This guide will show you how to build some of the strongest Darkrai ex Decks from the Space-Time Smackdown Expansion. We'll cover the best Darkrai ex Deck builds, how to use them, as well how to beat Darkrai ex Decks, and more!

Best Darkrai ex Decks

Darkrai ex Deck Variants	Strengths and Weaknesses
Giratina ex and Darkrai ex Deck [★ Best ★]	Strengths: • Rewards passive turns with Energy acceleration. • Can be partnered with Darkrai ex for passive damage on the Defending Pokemon using Nightmare Aura. Weaknesses: • Can get punished for loading up on Energy by Pokemon like Gallade ex. • Chaotic Impact also damages Giratina ex, making it easier to KO.
Weavile ex and Darkrai ex Deck	Strengths: • Very Energy-efficient, being effective with only one Energy attachment. • Darkrai ex synergizes with Cyrus, allowing you to gust out a damaged Pokemon for a decisive KO. • Sufficiently speedy because Weavile ex is a Stage 1. Weaknesses: • Weavile ex and Darkrai ex share a Weakness to Grass, which makes Meowscarada matchups more difficult.
Darkrai ex and Magnezone Deck	Strengths: • Magnezone is able to hit important HP Benchmarks with the help of Darkrai's Nightmare Aura. • Magnezone has an important type advantage over the likes of Palkia ex and Yanmega ex. • Magneton's Volt Charge can get Lightning Energy from the Energy Zone, even if you set your Energy Zone to only Dark. Weaknesses: • Makes use of Stage 2 Pokemon, which may require multiple turns to set up. • Besides Magneton's Ability, there are no other ways to attach Lightning Energy to your Magnezone line.
Darkrai ex and Weezing Deck	Strengths: • Can deal damage simply by attaching Energy. • Synergizes with Weezing, which also deals incremental damage with its Gas Leak Ability. • Does not share the same Weakness to Weezing. Weaknesses: • May struggle against Grass-types with low costing Attacks like Exeggutor ex.
Weavile ex and Weezing Deck	Strengths: • Darkness Pokemon in the deck do not have a shared Weakness. • Weavile ex can punish damaged Pokemon with Scratching Nails. • Darkrai ex can deal passive damage through Energy attachments with its Nightmare Aura Ability. Weaknesses: • Weezing cannot inflict Poison on Arceus ex. • Weavile ex and Darkrai ex share a Weakness to Grass, which makes Meowscarada matchups more difficult.
Darkrai ex and Greninja Deck	Strengths: • Darkrai ex can deal passive damage through Energy attachments with its Nightmare Aura Ability. • Greninja can damage any of the opponent's Pokemon with Water Shuriken. • Can afford to have passive turns with Darkrai ex and Froakie in the Bench, with Druddigon in the Active Spot. Weaknesses: • Can be susceptible to Sabrina plays unless you have both Druddigon in play.

Giratina ex and Darkrai ex Deck

Druddigon ×2				Darkrai ex ×2				Giratina ex ×2				Sabrina ×1
Leaf ×2				Rocky Helmet ×2				Cyrus ×1				Red ×2
Potion ×2				Poke Ball ×2				Professor's Research ×2
Energy Used

Darkrai ex pairs nicely with Giratina ex, being Pokemon who reward you simply by being on the field.

You can simply play out your turns by attaching Energy to Darkrai ex and ending your turn with Giratina ex's Broken-Space Bellow. Darkrai ex's Nightmare Aura can put opposing Pokemon into KO range for Giratina ex's Chaotic Impact.

Additionally, Rocky Helmet on Druddigon can deal a total of 40 damage putting nearly all Pokemon into Giratina ex's KO range.

Once Giratina ex or Darkrai ex are ready to attack, switch out your Active Pokemon with Leaf. Use Red to reach important HP benchmarks like Dialga ex's 150 when Darkrai ex's incremental damage isn't enough.

Weavile ex and Darkrai ex Deck

Sneasel ×2				Weavile ex ×2				Darkrai ex ×2				Sabrina ×1
Leaf ×2				Giant Cape ×2				Cyrus ×2				Dawn ×1
Red ×2				Poke Ball ×2				Professor's Research ×2
Energy Used

This Darkrai ex variation has access to a devastating 90 damage play with Dawn.

