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Standard Darkrai EX for 2017 Standard

GolurkChamp2597

Long Time Champion
Member
Hey guys, Alec back again. Gonna show you a very good deck I think will rise when the new format rolls around. Hope all of you enjoy :)


Pokemon:
  • 3 Darkrai EX (BKP)
  • 2 Yveltal EX (XY)
  • 3 Yveltal (XY)
  • 1 Yveltal (BKT)
  • 2 Shaymin EX (ROS)
  • 2 Zorua (BKT)
  • 2 Zoroark (BKT)
  • 1 Zoroark BREAK (BKT)

Support:
  • 4 Professor Sycamore
  • 1 Hex Maniac
  • 1 Lysandre
  • 1 Judge
  • 3 Trainer's Mail
  • 3 Max Elixir
  • 4 VS Seeker
  • 4 Fighting Fury Belt
  • 4 Ultra Ball
  • 2 Energy Switch
  • 2 Float Stone
  • 1 Super Rod
  • 2 Reverse Valley

Energy:
  • 10 Darkness Energy
  • 2 Double Colorless Energy


So I will explain the individual roles of each Pokemon. The 3 Darkrai EX are self explanatory, as they have a very powerful attack in Dark Pulse. For 2 energies you can 1 or 2 hit KO your opponents pokemon. As for the Yveltal EX, we all know how dangerous Yveltal can really be with stacked energies. The XY Base Yveltal were reprinted in Generations, and so it is still usable post-rotation. The Oblivion Wing attack paired with FFB and the stadium allows for 50 damage as well as energy acceleration. And when paired with Energy Switch, it makes for a very versatile style of play. The BREAKthrough Yveltal allows you to shut down opposed Fury Belts and other tools. It also does 60 to the active pokemon and 60 to a benched EX, which means 2 hit KOing Shaymin and Manaphy, 2 major players in the new format. The Zoroark and Zoroark BREAK serve as a very good counter to Mega Rayquaza EX decks, as well as the BREAK counters things such as Jolteon or Girantina.

So that's it folks, please supply some good feedback :)
 

Dalton

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Steam siege has Yveltal BREAK. That can counter a lot of damage protection attacks/abilities. Its attack takes 3 dark energy and does: 120, 30 to each of your opponents benched pokemon that already have damage on them.

I have been trying a Darkrai Giritina deck and its amazing. With Double Dragon and 4 Max Elixir I can do so much damage. Dark pulse gets up to over 200 half the games. I run 10 Dark energy and 4 Double Dragon and fail Max Elixir maybe 1 out of every 4 times.

Darkrai is so good, it can get OHKO's on ex and by spreading the energy all around the board keeps it safer than dumping in on one pokemon. Lysandre is not too troublesome, but to get rid of my own Shaymins I sometimes use 1 parallel city. It removes my EX sitting around like Hoopa and Shaymin and can slow down Frogs and any other fire water or grass. Also it will ruin M Rayquaza if I reduce their bench size. Dropping the stadium after they get a massive first turn will throw out all their Shaymins and knock Emerald Break at 90.

Darkrai EX is a really good card, and I hope this can help.
 

zaratath

Aspiring Trainer
Member
im not super knowledgeable on darkrai seeing as I never have played it, but from my experience playing against it having 4 max elixir is the most consistent way to get energies all over the field and hit crazy high numbers turn 1 or 2.

hope this helps,

zaratrath
 

Dracul Kuro Hemming

Wicked Fighter
Member
Not too bad of a list. I'm happy to see folks getting ready for the new format after Worlds (PCL-on). And I'm even happier to see a Darkrai list not featuring Giratina-EX (not that I hate the card itself. I just can't stand how scarce it is to find a couple at my League for anyone to wanna trade or even sell off). Anyway, my opinion on your lists:
-Definately want to bump your Max Elixir count to 4. You want to hit that card, and be able to hit it. You are running a good amount of Basic Energy for Max Elixirs, but from my experience, its one of those "Play-4-or-0" cards.
-I do feel like 4 Fighting Fury Belts is a little excessive. You'll more than likely only use 3 of them in the game if that. So dropping one will open the spot for that Max Elixir.
-As mentioned above, adding an extra Stadium in can help. Post-Rotation, MegaRay is surely going to be one of the decks to watch out for. To tend to a Belted Darkrai, they're going to have Sky Field out so they can hit 210 (7 bench Pokemon). Parallel City is a good choice thanks it being able to drop their bench down to three. And it gives you options since, if you want, you can do the bench reduction size to yourself and get rid of Shaymin or damaged EXes so your opponent doesn't get any quick knockouts.
-Three Yveltal (GEN) is a little excessive as well. I would say drop this down by one so you can make room.

Overall, here's a list of the changes
+1 Max Elixir
+1 Parallel City
-1 Fighting Fury Belt
-1 Yveltal (GEN)
 

AuraJackle

Aspiring Trainer
Member
2-2 Split of Yveltal is your friend as shutting off Spirit links against raquazza is hilarious assuming they cant first turn hex you. and yes yes yes 4 Max elixer is a must and taking out a ffB is the easiest thing to do. also you need more draw take out the energy switches as they wont help to much for 2 N's and i would remove the Judge of a Ninja Boy Can be very helpfull
 

Dark Espeon

Dark Avatar
Member
I would use a 2-2 split of Yveltal in the new format since there will be more Pokémon Ex. Also consider to use Ninja Boy and make sure to run four Max Elixir. Darkness decks work well with Max Elixir and Ninja Boy. I would run the deck like this:

