Hammertime (Darkrai EX / Sableye / Hammers)

Blah

DBT
Member
Use this thread for all discussion of the Hammertime deck. This includes strategies, playstyles, and techs. This includes variants containing Landorus EX and other Fighting types.

You may post decklists here, but only as a means of adding to the discussion. Don't post decklists here for advice.

All discussion not related to Hammertime will be moved or deleted. All shallow or uninformed discussion will also be deleted by the mods.
 

anythingbutgrass

Aspiring Trainer
Member
RE: Hammertime (Darkrai EX/Sableye/Hammers)

I ran this deck at a cities this year. My strategy was to continue to hammer spam with sableye until I was forced to attack with darkrai (generally they had little to no set up pokemon and I would have 1-2 darkrai evolited and ready to go with mewtwo an energy away from attacking). This was an alright strategy, it decked out one opponent, but lost one game on time.
Strategy: hammer spam with sableye until a darkrai is set up, then start attacking.
I thought skyla and gold potion were must haves. Healing without discarding the energies attached to darkrai was great and drawing out hammers is essential.
I lean towards mewtwo for a tech here. I didn't like shaymin ex due to that most of the time, it's a two turn set up, requires a grass energy (blend) and people catcher it out and OHKO it with something like ho oh or mewtwo or keldeo. Also a tech that I'm trying- drifblim. A couple enhanced hammers and it can be doing upwards of 100 HP for one colorless energy. Also only gives up one prize, but is at least a 2 turn set up.
 

MMAmonchan

Pokemon = Dota2
Member
RE: Hammertime (Darkrai EX/Sableye/Hammers)

Does anyone think this deck is dying? With keldeo/blastoise around it seems like everyone is less likely to run it. It also seems to have pretty bad matchs against ho-oh and Lando/anything or Terrakion/ Anything. It definitely destroys the huge insurgence of Klinklang decks that have recently appeared. Also it may have a decent matchup against Lugia once Plasma Storm is released. But thats all i see ever coming from this deck with todays meta.
 

anythingbutgrass

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I think that people just found that hydreigon was an easier deck to play with (and better). Darkrai just gets one shotted by too many meta cards with keldeo and landorus playing right now, so having that free energy switch to make mewtwo giratina shaymin etc one turn setups (and OHKO machines) is a selling point this deck doesn't have. I would say it just gets out classed by hydreigon. Not to mention the always annoying max potions in a hydreigon deck. IMO this deck is still a lot of fun and I'll keep playing it. It still has its good matchups too so it won't completely die out (i think).
 

Blui

lv85 paladin
Member
MMAmonchan said:
Does anyone think this deck is dying? With keldeo/blastoise around it seems like everyone is less likely to run it. It also seems to have pretty bad matchs against ho-oh and Lando/anything or Terrakion/ Anything. It definitely destroys the huge insurgence of Klinklang decks that have recently appeared. Also it may have a decent matchup against Lugia once Plasma Storm is released. But thats all i see ever coming from this deck with todays meta.

wut. You do realize that hammers actually beats Landorus? Plus, it can very easily get a T2 Night Spear, and if you're going forst with it that can really hurt your opponent! Terrakion is too slow in this format, IMO. But it is a great tech card, but as soon as they drop it you Catcher kill it. Also, Lugia isn't doing too well in Japan now, so don't count on anything yet.

Okay, I really like hammers, it has pretty good matchups against the board (except Ho-oh maybe, I haven't seen that yet). And is probably the most consistent deck in the format, and we have a very consistent format right now. Hammers will be alive for a while, and will be there to annoy the hell out of frozen city.
 

blargh257

IT'S BEEN THREE THOUSAND YEARS
Member
I like Hammertime a lot, but the Keldeo matchup is just TERRIBLE so I prefer Darkrai/Mewtwo. When I was playing the deck Hammers were dead useless against Keldeo and mediocre against everything else.

I do believe the deck is dying, but slowly. It's not going to vaporize.
 

Rummage

.
Member
City Stats so far:
1st place - 9
2nd place - 5
3rd/4th place - 13
= 27 total Top 4's

It seems to be good enough to make the cut still, however, I would imagine a closer look would reveal the majority of its losses are to Blastoise/KeldeoEX.
 

anythingbutgrass

Aspiring Trainer
Member
What do you guys like tech wise in this deck? I've goofed with:
1-1 drifblim (useable, but against landorus, keldeo, Eels W/O DCE, just a wasted 2 cards)
Shaymin (not a fan in this deck)
Mewtwo (IMO a must have)
Virizion NVI (haven't gotten a chance to play it, looks incredibly like shaymin in terms of set up time and uses)
 

