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Rayeggs (M Rayquaza EX / Exeggcute)

RideLith

All theory. No action.
Member
This is Rayeggs, a list I made based off the new colection Emerald Break (EB). I playtested it with proxies and crudly refined it in the past few days - it is surely subject to changes as this set releases and we get a good hang of how it behaves on the metagame.

Pokemon: 20

  • 3 [C] Rayquaza EX
    3 [C] M Rayquaza EX
    4 Exeggcute (PF)
    1 Swablu (EB)
    1 Altaria (EB)
    3 Shaymin EX (EB)
    2 Mr. Mime (PF)
    1 Jirachi EX
    1 Tropius (LT) OR Genesect (LT)
    1 Virizion EX

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums: 30

  • 4x Professor Juniper
    1x N
    2x Lysandre
    4x VS Seeker

    4x Skyfield

    4x Ultra Ball
    2x Repeat Ball
    3x Battle Compressor
    3x Rayquaza Spirit Link
    1x Scoop-Up Cyclone
    1x Startling Megaphone
    1x Switch

Energy: 10

  • 6x Grass Energy
    4x Double Colorless Energy

EDIT (31/03/2015): Recent discussions made me reconsider my opinion on Mega Turbo. I suggest you still playtest with and without it to see what better suits your playstyle. To include Mega Turbo, adjust the list like this:
-2 Grass Energy
-1 Repeat Ball
+3 Mega Turbo


Strategy:

(The description of yet-to-release cards will be inside Spoilers)

With the new set Emerald Break, we got a new attacker that will surely design a new archetype around him, and that is the Colorless Mega Rayquaza-EX:

M Rayquaza-EX – Colorless – HP220
Mega Evolution – Evolves from Rayquaza-EX

When 1 of your Pokemon becomes a Mega Evolution, your turn ends.

Δ Evolution: Once during your turn (before your attack), you may play this card from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokemon even if that Pokemon was put into play this turn or if it’s your first turn.

[C][C][C] Emerald Break: 30x damage. Does 30 damage times the number of Pokemon on your Bench.

When a Pokemon-EX has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-20)
Retreat: 1

There has been some controversy regarding the sheer power of this card. Many have argued that it is not capable of dishing OHKOs fast enough, since it relies on having a lot of benched Pokémon and the support of another EB card, Skyfield:

Skyfield – Trainer
Stadium

Both players may have up to 8 Benched Pokemon.

If this Stadium card is no longer in play, each player discards their Benched Pokemon (and all cards attached to them) until there are 5 Benched Pokemon left.

This card stays in play when you play it. Discard this card if another Stadium card comes into play. If another card with the same name is in play, you can’t play this card.

The basic strategy of the deck, based on the 2 cards I already presented, is to bench as much Pokémon as possible using the power of Skyfield and attack for up to 240 damage with Mega Rayquaza-EX. This strat is the basis of all decks revolving around [C] M Ray; what changes between lists is exactly -what- you're benching.

Our first unique bench filler is going to be Exeggcute from Plasma Freeze. Exeggcute has the ability Propagation, wich lets you put him in your hand directly from the discard pile, and you can do that as many times as you want in your turn. Because of that, if we are able to put Exeggcute from our deck into our discard pile, it can instantly turn into a bench sitter, and that's exactly why we have 3 Battle Compressors - I'll get into them later. There are other 2 major uses for Exeggcute in our deck: it's an easy way to not discard important resources with Ultra Ball; also, if Skyfield gets discarded, it's a safe Pokémon you can discard and then instantly replace when you get another Skyfield out. Always remember to only bench the strictly necessary amount of Exeggcutes to get the Knock-Out - leave the excess inside your discard pile to be able to pull Ultra Ball plays later on in the game.

Swablu and Altaria are both there exclusively to tech against Thunder types that can OHKO our Mega Rayquazas. With Altaria's trait, wich is shared with our M Rayquaza-EX too (I'll get into his case later), you can pull this little combo off in one turn. If the matchup does not present any threat of hitting for weakness, you can always use Battle Compressor and get those 2 out of your deck.

