aroramage |
Wait, an EX? That DIDN'T make the
Top 10?! I mean, that's not unheard of, but hey, it's
Darkrai!! Wasn't the last one super good? What happened
to this guy?
Well actually, this Darkrai-EX
isn't that bad. Sure, he doesn't have an Ability like
Dark Cloak, but he does have a couple of attacks that
can give Night Spear a run for its money! First off,
Darkrai-EX runs Dark Pulse, which actually works out
pretty well...in theory. We've seen this kind of attack
before on M Gardevoir-EX, where the damage output is
based around the total amount of a specific Energy you
have in play, the main difference being Darkrai-EX's is
based on Dark Energy and it adds on 20 more damage to
the base 20 damage the attack is already doing. Great
late game to make a push back, but even just attaching
it to Darkrai-EX gives the attack an extra 40 damage!
And then there's Dark Head, which
plays off of Darkrai's flavor of being a nightmare
Pokemon of sorts. For 3 Energy, it can deal 80 damage,
but - and here's the kicker - if the opponent's Pokemon
is Asleep, it does 80 more damage! Now normally that'd
be pretty mediocre, but we've got a couple of cards that
make that last attack work: Hypno and All-Night Party.
And just like that, a whole new
deck is built. Simply run Darkrai-EX alongside Hypno and
All-Night Party, pump your main Darkrai-EX with Dark
Energies, put both Pokemon to Sleep with Hypno's
Goodnight, Babies Ability, wake Darkrai-EX up with
All-Night Party, and then decimate your opponent's
Pokemon with Dark Head! It's a lot like the Machamp-EX-Ariados
combo, just without the need to Poison anything and
adding on a Stadium to reverse the adverse effect of
being Asleep yourself.
So what does that all lead to with
Darkrai-EX? Well, the combo is a little more complicated
than Machamp-Ariados, but that's only because it adds
another card to the mix in order to work. That being
said, it's a neat thing to try out, but if you were
aiming to go competitive, he's got a slightly worse
chance of working as well as Machamp-iados, and when was
the last time you saw them? On the other hand, you could
build off of Dark Pulse, but when was the last time you
saw M Gardevoir-EX on the competitive scene?
Rating
Standard: 2.5/5 (two good attacks
that don't really compliment each other, unfortunately)
Expanded: 2.5/5 (but hey, at least
he could work out well with the Dark support from the
past!)
Limited: 4/5 (there's no worries
here)
Arora Notealus: Darkrai's still a
cool Pokemon, but let's face it, compared to the older
version, this one is...well, less impressive. More, but
less, ya know?
Weekend Thought: Would you want to
run the Sleeprai deck? Or are you more interested in
running Greninja BREAK from earlier? Do you think
Delinquent will see competitive play? Who knows what the
future holds...
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Otaku |
We conclude the
week with Darkrai-EX (XY: BREAKpoint
74/122, 118/122). This is a Darkness-Type; with
the rise of Trevenant BREAK and staying power of
Night March decks, exploiting Darkness-Type Weakness is
a good deal again, plus while Darkness Resistance is
universal on Fairy-Types, from what I can find their
competitive presence is minimal (though not totally
absent). There are a few anti-Darkness-Type cards
but they just aren’t very good and haven’t seen any
successful competitive play, which I suppose is a good
thing for the Darkness-Type, but its real strength lies
in its support: Dark Patch helps accelerate basic
Darkness Energy from the discard pile while some
very strong Pokémon like Yveltal-EX empower the
entire Type through basic synergy. Without these
strong Pokémon that happen to be Darkness-Types (and
thus better in Darkness-Type decks), the Type wouldn’t
be as good as it is. Darkrai-EX is a Basic
Pokémon, which is as good as it gets for Stage.
Yes there are some anti-Basic Pokémon-EX effects out
there, some of them quite good, but there are also
effects that expressly benefit Basic Pokémon in addition
to how game mechanics tend to naturally favor them,
thanks to one card being one copy of the Pokémon and
being able to hit the field without any other
stipulations.
