HRPrime
Active Member
:metal:Durant Deck Out:metal:
By Rayquaza2222
March 1, 2012
HeartGold/SoulSilver-Next Destinies Format
About me
As you know, I'm Rayquaza2222. I started playing Pokémon in the ex-era and played as a casual player. I played with decks that had no rhyme or reason. I would play all random cards in a deck thinking it would work wonders. One example is I would put 25 random Grass Pokemon, little to no Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums, and filled the remaining spaces with grass Energy. I'm sure some of you guys might remember my first days here as a troll... I started playing competitively late 2009. Not seeing result, I found the Gym and started to progress in competitive play.
Enough about me, let’s get to the article!
Durant
Durant arrived in the Noble Victories set on November 6th, 2011. Soon after the release, it was found winning many upon many tournaments at Cities. It’s been around 100 seen placings (A few of the wins listed ) I have faith that Durant will be seen winning State Championships around the US.
A Deck list and Strategy
A prerequisite for the strategy to function are the four Durant which is to be getting out as soon as possible. Get Durant out of Prizes with Rotom and Alph Lithograph (4). You always want to use the Alph Lithograph as soon as get it into your hand in the case of a trainer lock. Getting to late with the Alph will make getting the Durant out of the prize cards guess work. Once four Durant are out, start milling with Devour (1 Metal Energy) the opponent's deck should thin out fast. Use Evolite, SP Metal, Revive to keep the Durant(s) alive for that constant milling. Abuse N or Twins because you won’t be taking prizes. No prizes means the opponent can kill one Durant and they will have fewer prizes.
Decklist:
okeball:Pokémon:okeball:
4 Durant
1 Rotom
T/S/S:
3 N
3 Juniper
3 PONT
3 Collector
4 Twins
3 Catcher
4 Revive
3 Eviolite
4 Junk Arm
3 Dual Ball
1 Skyarrow Bridge
3 Pokegear 3.0
4 Crushing Hammer
3 Lost Remover
1 Alph Lithograph
Energy:
4 SP Metal
6 Metal
okeball:Pokémon:okeball:4 Durant
1 Rotom
T/S/S:
3 N
3 Juniper
3 PONT
3 Collector
4 Twins
3 Catcher
4 Revive
3 Eviolite
4 Junk Arm
3 Dual Ball
1 Skyarrow Bridge
3 Pokegear 3.0
4 Crushing Hammer
3 Lost Remover
1 Alph Lithograph
Energy:
4 SP Metal
6 Metal
Cards of the Deck
Durant is the main card of this deck. It is a Basic Pokémon with 70 HP. He has two attacks, Devour and Vice Grip, and a Weakness to Fire
fire:x2), Resistance to Psychic psychic:-20), and a Retreat Cost of 1 colorless. Durant's main strategy revolves around its first attack, Devour. For one Metal metal Energy lets you discard one card off of the opponent's deck for each Durants of yours in play. This can count up to the maximum of 4. After a few turns, the opponent's deck will shrink untill the opponent has no deck to draw from and you get the win.
This combo is used get cards that are Prized. Assume you have a Durant in the Prize Cards. How do you get it out? Use could use an attacking Pokémon to retreive a prized card or, use this combo. First, use Alph Lithograph to look at your prize cards then use Rotom to pick out one of the Prize Cards and switch it with the top card of the deck.
Pokémon Collector and Dual Ball are two cards to get Durant out fast to start the devouring. Collector lets you search for 3 Durant and Dual Ball lets you flip 2 coins, for each heads, you search for that many Basic Pokemon.
One part of a Durant deck is the removal of Energy. Crushing Hammer and Lost Remover can buy time for Durant to mill down the deck more by undoing attachments. Crushing Hammer makes Basic and Special Energy go to the discard pile and Lost Remover makes Special Energy go to the Lost Zone.
These three cards refresh hands for better cards. Professor Oak's New Theory (PONT) and N gives 6 while Professor Juniper gives 7 if you discard your hand first. N is very good in this deck. N makes you and the opponent shuffle their hand into their deck and draw the same amount of the player's prize cards. Because you don’t have to draw cards from the prizes in this deck, N maintains optimal draw efficacy. It can also deprive the opponent of resources late in game.
Pokegear 3.0 can easily get out Suppoters like Collector or Twins (things like that) to use. Early Collector, late Twins, needed PONT all can be found with this card.
These three cards get cards from the discard pile to the hand or bench. Junk Arm, for the cost of two cards, can get out a used Trainer and put it into the hand. Energy Retrieval can get back Energy used by Retreat Costs or from fallen Durant. Revive can get back those fallen Durant and keep a steady Devour going.
