Today I’m going to be reviewing the newly released Durant from Noble Victories.
So what do we have with Durant? Durant is a Basic Metal-type Pokémon with 70 HP, no Ability, a Retreat of 1, Weakness to Fire, Resistance to Psychic, and 2 attacks. His first attack is Devour which for 1 M Energy allows you to discard cards from the top of your opponent’s deck equal to the number Durant you have in play. Meaning, with all of your Durants in play, you can discard 4 cards a turn for just 1 M Energy. Durant’s second attack, for Double Colorless, allows you to use Vice Grip for 30 damage.
Since the scans of Noble Victories where posted, Durant has generated a lot of hype. But, why is this? Obviously it isn’t for Vice Grip, as there are far better uses for Double Colorless Energy. So, it has to be for Devour. An attack that can potentially eat away at your opponent’s resources.
As I noted above, with 4 Durant in play you can mill the top 4 cards of your opponent’s deck each turn. At first doesn’t sound like a lot, but turn after turn it soon causes a problem as more and more resources hit the discard pile and the options to counter get fewer.
How quick can Durant mill? Well, every deck contains 60 cards. Removing 13 for set-up leaves 47. Ideally, Durant should be milling 4 a turn in addition to your opponent’s draw at the start of their turn. So, each turn your opponent looses 5 cards from their deck, not including any search or draw cards they might use. 47 divided by 5 = 9 remainder 2. After 9 turns your opponent will have 2 cards in their deck at most (excluding the use of cards like Flower Shop Lady) if your Durant count is continually at four.
From above you can see that the deck is pretty fast. Of course there is the question of how to get 4 Durant in play turn 1, but it’s not that big of a deal. It’s simply a case of running as many Basic search cards as possible. There’s Pokémon Collector, which is run at 4-of in most decks already. There’s also the option of using Dual Ball. Being a Trainer Item, Dual Ball can be used more than once a turn (but, of course, it involves luck).
Dual Ball isn’t bad, though. You’ll want it to increase your chances of drawing into a card that can grab a basic or 2 from your deck. However, I wouldn’t put my money on it being the card that makes or breaks this deck. Which does raise another question though: What if I don’t get a turn 1 Collector?
Well, while we do have Dual Ball, I’d also like to suggest Pokégear 3.0. If you have no Collector in hand, and potentially 4 still remaining in your deck, there is a decent chance that a Collector will be hiding within the next 7 cards.
What other obstacles could impede Durant’s set-up? Personally, I see Durant’s biggest problem is having one or more Durants Prized. How do we fix this? The best way that I’ve come up with is to use Alph Lithograph 4 from Triumphant and Rotom from Undaunted.
Using the above combination, not only can you see if there are any Durants in your prizes, but you’re able to arrange your Prizes so that you know where they are. Next, you can then use Rotom to swap the prized Durant with the top card of your deck. Assuming you’ve managed to set-up the rest of your Durants, then swapping your top card should be a safe move as you won’t be swapping 1 Durant for another.
Now that we’ve covered Durant’s setup, we have to make sure that we can keep milling our opponents deck. There are a couple of aspects which need to be taken into consideration when trying to maintain the decks setup, but most of them are easily covered.
The first aspect we need to cover is recovery. If a Durant is Knocked Out then the milling capability of the remaining Durants becomes limited. So, we need to make sure that if a Durant is Knocked Out that we can get it back onto the field as quickly as possible. There are 2 cards that easily allow us to recover Durants and take advantage of the fact they are basics, those cards are Revive and Rescue Energy.
Both of these cards pair perfectly with Durant being a basic. Revive can place him straight onto the bench and Rescue Energy returns him to your hand so you can play him back onto the bench during your turn. Some people will say that you shouldn’t play both, but I’d advise that both be found in your list simply for the sheer fact that they cover each others drawbacks. Revive is instantaneous, but useless against Trainer Lock. Rescue requires you to use an energy attachment, but gets around Trainer Lock with no difficulty.
