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Alt. Format Post Rotation Rayquaza GX (WIP)

Duo

Duo

RIP Nessa 2023
Member
I was 50/50 about trying Rayquaza, and then Zeraora GX got announced and it was pretty much decided that I'm going to try playing Rayquaza GX.

Pokemon x17

Rayquaza GX x4
Zeraora GX x3
Zoroark GX x2
Zorua x2
Tapu Lele GX x3
Drampa (Dragon Storm) x2
Latias Prism Star x1

Supporter x12

Cynthia x4
Guzma x3
Volkner x2
Lady x1
Mallow x1
Lillie x1

Item x16

Ultra Ball x4
Mysterious Treasure x4
Nest Ball x2
Choice Band x4
Rescue Stretcher x1
Pal Pad x1

Energy x15

Grass Energy x6
Electric Energy x9

Before I reason through the list, I want to review Rayquaza GX's ability.

When you play this Pokémon from your hand onto your Bench during your turn, you may discard the top 3 cards of your deck. Then, attach a basic Energy card from your discard pile to this Pokémon.

The way I interpet this ability is that the discard 3 and the energy attachment from discard are two separate steps. Nowhere does the ability say "Discard the top 3 cards, if you do, attach a basic energy." Until I get official confirmation that this is the truth, I'm going to believe that you can attach Energy without discarding. Just declare that you are discarding 0, then attach.

Rayquaza GX x4 - I'm opting for the full playset because of the ability and because of Latias Prism Star. I treat Rayquaza GX as a Max Elixir that draws from the discard pile, so you're going to want to see it as much as possible.

Zeroara GX x3 - A back up attacker if you're facing Gardevoir and/or Sylveon, and an amazing ability that removes the need for Switch or any other retreating cards in the deck. The GX attack is a must have for the deck, or at least a must have as an alternative option to Rayquaza's. Deals 160/190 with its attack which is perfect for OHKOing all of the important basic GXs.

2/2 Zoroark GX line - In a format with less draw supporters and in a deck that wants to play out of the discard pile, I have no idea why you wouldn't. A lot of people seem to freak out when I stick 2/2 Zoroark GX lines in a lot of my decks, so if you don't like it then feel free to replace it with 4 other cards. I'm playing Zoroark in a deck like this.

Tapu Lele GX x3 should be self explanatory.

Drampa (Dragon Storm) x2 - A good energy accelerator that can commit a bit of poke damage in the early game.

Latias Prism Star x1 - This gives you energy acceleration options if you choose to use Rayquaza's GX attack over Zeroara for whatever reason. Also, even if you did use Zeroara's GX, this is good for recovery if things go very south, or if you want to use a Pokemon that won't lose you 2 prizes in the process.

Cynthia x4 and Guzma x3 are self explanatory.

Volkner x2 - This combos with the 1 copy of Rescue Stretcher and 1 copy of Pal Pad while giving you a guaranteed energy to either attach or discard. 1 Rescue Stretcher & Pal Pad are in here in case Rayquaza GX discards a little bit too many of the wrong card. He can also grab your other item cards, of course.

Lady x1 - Lady gives you the ability to immediately get all the energy you need into discard ASAP. For example, let's say you have a Zoroark GX on bench and 1 of Ultra Ball and Mysterious Treasure in hand. That's 4 discard outlets to immediately pump 4 energy into your discard pile while drawing 2 cards and searching for 2 Pokemon. That's. Very. Powerful. I almost want a second copy of Lady to be honest, but since we're already running Pal Pad we technically don't have to.

Mallow x1 - Mallow is incredibly spicy in this deck. You can stack your deck for 2 guaranteed energy discards out of Rayquaza GX's ability, or you can stack your deck and search for 2 cards by playing it in combination with Zoroark GX's Trade. Mallow is better than Steven's Decision in this context since she doesn't end your turn.

Lillie x1 - Kind of a staple 1 of in every deck post rotation, I feel.

Ultra Ball x4 and Mysterious Treasure x4 are self explanatory.

Nest Ball x2 - Sometimes you won't have energy in hand to discard or the things in your hand are just too valuable to discard. This lets you grab anything not Lele or Rayquaza and shove it onto the bench.

Choice Band x4 - I place very little value in Wishful Baton, personally. I'm sure most people will find room for 2 or 3 copies of it. I just want full force Choice Band x4. Choice Band enables Zeraora to OHKO the best basic GXs in the format, and it is fundamentally an extra energy attachment to Rayquaza GX to close the gap (same concept as Choice Band for Gardevoir GX. Extra attachments).

