As you can see, well, as you have probably come to see, here I have an explanation of why Darkrai Lv.X is the most underrated card in the format. But now, with the upcoming Battle Road tournaments and others, it will command the attention of the Pokemon community. As we all know, Battle Roads has been affectionately nicknamed "Battle red face powders". This is because this is a small, usually local tournament where people aren't pressured to do well by all the money they're spending to get there, so they decide to test their red face powder (non-metagame) decks. From my observations, I'm speculating that Darkrai Lv.X will do well at these tournaments. Below you will see my reasoning, and why Darkrai Lv.X is the card to use!
Table of Contents
I. The Idea Behind it All
II. The Decklist
III. The Essentials
IV. The Strategy
V. Matchups
VI. Variations
VII. Credits
__________________________________
Darkrai Lv.X
Poke'Body: Dark Shadow: Each basic Energy attched to your Pokemon now has the effect "If the Pokemon Darkness Energy is attached to attacks, the attack does 10 more damage to the Active Pokemon (before applying weakness and resistance)." You can' use more than 1 Dark Shadow Poke'Body each turn.
Endless Darkness: 40 Damage: The Defending Pokemon is now asleep. Flip 2 coins instead of 1 between turns. If either of them is tails, the Defending Pokemon is still Asleep. If both of them are tails, the Defending Pokemon is Knocked Out.
__________________________________
I. The Idea Behind it All
Darkrai Lv.X is a very effective card in today's format. For a Basic Lv.X, it has an okay 100 HP. This can me maximized at 140, using Expert Belt and Snowpoint Temple. Its Poke'Body, "Dark Shadow", means it can hit for any mount of damage you need it to, making eacch basic dark energy into a special dark energy. This is conveniently paired with Togekiss GE, which lets you look at the top 10 cards of your deck and attach as many basic energies as you like from there. This Poke'Body is what will give what appears to be a low-damage deck the force to Knock Out any opponent. A simple card like Lucian's Assignment can be used to power up a new Darkrai when one is damaged. Darkrai Lv.X's special sleep condition, from its attack Endless Darkness, is usually referred to as "double" sleep It is a very nice asset to Darkrai Lv.X's arsenal, and is your "insurance policy" if you don't OHKO your opponent's pokemon. With Darkrai G, you can add damage to your enemy while they sleep; 10 for each Darkrai G. This sleep has a 25% chance of OHKO'ing them right on the spot, a 50% chance of them simply stayng asleep, and a 25% of them waking up. Well, this is a general overview of the card and its abilities, so let's move on!
II. The Decklist
So far, this is the decklist that I've been working with. This is my personal decklist that I won the Winamac Battle Roads with, so it has been tested and proven itself successful!
Pokemon: 20
2-2 Darkrai Lv.X (MD Darkrai) (Your main attacker.)
1-1-1 Honchkrow SV (SW Duskstone Murkrow so you can evolve quickly. Anti-Gyarados, anti-PromoCroak, and anti- Poke's. Can also retrieve discarded things and snipe damaged Benched Pokemon.)
2 Darkrai G (Adds damage between turns with his Poke'Body.)
2-1-2 Togekiss GE (Attaches energy quickly and can power you up T1.)
2-2 Claydol GE (Drawpower. )
1 Azelf LA (to help grabbing prized Honch/Darkrai G; also can be SSU'ed)
1 Uxie LA (Quick Drawpower... again, duh.)
Trainers: 27
4 Roseanne's Research
4 SSU
3 Bebe's Search
3 Pokémon Communication
2 Pokemon Reversal
2 Rare Candy
2 Expert Belt
2 Snowpoint Temple
1 Luxury Ball
1 Night Maintenance
1 Fisherman
1 Broken Time-Space
1 Lucian's Assignment
1 Moonlight Stadium
Energy: 12
12 Basic Dark Energy
III. The Essentials
Darkrai (Lv.X): I have already explained the uses and techniques of Darkrai Lv.X, and there are small explanations next to their names, but here I will go into further detail about their uses in this deck.
