This deck is already extremely smooshed as it is. There's no way you could find room for 10 cards as a "tech."
I think the Gengar matchup would be really tough. Gengar could just place damage with its second attack, and there'd be nothing you could do about it. And once a Durant is KO'd, it goes to the LZ instead of Discard Pile, so recovery is lost. Once your opponent sees a Durant, he's going to just get Gengar out as quickly as possible (or Mew to fill in) and start LZing your Durant.
I don't mean Emboar/Magmortar as a tech, I mean them as the actual deck, with Durant+Rainbow Energy/Metal Energy to start discarding till you have an Emboar and a magmortar set up.
This deck is already extremely smooshed as it is. There's no way you could find room for 10 cards as a "tech."
I think the Gengar matchup would be really tough. Gengar could just place damage with its second attack, and there'd be nothing you could do about it. And once a Durant is KO'd, it goes to the LZ instead of Discard Pile, so recovery is lost. Once your opponent sees a Durant, he's going to just get Gengar out as quickly as possible (or Mew to fill in) and start LZing your Durant.
We've been talking about it. Hopefully, the strategy here would be to drop in pokemon such as Cleffa, Tyrogue, and Weavile, so when Gengar plays Seeker, you can sacrifice a Cleffa rather than a Durant. The hope is to outstall the lost zoning, and deck them out. Now they can kill off Durants one by one, but it's still a 2HKO, and we can retreat/play switch, and then seeker them back up to remove damage. Or we can just use Max Potion, since it only requires 1 energy to attack.
As for the Emboar, I don't see it working. It would be way too inconsistant to get out, and with Pokemon Catcher being released, there's no way we would be able to keep it alive. We'd have to get Emboar, Magmortar, and like 15 {R} energies in play, all on the same turn in order to gurantee that emboar won't get catchered to death. I see the strategy behind it, I just don't think it's going to work.
Max Potion and Seeker take up space that really isn't there. As long as Gengar keeps hammering away, you won't be able to keep up with the damage removal. I don't see Gengar or MewGar as being anything close to a win if your opponent knows what he's doing. Beside, there's simply not enough Gengar to make running Max Potion and Seeker worth it.
Ability: Leaf Tailor
As long as this Pokemon is in play, all of your Pokemon with any Energy attached to them have no Weakness.
[G][C][C] Arm Razor: 40 damage. Flip 2 coins, this attack does an additional 20 damage times the number of heads.
Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
With that ability, your Durant's no longer have to live in the shadow of Reshlosion as they will be Fire-weakness free. Granted as a 2-stage tech it could end up being just wasted space as Durant decks are so condensed now. But its a thought.
Next we have the Level Ball
Level Ball – Trainer’s Goods
Choose 1 Pokemon from your deck with HP of 90 or less, show it to your opponent, and put it in your hand. Shuffle your deck afterward.
You can use any number of Goods cards during your turn.
Practically, I can see it being used to replace the inconsistant Dual Ball and it can even be used to search for Weaviles since they're 80hp pokemon. Granted Dual Ball offers 0-2 pokemon while this would be a consistant 1, its a nice change of pace for Durant decks in added consistancy.
Next up is a personal favorite of mine, the Skyarrow Bridge stadium
Skyarrow Bridge – Trainer’s Stadium
Each player’s Basic Pokemon has its retreat cost lowered by 1 Energy.
You can only play 1 Stadium next to your Active Pokemon during your turn. If a Stadium with a different name comes into play, discard this card.
Can you say, free retreat Durant? This will certainly help Durants that are near KO so you no longer fear discarding your already low amounts of energy in the deck to get a safe run away. This will also help the decks unlucky enough to start with Rotom instead of a Durant or Sneasel/Mime Jr.
Of course, Durant is so amazing and special I think it deserves its own amazing special energy don't you? I give it, the Prism Energy!
Prism Energy – Special Energy
This card provides 1 Colorless Energy.
If it’s attached to a Basic Pokemon, it provides 1 unit of every Type of Energy.
Who needs Rainbow Energy that overall nice, that 10 damage can really hurt Durants bulkyness in the short term. I can see 4 of these, paired with 4 special metals to be used as the only energies a Durant deck would need.
And last but not least, if you aren't a fan of the fre retreating Durants and those pesky Yanmega snipers are ruining your day, The Pokemon Center stadium!
