inb4 TPCi sensors the art too to avoid 9/11 triggers?
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inb4 TPCi sensors the art too to avoid 9/11 triggers?
Sceptile + venusaur + shining genesect + max elixir, hmmmm. Needs rare candys as well to not be too slow. Also stakataka gx with dusk mane could also be good.
Competitively, I don't think any of these cards are going to be meta-defining on their own, though there's certainly a fair amount of potential. You could combine Latias Prism Star and Rayquaza GX -- gets energy out quick to hit those high damage numbers, plus you can play a 7-prize game with Latias.
My favorite thing is just that Ultra Beast artwork though... Celesteela looks magnificent.
My favorite thing is just that Ultra Beast artwork though... Celesteela looks magnificent.
So there's a Ray card. I can see a enormous potential in this card. It seems like the Pokemon Company has been preparing metagame's terrain for this debut, even changing the dual type cost for Grass type (keeping fire would make rayquaza super uber because of kiawe and volcanion). For me, better than Bulu because this one needs Vikavolt up almost every turn and energy recycler strategy is not something you want to miss
Let's see why.
First of all, lets take a glance at the ability: discard 3 to possibly attach 1 sucks, having a small chance to waste important cards early game is even worse, but if you are able to somehow manage your topdeck using things like mallow, you might be able to combine these cards with baby raikou to attach up to 3 energies in one turn (at least, and not counting elixir, letter, lady, magnezone, vikavolt...). Could be useful as energy burner for eventual Electrode GX early appearance. Situational, I would not rely on this strategy.
Attack: very good, outstanding attacking power, damage stacking potential is skyhigh, with right support it's not difficult to have up to 7 energy in play T2-T3. Darkrai EX was significantly weaker than this and still managed to reach 180 dmg midgame
GX: prevents early game bad luck / helps bench structuration / accelerates for REAL your game / assures THAT key late game draw / forces opponent to N at situations where you cannot afford to take a Guzma; if he doesnt N, you'll have a legit sycamore + Lapras collect + Turn's draw hand, which is superb.
Drampa's Big wheel is awesome too, but discarding cards instead of shuffling them back is part of this card's strategy and is arguably more helpful in certain situations. If discarding bothers you, Lele-->Cynthia.
Weakness to fairy may hurt a little, as gardy only needs 1 energy to KO, but she's nowhere these days, and if it really becomes a real threat in meta, just run 4 unity energy and throw a metal type tech (kek r u serious) or weakness policy.
Not having fight resistance is a SHAME.
Eletric, Grass and Dragon are types who have lot of support and really lack real stars (excluding vikabulu) to make their potential really shine. I've got some cards who can be options in this situation:
Max Elixir: 4 copies with lots of energies to ensure, at least, 3 attachments.
Volkner searching an energy + item is not bad at all, maybe 1 copy will help magnezone/vikavolt evolve.
Lance Prism Star: must have in all Dragon decks, can bring to early game any combination of Ray, Altaria, or even salamence GX tech (that 3 retreat cost...)
Zinnia: nice supporter, if you are not running magnezone. To play with Vikavolt. Strong, but situational. However, in this ultraoffense meta, who knows?
Sky pillar: extremely useful against buzzwole or glaceon/greninja. Stadium war is a thing nowadays, but its helpful anyway. Helps voltorbs to not easily die to jet punch/frost bullet/shurikens.
Wishful baton is arguably better than CB in order to keep those 3 energies around. CB can always help to reach key KOs faster, but any unexpected Rayquaza KO will really mess your game. Would stay with WB, as with it, any Rayquaza loss can be easily handled.
Lady + Professor letter + Magnezone: extreme aceleration. Some energy recover from discard combines perfectly, as energy burn here is HUGE.
Vikavolt line 3-1-3: much more conservative option than magnezone, limited to 2 attachments per use, but it works alone, not relying in big card combos. 2 Vikavolts up = almost instawin.