Altaria – Colorless – HP90
Stage 1 – Evolves from Swablu

Δ Evolution: Once during your turn (before your attack), you may play this card from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokemon even if that Pokemon was put into play this turn or if it’s your first turn.

Ability: Clear Humming
As long as this Pokemon is in play, each of your [C] Pokemon has no Weakness.

[C][C] Wing Attack: 30 damage.

Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-20)
Retreat: 1

Shaymin-EX from Emerald Break is another amazing bench-filler. It allows us to have a really good draw-engine when paired with our high count of Ultra Balls. With some degree of luck and a lot of planning, Shaymin allows us to draw through more than half our deck on turn 1, wich combos really well with M Rayquaza's Delta Trait. If you start with a Shaymin there is also the possibility to use his attack and retrieve him and the DCE.

Shaymin-EX – Colorless – HP110
Basic Pokemon

Ability: Setup
Once during your turn (before your attack), when you play this Pokemon from your hand to your Bench, you may draw cards until you have 6 cards in your hand.

[C][C] Sky Return: 30 damage. Return this Pokemon and all cards attached to it to your hand.

When a Pokemon-EX has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-20)
Retreat: 1

The list uses 2 Mr. Mimes because you can't afford to have your Exeggcutes exposed to bench damage ever. Running only one means that there will be times you'll have it prized, and that is asking to be Lysandre'd into a double knock-out by a Landorus EX.

Jirachi-EX is here not only for consistency, but because this deck runs a very low supporter line - wich I'll explain why later - and a very high Ultra Ball line.

Genesect from Legendary Treasures and Virizion-EX are the reasons why we run Grass Energy as our basic type. Virizion-EX not only provides immunity to Laserbank but it also serves as an alternative starter in slower games against - guess what - Toads. Genesect, with 2 Grass Energy and a Double Colorless, can OHKO both the Safeguarders and Seismitoad. It won't be knocked out back by a Toad deck unless they tech in fire types, wich potentially will net you 4 Prizes. We need direct counters to Toads in this deck because of the low supporter count and the very high dependance on item cards like Ultra Ball, Battle Compressor and Rayquaza Spirit Link. Alternatively you could run Exeggutor from Plasma Freeze, wich brings in a good stall attack in Blockade and can potentially hit for the same 90 on a coin flip but for one less energy - this one needs more playtesting, it can be better than Genesect because of the water resistance (thanks CruelBear for the suggestion).

The low supporter count is there because we are running Battle Compressor, 4 VS Seeker and Shaymins. Doing so gives the deck the flexibility to get the support we want, discarding it directly from the deck and getting it back with a VS Seeker. The draw power in this deck is also provided by Shaymins, wich makes drawing through the deck an easy task even with only 5 draw Supporters. This makes the deck succeptible to item lock by Toads, and hence why the direct counters splashed in.

Battle Compressor is there not only to discard the Exeggcutes early on, but also to get desirable Supporters on the discard pile, as already mentioned, and to discard our 4 tech Pokémon when they are not going to get any use (Swablu, Altaria, Genesect and Virizion EX). For that purposes, 3 is more than enough and 4 would end up just taking unnecessary space.

The list also runs 4 Ultra Ball and 2 Repeat Ball. If we could run 8 Ultra Ball, I swear we would. This deck relies a lot on getting specific Pokémon out in specific orders and turns, and a lot of it's draw power and damage power comes from that. The 4 Ultra Balls will end up being (95% of the time) Master Balls because of the 4 Exeggcutes. Repeat Balls are there as an extra oomph on the Pokémon search engine, just to get more Rays/M Rays and Shaymins out.