Once during his or her turn, each player may choose 1 of his or her Benched Pokemon and restore its HP by 20.
You can only play 1 Stadium next to your Active Pokemon during your turn. If a Stadium with a different name comes into play, discard this card.
This is just an overall good stadium that Durant's would certainly enjoy having. Now if only we could combine the free retreat of Skyarrow Bridge with the healing power of the Pokemon Center, You could be shuffling Durants back and forth, healing them and milling all at the same time.
An honorable mention fro Psycho Drive however is the new Conkeldurr
Ability: Master Arts
This Pokemon maximum HP is increased by 20 for every Fighting Energy attached to this Pokemon.
[F][C][C][C] Mountain Drop: 80 damage. Flip a coin until you get tails, discard cards from the top of your opponent’s deck equaling the number of heads.
This card has its own perks, but way too slow and it uses the wrong energy type for Durant decks to see this guy be playable. So yeah, not practical but an honorable mention nonetheless.
What do you guys think about Durant's success in the far future? We are obviously not going to be seeing any of these new cards until next year so not much luck for Durants now, even considering Durant wont exist until November anyways. With more cards come more options however.
I don't see the point in Prism Energy since Durant is the only basic in the deck that would attack, so it's basically a colorless for anything but durant, so you might as well use metal energy, which can't be lost removered or kyuremed (not going to be common but there is no reason not to use metals). Actually nvm, you can use Misdreavus (I forget what set) whose Dual Draw makes both players draw 3 cards. A handy tech when your durant are dying quickly and you run out of recovery, also helps you set up.
Fair point about the Prism Energy, I guess I got carried away a bit with all the new cards. I guess the Prism Energy could be used with a Rotom if you feel adventurous and want to Plasma Arrow a benched pokemon for anywhere from 20-80 (reasonably with 4 energy) damage. I guess the only reason you would ever want to do that over Durant's devour would be if it was a really bad start and you have no durants, and no collectors, just gotta go for broke.
Personally I think I'd also just prefer using 4 special metals and a few more normal metals. Do Legends count as basic pokemon? Can the Prism Energy be used for a KGL tech without needing any water energies. I know we discussed that the legends could really just slow down the Durants milling process but maybe this sheds a little new light on it?
I like the Misdreavus idea. I'd be worried about it helping your opponent too much, but oh well.
Level Ball is a must, obviously. Basically a Luxury Ball for this deck, but without the restriction.
I don't see Pokemon Center being a great card for this deck. It takes up space in non-Yanmega matchups, and against Yanmega, a) Yanmega could just attack your Active, and b) if they're 2HKOing you, you're probably going to win.
Skybridge Arrow is a nice Stadium. Not having to discard the energy is fun when you don't want to be KO'd.
Leavanny takes up too much space for not enough advantage. Reshi OHKOs you anyways, you might as well just deal with it.
Conkeldurr also takes up too much space. What with the 4-energy attack, different energy requirements, and it being a stage 2, it just doesn't work. Better to have KGL.
So yeah. SkyBridge Arrow and especially Level Ball should have a good effect on Durant. I'm thinking this'll be a fun deck to play, and I'll definitely try to play it.
Anyone else worried about Catcher? Unless all your Durant have SpMetal energy, Defender, or Eviolite on them, Catcher could turn 2HKOs into OHKOs against Yanmega, Donphan, Kingdra, etc. (some with PlusPower, but a problem regardless).
So they catcher up a Durant on your bench for kill... You play revive and you're back in the game.
The only issue with that is that Gothitelle is going ot see more play with the support it will be receiving which would slow durant down a lot
with Trainer lock.
But yeah... Level Ball+Sky Arrow Bridge definite play in Durant.
Maybe a mix of Dual Ball and Level Ball depending on your decklist.
My cousin proxyed up a durant deck and has so far only won once, The problem with this card is that it is so frail and will most likly die in one hit. I think this card need to be paired with Cabolion (the one that isnt out yet) and/or scizor. Evolite is a must for this deck and almost all the stuff Materious17 listed. So all in all i think this deck has some potential but i dont think will go far.--PeAcE!!!
P.S i think if it were posibly paired with KGL would be pretty epic.
This card isn't so frail with SpMetal energy, Eviolite, and Defender. It can tank against Donphan, Yanmega, and especially Zoroark (can you imagine?). Played right, you can even force Magnezone to LZ 3 for the KO, which strains its resources quite a bit.
