At last we come to the penultimate Card
of 2012, and the #2 slot goes to
Darkrai EX (BW: Dark Explorers
63/108, 107/108, BW Promo BW46),
a card that also took second place in
our BW: Dark Explorers Top 10
list!
You can read our original reviews
for it
here.
So… what, if anything, has
changed since it debuted over half a
year ago?
We now have
Landorus EX (BW: Boundaries
Crossed 89/149, 144/149), a
Fighting-Type Pokémon-EX capable of
attacking for solid damage (30 Active,
30 Bench) for just (F), making that
Fighting-Type Weakness even more
dangerous, and we simply have more
competition for strong Pokémon-EX in
general eroding some of the hold
Darkrai EX had on the format… just
like
Darkrai EX did to
Mewtwo EX (BW: Next Destinies
54/99, 98/99, BW Promo BW45).
Of course, just as
Mewtwo EX remains formidable even
now, so too does
Darkrai EX; it seems to have been
taken down a notch.
The new cards have created some
more new decks, but they have also
created some new combos, which have
given new strengths to
Darkrai EX.
There are new decks that star it
as an attacker, for example, and cards
like
Skyla make it easier to pull useful
Trainer support like
Dark Patch.
Older tricks that were good for decks
not focused on
Darkrai EX have been enhanced.
Most reading this should know
that you can partner
Keldeo EX (BW: Boundaries Crossed
49/149, 142/149) and as long as you’ve
got a source of (D) Energy attached to
Keldeo EX and nothing is negating
Abilities, you’ll be able to Bench your
Active and Retreat to whatever Pokémon
you really want up front; not quite a
free
Switch each turn!
Darkrai EX
is still seen in several decks as a main
attacker, as an easy trick to zero out
the Retreat of your Pokémon, and often
for both reasons!
Consulting a list of first place
decks for the Masters bracket of Cities
2012-2013 that totaled 121, 38 contained
Darkrai EX and in a prominent
position (e.g. important enough to be
used to categorize the deck).
That is over just over 31%, or
nearly one in three decks!
Similar percentages held true for
second place and third/fourth pace for
that division as well.
For Unlimited,
Darkrai EX still looks like a good
card.
Its biggest enemy in many ways
would be the dominance of decks that win
or lock the opponent down first turn;
with the resources of Unlimited, you
could build a slightly more traditional
donk deck that would be effective, just
not as effective as the ones that win
first turn.
I have not had any time to
experiment with this, however, so this
is pure speculation on my part.
I can’t help but think there
might be some combos enabled via the
Ability, as well, but none jump readily
to mind.
For Limited play,
Darkrai EX is effectively a must
play.
While not impossible, it is
highly improbable that you would not
pull enough cards to make a deck that is
at least 1/3 Darkness-Type cards… and of
course there is always the option of
just running a
Darkrai EX and 39
Darkness Energy, though if your
opponent has a Fighting heavy deck that
would be a very hard fight.
Ratings
Unlimited:
3.5/5
Modified:
4.25/5
Limited:
5/5
Summary
All in all, I think it is easy to see
why
Darkrai EX took the number two spot
on the list.
It isn’t in every deck, but it is
in several as either main attacker or a
back-up attacker or as a form of Retreat
aid.
It isn’t in nearly as many decks
as yesterday’s CotD,
Computer Search, but it is still in
a staggering amount for a Pokémon with
Energy specific requirements (for both
attack and Ability), and it makes a
bigger difference in all of the decks it
appears in than
Computer Search.
Darkrai EX
was indeed my number two pick as well.
I think by now this makes the
number one pick quite obvious, but check
us out tomorrow when we make it
official.
