The Legacy of Rayquaza in the Pokemon TCG

[@ddsao]

Okay, this one had two pretty big holes. Some of your past videos glossed over some achievements or specific decks, but this one did it twice on pretty important scenarios: - Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND wasn't "far from the strongest or most iconic deck from the era", Magneboar *won worlds 2011 in the Masters Division* with a 1-1 copy of Raydeo. And it wasn't like 2009's single tech of LA Ray, this was actually a vital part of the deck: With 3 Twins, you could go behind on prizes, shut off your opponent's Twins, while keeping yours alive, trade 1-for-1 prizes until you're down to your last two, where an Ozone Blast finishes off the game. He even called the deck "Twinboar" because this interaction was THAT important. - While post-rotation Rayquaza-GX wasn't too much of a threat, BKT-CES Rayquaza-GX was tier 1 deck on that one format... Which was Worlds 2018. Ray was in 3 out of 8 lists from Top 8 of Worlds that year, and it was everywhere before the tournament actually began. 4 Max Elixir and 4 Puzzle of Time made it the premier attacking threat. It was also a monster deck in early 2019 Expanded, with the help of Ho-Oh ex, and could easily take out Tag Teams, winning Hartford Regionals. I feel like you might not look at Worlds results often? But these tournaments are incredibly important for the game's history.

[@Weaboolin]

You’re absolutely correct, honestly when I do research for videos I have a tendency to focus on finding decks where the specific Pokémon is the main focus, leading me to leave out decks where the Pokémon is just a small part of it even if that deck absolutely should be mentioned. In regards to rayquaza gx, I looked at the deck with the entire sun and moon block in mind, which is definitely unfair to the card and it’s achievements. That all being said Im still happy with the final video and with how many cards there were to talk about, Im proud that I only had 2 big oversights. Thank you for the comment , Im thankful you took the time to both watch the vid and give feedback. I’ll be sure to be more thorough in my research from here on out and I’ll hope you stick around to see my improvement :)

[@kitsaitogames]

Considering the Pokémon has existed for 21 years, 2 oversights isn’t too bad !! 😂

[@kylerstrickler1750]

Damn bruh chill out goddamn, this guy puts so much work into his vids it’s insane.

[@adamkarlb6329]

⁠@@kylerstrickler1750actually it is quite sloppy research. It shouldn’t be called ”so mu work” as you describe it.

[@gkgeze]

@@kylerstrickler1750he might put a ton of work into the vids but there is always room for improvement, and op is just pointing out some ways he can improve in future videos by pointing out some mistakes in his research

[@SquidSystem]

Finally, a youtuber that will upload in the middle of the night, just for me!!

[@EXFrost]

Wait until you hear about timezones

[@SquidSystem]

@@EXFrost No it's called the Lost Zone, common misconception

[@EXFrost]

@@SquidSystem unlike that now

[@oatsca997]

babe wake up new weaboolin upload

[@bad_atgames]

fr

[@kenanlambo]

More of these please! Can you do Mewtwo and Mew ?! I am still fascinated by those two even after 25 years

[@axel8912]

Petition for this be the next vid if it's the nost like comment

[@Weaboolin]

Petition accepted :)

[@keldeo05]

9:50 wow imagine having this problem in current year (cries in chien pao)

[@tekkno2024]

Love the videos man! Would love to see a video on giratina. It's had some of the most diverse cards in terms of tech options and attackers, and would make for a really neat video

[@WhimsicottTCG]

Rayquaza GRI saw some niche play alongside Solgaleo GX in the GRI format, replacing Lurantis GX from the Sol/Lurantis archetype from SUM base.

[@WhimsicottTCG]

Rayquaza from Legends Awakened is also a niche pick in 2010 in Lanturn Prime and Entei Raikou Legend archetypes. While not top tier, it does exist.

