Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Durant and the Spirit of the Game

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I dunno I like to play out alot of scenarios when thinking about deck building, I think of Durant I think of it as being really easy to run, build, alot more easier than other decks.

I had the same thought at mind on Magnezone/Electrode deck to, it knocks out pokemon to win though, but I had that same thinking where it was just too easy to build one of those decks and know what to do just like Durant.

it wont all equate to winning a major tournament though, but to me it feels like their is little thinking in operating and building both.
 
I'm not a fan of Durant. It's a mindless deck that is easy to build and pretty much runs on autopilot, taking no skill to play.

I think it's a card that should have never been printed. It really disrupts decks dependent on Stage 2's and/or rainbow energy, which helps to discourage creative deck building in the current format. Luckily it's not been seeing the same success it saw the first week of cities, so hopefully we see the number of Durant decks being played decrease a bunch.
 
Regardless of personal OPINION upon the deck; the fact of the matter is that it aims to win the game through a condition specified in the very rulebook that every player has to play by. No exceptions.

Decking your opponent, Taking 6 Prizes, Triggering Lost World, them running out of Pokemon to replace the active, or having no Pokemon in play. All are valid win conditions, and anyone saying that sing ANY of them is "cheap" is, as mentioned above, a scrub.
 
it's called tech"ing" people. If you don't like durant tech in vileplume and go from there. I played a very nice Durant player today and I said "oh the Durant player" and he said "I'm sorry" which I replied "what for? I don't hate Durant, I have a Durant deck of my own. I'm just not playing it today, I like playing it for FUN" People are just whiny, it's just another deck, get over it. I hate SP more then any type of deck, glad that's gone.
 
Crinus said:
I said this one time before about Durant decks, I think its a type of deck better left in a game like yugioh where a win condition like that happens 95% of the time. Its just really no skill involved.

Pokemon has been here for over 10 years, the TCG has, and in that 10+ years I dont ever recall anyone or a deck that is able to win without having to knock pokemon out to draw prizes.

Durant, you dont knock pokemon our and you dont draw prizes.

The other side of this coin is this:

Durant decks aint winning anyway, at least not in major tournaments.

So they are easy to beat.
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You just have not seen a good Durant list. Turbo Durant does not take prizes and it does not win that much. But a good durrant list will take prizes and will win a lot. I have played Durrant all Cities and I have won just as many games games on Prizes then I have by decking. So far I am 14-7 with it. Of my 14 wins 7 Have been by taking more prizes then my opponent and 7 wins by decking them out. (Although I would have won a 8th on Prizes but my opponent pleaded with me to stop KO'ing his pokemon and deck him out instead so I obliged) Durant absoultly destroys set up decks. Except for Tyram and my 4 losses to that deck, I have not lost to a set up deck all year. Dont knock it the deck is very much legit and will not be going away any time soon.
 
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@Crinus: Try building and playtesting a Durant deck. You soon find out so many options you can play with that you quickly go past the 60 card deck limit. I lost to one today because the Durant deck dropped an unexpected rainbow on Rotom and KO'd a Zekrom I was piling energy on. There's also the Catcher+Seeker+Vice Grip method for when your opponent drops a free retreat pokemon (usually a baby). Durant decks are much more complicated than they seem on the outside because they rely on 1 attack for most of the game, but just like any other deck it requires timing and precision to win with one.
 
You know, above all else, Durant is a really cheap deck to make. You dont need Alph Lithograph, so you really dont need ANY holo cards to play it, except maybe Spiritomb TM. Even then, i'm a player with a very limited card pool at the moment, due to economic hardships, and Durant lets me get out and play at these tournaments with a semi-serious attitude. How is that going against "spirit of the game"?
 
Crinus, win a cities with this deck which takes no skill to build or play, then I'll believe what you have to say.

I agree with Shino, when I first created my decklist here on the pokegym, I tried to make a list that would fit into everyone's budget, and wanted it to be used for new players that couldn't afford all these pachirisu's and things. You shouldn't take away an aspect of the game because you think it's cheap. And you shouldn't take away a cheap deck to build for those who can't afford everything you can just because you think it's an unfair win condition (winning perfectly fine by the rules of the game). It's not like you're playing against Flygon LvX, memory berry lock.

I'll tell you a deck that's annoying. Spinirak, vileplume, kingdra prime, kyurem. Play that deck and tell me it's better than durant. -I'm looking at you Danny-
 
Shino Bug Master said:
You know, above all else, Durant is a really cheap deck to make. You dont need Alph Lithograph, so you really dont need ANY holo cards to play it, except maybe Spiritomb TM. Even then, i'm a player with a very limited card pool at the moment, due to economic hardships, and Durant lets me get out and play at these tournaments with a semi-serious attitude. How is that going against "spirit of the game"?
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Durant is the first ever Mill deck that actually works. In the long history of Pokemon there have been a few that came close (most noteably Rhypherior) but this is the only one that has ever pulled it off and been an actual viable deck, And it only works becuase of the Type. IF Durant was any other type other then metal it would not be nearly as successful as it it. But the fact you can put doen an Eviolite and a Spcial metal, and little Pokemo cant peck away at it doing 10-20 danamge a turn. This means you are safe to mill away until the player manages to get something big and nasty built up. Then once you deal with that and make it go away you can go back to milling until annother threat comes up. Most of my win I have given up onlu 2-3 prizes. And yes it is by far the leat expensive deck out there that wins. And dont play Alph litograph, its not workth the deckspace, Not only do you need it only when you have a prized durrant. You never know when you will get it and its not worth wasting a Twins play to pull it. You only need 3 durrants in play to successfully mill someone anyways. 4th is just gravy.
 
