Standard Rayquaza EX / Shaymin EX

[Ironman131]

Pokemon: (16)

• 3 Rayquaza EX (Colorless)
• 3 M Rayquaza EX (Colorless)
• 4 Shaymin EX (RS)
• 1 Jirachi EX
• 1 Virizion EX
• 1-1 Altaria (Delta Evolution)
• 2 Tropius (PLB)

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums: (33)

• 4 Professor Sycamore
• 2 Winnona
• 2 Lysandre
• 2 Colress
• 1 Lysandre's Trump Card
• 3 Ultra Ball
• 3 Rayquaza Spirit Link
• 3 Skyfield
• 3 Mega Turbo
• 3 Trainers' Mail
• 3 VS Seeker
• 2 Switch
• 1 Computer Search
• 1 Muscle Band

Energy: (11)

• 4 Double Colorless Energy
• 7 Grass Energy

Strategy:

The strategy behind this deck is to get a M Rayquaza EX set up quickly and start attacking just as quick. I seen a video on youtube of an individual who was able to turn one mega evolve and was able to turn one emerald break for 150 damage. M Rayquaza EX is the main attacker and the pokemon you want to be attacking with as much as possible. Tropius from Plasma blast is in the deck as a counter to safeguard pokemon and because I am running Grass energy for the use of Virizion EX's virdant wind ability. Shaymin EX and Jirach EX are to help draw through the deck very quickly, I only have draw supporters but and ultra ball for Jirach EX for Winnona for what ever colorless pokemon I need is helpful. Alteria is to remove my colorless pokemons weakness which is lightning through out the deck, aside from Virizon EX, and Jirachi EX. The one muscle band is so I can OHKO any pokemon in the format by doing 260 damage. This does not include a hard charm equiped Wailord EX, but it does include every M pokemon EX even if they have a hard charm attached which seems to be a way to counter this deck.

 

[TuxedoBlack]

Are you finding that a 1-1 Altaria line is sufficient? Should either Poké be prized or KOd, the recovery and re-setup time could be quite costly and provide an opponent needed time to recover. I've found in my testing that a 2-2 Altaria line is my "minimum" and provides significantly more consistency across games (especially against decks running "heavy" L Poké lines).

With M Ray EX's Delta Evolution Ancient Trait, the Ray Spirit Link's, IMO, are not really needed. So, I'd suggest the following for your consideration:

-3 Ray Spirit Link

+1 Altaria
+1 Swablu
+1 Mega Turbo

Further, with the 2 Tropius, 4 Shaymin EX, 4 Prof Sycamore and 1 Colress, your card-drawing power is crazy good; so, the Jirachi EX might be excessive, IMO. So, I'd suggest you consider either replacing it with another Tropius or Swablu.

Lastly, I would encourage you to incorporate a few Battle Compressor to setup both future Mega Turbo and VS Seeker plays. I'd suggest for your consideration replacing the 3 Trainer's Mail with:

+2 Battle Compressor
+1 Skyla - to help search for Skyfield (or another Trainer)

Really lastly (lol), consider replacing 1 Ultra Ball with another G energy or Professor 's Letter.

I hope you find these comments helpful.

 

[Mora]

The Spirit Links are definitely still needed. Without them, you can't attack turn one going second, and later in the game, it can slow the deck down unnecessarily if you have to end your turn every time you Mega evolve. As for dealing with when Altaria gets KO'd, if that happens, then that's a turn they weren't attacking Rayquaza. Because of Rayquaza's ridiculously high damage output , finding a turn to safely take out an Altaria would be very difficult.

 

[Ironman131]

Yeah I actually havent been able to play test this deck yet, I havent had the money to get any of the cards from roaring skies yet. I plan on making the deck when I do get the cards. Tuxedo I will consider all of your changes and I may make some of those changes as well. I think the Spirit links are needed and they at least give the option for a turn one emerald break if I am going second.

 

[Gaia Storm TCG]

I would like to say, first of all, that if you search again on youtube Rayquaza Decks you will be able to find a video in which some guys (Not going to say who because I won't like to spam but it's pretty obvious) deal 240 damage in their first turn.

The deck amazing. It is consistent, has an incredible draw engine and the fastest attacker in the game. What else can we ask for?
The only problem it has are control decks like Seismitoad and Trevenant/Wobuffet but even so , M ray can take them down pretty easily.

