Look Ma, No Hands! Deck - Finding Cards?

prisymvr

Hi!
I'm a new player trying to build my first deck. I ended up pulling several cards that support stronger attacks when your hand is empty, so I'm trying to build around discarding my hand. Buuut I'm having a hard time finding cards by their attacks/abilities that do that.

I know I can search keywords on tcgplayer, but I'd love to be able to filter down by type/evolution lines/etc. Does anyone know if there's somewhere I can do this?

(btw, this is what I have so far. It's not great, nor finished, but it's cobbled out of what I have, so advice on what I should look for is appreciated!)

4 Slowpoke
4 Gladion's Final Battle
4 Thievul
2 Ultra Ball
2 Silvally
2 Dark Bell
3 Nickit
1 Type: Null
2 Slowbro (2 more on the way)
1 N's Castle
1 Meowth ex
2 Poke Pad
1 Lillie's Determination
1 Miracle Headset
1 Judge
1 Potion

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
idk what im doin lol

TheBreloomLover

Im also new to deckbuilding but try limitlesstcg they have a deck builder thats really nice and can export straight to tcgplayer

Aegis0687

Tip: There are often multiple copies of an individual Pokémon somewhere in the TCG franchise, and these usually have different moves or abilities, and can sometimes even be a different type. Do you think you could include the number of each card and the expansion it came from?

Thanks!

ezequielo08

For your deck I would recommend adding more ultra balls, Telepathic Energy, and lots of items, since you can use them without necessarily adding cards to your hand.

ezequielo08

https://community.pokemon.com/en-us/discussion/comment/189646#Comment_189646

I think they refer to the Slowbro, Thievul, and Silvaly from Pitch Black. Slowbro had the "all out" attack that does a lot of damage if you've got no cards in hand.

DeduceyeTCG

https://community.pokemon.com/en-us/discussion/comment/190916#Comment_190916

it’s actually a really good match, I might try to make a deck out if sometime. (I think it’s actually Silvally, Thievul, Slowbro and Gladion’s final Battle)

00Miner00

Sorry for how long this comment is I wanted to have as much detail as possible.
I made a deck list with your cards as a base I've tried to keep the list as concise as possible and added explanations for most of my inclusions and exclusions hope this helps you,

Pokémon: 22
4 Slowpoke PBL 29
4 Slowbro PBL 30
3 Nickit PBL 53
3 Thievul PBL 54
2 Type: Null PBL 69
2 Silvally PBL 70
1 Meowth ex POR 62
1 Shaymin DRI 10
1 Psyduck ASC 39
1 Lillie's Clefairy ex ASC 76

Trainer: 30
4 Gladion's Final Battle PBL 77
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
1 Judge POR 76
4 Ultra Ball MEG 131
4 Poké Pad ASC 198
2 Energy Search POR 72
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
1 Sacred Ash DRI 168
1 Secret Box TWM 163
1 Tool Scrapper ASC 212
2 Brave Bangle WHT 80
2 Air Balloon ASC 181
2 Battle Cage PFL 85

Energy: 8
4 Psychic Energy MEE 5
4 Mist Energy TEF 161

Pokémon:
Shaymin
Stops attacks from damaging benched Pokémon to help against bench sniping decks like N's Zoroark
Psyduck
This is to cancel Dusclops and Dusknoir's effects which can be used to stack damage on your bench or knocking out your Pokémon as many have HP lower than the damage that Dusknoir can do.
Lillie's Clefairy ex
This is to make your Slowbro do super effective damage to dragon decks like Dragapult ex, can also be used to attack if necessary.

