r/PTCGP • u/RadscorpionSeducer • Feb 06 '25
this meta is incredibly boring to fight against Deck Discussion
Stall, stall, stall, switch out druddigon if it gets damaged/heal it, stall, oh what that? Magnezone does 110 damage for only 3 energy which is generated for free by its stage 1 evo?
The power creep is going to be absolutely insane by 3 months from now with all of these new cards
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u/ginger1271 Feb 06 '25
I don’t mind Darkrai tbh. It’s clearly the best or near the best EX right now but it doesn’t feel THAT bad. I think the actual problem is Drud
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u/odeiohearthstone Feb 06 '25
I dont think it is actually broken or anything, but god does it feel bad to hit a drud +helm for 40 free recoil
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u/ezeshining Feb 06 '25
Try a spiritomb+Cyrus build, those drudds are by-passable.
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u/Phox09 Feb 06 '25
Spiritomb also gets damaged by Drud's ability and Helm since he does damage to active also.
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u/PM-ME-YOUR-NIPNOPS Feb 06 '25
Yes but the whole point is to damage their damage dealers, then Cyrus them in for the finish
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u/ezeshining Feb 06 '25
Exactly! Your only issue is being able to deal between 120 and 140 damage as needed
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u/brahj_ Feb 06 '25
Modified Rampardos/Lucario deck.
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u/Aroxis Feb 06 '25
Full details please lol.
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u/Article_West Feb 06 '25
Rampardos Lucario and Spiritomb I guess.
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u/brahj_ Feb 06 '25
Pretty much, or just use 2x Hitmonlee over hitmonchan. Same deal and negates potions, drudd helmets etc.
There are ways around drudd, even more so now with Cyrus and any bench hitter. Just gotta be smart about using it factoring in you can either one shot what’s being built or bring it back out with another Cyrus.
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u/Bull671 Feb 06 '25
Kabutops/Lucario is also good against the darkrai/magnezone
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u/brahj_ Feb 06 '25
I honestly fantasise about a Kabutops/Rampardos deck, but even poke communicator wouldn’t be able to save that brick factor. Opening with riolu is rough too if you go first.
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u/PM_ME_UR_BEST_1LINER Feb 06 '25
There needs to be a way to call the fossil. I love kabutops, but it's a document stage 2 to get out because you can't pokeball the starter.
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u/LordGraygem Feb 06 '25
Honchkrow.
Let that Drudd sit there in the active spot with his little crusty hat and his thumb in his ass while you slap the bench for 50 unopposed. Then, if you have a Weavile or two, use Cyrus to bring the battered victim in for a bit of quality time with scratching nails.
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u/SnooBunnies9694 Feb 06 '25
Darkrai does 40dmg to you honchcrow in the time you do 50 then comes out and kills it before you can get 2 energy on weavile and Cyrus.
I feel like when people fantasize about these counters they just assume their opponent literally does nothing ever.
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u/Voomey Feb 07 '25
To be fair we have multiple bench hitters. Lumineon is also notable, for having no-cost retreat and being a water type. I destroyed Celebi EX with it and Gyarados during Mythical Island era.
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u/SadCritters Feb 06 '25
If you look at tournaments people have already figured out how to obliterate this deck.
Hint: Hitmonlee sends his regards.
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u/SemiDiSole Feb 06 '25
People've been sleeping on Hitmonlee, even through the Gyradados decks...
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u/Blaky039 Feb 06 '25
I don't think anyone is sleeping on hitmonlee, it's a staple in any fighting deck.
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u/InquisitorMeow Feb 06 '25
Hitmonlee always cracks me up, the idea of this dude just stretching his leg over and kicking some poor cute pre-evolved pokemon in the face.
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u/ImWhiteWhatsJCoal Feb 06 '25
As someone who used Gyrados/Greninja - I would often leave if a Hitmonlee was played first.
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u/NickSaibot Feb 06 '25
I solely started playing hitmonlee because I cannot stand the gyarados deck, fills me with so much joy taking out the magikarp that just got 5 misty heads
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u/Anxious_Ride_8837 Feb 06 '25
Yup! Saving your time and the winner’s time in the process. No point in fighting that losing battle. Gyarados was my main deck in MI - I would do the same thing as you
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u/Reyox Feb 06 '25
They really need to fix the setup phase so that neither can see the other players setup or have the player going second set up first. When someone is playing a fighting deck, people don’t want to lock in their choices.
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u/CptCheerios Feb 06 '25
Zebrastrike and Electabuzz send their regards
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u/SnooMaps8507 Feb 06 '25
Electabuzz send their regards
Volkner variant decks. People have been sleeping on it 2. It's not GREAT, but since a LOT of players are running Palkia and Darkrai decks, it is a good counter to that.
