Winning Deck Lists from Japan Championships, Japan's Tourney Format Changing!

Senorsmith

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I played againt a rayquaza deck in my deck dragonite first round there! Got super boost energy running full effect turn 3. Almost won but made a mistake or 2 which cost me the match! Cool to see it in action though, will probably be thinking of post rotation decks for dragonite and Ray, both will like Zeraora for sure!
 

Zzrrdd

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Wow rayquaza gx is a legit deck. Cool to have the same formats as Japan for a change. This means that Japanese tournament results will be a lot more relevant
 

Lord Goomy

Got Goomies?
Member
NO! NO NO NO! RAYQUAZA CANNOT WIN!
GOOMY IS THE SUPERIOR DRAGON! NO NO NO NO!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
 

Mcsonic00

Less Filler Cards Please
Member
We will have to see what will be best post rotation. With Max Elixir going away, things will certainly change.
 

thegreatentropy

Aspiring Trainer
Member
The problem with Japan format was that they got reprints of some of the strongest cards of expanded (like night march and shaymin EX), that never came here, and when they came, were as A-cards, so the card would stay out of the international standard format.
 

AuraJackle

Aspiring Trainer
Member
We will be the same format for a year most likely these decks are all their for format and Japan loves experimenting with new cards so these results hardly matter for worlds
 

Kietharr

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I hope they keep us aligned honestly, it's befuddling that the international format both gets cards later and removes cards earlier than in Japanese Standard.

Surprised to see no DDE whatsoever in Rayquaza lists but I guess max elixir and the ability are enough. Rayquaza actually has some pretty serious legs post rotation with the lightning cat thing that starts with Z. One of the biggest issues I had with the list is wondering how you recover back to OHKO level damage after losing a Ray and this thing seems to be the answer. Buzzwole taking a major hit at rotation will give it some breathing room as well.

Also those reprints didn't matter for legality, legality is not based on set in Japan but on era. All XY era cards remain legal to this day regardless of whether or not they were reprinted. They were reprinted because when your format encompasses around 4-5 years worth of sets, the earlier set cards start getting spendy towards the end having been out of print for awhile. That was why Best of XY happened, to keep cost of older cards under control, not to extend legality as is the case with western reprints.
 

Wechselbalg

brb
Member
Cool, but basically the only reason this would be a better choice for Expanded (or in this case Japanese Standard) is the fact that you can use Parallel without putting yourself at a disadvantage. (Which is obviously important because of Zoroark.) I'm still not 100% convinced though that Ray-GX will be that much better than VikaBulu after rotation.
 

gumball51321

*thumbs up*
Member
I hope they keep us aligned honestly, it's befuddling that the international format both gets cards later and removes cards earlier than in Japanese Standard.

Surprised to see no DDE whatsoever in Rayquaza lists but I guess max elixir and the ability are enough. Rayquaza actually has some pretty serious legs post rotation with the lightning cat thing that starts with Z. One of the biggest issues I had with the list is wondering how you recover back to OHKO level damage after losing a Ray and this thing seems to be the answer. Buzzwole taking a major hit at rotation will give it some breathing room as well.

Also those reprints didn't matter for legality, legality is not based on set in Japan but on era. All XY era cards remain legal to this day regardless of whether or not they were reprinted. They were reprinted because when your format encompasses around 4-5 years worth of sets, the earlier set cards start getting spendy towards the end having been out of print for awhile. That was why Best of XY happened, to keep cost of older cards under control, not to extend legality as is the case with western reprints.
DDE is special Energy. RayRay only applies basic Grass and lightning. Losing Elixir sucks for this deck and Buzzwole, but this deck has better attack acceleration, Ray's Ability, and Zeroara, and Buzzwole has OP Beast Ring.
 

Merovingian

Dead Game Enthusiast
Member
I love seeing the Japanese lists for tournaments. It's because of them that we got Sylveon control looking the way it did initially.

That said, we have to take these lists with a grain fo salt when it comes to application. Obligatory "They are XY-on and we're not" yadda, yadda, yadda.

At the very list, this can be directly applied to Expanded with the addition of an Ace Spec and whatnot. Otherwise, this sort of thing should only be considered if someone is going to Worlds. Even then, they have Shaymin-EX and VS Seeker., Hex Maniac, and Battle Compressor available to them.

Outside of worlds, post-rotation, I think the deck will be too slow to operate. I know VikaRay is a decktype that gets thrown around. There is SOME merit to it, but Rayquaza-GX makes the deck clunky and slow and you need an absolutely PERFECT hand to do 210 on T2, where VikaBulu doesn't require AS much setup for 210 T2 and can do it consistently.
 

Merovingian

Dead Game Enthusiast
Member
Can somebody explain me the reason for Oricorio in the 3 decks? I cant get it

In the Japanese XY-on format, Night March is pretty big.

UIsually, the top decks in these tournaments is:

- Night March

or

- a deck that utilizes cards from the newest set
 
Top