Empoleon / Dusknoir

[Card Slinger J]

Pokemon (18)

• 4-1-4 Empoleon (Dark Explorers/Plasma Freeze)
• 1-0-1 Dusknoir (Boundaries Crossed)
• 2-2 Leafeon (Plasma Freeze)
• 2 Landorus EX (Boundaries Crossed)
• 1 Exeggcute (Plasma Freeze)

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums (29)

• 4 N
• 4 Rare Candy
• 3 Ultra Ball
• 3 Skyla
• 3 Switch
• 3 Silver Bangle
• 2 Colress
• 2 Professor Juniper
• 2 Tool Scrapper
• 1 Dowsing Machine
• 1 Town Map
• 1 Super Rod

Energy (13)

• 7 Water
• 3 Fighting
• 3 Blend Energy (Water/Lightning/Fighting/Metal)

Deck Total (60)

Strategy

The deck focuses on using Empoleon for Attack Command when you get a full bench going while also using Diving Draw as a draw engine of sorts, Dusknoir helps Empoleon score easy KO's using it's Sinister Hand ability. Leafeon is to help counter against Blastoise variants with Energy Crush while Landorus EX helps against Darkrai variants while also serving as type coverage against Electric Types in the format which isn't very many at the moment.

So yeah I plan on taking this deck to my local League Challenge Saturday, hopefully the player turnout will be just as big as Battle Roads was unless If it's ignored for Cities coming up soon in my area. As you've probably noticed I took Catcher out for Silver Bangle to see how well it works with the new X/Y Rules, Tool Scrapper of course is for Garbodor, aside from that I hope this deck does well in my area despite that I haven't played the Pokemon TCG as much as I have in Vanguard and Kaijudo lately.

Any help, comments, advice, and/or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Reformatted list to match rules.~KA

 

[zavtac]

Ok, that list is almost fine, but is missing a few things. Take out a Colress for Juniper (never go without 4) Take out the new ex's and add another super rod (you need to have continouos flowing Empoleons) and an Exeggecute ( really helps for diving draw as you can take it out of your discard anytime. Good luck!

 

[helti]

Ok, that list is almost fine, but is missing a few things. Take out a colress for juniper (never go without 4) Take out the new ex's and add another super rod (you need to have continouos flowing Empoleons) and an Exeggecute ( really helps for diving draw as you can take it out of your discard anytime. Good luck!

Err.. the deck benefits more from Colress than Juniper, as many cards are keycards for the deck and you get to draw huge sequences of cards at a time, 5+ most of the time, and adding another super rod wouldn't actually help out as if your opponent knocks out 4 Empoleons, you'd rod in 1, and also have Leafeon and Mew as an attacker, the deck doesn't run more than 1 Prinplup anyway, meaning adding the extra super rod would be a waste of space, as you won't always draw into it/get it knocked out, meaning there won't be a continous flow of Empoleons.
However the deck is lacking Exeggcute, so squeezing it in to replace something else is fine too.
I would also recommend throwing in a Town Map, as the 1-0-1 Dusknoir, or other keycards might be trapped in prize, so that you wouldn't know when you could sinister hand your way to victory.

 

[Yo-yos]

I kinda have to agree with Zavtac, if you run all these colress for 8-10 then diving draw for more cards you mill yourself to death faster then a juni, and you're not going to N to less on that logic that you gave know are you? So 1-2 colress is good enough as is. That second super rod is key, especially w/o the flareon with revenge, 1-2 level ball could be benefited in this deck, running ultra ball is fine, but you need the basics to setup before you play the stage lines and it's better to not discard in this process.

 

[Mora]

Ok, that list is almost fine, but is missing a few things. Take out a colress for juniper (never go without 4) Take out the new ex's and add another super rod (you need to have continouos flowing rmpoleons) and a eggecute (if that's how you spell it, really helps for diving draw as you can take it out of your discard anytime. Good luck!

Mechanical thinking aside, usually Juniper is a staple in every deck, but this deck really doesn't need the extra draw power that Juniper provides because of the built in draw. In fact, Empoleon can basically run solely off of Driving once it's set up (as long as you are able to keep enough Empoleons in play). I don't know exactly how many Supporters should go into Empoleon, but I think I would play around with it. I'd start out by dropping 1-2 Juniper and 1 Colress. You should be perfectly fine cutting two Supporters and adding an Exeggcute for Diving Draw; essentially, it can be a raw draw eight if you have the full set up.

