Moss Factor
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You’ve seen it on the big screen and you’ve seen it in the Yamato marathon; now you too can learn the secrets behind one of the world’s most popular decks, ZRE!
Article Title: ZRE
Author: Matthew J. Moss
Date: October 7th, 2005
Format: Modified, HL-UFO
Latest Set: EX: Unseen Forces
Contact: [email protected]
Discuss: ZRE in Deck Archetype and Standard Strategies Forum
Zapdos ex/Rayquaza ex/Electrode ex
Pokémon: 18
3 Magmar RR
4 Voltorb HL
3 Electrode ex
2 Slugma DX2
2 Magcargo DX1
2 Rayquaza ex DX
2 Zapdos ex
Trainers: 26
4 Mary's Request
4 Rocket's Admin.
4 Poké Ball
2 TV Reporter
2 Lanette's Net Search
4 Battle Frontier
3 Pow! Hand Extension
2 Switch
1 Warp Point
Energy: 16
10 Lightning Energy
6 Fire Energy
Key players:
Electrode ex
Stage 1 Pokémon
90 HP
When Pokémon-ex is knocked out, your opponent takes 2 prizes.
Poké-Power: Extra Energy Bomb: Once during your turn (before your attack), you may discard Electrode ex and all the cards attached to it (this counts as Knocking Out Electrode ex). If you do, search your discard pile for 5 Energy cards and attach them to any of your Pokémon (excluding Pokémon-ex) in any way you like. This power can't be used if Electrode ex is affected by a Special Condition.
[1L] Crush and Burn (30+) You may discard as many Energy cards as you like attached to your Pokémon in play. If you do, this attack does 30 damage plus 20 more damage for each Energy card you discarded.
Weakness: Fighting
Retreat Cost: 2
Description: Electrode ex is the final letter in “ZRE,” however it is by far the most important. Specifically, almost everything about the card is desirable, as we will discuss.
First off, the primary reason to play Electrode ex is because of its Poké-Power, Extra Energy Bomb. This Poké-Power allows you to, at the cost of two prizes, move five basic energy cards from your discard pile to any one of your non-ex Pokémon in play. This allows you to quickly power up the Herculean basic Pokémon ex in your deck that can do massive damage, yet are energy-intensive.
While two prizes seems like a hefty price to pay for merely being set up, the beauty of ZRE is that it takes an inherent weakness and turns it into a dominating strength. Team Rocket Returns was a marvelous set that brought us, among other things, a wide array of cards with a brand-new mechanic: they get better if you have more prizes than your opponents. So in ZRE, you’re able to pump energy into the discard, use Extra Energy Bomb, allow your opponent to draw two prizes, and then unload on them with Pow! Hand Extension and Rocket’s Admin.. One is reminded of the Feraligatr decks from years ago, where often inherent drawbacks in cards like Misty’s Wrath and Secret Mission were turned into advantages by combining them with Feraligatr’s Riptide attack. The same holds true today; this deck has awesome synergy between its Pokémon and its trainers, and you’ll see why soon enough.
Crush and Burn is quite good; an excellent boon for us, considering the fact that Electrode ex is probably playable even without an attack at all! For only two energy, one of which could be supplied by its basic pre-evolution, Voltorb, Electrode ex can attack your opponent for 30 damage plus 20 more damage for every Energy Card you discard from play. Obviously you can see the excellent synergy between Electrode ex and its power: one powers the other up. The fact that there is no limit on how much energy you can discard gives you an amazing tool against any “wall” decks, or decks that build up a heavy hitter that is very difficult to Knock Out (i.e., Dark Steelix, Steelix ex, Scizor ex, etc). By being able to do damage equal to the number of energy in your deck, you always have a solution to nearly any threat your opponent’s may deliver.
The HP is also great. While seemingly not enough for a Stage 1 Pokémon ex, Electrode ex’s HP works to our favor. A very popular gym to combat Pokémon ex is Desert Ruins. This Stadium will do 10 damage at the end of every turn to any Pokémon ex in play with 100 HP or more. Electrode ex is just barely under the bar, which means we can play it before we’re set up and not fear getting significant passive damage from an opponent’s Desert Ruins.
The retreat cost is of no concern, considering we’d typically activate Extra Energy Bomb rather than retreat it, and its weakness is also irrelevant considering that it's not a main attacker and if we’re up against a fighting deck, we simply don’t promote Electrode ex.