Spirits links are definitely needed and in my personnal opinion, reducing the amount of energies grants you drawing stuff you can actually used in the same turn and so, taking advantage of Shaymin's Set Up abilitity. Sooo, to sum up: Rayquaza is a beast. Not invincible, of course, but really powerful.

 

[Ironman131]

Yeah I havent been able to make the deck yet, been busy and havent had money. But this is one of the decks from roaring skies that I would really like to make, and I think it will end up being one of the top decks in the format.

 

[TheStrictNein]

As I said in the other thread, you'll likely never see a Wailord EX in normal play, it has no real way of attacking you due to needing 5 energy to attack and how fast MRayray sets up.

Primal Kyogre will almost exclusively run Spirit Link, as well PGroudon.

Much like the VG Metagame, worrying about a single obscure Pokemon that you can't OHKO and building in something to counter it usually results in sacrificing space for something that can help with many more threats, and then relying on your skill to counter the threat.

 

[Apterous]

I've been playing a deck like this with only 2 Shaymin and I agree, 4 is necessary to hit fast. Because if you don't hit fast, I'm finding I'm getting torn apart pretty fast with hammers / attacks that remove energy / etc. A Sharpeedo-EX / PHF Hydregeon deck got set up and never let me build up enough energy to attack back.

Just a caution to anyone playing this deck - what I've been using and also saw someone else using is 4x PLB Exeggcute to fill bench and protect against inevitable stadium wars - stay away from them. It seems like a good idea to set up extra bench with recyclable eggs by only using a battle compressor for turn 1 damage, but they are so frail, need a Mime to protect them, and end up taking bench space that you may later want to use for a Shaymin to look for a Sky Field or something. So much deals bench damage (bats, Lado, Dark Void) that Eggs get torn apart really fast.

 

[pokemonkosh]

This list is freaking great. There's only one thing that can actually do some damage to it.
Other stadiums.
If your Skyfield gets out of play, there's no way to recover those discarded Pokemon and get the extra damage that you need without another Skyfield.
Plus, most Psychic decks (Night March, Gengar) run 4 Dimension Valley
I run Ninetales from PRC to help with this problem instead of Virizion. It's a little risky, considering your Rayquaza can get hit by special conditions then, but it doesn't really hurt it at all.
Here's some changes I'd make to the deck.
-2 Switch
-1 Muscle Band
-7 Grass Energy
-1 Virizion EX
-2 Tropius

+7 Fire Energy
+2 Vulpix
+2 Ninetales (PRC)
+1 Skyla
+1 Mega Turbo

 

[thedemonbarber]

I wanted to voice a question about that status conditions. If you're losing virizion ex, then doesn't that make the switches you're pulling more valuable?

 

[pokemonkosh]

I wanted to voice a question about that status conditions. If you're losing virizion ex, then doesn't that make the switches you're pulling more valuable?

That's why Altaria is in the list. Besides, if needed you can just get rid of an energy or two, get rid of a Mega Turbo, and add a Keldeo with Float Stone.

 

[Mithrandir]

I've been playing a deck like this with only 2 Shaymin and I agree, 4 is necessary to hit fast. Because if you don't hit fast, I'm finding I'm getting torn apart pretty fast with hammers / attacks that remove energy / etc. A Sharpeedo-EX / PHF Hydregeon deck got set up and never let me build up enough energy to attack back.

Just a caution to anyone playing this deck - what I've been using and also saw someone else using is 4x PLB Exeggcute to fill bench and protect against inevitable stadium wars - stay away from them. It seems like a good idea to set up extra bench with recyclable eggs by only using a battle compressor for turn 1 damage, but they are so frail, need a Mime to protect them, and end up taking bench space that you may later want to use for a Shaymin to look for a Sky Field or something. So much deals bench damage (bats, Lado, Dark Void) that Eggs get torn apart really fast.

I have two versions of the deck that i'm considering using in the next gym challenge. One has the Exeggcute, and the other doesn't.

Pros/Cons to having Exeggcute:

Pro: Battle compress them>Prop>Ultraball>Shaymin x 4
If you're good with getting rid of stuff and drawing trainers that let you draw other cards (mail box, acro bike, etc) you'll be able to draw your entire deck (after one sycamore/juniper) save 13-19 cards turn 1. I do this probably 80% percent of all my first turns that I run this deck. The set up is efficient. You'll have at least 1 Mega Ray (with all energies after either 1x Reg Energy x 2 mega turbo or 1xdouble colorless x1 mega turbo), 4 Shaymin and at least 2 if not 4 eggs, which will account for the entire bench after skyfield.