Rayquaza Spirit Link's usage is obvious, but lets not forget that Mega Rayquaza-EX has the so-useful trait Delta-Evolution, wich lets him evolve on the first turn or on the turn that Rayquaza-EX is benched. This won't necessarily make our M Rays attack on the turn they are benched, but surely adds in more consistency on getting them out, since you can pull everything out in the same turn and not risk getting your M Ray N'ed away. It also opens up the possibility to Mega Evolve without the spirit link on the first turn without much drawbacks.

Scoop-Up Cyclone, despite being a sub-par Ace Spec, combos really well with our cards mid to late game. It can retrieve a damaged M Ray, wich can then be benched instantly abusing his Delta Evolution trait. It can retrieve a Shaymin-EX or a Jirachi-EX, making their abilities useful again or getting them outside the risk of being targets of a Lysandre.

The Startling Megaphone is a quick answer to Garbodor, wich this deck struggles with. It is a complimentary tool to the 2 Lysandre-4 VS Seeker, and can be dished out if your metagame does not have a lot of Garbodors.

A single Switch is there to get any bad starter out of the front line, since most of our Pokémons have one or two energy retreat cost and we can't afford to waste an attachment only on that. The best starter in this deck, despite being one turn exposed to damage before using Emerald Break, is actually Rayquaza EX. It can start dishing a little damage with his first attack, but mostly is a good starter because all the other Pokémons are bad starters (except Virizion in certain matchups) and shouldn't leave the bench. You surely should consider running more switches or escape ropes.

Rayquaza-EX – Colorless – HP170
Basic Pokemon

[C] Rising Burn: 10+ damage. If your opponent’s Active Pokemon is a Pokemon-EX, this attack does 50 more damage.
[C][C][C] Dragon Pulse: 100 damage. Discard 3 cards from the top of your deck.

When a Pokemon-EX has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-20)
Retreat: 2



Why I am not running:

I am not running Ninetales from PC because, on playtesting, I found it really clunky to pull out. Also, not having him and actually running 4 Skyfield makes for some interesting strats: if you need to have more benched Pokémons next turn, just discard Exeggcutes and get them back on the field with Propagation as soon as you have another Skyfield up. If you have spare Exeggcutes to bench, when Skyfield gets discarded you can simply discard Shaymins or the Jirachi and remove the threat of them being Lysandre'd.

I'm going to quote my comment from another thread on why I am not running Mega Turbo:
RideLith said:
I am skeptical about the real competitiveness of Mega Turbo. During my playtests with a M Rayquaza deck, even with 3 compressors and 3 turbos I couldn't pull them off enough times for them to be worth taking 3 spots, and not once I could do a turn-1 Emerald Break with them (the amount of resources spent to do that is stupidly high). Most of the time, when you mega evolve your Rayquazas they already have a DCE or a basic energy attached, so it's only one attachment short off attacking.

I am not running Skarmory nor Winona because this deck does not need more engines to fill up it's bench - Exeggcute, allied with Battle Compressors and 6 Balls is more than enough.

I am also not running Aromatisse because - not only it takes a lot of space - it makes the deck very clunky to run and you'd end up Mega Potioning a DCE away most of the time. It is more effective to run a fast-paced deck with a stream of Mega Rayquazas. You'd also not benefit from Fairy Garden.



Things that you might consider running in this deck:
- More counters to Toads/Safeguarders
- Heavier Supporter line
- More Switching Cards
- More Megaphones
- Less Balls
- Mega Turbo if you manage to profit out of it
- Another Non-EX Grass attacker, instead of the regular Genesect.


100% open to discussing this deck. If I have already thought of something you suggest, I'll explain why it's not in the list.
 
Before you read this just remember that I skimmed over all the long stuff though I did look over the deck itself thoroughly.

I would take out the execute and replace them with more Shaymin/Jirachi and Swablu/Altaria. I would also add mega turbo and maybe escape rope, and take out the Genesect EX. Evo-soda for repeat ball might be useful and maybe add some revives and maintenance if you have extra room. that way you can get all you need for the KO on the first turn. also silent lab would be great as an extra stadium.