The second aspect is trying to prevent your opponent from Knocking Out Durants in the first place. The easiest method for this is to play Catcher and drag out anything that wont be able to attack, buying a turn or 2. Or you can run a tech for the sake of stalling your opponent. The most popular techs at the moment are Roserade from Unleashed and Hypno from HeartGold & SoulSilver.
Both of these techs hold merit in their own regard and which 1 you play is entirely up to your own playstyle and preference. Both are used for their Poké-Powers. Roserade’s “Energy Signal” can be used of you trade out some of the decks M Energy for Rainbow Energy allowing you to inflict both Poison and Confusion onto the opponent’s active.
The advantage of this is the fact that your opponent now has to flip to attack, and will even take damage if they flip tails. The downside is that the opponent’s active can retreat out of Confusion and using the ability does take away an Energy attachment that could be used to ready a second Durant or to place Rescue on the active.
On the other side of things though we have Hypno’s “Sleep Pendulum”. Which, on a coin toss, can put the opponent’s active Pokémon to sleep. While asleep the opponent’s active canot attack or retreat. The downside with Hypno is the chance of the opponent’s Pokémon falling and staying asleep is only 25%.
Personally, I’d choose Hypno over Roserade because sleep is a better status to inflict while we have free retreat Pokémon like Yanmega in format.
So what are your opinions on Durant? Is it worth the hype? Or will it fall short? Feel free to comment below on your thoughts about Durant and any suggestions you might have on how to play it.
I’m also still taking requests for future reviews on cards that aren’t yet in format. Feel free to drop me a line here or on my new fanpage.
Signing off for now,
RattataJoey
fANTastic.
I’ll get my coat.
Good job! Very detailed, and gave lots of ideas for building a Durant deck. All I’d do differently is use TCGscans.com ‘s rating system; if all CoTD writers use that scale, there will be much less flaming going on at the CoTD’s. http://www.tcgscans.com/
I started using Durant online! It’s soooo much fun.
Turn1: Bench durant, Collector for 3 Durant, attach Metal Energy, Concede :D
The online game is rubbish though, doesn’t count Eviolite if you also have Special Metal attached and isn’t properly calculating resistance. Playing a Psychic deck my Durants should have been invincible. Silly online.
Good article though, very thorough, easy to read and informative. Keep up the good work :D
IMO Durant woulds break he format if decks didn’t play 3 PONT and we got night maitenance back.
I can see why people hype it, but deckout isn’t too good. This could change that, however.
I’m also glad that math wasn’t a huge factor in this article, the other stuff was brain-hurtin!
Don’t forget about flygon lv x from back in the day though, deckout was pretty dang good then. why couldn’t it work now? i think with the right build it could do a lot off crazy stuff to the format.
The New Super Rod is Night Maintenance man XD
That’s what I meant.
I love Durant so much, I will totally be trying him out. Rotom+Alph Lithograph 4 is win, and I really forgot about Roserade and Hypno. I’ve been thinking about using Kyogre/Groudon Legend as a clean-up hitter, as it takes out 5 cards a tun and can take a couple of hits from most things. Also, Twins (and to a lesser extent, N) are great with Durant as you probably won’t be taking any prizes.
Anyway, great article. Well done, man!
N is great early to mid game but late game you might be adding cards to there deck, just something to look out for :P
Yeah, kind of forgot about that. It could still be used as an early-game PONT, though, as it is pretty darn disruptive and can sometimes buy you more time.
weak to lightning is extremely terrible.
Yes it is, and that is something to be careful of. But I think that KGL can still work, as it can fairly easily take out 10 cards of your opponent’s deck if they are not prepared. It is a major flaw, but sometimes you have to try it and take the risk. I haven’t done any testing with Durant yet myself, so I can’t tell you how good it really is.
Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention before is that Durant is very disruptive. Those 4 cards you are discarding are 4 cards your opponent might need very badly, so it can often slow down your opponent just by discarding cards.
by that logic any card can be good if your oppenet isnt prepared for it
Not Joltik :P
yes, it can be if they arent prepared for it.
leech life + 4 PP = 50
4 jarm to reuse the 4 PP = 40 more, so 50+40=90
4 recycle to put the 4 PP on the top of the deck, then double roast reveal, use 4 PP so 90+40=130
blqckbelt for 40 more, so 130+40= 170.
yeah, joltik can one shot MewtwoEX
:P
You forgot good rods.
i tottally forgot about that card! okay so 4 grod, = 40 more; 170+40=210
jolktik can take out an ex with eviolite!!
And PorygonZ basically=good rods. 250, can take out an EX with eviolite and 2 defenders XP
I personally wouldn’t say that because getting all the cards in your hand for that is nearly impossible.
thats what people said to sableye at first….
There was Uxie, Poke Drawer +, Pokedex, and others back then. The only draw trainer we have now is Victory Medal.
For the record, a Durant deck won 1st place in masters at a french regionals (HS-NVI)
It is a legitimate threat.
Yeah, I would love to see a report about how this happened. I’ve logged quite a few games against Durant, and it is fun and good, but not great, IMO. Maybe there were just unprepared?
My guess is that their topcut was Magnezone heavy, in reaction to N. Magnezone-heavy decks basically scoop to durant.
Gotta love the French :)
An Englishman loving the French? Okay now I’ve seen it all…
Our country is full off immigrants of course that will happen XD
France, Rogue country in the Pokemon world. First it was Gyarados now it is Durant?!
Update: It also took a cities event in Florida.
So? Who cares if it took a cities? A THEME DECK ONCE WON A BRS OUT OF PURE LUCK. Or so says one of my friends. IDK if he’s lying.
Maybe in juniors, to the first one.
As for the second one, Florida is a TOUGH place to win in. If a deck wins there, it means it took down several top-tier players running quality top-tier lists. Several former Nats winners play there, and plenty of players go hang there for cities in general.
Had it been in the Midwest or something, sure, might have been less noticeable. But it taking down a city in FLORIDA is notable, period.
I’ve won a BRS and a 4th Place Regionals this year and I’m in Florida. Its not that hard, but you have to be careful because everyone plays top tier decks, btw I just started playing in August.
OK, yeah, I forgot Sabelock was from Florida. But it didn’t specify where in Florida. So that kinda makes me sad. Was it near Jacksonville, Orlando, Miami/Fort Lauderdale, Tallahasse, WHERE?
Don’t talk up Florida like it’s the best. It’s not. And don’t knock the Midwest. I had to play in a Cities in Michigan with Jason Klaczynski (I don’t need to tell you what he’s done), Dave Richard (1st Nats last year), Evan Baker + Tracey Key (worlds qualifiers) and several other good players.
There are good players everywhere, but the range of decks and size of the event makes me question a deck’s viability no matter what part of the country it’s played in.
I live in a small town in Ohio and two second in worlds juniors showed up. Juniors are more serious than you think. They could probably beat me, at least those two. We get quite a lot of worlds players.
NOOOOO I’m in Florida! Good thing I play Reshiphlosion and the truth.
Very good review, and the presentation is prettyful.
More like this please.
Durant is kind of legit. It needs more than moderate luck, plus favourable matchups to win but . . . it’s a funny old game.
Durant is a lot of fun to play on the TCGO. If you haven’t played it before, I recommend trying it at least once. It doesn’t always work against top decks, but its a great feeling when it does!
Just throwing it out there, what about Palkia-Dialga Legend? You are already using metal energy, and you can set one up while milling with durant, if you need to buy time to run their cards out you can put on two prize card then start with Durant again. Too clunky?
it’ll take at least 2 turns to attach enough metal to use the prize card attack, and you could have milled 8 in 2 turns instead of 2.
I used to LOVE DPL. But there is no Heatran Lv.X or Magnezone anymore, and even if there was, it still wouldn’t be the best. IT WAS INCREDIBLY FUN HOWEVER. I made my opponent have 34 Prize cards one time.
