Over the past summer, I was obsessed with Chandelure. Looking to spice up Standard this week, I reclaimed the deck and dug through recent sets in search of new additions. Not a whole lot has changed since I last played it, although there’s a new Lampent that pairs well with Oranguru. This does seem too ambitious for its own good from time to time, but the games it works are unforgettable.

Look at this! Games like this feel awesome. Spirit Burner is such a unique attack that it begs you to come back for more. Rhyperior Lv.X is one of the closest competitive processors but it hardly comes close. Unfortunately, the new sets haven’t brought any new support Fire-type Pokemon and this deck does still suffer from inherit issues. I don’t wish to dampen the mood, but here’s a screenshot from that same game where things were deemed lost:

Issues

• Unintentionally discarding all of your Energy as well as ways to get them back
• Spirit Burner missing another Chandelure or Lampent when you need to get another out to follow up your attacker
• Incineroar or an Oranguru getting trapped up with Boss’s Orders leading to a deck-out
• Simply missing the necessary number of discarded Pokemon to remain competitive in a game

What Makes It Fun

• Huge damage output
• Getting Stage 2 Pokemon into play without evolving (in many cases)
• Repeating a unique line each game
• The reaction you get from an opponent when you Spirit Burner to one-shot their TAG TEAM Pokemon-GX

Math & More

Spirit Burner increases in multiples of 60 with 10 base damage.

• 0 Pokemon Discarded: 10
• 1 Pokemon Discarded: 70
• 2 Pokemon Discarded: 130
• 3 Pokemon Discarded: 190
• 4 Pokemon Discarded: 250
• 5 Pokemon Discarded: 310

These are great numbers which are made better by Incineroar. An additional 30 on top of those puts you into the realm of one-shotting even the greatest of Pokemon VMAX. Unfortunately, this deck’s biggest Pokemon with the largest Retreat Cost go hand-in-hand, Oranguru and Incineroar – you can expedite the Stage 2 into play with Primate Wisdom. You could play Bird Keeper while maintaining a heavy Eldegoss V presence, but I’m wary of adding more fluff to the deck.

##Pokémon - 40
4 Sobble SSH 55
4 Drizzile SSH 56
4 Inteleon SSH 58
4 Litwick UNM 28
4 Lampent RCL 32
4 Chandelure UNM 30
4 Gossifleur SSH 20
4 Eldegoss V CPA 5
2 Oranguru SSH 148
2 Incineroar UNB 29
2 Falinks RCL 109
1 Oricorio-GX CEC 95
1 Mew UNB 76
##Trainer Cards - 14
4 Rosa CEC 204
1 Brock's Grit EVO 74
1 Boss's Orders RCL 154
4 Pokémon Communication TEU 152
1 Rare Candy SSH 180
1 Fire Crystal UNB 173
1 Dusk Stone UNB 167
1 Giant Hearth UNM 197
##Energy - 6
6 Fire Energy 2

In the past I’ve played both Green’s Exploration and Pokegear 3.0 for extra consistency, but in doing so you lose valuable slots afforded to Pokemon. Somewhere in the 35-40 range for Pokemon feels mandatory, I wouldn’t go lower than that. This list is going to get you set up more than not, but nothing’s guaranteed. The four Eldegoss V give you great recovery in the late game for extra uses of Brock’s Grit as needed and fitting in a Bird Keeper would be a lot more potent. I’d look into cutting a Fire Energy.

Why Play Chandelure?

This deck is incredibly fun and there’s never been an archetype quite like it! If luck’s on your side, you can one-shot anything. If you’re looking for a reason to play a few games, this is the deck for you. When you grow bored of a format this will give you that spark you need to keep playing. Spirit Burner is super cool and there’s a lot of fun to be had, even in random non-competitive games. Check this deck out if any of these things fancy you and have fun with it!