Unlimited Darkrai EX Haymaker & PoryDark EX Donk - Speed Deck/Early Game Donk/Late Game Tank

[shiwei87tan]

I'm an old player trying to get back into the game after looking at the preview of dark rush I thought I wanna try out something with darkrai EX, possibly donk on 1st turn and able to do well if donking failed..

4 Darkrai EX

Darkrai EX – Darkness – HP180
Basic Pokemon

Ability: Darkness Cloak
As long as this Pokemon is in play, all of your Pokemon with any Darkness Energy attached to them have no Retreat cost.

[D][D][C] Night Spear: 90 damage. Choose 1 of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon, and this attack also does 30 damage to that Pokemon. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance when damaging the Bench.)

Pokemon-EX Rule: When Pokemon-EX is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: Psychic (-20)
Retreat: 2

4 Sableye (ability: overeager)

3 Professor Oak
3 Erika
4 Computer Search
4 Item Finder
1 Junk Arm (extra item returning tools)
4 Gust of Wind
4 Scoop Up
4 Dark Patch

Dark Patch – Trainer

Choose 1 Basic Darkness Energy card from your discard pile and attach it to one of your Benched Darkness-type Pokemon.

You can use any number of Trainer cards during your turn.

3 Darkness Claw (to increase damage of darkrai EX attack to 110 damage on defending active and 30 damage to a bench and late game for sableye if needed to deal 60 damage if defending active have lower HP than sableye)

Darkness Claw – Tool

Pokemon Tool: To use a Pokemon Tool, attach it to one of your Pokemon. Each Pokemon can only have 1 card attached, and the card remains attached.

The attacks of the Darkness-type Pokemon that this card is attached to do an additional 20 damage to any Active Pokemon.

You can use any number of Trainer cards during your turn.

1 Luxury Ball (best pokemon search trainer out there)
1 Pokemon Retreiver
2 Roseanne's Research (get energy or pokemon to hand)
2 Felicity's Drawing (to discard energy for dark patch if needed and for drawing)
2 Pokemon Collector (to use with sableye impersonate)
2 Lucian's Assignment (to combo with scoop up)

9 Basic Darkness Energy
3 Special Darkness Energy

Ratio= 8 pokemon: 40 t/s/s: 12 energy

Game plan:
If start with darkrai, draw with erika and filter with professor oak to get another pokemon and use scoop up to put darkrai to the bench, then with all the search to use dark patch and attach 3 dark energy and darkness claw to darkrai, from hand attach 1 dark to active and retreat for free with darkrai power and attack with darkrai for 110 to active and 30 to bench not including special dark. If taken too much damage i could simply scoop up and re setup it or with another darkrai EX on the bench, use lucian's assigment to move all energy from active darkrai EX to bench darkrai EX and use scoop up on active..

If start with other pokemon other than darkrai then simply skip the using of scoop up in the early part..

Late game if unable to set up more darkrai EX I could use sableye with darkness claw to deal 60 damage with overconfident if defending pokemon have lower Hp than sableye after all the early game darkrai EX bench hitting.

What do you guys think? All helps and comment appreciate! In case you guys didn't realize this: This Is A Unlimited Deck!

 

[Alazor]

With Darkrai Ex's poke-body you don't really need Unown Q, but you could replace that with Cleffa (Neo Genesis) or Uxie (LA).

For two reasons:

Somebody could be playing Weezing (Deoxys) and Desert Ruins (Hidden Legends) with Rescue Energy, Broken Time Space, and Skunktank G.

The other obvious reason is Machamp (Stormfront).

This is how I would go about supporters in Unlimited in comparison to Felicity's Drawing.

TV Reporter ~ Professor Juniper > Sage's Training > Felicity's Drawing

Lucian's Assignment can combo with Scoop Up, although you could also try Mr.Fuji (Fossil) with Twins (Triumphant)... I think that might be better.

Donphan Prime with Expert Belt and Pluspowers could be a problem too.

You might want to try some Sneasel (Neo Genesis), Weavile (SW), and Tornadus maybe?

Have you looked into Roseanne's over Collector?

 

[shiwei87tan]

With Darkrai Ex's poke-body you don't really need Unown Q, but you could replace that with Cleffa (Neo Genesis) or Uxie (LA).

For two reasons:

Somebody could be playing Weezing (Deoxys) and Desert Ruins (Hidden Legends) with Rescue Energy, Broken Time Space, and Skunktank G.

The other obvious reason is Machamp (Stormfront).

