Durant makes me want to quit TCG

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I knew nothing about Durant until I went to cities and faced it my first round. My deck didn't stand a chance against it, which is probably why I personally don't like it. It seems more like a Magic the Gathering strategy than a Pokemon one, and this was the first time I had ever decked-out. I put up a better fight against a Magnezone/ Zekrom deck, but still lost, and then I won against a Gengar Prime deck.

It does kind of bother me that everyone can use this deck and kick tail with it. Personally, I don't think it takes much strategy and is rather boring. BUT- rather than become discouraged, I went home and made my own Durant deck to exploit its weaknesses. Now I have a deck made specifically to counter Durant decks, and I think it works pretty well.
 
Run Victini with the V-Create attack and get a full bench going to counter Durant, it's not that hard but just make sure that If they run Ditto TR you need to get rid of it somehow. SEL can help take care of it as well even though it's probably going to see less play with the new Pokemon EX's in the format.

The Yoshi said:
There is no deck in this format that is unbeatable
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The Truth and possibly 6 Corners would like a word with you. Then again,
I think the only deck in the format that can consistently beat The Truth is Durant, I've yet to hear If Celebi/Tornadus/Mewtwo can effectively beat The Truth, it might though but I can see Regigigas EX giving it problems.
 
Card Slinger J said:
The Truth and possibly 6 Corners would like a word with you. Then again, I think the only deck in the format that can consistently beat The Truth is Durant, I've yet to hear If Celebi/Tornadus/Mewtwo can effectively beat The Truth, it might though but I can see Regigigas EX giving it problems.
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I don't know much about 6 Corners, but Magnezone has a pretty favorable matchup against the Truth. If you don't give them damage to manipulate, the Truth is just a slow deck with weak attackers.
 
Card Slinger J said:
Run Victini with the V-Create attack and get a full bench going to counter Durant, it's not that hard but just make sure that If they run Ditto TR you need to get rid of it somehow. SEL can help take care of it as well even though it's probably going to see less play with the new Pokemon EX's in the format.


The Truth and possibly 6 Corners would like a word with you. Then again,
I think the only deck in the format that can consistently beat The Truth is Durant, I've yet to hear If Celebi/Tornadus/Mewtwo can effectively beat The Truth, it might though but I can see Regigigas EX giving it problems.
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If you run V-Create, they'll just Black Belt it or Lost Remove the rainbows. It helps, but you never get it charged up and if you do, it goes down in one turn. It's not a counter. Most decks don't run five free-retreat basics either.

There is no such thing as an unbeatable deck in any format. Draw six energy and a useless basic, then keep drawing energy and you're going to lose.
 
Only run 5 energy then

Durant is a pain, but I honestly didn't think any decks had an autoloss to it. If you're playing Machamp, you'll want to drop a single Landorus, charge it as fast as possible (turn 2 is definitely possible since they may discard your energy for you), and just spam Gaia Hammer. I agree that not only does the deck take quite probably the least skill of any deck in any format ever, it also probably takes the second least skill in any format ever to face it, unfortunately. Honestly, I think Heatmor is going to be a great addition to the metagame, and until then, you'll have to suffer through it with the rest of us :(.
 
It's not that it's too good of a deck. It's just that playing against it is boring (and honestly scary) and not at at all fun. Playing with it requires almost no skill. Timing the Crushing Hammers is basically the only hard part about it, but if you flip bad you're screwed. 95% of games with Durant come down to either the matchup or the strength of each player's opening hand.
 
Captain Oats said:
I don't know much about 6 Corners, but Magnezone has a pretty favorable matchup against the Truth. If you don't give them damage to manipulate, the Truth is just a slow deck with weak attackers.
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So EelZone does have a favorable matchup against The Truth, that's good to hear.

Celebi23 said:
If you run V-Create, they'll just Black Belt it or Lost Remove the rainbows. It helps, but you never get it charged up and if you do, it goes down in one turn. It's not a counter. Most decks don't run five free-retreat basics either.
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I can definitely see Lost Remover seeing more play with decks like Celebi/Tornadus/Mewtwo popping up Post - ND. Mewtwo EX will abuse DCE for X - Ball and it's quite nasty to boot. But for V-Create Victini I'd probably rather stick with regular {R} over Prism Energy which is more flexible than Rainbow for a deck like KyuremGatr but Lost Remover would still hurt it especially Crushing Hammer If they get Heads.
 
