Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Empoleon / Dusknoir ( NXD - On / Post - XY )

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Poke Trainer J

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Pokemon (19)

4-1-4 Empoleon (Dark Explorers/Plasma Freeze)
2-0-2 Dusknoir (Boundaries Crossed/Plasma Blast)
2-2 Leafeon (Plasma Freeze)
1 Exeggcute (Plasma Freeze/Plasma Blast)
1 Jirachi EX (Plasma Blast)

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums (33)

4 N
4 Rare Candy
4 Skyla
3 Ultra Ball
3 Level Ball
3 Silver Bangle
3 Shauna
2 Colress
2 Tool Scrapper
2 Professor's Letter
2 Super Rod
1 Dowsing Machine

Energy (8)

8 :water:

Deck Total (60)

The deck focuses on using Empoleon for Attack Command when you get a full bench going while also using Diving Draw as a draw engine of sorts, Dusknoir helps Empoleon score easy KO's using it's Sinister Hand ability. Leafeon is to help counter against Blastoise variants with Energy Crush while Flareon helps counter against VirGen with Vengeance but I'm starting to think that the damage output by Flareon will be minuscule to VirGen. Jirachi EX is in here as an added search engine for Stellar Guidance.

As for other cards in the deck, I plan on taking Juniper out for Shauna cause discarding resources in exchange for drawpower is bad for this kind of deck that needs those resources in order to win. In one game I played at my local League Challenge I was forced to discard 2 Rare Candies in hand to Juniper for 7 then by late game when I got out a Piplup with a :water: energy and Silver Bangle attached I attempt to Skyla for a Rare Candy out of my deck only to find out that all my Rare Candies were in my Discard Pile with the 2 I was forced to discard for Juniper earlier and my opponent had Darkrai EX out as his Active with one prize remaining. :/

I've noticed that when I've been playing this deck that I've had difficulty getting more than 2 Basics out on my starting hand and since I can't attack on my 1st turn to Call for Family with Emolga that hurts me quite a bit especially since there's still no Supporter in this format that works like Roseanne's and Collector right now. Popular decks like Darkrai and Virizion/Genesect/Mewtwo are getting really good at countering Empoleon/Dusknoir by minimizing the amount of Pokemon they play on their bench in order to lessen Empoleon's damage output with Attack Command and it also stops Colress dead in it's tracks which also decreases the amount of cards I draw in the process so I should run 3 Shauna and 2 Colress in this case.

For example when I was playing against Virizion/Genesect/Mewtwo at League Challenge with this deck my opponent managed to lessen Empoleon's damage output but since I made a terrible play mistake of not using Dusknoir's Sinister Hand to win the game despite him only having 3 Pokemon in play to my 6 he manages to Scramble Switch DCE and several other energies onto his Mewtwo EX that he switches into from his active Virizion EX with a 4 prize lead from KOing my Pokemon with Hypnotoxic Laser and Virbank City Gym he KO's my active Mew EX for game using Mewtwo's X Ball. Since it seems like everyone is running Hypnotoxic Laser over Pokemon Catcher I didn't know If I should run it in this deck as well although I don't think I have the deck space for it to be honest and I'd rather run Max Potion instead but it seems like Trevenant/Garbodor could be a thing starting with X/Y, also don't get me started with Red Card.

Any help, comments, advice, and/or suggestions are greatly appreciated.
 
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Poke Trainer J said:
it seems like Trevenant/Garbodor could be a thing starting with X/Y, also don't get me started with Red Card.
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Forgive me if I'm missing something, but what is the strategy of this deck? Garbodor turning off Trevenant's Ability seems like a bad thing. Is it meant to deter Tool Scrapper on Garbodor (such that Items would be locked if Abilities were turned back on)?
 
Garbodor's ability only activates as long as it has a Pokemon Tool attached to it and Trevenant's ability only locks down your opponent's Items as long as it's your Active Pokemon so you'd be able to use Tool Scrapper on Garbodor to get out of the lock I suppose. Now that I think about it I don't think Trevenant/Garbodor will see much play If any at all due to Darkrai donking it easily since Trevenant has to be Active for Forest's Curse.

