Mega Darkrai ex deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it

What this deck looks like when you open the box

Across the 21 lists we counted, this deck runs 11 to 20 Pokémon, 24 to 37 Trainers and 9 to 16 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Darkness.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « mega-darkrai-ex ». Every card named in that label turns up in the tables below, which is what makes it a fair name for the deck.

Look at the Energy count first: 9 to 16 out of 60. No single number tells you more about how a deck breathes. A lot of Energy means it wants to load up one big Pokémon and swing hard. Very little means it lives on cheap attacks and on Trainers to dig out whatever it is missing.

Nothing here needs evolving — everything that attacks is a Basic Pokémon. Put it down, charge it, swing. That is as fast as the game gets, and it makes those turns where you draw nothing far less painful.

On the Trainer side: 8 to 15 Supporters, 12 to 22 Items, 0 to 2 Tools and 0 to 5 Stadiums. Worth saying out loud, because everyone forgets it once a tournament: you only get ONE Supporter a turn, while you can chain as many Items as you like. So a deck full of Items takes longer, louder turns than a deck full of Supporters.

How it actually wins

Mega Darkrai ex attacks with Dusk Raid for 110+, and it costs 2 Energy (Darkness and Darkness). It has 280 HP to absorb the answer. Everything else in the list is built around getting that card online.

Do the arithmetic with us, because it decides your first few turns. You attach one Energy a turn by hand. Mega Darkrai ex wants 2. With no help, that means you swing on turn 2 at the earliest. Every card in this deck that accelerates Energy or fetches a Pokémon buys back a turn on that count, and at this level a turn is a game.

Here is the detail that quietly loses games: Mega Darkrai ex has a Retreat Cost of 2. Once it is in the Active spot you are not getting it back to the Bench cheaply. Think before you send it up.

1 of the core Pokémon carry the « ex » suffix. Those are the big ones: high HP, attacks that hurt, and the price tag to match. They also cost you more when they fall — an opponent takes extra Prize cards for knocking out an ex, so every trade you lose there walks you towards the loss faster than you think.

The attackers in the deck's core, with their best attack, its cost and their Weakness

Pokémon	HP	Attack	Damage	Cost	Weakness	Retreat
Mega Darkrai exBasic	280	Dusk Raid	110+	Darkness + Darkness	Grass ×2	2

The core: the 5 cards every list runs

These 5 cards appear in all 21 lists, without a single exception. That is 22 of the 60 slots. The other 38 are decided player by player.

This is the most useful table on the page, and nobody publishes it. Everywhere else you get one list, from one player, who won one tournament. Fine — but you have no way of telling which parts of it were the deck and which parts were that person's idea on the day. Counting 21 lists settles the question by itself: what 21 people put in their deck without talking to each other IS the deck.

A word on the count column. We give you the number that comes up most often, and where the lists disagree we give you the range instead. A card sitting at "3 to 4" is one everybody plays but whose fourth copy is up for debate. That is exactly the kind of slot you reclaim when you want to fit an idea of your own.

The code next to the name — "TWM 130" and the like — is the set and the collector number, printed at the bottom of the card. We show you the printing the lists use most often, because two cards can share a name and have completely different attacks. Check that number before you buy anything.

The cards present in every list counted, with the number of copies

Copies	Card	Printing	Kind
2–3	Mega Darkrai ex	PBL 48	Pokémon
2–4	Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer
2–3	Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer
2–4	Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer
7–16	Darkness Energy	MEE 7	Energy

What changes from one list to the next

76 cards show up in some lists and not in others. The percentage tells you how many lists run each one: at 50%, half the players want it and the other half deliberately chose something else.

Do not read this table as a ranking from best to worst. A card sitting at 80% is one four players in five find useful and the fifth cut on purpose, usually because they were expecting a different field. That disagreement is worth something on its own.

Here is how to use it when you build. Take the whole core first, no arguing. Then walk down this list and stop on every card you do not understand: read its text, work out what it is answering. A card you cannot explain is a card you will misplay, even if the champion had it in their list.

And if this is your first time with the deck, build the boring version — the full core plus the most common cards from here. Understand the deck before you start tinkering with it. That order is the only one that works.