-4 Execute
-1 Genesect
-1 Lysandre
-2 Grass Energy
-2 Repeat ball
-2 Professor Juniper
-1 Rayquaza EX
-1 Mega Rayquaza EX
-1 Rayquaza spirit link
+1 Altaria
+1 Swablu
+1 Jirachi EX
+1 Shaymin EX
+3 mega turbo
+1 Revive
+2 evo-soda
+1 Lysandre's trump card
+1 N
+2 Colress
+1 silent lab


I'm not entirely positive that taking out the Rayquaza was a good thing but I could not find anything else that had copies to spare.
 
The exeggcute idea is fantastic. You can't take them out. Besides, if you do they will just find a way to pop back up again (har!).

My biggest question with the original list is genesect. It just doesn't seem like such a great toad counter, considering how much setup you would need to get it going. What about Tropius? As opposed to genesect, it offers some nice draw support if you were to start with it as your active. Sure, you need two attacks to KO toad, but that just seems more likely to me than getting 4 energy on a genesect.
 
appleatingoat said:
Before you read this just remember that I skimmed over all the long stuff though I did look over the deck itself thoroughly.

I would take out the execute and replace them with more Shaymin/Jirachi and Swablu/Altaria. I would also add mega turbo and maybe escape rope, and take out the Genesect EX. Evo-soda for repeat ball might be useful and maybe add some revives and maintenance if you have extra room. that way you can get all you need for the KO on the first turn. also silent lab would be great as an extra stadium.

-4 Execute
-1 Genesect
-1 Lysandre
-2 Grass Energy
-2 Repeat ball
-2 Professor Juniper
-1 Rayquaza EX
-1 Mega Rayquaza EX
-1 Rayquaza spirit link
+1 Altaria
+1 Swablu
+1 Jirachi EX
+1 Shaymin EX
+3 mega turbo
+1 Revive
+2 evo-soda
+1 Lysandre's trump card
+1 N
+2 Colress
+1 silent lab


I'm not entirely positive that taking out the Rayquaza was a good thing but I could not find anything else that had copies to spare.

I've already playtested most of those ideas. In my previous post I already stated that, playtesting with Mega Turbo, I couldn't pull first turn Emerald Breaks as consistently as desirable - not even once in about 20 games. Also, the whole purpose of this build is to get Exeggcutes on the discard pile as fast as possible - taking them out would change this to a regular M Ray deck, wich would justify the addition of extra Jirachis and other benchsitters. Your support suggestions could see fit here though, and I might want to play with Evo Soda, although it strips the opportunity of getting Shaymins.

gromitxt said:
The exeggcute idea is fantastic. You can't take them out. Besides, if you do they will just find a way to pop back up again (har!).

My biggest question with the original list is genesect. It just doesn't seem like such a great toad counter, considering how much setup you would need to get it going. What about Tropius? As opposed to genesect, it offers some nice draw support if you were to start with it as your active. Sure, you need two attacks to KO toad, but that just seems more likely to me than getting 4 energy on a genesect.

Tropius from Plasma Blast does his job really well for his energy cost, although I think that a 2 Tropius line would suit the deck better as it's not getting OHKOs on Seismitoads and Sigilyphs, albeit still doing the job for Suicunes. As I said, I'm still playing around the non-EX attacker, and Tropius is definitely on my radar.
 
Ah I see where your going now, even though I still think execute could be easily done in with Mudou Blade and i'm not kidding around when I say execute is one big weakness waiting to be taken advantage of. if you have 4 execute on bench and your opponent does a Mudou blade that's 4 prizes for 1 hit and reduces your damage by 120, that's a pretty big game changer if you ask me. not to mention if your Rayquaza has already been hit by one Mudou then chances are it will die and that's 6 prizes for the game.
 
appleatingoat said:
Ah I see where your going now, even though I still think execute could be easily done in with Mudou Blade and i'm not kidding around when I say execute is one big weakness waiting to be taken advantage of. if you have 4 execute on bench and your opponent does a Mudou blade that's 4 prizes for 1 hit and reduces your damage by 120, that's a pretty big game changer if you ask me. not to mention if your Rayquaza has already been hit by one Mudou then chances are it will die and that's 6 prizes for the game.

