Celestial Storm Sceptile Analysis and Rayquaza-GX Deckcrafting

We now have images for several new cards from Japan's SM7 set, Charisma of the Wrecked Sky, and one card in particular, the new Sceptile, may just make Rayquaza a powerhouse in the next format, which Pokemon just announced will be Sun & Moon onward. But for worlds, could Rayquaza-Sceptile-Vikavolt see play? We'll come back to that later, because we first need to look at the new Sceptile

Everyone's Favorite Tree Lizard

So, starting with the basics, it's a grass type with 140 HP, which, for a stage 2 in the Sun & Moon era, is incredibly low, considering most Stage 2s have 160 HP, but you can't have everything be good about a card (Even Gardevoir-GX or Buzzwole-GX, which both have a retreat cost of 2). Speaking of retreat cost, Sceptile has a cost of 1, which makes it much better to get it back onto the bench (Which you will want to do). Of course, being a grass type, it has a weakness to fire, but Turtonator and Ho-Oh are already getting a KO on you, and Volcanion-EX, which would hit you for 130 without weakness, is rotating about 2 weeks after this becomes legal for tournament play, so it could be worse. And, of course, it's a stage 2, and with Forest of Giant Plants being banned in expanded, no matter which format you play, you'll have to rely on Rare Candy to get this up quickly

And getting it up quickly may be incredibly important for any grass deck, as this Sceptile, wierdly enough, is a Buzzwole counter. And that's because of it's ability, which reads:

Ability: Nature Power
Each of your Pokemon with Grass energy attached takes no damage from the attacks of you're opponents Ultra Beasts

At first glance, this seems like an instant 1-of in any deck playing Grass energy. But the question that could stop that idea is if you have room in your deck or not. In a Golisopod-Zoroark deck, maybe? You're playing Zoroark, so it shouldn't be that hard to draw into you're rare candy-sceptile combo, but will you have bench space? In these decks, you generally want an active Golisopod, a benched Golisopod, 2 Zoroarks, a free retreater, and maybe a Tapu Lele if you need it. Unless we get a float stone reprint or you're willing to take up the Lele bench spot, it may not be a good idea for Golisopod-Zoroark to play this, even with just a 1-0-1 line at the minimum.

Now, is there a question that this ability isn't good? HECK NO! This is great! It shuts down Buzzwole decks from their main attacker and forces them to attack with Lycanroc, which isn't the best play sometimes. BuzzGarb should have no problem dealing with this, but Beast Box, Dusk Mane Necrozma, and Ultra Necrozma will also have problems. And while Dusk Mane & Ultra will have backup attackers, Beast Box will be completly locked out, and considering Naganadel is a great Buzzwole counter, Beast Box could very well see a ton of play. And if that's the case, this ability will be able to almost guarentee the win, assuming they don't Guzma up the Sceptile (Then again, you just attach a grass energy to Sceptile and you're ok).

Moving onto the attack, it's actually a decent attacker, with something rather similar to a Pokemon you might want to pair it with...

(G): Powerful Storm: 20x
This attack does 20 damage times the amount of energy attached to your opponent's Pokemon

Against energy heavy decks like BuzzRoc, this is great. Assuming your opponent has 8 energy in play (6 on 2 separate Buzzwoles and 2 on a Lycanroc), you're doing 160 damage, 190 with a choice band, which will get a KO on a Buzzwole or a Lycanroc, which you're hitting for weakness. So with this, you could just attach a grass energy, get you're opponent to have 5 energy on the field, Guzma up a Lycanroc, KO it for 2 prizes, and then you're opponent can't send up another Buzzwole since you have immunity due to you're ability, and then hope they get one more energy onto another Pokemon, put a choice band on Sceptile, and then you're getting a 2HKO without the fear of being return-KOed.

Rayquaza-GX Viability

So now that we know what the new Sceptile does, could it fit into a Rayquaza-GX deck for the Worlds format? Let's see what we can do

First of, we'll start with the core of a Bulu-Vikavolt deck: 3 of the Main Attacker, and a 3-1-3 line of Vikavolt. After this, we'll add a 1-1-1 line of Sceptile. We'll play the Grovyle to make sure we don't rely on Rare Candy to get it going, since we want to use those for the Vikavolt. We need to play a draw engine, and since we need room for the Sceptile, we'll use Oranguru instead of Octillery. And of course, 2 copied of Tapu Lele.

Pokemon:

• 3 Rayquaza-GX
• 3 Grubbin
• 1 Charjabug
• 3 Vikavolt
• 1 Treecko
• 1 Grovyle
• 1 Sceptile
• 1 Oranguru (SUM)
• 1 Oranguru (UPR)
• 2 Tapu Lele-GX

Total: 16

Our main strategy here is simple: We want to get 2 Rayquaza out, Strong Charge energy with Vikavolt, and then be hitting 210 every turn with Rayquaza and a Choice Band.

However, the Ultra Prism Oranguru is a bit wierd, but that's simply to recover awkward discards with Rayquaza.

The energy count is also easy to figure out:

Energy

• 8 Grass Energy
• 5 Lightning Energy

Total: 13

Simply put: We need to be playing as much Grass Energy as possible to use with Sceptile's Ability. For the Trainers, however, it gets a bit dicey as to what to use. The first answers are 4 Candy and 2 Energy Recycler, but after that it gets a bit fishy. However, here's what I think will be the best counts:

Trainers:

• 4 Cynthia
• 3 N
• 1 Lillie
• 2 Skyla
• 3 Guzma
• 3 Ultra Ball
• 2 Heavy Ball
• 4 Rare Candy
• 3 Choice Band
• 2 Energy Recycler
• 2 Super Rod
• 1 Field Blower

Total: 31

We do have some odd choices in here. First, why only 3 Ultra Ball? We play 2 Heavy Ball. After Rotation, 4 Ultra Ball will be the play, but since both Rayquaza and Vikavolt have a retreat of 3, it's handy to have just for extra search options. Lillie also seems odd, but considering you don't want to use a Brigette to grab Rayquaza, since his ability only works coming from your hand, a Turn 1 Lillie is just as effective, while being able to get other cards.

Having both Super Rod and Energy Recycler could be overkill, but since Rayquaza's ability discards cards in order to accelerate the energy, you want to make sure you're deck gets back everything it needs. And finally, 1 Field Blower to deal with Garbodor.

Rayquaza's Acension

Is this the most optimized version of the deck? Absolutely not. Will the archetype see play? Who knows? We'll just have to wait for Worlds to find out.