[@McCsparkles]

What are the odds we can see a heracross vid? My boi needs some love! great video none the less its tragic that you only have around 4k subs

[@filipbilogrevic590]

Love these videos, I was hoping someone would make something like false swipe gaming but for the tcg

[@greengaleproductions]

Ooh, new video hype! Even though Rayquaza was super good in the Games, I have no idea what impact it had on the TCG.

[@harrysiakovides8146]

Great video!The funniest bit is at the end ,when you talk about rayquaza vmax and how it is stomped by everything and 2 days later a guy almost made top 8 with it at Liverpool regionals😂😂

[@salzburysteak]

I’m curious what formats you play and enjoy. Seems you’re not a fan of standard and idk who’s a fan of expanded right now. So I’d be curious to know how you enjoy the TCG. 2009? Ruby and sapphire? Let us know!

[@kitsaitogames]

Such a genius video format… basically the FSG of the TCG

[@kitsaitogames]

Another excellently produced and insightful video, wel done!!!

[@wasthatthebiteof8796]

Funny thing is, Rayquaza Vmax found a niche as the cinch pin in Arceus Armarouge, as a nuke button and draw support, almost 2 years later

[@JahanSoundSystem]

Ive been looking forward to this video ever since you started the series. Dragons Exaulted Rayquaza EX was the first EX ive ever pulled and got into the TCG with it. I built both RayEel and RayBoar and loved it. I couldnt afford Roaring Skys colorless ray and tried to build the dragon version, it was very clunky but still. I played my other love, steel type, mega scizor or mega aggron, during that time anyway. I know during SM, I used colorless ray for a time but i know i was playing solgaleo GX then. I think GX came out when i was no longer playing the TCG or I was playing Scizor GX and moved to stopped playing at that time. Nowadays, i just collect Rayquaza. I have almost every ray that was printed in english, just missing some of the recent rays and, of course gold star (pray for me) Long comment I know, but Rayquaza was a major part of my time and love for the TCG when i played. Pokemon isnt really played where i live now and i prefer playing paper over digital honestly. Even then, im just tired of EX and its variants (2+ prize cards). But if im playing the TCG, im either playing Rayquaza or Steel. Scizor video when? Lol

[@DIAZRICKY42]

This channel is tuff 🔥🔥🔥

[@i8147]

I hope we get another Rayquaza ex in the Scarlet and Violet era! Just subscribed by the way awesome code man

[@sniz03]

amazing rare rayquaza was my favourite deck

[@FallenAngelVeox]

Please come back soon!

[@StickyTrap]

TCG history of sableye would be very interesting please try this one

[@edselyong7609]

The last time Rayquaza VMAX was used turned out to be pretty decent - with Arceus VSTAR and Armarouge. But still, it didn't get very far. Nonetheless it was the reason I got into the TCG - just so I have a reason to buy my boi's Battle Deck. This was a few months ago so imagine my shock when I realised it's rotating out soon after! I have been enjoying the TCG with other decks nonetheless (as long as I'm not on a losing streak!!), and with Paradise Dragona releasing end of this year with it being the Year of the Dragon, I'm hoping for a new Rayquaza to come back!!

[@AcidTNT]

Honestly milage gate gave way to many amazing rares being good. I at one point ran a lost zone deck and ran amazing rare yveltal and it was good.

[@matthewkuscienko4616]

