Darkrai-EX/Mewtwo-EX/Hydreigon/Bouffalant: My experimental deck

[Ms. Togekiss]

Darkrai/Hydreigon

For Modified Format
I know, it's a lot of pokemon. I also know that I need another way to counter many EX blockers such as Klinklang. That, is why I am looking to you for advice. This is a deck that I have made from strategies (and many printed out proxies so far!) known to work, though it's had some troubles against my brother's (also experimental) Blastoise/Keldeo-EX deck, though mainly for Plasma Blast Suicune.
19/9/13: After that debating with ven?, I can say I no longer feel as concerned about all of the above. Mostly, I worry about TDK decks against this, but who doesn't these days?
Alas, I shall show you the cards:

Key
May be removed
Removed
Replacement card(s)

Pokémon
Sableye (Dark Explorers) x2
Bouffalant (Dragons Exalted) x2
Darkrai-EX (BW Promo 46) x3
Mewtwo-EX (BW Promo 45) x2
Deino (Dragons Exalted) x3
Hydreigon (Dragons Exalted) x3

Trainers/Supporters
Cheren (Dark Explorers) x2
Cilan (Next Destinies) x3
Professor Juniper (Dark Explorers) x3x4
N (Dark Explorers) x3x4
Skyla (Boundaries Crossed) x2
Colress (Plasma Storm) x2
Pokemon Catcher (Plasma Blast) x4
Rare Candy (Dark Explorers) x4x3
Max Potion (Plasma Freeze) x3
Ultra Ball (Dark Explorers) x3
Dark Patch (Dark Explorers) x3
Eviolite (Plasma Storm) x1
Hypnotoxic Laser (Plasma Storm) x3
Virbank City Gym (Plasma Storm) x1
Silver Bangle (Plasma Blast) x2
Tool Scrapper (Dragons Exalted) x2
Computer Search (Boundaries Crossed) x1

Energies
Darkness Energy x8
Blend Energy GFPD (Dragons Exalted) x4
DCE x4x2

 

[ven?]

-3 cilan for 3 juniper, 3 cards versus 7, increases the hand size and allows for the discard of energy, more options, etc and just an all around viably good card for darkrai in general

 

[Ms. Togekiss]

I see. Well... not exactly. That is a change I am considering. I also have pretty restricted resources, so that is also being taken into account.
What I do want to ask is if I should find a way to put some Hypnotoxics and Virbank Gyms into this deck and if it would go well with it. I'm still relatively new to the concept of metagame, so tips and pointers are all welcome.

 

[ven?]

Actually from testing it's either you run darkrai with htl and virbank or run darkrai hydregion, there isn't a very solid line that uses both as a mix as it's both 2 very heavy tech lines, and because of that it's better to run the 1 over the other to get the most optimal/best play, just like blastoise or klink, when making hydregion optimal you want to work more on the engine, even when you run speed darkrai, usually you'll see them drop the 1 htl and 1 catcher for a supporter or an item card that's going to add to the turn 1 setup.

If you need good supporter cards, plasma blast is a pretty good set to look into, juniper, catcher, ultra balls, etc, kind of like the big trainer and supporter staples of our meta rolled into one set, also colress, hydregion and colress just seem like great synergy due to the use of deck space in setting up this deck, also mr. mime, I've been playing it in my darkrai deck and it's a really solid tech against TDK, even a mirror match of darkrai, so plasma freeze for colress, but I mainly suggest testing, test amounts lines etc, you never know what might be a better combo for you, peace.

Edit: if you're more into various technical options with darkrai and sableye I highly suggest running regular darkrai.

 

[Ms. Togekiss]

Okay, so no Hypnotoxics.
Colress sounds like a good idea, but it seems like it should be either him or Juniper. That being said, it also depends if Cilan should be removed. He is mostly there since 8 Darkness energies seems to be a relatively small amount to get into play quickly.
Mr. Mime, I agree. It is also a good idea. Question is, where will he fit even if I do replace Cilan?

 

[ven?]

