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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

aroramage	And now for the reason Fairy decks are gonna be a hit: MEGA RAYQUAZA-EX, THE GREAT DRAGON-TYPE!!  ...well, maybe. Welcome back guys, today we take a look at the monstrous M Rayquaza-EX! He demonstrates some crazy stuff on him, so let's see what makes him such a threat.  First off, we've got that Ancient Trait with the new Delta symbol - that's right, we're getting DELTA ANCIENT TRAITS now! The scary thing is, this particular trait is unique to MRayquaza-EX - Delta Wild! And while he's got it, it reduces the damage he takes from attacks by 20 damage after Weakness/Resistance - essentially, he's got 4 Resistances: Fire, Water, Grass, and Electric. Sound familiar? That's cause those are the original Resistances for the Dragon-type from the games! Nice, right?  So what all does that mean? Well, to really see how well that does, you have to look at the meta to a certain degree. Grass-types are heavily represented by the VirGen decks, which might get knocked out by the upcoming rotation, but for the next couple of months at least, they're still relevant, so M Rayquaza-EX taking a little less damage from Genesect-EX's Megalo Cannon Ace Spec card ain't that bad - or at least forcing a little more investment. Water-types are prevalent thanks to Seismitoad-EX - who's going to want to Item-Lock for as much as he can, but his Quaking Punch attack isn't gonna do much without Muscle Band (it gets weakened to 10 damage from 30 by Delta Wild).  Fire-types aren't so hot (ha) at the moment, but they still show up from time to time with Flareon and Charizard-EX (whose own Megas I'll be talking about in a sec), so it's nice to take a little less damage from them. Likewise, Electric-types aren't too big at the moment, but given the rise of the Colorless-type, there may be some merit to checking them out to try and counteract them. All the better for our Delta Wild M Rayquaza-EX!  There's just one problem that could arise from this whole exchange, and that's the big reason I want to bring up the Mega Charizards from Flashfire. We all saw what those were like - heavy costs, ridiculous damage, but terrible drawbacks. 5-for-300 is PHENOMENAL overkill, so why wouldn't Mega Rayquaza - the absolute STRONGEST Pokemon in the video games - get one of his own? Dragon Ascent costs 3 Fire, 1 Electric, and 1 other Energy to deal 300 damage and discards 2 Energy from M Rayquaza-EX - and that's insane!  So how come M Rayquaza-EX, who is in essence comparable to the M Charizard-EXs from that dark time period, ended up on the Top 10 List? What's changed since then? Well for starters, M Rayquaza-EX has that Delta Wild Trait which means he's more likely to stick around, his drawback isn't that bad compared to either taking 50 damage or milling out your own deck - not to mention you can actually recover from that, but most importantly of all, he's got his own Spirit Link card - something the M Charizard-EXs sorely lack.  Will this M Rayquaza-EX see play? I don't doubt it. He's got a lot of support that we're gonna be going over in this set pretty soon, and his Trait is probably one of the better Ancient Traits we've seen. I wouldn't say it's Alpha Growth levels of amazing (geezus, can you imagine that?!), but it's a respectable Trait nevertheless. So seeing him make the Top 10, albeit personally a little surprising, is still pretty cool!  Rating  Standard: 4/5 (combined with all the support he's got, M Rayquaza-EX is going to be very difficult to combat against without a Fairy of some type - and no doubt Fairy-types are going to become much more prevalent because of him)  Expanded: 4.5/5 (remember how Rayquaza-EX from back in the day was powerful enough with Eels? now he's got a new toy to play with, and that just makes him scarier)  Limited: 5/5 (you get this, you get Rayquaza-EX, you PLAY IT)  Arora Notealus: Funny enough, Rayquaza needs to know Dragon Ascent in order to Mega Evolve - which is completely different from any other Mega Evolution. Guess it makes sense they'd assign him an Ancient Trait, though I thought Dragon Ascent was supposed to be a Flying-type move...  Next Time: Time to figure out what happened at the end of that Delta Episode...
