Discussion Rainbow Road - EX Variant or the Non-Ex Variant

PlatypusAvenger

PlatypusAvenger

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Hi All,

I'm looking for opinions on which variant of the Rainbow Deck is favoured. With a meta consisting of a lot of Fright Night Yveltal, i'm shying towards the non-ex Variant. Even the standard inclusion of Volcanion-EX turns what should be an easy match-up (against Dark/Mew, Yveltal/Zoroark etc.) into an uphill battle. Cheers.
 
I'm thinking, what about a split between Galvantulas and EX's? I don't think Bisharp is needed. Jirachi and Umbreon are a better split and allow you more room. But the ability to snipe multiple Shaymins a game is valuable. Why does including Volcanion make things difficult? Because it's an easy Lysandre target? I think you should be running 2 or more switching cards regardless (Switch, Escape Rope, Olympia). Olympia being underrated imo, especially in a format where a lot of people may be playing Fright Night.
 
My build contains a total of five EX Pokémon. They are Mew-EX (thank you reprints), two Shaymin-EX, Volcanion-EX, and Hoopa-EX. Mew is there for essentially a fifth attacker, as well as hitting for Psychic weakness. Shaybae is there because Shaybae is good. Volcanion is two extra types on a Basic. Hoopa is there for searching, and also for a Psychic type that isn't Mew. I also run 1-1 Joltik-Galvantula, 2-2 Pawniard-Bisharp, and a few other non-EX goodies. I find the balance to be essential, and wouldn't play all of one or all of the other, personally.
 
Thanks for the input guys! I ran the non-ex variant at a recent league challenge and managed 5th out of 41 players so I don't regret the decision (plus knocked off the Ex-variant in a close one). A 2-2 line of Galvantula is an absolute must. If you get two on the field at the same time its a guaranteed knock out on any shaymin's if they can get them off feild. 3 times in the tourney I managed to pull the four-prize-card turn thanks to these guys, not to mention the amount of times I was 20-30 short of a OHKO to have the Pokemon retreat. If I had the space ill put in a 5-5 line of these bad boys in
 
Ive been running a hybrid Ex version for a while now with pretty good results.
My list includes
1x Shaymin Ex
1x Hoopa Ex
1x Flygon Ex
1x Yveltal Ex
1x Jolteon Ex
1x Celebi Promo
1x Jirachi Promo
2x Volcanion Ex
1x Mew (FCL)
Ive very consistently been able to hit for 200+ on turn one without Sky field.
I usually wait to drop the sky field when I need to knock out something specific or to counter a stadium.
Mew, and Jolteon are great for free retreat. I also run 2/3 Rainbow energy with Ninja boy to utilize my bench a little more if need be. I feel like it gives me a little more versatility. P-City still sucks, but with dropping the right bench Pokemon, and conserving Sky Field Karen can come in clutch.
 
I have been using the None Ex version with some good consistency, though i'm interested in how to play the mirror. In all my online testing i have only come across it once, and as such, i'm not really sure what i should be going for when facing similar decks.

any help anyone has would be great!
 
With my version jirachi comes in pretty handy knocking out the dce. Jolteon Ex can shut them out, but with standard builds you just want to target the volcanion, Shaymin, and hoopa's with lysandre try to take the quick prizes or keep them from retreating.
 
it may also be a viable strategy to avoid playing both shaymin down when sky field inevitably comes into play. This would prevent them from getting the double KO with Galvantular, and could possibly help you out if they get an early set up and target your xerneas
 
In the ex version, I play a jolteon, keldeo, jirachi ex, hoopa, 2 shaymin, 3 ho-oh, 4 xerneas, exeggcute, flygon ex. Should I also play either an Aegislash and metal energy, latios and psychic, or yveltal with fright night and dark?

This is expanded obviously
 
No idea, they don't play expanded at all in my country. But if I was to pick I'll say Latios and psychic but only if you're playing muscle band. If you're playing Aegislash I wouldn't worry about metal energy, I'm guessing you're only thinking about playing that to counter Vileplume and if that's the case Aegislash by itself is more than enough
 
In my testing, the "non-EX" version is much better because of the stage 1 dual types. (I have that in quotes because Mew EX,Volcanion EX, and Shay are necessary even in the dual type build). If you're set up and get hit with a Parallel City ditching everything isn't such a big deal because you can still have 6 types on the bench. Is it slower? Yep. But I think it wins more consistently, which is all that matters.
 
I ran Rainbow roads at Philly this weekend and went 2-1-2 before having to leave. I like as the other pokemon besides the staples in the deck, Xerneas, HO-OH-EX, Shaymin-EX, Keldeo-EX, Hoopa-EX, Jirachi-EX, and eggs, I put in Jolteon-EX and Aegislash-EX for the Night March decks (Played one and got smashed, but i dead drew both games), and Yveltal-EX. I ran one of each except shaymin which i ran 2, Ho-oH-EX which I ran 3 and Xerneas which I ran 4. I felt this deck was very consistent and that I have multiple games where after turn one, I was hitting for at least 150 or more. My one match I ended up hitting for 220 on my 2nd turn, to win in turns, which was nice. The only time I had a problem was against the night march deck I played which the kid ended up making cuts and I drew a match against Sableye Junk Hunt, where I won the firs, but then couldn't get anything going because he kept hitting hammers. If you guys ever have a chance to run rainbow roads in expanded, do, its a lot of fun and if I would change anything, I would change to a pokemon that can hit attacker and bench against Night March.
 
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