Hydreigon/Darkrai - The Dark Dominator

Klinklang^5

Hello everyone!


It’s finally time to begin the BW-on era in my deck articles. I’m obviously preparing for Worlds, but thankfully the deck I’m going to analyze today, is very close to Nationals winning deck – Klinklang. I’ve tested the deck moderately and in BW-on environment it works like a dream.

As you know if you are a regular visitor of my blog, the deck I’m talking about won the Worlds Qualifiers in Japan. In this article, the list I’ll analyze differs only a few cards from the winning list since the winning list was a very good list (obviously it wouldn’t have won, if it was a bad list!).

Anyways, that’s for the introduction; let’s start by looking at the list.(All the translations are from the Pokebeach, by the way).

Pokémon:

3x Darkrai EX
1x Shaymin EX
3x Hydreigon(Dragons Exalted)
1x Zweilos(Dragons Exalted)
2x Deino (Noble Victories)
1x Deino (Dragons Exalted)
3x Sableye
=14

Trainer:

4x Professor Juniper
3x Bianca
4x N
4x Pokémon Catcher
4x Dark Patch
3x Rare Candy
2x Eviolite
3x Ultra Ball
2x Level Ball
3x Max Potion
2x Random Receiver
=34

Energy:

8x Basic Darkness Energy
4x Blend Energy Grass/Fire/Psychic/Darkness(Dragons Exalted)
=12


Strategy

As I said earlier, this deck reminds me a lot of Klinklang. Hydreigon does the same as Klinklang, except it does it better. You just move around the energy from your Pokémon to other Pokémon and keep them alive with Max Potions. Since the BW-on format doesn’t have Junk Arm, the deck needs Sableye to get the Max Potions back to your hand. Changing one prize card for 2 Max Potions isn’t a bad exchange.

Also, this deck is a lot more aggressive than Klinklang. Klinklang can easily fall behind in prizes, but this deck doesn’t need to. This deck has it all: energy acceleration, energy manipulation, speed, firepower versatility… I could go on forever. The deck has almost no weaknesses since dragon types are such a good cards because of their weakness to Dragon. You need a Dragon Pokémon to OHKO a Dragon Pokémon and non-Dragon decks have a difficult time against this deck since Hydreigon is virtually impossible to OHKO in this deck.

Let’s take a look at the card explanations, which explain the deck’s assets far better than simple strategy analysis.


Card Explanations

Darkrai EX

Darkrai EX is still one of the best cards in the BW-on format. It’s also the main attacker of this deck. With Dark Patch and Hydreigon’s ability it’s very easy to load energy accelerate a fresh Darkrai EX to your bench and just heal off the damage on the damaged Darkrai EX. Darkrai EX has a whopping 180 HP and since the only real way to OHKO Darkrai EX is to use Terrakion, you need a Terrakion to defeat this deck. If you have ever played against Klinklang, you know what happens when you aren’t able to OHKO their attackers.

Darkrai EX also gives a free retreat to every Pokémon in play. As we know from Klinklang, Darkrai EX’s ability is very good in decks that can move energy around as they wish. Darkrai EX’s ability combined with Hydreigon’s ability gives any of your Pokémon a free retreat whenever you need it. The more mobile a deck is, the better it usually also is and thanks to Darkrai this deck is as mobile as it can get.

We all know how deadly Darkrai EX is since it has dominated the HGSS-on format as well and I don’t think I need to go too in-depth with its attack. Night Spear combined with Max Potion is as deadly in BW-on format, as it would be in HGSS-on format. Probably even deadlier, because the BW-on environment is a little bit slower than HGSS-on format. Thanks to Darkrai EX this deck can be one of the fastest decks in the BW-on format.


Deino (Noble Victories)  - Deino (Dragons Exalted)

In my opinion, there isn’t too much of a difference between these cards. The other one can paralyze and the other one can hit 10 or 20 for 1 energy. The main qualities of a Basic, which has a stage2 form, is weaknesses and HP amount. The other Deino is weak to fighting, while the other one is weak to Dragon. I think these both are bad weaknesses in the BW-on format, but I would probably lean towards to the Fighting weak Deino (Noble Victories) since Rayquaza(Dragon Blast) can easily OHKO the Dragon weak Deino.

Zweilous(Dragons Exalted/Noble Victories)

Even though the winner played this Zweilous, I’m not completely convinced that this is the better choice. This Zweilous’ attacks are better, but its weakness to Dragon and 80 HP disturbs me. It may be a metagame choice, because if Fighting Pokémon were popular in their metagame, this Dragon weak is a better choice. After all, all Zweilous needs to do is to stay alive for one turn until you can evolve it into Hydreigon.

