Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Why are people playing Lasers AND Hammers in their Darkrai decks?

rcxd999 said:
I played this list at my local card store as they were holding a unofficial tournament (at least 100 people, about 75 of them were 20 or over)
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You're from Australia aren't you? Your Nats doesn't get 100 players in total, so it seems a bit weird that you are getting that number for an unofficial local tournament. If that's true, it must have been a lot of casual players and I seriously question the quality of the competition (especially as a Gardevoir deck ended up winning).

As Rambo said, the Supporter count is very low. Only 7 draw cards and not even a Random Receiver? There's no consistency there.
 
rcxd999 said:
Well, this is going to be a surprise for you. Here my list:

Darkrai Ex x 4
Sableye x 4
Keldeo x 1

Pokemon: 9

N x 4
Skyla x 4
Juniper x 3

Supporters: 11

Gold Potion x 1
Pokemon Catcher x 4
Hypnotoxic Laser x 4
Virbank City Gym x 2
Crushing Hammer x 4
Enhanced Hammer x 4
Ultra Ball x 3
Dark Patch x 3
Energy Switch x 3
Dark Claw x 2

Trainers: 30

Darkness Energy x 10

Energy: 10
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Your list proves EXACTLY my point. There's never a need for 4 Enhanced Hammer. You only have 3 Dark Patch, the engine of the deck. But, you have max catcher. I know when I look for a car, I look a the engine, not the seatbelt.
 
rcxd999 said:
Well, this is going to be a surprise for you. Here my list:

Darkrai Ex x 4
Sableye x 4
Keldeo x 1

Pokemon: 9

N x 4
Skyla x 4 4 Skylas? Skyla isn't a draw supporter, you only run 7 Draw Supporters, hardly enough.
Juniper x 3

Supporters: 11

Gold Potion x 1 Gold Potion isn't helpful in increasing consistency.
Pokemon Catcher x 4
Hypnotoxic Laser x 4
Virbank City Gym x 2
Crushing Hammer x 4
Enhanced Hammer x 4 none of these help consistency.
Ultra Ball x 3
Dark Patch x 3
Energy Switch x 3
Dark Claw x 2 Nor do these.

Trainers: 30

Darkness Energy x 10

Energy: 10
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I'm missing how this list is consistent.
 
rcxd999 said:
Well, this is going to be a surprise for you. Here my list:

Darkrai Ex x 4
Sableye x 4
Keldeo x 1

Pokemon: 9

N x 4
Skyla x 4
Juniper x 3

Supporters: 11

Gold Potion x 1
Pokemon Catcher x 4
Hypnotoxic Laser x 4
Virbank City Gym x 2
Crushing Hammer x 4
Enhanced Hammer x 4
Ultra Ball x 3
Dark Patch x 3
Energy Switch x 3
Dark Claw x 2

Trainers: 30

Darkness Energy x 10

Energy: 10

I played this list at my local card store as they were holding a unofficial tournament (at least 100 people, about 75 of them were 20 or over). I ended up coming 2nd, just losing to a red face powder Gothitelle deck because it disabled 30 of my cards:nonono:. This list is very consistent, I find that I don't need Tool Scrapper because Hypnotoxic and Virbank City Gym just go through Eviolite and Dark Claw isn't usually a problem as Darkrai isn't that popular around my area. I haven't played against any Plasma Klinklang builds yet (I own one but no one else does:lol:) so I can't back up my theory about this deck doing OK against Plasma Klinklang but in theory I should be able to keep junk hunting out Catchers while my opponent has to waste his switches and I don't even have to attack because I'm just using Htl and VCG to damage it while I get free junk hunts. Hope this helps the discussion.
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Are you sure you didnt jump into a time machine and play at a local of yours 2 years ago? Gothitelle hasnt been good since 2011....

Like many have said, we have no idea why you max out on Enhanced Hammers. I have no idea why you dont run Computer Search either. Junk Hunt + Computer Search = gg unless they have N. 4 Skyla makes no sense in Darkrai either since you play so many of the same supporters and can just get them back with Sabeleye. You need to play cards that will just plow through your deck and you need more draw power like Bicycle or Bianca and a 4th Juniper (makes 0 sense why you only play 3). Everyone keeps telling you these things and you dont like to listen and you wonder why you lost to a Gothitelle.

I think Hammers and lasers make sense but they have to be built right. Leaving all their Pokemon drained energyless can be good if played right. The deck just needs to be very fast along with having the right amounts to everything. You just need 1 Enhanced and 3 Crushing, your only going to remove a certain amount of energy and with enough draw power and searchers you can end up into them every game.
 
rcxd999 said:
Well, this is going to be a surprise for you. Here my list:

Darkrai Ex x 4
Sableye x 4
Keldeo x 1

Pokemon: 9

N x 4
Skyla x 4
Juniper x 3

Supporters: 11

Gold Potion x 1
Pokemon Catcher x 4
Hypnotoxic Laser x 4
Virbank City Gym x 2
Crushing Hammer x 4
Enhanced Hammer x 4
Ultra Ball x 3
Dark Patch x 3
Energy Switch x 3
Dark Claw x 2

Trainers: 30

Darkness Energy x 10

Energy: 10

I played this list at my local card store as they were holding a unofficial tournament (at least 100 people, about 75 of them were 20 or over). I ended up coming 2nd, just losing to a red face powder Gothitelle deck because it disabled 30 of my cards:nonono:. This list is very consistent, I find that I don't need Tool Scrapper because Hypnotoxic and Virbank City Gym just go through Eviolite and Dark Claw isn't usually a problem as Darkrai isn't that popular around my area. I haven't played against any Plasma Klinklang builds yet (I own one but no one else does:lol:) so I can't back up my theory about this deck doing OK against Plasma Klinklang but in theory I should be able to keep junk hunting out Catchers while my opponent has to waste his switches and I don't even have to attack because I'm just using Htl and VCG to damage it while I get free junk hunts. Hope this helps the discussion.
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This kinda makes me doubt the validity of your competition. Or is Plasma just not out in your country yet?

