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DragTrode was a successful deck archetype during the 2004-2005 season of Pokémon Trading Card Game organized play. It built on the synergy between Dark Electrode's Darkness Navigation Poké-Power and Dark Dragonite's Dark Trance Poké-Power. The deck's name is a combination of Dragonite and Electrode, the deck's aforementioned main Pokémon.
Strategy
Dunsparce was the deck's ideal starter Pokémon, as was the case with most archetypes from DragTrode's era. Dunsparce's Strike and Run attack allowed the player to search his or her deck for three Basic Pokémon and place them onto the bench. Then, he or she could elect to shuffle Dunsparce into the deck. Because DragTrode required multiple evolutions to function optimally, it was important to get as many Basic Pokémon as possible into play early. By using Dunsparce in combination with Supporters such as Celio's Network, the player aimed to get Pidgeot and Dark Dragonair into play quickly. Pidgeot's Quick Search Poké-Power allowed the user to add any card from the deck to his or her hand, once per turn. Dark Dragonair provided a similar, but much weaker, effect; the card chosen was limited to Evolution cards. Using Quick Search and Evolutionary Light, the DragTrode player aimed to get as many Dark Dragonite and Dark Electrode into play as possible.
Subsequently, he or she could attach energy to Dark Electrode using its Darkness Navigation Poké-Power, and move them onto Rocket's Sneasel ex, the deck's main attacker, using Dark Dragonite's Dark Trance Poké-Power. This combination made it possible to charge up a Rocket's Sneasel ex in as little as one turn. From there, DragTrode simply attempted to take six prizes, expending other resources (such as Mr. Briney's Compassion and Strength Charm) as necessary.
Key Cards
- Dark Dragonite - While Dark Electrode got Energy cards into play, Dark Dragonite provided the means to get them off Dark Electrode (a useless attacker) and onto Rocket's Sneasel ex, via its Dark Trance Poké-Power. Dark Trance allowed the user to move
Energy cards between his or her Pokémon as often as he or she liked. In addition to its synergy with Dark Electrode's Darkness Navigation, Dark Dragonite could move all the Energy cards off a Pokémon before using Mr. Briney's Compassion to return that Pokémon to the hand. Then, the player could play that Pokémon back down and move the Energy back onto it, effectively losing nothing while removing all damage from that Pokémon.
- Dark Dragonair - Although it obviously serves as an evolutionary link between Dratini and Dark Dragonite, Dark Dragonair served an important purpose of its own. With the notable exceptions of Rocket's Sneasel ex and Dunsparce, every key component of DragTrode's strategy was an Evolution card. Dark Dragonair's Evolutionary Light Poké-Power allowed the user, upon evolving Dratini into Dark Dragonair, to search his or her deck for any Evolution card and add it to his or her hand. This substantially boosted the deck's speed and consistency.
- Dark Electrode - Dark Electrode's Darkness Navigation Poké-Power allowed the user to attach a {{e|Darkness} or Dark Metal Energy card from his or her deck to Dark Electrode once per turn. In combination with Dark Trance, it effectively provided an additional energy attachment to an attacker each turn, giving the deck speed and the ability to recover quickly from knockouts.
- Rocket's Sneasel ex - Rocket's Sneasel ex is the deck's main attacker. Its first attack, Drag Off, did only 10 damage for , but gave the user the option to bring up one of the opponent's Benched Pokémon and switch it with the active before doing damage. This was an effective measure to stall while setting up Dark Dragonite and Dark Electrode, and also gave the deck a means to go after the opponent's support Pokémon. If Rocket's Sneasel ex had multiple Darkness Energy attached to it, Drag Off could do a moderate amount of damage. The primary attack a DragTrode player aimed to use, though, was Dark Ring. For a cost of
, Dark Ring did 30 damage plus an additional 10 for each of the user's -type Pokémon in play. With Rocket's Sneasel ex, Dark Dragonite, and Dark Electrode all adding to Dark Ring's damage, combined with the damage bonus from any Darkness Energy attached to Rocket's Sneasel ex, Dark Ring could serve as an extremely powerful attack.
- Pidgeot -
- Dunsparce -
- Steven's Advice -
- Rare Candy -
Typical decklist
The deck list appearing below is not official; it is meant to represent an average build of the archetype, not specifically constructed for any regional metagame. Being that this is merely an archetype, a player may wish to change any part of this deck when building his or her own version.
Possible Tech Cards
External links
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