Alt. Format Single Strike Urshifu VMAX skeleton (TEU-BAS)

[John InCENAroar]

Now, obviously, this is just a skeleton build because we've only seen a few cards from the set, but TPCi has revealed enough to make a solid core for Single-Strike Urshifu VMAX, or as I'll be referring to it, Urshifu-Red.

Pokemon (15):

• Urshifu-Red V (3)

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• Urshifu-Red VMAX (3)

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• Houndour (2)

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No image/text available

• Houndoom (2)

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• Emboar (2)

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• Crobat V (1)
• Dedenne GX (1)
• Eldegoss V (1)

Trainer (34):

• Quick Ball (4)
• Mustard Single Strike Stance (3)

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Mustard Single Strike Stance – Trainer
Supporter (Single Strike)

You can only play this card if it’s the last card in your hand. Search your deck for a Single Strike Pokemon and put it onto your Bench. Then, draw 5 cards.

You may play only 1 Supporter card during your turn (before your attack).

• Vitality Jar (4)

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Vitality Jar – Trainer
Item (Single Strike)

Choose up to 2 Single Strike Energy cards from your discard pile, reveal them, and shuffle them into your deck.

You may play any number of Item cards during your turn (before your attack).

• Tower of Darkness (3)

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Tower of Darkness – Trainer
Stadium (Single Strike)

Once during their turn, each player may discard a Single Strike card from their hand and draw 2 cards.

This Stadium stays in play when you play it. Discard it if another Stadium comes into play. If a Stadium with the same name is in play, you can’t play this card.

• Boss' Orders (3)
• Marnie (3)
• Professor's Research (3)
• Bea (1)
• Pokemon Communication (3)
• Switch (3)
• Guzma + Hala (2)
• Single Strike Scroll: Raging Scroll (2)

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Single Strike Scroll: Raging Scroll – Trainer
Item (Single Strike)

Pokemon Tool: Attach a Pokemon Tool to 1 of your Pokemon that doesn’t already have a Pokemon Tool attached to it.

The Single Strike Pokemon this card is attached to can use the attack on this card. (You still need the necessary Energy to use this attack.)

[F] Fury: 10+ damage. This attack does 10 more damage for each damage counter on this Pokémon.

You may play any number of Item cards during your turn (before your attack).

Energy (11):

• Single Strike Energy (4)

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Single Strike Energy
Special Energy (Single Strike)

This card can only be attached to a Single Strike Pokemon.

While attached to a Pokemon, this card provides [D] and [F] Energy, but provides only 1 Energy at a time. Attacks from the Pokemon this card is attached to do 20 more damage to your opponent’s Active Pokemon.

(If this card is attached to anything other than a Single Strike Pokémon, discard this card.)

• Stone [F] Energy (4)
• Fighting (3)

The thought here is that with all the damage mods from Emboar and the Single Strike Energy, Urshifu-Red VMAX can OHKO anything in the game with relative ease. 2 Single-Strike Energy plus Emboar adds 70 damage, which is relevant because it enables G-Max One Blow to OHKO anything in the game before HP mods like Stone Fighting on Coalossal VMAX or multiple Heat Fire on something like Centiskorch VMAX, as well as allowing Beatdown, the first attack, to OHKO Eternatus VMAX with weakness. This can also be done using Impact Blow on the base form with something like a Memory Capsule, an addition to consider not just for that but also for Laser Focus which accelerates two energy onto Urshifu. Emboar of course utilizes Mustard's Stance, which acts like the old Archie/Maxie cards from PRC, but searches from the deck in order to be played. Hopefully we get more Single-Strike cards focused on general search/recovery, since I think this deck needs it.

 

[Dark Espeon]

Hi John InCENAroar,

Nice idea. Not sure on Bea with the low count of eleven energies in total. I would either focus more on Mustard and have a second Emboar or remove both of these cards for Galarian Zigzagoon and Scoop Up Net as an alternative damage acceleration engine. The latter may be easier to build. You should have a decent acceleration with Houndoom.