Imhotep said:
Lol hilarious. Read the article then the first thing my eye is drawn to when I come back here is 'takes no skill to play'.
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Flare, the guy that wrote the article, did so because of Hakemo's suprise success at our Cities. It was a very well written article that actually helped me formulate different styles against Durant, but also proceeded to make Hakemo's deck stronger by giving him ideas for new techs. :nonono:
 
Durant ate my deck in my recent CC's. I can't complain about my lack of a game against it. I suggested the deck to the person who played it and beat me.

I think having my deck eaten by giant metal ants is frown town. But that's what it does.

People have to stop being so sensitive.

Stallgon was a mill deck that worked. WInd Erosion from Flygon Lv. X. <3 Flygon.
 
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So...if Durant is against SotG, stuff like LuxChomp, Gardy and its 2 flavors, heck even using Claydol GE back then must've all been against SotG right? XD

Really though, I don't get how using Durant is un-SotG; if you don't want to lose to it, do something about it I mean lol.
 
Everyone's entitled to have an opinion on whatever deck.

They're not entitled to be rude about it and make someone feel bad at a tournament.
 
The people saying it are probably playing Reshiram or ZPST which is something they pretty much copied from someone else.

(a) It's a perfectly legal way to win and (b) when they complain, it makes it all the better.
 
I see it the same way as Sableye donk or uxie done. It's still valid win condition, but not letting your opponent get a turn and beating them goes under 'non fair play' and is against the SotG. The win is still valid because knocking out/removing your opponents last pokemon from the field is still a win.

In Durants case... The game is pretty bad right now. bad rules, time limit, messed up 2 out of 3 flips ( I mean, if the game is 1-1 for 2 out of 3, both players should flip again to see who goes first, not the loser chooses.), we have mill decks winning, no 2 out of 3 swiss or side decks to deal with things like mill or bad match ups.

The way Pokemon is setup, decks like that should not exist. All other card games have ways of dealing with mill and bad matchups but pokemon does not. When you get a bad match, you just lose but, decking your opponent is still a valid deck but durant attack should cost at least 2 because it's pretty over powered but Lost Zoning them works fine for me and trainer lock does stop them.

You know what, they just messed up the game and don't know how to fix it.

Still, I'll rather play against Durant then Reshiphlosion...
 
Honestly, I am not a fan of Durrant and I don't like losing to it at all. I feel the deck takes a partial amount of skill but, it takes less skill to play than a deck like The Truth or Chandelure. I really hate it because I build my deck the best I can and as I go through the game, all,y hard work gets torn down and I have to count my turns left. I also have to think what gets prized/discarded/in play/odds of being discarded/etc while I try to speed through my deck and get set-up, it just isn't a fun match. I know it is a valid win condition, I just hate when a Durrant player says "Good Game" sincerely after you show them you have XX prized and they started 1st with 4 Durrant discarding any chance you had of playing a game. I feel Durrant is horrible for this game and has made me question playing competitively any more; if I can't beat a deck mostly anyone could pilot, how do I stay on top of the game?
 
^ Well, I'm done with the game for the most part now. I'll still play but not in tournaments. I hate the way the game went and how this format is. it's full luck and auto pilot deck, not to mention bad rules. They need to do something to fix the game before I can take it serious again.
 
StormFront said:
What about decks that were centered around Flygon Lv X using the memory berry & Sand Trap combo, or Miltres. Both of these decks were much stronger meta decks compared to Durant,
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That deck was really only used at one Worlds then it mostly dissapeared. It did not do that well at it either except for David C. that took 2nd in Seniors, FOr the shher ammount of players using it the deck shold hae done better. And by the end of the following seasons Fall Battle Road it was gone as it could not hange with the SP decks.

---------- Post added 12/11/2011 at 07:52 AM ----------
smacktack15 said:
Honestly, I am not a fan of Durrant and I don't like losing to it at all. I feel the deck takes a partial amount of skill but, it takes less skill to play than a deck like The Truth or Chandelure. I really hate it because I build my deck the best I can and as I go through the game, all,y hard work gets torn down and I have to count my turns left. I also have to think what gets prized/discarded/in play/odds of being discarded/etc while I try to speed through my deck and get set-up, it just isn't a fun match. I know it is a valid win condition, I just hate when a Durrant player says "Good Game" sincerely after you show them you have XX prized and they started 1st with 4 Durrant discarding any chance you had of playing a game. I feel Durrant is horrible for this game and has made me question playing competitively any more; if I can't beat a deck mostly anyone could pilot, how do I stay on top of the game?
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I am gussing you are playing a verion of The Truth or a set up deck like that. Yes Durrant owns set up deks but it looses to Super fast decks like ZPST but ZPST when is does not deck looses to Set up deks like The Turth. So its a fair Meta.
 
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