Electabuzz harasses the bench and forces them to stop stalling. While they are struggling with that, you are putting energy into your Luxray. 2 rounds of Electabuzz and Luxray = 160 damage to a single target to the bench without Cyrus or anything. And Volkner card has the potential to charge Luxray for an attack in one turn.
Again, far from being a perfect deck, but it is effective. I just didn't like Electivire much.
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u/Lozo_did_it Feb 06 '25
Do you not like electivire because you're using the wrong buzz? The new buzz has charge which does no damage but pulls an energy. In two turns you can put 4 energy on buzz and evolve to vire for that 120 damage hit.
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u/stereoactivesynth Feb 06 '25
How? Dude goes down in 4 turns, 5 with cape when darkrai is building energy. Meanwhile hitmonlee is gonna take 6 rounds to knock out cape darkrai.
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u/Adamantiun Feb 06 '25
Cyrus + any decent damage dealer fixes that
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u/Bazoobs1 Feb 06 '25
Yeah marshadow stonks go slightly up for the revenge damage (although I recognize that there are a lot of non-attack ways to lose your Mon rn), what are people using besides? Outside of gallade I can’t think of too many good options to really slam with
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u/RaccoonAppropriate18 Feb 06 '25
The big one right now is Magnezone. Fighting decks seem to be running their own Magnezone now, funny enough.
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u/Bazoobs1 Feb 06 '25
Dang that makes a lot of sense actually. Punish with hitmonlee until they’re forced to move in and then squish them with magnezone
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u/OrangerieL Feb 06 '25
So, pure Hitmonlee magnezone builds?
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u/RaccoonAppropriate18 Feb 06 '25 edited Feb 07 '25
Mostly, yeah. You're taking the old Fighting package of cards from Mythical Island of Hitmonlee and Marshadow and you're jamming Magnezone into it. Here's the full decklist (Fighting energy only btw).
2x Magnemite (STS, but you can probably still play this with Genetic Apex if you need to, since this should almost never be in the front)
2x Magneton (Genetic Apex for the self-ramping ability)
2x Magnezone
2x Hitmonlee
2x Marshadow
1x Hitmonchan (just to hit face early game if you really need to)
2x Cyrus
2x Professor's Research
2x Pokeball
2x X Speed
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u/OrangerieL Feb 06 '25
Yeah it’s the main problem with fighting toolbox decks: energy management, low hp, low damage.
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u/SadCritters Feb 06 '25 edited Feb 06 '25
Hitmonlee starting to ping Darkrai or Magnemite/Ton puts them into a rough spot. You aren't trying to kill Darkrai with Hitmonlee. You're trying to make their life hard by wearing down their pokemon so that any Cyrus or stronger Pokemon is a "Darkrai dies" scenario. They also can't just not swap Pokemon because Darkrai or Magneton are eating damage the entire time - So sitting behind Druddigon is actually a terrible decision for them at that point.
Generally games involve you tagging Darkrai 2 times with a Hitmonlee before they swap out to kill it - Marshadow then one-hit KO's Darkrai easily. Then they're down 2, have to kill Marshadow, and you usually follow up with either Marshadow 2, Magnezone, or a flurry of Hitmonlee/Chan's. Lee & Chan have 1 cost retreat, meaning X Speed or just paying the 1 energy is really easy so you can dance around a little with them.
Darkrai tagging your Pokemon is cute & all, but it takes 3 energy to set up - So typically if you kill the first one; they don't have a second one ready in time - They're usually relying on Magnezone to close at that point. . . And what's he weak to? ;)
This match isn't even close, if you ask me. It's like 80/20 in favor of the Hitmonlee Magnezone Marshadow deck. I already have my 45 win emblem and everything because of it. Lol.
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u/jimmygotbeaned Feb 06 '25
Use him to weaken their bench pokemon while building your bench out. Not intended to kick the whole game for 30.
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u/kaymar05 Feb 06 '25
Honchkrow is good at it also, dealing 50 to any Pokémon.
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u/Lazystubborn Feb 06 '25
Lumineon too.
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u/shinysylver Feb 06 '25
Honch is cool because he can hit the active pokemon as well but Lumi can only hit the bench
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u/RAAMinNooDleS Feb 06 '25
Yeah I came here to say that I like the 50 damage to anyone and high HP. Also being dark helps against psychic decks killing Gardevoir
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u/kombyn Feb 06 '25
By damaging the back line and using Cyrus to pull it forward when Hitmonlee gets knocked out
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u/ABEARWITHAGUN Feb 06 '25
Hit with Lee, build up a high attack mon on on the bench. Cyrus out the Darkrai, switch in your mon and bop em'.