Zapdos ex
Basic Pokémon ex
110 HP
When Pokémon-ex is knocked out, your opponent gets 2 prizes.
Poke-Power: Legendary Ascent: Once during your turn, when you put Zapdos ex from your hand onto your bench, you may switch 1 of your Active Pokémon with Zapdos ex. If you do, you may also move any number of basic Lightning Energy cards attached to your Pokémon to Zapdos ex.
[1LL] Electron Crush (50) You may discard an Energy card attached to Zapdos ex. If you do, this attack does 50 damage plus 20 more damage.
Weakness: Lightning
Retreat Cost: 2
Description:
Zapdos ex is the “Z” in ZRE. This powerful Pokémon ex is capable of doing lots of damage quite quickly. Now you may be asking yourself what the big deal is about a Pokémon that can do 50-70 damage tops, especially when it’s a Pokémon ex; why is Zapdos ex so good?
The answer lies not within Electron Crush, which is merely an average attack, however with its Poke-Power, Legendary Ascent. This amazing Poke-Power gives Zapdos ex the ability to be played from the hand an immediately power up from all the energy you have in play. Not only does it work great as a very fast early game attacker, perhaps after using a first turn Recharge with your Voltorb, after using Electrode ex’s Extra Energy Bomb, but it can rescue an attacker or anything that is stuck in the active position you’d rather not have there. This Poke-Power works as a switch effect, in that it gets around status effects as well. Overall Zapdos is a flexible Pokémon, being basic means it can literally come out of nowhere to start doing serious damage, often faster than your opponent expects.
Rayquaza ex
Basic Pokémon ex
HP 100
When Pokémon ex has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.
Poké-Power: Dragon Boost: Once during your turn, when you put Rayquaza ex from your hand onto your Bench, you may move any number of basic Energy cards attached to your Pokémon to Rayquaza ex.
[RL] Spiral Blast (20x) Does 20 damage for each basic Energy card attached to Rayquaza ex.
Weakness: Colorless
Resistance: Water -30, Fighting –30
Rayquaza ex is quite possibly the most powerful attacker in the deck. Perhaps even the entire modified format. Once again we have an extremely tough Basic Pokémon ex that is accented by a Poké-Power. It is because of all the Powers in this deck that it works, and with the rotation of Muk ex, we should be safe to use them all.
Dragon Boost allows you, congruent with Legendary Ascent, to move energy cards to Rayquaza ex when you play it from your hand. The only differences are that 1) you cannot switch it automatically with your active, and 2) you can move any type of basic energy to Rayquaza ex (you aren’t limited to Lightning energy). Obviously one can see how this Pokémon ex can get quite powerful, quite quickly when played immediately after an Extra Energy Bomb from Electrode ex. Simply “blow up” Electrode ex when you have five or more energy in your discard pile (not necessary, but preferred), drop Rayquaza ex, activate Dragon Boost, and swing away.
Spiral Blast can do damage limited only to how much energy you play in the deck, and often a Rayquaza ex, once powered up by an Extra Energy Bomb, has the staying power to KO an opponent’s entire deck in successive turns. An amazingly tough Pokémon-ex.
Its weakness is becoming less of an issue with the decline of Dark Dragonite’s popularity. People would often tech in a Crystal Shard to deal with Pokémon with a Colorless weakness, however currently the only playable deck that contains a Pokémon with such weakness is ZRE, and most players don’t like teching for one deck that only plays two copies of that card. So as time goes on, the weakness becomes less and less of a factor.
Rayquaza also sports two excellent resistances, giving you an edge vs. Medicham ex, Ludicolo, Nidoqueen, and many other excellent Pokémon.
More into the deck…
Getting set up is critical, and there are two ways of starting the game off, usually decided randomly by whichever opener you draw.
If you draw Voltorb, your main objective is to get out an Electrode ex as fast as possible and start applying significant pressure to your opponent. Once Electrode ex starts getting some heat, you can simply “blow it up,” and activate a Zapdos ex or Rayquaza ex.
If you draw Magmar, your best play is to use its attack Dump and Draw to not only get energy into your discard pile in preparation for Extra Energy Bomb, but to draw lots of cards! After a couple of four-energy Dump and Draws, combined with some supporter draw, you should be able to be set up quite quickly.
