“Old Town Road” – Shadow Rider Calyrex is Coming Soon!

Hola Trainers! It’s felt like forever since we’ve had a new expansion released into the standard format. However, Chilling Reign is going to be released soon and I’m all here for it! Standard has felt a little stale for a while, with no new innovations being found out due to the limited card pool and consistently reoccurring metagame charts. If we can only play with the same decks over and over, the standard format is going to become over-explored, and therefore the decks will become perfectly optimized if there’s infinite time. That being said, with the release of Chilling Reign, many new cards are coming out that I LOVE and can’t wait to write about. I wanted to write this article to jump the gun on deck building and highlight a list that was created by ZapdosTCG. It goes over what seems to be a very consistent, straightforward Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX decklist that will slam even the best decks in the standard format currently. Let’s take a peek at what they cooked up before the set releases, and go over initial thoughts for the archetype!

I booted up my Pokémon Trading Card Game Online app, loaded up some PTCGO codes, and then traded those Pokémon online codes to trade for this deck. I was very excited, and it honestly didn’t take that many PTCGO codes to make the deck. If you’re looking to buy some codes, we sell them here on PTCGO Store, and I highly urge you to check out our competitive pricing and swift delivery! Let’s talk about Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX today.

The main strategy of this Pokémondeck is to go second and use クレセリア to accelerate as much energy into play as possible while also benching as many Shadow Rider Calyrex V as you can. Then, get as many Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX into play and accelerate energy using the ability. From there, we can take big OHKOs on the opponent’s Pokémon and flood the field with attackers and energy.

1 Crobat V DAA 182

1 Galarian Zapdos V CHR

1 Dedenne-GX UNB 195

3 Cresselia CHR

4 Shadow Rider Calyrex V CHR 74

1 Gengar & Mimikyu-GX TEU 53

1 Marshadow UNB 81

1 Mewtwo & Mew-GX UNM 71

1 Trevenant & Dusknoir-GX PR-SM 217

3 Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX CHR 75

2 Chaotic Swell CEC 187

4 Quick Ball SSH 179　

3 Pokémon Communication TEU 152

2 Air Balloon SSH 156　

3 Boss's Orders SHF 58

1 Reset Stamp UNM 206

4 Professor's Research SSH 178

4 Fog Crystal CHR 140

4 Marnie SSH 169　

3 Switch SSH 183

10 Psychic Energy SWSHEnergy 5　

3 Aurora Energy SSH 186

3 Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX (“SR Clayrex VMAX”) – Coming in at 320HP, this Psychic-type VMAX has a lot to offer within one single card. The ability, Underworld Gate, allows you to accelerate energy onto your benched Psychic-type Pokémon while also allowing you to draw cards. This is basically an energy accelerator combined with Zoroark-GX’s Trade ability from 2018, an absolute menace in its own right. This ability will allow you to flood your board with energy and power up other attackers, which will combo with its only attack, Max Geist; this attack will do an extra 30 damage per each Psychic Energy attached to all of your Pokémon. That means if you can get a ton of Calyrex into play and then attach a ton of energy, you can potentially get an OHKO off on a VMAX! That being said, we’re going to go for a 2HKO on those high HP Pokémon typically, but we can KO Pokémon V fairly easily as well as other basic Pokémon. We have a weakness to Dark-type Pokémon, which sucks against Eternatus VMAX. However, we can mitigate that with a specific tech which we’ll talk about later on. Two retreat cost is also a little pesky, but it means that Air Balloon will be a natural fit into our deck. Resistance to Fighting is lovely as I only expect Fighting-type Pokémon to get stronger as Eternatus gets stronger.

3 Shadow Rider Calyrex V– The V isn’t too flashy, but it has 220HP, and the same weakness, resistance, and retreat cost as the VMAX. It can accelerate energy to itself with the first attack, preparing you for a MaxGeist going second. It can also do 130 damage with its second attack, which feels strong against a single Prize Card Pokémon.