Otaku	Happy birthday to my nephew, Elijah!  Even if odds are against you actually seeing this…  …let’s push through the middle of the week with our number eight pick, M Rayquaza-EX (XY: Roaring Skies 61/108); this is one of two different cards to bear the name as there is also M Rayquaza-EX (XY: Roaring Skies 76/180, 105/108).  Fortunately the two are different Types making it very easy to tell them apart at a glance.  Well, maybe not the Full Art version.  Today’s version is the Dragon-Type Rayquaza-EX, allowing it to tap the new Dragon-Type support we received this expansion: Double Dragon Energy (XY: Roaring Skies 97/108), Hydreigon-EX (XY: Roaring Skies 62/108, 103/108), Reshiram (XY: Roaring Skies 63/108) and more plus the older Dragon-Type support (where it is still legal).  Dragon-Types also don’t have to worry about Resistance, but will also rarely get to enjoy hitting for double damage via Weakness as so far, only BW-era Dragons have had Dragon Weakness.  Of course as we’ll soon see, that isn’t really an issue for M Rayquaza-EX.  Being a Mega Evolution marries the usual drawbacks of being a Pokémon-EX (worth an additional Prize when KOed, target of various counter-cards and inability to access certain support) with the the additional drawback of ending the turn when you Mega Evolve… unless you can get around that, which in this case is possible by simply running Rayquaza Spirit Link.  It comes with the bonus though of being able to tap Mega Evolution support; until now that has simply been the Spirit Link Pokémon Tools, which really just neutralized a drawback, but now there is Mega Turbo (XY: Roaring Skies 86/108), an Item which allows you to attach a basic Energy card from your discard pile to your Mega Evolutions.  So far it has also included an increase beyond what the underlying Basic Pokémon-EX already enjoyed (so far nothing especially small has received a Mega Evolution in the TCG).  In this case that means the 170 or 180 HP versions of Rayquaza-EX are bolstered to 230 HP, just 10 shy of the maximum we’ve seen on a Mega Evolution; no complaints here!  The Fairy Weakness hurts but not as much as many other potential Weaknesses; while there are some excellent Fairy-Type attackers and the Weakness will allow them to score a OHKO, they seem to be confined to Fairy-Type decks and the only competitive deck I’ve seen that uses them are some versions of Fairy Transfer decks.  There is no Resistance printed on the bottom of the card which is how it is with most cards so I won’t consider it a drawback but a missed opportunity.  We’ll wrap this paragraph up with the Retreat Cost of [CC] - most decks will pack something to reduce this cost (the earlier mentioned Hydreigon-EX would zero it out) or will include at least a few cards to get it out of the Active slot without manually retreating (either at all, or at least without manually retreating M Rayquaza-EX itself).  Still when you do have to pay the full cost, it is the (relatively) happy medium; giving up two Energy hurts but most decks will be able to handle it.  M Rayquaza-EX sports an Ancient Trait and that (unless I missed it on a promo) is both new to this expansion and unique to this card: Δ Wild.  The effect of Δ Wild is that any damage done to M Rayquaza-EX (that is to say “this Pokémon”) by attacks from your opponent’s Grass, Fire, Water or Lightning Pokémon is reduced by 20.  This is a nod to the more complicated mechanics of the video games, but in TCG terms its a good-but-not-great; -20 damage isn’t much but when its against four different Types and you’ve got 230 HP it adds up.  It does bring up a small gripe though; instead of burning the Ancient Trait slot on this, they could just give it four different Resistances.  As for the attack on the card it is called Dragon Ascent and hits for an amazing 300 points of damage.  Of course, that phenomenal damage is usually going to be overkill and comes with both a massive [RRRLC] Energy requirement as well requiring you discard not just one but two Energy attached to itself.  Even with acceleration, five Energy is a lot and its also two different Types plus a two Energy discard; it needed to hit ridiculously hard.  The discard isn’t all bad simply because so many cards do damage based on Energy in play, attached to the Defending Pokémon, etc. and so that is less damage to be done by those attack, though with three Energy still attached you can still expect some hard hits.  Before we think about how we might run M Rayquaza-EX, we should consider where it can come from (Rayquaza-EX) and what else it might Mega Evolve into (the other M Rayquaza-EX).  