He has Mr. Mime PF to block damage done to the bench...
 
Look at my Mudou Blade thread... I know it's still under construction but Shedinja is how it goes around mr. mime, either 3 hits from Shedinja or Dusknoir moves it to kill mr mime
 
I really don't find hard-focused bench hitting decks to be as much of a problem. During playtesting, to achieve one hit knock-outs you would not need do bench more than 2 exeggcutes most of the times, and if you find yourself struggling against a certain archetype there is always the option to not bench any exeggcute at all. With this deck you should not place exeggcutes on your bench if you're not using them to get that extra 30-60 you need on that specific turn, the less exeggcutes you need the better.

But I understand your point. In the future, if the archetype in question proves to be a big problem I will play around the list to better fit that matchup. I can't predict how it's going to behave without further testing, but rest assured that it's very unlikely that 4 exeggcutes are going to be sitting on the bench in a condition where it is possible to knock them all out at once.
 
appleatingoat said:
Look at my Mudou Blade thread... I know it's still under construction but Shedinja is how it goes around mr. mime, either 3 hits from Shedinja or Dusknoir moves it to kill mr mime

I play many dusknoir decks and I Weavile/Eggs is one of my all-time favorites. While an 8-pokemon bench sounds like a potentially slow setup, Exeggcute with battle compressor/ultra ball is no joke. Add in Shaymin EX and delta evolution and I can't imagine a faster mega evolution and full powerup. Relying on dusknoir or 3 attacks from a stage 1 to set up your mega-evolution for its NEXT attack doesn't sound like a very strong counter.
 
gromitxt said:
appleatingoat said:
Look at my Mudou Blade thread... I know it's still under construction but Shedinja is how it goes around mr. mime, either 3 hits from Shedinja or Dusknoir moves it to kill mr mime

I play many dusknoir decks and I Weavile/Eggs is one of my all-time favorites. While an 8-pokemon bench sounds like a potentially slow setup, Exeggcute with battle compressor/ultra ball is no joke. Add in Shaymin EX and delta evolution and I can't imagine a faster mega evolution and full powerup. Relying on dusknoir or 3 attacks from a stage 1 to set up your mega-evolution for its NEXT attack doesn't sound like a very strong counter.

I agree, too much work just to kill exeggcutes.
 
Well I guess maybe you guys are right, but I think i'll go make proxies of all these news decks and pit them against each other. I do admit that Shedinja sounds slow but I just feel like if I can get the bench barrier down it's possible to get a 1 hit win with modou blade.
 
OH SNAP!!!!!! Guys, you have to make proxies of a Rayquaza deck, I just did and it crushes anything and everything in its way, (I took out all the execute though, they were just slowing things down). 4 Shaymin and 2 Jirachi EX that's almost an entire supporter line right there, AND it fills up the bench so fast it's crazy. I used 3 Aspertia city gym with maxed sky field and it boosted the consistency like crazy! I could suddenly pull of so many draw combos and in just one turn. actually the supporter I used the most of was Lysandre's trump, I used it like thrice in a match, because I used sky field then did a combo of 2 Shaymin and 1 Jirachi to get a supporter, and by then Aspertia city gym would show and I would discard the 2 Shaymin and 1 Jirachi, then put down another 2 Shaymin and 1 Jirachi, and with all those discarding and drawing my Rayquaza became fully evolved and I had a Mr. mime, Virizion, Altaria, Rayquaza, and 1 more sitting there on my bench and with the extra from sky field I would hit the 180+ mark easy, next turn though since I use another Aspertia then sky field all my Shaymin would be discarded so I would use the Jirachi to get trump and do it all over again with Pokémon to spare. It's pretty amazing how OP Rayquaza is. I used 2 great ball though along with 4 ultra ball because there were so many Pokémon in the deck.