Also since I'm tired and vaguely unable to form a cohesive paragraph this evening, here comes a list of possibly sarcastic 1-liners about the deck:

-I will say that your list looks very consistent in its potential to get terrible opening hands.

-You absolutely need 8 hammers and 4 Skylas to get them out T1 every turn, especially against Blastoise.

-7 'Draw" supporters is more than enough: I see no possible way for the deck to slow to a crawl by getting hit with an N after turn 7.

-Skyla doesn't combo well with either Computer Search or Energy Search, so I'm glad to see those two cards are excluded from the list.

-I'm relieved that you're running 3 Juniper instead of 4, as the deck runs a lot of item cards that you have no way of retrieving from the discard pile.
 
Here's how I see it- Lasers fit because with the introduction of Plasma Storm, many cards that were once staples in Darkrai are no longer needed/trumped by Lasers.

Eviolite

We don't need Eviolite anymore. If something is going to one shot you or two shot you, they can do it with Lasers regardless of Eviolite.

-4 Eviolite

Tool Scrapper

See above. Less Eviolite = Less value for Tool Scrapper.

-1 Tool Scrapper

That's 5 slots for 4 Lasers and 1 Virbank. Finding the extra slot shouldn't be too hard. I took out Max Potion to make room.
 
cpeterik said:
Here's how I see it- Lasers fit because with the introduction of Plasma Storm, many cards that were once staples in Darkrai are no longer needed/trumped by Lasers.

Eviolite

We don't need Eviolite anymore. If something is going to one shot you or two shot you, they can do it with Lasers regardless of Eviolite.

-4 Eviolite

Tool Scrapper

See above. Less Eviolite = Less value for Tool Scrapper.

-1 Tool Scrapper

That's 5 slots for 4 Lasers and 1 Virbank. Finding the extra slot shouldn't be too hard. I took out Max Potion to make room.
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You were playing 4 Eviolite in Darkrai?
 
i saw the ^^^^^^^^^^^^(didnt actually count) list and felt it necessary to share mine:

4 darkrai ex
4 sableye
1 keldo ex

2 virbank
4 HTL
3 crushing hammer
1 enhanced hammer
4 dark patch
4 catcher
3 ultra ball
2 dark claw
3 energy switch
1 computer search

3 N
3 Juniper
2 colress
2 bianca
2 skyla

12 darkness

the only reason i dont play energy search is that 12 energy is enough w/o energy search

this deck looses little to know speed. it gets the turn 2 almost as often as a darkrai running one or the other, but i feel its worth it for having both hammers and HTL.
 
honchvire said:
Why do you feel it is worth having both? When does having both help you?
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You might want to rephrase that as "When does having both significantly help you?" or "...help you more than [insert other cards/]?" Or are you saying that the Hammers have now become totally worthless? :confused:

Not trying to nitpick, just a bit confused. :redface:
 
I only have 1 darkrai deck set up on playtcg.com, I run 2 enhanced and 4 lasers. But I would never run more hammers than that- they're just for plasma/DCE energies.
 
crushing hammers are great as proven by pre-plasma. HTL with virbank is obviously good. i think its worth the space. since no tournament have occurred in the U.S we wont know if it works until states.
 
fluttercraft said:
crushing hammers are great as proven by pre-plasma. HTL with virbank is obviously good. i think its worth the space. since no tournament have occurred in the U.S we wont know if it works until states.
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There's been a tournament in the UK, although a lot of players were at the ECC.

1st Klinklang/Cobalion
2nd Hammertime
3rd Plasma Toolbox
4th Quad Sigilyph (No idea how haha).
 
Rambo said:
There's been a tournament in the UK, although a lot of players were at the ECC.

1st Klinklang/Cobalion
2nd Hammertime
3rd Plasma Toolbox
4th Quad Sigilyph (No idea how haha).
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Ah. But relevant to the thread, would be whether or not that Hammertime ran lasers AND hammers?
 
hew was just pointing out that there have been tournaments overall. im happy with cobalion placing 1st, and it proves that as of now hammers n HTL didnt place at the tornament. what we dont know is how many people played it
 
I can't be 100% but I think the hammertime didn't play lasers (if he could confirm would be nice!)

Also interesting to note was that the Cobalion that won was the only Cobalion in the tournament.
The only deck it lost to was in Swiss to a plasma toolbox deck, which it then beat in Top 4.
I also remember seeing 3-4 Hammertime decks.

There was a LOT of diversity at the tournament though, so I think everyone was trying out new stuff.
 
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