During the weekend of July 1st-3rd, the best trainers in the Pokemon TCG gathered in Columbus, Ohio. Each one of them wanted to test their merit and take the crown of US National Champion. This was going to be the last chance for many TCG players to earn the required Championship Points needed for a Worlds invite.
US Nationals had many players pushed to their limits in order to accomplish great things. Others just wanted to test their skills after an intense season. In this week’s TCG Jump, we are going to recap my Nationals experience with a deck that roars loudly and hits hard. So get ready to see a deck that can shock opponents and flies high. We are talking about M Rayquaza EX and friends.
The Deck
My deck of choice for US Nationals was M Rayquaza Deck featuring Jolteon EX. I have been using a M Rayquaza EX deck since Cities starting with the Darkness variant. Since then I have shifted the deck to focus more on M Rayquaza EX and replace the Darkness core with more Shaymin EX, Hoopa EX and Jolteon EX.
This version of the deck has seen some success during Regionals and I have been doing quite well with it. Just a month ago, this deck had won me first place at a League Challenge with a 5-0 recorded. I have been practicing it for a few months and felt mostly confident of my ability to preform well with the deck. I was aware of the bad match ups but knew that I could play around them or just do my best to counter them. Either way, I had just one objective when using this deck which was hit them hard and fast with M Rayquaza EX or crash hard into the ground.
Pokemon: 14
Rayquaza EX (Dragon) x3
M Rayquaza EX (Colorless) x3
Jolteon EX x2
Shaymin EX x4
Hoopa EX x2Trainers: 39
Professor Sycamore x2
N
Lysandre
AZ
Xerosic
Hex Maniac
VS Seeker x4
Puzzle of Time x4
Ultra Ball x3
Trainers’ Mail x3
Mega Turbo x3
Rayquaza Spirit Link x3
Battle Compressor x2
Acro Bike x2
Float Stone x2
Sacred Ash
Sky Field x4Energy: 7
Double Colorless Energy x4
Lightning x3
The whole point of this deck is to simply go fast with M Rayquaza EX so I can hit my opponents hard. It is totally possible with this deck to set up M Rayquaza EX to attack in just a single turn. There were some matches where I went first and ended my turn with Double Colorless Energy and Lightning Energy attached to M Rayquaza EX and an almost filled up bench. There were other games where I had a full bench of eight with M Rayquaza EX ready to take knockouts. All of that because my opponent let me go second. The deck can be crazy fast and can hit so hard. Once that first M Rayquaza EX was set up with Sky Field to fill the bench up to eight Pokemon then I can start setting up a second one to go. That is really scary. I just knew one speed with this deck and that was roaring fast.
This deck also ran Jolteon EX as a Night March counter. I also had plans to use it as a counter against Giratina EX. The players in Night March and Giratina EX both are basic Pokemon that Jolteon EX can wall all day thanks to Flash Ray. When I saw that I was going to face off against Night March or Giratina EX then I made sure to start powering up a Jolteon EX instead of Rayquaza EX. It was the better tactic that would raise the chances of my victory. I will be hitting for 70 damage but that is enough to knock out Night Marchers and it keeps them from hurting me.
Hoopa EX and Shaymin EX were the life blood of the deck. They helped get the field set up for M Rayquaza and grabbed Jolteon EX and Shaymin EX. Jolteon EX was mostly used to help fill up the bench when there wasn’t a Night March to worry about. Though Shaymin EX was used to help dig into the deck even more for resources. Afterwards it simply sat on the bench to help fuel M Rayquaza EX’s Emerald Break attack to knock out heavy EX Pokemon.
For this deck. I decided to run a light Supporter count. I wasn’t too sure about this but I figure that most of the time I would be discarding Supporters by using Ultra Ball or Battle Compressor. If I was discarding them for Ultra Ball then I was most likely going to grab Shaymin EX to grab more cards which was as good as a Sycamore at times. Either way, half of the time I was planning to play Supporters from my discard by using one of my four VS Seekers. It helped make the deck flexible against my hard match ups. This method also kept them out of my deck and hand so I wouldn’t draw into them when getting a much needed Trainer. Sometimes you need that Mega Turbo and the last thing you need is to not see it because an unneeded N was in the way.
A note about Rayquaza Spirit Link. There were times when I Mega Evolve my Rayquaza EX into M Rayquaza EX without the Spirit Link. This was mostly during my first turn when I couldn’t attack. I simply had the M Rayquaza EX in my hand and felt like it was better to Mega Evolve so I can use a Mega Turbo during my next turn to start using Emerald Break. I was in a good position to take the first knock out and I wanted it. It also meant that I could discard the Rayquaza Spirit Link later or attach them to a Pokemon later for a bigger Shaymin EX Set Up draw.