Being a Pokémon-EX
is technically all bad, barring the occasional would-be
Evolution that gets to be a Basic instead. That
perk doesn’t apply here, but as usual Darkrai-EX
gives up an extra Prize when KOed, cannot make use of
certain beneficial effects and is the target of multiple
detrimental effects because of its status as a
Pokémon-EX. Usually being a Pokémon-EX comes with
improved HP and effects, but it isn’t guaranteed;
everything I mentioned prior is guaranteed.
Speaking of HP Darkrai-EX has 180, the higher of
the two typical Basic Pokémon-EX scores. I believe
all currently available Mega Evolutions have more (the
lower score I can recall there is 190), and there are a
handful of other Basic Pokémon-EX with even more HP.
Also a few other exceptions sprinkled throughout other
Stages or mechanics, but in the end, 180 is about as
good as it gets. Still within OHKO range so one
can’t be too careful, and this goes double when taking
double damage from Fighting-Types due to the card’s
Weakness; thanks to the multiple damage buffs
Fighting-Types tend to stack, even Darkrai-EX
falls not just within OHKO range but OHKO range with the
better single Energy attacks. The Psychic
Resistance doesn’t balance this out (Resistance offers
far less protection than Weakness offers a risk), but it
is still appreciated as “No Resistance” seems to be the
most common, and on occasion Psychic Resistance can and
will come in handy. For this section that just
leaves the Retreat Cost of [CC]; you can and should
include options to lower this or bypass manually
retreating. If you must pay full price, though, this is
low enough to still be workable.
Darkrai-EX
has no Ancient Trait or Ability but does sport two
attacks. The first is “Dark Pulse” for [CC], which
does 20 damage for all [D] Energy attached to your
Pokémon. The price allows you to use a Double
Colorless Energy if you need to, but the damage
bonus means you really want to use [D] Energy of some
sort instead if at all possible. This attack is
somewhere between “good” and “great”; even if you just
have [DD] attached and no more in play, you do a solid
60 for two. If you can get and keep Energy in
play, the damage output can get impressive, though it is
unlikely you’ll reach the 180 (or 160 plus other boosts)
needed to OHKO the majority of targets. The second
attack is “Dark Head” and it costs [DCC] to do 80
damage, plus another 80 if the opponent’s Active is
Asleep. WIthout the clause triggering, it is a
underwhelming but still not awful; toss in a Muscle
Band or Fighting Fury Belt and you’ll have a
possibly adequate 2HKO of typical Basic Pokémon-EX (and
smaller) Pokémon. Less Mega Evolutions and a few
other exceptions, that covers the competitive metagame.
If the opponent’s Active is Asleep and you’ve got
something (or somethings) to bump up the damage, Dark
Head jumps from a possibly adequate 2HKO to a
promisingly potent OHKO of all but the aforementioned
exceptions (Mega Evolutions, Pokémon-EX with Fighting
Fury Belt, etc.).
Since Darkrai-EX
is a Basic, there are no lower Stages to address before
we get to how it can be run, but there is another
Darkrai-EX, the original released as BW: Dark
Explorers 63/108 (and 107/108), BW: Black Star
Promos BW46, and BW: Legendary Treasures
88/113. It has the same attributes as the new
version, but has an Ability (Dark Cloak) and attack
(Night Spear) instead of two attacks. Dark Cloak
is a phenomenal Ability, zeroing out the Retreat Cost of
any and all of your Pokémon with a source of [D] Energy
attached. Night Spear is no slouch either,
requiring [DDC] but doing 90 to the opponent’s Active
and hitting one Benched Pokémon of your choice for 30.
This was the first rival to Mewtwo-EX (BW:
Next Destinies 54/99, 98/99; BW: Black Star
Promos BW45; BW: Legendary Treasures 54/113)
and at times it even seemed better; a dedicated
(original) Darkrai-EX deck could actually go from
zero to powered up and attacking in a single turn… and
this was back when attacks were allowed on Player 1’s
first turn! It predated Muscle Band but an
obsolete piece of Darkness-Type support is Dark Claw,
which was simply Muscle Band for Darkness-Types
only! The thing was this Darkrai-EX also
saw play in many non-Darkness-Type decks, because cards
like Prism Energy or even just a few basic
Darkness Energy included still enabled Dark Cloak to
provide a precious perfect Retreat Cost. Before
Float Stone, Darkrai-EX and Dark Cloak
were how you optimized Keldeo-EX and its “Rush
In” Ability.