Rescue Stretcher & Pal Pad x1 - See Volkner above.

Energy pool of 6 Grass and 9 Electric - you want to see energy a lot because you want to attach & discard a lot. Energy pool is stilted in favor of Electric for obvious reasons.

As the title states, this is still a WIP deck, but I figure it never hurts to start discussion.
 
I was never a fan of Drampa. If it were me, I'd drop those two copies and add a Mallow and have an extra slot for something else.
 
I feel like the Drampas are necessary for a few reasons.

1. They help give you some small acceleration early game when you don't have enough energy in discard to swing with Latias Prism Star or Zeraora's GX attack.

2. They are low priority targets for Latias Prism Star to attach energy to since Latias can only attach to basic Dragons. By low priority, I mean that people will probably not prioritize KOing a benched Drampa over a benched Rayquaza GX that can swing for OHKO. Removing basic Dragons from the line up means you are less likely to get the most mileage out of Latias Prism Star.

3. The 20 bump damage from Dragon's Wisdom is actually enough to gap close on 190 HP basic GX's like Ultra Necrozma GX. Dropping 190 to 170 means you need 1 less energy to close out the KO.

And just so we're on the same page, I'm not talking about the GRI Drampa with Amass. The Dragon Storm one is much better, allowing you to attach to any Dragon Pokemon and not only itself.

That being said, I think a 2nd copy of Mallow in general might be worth considering, but it depends on play timing. I've experienced this with Mallow/Octillery combo, but sometimes searching 2 cards is not better than just redrawing 6 with Cynthia and then using Zoroark GX to Trade up to a hand of 7.
 
Hi Duo,

Nice list. Again I am not a fan of the supporter selection. The rotation decreases our options to dig deeper into our decks. Instead of running fewer draw supporters I would attempt to compensate for that with an increase in draw supporters. I am not sold on Zoroark because he needs two attachments to attack and the fighting weakness will still be an issue. In addition he does not help the deck to set up faster since he is an evolution card that will take some time to setup. The draw engine we will have left once the rotation occures is not that bad. Granted it is not as solid as Professor Sycamore and N but it is at least decent and we have to keep in mind that all decks will loose Professor Sycamore and N.

Pokémon (11):
  • 1 Latias Prism Star (accelerate)
  • 4 Rayquaza GX (beatdown)
  • 2 Zeroara GX (beatdown)
  • 2 Tapu Lele GX (search)
  • 2 Drampa (accelerate)
Trainer (33):
  • 2 Tate and Liz (draw)
  • 3 Guzma (control)
  • 4 Cynthia (draw)
  • 2 Copycat (draw)
  • 2 Lillie (draw)
  • 4 Mysterious Treasure (search)
  • 2 Rescue Stretcher (retrieval)
  • 3 Field Blower (discard)
  • 3 Acro Bike (draw)
  • 4 Ultra Ball (draw)
  • 3 Devoured Fields (enable)
Energy (16):
  • 8 Lighting Energy
  • 8 Grass Energy

With a focus on Rayquaza Zeroara GX serves as an alternate attacker and a means to recover discarded energies once Latios Prism Star is defeated. The deck runs a large arsenal of draw cards to ensure a fast setup.
 
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Hey Dark Espeon,

I'm personally not a fan of either Tate & Liza nor Copycat. Shuffle draw 5 has just never been appealing to me, and I'm never going to play a supporter for turn to switch my Pokemon - I would much rather personally play Sophocles if we're going to be running an additional draw supporter. Tate & Liza doesn't always dig any deeper into the deck as a shuffle draw supporter whereas Sophocles could optimally discard 2 energy cards and guarantees that we dig 4 cards deeper into the deck. You'd have to only have 1 card left in hand for Tate & Liza to dig just as much.

I would also much rather play Hala in this deck over Tate & Liza since you are likely going to be using Rayquaza GX or Zeraora GX's GX attack within the first 3 turns of the game. Keeping 2 copies of Hala for the mid/late game while playing Cynthia early is IMO much more powerful as a shuffle draw supporter. This is further enabled by the fact that if you play Lady to force energy into your hand and discard it with Zoroark GX/Ultra Ball/Mysterious Treasure, you can have the 5 energy in discard with much more certainty than blind discarding from deck.