Puzzle of Time was maybe one of my most valuable cards. If I had the chance to play two Puzzle of Time then they were being used to set up in one way or another. I would grab needed Supporters like Lysandre and Hex Maniac to position my army of dragons for knockouts. There were other times when I used Puzzle of Time to grab a Double Colorless Energy and Spirit Link to set up a needed Mega Rayquaza EX. I simply attached a Double Colorless Energy and Spirit Link onto Rayquaza EX. Next I would AZ up a damage M Rayquaza EX to take off the damage on the Lightning Energy. I would Mega Evolve the other Rayquaza EX and use a Mega Turbo in hand to get the new one ready to attack. That felt amazing. Puzzle of Time simply gave this deck another way to play out of tough situations when both pieces were in my hand.
Lastly, the hidden MVP card of this deck was Sacred Ash. My opponents would play another Stadium card to bump Sky Field off and three of my Pokemon. I would usually discard Hoopa EX and Shaymin EX. This was all with the plan to put Sky Field back as the ruling Stadium and use Ultra Ball to retrieve Hoopa EX. After that I would get more EX Pokemon from the deck to fill up my bench. Sacred Ash simply set me M Rayquaza EX with a second wind to take wins.
Now lets talk about how high M Rayquaza EX flew during Nationals.
The Tournament
US Nationals was a huge tournament with over 1100 Master competing. Each Master had to play nine rounds that featured best-two-out-three matches. I expected this after competing last year and I felt like I had a good chance. There were plenty of decks that I worried about playing against but plenty of other decks that I knew M Rayquaza EX and fly right through. I just had to set up with M Rayquaza EX and start breaking things. After all, that is what this deck does best.
Round One: VS Night March w/Vespiquen
Right away I was face against my worst match up. Prior to round one, I was joking with myself that I will be pitted against Night March just like I did last year when I played Klinklang. Once again I faced off against Night March.
During our first match I got nothing set up. I didn’t know how to face off against Night March. I thought that maybe I could get by with Rayquaza EX and then start setting up a Jolteon EX. The match didn’t last long at all and it ended in a lost.
My second match was way better. I used Hoopa EX to grab exactly what I needed which was just a Jolteon EX and Shaymin EX. I went ahead and discarded all of my M Rayquaza EX because I knew they were going to be useless in this match up. After all, Joltik can just picked them off once my Rayquaza EX becomes M Rayquaza EX. I tried my best to not have too many things on my bench so my opponent couldn’t use Lysandre to knock them off. At the end of my turn, I made sure to have a Jolteon EX with a single energy attached and the final energy attachment that I needed in my hand so I can start using Flash Ray.
The problem was that I found out during our second match that my opponent had Vespiquen in their deck. That caught me by surprise and I knew that would hurt Jolteon EX. Luckily I had a Xerosic and Lysandre to simply stop the queen bee. After that, I simply Flash Ray my way to victory.
I went into my third match with the intention of doing the same thing. Simply just grab what I needed to win and put my hand in a position so I can have Jolteon EX ready to attack during my second turn. The problem is that I couldn’t set up my hand at all to where I wanted. When I did set up my hand to how I wanted, I ended up filling up my bench and giving my opponent plenty of win conditions. My opponent saw that I got Jolteon EX ready to go and started to set up Vespiquen. Though I was lucky enough to discard my Lysandre during my first turn mad rush and had plenty of VS Seeker in my hand. I simply used them to call up Lysandre to shoot down any Combee that were planning to evolve. My opponent did get a chance to take down one of my benched Shaymin EX but I was still in a good position. The problem was that time was called and we couldn’t finish our match.
In the end, our matches resulted in a tie but I felt like I was in a good position to win our third match. Though we had to settle for a tie.
Result: Tie (0-0-1)
Round Two: VS Fairy Tool Box
Round two was when things got a bit harder. My opponent started off with Seismitoad EX and I figured that I was going to be facing off against Water Box. I knew I had a good chance but that when things start going south. My opponent soon pulled out Hoopa EX and started to send out Giratina EX, Malamar EX and all kinds of things. Seismitoad EX kept me from playing my items that I needed to go fast. Meanwhile, Malamar EX put my Pokemon to sleep so I couldn’t attack. I was left defenseless as Seismitoad EX kept locking me out of my items while my M Rayquaza EX was put to sleep. I couldn’t set up properly thanks to the item lock. I did have a chance to make a good comeback by using VS Seeker to grab AZ. That way I could pick up my sleeping Pokemon and send out another Pokemon that was ready to attack. The problem was that I decide to go for another Supporter. I was hoping my Pokemon would wake up instead. That hope didn’t pan out to anything and that sealed the match for my opponent.