The cards some lists run and others don't, most common first

Lists running it	Card	Copies	Printing	Kind
95 %20/21	Janine's Secret Art	1–4	PRE 112	Trainer
90 %19/21	Latias ex	1–2	SSP 76	Pokémon
90 %19/21	Mega Kangaskhan ex	2	MEG 104	Pokémon
90 %19/21	Pecharunt ex	1–2	SFA 39	Pokémon
90 %19/21	Volcanion ex	1–2	JTG 31	Pokémon
90 %19/21	Dark Bell	1–4	PBL 75	Trainer
90 %19/21	Special Red Card	1–2	CRI 82	Trainer
86 %18/21	Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
86 %18/21	Energy Switch	1–4	MEG 115	Trainer
86 %18/21	Mega Signal	1–3	MEG 121	Trainer
86 %18/21	Night Stretcher	1–2	ASC 196	Trainer
86 %18/21	Pokégear 3.0	1–3	SVI 186	Trainer
76 %16/21	Meowth ex	1–2	POR 62	Pokémon
67 %14/21	Cyrano	1–3	SSP 170	Trainer
62 %13/21	Lively Stadium	2	SSP 180	Trainer
57 %12/21	Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking	2	TEF 145	Trainer
52 %11/21	Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex	1	TWM 141	Pokémon
48 %10/21	Battle Cage	1	PFL 85	Trainer
48 %10/21	Legacy Energy	1	TWM 167	Energy
33 %7/21	Munkidori	1–3	TWM 95	Pokémon
33 %7/21	Risky Ruins	1–4	MEG 127	Trainer
24 %5/21	Yveltal	1	MEG 88	Pokémon
19 %4/21	Mega Absol ex	1	MEG 86	Pokémon
14 %3/21	Mega Gengar ex	1–2	PFL 56	Pokémon
14 %3/21	Toxel	1–2	PFL 67	Pokémon
14 %3/21	Toxtricity	2	PFL 68	Pokémon
14 %3/21	Team Rocket's Petrel	3–4	DRI 176	Trainer
14 %3/21	Grimsley's Move	1–3	PFL 90	Trainer
14 %3/21	Precious Trolley	1	SSP 185	Trainer
14 %3/21	Shadowy Darkness Energy	1–3	PBL 83	Energy
10 %2/21	Haunter	2	PFL 55	Pokémon
10 %2/21	Seviper	2	PFL 62	Pokémon
10 %2/21	Moltres	1	PFL 14	Pokémon
10 %2/21	Poké Pad	2–4	POR 81	Trainer
10 %2/21	Dusk Ball	1–3	SSP 175	Trainer
10 %2/21	Lisia's Appeal	1–3	SSP 179	Trainer
10 %2/21	Buddy-Buddy Poffin	2	TEF 144	Trainer
10 %2/21	Crispin	1–2	SCR 133	Trainer
10 %2/21	Energy Recycler	1–2	DRI 164	Trainer
10 %2/21	Punk Helmet	1–2	PFL 92	Trainer
10 %2/21	Rare Candy	2	MEG 125	Trainer
10 %2/21	Switch	1–2	MEG 130	Trainer
10 %2/21	Team Rocket's Transceiver	2	DRI 178	Trainer
10 %2/21	Dangerous Laser	1	SFA 58	Trainer
10 %2/21	Prime Catcher	1	TEF 157	Trainer
10 %2/21	Wally's Compassion	1	MEG 132	Trainer
10 %2/21	Fire Energy	2	MEE 2	Energy
5 %1/21	Gastly	4	PFL 54	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Gastly	2	POR 48	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Sableye	2	PFL 59	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Eternatus	1	PFL 69	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Krokorok	1	PFL 65	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Krookodile	1	PFL 66	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Munkidori ex	1	SFA 37	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Okidogi ex	1	SFA 36	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Pecharunt	1	SVP 149	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Sandile	1	PFL 64	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex	1	TWM 64	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Yveltal ex	1	POR 53	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Judge	4	POR 76	Trainer
5 %1/21	Academy at Night	3	SFA 54	Trainer
5 %1/21	Crushing Hammer	3	POR 71	Trainer
5 %1/21	Area Zero Underdepths	2	SCR 131	Trainer
5 %1/21	Binding Mochi	2	PRE 95	Trainer
5 %1/21	Enhanced Hammer	2	TWM 148	Trainer
5 %1/21	Team Rocket's Watchtower	2	DRI 180	Trainer
5 %1/21	Air Balloon	1	ASC 181	Trainer
5 %1/21	AZ's Tranquility	1	CRI 76	Trainer
5 %1/21	Colress's Tenacity	1	SFA 57	Trainer
5 %1/21	Dawn	1	PFL 87	Trainer
5 %1/21	Energy Search	1	POR 72	Trainer
5 %1/21	Hero's Cape	1	TEF 152	Trainer
5 %1/21	Jumbo Ice Cream	1	PFL 91	Trainer
5 %1/21	Secret Box	1	TWM 163	Trainer
5 %1/21	Psychic Energy	3	MEE 5	Energy
5 %1/21	Water Energy	1	MEE 3	Energy

What it costs to build, and how long it will last

You need 81 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 5 of which nobody argues about. We do not have card prices, so we are not going to put a number on it.

What we can tell you is where the money goes. 1 ex Pokémon in the core, and they are almost the whole bill. The Trainers and basic Energy are near enough free, or already in your box. This deck runs no ACE SPEC card at all.

And here is a genuinely good piece of news: not one core card carries the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation. This deck walks through the change with its skeleton intact. At equal price, that is the argument that should settle it.

One last piece of old-player advice. Never build a deck card by card starting with the prettiest one. Start with the core Trainers: they are cheap, they carry over into other decks, and they are what keeps the deck running. Buy the expensive Pokémon last, once you know you actually enjoy the deck.

What this deck struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Grass. A card with a Weakness takes DOUBLE damage from an attacker of that type. Of the decks we track, 13 attack in exactly that type.

Here is how the table below is built. The Weakness is printed on your cards, the type of the attacker across the table is printed on theirs, and the fact that this particular deck really does play that attacker is counted off its own lists. You can check every line of it with the cards in your hand.

One limit, while we are here. Weakness alone does not decide a match. A deck can double your damage and still lose because it sets up too slowly, or crush you without ever touching your Weakness. This table tells you where to look first. What settles the game sits further along.

Going the other way, your attackers are Darkness — and 20 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.

These pages are about the same corner of the game. If you came away from this one still wondering about something, start with one of them.