Attach an Energy to a benched Darkrai ex, triggering Nightmare Aura dealing 20 to your opponent's Active Pokemon, then use Dawn to transfer it to your Active Weavile ex, and attack with Scratching Nails for 70. This deck can achieve this combo fairly easily.

Darkrai ex and Magnezone Deck

Magneton ×2				Druddigon ×2				Magnemite ×2				Magnezone ×2
Darkrai ex ×2				Sabrina ×1				Leaf ×2				Pokemon Communication ×1
Giant Cape ×1				Cyrus ×1				Poke Ball ×2				Professor's Research ×2
Energy Used

Darkrai ex and Magnezone has positive matchups against most top decks, including Palkia ex decks, and other Darkrai ex decks.

Druddigon is the best early-game stall Pokemon, which is perfect for Darkrai ex and Magnezone which are rewarding payoffs for the late-game. Druddigon's Rough Skin + an Energy attachment to Darkrai ex will result in 40 damage per turn, all while Magneton charges in the Bench with Volt Charge.

The deck uses Space-Time Smackdown Magnemite over Genetic Apex Magnemite because of its Attack's Colorless Attack Cost, which it can use for Darkness Energy.

Darkrai ex and Weezing Deck

Weezing ×2				Koffing ×2				Spiritomb ×1				Darkrai ex ×2
Koga ×2				Leaf ×2				Giant Cape ×2				Cyrus ×2
Potion ×1				Poke Ball ×2				Professor's Research ×2
Energy Used

This Darkrai ex build aims to start with Koffing and Weezing to pile on damage, and set up KOs for Darkrai ex later. It has access to a Weezing and Koga package, enabling you to deal incremental damage with Gas Leak's poison.

Poison damage + Darkrai ex's Nightmare Aura + Darkrai ex's Dark Prism Attack makes for a total of 110 damage, which is enough to KO most Pokemon if they have already taken damage in the previous turns.

Weavile ex and Weezing Deck

Koffing ×2				Weezing ×2				Sneasel ×2				Weavile ex ×2
Darkrai ex ×1				Koga ×1				Sabrina ×1				Leaf ×2
Giant Cape ×2				Dawn ×1				Poke Ball ×2				Professor's Research ×2
Energy Used

Weavile ex and Weezing leans less on Darkrai ex, and more into Weezing and Weavile ex working in tandem.

Use Weezing to deal incremental damage using its Gas Leak Ability, and either switch out with Leaf or scoop Weezing up with Koga, into Weavile ex's Scratching Nails for 70. This one-two combo works a lot similarly to Scolipede and Weezing ex, but quicker and more consistent but for less damage.

Darkrai ex and Greninja Deck

Froakie ×2				Frogadier ×2				Greninja ×2				Druddigon ×2
Darkrai ex ×2				Leaf ×2				Pokemon Communication ×1				Giant Cape ×1
Cyrus ×2				Poke Ball ×2				Professor's Research ×2
Energy Used

Darkrai ex is also a great partner for Greninja. Druddigon can stall until Greninja is set up, with Darkrai ex dealing passive damage with Nightmare Aura. Greninja also naturally synergizes with Cyrus, allowing you to gust up anything it can snipe.

Darkrai ex Deck Strategy Guide

Passive Damage with Druddigon and Darkrai ex

Druddigon at your forefront ensures that your opponent is always taking damage whenever they attack into it. Attach your Darkness Energies to Darkrai ex to do 20 to your opponent's Active with Nightmare Aura while you charge up your Magneton with Volt Charge.

Try to charge it up about twice or thrice before evolving into Magnezone to ensure that you will at least get two Thunder Blasts with it. Be sure to also bench another Pokemon so that your Magneton isn't susceptible to Sabrina plays as it's easily KOd because of its rather low 80 HP.

Late-Game Payoffs

Once set up, Magnezone can start firing off 110 damage Thunder Blasts. Nightmare Aura's incremental 20 damage helps it hit important HP benchmarks such as Celebi ex's 130 HP or Mewtwo ex and Dialga ex's 150 HP.

How to Beat Darkrai ex Decks

Attack It for Weakness

Grass-types can deal increased damage to Darkrai ex, with the most efficient Grass-type for this purpose being Exeggutor ex and its 1 Energy Tropical Swing. Druddigon helps immensely in this matchup, by forcing Exeggutor ex to attack into it and get into KO range for Darkrai ex or Magnezone afterwards.