My second match didn’t go any better. I had a bad start and my opponent just went right back to Seismitoad EX. When he saw that I got a M Rayquaza EX ready to go then he shifted his Fairy Energy by using Aromatissie’s Fairy Transfer ability onto Giratina EX. Next, Giratina EX started to use Chaos Wheel. M Rayquaza EX was unable to hurt it thanks to Giratina’s Renegade Pulse. Meanwhile, Chaos Wheel preventing me from attaching DCE to Jolteon EX who I was going to use as a backup plan.
The wheel of faith didn’t go in my way and I simply knew I lost.
Result: Lost (0-1-1)
Round Three: M Manectric Ability Lock
Were you hoping that things were going to get better for me during round three? I did but my opponent’s M Manectric EX said otherwise.
This was the very deck that I didn’t want to face off against. I knew that my only way to win this match was to simply take the first knockout. If I did that then my opponent couldn’t set up M Manectric EX to knock out my M Rayquaza EX. That was my plan and I was going to try to pull it off.
The problem was that I just couldn’t hit the numbers or set up. My opponent was playing an ability lock deck that used Wobbuffet. He simply started off with Wobbuffet in the active which preventing me from using Shaymin EX’s Set Up ability. I decided to go without the ability and use Hoopa EX to get my Jolteon EX, Rayquaza EX and M Rayquaza EX. This slow down was enough for my opponent to set up his board and simply take quick knockouts on my Pokemon. I also made a misplay where I had the opportunity to use Lysandre to move Wobbuffet out of the active to use Shaymin EX’s ability. I just didn’t see it until after I ended my turn.
My second match went much better. I decided that I was going to set up a M Rayquaza EX and instead of taking out the Manectric EX that I was going to take out the Wobbuffet. I figured that if I did this then I would have access to my abilities and it would be easier for me to set up even more M Rayquaza EX and set up my board position. I do not think my opponent was ready for this and I simply ran my opponent over.
Match three didn’t go as smoothly as that game. My deck decided to take a break and my opponent’s didn’t. His deck got set up and ready to knock out anything on my side of the field. I was able to set up a M Rayquaza EX to knock out a M Manectric EX. I pulled every trick in the book to get M Rayquaza EX set up with a full bench and I did it. It was just too late and he knocked out M Rayquaza EX to take his last two prizes.
On the bright side: My opponent and I did get the long lunch that we wanted.
Result: Lost (0-2-1)
Round Four: M Manectric and his Electric Buddies
Would you be shock if I told you that I had to fight another Lighting deck? I sure did and it wasn’t fun. My opponent was able to chain M Manectric EX after another M Manectric EX. I tried to match him but type advantage wasn’t in my favor. Our first match ended quickly and we went ahead to play our second match.
It was during my second match where things went my way. I told my opponent that all I needed to do was to take the first knock out and that is what I did. I got M Rayquaza EX ready to attack and used Lysandre to bring out an armed Manectric EX. My bench was ready for the knock out and I took it. I simply chained VS Seeker and Lysandre to take my prizes to win the second match.
I was in for an even more intense match 3 as I was roaring to to take match three. I got my M Rayquaza EX ready to take knock outs. I went on a rampage to take knockouts when I could. He may have knocked out my M Rayquaza EX but I pulled out all the stops to set up a second M Rayquaza EX to take a return knockout. I even went as far to use Puzzle of Time to retrieve a Rayquaza Spirit Link and Mega Turbo. All of that to get my second M Rayquaza EX. I did it and it brought me closer to winning match three. I felt great but exhausted and my deck reflected it. My opponent came back during his turn to instantly knock out M Rayquaza EX with Manectric EX. That Spirit Link bit me in the butt as Assault Laser double in power thanks to the tool and double in damage because of weakness. I tried my best to get another M Rayquaza EX ready to attack back but that last trick to pull a M Rayquaza EX out of my deck was my last trick. After that my opponent took the victory.