Baby raikou: somewhat interesting card with nice attack, but only useful in early game, as grass/eletric has better options for mid-late game.
Shining legends Venusaur: something to stay tunned in. If grass gets good support in upcoming sets, double grass energy might be broken, because +60 dmg for 1 basic is stupidly broken. 2 elixir + lurantis attack = 240 dmg up not counting turn's energy.
Lurantis GX: Nice energy attachment, but gives so much momentum for buzzwole/necrozma/glaceon. Combo with Venusaur probably should be avoided by now, as magnezone/electrode/lady is a literal energy rain. Use it if you feel you can't handle buzzwole's advantage against magnezone.
Electrode (evolutions)/Electrode GX: 1 prize for 60dmg or 2 prizes for 150 dmg. High risk, high reward situation, putting these energys in the right mon surely means 2 straight opposing GX KOs. Baby doesnt need to have energy in discard pile, only gives 1 prize (which is good most of time), but Hammer/guzma is a problem for baby electrode. Electrode GX, in other hand, is essencially extreme energy bombing for 2 prizes. This is not bad, as it allows player to attach 5 energy from discard in any way you want and gives you 99% chance of OHKOing opponents active mon. Some supporters with broken effects can only be used when your opponent KOed your mon in previous turn, so it can be huge in the right moment, combined with a key Guzma (presumably early-mid game), to reach that needed one shot, while keeping the second rayquaza ready in the bench for revenge killing. 1-1 or 2-1 for Elec GX, as you only want 1 electrode per game
Altaria: 20+ dmg is always welcome, but with these already nuclear damages Ray intends to reach, accurate calcs are needed in order to discover Altaria's real usefulness, as I tend to find that even CB is not that useful to Rayquaza.
Latias Prism Star: magnific and disappointing. Attaching from discard pile means she wont be useful in early game to help setting up, which is a huge flaw for a frail one-time using mon with no other attacking options. If you somehow manage to send 3 energies to discard in T1-T2 while having an energized latias in the bench, this girl will give you a hell lot of striking force. Counterproductive with Electrode GX, though.
Mew/Mew-EX: tech against buzzwole. 3 energy= 180 dmg, not counting the ones attached to your benched pokemon.
Rayquaza in Vikabulu: not that good, as rayquaza and tapu bulu are counterproductive because the energy management requirements for them are somewhat different.
Feel free to discuss, rate my thoughts, or give different ideas.
Let's see why.
First of all, lets take a glance at the ability: discard 3 to possibly attach 1 sucks, having a small chance to waste important cards early game is even worse, but if you are able to somehow manage your topdeck using things like mallow, you might be able to combine these cards with baby raikou to attach up to 3 energies in one turn (at least, and not counting elixir, letter, lady, magnezone, vikavolt...). Could be useful as energy burner for eventual Electrode GX early appearance. Situational, I would not rely on this strategy.
Attack: very good, outstanding attacking power, damage stacking potential is skyhigh, with right support it's not difficult to have up to 7 energy in play T2-T3. Darkrai EX was significantly weaker than this and still managed to reach 180 dmg midgame
GX: prevents early game bad luck / helps bench structuration / accelerates for REAL your game / assures THAT key late game draw / forces opponent to N at situations where you cannot afford to take a Guzma; if he doesnt N, you'll have a legit sycamore + Lapras collect + Turn's draw hand, which is superb.
Drampa's Big wheel is awesome too, but discarding cards instead of shuffling them back is part of this card's strategy and is arguably more helpful in certain situations. If discarding bothers you, Lele-->Cynthia.
Weakness to fairy may hurt a little, as gardy only needs 1 energy to KO, but she's nowhere these days, and if it really becomes a real threat in meta, just run 4 unity energy and throw a metal type tech (kek r u serious) or weakness policy.
Not having fight resistance is a SHAME.
Eletric, Grass and Dragon are types who have lot of support and really lack real stars (excluding vikabulu) to make their potential really shine. I've got some cards who can be options in this situation:
Max Elixir: 4 copies with lots of energies to ensure, at least, 3 attachments.
