Darkrai VSTAR Deck ~ PTCG92

Overview

Darkrai VSTAR is one of the strongest Pokemon VSTAR among the Pokemon VSTAR introduced so far. Like all Pokemon VSTAR, it has great HP [270] for 2 Prize Pokemon. One thing to take note is that, starting from Sword & Shield Expansions, all the Darkrai Weakness has been changed to Grass type instead of Fighting type.

Darkrai VSTAR has only 1 attack, Dark Pulse and this attack has 30 damage and does extra 30 damage for each Dark Energy attached to your Pokemon for 2 Colorless Energy. In fact, this is not a new attack at all since Darkrai EX from XY-Breakpoint has the exact same attack with lower damage. If you play Darkrai EX before, you can build Darkrai VSTAR Deck in a similar way. However, you can't use old cards from previous Expansions as they are not available in the Standard Format anymore.

As you already know, each Pokemon VSTAR has 1 unique VSTAR Power. And, Darkrai VSTAR Power is Ability Type and it is named Star Abyss. Star Abyss let you put 2 Items cards from your discard pile into your hand. Remeber, you are only allowed to use VSTAR Power 1 time for the whole game so use it wisely.

You won't be using Darkrai V attack at all and it is in your deck just for the purpose of evolving it into Darkrai VSTAR. This is because Darkrai V attacks are not good at all. Its first attack, Dark Wind has 50 damage for 1 Dark Energy and 1 Colorless Energy while its second attack, Dark Hole has 130 damage and make your opponent's Active Pokemon Asleep for 2 Darkness Energy and 1 Colorless Energy

Energy Acceleration

The success of Darkrai VSTAR deck depends on how fast you can attach Energy to your Pokemon in play. Ideally, you need to attach about 10 Darkness Energy to all your Pokemon so that Dark Pulse can deal 330 damage and can OHKO most of the opponent's Pokemon VMAX.

If you have bunch of extra Darkness Energy in your hand, you can use Galarian Moltres Ability Malevolent Charge to accelerate those extra Energy. This Ability let you attach 2 Darkness Energy from your hand to Galarian Moltres when you put it on your Bench. On the other hand, Galarian Moltre V Ability Direflame Wings let you attack an extra Darkness Energy from your discard pile to it once per turn. And, you can't use more than 1 Direflame Wings during your turn.

In addition to using Pokemon Abilities to accelerate Energy, you can use an Item, Dark Patch to attach 1 Darkness Energy from your discard Pile to 1 of your Benched Darkness Pokemon. By the way, Dark Patch is now a new card as it is a reprint from Black & White : Dark Explorers expansion. If you have at least 2 Dark Patch in your discard pile, you can use Darkrai VSTAR Star Brith Ability to retrieve those 2 Dark Patch from dicard pile.

With these Energy acceleration methods, it will not be difficult to deal 200+ damage with Dark Pulse.

Discarding Energy

By now, you have already realized that discarding Energy is crucial in accelerating Energy for your Benched Pokemon. Although there are many ways to discard Energy from your hand, not all of them are great for this deck. Perhaps, Ultra Ball and Quick are the best Trainers for discarding Energy from your hand as you don't need to discard your entire hand and you can use more than 1 Items during your turn. Ultra Ball let you discard 2 Darkness Energy and search a Pokemon from your deck while Quick Ball let you discard 1 Darkness Energy and search a Basic Pokemon from your deck.

Sparkling Greninja Ability Concealed Card allows you to draw 2 extra cards by discarding 1 Energy card from your hand. Here, Greninja is treated as Basic Pokemon instead of Evolution Pokemon. So, you can set it up easily on your Bench. By the way, Sparkling Pokemon are new Pokemon type which are similar to Prism Star Pokemon. They are strong Basic Pokemon with either powerful attacks or Abilities and you can put more than 1 Sparkling Pokemon in your deck.

Also, you can use very popular, Professor's Research to discard Darkness Energy from your hand. But, use Professor's Research only when your hand is only left with unnecessary cards. Otherwise, you might accidentally discard important card like Darkrai VSTAR and this will slow down your overall setup.

Stadium

Sometimes, you might want to retrieve Darkness Energy from your discard pile by using Training Court. Doing so, you will have extra Darkness Energy in your hand which can be used together with Galrain Moltres Ability Malevolent Charge. Or, simply attach that Energy manually to your Pokemon in play.

Deck List [Standard D]

Pokemon - 16

4 Darkrai V
3 Darkrai VSTAR
2 Galarian Moltres V
2 Galarian Moltres [Evolving Skies]
2 Lumineon V
1 Sparkling Greninja

Supporter - 9

4 Professor's Research
3 Marnie
2 Boss's Order

Item - 18

4 Quick Ball
4 Ultra Ball
4 Dark Patch
2 Air Balloon
2 Choice Belt
1 Exp.Share
1 Ordinary Rod

Stadium - 3

3 Training Court

Energy - 14

14 Darkness Energy