Oh Yea, Rage for Me

Hey everyone! It’s Charlie and I’m happy to be back with another article. Staple cards like [card name=”Radiant Greninja” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”46″ c=”name”][/card] have been dominating the format for almost three years, and it’s finally time we say goodbye to them. Our new format only includes cards from the Scarlet & Violet series, giving us one contiguous design block of cards to work with. This should hopefully lead to a healthy and interesting meta for the foreseeable future!

However, we notably dropped from 16 legal sets to eleven with the rotation of Brilliant Stars, Astral Radiance, Pokemon GO, Lost Origin, Silver Tempest, and Crown Zenith. This drops the legal card pool from about 2,671 cards to about 1,971. While not an exact metric, fewer cards to work with almost always means that the strategies become less intricate. Synergy of cards printed years apart (whether or not they were intended) oftentimes results in some of the best decks we’ve seen. All the Regulation D Special Energy ([card name=”Aurora Energy” set=”Sword and Shield” no=”186″ c=”name”][/card] , [card name=”Powerful Colorless Energy” set=”Darkness Ablaze” no=”176″ c=”name”][/card] , etc.) combined with [card name=”Lugia VSTAR” set=”Silver Tempest” no=”139″ c=”name”][/card] wreaked havoc on the format for nearly seven months before they were rotated. A more recent example of an interaction I’d guess was unintended is [card name=”PokéStop” set=”Pokemon GO” no=”68″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Night Stretcher” set=”Shrouded Fable” no=”61″ c=”name”][/card] . The combination of this insanely powerful Stadium card with an Item that allows you to retrieve two of the most important card types you’d discard with PokeStop itself enabled decks like [card name=”Banette ex” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”88″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Dusknoir” set=”Shrouded Fable” no=”20″ c=”name”][/card] , [card name=”Charizard ex” set=”Obsidian Flames” no=”125″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Dusknoir” set=”Shrouded Fable” no=”20″ c=”name”][/card] , and [card name=”Ceruledge ex” set=”Surging Sparks” no=”36″ c=”name”][/card] to play hyper-aggressively knowing they had four Night Stretcher for recovery.

Bridging Design Blocks

Oftentimes, these strong combinations straddle design blocks, which coincide with the release of each major game. The most striking one was the release of [card name=”Arceus and Dialga and Palkia-GX” set=”Cosmic Eclipse” no=”156″ c=”name”][/card] in Cosmic Eclipse immediately followed by the release of [card name=”Zacian V” set=”Sword and Shield” no=”138″ c=”name”][/card] in Sword & Shield. While these came out in back-to-back sets, they were designed in different blocks, which generally means there was a fundamental difference in what cards they were intended to work with. ADP was designed to fit into the end of the Sun & Moon era, while Zacian V was likely designed with many future cards in mind. Before Scarlet & Violet, the game designers stated in an interview that they worked hard to bridge this gap a bit more, giving the example of [card name=”Gardevoir ex” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”86″ c=”name”][/card] from Scarlet & Violet being designed with [card name=”Kirlia” set=”Silver Tempest” no=”68″ c=”name”][/card] from Silver Tempest in mind. This was certainly very welcome, as I don’t think many players saw Gardevoir as an unhealthy or poorly designed deck throughout the past two years.

[cardimg name=”Reversal Energy” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”266″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