Honchkrow: can be evolved the turn the Murkrow is played becuase of Duskstone, which is the automatic tool that Murkrow holds, so it can surprise your opponent witha sudden search/evolution in one swift move. It's also an anti-Gyarados tech because it takes Magikarps that they discard out of the discard pile and puts them onto the Bench, where they do no good for Revenge Tail. Honchkrow is also an anti-PromoCroak tech, since PromoCroak usually OHKO's a Darkrai Lv.X, because Honchkrow has a Resistance, which makes it a counter to pretty much all decks, and it can OHKO PromoCroak.
Darkrai G: is pretty straight-forward in purpose. It simply sits on the bench and is utilized ofr its "Eerie Aura" poke'body, which adds a damage counter to all of my opponent's sleeping pokemon between turns. This Poke'Body also stacks, so it's 10 more for each Darkrai G you have in play.
Togekiss GE: lets you look at the top 10 cards of your deck and atach as many basic energy cards as you like that you find there to any of your pokemon. If you need some quick extra damage, you will often get it by dropping a Togepi and Rare Candy'ing up into Togekiss. This will pretty much always surprise your opponent, because this is another card that should see more use. This sounds like it would behard to get out, with just a 2-1-2 line, 2 Rare Candy, and 1 BTS, right? Really, if you know what sequence of events in which you need to do things, it is a lot easier. First, just focus on getting a Claydol up and a Darkrai active. Then, use Search Cards, Uxie LA, and Cosmic Power to get either the entire line, or if you draw into a Rare Candy, then just a Togepi and a Togekiss. Use the Drawpower first. Then search out what you didn't draw into. Remember, you are cycling through a large amount of cards, so it will be easier than it sounds.
Claydol GE: This is what you want to go for as soon as you can. You'll usually start with around 2 search cards in your hand, so try to get Claydol, Darkrai, and Togepi, since one of those search cards is usually a Roseanne's Research. Then start cycling through your deck to find what you need.
IV. The Strategy
The strategy to this deck is very simple. Get out your basics and get Darkrai Lv.X rolling T2-T3. Use Endless Darkness to put them into "double" sleep, hitting for however much damage you need to, because you can control how mch you do. Usually, you will want to home in on 110 immediately before adjusting it to what your opponent is playing. While they are alseep, you're putting damage on them between turns with Darkrai G. It seems that Darkrai Lv.X is fragile, with 100 HP. But, with Expert Belt, you can bring his Max HP to 120, and have him hitting for an extra 20 Damage, which is very useful. However, since you don't want to giv eup double prizes for a KO, Super Scoop Up is the way to go if he is injured. After you send him to the bench and Lucian's the energy to him. An added bonus is Snowpoint Temple, which is great for giving Darkrai that extra 20 HP, but you have to watch out, because it can sometimes be undependable. You don't want to leave anything with just 20 HP left when you have Snowpoint Temple in play, because your opponent will pick up a prize (or two with Exprt belt!) just by playing a stadium! And you don't want to give your opponent 20 more HP unless you are already doing 20 damage of Overkill. (Which happens a lot with this deck.) The main thing you want to attack with is Darkrai Lv.X, but if he is badly wounded, as I have said, you should switch him to the Bench via retreat, so you can send out a Darkrai, level up, and use Lucian's Assignment to switch the energies over to the new one. Then, you may attempt to use Super Scoop Up on your Benched Darkrai Lv.X. However, if you for some reason don't have another on the Bench, retreat Darkrai Lv.X and use a tech such as Darkrai G or Togekiss to attack for a while. They don't make bad attackers, but you don't want to leave them out for very long. The absolute worst thing you can do when a Darkrai Lv.X is badly injured is let it be Knocked Out. If you just need some quick healing, drop your other Darkrai to put them to sleep, then OHKO with Dark Resolve instead of Endless Darkness, so that you can still heal by 40 Damage. If this stilll isn't enough, and Darkrai Lv.X is KO'd, use recovery cards to get energy back into the deck if a Darkrai Lv.X is KO'd for some reason, then get it onto your new one with Togekiss. Or, use Fisherman to put them into your hand and attach them manually. To use SSU effectively with Togekiss, make sure you either: A.) Have the full line played down with Broken Time-Space in play. B.) Have a Rare Candied Togekiss in play, a Togetic in your hand, and BTS in play. (Easier than it sounds, trust me.) or C.) Have a Rare Candy in hand and Togekiss in play. Any of these situations will allow you to reuse Togekiss without your opponenet ever seeing it coming. They may think that Darkrai with no energy is harmless until you slap down Togekiss! This is the basic strategy to the deck, and sometimes you will have to use a flippy card like Pokemon Reversal or Super Scoop Up to get a quick KO. But remember, you have to have the guts to get the glory!
