Darkrai EX for Cities

Darkrai EX ain't going nowhere

Hi everyone!


The – in my opinion – real Pokémon TCG season has finally started thanks to City Championships! Last weekend was the first weekend of Cities, so we don’t have a full point of view to how the metagame really looks like. One thing’s for sure either way – the current format is very versatile. In fact, the current format seems a lot more versatile than I first thought it would look like. Everything from Eelektriks to Garchomp/Landorus EXs has been winning the tournaments. I’m sure the metagame will get more focused during the weeks of Cities, but for now let’s enjoy for the good format.

Anyways, today, I’m going back to basics and discussing Darkrai variants. Included in this entry will be of course my new Hammertime variant, Speed Darkrai variant  and the a lot discussed Darkrai/Fighting. Also, if you haven’t yet seen the Gym Challenge winning decklists from Japan that included one very interesting Darkrai EX variant, I’ll take a quick look at it as well.

So, lots of lists and analysis. I’m feeling like writing an UG article! So, let’s start with the Japanese winning list, if you hadn’t seen it yet!

Japanese Speed Darkrai…

Pokémon:

4x Sableye
4x Darkrai EX
1x Keldeo EX
=9

Trainer:

4x Professor Juniper
4x N
4x Bianca
1x Random receiver
4x Ultra Ball
4x Pokemon Catcher
4x Dark Patch
4x Poison Hypnotic Beam
4x Potion
2x Dark Claw
2x Virbank City Gym
1x Eviolite
1x Energy Switch
1x Tool Scrapper
1x Computer Search
=41


Energy:

10x Darkness Energy
=10

In case you haven’t seen this deck yet, I’ll explain the key cards of it breifly.

Keldeo EX – Since Poison Hypnotic Beam is so big, you’ll need  Keldeo EX just to get rid of Asleep when necessary. It’s also handy against other special conditions as Paralyze Tynamo (strategy, which we saw in the Regionals) etc. You aren’t supposed to attack with it, just heal your Special Conditions and effects on Darkrai EX.

Poison Hypnotic Beam – A permanent PlusPower if your opponent doesn’t retreat and possible bonus from Asleep. Sounds pretty darn broken to me. And it is, especially combined with Virbank City Gym, which is a stadium that doubles Poison damage. So, in fact this is a double PlusPower combined with a possible Asleep. SO good in a speed deck.

Those are pretty much all the cards you need to understand about the deck. The deck is pretty straightforward and “standard” even in western standards. The deck aims at T2 Darkrai EX and gets it pretty much all the time. As you can see from the list, it’s a Speed Darkrai EX, not a T1 Darkrai EX deck. It doesn’t even try to get T1 Darkrai EX with cards such as Bicycle or Skyla. The deck builder has accepted the fact that it’s impossible to get regular T1s in this format and has concentrated on just getting a fast Darkrai EX in every game while hitting heavy damage. I deeply enjoy the deck building logic of this deck.



…Modified into the current format


Pokémon:

4x Sableye
4x Darkrai EX
=8

Trainer:

4x N
4x Professor Juniper
4x Bianca
2x Random Receiver
4x Ultra Ball
4x Pokemon Catcher
4x Dark Patch
4x PlusPower
4x Potion
2x Energy Switch
2x Dark Claw
1x Tool Scrapper
1x Computer Search
=40


Energy:

12x Darkness Energy
=12

As you can see, I’ve tried to keep the card choices pretty much the same, but just replaced Poison Hypnotic Beams with PlusPowers and added some draw and consistency for getting the fast Darkrai EX (more Darkness Energy, 2^nd Energy Switch etc.).

So far, this deck has worked like a dream for me. However, sometimes I do miss Switches in this deck. The reason for this is that when you open with Darkrai EX and aren’t able to get Darkness energy to discard pile AND Dark Patch energy to your Sableye on the bench, you may be in for a T3 Darkrai EX, which is just too slow if you aren’t going first.

