Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Dusknoir: Have we been looking at him the wrong way?

D

Deoxysmatter

New Member
It's been obvious since the release of Cold Flare/ Freeze Bolt that Dusknoir had an amazing ability just waiting for the right deck to abuse it. For those who are unaware of the card of which I speak of, here is the details:

Dusknoir – Psychic – HP130
Stage 2 – Evolves from Dusclops

Ability: Dark Hand
As often as you like during your turn, you may move 1 damage counter on 1 of your opponent’s Pokemon to another one of his or her Pokemon.

[P][C][C][C] Shadow Punch: 60 damage. This attack isn’t affected by Resistance.

Weakness: Darkness (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3

The appeal is in the reverse-reuniclus-in-an-ability. Moving any damage counter your opponent has at whim is appealing no matter who you are. Theorydecking has been rampant, pairing Dusknoir with spread damagers with Dusknoir to concentrate that damage onto one target, taking powerful knockouts with otherwise thinspread attacks...

What if I told you that's not the only way to think about Dusknoir?

The idea occurred to me while I was editing my Vilebox deck, looking at Stunfisk DRX's Rumble attack, which does 40 and prevents retreat. I thought "Wouldn't it be amazing if we could continue to keep the opponent stuck in the active and instead damage the bench...!" If you haven't reached the conclusion yet, it's merely use a locking move with one pokemon (Stunfisk DRX, Druddigon NVI, Pinsir NXD, etc) locking pokemon who can't really damage you or otherwise doesn't want to be in the active position (Eelektrik, for example), move the damage off of the pokemon using Dusknoir's ability (So you don't knock them out and let the opponent promote their preferred pokemon), then once the damage is spread around all the opponents' benched pokemon, send up a spread damager (Registeel, Kyurem NVI, etc) to knock out the opponents (It might also be worth it to knock out support pokemon like Hydreigon if it helps you more).

The main issues I can see with this type of strategy is that the matchups against Hydreigon/Darkrai and Keldeo/Blastoise would be an uphill battle (Hydreigon for having few, if any, suitable locking target, Keldeo/Blastoise because of Keldeo's Ability overwriting the locking effect).

I'd love to hear other people's opinions, and proposed decklists to see a strategy would be nice to analyze. I'm sure others would like to hear what you have to say as well.
 
There are only a couple match-ups where that will work. I think it would be best just to play like 1 or 2 Stunfisk or lockers and just focus the rest of your strategy on spreading or whatever. If you focus too much on the lock you're just gonna lose every match-up besides, like, Eels. I can only see locking up an Eelektrik or Emolga to be effective, but your only doing 20 to Emolga. Also need to avoid the Elektross techs and high switch quantities.

I can see when it works it would be brutal but it's too frail to focus an entire strategy around.
 
I think Druddigon+Rocky Helmet would be pretty funny with Dusknoir. Even if they KO themselves by attacking into a Rocky Druddigon, you still get the opportunity to lock in something else.

You could even give them a Sophie's Choice by leaving their pokemon with 100HP left before attacking with Druddigon. Either they attack and lose their guy, or next turn you move those 6 damage counters somewhere else and keep them stuck.
 
I understand it would be incredibly difficult to maintain, but I'll be honest and say I haven't thought about caring it with another strategy. That's a nice way of looking at it.

I like that idea about Druddigon, it'd be something interesting to test, that's for sure.
 
you could also run druddigon with:

Aspertia City Gym – Trainer
Stadium

[C] Pokemon have their max HP increased +20.

This card stays in play when you play it. Discard this card if another Stadium card comes into play. If another card with the same name is in play, you can’t play this card.


for the extra HP
 
Not a bad idea. Could work especially well if you also ran crushing hammers. Though the paralysis idea is better because it locks your opponent in the active and they cant retreat while also making sure they don't attack. Keldeo and switch dont care about either, but darkrai/hydreigon is hurt by paralysis more.
 
Just a random thought: what if you paired dusknoir up with druddragon and togekiss from plasma gale he would be just a bench sitter and could be brought out later in the game to make it so where your opponent cant catcher your dusknoir.

Togekiss – Colorless – 140 HP
Stage 2 – Evolves from Togetic

Ability: Prideful Veil
If Togekiss is your Active Pokemon, when your opponent uses an Item card, all of your Pokemon are unaffected by any of its effects.

[C] Return: 30 damage. Draw cards until you have 6 cards in your hand.

Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-20)
Retreat: 1
 
The opp can't catcher Dusknoir, but Togekiss isn't a real problem since it hits only 30.
Togekiss doesn't worth the space and the resources it needs.
 
The problem you have with this type of deck as always is you have to lock a Pokemon that can't attack. Even Eelektrik in Eels can attack.
 
The problem arises when they can't Dynamotor to their active. Even then, most Eel decks run Switch because they know having an Eelektrik stuck active is a problem.
 
Wouldn't this card work great in a spread deck, such as Kyurem? Spread 150-180 a turn and then next turn KO something while spreading again or outrage if you get hit. Or if they run out of switches, tech something in that prevents retreating and win that way.
 
battleboy said:
Just a random thought: what if you paired dusknoir up with druddragon and togekiss from plasma gale he would be just a bench sitter and could be brought out later in the game to make it so where your opponent cant catcher your dusknoir.

Togekiss – Colorless – 140 HP
Stage 2 – Evolves from Togetic

Ability: Prideful Veil
If Togekiss is your Active Pokemon, when your opponent uses an Item card, all of your Pokemon are unaffected by any of its effects.

[C] Return: 30 damage. Draw cards until you have 6 cards in your hand.

Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-20)
Retreat: 1
Click to expand...
A deck that sets up 2 Stage 2s and both are weak to popular types, and has no real win condition?

Seem legit.
 
With Skyla, ditto and Computer Search, I could see dusknoir being a cool 1-0-1 tech in spread decks, even if they are only running basics! You could play like 2 rare candy.
 
Why wouldn't you just use accelgor? Then you don't have to worry about what you lock active, and you can run that one stadium that triples poison damage.
 
I would LOVE to play Druddigon/Dusknoir, but Keldeo EX exists. Considering Blastoise/Keldeo will be BDIF, you wouldn't be able to compete against it. Unless of course they only ever draw 1 Keldeo, but that's highly unlikely
 
I find this idea interesting.

Maybe you could use Zebstrika? Force them to put something that has a hard time attacking active, use Zebstrika to lock items so they can't use Switch and/or Catcher. Add in some hammers to make it harder for them to retreat. Abilities, such as on the aforementioned Keldeo EX, would still be a potential issue. Perhaps you could use Garbodor to shut down such abilities, along with a healthy dose of tool scrappers so you can turn abilities on when you need them yourself.

Alternatively, you could combine it with a damage sponge of your own (Black Kyurem-EX with Crystal Wall being the obviously best option) and Cofagrigus (NVI46).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top