These cards make it easier to move around the Durant or whatever you may put in this deck. Skyarrow Bridge makes any Basic Pokémon have one less Retreat Cost
colorless, making Durant instantly fast. Metal Energy can be used for Retreat Cost. Because of Skyarrow Bridge, it pretty much useless.
Pokémon Catcher is the card used to switch the opponent's Pokémon to your advantage from Bench to Active spot. This can be used to pull out the Pokémon that aren't fully built up. This can be used to stall or if you use another Pokémon, to pull and kill.
These cards put together make a defence that is hard to beat. Special Metal Energy taking away 10 damage (because Durant is a Metal Pokémon and SP Metal Energy only goes into effect with Metal Pokémon) and Eviolite taking away 20 damage (again, because Durant is a Basic, it works with Durant) from attacks from the opponent's Active Pokémon. This can add up to 30 damage reduction and more can be build up for each SP Metal on the Pokémon. One of each card can make Durant basically have 100 HP.
Twins is an important part of this deck because it works with the strategy of not taking Prizes. If the opponent has taken more prize cards, Twins goes into effect by letting you search your deck for 2 or any card and put into your hand. This helps by getting out needed cards to advance in the game.
Tech away
These next cards are card that could be used as techs or just other suggestions away from the Pokémon area (Trainer, Supporters, etc.)
Spiritomb is a Pokémon used for late in the game to force draw. Spiritomb's Poke-Power
ppowr, Spooky Whirlwind, makes the opponent shuffle their hand into their decks and draw 6 cards. This would be used to leave the deck with 4 cards or less and then used Devour on Durant and take out the rest of the deck. It would be good to run one of these in any Durant deck.
Shaymin EX can be used to be an attacker in Durant. It follows the strategy of not taking Prizes. Shaymin EX's attack that’s being used here is Revenge Blast: for one Grass Energy and a Colorless
grass::colorless, you can do 30 plus 30 more damage for each Prize Card taken by the opponent. This can rack up to 150 damage killing just about anything the opponent can send to attack. Shaymin also has 110 HP and be careful with it, when it gets killed; the opponent takes 2 Prize Cards. I guess that could help with the strategy, but it could be dangerous if the opponent has 1 or 2 prizes left.
Drifblim was hyped for use for Durant but isn’t being seen much. Drifblim was used for its attack, Take Away, to get rid of Pokémon that could kill Durants. For three Colorless Energy
colorless::colorless::colorless Take Away would make Drifblim be shuffled into the deck (with all cards attacked to it) and the opponent's defending Pokémon would do the same thing (also with all cards attached to it). A few problems accrue; Drifblim is a Stage 1 Pokémon meaning it would have to Evolve. This can hurt with the consistency of the deck and the 3 Energy cost could hurt it too. Plus, sending the Pokémon into the deck will make it harder on the Durants to Devour. It’s easily killed too because it has 90 HP (the opponent might cather up and kill him before the strategy takes place). If you want to use this in a deck, you'll want to have a Double Colorless Energy or a few to make it easier to use Take Away. If you were gonna use this card, use a 1-1 line or maybe a 2-2 line (Drifloon - Drifblim)
Make your opponent tired by using Hypno. Hypno can stop an attack from an opposing Pokémon. Its Poke-Power
ppowr, Sleep Pendulum, lets you flip a coin. If heads, the opponent's Pokémon is asleep. It'll take a few turns to get this out because you need to evolve Hypno. It could be a problem because it a 50/50 chance that it will work and even then, another 50/50 chance that the sleep will last. Aside from that, it’s a good card to use in this deck. A 1-1 or 2-2 line could be good here (Drowzee - Hypno). 
Help with the "milling" with Mime Jr. Mime Jr.'s attack, Sleepy Lost, for no Energy cost at all, lets you take the top card off the top of the opponent's deck and put it into the Lost Zone. Once in the Lost Zone, no card can get whatever was put there. No Revive, Retrieval, Junk Arm, or anything can work. After this effect, Mime Jr. is asleep and it can become a stall. I recommend one or two, but watch for Tyrogue. Tyrogue can do 30 damage for cost at all killing this Pokemon. If this is your last Pokemon in play, you lose.
It seems Durant likes stalling... a lot. Cobalion is another stalling card, but also does damage. Iron Breaker, the attack, for two Metal and a Colorless Energy
metal::metal::colorless, does 80 damage and the defending Pokémon can't attack. Aside from the Iron Breaker, it has a great HP of 120. It’s great because 120 isn’t normal for Basic Pokémon (other cards are Zekrom (130), Reshiram (130), Terrakion (130), and so on are others). It also has another useful attack, Energy Press. For a Metal and a Colorless Energy metal::colorless, Energy Press does 30 damage plus 30 more damage for each Energy attached to the opponent's Pokémon. It can counter high Energy using decks like Mewtwo EX or Zekrom.