Those supporters that aid you are Rocket’s Admin., Mary’s Request, TV Reporter, and Lanette’s Net Search. Rocket’s Admin. allows you to not only disrupt your opponent, but, especially early game, gives you a brand new hand! There are also other killer uses of this card, which we will discuss later. Mary’s Request allows you to draw three cards if we have no Stage 2 Pokémon in play, and since this deck runs zero Stage 2 Pokémon, I’m fairly certain that means we’re always going to be drawing three cards. The same is true with TV Reporter, which, despite its ability to discard more energy for Extra Energy Bomb, is not as good as Mary’s Request. We simply have enough energy-discarding effects in the deck, and often you won’t have, for example, four energy in hand to 1) play the energy for your turn, 2) discard an energy with TV Reporter, and 3) discard two energy for Dump and Draw. Despite the fact that Mary’s Request is superior, TV Reporter is an extremely good card, and there are many times where you’ll want to be discarding energy. Both TV Reporter and Mary’s Request work famously with Magcargo’s Smooth Over, as well. Lanette’s Net Search is great because we play exactly three different types of Basic Pokémon in this deck: Fire, Lightning, and Colorless, allowing us to maximize Lanette’s Net Search’s effects. Considering the fact that cards such as Great Ball do not allow us to retrieve Pokémon ex out of our deck, and Lanette’s Net Search does, you can quickly see how this is a powerful card in getting Zapdos ex and Rayquaza ex into our hand.
Another excellent search card is Poké Ball. For a flip, you can search out and grab any Pokémon in the deck you desire, including Pokémon ex. This card can be used to get Magcargo (which will subsequently get the rest of what you need), Electrode ex for a fast assault, or really just any Pokémon in the deck you happen to need.
You may be thinking, “But Matthew ‘Moss Factor’ Moss, I know you’re approximately sixty times better than both Martin Moreno and myself at the game, however Poké Ball is a flip! Why not play cards like Master Ball, which can get you at least something a higher percentage of the time.” The reason this thinking is flawed is because typically there is only one Pokémon in the deck that you want.
“Let's assume that all 3 remain in the deck and there are x total cards remaining in the deck. That means there are xC7 ways to pick any 7 cards out of the deck and (x-3)C7 ways to pick any 7 cards that don't have the desired card in them.
That means there's a (x-3)C7/xC7 chance of not drawing the card in there. We just have to take one minus whatever that number is to get the odds of actually getting the card we want.
The way it works out is that you have to have 34 or less cards (including the 3 themselves) remaining for Master Ball to be more consistent in getting the card we want.
That's not even taking into account the scenarios when 1 or more are prized, which happens about 27% of times, which would make Poké Ball even better.”
Special thanks to Matthew Toeniskoetter and the rest of Team Allah for help with the math.
So you can obviously see that, when searching for a particular card, Poké Ball is specifically superior if you have 35 or more cards in your deck, which you will during the critical “set-up” stage that occurs during the first few turns of the game. The only exceptions are 1) when you’re setting up and will basically take anything you can get, as long as its something (however you’ll often just rather have a Magcargo to do that for you), and 2) when you have a Magcargo in play, you can Smooth Over and then play Master Ball and get that Pokémon you searched for. (however you’ll often have a Mary’s Request or TV Reporter to get that card for you).
These situations are specialized, in my opinion, and that is why I feel Poké Ball is superior to Master Ball.
Magcargo is more of a search card than anything. Once in play, it can serve as a secondary attacker, along with Magmar, against anything like a Shuckle or Ninetails, and both are effective attackers against the very popular Scizor ex. Upon the advice of Josue Rojano, I have reverted back to the DX2 or “Collect” Slugma. With the three “switch effect” cards I use plus Zapdos ex, a stellar attack and combined with the added HP, I feel that this Slugma is superior to the new Unseen Forces version. The reason for this is that you aren’t susceptible to the 2nd turn loss to something that can do a quick 40 damage, such as Pidgeot, Scizor ex, or anything else. Unlike Voltorb, which you don’t mind evolving into Electrode ex to keep you safe from a quick loss, having an active-position Magcargo is a serious detriment to your deck’s setup ability.
Battle Frontier is a great card for two primary reasons: 1) the Stadium is amazing in shutting down some of the most popular Pokémon in the game: Pidgeot, Scizor ex, and, soon, the many half-metal types being released in Delta Species; and 2) the gym is a strong counter to Desert Ruins.
