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Darkrai Lasers for Nats any help?

Check

Check

Definatly Baby Giratina
Member
Hello everybody so this is my 1st tread in a while so might as well make it for Nats right :p. Anyway so I started playing Pokemon in tournaments with a Dark deck back in 2009 and for 2013 Nats I thought to build a Dark deck and it seems to work but takes a little longer to set up then I like so help would so be appreciated.

POKEMON 10
4 Darkrai EX
1 Keldeo EX
3 Sableye DRX
2 Absol PLF

TRAINER/SUPPORTER/STADIUM 36
1 Computer Search
1 Colress
1 Skyla
4 N
4 Professor Juniper
1 Random Receiver
3 Pokemon Catcher
2 Dark Claw
4 Dark Patch
4 Hypnotoxic Laser
2 Enhanced Hammer
1 Max Potion
3 Ultra Ball
1 Energy Search
2 Energy Switch
2 Virbank City Gym

Energy 10
Dark 10

+ 4 For Techs

So the strategy is simple Turn 1 Get Darkrai with at least 2 energy, Turn 2 get Keldeo EX out and laser opponent with virbank in play and attack with Darkrai EX, Turn 3 start to set up Absol and Sableye and use Night Spear for at least the first prize of the game , Turn 4 Heal Drakrai if Damaged and build up yet another Darkrai Ex, Turn 5 finish setting up and go to town on opponent. Now updated any suggestions I still see room to improve.
 
A problem I am seeing is you are trying to do too much with your deck. For starters I'd recommend dropping the Zoroark line. Most of the time Zoroark is going to be OHKO'd anyway. Skuntank is just not good enough either. Absol isn't your main attacker so I'd also recommend dropping the two Shadow Triad. That clears up eight spaces for you. This will let you fit in 2 more Juniper for draw power, another HTL, a third Ultra Ball, 2 more N, another Energy Switch to help with Dark Patch, and either a second Switch or Keldeo EX.
 
I would recommend a third sableye too, if you can find the room. Don't forget to utilize junk hunt during the first turn or two to get darkrai going without milling yourself (sorry if this is redundant, didn't see it in your strategy paragraph).
 
Another thing that may be helpful if you're running the keldeo is a couple prism energy
Running prisms will let keldeo potentially hit for more than 50 (even though I know you're probly just running him to alleviate yourself of status)
Dropping the Zoroark family (as mentioned above) would be helpful as well...my suggestion that if you did want to replace that family with another one would be to have Dark Shade Umbreon.
Of course running Umbreon would require plasma badges and kinda take dark claw out if the picture, so it's up to you on that one
 
The Extra 20 HP is not worth losing 20 damage. Darkrai still gets 2HKO'd by Night Spear. The chances of having 3 Umbreon ( which is the only way Darkrai survives 2 Night Spear ) on the bench at the same time is near impossible in this format.
 
True all of your suggestions are good but the problem I see with dropping all the pokemon besides Darkrai, Keldeo, and Sableye is that would leave me with 7-9 pokemon witch is going to help my opponent if I don`t draw a pokemon but I do have 1 week till sign up and 1 more day after that for play testing till the tournament starts so I have the 1st thing I`ll do to the deck and if it works perfect. Still any other suggestions would be helpful before July 5th witch is the day Nats starts so repeat I`ll try it out if it works great but please give me more suggestion.
 
The list that placed second at Canadian Nationals used a Pokémon line of:

4 Darkrai-EX
3 Sableye
2 Absol
1 Keldeo-EX

That's a total of 10 cards, which isn't much more than the 7-9 you're so worried about, but clearly he was doing something right because he did so well. Let me explain why it's okay to run so few Pokémon. By dropping the "excess" Pokémon (Zoroark) in exchange for adding more search (a 3rd and maybe 4th Ultra Ball) and draw (Supporters), you'll be able to get your best Pokémon in play more often. This will prevent the running out of Pokémon problem that you're worried about but is a better strategy than running a lot of Pokémon because it allows you to use your best Pokémon in almost every game. Being able to play out your best strategy more consistently than you can now will give you a higher probability of winning. Therefore, making changes similar to what King Arceus suggested is a great idea as the said changes allow you to do exactly that. Hopefully that makes sense.
 
Is four Dark Patch mandatory anymore? I thought it was.

Anyway, I would want to add a Catcher, a Laser, an Energy Switch, and a Dark Patch by removing the Zoroark line. I'm not great at Darkrai, but that's just me.
 
Ok so Celebi23 thank you thank you thank you I would have not thought to look at other decks that did well in other nations and I`ll go look for the cards right now -1 Darkrai Ex that I have to trade for :p other than that I have everything. blargh257 for your suggestion I`ll take the skuntank line out and put in 1 dark patch and 1 laser because I only have 3 Catchers my parents use the others. Ok Update Time.
 
