Blaziken V, Galarian Slowking V, and More Revealed from S5a Matchless Fighter! By: JustInBasil Posted 3 weeks ago to TCG 22 comments Twelve cards from the upcoming Japanese set S5a Matchless Fighter have leaked ahead of the set’s official announcement! Among the leaked cards are Blaziken V/VMAX and Galarian Slowking V/VMAX. The set’s pack art features both Urshifu forms as well as the Galarian forms of Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres, so they will all be in the set. Thanks goes to Bangiras and ToineLay for the translations! Blaziken V – Fire – HP210 Basic Pokemon (Rapid Strike) [C][C] High Jump Kick: 50 damage [R][R][C][C] Fire Spin: 210 damage. Discard 2 Energy attached to this Pokemon Weakness: Water Resistance: None Retreat: 2 Blaziken VMAX – Fire – HP320 Pokemon VMAX (Rapid Strike) – Evolves from Blaziken V [R] Clutch: 60 damage. The Defending Pokemon can’t retreat during your opponent’s next turn. [C][C] Max Blaze: 130 damage. Attach an Energy from your discard pile to each of up to 2 of your Benched Rapid Strike Pokemon. Weakness: Water Resistance: None Retreat: 2 Galarian Slowking V – Darkness – HP220 Basic Pokemon (Single Strike) [C] Mixing: Discard a card from your hand. Then draw 3 cards from your deck. [D][C] Doom Word: The Defending Pokemon is Knocked Out at the end of your opponent’s next turn. Weakness: Fighting (x2) Resistance: None Retreat: 3 Galarian Slowking VMAX – Darkness – HP320 Pokemon VMAX (Single Strike) – Evolves from Galarian Slowking V [D][C] Max Toxin: 10 damage. The opponent’s Active Pokemon is now Poisoned. During Pokémon Checkup, put 12 damage counters on that Pokémon instead of 1. Weakness: Fighting (x2) Resistance: None Retreat: 3 Echoing Horn – Trainer Item Put a Basic Pokemon from your opponent’s discard pile onto their Bench. You may play any number of Item cards during your turn. Rapid Strike Urshifu – Water – HP??? Stage 1 (Rapid Strike) – Evolves from Kubfu [C] ? [W][C] Slash Rapid Bullet: Does xx damage for each of your Rapid Strike Pokemon in play. Weakness: Lightning (x2) Resistance: ? Retreat: ? Karen’s Conviction – Trainer Supporter – Single Strike During this turn, your Single Strike Pokémon’s attacks deal 20 more damage to your opponent’s Active Pokémon for each Prize Card your opponent has already taken. You may play only 1 Supporter card during your turn. Brawly – Trainer Supporter – Rapid Strike Search your deck for up to 3 “Rapid Strike” Basic Pokemon and put them on your Bench. Then, shuffle your deck. You may play only 1 Supporter card during your turn. Sobble – Water – HP60 Basic Pokemon (Rapid Strike) [C] Continuous Call: Search your deck for up to 3 Rapid Strike Basic Pokemon and put them on your Bench. Then, shuffle your deck. [C][C] Double Spin: Flip 2 coins, this attack does 20 damage times the number of heads. Weakness: Lightning Resistance: None Retreat: 1 Inteleon – Water – HP150 Stage 2 (Rapid Strike) – Evolves from Drizzile Ability: Quick Shooter Once during your turn, you may place 2 damage counters on 1 of your opponent’s Pokemon. [C][C] Waterfall: 70 damage. Weakness: Lightning Resistance: None Retreat: 1 Beedrill – Grass – HP130 Stage 2 (Single Strike) – Evolves from Kakuna [G] Piercistant Sting: If your opponent’s Active Pokémon has any Special Energy attached to it, it is now Knocked Out. [G] Jet Spear: 110 damage. Discard an Energy from this Pokémon. Weakness: Fire (x2) Resistance: None Retreat: 1 Welcoming Lantern – Trainer Item – Single Strike Choose a Single Strike Supporter card from your discard pile, reveal it, and put it in your hand. You may play any number of Item cards during your turn.
These all look insane. Echoing Horn is terrifying, it's Mawile GX as an item using the discatd pile instead of the hand.
Also you can seek out Intelleon with Mustard and get an easy +20 damage every turn, or seek out Blaziken VMax and use a rapid energy to deal strong, fast damage with a battery effect
If this is our summer set then 3 prize basics and ADP will be rotated out soon after Echoing Horn's additon thankfully. Will be a crazy gap in between, of course.
I think Karen's Conviction is an insane card. If your opponent has 1 prize left, your Single Strike Pokemon's attacks do +100 damage. That is crazy to think about. Just compare her to Leon and that is all you should need to know about this card's viability; she is like 2-3 times better than him.
Blaziken V/VMAX - good energy accel for RS mon, also 2HKO Zacian while trapping it in the active. 2-3/4 G. Slowking V/VMAX - main atk on the V is good, but we're in the format with bunch of switching options, especially Escape Rope got reprinted. Same to VMAX, even you tweak the dmg to 30 + 120+-dmg Poison every turn, as long they have Switch, they can manage to counter it. 3/3 Sobble/Drizzile/Inteleon - Inteleon sounds a Good ability for spreading damage around. This is what I need, a Good Stage 2 RS to make use of RS Mustard. Well, we still got Drizzile and Inteleon to search out items for us. 3/1/4-5 Horn of Echoes - Renamed Target Whistle. 2-3 Karen's Convictions - this is a good Karen card to use. Iris for SS pokemon. 3-4 Brawly - Crobat isn't a RS mon so be aware. 3-4 Lantern of Invite - great for using those Karen and maybe Bruno for extra draw. 3-4 Beedrill - we need the Weedle and Kakuna that cheats evolutions and talk to me later. 3-4
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
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.
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.