Also, there is the ever-lasting debate between Dark Claw and Eviolite. Which one is the right card to run? Since I decided to take example from the Japanese list, I put in 2 Dark Claws. It seems that hitting heavy damage is the key to victory. It’s good to understand that when you combine Night Spear’s bench damage to Dark Claw and possible multiple PlusPowers in one turn, you can get some very nice surprise KOs on big EXs. The other reason why I favor Dark Claw, is that you’ll do something with it more often than with Eviolite. When you attach Dark Claw to your Darkrai EX, you attack with it immediately. However, when you attach Eviolite to your Darkrai EX, your opponent has the chance to Catcher something from the bench / use Tool Scrapper to discard the Eviolite and make Eviolite completely useless. Proactive cards are always better than reacting cards in Pokémon TCG, because you control them.


Judgement: I believe this deck is a good play for anyone, who wants a straightforward and consistent deck and that doesn’t care about bad match-up against Fighting decks that run Terrakion. Terrakion is the main problem of this deck, not Landorus EX. However, if you still like this kind of decks, but don’t want to lose directly to Terrakion EX, try 3-4 Eviolites in the deck and pray for the best.



Hammertime


Pokémon:

4x Sableye
4x Darkrai EX
1x Tornadus EX
=9

Trainer:

4x N
4x Professor Juniper
4x Bianca
2x Random Receiver
4x Ultra Ball
4x Crushing Hammer
2x Enhanced Hammer
4x Pokemon Catcher
4x Dark Patch
2x Energy Switch
2x Eviolite
1x Max Potion
1x Computer Search
=38


Energy:

13x Darkness Energy
=13


Hammertime is still a very strong option for everyone who enjoys energy denial strategy. However, the format makes things difficult for Hammers. The reason for this is the tier1 decks that consists of decks that are able to energy accelerate energy from the discard pile (Eelektrik and Hydreigon) and decks that hit with 1 energy (Landorus EX, Metwo EX etc.). Even though the Hammers still disrupt all of these decks, it isn’t always enough especially since Hammertime is now nothing new. Everyone knows what to do when they saw the first Sableye getting Hammers back from the discard pile.

When it comes to my current Hammertime variant, which you can see above, I’ve noticed that it works the best when I’m loyal to my very first Hammertime variant, which lead me into the Nationals victory. Tornadus EX is even bigger now than it was in the last format, because now we have Landorus EX and as it has already proved to won the most Cities in the first weekend, it’s a threat to be taken seriously. As discussed previously, Landorus EX is the worst nightmare of Hammertime Darkrai EX, a Fighting Pokémon that is able to deal too much damage with only one energy (3HKO Darkrai EX with 1 energy). However, when you use Tornadus EX against their Landorus EX and your Darkrai EX against their Mewtwo EX, the games will be pretty even. An argument can be made for 2^nd Tornadus EX and maybe 1-2 Double Cololress Energy, but so far, I’m pretty happy how this list runs.

Also, as you can see, Hammertime wants to concentrate on keeping Darkrai EXs alive more than hitting extra damage to the opponent. This can be seen in some of my card choices. First of all, I want to run Eviolites, not Dark Claws. Even though Eviolite is a reactive card, it’s still better against Landorus EX in this deck than Dark Claw. Otherwise the deck is pretty self-explanatory and familiar to anyone who remembers my Nationals winning list.


Judgement: It has already been proved in the first weekend of Cities that Hammertime is here to stay and I’ve been very happy to see that there has been so many Hammertimes doing well already in the first weekend. If you liked Hammertime back in the past season and haven’t yet played in the new format, now it’s good time to give Hamertime a second try – you’ll notice it’s worth it!