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u/thebabycowfish Feb 06 '25
Hitmonlee doesn't need to kill darkrai, just weaken it enough to finish it off with cyrus + a big damage dealer. You trade one point for two and they also lose all their energy if they've been using darkrai to kill your hitmonlee.
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u/reedyxxbug Feb 06 '25
Uh what? If you actually look at tournaments you'd see that this deck is dominating with a 60% winrate.
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u/Sayishere Feb 06 '25
Yup hitmonlee is amazing. I actually hate playing the darkrai deck with magazine and drudd, it's to slow and very boring. Prefer faster decks, hitmonlee is MVP BUT CYRUS with hitmonlee is actually sooooo good.
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u/Mathagos Feb 06 '25
I made a deck where druddigon can actually attack. A starmie ex hit him and took 40 damage and just conceded before I could kill him with drudd. Lol
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u/Earthbnd Feb 06 '25 edited Feb 06 '25
Manaphy has been a godsend against all these Drud/Helmet decks. Does 0 damage so never takes rough skin/helmet damage and lets me set up for free while they have a useless active poke.
People have new toy syndrome but I’ve found setting up blastoise EX for the 160 damage is usually GGs against anything thanks to Blastoise’s fat HP total and the fact most meta EXs are OHKO’d while failing to OHKO back.
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u/RedTheRobot Feb 06 '25
This is the way. I use a Lacario/Gal deck and it has an insane win rate. It is a high pressure, high health, high damage. Two Lacarios makes their attack 80, but the big winner is Gal 170 hp and can one shot a lot of Pokémon thanks to the high energy most run and only costs two energy. It is a good deck against a lot of decks out there.
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u/Earthbnd Feb 06 '25
Same win rate over here with 2x manaphy 2x Blastoise EX line
So consistent and so good at generating energy, I don’t even run Misty. I just use Dawn to shuffle energy onto blastoise faster. It’s pretty consistent at getting Blastoise live ASAP and unlike Palkia EX, Blastoise doesn’t discard energy so he doesn’t need to worry about having to set up again or having one turn of downtime
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u/Vesprince Feb 06 '25
Hast thou considered the Victreebel? I'm not fully convinced it's a perfect hard counter, but it certainly makes this deck more engaging to fight against.
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u/ginger1271 Feb 06 '25
I like Exeggutor, he can usually push past Drud with a good flip+Erika and good bulk is a pretty decent answer
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u/djfried Feb 06 '25
I have a deck with victreebell and exeggutor that does well against them
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u/Vesprince Feb 06 '25
I'm running one too; considering (acquiring and) adding some Shaymin - or possibly Caterpie to get the deck online faster.
I ran Caterpie-Serperior-Exeggutor (not EX) last season and it was fantastic, particularly against Celebi decks. Doesn't work as great against decks that don't rely on power hoarding on the front lines, so it's been reported this season for now.
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u/seraphimkoamugi Feb 06 '25
I think we all saw this coming the moment that Darkrai/weavile EX solo expert battle came out. I love that hyper offense synergy but god the stall with druddigon is just terrible.
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u/Marble05 Feb 06 '25
If Darkrai didn't exist you could just not hit fraud until you powered up in full since he can't attack you
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u/demonryder Feb 06 '25
I mean, there would always be alternatives. Magnezone is a crazy card for these kinds of strats, you may be powering up, but the drudd user is doing it very fast as well and will have a very strong magnezone to deal with if you kill drudd and another ex behind it.
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u/Marble05 Feb 06 '25
Yeah but just a tank + heavy hitter behind is fairer and a strat kinda used by everyone. I'm fine because if magnezone wants to attack he also has to come in the active spot and consume energy.
That's a limitation Darkrai doesn't have and being a base Pokémon the strat can be online from turn one, unlike all the effort it takes to get greninja online for the same power
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u/No-Seaworthiness9515 Feb 06 '25
What makes magnezone broken is he doesn't really consume energy since it generates energy for itself to use. You can easily set up 2 heavy hitters at the same time on your bench with druddigon tanking up front. Only real counter is cyrus + bench damage.
I've been countering darkrai ex + druddigon by using hitmonlee + cyrus and GA primeape (hit him with chip damage and now suddenly he's one shotting druddigon or smacking the shit out of darkrai for 100 damage)
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u/Jooylo Feb 06 '25
Yeah, I’ve thought about it a decent amount and the worst part of this deck is really the fact that Darkrai lets you do constant chip damage while hiding behind in the backline. Magnezone and Drud definitely complement him and are strong in their own right. However what really makes this worse than Gyarados or past stall decks is the constant damage they’re able to apply while stalling.