As discussed earlier, Desert Ruins can become a real liability to the health of cards like Zapdos ex and Rayquaza ex. Often times you will strike so hard and fast, that your opponent has no way to deal with your attackers. Thus we cannot let them whittle away half or more of our HP while getting a threat going that can deal with our ex powerhouse. Battle Frontier is key in stopping Desert Ruins.
One of the main weaknesses of ZRE is inconsistent starts. The fact that ZRE plays four Basic Pokémon ex lends itself to the fact that quite often your starts are going to be less than desirable. Since these Basic Pokémon ex have a two retreat cost and have powers that work only when played from your hand, you’d rather not start with either Zapdos ex or Rayquaza ex as your opening active Pokémon if at all possible.
However, it is inevitable that this is going to happen. So as a result, I advocate the use of three cards that have “switch effects,” in that they can change who your active Pokémon is. Switch and Warp Point have different purposes, but both remove a Pokémon from your active position. I run the two different cards because there are many situations where one will be better than the other, but many more situations where its irrelevant which one you use.
However the “switch effect” cards are not limited to just getting rid of a game-opening Pokémon ex. They can also be used to 1) remove any active Pokémon that you don’t want active, such as Magcargo or Slugma, which have extraneous retreat costs you wouldn’t want to waste the energy on, and 2) remove your Pokémon from the active position after using Rayquaza ex’s Dragon Boost. Since this Poké-Power can only move energy to Rayquaza ex, you still have to retreat whatever active Pokémon you have, which won’t be Rayquaza ex, since you need to move energy from Extra Energy Bomb onto a non-ex Pokémon, then play Rayquaza ex from your hand. You cannot play Rayquaza ex and then use Extra Energy Bomb and move energy onto Rayquaza ex from your discard pile. Thus if you have a Pokémon with a high retreat cost active, you’d rather not burn all that energy retreating it when it can be used to do more damage with Spiral Blast. Thus, with a “switch effect” card, you’re able to move all the energy onto Rayquaza ex, then switch the active for Rayquaza ex and do a lot of damage, turn over turn.
The Killer Combo
The most powerful combo, perhaps in the game, as touched on earlier, is combing the trainers with the powerful powers the deck offers to put your opponent on a very short clock. Here’s how things work: once you get enough energy cards in your discard pile, either through Crush and Burn, Dump and Draw, TV Reporter, retreating, or any other method, you use Extra Energy Bomb. This lets your opponent draw two prizes. Since you now have more prize cards than your opponent, you’re free to use Pow! Hand Extension, perhaps multiple times, to promote their strongest Pokémon. Next you play either Zapdos ex or Rayquaza ex (preferably Rayquaza ex, however Zapdos ex allows for added flexibility), and then play a crushing Rocket’s Admin.. The combo works best when you use Pow! Hand Extension on your opponent’s Pidgeot, and then Rocket’s Admin. them down to, at the most, four cards. This not only eliminates their primary search engine, but it reduces their hand to rubble. When faced with losing a main draw tool and getting their hand massacred, most players don’t know what to do. The fact of the matter is: there isn’t much they can do. If they do happen to find a threat that can handle your Pokémon ex, you can drop another and move the energy to the second, or simply “blow up” another Electrode ex, prizes permitting, and do the combo again, this time giving them even less cards with Rocket’s Admin.. There are many powerful combos in this deck, which you’ll soon discover upon playing it.
Conclusions
A powerhouse in the last modified format, this deck was piloted by Go Miyamoto to an 8-0 swiss record and by Matt Yuen to a 7-1 record, only losing to Go in the last round of swiss. Obviously running the gauntlet like that at worlds is no simple task. And the deck is looking to become even better in the future with cards like Mew ex and others around the corner in coming sets. Look for ZRE to be doing well, if not winning, many tournaments in the coming season. The question isn’t whether or not its going to win, its whether you’re going to be the one winning with it, or not.
NOTE: This was written approx. one month ago, and as such this doesn't take into effect the changes Delta Series presents. Possible changes could include the addition of Dual Ball. These changes will have to be tested first. Reason as to why Poke Ball is superior are in that it gives you direct search for Magcargo and Electrode ex. Further testing is required on the part of any player, and I feel that changing the list because of Delta Series is irrelevant as the newer sets will force more and more changes; this represents a snapshot of the deck in time. Good luck.