No offense but I do want to try to stay on topic with my Empoleon/Dusknoir deck, I've done what I could to make the deck better from analysis on other forums aside from no Tropical Beach which would be great in here If I could afford it but with all the drawpower this deck amasses with Diving Draw, Colress, and Shauna that shouldn't be a problem hopefully. I think the 3 Ultra Ball / 2 Level Ball setup should help get my early game Basic setup going aside from this format not having a functional reprint of Roseanne's Research or Pokemon Collector.
 
I'd suggest you replace those Blend energy with F energy. In doing so, your Professor Letter and Super Rod become much more effective.
 
I'm kinda torn between Level Ball and Tool Scrapper in this deck, Tool Scrapper is too important to take out as it helps get around Garbodor and Silver Bangle while Level Ball helps get my Basics into play faster alongside Ultra Ball. Makes me wish Roseanne's Research or Pokemon Collector was still in the current format.
 
You have a few options to consider in order to facilitate setup (i.e., get your Basic Poké benched as soon as possible):

a) Utilize a "Call for Family" Poké like Emolga, Kangaskhan, etc.; you could then run fewer total Balls; or

b) Reduce your Poké lines to the "essential" number in order to incorporate more Balls.

In my deck version, I run only a 2-2 Leafeon line, 1 Exeggcute (sometimes do wish I had 2 though), 1 Level Ball, 3 Ultra Ball and find that to be quite adequate. I also have 2 Switch in case my opponent does Catcher/Red Signal my Dusknoir to the active position.
 
I played this at 3 cities during the previous format, and I finally figured out a good build once I finished 4-2 3 times in a row. I agree with Tuxedo, run balls. I ran a 3/1 level/ultra to get basics out. 1 Exeggcute is enough.

Also, I would dump Terrakion. It's a liability if catchered and more importantly it ruins the consistence with your energy. Just drop it and run all water. Darkrai is a favorable matchup anyway, you don't need more help there.

I'd also drop 2 bangles for 2 mirrors as it turned my plasma matchup from awful to relatively even. If you are losing, try to N them to a small hand (to hinder them from drawing into scrapper) and put a mirror on an Empoleon (or Leafeon). You'll probably get off a few attacks without a return hit and if Dusknoirs up, spread enough to basically KO what you want, when you want. Mirror is a great stall against Genesect as well using the same strategy. If you aren't playing plasma, mirrors are great for diving draw.

Also, max potion or 2 is huge here. I only run 1 Dusknoir and 2-2 Leafeon, so consider fitting 1-3 MPs in there somehow.

I think Raichu will see some play and that will be bad for this matchup, but you should be able to stall/wall with Leafeon in the beginning and then buildup Empoleons on the bench so you can have massive draw and hopefully OHKO them when they OHKO you. If Raichu becomes popular, that matchup could be ugly, but at this point, it's just theorymon.

Good luck.
 
In recent playtesting, you may find that Raichu is a "common" tech is players' decks due to the rise in Darkrai EX decks (as you know, Darkrai EX got a real nice boost with the XY set). I still Landorus EX (much more versatile and efficient than Terrakion, IMHO) in my deck and Lando still proves to be quite useful as a starter, 1-energy attacker, L Poké counter and bench sniper. I would definitely recommend Lando over Terrakion.
 
1 flareon doesn't pressure vir/gen all that much, oh you play an eevee catcher ko etc, even if you manage an ohko, they do the same thing next turn the problem on your end is to make up for the loss of flareon.

lando versus terrakion, lando offers a lot of good dmg for making the rest of you're attackers to knock out more pokemon, it just generally puts more dmg on the board, where as terrakion just grabs ohko's against darkrai that decided to play virbank over dark circle, but it doesn't setup the dangerous 3-4 prize take aways that dusknoir is so good at attaining.