There is one thing about Durant I forgot and so has everyone else. That is if time is called and you haven’t milled enough cards yet, you have 1-2 turns to mill them out or you lose. This is the problem with all deckout decks (excluding DPL :p) is that someone pro across the table from you will stall, stall, stall, and stall. A long turn across the table can screw you.
Great article though.
not if you call a judge for slow play.
Not if they stall right.
You can’t stall right against durant. In general, the Durant match only goes 10-12 turns for each player. Assuming the Durant player is only taking 30-45 sceonds average per turn (total of 9 minutes assuming you took 45 seconds average per turn and it lasted 12 turns). This means you would have to stall 21 minutes just to get time called and then there would still be + 3 turns. Stalling for 21 minutes with 12 turns is pretty tough especially if they call a judge over after turn 3 or 4 to watch for stalling. In general, Durant matches are done within the first 10-15 minutes of the game.
The best stallers can stall right against anything.
“Can I take that back?”
“How many cards are in your hand?”
“Can I see your discard pile?”
Tapping a card against the table for a while (It’s his/her next evolution up from the one he/she just played)
“What is Durant weak against again?”
I pile shuffle when I play PONT!
Just taking a long time to do stuff in general
And I’m not even a stalling pro.
Anyone pile shuffles mid-game, I’m calling a judge right then. A good judge won’t let that kind of crap go on.
Stallers get away with it because people are reluctant to call a judge. They think it makes THEM look unsporting. It doesn’t. It’s the judge that gives penalties not the player.
I don’t think stalling would cut it against Durant in 1 game Swiss.
Top Cut is a different matter.
Kinda obvious when you think about it tbh
I’m just saying that Durant can be stalled against, with those ways, and you can buy extra turns with cards like Super Rod, PONT, N, and Flower Shop Lady. If you have the right hand it is possible. I’m not trying to be a hater, but sometimes I just feel like I have to post the downsides to something. Durant’s court also takes up some time, playing Twins, Crushing Hammer, Catcher, etc.
I’m not a big fan of the deck tbh. I’d never play it at a tournament.
I think it’s important to note the difference between legal ways of making the game last as long as possible (FSL, Super Rod, PONT . . . that’s sensible playing) and illegal ways (pile shuffling, looking at the discard multiple times per turn, deliberate hesitation over every move).
If people do the first one and destroy this skill-free deck, I’m happy.
If they do the second, they’re being a dick and will hopefully get penalties.
It’s part of the game. It’s what it takes to win. Do you think players like Chris Fulop would stall against Durant? Yes. Because that’s what it takes sometimes. If you found yourself in the same situation, you would do the same unless you were 0-3 or something. I’m saying that the game takes time, and if you make it take enough time against this deck and take a prize card, you win.
Don’t tell me what I would do. Ask anyone on this site who knows me: I don’t play that way. I don’t know Fulop well enough to predict what he would do in that situation. I guess you know him well enough to be certain he would break the rules to win?
Illegal stalling is NOT part of the game. It’s against the rules. Just because some players are reluctant to call a judge (and some judges are reluctant to enforce the rule) doesn’t change that. The ‘do what it takes to win’ argument only applies if what you do is within the rules.
i agree, go look at what i responded to him with XD
…its funny that people think they can win by stalling with slow play on purpose. because they just ensured a loss for themselves….
Just commenting to make the reply box smaller…
you arent the only one dx
and smaller…
Let’s see how small this can get!!
TINY…
Anti-joke chicken Cabd here to tell you that there’s no set limit, we allow (inf) replies, and it’ll get to one character per line eventually.
Let’s make that happen.
Do it for Durant.
Isn’t Durant too ugly for you to use it as a cause?
If I said ‘do it for LILLIGANT’, 6P would crash with all the traffic.
This way, I reckon we’ll get half a dozen more replies before the joke dies, and that’s all it deserves.
“If I said ‘do it for LILLIGANT’, 6P would crash with all the traffic.”