Discuss: ZRE in Deck Archetype and Standard Strategies Forum
Article Title: ZRE
Author: Matthew J. Moss
Date: October 7th, 2005
Format: Modified, HL-UFO
Latest Set: EX: Unseen Forces
Contact: [email protected]
Discuss: ZRE in Deck Archetype and Standard Strategies Forum
Zapdos ex/Rayquaza ex/Electrode ex
Pokémon: 18
3 Magmar RR
4 Voltorb HL
3 Electrode ex
2 Slugma DX2
2 Magcargo DX1
2 Rayquaza ex DX
2 Zapdos ex
Trainers: 26
4 Mary's Request
4 Rocket's Admin.
4 Poké Ball
2 TV Reporter
2 Lanette's Net Search
4 Battle Frontier
3 Pow! Hand Extension
2 Switch
1 Warp Point
Energy: 16
10 Lightning Energy
6 Fire Energy
Key players:
Electrode ex
Stage 1 Pokémon
90 HP
When Pokémon-ex is knocked out, your opponent takes 2 prizes.
Poké-Power: Extra Energy Bomb: Once during your turn (before your attack), you may discard Electrode ex and all the cards attached to it (this counts as Knocking Out Electrode ex). If you do, search your discard pile for 5 Energy cards and attach them to any of your Pokémon (excluding Pokémon-ex) in any way you like. This power can't be used if Electrode ex is affected by a Special Condition.
[1L] Crush and Burn (30+) You may discard as many Energy cards as you like attached to your Pokémon in play. If you do, this attack does 30 damage plus 20 more damage for each Energy card you discarded.
Weakness: Fighting
Retreat Cost: 2
Description: Electrode ex is the final letter in “ZRE,” however it is by far the most important. Specifically, almost everything about the card is desirable, as we will discuss.
First off, the primary reason to play Electrode ex is because of its Poké-Power, Extra Energy Bomb. This Poké-Power allows you to, at the cost of two prizes, move five basic energy cards from your discard pile to any one of your non-ex Pokémon in play. This allows you to quickly power up the Herculean basic Pokémon ex in your deck that can do massive damage, yet are energy-intensive.
While two prizes seems like a hefty price to pay for merely being set up, the beauty of ZRE is that it takes an inherent weakness and turns it into a dominating strength. Team Rocket Returns was a marvelous set that brought us, among other things, a wide array of cards with a brand-new mechanic: they get better if you have more prizes than your opponents. So in ZRE, you’re able to pump energy into the discard, use Extra Energy Bomb, allow your opponent to draw two prizes, and then unload on them with Pow! Hand Extension and Rocket’s Admin.. One is reminded of the Feraligatr decks from years ago, where often inherent drawbacks in cards like Misty’s Wrath and Secret Mission were turned into advantages by combining them with Feraligatr’s Riptide attack. The same holds true today; this deck has awesome synergy between its Pokémon and its trainers, and you’ll see why soon enough.
Crush and Burn is quite good; an excellent boon for us, considering the fact that Electrode ex is probably playable even without an attack at all! For only two energy, one of which could be supplied by its basic pre-evolution, Voltorb, Electrode ex can attack your opponent for 30 damage plus 20 more damage for every Energy Card you discard from play. Obviously you can see the excellent synergy between Electrode ex and its power: one powers the other up. The fact that there is no limit on how much energy you can discard gives you an amazing tool against any “wall” decks, or decks that build up a heavy hitter that is very difficult to Knock Out (i.e., Dark Steelix, Steelix ex, Scizor ex, etc). By being able to do damage equal to the number of energy in your deck, you always have a solution to nearly any threat your opponent’s may deliver.
The HP is also great. While seemingly not enough for a Stage 1 Pokémon ex, Electrode ex’s HP works to our favor. A very popular gym to combat Pokémon ex is Desert Ruins. This Stadium will do 10 damage at the end of every turn to any Pokémon ex in play with 100 HP or more. Electrode ex is just barely under the bar, which means we can play it before we’re set up and not fear getting significant passive damage from an opponent’s Desert Ruins.
The retreat cost is of no concern, considering we’d typically activate Extra Energy Bomb rather than retreat it, and its weakness is also irrelevant considering that it's not a main attacker and if we’re up against a fighting deck, we simply don’t promote Electrode ex.