Having 9-10 draw/shuffle supporters/tech that allow the deck to have great synergy allowing you to grab large hands of 10 per turn (in theory), w/o both you won't be able to grab the large hands, these large hands really push out the engine fast for the win, I actually ran 4 juniper, 4 colress, 2 Bianca, 2 skyla for a blastoise test engine and it allowed me to not only consistently draw into setting up blastoise but also having the energy needed to use secret sword every turn with blastoise if I could. So in theory It's actually better to have a card that will let you set things up then relying on one type of thing in you're deck, you do have a good point about weather or not you can draw energy, but you run 2 more energy in you're deck then my tournament based TDK, and 3 more then my darkrai so I don't think that's a big deal, then again I run the 4 juniper with the 4 N, 2 colress, 2 Bianca (or 3 for darkrai) and it's not a problem on weather I have energy or not, because I still need the engine to do anything. You could do 2-3 skyla with energy search (run sableye to grab it back), so you have a universal synergy on grabbing energy, that and thundurus for grabbing energy back.

As for mr. mime, get rid of mewtwo for him, mewtwo actually lose's prizes for you against TDK, since deoxys has a faster setup then mewtwo does.

 

[Ms. Togekiss]

It's been a while since I've posted, but I've done my considerations. First post is updated, and more ideas for the deck are open. There are two main concerns I have:
1. If I should put Silver Mirrors and/or Bangles in. These would mostly be for Hydreigon, since Arceus-knows-how much he needs to be guarded
2. Something, anything that would do for TDK deck counters. Of course, I should use the word "counter" loosely, more like anything to even the matchup odds.

 

[ven?]

For both 1 and 2, silver mirror is better then bangle for matchup wise (people who play decks like TDK usually only run 2 tool scrapper w/o the dowsing machine, where as you run sableye, even just running 1 silver mirror is good enough, sableye, that and it's better to just mirror then deal kinda not really better dmg overall), it's just better overall to run the laserbank (HTL+virbank) over bangle, I would highly recommend removing the eviolite, 1 rare candy and 2 DCE for 3/1 laser/bank line (I would even consider taking out the mewtwoEX for bangle, bangle + laserbank and hydregion wins, 200 dmg).

Edit: also this deck needs tool scrapper or darkrai/garbo will kill it, no dark trance, no free retreat from darkrai, no buffolant ability.

 

[Ms. Togekiss]

Yes... I'll get the laserbank into there. Thanks for that idea.
So, assuming this means I don't run bangle, which cards should go in favor of mirrors or scrappers?

Edit: Oh man... *facedesks* I just realized after all this time, my deck is one card over. Whelp, I'm officially conflicted.

 

[ven?]

Zweilous or catcher

 

[Ms. Togekiss]

Okay. Bye bye, Zweilous.
So I'm considering replacing the Mewtwos. What would that become? Bangles? Mirrors? Scrappers? A combo of any? I could use all three of those even if they replace something other than the 'twos.

 

[ven?]

Hmm, I'd say take out mewtwo, buffo and the DCE (not really needed if you're mainly going after using darkrai and the dragons) for, 2 supporters (this has been bugging me with this deck, not enough draw supporters, even having something like 2 colress or 2 Bianca goes a long way), then 2 bangle and 2 tool scrapper or 1 tool scrapper and 1 enhanced hammer, that or a third sableye.

 

[Ms. Togekiss]

Hmm... I'm going to make it 2 Colress, 2 Bangle, and 2 Scrapper. Frankly, Enhanced Hammers don't do much as a TDK counter since Thundurus gets special energies out of the discard pile easy, rendering it useless. One last question: Does this seem like enough Pokemon to be a solid deck? maybe it has as many main attackers as a lot of WC decks and I just don't notice, but I just am curious.
Also, this topic is getting pretty long. Should I start a new one to rate the finalized deck?

 

[ven?]

I looked and checked various lists for darkrai/hydregion, minus the use of 1 virizion EX (which is a solid play in here shutting down opponents lasers), you're running the same amount of cards for pokemon.

Forcing you're opponent to play thundurus is better then dealing with kyurem.