The Scarlet & Violet block did come with a design goal, which was to emphasize comebacks in games. The first sign we saw was the introduction of [card name=”Iono” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”185″ c=”name”][/card] , but the effects continued to pile up: we got [card name=”Reversal Energy” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”192″ c=”name”][/card] , [card name=”Counter Catcher” set=”Crimson Invasion” no=”91″ c=”name”][/card] , [card name=”Defiance Band” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”169″ c=”name”][/card] , [card name=”Defiance Vest” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”162″ c=”name”][/card] , and much more. It all came to a head with Shrouded Fable, which brought us [card name=”Fezandipiti ex” set=”Shrouded Fable” no=”38″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Dusknoir” set=”Shrouded Fable” no=”20″ c=”name”][/card] (the ladder of which is barely a comeback card). It became increasingly beneficial to go behind in Prize cards in order to take advantage of all these powerful effects. Lastly, the biggest major change we’ve seen recently is Budew from Prismatic Evolutions. We still saw the success of aggressive decks, but slower strategies could now slow the game down enough to set up multiple Stage 2 Pokemon. Now, we’re seeing the rotation of a ton of cards that helped out aggressive decks, including Radiant Greninja, [card name=”PokéStop” set=”Pokemon GO” no=”68″ c=”name”][/card] , and [card name=”Trekking Shoes” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”156″ c=”name”][/card] . Whether or not aggressive decks are able to rebound still remains to be seen, but now all our cards are from a design block focused on emphasizing slower decks and comebacks.

Enough of that, though. When building for a smaller card pool, what’s the most important factor? In the many times I’ve had to build for post-rotation formats, one thing has been clear: simplicity is king. With less cards to work with, complicated strategies will become much less consistent. We see this right now with decks like [card name=”Dragapult ex” set=”Twilight Masquerade” no=”130″ c=”name”][/card] ; the loss of [card name=”Lance” set=”Silver Tempest” no=”159″ c=”name”][/card] is a drastic blow to an archetype that was once the epitome of consistency. Are new Dragapult lists relatively consistent? Yes, but it feels extremely different than it did just a few weeks ago. Most archetypes that I’ve played with have proven to be less consistent than I hoped, and that continues to bring me back to the simplest options.

For my last historical example of the day, two deck that epitomize this perfectly are [card name=”Ho-Oh-GX” set=”Burning Shadows” no=”21″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Kiawe” set=”Burning Shadows” no=”116″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Pikachu and Zekrom-GX” set=”Sun and Moon Black Star Promos” no=”SM168″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Judge” set=”BREAKthrough” no=”143″ c=”name”][/card] . The former is as simple as they come: play Kiawe, power up Ho-Oh-GX, and attack until you win! The ladder took advantage of the fact consistency was weak across the board in the format. While it had multiple [card name=”Dedenne-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”57″ c=”name”][/card] , [card name=”Electromagnetic Radar” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”169″ c=”name”][/card] , and [card name=”Volkner” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”135″ c=”name”][/card] , everything else was limited to weak Pokemon search like [card name=”Pokémon Communication” set=”Team Up” no=”152″ c=”name”][/card] . By just setting up the Lightning attackers that were easy to set up and putting your opponent to a low number of cards, you could sometimes just sit back and watch their own deck fall apart.

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Raging Bolt ex

That brings me to today. This deck is simple, consistent, and blows the roof off with its damage output. That’s a recipe for success in a format where not everybody understands the best way to build every deck yet! Here’s my current list:

