pokemon-paradijs.comHey SixPrizes, this is Zigg here for my second article. Today I will be discussing the most hated card of past formats: Durant. If you don’t know or forgot, Durant was a mill deck that gave many people trouble in the HS-NVI and HS-NXD formats. It mills fast and well and used many tools from HS-on like Twins, Alph Lithograph FOUR, Rotom UD, and some others like Pokémon Catcher and Crushing Hammer.
Its fall was predicted for DEX, but in a different way than it actually happened. It was originally said that everyone was going to tech in one Heatmor DEX to their decks to hard counter Durant. No one did that.
Instead, Darkrai EX ran rampant through the streets, killing all Durant in its path. The rest of the Durants were soon unsleeved and thrown into the Commons and Uncommons pile. With the reign of straight Darkrai soon to be over, Durant is going to be pairing up with some partners to try and destroy the metagame. Without further ado, three lists to help Durant achieve world domination.
List #1: Durant/Sableye
First, Durant will be trying to pair up with a veteran in Tier 1. Sableye, also known for the former deck, Sabledonk (as Sableye SF) and more recently printed as Sableye DEX which is a common tech in Dark decks, is perfect for the job.
Skeleton List
|
Pokémon – 8 |
Trainers – 32 4 N 2 Random Reciever
4 Revive |
Energy – 10 6 M – Basic 4 D – Basic |
Open Slots – 10
Techs
This is great disruption if you get heads, and it’s always great seeing a Hydreigon or Rare Candy (or something along those lines) shuffled back into your opponent’s deck and not much later Devouring those same cards.
I was iffy about even adding this to techs, but I kind of had to. Let’s be honest here, Eviolite doesn’t help Durant much anymore as most attacks do 90+ damage. It does help against Garchomp/Altaria though, possibly Durant’s worst matchup.
This is a great tool that you should include in all Durant decks. It returns Durant to your hand when they get KO’d.
Skyarrow Bridge lets you retreat freely between Sableye and Durants. It may help your opponent, especially if they’re playing Zeels, but it’s consistency vs. disruption here. Battle City lets you draw cards while your opponent will not want to.
Matchups
VS Zekrom/Eelektrik – Very Favorable
Use unlimited Catcher and Hammers to your advantage in this matchup. This is a matchup where teching Skyarrow Bridge goes to your favor because you can Junk Hunt every other turn and mill every other turn. Even if you don’t run Skyarrow, most Zekeels lists run Skyarrow so you might be fine.
VS Darkrai/Hydreigon – auto-loss
pokemon-paradijs.comLet’s face it. The only Durant build that can do well against any Darkrai variants is Durant/Garbodor. If they can get three Energies on a Darkrai-EX, you’re screwed. Your best bet after that is Sableye’s Confuse Ray, which they can retreat out of.
VS Garchomp/Altaria – Unfavorable
This matchup is based on Hammer flips. With one Altaria, they’re 1HKOing all of your Durants and Sableye and your best bet is to go for complete Energy denial. This is a matchup where Hooligans Jim & Cas is a great tech (if you get heads, of course) to get their hand as low as possible.
This matchup is more of a race for Garchomp to take 6 Prizes before you discard most/all of their Energy or discard all of their Garchomps/Altraria (implies that at least one is prized). Also, Eviolite is a great idea for this matchup as it forces them to have two Altaria for a Mach Cut 1HKO.
List #2: Durant/Aggron
Durant tries to pair up with a Pokémon that hasn’t been good, even when it was commonly printed in the old ex days.This deck focuses less on disruption and more on faster mill. If you can get two Lairon out (or even one for that matter) and four Durant, you’re milling 10 in a turn! I know that is a little hard to do, but you still should be averaging 4+ cards per turn, even with only two or three Durants on the field.
Skeleton List
|
Pokémon – 14 4 Aron DRX |
Trainers – 35 4 N 2 Cheren 2 Random Reciever
4 Revive 3 Switch |
Energy – 8 8 M – Basic |
Open Slots – 3
Techs
The same reasons as listed in the Durant/Sableye section.
This is great Energy disruption 50% of the time. The other 50% you say “Oh, well…” and move on.