Let’s try it… heh-heh-heh…
lalalallalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalal
Now the reply box can’t be seen. You have to like a reply and then you will see the reply button. Getting intense now.
Now “reply” is off the screen so we can’t make the comment box smaller. Rats.
Hey, maybe this will magically bring it back: “FOR LILLIGANT!!!!!!!! FOR EVERY GREEN HUMANOID WITH AN ONION HEAD AND FLOWER HAT!!!!!!!!”
hahahahahahahahahahahahaa i win!!!!
I’m not saying that he would do it illegally. I personally don’t know him, but it seems like to scrape up a win, he would do that. Plus, if you can take up just the right amount of time between each move (especially if you have pokemon with abilities or poke-powers in play) then it seems like legal stalling isn’t out of the question. I’m just saying that it is possible.
you cant “legally stall”
Yeah, you’re right in that you can’t legally stall. However, you can play more cards than you need. Use a Pokemon Communication to shuffle a card back into your deck and get the exact same card. That eats away at the clock, but isn’t stalling. A judge can’t penalize you for making a seemingly useless move. If you do this even 3-4+ times in a game, it can be enough so your opponent gets one, maybe two, less turns, which can be the difference between winning and loosing.
you cant play cards when it is common knowledge that it will have no effect on the game
Yeah you can. Maybe you’re planning to play a PONT afterwards and are trying to thin out your deck a bit by having one less card that you could potentially draw into (Communication).
There’s very few, if any, cards/effects that you can use that have absolutely no effect on the game. So, pretty much anything you do, even if you’re confident it won’t have much of an effect on the game (like using Communication for the exact pokemon you shuffle away), you can’t be penalized for it because everything effects the game to some extent.
there is no “stalling right”
its major unsporting conduct.
“ Playing slowly to manipulate the time remaining in a match.
Recommended Starting Penalty:
Tier 1: Game Loss
Tier 2: Game Loss”
quoted from http://assets.pokemon.com/assets/cms/pdf/op/tournaments/2012/Pokemon_TCG_Penalty_Guidelines_2012.pdf
it is under section 7.6.2
Durant reminds me of the Final Countdown deck in Yu-Gi-Oh requiring only 20 turns to win 10 of yours 10 of your opponents. Except Durant is better because its pretty much auto four Durant turn 1
I think it seems like more with Morphing Jar mill deck.
Nah Final Countdown is half decent, jar isn’t dude XD because you win in ten turns, thats how long durant will take to win
I wish I understood that :P
Kevin Durant is back and ready to play. Sure, he plays dirty, but that’s what you got to do to win. MONEY
Is this joey from AZ?
Think its a UK based Joey.
You learn-ed yet?
I asked because there is a Joey here that has been playing Durrant since cities started amd his favorite pokemon is Rattata. Hens the name “RattataJoey”
“Hens the name RattataJoey”
I thought we had good grammar and spelling here.
u thot rong
2 out of 4 Durant decks made top cut on Friday the 24th in Utah and one of them placed 2nd winning 1 of the three games in the last match. It was a field of 22 Masters. The next day the field was 38 Masters and 5 Durant decks were played. Three of the Durant made top cuts (Top 8) and the other two went 3-2. I left because I went 3-2 missing the cut at #9. (I hate being the first player to miss the cut.)
Durant is brutal.
I run a 1-1 Noctowl HS in my Durant build. When one of my Ants is prized, it lets me draw into it from the top of my deck immediately.
Try running it straight, no Hypno or Roserade. Max out your disruptive trainer cards and do your best. This deck will work until people figure out how to play against it. At top cut, I’d be shocked it get too far, but some lucky players will take it there.
I agree, the best decks at cities that made top cuts had no Hypno, Roserade, Weavile. Some didn’t even run Rotom or Alph Lithograph to prevent first turn Rotom and it was a pain sometimes to draw into the Lithograph.
I’m building a Durant mill with Hypno and Rotom (maybe a Cobalion too) to troll the league. Probably won’t go to BRs with it though, considering I’m trying to stick with my Gothitelle.