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ThePokemon TCGnever ceases to amaze. As with all good competitive TCGs, there’s more than enough room for players to mix and match bold new strategies. They work to varying degrees, of course. But every so often, something comes around that claims enough victories at tournaments to turn all our heads, from the most seasoned pros to the newest additions to the Pokemon TCG fandom.
Take the Inteleon VMAX deck. The Rapid Strike Inteleon VMAX deck, to be clear - not the Battle League deck from the Sword & Shield era that’s now out of the rotation. (you’re able to still play it to your heart’s content in casual matches, of course.) This deck has only added to the legend of Inteleon within the Pokemon TCG, and like a starter Sobble who cries out in refusal to let go of the crown, it’s still whipping up frenzies in the Scarlet & Violet era.
Squawkabilly ex PAL (x1)
Melony (x2)
Iono (x2)
Arven (x1)
Klara (x2)
Tower of Waters (x3)
Water Energy (x6) & Rapid Strike Energy (x4)
Inteleon VMAX Key Cards
These are the cards that really make the Inteleon VMAX deck tick. Then again, every card helps make it tick. But… you get the point. These are the cream of the crop. Without ‘em, there’s no foundation.
Rapid Strike Inteleon VMAX
Rapid Strike Inteleon VMAXis all about taking itsDouble Gunnerability and turning into what we like to call Quadruple Gunner. If you havetwo Rapid Strike Inteleon VMAX in play, either on your bench or in the active position (the bench is preferable, as we’ll get into later), you can use the Double Gunner ability once per turn fromeachof them. Provided, of course, that you have that Water Energy to discard for each usage.
Right from the jump, then, you’ve got a guaranteed80 damage to spread across your opponent’s team. This can help to ease looming issues with heavy hitters, but far better,you may take advantage of the many lower-HP Pokemon in common usageduring these earlier Scarlet & Violet sets towipe them clean off the boardand take prize cards.
We’ve been speaking in terms of having two Inteleon VMAXs in the field, but that won’t always happen. Even so, having just the one can be halfway to a game-changer. And goodness gracious, if you’ve got all three of them out - and again, you can tap into the deck’s other splendid cards to afford the payout - you can add another four damage counters per snipe.
Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX With Tower Of Waters
WhileRapid Strike Urshifu VMAXis, predictably, another star player, we can’t talk about it without including an explanation ofTower of Waters. It’s the synergy between them that can really put the heat on your enemies. By pulling Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX from your bench and into the active position, via Tower of Waters’ allowance forthe retreat cost of all Rapid Strike Pokemon in play to be reduced by two, something rather nifty happens.
Gale Thrust, which, under normal circumstances, only does 30 damage, shoots all the way up to150 damage. While that’s not enough in its own right to OHKO many of the tankier cards in the Pokemon TCG, consider how capably it’s boosted with those Rapid Strike Inteleon VMAXs of yours.
This doesn’t mean you should never useG-Max Rapid Flow. The three-Energy discard cost is pretty steep for a deck with ten Energy in it, but we’ve got good enough flow for it to be worth the hassle sometimes. 120 damage to two Pokemon that your Inteleons just bruised so badly can be a game-changer in and of itself.
Medicham V
Last but not least on the hurt train isMedicham V, with its excellentYoga Loopattack. When Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX’s bludgeoning hits aren’t the right call, or simply aren’t available, getting that Medicham V of yours on the field insteadcan synergize terrifically with Rapid Strike Inteleon VMAX’s sniping.
Once again, you’re choosing the Pokemon to put damage counters on. This time,you’re only doing 20 damage,butyou can use Yoga Loop one more time on your turn(technically, you’re taking another turn outright)if you knock out the target. While this can’t be repeated infinitely (that would be… comically absurd), and while that 20 damage doesn’t sound like a lot, you may very well be able to whittle down the opponent’s team with Inteleon and/or Urshifu, then go in fortwokilling blows.