I won’t dance around it; some of these are going to show up in a later CotD so we’ll just look at Rayquaza-EX (BW: Dragons Exalted 85/124, 123/124; BW Black Star Promos BW47) and Rayquaza-EX (XY: Roaring Skies 60/108).  The former is an Expanded only option and has been reviewed repeatedly; for your convenience here are links for the August 8, 2012, December 18, 2012 and August 15, 2014 reviews.  Each of those reviews are a Top 10 list: the #3 for Top 10 of BW: Dragons Exalted, #9 for the Top 10 cards of 2012 and the #6 (of 10) most important card cut due to last year’s rotation.  If you don’t care to read those reviews, the short version is that this Rayquaza-EX is a 170 HP Dragon-Type Basic Pokémon-EX with Dragon-Type Weakness, no Resistance and a Retreat Cost of [C].  It has no Ability, no Ancient Trait (yeah I know that’s obvious due to its age) and two attacks: Celestial Roar for [C] discards the top three cards from your own deck but you get to attach any Energy cards you discard to itself and the phenomenal Dragon Burst for [RL] which requires you select either [R] or [L] Energy, discard all of said Energy attached to Rayquaza-EX but does 60 damage for each copy of said Energy discarded.  Backed by Eelektrik (BW: Noble Victories 40/101) it was one of the top decks while both were Standard Legal and is still a great deck for Expanded as far as I can tell.  Without Eelektrik players tried other options but they never worked as well.  The other Rayquaza-EX we will cover in this review is XY: Roaring Skies 60/108 starts out similar to the original; the differences are 10 more HP, Fairy Weakness instead of Dragon Weakness, +1 to the Retreat Cost and of course two different attacks.  For [CC] it can hit for 30 damage with Dragon Claw while for a hefty [RRLC] its Dragon Strike hits for 130 but requires a coin flip; if “tails” it can’t use Dragon Strike during your next turn.  Benching should end this effect, so if you can re-promote it you can Dragon Strike with the same Rayquaza-EX twice in a row.  These attacks are “okay” - they do enough that as a stepping stone to M Rayquaza-EX they will do, but I wouldn’t want to base a deck on them.  With sufficient buffs you could - throw in the new support mentioned earlier and Altaria (BW: Dragons Exalted 84/124; BW Black Star Promos BW48, BW: Boundaries Crossed 152/149) and it should be possible to hit some key OHKO/2HKO numbers.  Of course, there are other Pokémon I’d probably try to work into such a deck before this one.  In the end if I am trying to build a M Rayquaza-EX deck I’d recommend… Rayquaza-EX (XY: Roaring Skies 75/180, 104/108).  I just think it has better attacks, even if it is a Colorless-Type; while it can’t tap Dragon-Type support, in general it just looks easier to work with (which can be a lifesaver if your set-up fizzles).  So should you run today’s M Rayquaza-EX?  In a word… no.  While 300 damage isn’t the overkill it once was you’re pretty much just getting what you paid for; great in a format with a well-balanced card pool, not enough among the metagame of cutthroat, competitive play.  If you get a partial set-up, odds are you won’t be able to do anything at all.  If you want a new Mega Evolution to rock the house, look elsewhere.  If you specifically want to try to dominate with M Rayquaza-EX, use the other version.  If you want a Dragon-Type Mega Evolution then okay, you finally found a tiny niche for the card.  This should be a lot better than M Charizard-EX (XY: Flashfire 69/106, 108/106).  If you want something that hits for a flat 300 damage, then same deal only it also outclasses the other M Charizard-EX (XY: Flashfire 13/106, 107/106).  In Expanded I guess it might be an okay “one-of” in a deck built around Emboar (latest printing BW: Legendary Treasures 27/113) and Rayquaza-EX (BW: Dragons Exalted 85/124, 123/124; BW Black Star Promos BW47), just in case you need a massive and/or Evolved attack that hits 300 for slightly less Energy.  In Limited, go ahead and include it; even in a +39 deck you should have the room and so it shouldn’t hurt. Ratings  Standard: 2/5  Expanded: 2.25/5  Limited: 4/5 Summary: As you can tell by my scores and my recommendation not to run this card, it didn’t make my top 10.  It wasn’t even in the running.  As I finally stated by the end, this strikes me as an improved M Charizard-EX as it has more/better Type support as well as a Spirit Link, plus it was released after Mega Turbo (which makes pretty much all Mega Evolutions better than they once were).  The thing is… M Charizard-EX isn’t a good card (either version), so out performing it still leaves us with something wanting.
