Good morning Pokémon trainers! I am very excited to be coming to you with this new article that goes over some new cards from the newest expansion, Astral Radiance! I know that most people like myself enjoy fast, aggressive turbo decks: lucky for you, that’s what we have for you today! This Darkrai VSTAR deck is just about as fast as they can come, and will storm through any deck in its path. We’ll go over all the ins and outs of this deck in this article as well as a starter list to try out this new concept. I hope you enjoy it, let’s chat about Darkrai VSTAR!

I booted up my Pokemon Trading Card Game Online app, loaded up some PTCGO codes, and then traded those Pokemon online codes to trade for this Pokemon online deck. I was very excited, and it honestly didn’t take that many PPokemon TCG Online codes to make the deck. If you’re looking to buy some codes, we sell them here on PTCGO Store, and I highly urge you to check out our competitive pricing and swift delivery! Let’s talk about the newest way to play Darkrai VSTAR!

Strategy


Dark Patch

This deck has probably one of the simplest strategies I’ve profiled as of late: attach as many energy cards using Moltres V, Dark Patch, and manual attachments. Retain as much energy in play using Exp. Share - and then blow your opponent away using Darkrai VSTAR’s attack, which scales higher in damage for each Dark Energy you have in play. Use turbo-style cards (I.e Trekking Shoes) to draw through your deck, and draw all your Prize Cards as quickly as possible! Let’s check out the deck list.

Deck List

Pokemon - 14 

4 Darkrai V ASR 98
4 Darkrai VSTAR ASR 99
1 Crobat V DAA 104
1 Hoopa DAA 111
2 Galarian Moltres V CRE 97
1 Pumpkaboo EVS 76
1 Radiant Greninja ASR 46

Trainer - 33

2 Exp. Share NXD 87
4 Professor’s Research (Professor Oak) CEL 24
3 Pokégear 3.0 SSH 174
3 Switch SSH 183
4 Dark Patch ASR 139
4 Trekking Shoes ASR 156
3 Boss's Orders RCL 154
4 Quick Ball FST 237
2 Choice Belt BRS 135
4 Ultra Ball BRS 186

Energy - 13 

13 Darkness Energy 7

Key TCG Cards


Darkrai VSTAR

4-4 Darkrai VSTAR - The main attacker in our deck and the biggest hitter that we have! This Pokemon comes in at a whopping 270 HP, and it is a dark-type Pokémon meaning that it is very good in our current format. Being able to hit Mew VMAX for a solid OHKO is a great thing to have in our back pocket! Speed is the name of the game for this VSTAR Pokemon, and we’ve built our entire deck to go as fast as possible in order to support that essential strategy. Darkrai VSTAR has only one attack, and it’s one that comes action-packed with lots of damage! Carrying momentum throughout the game, we’ll accelerate as much Dark Energy into play as possible to hit for maximum damage. Darkrai VSTAR is able to OHKO opposing VSTARs with relative ease, and even take out some VSTAR Pokémon that it may encounter! Since the main VMAX that we see is Mew, and we already hit that Pokémon for weakness, I’m not concerned about this deck’s damage output whatsoever. On top of that, Darkrai has a monstrous VSTAR Power that allows you to get any two Item cards from your discard pile once per game! This traditionally will result in two Dark Patches, however, in some cases, it can help bail you out of a bad start by being able to grab other essential cards. This might be the best VSTAR ability printed yet because it has endless possibilities! This Pokémon doesn’t even have a traditional Fighting-weakness; it is instead weak to Grass-types now, meaning it can withstand the Urshifu matchup! The V is very irrelevant though I must say and only serves the purpose to evolve into the VSTAR. I love this VSTAR as our main attacker, and it makes for a lovely and consistent archetype. 

1 Hoopa - Our deck takes a little bit of momentum to get going, so Hoopa is a really nice addition in here to steal a few quick KOs. Hoopa’s attack is fantastic for taking down low HP Pokémon like Sobble on the first turn of the game, or perhaps even a Drizzile! If you can get the first KO of the game, it can oftentimes be disruptive and slow your opponent down. That ties into the synergy of our deck: if we’re as aggressive as possible, oftentimes it will disrupt the opponent. 

1 Crobat V - A perfect inclusion into a deck that is looking to churn through cards! I like this card because it’s nice to dig for additional copies of Darkrai V and Dark Patch. This card can help us get out of tight spots and be even quicker than we already are.

