TCG Jump: Featured Card- M Rayquaza EX (Dragon)

There is a great power in the skies. One that has finally been unlocked with the release of Roaring Skies. This force is one that you do not want to underestimate as you see it descend upon the field. This card may take some time to set up but it can surely bring you and your Pokemon a moment to see the coming of the lord and savoir as your Pokemon are wiped off the field. Tables will surely explode as this card strikes down it’s foes. There will surely be roaring skies once this card takes a few hits only to hit back stronger. This week we will be featuring the Dragon type with M Rayquaza EX.

M Rayquaza EX is one of the Mega Rayquaza cards introduced in Roaring Skies. This one is a Dragon type Pokemon with 230 HP with a weakness to Fairy. It is the only Pokemon with the Delta Wild Ancient Trait which allows it to take 20 less damage from Grass, Fire, Lightning and Water type Pokemon attacks. If you simply Mega Evolve it without the Rayquaza Spirit Link card then your turn will end immediately. Once it has Mega Evolve, you can use M Rayquaza EX’s Dragon Ascent attack which cost three Fire, a Lightning and another energy to do 300 hundred damage. It may involve discarding two energy attached to M Rayquaza EX but anything that gets hit with this attack will not be on the field afterwards.

The Pros
M Rayquaza EX has an amazing useful Ancient Trait in Delta Wild. It can take 20 less damage from Grass, Fire, Water and Lightning type Pokemon which half of those mention types are commonly seen. That means Seismitoad EX will only be doing 10 damage with Quaking Punch while M Manetric EX will only be doing 90 damage with Turbo Bolt. If you want to have even more fun with Delta Wild then go ahead and attach a Hard Charm and Seismitoad EX will be doing nothing with Quaking Punch and would be forced to rely on Virbank–Laser and Muscle Band to do damage on M Rayquaza EX. Meanwhile, M Manetric EX will be doing a not-so-impressive 70 damage. It all sounds pretty fun if you have to place a big and long dragon Pokemon in the active to sponge some hits.

If you want to talk about M Rayquaza EX’s offense capabilities then there is plenty of offense to go around. Dragon Ascent does 300 hundred damage to the opposing Pokemon. That Pokemon will not be around to fire off another attack unless certain effects are being applied to them by themselves or another card. The most HP a Pokemon can have in the format as of right now is Wailord EX with 250 HP. Guess what. M Rayquaza EX can clear the board of that big blue whale. If you attach Crystal Wall to Black Kyurem EX then he will gain 300 HP but that isn’t enough to live M Rayquaza EX’s Dragon Ascent. It doesn’t help that Black Kyurem EX has a weakness to Dragon type Pokemon because 300 HP isn’t enough to live a Dragon Ascent that is doing 600 damage.

The Cons
The biggest flaw to M Rayquaza EX is Dragon Ascent’s cost. This attack needs five energy to be used. Then once you use Dragon Ascent, you need to discard two energy from it. You could attach two Double Dragon Energy and a Fire Energy to M Rayquaza EX but that is at most three turns of attaching energy from your hand and hoping it won’t be discard thanks to Enhanced Hammer, Crushing Hammer or Xerosic. Either way, you need to find ways to power up M Rayquaza EX quickly and feed it energy to keep using Dragon Ascent.

The other con to M Rayquaza EX is the slowly growing tide of Fairy decks. They are not off the radar just yet and a few of them are using Florges EX in combination with Sky Field This Fairy and sky combination can easily knock out M Rayquaza EX with a bench filled of Grass and Fairy Pokemon. So you will need to play that match up carefully if you are planning to use M Rayquaza EX.

How to Play It
If you want to use M Rayquaza EX then you will need to build your deck around it to bring this dragon’s wrath. You will want to put in a few Reshiram with the Turboblaze ability in your deck. That way you can start with Reshiram in the active and use it’s ability to attach a Fire energy from your hand to any Dragon type on your side of the field. That means you can attach two energies during your turn to Rayquaza EX. If you want to get crafty, put in Hydreigon EX and set down a stadium card to activate Dragon Road. This ability drops the retreat cost of all your Dragon type Pokemon by two which means Reshiram gets free retreat. Simply set down another Reshiram in the active and use Turboblaze to set down a third energy on Rayquaza EX. That is three energy down on Rayquaza EX in one turn. Just wait until your next turn to Mega Evolve Rayquaza EX with a Rayquaza Spirit Link attached into Dragon M Rayquaza EX, place down a Double Dragon Energy and get ready to use Dragon Ascent. Your opponent will truly see the light after that.

You have a few options when it comes to choosing a stadium in order to activate Hydreigon EX’s Dragon Road ability. The two common ones to consider is Shadow Circle or Scorched Earth. If you play Shadow Circle then your Dragon type Pokemon lose their Fairy weakness if they have a Double Dragon Energy attached to them thanks to it counting as every type of energy. Scorched Earth allows you to discard your Fire energy to draw two cards. You can then combo it with Mega Turbo to attached your discarded Fire energy on to M Rayquaza EX to help power him up faster.

If you want to play a little defensive and wait to attack with M Rayquaza EX then attached Hard Charm onto Rayquaza EX instead of Spirit Link. You will end your turn upon Mega Evolution but you will ensure the longevity of your M Rayquaza EX once it gets ready to hit hard with Dragon Ascent. Add a Virizion EX to your deck to make sure that Hypnotoxic Laser won’t affect your big Dragon powerhouse. That way if you attached a Double Dragon Energy to M Rayquaza EX then it will act as a Grass energy in order to be protected by Virizion EX’s Verdant Wind ability. Lastly, if you really want to deny prizes from your opponent then use AZ to bring up your heavily damaged M Rayquaza EX back into your hand and send out another big M Rayquaza EX to sponge up hits and hit back harder.

If you are planning to use M Rayquaza EX in Expanded then replace the Dragon type Rayquaza EX from Roaring Skies with Rayquaza EX from Dragons Exalted. This Rayquaza EX has the Dragon Burst attack which cost a Fire and Lightning Energy and does 60 damage for each Fire or Lightning energy that you discard. This could provide some early game knockouts as you power up a M Rayquaza EX to take care of bigger threats such as Mega EX Pokemon.

Dragon type M Rayquaza EX may not have the same amount of fame as the Colorless M Rayquaza EX but it can be a mega threat if played correctly. This Dragon will literally fly in the skies and ascent upon your Pokemon. Once it does that then it will be a coming to Arceus moment for the poor Pokemon on the receiving end of this dragon’s ascension.