This is how I would go about supporters in Unlimited in comparison to Felicity's Drawing.

TV Reporter ~ Professor Juniper > Sage's Training > Felicity's Drawing

Lucian's Assignment can combo with Scoop Up, although you could also try Mr.Fuji (Fossil) with Twins (Triumphant)... I think that might be better.

Donphan Prime with Expert Belt and Pluspowers could be a problem too.

You might want to try some Sneasel (Neo Genesis), Weavile (SW), and Tornadus maybe?

Have you looked into Roseanne's over Collector?

The reason I have unown q is actually in case I don't have any energy in my hand to attach to sableye in order to make use of darkrai's ability.

I never seen any weezing deck before so I don't really know how to deal with it and as for marchamp, I think with the speed my deck run I might out run it but other than that I have no idea how to deal with that too.

As for felicity drawing, it is there for it's versatility to either discard 1 or 2 to draw 3 or 4.. Juniper n sage might forces me to discard important or useful cards for the next few turns.. That's also why I only run 3 oak instead of 4.

I have tried fuji with twins but I don't like it.. It slows down the combo by 2 energy which would requires me to over extent to search with other trainers for them. Note that dark patch can only attach the energy to the bench and fuji can only return a bench pokemon but to the deck with all the energy on it, and twins requires me to be lower in prize than my opponent. With Lucian I can simply move all the energy from active to bench before i scoop up my active.

Yes donphan is another problem which I have no idea how to deal with.

Sneasle and weavile requires deck dedication to run them as while as tornadus which require DCE and dark patch will not work for it. Actually I did thought of adding a 4/4 line of zorua and zoruak from the same set as darkrai EX: dark rush, which can attack at 140 damage with darkness claw without special darkness energy and up to 200 damage with it left with only 10hp with darkness claw without special darkness energy for a total of only 2 basic dark energy BUT zorua and zoruak requires my bench to be full with all dark type pokemon, which would require dedicated trainers and other pokemon to make it work at it's full potential. All dark rush set cards translation can be found on pokebeach.com under the Japanese set tab.

The concept of having collector is to make use of sableye impersonate to fetch all the required pokemon or for discard fodder for item finder, computer search and junk arm.. But I'm not too sure about it so I had 2 Roseanne and 2 collector instead. So what do you think are the changes I should make to make it run smoother and stronger?

Translations for all the dark type pokemon in the dark rush set:

Umbreon – Darkness – HP100
Stage 1 – Evolves from Eevee
[C][C] Shadow Drain: 30 damage. Restore this Pokemon’s HP by an amount equaling the damage dealt to the opponent’s Active Pokemon by this attack.
[D][C][C] Slashing Strike: 80 damage. This Pokemon can’t use Slashing Strike during your next turn.
Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: Psychic (-20)
Retreat: 2
42/69

Sableye – Darkness – HP70
Basic Pokemon
[C] Confuse Ray: 10 damage. Flip a coin, if heads the opponent’s Active Pokemon is now Confused.
[D] Junk Hand: Choose 2 Trainer cards from your discard pile, show them to your opponent, and put them in your hand.
Weakness: none
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1
43/69

Darkrai EX – Darkness – HP180
Basic Pokemon
Ability: Darkness Cloak
As long as this Pokemon is in play, all of your Pokemon with any Darkness Energy attached to them have no Retreat cost.
[D][D][C] Night Spear: 90 damage. Choose 1 of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon, and this attack also does 30 damage to that Pokemon. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance when damaging the Bench.)
Pokemon-EX Rule: When Pokemon-EX is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.
Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: Psychic (-20)
Retreat: 2
44/69

Sandile – Darkness – HP70
Basic Pokemon
[C] Sand Burrow: Flip a coin, if heads prevent all damage done to this Pokemon by attacks during your opponent’s next turn.
[D][C][C] Stab: 40 damage.
Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: Psychic (-20)
Retreat: 2
45/69

Krokorok – Darkness – HP90
Stage 1 – Evolves from Sandile
[C][C] Mud-Slap: 30 damage.
[D][D][C][C] Stab: 70 damage.
Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: Psychic (-20)
Retreat: 3
46/69

Krookodile – Darkness – HP150
Stage 2 – Evolves from Krokorok
[D][C][C] Dark Stab: 60 damage. During your opponent’s next turn, the opponent’s Active Pokemon that was hit by this attack can’t retreat.
[D][D][C][C] Ride the Wave: Does 40 damage times the number of Prize cards you’ve already taken.
Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: Psychic (-20)
Retreat: 3
47/69

