Iron Crown ex Takes Over Raging Bolt Ogerpon

We've noticed a nice surprise in the Raging Bolt Ogerpon deck these past few days. Iron Crown ex, a Future card you probably forgot about, appeared in 71% of the archetype's decks according to Play Limitless online tournament data.

The card was nowhere before this month. It sat at 0% in the week ending July 20, made a cameo appearance (1.7%) the following week, then dropped back to 0% the week after that. The week ending August 10 was when the card started to show up, with Iron Crown ex being played in 30.3% of lists. This week it more than doubled again, landing in 71% of Raging Bolt Ogerpon's 221 submitted lists, always as a single copy.

Card previewIron Crown exPokémon / Ultra Rare / Temporal Forces / #191Illustrated by 5ban GraphicsAbilityCobalt CommandAttacks used by your Future Pokémon, except any Iron Crown ex, do 20 more damage to your opponent's Active Pokémon (before applying Weakness and Resistance).Twin ShotelsThis attack does 50 damage to 2 of your opponent's Pokémon. This attack's damage isn't affected by Weakness or Resistance, or by any effects on those Pokémon.Pokémon ex rule: When your Pokémon ex is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

I haven't played the card (or even the deck), but chatter and a few friends say it's a way easily KO Applin and other small Pokémon on the bench.

To make room for the card, it had to cut some. Lillie's Determination fell from 50.6% inclusion in the baseline weeks to 22.2% this week, with its average copy count dropping from 1.5 to 1.2 over the same time. The two moves happened in the same archetype during the same weeks, which points to a proper change in the deck.

These numbers make the card a proper inclusion instead of a tech choice. A Pokémon that was nowhere for most of the summer looks like the deck's newest staple, and a current-week sample that grew alongside the play rate backs that up as a real trend.

This is an example of a deck with Iron Crown ex: Full deckRaging Bolt OgerponRaging Bolt Ogerpon×4×3×3×2×2×1×1×1×1×1×4×2×2×1×4×4×2×2×1×1×4×7×2×2×2×1

Elsewhere, the week's snapshot flagged a wide reshuffle across several Mega archetypes, including Mega Excadrill, Mega Froslass, and Mega Lucario, where a large number of cards moved at once. That kind of general shift usually points to a broader change rather than a single-card story, so it is worth checking back next week to see which of those changes stick.

Source:

• Play Limitless data.