Standard Damage Spread Mafia Lead by Don Honchkrow

[Packet]

Hey guys, my first post ad well as my first attempt to make big changes to a deck I found online (both due to personal collection limitations and trying to make it standard legal).

I based the deck off of this video by Dark Integral Gaming:

Without further delay, here’s my deck:

Pokémon- 18

4 Tapu Koko (Sun and Moon Promo)
2 Murkrow (Ultra Prism)
2 Honchkrow (Guardians Rising)
2 Porygon (Burning Shadows)
1 Porygon2 (Burning Shadows)
2 Porygon-Z (Burning Shadows)
2 Sneasel (Burning Shadows)
2 Weavile (Burning Shadows)
1 Ditto Prism Star

Trainer Cards- 29

4 Cynthia
4 Energy Loto
3 Ultra Ball
3 Shrine of Punishment
2 Guzma
2 Nest Ball
2 Pokémon Communications
2 Rare Candy
2 Rescue Stretchers
2 Timer Ball
1 Black Market Prism Star
1 Field Blower
1 Nanu


Energy- 13

9 Dark Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy

Any and all recommendations welcome! Thanks for your time and have a wonderful day/afternoon/evening.

 

[AntiYouJD]

You're using too many energy cards for a deck that uses 1 to 2 energy attacks. This deck would work just as well with 4 DCE, 4 Counter Energy (you'll be behind on prizes most of the time) and 2 Darkness Energy. That leaves us some space for some draw Supporters; you currently only have 4 Cynthia in your deck, and no other means of drawing cards, which will most probably leave you bricked. I'd go for 3 Lillie or Tate & Liza, or whatever good draw Supporter you have available.
Moving on, Nanu offers you very little utility; sure, you can put a dark-type basic in play and evolve right away, but you want to be able to do that regardless, and ideally without wasting a Supporter. Also, you'd need more Nanu to consistently use this strategy, so I believe it has to go. he could be replaced in a few ways:

• Add an extra Rare Candy. Porygon-Z is your win condition against beefy stage1 or 2 GXs, so you want to have as many tools to get to it as possible. Hell, might as well remove the Porygon-2 and add a 4th Rare Candy instead.
• Add an extra Nest Ball, Ultra Ball or Poke Comm. You've got a lot of evolution lines here, and you'll need an equivalent amount of tutors. Timer Ball helps as well, but due to its randomness, I tend to avoid it.
• Add a Guzma. Bringing a heavy bench sitter forward is a great way to keep dealing damage to your opponent's bench unobstructed.
• Add a Field Blower, just in case you are against something that uses Dumbbells, Buff Padding, Metal Frying Pan or Metal Goggles.
• Add an Erika's Hospitality, or another similar draw Supporter. If possible, I usually go for around 8-9 draw Supporters, but this deck might need 10 since it cannot use Oranguru or similar Pokemon due to Weavile.
• Consider adding a Tapu Lele for its Magical Swap attack. It might remove damage counters for the field, but it is a secondary win condition if you've managed to spread enough damage around. Getting 4 prizes with Magical Swap is VERY satisfying!

You can also replace Energy Lotos with one of the above. 4 Energy Loto is a bit overkill. Decks with similar energy spreads as this one rarely use that many, if at all. I'd say you can easily go down to 2 without losing consistency. If you feel that you don't find your energy often enough, feel free to add them back.
I hope this was helpful. Honchcrow was my jam when Burning Shadows came out, but I never had much success with the deck. After Shrine was introduced, the deck became a lot better, And Black Market <> is another interesting tool for it.
Please post the results of using this deck, I'm very interested!

 

[Packet]

You're using too many energy cards for a deck that uses 1 to 2 energy attacks. This deck would work just as well with 4 DCE, 4 Counter Energy (you'll be behind on prizes most of the time) and 2 Darkness Energy. That leaves us some space for some draw Supporters; you currently only have 4 Cynthia in your deck, and no other means of drawing cards, which will most probably leave you bricked. I'd go for 3 Lillie or Tate & Liza, or whatever good draw Supporter you have available.
Moving on, Nanu offers you very little utility; sure, you can put a dark-type basic in play and evolve right away, but you want to be able to do that regardless, and ideally without wasting a Supporter. Also, you'd need more Nanu to consistently use this strategy, so I believe it has to go. he could be replaced in a few ways:

• Add an extra Rare Candy. Porygon-Z is your win condition against beefy stage1 or 2 GXs, so you want to have as many tools to get to it as possible. Hell, might as well remove the Porygon-2 and add a 4th Rare Candy instead.
• Add an extra Nest Ball, Ultra Ball or Poke Comm. You've got a lot of evolution lines here, and you'll need an equivalent amount of tutors. Timer Ball helps as well, but due to its randomness, I tend to avoid it.
• Add a Guzma. Bringing a heavy bench sitter forward is a great way to keep dealing damage to your opponent's bench unobstructed.
• Add a Field Blower, just in case you are against something that uses Dumbbells, Buff Padding, Metal Frying Pan or Metal Goggles.
• Add an Erika's Hospitality, or another similar draw Supporter. If possible, I usually go for around 8-9 draw Supporters, but this deck might need 10 since it cannot use Oranguru or similar Pokemon due to Weavile.
• Consider adding a Tapu Lele for its Magical Swap attack. It might remove damage counters for the field, but it is a secondary win condition if you've managed to spread enough damage around. Getting 4 prizes with Magical Swap is VERY satisfying!

You can also replace Energy Lotos with one of the above. 4 Energy Loto is a bit overkill. Decks with similar energy spreads as this one rarely use that many, if at all. I'd say you can easily go down to 2 without losing consistency. If you feel that you don't find your energy often enough, feel free to add them back.
I hope this was helpful. Honchcrow was my jam when Burning Shadows came out, but I never had much success with the deck. After Shrine was introduced, the deck became a lot better, And Black Market <> is another interesting tool for it.
Please post the results of using this deck, I'm very interested!

These are fantastic suggestions, I’ll move some of those cards out before I play against my friends tonight. I appreciate the detail as to why you would choose some of these cards, it really helps me improve the way I build decks. I don’t play in tournaments much, but I’ll let you know if it works out regardless.