V. Matchups
LuxChomp~ 40-60, their favor~ This matchup is usually pretty bad, unless their Cyrus chain doesn't get started until the T3-4, then it can be 50~50, but thhat is unlikely. This is usually a bad matchup because they have a fairly large disruptive power, and can use Poke'Turn and Power Spray. If they Power Spray your Togekiss, then you're in trouble. This is why you always want to use Cosmic Power before dropping Togekiss, so that you can attempt to lure out any lurking Power Sprays. You also must be wary of PromoCroak. It can sometimes OHKO your Darkrai Lv.X.
DialgaChomp~50-50~ This matchup is 50-50 because, again, of their disruptive power. They aren't quite as disruptive as LuxChomp, since they usually don't run Luxray GL Lv.X, but they still have Power Spray. If they get Dialga G Lv.X out, then you're going to have to take a gamble. However, it is still fairly easy to et it out of play. Use Pokemon Reversal (odds are you'll get at least one heads) if it isn't already active to drag it to the active spot. Then, put it into double sleep with Endless Darkness while still hitting for 60 (with Expert Belt). They cannot retreat while they're asleep, they might be OHKO'd by double tails, and if they Poke'Turn they can't level-up again. Any way it goes down, Dialga G Lv.X will be out of play. Plus, VS. SP decks, you wil always bee able to get a OHKO, because of their low-HP.
Machamp~75-25, their favor~ Thankfully, this isn't used much any more. They can OHKO you almost every time (unless you tech in an Unown G). You pretty much will always lose this one.
Donphan~40-60, your favor~ You probably think I'm crazy or thinking this is a good matchup. But, if you use Honchkrow Lv.X instead of Darkrai this time, this matchup becomes win-able because of your resistance, Darkrai Lv.X adding damage from the bench, and being able to snipe. Or, if you see that they don't have another Donphan Prime in play, use Darkrai Lv.X to put him into double sleep. Then, if they're still just asleep when it's your turn, you can use Honchkrow Lv.X to snipe at the Bench while a useless Donphan Prime sits in their active spot, and will probably eventually be OHKO'd by double sleep.
Gyarados~ 55-45, slightly your favor~ Gyarados cannot have a backup attacker, which is good for Darkrai. Put Gyarados into a double sleep, then use Honchkrow's Poke'Power to fill their bench up with their own Magikarps. And if you need a quick prize, snipe one of them! But, if Gyarados wakes up, then they can usually OHKO you, which is why you want to have a back-up darkrai with 3 energies on it on the Bench.
VI. Variations
There are very few "variations" to this deck, but you can tweak it to your preferance. You may want to run a heavier Honchkrow line, use the HGSS Hypno for Sleep Pendulum, or use more Darkrai G's to put most of your damage on between turns. Any way you play it, using the Sleep or Double Sleep conditions must be your objective. There really isn't much to say here, so let's just move on!
