Pokemon Nationals Deck

[Overlord Drakow]

DS - Darkrai Shaymin

Pokémon: 10

3x Darkrai EX
2x Mewtwo EX
2x Sableye (DEX)
1x Smeargle
2x Shaymin

Trainer: 37

4x Professor Juniper
4x Professor Oak's New Theory
2x N
4x Random Receiver
3x Pokémon Catcher
4x Junk Arm
4x Dark Patch
2x Ultra Ball
2x Super Scoop Up
2x Max Potion
2x Dual Ball
2x Eviolite
1x Dark Claw
1x Energy Search

Energy: 13

9x Basic Darkness
4x Special Darkness​

Something to this effect is what I intend to run at Nationals. Basically I wanted to run a deck which was as close to Darkrai Hydreigon (in the Japanese metagame) as I could get. Shaymin basically has Hydreigon's power but as a once off effect. The idea of the deck is the same as other Darkrai variants where you pressure the enemy with Darkrai but this variant tries to prevent the opponent from taking prizes by moving the energy around with Shaymin while using Max Potion / Super Scoop Up to heal the damaged EX. In this manner I can keep the offensive on the opposition without giving them extra momentum from prizes. Anyway I'll go through some of the card choices.

2 Mewtwo EX: I originally had Tornadus EX for the fighting match ups but as I haven't come across many of them in recent tournaments, I think Mewtwo EX will serve me better. It's good for the Mewtwo war and it also means I don't auto lose to a Mewtwo which has like 7 energy on it or whatever. Besides, Mewtwo EX is a fine candidate to take on enemy fighting types, especially with Eviolite attached.

2 Shaymin: Three is overkill and the deck needs to run two minimum.

2 Sableye and 1 Smeargle: My starting Pokemon. Smeargle is a bit of a hit and miss card I feel lately. Clever opponents discard their supporters so that they are only holding Random Receivers. It's still a good tech though which is why I use the one copy still. Sableye is slower but more reliable which is why I prefer it now.

4 Random Receiver: It may be overkill but the idea is to always have one in hand and to use Junk Arm / Ultra Ball to discard whatever supporters are in my hand to screw over enemy Smeargle.

2 Eviolite and 1 Dark Claw: This is a tough choice but Eviolite helps prevent enemy Terrakion from OHKOing my Darkrai EX which I think will be really important for Nationals. It's also a more flexible card as I can give it to Mewtwo EX too.

2 Max Potion: A decent tech choice, it does work well with Shaymin in the right situations and while I would like to simply max out on Super Scoop Up, it's just too unreliable and in a tournament like Nationals, you need consistency to win.

1 Energy Search: Yeah I had one spare slot and decided to test this. It's actually not too bad. With Sableye I can grab Energy Search and a Junk Arm, and then on the following turn I can search and discard the energy with Junk Arm and set up a Dark Patch. I am however thinking about teching an Energy Switch instead to ease up the pressure on dropping those Shaymin.

 

[donavannj]

The thing that catches my attention is that there are only 10 Pokemon, even if all of them are Basics. And how do you plan on getting all that energy into play in the first place? I don't see anything other than Energy Search that specifically seeks them out.

 

[Overlord Drakow]

10 basics isn't so bad. Whenever I run a low amount of basics I think to myself at least it's more than Terrakion.dek lol. I don't quite understand what your issue is with the energy. Are you concerned that I won't see them often enough or something? Energy cards troll me. Sometimes I draw into a clusterf*** full of them and sometimes I get none. But most of the time it's not a problem.

 

[donavannj]

I'm concerned about the consistency with which you would have those energy in play.

 

[Overlord Drakow]

Yeah you might be onto something there. In general I think it's OK and I have tested with an extra energy (though I didn't have the energy search) and sometimes I just draw into hands with too much energy. My compromise was to use 13 energy with the energy search. I'm going to a Battle Roads tomorrow so I'll update with my findings.