Beedrill

Overview

This deck uses Beedrill as its main attacker. Beedrill's Link Needle hits for massive amounts of damage — with two Beedrill under your control (including the one using the attack), it does 80 damage for 3 Energy, a level of efficiency only matched by a few Stage 2 ex's (Flygon ex δ, Gardevoir ex δ, Kingdra ex δ). With three Beedrill, it does 110 damage, a 1HKO on several Stage 2s and Stage 1/Basic ex's.

Beedrill's edge over the 80-for-3 Stage 2 ex's is that it gets to use Double Rainbow Energy to accelerate into Link Needle, though DRE reduces its damage output by 10. It can also equip Cessation Crystal to disrupt the opponent.

Ideal Gameplan

If you start with Weedle, use Call for Family to put more Weedles on your Bench. If you start with Stantler, put a Cessation Crystal on it, get to 2 Energy, and start Pushing Away to disrupt your opponent. You can switch between these two plans fairly easily with Castaway; it gets you Energy to power your attacks, Cessation Crystal for disruption or Fluffy Berry for free retreats, and Pokémon Fan Club for Basics that you don't have yet.

After you've evolved Weedle into Kakuna, you gain the option of using Fast Evolution to set up. Be careful when going for this, as Kakuna is fragile (it has even lower HP than Stantler!). Try to build up your board evenly; use Fast Evolution to search for Kakunas or Beedrills for your Benched Weedles, and don't evolve the Active Kakuna until necessary, because then you lose access to Fast Evolution.

When you have at least two Beedrill in play, you can begin blasting. Link Needle does 70 damage after Double Rainbow Energy's damage debuff, but that's enough to 2HKO most things. Continue to build the rest of your board while the Active Beedrill attacks. Castaway and Scott are +2 in card advantage, and can search out Supporters for your next turn, so you should be able to maintain the flow of cards even without Poké-Powers.

Keeping at least two Beedrill in play is important for maintaining Link Needle's damage output. Heal Energy can extend their lifespans by a little. Retreat your Active Beedrill for an undamaged one if it's in danger of getting KOed — you'd rather have the damaged Beedrill on the Bench, boosting the other Beedrill's Link Needle by 30, than lying dead in the discard pile.

Unique Points

Beedrill has 0 Retreat Cost, which is a very handy trait for an attacker. It can't be trapped by Pow, and it can retreat out of Confusion (e.g. from opposing Stantlers' Screechy Voice) for free. If your Active Weedle/Kakuna evolves into Beedrill, but you'd rather attack with Stantler or Kakuna instead of going straight to Poison Sting, no problem there either — just retreat to them for free.

Tweaks

Holon Energy GL: Provides permanent Special Condition immunity. If you splash Lightning Energy, it can also reduce damage from ex's. I decided against it because DRE + GL doesn't turn on the latter. (This is a common dilemma for non-ex Stage 1/2 decks which often leads to Holon Energy not making the cut: you want to use DRE because it's your best form of acceleration, but your attacks usually cost 3 Energy at most, so in order for Holon Energy to do its thing, you need to attach a superfluous basic Energy, or not attach DRE.)

Energy Root: +20 HP for Beedrill. This can help Beedrill survive for one more turn if the opponent's attacks do 50, 90, or 100 damage.

Mysterious Shard: One turn of ex immunity for Beedrill.

Protective Orb: Removes Beedrill's Fire Weakness. 

Note that if you play tech Tools, you can't "bump" them like you can with Stadiums. Once a Tool is attached, it stays there indefinitely, so you can't change your mind and replace it with Cessation Crystal, unless your opponent is kind enough to Windstorm it off for you. The best you can do is build up another Beedrill and put Cessation Crystal on that one, then retreat to it.

Strengths

This deck has no bad starting Pokémon. Weedle sets up your Bench with its attack, and Stantler can wear Cessation Crystal and throw out disruptive attacks while you build up your Bench with Castaway into Pokémon Fan Club.

This deck hates on Powers to almost Rai-Eggs levels. It has full playsets of Cessation Crystal and Cursed Stone, plus Castaway and Scott to search for both. Beedrill can also Poison the opponent's Active Pokémon to turn off its Power.

This deck is resilient against Item locks, since it doesn't use Holon Transceiver, and if Rare Candy is blocked, you play Kakuna, so evolving the slow way via Stage 1 is not a problem. Beedrill's 90 HP means it survives two Disconnects from Manectric ex or Deafens from Dragonite ex δ. With the maximum number of Castaway and Cessation Crystal, you're also likely to be able to sneak a Cess in before your opponent can get the lock going.

Weaknesses

Beedrill is quite fragile for a Stage 2, having only 90 HP.

This deck is light on ways to thin the deck against opposing Admins: the only self-discard is TV Reporter. If Cessation Crystal is useless in the matchup, you'll want to play it anyway so it doesn't clog your hand/deck.