VII. Achievements
From what I know, these are the achievements Darkrai Lv.X has gotten, but of course, I don't hear about everything! Please, post your own Darkrai successes so that they can be added to the Achievements!
1st Place Winamac Battle Roads
3rd Place Winamac Battle Roads
Table of Contents
I. The Idea Behind it All
II. The Decklist
III. The Essentials
IV. The Strategy
V. Matchups
VI. Variations
VII. Credits
__________________________________
Darkrai Lv.X
Poke'Body: Dark Shadow: Each basic Energy attched to your Pokemon now has the effect "If the Pokemon Darkness Energy is attached to attacks, the attack does 10 more damage to the Active Pokemon (before applying weakness and resistance)." You can' use more than 1 Dark Shadow Poke'Body each turn.
Endless Darkness: 40 Damage: The Defending Pokemon is now asleep. Flip 2 coins instead of 1 between turns. If either of them is tails, the Defending Pokemon is still Asleep. If both of them are tails, the Defending Pokemon is Knocked Out.
__________________________________
I. The Idea Behind it All
Darkrai Lv.X is a very effective card in today's format. For a Basic Lv.X, it has an okay 100 HP. This can me maximized at 140, using Expert Belt and Snowpoint Temple. Its Poke'Body, "Dark Shadow", means it can hit for any mount of damage you need it to, making eacch basic dark energy into a special dark energy. This is conveniently paired with Togekiss GE, which lets you look at the top 10 cards of your deck and attach as many basic energies as you like from there. This Poke'Body is what will give what appears to be a low-damage deck the force to Knock Out any opponent. A simple card like Lucian's Assignment can be used to power up a new Darkrai when one is damaged. Darkrai Lv.X's special sleep condition, from its attack Endless Darkness, is usually referred to as "double" sleep It is a very nice asset to Darkrai Lv.X's arsenal, and is your "insurance policy" if you don't OHKO your opponent's pokemon. With Darkrai G, you can add damage to your enemy while they sleep; 10 for each Darkrai G. This sleep has a 25% chance of OHKO'ing them right on the spot, a 50% chance of them simply stayng asleep, and a 25% of them waking up. Well, this is a general overview of the card and its abilities, so let's move on!
II. The Decklist
So far, this is the decklist that I've been working with. This is my personal decklist that I won the Winamac Battle Roads with, so it has been tested and proven itself successful!
Pokemon: 20
2-2 Darkrai Lv.X (MD Darkrai) (Your main attacker.)
1-1-1 Honchkrow SV (SW Duskstone Murkrow so you can evolve quickly. Anti-Gyarados, anti-PromoCroak, and anti- Poke's. Can also retrieve discarded things and snipe damaged Benched Pokemon.)
2 Darkrai G (Adds damage between turns with his Poke'Body.)
2-1-2 Togekiss GE (Attaches energy quickly and can power you up T1.)
2-2 Claydol GE (Drawpower. )
1 Azelf LA (to help grabbing prized Honch/Darkrai G; also can be SSU'ed)
1 Uxie LA (Quick Drawpower... again, duh.)
Trainers: 27
4 Roseanne's Research
4 SSU
3 Bebe's Search
3 Pokémon Communication
2 Pokemon Reversal
2 Rare Candy
2 Expert Belt
2 Snowpoint Temple
1 Luxury Ball
1 Night Maintenance
1 Fisherman
1 Broken Time-Space
1 Lucian's Assignment
1 Moonlight Stadium
Energy: 12
12 Basic Dark Energy
III. The Essentials
Darkrai (Lv.X): I have already explained the uses and techniques of Darkrai Lv.X, and there are small explanations next to their names, but here I will go into further detail about their uses in this deck.