I also dislike Copycat because you're depending on your opponent ending their turn with a healthy hand size each turn. When people expect others to be running Copycat, I would always personally just play my hand down to 4 or 5 and make sure I have Ultra Ball/Lele/Cynthia ready to go. There will be times where it's just not possible to keep your hand size small, but I'm not depending on my opponent to make a mistake in order for me to have draw power. Also if you can't play your own hand anyway, then Copycat won't net you anything if your hand size is always larger than your opponent's to begin with. It's not consistent and it never will be.

I'm not convinced by Zoroark GX being weak to Fighting as a reason why it shouldn't be played. Zeroara GX has the same problem, and Zoroark GX gives you draw power for times where you want to play something like Lady or Guzma and also extends your hand after a Cynthia. Assuming you get Zoroark GX set up by turn 2 in games that average 8 turns, that's 7 turns of Trading or 14 cards drawn over the match. That's "2 Sycamores" worth of drawing cards without ever needing a supporter. And if people are going after your Zoroark GX that have 0 energy on it and letting your Rayquaza GX run free, they're not going to be the ones coming out on top.

I also never plan on playing Zoroark GX for attacking. Between Rayquaza GX's unlimited damage ceiling and hitting for 160/190 with Zeroara GX, I don't see why I'd ever invest energy into Zoroark GX in this deck with the intent of attacking.

I'm also really confused as to why you'd play Devoured Field when Choice Band increases your damage in much better units. No Choice Band means your Zeroara GX can't OHKO things like Buzzwole or UNGX, and you make your opponent's UNGX and Rayquazas better. If anything, I'd play both Choice Band AND Devoured Field for +40 damage with Rayquaza GX, but again I am not interested in helping my opponent hit better numbers.

I like the concept of Acro Bike, but I would rather not play items that randomly discard when Rayquaza GX already does that and when Mallow can grant me control.

We probably aren't ever going to agree on the supporter selection, but that's totally okay. Something I like about post rotation is that people aren't auto-locked into 4 Sycamore 4 N, 3 Guzma, 1-2 Brigette in almost every deck and we can actually start to personalize our supporter lines and see different supporter line ups between decks. If there's one supporter selection that I question here, it's my Volkners. I don't actually think I'll ever need him. After I do some playtesting, I'll likely replace my Volkners with two copies of Hala. This deck has enough discard outlets already with 4 Rayquaza, 4 Ultra Ball, and 4 Mysterious Treasure to not need something like Sophocles.
 
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Hi Duo,

I do understand the appeal of Zoroark but keep in mind that he is an evolution that needs to be searched out to draw. Using search items to find the Zoroark evolution line means that some of the search items are not used to find Rayquaza GX and Latias Prism Star turn one. The deck still wants to set up turn one to two and I do not see that happen with Zoroark and the selected small selection of draw supporters. At present your deck has five draw supporters in total. With that in mind I cannot see the deck set up Rayquaza and Zoroark within the first two turns. You also need to factor in that bench space is limited since you want three Rayquaza and Latias Prism Star in addition to a tech Zeraora on the bench. This leaves you with exactly one bench space to devote to either Tapu Lele or Zoroark.

I do beleive that you underestimate Tate and Liz. Similar to Malamar this deck can play down its hand with ease. As a consequence Tate and Liz and Cynthia will help the deck to dig deeper into the deck. You have plenty of discard options with Acro Bike and the search items. Sophocles is not needed and he only increases the hand size by one card in total since he needs to be played and he forces you to dicard two additional cards in your hand. You have to have these cards in hand to draw with him. I would rather run Tv Reporter instead of Sophocles since he is easier to use and draws cards even if you have little to no cards in hand.

Hala is indeed an option if you plan on using either Rayquaza or Zeraora soon in the match. In that case he is much better than Tate and Liz. However, the latter allows you to use Zeraora to recover dicarded energies later in the game when you might have already lost access to Latias Prism Star due to it being knocked out. Nevertheless two copies of Lillie seem mandatory in speed beatdown decks like this one since the deck has an easy time to reduce its hand size and Lillie replenished the hand.

Devoured Field has been chosen as a stadium to have a counter stadium to kick out Commandment Shrine and to enable Rayquaza to hit 190 damage sooner in the early turns.

We can argue back and fourth but in the end playtesting is needed to find out the optimal draw supporter engine to ensure a fast and stable setup with Rayquaza. Nevertheless the current number of five draw supporters seems insufficient to ensure a fast and consistent setup. Zoroark decks at the moment use more shuffle draw supporter even though they alsorun three to four Brigette to ensure two to three benched Zoroark within the first three turns. This deck functions a lot different from these Zoroark builts.
 
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