“Sky-High Towers” - Duraludon VMAX Reigns Supreme!

Howdy, Trainers! I hope everybody is enjoying 2022 and is setting out to achieve all of their goals. I know I’ve personally set out to achieve some attainable goals, and if you haven’t I urge you to do the same. With the cautious return of competitive play this year, it seems like there will be some regional championships this year as well as some international championships - I urge you to create a goal to earn some Championship Points at these events. Setting a bar for how many points you would like to earn per event is a fundamental step in becoming a consistent player! Without this goal, we’re aiming carelessly and don’t have a precise target to reach. PTCGO Store’s blog section will help you to reach those goals no problem, and that’s our goal with each of these articles: to help guide players! Today, I’ve brought a little piece written about one of my favorite Pokémon in the game, Duraludon! This tank of a Pokémon has been popping up in all sorts of top cuts lately, and I’m shocked that it hasn’t received more coverage. It’s a real metagame stomper, and it’s ruthless at what it does. This deck is really new to the scene, but packs a punch - let’s hop into why Duraludon VMAX is appearing on people’s radars!

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 deck. I was very excited, and it honestly didn’t take that many PTCGO 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 Duraludon VMAX!

The main strategy of this deck is much like the Pokémon Duraludon itself: to be a massive wall! Duraludon has a very unique Skyscraper ability that is reminiscent of Aegislash-EX; it essentially reads that your opponent’s Pokémon can’t damage Duraludon if they have a Special Energy Card attached. When you think about how many Special Energy Cards are in the current standard format, you can see why Duraludon is a very powerful VMAX Pokémon! To name a few Special Energy Cards: Fusion Strike Energy, Capture Energy, Speed Lightning Energy, Rapid Strike Energy, Single Strike Energy, Twin Energy, and many more! The beauty of this ability is that it will only get stronger as more and more Special Energy Cards are printed. If that wasn’t enough strength, we also play a slew of cards that can really deteriorate our opponent: Crushing Hammer, Flannery, and Avery to name a few. Lastly, we couple this with some helpful tools to heal us and boost our HP, like Big Charm, Team Yell Towel, and our Stadium card, Crystal Cave. Between all of this, there’s no way our opponent is going to pierce their way through this building of a Pokémon! Let’s look at a sample deck list.

3 Duraludon V CPA 47

3 Duraludon VMAX EVS 123

2 ザシアン V SSH 138

4 Boss's Orders SHF 58

4 Adventurer's Discovery FST 224

3 Avery CRE 130

3 Professor's Research CEL 23

2 Raihan EVS 152

1 Flannery CRE 139

4 Crushing Hammer SSH 159

4 Pokégear 3.0 SSH 174

3 Switch SSH 183

2 Team Yell Towel SHF 63

1 Tool Scrapper RCL 168

3 Big Charm SSH 158

4 Crystal Cave EVS 144

10 Metal Energy 8

4 Fighting Energy 6

3 Duraludon VMAX - This absolute unite comes in at a whopping 330HP, which is higher than most VMAX Pokemon in the format! Duraludon is a Dragon-type Pokémon that preys on Pokémon that have Special Energy attached to them, rendering them useless with its Skyscraper ability. This is the main selling point of the card considering how many Special Energy cards are fluttering around. G-Max Pulverization is a beast of an attack, being able to deal 220 damage for (MMF). This is a hefty cost for an attack considering we don’t play any energy acceleration in this deck besides Raihan, however, the attack cuts through any effects on the defending Pokémon so it will always deal 220 damage regardless of any factors. This means we can even attack through Decidueye’s Deep Forest Camo ability, which would normally stop Pokemon V and VMAX in their tracks. No weakness is a huge plus in this format, and three retreat cost doesn’t really bother us because we won’t be moving. This Pokémon is really just a tank that fairs well against most of the metagame!

3 Duraludon V - I wanted to touch on this real quick because the ability on this V is great for tanking a hit against swift attackers like Meloetta and Mew VMAX. We only play three because the VMAX is a tank and we don’t expect to be getting KOed many times each game.

