One Hit KO

Hello everyone in Omar-Nation, this is Joel here with a fun deck idea to try out. I was originally going to write an article on Charizard, but with my new hectic work schedule, and a crazy idea on a Dusknoir deck, I decided to write about Dusknoir instead. I also would have had this article up sooner but as I said, my work schedule is hectic, and I don’t have as much free time as I used to have, now on with the deck!

I have always liked Dusknoir LV.X, and the Dusknoir from Stormfront. Dusknoir can allow you to draw 2 cards, and put 2 damage counters on it, however you have 7 or more cards in your hand; you have to discard cards until you have 6. Putting damage counters and discarding cards may seem like a pretty bad drawback, but Damage Even makes up for it. For a Psychic and a Colorless, you count the number of Damage counters on Dusknoir, and put that many damage counters on any one of your opponent’s Pokémon. And did I mention Dusknoir LV.X? With poke-power Ectoplasm, the level X card becomes a stadium that puts one damage counter on all of your opponent’s Pokémon between turns! Pretty sweet, isn’t it?

I got the idea to make a Dusknoir deck after seeing my friend Matt from Florida run one in a battle road. I also needed a fun deck to take to league since not everyone there can hold their own against Luxchomp. So I threw together a list with some interesting techs, took my deck to league and did pretty well with it. I tested the deck against my league’s more competitive players. I had a good matchup against my friend Austin with his Machamp/Mightyena build, and my friend Will had a hard time against the deck, and he was running Gyarados. I’ll share my list below and give you an idea on how I play it.

Pokémon

3 Duskull (SF)
2 Dusclops (SF)
3 Dusknoir (SF)
1 Dusknoir LV.X (SF)
1 Mewtwo (MD)
1 Mewtwo LV.X (LA)
4 Spiritomb (AC)
2 Uxie (LA)
2 Mesprit (LA)
1 Azelf (LA)
1 Smeargle (UD)
Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums
2 Twins
1 Palmer’s Contribution
2 VS Seeker
3 Rare Candy
4 Super Scoop Up
3 Bebe’s Search
2 Looker’s Investigation
4 Pokémon Communication
2 Judge
1 Cynthia’s Feelings
2 Professor Oak’s New Theory
Energy
3 Rescue Energy
3 Warp Energy
7 Psychic Energy

The ideal start to the game is to have Spiritomb active and have a Duskull on the bench. Spiritomb will both lock trainers and evolve your Duskull quicker too. This is a slow setup, which is usually a bad thing with our current metagame, however with Spiritomb’s Keystone Seal, locking Trainers can help you out, especially against SP builds and Gyarados, which are heavily reliant on trainer cards. During this slow setup time, you can charge up your Duskull with energy while Spiritomb is helping him evolve to Dusknoir. Once Duskull finally becomes a Dusknoir, either use a Warp Energy or just wait until he’s knocked out (I myself would use a Warp Energy to switch him out). Once Dusknoir is out, level him up immediately, as this is a key play in the deck. You also want to try to get a second Dusknoir set up since you want your first Dusknoir knocked out. “But Joel, why would I want him knocked out?” Good question. See Poke-power Ectoplasm. Once Dusknoir becomes knocked out, he becomes a stadium card that places 1 damage counter on each of your opponent’s Pokémon between turns. You may be down a prize, but you can easily make that up. Dusknoir’s second attack “Night Spin” works great against SP Pokémon and Gyarados. Night Spin does 50 damage and prevents all effects of attacks, including damage done to Dusknoir by opponent’s Pokémon with 2 or less energy attatched to them. Since Gyarados requires no energy to attack, and SP’s usually have 1 or 2 thanks to Energy Gain, Dusknoir can be a good wall too.

Once “Dusknoir Stadium” is in play, you simply use your backup Dusknoir to snipe weaker Pokémon for prizes, and with damage constantly being added to opponent’s Pokémon between turns, you can keep few damage counters on Dusknoir for sniping, and let the stadium do the work for you. Another neat thing about “Dusknoir Stadium” is when another stadium comes in play, or an effect discards a stadium; Dusknoir LV.X goes right back to your hand! I call it the card that doesn’t go away.

Now let’s talk about some of the other cards in the deck and why I put them in here. I’m going to start with Mewtwo LV.X. I put him here in case of an SP matchup. His poke-body Psybarrier prevents all effects of attacks, including damage done to Mewtwo by opponent’s Pokémon that aren’t evolved Pokémon. Since all SP Pokémon are basic, Mewtwo can plow through them (unless Dialga G is out). The Lake Trio provide good use too. Just about every deck has Uxie and Azelf in them but Mesprit isn’t seen much. I like Mesprit’s Poke-Power Psychic Bind, it prevents your opponent from using any Poke-Power during their turn. With my Super Scoop Ups, I can attempt to Psychic Bind every turn, and provide great disruption. While on the subject of disruption, I added Judge and Looker’s investigation for that purpose. I like Judge because it will throw off the hands of SP decks and Gyarados. Throw that with Spiritomb and you’ll cause nothing but frustration for your opponent. I put Twins in the deck since I knew I’d be down in prizes early game, that card will help me get needed cards faster without having to rely on Uxie or Dusknoir to draw into them.

Pros: This deck is very fun to play, as well as disruptive. With the Dusknoir Stadium in play, you can build up damage on multiple Pokémon, and snipe for easy prizes.

Cons: The deck sets up very slow. If you don’t start with Spiritomb, early game will be very rough, and catching up will be hard to do. Also if Dusknoir LV.X is knocked out by an effect of an attack (i.e. Gengar’s Shadow Room), it will go to the discard pile instead of becoming a stadium.

Regardless, this is a fun deck to try out, and I recommend taking it to your local league.

Category: Deck Discussion | Tags: Duskull, Spiritomb