Zorua – Darkness – HP50
Basic Pokemon
[D] Ascension: Choose 1 card that Evolves from this Pokemon from your deck, and play it on top of this Pokemon to Evolve it. Shuffle your deck afterward.
[C][C] Scratch: 20 damage.
Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: Psychic (-20)
Retreat: 1
48/69

Zoroark – Darkness – HP100
Stage 1 – Evolves from Zorua
[C][C] Beatdown: Does 20 damage times the number of Darkness-type Pokemon you have in play.
[D][D] Dark Rush: Does 20 damage times the number of damage counters on this Pokemon.
Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: Psychic (-20)
Retreat: 2
49/69

Vullaby – Darkness – HP60
Basic Pokemon
[D] Whirlwind: 10 damage. Switch the opponent’s Active Pokemon with one of his or her Benched Pokemon. (Your opponent chooses the Pokemon to bring Active.)
Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-20)
Retreat: 1
50/69

Mandibuzz – Darkness – HP90
Stage 1 – Evolves from Vullaby
[D] Bone Rush: Flip a coin until you get tails, this attack does 30 damage times the number of heads.
[C][C] Dark Pulse: Does 20 damage plus 10 damage times the total number of Darkness Energy attached to your Pokemon.
Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-20)
Retreat: 1
51/69

 

[Alazor]

In that case, I would definitely add in 2 BW Zoroark and 1 of the other Zoraork and make a 3-3 line.
I would go TV Reporter of Felicity's Drawing. You could really use some Pluspowers or a teched Expert Belt and maybe Lass (Imposter Oak's Revenge may be better with Erika). I would use 1 Trash Exchange and a Pokemon Retriever over Junk Arm. Zoroark is the only card that would be worth using really after looking at Zorua.

Have you also considered Aerodactyl (Fossil) with Strange Cave? I don't know the ruling between Aerodactyl's pokemon-power vs. Broken Time Space in play with the new Rare Candy ruling.

Yanmega Prime might be your best bet in the future when that new kit gets released, you can add in a few Copycat then. Latios ex d species would be an interesting counter, although I'm not too sure it would work (water type, resistance of 30 to fighting, and if paired with Latias, it shuts down Donphan's poke-body). If it gets knocked out, the opponent takes 2 prizes.

 

[shiwei87tan]

I would try it out.. The main motive of the deck is to attack 110 damage and snipe 30 damage right from the 1st turn to the end to end the game as fast as possible (by 6 turns to be exact for each prize each turn) so it seems slow to have pokemon that require evolving as it means I need to dedicate broken time space slot as well as doing all the search for dark patch and stuff.. Aerodactyl (Fossil) seems cool but nowadays pokemon deck seems to be able to easily deal with tech like this by snipping.. I'm thinking of weakness guard for my fighting weakness.. Wanted to have power spray but it will require me to have pokemon sp which is bad as it will slow down the speed.. Oh well I would try this out 1st and if it doesn't work as well as I thought it would be I might change it into dark rush's zoruak beat down deck..
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[Alazor]

Looking at Zorua, you might not need a Broken Time Space slot. If you play extra non-ex basics, Swoop! Teleporter should be enough to get Zoroark out and stage 2 decks have to rely on Broken Time Space more, because they play Rare Candy. I'd play around with Crobat G and Pluspower, because by that time 180 hp basics will be the norm. Lass and Ecogym should work well enough to counter energy removing cards.

 

[shiwei87tan]

I know with the upcoming zorua from dark rush, with swoop teleporter should be enough to get zoruak out.. BUT not without not attacking. By using a attack to evolve it's already slowed by one turn compared to other deck that uses broken time space. I'm not that worry about energy removal and stuff but the machamp match up and decks that uses spiritomb as well as decks that's able to kill darkrai EX with a single attack due to fighting weakness or gigantic damage like magnazone prime or even those deck like luxchomp or gyarados deck that can set back up faster than I could kill them if my damage is not fast enough are the one that I'm really afraid of. I do agree 180 Hp for a basic is becoming a norm nowadays.. And I really don't like it as it's making the game more and more ridiculous.. Not just the hp.. The attack too that don't even require lots of energy to attack for gigantic damage like gyarados, jumpluff, beedrill and luxchomp and etc..

There is a few cards I have that I thought of adding them.. Town volunteer which can shuffle back 5 pokemon or basic energy back to deck and mary's request that works like cheren that draws 3 card as I don't have stage 2 pokemon.. What do you think? I also thought of reducing pokemon collector to 1 and increase roseanne's research to 3 but my bro insisted that having 2 of pokemon collector would be best with sableye in case of 1 getting in the prize.. What's your idea?

