i am fairly confident that raging bolt bellibolt (specifically ionos bellibolt ex) can do stuff in the current standard rotation of the pokemon tcg (despite raging bolt ogerpon probably outclassing it in most departments) so i will take a shot at making a decent list and report back with my findings
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bellibolt
- Thread starter olivia
- Start date
list i'm currently messing around with doesn't use iron hands; i could def see like... one-of iron hands, a few in some combination of energy switch / n's plot maybe??? but since any form of energy accel onto the hands that isn't switching energies from belli to hands either takes up precious deck space or simply is just kinda bad, i think the better game plan is just to load up a mix of levincia superior energy retrieval and sada's vitality and just start gusting and killing two prizers and just keep reattaching a shit ton of energy via belliIron hands ex?
after some somewhat extensive testing i think i can safely say:
there is pretty much no reason to use iono's bellibolt ex over ogerpon in raging bolt. while belli is maybe debatably better at attatching recycled energy, it comes at the drastic costs of having a much more limited bench opposed to normal bolt (since you get access to underdepths via teal mask ogerpon) and, more cripplingly, a stunted draw engine.
i tried messing around with iono's killowatrel and rumbling engine revavroom as a way to remedy that but they're simply not good enough at drawing the cards you need and if the opponent gusts and kills a bellibolt at any point you pretty much lose right there. honestly thanks to its huge retreat cost if you get any belli gusted at all you probably lose. there's very little room in the list to have switching cards outside of prime catcher too so opposing gusting is a big issue. on top of all this, since belli is an evolution mon, you can't play super aggresively and are kinda forced to go first in most matchups which can spell trouble down the line. unfortunately i do not think bellibolt is cut out for usage in raging bolt.
however.
on the tail end of testing for raging bolt bellibolt, i ended up having a different idea for another list utilizing a certain bellibolt. now, this theoretical second bellibolt list is very very shitty and gross and it's gonna take a while to even get to the point where i feel comfortable even testing it. but in the event it ends up going somewhere? this could be a pretty interesting rogue deck somewhere down the line.
go grab some popcorn and stay tuned for the potential future debut of Bellibolt Control.
there is pretty much no reason to use iono's bellibolt ex over ogerpon in raging bolt. while belli is maybe debatably better at attatching recycled energy, it comes at the drastic costs of having a much more limited bench opposed to normal bolt (since you get access to underdepths via teal mask ogerpon) and, more cripplingly, a stunted draw engine.
i tried messing around with iono's killowatrel and rumbling engine revavroom as a way to remedy that but they're simply not good enough at drawing the cards you need and if the opponent gusts and kills a bellibolt at any point you pretty much lose right there. honestly thanks to its huge retreat cost if you get any belli gusted at all you probably lose. there's very little room in the list to have switching cards outside of prime catcher too so opposing gusting is a big issue. on top of all this, since belli is an evolution mon, you can't play super aggresively and are kinda forced to go first in most matchups which can spell trouble down the line. unfortunately i do not think bellibolt is cut out for usage in raging bolt.
however.
on the tail end of testing for raging bolt bellibolt, i ended up having a different idea for another list utilizing a certain bellibolt. now, this theoretical second bellibolt list is very very shitty and gross and it's gonna take a while to even get to the point where i feel comfortable even testing it. but in the event it ends up going somewhere? this could be a pretty interesting rogue deck somewhere down the line.
go grab some popcorn and stay tuned for the potential future debut of Bellibolt Control.
ok never mind i forgot other control guys existed that directly outclass what i was trying to do with the other belli
belli doesnt really have a good niche in tcg rn i'm afraid, least it has a banger illustration rare for it's iono's print tho
belli doesnt really have a good niche in tcg rn i'm afraid, least it has a banger illustration rare for it's iono's print tho