Faster than Pokémon Collector, it's Pichu. Pichu's attack, Playground, for no Energy at all, lets both players search their decks for as many Basic Pokémon as they want and put them into the players Bench (until it's full). This can quickly get out Durant or any other Basics you use in this deck. This can hurt a little because the opponent can get out Basic Pokémon as well, so that could help them set up and wipe you out. This could be used to the advantage of Zekrom or Reshiram decks but not as much for some stage 1 and 2. Watch for Tyrogues too, I talked about that in the area of Mime Jr. 1 or 2 would be a good amount for this deck.
Roserade was originally used before this card came along. It's possible that Amoonguss will replace any deck with Roserade in it. Amoonguss' Ability, Sporprise, goes into effect when you place this card onto a Foongus (evolving) then, the opponent's Active Pokémon is Confused and Poisoned. This is much faster and easier than Roserade because it required a Grass and Psychic Energy to be placed on Roserade for both to happen. Although it might be easier to use Roserade, it's faster and takes less room to use Amoonguss. This Poison and Confusion could be used to stop attacks and put damage on the opponent's Pokémon. Running a 1-1 or 2-2 line would be a ok idea for this deck (Fongus - Amoonguss).
I’ve seen it and battled it at Cities, in many Durant decks. Its Poke-Power
ppowr lets you choose a card from the opponent's hand and discard it (when played down to evolve). This can be effect by removing vital cards the opponent might have stored and maybe getting ready for an oncoming turn. When choosing the card to send away, it would be wise to choose a vital card and something that is card to get back from the discard. 
These two cards have similar abilities. They let you choose 3 Pokémon (Basic, Stage 1, Stage 2, EX, etc.) and up to 3 Basic Energy and shuffle them into the deck. This could be a great idea to use with Pokémon you may use that are non-Basic. Basic Pokémon can be simply picked up with Revive and Basic Energy my Retrieval rendering Super Rod or Flower Shop Lady (for Trainer lock) useless.
This card is for the same uses of Pokegear 3.0. This card lets you flip a coin, if heads, you search for a Supporter. It's a great card to think about using with Pokegear 3.0.
Battle City is a Stadium that can be used with Rotom/Alph to get out the card you got out of the prizes off the top of the deck instead of waiting another turn to pick up. Battle City lets you flip a coin, if heads, you can draw one card (only during your turn). This will get up the Durant you may have placed on the top of the deck and into the hand. The opponent may use the Stadium to draw more cards, and if so, that helps with milling.
Ditto counters a Victini deck. Victini will try to do 100 damage with V-Create if they have 5 Pokémon in bench. Ditto stops this by only allowing 4 to be placed, making V-Create useless. Also counters any high bench attackers with the attack Do The Wave. This card is something to consider.
Durant VS The Metagame
Time to pair this deck up to a few decks of the Metagame. The decks that Durant can beat, can't beat or in between.
Durant VS MagneEel
MagneEel is a tricky one. It will use Zekrom and maybe Zekrom EX to attack and Magnezone for draw power and a later on finishing off of you. The Zekroms can hit for high damage killing just about every Durant. Zekrom will Bolt Strike and do 40 to itself afterwords. Zekrom EX can Strong Volt and the user must discard 2 Energy on Zekrom EX and it does 150 damage. Eeletrik can get back the Energy lost on Zekrom EX and use it again (there would be a few of them on the field). Magnezone's Poke-Power
ppowr, Magnetic Draw, lets the opponent draw cards until he/she has 6 cards in hand (once a turn). Later on, Magnezone will use its one and only attack, Lost Burn, to get the job done with one hit. For one Electric and Colorless thunder::colorless, it makes the user put some Energy in the Lost Zone (any Energy in play) and for each Energy that was sent to the Lost Zone it does 50 times that number.Beating it is going to be hard, but it can be done. To defeat this deck, you should Catcher Eeletrik and hope they don't have switch. Bringing up Pokemon like this can make the Durant mills last longer. Crushing Hammer can be used to rid of those Energy on Zekrom, Zekrom EX, or Magnezone when it’s time for them to attack (Lost Remover might not see much use here, maybe is Rescue Energy is being used). Careful with the Crushing Hammar, the opponent could get them back with Eeletrik. Having a backup Cobalion to freeze a Magnezone or Zekrom wouldn’t be a bad idea. If Catchers are used and Crushing Hammer is used, Coblalion can save the day.