By the way have you seen tornadus EX from the same upcoming set? I think we might see some deck dedicating to it as well just like this deck dedicating to darkrai EX..

Tornadus EX – Colorless – HP170
Basic Pokemon
[C][C] Blow Through: 30 damage. If there’s a Stadium in play, this attack does an additional 30 damage.
[C][C][C] Power Blast: 100 damage. Flip a coin, if tails choose 1 Energy attached to this Pokemon and discard it.
Pokemon-EX Rule: When Pokemon-EX is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.
Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-20)
Retreat: 1
62/69

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[Alazor]

If you have trouble between Collector and Roseanne's, you could play Pokemon Fan Club combined with Sableye's 1st attack and Scott and add something like Speed Stadium. Or Castaway and tech in a Cessation Crystal. Have you considered using Azelf for prizing issues?

As for damage, if you build your deck right you can do almost infinite damage with Uxies, Crobat G's and Pluspowers.

As for Power Spray, you can tech in a Magby or a Goop Gas Attack.

You can use Flower Shop Lady or Town Volunteers.

 

[shiwei87tan]

Ok.. I will try them out too..
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[Unfallible]

Just to clarify, is the goal here to use Darkrai to get a t1 win or a t1 setup?

 

[shiwei87tan]

Just to clarify, is the goal here to use Darkrai to get a t1 win or a t1 setup?

It's more like both? 1st turn setup and 1st turn win if opponent only have 2 pokemon and 1 of it is baby.. Basically hitting 110 and sniping 30 right from the 1st turn..

To Alazor:
Anyway after some thought, I think maybe I should remove the one and only unown q for another darkrai EX to totally remove the chances of getting a sole unown q start?

Do you think that having 12 energy is too much? Im thinking of reducing it to 11 by removing 1 basic dark for junk arm so that I have 6 trainer to return dark patch and etc.. But on another hand dark patch can only return basic dark energy from the discard pile.. Or maybe the removal of unown q for junk arm instead?

Or maybe remove the 2 collector for 1 more Roseanne research and 1 junk arm since the deck would only have 8 pokemon (4 darkrai and 4 sableye with the removal of unown q)

Or maybe remove the 2 collector and unown q for 1 more junk arm and 1 more Erika and 1 Roseanne research making the deck only with 7 pokemon of 3 darkrai and 4 sableye which would increase the chances of starting with sableye instead? =\ please tell me what you think.. Thanks!
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[Alazor]

I would use Collector. You can add Unown Dark (HGSS) as your extra basic and use Swoop! Teleporter to get your Darkrai ex out. I would go ask a question in the Ask the Masters Forum whether you can use Swoop! Teleporter, Scramble, and Mr.Briney's Compassion on the new ex's, since I heard that Desert Ruins does not affect the new ex pokemon. So by that logic can I treat the new ex pokemon as something completely separate? Have you considered Darkrai lvl.x with level max?

 

[shiwei87tan]

I would use Collector. You can add Unown Dark (HGSS) as your extra basic and use Swoop! Teleporter to get your Darkrai ex out. I would go ask a question in the Ask the Masters Forum whether you can use Swoop! Teleporter, Scramble, and Mr.Briney's Compassion on the new ex's, since I heard that Desert Ruins does not affect the new ex pokemon. So by that logic can I treat the new ex pokemon as something completely separate? Have you considered Darkrai lvl.x with level max?

Oh yes.. All the cards that affect pokemon ex does not affect pokemon EX cause EX and ex is different.. That means you can have maybe a deck with 4 mewtwo and 4 mewtwo ex and 4 mewtwo EX.. But you can't put a lv.X on a ex or EX cause the word ex and EX is actually considered part of the name of the pokemon card itself and on the lv.X itself it clearly stated that for example darkrai lv.X, put it on darkrai and not worded as "put it on a pokemon with name contain the word darkrai".. Oh well.. If it did worded that way in the 1st place, then all the pokemon with lv.X that have ex or EX counterpart would be too strong for gameplay anyway..
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off topic: what are the better dark type pokemon to have in a pure dark deck if i want to build around DR zorua and zoruak other than sableye SF in unlimited?

---------- Post added 01/10/2012 at 05:28 AM ----------

Bump! Sometimes I felt like removing that pokemon retriever, luxury ball, 1 darkrai EX and 1 Lucian's assignment for pluspower.. =\ 110 damage without special darkness energy attached is just not enough.. Or should I have energy removal?
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[shiwei87tan]

BUMP! anymore ideas and help?