[decklist name=”Raging Friedman” amt=”60″ caption=”” cname=”Koraidon” set=”Surging Sparks” no=”116″][pokemon amt=”20″]3x [card name=”Raging Bolt ex ” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”123″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]3x [card name=”Teal Mask Ogerpon ex” set=”Twilight Masquerade” no=”25″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]3x [card name=”Noctowl” set=”Stellar Crown” no=”115″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]3x [card name=”Hoothoot” set=”Stellar Crown” no=”114″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]2x [card name=”Fan Rotom” set=”Stellar Crown” no=”118″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]1x [card name=”Squawkabilly ex” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”169″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Latias ex” set=”Surging Sparks” no=”76″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Fezandipiti ex” set=”Shrouded Fable” no=”38″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Ditto” set=”151″ no=”132″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Raging Bolt” set=”Stellar Crown” no=”111″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Koraidon” set=”Surging Sparks” no=”116″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card][/pokemon][trainers amt=”28″]4x [card name=”Nest Ball” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”123″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Ultra Ball” set=”Dark Explorers” no=”102″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]3x [card name=”Earthen Vessel” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”163″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]2x [card name=”Night Stretcher” set=”Shrouded Fable” no=”61″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]2x [card name=”Energy Retrieval” set=”Primal Clash” no=”126″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]1x [card name=”Energy Switch” set=”Black and White” no=”94″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Pal Pad” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”182″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Prime Catcher ” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”157″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Ancient Booster Energy Capsule” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”159″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card]4x [card name=”Professor Sada’s Vitality” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”170″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]1x [card name=”Boss’s Orders (Ghetsis)” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”172″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Iono” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”185″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Crispin” set=”Stellar Crown” no=”133″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card]2x [card name=”Area Zero Underdepths” set=”Stellar Crown” no=”131″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card][/trainers][energy amt=”12″]6x [card name=”Grass Energy” set=”HeartGold and SoulSilver” no=”115″ c=”deck2″ amt=”6″][/card]3x [card name=”Lightning Energy” set=”HeartGold and SoulSilver” no=”118″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]3x [card name=”Fighting Energy” set=”HeartGold and SoulSilver” no=”120″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card][/energy][/decklist]This list is certainly pretty vanilla, but honestly, that’s the best part of it! The goal is to be extremely consistent, hit hard, and limit the techs to small, but very useful inclusions. Let’s get into the card choices:

Three Raging Bolt ex

We’ve recently seen counts as low as two and as high as four, but I’ve recently been happy with three. Usually, low counts are due to the presence of baby [card name=”Raging Bolt” set=”Stellar Crown” no=”111″ c=”name”][/card] , which we include one of here. I certainly don’t think we ever truly need more than three, but I understand if some lists choose to add the fourth as an extra Ancient Pokemon. With a total of five Ancient Pokemon, that’s not a huge worry with this list. If you ever choose to go down to two, I think the only worthy substitute is a second copy of the baby Raging Bolt.

Three Teal Mask Ogerpon ex

Teal Mask Ogerpon ex is one of the best cards in Standard, but I only choose to play three copies here because I wanted a slot for [card name=”Ditto” set=”151″ no=”132″ c=”name”][/card] . There are certainly games where you want to use all three Teal Mask, but Ditto can be searched off of [card name=”Fan Rotom” set=”Stellar Crown” no=”118″ c=”name”][/card], and that actually makes my odds of getting a Basic I want on turn 1 significantly higher. Overall, Teal Mask is the engine that makes this deck go, the Tera Pokemon you need to activate [card name=”Noctowl” set=”Stellar Crown” no=”115″ c=”name”][/card], and a really good attacker in a pinch!

Three Hoothoot, Three Noctowl

Noctowl marks the return of a very powerful Trainer search effect, the first since [card name=”Drizzile” set=”Sword and Shield” no=”56″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Inteleon” set=”Sword and Shield” no=”58″ c=”name”][/card] , which were all-time favorite cards of mine. While not as powerful as a pure deck engine as the Shady Dealings line was, Noctowl is significantly more powerful in the early game. Putting the double Trainer search effect on a Stage 1 allows you to have a pop-off turn pretty reliably on the second turn of the game, which is huge for Raging Bolt. I choose to play three of both Hoothoot and Noctowl because of potential bad Prize cards; you want to use two in almost every game, so if you prize one and you only play two, you’re stuck. Overall, I think this card is pretty broken, and it enables Raging Bolt to do things that were impossible in the past.

Two Fan Rotom

Fan Rotom is one of the most powerful cards in the game post-rotation, as it gets both pieces of the Noctowl engine as well as Ditto. This allows you to search for your game plan next turn and any Basic that you’d like off of a single [card name=”Nest Ball” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”123″ c=”name”][/card]! Also, an attack that does 70 damage is a really solid option to have just sitting there for free. Fan Rotom is really good and I’d certainly not cut below two unless you want to be in for a rude awakening when you prize it.