Enhanced Hammer is amazing disruption for Mewtwo EX and decks like Garchomp/Altaria and Hydreigon/Darkrai that use Blend Energy.
This is optional because when you’re using Devolution Spray on a Stage 2, it’s a lot easier to evolve from the Stage 1.
On a side note, you can change the Aggron line to be thinner like 3-3-3, 4-2-3 and 3-2-3 with Rare Candy.
Matchups
VS Zekrom/Eelektrik – 50/50
This matchup depends on how good of hands you can get. If you can get three Durant out and an Aggron line, you’re going to be good. The scariest thing for this deck to see is an Eviolited Zekrom as it 1HKOs everything in your deck except Aggron, something you would want to Devolution Spray.
VS Darkrai/Hydreigon – Unfavorable
This deck is focused more on fast mill. If you can consistently evolve Aggron, you’re in good shape to mill. This is very hard to do when Hydreigons 1HKO your Aggron and Darkrai cleans the rest up, but you can tend to discard Dark Patch and important resources to the Hydreigon line so you may have a chance.
VS Garchomp/Altaria – Unfavorable
BulbapediaThis matchup is similar to the Durant/Sableye matchup, except you’re not running nearly as much Energy disruption as that deck. I’ll run down the matchup for each of the techs I included as they are a little different for each.
Hooligans Jim & Cas: Lucky – Favorable; Unlucky – Very Unfavorable
If you’re lucky, this could be the best tech to have, but if you’re unlucky on your flips, if could be three wasted Supporters.
Crushing Hammer: Lucky – 50/50; Unlucky – Very Unfavorable
Another flippy card! Similar to Hooligans Jim & Cas, this is good disruption – provided you flip heads. This isn’t nearly as good as Jim & Cas in this matchup, though.
Enhanced Hammer: Favorable
This is pretty good in this matchup as almost half of the Energy in this deck is Blend Energy.
Rare Candy: Favorable
This makes the deck a lot faster and if you can get out a couple of Durant and Aggron by turn 2 almost half of their deck is gone provided no draw Support was played.
After that huge section on Durant/Aggron (it’s by far the deck I’ve tested most), we move on to:
List #3: Durant/Garbodor
For the final list, Durant will be pairing up with a newbie to competitive play: Garbodor. Garbodor provides Ability-lock as long as a Tool is attached to it.
Decklist
|
Pokémon – 11 |
Trainers – 41 4 N 2 Bianca
4 Revive 4 Eviolite 3 Switch |
Energy – 8 8 M – Basic |
Although no open space is listed, you can take out some disruption/Supporters for Battle City/other techs if you want them.
Matchups
VS Zekrom/Eelektrik – Very Favorable
BulbapediaI have found in testing that Zekrom/Eelektrik falls apart pretty easily without Eelektrik’s Ability, but you still have to watch out for an Eviolited Zekrom. Also, from what I’ve seen, this deck runs Tool Scrapper so be wary of that.
VS Darkrai/Hydreigon – Slightly Favorable
If you get Garbodor and some Catchers fast, you should be good. Hydreigon has a beefy three retreat and is hard to charge Energy onto without Dark Trance. Use your Hammers to take off Energy when they’re starting to threaten with a Darkrai on the bench and you shouldn’t have too much of a problem.
VS Garchomp/Altaria – Favorable
If you can get a Garbodor with a Tool out in this matchup, you are in great shape. This is a deck that normally doesn’t run Tool Scrapper but you should be wary of the tech because of Garbodor. Without Abilities, this deck is horrible and pointless. The only way they can 1HKO your Pokémon is by using an attack that mills itself. Just remember to keep an extra Garbodor set up because they will get KO’d and Durants will start dying like no end.
In conclusion, Durant has the chance to make a splash at Battle Roads or just go unseen like it was last Battle Roads. It’s your decision whether it can achieve world domination!
Umm, I think you forgot that against Garbodor no one will play down their Hydreigon. Atleast I would never do that.
I would play down my Hydreigon, if I had tool scrapper handy, or desperately needed a ko (assuming I for some reason had 3 energy on a deino)
I liked the way you were trying to take the deck, they all seem like viable options, but your lists…. They’re kinda not so good… at all.