 

[Card Slinger J]

I just recently came in 5th place in my division out of 17 players with this deck at my local League Challenge with a win/loss record of 3 wins, 1 loss, and a tie just barely whiffing a 4th place finish had I of won against Virizion/Genesect in the 5th Round. Three of those wins were against Registeel EX/Cobalion, Lugia EX/Zoroark/Bouffalant, and Flareon/Excadrill EX/Lunatone. There was hardly anyone at my League Challenge running Darkrai but I did see a few Blastoise variants here and there.

I lost against GothLock in the 2nd round mainly because I was running Landorus EX over Mew EX but ironically enough the GothLock player wasn't running a Garbodor tech to shutdown Mew EX's Versatile ability incase I managed to get Empoleon out for Mew EX to copy Attack Command. GothLock is one of the most annoying decks I've ever seen played since I ran Victreebel/Vileplume in MD-On. Garbodor would've been a bad tech in GothLock anyway since it shuts down Gothitelle's Magic Room ability.

I did come really close to beating Virizion/Genesect however it came down to a tie on that one although I would've lost If he had ran a Fire tech against my Leafeon although I had the element of surprise in my favor, it came down to game 3 between both of us with me winning one game and him winning the other since League Challenge was 5 Rounds with Best of 2 Swiss and right when we started game 3 time was called so we were stuck on 3 turns accomplishing nothing at that point. The player turnout was a bit underwhelming but not as bad as I thought it would be though, I was expecting at least 30+ players in Masters with 15-20 in Seniors with about 5-10 in Juniors.

 

[helti]

I kinda have to agree with Zavtac, if you run all these colress for 8-10 then diving draw for more cards you mill yourself to death faster then a juni, and you're not going to N to less on that logic that you gave know are you? So 1-2 colress is good enough as is. That second super rod is key, especially w/o the flareon with revenge, 1-2 level ball could be benefited in this deck, running ultra ball is fine, but you need the basics to setup before you play the stage lines and it's better to not discard in this process.

Well, assuming your opponent doesn't want to die they will probably not run too many pokemon in fear of both colress and empoleon, meaning you could shuffle and draw a fair and not depleting amount of cards, don't forget that you're shuffling, meaning if you still have N's or Colress', and the opponent doesn't play too many pokemon, you'll shuffle in a lot of cards.
And from my experience, when I say a lot, I mean A LOT, I've ended up drawing in half my deck against Darkrai and still managed to win because of N.

 

[TuxedoBlack]

I too have successfully run my version of this deck and have found through playtesting and tournament experience that:

A 2-0-2 Dusknoir line works best (at least for me). A 1-0-1 line has too many associated risks of just not getting into play (what if your Town Map is prized...). And 4 Empoleons, 2 Leafeons and 2 Landorus EX, alone, IMHO, are just not competitive enough to win key match-ups and tournaments.

2 Super Rods works best, IMHO. The basic Poké in this deck are quite fragile, excluding Landorus EX. You'll find a second Rod to be quite useful, especially when your opponent has a great start and KOs several of your Poké early game.

I do run not Blend energy (besides players running Hammers here, I've felt I didn't really need them), but do run 3 F energy and 1 Energy Search. This combo works well for me. Since you do run multiple basic energy types, I'd suggest you also add an Energy Search.

Lastly, of the current "top" decks (Big Basics w/Garbodor, Blastoise, Darkrai, KDT, VirGen and VirMew2), most have a way of sniping benched Poké; so, I'd strongly suggest you also consider adding a Mr. Mime too.

 

[Card Slinger J]

Thanks for the feedback, I'll look into tweaking this deck with your fixes TuxedoBlack to see how it works. I know Leafeon only has 100 HP for what it does using Energy Crush but it still puts pressure on your Opponent for attaching loads of energy and you make it sound like the prize trade off with Leafeon is terrible. As for the 2 Landorus EX what should I do about it? I have it in there as a tech against Darkrai variants so should I run 1 Landorus EX and 1 Mew EX for against GothLock?

 

[Ryan Sinclair]

In my own personal build I don't run Landorus at all. Not sure if I should or not, but I was under the impression that the deck wasn't meant to run any EXs, and was mainly a deck to force your opponent to have a slow game while you take two prizes every time.

The only EX I've considered using is Mew, for the same reason GothLock runs it.