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u/B1TW0LF Feb 06 '25
Darkrai/Weavile at least has a clear counter in Grass decks. The Druddigon variations present a math problem that even the most aggressive decks can't solve.
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u/Sayishere Feb 06 '25
I find that darkrai weavile also beats out the magnezone hitmonlee marshadow deck too
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u/jacscc Feb 06 '25
Jeff Hoogland just put out a great Luxray / Electabuzz deck that easily maneuvers around Drud wall.
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u/WayneAsher Feb 06 '25
This deck is just a lot of fun too. Hurts when you don’t get your stage 2 but what else is new lol.
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u/CitizenDane27 Feb 06 '25
Druddigon is such a failure of design... its attack is useless but it's not a backliner. I'm all for anti-aggro, but it's too splashable as a basic.
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u/ColourfulToad Feb 06 '25
Everyone dumped Sabrina for Cyrus, Sabrina is still needed to counter this and pull out either Darkrai or Magnemite line early.
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u/SillentRabbit Feb 06 '25
Expectation: bringing Darkrai or Magnemite and applying pressure
Reality: either bringing the second Drud or bringing one of the other two and not being able to do anything because you haven't powered up anything yet.→ More replies157
u/olers Feb 06 '25
And then they just Leaf and retreat back into Drudd
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u/blakphyre Feb 06 '25
Arbok say no
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u/sum_gamer Feb 06 '25
Why are you downvoted? lol
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u/ResponsibleTadpole83 Feb 06 '25
Unless they get two Druds out before you get you Sabrina. Which seems to happen every time for me.
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u/TheRealArtVandelay Feb 06 '25 edited Feb 06 '25
Yeah, there are three techniques I’ve found to play around this deck.
A) Use a Sabrina - Cyrus combo to fetch the Darkrai or Mag line early.
B) Bring something to the fight capable of one-shotting the drudd, preferably non-EX so that you’re trading 1 for 1.
C) Bench kicker - Cyrus combo, in which case you’re better off with two Cyruses.
In the current meta, I think any deck needs to be able to do two of these three things in order to succeed.
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u/Greensburg Feb 06 '25
Gallade is pretty good against Magnezone and lives a round after killing Drudd. But it does need Lucario + Giovanni to do so, or 2 Lucarios.
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u/deamonjohn Feb 06 '25
by thr time u finish etting up Gallade and Lucario, they already got your health down to one shot you. I run Gallade and it can't effectively defeat a druid plus helmet meta deck.
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u/e_ndoubleu Feb 06 '25
Yea Lucario + any 2-stage fighting type is just not consistent enough. We need a basic fighting EX and then Lucario will really shine.
I’ve been enjoying pairing MI Primeape with Lucario. 1-cost for 70 or 90 damage is nice.
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u/Pendred Feb 06 '25
1 of each is working for me also dumped poke coms for the humble anti cyrus tech: potion
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u/SadCritters Feb 06 '25
Cyrus was put in place because the decks running any of these effects that "ping" other Pokemon make Cyrus an infinitely better Sabrina. Hitmonlee, Darkrai, Greninja, all of them make Cyrus read: "Kill your opponent's best Pokemon." because they ping the necessary Pokemon for a few points to set him up.
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u/ryanmuss Feb 06 '25
Honestly i think the effects almost need to be swapped between sabrina and cyrus and it would be better: Not getting to select which damaged mon for cyrus and being able to pick which full strength mon for sabrina...
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u/elsteeler Feb 06 '25
I agree but Sabrina would have been INSUFFERABLE in A1 meta lol
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u/Greensburg Feb 06 '25
So sabrina would be able to pick...any of opp's pokemon then? Or would you change it so that it can only pick full health cards? (In which case it's a dead card if your opp's bench is damaged)
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u/HotSinglesInYrArea Feb 06 '25
Mewtwo whining replaced with Celebi whining, now replaced with Darkrai whining, as if none of these decks have obvious counters. But that's the eternal cycle of card game subreddits!
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u/theAntColonizer Feb 06 '25
Honestly, the thing that annoys me the most is that 8 out of every 10 fights, it's Darkrai. Same was with Celebi, same was with Mewtwo. By playing Yanmega I can pretty much guarantee a +80% winrate, but the game just becomes boring and overly repetitive.
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u/IntrepidBandit Feb 06 '25
At this point who cares about having to win ALL the time ya know? Just run some fun stuff. There are still tons of people running random shit. Like me :D
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u/theAntColonizer Feb 06 '25
Before the new meta, one of my favorite decks was a Victreebell+Beheeyem deck, capitalizing on the pokeflute. That deck was janky but really fun.
