The latest Pokémon Pocket set Space-Time Smackdown has been out for close to a week now, which has been plenty of time for the most devoted players to craft new decks and try them out in tournaments. What we’ve seen so far is that old decks like Charizard and Gyarados are still the top performers, but just below them are a load of new archetypes just waiting to bubble up into first place.
As always, the results we’re looking at most closely are from Ursiiday’s Pocket Weekly, the largest weekly Pocket tournament with over 1,500 participants. In the latest competition, which took place February 2, both first and second place were won by Gyarados Ex decks – the most successful archetype since Mythical Island came out.
But not far below Gyarados is a new deck, one of the most popular to come out of the new Pokémon Pocket expansion so far. And because it’s a Lightning type deck, it may stand a chance of unseating the big blue sea serpent in the weeks to come.
This mighty deck is a strange combination of Darkness and Lightning Pokémon. It runs both Darkrai and Magnezone, but crucially only uses Darkness energy in the energy zone. The idea is to load up Darkrai with energy each turn, using Magneton’s ability from the bench to simultaneously create a powerful Lightning type attacker for the late game.
Here’s how it plays. Ideally, you’ll lead with a Druddigon in the active zone, to tank and soften up your opponent’s first Pokémon. Every round, you’ll power up Darkrai, dealing another 20 damage a turn to the opponent’s lead ‘mon. You’ll evolve Magnemite as soon as possible, then start using Magneton’s Volt Charge ability to pile on Lightning energy.
Ultimately, Magnezone is the deck’s best attacker, but what’s truly great about this deck is its versatility. Being able to power up two Pokémon at the same time gives you the opportunity to respond to whatever your opponent is playing, taking advantage of their weaknesses and avoiding your own.
Why would a player opt for this strategy over the pure Darkness deck with Darkrai and Weavile Ex in it? There is some fragility to this deck as, once evolved, your Magnezone has no way to regain vital Lightning energy.
Well that versatility is a big part of it – not folding immediately to Grass types can only be a good thing. Furthermore, Lightning is one of the best Pokémon energy types in Pocket right now. The main thing, of course, is it’s able to clear out the seriously scary looking water types like Gyarados and Palkia ex, but it also hits a surprising number of Pokémon in other top decks – notably, flying Pokémon like Moltres and Zapdos are weak to it.
Right now, however, it doesn’t look like Darkai and his robot pal are quite defeating the best Pokémon Pocket decks. But don’t count them out yet. We’ve recently seen from Celebi Ex how the meta can shift, and decks that once seemed lacklustre can suddenly become dominant.
For more Pokémon stories, check out our articles on the most expensive rare Pokémon cards. You might also be interest in the answer to the question: how many Pokémon are there right now?
Source: Wargamer
