Stats
Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND is one of the oft maligned Pokemon
LEGEND cards, which seemed to be an evolution (pardon the pun) of the old Pokemon-ex mechanic. You have a card that is literally supposed to be two Pokemon in one. It isn't an Evolution but neither is it a Basic Pokemon, and that can make it awkward to search out or recycle. You have to have both halves in order to play it as well, making it tricky to get into play, and lastly each half has the same name, so you can only run four total copies, though you could be silly and run four of the same half or three of one half and one of the other. Of course most would just run two of each half for obvious reasons.
Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND is a dual-Type Pokemon, both :colorless: and
sychic:. These aren't the top two Weaknesses this format, but they certainly are something. As I've often had to report lately, there isn't much Type support (period) right now, and what there is for :colorless: and
sychic: Pokemon usually actually supports the Energy Type rather than the Pokemon Type. The 140 HP is decent, most definitely offset by giving up two Prizes but big enough to be hard to OHKO. It is Weak to... itself, sort of: this card has a double Weakness and it is to the same two types that make it up, :colorless: and
sychic:. In an unlikely mirror match this means
Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND would hit a rival copy for quadruple damage
eek
, and the Psychic half isn't too bad as of right now just because we don't have that many good, strong Psychic attackers that hit for actual damage.
The Colorless half of the Weakness is a horrible thing to have this format. It will allows a
Bouffalant (
Black & White 91/114) to OHKO
Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND for a single
Double Colorless Energy should you have KO'd one of your opponent's Pokemon with an attack the turn before.
Bouffalant is an excellent card that at least hypothetically could be run in any deck, and I think will see more play when
Pokemon Catcher becomes tournament legal. Another problem :colorless: Pokemon would be
Cinccino, who takes more deck space but is actually a well designed Stage 1 that can technically work in any deck that doesn't mind filling its Bench. It isn't like these two Pokemon are alone: :colorless: Pokemon are a common site in many decks and even if your opponent is running something that can't OHKO
Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND by itself, it might be a few
PlusPower or a
Black Belt away, and that is why this card should never be put into play until the turn it goes to attack, which restricts it to about one deck.
A lack of Resistance is common but disappointing as always while the :colorless::colorless::colorless::colorless: Retreat Cost is quite large and normally means you'd pack
Switch to make sure it couldn't get stuck up front, but again this card is special in how it is used so that isn't automatic. I'll explain why later.
Effects
Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND has a Poke-Body and a single attack. Space Virus (the Poke-Body) says that when this Pokemon KOs an opposing Pokemon with damage from an attack, you take one more Prize card. This really is a spectacular ability since "Prize acceleration" is almost unheard of except as a "penalty" for the most powerful cards (like Pokemon
LEGEND cards and Pokemon-ex). With the return of Pokemon-ex (or something almost identical) coming soon, the wording is very important.
The good news is that it sets it up as a variable effect, so it is possible (but not confirmed) that it would add a Prize to however many you would be supposed to draw. So against another Pokemon
LEGEND you would hopefully draw the base two Prizes plus another one. Slight chance that the wording on the actual
LEGEND cards (which simply states you take two Prizes) overrides that - I couldn't find a ruling and hope if it has been made someone chimes in and lets me know. :redface:
Ozone Buster is a huge attack requiring
fire::fire::lightning::colorless
and the discard of
all :fire: Energy attached to it would make this card unplayable without a combo to accelerate it or protect it. Still, for the price you are hitting for 150 damage. When I break it down using the guidelines I've developed over the years (which are still a little off since I don't even have two full sets of Black & White cards to compare with), you getting about what you pay for. To be specific, the basic Energy investment before any other factors should give you about 55 points of damage. When I hit four Energy, experience tells me that a card needs another 10 to 20 points worth of damage to remain competitive, so add that in. Factor in the discards for another 30 points (in practical usage discards amount to needing the discarded Energy as extra attachments ignoring the bonuses I'd give for quantity of Energy required), the multiple Energy type requirements add yet another 5 to 15 points, and lastly being a Pokemon Legend seems worth about the remaining 30 or 50 points needed to hit 150.
In the history of the game, that only fails to OHKO a few dozen cards, some of which are just near impossible to OHKO due to effects on that card such as the classic
Mr. Mime (
Jungle 6/64, 22/64) and most of which are "gimmick" Pokemon like other Pokemon
LEGEND, Pokemon-ex, or Level-Up cards. When we restrict the card pool to Modified, there are still a surprising number of survivors, but it is mostly Pokemon
LEGEND. In either case, those that don't survive through inborn protection or Resistance will be dropped to 30 HP or less and you'll see them coming a mile away and can adjust the strategy.