Zapdos ex
Basic Pokémon ex
110 HP
When Pokémon-ex is knocked out, your opponent gets 2 prizes.
Poke-Power: Legendary Ascent: Once during your turn, when you put Zapdos ex from your hand onto your bench, you may switch 1 of your Active Pokémon with Zapdos ex. If you do, you may also move any number of basic Lightning Energy cards attached to your Pokémon to Zapdos ex.
[1LL] Electron Crush (50) You may discard an Energy card attached to Zapdos ex. If you do, this attack does 50 damage plus 20 more damage.
Weakness: Lightning
Retreat Cost: 2
Description:
Zapdos ex is the “Z” in ZRE. This powerful Pokémon ex is capable of doing lots of damage quite quickly. Now you may be asking yourself what the big deal is about a Pokémon that can do 50-70 damage tops, especially when it’s a Pokémon ex; why is Zapdos ex so good?
The answer lies not within Electron Crush, which is merely an average attack, however with its Poke-Power, Legendary Ascent. This amazing Poke-Power gives Zapdos ex the ability to be played from the hand an immediately power up from all the energy you have in play. Not only does it work great as a very fast early game attacker, perhaps after using a first turn Recharge with your Voltorb, after using Electrode ex’s Extra Energy Bomb, but it can rescue an attacker or anything that is stuck in the active position you’d rather not have there. This Poke-Power works as a switch effect, in that it gets around status effects as well. Overall Zapdos is a flexible Pokémon, being basic means it can literally come out of nowhere to start doing serious damage, often faster than your opponent expects.
Rayquaza ex
Basic Pokémon ex
HP 100
When Pokémon ex has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.
Poké-Power: Dragon Boost: Once during your turn, when you put Rayquaza ex from your hand onto your Bench, you may move any number of basic Energy cards attached to your Pokémon to Rayquaza ex.
[RL] Spiral Blast (20x) Does 20 damage for each basic Energy card attached to Rayquaza ex.
Weakness: Colorless
Resistance: Water -30, Fighting –30
Rayquaza ex is quite possibly the most powerful attacker in the deck. Perhaps even the entire modified format. Once again we have an extremely tough Basic Pokémon ex that is accented by a Poké-Power. It is because of all the Powers in this deck that it works, and with the rotation of Muk ex, we should be safe to use them all.
Dragon Boost allows you, congruent with Legendary Ascent, to move energy cards to Rayquaza ex when you play it from your hand. The only differences are that 1) you cannot switch it automatically with your active, and 2) you can move any type of basic energy to Rayquaza ex (you aren’t limited to Lightning energy). Obviously one can see how this Pokémon ex can get quite powerful, quite quickly when played immediately after an Extra Energy Bomb from Electrode ex. Simply “blow up” Electrode ex when you have five or more energy in your discard pile (not necessary, but preferred), drop Rayquaza ex, activate Dragon Boost, and swing away.
Spiral Blast can do damage limited only to how much energy you play in the deck, and often a Rayquaza ex, once powered up by an Extra Energy Bomb, has the staying power to KO an opponent’s entire deck in successive turns. An amazingly tough Pokémon-ex.
Its weakness is becoming less of an issue with the decline of Dark Dragonite’s popularity. People would often tech in a Crystal Shard to deal with Pokémon with a Colorless weakness, however currently the only playable deck that contains a Pokémon with such weakness is ZRE, and most players don’t like teching for one deck that only plays two copies of that card. So as time goes on, the weakness becomes less and less of a factor.
Rayquaza also sports two excellent resistances, giving you an edge vs. Medicham ex, Ludicolo, Nidoqueen, and many other excellent Pokémon.
More into the deck…
Getting set up is critical, and there are two ways of starting the game off, usually decided randomly by whichever opener you draw.
If you draw Voltorb, your main objective is to get out an Electrode ex as fast as possible and start applying significant pressure to your opponent. Once Electrode ex starts getting some heat, you can simply “blow it up,” and activate a Zapdos ex or Rayquaza ex.
If you draw Magmar, your best play is to use its attack Dump and Draw to not only get energy into your discard pile in preparation for Extra Energy Bomb, but to draw lots of cards! After a couple of four-energy Dump and Draws, combined with some supporter draw, you should be able to be set up quite quickly.
