Conkeldurr

Intro + Notable Placings

• 1st at Regional Frankfurt, Junior Division

• 5th at Regional Frankfurt, Senior Division

• 13th at Regional Frankfurt

Conkeldurr is a deck more known for its novelty factor than its results. It's a 1-Prizer that doesn't require any Energy to attack. The deck had 0 representatives at the 2025 World Championships, then spiked Frankfurt, taking 1st, 5th, and 13th in three age divisions, before falling off the map again.

Matchup wise, Conkeldurr is favored against aggressive decks that aren't prepared for 1-Prize attackers with 1HKO potential. Conkeldurr can one-shot Raging Bolt ex and Gholdengo ex (the latter after Poison). The Crustle matchup is almost unloseable, as neither Crustle nor Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex are protected from Conkeldurr. It doesn't do so well against Stage 2 decks, especially not Gardevoir ex due to Fighting Resistance, and also not Dragapult ex due to Budew's Item lock.

Game Plan

Use Buddy-Buddy Poffin, Artazon, and Fan Rotom for as many Timburr and Dunsparce as you can find, making sure you also Bench a Brute Bonnet somewhere along the line. (You don't have to reserve a Bench slot for Brute Bonnet, as you can make room by using Dudunsparce's Ability.) Dig through your deck to find an Ancient Booster Energy Capsule to attach to Brute Bonnet, and Conkeldurr to evolve Timburr into.

Attaching an Energy onto Dunsparce and attacking with Find a Friend is also an option for setting up.

Your draw engine is Dudunsparce + Enriching Energy. Attaching Enriching Energy to Dudunsparce draws you 4 cards, then using Run Away Draw shuffles it back into the deck and draws you another 3 cards. This deck can get by with Supporters that are only +1 in card advantage, relying on Dudunsparce + Enriching Energy for huge draw power that rivals Iono or Professor's Research from other decks.

Bench space is at a premium in this deck. On turn 1 you'll usually end with Fan Rotom, Timburr, 3 Dunsparce or 2 Dunsparce + 1 Pidgey in play, saving a space on your Bench for an upcoming Brute Bonnet. If you attack with Fan Rotom early and goad your opponent into KOing it, that's good, as it frees up a Bench slot. After you get the Conkeldurr + Brute Bonnet combo down, you'll want to always keep a backup Timburr in play (which may mean having fewer Dunsparces to work with), ready to Rare Candy into Conkeldurr to replace the one that gets Knocked Out. Against decks with spread damage, you might even need two Timburrs, as they may be able to KO both your Benched Timburr and Active Conkeldurr in one attack.

Attackers

Fan Rotom is your early attacker. It takes much fewer pieces to set up than Conkeldurr; just one Colress's Tenacity can find both a Stadium and Jet Energy to power it up. 70 damage KOs most evolving Basics, Poison from Brute Bonnet can add another 10, and if you really need to, you can attach Binding Mochi for a 110 damage hit.

Conkeldurr is your main attacker after Fan Rotom falls behind. It's a 1-Prizer that attacks for free by having Brute Bonnet Poison it. Base Gutsy Swing does 250 damage, Poison does 10 between turns. Binding Mochi can add 40 damage. Gravity Mountain is effectively 30 more against Stage 2s.

Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex is your late-game attacker. There are only 3 Conkeldurr and no recovery cards in the core, so it would be a bit anticlimactic if your opponent just KOed all your Conkeldurr and left you with zero effective attacking options. Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex is there to pick up the slack if that happens. Note that it can also make use of Binding Mochi to boost its damage, so there are more targets it can hunt down for the last 2 Prizes — your opponent's 210 HP Basic ex isn't safe from Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex just because they put a Bravery Charm on it!

First or Second?

This deck is comfortable going either first or second, but second is preferred since you get to use a Supporter on T1. Going first means you can throw out 250 damage attacks (with plus Poison ticks) T2 off Rare Candy. Going second means you can attack T1 with Fan Rotom or Dunsparce.

ACE SPEC

Enriching Energy. It's used for its synergy with Dudunsparce. Conkeldurr not needing Energy to attack means you can afford to spend your Energy attachments on Enriching Energy turn after turn.

Other Options

• 4th Dunsparce + 4th Dudunsparce, 1-0-1 Pidgeot ex: Additional draw/search engines to fill out the support Pokémon slots. Pidgey is a valid target for Fan Rotom.

• 4 Colress's Tenacity over 2 Colress + 2 Arven: This configuration gives you more ways to find Enriching Energy in the mid/late game, at the cost of being worse at filling your Bench in the early game, and being incapable of finding Ultra Ball/Rare Candy. Colress has access to Basic Pokémon search (Artazon) and Tool search (Town Store), just like Arven (Buddy-Buddy Poffin for Basics), but not at the same time, and Artazon only gets 1 Basic compared to Buddy-Buddy Poffin's 2.

• Sacred Ash, Night Stretcher: Recovery cards. Sacred Ash can get entire Evolution lines back into the deck to search out again, including Du(du)nsparces that you might have discarded to Ultra Ball earlier. Night Stretcher can put a recently-KOed Conkeldurr back into your hand for Timburr/Gurdurr to evolve into.

• Great Ball: Like Pokégear 3.0, but for Pokémon. Since you run Dudunsparce, you get two attempts to dig for Conkeldurr when you play Great Ball: either off the 7 cards that you see immediately, or, if you find Dudunsparce, off the 3 cards that Run Away Draw draws you. Dusk Ball has a similar effect, but looks at the bottom 7 instead (which is where Iono sends your hand).

• Perilous Jungle: An alternative damage mod to Gravity Mountain. It does +20 to non-Darkness types (which includes Conkeldurr) instead of +30 to Stage 2s.

Tips

• Remember, evolving cures Poison, so if you're planning on attacking with Conkeldurr, the proper sequence is to evolve Timburr or Gurdurr into Conkeldurr, switch it into the Active Spot, Poison it with Brute Bonnet, then swing. You do not want to switch Timburr or Gurdurr in, Poison it, then realize too late that evolving into Conkeldurr now would get rid of its Poison.

• If you're going to bump Artazon with Town Store or vice versa, be sure to use the old Stadium for value first.

• You don't always have to use Run Away Draw at the first possible opportunity. Sometimes it's better to stash it if you don't need the extra cards immediately, in case they Iono you. This deck does not have Fezandipiti ex to draw 3 cards after they Iono you and KO your guy; Dudunsparce is your equivalent of Fezandipiti ex!

• If you need to conserve Jet Energy, instead of attaching it to a Benched Conkeldurr to send it into the Active Spot, attach it to a Benched Dudunsparce, use Run Away Draw, then bring in Conkeldurr after Dudunsparce is gone.

• If Poison ends up finishing off your opponent's Pokémon, they can't draw with Fezandipiti ex's Flip the Script. Gholdengo ex, for example, has 260 HP, so it will die to the Poison tick after eating Gutsy Swing, rendering the opponent's Fez useless.

• Poison breaks Pikachu ex's Resolute Heart.

• If you're attacking with Fan Rotom, you'll want to use Brute Bonnet's Ability first, then attach Jet Energy to Fan Rotom to switch it in and attack. This squeezes out an extra 10 poison damage on your opponent's Pokémon without Poisoning your own Fan Rotom. (However, remember that you can deliberately let Fan Rotom get Poisoned and attach a Binding Mochi to it to KO Pokémon with 120 HP or less after the Poison tick.)