3 Cresselia– Cresselia is very reminiscent of Volcanion when it was played in Centiskorch VMAX. It is mainly used to accelerate energy onto our Pokémon, which means we will be shifting our strategy with this deck to going second to get maximum value out of Crescent Growth. Photon Laser is excellent for cleaning up low HP Pokémon and single Prize Card Pokémon.

1 Gengar & Mimikyu TTGX (“Genkyu”) – Genkyu is the king of donks because of its Horror House GX attack and can really slow down opponents by preventing them from playing cards for a turn. This can be key in many MUs and swing the tempo of games, especially when followed up with a Poltergeist attack. This GX attack is one of our most common openers in many games.

1 Trevenant & Dusknoir TTGX (“Trevnoir”) – Trevnoir does a great job of stealing games against the opponent by either using Night Watch on the opponent’s hand. When combined with Marnie or Reset Stamp, it can be deadly. Pale Moon GX is also a fringe attack that can get amazing OHKOs when timed correctly or when the opponent is out of resources.

1 Marshadow – Marshadow is a key card in our deck, and as I detail below (see “Chaotic Swell”), Marshadow is in here to deal with Path to the Peak. This card is searchable via Fog Crystal and Quick Ball, which means we’ll always have tons of outs to it in our deck.

1 Galarian Zapdos V– This is a natural counter to Eternatus VMAX because most of our deck is weak to Dark-type Pokémon. Fighting Instinct ensures that we can OHKO an Eternatus VMAX relatively easily with a Thunderous Kick, and the best part? The opponent can’t even use Weakness Guard Energy on their Pokémon because Zapdos can swiftly discard it before doing damage. Easy peasy.

4 Fog Crystal – Fog Crystal is the newest card for consistency in Psychic decks, and it really shines in Calyrex VMAX decks. Being able to search out your Basic Psychic-types or even just grab a Psychic Energy from your deck fits right into the theme of our deck, and that’s why we play four of these cards in our deck.

2 Chaotic Swell– This card is extremely key going forward with this deck because we need additional ways to get rid of Path to the Peak, a new Stadium card that states the following: Pokémon with a Rule Box in play (both yours and your opponent's) have no Abilities (Pokémon V, Pokémon-GX, etc. have Rule Boxes).

This is arguably the strongest Stadium card to come out in a long time beside Giant Hearth, so we need to nullify the effect with a Chaotic Swell. Chaotic Swell safeguards us from the opponent playing Path to the Peak down in the early game or playing down Peak + a Reset Stamp in the late game. Either one can be detrimental to us. Much like the reason we play Marshadow, removing threats from the Stadium spot is key to us setting up. These can also harm many other decks that rely on a Stadium card to setup/disrupt.

4 Marnie– These are used to setup your side of the field, but they also have synergy with Trevnoir’s Night Watch attack. Locking your opponent out of the game by disrupting their hand is a very viable strategy that many people have been using with their Galaxy Mewtwo/Jit2 style decks. It can genuinely win games that you had no business winning. The best part? It can be setup extremely fast with SR Calyrex VMAX’s ability.

3 Aurora Energy– Aurora Energy is in the deck so that we can utilize our Galarian Zapdos V’s attack. Likewise, it can open up other niche lines of play, such as using Dedenne GX’s Tingly Return attack or Crobat V. They also help us discard Pokémon to further utilize Mewtwo & Mew TTGX’s Perfection ability.

Looking for a deck that can steamroll opponents? Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX is your go-to! I love the deck, and it is by far my favorite Pokémon deck out of the newest expansion. There’s still so much to learn about this deck, so load up some PTCGO codes when the set drops, make some trades and give this list a shot! Chilling Reign isn’t released yet, but when it does, PTCGO Store will begin selling its products.

If you’re looking for codes for Pokémon TCG online play, feel free to pick some up in our shop. We offer Pokémon codes at a very competitive price and ensure instant delivery of your PTCGO codes directly to your email. Thank you for reading this article today on PTCGO Store! Have a great day.