Also Flareon is a good 1-of in this deck, to counter the VirGen matchup. Sawk, too, as it OHKOs Absol, and with a Bangle attached it can still deal 80 to Darkrai.
Max Potion is also good to run here, considering you only attack with 1 energy.

 

[Card Slinger J]

I managed to handle VirGen just fine without Flareon by utilizing Leafeon's Energy Crush even though I wasn't able to apply Weakness with Silver Bangle's added damage. I feel like in other matchups Flareon would just be a waste considering there's not very many popular decks in the format that's weak to Fire other than VirGen while Leafeon has more versatility with Energy Crush.

Maybe instead of Landorus EX I should go with Sawk however the downside is that I may need to use Silver Bangle for Empoleon as well. I have such a tight decklist as it is that I'm not sure If I have the deck space for a 4th Silver Bangle in here, maybe take out 1 energy I suppose? Max Potion as you mentioned is also great in here but like I said I'm not sure If I have the deck space for it.

 

[Ryan Sinclair]

Fair enough, just throwing out food for thought!

That's the thing with this deck - so many Pokémon means tight space. However I'm not sure 13 Energy is necessary. I'm playing a mere 8 Water alone, and I never have trouble because of the immense draw power this deck has. In fact I think the French Regional-winning decks only had 7 Water. So you could remove a few there?

 

[TuxedoBlack]

I know Leafeon only has 100 HP for what it does using Energy Crush but it still puts pressure on your Opponent for attaching loads of energy...

Agreed. Leafeon is fantastic in this deck, not only for potential KO opportunities; but I've found it to be just great in getting damage into play that Dusknoir can later move for more strategic KOs. I've even been testing a 3-3 line - I like it that much.

As for the 2 Landorus EX what should I do about it? I have it in there as a tech against Darkrai variants so should I run 1 Landorus EX and 1 Mew EX for against GothLock?

I do run 1 Landurus EX in my deck too and have found it quite useful, especially in situations when I need to possibly inflict massive damage (Land Judgment). I have not playtested with Mew EX at all. I don't see enough value; GothLock is not a real concern here with all the VirGen decks and/or Virizion EX techs here. Mew EX, IMHO, is more of a liability than asset given its "low" HP.

 

[Card Slinger J]

I do run 1 Landurus EX in my deck too and have found it quite useful, especially in situations when I need to possibly inflict massive damage (Land Judgment). I have not playtested with Mew EX at all. I don't see enough value; GothLock is not a real concern here with all the VirGen decks and/or Virizion EX techs here. Mew EX, IMHO, is more of a liability than asset given its "low" HP.

GothLock (Gothitelle/Accelgor) might not be a concern right now in your area but just wait until Gothitelle/Trevenant rears it's ugly head with a Celebi EX tech for Phantump's Astonish attack with Red Card for hand disruption especially against decks that run Tropical Beach. Darkrai variants can counter it easily though especially with Yveltal EX and Emolga EX for Energy Switch shenanigans.

Dugtrio from X/Y Base Set might actually be better in Empoleon/Dusknoir than Landorus EX since it's 1st attack does 60 for 1 Fighting (same with Donphan Prime) plus with Silver Bangle attached that's 90 multiplied with weakness that's 180 and enough to one shot Darkrai EX but it still won't get you anywhere against Yveltal EX which resists Fighting by 20 added with Heavy Charm attached that's 40.

Fair enough, just throwing out food for thought!

That's the thing with this deck - so many Pokémon means tight space. However I'm not sure 13 Energy is necessary. I'm playing a mere 8 Water alone, and I never have trouble because of the immense draw power this deck has. In fact I think the French Regional-winning decks only had 7 Water. So you could remove a few there?

Oh no problem.

I'm still a bit skeptical as to how the new cards in X/Y Base Set will effect Empoleon/Dusknoir, the new Raichu would be amazing in Empoleon/Dusknoir for getting around Lugia EX, Yveltal EX, and the mirror but aside from that nothing else. As for taking out some energies to make space for other cards it shouldn't be a problem, I do think Red Card will be a staple in alot of decks when it's released since you can disrupt your Opponent's draw from Tropical Beach and it could cripple players running Rare Candy in Stage 2 decks like this one. Professor's Letter pretty much made Energy Search obsolete in this format especially since you get 2 basic energies instead of just 1 and with this deck you can use one of those energies to attach to Empoleon and the other to Diving Draw for 2 cards.