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Greetings, Pojo readers! Today we're reviewing the #7
card on our countdown of Dragons Exalted cards, and it's
one that's received tons of hype, especially due to the
difficulty in pulling it. Today's Card of the Day is
Rayquaza.
Rayquaza is a Basic Dragon Pokemon. Dragons are storming
Modified right now, with Darkrai/Hydreigon and Garchomp/Altaria
being popular deck choices in the format, and since
Dragons are weak to other Dragons, Rayquaza easily has a
niche in the current metagame. 120 HP is excellent for a
Basic that isn't a Pokemon-EX, meaning that Rayquaza
should easily be able to take at least one unboosted
hit. Dragon Weakness is expected, and while Hydreigon,
Garchomp, and other Rayquaza will deal significant
damage; no Resistance is unfortunate; and a Retreat Cost
of 3 is rather expensive, so you'll want to use Switch
to move Rayquaza around.
Rayquaza has two attacks. Dragon Pulse deals 40 damage
for a single Lightning Energy, with the side effect of
discarding the top two cards of your deck. 40 damage for
a single Energy is always good, and makes Rayquaza an
especially great starter, as it can easily pick off
opposing Dragon-types and low HP Basics early game, and
can also easily dispatch of Altarias in the Garchomp/Altaria
matchup.While this attack loses some of its luster as
the game progresses, Dragon Pulse makes Rayquaza a
fantastic swingman, as well as a great starter.
The second attack, Shred, does 90 damage for a Fire, a
Lightning, and a Colorless, while also ignoring effects
on the Defending Pokemon. 90 damage for 3 Energy is just
about what we'd expect these days, and ignoring opposing
effects, while not as relevant as on something like
Giratina-EX, is still a welcome addition to the attack.
While it isn't as glamorous as Dragon Pulse, Shred will
definitely get the job done if you power it up.
Modified: 3.5/5 Rayquaza is an excellent starter, as
well as a great anti-metagame Pokemon in general. Dragon
Pulse rips apart opposing Gible, Swablu, Tynamo, Gabite,
and Altaria with ease, and can also signficantly dent
other commonly-seen Dragons, making this Sky High
Pokemon an early game terror. While Rayquaza loses a bit
of power in the middle and late game due to bigger
Pokemon being out of Dragon Pulse's KO range, Shred can
still deal excellent damage if you manage to power it
up. Overall, Rayquaza is an excellent anti-meta Pokemon
that you should definitely watch out for, even if you
can't manage to pull one for yourself.
Limited: 5/5 Rayquaza is a Basic with a ton of HP that
has an incredibly damaging attack for a single Energy.
As such, it's an excellent Pokemon for the Limited
format. Shred is also great in this format as well, even
though the Energy requirements can be a bit difficult to
cover. Still, you'll want to use Rayquaza if you pull
it, because Dragon Pulse is pretty amazing in Limited.
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Jebulous Maryland Player |
Rayquaza 128
Rayquaza is a Basic Dragon Pokemon with 120 HP. It
has a weakness to Dragon and a retreat cost of 3.
It is searchable by Heavy Ball and Gabite.
'Dragon Pulse’ costs 1 Lightning Energy and does 40
damage. It also makes you discard the top 2 cards
of your deck. For one energy it does a good amount
of damage. It can be easily powered up by an
Eelektrik. In a dragon deck it can be easily
searched, and Altaria can boost its attacks. This
is good against Garchomp/Altaria decks because this
attack OHKOs a Gabite (and anything weaker).
'Shred' costs 1 Fire, 1 Lightning, and 1 Colorless
energy. It does 90 damage and is not affected by
any effects on the defending Pokemon.
This attack, on most other cards, would seem bad, but
for Rayquaza it is good. So normally I would say
the damage output isn't worth the cost, but this is one
of the exceptions.
First of all, this card is great for those Rayquaza EX/Eelektrik
decks. They will be running Fire and Lightning
energies, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem to
throw in this guy. Eelektrik powers him up on the
bench and you just need to attach a single Fire.
This is a great card to have against Garchomp/Altaria
decks. Who am I kidding? This wreaks havoc
on that deck. 'Dragon Pulse' OHKOs the deck's
searcher, Gabite, as well as the deck's power upper (I
enjoy silly words btw) Altaria. 'Shred' will OHKO
any dragon in the deck.
Suck is the double edged sword that is the Dragon type.
'Shred' is also a great way to OHKO a Rayquaza EX (you
get 2 prizes; they get 1 for taking this guy out).
Unfortunately I heard this card is going to be difficult
to acquire.
The rarity will bump up the price, as well as the demand
for it.
We'll see if Rayquaza will stay big in the metagame,
right now it looks like it will (as long as there are
lots of dragons flying around).
Modified: 4.5/5
Limited: 4.5/5
Combo's With: ...
Questions, comments, concerns:
jebulousthemighty@yahoo.com
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