Hello, Cut or Tap readers! It has been about two months since the last major tournament in New Orleans, and the World Championship is in just a week. A lot has changed since NAIC, including the release of the new expansion Shrouded Fable, and the increase in popularity of Regidrago. There are several game-changing cards within Shrouded Fable which are helping certain archetypes like Charizard regain popularity, as well as drastically improving the power level of Regidrago. But there are several other decks that include some of the new cards as well.
At NAIC, Gardevoir and Lost Box were the two best performing decks. This was not good for Raging Bolt, as it takes unfavored matchups into those two decks. Despite Raging Bolt being the second most played deck in Day 1, there was only one in the Top 16, and one more in the Top 32. Its position within the format going into NAIC was generally poor, which was shown through its results, although this most likely isn’t going to be true for the World Championship.
In today’s article, I will be talking about Raging Bolt, its matchups heading into Worlds, new cards that you can include, and other possible inclusions that some Raging Bolt lists have played.
Matchups
Entering this new format, Lost Box will see a significant decrease in play and success due to its poor Regidrago matchup and its vulnerability to the new Kyurem card. In order to face these new challenges, players will have to completely change the archetype from NAIC in order for it to at least have a chance into Regidrago. They will have to include one or more additional attackers and Manaphy, which overall will make their deck less consistent. This improves Raging Bolt’s position in the meta, as it takes an unfavored matchup into Lost Box due to their ability to have one-prize board states and use Sableye and Cramorant for the first two prize cards, and then use Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex for the last four.
After upgrading to Stage 2 you will see the rest of Neo Erlandsson’s article and an audio recording of this article narrated by Andy Hyun: 
You must have a Stage 2 Membership or greater to see the rest of this post. If you don't have a Stage 2 account, you can Sign Up for one here.
You must have a Stage 2 Membership or greater to see the rest of this post. If you don't have a Stage 2 account, you can Sign Up for one here.