Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Dealing with the threat of Darkrai EX/Hydreigon

M

Margarita

New Member
As most of you have noticed there has been a huge number of Dakrai EX/Hydreigon decks pop up since dragons exalted was released. I've only recently gotten back into the game after a 7 year hiatus but I can already tell that the upcoming Battl Roads are gonna be full of these decks to deal with. Once they're set up then you're toast. In theory you'd need to shut them down before they can get set up but you'd have to move fast.


So far I've thought of the following tactics:

1. Get rid of those sableye asap. They're a great staller especially with that nasty junk hunt.

2. If you're one of those lucky souls that has a pokemon catcher, use it as earl as you can. If you an manage to catcher a deino up and get a KO before it can evolve then you can slow down your opponents set up even more.

3. Terrakion ex might have to be a staple card in any deck that has fighting energies or a WLFM Blend energy. Just as Shaymin EX has been showing up in Darkrai EX/hydreigon decks, it's safe to say that Terrakion ex is your best unconsistent contender in a few decks out there. (Ho-ohex/tornadus ex is what I'm currently running so I know it could work in mine. There are some that it just couldnt work in though).

4. Using N at the right time may be a gret move or a horrible move. In regards to juk hunt, if you play N then your opponent loses those cards they've retrieved, butin a deck that is all aout setting up fast, I imagine that N would have a high likelyhood of helping them pull other cards they need and that's the opposite of what you want. It's risky.

Does anyone else have any of good cards that could counter this type of deck? I've also considered warhammer but it just seems not worth it.
 
Bronzong (shuts down max potion)

Tool scrapper, and regular terrakion NVI.

And it's not "those lucky souls" who have catcher. If you're competitive in this game at all, you're running 3-4 catcher. I can't think of almost any exception. Maybe only 1 or 2 in ninetales, but that's not a top tier deck either.
 
cabd said:
Bronzong (shuts down max potion)

Tool scrapper, and regular terrakion NVI.

And it's not "those lucky souls" who have catcher. If you're competitive in this game at all, you're running 3-4 catcher. I can't think of almost any exception. Maybe only 1 or 2 in ninetales, but that's not a top tier deck either.
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That's a good point. I personally just haven't gotten the chance to score any catchers myself due to only getting back into the game about a month ago but I need to make it a top priority. And good call on tool scrapper to get rid of those eviolites.
 
Accelgor- free ko to every Sableye they care to bring up... or that you bring up for them.
 
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kirbyking said:
I win most games vs Darkrai/Hydreigon and most games vs Garchomp/Altaria. It is definitely tier 1.
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i am not contesting with ur decision that its tier one but just saying sigilyph kills garbodor AND so does a darkrai with dark claw. I have to say hydreigon/darkrai is not perfect but i have to say i don't find myself dropping multiple sableye, i usually only keep 1 sableye, if u take down the hydreigon for most people it is devastating but if they are smart it really isn't all that bad. Shaymin EX with an etiolate can kill all un-eviolited terrakions (EX and reg) so if u run two which is a great option for darkrai decks with blend. so if u want to win deal with hydreigon but don't neglect darkrai's! this goes if ur playing with any deck if u do then ur defeating the purpose of the hydreigon. so give each its due attention.
 
waynegg said:
Accelgor- free ko to every Sableye they care to bring up... or that you bring up for them.
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[del]Wouldn't that be a bad idea since you're breaking your lock? The Accelgor decks I am familiar with are all about a Deck and Cover lock of some sort, so sacrificing a Sableye would be in their favor; it is KOed by the Poison damage between turns, so whatever you tossed up front as the second half of your Accelgor strategy is waiting to get clubbed by something.[/del]

For some reason at that moment, I was thinking Sableye had 60 HP (which some older versions do, but not the one in question). May bad. >_<
 
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Otaku said:
Wouldn't that be a bad idea since you're breaking your lock? The Accelgor decks I am familiar with are all about a Deck and Cover lock of some sort, so sacrificing a Sableye would be in their favor; it is KOed by the Poison damage between turns, so whatever you tossed up front as the second half of your Accelgor strategy is waiting to get clubbed by something.
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Sableye has 70 HP so the plan here is to Deck and Cover for 50, bring up Gothitelle to shut down switch, 10 between turns, your opponent cries, 10 damage between turns to KO Sableye, your turn.