Dark Void said:
Only run 5 energy then

Machamp, you'll want to drop a single Landorus, charge it as fast as possible (turn 2 is definitely possible since they may discard your energy for you), and just spam Gaia Hammer.
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The problem is I started with a Machop. And I had every energy I played removed. Machamp takes three energy to attack...

Celebi23 said:
It's not that it's too good of a deck. It's just that playing against it is boring (and honestly scary) and not at at all fun. Playing with it requires almost no skill. Timing the Crushing Hammers is basically the only hard part about it, but if you flip bad you're screwed. 95% of games with Durant come down to either the matchup or the strength of each player's opening hand.
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Agreed on all counts.
 
Futachimaru said:
Chandelure (Lock and non-Lock) does not beat Durant at all. They outspeed you big time, and Chandelure needs a lot of draw to get KO's on Durant.
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My Chandy usually beats it. I'm 3-1 against it. The loss was from hitting two Chandelures in one Devour. You need two N and two Cleffa though.

Durant isn't that broken. ZPST is even. Zeel is even/slightly unfavorable. Reshiram is unfavorable. Lock is even. Corners is slightly unfavorable. Heatmor's coming anyways. I think it's more fun thab,most decks but to each their own...
 
Card Slinger J said:
So EelZone does have a favorable matchup against The Truth, that's good to hear.


I can definitely see Lost Remover seeing more play with decks like Celebi/Tornadus/Mewtwo popping up Post - ND. Mewtwo EX will abuse DCE for X - Ball and it's quite nasty to boot. But for V-Create Victini I'd probably rather stick with regular {R} over Prism Energy which is more flexible than Rainbow for a deck like KyuremGatr but Lost Remover would still hurt it especially Crushing Hammer If they get Heads.
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I found that modified Truth wrecked Eelzone. I would have run it for the last week of Cities, but it can't beat Durant. But each person's testing will differ, I guess.

Fire energy is hard to fit into most decks not already running it (at which point you probably already have a better attacker than V-Create.) Most Durants already run two Lost Remover to axe any DCE/Rainbow/Metal they play down.

Mr. Tea said:
My Chandy usually beats it. I'm 3-1 against it. The loss was from hitting two Chandelures in one Devour. You need two N and two Cleffa though.

Durant isn't that broken. ZPST is even. Zeel is even/slightly unfavorable. Reshiram is unfavorable. Lock is even. Corners is slightly unfavorable. Heatmor's coming anyways. I think it's more fun thab,most decks but to each their own...
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Agreed with Chandy beating it most of the time. A well-built list will create its own little Durant heck. However, I found Durant wrecks Corners and most lock.

However, the thing about any of those matchups is that if you're playing against Durant and open bad, you lose. This Saturday, I opened Druddigon to a Durant deck and that cost me the game. Catchers wreck you. You need to open your attacker or something with free retreat, or you're going down. This is why CaKE stopped getting play, and why Corners was on a downward spiral at the end of Cities. Durant became the deck to beat. You're playing it, you're playing to beat it, or you're losing. Thanks Jason. Lol.
 
As long as you can get something out that can do a constant 70-90 damage a turn you are good. Victini, which is why I run it in my 6 corners, works wonders in this match up. Just run one Regular fire and one victini and you'll be good. Just kill the Durant with energy on them by using catcher.
 
Sleeping Snorlax said:
As long as you can get something out that can do a constant 70-90 damage a turn you are good. Victini, which is why I run it in my 6 corners, works wonders in this match up. Just run one Regular fire and one victini and you'll be good. Just kill the Durant with energy on them by using catcher.
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1 Fire is not enough. Crushing Hammer will discard it.

Also, Ditto will hurt you plus the Pokémon you bench can be Catcher'd up for stall.
 
Durant doesn't need Ditto. Just Lost Remove the Rainbows/Prisms and Crushing Hammer any basic fire they might have. Ditto just makes bad starts.
 
alexmf2 said:
Your making such a big argument about how good it is, so just play it. The rest of us certainly don't find Durant unbeatable.
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just becouse its good dosnt mean you should play it.
 
This whole thread is just opinionated complaining. A lot of people (including me) think durant is fun and an awesome deck, but that's just our opinions. I really don't understand what's so bad about durant. Whatever though, haters gonna hate.
 
The fact that's it's an alternate win condition and doesn't need hundreds of dollars of investment. It also doesn't hurt that it's pretty hard to mess up with it, so I don't beat myself up for making a ton of misplays. :p What exactly do you hate about it?
 
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