Introducing Vikavolt V — The Fabled Return of Seismitoad-EX
I’ve had a fair amount of success with Seismitoad-EX, dating back to its debut in 2014. For the past year though it has been in decline, especially as it was crippled by several card bans in the Expanded format. In the past, Seismitoad-EX and Trevenant were infamously known to duke it out with Item lock, but since then there’s been nothing particularly compelling besides Noivern-GX and Vileplume as techs offering the same effect.
Enter Vikavolt V, complete with 210 HP, a harder-hitting attack, and a better second attack to boot. It also carries a less-impactful Weakness, and its Lightning-type offers an abundance of support cards. When I first saw this card it immediately caught my eye, however I hadn’t narrowed down how the deck ought to be built. Some of my first ideas circulated around Electropower, Paralyzing Bolt serving as a mostly offensive power while offering the disruption of Item lock. Super Zap Cannon could finish things off thereafter. This strategy was fallible for a few reasons. Most importantly, it lacked disruption enough to be blown back by attacks that can one-shot a Vikavolt V.
I am currently talking about the pre-bans, pre-rotation Ultra Prism – Darkness Ablaze Standard format. Keep that in mind before I continue.
Vikavolt V could be paired with Pikachu and Zekrom-GX as a closer. I wanted to build to a Tag Bolt GX after many turns of attacking and to win the game in one fell swoop. This was pretty cute, but less feasible with Turbo Patch only attaching to non Pokemon-GX Basic Pokemon. This required the addition of Energy Switch in the deck, eating up more space and filling it with cards that are dead in a most scenarios. Finally, I went back to where most people have taken this deck: Disruption. I don’t view this as a control deck. It’s a tempo-based strategy, but in order to execute that strategy you need to complement your lack of damage power with some disruption. This makes you “more powerful”.
There’s two options, Mareep and Slowbro V. Slowbro V will be better post-rotation as Mareep will join the Expanded format. Fluffy Pillow is nothing without Slumbering Forest, so that automatically joins this new squad as well. Slowbro V would be paired with Dark City, but that’s a tale for another time. This Vikavolt V with Mareep concoction revolves around shutting off switching cards, primarily Switch. Others include Bird Keeper, Mallow and Lana, and Tate and Liza. Besides these, there aren’t any other Supporters that switch things up. This makes Mareep super powerful, as these Supporters are usually played in lower counts (subject to change of course.) Vikavolt V is as good as Seismitoad-EX was because it can use Paralyzing Bolt on the first turn. This deck wants to go second, attempting to get the first turn Item lock. Sure, your opponent might get a turn of Items in going first, but they would be able to play Items going second anyways because you can’t attack if you started first. Tapu Koko Prism Star, Thunder Mountain Prism Star, and Turbo Patch all work together to get you a first turn attack. I know I mentioned Energy Switch earlier, but I don’t like it. I don’t run it here, but it could be an option in improving your first turn attacking chances by moving an Energy from the Bench to an Active Vikavolt V. Here’s where I’m at:
Vikavolt V Deck List
This concludes the public portion of this article.
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