One Ditto

I’ve mentioned Ditto a few times already, and it’s truly amazing how much of a glow-up this card has already seen. It went from seeing fringe play in Lost Box to nearly a staple in Tera Box and Raging Bolt because of its utility alongside Fan Rotom. While getting one Basic of your choice off Fan Rotom may be seen as a luxury, it’s sometimes really important if you need to put a Tera Pokemon in play for Noctowl the next turn. Overall, this card can bail you out of a ton of situations and I find myself using it nearly every game.

One Squawkabilly ex

[card name=”Squawkabilly ex” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”169″ c=”name”][/card] is good in basically every deck that wants to go fast, and there’s no exceptions here. Since you can also search it with Ditto, there’s tons of bailout options at your disposal if your opening hand isn’t very strong. Getting Energy in the discard early is also sometimes an issue, but if you open with [card name=”Earthen Vessel” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”163″ c=”name”][/card] and an out to Squawkabilly, you’re golden. I wouldn’t consider two copies, but the one has been extremely strong in my testing.

One Latias ex

[card name=”Latias ex” set=”Surging Sparks” no=”76″ c=”name”][/card] is an insane card. Giving all your heavy Basics no Retreat Cost is just broken, and there’s not much else to say. You do open yourself up to losing to retreat lock strategies like [card name=”Feraligatr ” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”41″ c=”name”][/card]decks, but you get to save so much deck space with Latias that it’s worth it. I would love to play two, but space is limited and you can get away without it in the 10% of games that it’s prized.

One Fezandipiti ex

[card name=”Fezandipiti ex” set=”Shrouded Fable” no=”38″ c=”name”][/card] continues to be insanely good. With Noctowl in your deck now, you can sometimes force your opponent to choose whether to go after Hoothoot or Fez, which puts them between a rock and a hard place. They’ll usually choose Fez, but if you find [card name=”Ultra Ball” set=”Crown Zenith” no=”146″ c=”name”][/card], you can most likely put together a game-winning play. This card is insane in basically every deck, but in decks that trade KOs, it’s a necessity.

One Raging Bolt

[cardimg name=”Raging Bolt” set=”Stellar Crown” no=”111″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

Baby Raging Bolt is a very new inclusion in this deck, but it’s been extremely good for me so far. While you do have to invest three Energy into it usually, you can take out Benched Pokemon like [card name=”Drakloak” set=”Twilight Masquerade” no=”129″ c=”name”][/card] that might have Energy already on them. Notably, [card name=”Exp. Share” set=”Next Destinies” no=”87″ c=”name”][/card] does not activate if the KO was taken on the Bench, so you can eliminate an Energy that your opponent otherwise had protected. Lastly, going after Hoothoot in the late game against Tera Box is a really powerful play. If they attack you with [card name=”Pikachu ex” set=”Surging Sparks” no=”57″ c=”name”][/card] , you can respond with hand disruption into a KO on their Benched Hoothoot, forcing them to find a ridiculous combination of cards off Fezandipiti to make an impactful play. It’s extremely unlikely for them to play a gust card and reload the Pikachu that turn, so you can usually take advantage of this and get back ahead. While I was originally skeptical of this card, it’s really impressed me and I’m a big fan of it here.

One Koraidon

[card name=”Koraidon” set=”Surging Sparks” no=”116″ c=”name”][/card] is your other single-Prize Ancient attacker. Being able to deal 180 damage with a single-Prize Pokemon is really strong, especially now that we’ve added another relevant Ancient attack with baby Raging Bolt. Also, you can use Thunderburst Storm or Dragon Headbutt with Raging Bolt and follow it up with Koraidon’s Unrelenting Onslaught to KO a [card name=”Farigiraf ex ” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”108″ c=”name”][/card], giving you a chance when you otherwise may not have had one. Taking a KO on [card name=”Fezandipiti ex” set=”Shrouded Fable” no=”38″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Mew ex” set=”151″ no=”151″ c=”name”][/card] is also very powerful. Overall, I feel like Koraidon is certainly worth it as your best single-Prize attacking option.