I find in decks that run heavy basics 3/3 ultra ball/level ball is the number to play, it gives great setup options.
 
I'm currently testing with 2 Exeggcute mainly for Flareon in conjunction with Vengeance but I have been thinking about running Delphox as a tech for Mystical Fire as well as a counter against VirGen with Blaze Ball but the damage output still isn't there like with Flareon. Delphox is just a poor man's Tropical Beach that can be easily countered by Keldeo EX, but at least Leafeon helps cover for it with Energy Crush so given Delphox's low damage output with Blaze Ball in here despite having amazing draw with Mystical Fire I'm much better off with Dusknoir for Sinister Hand since for Delphox I would need to run 4 DCE to get it going which would hurt my energy consistency.

Also why should I dump Terrakion when my opponent wouldn't be able to get a 2 prize lead with it not being a Basic EX If it gets Laser Banked? Landorus EX is a terrible starter in this deck since they'll just Laser it for 2 prizes unless you switch out and Hammerhead won't do you any good If they got Mr. Mime benched. Without Max Potion, Darkrai has a field day one-to-two shotting Empoleon which gives Terrakion the advantage of being able to OHKO Darkrai EX with Retaliate and Silver Bangle attached but as for Yveltal EX I can't afford to run another Stage 1 line with Raichu when I already have Leafeon to deal with decks that take advantage of energy acceleration to help spread damage for Dusknoir's Sinister Hand let alone hitting Blastoise/Keldeo for weakness.

I find Silver Mirror to be too situational for this deck If you're not playing against VirGen or a dedicated Team Plasma build. Darkrai would rather run either Virbank or Frozen City as the Stadium of choice over Shadow Circle for better KO's with Hypnotoxic Laser in conjunction with Night Spear and Dark Claw. As for other Basic Search options aside from Level Ball and Ultra Ball, I feel as though Emolga and Kangaskhan for Call for Family hurts more than helps due to the 1st turn rules of not being able to attack on your 1st turn unless you go 2nd. Jolteon (Dark Explorers) for Electrigun is better to conserve deck space over Raichu's Circle Circuit attack and is more reliable than getting your damage output for Attack Command minimized by your Opponent especially If they're running something like Speed Darkrai with Absol's Mind Jack attack.
 
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Any players running "Item lock" decks in your area? If so, you may want to consider including a Stage 1 Poke for your 2 Stage 2 lines.

Just out of curiosity, do you care to discuss game strategy against decks like Darkrai, Blastoise, VirGen, PlasmaBox, RayBoar, etc.? I've built and run all these decks and can provide some insights.
 
I did play against GothLock (Gothitelle/Accelgor) at League Challenge awhile back however I am a bit wary of Dragonite/Reuniclus which is one of the most expensive decks in the format next to Blastoise and RayBoar since it runs Tropical Beach and/or Champions Festival for consistent drawpower although Tropical Beach is usually the Stadium of choice over Champions Festival which works best in a stall deck like Dragonite/Reuniclus. I did terrible in my last League Challenge with all the Darkrai variants being played as well as one VirGen matchup where I made a terrible play mistake with Dusknoir not using Sinister Hand correctly when I needed to.

As for the Stage 1 Pokemon you're suggesting what would it be? Trevenant dies to Darkrai and Yveltal, Raichu is pretty meh in this deck for the most part. As for discussing game strategy in terms of Empoleon's matchups against those metagame decks you've mentioned I don't mind. Some people still argue that Empoleon needs Tropical Beach in order to compete in events like Regionals and Nationals but granted the drawpower it provides without it I'm better off without Tropical Beach in here. PlasmaBox or what most players call "Yeti" eats Empoleon alive as well as Raichu variants but Raichu is still just Theorymon as of now. I thought about running Lysandre in this deck over Silver Bangle when Wild Blaze is released but I feel as though Hypnotoxic Laser is better If Goodra becomes big in the meta.
 
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