Hello everyone! This is Elena from Gaia Storm TGC and welcome to another article here at CCG Castle. Chilling Reign will officially arrive in two weeks from now and it comes with a lot of awesome new cards but none stand out more than Calyrex does. There are two types of Calyrex VMAX cards in this set: the Shadow Rider version (psychic type) and Ice Raider one (water). And believe me, both of them are about to turn the game upside down.
Let’s start with Shadow Rider Calyrex. This VMAX Pokemon is of the best support Pokémon printed in recent history as it combines two very powerful effects that can change the direction of a game: energy acceleration and draw. Yes, you read it right. Its ability allows the player to attach a basic psychic energy to the field and draw two cards in the process. It is like Malamar from Ultra Prisma and Zoroark GX had a son. A really, really powerful one. As you can imagine, the combinations with psychic types are incredible as it allows you to power up attackers like Mew and Mewtwo Tag Team or Trevenant and Dusknoir as early as in your second turn, which is crazy. In Japan, in fact, Shadow Rider Calyrex is one of the strongest decks in the format. Remember the latest blog article I wrote talking precisely about the rise of psychic types? Now you know the reason.
Then, we have Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX, which is a very efficient water attacker. For two water energies, it deals 10 damage plus 120 per each water energy you discard (you can’t discard more than 2 water energy this way). Comparing this card with the psychic type it might not sound great but, in my opinion, it is just as powerful as the other one is. If you think about it, Calyrex can be constantly dealing 250 damage for just 2 energies and that is something that can be easily achieved with all the water support we currently have. For instance, Frosmoth can constantly recycle energies and Melonie, the new supporter card that comes in this set, is like a Welder for water type energies that attaches energies from the discard pile. The only downside it has is that it is weak to Metal and that means that the always popular Zacian V is going to give it a difficult time.
Which Calyrex will see more play? It seems obvious is to assume that the Psychic type will become a powerhouse as soon as it gets released and I think it makes sense in a context where strong Psychic attackers like Mewtwo or Gengar Trevenant are still in the format. But once the rotation happens, I am not that sure. The simplicity of Horse Rider Calyrex makes it very effective regardless of the situation it is in so, in my opinion, it will be a good investment short and long term.
We will be reviewing in more detail some of the new upcoming cards in Chilling Reign so stay tuned! In the meantime, remember you can get all your cards here. Thanks for reading!