Raichu LvX
The obvious strength of this card is its Link Lightning PokeBody. When you level this guy up, you can attack twice in one turn, as long as the first attack is Voltage Shoot. This leads to obvious problems with the second attack, as Voltage Shoot requires a discard of 2 Lightning Energy for 80 damage. So, the best way to utilize this Raichu is to accelerate energy as quickly as possible to hopefully grab two KOs in one turn.
The obvious Raichu to pair with this LvX is the
Raichu Prime. His PokePower allows you to move Electric Energy to Raichu whenever you want during your turn. His attack is pretty obviously average, but could be a nice one hit KO when necessary.
There are a few cards out there that could potentially help get the energy onto Raichu. Right now, one of the internet's favorites is
Pachirisu from the Call of Legends set. When you Bench the Pachirisu, you can attach 2 Electric Energy from your hand to Pachi. Then, you can use Raichu Prime's Power to move that Energy to Raichu. The problem with Pachi is that he's kind of a one-shot deal. He either works or he doesn't, and there's no real middle ground between the two. He also basically requires you to maximize your Super Scoop Up and Junk Arm count to maximize his potential. I don't really like him for Raichu, mostly because he removes spots from other things in your deck that might also be necessary.
Another option, especially for mid-game or late game, would be
Magnezone #6 from Stormfront. During your turn, you can attach an Electric Energy from your Discard to your Active Pokemon, placing one damage counter on that Pokemon if you do. This also allows for the very powerful
Magnezone #5 from Stormfront to be played, which lets you search for an Electric or Metal Pokemon from your Deck and add it to your Hand. There are more methods for getting Electric Energy in the discard than there are for getting them in hand, so I like this option much better. It also opens you up for better card acceleration with the SF5 Magnezone.
With all of that in mind, let's try and build a deck incorporating these elements and some Raichu recovery thoughts.
Pokemon (25):
4
Sableye SF
3
Pikachu MD 70
2 Raichu Prime
2 Raichu LvX
2
Uxie LA
4
Magnemite SF66
3
Magneton SF 42
2 Magnezone SF6
2 Magnezone SF5
1
Azelf LA
Trainers (21):
3
Broken Time Space
2
Rare Candy
3
Bebe's Search
2
Pokemon Collector
2
Pokemon Communication
2
Engineer's Adjustments or
Sage's Training
4
Super Scoop Up
1
Palmer's Contribution
1
VS Seeker
1
Luxury Ball
Energy (14):
4
Call
10
Electric
There's a lot of extra stuff here that's not part of our basic strategy, so I'll try and do a turn-by-turn of how this deck should work ideally.
Starting with Sableye, you should use Impersonate for Collector, making sure that you have a Pikachu and a Magnemite either in your hand or in play, and a Uxie in your hand. If you have additional spots, then you should either an Unown Q or a second Magnemite. If you have an energy, especially a Lightning, attach it to Sableye before you Impersonate.
On your second turn, try any and every means necessary to get that SF5 Magnezone into play. He is the basis of your speed, and you'll need every advantage you can get. You've got a 4-3 stage 1 line below the SF5 Zone, 5 ways of accelerating your evolutions, and 6 dedicated Search cards. Magnezone should search out either a second SF5 Magnezone or your Raichu Prime, with the Raichu getting preference so that you can evolve him quickly and get set for the LvX to hit play. While you're doing that, do any means necessary to get Electric Energy into your Discard. You've got either Engineer or Sage to help with that energy discarding, that's a choice that depends solely on your play style and what tradeoffs you're willing to make for this deck.
After this, it's just a matter of using Magnezone SF6 and your regular energy attachments to get at least 5 Electric Energy in play, or 4 Electrics and a Call on a Raichu. The moment you have that, Level Up a Raichu, pull the 5 Energy up to the Raichu, and use Link Lightning followed by either Link Lightning or Mega Thunderbolt, whichever you feel is better at getting the KOs that you need. You need to get 2 KOs from that one attack phase.