Hydreigon(Dragons Exalted)

Hydreigon – Dragon – HP150

Stage 2 – Evolves from Zweilous

Ability: Dark Trance
As often as you like during your turn (before your attack), you may move a Darkness Energy attached to 1 of your Pokemon to another of your Pokemon.

[P][D][D][C] Dragon Blast: 140 damage. Discard 2 Darkness Energy attached to this Pokemon.

Weakness: Dragon (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3

Hydreigon is just like Klinklang. Except it’s one hundred times better. First of all Hydreigon has 150 HP, which is a whopping amount of HP for a non-EX Pokémon. Also, it’s weak to Dragon type, which is almost as good weakness as Klinklang’s Fire weakness. Hydreigon has the same ability as Klinklang, except Hydreigon can only move Darkness energy, not metal energy. However, thanks to Dark Patch, Darkrai EX, moving Darkness energy is better than moving Metal Energy.

However, Hydreigon gets even better. With 4 energy it can hit for 140 damage. This is enough to OHKO almost any EX Pokémon in the format that has been hit by Night Spear’s 30 damage more than once. Of course this attack also has a drawback (discarding 2 Darkness energy), but thanks to Dark Patch, discarding 2 energy doesn’t really matter.

Even though Hydreigon can be thought as supporting Pokémon, its attack is one of the best in the whole. Especially combined with Darkrai EX’s bench damage, Hydreigon is very desrtuctive force in the BW- on metagame. Even in HGSS-on metagame this deck would be a real tier1 deck since it has all the qualities a real tier1 deck needs.

Sableye

Without Sableye this deck wouldn’t work. Klinklang works because Junk Arm is still in the HGSS-format, but since Junk Arm will not be in the BW-on format, this deck needs Sableye in place of Junk Arm.

Sableye is unbelievably versatile in this deck. It works as a starter and as a mid and late game Junk Arm. It’s always better to sacrifice one Sablaye and use Junk Hunt to get 2 Max Potions from your discard pile than to get your Darkrai EX killed. Sableye is only a 1 free prize while getting 2 Max Potions from your discard pile can give your Darkrai EX a 2-3 more turns to be alive. As you understand, this exchange is greatly in your favor.

You also shouldn’t forget that you can get anything Junk Hunt, from Rare Candy to Random Receiver and Pokémon Catcher. It not only can keep your opponent from taking his/her last prize, but can also give you your last prize in form of a Catcher or Dark Patch. As a Hammertime fan, I know how awesome, underrated and versatile Sableye really is. However, thanks to this deck Sableye will become a very familiar card to everyone – it’s that good and will be more than awesome in the BW-on format.

Shaymin EX

I love Shaymin EX in this deck. It’s a perfect tech for many reasons. It has Fitghting resistance, it’s a great late game attacker. It’s a Grass type (Terrakion’s weakness), but most of all it can use Blend Energy. The use of Blend Energy has been taken to new level in this deck since both Shaymin and Hydreigon can use it. The deck’s creator has really taken all out of Blend Energy’s versatile. Not only Shaymin EX fits perfectly in this deck due its stats, it’s also always a great tech into any deck.

Random Receiver – Professor Juniper – Bianca – N

This will be a very familiar supporter-build in the upcoming season. We don’t have PONT anymore, so N’s must be maxed out. This deck isn’t disrupted by late game N as much as Basic decks, since the deck doesn’t really need anything in the late game. All the energy and attackers are already on the field.

I’ll probably make a completely own article of BW-on season’s supporter engines, so I won’t be analyzing this build so much in this article. This supporter line is a great starting point for any BW-on deck, but I’m sure it can still be perfected.

Ultra Ball- Level Ball

Ultra Ball is so good card in this deck since it runs Dark Patches and Sableye. There is nothing I love more than Sableye – Ultra Ball combo. It’s perfect. Thanks to Sableye and Ball engine, you will get a set-up very fast. The 3-2 Ultra Ball-Level Ball line is just optimal for a deck like this. Level Ball is in this deck doing the same job as Dual Ball would do, but since Dual Ball is rotated out, Level Ball is the best card to search for Basic like Deino.

Pokémon Catcher

Well, it shouldn’t be a surprise that in BW-on format you must almost always play 4 Catchers. You don’t have a Junk anymore so you must take the most out of every single Catcher you use. The lack of Catcher will make the game a lot more challenging resource management wise and it’s only a good thing. Say bye-bye to 6 easy prizes and welcome to a more skilled gaming environment!

Dark Patch

The original list played only 3 Dark Patches, but I decided to put in a 4^th since I think that makes Hydreigon more useful as an attacker. I love the fact that this deck can attack with Hydreigon and I would take the most out of Hydreigon’s attack since it’s possible. 140 damage is a lot even in the BW-era and I don’t think there is a time when you don’t want to use Dark Patches. Sometimes you might be able to even get a T1-T2 Darkrai thanks to 4 Dark Patches and as you know, T1-T2 Darkrai EX is very destructive to your opponent’s set-up.