Darkrai EX/Landorus EX/Terrakion


Pokemon:

2x Sableye
3x Darkrai EX
2x Landorus EX
2x Terrakion
=9

Trainer:

4x N
4x Professor Juniper
2x Skyla
2x Bianca
2x Random Receiver
4x Ultra Ball
4x Pokemon Catcher
4x Dark Patch
4x Energy Switch
2x Eviolite
2x Tool Scrapper
2x Potion
1x Computer Search
=37

Energy:

5x Fighting Energy
9x Darkness Energy
=14

It was pretty obvious that Landorus EX and Darkrai EX would come together eventually –so has happened with every good EX-Pokémon in this format. To be completely honest, I believe that the continuous making of good Basic EXs kills the innovation in this game. Probably the best example of this was this year’s Worlds since 80% of top8 decks were just Mewtwo EX/Darkrai EX/tech.

Since Ether wasn’t released just yet, Darkrai EX/Landorus EX didn’t become the controlling deck of the metagame, but it’s still playable. In fact, it’s so playable that it has won a few Cities! Even though my build has Terrakion as well (which will be explained later on), I believe that you can win tournements with straight Landorus EX/Darkrai EX as well. This is possible, because Landorus EX is such a strong opener. In Landorus EX/Darkrai EX deck, you don’t want to use Sableye as a starter, because the early pressure Landorus EX is able to provide is so good. However, in this deck Sableye is still a very strong opener contender, because you want to get a consistent first 1-2 turns in order to keep your attackers attacking during the whole game.

Terrakion is in this deck, because I want to have a non-EX attacker in this deck. Relying on big EXs is an effective strategy, but the fact is that the strategy is so mainstream that many decks are already adjusting their techs against especially these two EXs. Terrakion has a Grass weakness, which is very good as it’s different than Landorus EX’s and Darkrai EX’s weakness. Also, the 130 HP is huge for a Pokémon that isn’t an EX, but is a Basic. I think most of you know just how good Terrakion can be.

Nonetheless, the most important thing in this deck – in my opinion – is the trainer choices I’ve made. As you can see, I have Skyla in the list. Yes, Skyla, the card, which I try to avoid to the last possible situation. In this deck I had to give in to Skyla, because it works perfectly here. The reason for that is that it’s pretty versatile deck (in this format’s standard). You’ll need to hit the Energy Switch right when you need it and the same goes with Tool Scrapper and other trainers in this deck. You usually have to time your every single tech-Item properly in order to get most of your attackers at the same time. Skyla serves this purpose perfectly – it will get you any Item when you need it the most.

However, don’t take it wrong, I still think Skyla isn’t equivalent of normal draw supporter and that’s why I’m a bit concerned of this lists’ consistency (only 12 supporters + 2 Skylas + Computer Search + 4 Ultra Balls). Of course Computer Search helps here since I have Sableye as well, but you should NEVER rely solely on Skyla + Computer Search combo if you want to win a tournament. Eventually you’ll prize your Computer Search (probably more than 1 time during the tournament) and your set-up will immediately broke down if you aren’t able to search for Computer Search with Skyla. Skyla and Computer Search are very good for adding consistency, but they will never be as good as straight draw or shuffle&draw supporters.


Judgement: This deck will be the next, which will be aiming to get in to the tier1. However, as the Cities metagame develops, it’ll be yet to see if the metagame becomes more hostile against this deck. Decks like Blastoise/Keldeo EX gives this deck a quite bit or trouble no matter what you tech in here and the popularity of Blastoise pretty much decides just how well can this deck do. It won’t probably reach the BDIF status – just yet. However, after Ether is released, it’s a whole another story.



Conclusion

Darkrai EX will probably be the most played EX in the format for a long time. In Japan it’s still winning tournaments and why wouldn’t it? It’s fast, big HP Basic EX with a great attack and Ability. It’s very close to a perfect card even though cards like Gardevoir(Secret Wonders) still outshine it.

In this entry, I introduced the most popular Darkrai EX variants and I hope you could get something out of all of them. I’ve been experimenting with my entry style the last few entries, so be sure to let hear about my style changes, if you sometimes feel that I went to the wrong direction with my entry-style.

Anyways, Darkrai EX will be once again be the dominant force of this tournament season. So, what’s the Darkrai EX deck of your choice and why? Feel free to comment on anything and ask anything. I’m also always ready to take article requests, so don’t forget them either!

Thanks for reading!