Hello everyone! Today’s deck discussion will revolve around Rayquaza VMAX, a new deck from the latest expansion Evolving Skies! Here is a list by Celio’s Network, and without further ado, let’s get into it!
.png)
Pokemon - 18
Trainer - 31
4 Professor's Research (Professor Magnolia) SSH 178
Energy - 11
(Decklist credits to Celio's Network)
-
General Deck Strategy
Rayquaza VMAX is able to fire off enough damage to OHKO large VMAXes; but the catch is that its attack, Max Burst, is extremely energy intensive, requiring 5 energy to knock the opponent out. The main aim of the deck is thus to accelerate as much energy to Rayquaza in the shortest time possible. Energy is accelerated via Flaaffy’s Dynamotor ability, which allows the player to attach one Lightning energy from the discard pile to Rayquaza. The supporter Rose also attaches energy from the discard pile to Rayquaza VMAX to fuel its attack, but requires the player to discard their hand afterwards.
-
Key Cards
4-4 Flaaffy line
Flaaffy EVS’s ability, Dynamotor, allows the player to attach one lightning energy from their discard pile to one of their Benched Pokemon. Take note that the energy can only be attached to a Benched Pokemon, and not an Active one, so the player must be very careful with sequencing. The player should establish as many Mareeps and Flaaffys as possible earlier in the game using Level Ball and Stormy Mountains to get the engine going.
4-4 Rayquaza VMAX line
Rayquaza is the hard-hitter of the deck. It has an ability, Azure Pulse, which enables the player to discard their hand and draw 3 cards. The hand discard serves the purpose of sending Lightning energy to the discard pile for both Rose and Flaaffy to accelerate; while the 3 cards drawn can be used to replenish a hand “destroyed” by Rose. Its attack, Max Burst, does scaled damage (i.e. increases with the number of energy discarded). With 4 energy discarded, Rayquaza is able to deal 340 damage, enough to OHKO every VMAX in the game (barring HP increasing/damage reducing tool cards), giving Rayquaza a competitive advantage.
Before we go further however, here is a table regarding damage and energy requirements.
Minimum energy present*
Energy discarded
Damage Dealt
1 R 1 L = 2 Energy
None
20
1 R 1 L = 2 Energy
1 L
100
1 R 2 L = 3 Energy
2 L
180
1 R 3 L = 4 Energy
3 L
260
1 R 4 L = 5 Energy
4 L
340
*The convention for energy naming is as follows: L -> Lightning energy. R -> Fire energy
One very important thing to note about Max Burst is that the player can only discard Fire energy; Lightning energy; OR no energies. One cannot discard both fire and lightning energy to deal damage. This means that if the player is discarding Lightning energy to deal damage, there will be one Fire energy remaining that does not contribute to the damage output. Likewise, if the player discards Fire energy to deal damage, one Lightning energy will remain that does not increase the damage output. Thus, to deal 340 damage, 4 discarded + 1 remaining = 5 energy are required at the minimum.
3 Rose
Rose allows the player to attach 2 cards from their discard pile to Rayquaza (VMAX only, not V), at the cost of forcing the player to discard their hand. Note that the hand discard occurs after the attachment, thus the player cannot discard energy from their hand using Rose for it to be redirected to Rayquaza. Rose is generally a strong card, but the hand discard leaves the player with no hand. Rayquaza VMAX’s Azure Pulse addresses this issue (somewhat) by refilling the player’s hand. Note that Azure Pulse only draws a mere 3 cards, so be prepared to play with a small hand size for a large portion of the game.
Kricketune V’s ability Exciting Stage allows the player to draw cards after the destructive effect of Rose, which is helpful to prevent the player from losing momentum. It combos well with Azure Pulse for card draw. It might be helpful to put an Air Balloon on Kricketune, so that when Kricketune is promoted into the Active Position (for example after another Pokemon is KOed), the player can draw an additional card from Exciting Stage, then retreat Kricketune for free.