I don't personally think that Rayquaza Vmax is honestly all that good myself, but this is partly because I recall when it got revealed, I was one of the few people who didn't think it was going to succeed. That said, I think there are a good number of reasons why it ultimately flopped: 1) Firstly, it's attack, although it can indiscriminately one-shot anything with enough energies, is still clunky because you not only need a lot of energy in play to get the full potential damage output needed to take those big one-shots, but you also need to discard it, and recently decks that require you to do so are oftentimes not as consistent as their competition. 2) You needed to switch back and forth with it A LOT when trying to attack with it because Flaaffy's dynamotor ability only accelerated energy to your benched Pokemon; because of this, if you only had 1 Ray Vmax in play, you'd need to find a way to both get it back to your bench and then back into the active spot after getting your lightning energy onto it. Sure, Tower of Waters helped with this by giving Rayquaza Vmax free retreat, but that was about the only relevant Rapid Strike support that could be played with it. 3) Going off of the last point, being a RS card that was incompatible with Rapid Strike Energy was kind of an immediate death sentence for it, because with the exception of the short time that Malamar was seeing play in the meta, any RS decks typically played the Rapid Strike special energy because having 2 energy in 1 card was a big deal. 4) The deck tended to play out of it's discard pile a lot with the most common builds to capitalize on Flaaffy to accelerate lightning energy, and Rayquaza Vmax's ability could discard your hand. Having said that, it's ability had in my opinion too steep of a cost for too little of a payoff, especially since the deck also liked to play Rose for a supporter, which also discarded your hand to attach discarded energies to a Vmax. This ultimately lead to it pitching too many cards to your discard pile too frequently, which only compounded it's other issues. 5) The meta at the time was pretty hostile towards it: Rapid Strike Urshifu Vmax was poised to do well in the format, Dragapult Vmax came roaring back with a vengeance and became BDIF, and the introduction of Jolteon Vmax (which was worse than the other 2 Vmaxs I listed) meant that there were too many decks that could bench snipe your Flaaffys off the board with relative ease -- this was a problem in no small part because we didn't have any bench protection at the time (no Manaphy yet). 6) In addition to all this, the meta has typically favored decks that can get their attackers going with only 2 energy attachments -- everything else needed to have strong energy acceleration to make up for that, such as Chien-Pao + Baxcalibur or Gardevoir Ex that could easily get a ton of energies into play in a single turn once set up. TL;DR: Rayquaza Vmax, I don't think, looked all that good on paper when considering how you needed to play it to get it set up; otherwise I think there's a chance that it could've gotten to see SOME success in the meta by now. But unfortunately, it was a card that seemed to have everything going against it

[@colepopovic4659]

Let’s go baby

[@morpphh]

Need a new video soon 😢

[@keokii]

LETS GOOOOO NEW VIDEOOO

[@morpphh]

KEEP UP THE GOOD CONTENT 🔥🔥🔥

[@AttitudeIndicator]

Fastest click of my life, can you do mewtwo next?

[@johnathansilva2823]

So weird, I just re-made my Rayquaza Vmax deck from ptcgo yesterday.

[@AttitudeIndicator]

I miss ptcgo 😭

[@bad_atgames]

hope we get some scarlet and violet rayquaza cards soon

[@gabrielamaro1470]

I’m expecting a new Rayquaza ex card in the SV era to tie in with the anime, just like was done with that Dark Tera Charizard

[@alexanderacosta8111]

And we are soon getting a new Mega Ray but in basic form😊

[@asmadithedire4357]

If it's not too much, can I make a suggestion to do a Pidgeot video next?

[@LiquifiedBlarg]

Song at the end?

[@PanZerOlas]

Do darkrai next

[@Origami2you]

can you do reshiram or zekrom

[@Weaboolin]

They’re both definitely in the plans, I’ll get around to them at some point for sure :)

[@FallenAngelVeox]

​@Weaboolin you alive? It's been a few months?

[@talon7305]

Rayquaza vmax is summed up pretty well, it’s a good card…but it just isn’t

[@brianbrunen9803]

It's funny that you switch between pronunciations of "rayquaza" because honestly, I don't know the correct one either

[@matthewkuscienko4616]

It's ray-qway-za, which is the one he seemed to use more often. The problem is that a LOT of people mispronounce it ray-QWAH-za, similar to how everyone seems to say Drapion's name as dray-peon, when it's supposed to be drap-eon

[@drvonstreusel8171]

new weaboolin vid!!!!!!

[@kitsaitogames]

Such a genius video format… basically the FSG of the TCG