Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX – Chilling Reign
Date Reviewed: December 19, 2021
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 4.00
Expanded: 5.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
It is time to countdown the Top 10 Cards of 2021! If this is your first one, you might want to check out this article explaining the basics about them. If you can’t or won’t read it, know that each reviewer who participates constructs a list of what they believe to be the most important cards released during the year. Reprints are only eligible if the card wasn’t Standard-legal before said reprint… and if the card would have still made our countdown if it had been a completely new release. As not every section of the site reviews seven days a week, we’re doing a Top 10 like they are, counting down from 10th-Place on Monday to 1st-Place on Friday the 31st. So… how are we starting today? Instead of doing Runners-Up after the countdown, we’ll cover them today and next weekend. The other big difference is we’re running rather short on reviewers right now. Vince was unfortunately able to submit a list, so this countdown is based purely on my list. That’s right, every mistake in it is my fault! Oh, and feel free to try your own hand as part of our crew; you don’t have to review every day, you don’t have to write as long of reviews as I do. If you can explain why you scored a card a certain way with a single sentence, you’re still welcome to try.
We begin with Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX! This was our 3rd-Place Pick when we reviewed it as part of the Top 15 Cards of SW – Chilling Reign. Unlike my usual approach, I am not going to break down the card into its stats and effects, and assume you’ve at least read it (if not my original review). I awarded Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX scores of five-out-of-five for both the Standard and Expanded Formats. If we look at how the current metagame breaks down over at Limitless TCG… well, technically you’re seeing it however it appears on the day you are reading this review. As I write this review, Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX is in 20th-Place for the Standard Format and The Expanded Format (again, at the time of writing this) looks much better: Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX decks clocking in at 2nd-Place, with 1st-Place being the catch-all “Other” category. Take the Expanded Format breakdown with a grain of salt; it is based on just eight tournaments, while the Standard Format rankings are based on 147. So, maybe Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX did earn its Expanded Format score… but Standard, definitely not. So, what happened?
Time passed, and more cards released. Gotta love LimitlessTCG; switching the results to the 419 Standard Format tournaments where SW – Chilling Reign (the set in which Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX debuted) was the newest release, the deck’s is in first place! This would have been in the 2021 (or TEU-On) Standard Format. The same holds true for the TEU-On Format post SW – Evolving Skies. Change things one more time, to the 2022 (or D-On) Standard Format, where cards must have Regulation Mark “D” or later, with SW – Evolving Skies still being the latest Expansion, Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX falls down to 13th-Place. Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX had a good enough initial run that I no longer regret awarding it a five-out-of-five back then. After all, it isn’t like its stats suddenly let it down. If anything, the big drawback it used to know – Eternatus VMAX decks hitting its Weakness – aren’t as popular as they once were. Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX still has a good 320 HP, Ability that lets it both attach extra Energy and draw, and a solid attack. Which is why it is still doing well in Expanded. If we’d done a longer countdown, Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX would have been our 14th-Place Pick.
Ratings
Standard: 4/5
Expanded: 4/5
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