Honchkrow: can be evolved the turn the Murkrow is played becuase of Duskstone, which is the automatic tool that Murkrow holds, so it can surprise your opponent witha sudden search/evolution in one swift move. It's also an anti-Gyarados tech because it takes Magikarps that they discard out of the discard pile and puts them onto the Bench, where they do no good for Revenge Tail. Honchkrow is also an anti-PromoCroak tech, since PromoCroak usually OHKO's a Darkrai Lv.X, because Honchkrow has a Resistance, which makes it a counter to pretty much all decks, and it can OHKO PromoCroak.
Darkrai G: is pretty straight-forward in purpose. It simply sits on the bench and is utilized ofr its "Eerie Aura" poke'body, which adds a damage counter to all of my opponent's sleeping pokemon between turns. This Poke'Body also stacks, so it's 10 more for each Darkrai G you have in play.
Togekiss GE: lets you look at the top 10 cards of your deck and atach as many basic energy cards as you like that you find there to any of your pokemon. If you need some quick extra damage, you will often get it by dropping a Togepi and Rare Candy'ing up into Togekiss. This will pretty much always surprise your opponent, because this is another card that should see more use. This sounds like it would behard to get out, with just a 2-1-2 line, 2 Rare Candy, and 1 BTS, right? Really, if you know what sequence of events in which you need to do things, it is a lot easier. First, just focus on getting a Claydol up and a Darkrai active. Then, use Search Cards, Uxie LA, and Cosmic Power to get either the entire line, or if you draw into a Rare Candy, then just a Togepi and a Togekiss. Use the Drawpower first. Then search out what you didn't draw into. Remember, you are cycling through a large amount of cards, so it will be easier than it sounds.
Claydol GE: This is what you want to go for as soon as you can. You'll usually start with around 2 search cards in your hand, so try to get Claydol, Darkrai, and Togepi, since one of those search cards is usually a Roseanne's Research. Then start cycling through your deck to find what you need.
IV. The Strategy
The strategy to this deck is very simple. Get out your basics and get Darkrai Lv.X rolling T2-T3. Use Endless Darkness to put them into "double" sleep, hitting for however much damage you need to, because you can control how mch you do. Usually, you will want to home in on 110 immediately before adjusting it to what your opponent is playing. While they are alseep, you're putting damage on them between turns with Darkrai G. It seems that Darkrai Lv.X is fragile, with 100 HP. But, with Expert Belt, you can bring his Max HP to 120, and have him hitting for an extra 20 Damage, which is very useful. However, since you don't want to giv eup double prizes for a KO, Super Scoop Up is the way to go if he is injured. After you send him to the bench and Lucian's the energy to him. An added bonus is Snowpoint Temple, which is great for giving Darkrai that extra 20 HP, but you have to watch out, because it can sometimes be undependable. You don't want to leave anything with just 20 HP left when you have Snowpoint Temple in play, because your opponent will pick up a prize (or two with Exprt belt!) just by playing a stadium! And you don't want to give your opponent 20 more HP unless you are already doing 20 damage of Overkill. (Which happens a lot with this deck.) The main thing you want to attack with is Darkrai Lv.X, but if he is badly wounded, as I have said, you should switch him to the Bench via retreat, so you can send out a Darkrai, level up, and use Lucian's Assignment to switch the energies over to the new one. Then, you may attempt to use Super Scoop Up on your Benched Darkrai Lv.X. However, if you for some reason don't have another on the Bench, retreat Darkrai Lv.X and use a tech such as Darkrai G or Togekiss to attack for a while. They don't make bad attackers, but you don't want to leave them out for very long. The absolute worst thing you can do when a Darkrai Lv.X is badly injured is let it be Knocked Out. If you just need some quick healing, drop your other Darkrai to put them to sleep, then OHKO with Dark Resolve instead of Endless Darkness, so that you can still heal by 40 Damage. If this stilll isn't enough, and Darkrai Lv.X is KO'd, use recovery cards to get energy back into the deck if a Darkrai Lv.X is KO'd for some reason, then get it onto your new one with Togekiss. Or, use Fisherman to put them into your hand and attach them manually. To use SSU effectively with Togekiss, make sure you either: A.) Have the full line played down with Broken Time-Space in play. B.) Have a Rare Candied Togekiss in play, a Togetic in your hand, and BTS in play. (Easier than it sounds, trust me.) or C.) Have a Rare Candy in hand and Togekiss in play. Any of these situations will allow you to reuse Togekiss without your opponenet ever seeing it coming. They may think that Darkrai with no energy is harmless until you slap down Togekiss! This is the basic strategy to the deck, and sometimes you will have to use a flippy card like Pokemon Reversal or Super Scoop Up to get a quick KO. But remember, you have to have the guts to get the glory!