Pokémon (14):
  • 2 Yveltal XY11 (beatdown)
  • 2 Yveltal XY08 (beatdown)
  • 2 Darkrai Ex (beatdown)
  • 2 Yveltal Ex (beatdown)
  • 2 Shaymin Ex (draws)
  • 2 Zoruark (beatdown)
  • 2 Zorua (evolution)
Trainer (34):
  • 4 Professor Sycamore (draw)
  • 1 Giovanni's Scheme (draw)
  • 2 Ninja Boy (versatile)
  • 1 Lysandre (gust)
  • 2 N (draw)
  • 3 Fighting Spirit Belt (beatdown)
  • 3 Trainer’s Mail (search)
  • 4 Max Elixir (accelerate)
  • 1 Super Rod (retrieval)
  • 4 Vs Seeker (retrieval)
  • 2 Float Stone (retreat)
  • 4 Ultra Ball (search)
  • 3 Reverse Valley (beatdown)
Energy (12):
  • 2 Double Colorless Energy
  • 10 Darkness Energy
 

21times

Aspiring Trainer
Member
This is very similar to a deck I've been play testing and having a lot of success with. I played an almost mirror match last night against a deck with Giratina and beat it fairly easily. I don't think Giratina has good synergy with this deck.... 100% I'm going to add Umbreon once Ninja Boy becomes available. That's going to be great, swapping it with Yveltal at the last second to take 4 prize cards. That's on the verge of being broken
 

TuxedoBlack

Old School Player
Member
My comment may perhaps be more of a "testament" of confidence for other players more than anything else, but I know first hand that the deck is still quite "powerful" (definitely T1 going into the new season, IMO) - I won an LC last weekend with my version of this deck. I'm a player who likes/prefers multiple attack options and this deck has a lot. Very solid.

Thanks for all of your help guys :) what would be your opinion on adding an Umbreon EX tech?
IMO, Umbreon EX is a very situational, gimmick card and not quite tournament-worthy.
 

Louis.lfc

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Could anyone tell me a tried and tested, good decklist for the yveltal/ darkrai deck. ALso could someone explain the strategy behind it for me. Thanks in advance
 

21times

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I'm not sure that there's one out there because neither Fright Night or the EX have good synergy with Darkrai. Fright Night eliminates tools and I always use some kind of tool (FFB, float stone, or exp share) with Darkrai. Plus, if you're running either of those 2 Yveltal you're going to be running DCE which doesn't count towards dark energy for Darkrai's attack. Oblivion wing is ok for pulling energy back out of discard, but if you're building a deck around Darkrai, you're going to want to use Salamence and Giratina and the DDEs that do actually count towards Darkrai's damage.
 

TuxedoBlack

Old School Player
Member
I do run a Darkrai-Zoroark-Yveltal deck and have had very good success with it, including winning an LC with it. As with other "tool box" like decks, you can match-up appropriate attackers to your opponent's Pokémon. In my particular case, Darkrai EX was added last to my deck as a counter to the popular M Mewtwo EX decks at the time. Each of my attackers (Darkrai EX, Zoroark, Yveltal (Oblivion Wing), Yveltal (Fright Night) and Yveltal EX) are used very effectively given their versatility of attack options, as well as the great synergy these Pokémon do have.

My list is quite similar to the list @Dark Espeon posted above; but, I run: 2 Yveltal EX (-1 Darkrai EX), 1 Zoroark BREAK - AMAZING Pokémon (for -1 Shaymin EX), 1 Parallel City (for -1 Reverse Valley), and a slightly different mix of card-draw Supporters. There are also a few other card differences too (I know I run 1 Hex Maniac too, but can't recall any others).

It's a very solid deck, IMO.
 
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NJ Pokemaster

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I believe the synergy between yveltal bkt and darkrai ex works when using an only basic dark energy, exp. share, & max elixir engine. You can also add a couple yveltal breaks for the hp boost and it also allows you to use fighting fury belts/exp shares on the darkrai as long as yveltal is not active. It can also help with the jolteon ex's out there. If you are teching the baby giratina promo the ability would be turned off though. By playing fewer pokemon and more supporters/ items, the deck runs quickly and should outspeed most decks.

Sample pokemon list-
4 darkrai ex bkp
3 yveltal bkt
2 yveltal break sts
1 giratina promo
1 mew fcd
2 shaymin ex ros
1 hoopa ex aor
 
Last edited:

gumball51321

*thumbs up*
Member
I suggest something along the lines of Connor Pederson's list from Dallas Regionals(he was a senior) His list was consistent, it played against the meta really well, and he was able to use it to win. Exp. Share is a bad card for Darkrai, since you'd much rather have HP and the +10 from Fury Belt. Drop the DCEs, because with 12 Dark, Max Elixirs and turn attachments aren't hard to hit at all. Zoroark is not needed, and neither is Reverse Valley. Parallel City works so much better because it saves space, and makes you win against Gardevoir. The hardest matchup, I would say, is probably Volcanion or Xerneas Break. Fright Night has Volcanion down to some degree, but Xerneas Break is just... hard.
 

TuxedoBlack

Old School Player
Member
Georgia was just won with 4 Darkrai and 2 yveltal but not fight nights. With exp. share and belts
Nice. Wished I had played him/her.... I ran my Zygarde-Zebstrika-Cabink deck at that tournament and had no problems with the Darkrai EX decks I faced.
 

gumball51321

*thumbs up*
Member
Well... I went undefeated and won 2 league cups back to back with Darkrai. Fright Night and Yveltal Break are too good. And I pulled a FA Sycamore out of my prize packs at the first one. Not too shabby.
 
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