Con: Anything and everything that hits your bench. Landorus has been a tough one to fend off, as well as Xerneas Ex and Zubat (gg if you play against ZubatxLando). Also giving up a possible four prizes to have a full bench which, if you equate it, is game for the other player if he happens to (for example) Evo. Golbat>Evo. Golbat>Evo. Golbat>Evo. Golbat>Swoop Across for 4 prizes or some combination equivalent with Croabt. Which isn't an overstatement, I've had it happen to me. And if you think mime is gonna stop a Landorus, Lysander says hello!

Fix: I've been tinkering with -4 Eggs and +4 Robo Subs. It's not the best set up especially if you use (what i call) the Grave Deck Engine (using compressor to draw all your cards through vs seeker, revive, max revive, mega turbo, energy retrieval) because if you throw them out, that's it, you can't get them back (unless you run sableye which, nahh, don't have space/turns like that). You can't get them back if they replace your stadium, but you can get rid of them as opposed to your non-Robo bench. You can also use them as a defensive pivot by switching into them if you need a turn or a draw to think about your next move. I've found this works but is less consistent, draw wise than the Eggs.

I'm hoping bandit ring gives us something to solve this problem, whether it be a way to get items from the grave, or a better equivalent to Exeggcute (which may seem likely given the rotation.).

 

[LostRealm]

I run 2 eggs in my deck. I battle compress them and get them out when I exceed my bench or I need that damage, but I find it is all about that first take down and then everything else falls in place. I'm a firm believer in running 1 Xerosic. He helps with toad or removing a pesky ringer our a special energy.

I don't like Altaria line, as it is just to remove weakness. I need to setup fast and only concerned with cards that prevent this.

 

[Mithrandir]

I run 2 eggs in my deck. I battle compress them and get them out when I exceed my bench or I need that damage, but I find it is all about that first take down and then everything else falls in place. I'm a firm believer in running 1 Xerosic. He helps with toad or removing a pesky ringer our a special energy.

I don't like Altaria line, as it is just to remove weakness. I need to setup fast and only concerned with cards that prevent this.

Yeah i've been testing a couple of the new M Ex's (mainly M Gallade Ex and M Latios Ex) and i'm finding that a lot of my wins are based off of Reck' and Roll, or just getting that first take down and snowballing my way through to six prizes. Literally every turn you're not knocking something out makes the late game dramatically harder though, so I can definitely see where wasting resources on an Altaria line is a thing.

I have never used Xerosic before in a deck, but i'm liking his effect more and more as the meta starts to shift, more so since primal clash. I may have to test drive him at league this weekend.

 

[Yo-yos]

Hello, I've also been testing this deck, things I did differently and more speed based.

2-2 raichu, the 160 max for a utility attacker made teching in a couple muscle band and a tool retrieval made the ray deal more dmg overall which against some key matchups is key.

3 shaymin instead of 4 a simple factor of over kill to draw, you can easily tech in a cyclone scoop up and 3 ssu with an AZ and still get better results then dropping 4 on your bench syphoning through your deck once to VS seeker supporter monotonously turn after turn for lack luster support compared to the first turn.

4 ultra ball, 4 sky field, 1 winona, 2 battle compressor, 2 trainers mail, 0 colress, 4 vs seeker, consistency in numbers makes for your engine to be efficient at stacking dmg output faster 4 sky field not 3, if it's speed is reduced because you lack an ultra ball for that extra 1-3 cards out of hand for shaymin for 4-6 instead of 1-3, dropping supporters and playing low amounts with battle compressor/vs seeker makes it a much more concise strategy by giving you more control over your options then what you draw into.

Also to note colress is single hand idly the most dangerous card in this deck, draw power is gross but w/o counting your remainder draw power is gross.

An issue with ninetails, groudon discards stadiums with an attack (seems more like a tech they'd put in mgroudon to counter decks like ray). An issue with snipe decks mr.mime stops snipe and lysandre eliminates early threats. An issue with switch ssu is fairly universal and an active switch option that works for draw power. An issue with 3 spirit link combats headringer and lets you attack turn 2 after there turn 1.