Howdy! At the time of writing this guide, Darkrai ex Greninja is the new Darkrai ex variant around the block, making it to the top of the tournament meta in A2 Space-Time Smackdown meta.
This deck dishes out damage through multiple sources in one turn, heavily relying on Abilities to chip damage until you’re pushing enough damage to knock out a Pokemon. Dakrai ex, Greninja, and Druddigon can all deal damage through their abilities, and although it’s only 20 damage each, they can become problematic for your opponents when used together to knock out a Pokemon.
Darkrai ex Greninja only uses the Darkness Energy, so we are not attacking with Greninja or Druddigon. Our sole attacker in this deck will be Darkrai ex.
Darkrai ex Greninja Decklist
Pokémon: 10
2 Froakie A1 87
2 Frogadier A1 88
2 Greninja A1 89
2 Druddigon A1a 56
2 Darkrai ex A2 110
Trainer: 10
2 Professor's Research P-A 7
2 Cyrus A2 150
2 Leaf A1a 68
2 Poké Ball P-A 5
1 Pokémon Communication A2 146
1 Rocky Helmet A2 148How to Play
Early Tank
Druddigon is on the list to act as an early tank, taking hits and dealing 20 damage back to the opponent’s Active Pokemon with its Rough Skin ability. The 20 damage weakens opponent’s Pokemon, making it easier for us to knock it out later in the game.
Since we’re on Darkness Energy only, we’re not trying to attack with Druddigon‘s Dragon Claw, instead, we only have it for the Rough Skin ability and 100 HP.
Druddigon buys us time to deal damage with Darkai ex‘s Nightmare Aura and work on evolving Froakie and Frogadier to get Greninja in play.
Passive Damage
We want to have Darkrai ex in play as early as possible to start attaching Energy to it, activating its Nightmare Aura. Whenever you attach Darkness Energy to Darkrai ex, its ability will deal 20 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokemon, making it easier to knock out.
Once you have 3 Energy on Darkrai ex, it can start attacking with Dark Prism, dealing 80 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokemon. Darkrai ex acts as our only attacker, so we’ll rely on it for the highest damage output. Combined with Nightmare Aura and Greninja’s Water Shuriken, you’re dealing up to 120 damage in one turn. This is not counting Druddigon and Rocket Helmet‘s passive damage when your opponent attacks you.
Magnezone Carry
To get Greninja in play, we’ll need to find Froakie and evolve it into Frogadier. Although situational, Frogadier can be used for its Water Drip attack, dealing 30 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokemon. However, this could put it at risk of getting knocked out, so we’ll only go for it if we’re positive our opponent can’t knock it out.
Greninja‘s Water Shuriken deals 20 damage to one of your opponent’s Pokemon, so you can target those on the Bench and knock them out if they’re low on HP. Water Shuriken is also a great ability to use alongside Cyrus, damaging the opponent’s Benched Pokemon and forcing it to the Active spot for Darkrai ex to attack with Dark Prism.
Draw Cards
Poke Ball will draw you a basic Pokemon, helping you find Froakie or Darkrai ex when they’re needed.
Pokemon Communication increases the odds of finding the Pokemon we need to evolve into Greninja. We can choose a Pokemon in our hand and switch it with a random Pokemon from the deck, often we’ll use it to find Frogadier or Greninja.
Professor’s Research is a Supporter card to draw 2 cards. You want to play it early in the game since you’ll prefer playing other Supporter cards.
Battle Cards
Leaf reduces the retreat cost of one of your Pokemon by 2, making it easier for you to retreat without having to discard Energy from it. It’s great if we want to prevent our opponent from knocking out Darkrai ex or Druddigon.
Rocky Helmet adds another method for us to deal damage to the opponent’s Active Pokemon, doing 20 damage whenever they attack our Pokemon with Rocky Helmet attached to it. It’s usually best to attach it to Darkrai ex since it has the most HP, but you might find yourself giving to Druddigon to deal 40 damage to the opponent’s attacker.
Since we’re dealing a lot of damage to the opponent’s Pokemon, Cyrus is great in this list, giving us the ability to pull a damaged Pokemon on the Bench to the Active spot and attack it directly. Greninja‘s Water Shuriken is the best combo for Cyrus, dealing 20 damage to the Pokemon of our choosing and then pulling it into the Active spot.
Other Cards to Include
Kangaskhan is a popular option in this deck since it acts as an early attacker that can activate Dizzy Punch with 1 Darkness Energy. Dizzy Punch flips 2 Coins and for each heads, you can deal 30 damage, so potentially hitting a 60 damage attack early in the game, putting you ahead of the opposing player.
Pros & Cons
- This deck can deal damage early in the game to knock out the opponent’s Pokemon and force vulnerable Pokemon to the Active spot.
- A consistent game plan, with Darkrai ex consistently backing you up with the Nightmare Aura damage.
- You can reliably deal 120 damage a turn, but you can’t one-shot high HP Pokemon.
- Greninja can’t attack in this deck, so it’ll activate Water Shuriken for the 20 damage.
