Blog Gonna Raichu an Article!

Elbow

Klinklang V Plz
Member
Very great article. I appreciate the free articles you do.
Thank you so much! I love writing for the community. I think free articles are better for the community anyways. I hope to write more here in the future.
 

arulz

THE SEEKER
Member
Really enjoyed this. Definitely inspired me to try raichu out sometime soon!

Very well written, I particularly liked the in depth explanation of card choices and execution of strategy. Also how many ways there are to support your main attacker!

Keep it up :)
 

Elbow

Klinklang V Plz
Member
Really enjoyed this. Definitely inspired me to try raichu out sometime soon!

Very well written, I particularly liked the in depth explanation of card choices and execution of strategy. Also how many ways there are to support your main attacker!

Keep it up :)
That's awesome! One of my friends convinced me that the deck was good and so I played it for the last few months.
And thank you! I spent a good deal of time editing and making it very thorough. I really appreciate your feedback!
 

Rippin717

Aspiring Trainer
Member
As someone that has not played a Raichu deck yet (but I will soon ;)), which Pokemon, besides the obvious Raichu line, do you prefer to put back into the deck with Sacred Ash. I noticed you never touched on this card and I'm interested to know in which situations did you use it during Cities.
 

Elbow

Klinklang V Plz
Member
As someone that has not played a Raichu deck yet (but I will soon ;)), which Pokemon, besides the obvious Raichu line, do you prefer to put back into the deck with Sacred Ash. I noticed you never touched on this card and I'm interested to know in which situations did you use it during Cities.
It's hard to say each time what to get with sacred ash as it is very situational, but I'll try to go over some things.
If you start with it early game, you either use it minimally or accept that you can't get it back (outside of milotic). I usually try to discard a lot of pokemon in those scenarios so that the one sacred ash I have is useful. Now when it comes to mid game, if there is DCE left in the deck, I'll try to go for raichu lines. Usually, out of the 5 cards, there would be a 2-2 raichu line and maybe a Shaymin EX or Crobat. If you are fine on energy, like have an Yveltal active and have a DCE on board and at least one more in the deck, then grab the Crobat line. This also depends on what you have in play, but usually I'll get like 1 crobat 2 golbat and 2 zubat.
While it's a very useful card, don't use more than one per deck. I tested 2 sacred ash and it sucks. You draw one early or mid game and the last one in end game. Drawing sacred ash in the end game is bad because you want your decks limited resources and usually your sacred ash clogs up your deck.
 

Electricbluewolf

Ditto Hoarder
Member
Great article! It's surprising how much damage Raichu can do for 2 DCE when it's even a little bit set up. My friend plays Vespiquen/Flareon/Raichu and only plays one Sacred Ash, as whilst it's useful, obviously doesn't want to many to play as he doesn't want to many Pokemon back in his deck.

But very well written and I like the different deck ideas-it seems bats are the way to go for anything now
 

Elbow

Klinklang V Plz
Member
Great article! It's surprising how much damage Raichu can do for 2 DCE when it's even a little bit set up. My friend plays Vespiquen/Flareon/Raichu and only plays one Sacred Ash, as whilst it's useful, obviously doesn't want to many to play as he doesn't want to many Pokemon back in his deck.

But very well written and I like the different deck ideas-it seems bats are the way to go for anything now
Thank you!
I have not tried out that last deck you mentioned, but it sounds interesting. Personally, in Vespi/Flareon I like to run a copy of Jolteon AOR to make my Stage 1s electric type though.
I do think some decks benefit from 2 sacred ash, but I don't think this deck is really one of those.
 

mordacazir

Lord of Souls
Member
The death for my yveltal/raichu/crobat deck is crobat/manectric, any idea how i cam defend to that?
 

Elbow

Klinklang V Plz
Member
The death for my yveltal/raichu/crobat deck is crobat/manectric, any idea how i cam defend to that?
I do think it is a very tough match up. If it is taking up a big part of your area, I might switch to the regirock variant. If you really want to play yveltal, you could add in a weakness policy or a non electric weak dark ex like absol ex, tyranitar ex, krookadile ex (I think that was a promo or something), or sharpedo ex. While they have a high energy threshold, they can take 2 hits from a manectric unlike all of the other pokemon in your deck. I have not personally tested that and would try to keep the deck consistent to win.
Another problem is parallel city. You should make sure to conserve your sky fields and your sacred ash. Also don't put down more pokemon on your bench than you need as they can put parallel city down at any time.
Lastly, watch out for low hp pokemon. You both run bats, but your deck is geared towards many pokemon with 50-60 hp. These are easy targets for Manectric/Bats and give many free prizes. Unless if you need to do it, don't bench extra pokemon.
 

GinjaNinja72

Rawr. You're Scared.
Member
Great article. It's amazing that even the seemingly weak Pokémon can team up to do incredible damage. Great article, keep up the good work!
 

Elbow

Klinklang V Plz
Member
Great article. It's amazing that even the seemingly weak Pokémon can team up to do incredible damage. Great article, keep up the good work!
Thank you! And thats very interesting. Many pokemon in the tcg right now like Joltik and Vespiquen are very powerful despite the low HP.
 

BravoBoogie

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Do you think there is a spot for Zoroark in a Raichu deck? I have always liked playing Raichu. I am currently trying to fit in a thin Raichu Line in an Yveltal/Zoroark/Regirock deck. It sounds crowded but it has some potential if I can get it rolling. Any suggestions?