The turn after you do that LevelUp and Attack, you must use your Super Scoops to get that first Raichu back into your hand. Hopefully, you've got a second Raichu Prime already on your bench, and again hopefully with at least 5 energy in play or ready to be played. Even if you can't get the SSU flip, Free Retreat the Raichu into another Raichu and have the LvX in play. Then, you do it again. There are very few decks that can handle getting KO'd 4 times in 2 turns.
Hopefully, after this, you can find some way to get the final two KOs using some combination of your Raichus and Magnezones. With Magnezone being able to snipe for 40, Porter for 60, or deal a straight 80, along with Raichu's big attacks, you should be able to get those prizes relatively easily. If the opportunity exists, try out the Link Lightning combo once again with a Super Scoop Up.
As far as the rest of the deck, it's there to mitigate bad starts as much as possible. Uxie is the most powerful draw card in the format today and should be included in every deck. He's how you'll get to your Turn 2 Magnezone. Azelf will help you get stuff out of your Prizes, as stuff gets prized far too easily in this game. Call is a personal call, but it makes getting Magnemites out of the Active Position by benching another Magnemite and using that Magnet attached to your Active. Palmer recovers anything that gets KO'd, though it should be used most often on Raichu and SF6 Magnezone, as those are the backbone of your deck. If an SF5 Magnezone gets KO'd, you'll usually be fine as long as you've got the rest of the setup going. VS Seeker is just an extra copy of a bunch of different Supporters, any of which can be useful in a given situation.
Oh yeah. I know I'm going to get questions about this, so might as well touch on it right now. The 2-2 Raichu-LvX line. I ran a Glaceon LvX deck for a long time, and I realized that Azelf is not a great thing to have on your bench. Also, once the LvX is gone, it's gone, and it's tough to bring it back. With 2-2, it's a little bit harder to get out the base Raichu, but it's much easier to keep the LvX in play and in your deck. Again, I don't like using Azelf more than I have to, so I'll hedge my bets against using it.
Now, about the stuff you're likely to see...
SP decks, unfortunately, will tear anything involving Raichu to pieces. I'm sorry, that's just how it is. They're too big, too strong, and too fast for Raichu to have enough time to set itself up. If you do manage to get set up and somehow manage to KO two of their LvX cards, then you might have a chance, as at times they can be slow to reset. But don't rely on it. Hedge your bets at all points by getting two SF5 Magnezones out, and search as often as possible.
Gyarados is another too big, too strong, too fast deck, but this one you've got a fighting chance against because of the +30 weakness plus the fact that they can't get multiple KOs in a single turn. Just make sure that you can get 2 KOs in a turn when you bring up the Raichu, and you should be fine. But this isn't an easy matchup.
VileGar is an interesting matchup, and it really comes down to which player can get their evolutions out faster. VileGar can easily shut down your Trainers, but they also play BTS, which makes your job a lot easier. Don't worry too much about running into a Fainting Spell flip, as you have a few ways of getting the Pokemon back, and the energy is easily recoverable with SF6 Magnezone. Again, the SF5 Magnezone will be your biggest help in this matchup, with its ability to search through your deck easily and grabbing exactly what you need at any given time.
There are a few different Lost World variants out there, and most of them have a natural advantage against you because you run a ton of Pokemon in your deck. Against Gengar, you should only be searching out the Pokemon that you absolutely need, rather than trying to thin your deck for something else. Don't worry too much about discarding Pokemon with Sage once you've got out what you need. Palkia is trickier, as you have to ensure that your bench is less than 4 at all times. It's OK to Lost Zone a couple of Pixies, but try and limit yourself as much as possible. Against virtually all Lost World decks, getting two KOs in one turn will be critical to your success.
There are a few other matchups out there, but none of them really have a strategy other than what you already know for your deck. Basically, don't worry too much about the particulars of what your opponent is playing and make sure that your deck is working to the best of its potential at all times.