Rayquaza & Deoxys and Reshiboar: A Match Made In Heaven?

Greetings SixPrizers. It’s been a while hasn’t it? Well, I’ve been keeping myself busy with trying to get a repilca prop business off the ground and almost done with my first commission job: an Iron Man suit! It’s a pretty big deal as it has taken me almost a year and going through several rebuilds.

But were not here to talk about that, right? Today we are here for the deck that, I admit, never showed much love to in the past but it has come to grow on me. That deck is Reshiboar.

Now I tried playing with the more traditional build that was posted a while back (found here) and it did not play so well for me, so I left the list to sit for a while and went back to playing unlimited with my friends at league. One of my friends, Spencer, told me I should play a Fire based deck, and at the time there really was not any thing good around. We were still a few weeks away from a hahn’s TyRam list, which I do like by the way.

After a while of testing I started to get bored with the build and wanted to do some experimenting. For weeks I tried several different combinations and different lines. It wasn’t until Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND was brought up by another friend of mine at league (Thanks, Vinnie!), that I truly found peace with Reshiboar.

As I play tested it, I came to see the Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND as more of a tech, or a mid game set up, for the cheap win, and I kind of feel that it should be regarded as such. So now that my thoughts are out of the way, please allow me to share with you my list and further thoughts.

This list is really tight and I made sacrifices as best I could. There were some things the deck could do without, and some that took support away from the main aspect of the deck. For me, I felt that Reshiram was good at 2, others swear by up to four, so the jury is still out on that one I’d say.

I kind of feel like the addition of Zekrom gives this deck a bit of a nudge when playing against decks like Floatzel/Feraligatr Prime and Yanmega/Magnezone. When playing against Yanmega/Magnezone, it’s important to not waste your Circulators/Reversals, and eventually Pokemon Catcher, as there really is not a lot of room for Junk Arm here.

You could sacrifice the Rare Candy, but then it will be a tad bit harder to set up your Abiliboar (Emboar #20 for those playing along at home).

Breaking Down the List

I wanted to do something a bit different, but still viable as something competitive. While I have had comments on it already, mostly good with no real way to improve on the above list, I still don’t feel like I’m giving this list a lot of love. So if I come off at any time as hating on it, please just keep in mind, I’m not doing it on purpose.

Emboar #20 – Abiliboar

This is what some argue is the backbone of the deck. I don’t entirely agree with that assessment as it’s not really made to attack. With a cost of two Fire and two Colorless, Heat Crash is not a fitting attack. This will easily wound larger attackers and force your opponent into a situation where they will have to retreat, thus slowing them down, if you play right.

The retreat cost of four is a bit high for me as well, and unless you know for a fact your going to get an kills with this one, I’d say leave this one on your bench. If it gets Catcher’d, then by all means, attack with it, but not before.

However, the real reason this is here, is for the Inferno Fandango, of course, to accelerate those Fire energies like mad.

Emboar #19 – Bad, boar. Bad, Bad boar…

I really don’t agree with discounting this guy. He is a great counter to most cards and with the other Boar on the bench, it’s almost a sure thing. Sure if you run into a random Water Pokemon it gets Nerf’d, but the way I see it, Kingdra Prime is the only one seeing play right now with Mandibuzz/Kingdra becoming more popular, and as a very viable tech in many other decks. Even then, it looses a lot of bite while up against ANY Fire types with its single attack going from 60, to 20 before weakness.

This also opens up your ability to counter the heck out of Donphan, Zekrom, and even Reshiram. I am sure that there are others that this guy counters easily so feel free to get creative.

Raquaza & Deoxys LEGEND

This has been described by many as “overpowered”. When you really break down this card as a whole, its main purpose is to take the last two prizes. If you can get it set up in the first few turns and keep it consistently ready for battle, at most they will hit it twice for huge damage UNLESS your opponent has set up a Magnezone Prime and is ready to hit it next turn.

Now, I like to run two of these guys, opening up multiple attacks. Ozone Buster is, no doubt, a decent attack. Doing 150 damage for four energy isn’t bad at all, so you will definatly be able to get four prizes before it is discarded. With another one on the bench you can easily use a Retrieval to get back some of the energy you just lost, Fandango four Fires and Ozone Bust for the game.

Pokemon Circulator

This card doesn’t see too much play in my area, and I’m sure only a handful of people play it, as the thought of Reversal is more appealing. However, if you are like me and don’t believe in manipulating flips, then give this card a look.

Yeah, sure it won’t let you choose what you’re hitting, but you set yourself up, at the very least, for an extra turn to get something ready. This can be crucial when you have a dead hand and need that one turn to bring it around.

Techs

Now there really is not a lot of room in this list for a lot of techs. I feel like it’s over-teched right now, but then again I could be paranoid, but here is a list of cards that may be useful.

Umbreon UD/CL

Even though we do have some Pokes with Abilities it’s still an extremely viable card, in my opinion. If nothing else, this will allow you to slow down the opponent and hopefully force a retreat. In a format where everything has a retreat of 1 or more, with Yanmega Prime being the only good prime with a free retreat, Moonlight Fang becomes a really good asset.

If you are teching this in, then I would suggest pulling the Emboar #19 and a Tepig, as you would be swapping a tech for a tech. This would really depend on what you are comfortable with.

Rainbow Energy

Some will swear by this card, but I’m a bit leery about it. Some will say that it gets around the discard rule, but I am not too sure about that, as it counts for all energy types while in play, only providing one at a time for the attack. Someone can feel free to correct me if I am wrong about having to discard it.

Downside number one is that putting 10 Damage on what ever you attach this to, and downside two is that you have to discard it if attaching it to RDL.

That damage it provides becomes a blessing for Zekrom and Reshiram as they can use the damage for Out Rage, or use it for their respective 120 attacks, Bolt Strike and Blue Flare.

I wouldn’t go out of my way to fit this into my build personally, but there are some who like this one, so feel free to experiment.

Tornadus

In my opinion this is a reprint of Garchomp C LV.X. While it only hits the active for 80, needing only 3 energy to do so is a bit better than Abiliboar’s Heat Crash. While you have to move a Basic energy from it to a benched Pokemon.

With this in mind, we could load two Double Colorless on it and not move the energy, also risking a Lost Remover, OR you could load it up via Inferno Fandango (Fire Dance if any one wants the Translation and were unaware) and safely move the Fire or Lightning energy on it to a suitable target, like RDL. When you think about it, this card easily fits into this build by simply plucking Cleffa out, and almost seems as it it was made for Emboar.

Final Thoughts

I’m, not too sure what is seeing heavy play right now for Worlds as I have not had a chance to go to Nationals yet (I don’t think I’m ready for that level of play yet) and Worlds would just be WAY too expensive to go without having taken top four at any of the events I have been to.

With that in mind, I really can’t say what will be prevalent this coming season, but I do expect Catcher to ruin the game for A LOT of players, especially those just starting to play competitively.