So yes I concede, my Modou blade deck can no where near compare to the sheer awesomeness that is Rayquaza. (Though I now know for a fact that exeggcute is useless in the Rayquaza set up, because it just slows it down)
 
^ You might want to consider Repeat Ball over Great Ball so you can get another Shaymin EX, et cetera.

As for the deck at hand, I might take out the Genesect and instead put in, say, a Tornadus from Legendary Treasures or even the one from Furious Fists. Genesect just fights for far too much Energy to be useful, in my opinion. If neither of those suit your fancy, though, what I might do is use one or more Silent Lab. Though it does cut away from your bench size once played, you can always just play another Skyfield when you need to take another KO on something large.

Also, how does this fare against Aegislash EX?
 
appleatingoat said:
OH SNAP!!!!!! Guys, you have to make proxies of a Rayquaza deck, I just did and it crushes anything and everything in its way, (I took out all the execute though, they were just slowing things down). 4 Shaymin and 2 Jirachi EX that's almost an entire supporter line right there, AND it fills up the bench so fast it's crazy. I used 3 Aspertia city gym with maxed sky field and it boosted the consistency like crazy! I could suddenly pull of so many draw combos and in just one turn. actually the supporter I used the most of was Lysandre's trump, I used it like thrice in a match, because I used sky field then did a combo of 2 Shaymin and 1 Jirachi to get a supporter, and by then Aspertia city gym would show and I would discard the 2 Shaymin and 1 Jirachi, then put down another 2 Shaymin and 1 Jirachi, and with all those discarding and drawing my Rayquaza became fully evolved and I had a Mr. mime, Virizion, Altaria, Rayquaza, and 1 more sitting there on my bench and with the extra from sky field I would hit the 180+ mark easy, next turn though since I use another Aspertia then sky field all my Shaymin would be discarded so I would use the Jirachi to get trump and do it all over again with Pokémon to spare. It's pretty amazing how OP Rayquaza is. I used 2 great ball though along with 4 ultra ball because there were so many Pokémon in the deck.

So yes I concede, my Modou blade deck can no where near compare to the sheer awesomeness that is Rayquaza. (Though I now know for a fact that exeggcute is useless in the Rayquaza set up, because it just slows it down)


can you show us your decklist of your version of the deck?
 
sure, here it is, the only thing I have to think about though is if I want to add silent lab, that way I can go through Sigilyphs and Suicunes.

I've tested the deck listed below in 5 battles, 3 against mudou blade, and 2 against ray-eels (fallen skies has won every battle) but when I had the exeggcute in modou blade won, because the deck had a small failure in the supporter line, and because of that, modou blade got through and killed the bench. (I used a modified version of modou blade, not posted in the deck garage)

Another thing I have to say, is that Shaymin and sky field could actually almost replace supporters, and allow of much faster decks. I used 3 Shaymin, 1 Jirachi and 2 sky field in the modou blade deck. Sky field totally negated the weaknesses that Jirachi and Shaymin created and in turn Shaymin and Jirachi made for a much faster game play.


Pokemon: 19
3 [C] Rayquaza EX
3 [C] M Rayquaza EX
2 Swablu (EB)
2 Altaria (EB)
4 Shaymin EX (EB)
2 Mr. Mime (PF)
2 Jirachi EX
1 Virizion EX

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums: 31
2x N
2x Professor Sycamore
2x Colress
2x Skyla
1x Lysandre's trump card
1x Lysandre
2x VS Seeker

4x Skyfield
2x Aspertia city gym

4x Ultra Ball
2x Great Ball
3x Rayquaza Spirit Link
1x Dowsing machine
1x Evo-soda
2x Switch
2x Mega turbo

