Beginner's RayBoar Build

[Rayquaza.]

I'm Rayquaza.. I'm a game developer so have most likely never been seen around this section.
I'm fairly new to the TCG in terms of understanding the rules although I've been collecting cards from the Pokémon TCG since forever. So I thought I'd post the deck I put together to start off, it's my take on the RayBoar build; focusing mainly on getting as many fire energy onto Rayquaza EX to inflict massive damage.

Deck:

Spoiler:

Pokémon (16):
3 Rayquaza EX
2 Reshiram EX
1 Rayquaza
1 Emolga
4 Tepig
1 Pignite
4 Emboar

Trainers (30):
4 Professor Juniper
3 N
2 Colress
1 Skyla
1 Professor's Letter
3 Pokémon Catcher
4 Superior Energy Retrieval
2 Energy Retrieval
2 Energy Search
4 Rare Candy
2 Level Ball
2 Ultra Ball

Energy (14):
10 Fire Energy
4 Electric Energy

Any constructive critique on this deck would be great but there are good reasons behind all the card choices.

Previous Edits:
-2 Great Ball, +2 Ultra Ball
-1 Pokémon Catcher, +1 Skyla
-1 Energy Search, +1 Professor's Letter
-2 Cheren, +2 Colress
-2 Minccino, +1 Emolga

 

[Profen]

okay not too bad. Decent amount of supporters, though you need more.

Main thing is you need skyla. Skyla allows for you to grab any trainer card from your deck. With so many key trainer cards, you want at least 3 of them. This card can help you get turn 2 Emboar, that superior energy retrieval you need. Actually make use of energy search. Which by it self is a terrible card.

Level Balls are good. However great balls are not. Change the great ball to Ultra ball. heres why. Say in your hand you have a rare candy, an ultra ball, Juniper, and a professors letter. You want to get that emboar out but you have to sacrifice your entire hand to do so. But instead you play professors letter, grabbing 2 energy cards from the deck, then you use ultraball and discard the 2 energy cards and grab an emboar. After that you rare candy to emboar and play the Juniper. With 4 Superior energy you probably get 1, discard 2 cards grab 4 energy from discard and murder w/e is in the active with Rayquaza ex.

Also take out energy search, instead add in professor's letter. Its at least twice the better card for one huge reason. It allows you to grab 2 energy instead of just one from the deck. Emboar allows you to drop multiple energy per turn. Maybe 2 in the deck is enough. I dont suggest anymore than that.

Drop the 2 Minccino, i dont even know why you have that. This deck only needs emboar , ray, and some non ex attacker.

Either way my supporter suggestion that always works for me is. 4 N, 4 Juniper, 3 skyla, and 1 extra, bianca for me.

More suggestions if you like. Let me know.

 

[Rayquaza.]

okay not too bad. Decent amount of supporters, though you need more.

Main thing is you need skyla. Skyla allows for you to grab any trainer card from your deck. With so many key trainer cards, you want at least 3 of them. This card can help you get turn 2 Emboar, that superior energy retrieval you need. Actually make use of energy search. Which by it self is a terrible card.

Level Balls are good. However great balls are not. Change the great ball to Ultra ball. heres why. Say in your hand you have a rare candy, an ultra ball, Juniper, and a professors letter. You want to get that emboar out but you have to sacrifice your entire hand to do so. But instead you play professors letter, grabbing 2 energy cards from the deck, then you use ultraball and discard the 2 energy cards and grab an emboar. After that you rare candy to emboar and play the Juniper. With 4 Superior energy you probably get 1, discard 2 cards grab 4 energy from discard and murder w/e is in the active with Rayquaza ex.

Also take out energy search, instead add in professor's letter. Its at least twice the better card for one huge reason. It allows you to grab 2 energy instead of just one from the deck. Emboar allows you to drop multiple energy per turn. Maybe 2 in the deck is enough. I dont suggest anymore than that.

Drop the 2 Minccino, i dont even know why you have that. This deck only needs emboar , ray, and some non ex attacker.

Either way my supporter suggestion that always works for me is. 4 N, 4 Juniper, 3 skyla, and 1 extra, bianca for me.

More suggestions if you like. Let me know.

Ok, I think I understand why Skyla is important now. Since I'm a competitive Yu-Gi-Oh player this obviously doesn't help when thinking about the importance of deck structures in other card games.

I'll obviously need to get my hands on a Skyla first but will make changes to the list here, the Minccinos are there because they have the "Call for Family" attack which searches 1 Basic Pokémon from your deck to your bench. I could replace it with an Emolga that has the same attack that searches 2 basics instead but I'm keeping this within a budget currently until I get into the swing of things.

-2 Great Ball, +2 Ultra Ball
-1 Pokémon Catcher, +1 Skyla
-1 Energy Search, +1 Professor's Letter

 

[Profen]

I dont see the importance of call for family to be honest. You cant attack turn 1. So by turn 2 you are using it and that means you can only ever get a turn 3 emboar at the fastest if you want to start with that pokemon.

When you could attack while going first then yes, its a decent start for decks that need it like empoleon. But just take it out. Trust me.

If all you have are tepig and rayquaza, and rayquaza ex. Then you have to start with one of them. Making it easier to get started.

Check out this video by a really good and smart player. Keep in mind that this deck is build pre X/Y set.
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L3oEnqyu_0[/ame]

This is his updated one. imo this deck looks pretty monsterous.
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkKD8UzhkK0[/ame]

 

[Rayquaza.]

I dont see the importance of call for family to be honest. You cant attack turn 1. So by turn 2 you are using it and that means you can only ever get a turn 3 emboar at the fastest if you want to start with that pokemon.

When you could attack while going first then yes, its a decent start for decks that need it like empoleon. But just take it out. Trust me.

If all you have are tepig and rayquaza, and rayquaza ex. Then you have to start with one of them. Making it easier to get started.

Check out this video by a really good and smart player. Keep in mind that this deck is build pre X/Y set.

This is his updated one. imo this deck looks pretty monsterous.

I'm familiar with these videos as this is what I sought inspiration from. Once I assemble more of the cards I need I'll make some changes to this deck list, seeming as this is a somewhat expensive deck.

 

[Profen]

its only super expensive because it needs tropical beach. Its tons cheaper if you build it with the updated version. Where you have Mystical Fire to draw instead of needing tropical beach.

Anyway now that you have a skyla. The energy search basically only acts as an out for when you draw no energy. Otherwise it sort of just - 1 card from your deck and 1 more chance to draw an energy. So thinning your deck is pretty much all it does.

Since you have skyla. You probably want to have 1 switch in your deck. Incase someone catcher out an emboar. You can skyla for the switch, instead of paying the huge cost. While its not as much an issue. Having emboar stuck in the active could happen. And it will probably make you cry.