Durant VS ZekEel
ZekEels will usually use Thundurus to start out with its Charge attack to get out Energy and attach it to a Zekrom. Zekrom will be the attack of the deck VS Durant by using its heavy impacting attack, Bolt Strike. It will do a crushing 120 damage killing almost any card out there! This also does 40 damage to Zekrom. This damage could be used to power up the Outrage attack which does 20 plus 10 more damage for each damage counter on Zekrom. It would usually be counted up to 80 damage on Zekrom and then killing what ever Durants are in play. Eelektrik might not be seen here because it's not needed.
One way is to beat the speed and mill the cards out of the deck, as in most match-ups. Get out any Revive. Zekrom or other things in the deck before they use it. Since it'll take a few turns to get out a firm bench, this should be done as soon as possible. One idea would be killing those 30 HP Tynamos with Durants second attack, Vice Grip, which does 30 damage. It's not the best way to go where as this will take one turn where you could mill which is horrible, but it's something to think about for donking. They shouldn't really be using Eelektrik on the Bench. The best thing to do is if they get the Zekrom out is to Crushing Hammer them. Also pull Eelektrik up and Crushing Hammer them to stop retreats (unless switch). Using Cobalion could be a good idea if all else fails.
Durant VS CeleDus EX
This deck use Celebi to place down Energy on Mewtwo EX to use its attack, X Ball. Celebi's Poke-Power
ppowr lets you place down one Grass Energy onto a Pokémon (once a turn if Celebi is active) and then, Skyarrow Bridge can be used here to move Celebi back and move up Mewtwo EX. During the turn of the Poke-Power with Celebi, the opponent could have put down an Energy for the turn and Mewtwo can start attacking. Mewtwo EX's attack, X Ball, does 20 damage times the number of Energy on Mewtwo EX and the other players active. Tornadus can be used to rid of Pokémon in the HP range of Hurricane, Tornadus' attack. Mostly a backup plan.To defeat it will take some good working of the deck. Mewtwo EX can't really take advantage of the Energy on you because Durant only needs one Energy to attack. To stop stuff like this, Crushing Hammer can be used to rid of the Energy. Without Energy, Mewtwo EX can get enough damage (or not even attack) and Tornadus might have a hard time pulling and killing Durant. Mill down the deck before they reset. This can take out important cards like more Energy so they cannot attack (if the deck doesn’t have Retrieval or things like that, they most likely will).
Durant VS Reshiphlosion/Tyram
In this match up, they will most likely get out Typhlosion(s) and Flare Destroy you. After a while, they will be retrieving the lost Energy and burning Durant all day long. They could use Reshiram and Blue Flare or Outrage the Durants down too. It’s faster and easier to set up the Typhlosion(s) and destroy the Durants rather than Reshiram.
This deck will be hard (if not, impossible) to beat. A good idea would be to quickly get out Durant and mill as much as possible. This could send vital cards of Reshiphlosion to the discard and if they don't have the right cards, they can't kill Durant. Running a Drifblim can help with ridding of the Typhlosion with Take Away. It could be useless because they would most likely set up another Typhlosion and continue killing Durant.
Durant VS Durant
You know how Durant works right? Durant mills the opponent's deck untill no cards are left in the opponent's deck and the opponent can't draw so they win. If this is needed more clear, look back up in the atricle
To stop this deck in a mirror match game it’s whoever can get the Durant out faster and mill out the deck (assuming a game with only Durant for all the Pokémon kind of decks). You can really use Shaymin EX because no prizes should be taken unless one player is using Cobalion and killing off Durant. Speaking of Cobalion, he could be useful here! Iron Breaker can't just stop the Devour, but could kill the Durant if the Durant has less than one Defending card (SP Metal or Eviolite). Since the making of Skyarrow, if the Durant survived the Iron Breaker it could switch out with another Durant and continue or get out a Cobalion and shoot down yours. Maybe Drifblim has something to say to Cobalion. Drifblim can Take Away Cobalion and it will be a few turns before the opponent can rebuild one up. It's a Basic, yes (which means its searchable by Dual Ball and/or Pokémon Collector), but the Energy set up is slow, maybe giving a few turns of milling ahead or even milling that Cobalion out of the deck. Not to be used on Durant. But, overall, just get Durant out as soon as possible, first miller = winner!
Conclusion
Durant is a great deck. It's easy to make, it has won many events, it's somewhat simple to play, it has allot of allies, and most match ups or in Durant's Favor. Expect to see this at States or maybe you’re the one using it. I hope I helped with your Durant deck or I am helping you find ways to defeat this deck.
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