Four Nest Ball, Four Ultra Ball

With these two cards being the perennial best Pokemon search in the format, maxing out both ensures we make our deck as consistent as we can. I see no reason to play any fewer when all I want to do is set up. Ultra Ball getting Noctowl is why we went up from a low count pre-rotation to a full playset.

Three Earthen Vessel

[card name=”Earthen Vessel” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”163″ c=”name”][/card] is another one of the best Item cards in Standard, and I’d really love to max out the count, but I’m sticking with three because of Budew. Previously, I had only five Grass Energy, but finding the natural Grass Energy more is a bit more important when Item Lock could potentially keep you from getting Energy. Also, with Noctowl, Earthen Vessel is now searchable, so you can find it when you need it more reliably.

Two Night Stretcher

[card name=”Night Stretcher” set=”Shrouded Fable” no=”61″ c=”name”][/card] keeps up with the trend of playing good Item cards. I’d honestly like a third copy here to make it easier to recycle Pokemon like Koraidon and baby Raging Bolt, but two is definitely enough. A third copy would also enable more guilt-free uses of it to just grab an Energy when it’s convenient, which is certainly something you have to be a bit careful with now. However, the slot for a third Night Stretcher probably comes from the next card I’m going to discuss, which is notably better at recovering Energy!

Two Energy Retrieval

[card name=”Energy Retrieval” set=”Primal Clash” no=”126″ c=”name”][/card] was historically a four-of in Raging Bolt, but only two copies find their way into my new list. Without [card name=”PokéStop” set=”Pokemon GO” no=”68″ c=”name”][/card] shredding through your deck every turn, you can be a bit more intentional with recovering Energy now. I see some lists playing only one recovery card for Energy and it’s [card name=”Superior Energy Retrieval” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”189″ c=”name”][/card] , but I think that’s not very good. After testing it, I noticed that my hand sizes were usually very small (no cards to discard for SER) or very large (not needing four Energy in my hand at once), and Energy Retrieval strikes that balance better. While it does require an extra slot, Energy Retrieval is a much more flexible card with no downside, which is really good when your hand is going to be disrupted often.

One Energy Switch

[card name=”Energy Switch” set=”Black and White” no=”94″ c=”name”][/card] is another new addition to Raging Bolt, mostly making an appearance to help out with baby Raging Bolt. However, being able to use [card name=”Professor Sada’s Vitality” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”170″ c=”name”][/card] and move the second Energy to the Active is extremely powerful. As a one-of, I think this card is a complete difference-maker and surely worth it.

One Pal Pad

I’ve kept [card name=”Pal Pad” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”182″ c=”name”][/card] in the list for now, but it’s felt a bit like a luxury recently. The big difference in Raging Bolt now is that you no longer burn through Sada on accident with PokeStop, so you don’t need to mass recover them nearly as often. Also, the addition of [card name=”Crispin” set=”Stellar Crown” no=”133″ c=”name”][/card] helps to give you a soft fifth Sada, picking up the slack when you prize them or discard some early. However, recovering Iono and [card name=”Boss’s Orders” set=”Rebel Clash” no=”154″ c=”name”][/card] is still broken, so I’ve left it in the list for now.

One Prime Catcher

[card name=”Prime Catcher ” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”157″ c=”name”][/card] may be rivaled by other powerful ACE SPECs now, but it’s still one of the best! Having an Item-based gust card that’s now Noctowl-searchable is truly insane, allowing you to KO basically whatever you want one time per game. I don’t think there’s any chance I’d consider a different ACE SPEC here.

One Ancient Booster Energy Capsule

[card name=”Ancient Booster Energy Capsule” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”159″ c=”name”][/card] seems out of place as a one-of, and its inclusion started because I was trying out [card name=”Brute Bonnet” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”123″ c=”name”][/card] as an answer to Pikachu ex. However, it’s extremely good against Poison [card name=”Archaludon ex” set=”Surging Sparks” no=”130″ c=”name”][/card] , which has been receiving a lot of hype. Being able to prevent Special Conditions like Poison pushes your Raging Bolt out of KO range for Archaludon, and it also finds utility when removing Confusion from [card name=”Munkidori” set=”Twilight Masquerade” no=”95″ c=”name”][/card] ‘s Mind Bend. Lastly, just pushing Raging Bolt to 300 HP is always good! As a one-of, I’ve really liked having access to Ancient Booster Energy Capsule, and I expect it to stay in my list.