RM
 
rather than random decks and/or strategies that do well against hydreigon, would it not be more helpful to include that which would be more helpful against a greater amount of decks in addition to hydreigon?

Sure Bronzong shuts it down, but is Bronzong really worth playing most of the time?

Accelgor may also do very strongly against hydreigon, but how competitive is it really? Sure it's fun to play and does relatively well over a period of time (I'm trying really hard not to throw around 'consistent') but realistically, how far can you go? Most any experienced player can break the lock with a well placed N -which is a staple card- so how good is it really?

Garchomp is of course, a good deck that can do well against hydreigon, I'm not going to argue against that, but maybe a broader focus in general might prove to be more productive ;)
 
deashira said:
Sableye has 70 HP so the plan here is to Deck and Cover for 50, bring up Gothitelle to shut down switch, 10 between turns, your opponent cries, 10 damage between turns to KO Sableye, your turn.

RM
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Thank you; for some reason at that moment, I was thinking Sableye had 60 HP (which some older versions do, but not the one in question). I still question if, since you're Paralyzing the target and thus Retreat is not an option, Darkrai EX or Hydreigon itself would be the better option? Yes it takes more attacks per Darkrai EX (especially if you fail to block off Items with Gothitelle), but you take two Prizes each time before the "break". If you can keep them from accumulating enough Energy, they won't OHKO Gothitelle.

AlmightyGoldenGarchomp said:
Most any experienced player can break the lock with a well placed N -which is a staple card- so how good is it really?
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Isn't this also "Theorymon"? I mean, it may very well be true, but as the other major draw card is Professor Juniper, will you be able to set-up while trying to "hold onto" N? Since many players max it out, you might be able to drop the third or fourth copy late enough, I suppose. Still, that sounds more like "luck" than "skill". I wonder if Accelgor/Gothitelle bothers with any copies of N? I realize once the lock is going (and that should be second turn, ideally), it should be taking Prizes, but it does this slow enough that you might get the maximum draw off of it several turns in a row.

If you try to rely purely on Professor Juniper, you would risk discarding badly needed Double Colorless Energy. I bring this up because if the deck also runs N, you might be holding onto yours only to have them all shuffled back into your deck at the last minute (namely when your opponent has you nearly in a "kill" position anyway).
 
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Otaku said:
Thank you; for some reason at that moment, I was thinking Sableye had 60 HP (which some older versions do, but not the one in question). I still question if, since you're Paralyzing the target and thus Retreat is not an option, Darkrai EX or Hydreigon itself would be the better option? Yes it takes more attacks per Darkrai EX (especially if you fail to block off Items with Gothitelle), but you take two Prizes each time before the "break". If you can keep them from accumulating enough Energy, they won't OHKO Gothitelle.
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You're welcome! I think which pokemon to target depends on where you're at in the match and whether you have a Pokemon Catcher handy. Obviously if you can't Catcher then an active Sableye is a free prize, but sometimes you can't be sure you will have the energy required to keep the lock going. However, if you know you can lock up that Darkrai EX long enough to KO then that's the best play (unless you only have one prize remaining).

Otaku said:
I wonder if Accelgor/Gothitelle bothers with any copies of N? I realize once the lock is going (and that should be second turn, ideally), it should be taking Prizes, but it does this slow enough that you might get the maximum draw off of it several turns in a row.

If you try to rely purely on Professor Juniper, you would risk discarding badly needed Double Colorless Energy. I bring this up because if the deck also runs N, you might be holding onto yours only to have them all shuffled back into your deck at the last minute (namely when your opponent has you nearly in a "kill" position anyway).
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I can't speak for everyone who plays Accelgor, but I don't run any N. I think the best strategy is to burn through your deck as fast as you can until the only thing preventing you from decking out is Deck and Cover. Often this means you will be tossing some important cards with Professor Juniper, but I've had a few games where I held 20+ cards in hand while cycling Accelgor/Double Colorless Energy over and over. My opponent then drops N and all of a sudden the tides change.

RM
 
Thank you; this information is appreciated.

*prepares counters to Accelgor/Gothitelle*

Hm... if it wasn't for the risk of decking out, I'd think the game plan would then be to run Musharna and use the Mew EX version of the deck so that you always drew Mew EX and a Double Colorless Energy... while intentionally burning off the rest of your hand when it is relatively safe.

Except then instead of N just breaking the lock, it would deck you out.
 
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