Volkner searching an energy + item is not bad at all, maybe 1 copy will help magnezone/vikavolt evolve.
Lance Prism Star: must have in all Dragon decks, can bring to early game any combination of Ray, Altaria, or even salamence GX tech (that 3 retreat cost...)
Zinnia: nice supporter, if you are not running magnezone. To play with Vikavolt. Strong, but situational. However, in this ultraoffense meta, who knows?
Sky pillar: extremely useful against buzzwole or glaceon/greninja. Stadium war is a thing nowadays, but its helpful anyway. Helps voltorbs to not easily die to jet punch/frost bullet/shurikens.
Wishful baton is arguably better than CB in order to keep those 3 energies around. CB can always help to reach key KOs faster, but any unexpected Rayquaza KO will really mess your game. Would stay with WB, as with it, any Rayquaza loss can be easily handled.
Lady + Professor letter + Magnezone: extreme aceleration. Some energy recover from discard combines perfectly, as energy burn here is HUGE.
Vikavolt line 3-1-3: much more conservative option than magnezone, limited to 2 attachments per use, but it works alone, not relying in big card combos. 2 Vikavolts up = almost instawin.
Baby raikou: somewhat interesting card with nice attack, but only useful in early game, as grass/eletric has better options for mid-late game.
Shining legends Venusaur: something to stay tunned in. If grass gets good support in upcoming sets, double grass energy might be broken, because +60 dmg for 1 basic is stupidly broken. 2 elixir + lurantis attack = 240 dmg up not counting turn's energy.
Lurantis GX: Nice energy attachment, but gives so much momentum for buzzwole/necrozma/glaceon. Combo with Venusaur probably should be avoided by now, as magnezone/electrode/lady is a literal energy rain. Use it if you feel you can't handle buzzwole's advantage against magnezone.
Electrode (evolutions)/Electrode GX: 1 prize for 60dmg or 2 prizes for 150 dmg. High risk, high reward situation, putting these energys in the right mon surely means 2 straight opposing GX KOs. Baby doesnt need to have energy in discard pile, only gives 1 prize (which is good most of time), but Hammer/guzma is a problem for baby electrode. Electrode GX, in other hand, is essencially extreme energy bombing for 2 prizes. This is not bad, as it allows player to attach 5 energy from discard in any way you want and gives you 99% chance of OHKOing opponents active mon. Some supporters with broken effects can only be used when your opponent KOed your mon in previous turn, so it can be huge in the right moment, combined with a key Guzma (presumably early-mid game), to reach that needed one shot, while keeping the second rayquaza ready in the bench for revenge killing. 1-1 or 2-1 for Elec GX, as you only want 1 electrode per game
Altaria: 20+ dmg is always welcome, but with these already nuclear damages Ray intends to reach, accurate calcs are needed in order to discover Altaria's real usefulness, as I tend to find that even CB is not that useful to Rayquaza.
Latias Prism Star: magnific and disappointing. Attaching from discard pile means she wont be useful in early game to help setting up, which is a huge flaw for a frail one-time using mon with no other attacking options. If you somehow manage to send 3 energies to discard in T1-T2 while having an energized latias in the bench, this girl will give you a hell lot of striking force. Counterproductive with Electrode GX, though.
Mew/Mew-EX: tech against buzzwole. 3 energy= 180 dmg, not counting the ones attached to your benched pokemon.
Rayquaza in Vikabulu: not that good, as rayquaza and tapu bulu are counterproductive because the energy management requirements for them are somewhat different.
Feel free to discuss, rate my thoughts, or give different ideas.
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I feel Gardevoir may regain some popularity, once the format rotates.
It loses Gallade, but other decks lose a lot of early game pressure.
These are all rotating out.
Max Elixir is among the cards rotating, that would alleviate some of that early game pressure; this ironically helps Rayquaza.
Though, the mid-game pressure brought about by Beast Ring, is what will likely be the biggest obstacle.
