(For the deck’s competitive history before July 2024, please refer to the gallery.)

[Update 11 Jul 2025] It’s become clear that there’s a separation between how this deck is regarded in Asia and how it’s seen elsewhere. Despite its recent hot streak, most players outside Asia see the Raging Bolt ex deck as clearly behind the Gardevoir ex and Dragapult ex decks and on par with the likes of the Tera Box and Joltik Box decks.

This, however, is not so in Asia where as previously mentioned, the Raging Bolt ex deck has been dominant. This is due to the different tournament formats in each region; tournaments in Japan and Asia-Pacific make use of a tournament structure that favors decks which play at a quicker tempo such as the Raging Bolt ex deck. As a result, this deck has become particularly popular among players from Japan and Asia-Pacific.

[Update 4 Jul 2025] The Raging Bolt deck is in the hottest form of any deck with the World Championships just over a month away. The deck followed up on its victory at the Japan Championships with a victory at the Singapore Master Ball League; in fact, it took four of the top seven spots.

The deck’s ascent is largely due to the increase in advantageous matchups which this deck has in the current metagame. These include the Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex and Joltik Box decks as well as certain variants of the Dragapult ex and Gardevoir ex decks. As such, the Raging Bolt ex deck can be considered one of the favorites to win it all at Worlds.

[Update 23 Jun 2025] This deck just claimed the title at the 2025 Japan Championships in the hands of Kabu Fukase, who beat Naoya Honda and his Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex deck in the final. Notably, Fukase played the whole tournament without even losing one set; additionally, his Game 2 win in the final came by way of a “donk”—the term used to describe a first-turn victory before the opponent is able to do anything.

[Update 8 Jan 2025] The addition of the Slither Wing card from Ancient Roar [SV4K] has created the Raging Bolt ex deck variant which has now become the predominant one. In addition, some players have chosen to include Lost Vacuum from Lost Abyss [S11] as well as Briar from Stellar Miracle [SV7] to serve as counterplay against the Gardevoir ex deck.

[Update 17 Dec 2024] A deck which was competing with the Regidrago VSTAR deck for the title of Best Deck in Format (BDIF) just a month ago, it has since fallen off tremendously even in this short time. Over the past month, Raging Bolt ex players have obtained just two top-10 finishes across four Regionals and one Special Event. Most disappointing of all was its performance at the Stuttgart Regionals in which the Raging Bolt ex deck topped out in 95th place in the hands of Irish player Tobias Gervin.

[Update 11 Nov 2024] The Raging Bolt ex deck has now emerged as the most popular choice in Pokémon TCG tournaments around the world. There’s also a strong case to be made that it’s now the current Best Deck in Format (BDIF).

[Update 24 Sep 2024] This deck has drawn first blood in the 2024-25 Pokémon TCG tournament season. Haruto Fujita took this deck to the title at Champions League Tokyo. It’s the first time that the Raging Bolt ex deck has won a major tournament.

[Update 15 Aug 2024] Heading into the Pokémon World Championships, many players have reportedly found that the Raging Bolt ex deck has a favorable matchup against the Regidrago VSTAR deck. Due to this as well as other matchup advantages mentioned, this deck will be likely to rank among the most deployed at Worlds.

[Update 16 Jul 2024] The metagame’s most recent changes as well as likely upcoming ones will make this deck an even greater force in the meta. The Raging Bolt ex deck is widely expected to have favorable matchups against aggro decks such as the Miraidon ex, Iron Hands/Iron Crown ex, and Roaring Moon ex decks. Expect many Raging Bolt ex decks to feature at Worlds in August.

Thus far in the current Pokémon TCG tournament rotation, the Raging Bolt ex deck hasn’t really been a major factor. Its most notable achievement to date took place at the Indianapolis Regionals where US player Adam Reinhardt finished in 37th place with this deck. However, following the release of Mask of Change [SV6], many are now expecting the Raging Bolt ex deck to emerge as a bona fide metagame force.

The main reason behind this deck’s newfound tournament viability is the new Teal Mask Ogerpon ex card. Launched as part of Mask of Change [SV6], this card is widely expected to replace and be an upgrade over the Sandy Shocks ex card from Ancient Roar [SV4K].

By way of the synergy of its Ability of Teal Dance and its Myriad Leaf Shower attack, Teal Mask Ogerpon ex wields a degree of firepower that Sandy Shocks ex doesn’t have. Teal Dance allows Teal Mask Ogerpon ex to receive an additional Grass Energy card once per turn while Myriad Leaf Shower does 30 damage per Energy card attached to both Active Pokémon.

This deck also contains the Professor Sada’s Vitality card from Ancient Roar [SV4K] which works in tandem with the titular Raging Bolt ex card from Wild Force [SV5K]. Raging Bolt ex has the Bellowing Thunder attack which dishes out 70 damage per Basic Energy card discarded from any of the player’s Pokémon.

The player can then follow up on that by playing Professor Sada’s Vitality which allows the player to attach a Basic Energy card from the discard pile to any two of the player’s Ancient Pokémon before drawing three cards.

The cumulative cost of all the cards in a Raging Bolt ex deck is at least 6,000 JPY (~US$39).

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