No, I’m not talking about Dedenne GX. I’m talking about Dedenne! The final part of our Mad Party crew, this Pokemon is one that we can start with, and that’s mildly annoying. We don’t play any Psychic Energy, which means we won’t be able to attack with this Pokemon, unfortunately. If you start with this Pokemon, try to discard it with Giovanni’s Exile or let the opponent KO it otherwise, it will stay in play for the entire game!

4 Level Ball – This is the best card in the deck and pretty much the whole reason why I’m trying to convince you to play Mad Party! This card speeds the deck up and allows you to search out Pokemon without a drawback to it. It can open your deck up like no other Item card currently can and gives you full autonomy over which Pokemon you want in your hand (or sometimes, in this case, your discard pile). Four of these are essential in any Mad Party build due to their flexibility and aggressiveness that makes this deck able to take down so many Goliaths within a standard.

1 Giovanni’s Exile – This is arguably my favorite card in the deck and the best innovation the deck has had in recent memory. This card is ideally useful for discard liabilities off of the field, such as multi-Prize Card Pokemon such as Dedenne GX and Crobat V. Once these Pokemon are removed from play, the opponent is painfully forced to take out your single Prize Card Pokemon one by one, which will inevitably take a very long time! You can also remove cards such as Dedennefrom play or other Mad Party Pokemon in order to have an extra damage boost for your turn. Most lists initially played one copy of this card alongside a Pal Pad, but once you realize the raw power this card supplies to our deck, it’s worth the inclusion. This card is now key more than ever now that Rapid Strike Urshifu and Dragapult are more prominent in the standard format!

1 Mew – Our bench guardian from above, Mew, is necessary right now due to our Pokemon’s naturally low HP and standard format’s sniping power right now. While we play Mew to ensure our benched Pokemon can’t get hit by sniping attacks, it’s important to note that this only prevents damage from attacks like G-Max Rapid Flow (from an Urshifu Rapid Strike VMAX), and it doesn’t prevent damage counters from attacks like Max Phantom.

I’m sure you’re already running to your computer and loading up your PTCGO Codes as we speak, so I’ll let you hop to it. Mad Party got a lot better with the release of Battle Styles, so you might need some more Pokemon Online codes in order to build this deck. Mad Party is actually one of the least expensive decks to build in terms of PTCGO codes, so it’s a worthwhile investment to have in your deck library!

If you’re looking for codes for Pokemon TCG online play, feel free to pick some up in our shop. We offer Pokemon codes at a very competitive price and ensure instant delivery of your PTCGO codes directly to your email. Thank you for reading this article, and have a great day.