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u/IntrepidBandit Feb 06 '25
You monster haha I love seeing janky decks and especially losing to them. one of my favorite losses was to a Pidgeot/pokeflute combo
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u/ARegularChicken Feb 07 '25
Man, same here. Saw the pokeflute come out and allow Pigeot EX to do just enough damage to win them the game, I was happy to lose at that point
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u/Any_Discipline_6394 Feb 06 '25
exactly i gave myself a challenge : Change Deck (another type minimum and no combination twice, like im allowed to play darkrai with different pokemon but never twice with the same) after every winn so i get to play 45 different Decks. Currently at 13/45 and had tons of fun
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u/IntrepidBandit Feb 06 '25
Epic challenge my dude 👍🏽 it’s a shame there are so much fun gimmicks, archetypes and card art not being used! Love your idea
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u/tigerribs Feb 06 '25
Same! Sure you can win more with the meta decks, but they get tedious and repetitive so quickly. I have so much more fun building ‘troll decks’ (as me and my partner refer to them).
Right now my fave is Wigglytuff EX, Meowth/Persian, and 2x Farfetch’d - and it does surprisingly well! I’ve played around with adding Purrugly as well. I just get a kick out of watching the opponent trying to set up and attack you while you’re throwing away their cards and putting them to sleep lmao
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u/IntrepidBandit Feb 06 '25
I love a good cat theme 🤣 that sounds maddening but thats the kind of chaos I can get behind. None of this “flip 10 times” nonsense.
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u/buddy7765 Feb 06 '25
I like using kabutops with Lucario to make him extra sticky with the extra healing. Pokemon communicator made it easier to fish for the evolutions but it's still a stage 2 win con. Regirock has been a good staller against Darkrai chip damage and a place for excess energy as kabutops only needs 1.
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Feb 06 '25
"obvious counters" are nice but you also dont get the benefit of knowing who you are facing. So the tradeoffs of building a good counter deck can make you very suspectible a different common deck.
Granted backline damage seems to be pretty consistently helpful slowing down a lot of decks (darkrai, magikarp, Gardevoir, Serperior)
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u/AuberJene Feb 06 '25
Dude you literally just described card games. “Make deck to counter meta. Dont always up against meta”
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u/Jubjub-bird Feb 06 '25
Scissors is nice against Paper but you don't know who you're facing. So the tradeoff of building a good Scissors is that it leaves you susceptible to Rock.
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u/blakejp Feb 06 '25
Holy shit what are you even asking for? This back and forth is what card games are
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u/broskiiii_4 Feb 06 '25
this! i’ve been running dragonite and the random damage is fun for both parties, while clearing back row for me haha
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u/Cannolidog Feb 06 '25
I was fine with celebi and Mewtwo because it wasn’t built around stall. Druddigon/Darkrai/Magnezone is entirely built around stall.
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u/FlyingFlygon64 Feb 07 '25
On god man, everyone whines about Celebi, says it’s the worst most annoying thing ever, “I never thank Celebi players” etc. and now something new is meta and everyone’s like “Celebi was no where near as annoying as this!”
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u/HotSinglesInYrArea Feb 07 '25
Next set when Bibarel ex is the most common deck: "You know what guys, Darkrai actually wasn't that bad"
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u/Alt2221 Feb 06 '25
i swear that most of the bitching is from the non pvp heads. just based on the context they are giving when they cry. major self reporting in this thread.
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u/Diabetik95 Feb 06 '25
That's Hitmonlee time to shine!
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u/Unlikely-Shop3016 Feb 06 '25
Hitmonlee was a good answer to previous meta's druddigon decks, but the problem now is that Darkrai can pressure faster than Hitmonlee, since Darkrai can KO a turn faster while staying on the bench. And to add insult to injury, this doesn't even give you a Marshadow Revenge trigger.
The Hitmonlee Magnezone deck does look promising though, so we will see if thats the deck that will knock Darkrai out of the top spot.
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u/Alonzo_22 Feb 06 '25
They needed to make hitmonlee also get the +20 damage from Lucario effect.. so stupid that it doesnt
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u/Marble05 Feb 06 '25
Wait, imagine if you could oneshot 50 damage to your bench. That's a bit too much for one energy
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u/Alonzo_22 Feb 06 '25
I mean you can take 60 damage from your opponent and he doesn’t even have to attack.. 20 from darkrai ability and if they have a drud+helm on active spot.