Those supporters that aid you are Rocket’s Admin., Mary’s Request, TV Reporter, and Lanette’s Net Search. Rocket’s Admin. allows you to not only disrupt your opponent, but, especially early game, gives you a brand new hand! There are also other killer uses of this card, which we will discuss later. Mary’s Request allows you to draw three cards if we have no Stage 2 Pokémon in play, and since this deck runs zero Stage 2 Pokémon, I’m fairly certain that means we’re always going to be drawing three cards. The same is true with TV Reporter, which, despite its ability to discard more energy for Extra Energy Bomb, is not as good as Mary’s Request. We simply have enough energy-discarding effects in the deck, and often you won’t have, for example, four energy in hand to 1) play the energy for your turn, 2) discard an energy with TV Reporter, and 3) discard two energy for Dump and Draw. Despite the fact that Mary’s Request is superior, TV Reporter is an extremely good card, and there are many times where you’ll want to be discarding energy. Both TV Reporter and Mary’s Request work famously with Magcargo’s Smooth Over, as well. Lanette’s Net Search is great because we play exactly three different types of Basic Pokémon in this deck: Fire, Lightning, and Colorless, allowing us to maximize Lanette’s Net Search’s effects. Considering the fact that cards such as Great Ball do not allow us to retrieve Pokémon ex out of our deck, and Lanette’s Net Search does, you can quickly see how this is a powerful card in getting Zapdos ex and Rayquaza ex into our hand.
Another excellent search card is Poké Ball. For a flip, you can search out and grab any Pokémon in the deck you desire, including Pokémon ex. This card can be used to get Magcargo (which will subsequently get the rest of what you need), Electrode ex for a fast assault, or really just any Pokémon in the deck you happen to need.
You may be thinking, “But Matthew ‘Moss Factor’ Moss, I know you’re approximately sixty times better than both Martin Moreno and myself at the game, however Poké Ball is a flip! Why not play cards like Master Ball, which can get you at least something a higher percentage of the time.” The reason this thinking is flawed is because typically there is only one Pokémon in the deck that you want.
“Let's assume that all 3 remain in the deck and there are x total cards remaining in the deck. That means there are xC7 ways to pick any 7 cards out of the deck and (x-3)C7 ways to pick any 7 cards that don't have the desired card in them.
That means there's a (x-3)C7/xC7 chance of not drawing the card in there. We just have to take one minus whatever that number is to get the odds of actually getting the card we want.
The way it works out is that you have to have 34 or less cards (including the 3 themselves) remaining for Master Ball to be more consistent in getting the card we want.
That's not even taking into account the scenarios when 1 or more are prized, which happens about 27% of times, which would make Poké Ball even better.”
Special thanks to Matthew Toeniskoetter and the rest of Team Allah for help with the math.
So you can obviously see that, when searching for a particular card, Poké Ball is specifically superior if you have 35 or more cards in your deck, which you will during the critical “set-up” stage that occurs during the first few turns of the game. The only exceptions are 1) when you’re setting up and will basically take anything you can get, as long as its something (however you’ll often just rather have a Magcargo to do that for you), and 2) when you have a Magcargo in play, you can Smooth Over and then play Master Ball and get that Pokémon you searched for. (however you’ll often have a Mary’s Request or TV Reporter to get that card for you).
These situations are specialized, in my opinion, and that is why I feel Poké Ball is superior to Master Ball.
Magcargo is more of a search card than anything. Once in play, it can serve as a secondary attacker, along with Magmar, against anything like a Shuckle or Ninetails, and both are effective attackers against the very popular Scizor ex. Upon the advice of Josue Rojano, I have reverted back to the DX2 or “Collect” Slugma. With the three “switch effect” cards I use plus Zapdos ex, a stellar attack and combined with the added HP, I feel that this Slugma is superior to the new Unseen Forces version. The reason for this is that you aren’t susceptible to the 2nd turn loss to something that can do a quick 40 damage, such as Pidgeot, Scizor ex, or anything else. Unlike Voltorb, which you don’t mind evolving into Electrode ex to keep you safe from a quick loss, having an active-position Magcargo is a serious detriment to your deck’s setup ability.
Battle Frontier is a great card for two primary reasons: 1) the Stadium is amazing in shutting down some of the most popular Pokémon in the game: Pidgeot, Scizor ex, and, soon, the many half-metal types being released in Delta Species; and 2) the gym is a strong counter to Desert Ruins.