Result: Lost (0-3-1)
Round Five: Darkrai/Giratina/Garbodor
We enter round five and I was ready to turn things around. I was also praying to not play against another bad match up. I guess my prayers were answered as my opponent put down Darkrai EX. I saw my moment to take a win. I simply just got M Rayquaza EX and started to use Emerald Break to knock out one Darkrai EX after another EX. I was afraid of a Giratina EX coming out but that never happen. So I went ahead to take the win.
My second match didn’t go so well as Shaymin EX came out and nothing else. I tried my best to get something going but it looks like M Rayquaza EX got full after eating Darkrai EX during the last game. I decided it was best to concede the match and move on to game three.
It was a good thing that I decided to do that because this game went much better. The only problem was that I lacked Sky Field to get that bench of eight. I needed that bench of eight because a full bench of five wasn’t enough. I had to hit a Darkrai EX for 150 damage with Emerald Break. I was missing out on knockouts and this time my opponent had sent out Giratina EX to stop my M Rayquaza EX’s rampage. Luckily I saw a Shaymin EX that I could knock out. After that I got my Sky Field to fill up that bench. The last thing I needed was a Hex Maniac that was in my discard. That was all I needed to knock out Giratina EX with a full power Emerald Break from M Rayquaza EX. The rest was history.
Result: Win (1-3-1)
Round 6: Spooky Trees (Trevenant)
I had a win under my belt and I wanted to make a climb to finish off the tournament with five wins. It was going to be a task but I knew that it was possible. So that was my mindset as I enter my sixth round.
This round I had to face off against Trevenant which could cause problems for me. I knew that I had to go first because that would raise my chances to win to at least eighty percent. If I could get M Rayquaza EX set up and a bench of five then that would be enough to knock out Trevenant without Sky Field. After that, I could simply just live off that one M Rayquaza EX for most of the game and clear out the forest of spooky trees. That is exactly what happen as I took my first turn to set up M Rayquaza EX and knocked out one Trevenant after another. He may have set up his Item Lock but I tore it down. I even got a Sky Field out which helped me knock out a Trevenant Break. After that, the game was set in my favor.
My opponent went first during match two. He saw my Rayquaza EX in the active and thought that it would look great with a Head Ringer on. He even got the turn one Item Lock. It was tough start for me but I decided to play out my turn. I was able to get a Hex Maniac to turn off Forest Curse to use my items again. I simply put another Rayquaza EX on the bench and put a DCE on the active Rayquaza EX with the Head Ringer on. I then used VS Seeker to retrieve my Hex Maniac for the next turn and Mega Evolve my active Rayquaza EX. Well, my opponent thought that the first Rayquaza EX looked great with a Head Ringer on that the second one needed one too. That made things even tougher but I wasn’t worried. I used my Hex Maniac against and used my tools to evolve another M Rayquaza and gave it a Lightning Energy via Mega Turbo. I ended the turn prior to Mega Evolving with VS Seeker for a Hex Maniac. I had successfully made Item Lock useless for two turns and was going to make my opponent think I was going to do it again. Surprise! I decided to use Sycamore to dig into my deck for a DCE. That got me my active M Rayquaza EX ready to attack with Sky Field. After that, I took knockout after knockout to win.
Result: Win (2-3-1)
Round 7: Night March w/Gallade
I was making a nice win streak but I had to stop for the Night March. I am going to be quick for this round. I took what I learn in my first match and tried to do the same in this round. The problem was that my opponent was ready for it. He used Lysandre to pull up both of my Jolteon EX to knock them out. While he was using Battle Compressor to discard cards, my opponent reveal that he was playing the Gallade variant. So that prove that he had an answer for Jolteon. I end the second match by using M Rayquaza EX to blow things up but I lost the round.
Result: Lost (2-4-1)
Round 8: Regice and Vileplume
I had went first during the first match and I saw Articuno in active. I thought right away that I was facing off against a Water Box deck. So I went ahead to discard my Hex Maniac and other Supporters that I thought would be useful or useless to use against it. That was a mistake because I found out at the end of my opponent’s first turn that he had set up a Vileplume. That means my Hex Maniac and Lysandre outs were out of the question. VS Seeker was useless thanks to Vileplume! My opponent was trying to power up a Regice by using manual attachments and I had to change tactics. I started to power up my Jolteon EX instead. I was going have to get crafty if I wanted to win this match. Luckily my opponent had went so deep into his deck that he didn’t have many cards left. While he used Regice’s Resistance Blizzard and I used Jolteon EX’s Flash Ray, we were not damaging each other but he was running out of cards. In the end, my opponent decked out and I won the match.
