Rayquaza ex δ

Rayquaza ex δ is a card that's seen in even fewer decks than Rocket's Admin. or Pow! Hand Extension, but don't let that fool you. It is significant enough to warp the meta around it.

What's so great about Rayquaza ex δ?

• It's easy to set up. It's a Basic Pokémon, and only requires 2 Energy for a full-cost Special Circuit.

• It has very few hard counters. It doesn't have a Weakness, and since Special Circuit can target any opposing Pokémon, you can't wall it with Safeguard Pokémon, Latios/Celebi ex, or Mysterious Shard. Sceptile ex δ will increase the costs of its attacks by {C}, but if Rage Aura is active, it will negate even that.

• It punishes Power/Body-havers hard by hitting them for 50 damage with Special Circuit. As mentioned in the Choosing Basics section, this is enough for you to want to avoid Basics or even Stage 1s that have Powers/Bodies. If you play Magic, you might be familiar with the "Bolt test"; having 50 HP and a Power/Body is the Pokémon equivalent of having 3 toughness in Magic.

If the opponent has a Jirachi with at least 10 damage on it, that Jirachi is a dead mon walking — Rayquaza ex δ can snipe it at any time for a KO, but doesn't even have to do so immediately. The Rayquaza user can take their time, extracting maximum value from Rage Aura and Pow, until they feel the need to KO Jirachi.

If the opponent has Pidgeot, Rayquaza ex δ 2HKOs it with Special Circuit even if it's hiding on the Bench. An even quicker way to be rid of Pidgeot is to Pow it Active and 1HKO it now that Weakness is applied.

Several iconic decks from 2004-2006 perform much worse in RS-PK because they have to go up against Rayquaza ex δ (and also Cessation Crystal, but at least that has a counter that any deck can use, in the form of Windstorm). Just to give an example, Ludicolo, a Pokémon that requires 5 cards to get into attacking shape (Lotad + Rare Candy/Lombre + Ludicolo + Double Rainbow Energy + Water Energy), is 1HKOed by Special Circuit from Rayquaza ex δ, who only requires a 3 card investment. Another example would be Lunatone attempting to use Target Beam to 2HKO Rayquaza ex δ, but is 2HKOed in return, and it's very hard to get the first attack because the Rayquaza user can simply point Special Circuit at whichever Lunatone is receiving Energy.

Rayquaza ex δ does have a hard counter: Mark of Antiquity Groudon/Kyogre ex. It's not as simple as adding 1 copy of those Pokémon to your deck though; you need to build around them, since Mark of Antiquity only works when Groudon/Kyogre ex are Active. For an example of a Groudon ex deck, see this.