You have 9 Pokemon, not 10. Drop the Skyla and get rid of your Shadow Triad, when you Receiver in to them they will make you rage. Add the 2nd and maybe third receiver, it is truly awesome. Why do you use switch when you have dark Cloak and keldeo? Max Potion is a one of.
-2 Skyla
+1 N
+1 Juniper
-2 Shadow Triad
+1 Random Receiver
+1 Escape Rope (you don't have a fourth catcher, just use this)
-1 Switch
-1 Energy Search
-2 Max Potion
+2 Energy Switch
+2 Bianca (I'm surprised no one noticed he had only 8 draw)
-1 Colress
You now have 2 free spaces for techs.
 
Whoops 9 Pokemon and 39 Trainers thanks for catching that and so by me organizing your post from minus first to plus second you give me 3 more draw power because of the - 1 colress by taking out my trainer getters Skyla for any trainer and shadow triad for HTL or Absol mostly HTL. and you want me to take out 2 of my Max Potions which heals my Darkrais sence I only have 3 and not 4 like Celebi23 had said. Oh and the Switch is for if I need to double retreat or if it is the beginning or if Keldeo is Paralized or asleep. When you get a chance before the 5th of July to read this could you clarifie what the changes ment and how they would help me and my deck please and thank you see ya at the next update which is right after my next post bye for now :p P.S. and no I`m not a girl I just like to joke around a lot.
 
Here are some personal changes I would make:
-1 Colress (Makes for a horrible early game)
-2 Shadow Triad (the only things you can get are laser, Colress, and Absol)
-1 Dark Claw (Junk Hunt can get this back and there are just better things to put in)
-2-3 Max Potion (this card is more of a tech than anything and OHKO's are just too common in this metgame)
-1 Switch (the only times I can see this card be of use is the first turn or if Keldeo is prized, but I plan to resove one of those problems with these suggestions)
-1-2 Dark Energy (The list is just too tight to spare energy)

+1 Keldeo EX (if you plan to take this deck to nationals, one of the top 4 contenders for nats is Gothitelle/Accelgor, in which the best thing you can do to counter this deck is run 2 Keldeo. This also solves the problem of a Keldeo is prized.)
+1 Professor Juniper (Its a staple, that's all she wrote)
+1 N (3 N can be an option but besides that, ^)
+3 Enhanced Hammer (probably the top contender for nats is TDK, this card makes the match-up against it a more 50-50 match. The way to win against this deck is that if they miss one attachment, they are going to have such a hard time coming back from the hammers unless they have a Kyurem with 3 energy. And even then, if they miss an attachment then, you just changed the damage output to the active by 90 damage. And after all that, there just comes a point where energy becomes scarce on their field and a Raiden Knuckle becomes such a big deal and at that point, and your just too ahead, you have to be stupid to lose.)
+2 Energy Switch (this is a key card for a T2 Night Spear)
+1 Ultra Ball (makes for the best starts in the accompany of one or more energy, but if you can get your hands on a fourth catcher, this is what I would take out)
+1 Bicycle? (this deck uses so many resources in hand, this is a great tech.)
 
Ok so here is 1 of the best posts I`ve seen on this thread mostly because talk about in depth analysis on the cards and you told me what will most likely be played at Nats THANK YOU! Anyway so after looking at all the posts here is my next update.Oh and please put more posts in this thread before nats it would be a nice to have other things to look at before Friday morning when deck lists get checked so see ya later. P.S. Update pending
 
Check said:
Whoops 9 Pokemon and 39 Trainers thanks for catching that and so by me organizing your post from minus first to plus second you give me 3 more draw power because of the - 1 colress by taking out my trainer getters Skyla for any trainer and shadow triad for HTL or Absol mostly HTL. and you want me to take out 2 of my Max Potions which heals my Darkrais sence I only have 3 and not 4 like Celebi23 had said. Oh and the Switch is for if I need to double retreat or if it is the beginning or if Keldeo is Paralized or asleep. When you get a chance before the 5th of July to read this could you clarifie what the changes ment and how they would help me and my deck please and thank you see ya at the next update which is right after my next post bye for now :p P.S. and no I`m not a girl I just like to joke around a lot.
Click to expand...

Eh.... Um you do NOT need skyla. You only want at MAX one, because you'd be better of adding draw supporters. Like I said before, when you random receiver in to them you will be annoyed. But its your choice, all I'm saying is its more consistent without skyla. Why would you have keldeo asleep? Keldeo is in there solely for rush in, then free retreat with dark cloak. So switch is redundant. 3 Max potion is overkill, normally even 2 is inconsistent but I recommend only one because it also discards all the energy attached to your pokemon.