So the Poke-Body is great, though in some ways it is diminished by having access to one single, expensive attack. Still said attack hits incredibly hard and thus still has solid synergy with the Poke-Body. Space Virus makes me wish Technical Machines were as diverse and useful as in the video games: in the TCG they rarely do damage and the ones that do are both no longer Modified legal and incompatible with
Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND anyway due to restrictions built into the Technical Machine on what kind of Pokemon may use it. With the effect of Space Virus a Technical Machine that theoretically hit for solid damage at a lower price would be amazing.
Usage
I can think of two legitimate uses for this card and both require running Fire Energy acceleration. As stated earlier,
Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND desperately need such acceleration because without it they will almost certainly be KO'd before they can attack or after a single attack that your opponent knows is coming. With the aforementioned Energy acceleration, this card becomes a devastating finisher in the correct decks, namely those featuring
Emboar (
Black & White 20/114) or
Typhlosion (
HeartGold/SoulSilver 110/123,
HGSS Promo HGSS09) "Prime". You will need to run a source of :lightning: Energy as well, which is why I most often hear about this being the finisher for a Magneboar deck (featuring the above
Emboar and
Magnezone (
HS:Triumphant 96/102). You can however merely run actual
Lightning Energy or an alternative source (such as
Rainbow Energy), so any
Emboar or
Typhlosion Prime deck can pull it off.
As a finisher this card is fantastic, even if it requires so much set-up. While you are technically losing if you have taken less Prizes than your opponent, only a handful of cards actually reference the Prize count and it is the in game set-up that determines who is really winning. As such many players don't begin to worry until they lose several Prizes, but everyone knows they have to be at their best if they are down to one Prize. When you can take two Prizes and your opponent doesn't know this, it becomes an advantage since they
should be playing as if they had only a single Prize left. Likewise the threat of this card can be an advantage just because even if you aren't running it (or planning on setting it up), your opponent may jump to their endgame tactics when they just didn't need to, a definite disadvantage for them. If you are fortunate, an opponent may make a careless play or suffer from a poor set-up and you can press for the advantage with
Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND early, but don't count on that as your deck's main strategy.
I'd love to use this in Unlimited, but I cannot in all honesty recommend it even for more casual Unlimited play. In an actual, competitive setting like a tournament you're probably going to just encounter decks that abuse the new Black & White era rules and a variety of old and new cards to win (or at least thoroughly cripple) your opponent first turn, provided you go first. In a more laid back atmosphere you still have to deal with things like the Baby Rule and
Focus Band wasting your attack while leaving
Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND vulnerable.
For Limited play,
please make sure you're using sleeves! Otaku gets light-headed when he sees rare and/or valuable cards being played nude and being destroyed!
The actual value of the card from a strategic point of view is questionable. A Pokemon
LEGEND is amazing if you actually manage to get it out, and my scores assume you always pull the minimum you need to play the card (so cards that are easier to pull functional lines of get a bonus). This set does contain
Legend Box (
HS:Undaunted 75/90), a normal Trainer that can make playing a Pokemon
LEGEND much easier, but which in practice is really only good at it here due to the semi-random nature of it. There are one or two Colorless or Psychic-Type Pokemon that are good enough to see constructed play in this set, and decent amount of Colorless and Psychic Pokemon that are good enough for at least Limited play. If this KOs one of your opponent's Pokemon, you'll take two of your four Prizes. A second shot wins you the match! However you won't be able to attack with it two times in a row and its also worth half the starting Prizes when it is Knocked Out, so ultimately I say "no".
Ratings
Unlimited: 2/10 - Stylish finisher for extremely uncompetitive matches only.
Modified: 6.5/10 - It has a good but not required use in a small group of decks, and is pretty much worthless outside of them, so this is really quite a high score.
Limited: 2/10 - Even assuming you pull both halves, it dictates the rest of your deck and takes as much as it gives.
Summary
This is perhaps the best of the Pokemon
LEGEND cards, and that is because of unintentional (or at least non-specific) support from other cards. Hopefully the
LEGEND Pokemon as a whole can receive some shoring up because I like the idea.
Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND gives us an effect that is probably too powerful to be used anywhere else and can be a devastating drop late game in the right deck.