They can just put another Tool. I don’t see the plus of having Hydreigon in this matchup. You can have more cards in hand to N back into your deck if you don’t play it, because it is not needed in that matchup, just Darkrai and Sableye will do it.. I wouldn’t bench even a Deino.
I was going to like it just because it’s durant… then I looked at the decklist and techs.
Constructive criticism start
Deck1: 2 sableye is the very max you want, 3 if you want to push the limits. Remember that regardless of the deck list, you ALWAYS want to start with durant. Having four sableye defeats the purpose of devouring unless you can drop the SAB. Also, what’s with the dark energy? Prism is still in format. Which is also the reason why less sableye is better; you’re not guaranteed the prism T1.
Oh, and SAB is a requirement for this version, not a choice. Unless you want to waste precious energy retreating.
Deck2: Again, 2 aggron is best; the only time it remains on the field at the end of your turn is if you whiffed the devo spray. Max out the lairon instead for better chances of evolving. Also play 2 DCE because lest you forget, lairon can mill too; otherwise, I’d prefer to max out the switches. I’m on the fence on rescue scarf here; giant cape allows lairon to escape death more often, and works just like eviolite for durant. Lastly, you might want to consider ultra ball over heavy ball. T1 devour is more important than setting up aggron.
Deck3: This is by far my most favourite version. Again, ditch the eviolite for big cloak for better survival. Cut enhanced hammer and trubbish to 3, ditch the EXP share and actually remember to fit in your level balls rolleyes
Durant/garbador can afford to relax over the hammers because catchers do a good job keeping attackers at bay when the lockis up, especially against darkrai/hydreigon who almost never run switches.
By the way, hooligan is just bad. You just simply cannot afford to lose the ability to dig into your deck, not when twins is no longer available.
Dear god… list 3 has 10 tools. You are getting yourself a consistent lock if nothing more! (Not really, cause you can’t find any of your Pokemon to bring out).
Heatmor Heatmor Everyware!!!! 2 Heatmors on each deck 4 nearf this deck.
I’m not quite sure why you would want to put cards back in your opponents deck at all with Hooligans. Seems to defeat the entire purpose of the deck.
Well… that part actually makes sense. Durant could care less if it takes one more turn to mill you, as long as it stopped you from attacking for at least 1 turn because of it.
what about Aggron/sableye?
Is there Durant there?
Deck three is the most viable option but your list will have a major consistency problem. There are no heavy ball, ultra ball, or level ball. The chance of getting more than two durrant or your garbador combo are pretty weak without any pokemon search trainers.
I agree with some of the other posts about dropping eviolite for Giant Cape because it benefits garbador as well. You may want to consider dropping down to 8 Tools (4 Rescue Scarf/4 Giant Cape) and throwing in either ultra ball or level ball to stream your durrant more consistently early game and gettinga trubbish. You could also decrease your Trubbish to 3 because you are playing rescue scarf and revive.
Also switch might need to be increased to 4, because durrant stalls out if they catcher a garbador and you have to waste three turns of energy attachments (with only 8 energy in your whole deck) while they power up their attacker.
-1 Trubbish
-4 Eviolite
-2 Exp Share
-1 Enhanced Hammer
+4 Giant Cape
+4 Combination of Level Ball/Ultra Ball/Switch
I like your article and thought it was well written from a writing perspective and it flowed well. Thanks for giving some good ideas about reviving durrant.
Read on forums, liked, liked here.
I think just 4 Durant would be best though because you’re least likely to prize an Ant.
I question the fact that you mention Rescue Scarf “This is a great tool that you should include in all Durant decks. It returns Durant to your hand when they get KO’d.” yet it’s under the tech section? (Deck 1)
In your second list with Aggron, there is NO reason why you shouldn’t have (4) four copies of Switch. Without multiple Switch, your opponent can easily Pokemon Catcher out your Aggron, and let him sit there while your opponent stalls for time in a sanctioned tournament. The deck by no means draws any prizes so you will need a way to always discard their cards every turn. Granted you may think your idea will discard your opponent’s Pokemon Catcher, but when you talk about consistency, you always assume the worse case scenario; which in this case, is to not discard Pokemon Catcher.
Why don’t you tech in a Fliptini? Wait…that’s for attacks. *Most dramatic facepalm you have ever seen*