Four Professor Sada’s Vitality

Professor Sada’s Vitality is your main Supporter. If I could play more than four, I certainly would. Broken card!

One Iono

I personally prefer Iono over Judge when I only get to play one disruption card, as it’s much more powerful on the late-game turns when you really need to disrupt your opponent. Also, in the early game, it draws you more cards if you need a bailout. Yes, Judge can be used to cheese your opponent and stick them with a bad hand early, but that’s not reliable enough to be worth it in my opinion.

One Boss’s Orders

Boss’s Orders is obviously one of the best Supporters in the game, and a deck like this, that wants to take KOs over and over, takes huge advantage of that. Sadly we have to play Sada on most turns, so we can’t abuse Boss nearly as much as I’d like to. However, with Pal Pad here to recycle it and Noctowl to find it, a single Boss usually gets the job done.

One Crispin

Crispin is another new inclusion, offering you a pseudo-fifth Sada in the form of Supporter-based Energy acceleration. Against Budew, this card can be really useful, as it guarantees two more Energy in play and takes them out of the deck when you don’t have them in the discard. I don’t think I’d consider a second, but as a one-of, this card is really good!

Two Area Zero Underdepths

[card name=”Area Zero Underdepths” set=”Stellar Crown” no=”131″ c=”name”][/card] lets you expand your Bench to eight, which is insanely important with this deck. Now that we have Noctowl, we need Bench space for all of this stuff! I’d like to consider adding another Stadium (probably [card name=”Jamming Tower” set=”Twilight Masquerade” no=”153″ c=”name”][/card]) to counter our own Area Zero, but that also feels like a luxury when opponents will often try to counter it themselves.

Six Grass Energy, Three Fighting Energy, Three Lightning Energy

This has been the standard Energy count in Raging Bolt for a while now, with some lists going down to five Grass in the past. However, with fewer Items that do stuff with Energy (like Earthen Vessel and Energy Retrieval), playing six Grass feels much better. Personally, I don’t think any changes can be made to this without increasing the Energy searching and recovery Items.

That concludes my list! I think this is pretty strong, but it’s notably missing counters to Pikachu ex and the Walls deck. Here are some options I considered for both:

Pikachu ex

Brute Bonnet has felt like a strong solution to this. Add an extra copy of Ancient Booster Energy Capsule, put it on the Bonnet, and attack through it with anything! I think this is better than [card name=”Slither Wing” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”107″ c=”name”][/card] because Tera Box can’t immediately respond with [card name=”Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex” set=”Twilight Masquerade” no=”64″ c=”name”][/card] for two Prize cards. If you’re extremely worried about Tera Box, playing one of these options is a good answer.

Walls

[card name=”Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex” set=”Twilight Masquerade” no=”112″ c=”name”][/card] is the obvious choice for a one-card answer, but back when I had Brute Bonnet in my list, I also tried out [card name=”Walking Wake ex ” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”50″ c=”name”][/card]. While this card seems terrible at first, it goes though every wall (including Crown Opal) and, with poison, can do up to 250 damage in one hit. That’s just a bit short of OHKOing Farigiraf ex, but if they don’t have a heal option, they die going back into your turn. Since this also requires a Water Energy, I decided it was too much investment, but if you’re in a Walls-heavy meta, it’s worth thinking about!

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed reading about Raging Bolt today! I think this deck is really powerful and takes solid matchups into most of the format. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on X (@C4_TCG) or in the comments below and I’ll do my best to respond. Thank you and I hope to see you in the next one!

– Charlie

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