Rayquaza-GX Leak Confirmed and Stakataka-GX Analysis

Well, that wasn't that long of a wait. We now have images (Albeit very blurry ones, but still readable) for Rayquaza-GX and Stakataka-GX, and both could find a place in the metagame once they hit in august in Celestial Storm.

Rayquaza-GX Leak Confirmed

As previously mentioned, Rayquaza-GX was leaked, but now we have confirmation the leak was true. The card now reads as follows:

(Basic) Rayquaza-GX (180 HP) (Dragon)

Ability: Storm & Stress

When you play this card from your hand onto your bench, you may discard the top 3 cards of your deck, then attach a basic energy from your discard pile to this Pokemon

(G)(L)(C): Dragon Break: 30x

This attack does 30 Damage for each basic Lightning and Grass energy attached to all of your Pokemon

(G): Tempest GX

Discard your hand and draw 7 cards. (You can't use more than 1 GX attack in a game)

Weakness: Fairy    Resistance: N/A

Retreat: (C)(C)(C)

So, minus the ability and attack names being different, everything's the same. YAY! But now for Stakataka.

Another Brick in the Wall

So, Stakataka-GX. For starters, it's a Basic Metal Pokemon, which gives you access to Max Elixir and Fighting Fury belt for the short time that both Stakataka and those 2 cards are going to be standard legal, and you get Registeel and Magnezone to accelerate energy. However, being a metal Pokemon means you have that crippling Fire Weakness, but you have a resistance to Psychic, which could be important since Buzzwole just overthrew Zoroark as King of the Format. And finally, you have a retreat cost of 3, which does allow you to use Heavy Ball, but, like mentioned with Max Elixir and Fighting Fury Belt, only for a couple of weeks.

It also, unsuprisingly, has the "Ultra Beast" label, which gives it access to Ultra Space to search it out, as well as beast ring to accelerate energy (Albeit, maybe you don't want to do that). You can discard it to use Ultra Recon Squad, and if you play it with Naganadel, Stakataka boosts Naganadel's damage output.

As for the attacks and ability, the main attack is the least exciting. 

(M)(M)(C): Gigaton Stomp: 120

That's it. OK, it does get a 1HKO on a Gardevoir or a Sylveon, but those have really dropped off the radar since Buzzwole and Zoroark became relevant. And, not only that, but you're not able to knock out many key "Baby" Pokemon like Buzzwole and Volcanion.

So, it's an OK attacker, but nothing special. But the Ability is where it's at.

Ability: Ultra Wall

Any damage done to your Ultra Beasts is reduced by 10 (After applying Weakness and Resistance)

This is nuts. The best use I can think of for this is in a Beast Box deck. So many Pokemon like Ultra Necrozma can easily hit 210 and take a 1HKO on a Naganadel, but if you have a Stakataka on the bench, the Ultra Necrozma player will have to get another energy to get the KO. And with Buzzwole, if something like an Alolan Ninetales comes up with a Choice Band and hits you for 190, if you have Stakataka, they'll only be hitting for 180. And here's the thing: This ability stacks. So you have 2 Stakataka in play, your Buzzwole essentially have 210 HP. Let me make this clear: This ability is great. It's not crazy nuts like Zoroark, but in a Beast Box deck, this could be an instant 2-of. 

And finally we have the GX attack. Stop me if you've heard this one before:

(M)(M)(C): Assembly GX: 50+

This attack does 50 damage more damage for each Prize Card you've taken. (You can't use more than 1 GX attack in a game)

At first glance, this seems like a carbon copy of Pheromosa-GX's GX attack.

But there's one key difference: Stakataka does 50 MORE for each taken, and has a base damage of 50, where as with Pheromosa, the damage is multiplied, so if you've take no prizes, you do no damage. So, unlike Pheromosa, who's hitting minimum 0 a max 250 damage, Stakataka's hitting minimum 50 with max 300. However, the best example I could think of for why Stakataka is better, that being able to KO a Wailord-EX with a Fury Belt, isn't actually a good scenario, since Pheromosa hits Wailord for Weakness. So is the GX attack good? Yes, but not in every scenario. In a beast box deck, I'd still use Naganadel over this most of the time.

 Overall, here's what the card looks like for stats & attacks:

Ability: Ultra Wall

Any damage done to your Ultra Beasts is reduced by 10 (After applying Weakness and Resistance)

(M)(M)(C): Gigaton Stomp: 120

(M)(M)(C): Assembly GX: 50+

This attack does 50 damage more damage for each Prize Card you've taken. (You can't use more than 1 GX attack in a game)

Weakness: Fire    Resistance: Psychic

Retreat: (C)(C)(C)

Overall, Stakataka will probably see niece play in Beast Box decks, but Rayquaza/Vikavolt could be a
legit option in the meta. But we'll have to wait till Worlds weekend to see if that happens.