Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Straight Darkrai for Cities/League Challenge this weekend.

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pokemon54

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So due to weather conditions the League Challege that was supposed to be this last Saturday got moved to this upcoming Saturday which is also the weekend of our City Tournament. So now this weekend is kinda crazy. I decided to go with straight Darkrai. I have been having an issue lately at my league. We do local tournaments, I win pretty much against everyone except this darn Darkrai Hydreigon deck.. I am not the strongest deck builder in this format so here is my list. Any help is appreciated. I know how this deck works so far.

3 Darkrai EX
4 Sableye
1 Absol
1 Mr. Mime
1 Keldeo EX

4 Professor Juniper
4 N
2 Skyla
1 Bianca

4 Dark Patch
4 Ultra Ball
4 Hypnotoxic Laser
4 Pokémon Catcher
3 Energy Switch
2 Random Receiver
2 Bicycle
2 Dark Claw
1 Energy Search
1 Computer Search
2 Virbank City Gym

10 Dark Energy

So the strategy is pretty much the usual. Start with Sableye and get a Junk Hunt and go for a T2 Night Spear. Mr. Mime for bench protection. Keldeo for all it's wonderful uses. I went with 4 Random Receivers and 9 supporters for consistency. Late game I use Ultra Ball to discard stuff I don't need for better chances of a better draw (in case my opponent N's me to 1-2 cards) I have a league challenge on Saturday and a Cities on Sunday. I am hoping to get this deck as good as I can get. Any help will be appreciated. Have a wonderful day!
 
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Why no Absol? You may need a secondary attacker when you don't wish to expose one of your Darkrai EXs. Secondly, if any of your opponents has a Safeguard Ability Poké active, your deck will be neutralized quickly.

Personally, I feel that 2 Bicycle (fantastic card in this deck), 4 N, 4 PJ, and 4 Random Receiver is overkill. I'd suggest replacing 2 of your RRs with a Max Potion and a Tool Scrapper. Now that I see you also don't have any Skyla, I would also suggest replacing a Catcher and another RR with 2 Skyla.

You only have D energy in the deck; so, an Energy Search is not that effective versus just having another D energy. IMHO.

Indeed Darkrai-Hydreigon will be a tough matchup for you given that player can repeatedly heal his/her attackers. Hopefully, you will get some good flips for Catcher and you should be able to setup faster.

I would also think VirGen and VirMew2 would also be challenging for you should you not play any secondary attackers. Btw, I run 1 Victini EX in my Darkrai deck just for those annoying Poké.

I hope you find these comments helpful.
 
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I was really going for consistency I guess lol I put in the energy search because it seemed like if I didn't have an energy I could grab it. Sometimes I actually used Junk Hunt to get it back and it would help the t2 Night Spear. I am going to add in Absol. Now I have a question. I for some reason don't like Skyla in here. Is it my lack of experience with this deck? I just want to do the best I can this weekend. I am worried about not drawing crud. That happens a lot with my builds of any decks.
 
pokemon54 said:
Now I have a question. I for some reason don't like Skyla in here. Is it my lack of experience with this deck? I just want to do the best I can this weekend. I am worried about not drawing crud. That happens a lot with my builds of any decks.
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I find skyla a very important card in my decks but i also try to shuffle my deck rather than discard.
In my eyes it is an extra chance in your deck to get the card you NEED. Like when a night spear wont quite kill. Or if you need a virbank or another benched pokemon to protect your powering up darkrai.
 
pokemon54 said:
Now I have a question. I for some reason don't like Skyla in here. Is it my lack of experience with this deck? I just want to do the best I can this weekend. I am worried about not drawing crud. That happens a lot with my builds of any decks.
Click to expand...
What I've found through experience is that Skyla is an extremely versatile Supporter - you can essentially get any Trainer from your deck. Just look at some of the decks in the Deck Strategy/Help Forum; you will see perhaps a set of "core" Trainers used in most all of those decks. In your deck's particular case, a card-drawing Item like Bicycle is very useful since it can be searched via Skyla (on those occasions when you have little/no cards) and played, as well as Junk Hunt'ed. For me whenever I have Sableye in a deck, I will also have a few Bicycle.

It seems to me that I now spend more time developing my mix of Trainers when deck building... I do not follow what many players may deem as a standard of "4 Professor Juniper, 4 N,... should go in every deck." It depends actually upon the deck I'm building, deck strategy and my playing style. When you playtest your deck, you will either like/dislike the efficiency of the deck. The mix of card-drawing Supporters is critical to maintaining a high degree of efficient deck operations. So, after a few games, tweak your deck till you like that mix of Trainers.

Lastly, all players will draw "crud" from time to time - it just happens and is part of the game. The "trick" or hope is to just minimize those times (through good deck building and good game-play decisions) as much as possible and provide yourself the necessary "outs" to get what you want when needed.
 
I love Skyla don't get me wrong. It just feels weird in here. Why? I have no idea. I haven't had a style in a while. I lost some fuel in the last rotation. I am trying different decks out. Darkrai EX was always one of my favorites. I appreciate your help. Tomorrow is going to be tough. Sunday will be even more. I cannot wait. I will drop 2 RR and add 2 Skyla.
 
I feel like Catcher is such a waste.

I would take one out and replace with Tool Scrapper.

Take another two Catchers out for two Skyla, 4 total. Skyla can be used to fetch Dark Patch, Dark Claw, Virbank, Hypno, Energy Switch anything you really need to get a quick KO when you need it. Or quick way to draw cards, Bicycle.

Then you have one Catcher left to get rid of.

Just my take.
 
Well oddly enough. The 4 catchers helped me win most of my games. I am really trying to find room for tool scrapper.
 
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