Trainers:

• 
  Items:
  Energy Search because this deck doesn't have a draw engine being able to search your energy is important
  Tool Scraper allows you to remove cards such as hero's cape which increase Pokémon's hp making them more difficult to knock out.
  Sacred Ash for Pokémon Recovery
  Night Stretcher for Pokémon and basic energy Recovery
• Tool Cards:
  Air Balloon because the deck has a few Pokémon with 2+ retreat costs it also allows the ones with 1 retreat to retreat without wasting an energy.
  Brave Bangle is a way to squeeze even more damage out of you Pokémon and allows the perfect setup Slowbro to hit for 340 which will 1 shot most cards in the standard format.
• ACE Spec:
  I chose Secret Box because it allows you to discard cards and get Gladion's Final Battle as well as other important cards like Brave Bangle, Battle Cage, Energy Search, and Ultra Ball.

Energy:
Mist Energy is good for dealing with a variety of decks especially Alakazam where mist energy makes Alakazam unable to damage the Pokémon with it attached.

What I removed:
N's Castle has no function in this card and is essentially dead and can be easily replaced with Battle Cage which will give you some protection from a few decks.
Potion just does not give enough value to justify its inclusion.
Dark Bell can be good especially if you're choosing to use Thievul as a more aggressive option.

Potential cards I would add:
Dunsparce/Dudunsparce for a draw engine
Buddy Buddy Poffin to help set up your bench early game
Prism Tower as this card lets you discard while also letting you draw
Hilda would let you search for mist energy and evo Pokémon like Slowbro and Thievul
Fezandipiti ex is one of the strongest cards right now and allows you to recover after losing a Pokémon (I would be wary about adding 2 Prize+ Pokémon into a deck comprised mostly of 1 prize Pokémon as it can allow your opponent to get ahead in prizes).
Boss's Orders allows you to bring Pokémon to the active spot for KOs.
Pokémon Catcher is an item card that does the same as Boss's Orders but requires a successful coin flip.

Important things to think about while deck building

• How are you finding your cards
  
  • Searching - Item based searching (Ultra Ball, Pokepad, Buddy Buddy Poffin, Energy Search), Supporter Searching (Hilda, Team Rocket's Petrel, Dawn)
  • Drawing - Draw Engines (Dudunsparce PRE #80, Drakloak TWM #129, Toucannon PBL #68, Fezandipiti ex SFA #38), Draw Trainers (Lillie's Determination, Gwynn, Professor's Research, Prism Tower, Team Rocket's Factory)
    
• How are you recovering cards (This deck wants to discard as much as possible and sometimes you will get rid of things you would want to keep access to like evolutions and energies)
  
• How are you taking prize cards
  
  • Attacking - What are your main attackers? - how are you powering them up? - do you have secondary attackers? -what situations do you plan to use your secondary attackers?
    
  • Abilities - Gusting abilities? (Gusting is bringing an opponents Pokémon from bench to active) - Damaging abilities? - Abilities that make you take extra prizes?
    
• How are you keeping your Pokémon alive - Healing, moving damage counters, removing Pokémon from play (putting it in hand, shuffling into deck or discarding from field)
  
• How are you disrupting your opponent
  
  • Passive Disruption (Shaymin DRI #10, Psyduck ASC #39, Genesect SFA #40, Jellicent ex WHT #45)
    
  • Active Disruption (Budew, Special Red Card, Unfair Stamp, Eri, Judge, Xerosic's Machinations)
    

Also for this deck in particular I would look for cards that discard cards for their activation such as (Ultra ball which discards 2, Secret Box discards 3, and Prism Tower discards 2)

Mod_Starlight

Firstly, welcome to the game! Honestly, your deck so far sounds like a creative start, and everyone has been in the “cobbled together from my pulls” phase. It is absolutely part of the fun.

For card searching and multiple filters, have you taken a look at the official database on Pokémon TCG Card Dex? It may come in handy when looking up decklists and finding that inspo. There are also a couple of attacks that could work with your discarding hand strategy, such as “Infernal Reign”.

Building from what you have is a fantastic way to learn, as is from other people (like in these forums), but be sure to keep experimenting and tweaking as you go. You’re doing fab, and it sounds like you are already having a good time with it! :)