Dork Void

#OCCUPYALLTHINGS
Member
If you think Virizion NVI has anything close to the same uses as Shaymin then you clearly have no clue what the point of Shaymin is. Shaymin wins you Terrakion somewhat, yes, but Terrakion sees practically no play with Landorus EX's release and Shaymin's real purpose is to sweep late game. If the opponent's field is as energy-less as it should be, they'll probably only have energy on 1-2 attackers and you can OHKO them both with Shaymin, leading to an easy come-from-behind sweep. It also helps the Blastoise Keldeo matchup considerably, one of this deck's worst, and Virizion NVI doesn't really help there (doesn't OHKO anything, even after setting up Leaf Wallop for a turn still doesn't OHKO Keldeo).
 

anythingbutgrass

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Yeah, I knew that I just meant it's still a 2 turn set up that requires blends and is used to counter keldeo. I know that shaymin is used to destroy the field late game, my issue with it is that it's a 2 turn set up with 110 HP that requires blends (like virizon). Those were the only similarities I was getting at. Shaymin is hands down the better attacker. I haven't played with virizon but I wasn't getting a good idea of uses for it when I was looking at the card. Do you play shaymin? I do in hydreigon, but I feel it's too long of a setup that has too little health and is too dangerous on the field. People catcher KO it as soon as possible if you can't set it up in one turn.
 

Blui

lv85 paladin
Member
anythingbutgrass said:
Yeah, I knew that I just meant it's still a 2 turn set up that requires blends and is used to counter keldeo. I know that shaymin is used to destroy the field late game, my issue with it is that it's a 2 turn set up with 110 HP that requires blends (like virizon). Those were the only similarities I was getting at. Shaymin is hands down the better attacker. I haven't played with virizon but I wasn't getting a good idea of uses for it when I was looking at the card. Do you play shaymin? I do in hydreigon, but I feel it's too long of a setup that has too little health and is too dangerous on the field. People catcher KO it as soon as possible if you can't set it up in one turn.

You do realize hammer runs Energy Switch? That way you can get a 1T Shaymin EX set up, even if your active only has 1 dark energy.
 

anythingbutgrass

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Yes, I seem to need to trim my deck a bit to make energy switch or skyla more consistent. Just a problem that I was having apperantly. Anyway, less my deck, what do you run as a tech? Sorry about my mis played deck information busting in there.
 

Glace

Top 8, Worlds 2013
Advanced Member
Member
Dark Void said:
Shaymin wins you Terrakion somewhat, yes, but Terrakion sees practically no play with Landorus EX's release and Shaymin's real purpose is to sweep late game.

You're kidding me right? Terra still sees play, as it can ohko darkrais more easily.
 

venasour x

Now I'm in college :)
Member
I played Darkrai/Terrakion/Hammers and loved it. The only reason I stopped is because it has a bad Keldeo/Blastoise matchup and that is what 90% of my meta is.
 

exdarkrai01

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Pretty much every deck has a bad matchup with Keldeo anyways. If the players made a consistent deck with a good mewtwo count, it will be a very difficult deck to take down. Darkrai/Sableye is actually one of my top choices against Keldeo. It can outspeed Keldeo and hitting for 90 while sniping is to good. I don't think any of the grass techs are good. Shaymin works well in Hydreigon, but not because its a grass type. There is nothing in the format that is a grass type that will hurt Keldeo that much. Teching grass is a terrible idea in any deck and Keldeo will walk all over it. Especially Shaymin. Shaymin can 1HKO Keldeo, but Keldeo can return the favor just as easy, especially if Blastoise is out.
 

Puff-Sun

Gogoats
Member
I'm maining Darkrai/Mewtwo/Bouffalant/Hammers, and it's working amazingly. Running a high Mewtwo count and DCE really helps your Keldeo matchup a ton, and we all know how strong Hammers is against anything else. I'm also running 1 Keldeo EX as a tech, seeing as it really helps my RayEels matchup, and just my ease of setup in general. Being able to Dark Patch to the active is great, and so is getting out of Catchers without having to waste an energy drop.
 

wrags23

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I know this is old, but with the addition of Plasma Blast, I have an idea for a Super Hammertime deck... here is the Pokemon line:

4 Drifloon
2 Drifblim DEX
2 Drifblim PLB
4 Sableye
2 Darkrai EX

Lives off of discarding Special Energy...
 

Dork Void

#OCCUPYALLTHINGS
Member
And what do you do when you face a deck that doesn't need Special Energy to function (aka pretty much anything but Plasma)? Roll over and die?
 

wrags23

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Dark Void said:
And what do you do when you face a deck that doesn't need Special Energy to function (aka pretty much anything but Plasma)? Roll over and die?

That was my plan... I knew that it wouldn't work against Darkrai, Blastoise, or anything else, but I just wanted to through the idea out there because I got crushed by it with my Plasma deck yesterday.. I thought it was interesting.
 
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