Leafeon ex can also threaten KOs and damage on our Pokemon with its ability to set up fast.

Best Meowscarada Decks and Card List

Superior Value or Tempo

Going second is always disadvantageous in Pokemon TCG Pocket. However some decks are able to break through its first turn restrictions, such as Misty decks.

A lucky Misty high roll can overwhelm a Darkrai ex deck before it's able to set anything up. It simply cannot withstand an Articuno ex hitting for 80 as early as turn 2, or a turn 1 Palkia ex Dimensional Storm.

Best Palkia ex Decks and Card List

Pokemon TCG Pocket Related Guides

Best Meta Decks Tier List

Deck-Building Guides and Lists

Meta Decks

S Tier Decks
Giratina ex
A+ Tier Decks
Arceus ex	Gyarados ex	Weavile ex
Gallade ex	Articuno ex	Charizard ex
Meowscarada	-	-
A Tier Decks
Palkia ex	Rampardos	Clodsire ex
Charizard ex	Wugtrio ex	Dialga ex
Darkrai ex	Magnezone	Carnivine
Starmie ex	Origin Forme Palkia	-
B Tier Decks
Pikachu ex	Lucario ex	Beedrill ex
Gholdengo	Exeggutor ex	Pachirisu ex
Celebi ex	Yanmega ex	Leafeon ex
Garchomp ex	Probopass ex	Crobat
Donphan	Heatran	Infernape
C Tier Decks
・Tinkaton ex Deck ・Bibarel ex Deck ・Dondozo Deck ・Pawmot Deck ・Mewtwo ex Deck ・Blaine Deck ・Genetic Apex Pikachu ex Deck ・Pidgeot ex Deck ・Scolipede and Weezing Deck ・Golem Deck ・Dialga ex and Bastiodon Deck ・Lucario Deck ・Garchomp Deck ・Togekiss Deck ・Porygon-Z Deck ・Volkner Deck ・Rhyperior Deck ・Magnezone Deck ・Empoleon Deck ・Torterra Deck ・Lake Trio Deck ・Glaceon ex Deck ・Bronzong Deck ・Abomasnow Deck ・Staraptor Deck ・Tyranitar Deck ・Snorlax Deck ・Houndoom Deck

Off Meta Decks

Core Expansion	Decks
(A2)	・Darkrai ex and Weezing Deck ・Dialga ex and Lickilicky ex Deck ・Magnezone and Marshadow Deck ・Magnezone Deck ・Lake Trio Deck ・Rhyperior Deck
(A1a)	・Aerodactyl ex Deck ・Gyarados ex and Vaporeon Deck ・Mew ex and Weezing Deck ・Vaporeon and Articuno ex Deck ・Volcarona and Arcanine ex Deck
(A1)	・Aerodactyl and Dragonite Deck ・Alakazam and Jynx Deck ・Arbok Lock Deck ・Articuno Deck ・Blastoise Deck ・Blastoise ex Deck ・Brock Deck ・Centiskorch and Moltres ex Deck ・Charizard Deck ・Cinccino and Weezing Deck ・Dragonite Deck ・Dragonite and Weezing Deck ・Eeveelutions and Ditto Deck ・Exeggutor and Alakazam Deck ・Frosmoth Deck ・Gengar ex and Golbat Deck ・Gengar ex Deck ・Grapploct and Pidgeot Deck ・Greninja and Articuno ex Deck ・Greninja and Weezing Deck ・Gyarados Deck ・Kabutops Deck ・Kingler and Articuno ex Deck ・Koga Deck ・Lapras ex and Butterfree Deck ・Lapras ex Deck ・Lickitung and Primeape Deck ・Lickitung Deck ・Lt. Surge Deck ・Machamp ex Deck ・Melmetal Deck ・Mewtwo ex and Weezing Deck ・Moltres Deck ・Omastar and Articuno ex Deck ・Persian and Mawile Deck ・Pikachu ex and Raichu Deck ・Poliwrath Deck ・Primeape Deck ・Tentacruel and Greninja Deck ・Venusaur Deck ・Venusaur ex and Weezing Deck ・Venusaur ex Deck ・Victreebel and Exeggutor ex Deck ・Zapdos Deck ・Zapdos ex Deck

Premade Decks

Best Rental Deck Tier List