Standard New to this, can anyone help me with deck ideas?

[Marowhacker]

There are a fair few cards I'd like to make decks around, however I'm struggling for ideas and could do with some help. Any thoughts? Don't think I see these cards often

-Meganium, BKT
-Bewear, SM
-Primarina GX, SM

If you have any ideas for a deck a new player could use please let me know as I'm still relatively new to competitive TCG. Looking for a deck that won't cost me too much, perhaps max £50? No Shaymins or VS seekers if you can? Thanks!

 

[Kietharr]

When you don't see cards often, that's usually because they're kind of bad. Primarina might be okay once Aqua Patch is released but it will still generally be worse than things like Darkrai due grass weakness and 2nd stage mons being very vulnerable to item lock (since you need to search for more cards to come online and usually use rare candies to accelerate evolution).

Bewear is just a very lackluster card, it's not terrible but not great. Meganium is one of those cards that could be viable with a slightly more favorable energy requirement, but regardless it's a very difficult card to play around and not one I'd recommend for a new player. And without consistency cards like VS seekers and Shaymins, I doubly caution you to avoid trying to get too crazy trying lists with niche cards, these lists are already a lot less stable than more conventional decks and can become absolutely miserable to play without these core consistency cards.

I think that, currently, the best deck for new players in standard in terms of ease of use is Darkrai Turbo. Lurantis/Vileplume is also pretty easy to play, but without Shaymins it will have pretty bad consistency issues. I think the sweet spot between good, easy to play, and relatively budget right now is probably Lapras's water box. Here's a budgetized example list

Pokemon - 11
Lapras-GX x3
Remoraid BKT x2
Octillery BKT x2
Manaphy-EX x1
Articuno AT x1
Glaceon-EX x2

Supporters - 12
Sycamore x4
N x2
Lysandre x4
Pokemon Ranger x2

Items - 21
Ultra Ball x2
Dive Ball x4
Max Elixir x4
Fighting Fury Belt x3
Acro Bike x4
Super Rod x2
Energy Switch x2

Stadiums - 4
Rough Seas x4

Energy - 12
Water Energy x12

The Manaphy is about $8-10, the Lapras/Glaceons are about $5-7 each. Octillery is like $2-3 last I checked, the rest of the cards should be under $1. Not sure how the UK's local card market looks by comparison but with the exchange rate you should be able to build this deck for less than 50 pounds.

The deck is designed around getting enough energy to attack on 2 Lapras GX then cycling between them with Manaphy's ability. Lapras's Collect attack can even help with draw consistency to some degree though attack based draw is vulnerable to N.

Glaceon is there as a way to deal with Lurantis and occasionally cheese easy wins against evolution only attacker decks. It can be subbed for Pyukumuku (and then work some bursting balloons into the list as well) as a cheaper but less effective stall option.

 

[Darkness3827]

Meganium and Bewear are very weak cards, so I wouldn't build decks around them unless you absolutely had to. Primarina GX isn't amazing either, but considering you are a new player I doubt you are too concerned with (or capable of) having a tier 1 deck and it is certainly miles better than the other options. So I would build some sort of water deck around them. Here are some options for what to build:

Pokémon:
Obviously Primarina is your focus so you are going to want a 3-3-3 line of it (you can replace some or all stage 1s with rare candies if you want, personally I prefer running 1 stage 1 and the rest being candies, but you might want a different split). You could go 4-4-4, but to me that seems like it takes up too many cards.

Supportive Options (numbers in ()s are how many I would recommend, although exact numbers depend on how many Pokémon total you have):
Lapras GX (2). Solid basic attacker to hold down the fort and make sure you don't get too far behind while you try to get Primarina out.
Regice (2). Similar to Lapras, Regice is weaker and less powerful but it gives you the benefit of blocking all EXs. You also only lose 1 prize when it dies. The EX block may be less powerful now though with the introduction of GXs.
Palkia EX (2). Another solid basic. Also gives you the benefit of energy acceleration. Which is important to power up the attacks of Primarina, Huntail, and Keldeo.
Huntail (2-2 or 3-3 line). Basically a non-GX, stage 1 Primarina. About as powerful but a lot less bulky than Primarina. The fact that it is a stage 1 and not a GX however means you can get him out much faster and you only lose 1 prize. It's also nice because you can have Huntail doing massive damage while only losing 1 energy when he dies.
Manaphy (2). Basically the water version of Fairy Garden. Free retreat is nice and you won't mind spreading energy too much as it will still power up Primarina's and Huntail's attacks.
Octillery (1-1 line). Poor-man's Shaymin. It's a stage 1 so it takes longer to get out and you lose the ability to Ninja Boy it out. However you get 5 cards every turn instead of 6 only when it comes out. Also you only lose 1 prize card when it dies instead of 2. Oranguru is also a weaker alternative to Octillery if you feel as a stage 1 it takes up too many cards.

You also have the option to go with Expanded Pokémon if you don't plan on participating in any tournaments or leagues that require Standard format.
Suicune (2). Basically a more powerful version of Regice.
Keldeo EX (2, with 2 Float Stone). It's ability combined with Float Stone basically makes it a better version of Manaphy (since it will give you the ability to retreat a Pokémon that is asleep/paralyzed or has no energy attached to it). It also has a much better attack than Manaphy, especially since it's a water deck. It's also nice because you can power up his attack while still making Primarina's and Huntail's attacks stronger as well.
Blastoise (2-1-2 line and run 4 rare candies). It's a stage 2 so it's a pain to get it out, but if you can it gives you a massive amount of energy acceleration, which again is huge for getting extra damage in. You could also try running battle Compressor and Archie's ace in the hole to get Blastoise out, but it requires a lot of commitment in terms of cards for it to work.

You should prolly have around 8-10 basics and around 14-16 Pokémon total.

Trainers:
4 Dive Ball
2 Nest Ball or Ultra Ball (optional, depending on how many of the basics you run, you could also run Brigette or Pokémon Fan Club instead)
3-4 Trainer's Mail
2-3 Switch / Escape Rope / Float Stone / Olympia (definitely run Float Stone if you are going to run Keldeo. Personally I find Escape Rope to be best with Manaphy as it can be used as a DIY Lysandre since you can retreat right back into whoever your active was. Olympia is good if you are worried about Item Lock decks)
0-2 Fighting Fury Belt (depends on how many basics you are running and which ones, bad on Keldeo and Manaphy, but good on the others)
2 Professor's Letter
4 Aqua Patch (coming out in the upcoming set)


~8 of the following: N, Sycamore, Kukui, Birch's Observations, Lillie, Shauna (I recommend the first ones the most and the last ones the least)
2 Lysandre
2 Pokémon Ranger (optional disruption)

3 Rough Seas

Energy:
I would recommend 12-15 Energy. Water Energy is best so Primarina and Keldeo deal extra damage. Extra energy also helps to deal extra damage.

 

[Marowhacker]

Thanks you guys!

Any cheaper options to glaceon? That card is super useful but I'm a poor ass and I also like to keep EXs in decks fairly low because you'll end up forfeiting 2 prize cards instead of 1. Lapras water box sounds interesting though, are there any other of those water types that would fit in that deck? Trainers like FFB aren't a worry as I've got tons.

 

[Kietharr]

I mentioned Pyukumuku as a cheap alternative that can be used to buy time for your Lapras setup combined with bursting balloons and maybe an eco arm or two since people are very reluctant to attack into it.