As discussed earlier, Desert Ruins can become a real liability to the health of cards like Zapdos ex and Rayquaza ex. Often times you will strike so hard and fast, that your opponent has no way to deal with your attackers. Thus we cannot let them whittle away half or more of our HP while getting a threat going that can deal with our ex powerhouse. Battle Frontier is key in stopping Desert Ruins.
One of the main weaknesses of ZRE is inconsistent starts. The fact that ZRE plays four Basic Pokémon ex lends itself to the fact that quite often your starts are going to be less than desirable. Since these Basic Pokémon ex have a two retreat cost and have powers that work only when played from your hand, you’d rather not start with either Zapdos ex or Rayquaza ex as your opening active Pokémon if at all possible.
However, it is inevitable that this is going to happen. So as a result, I advocate the use of three cards that have “switch effects,” in that they can change who your active Pokémon is. Switch and Warp Point have different purposes, but both remove a Pokémon from your active position. I run the two different cards because there are many situations where one will be better than the other, but many more situations where its irrelevant which one you use.
However the “switch effect” cards are not limited to just getting rid of a game-opening Pokémon ex. They can also be used to 1) remove any active Pokémon that you don’t want active, such as Magcargo or Slugma, which have extraneous retreat costs you wouldn’t want to waste the energy on, and 2) remove your Pokémon from the active position after using Rayquaza ex’s Dragon Boost. Since this Poké-Power can only move energy to Rayquaza ex, you still have to retreat whatever active Pokémon you have, which won’t be Rayquaza ex, since you need to move energy from Extra Energy Bomb onto a non-ex Pokémon, then play Rayquaza ex from your hand. You cannot play Rayquaza ex and then use Extra Energy Bomb and move energy onto Rayquaza ex from your discard pile. Thus if you have a Pokémon with a high retreat cost active, you’d rather not burn all that energy retreating it when it can be used to do more damage with Spiral Blast. Thus, with a “switch effect” card, you’re able to move all the energy onto Rayquaza ex, then switch the active for Rayquaza ex and do a lot of damage, turn over turn.
The Killer Combo
The most powerful combo, perhaps in the game, as touched on earlier, is combing the trainers with the powerful powers the deck offers to put your opponent on a very short clock. Here’s how things work: once you get enough energy cards in your discard pile, either through Crush and Burn, Dump and Draw, TV Reporter, retreating, or any other method, you use Extra Energy Bomb. This lets your opponent draw two prizes. Since you now have more prize cards than your opponent, you’re free to use Pow! Hand Extension, perhaps multiple times, to promote their strongest Pokémon. Next you play either Zapdos ex or Rayquaza ex (preferably Rayquaza ex, however Zapdos ex allows for added flexibility), and then play a crushing Rocket’s Admin.. The combo works best when you use Pow! Hand Extension on your opponent’s Pidgeot, and then Rocket’s Admin. them down to, at the most, four cards. This not only eliminates their primary search engine, but it reduces their hand to rubble. When faced with losing a main draw tool and getting their hand massacred, most players don’t know what to do. The fact of the matter is: there isn’t much they can do. If they do happen to find a threat that can handle your Pokémon ex, you can drop another and move the energy to the second, or simply “blow up” another Electrode ex, prizes permitting, and do the combo again, this time giving them even less cards with Rocket’s Admin.. There are many powerful combos in this deck, which you’ll soon discover upon playing it.
Conclusions
A powerhouse in the last modified format, this deck was piloted by Go Miyamoto to an 8-0 swiss record and by Matt Yuen to a 7-1 record, only losing to Go in the last round of swiss. Obviously running the gauntlet like that at worlds is no simple task. And the deck is looking to become even better in the future with cards like Mew ex and others around the corner in coming sets. Look for ZRE to be doing well, if not winning, many tournaments in the coming season. The question isn’t whether or not its going to win, its whether you’re going to be the one winning with it, or not.
NOTE: This was written approx. one month ago, and as such this doesn't take into effect the changes Delta Series presents. Possible changes could include the addition of Dual Ball. These changes will have to be tested first. Reason as to why Poke Ball is superior are in that it gives you direct search for Magcargo and Electrode ex. Further testing is required on the part of any player, and I feel that changing the list because of Delta Series is irrelevant as the newer sets will force more and more changes; this represents a snapshot of the deck in time. Good luck.
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