I made sure to not make the same mistake twice by discard Hex Maniac so I could have the chance to turn off Vileplume’s item locking abilities. My opponent went first and he got Vileplume up. So I did what I could to get Jolteon EX out and ready to attack. My opponent was able to get a hit on Jolteon EX but I was able to strike back with a Flash Ray. In the end, my opponent decision to go first had won me the match because we had the same number of cards left in her deck. The difference was that he went first and he decked out first.
This was maybe the funnest round I had. My opponent groan when he saw that I got Jolteon EX set up during the second match. He knew it was over at that point and he had to avoid decking out. Unfortunately, he discarded N and couldn’t replenish his deck. Though it was really fun to simply say, “I draw a card. Use Flash Ray for nothing. Your turn.”
Side note: If you are stuck in this situation and you are playing Water Box then you will need to rely on Articuno’s Chilling Sigh attack. This will put Jolteon EX to sleep and it gives you a chance to prevent your opponent from using Flash Ray. This is your best shot. You could try to use Regice’s Ice Beam attack. The damage won’t hurt Jolteon but you could still paralyze it if you flip heads. I made sure to make my opponent aware of this at the end of the match. I was afraid during our second round that my opponent would realize that but he didn’t.
Result: Won (3-4-1)
Round 9: Dragons (Giratina/Hydreigon/Dragonite)
I had made it to round nine and I knew I lost my chance at winning five games. Now I wanted to win four games. That way I can say I went even.
I won both matches. It took me a while to get set up during game won but once I got my a M Rayquaza EX ready then we were in. I decided to go without Sky Field and just start hitting hard. My opponent had used Dragonite EX early to knockout a Shaymin EX. I decided to stall with Jolteon EX until I got M Rayquaza EX set up. Once I did then I started to take knockouts to win the match. I did the same thing during the second match but this time I use Hex Maniac to take out Giratina EX.
I give my opponent props though. He had only been playing the Pokemon TCG since March but decided to come to Nationals with his own deck. I was pretty impressive because the deck reminded me of a deck that one of my League leaders played prior to Nationals. It was great to see such a new player taking a huge leap into the National tournament with his own deck. I hope that he improves during the 2016-2017 season and makes a strong showing at next year’s Nationals.
Overall
I clearly didn’t make Day 2 but what went wrong? How did a deck that went 5-0 a few weeks ago ended up going 4-4-1 at Nationals?
There are a few things that I think happened. The first thing is that Lightning became popular to play that weekend. It had seen some success in the Nationals of other countries. It had a solid match up against most decks. Even a few of my friends ended up playing it at Nationals that weekend. I knew that Lightning decks were going to be there but I had no idea that they were going to blow up so much. Lightning decks are a hard match up for M Rayquaza EX. They set up just as fast as M Rayquaza EX but they hit him for weakness. The big dragon can’t keep up and the only way to win is to simply attack first and make it count like I did in Round 3 and 4.
The second thing that happen was the resurgence of Night March. This deck drop in usage as Fates Collide was settling into the meta. We saw a lot of Night March counter decks taking wins in Europe. This helped loosen up the meta to allow other decks to enter the fray like M Rayquaza EX and others. M Rayquaza EX has a great match up against those counter decks and some of those fell out of favor. That gave enough room for Night March to become popular again and eventually win US Nationals. A huge shout out to Ross from PTCGO Radio who describe this situation perfectly in his latest podcast episode. My experience at Nationals is a testament to this.
In the end, a sudden shift in the meta made my deck choice for Nationals the wrong choice. Am I upset? Not really. I am actually pretty happy with what I accomplished. I wanted to test myself at Nationals this year to see if I could do better then the year before. My results doesn’t say that I did but I think I did great. I ended up breaking even which is a passing score in my book. I played against my deck’s worst match ups and took at least one win in most of those games. It wasn’t a complete blowout which I am proud. I have been wanting to play M Rayquaza EX since last year and was glad that I took it to big dance.
Overall, I had a great time at US Nationals. That is the best win that I could take. Some of my favorite matches was my rounds against Regice, Trevenant and my first M Manectric EX game. Those were some fun games that could have ended badly for me if I had misplayed them. Either way, I had fun and that is all I ask for when I play this game. It was made better because I got the chance to hang out with some Pokemon fans that are also online friends.
So did I won Nationals? Nope. Did I meet great friends? Yes. Was I successful? Yeah. Did I have fun? You bet. The skies were clear enough for M Rayqauaza for him to break through and have a great time.
