Fans of Dark-type decks in Pokemon TCG Pocket haven’t had much choice — aside from Weezing/Muk or Nidoqueen/Nidoking — when it comes to kitting out their decks with strong cards. At long last, the Space-Time Smackdown expansion has introduced two Dark-type ex Pokemon — Darkrai ex and Weavile ex — for players to experiment with.
In this guide, we’re going to be using both Darkrai ex and Weavile ex to create a threatening Dark-type deck that will, hopefully, have much more luck against foes than the poisonous control decks many of us have been using prior to this expansion. Here’s our Pokemon TCG Pocket Darkrai ex and Weavile ex deck guide and card list to help you with that.
Pokemon TCG Pocket Darkrai ex and Weavile ex deck guide and card list
This Darkrai ex and Weavile ex deck in Pokemon TCG Pocket is very promising, and looks to give Dark-type decks a real chance of doing well in the pre-existing meta. It largely revolves around using Darkrai ex or Weavile ex as a primary attacker, but Darkrai ex is also capable of chipping away at opposing Pokemon from the Bench.
- 2x Darkrai ex
- 2x Weavile ex
- 2x Sneasel
- 2x Spiritomb
- 2x Cyrus
- 2x Rocky Helmet
- 2x Poke Ball
- 2x Professor’s Research
- 2x Pokemon Communication
- 1x Leaf
- 1x X Speed
First things first, you ideally want to have Spiritomb in the Active Spot while you set up this deck, which is why we’re bringing along the Poke Ball Item cards, Professor’s Research Item cards, and Pokemon Communication Item cards to help ensure we have what we need in our hand from the get-go.
Poke Ball and Professor’s Research allow us to draw more cards, while Pokemon Communication lets us swap a Pokemon in our hand for one in our deck. Pokemon Communication in particular is great to get in-hand at the beginning of a battle, as with some luck, we can guarantee we have Spiritomb in the Active Spot. Alternatively, you can pop Sneasel there temporarily.
You also want your Darkrai ex on the Bench as soon as possible. Attach a single Energy to your Active Spiritomb or Sneasel and attack using them, chipping away at the opponent, while then stacking Energy on Darkrai ex. Notably, Darkrai ex’s Ability — Nightmare Aura — will deal 20 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokemon every time you attach an Energy (specifically from the Energy Zone) to it. So, you’ll find yourself in a nice setting-up position, where both your Spiritomb and Darkrai ex are chipping away at opposing Pokemon slowly.
Once Darkrai ex has enough Energy to use their main attack — Dark Prism — you can use the X Speed Item card or Leaf Supporter card to switch your Active Pokemon for them and begin dealing 80 damage to the opponent. That said, if your Active Pokemon is now Weavile ex (assuming you may have started with Sneasel in the Active Spot), you could begin piling Energy onto a second Darkrai ex while using Weavile ex to attack. Provided your opponent’s Active Pokemon has damage on them, which they should with Darkrai ex and/or Spiritomb around, Weavile ex’s Scratching Nails attack deals 70 damage.
Now, to make this deck all the more annoying to come up against, we’re using two of the Rocky Helmet Tool cards to deal even more damage. If the Pokemon the Tool is attached to is attacked, the Tool will deal 20 damage to the attacker. This Tool can essentially give any Pokemon the Rough Skin Ability of the popular tank ‘mon, Druddigon, and it often puts opponents off from attacking. So, with that in mind, it’s not worth attaching this to Weavile ex, who needs some damage on them to be able to make the most of their attack.
Last, but not least, we’re bringing along the Cyrus Supporter card as an alternative to Sabrina. The difference is that while Sabrina allows the opponent to choose which Pokemon they switch into the Active Spot, Cyrus forces them to switch in a Benched Pokemon that has damage on them. Now, if the opponent has benched their primary attacker who’s on low HP, this leaves them in a precarious spot.
Or, let’s say Spiritomb has been chipping away at the opponents Basic Pokemon at the beginning of a battle and we’ve just got Darkrai ex or Weavile ex live; we can use an X Speed to switch one of them in, and Cyrus to force the opponent to switch in one of the Pokemon that Spiritomb attacked. Light work!
For more on Pokemon TCG Pocket, take a look at our guide to the best decks, as well as our guide to all the Secret Missions that are available to complete in-game.