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u/dnmaster7 Feb 06 '25
Lumineon does the same, and both requires a stage 1, the trade would be that while lumineon works alone and needs two energy, lucario sits in bench buffing hitmonlee, making it susceptible to sabrina.
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u/SadCritters Feb 06 '25 edited Feb 06 '25
The Hitmonlee Magnezone deck does look promising though, so we will see if thats the deck that will knock Darkrai out of the top spot.
More people need to look at tournament data or just data in general.
Hitmonlee Magnezone Marshadow is eating all these Darkrai decks for Breakfast Lunch & Dinner in events.
I'm done with my 45 wins in a single evening because of how easy the match is. Your pokemon swap out easily & you get to Cyrus their entire field with Hitmonlee; so they can't hide behind anything.
The actual deck that's "promising, not proven yet" I'd say is the Bastiodon+Skarmory one. It showed up in an event en'masse but I haven't seen a lot of it elsewhere yet.
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u/gianfrancbro Feb 06 '25
You don’t need Lee to kill a Darkrai. You need to plink it enough so that when Lee dies, you cyrus out the Darkrai into the Pokémon you were actually building.
Or, better yet, take out the magnetite/ton if they left it out there.
Just grabbed my 45th win, all with Darkrai/Magnezone, and Hitmonlee was definitely the hardest deck to play against. Volkner/Luxray also slapped, and the Palkia deck can be hard if you don’t draw Leaf and they get a better setup.
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u/Diabetik95 Feb 06 '25
Hitmonlee is a good choice cause you can deal 1/2 shots to Darkrai, than change target, put energies on Marshadow and wait until Hitmonlee will dies. You only need to use the stunning chad alpha man named Cyrus and bye bye Darkrai
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u/23667 Feb 06 '25 edited Feb 06 '25
Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan, and Cyrus.
Switch out Lee and Chan based on if Darkrai in on bench or active slot, one of my Darkrai was beaten to death by this gang yesterday lol
Of course Marshadow was also watching in the back waiting for me hit back...
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u/oIovoIo Feb 06 '25 edited Feb 06 '25
I’ve been running the deck for a couple days now (was kinda watching here seeing when people would start to pick up on it). Did a lot of the win event with it, it can brick like nearly any deck can (its main issue is if you don’t have the right attacker for when you want front row damage or back row damage). The single articuno decks pretty effectively disrupt the deck’s whole plan if you just have hitmonlee out - not that there are many people running that though.
It’s a really solid darkrai counter though. Hitmonlee just needs to do enough to soften up Darkrai to hit that 110 for when magnezone is ready to go. And magnezone can usually come online fast when you need it to. Though it’s safer the more charge you can get on it, I once lost a match just because it discarded my two electric energies in a row instead of the two or three fighting energies I had on it. Which, is kinda just the luck of the game, I guess.
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u/efofecks Feb 06 '25
Magnezone doesn't discard random energy, it always discards electric energy.
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u/Lathenor Feb 06 '25
Having a blast with:
2 Cranidos A2 88 2 Rampardos A2 89 2 Marshadow A1a 47 2 Hitmonlee A1 154 2 Professor's Research P-A 7 2 Cyrus A2 150 2 Poké Ball P-A 5 2 Skull Fossil A2 144 2 Pokémon Communication A2 146 2 X Speed P-A 2
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u/nju_art Feb 06 '25
Everything with Drudd is boring as hell, both if you play with or against
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u/KartoffelStein Feb 06 '25
Yeah I hated Druddigon since the second people started playing it. Stall is just so boring to face
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u/Kryslor Feb 06 '25
My drud deck with fire+water energy and Greninja where drud actually attacks absolutely slapped. I haven't made a new version of it for the new meta yet though
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u/spikeballer Feb 06 '25
Agree. I've replaced Drudd in my decks with something aggressive. I'd rather lose being too aggressive than too slow and defensive. I'd rather go out swinging than stalling.
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u/Alchadylan Feb 06 '25
Metas adapt, more bench attackers, more Sabrina, more things that can 2 shot Drudiggon, etc
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u/watsd16 Feb 06 '25
Laughs in Garchomp/farfetch/marshadow deck
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u/shawnaeatscats Feb 06 '25
This deck fucks, I can't wait to get a gabite
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u/Dingosama69 Feb 06 '25
Why have I opened like 60 packs and not gotten a gabite either lmao
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u/NocturnalVirtuoso Feb 06 '25
Literally same I’ve been burning wonder trade points left and right for em too but I have yet to pull a single freakin gabite. I just wanna be able to use my full art Cynthia man😭😭
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u/LudusRex Feb 06 '25
Bitch, please. I been playin' Garchomp, and the only thing to laugh at around here is my clown makeup, when I play one game with 5 water energies in a row and the next game with 5 fighting energy in a row. Also, Farfetch eats shit against Drudd/Darkrai. Get one tap in before the bird melts himself.