The good news is
that the two Darkrai-EX compliment each other;
the original went from “main attacker” to
“alternate/back-up attacker” a while ago, which also
meant cutting it down to one or two copies per deck.
Given that you can only lose three Pokémon-EX before
you’ve lost the entire game, even when focusing on
today’s Darkrai-EX as an attacker, you should
have room for at least one (maybe even two) of the
original Darkrai-EX. So what else should
you have with Darkrai-EX (XY: BREAKpoint
74/122, 118/122)? You can either focus on Dark
Pulse and flooding the field with [D] Energy, on Dark
Head and inflicting Sleep, or you can try to do both.
The third and final option is the one I see most and it
even managed to make Top 8 at one of the 2016 WInter
Regional Championships. When it works it is a
thing of beauty, and when it doesn’t it can still do a
solid job because it isn’t like you have to skip much
else that would be in other typical Expanded
Darkness-Type decks. Hypnotoxic Laser and
Virbank City Gym aren’t the “must run” combo that
they once were, but are still a common enough general
approach; it is just with Darkrai-EX (XY:
BREAKpoint 74/122, 118/122) they have the added
benefit of potentially setting up for a massive Dark
Head attack. Likewise Dark Patch was
already there for accelerating Energy to any of your
Darkness-Types, but now you work in some copies of
Max Elixir.
Standard play
doesn’t have Dark Patch, which is where the
build-up has been from the previous two CotDs. Hypno
(XY: BREAKpoint 51/122) provides a reusable,
reliable source of Sleep with its “Goodnight, Babies”
Ability that leaves both Active Pokémon Asleep, while
All-Night Party or Zoroark (XY:
BREAKthrough 91/162) plus Float Stone ensure
you can get your own Active out of Sleep. Both
might be a good idea if you can manage; while if
Abilities go down the entire combo goes down, the surge
in Pokémon Tool usage we have experienced has been
followed up by an increase in Pokémon Tool counters,
while Stadium wars are and have been a thing. For
Limited play, where you typically have a 40 card deck
and four Prizes (Pre-Releases are the most common
example of Limited play), Darkrai-EX should be
amazing. This is almost the exact kind of Pokémon
you would run totally on its own; no other Pokémon (so
that this is your opening Basic), and preferably no more
than six non-Energy cards (to ensure an Energy each
turn). If you go first, you won’t even miss any
additional attacks, while if you go second you only
“lose” one attack, with Dark Pulse starting at 60 damage
and you just adding another basic Darkness Energy
each turn. Max Elixir and Fighting Fury Belt
are even in this set, so if you get those it becomes
even better. I don’t recall if there are any cards
that do more damage based on the Energy attached to the
opponent’s Active, but that and Garchomp (XY:
BREAKpoint 70/122) are the only real threat to worry
about… besides some of the other Basic Pokémon-EX.
Ratings
Standard:
3.8/5
Expanded:
3.8/5
Limited:
5/5
Summary:
Darkrai-EX isn’t the new dominant attacker, but
it is a great card. When I first saw it, I didn’t
think much of it as it seemed to rely too much on other
factors, but I misread the metagame and so it looks like
Darkrai-EX is going to enjoy at least a period of
prosperity. It scores the same in Standard and
Expanded even though circumstances are rather different;
in Expanded it has more support but also a lot
more competition. In Standard you lose Dark
Patch and the Hypnotoxic Laser… but you also
lose the competition from various other decks.
Also while I am still quite impressed by it, don’t
forget how dangerous Fighting Weakness can be in a
format where many decks are already including Gallade
(XY: BREAKthrough 84/162); as long as the
opponent played a Supporter that turn (like Maxie’s
Hidden Ball Trick to get Gallade into play),
Gallade just needs a Double Colorless Energy
to OHKO Darkrai-EX (even if Darkrai-EX has
Fighting Fury Belt attached).
So why didn’t this
card make our Top 10? I had only just started to
understand that the attacks I thought were too
demanding… weren’t. That this could easily work
alongside the original Darkrai-EX in Expanded and
that it was worth the hassle in Standard. I had it
as my 10th place pick in my own Top 15 for the set, but
in the end it only managed to make 16th place for the
Pojo Top 20 with 6 voting points. It definitely
should have rated higher on my list.
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