Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Hydreigon in the NXD-on format

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Joltic

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So, the new season has begun which of course means a rotation has occurred. There were some rumours that there was not going to be a rotation but then an NXD-on format was confirmed. Eels has now gone, along with goth, so...what's the play?

Hydregion of course! Oh yes, it's back! After seeing so little play after BCR had been released, the 3 headed monster returns with a big surprise!

So the list I have so far is:

Pokemon:

2 darkrai EX
3 Deino (DRX)
1 zweilous
3 Hydregion
1 virizion EX
1 victini EX
1 Absol
1 Sableye

T/S/S:

4 catcher
4 candy
3 max potion
3 ultra ball
1 level ball
1 dark claw
3 Dark patch
2 bike
1 tool scrapper
1 super rod
1 victory piece (ace- spec)

4 N
4 Juniper
2 Colress
1 Skyla

Energy:

8 dark
4 blend (GRPD)

So the stratergy of the deck is to set up hydregion and keep moving energy around the field to repeatedly max potion damaged darkrais and other attackers.

So now your probably thinking, victini/victory piece, huh????

Well a) it gives you such a huge advantage over any genosect/virizion decks played, b) it sets up darkrais and other attackers very quickly and c) it's a great all round attacker against opposing EXs. Sure it's low, 110 HP is not that great but paired with hydregion and max potion, 110 is all you need!

Virizion is a nice, new tech introduced in PLB which is played in this deck to make use of the blend energys by allowing no special conditions to affect your pokemon.

If you think you can improve on this deck please feel free to post any improvements below

Thanks, Jordan
 
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Following are some suggested improvements for your consideration:

-1 Pokémon Catcher,
-1 Rare Candy,
-1 Max Potion. These can be replaced given that you have 3 remaining for each and with the addition of:

+2 Sableye. Can Junk Hunt needed Items.
+1 Dark Claw. To provide increased chances of having one available should one be prized.

From my experience, I've found Absol to be an extremely good attacker; so, I have multiple in my decks where it is used. Now that Silver Bangle is available, Absol's attack can be quite effective, especially if you can also use a Ht Laser in conjunction with Silver Bangle. Personally, I'd opt to use Absol over Victini EX for several reasons:
  • It can benefit for energy attachment acceleration from the Dark Patch;
  • It only has 10 less HP than Victini EX;
  • You lose only 1 (with Absol) prize vs. 2 (with Victini EX) when KOd; and
  • Absol can attack any/all opponent's Poké, unlike most EX Poké; so, IMHO, Absol provides another very versatile and effective attacker option, moreso than Victini EX.
I hope you find these comments helpful.
 
Regards to sableye I added one in but I find it a bit of a waste since it will cost a turn to pull off a junk hunt and with you needing to attack each and every turn, it takes 1 turn too many.

As too a second Absol over victini, victini is a much better card over Absol in the deck and only 1 Absol is needed, even though its a good attacker, it depends on field size. Absol fails early game and that's where victini works well. Victini is only used in this deck to pull of a T2 night spear or get an auto-win over genosect/virizion. It's also used as a last resort against opposing ex's.

I may take out my 4th max potion for another dark claw but in my opinion 4 candy is a must in the deck, they help so much in getting a T2 hydregion.
 
Which Hydreigon? Because Dark Aura was reprinted as a shiny, and he's always good for a backup, especially since he just eats any energy type you put on him.
 
Joltic said:
Regards to sableye I added one in but I find it a bit of a waste since it will cost a turn to pull off a junk hunt and with you needing to attack each and every turn, it takes 1 turn too many.

As too a second Absol over victini, victini is a much better card over Absol in the deck and only 1 Absol is needed, even though its a good attacker, it depends on field size. Absol fails early game and that's where victini works well. Victini is only used in this deck to pull of a T2 night spear or get an auto-win over genosect/virizion. It's also used as a last resort against opposing ex's.

I may take out my 4th max potion for another dark claw but in my opinion 4 candy is a must in the deck, they help so much in getting a T2 hydregion.
Click to expand...

I find the early Junk Hunt most beneficial; but later in the game, I find it can useful too. That being said, Victini EX definitely helps you facilitate a T2 Night Spear - if you can also get the Prism T1 too (but with only 4 "R" energy in the deck, the odds of your executing a Turbo Energize attack T1 is low). So, why not run more that 1 Vicitini EX in order to increase your chances of having 1 Victini EX available T1?

Lastly, with only 2 Darkrai EXs currently in the deck, are you finding the 2 to be sufficient enough?
 
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Yeah, two darkrai seems to be fine in the deck and I do want to run 2 victini ex's but I only have one, so I'm going to try and order one of the Internet as soon as possible.

Also @Shinigam, its the hydregion from dragons exalted
 
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Then, yes, I would suggest trying to work a Dark Aura Hydreigon in your list somewhere, even if just for a test game or two. Berserker Blade isn't a terrible attack.
 