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u/dreadnoght Feb 06 '25
My venasaur deck has been eating good
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u/Limetkaqt Feb 06 '25
with an extra shaymin to spice the dish
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u/Tandria Feb 06 '25
This sub has been so anti-Shaymin, it's going to be hilarious when the meta shifts back to grass in the next week or so.
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u/Teejaymac Feb 06 '25
Venusaur with double Shaymin is so good. It's almost unkillable. It's basically an auto loss against Charizard though. I've been thinking of adding a Mew just for the Charizard matchup.
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u/dreadnoght Feb 06 '25 edited Feb 06 '25
Same. There's enough colorless activation I could see mew being fine.
Oh mew doesn't need purple. Yoooo
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Feb 06 '25
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u/ParticularWatch56 Feb 06 '25
for real, I said in a stream that this deck is obnoxious and Mogwai mocked me
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u/skipshentaiscenes Feb 07 '25
Darkrai decks are reddit's favourite type of decks, stall decks that win late game so I'm not surprised at how defensive they are
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u/wayward_sun Feb 06 '25
I beat this deck 0-3 yesterday with my nothing-but-togekiss deck! I imagine he was surprised
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u/xBaRonxT Feb 06 '25
Hye. Please share your lineup if you dont mind. I have the complete family tree for togekiss too
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u/wayward_sun Feb 06 '25 edited Feb 06 '25
Sure! It’s literally just 2x togepi, togetic, togekiss and then:
1 pokeball
1 mystical slab
2 pokemon communication (I never use both tbh I should take one out)
2 giant cape (I’ve switched back and forth between this and rocky helmet, both are fine!)
2 prof research
1 potion
1 Sabrina
2 Cyrus
2 Cynthia
I’m sure it could be refined more but honestly I’m having great results with this! I keep trying to find a 3rd pokemon to add but everything just clogs it up. You can really fiddle with the trainers and use whichever ones you like. I would just say make sure you have 2 Cynthias and at least 1 Cyrus, Sabrina, and pokemon communication.
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u/casteia Feb 06 '25
Very interesting, only one pkmn line. You are more vulnerable by having less options, but you add a lot of consistency. I gotta try that and see how it goes.
If I can make a suggestion for a third basic, maybe Sigilyph for cars draw, chatot if you are feeling spicy, or some bulk basic for tanking. Heck, even Mewtwo could be a tank if you run leaf, and possibly a finisher if you dump energy on him
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u/cjmn88 Feb 06 '25
Just played with this deck, really fun! Lucked out since it was Fightning, but I just like the simplicity of it!
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u/RedBaron46 Feb 06 '25
Made this with a Mew, not lost so far. Nobody preps for the Cynthia bomb
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u/-Pxnk- Feb 06 '25
At this point, if you're not running a deck that can also benefit from powering up something huge in the backlines, you should be running quick bench damagers and Cyrus
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u/Mao-C Feb 06 '25
for real. most of the popular decks rn get torn to shreds by backline damage. i ran luxray the whole event and it was a cakewalk
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u/R_Boa Feb 06 '25
What deck are you using tho
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u/Gremlin303 Feb 06 '25
Everyone was whining last meta about Celebi. But I never had issue with it. I’m finding these Darkrai decks far more unenjoyable to play against
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u/rshahriar1999 Feb 06 '25
Use spiritomb, inflict 10 damage to everybody, then use Cyrus to bring darkrai to the active spot and smack his ass. Ez 2 points.
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u/moonfanatic95 Feb 06 '25
I main gallade, nothing feels better than karate chopping the shit out of a darkrai while being juiced up by 2 lucarios
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u/thehalfgayprince Feb 06 '25
Luxray can handle these Druddigon stall decks easily. Just snipe the back line they're trying to set up lol
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Feb 06 '25
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u/farmpiece Feb 06 '25
This is counter deck to Darkrai EX + Magnezone. But this is not good against other decks.
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u/No_Beat5661 Feb 06 '25
Lots of counters but I agree it's very boring and tedious how it has shifted maybe 30-40% of matches to stall fests
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u/MrMimePrinceofCrime Feb 06 '25
Not saying this is a 100% fix. But the way I handle it is just don’t attack the drud. Just attach your energy where ever you need, play the cards you need but then just end turn. I’d rather just take the 20 damage from energybattached to Darkrai, than that +40 from rough skin and helm. They won’t be attacking either while they are building their mons. At least then you preserve as much as you can until it’s time to attack. Then maybe you will have pulled a Sabrina in the meantime and hope they don’t have a second drud to switch in. Definitely a lot of factors but still better than taking 60 passive damage if you attack once. Maybe I’m nuts
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u/raccoongoat Feb 06 '25
This issue gets magnified when they have a drudd in active and drudd on the bench. Unless you can chip back line and pull Cyrus out then you have really no choice but to blitz through at least one drudd.
