blog Rayquaza GX : The Descent of a god

Rayquaza GX : The Descent of a god

Hello everyone! This is Elena from Gaia Storm TCG and it is a pleasure to be here once again. Today, I have a very special topic to discuss with you because it has to do with the upcoming expansion “Celestial Storm”. For those of you who don’t know, Celestial Storm (SM7) is packed with powerful cards and brand new GX Pokémon. In today’s article we are going to take a look at the one with a huge potential. None other than the Pokégod Rayquaza GX!

Rayquaza has a long history in the Pokémon TCG. Let’s not forget that only one year ago, Mega Rayquaza EX was a very powerful deck that saw a lot of play for many formats. However, due to the existence of many restricting cards like Garbodor or Sudowodo and the presence of electric attackers (yes, Joltik, I am talking to you), Rayquaza decks didn’t quite dominate the competitive landscape with clarity. Can this new version of the Pokémon return Rayquaza to its rightful place in the metagame? It sure has some chances.

To begin with, Rayquaza is a 180 dragon type GX with a very interesting and unique ability that helps accelerating plays. When played to the bench, it can discard the top 3 cards from the deck and, immediately after, attach a basic energy from the discard pile. This ability can of course be a bit painful depending on the value of the cards that the player discards but the benefit is actually worth it. Then, Rayquaza has just one damaging attack. For a cost of one colorless, a grass and a lighting energy, it deals 30 damage the times of grass and lightning energies in your field. It might not seem incredible broken at first sight but let’s consider some number. For instance, with 5 energies and a choice band, it can KO many GXs of the format and 7 means it can practically destroy any current attacker.

Now, it is true that reaching those numbers can be a bit difficult in early game but luckily, there are multiple options to get there! The most straightforward build will be to play a pure Rayquaza deck with multiple elixirs as acceleration. In Japan, some lists have opted to pair Rayquaza with Vikavolt following the same concept of a Vikabulu deck to get energy from the deck. A third alternative that might work to some extend can be Magnezone due to its capacity to charge lightning energies from the hand.

Even if it is still very soon to draw any conclusion from a card like Rayquaza, I really think we can witness the return of this legendary dragon to the metagame. Be ready to see the card making an appearance soon!