Rayquaza wants to constantly amass energy, so each attacker you lose will set you back.
For this reason, I'd actually consider running beast ring.
Not sure what the optimal target is, at the moment, but it's something great to grab with Volkner.
Ray doesn't need the energy on it, so it could just be a bench sitter.
Though, it's not something you would need if you're investing into a Vikavolt line.
If you're using Vikavolt, I would actually run Nest Ball, as it places Rayquaza onto the bench, bypassing it's discard ability.
Lance
I'd also choose Vikavolt over Magnezone and Venusaur.
Venusaur requires you to attach manually; too slow.
Magnezone would be hard to keep consistent; you need supporters to get the evo, and supporters to get the energy.
Whereas, Vikavolt is self-sufficient once it's set-up, and can get you both types.
It seems like you'd either play Ray this way, or by discarding energy, not both.
So,
Vikavolt | Rayquaza
OR
Rayquaza | Electrode | Beast Ring
Lurantis is also a good option, and may actually be the most reliable of them all...
It would likely be the first version I try~
I just like the Electrode card a lot...
Electrode into Beast Ring seems really neat; since your opponent is put to 4 prizes immediately...!~
It's GX attack is also good, and can even set-up for it's own ability!
Depending on how the game goes, Electrode's ability would also work with Ray's GX attack.
Rayquaza wants to constantly amass energy, so each attacker you lose will set you back.
For this reason, I'd actually consider running beast ring.
Not sure what the optimal target is, at the moment, but it's something great to grab with Volkner.
Ray doesn't need the energy on it, so it could just be a bench sitter.
Though, it's not something you would need if you're investing into a Vikavolt line.
If you're using Vikavolt, I would actually run Nest Ball, as it places Rayquaza onto the bench, bypassing it's discard ability.
Lancealso does this, but not sure if it's worth your supporter for the turn; I personally wouldn't run Altaria here.
I'd also choose Vikavolt over Magnezone and Venusaur.
Venusaur requires you to attach manually; too slow.
Magnezone would be hard to keep consistent; you need supporters to get the evo, and supporters to get the energy.
Whereas, Vikavolt is self-sufficient once it's set-up, and can get you both types.
It seems like you'd either play Ray this way, or by discarding energy, not both.
So,
Vikavolt | Rayquaza
OR
Rayquaza | Electrode | Beast Ring
Lurantis is also a good option, and may actually be the most reliable of them all...
It would likely be the first version I try~
I just like the Electrode card a lot...
Electrode into Beast Ring seems really neat; since your opponent is put to 4 prizes immediately...!~
It's GX attack is also good, and can even set-up for it's own ability!
Depending on how the game goes, Electrode's ability would also work with Ray's GX attack.
Beast Ring surely seems like a awesome item card to play with Volkner, as it assures 3 energy on the turn it's used AND a free item to make things easier.
Just be careful with Electrode GX; giving 2 prizes to the opponent in order to activate the Ring is a nice idea, but you should be aware that at the time of using it's ability, you never know how much prize cards your opponent has already taken. I think relying only in Elec+Ring is kinda inconsistent because you'll have only one real chance to pull it.
As of the ultra beast to use, I would consider, in first spot, XurkitreeGX for the "eletric version", as it has a nice attack which MILLS, nice GX and glorious ability. CB + 150 damage knocks it out, but it walls 80% of the meta.
Other options, by now, are Dawn wings necrozma to have reliable switching while Rayquaza carries wishful baton. Too bad it's weak to zoroark, though.
And, if you want to try anti-meta shenanigans, just run Celesteela GX with some unity energy. She can be a nice energy keeper with 200HP, resistance to fighting and hits fairy for super effective damage. Your celesteela should usually be carrying 2 - 3 energies in this version when setted, so it's not a hard task to attach an unity energy to her.