Pokémon (16):

• 1 Galarian Zigzagoon S1H (beatdown)
  
• 3 Urshifu Vmax S5I (beatdown)
• 4 Urshifu V S5I (beatdown)
• 3 Houndoom S5I (enable)
• 3 Houndour S5I (evolve)
• 2 Crobat V (draw)

Trainer (34):

• 2 Boss's Orders (control)
• 4 Prof. Research (draw)
• 4 Marnie (draw)
• 3 Pokémon Communication (search)
• 4 Scoop Up Net (retrieval)
  
• 3 PokeGear 3.0 (search)
• 3 Vitality Jar (retrieve)
• 4 Quick Ball (draw)
• 3 Switch (retreat)
• 1 Material Arts Dojo (beatdown)
  
• 3 Tower of Darkness (draw)

Energy (10):

• 4 Single Strike Energy
• 6 Fighting Energy

 

[John InCENAroar]

Hey Dark Espeon,

I appreciate your imput, but I'll likely take the Emboar route, since as far as overall damage output is concerned, Emboar adds so much more than 5 instances of Zigzagoon. Also, the reason I added Bea was because it attaches all energy from the top 5, not just basic Fighting. I can definitely see how I would need a more consistent Emboar though, So I could probably cut them for an extra copy of each. I also notice your list is focused more on straight supporter consistency, a route I've elected to lean away from because the Stadium acts as extra draw power.

Total Changes:

• -1 Bea
• -1 Pokemon Communication
• +1 Emboar
• +1 Mustard Single Strike

 

[Dark Espeon]

Hi John InCENAroar,

Sounds reasonable. If you want to focus more on Emboar consider to focus much more on Mustard and make sure that almost all other cards can be played immediately or traded back to the deck. In my Rapid Strike version I want to achive a turn one Urshifu Vmax to hit with Gale Thrust turn one. For this reason I need Urshifu Vmax in the discard and play the hand down to use Mustard to revive him to the bench. In the single strike version you want to achieve the same aim with Emboar and have two Houndoom one the bench too. Have not tried it thus far but it seems a lot more complicated which may result in a slower start. How are your experiences with the deck thus far?

 

[cardgjammer]

Did you notice that Emboar does NOT mention the "You can't use more than 1 of (insert Ability name here) at a time" limitation that other, earlier cards of its kind did???

^ If the current wording holds as true, then what if you have 2-3 Emboar on bench?

Will the ability stack?

With no limitations mentioned at either end of the ability section of card, the answer is most likely a yes, and that maybe including max Mustard SS to abuse the stack, as well as some Memory Capsules, you can do massive damage w/o the need to discard all your Energy from usage of G-Max One Blow w/ the power of Impact Blow from SS Urshifu V's basic form. In the process, you can also evolve your two Houndours to Houndooms to ensure that you have 2 potential Single Strike Energies in the form of an Ability on bench ready to attach from your deck to the Urshifu SS. To take advantage, use this suggested list:

Pokemon(15)
3 Urshifu Vmax S5I (beatdown)
3 Urshifu V S5I (beatdown)
2 Houndour(evolve)
2 Houndoom S5I (enable)
3 Emboar(buff)
2 Crobat V (draw)

Trainer (33):
3 Boss's Orders (control)
3 Prof. Research (draw)
3 Marnie (draw)
3 Pokémon Communication (search)
3 Memory Capsule(recall)
4 Mustard SS (search)
4 Vitality Jar (retrieve)
4 Quick Ball (draw)
3 Switch (retreat)
3 Tower of Darkness (draw)

Energy (12):
4 Single Strike Energy
4 Fighting Energy
4 Stone [F] Energy

^ Do you want to go with your list, or my suggested one?

 

[John InCENAroar]

I do see the utility of Emboar stacking, and was initially contemplating using multiple. Now that a good portion of the set list is out, I am definitely thinking of getting 2 out consistently, though I also think I'll only need 1 out long term, since I will only need to use One-Blow twice in any game where VMAXes are involved with 2 SS energy and the 1 emboar (total 340 - OHKO's any VMAX before mods like Heat [R] energy), and I can use Beatdown in some other matchups to pick off tiny guys like Dedenne or Crobat, meaning as far using One-Blow goes, It's only guys like ADP or Non-Eternatus VMAXes I need to use it on, while playing around the others after a second charge. What I could do is play a Cheryl to heal my Urshifu VMAX after I use One-Blow though, which sounds kinda nifty. I think I'll just mod my own list to make accomodations.