2 Zacian V – This card is an absolute beast, and is one of the strongest V Pokemon to have been printed so far. An ability that draws cards in the form of Intrepid Sword is potent enough to make most strategies work, however when you look closer the ability also reads that you can accelerate energy onto your ザシアン V as well. This is inherently one of the strongest abilities in standard as well because going first you can use Intrepid Sword to end your first turn (since you can’t attack) and potentially get a fully powered Zacian by the end of your turn. You can also use this ability to end turns at any point of the game where you either can’t attack or it isn’t beneficial to attack. That being said, sometimes you don’t accelerate any energy onto Zacian with Intrepid Sword, but the games where you even hit single energy just feel so strong. 220HP is quite good right now (it can be higher with Big Charm) as it can stand a chance against many VMAX Pokémon. Victini may be an issue if it becomes more popular because this Pokémon has Fire-type weakness; Grass resistance is quite nice against things that may become popular such as Leafeon VMAX. Two retreat cost is steep, but not too steep as we can mitigate them with Air Balloon. Brave Blade hitting for 230 is a sweet number for many Pokemon, and often can pick up OHKOs. This deck mostly plays two copies for consistency.

4 Pokegear - The consistency glue of our deck, Pokegear allows us to reach key Supporter cards at opportune times.

4 Adventurer’s Discovery - A setup Supporter to replace Quick Ball in our deck. We play this instead of Quick Ball so we can get it off of Pokegear.

4 Crushing Hammer - To remove basic energy from play since we want to keep Special Energy in play. This way, it reinforces our Skyscraper ability.

2 Team Yell Towel - A potent healing card that can put in a ton of work to offset KO numbers. We want to time these for when our opponent doesn’t have damage on their active Pokémon - this way we are the only party that receives the healing benefits of this card. The time it wisely!

1 Flannery - To remove key threats from play, and grabbable off of Pokegear.

3 Avery - This is a really weird Supporter inclusion in our deck, but it all makes sense I promise! Avery is played to draw three cards since we don’t want to discard resources with Professor’s Research, and we don’t want to shuffle our resources in with Marnie. Avery allows us to build huge hands that can be very impactful, especially when our opponent runs out (or fails to find) Marnie. Avery’s added bench disruption can also mitigate strategies from decks like Suicune, Mew, and Sylveon after multiple uses.

4 Crystal Caves - One-sided Stadium cards are amongst some of the strongest strategies you can build upon in the TCG, especially since the rotation of Chaotic Swell in recent memory. Crystal Caves is no different, as it allows us to heal our roster of Duraludons and trigger a healing effect that prevents the opponent from hitting key numbers. This card is supplemental to our strategy and allows for our Pokemon to last longer. Crystal Caves is especially strong against decks like Jolteon VMAX that spread damage onto multiple Pokemon! It also makes for a strong counter to Stadiums such as Training Court and Path to the Peak.

4 Boss’ Orders - A great card for targeting down a specific Pokémon and removing any basic energy from play. This can also aid you in a deck out a scenario to strand a Pokémon active that can’t attack. We play a high count of this card so that we can remove these threats instantly from play. We also want to ensure that we can access Boss off of Pokegear whenever we want it.

2 Raihan - While Raihan is a very situational Supporter that can only be played after a KO takes place, it is an amazing card that can offer opportunities in terms of allowing your Pokemon to attack by having the necessary energy cards. Raihan can also get us out of a dead hand by allowing us to search for something great that we might need. Since we play four Pokegear, we have a decent chance of being able to access this card during the turn after our opponent takes a KO. Raihan is also useful to recover a Fighting Energy, which we only play four of. It can also allow us to take KOs out of nowhere.

1 Tool Scrapper - This is specifically in here to remove harmful tools, with the most harmful tool being Tool Jammer. Tool Jammer can turn off Big Charm which essentially renders us without access to HP buffs via the form of a Pokémon Tool (this negation is essential -30HP). Tool Scrapper can also remove key Air Balloons and Scroll cards.

This Pokemon online deck is one of the best answers to Mew VMAX right now in the metagame, and it really stands a chance for most things provided that it can make it past the first few turns of the game. If you like flexibility with Trainer cards each turn and the ability to lock your opponent out of games with the Skyscraper ability then I highly urge you to try out this deck. This deck requires a decent bit of new stuff from the newest expansion Fusion Strike, so you should check out our shop for your PTCGO codes. I’d suggest nabbing some PTCGL codes and building this deck online, because this deck seems like it will stick around for a while. Until next time, have fun!

If you’re looking for codes for Pokemon TCG online play, feel free to pick some up in our shop. We offer Pokemon codes at a very competitive price, and ensure instant delivery of your PTCGL codes directly to your email. Thank you for reading this article today on the PTCGO store! Have a great day.