V. Matchups
LuxChomp~ 40-60, their favor~ This matchup is usually pretty bad, unless their Cyrus chain doesn't get started until the T3-4, then it can be 50~50, but thhat is unlikely. This is usually a bad matchup because they have a fairly large disruptive power, and can use Poke'Turn and Power Spray. If they Power Spray your Togekiss, then you're in trouble. This is why you always want to use Cosmic Power before dropping Togekiss, so that you can attempt to lure out any lurking Power Sprays. You also must be wary of PromoCroak. It can sometimes OHKO your Darkrai Lv.X.
DialgaChomp~50-50~ This matchup is 50-50 because, again, of their disruptive power. They aren't quite as disruptive as LuxChomp, since they usually don't run Luxray GL Lv.X, but they still have Power Spray. If they get Dialga G Lv.X out, then you're going to have to take a gamble. However, it is still fairly easy to et it out of play. Use Pokemon Reversal (odds are you'll get at least one heads) if it isn't already active to drag it to the active spot. Then, put it into double sleep with Endless Darkness while still hitting for 60 (with Expert Belt). They cannot retreat while they're asleep, they might be OHKO'd by double tails, and if they Poke'Turn they can't level-up again. Any way it goes down, Dialga G Lv.X will be out of play. Plus, VS. SP decks, you wil always bee able to get a OHKO, because of their low-HP.
Machamp~75-25, their favor~ Thankfully, this isn't used much any more. They can OHKO you almost every time (unless you tech in an Unown G). You pretty much will always lose this one.
Donphan~40-60, your favor~ You probably think I'm crazy or thinking this is a good matchup. But, if you use Honchkrow Lv.X instead of Darkrai this time, this matchup becomes win-able because of your resistance, Darkrai Lv.X adding damage from the bench, and being able to snipe. Or, if you see that they don't have another Donphan Prime in play, use Darkrai Lv.X to put him into double sleep. Then, if they're still just asleep when it's your turn, you can use Honchkrow Lv.X to snipe at the Bench while a useless Donphan Prime sits in their active spot, and will probably eventually be OHKO'd by double sleep.
Gyarados~ 55-45, slightly your favor~ Gyarados cannot have a backup attacker, which is good for Darkrai. Put Gyarados into a double sleep, then use Honchkrow's Poke'Power to fill their bench up with their own Magikarps. And if you need a quick prize, snipe one of them! But, if Gyarados wakes up, then they can usually OHKO you, which is why you want to have a back-up darkrai with 3 energies on it on the Bench.
VI. Variations
There are very few "variations" to this deck, but you can tweak it to your preferance. You may want to run a heavier Honchkrow line, use the HGSS Hypno for Sleep Pendulum, or use more Darkrai G's to put most of your damage on between turns. Any way you play it, using the Sleep or Double Sleep conditions must be your objective. There really isn't much to say here, so let's just move on!
VII. Achievements
From what I know, these are the achievements Darkrai Lv.X has gotten, but of course, I don't hear about everything! Please, post your own Darkrai successes so that they can be added to the Achievements!
1st Place Winamac Battle Roads
3rd Place Winamac Battle Roads
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