The Definitive Raging Bolt Guide for Worlds
Hello everyone. Today we are going to take a good long look at a deck that has held a strong place in the metagame ever since Teal Mask Ogerpon ex hit the playing field - Raging Bolt ex. As someone who has missed Day 2 at both major tournaments I've played Raging Bolt at, I am definitely qualified to bust out the definitive guide to the deck. On a non-sarcastic note, I did play the deck at NAIC, starting 5-0-3 and unfortunately bricking the last round to cut short what could have realistically been a strong run. Raging Bolt is still well-positioned in the metagame, despite Gardevoir ex dominating NAIC, and I'm here to tell you why.
We all know that Raging Bolt is a supremely fast, consistent, and all-powerful deck that always presents itself as a preeminent threat in the metagame. Aside from all of its inherent virtues, there are three reasons why I like Raging Bolt in the current meta. After Gardevoir dominating NAIC, it incentivizes increased Grimmsnarl usage. Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex's introduction to the meta is a big bonus for Raging Bolt, as Raging Bolt matches up very well against it. Second, the winning Gardevoir list is slightly weaker against Raging Bolt than the traditional one. Their one-shot options are more limited without Drifloon, and the lack of Cleffa also hurts Gardevoir in the matchup. Scream Tail is their only single-Prize option to one-shot a Raging Bolt, but they typically want to use Scream Tail when they need to snipe the Bench. The Gardevoir matchup overall isn't that bad. Finally, Raging Bolt does well against other top decks like Dragapult ex and Joltik.
My current list remains unchanged from the one I played at NAIC, which can be found here: https://limitlesstcg.com/decks/list/18655
More than discussing what's in the list, I want to go over what is not. First up is Iron Leaves ex, which has seen a massive surge in play lately. Do not play this card. Teal Mask Ogerpon is more than enough to slay Grimmsnarl, and Iron Leaves is a dead card or liability more often than not. If you want a way to escape retreat lock, that's reasonable, which is why I recommend Professor Turo's Scenario. Turo's Scenario is fantastic in this deck, especially in the current meta. Gardevoir, especially without Drifloon, loves to set up damage on our board. So does Dragapult, and so does Grimmsnarl. Turo provides a lot of value as both a tech for these matchups and a general utility card, especially in games that the opponent forces to go longer with single-Prize Pokemon.
Next are Iono and Judge. These cards are terrible in this deck. I cannot fathom why I would ever want to gamble on putting myself to four random cards over playing a better Supporter like Professor Sada's Vitality, Crispin, or Boss's Orders. Raging Bolt takes the initiative and is almost always ahead on the Prize trade. It does not benefit from hand disruption nearly as much as other decks, and Iono is rarely drawing enough cards to matter since this deck takes Prizes so quickly. Furthermore, this deck does rely on its other Supporters almost every turn, so there isn't much time to play a comparatively weak Supporter like Judge or Iono.
In the same vein, there is an absence of Counter Catcher and Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex. These cards are situationally powerful, but ultimately do not synergize well with the deck. I want to be as consistent as possible and with that, there isn't a need to include comeback cards. This is even more true considering that nearly every opposing deck (Gardevoir, Grimmsnarl, Dragapult), is very slow so you won't even get to use these cards. Even in the mirror match, I haven't found that these cards are enough to reliably make a comeback if you're losing.
Don't even get me started on Koraidon. The card is just awful. Finally, Energy Switch is a tech that I considered. It's nice to enable plays that would otherwise be impossible, such as retreating Noctowl and attacking, or making an unexpected attacker out of nowhere. While there are real situations where Energy Switch would be good, it's just not consistent. Even with Noctowl in the deck, you usually need to search other cards for the combo and don't have that extra reach. Other times, you already have a sufficient line and don't want to burn the Noctowl for a slightly stronger Energy Switch play. Finally, there are times where you'd like to Energy Switch and Noctowl just isn't available. Energy Switch also does nothing for the consistency of the deck. Like Iron Leaves, Ursaluna, and their ilk, it's a brick more often than not.
This concludes the public portion of this article.
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