RayEels (Rayquaza EX / Eelectrik)

[skyla27]

Experience: total noob XD

Ray Eels Decklist

Pokemon: 14

• 2x Rayquaza EX (BW47)
• 4x Eelektrik NVI
• 2x Tynamo NVI 38/101
• 2x Tynamo PLB 31/101
• 3x Kangaskhan PLB
• 1x Tauros XY

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums: 32

• 1x Town Map
• 1x Max Revive
• 1x Max Potion
• 2x Energy Search
• 2x Super Rod
• 3x Shauna
• 3x Skyla
• 3x N
• 4x Pokemon Communication
• 4x Ultra Ball
• 4x Professor Juniper

Energy: 14

• 10x Lightning
• 4x Fire

Strategy
Okay, so im new to competitive play. Before I tried to build a modified deck, I wanted to test my deckbuilding skills on something unlimited, and RayEels seemed a great candidate because all i would need is the Emboars/Candies and replace the communications to make it a modified deck. This list is by no means final, I have another Rayquaza EX coming in the mail, along with 2 Keldeo EX's that i just made a trade for.Short of that, any advice would be helpful, and i would like it to be a general critique of my deckbuilding ability, and dont be afraid to be harsh with me. I do desire to play the game competitively so Im going to need to know what works and what doesnt, along with what I may be doing wrong. Thanks for listening guys I appreciate it =)

Edited to coincide with the rules! ~Kecleon

 

[LoneWolf2113]

Well, one thing I see that is easily replaced is the 3 Kangaskhan.

-3 Kangaskhan
+1 Rayquaza EX
+2 Keldeo EX

Kangaskhan is not a veritable card to have in this deck. I do understand that every Pokemon except Eelektrik is a Basic, but Eelektrik and Tynamo are easily searched out with Level Balls. Tauros isn't needed whatsoever. Instead, try 1 copy of Bouffalant DRX. Bouffalant is what we call a "stall" Pokemon in that it allows you to kinda stall the game a little. It's Bouffer ability makes all of your opponents attacks do 20 damage less to Bouffalant. So just have a Bouffalant active whenever you're needing to hit that one Supporter or Item card and need more time to find it. So...

-1 Tauros XY
+1 Bouffalant DRX

Now on to the Trainers. Town Map is virtually useless and no metagames have decks that play it, Max Revive can be easily disrupted by an N by your opponent, you don't necessarily need Max Potion in many RayEels or RayBoar decks seeing as how there currently isn't a way to transfer Fire or Electric Energies, and you only really need one card that searches out energy. (Pretty much everyone plays Professor's Letter over Energy Search now anyway because Professor's Letter lets you get 2 Basic Energy as opposed to Energy Search's 1) You need a way to hunt out those Tynamo and Eelektrik so...

-1 Town Map
-1 Max Revive
-1 Max Potion (great item, but just doesn't work here)
-2 Energy Search
+4 Level Ball
+1 Professor's Letter

As far as Items go I'd say it's pretty much ok. However, you don't have an ACE SPEC card in your deck. ACE SPECs are cards that are so useful that you are only allowed to have 1 per deck. Of all the ACE SPECs out there, I'd say Dowsing Machine and Computer Search are currently the most powerful. Computer Search allows you to hunt out ANY card in your deck with the discard of 2 cards. Dowsing Machine allows you to retrieve any Trainer card, be it an Item, Supporter, or Stadium with the discard of 2 cards. Computer Search is for players with a fast play style and Dowsing Machine is for those who like to play it safe. I personally prefer to play Dowsing Machine but that's just my opinion.

-1 Pokemon Communication
+1 Computer Search or Dowsing Machine

There is a Pokemon that cancels out Abilities and it is called Garbodor. Your deck, along with many other competitive decks, relies mostly, if not solely on its Pokemon's Abilities. When a tool is attached to Garbodor,its Garbotoxin Ability cancels these abilities out. An item card called Tool Scrapper can discard up to 2 Pokemon Tools and null the Garbotoxin Ability for the time being. When May of this year rolls around, you may want to find "Surprise Megaphone" in the new Flashfire set. It's basically the Scrapper on steroids. It discards ALL tools attached to your opponent's Pokemon rather than Scrapper's 2. So...

-1 Pokemon Communication
+1 Tool Scrapper (or Surprise Megaphone)

Supporter Lines look good although

-1 Shauna
+1 Colress

May not be out of the question. Colress lets you shuffle your hand into your deck and draw cards equal to the number of Benched Pokemon (yours and your opponent's)

Now we get to the expensive stuff... RayEels, RayBoar, and even the almighty Blastoise/Keldeo decks would be nothing without a certain card... Tropical Beach. Sadly, Tropical Beach is an expensive card to buy at around $100 to $150. Yeah. It sucks. And you'd need 2 to 3 of them!
If you're wondering what it does, Tropical Beach is a Stadium Card that lets both players draw cards until they have 7 in their hand, then your turn ends. So it's a pretty powerful Stadium for setting up and hitting all those Energy to get in the discard pile. So...