I like the Raichu/Crobat/Yveltal list, I tested a similar list before worlds (XY-on) and managed to beat most BCR-on decks.

Good job!
 

Elbow

Klinklang V Plz
Member
Do you think there is a spot for Zoroark in a Raichu deck? I have always liked playing Raichu. I am currently trying to fit in a thin Raichu Line in an Yveltal/Zoroark/Regirock deck. It sounds crowded but it has some potential if I can get it rolling. Any suggestions?

I like the Raichu/Crobat/Yveltal list, I tested a similar list before worlds (XY-on) and managed to beat most BCR-on decks.

Good job!
I don't think there is a need Zoroark in my opinion. Your strategy relies a lot on doing damage based on your own bench and I don't think you should do it based on your opponent's. They could easily bench less pokemon or drop a Parallel city and you are screwed. Another problem with Lucario is fighting. The deck does somewhat poorly with fighting variants and Zoroark only minimally helps. Lastly, Zoroark takes away other consistency. To run zoroark effectively, you need Float Stone. Float stone is generally a dead card in this deck as most cards have free or 1 retreat (the rest would need a DCE or AZ which is OK).
About fitting in Raichu, I don't see a big use for it in Yveltal Zoroark. You don't really need an electric type in the deck and even with another type it would be clunky. My solution would be 1-2 Dedenne from FUF to add if you have the space.
And thanks! The Yveltal variant is one of my favorite versions.
 

PokeViper

Playable Froslass!!
Member
I cant believe I missed this article. I currently run a Raichu deck except my deck was quite a bit older. I had 4 Shaymin EX, Hawlucha FFI, and a few other small things like Repeat Ball. I was looking to update my list though. I wasnt sure which type to swap out for Hawlucha and it looks like Yveltal or Milotic is the way to go. In addition I switched two Shaymin EX for a 2-2 Octillery line (cause Im poor) but it looks like I'll have to switch to 3. Finally you convinced me to go find a promo Jirachi.

Question though, you said the M Manectric matchup is in the Raichu players favor, but the way you describe it, it sounds more like its in the Manectric players favor. In my experience getting a full bench sometimes can be a little more difficult in the late game.

Another question is what do you think about the addition of Jolteon EX from Generations?
 

Elbow

Klinklang V Plz
Member
I cant believe I missed this article. I currently run a Raichu deck except my deck was quite a bit older. I had 4 Shaymin EX, Hawlucha FFI, and a few other small things like Repeat Ball. I was looking to update my list though. I wasnt sure which type to swap out for Hawlucha and it looks like Yveltal or Milotic is the way to go. In addition I switched two Shaymin EX for a 2-2 Octillery line (cause Im poor) but it looks like I'll have to switch to 3. Finally you convinced me to go find a promo Jirachi.
I think the fighting variant you mentioned is interesting. There is a reason why I did choose to play Regirock in my version and it's because it can hit for weakness unlike Hawlucha. I know many times you are off by like 20-80 damage and Hawlucha can do that, but it needs to be an EX for that to even work. Regirock can hit for 60 regardless (but with 2 energy) and 120 if it's an EX (or 240 if weak to electric).
As for the octillery, I think it is an OK substitute, but what I see as a better alternate is Unown AOR. It can sit on the bench for 20+ damage on Raichu or after a bad Judge/Birch it can be 1 more card. I personally would go with the Shaymin-EX if you owned any, but as a 2nd choice I would try to fit in 4 Unown (and possibly a line for Octillery as well, but the list would be tight).
And Jirachi is great. It has won me many games and definitely changes your opponent's strategy if they see it come down.

Question though, you said the M Manectric matchup is in the Raichu players favor, but the way you describe it, it sounds more like its in the Manectric players favor. In my experience getting a full bench sometimes can be a little more difficult in the late game.

Another question is what do you think about the addition of Jolteon EX from Generations?
I'm not sure how I originally described it, but I'll try to fix the explanation below. First off, it depends which M Manectric deck you are playing. If you are playing against MMan/Water, you should have a better chance of winning. This is because Regice is not likely to KO you (lack of muscle bands in the deck and FF belt doesn't one shot you) and Articuno is hard to set up. It is easy to hit the 170 number on Manectric and possible with Bats to hit 210. If you KO a Manectric EX, all you really need to do then is KO 2 Shaymin-EX, which is very possible. A problem could be from stadium wars, but you should be fine as long as you play them down strategically and have ways to draw into a Shaymin as well.
The other Manectric deck is much harder, with Raikou. Essentially, with an assault vest, it's a 1 prize EX that one shots you with 3 energy. If I were to update this deck today I would definitely add either a Xerosic or Megaphone as that deck is somewhat problematic for Raichu. I will say that I do tend to draw better than those players, but I honestly haven't tested it with BreakPoint. I assume it would be good if not better, so that's why I think you would want to add a tool discarding card.

Lastly, about the Jolteon, I think it is interesting. Being able to stop basics from attacking is amazing. But the problem is that I do not think it fits into this deck. It needs 2 energy and is an EX, which kind of undermines the mostly 1-prize value of the Raichu variant. Once an opponent sees it go down on the field, I guarantee you they will aim for Jolteon right away. Granted, I have not tried it out and might try it now that you suggested it. I do think it makes Raichu stronger though. With muscle band on the low, Jolteon is hitting for 80, just shy of a Raichu KO, which is awesome if your opponent plans to centralize their deck on Jolteon.
 
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