Stormy Mountains allows for quicker set-up of Rayquazas and Flaaffys, crucial to increasing the deck’s consistency. Stormy Mountains also helps by replacing opposing Path to the Peak, which stops the deck in its tracks. Path to the Peak blocks both Azure Pulse and Exciting Stage; after a Rose play, the player will be relying on topdecking a good card to maintain their momentum (a situation no one wants to find themselves in). Thus, when playing against a Path to the Peak deck (examples include Dragapult VMAX, Victini VMAX and Jolteon VMAX), the player should play Stormy Mountains conservatively.
-
Other Options
Zeraora V could function as an alternate attacker to complement Rayquaza VMAX. Since Rayquaza is a Rapid Strike Pokemon, Zeraora V can attack after Rayquaza to swing 100 + 160 damage to the bench using its Cross Fists attack. The damage could be used to snipe off opposing Sobbles, Drizziles and Crobat Vs for easy prizes.
Since Rayquaza’s set-up is not particularly fast, Vikavolt V could be an option to slow the opponent down. Its first attack, Paralyzing Bolt, does 50 damage whilst locking the opponent out of their items. Its second attack, Super Zap Cannon, does decent damage, allowing the deck to trade prizes against VMAXes. Super Zap Cannon’s energy discard requirement can also be addressed by Flaaffy, making for a neat combo.
Running a high count of fire energy instead of lightning energy is also a possibility. One can use Victini V SSH’s Spreading Flames attack to fuel energy, in tandem with Rose. However, this method is far more unreliable (requires setting up Victini V), and unsustainable as Victini will have to use its attack every other turn.
-
A comparison to Rayquaza EX
Rayquaza VMAX had been hyped up before the release of Evolving Skies due to its similarity to the famous (or infamous) RayEels from 2013. Both Rayquaza VMAX and RayEels are OHKO machines, powered by similar engines (Flaaffy EVS has the same ability as Eelektrik NVI of old). Their attacks are also extremely similar, dealing damage based on the number of energy discarded. Why is it then, that RayEels was (arguably) the BDIF, while Rayquaza VMAX has not fared well at recent tournaments?
Firstly, Rayquaza VMAX has a higher set-up requirement than RayEels. One obvious difference is that the Rayquaza VMAX card is an evolution; thus necessitating an extra turn to evolve, while Rayquaza EX is a basic pokemon. In addition, there is a difference in energy cost required to OHKO opposing pokemon. Rayquaza EX requires 4 Energy (3 for damage, 1 for energy cost) to OHKO the likes of Mewtwo EX, Landorus EX and Darkrai EX. Rayquaza VMAX on the other hand requires 5 Energy (4 for damage, 1 for energy cost) for an OHKO. Thus, Rayquaza VMAX not only requires a turn to evolve, but also an extra energy to OHKO opponents.
Secondly, the meta has not been kind to Rayquaza VMAX. Urshifu-RS is one of the top decks in the format; its attack G-Max Rapid Flow allows it to deal 120 damage to any 2 opposing pokemon. Since Flaaffy has a mere 90 HP, Urshifu can KO 2 Flaaffys in a single turn, effectively shutting down Rayquaza’s energy acceleration. Some may argue that back in 2013, Darkrai EX's Night Spear threatened RayEels by sniping off Tynamos on the bench. However, decks played Mr Mime PLF, whose ability Bench Barrier (identical to Mew UNB) protected Tynamo. Nowadays unfortunately, Mew UNB's rotation has left Flaaffy susceptible to bench sniping.
Finally and most importantly, with the ever-increasing pace of the meta, Rayquaza VMAX finds it difficult to set-up fast enough to remain competitive, unlike its older counterpart. Back then, Rayquaza EX could attach an energy and pass repeatedly for the first few turns, taking its time to set-up. Nowadays however, attacks are almost always fired off from Turn 2 onwards, and there are few means to delay the opponent’s set-up for Rayquaza VMAX to show its full potential. As such, Rayquaza VMAX often finds itself overrun by the opponents’ attacks, and cannot keep up the momentum to stay in the game.
-
Conclusion
Rayquaza VMAX is certainly a fun and strong deck to play, due to its ability to cleanly OHKO everything in the metagame. However, due to its inconsistency and slow set-up speed, it has not fared well unlike its older counterpart. Hopefully with time, Rayquaza will find a window of opportunity to return to its former glory.
That’s it for this article, and I hope you enjoyed reading it!