Rare Candy

Did you remember that this card existed? I almost didn’t since it has been such a long time when I build a stage2 deck last time (except for Plume variants, haha). You really don’t need more than 3 Candies in this deck because once you have set-upped one Hydreigon, your opponent can’t really waste time Catchering it - otherwise he will be destroyed by your Darkrais.

Eviolite

Eviolite is always good when it comes to tanking decks like this. Even though this deck isn’t as tanking deck as Klinklang, Eviolite never goes in vain. The most important thing is that Eviolite can keep your Darkrai alive from a Retaliate. Of course Tool Scrapper will be released, so playing 4 Eviolites would be risky, because they would end up into the discard pile too often before doing any good for you.

Max Potion

As I said earlier, this isn’t a thoroughbred tanking deck. The deck is more aggressive than Klinklang. However, Max Potions still do the same job in this deck as they do in Klinklang- heal whatever you want to heal. An aggressive approach compared to tanking is what makes this deck so good and Max Potion is obviously a big part of it. Since you can move the energy away from whatever you want to heal, you don’t need to discard the energy from Max Potion.

This deck could easily play 4 Max Potions, but that’s why you have Sableye for – to reuse the Max Potions on Darkrais and Hydreigon. Without Max Potion this deck would be only another tier2 deck, but thanks to Max Potion, the deck is a clear top tier deck.

Energy
Blend Energy GRPD – Special Energy

This card provides 1 [C] Energy. As long as this card is attached to a Pokemon, it provides either [G], [R], [P], or [D] Energy, but only 1 Energy at a time.

Well, the deck plays 8 Basic Darkness. It doesn’t want to play Special Darkness since you can’t get them back with Dark Patch. However, Blend energy is where the energy get interesting.

As I have earlier said, this deck abuses Blend energy beautifully. First of all, this Blend energy provides Psychic/Grass/Darkness/Fire energy. Hydreigon uses Psychic and Darkness energy for its destructive attack. Also, as said earlier, Shaymin EX uses Grass energy for its attack. Since Rainbow Energy is rotated out, you’ll need to use imagination how to abuse the Blend energies as well as in this deck.

Why is the deck so good?

Dark Patch

Without energy acceleration like Dark Patch, this deck wouldn’t be as good as it now is. As you know, Klinklang has an autoloss Hammertime in the HGSS-on format because it has no energy acceleration. The energy accelereation Dark Patch provides to this deck is one of the key ingredients to this deck’s success.

Hydreigon

Just like with Klinklang, this deck would be nowhere without the energy manipulation. However, while Klinklang only moves energy around, Hydreigon plays a big part in getting prizes. Most decks usually have some weaknesses, it may be their inconsistency, slowness or lack of high damage. However, thanks to Hydreigon this deck is able to succeed in what most Darkrai EX based decks fail to do – deal a lot of damage with a single attack. Hydreigon’s 140 damage is a lot, but if it would hit 150 damage… Well, it would be broken.


Dragon Type

Dragon type has its pros and cons. You would think that weakness to Dragon is only a pro, but in fact it’s both – a pro and a con. Dragon weakness is good since there are only a few Dragon type Pokémon in the format at the moment, but at the moment, most of them are playable.

Overall, Dragon type is more of a pro. Even though they are playable, there is s only 1 card you should be afraid of a lot – Garchomp. I’ll analyze Garchomp/Altaria in my next deck entry, so if you aren’t familiar with the deck yet, be sure to check it out.

Versatility

As I said multiple times in this entry, this deck has it all. Darkrai gives a great mobility to the deck. The deck can be aggressive, but at the same time it has huge tanks as attackers. It also can move energy around as much as it wants to and it can attach energy from the discard pile via Dark Patches. You shouldn’t forget that this deck has 3 different types of attackers, which mostly cover each other weaknesses while doing massive amounts of damage. Sableye starter is just an icing on the cake, which makes the deck perfect. The deck has all the qualities a BDIF should have and even though the BW-on season hasn’t even started, I can easily say this is one of the top2 decks of the early season.


Conclusion

All in all, it’s pretty obvious what I think about this deck. It won the Japanese Worlds Qualifier and it was no fluke. The deck is one of the strongest decks in the BW-on season and I believe we’ll be seeing this deck all season no matter what kind of cards will be released. The most interesting thing about this deck and concept is its versatility and that in hands of a skilled it can be modified into a whole new level. Even if the deck itself won’t be around in the Worlds 2013, the concept will be.

This was my very first BW-on deck entry, so I hope everyone enjoyed it. Feel free to leave requests of what BW-on decks you would like me to analyze in the future. Also, feel free to leave any comments or questions for this article.

Thanks for reading!