-2 Pokemon Communication
+2 Tropical Beach
or possibly
-2 Communication
-1 Fire Energy
+3 Tropical Beach

Well, I hope that this very extensive reply is as helpful to you as it was time consuming for me to write. Lol I'm just kidding. I love helping the new players figure out how the competitive Meta works and showing them how to better construct decks. Best of luck in all your matches against other Trainers and your future Pokemon TCG endeavors.

Hope this helps,
LoneWolf2113

 

[skyla27]

Yeah, i just got the Rays and Keldeos today, and the Kangaskhans were what i was planning on replacing anyways, so thank you for that XD The 'Khans were just filler to get the deck working. Ill definitely try to put more of these ideas into practice, such as the Tool Scrapper and the Colress. I dont have some of the cards you mentioned, my collection is still kinda small, and who knows if I will ever be able to afford Tropical Beach XD. I get the whole Tauros/Bouffalant switch, but I honestly dont want either of these cards in this deck, im kind of looking for a nice fire/lightning tech card to use instead. I have a Zekrom from Plasma Freeze, but its terrible for the energy cost and the scant damage it does is easily gotten around. As far as the max potion, the max revive and the town map, when i got the ray ex in the mail the Town Map was the first thing i dropped. It can be nice as a bonus, but i agree that dropping it for more necessary things is definitely the way to go. and trust me, i would love to use level balls, unfortunately, thats one of the cards i have none of atm, but im definitely planning on getting some, theyre pretty cheap for how good they are =) I appreciate someone taking a serious look at my list, definite thanks, and ill try to make the improvements you mentioned as soon as i can.

 

[LoneWolf2113]

@skyla21

I do understand that you don't currently have a lot of the cards mentioned, but in regards to your Fire/Lightning type tech Pokemon, I would go with playing 1 copy of Zekrom LTR. It's Outrage attack can be a very difficult thing to get around for those decks who's main attacker does 120 damage or less. In case you don't know, Outrage is an attack that does 20 plus 10 more for every damage counter on Zekrom for only 2 colorless energy. Many RayBoar decks are running Reshiram LTR which has the same attack. Zekrom is basically it's lightning type counterpart, although you may wind up running Reshiram anyway. It's really just your pick. They both have outrage for the same energy cost. I'd honestly pick Reshiram because it's got some pretty cool artwork. This can also act as a "staller" because if your opponent can't knock it out in 1 hit, he's going to have a Pokemon that you control that can hit for up to 140 damage for only 2 energy. 280 if it's weak to Fire. Zekrom will be the same, hitting for 140 damage, at a max of 280. But, like I said, it's your choice. Reshiram would just provide some bigger type coverage.

Hope this helps,
LoneWolf2113

 

[AlexanderTheAwesome]

Now we get to the expensive stuff... RayEels, RayBoar, and even the almighty Blastoise/Keldeo decks would be nothing without a certain card... Tropical Beach. Sadly, Tropical Beach is an expensive card to buy at around $100 to $150. Yeah. It sucks. And you'd need 2 to 3 of them!
If you're wondering what it does, Tropical Beach is a Stadium Card that lets both players draw cards until they have 7 in their hand, then your turn ends. So it's a pretty powerful Stadium for setting up and hitting all those Energy to get in the discard pile. So...

-2 Pokemon Communication
+2 Tropical Beach
or possibly
-2 Communication
-1 Fire Energy
+3 Tropical Beach

I HIGHLYYYYYYY recommend NOT purchasing even a SINGLE Tropical Beach
You're new, meaning that since you aren't planning on winning worlds or competing in any high entry level tournaments there is no point. I've been playing for 2 years now and honestly, Tropical Beach is not worth it. Especially since this deck is Unlimited

Also, we don't know if Beach is going to get rotated after this season, so if it does you just dropped like 200-400 bucks for no reason.

 

[LoneWolf2113]

Hmm... That is true. Maybe you could make space for a 2-2 line of Electrode PLF. It's no Beach for the experienced players, but decks do run it. It lets you draw cards until you have 4 in your hand. Very useful card. Plus, since it's relatively new, it'll be a while until it gets rotated out. Plus Electrode is cheap. I think they may be around $1 US per card. (Don't hold me to that. I do know that they aren't too expensive)

Hope this Helps, LoneWolf2113