Speaking of Vikavolt, it's surely my first option at energy supply, but I would consider 3 Ray, 3-1-3 with 3 candy Vikavolt and 1-1, 2-1, or 2-2 Electrode (needs some testing), with 2 UBs and generic 2 Leles, running lots of nest balls to set up bench faster/filter deck and some Ultra Ball to stay safe with Lele, vikavolt and electrode AND it gives opportunity to discard energy in order to abuse Electrode as soon as possible. 3 Rayquaza is fine, because you'll only play with 2 of them anyways.
Alternative version without Vikavolt would probably try to set up a hell lot faster, trying to assure T2 electrode and using 2 or even 3 Rings in just one round (even two, if opponent doesnt AbsorptionGX, for exemple), BUT, FOR ME, it sounds a little like suicide strategy(?).
I really thought about ray's GX being used to discard lots of energies to explode Electrode, however, i do think Ray's GX can be used in a better situation, as it only would effectively work if you have lots of energies in your hand, situational case.
Yeah, Electrode would be similar to Espeon-EX, where you don't play it down unless you need it.
Ring is always consistent, because it works at 3 and 4, which you'll hit if your opponent knocks out a Rayquaza; don't need Electrode to proc it.
Giving them prizes from Electrode would actually reduce Absorption's damage.
Also, Buzzwole has less early pressure, because he will no longer have:
- Max Elixir
- Regirock
- Strong Energy
Lele -> Lady -> Tempest GX
Pretty effecient, and a great turn 1, if you find yourself without a draw supporter~
Wow, i'm sorry, i've made a mistake when I mentioned Absorption but was too lazy to edit it...
More thought is needed in Vikavoltless build, indeed. Maybe more UBs and rings with 3-4 Lele, or even Altaria.
Anyways, Lele-->Lady-->TempestGX in T-1 seems to be the perfect initial combo to hit with rayquaza, but it requires a extremely good initial hand OR puts you into good resources discarding situation, doesn't it? Of course it can be pulled by nest/ultra balls, but it requires voltorbs to be ready to evolve too. My problem is with the luck odds, not with your combo (which's gret).
Almost reminds me of Deluge Blastoise. Haha.
Powerful, but tricky to set-up. Should be fun to playtest~
Looking forward to seeing what cards we'll get in the place of our old supporters, like Sycamore.
I guess I'll test out Sceptile for three reasons:
1. My fav Pokemon
2. Love the ability
3. I can work with that attack
Reasons not to:
1. We don't have Broken Time Space or FOGP
2. Getting energy out to use the dang thing (i mean run it with UB's, Beast Ring, Pro Letter, AND Dragonair is a bit much)
I've been looking forward to a Stakataka GX wall deck for months, too bad it was a huge letdown...
I do see Sceptile more of as a tech into Rayquaza GX with Vika or Vena. If you're spending a turn taking out that 1 prize tech card, it's a turn where you aren't removing any energies to lower Ray's damage cap. It's not that Sceptile can't be played around, but if it's buying you a turn + opponent's supporter, then it's done its job.
im confused why are bringing in beast ring, it has no effect on non-ultra beast, it only works ultra beast pokemon.
Decks have pulled it off though
Rayquaza does damage based off energy in play, he doesn't need the energy on him; you can place it on a benched Ultra Beast.
Yeah, I commented that before the translation fix, it's a bit better now.
Before it said:
Ability: Nature Power
Each of your [G] Pokemon receives no damage from the attacks of your opponent’s Ultra Beasts.
Each of your [G] Pokemon receives no damage from the attacks of your opponent’s Ultra Beasts.
If it has no energy on it, it's not protected.
If it does, you're lowering Ray's damage.
Lycanroc can pull it up from the bench without using your supporter, too.
I think something to consider here, is:
Running Sceptile can disrupt your opponent's strategy, yeah...
But, it's disrupting yours as well; it doesn't help you accelerate energy.
It's also taking up deck space, and you could potentially mill parts of the evo chain with Ray's ability.
I think people will try and run it, but not sure how effective it will be.
Specifically because most decks run non-UB mons, as I said before.
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