Energy: 8
4x Grass Energy
4x Double Colorless Energy
 
I don't think the fact that Shedinja can (sorta) counter Exeggcute is a reason to take it out. Exeggcute helps so much with Ultra Ball and Dowsing Machine (which is what I'd probably run in this deck) it's not even funny. And that's even before talking about how it goes great with Skyfield. I say it can sorta counter this deck because if you're fighting a deck that can break though Mr.Mimes barrier, you wouldn't be benching them in the first place. Just keep hitting for 150 until Mega Gallade gets out then prop the eggs back onto the bench for an 1hitKO. That's an extremely simplified version of how to fight against it, and it won't go like that every time, but what I'm saying is that there's ways around Mega Gallade. I'd say the only real counter to this deck is Yveltal/Mega Manectric. Mega Manectric 1hitKO's everything in this deck besides Verizion EX. I know that the Altaria get's rid of weakness of colorless pokes, but Garbotoxin is seen in a lot of those decks, that or they'll just Lysandre in the Altaria and knock it out (considering you only have a 1-1 line of it, that'd pretty much be gg). That's the only really played deck I can think of that pretty much auto wins against Ray, which is really good. I think Ray could be amazing, it just needs to be in the waters of the meta game for awhile.


I'd consider looking at Tropius from Plasma Blast. It can 1hitKO a set up Suicune (safe guard) and 2hitKO a set up Seismitoad. Tropius can also help with drawing cards, which is always nice. I'd also look into dropping Jirachi EX for just another VS Seeker. Battle Comp + VS Seeker can pretty much do what Jirachi does, but without risking 2 prizes (it also has more uses). I know you said you wouldn't run Winona, but dude, there's only so many Ultra balls, and a Winona can grab a whole lot of stuff in this deck. If you REALLY don't wanna add at least one, then don't, but I'd at least play test with it a bit to see how often it helps.
 
x hits forehead x
oops I don't think I explained my reasoning clearly enough (I deduced this after reading what Devin The Welf posted)... i'm really sorry man, I don't mean any hate towards exeggcute.

ok i'll try to explain myself better this time, sry if what I was saying before was unclear (it's just that I got really hyped over how awesome the Rayquaza deck was). So what I tried to say before was that the execute were slowing things down, when I tried to bench them they just took up way to much room on the bench, and so I was unable to use Shaymin as much as I would have liked to (yes I do realize i'm talking about an 8 Pokémon bench). Also I told you guys that I used a modified version of the modou blade deck (it had no Shedinja). Lastly I want to point out that exeggcute do indeed help but only when you want to minimize the effect of discarding and using cards in your hand (which is most of the time). But that's the exact opposite of what you want in a Rayquaza deck. Why you ask? Simply because of Shaymin's ability. It seems pretty clear to me, that in order to draw the maximum amount of cards possible when utilizing it's ability, you have to minimize your hand to the least amount of cards before playing Shaymin onto the field. And so in the case of exeggcute... when I admit that it's ability is very helpful in some decks archetypes. In the Rayquaza deck it clogs the bench leaving little to no room for Shaymin and Jirachi, while at the same time clogging your hand, preventing you from drawing the maximum amount cards possible from shaymin's ability.


On the topic of Winona, I would say it's not that necessary if you have evo-soda, great balls and/or repeat balls.
 
Exeggcute wouldn't be a problem when tryjng to draw with Shaymin because you won't just keep him in your hand, if he's in your hand he's there to be placed to the bench, or to be discarded. You wouldn't just be holding him in your hand. And balencing a bench of 8 so it has room for Shaymin shouldnt be hard at all, unless you're facing a mega deck theirs no reason to have a full bench. 6 benched pokes for 180 will do the trick, and still leaves room for Shaymin. I guess Exeggcute is more opinionated, but I'd definitely use him. Getting Exeggcute decks to work how you want takes practice, but my SteelEggs deck became my best after testing with it.
 
ok ok no point in trying to reason with you using words. All I can say now is to go make a proxy Rayquaza deck like I did and see what I mean. (If eggs don't clog it up, then a Breloom will fly by my window)
 
Yeah I think the way I would play it is I would just try to store Exeggcutes in the discard pile until I need them to hit numbers. That way you should always have room to bench the mandatory stuff.
 
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