Um, little witty I don't really get your point about adding 1 more keldeo-EX. You just reduced the consistency of the deck by a lot, because when you topdeck it at the beginning of the game you essentially have to play it if you don't have anything else. Another option would be to use a Revive to alleviate this problem. And the 3 enhanced hammers are just way too much, what happens if you are against blastoise keldeo? you just wasted 3 deckspace, and 8 energy is way too low. 9 is the bare minimum. 2 enhanced hammers is good enough, you have junk hunt sableye.

I know I'm criticizing everyone, but I'm just trying to improve consistency in this deck because Darkrai decks are all about consistency.
 
Twos-ha like I keep saying this is the first thread I`ve had where people actually keep up the posts and help me and my decks not just saying one thing then taking it back. so anyway I just realized that Thunder Crown is correct in what he is saying so Update after this post. By the way does anybody know how low a Darkrai EX and Hammers will be at TrollandToad or Collectors Cashes this year at Nats if so could someone get back to me on that. Thanks and oh whatever see ya later.
 
Your welcome check, some other variants that can easily be used for nats are Darkrai/Bouffolant. If you really want to be the king of the math, this is the route to take, let me explain; 1: Gold Breaker for 120 to an EX, bring up a new EX, Night Spear twice, and with out tools or healing, (which neither are staples in all the leading decks) this makes for a 4 prize turn, it's a little lengthy for a process, but just having the privilege of dishing out that type of damage should make it easy to rehabilitate. 2: Gold Breaker an EX+Hypnobank+Catcher out other pokemon+Night Spear will KO the the EX you ultimately did 150 to. The possibilities are endless with this deck but, you NEED to run 4 catcher in this deck. I might post a list, but not now.

Another variant is the exact same deck but running 4 Bicycle, I won a battle roads with this. This makes a very consistent deck. But the 2 rules for this is dont be afraid to discard and more importantly, WATCH THE DECK. Cards will be flying out of there. But here's how I would edit it for this variant:

-1 Colress (situational cards are out of the book)
-1 Max Potion (^)

I will be using the extra slots in the addition to the deck:

+4 Bicycle
+1 Keldoe EX (already explained)
+1 Enhanced Hammer (the reason for the 3rd is for 2 reasons. 1: the main goal of this card is to get ahead in the card exchange. 2: the prize card situation. Acknowledge the information already posted)

Hope this helps.
 
Thunder Crown said:
Check said:
Whoops 9 Pokemon and 39 Trainers thanks for catching that and so by me organizing your post from minus first to plus second you give me 3 more draw power because of the - 1 colress by taking out my trainer getters Skyla for any trainer and shadow triad for HTL or Absol mostly HTL. and you want me to take out 2 of my Max Potions which heals my Darkrais sence I only have 3 and not 4 like Celebi23 had said. Oh and the Switch is for if I need to double retreat or if it is the beginning or if Keldeo is Paralized or asleep. When you get a chance before the 5th of July to read this could you clarifie what the changes ment and how they would help me and my deck please and thank you see ya at the next update which is right after my next post bye for now :p P.S. and no I`m not a girl I just like to joke around a lot.
Click to expand...

Eh.... Um you do NOT need skyla. You only want at MAX one, because you'd be better of adding draw supporters. Like I said before, when you random receiver in to them you will be annoyed. But its your choice, all I'm saying is its more consistent without skyla. Why would you have keldeo asleep? Keldeo is in there solely for rush in, then free retreat with dark cloak. So switch is redundant. 3 Max potion is overkill, normally even 2 is inconsistent but I recommend only one because it also discards all the energy attached to your pokemon.

Um, little witty I don't really get your point about adding 1 more keldeo-EX. You just reduced the consistency of the deck by a lot, because when you topdeck it at the beginning of the game you essentially have to play it if you don't have anything else. Another option would be to use a Revive to alleviate this problem. And the 3 enhanced hammers are just way too much, what happens if you are against blastoise keldeo? you just wasted 3 deckspace, and 8 energy is way too low. 9 is the bare minimum. 2 enhanced hammers is good enough, you have junk hunt sableye.

I know I'm criticizing everyone, but I'm just trying to improve consistency in this deck because Darkrai decks are all about consistency.
Click to expand...

Let me explain the reasoning behind my madness:

Keldeo: If you know anything about this deck and what its weak spots are, this is its kryptonite, it pains me as well to see 2 keldeo in here too, but against one of the top contenders at nats, what other choice do you have?

Enhanced Hammer: see previous post ^

Dark energy: this is before he updated his list, meaning he originally had 12 and I cut that to 10.
 
Duh my last update for this post will be tomorrow hopefully then you guys can yell at me all you want until Friday morning to change it ok with you guys well if not tough luck heh just kidding anyway see ya later today and tomorrow and the next until Friday morning bye
 
Ok so I`m back and so here is what I say about your posts littywitty what you say to put in are more of techs than anything plus I`ve never heard or seen the Gothetele/Accelgore deck you talked about so were have you seen this deck and how many people play this deck approximately could you tell me.
 
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