It's something to consider, the only problem is that it lowers consistency of being able to get out the dark trance ones. It does work well in conjunction with darkrai ex, dealing insane snipe damage, but is it worth playing if you need the dark trance ones more?
 
That all really comes down to a meta decision. If your format is full of Hammers and the last shreds of Durant players, than Dark Trance all the way since Energy is at a premium and you'll need to keep up with the field. But if you're in an area where energy manipulation isn't too big of a deal, than I recommend that you at least try one. He's surprisingly resilient, and he helps out with the damage spreading nicely.
 
The main problem for me is if you draw into it as your 1st hydregion of the game and need to juiper. Do you discard it or play it? Since for the deck to properly work you need a dark trance hydragion set up all game, but if you have already played a dark aura hydragion and can't get another deino out, you will have to heavily rely on the dark aura hydragion which is not the best idea.
 
Joltic said:
The main problem for me is if you draw into it as your 1st hydregion of the game and need to juiper. Do you discard it or play it?
Click to expand...
You play the Professor Juniper and discard Dark Aura Hydreigon, for it is not as critical as its Dark Trance Hydreigon.

I played Darkrai-Hydreigon when the sets were first released and I played both Hydreigons, 2 Dark Trance and 1 Dark Aura. I plan to rebuild a current list and use both again. In the past (as well as today), the Dark Aura Hydreigon is very situational. But, if I have an opportunity to use it, I will; because chances are I can attack twice and that 120-80-80 damage makes the rest of the game easier. Plus, the Dark Aura Ability also allows you to do some very cool shenanigans too.
 
The dark aura ability is pretty much useless since all you play is dark energys and blends (which count as dark energys). I would personally just play 3 dark trance hydregions since they are more usefull in the deck. However I will do some testing with a dark aura one to see how it compares.

I agree that the dark aura hydregion is a very good attacker but I think that if you want to run it, you need to run two since you may have to discard one over a dark trance one. The only problem with this is that it will lower chances of being able to pull off a T2 dark trance hydregion and getting one out late game since they may be prized or discarded early on.
 
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When you do you playtesting, consider including 1-2 DCE too for the Dark Aura Hydreigon... :thumb: And remember it turns any attached energy to Dark; so, Dark Trance Hydreigon can even move the DCE!

Look out unsuspecting Virizion EXs or Genesect EXs - they may not see the KO coming...
 
Yeah, it's a possibility. Fitting in 1-2 DCE's will be hard since my list is tight as it is, so ill have to do lots more testing to see what cards i don't need in the deck.
 
I am also considering griratina ex as a counter to suicune/terrakion, since in that Mach up you are going to have to use hydragion and absol as your main attackers which is not the best thing to do. Giratina also makes nice use for the blends in the deck and is a good all around attacker.
 
Just out of curiosity, how many times have you gotten your "1 ofs," Victini EX and Virizion EX, in play (or not prized) out of 10 games? Also, have you played against some top decks like Blastoise-Black Kyurem EX, Darkrai EX-Garbodor, etc. yet? Your results? Ty.
 
I'd recommend going one of 2 ways with your List. Either...

A) focus purely on consistency. Run minimal techs maybe 2 Victini exs with Victory piece 4-0-4 Hydreigon with 4 candies or 4-1-4 with 3 candy. 4 Dark Patches. Throw in Silver Bangles and a 3rd Darkrai. Focus on using Hydreigon to attack a lot. with Bangle he hits EX's for 170 and then only gives up 1 prize you just have to be careful to try and get multiples out and to manage your energy properly, night spearing as a backup isn't a bad fall back either.

or B) Tech against everything in the Meta ( Hydreigon has the potential to pretty easily trust me, I won't give you too many hints but you have a lot of options. You can also use Prisms to help you out here as long as you don't attach them to deinos( rare candy)/ Hydreigons.

PS...Absol is a nice attacker but the main focus of Hydreigon is to keep energy in play and generaly prize denial with only 100hp he may not be the best fit.

Also Junk hunt late game> Early game for Hydreigon. The items you run aren't always as nice to get back right away as say speed darkrai's items
 
I have been considering genesect ex with g booster since it can really have a huge impact on the game, you can really only use it once or even twice, but even once is enough to give you the win since taking out an ex in one hit is pretty big. The energies you discarded with g booster, providing their dark energies, can be dark patched so your basically doing a free 200 damage. I think I prefer the more consistent, less teched out version like Ctrl_Alt_Aria suggested but I'm testing it out since it could be really good.

Also @TuxedoBlack, out of 10 games I had my victini prized in 2 but I didn't prize my virizion in any. I managed to get virizion out every game but against blastoise/black kyurem i ended up discarding it with an ultra ball or a comp. search. As to victini, by the time I got it out of my prizes I didn't need it since I already had enough energies on my field and in one game I had to discard a victory piece with a juniper. Whereas in the 8 games it wasn't prized I started with it twice and managed to get it out on my first turn 3 times.
 
Thanks for the info; I was just curious. When you actually do the math, the "1 ofs" tend to have very low probability of access and I tend not to base too much of my strategy upon those cards.
 
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