'Matchless Fighter' Revealed as March's Japanese Set!

Blaziken VMAX accelerates ENERGY, not "basic energy"??? And for a DCE attack cost? If you cant fit this as a 1-1 line into rapid strike decks, just to hit for a different weakness, let alone its dumb-AF attack, then I dont know where we would be going wrong as deck builders
 
Nice addition to the new Battle styles mechanic. While the Single Strike theme has already been elaborated on in the last set Rapid Strike was missing a little coherence and was therefore more difficult to handle. I like that this set eleborates a little more on the Rapid Strike options by giving it tools that make it more coherent as an addition to the consistency boost it received in the last set.

Rapid Strike cards:

Blaziken VMAX: Nice acceleration for Rapid Strike cards that also allows Blaziken Vmax to swarm on his own. The second attack on Blaziken V is also nice which may make it worth it to attach Memory Capsule to it.

Rapid Strike Urshifu: Could be a nice addition to Urshifu VMAX or even a deck on its own depending on the damage he does for each Rapid Strike Pokémon in play. I assume that it is at least better than Falinks. My bet here is on 30 times the number of Rapid Strike Pokémon. Provided that it is easy to search out Rapid Strike cards and he can be fueled with Rapid Strike Energy this could be viable.

Inteleon line: Fits the sniper theme of Rapid Strike cards well and Sobble provides some decent search. Placing 8 damage counters on the board with four of them out sounds rather decent and you can always run a small 2-2 Urshifu Vmax line to cover weakness and assist the sniping theme.

Brawly: Not completely sure on this one but it could work in a Rapid Strike Urshifu deck with Falinks and Octillery to make it super consistent.

Echoing Horn: This is what Rapid strike urshifu Vmax needed to abuse the consistency Pokémon such as Crobat V and Dedenne combined with Boss's Orders. Love that card since it supports on of the core themes of Rapid Strike Pokémon.


Single Strike cards:

Galarian Slowking VMAX: Could be decent with Dust Island and Toxigroak on the bench.

Karen's Conviction: Great card. Could see it as a 1-off tech in Urshifu Vmax and Primeape.

Welcoming Lantern: Nice addition to the Single Strike arsenal since it allows you to dicard Supporter with Tower of Darkness and retrieve them later on.

Beedrill: Given the prevalence of special energy at the moment this could be a decent card. It does not seem to fit any existing Single Strike deck thus far but maybe it can become a deck on its own.
 
Man how many times are we going to get the starter pokemon (sobble, scorbunny, grookey) printed? Seems like wasted spots at this point. Oh well, just happy to see Urshifu is getting a 1-prize card and Blaziken VMAX is going to be a great addition for my rapid strike deck :)
 
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Another two Supporter spots that could've been Gordie and Melony ;_; well at least Brawly's getting his first card in 18 years haha

Anyway, the Blaziken-VMAX and Inteleon artworks are SO GOOD. I like Arita's Slowking art too, even tho I really don't like its design lol
 
I don't even know how much the Urshifu does, but I'm already invested in the idea of having it in a deck with Brawly, Octillery, Rapid Strike energy.
 
I'm really disappointed with Blaziken's damage output. I suppose memory capsule slightly mitigates this issue, but it's still a lot of effort for an average attack. The prospect of a card that can benefit from the rapid strike cards AND the Welder/Hearth engine is still fun though.
 
I absolutely despise Beedrill's design. What a great way to significantly limit the usage of Special Energy in the format - not because the card is good, but because you cannot afford to lose to a rogue Beedrill deck or tech.

Karen is also pretty insane, essentially a +60 with the ability to freely return to your hand with Welcoming Latern. Basically, all the numbers were pushed in ridiculous directions to keep up with the monstrous power-creep.
 
I LOVE that Slowking.

I wish they would do Rocket/Dark Pokemon again. I cant really see the Beedrill
 
Is this gonna be part of Battle Styles? The official ad for battle styles did show off blaziken in rapid strike and slowking in single strike.
 
The Japan branch KILLS it with the box set once again! That’s some STUNNING art of everyone’s favorite Galarian a-holes! Too bad most people won’t get to enjoy that beautiful art, though... just like COVID, we have to accept that this is the new normal for the collecting scene!
 
The brawly card shows how out of touch the Japanese card designers are. They have multiple times during the swsh-era thought “Bridget was good so other call for family supporters will be to”. Problem is we can’t play supporters t1 going first anymore and there isn’t even tapu lele. The PROFFESIONAL DESIGNERS that work full time are so bad that i, A 14-YEAR OLD, would design cards and formats far better than them...

Well, at least this year seems better designed than the last and tag teams are rotating soon. What swsh-on as a format currently desperately lacks is the old t1-rule, a tapu lele ability, and something like a buffed silver bangle (+40), pushing 130 damage on 1-prizers into 2-shot range on vmaxes.
 
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