The Space-Time Smackdown expansion is a few weeks old now in Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, and it has shifted the game’s competitive landscape by leaps and bounds. Up to this point, Psychic decks have ruled the roost. Mewtwo ex, combined with the Energy generation of Gardevoir, inflicted such high burst damage that it held fast as one of the game’s most dangerous cards since launch. Now it seems Mewtwo ex’s meta-dominating days will come to an end, as another card has quickly overtaken its throne.
Darkrai ex might not look like much at first glance, but make no mistake, it’s not a card you can ignore. Analysis of fan-run tournaments following Space-Time Smackdown’s release showed Darkrai ex was immediately dominating 35.7 percent usage rate, nearly doubling the 16.7 percent usage of Palkia ex in the second place slot. Meanwhile, the once-feared Mewtwo ex had dropped to merely 2.1 percent. Darkrai ex’s rise to prominence isn’t because it hits hard or has a ton of HP—instead, it’s how it fits into the ways Space-Time Smackdown has changed the competitive landscape of the game, rendering many previously viable strategies borderline obsolete.
There’s a lot to unpack here, so check out our breakdown below to understand just why Darkrai ex has spiked so hard in popularity.
Disclaimer: No matter how much I may or may not hype up any cards in Pokémon TCG Pocket, I do not encourage you to spend money on the game, even if you have cash to spare. This is a gacha game at its core, and with that comes aggressive psychological manipulation to encourage you to spend more than you normally would. For tips on how to enjoy this game without spending money, check out my free-to-play guide here.
Why Darkrai ex is so good in Pokémon TCG Pocket.
By ex standards, Darkrai ex is technically average in terms of sheer stats. 80 damage for three Energy is fine on its own, but even Pikachu ex from the base Genetic Apex set can push more damage a turn earlier. 140 HP is higher than many basic ex cards, but still below Mewtwo ex’s 150 HP.
The key here is Darkrai ex’s ability: Nightmare Aura. Whenever you place a Dark Energy from your Energy Zone on Darkrai ex, it will immediately inflict 20 damage on your opponent’s active Pokémon. Because this is an ability and not an attack, this will bypass damage reduction effects like Melmetal’s Hard Coat ability or counterattacks like Druddigon’s Rough Skin. Most importantly, Nightmare Aura works while Darkrai ex is on the bench. This means that, with the right setup, Darkrai ex can consistently boost your damage output by 20 per turn. That might not sound like a lot, but when cards like Giovanni can completely change the tide of a game by adding 10 damage to a single attack, you can imagine how Darkrai ex can swing matches in your favor.
Yet as mentioned above, Darkrai ex itself is only a small slice of why it’s so widely used. It’s how it synergizes with Space-Time Smackdown’s new Trainer Cards that make it so evil.
The best Trainer Cards to use with Darkrai ex
Two new Trainer Cards in particular elevate Darkrai ex to especially dangerous heights. The first of these is Dawn, which lets you transfer one Energy from your benched Pokémon to your active Pokémon. It’s a useful card in isolation, but also a fantastic tool if you want to activate Darkrai’s Nightmare Aura ability from the bench and build up your active pokemon so it can attack too. This pairs especially well with low Energy cards like Weezing and Weavile ex, both of which require only one Energy to attack.
The biggest game-changer, though, is Cyrus. In fact, Cyrus is arguably the most meta-shifting card in Space-Time Smackdown, even beyond Darkrai ex. The way it works is simple: if your opponent has a Pokémon on their bench that has taken damage, you can swap it to the active slot. Prior to Space-Time Smackdown’s release, decks loaded with ex cards thrived because players could retreat strategically. After all, it doesn’t matter if ex cards are worth two points upon being knocked out if you can deny your opponent the chance to finish them off. Now that dynamic is turned on its head; if your opponent has an ex Pokémon with low health on their bench, you can plan on claiming those two points the moment you draw a Cyrus.
To be clear, attacking a weak benched monster wasn’t impossible before. Cyrus just makes it a lot easier, and it slots into any deck.
Darkrai ex’s synergy with Cyrus is two-fold. On one hand, it allows you to use Cyrus on an opponent’s Pokémon with only 10 to 20 HP remaining, knock it out with Nightmare Aura, and then use your active Pokémon’s attack on whoever your opponent decides to switch in afterwards. Conversely, because Darkrai ex is ideally kept on the bench until the late game, it isn’t as vulnerable to a surprise Cyrus switch-in. Keep it at full health on your bench, make sure you have at least one other Pokémon in reserve in case your opponent has Sabrina, and wait until you’re already down two points before putting Darkrai ex in to clean up the rest of the game.
Caption: An image of the Giant Cape Pokémon Tool Trainer Card from Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket.
This isn’t even getting into the new Pokémon Tool cards, which can be equipped on Pokémon to either boost their max HP or inflict damage on opponents when they attack. Both of these effects favor tactics that stall the game and encourage chip damage, which Darkrai ex fits into perfectly. You have a perfect storm of ways that Darkrai ex decks can sweep the floor with virtually any opponent.
Darkrai ex fits into virtually any dark-type deck
Darkrai ex is one of the first Dark-type ex cards added to the game, and I’d go as far as to say it makes any Dark-type deck better. Whether you use it with Weezing, Weavile ex, or even Arbok, it adds so much to your team and leaves very little room for your opponent to exploit it.
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