Emma Starr	Hi everyone! And welcome to my first review on here ever! *one person cheers* Ahem, anyway, today, we review what would be the most broken Mega Evolution – that is, if he was in ORAS. However, this one is not, as he is today’s TCG card, which, admittedly, is not too broken, at least in my eyes. As one can see, he has a nice 230 HP, which seems to be the in the higher end of the standard range for any Mega out there, tying with a few, and only being passed by Mega Aggron EX. With only Fairy weakness, he’s likely going to be around for a good while, since Fairy decks aren’t exactly the most popular…or overall damage output, minus a few exceptions. Overall, you probably couldn’t ask for a much better weakness! *gets attacked by Fairy users* *brushes off the dirt, and gets back to the review* Anyway, you’ve probably noticed the HUGE attack power next to the attack by now, right? Yep, Dragon Ascent, the attack that sounds like it’s a Dragon type move, AND actually is in the TCG now…is technically a Flying type move in the games. Welp, that’s Gamefreak for you. Anyhow, with a damage output of 300, this only equals the power of both Mega Charizard EXs! Of course, those two came with some obvious disadvantages, the Fire one causing 50 damage to itself, each time it attacked, probably being the worst of these. The Dragon type one made you discard the top 5 cards of your deck, causing you to lose essential cards, if you were unlucky, which unfortunately, aren’t as easy to get out of there as it is in Yu-gi-oh. :P So, how does Dragon Ascent hold up, compared to the former’s severe recoiling effects? Well, you have to discard 2 energy cards attached to it. However, with a single attack which costs 5 energy already, is there a way to mitigate this? Well, there is always Energy Transfer, and Emboar, being obvious ways of getting around this. Of course, the latter requiring you to get a Stage 2 on the field can always be bothersome. Not to mention that Double Colorless wouldn’t help either, since the attack only has one Colorless requirement on it. So, although, at worst, you can only attack once every turn with it, (making it most useful for Fire Decks), it’s still a huge attack that will nuke pretty much anything else, provided you can provide the energy for it. But wait – is there an energy in this set that almost sounds like it was made for this card? But can also be highly beneficial to other Dragon cards as well? And that reminds me of an 80s arcade game, at the same time? Well, you’ll have to stay tuned, to find out if a card such as this really does exist! (okay, it does, I get it. I’ll stop being all announcer-y now.) Standard: 3.5/5 Expanded: 4/5 (it can combo with Rayquaza EX from Dragons Exalted, though it’s effects which call for it to discard all energy from itself is actually…in direct contrast with what the Mega version needs. Thankfully, we have a couple Rayquaza EX now that we can work with, but it’s still an option. Just not a very viable one.) Limited: 3.5/5 (may as well use it, if you pull this and a Rayquaza EX. Just know that you’ll be setting this guy up for awhile, so you’ll definitely want a different attacker out while you’re getting this guy ready.)