To alazor:

What do you think of this?:

PoryDark EX Donk

3 Darkrai EX
4 Sableye -Stormfront
2 porygon
2 porygon2 GE
011

4 Erika
4 Computer Search
4 Item Finder
1 Junk Arm
4 Gust of Wind
3 Scoop Up
4 Dark Patch
2 Darkness Claw
1 Pokemon Retrieval
1 Luxury Ball
2 broken time-space
4 seeker
1 vs seeker
4 poke drawer+
038

8 Basic Darkness Energy
2 Special Darkness Energy
010

A combination of porydonk with my original darkrai EX donk.. Would it be better?

 

[Alazor]

What you need is Crobat G.

 

[shiwei87tan]

What you need is Crobat G.

Yes i realize that after looking at the list you gave me and thought of all the possibility in a game..

I made some modification to the list you gave me as some of the cards I don't really like it in the deck as I felt that it does not do anything as the build tries to win right on the 1st turn..

3 Darkrai EX
4 Sableye SF
2 Porygon TR
2 Porygon2 GE
1 Crobat G
1 Azelf LA

3 Professor Oak
3 Erika
4 Computer Search
4 Item Finder
3 Junk Arm
3 Gust of Wind
2 Scoop Up
3 Dark Patch
1 Darkness Claw
1 Expert Belt
1 Luxury Ball
2 Broken Time-Space
3 Seeker
1 VS Seeker
3 Poke Drawer+
1 Pluspower
1 Lucian's Assignment

7 Basic Darkness Energy
1 Special Darkness Energy

This is the build I come up with with your list as reference.. Somehow I'm a big fan of discard and search as I find that more efficient than what you propose of using trash exchange.. And i dont really know why is there a need for uxie LA with all the trainers to draw but i do find azelf LA more useful in case of crobat G or all copy of porygon is in the prize.. I don't like taking chances and prefer consistency over anything anytime and after considered all the possibility impossible or not, I added the 3 junk arm for it's versatilily.. Eventhough the deck tries to win 1st turn.. I would like it to still be able to put up a good fight at least if it fails and thus the 1 Lucian's Assignment over the 1 pokemon retriever that would be hardly of any use from past experience.. What do you think? Am I asking too much of a deck? Lol!
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[Alazor]

The only problem with Junk Arm and Item Finder is that early game it's not that great if you don't have any draw cards. Trash Exchange is not for searching, it's:

1. to get draw cards and energy from your discard pile back into your deck and then draw into them with Professor Oak.

2. there is also potential energy recovery.

Pokemon Retriever is a quick way to make your discard pile smaller or getting the wanted pokemon into your hand when used with Trash Exchange. Town Volunteers or Flowershop Lady wouldn't make bad replacements.

If you expect trainer lock decks, I would generally try adding in some Copycat and/or Uxie. Twins might not be bad, but you could use Oracle (Skyridge) instead. Supporters are slow, so no more than 5. With Sableye it might be useful. Mr.Briney's Compassion although useful, if you have a lone Sableye and that's the only supporter... that would be a problem.

From my experience raw draw power if more efficient than discard and search early game, and will probably recover from Lass more easily. It's been a while since I played Aggron ex, but I added flippy draw cards to boost consistency like Bill's Teleporter. I also think Secret Mission is also a little underrated.

 

[shiwei87tan]

i see what you mean.. i will try it out after downloading RS.. thanks! =)

 

[shiwei87tan]

Just an update on the PoryDark EX Donk list after trying out on Redshark, both the deck appears to be still quite inconsistent and thus changes were made for PoryDark EX Donk:

Unlimited - PoryDark EX Donk

Pokemon-13
3 Darkrai EX
4 Sableye SF
2 Porygon TR
2 Porygon2 GE
2 Uxie LA

T/S/S-39
3 Professor Oak
4 Erika
4 Computer Search
4 Item Finder
2 Junk Arm
2 Gust of Wind
3 Scoop Up
4 Dark Patch
1 Expert Belt
1 Luxury Ball
2 Broken Time-Space
4 Seeker
1 VS Seeker
4 Poke Drawer +

Energy-8
7 Basic Darkness Energy
1 Special Darkness Energy

Not fully tried out yet but hopefully it will be more consistent than before. But overall it's either a win or lose 1st turn deck IMO; win against all but lose to opponent start with spiritomb and donk me instead.

Still thinking of what changes can be make for Darkrai EX Haymaker.
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