Radiant Alakazam
Last but not least,Painful Spoons, Radiant Alakazam’s ability, lets you fine-tune your snipingin conjunction with your primary attack to greatly increase the odds of knocking something out cold. If you’ve chipped away at one Pokemon, but another is in dire straits, you’re able to even outright knock out that Pokemon with Painful Spoons prior to setting things up for your attack.
Melony
If you’re running a deck in the Pokemon Trading Card Game that tosses away Energy cards as much as Inteleon VMAX’s, you’re going to need Energy retrieval power. Badly. Since Rapid Strike Inteleon VMAX (and many other Pokemon here, for that matter) are Water-types, getting a discarded Water Energy onto a Pokemon V -with the sizable benefit of drawing three more cards to keep ‘em coming- is a must.
Klara
Of course, Melony alone isn’t enough. Especially not for your Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX.Klara fulfills the classic archetype of straightforward Energy retrieval, permitting you to pull two basic Energy back from the discard pile per turn. That’s the long and short of it here.
Battle VIP Pass
TheBattle VIP Passis afirst-turn-onlycard, but we want to stack our deck with a full quartet of them to boost the odds of us snagging it when it counts. If your draw is otherwise unsavory, finding two Basic Pokemon to place on your bench can be a real life-saver.
Rapid Strike Energy
Rapid Strike Energy counts as two Energy for Fighting- and Water-type cards. As you can see, that’s kind of the bulk of this deck’s power source. We’ve loaded up the deck (in fairness, it’s hardly an original idea of ours - just a logical one all-around) so that Energy costs are cut significantly whenever possible.
Inteleon VMAX Deck Strategy
Getting thoseInteleon VMAX on the bench ASAPlines you up for multiple snipes. Having Radiant Alakazam for itsPainful Spoons ability signal-boosts that Double Gunner, and getting Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX in active play puts big chunks of damage all over the place.
Cards like Battle VIP Pass andSquawkabilly ex’s Squawk and Seizegive you multiplefirst-turn advantagesto boost the strength of that ever-critical initial draw, all the more important since this deck has enough threats, and a precise enough execution, that you can quickly find yourself overwhelmed otherwise.
Solid recycling potentialand theinherent excellence of the Rapid Strike Energyshould do its job to prevent you from succumbing to the sort of Energy starvation that a deck like this one would often get smacked by without Melony and Klara.Forest Seal Stone furthers this by giving you a one-time-only any-card pullto advance to the next phase of your strategy.
Since theArceus VMAX deckstill sees lots of competitive play, the titular star Pokemon’s weakness toFighting-type movesmakes Rapid Strike Urshifu a terrific check.
Inteleon VMAX Common Threats
Any deck thateasily disables your abilitiesis going to shut down so much of that sniping potential. Without it,your Rapid Strike Inteleon Vs and VMAXs are nothing to write home about against talented players. That’s not to say they’reterriblein the active position;G-Max Spiral can do 140 damagewithout applying potential weaknesses. But that’s really not going to cut it on its own merits.
If your opponent canblock your Tower of Waters Stadium cardstoo swiftly, your Rapid Strike Pokemon won’t gain access to that reduced Retreat Cost. It might not be a guaranteed loss if that happens, for sure, but again. This deck requires precision as much as general proficiency. Wrecking the flow of any key card can lead to serious headaches.
Lastly, any deck that has a natural strength against your cards is an obvious rough spot. The most commonplace example of this right now is surelyMiraidon ex. You’ve got enough going on with your Rapid Strike Urshifus and Radiant Alakazam to iron out a possible win, still, but there’s a reasonBoss’s Ordersis on darn near every competitive decklist. (Granted, it isn’t on ours, but there are plenty of variations in which it is.) If Miraidon ex keeps pulling out your Water-types, that’s bad. If it deals440 damageto your three-prize Inteleon VMAX, that’sreallybad.