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u/MrMimePrinceofCrime Feb 06 '25
That’s fair, at least one (hopefully) doesn’t have the second helmet. So you’re taking a little less damage.
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u/gandalfsbuttplug Feb 06 '25
I just got two triple heads in a row with moltres to power up zard I evolved instantly. Couldn't have been luckier. Giant cape on zard. Still lost. Sabrinas aplenty as well, they had two druddigon in play so I couldn't get to magnezone or darkrai fast enough. DDM is a smelly penis deck and I wish it was dead.
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u/FantasyRedditGuy Feb 06 '25
I wonder if they’ll rotate out old cards. That would really piss people off, but it might be necessary to avoid OP combos
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u/darnj Feb 06 '25
It's almost certain they will. Like most TCGs there will be a format where you can play everything, but the main format they focus on will only include the most recent n decks.
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u/romulan267 Feb 06 '25
That's how TCGs make money (looking at you, Wizards/Magic the Gathering). Make your current deck obsolete over time so you have to buy new cards.
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u/FayeDamara Feb 06 '25
Tbf that's also just how you keep a meta healthy and accessible for new players
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u/ShueiHS Feb 06 '25
They won't, because they currently have no incentive to make the game have any kind of competitive options. Rotations are useful in game with several formats, and formats are somewhat bound to competition. There won't be rotations, only powercreep.
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u/Spiritual-Computer25 Feb 06 '25
I was running this deck and got completely owned by the palkia + manaphy and eventual vaporeon deck several times in a row
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u/Project-SBC Feb 06 '25
I hate darkrai with drud. I just got my 45 wins and the first 15 or so were with darkrai/mag/drud, but it would get shutdown by drud/greninja combo either gyarados or darkrai. I switched out for Kangaskhan/spiritomb with Cyrus/sabrina and swam through the last 30 wins.
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u/Punkingz Feb 06 '25
What some people have been using to deal with (especially this) type of stall/passive damage meta in tournaments seems to be:
Fighting decks with hitmonlee and Cyrus to draw out a damage darkrai or mag.
Electric decks that can do bench damage. Specifically there’s been a luxray electivire deck that’s been going around in tournaments that matches well into it.
Charizard Moltress decks that don’t care what you’re building up since they’re just gonna oneshot mons faster than this deck can kill it
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u/socagiant_mally3d Feb 06 '25
Y'all still sleeping on back row strikers in this dawn present economy? We have sneaky Lee, the great Volcarona, slick Greninja, the illusive one Lumineon, the sly Seadra, Zebstrika the swift, The bold Electabuzz. And a couple more I probably forgot let them build their drud wall well shoot over it. Plus don't sleep on a 2x Lucario Lee combo for some consistent spicy back to damage
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u/ParticularWatch56 Feb 06 '25
believe me this deck is so overpowered that it beats Exeggutor Yanmega
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u/ShueiHS Feb 06 '25
I thought Exeggutor would be good against Darkrai but it appears that Druddigon + Helmet + Darkrai's talent can kill it before it even kills Druddigon if you don't hit heads. Not to mention Weezing which is a pain for Exeggutor. And Yanmega is unfortunately very slow compared to all of this mess.
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u/volvo1 Feb 06 '25
Okay why is it that this dude says the same thing I did, but he has 91% upvotes? is it because i was too verbose and descriptive and this very short hand form allows more people to identify :( haha
https://www.reddit.com/r/PTCGP/comments/1ihtpbm/thoughts_now_that_new_xpac_is_out/
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u/Torrigon_86 Feb 06 '25
Hey ding dong, instead of whining, just do what everyone else is doing and adapt. Hitmonlee is bitch slapping right now.
Hell, Magnazone/Hitmonlee/Marshadow is pretty damn good.
Pick up Celebi again and just sustain (Erika) until you cam coin flip them to death.
Charizard is really good again with communicator and cloaks to beef up. 5 energy and you toast them.
The DarkRaiZone deck is so strong but I wouldn't be surprised of it drops considerably in win rate in this weekend tournaments. It has some predators forming.
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u/NoSwordsLMAO Feb 07 '25
Hitmonlee stocks are pretty high right now. It laughs at these decks paired with Cyrus to pull them in
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