Radiant Greninja

1 Radiant Greninja - Greninja’s Concealed Cards ability is phenomenal at drawing cards, but more importantly getting Energy Cards in the discard pile for the ever-so-important Dark Patch. Greninja has synergy with many decks, however, allowing consistent decks to become even more consistent takes the cake! In this deck, it helps us dig even deeper, and consistently have accessible energy in the discard pile. 

Galarian Moltres V

2 Galarian Moltres V – Much like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Moltres aims to do the same by seemingly regenerating energy onto itself every single turn. Though you can only use this ability once per turn, Moltres V’s Direflame Wings ability allows you to attach a Dark Energy from your discard pile onto itself for no drawback. This is essentially a free Dark Patch every single turn of the game, and the best part? The attack on this card is bonkers as well! Being able to hit for 190 damage, you can take pesky KOs onto simple things like Crobat V or perhaps even a Genesect V. that was just straggling along on your opponent’s bench. Galarian Moltres V can also finish off VMAX Pokémon that you’d previously damaged or even soften them up with a first hit. This card has 220HP, which is pretty solid for a Pokémon V; with a weakness to Grass, this bird proves to be a little harder to knock out than what meets the eye. With all the energy that we can generate onto this bird, we can hit high numbers with Darkrai VSTAR. This is one of the best cards in our deck for accelerating energy into play.

1 Pumpkaboo - We play the pumpkin in our deck because we want to be able to remove Path to the Peak during our games in order to use Darkrai VSTAR’s ability. Since you can only use this VSTAR ability once per game, we only need to remove Path to the Peak once. Hence why we only play one Stadium removal card!

Professor's research

4 Professor’s Research - The only draw Supporter card we want to play each turn. It helps us see tons of cards and get Energy Cards in the discard pile, enough said!

3 Pokegear 3.0 - Since we only play four draw Supporters in this deck, we want to ensure that we can find them. Alongside a ton of other consistency cards, we will find our Professor’s Research copies no problems! This can also help us find Boss’s Orders in a pinch, and just helps us churn through more cards.

2 Choice Belt - Hit harder with your Darkrai VSTAR. KO Pokemon V with Galarian Moltres V’s attack. This is a staple in an aggressive deck! Just be mindful that you can only attach one Tool card to a Pokémon, so you can’t have Exp. Share and Choice Belt on the same Pokémon.

2 Exp. Share - Since we do additional damage for each energy card we have in play, it makes sense that we want to retain our energy in play as much as possible! Experience Share allows you to do just that. After each KO, you can save energy on one of your Pokémon and begin charging up another one. Tool Scrapper and Tool Jammer have been on a decline as of late, so I find myself getting full value out of these Tool cards very often. Spreading energy out with this deck is something you’ll need to be able to do to play it efficiently, and Exp. Share helps you do just that. Be sure to attach Exp. Share to support Pokémon so you can preserve the Pokémon Tool slot on your attackers for Choice Belt!

4 Trekking Shoes - This Item card from the newest expansion is a fantastic addition to turbo-style decks! Reminiscent of Acro Bike from expanded, Trekking Shoes allows us the ability to churn through our deck and get Dark Energy into the discard pile for leverage with Dark Patch and Galarian Moltres V. Trekking Shoes also can help us to hit cards at key times, like Boss’s Orders on a swing turn. This card is a staple in any deck that plays Dark Patch

4 Dark Patch - The main way of accelerating energy in play; an instant energy acceleration card that is insane in this deck. It’s almost always going to be live in the game and contributes to our speediness. We can attack as early as turn one as a result of this card. It can also help us to be resilient and keep pace with the opponent since we can retain energy in play. This is a reprinted card, but anytime this card has been legal within a standard, it has made its presence known. Darkrai’s VSTAR ability will generally pull out two Dark Patch from the discard, so we can have a 5th and 6th copy of this card at our fingertips! If we could play more than four, we would.

Conclusion

This deck is one of the most consistent decks to come out of Astral Radiance and should setup without any problems at all. Each Pokémon in this deck is designed to help you attach extra energy cards to your Pokémon. If you like flexibility with Trainer cards each turn and the ability to overwhelm your opponent with lots of pressure then I highly urge you to try out this deck. This deck requires a decent bit of stuff from different Standard expansions (as well as the new Astral Radiance expansion), so you should check out our shop for your PTCGO code needs. I’d suggest nabbing some PTCGO codes and building this deck online because this deck seems like it will stick around for a while - it could even be a good choice for future events coming up. Until next time, have fun!

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