This card isn't so frail with SpMetal energy, Eviolite, and Defender. It can tank against Donphan, Yanmega, and especially Zoroark (can you imagine?). Played right, you can even force Magnezone to LZ 3 for the KO, which strains its resources quite a bit.
It was actually a pretty good list, i would say 9/10 times he the turn 1 or 2 (mostly 1) all durants out. He did use evolite and defender and spec metals-- i vsed him with a cinccino yanmega zoroark deck, and my friend used a t tar deck--The only time when my cousin won was once vsing t tar--Durant is just too frail.
Getting all the Durant out T1/2 doesn't make it a good decklist, if that's what it's optimized to do. Was it able to recover? Did he play Weavile? I believe you that it was a good list, I'm just trying to get a feel for what he was running, etc.
How close was the opponent to decking out? And how often were OHKOs reached in the matchups?
Scizorliscious, can you explain a little better about how Mewgar beats this deck? I'm almost seeing LostGar, but not MewGar. XP The thing about LostGar is that they're two-hitting you, so you've milled 14 cards before you're down to 2 Durant and furthermore, they rely heavily on Twins for setup and when you're not KOing stuff it gets harder on them.
I tested a little with this deck before the new cards and honestly I like it. The meta is still undefined so I'm not going to call it Tier 1, but it is pretty darn good. I was even beating googlebox consistently. I didn't test against Gothitelle, but I like the Psychic resistance against it a lot. The only new thing I see undeniably making its way into the deck is Level Ball. However, it will most likely just replace Dual Ball and remove some flips, not change how viable the deck is at all.
MewGar runs Gengar lines. Usually it's 4 Mew and 3-2-4 Gengar, sometimes only 2-1-3. But regardless, the Gengar line is what kills it.
Remember, even though it relies on Twins, that's not necessary for any deck. It'll just get set up more slowly than you. Placing that damage really hurts. Sure, you will have milled cards, but you probably won't have done enough.
Usually they'll get a See Off T1, and then a Gengar by at least T3 (assuming they know how to play against Durant). So on T2, they place damage with Mew, then move to Gengar T3 and start just placing damage and sending your Durant to the LZ. Once 2 are sent, the game's probably over unless you can get some really good stalling in.
On one hand, it helps you. A lot. On the other hand, you might be able to get Durant out anyways T1/2, and it helps your opponent. Of course, it also takes cards away from his deck. But then, are those cards cards you could have discarded had you started playing Durant earlier?
I'll have to test it. Lemme know what you guys think.
Pichu has a place in some decks, but Durant is not one of them. Getting them 2-4 basics on their bench easily lets them not use a T/S to get out the basic on their turn and just go straight for an evolution and you don't want them to set up at all because, honestly, Durant is pretty frail even with sp metal/defender/etc and as soon as they get something set up it turns into a game of luck. You have to draw into your recovery and hope you kill their engine at the same time, or else you can't mill them fast enough. More often than not, those extra basics you helped them get out wouldn't even save you a turn of milling when you look at it. Take your chances and hope you discard their basics.
Anyway, Scizorliscious, let's do some math for the situation you described.
T1 mill; -5 = 42
They search out Mew and Gastly, attach and See Off; -3 = 39
T2 mill; -5 = 34
They attach a 2nd energy to Mew and hit for 40; -0 = 34
T3 mill; -5 = 29
They search out Gengar and play Rare Candy and attach an energy and hit a different Durant for 40 (with the scenario you described, you can't use Gengar's 2nd attack until T4); -2 = 27
T4 mill; -5 = 24
They attach a 2nd energy to Gengar and kill a Durant
T5 mill; -4 = 20
They kill the other Durant
T6 mill; -3 = 17
They put 40 on a Durant
T7 mill; -3 = 14
They put 40 on your last Durant
T8 mill; -2 = 12
So they end up with 12 cards in their deck ASSUMING their hand contained 4 Psychic, a free retreat basic and a Collector and they only had to search out the 2 Gengar, Gastly and Mew. So will the deck lose if an opponent gets a god hand? Certainly. If they have to shuffle-draw a few times before they hit what they need (not unlikely; even Stage 1's have to do this to get setup a lot of the time) most of their remaining 12 cards will be gone. Usually, they're only running 12 energy so they really would have to lucsac to get out 4 right away. As I said, without Twins the deck is dramatically harder to get setup.
