Rapid Strike Malamar - Ultimate damage for a single prize!

Yo mates welcome to another PoTown Store Blog post! I'm ZapdosTCG, and today I'll be talking about one of my favorite pokemon online decks in the standard format right now: Rapid Strike Malamar. If you’re missing any cards to build the Rapid Strike Malamar deck or any other deck, feel free to pick up some PTCGL codes right here at the PoTown store. That's being said, now let's take a closer look into my favorite deck right now!

As you already know, I'm quite the 1-prize deck lover. In the past, I played Zapdos/Jirachi and Baby Blowns to great success in earlier formats. In today's Sword and Shield-onwards format, I have found my new pet deck: Rapid Strike Malamar.

Rapid Strike Malamar has an infinite damage output. For every Rapid Strike card in our hand, we are willing to shuffle back in the deck, we slap 40 damage. So as soon as you have 9 Rapid Strike cards in your hand, you can OHKO anything in the game! The Rapid Strike Tentacles attack can get powered up by just single energy. That's just the beauty of the deck.

Now how do we increase our hand size in order to have enough Rapid Strike cards to OHKO Pokémon? Well, that's easy. We are playing Octillery, which is able to search out a Rapid Strike card from the deck with the ability Rapid Strike Search. If you are looking for Spiral Energy or the Rapid Strike Malamar or a Korrina's Focus to draw back up, Octillery has got your back. On top of that, we also have a Cinccino line thrown in the deck, which is able to draw deeper in the deck with the ability to Make Do.

So an ideal position to be in is to have Cinccino set up and 1 Octillery. With this, Octillery can find Korrina's Focus, and Cinccino can then get you over the edge. Or you play Professor's Research first, then go for some Make Do abilities, and then use the Rapid Strike Search of Octillery. By then, you'll have enough to OHKO anything in the game! Upgrading on VMAX Pokémon is what makes Rapid Strike Malamar so amazing!

With the help of 4 Level Ball, 4 Great Ball, 4 Fog Crystal, and 4 Evolution Incense, you will have your ideal board setup in no time! This deck cannot play Boss's Orders because we need to use our supporters for the turn to get more cards in hand. Instead, we play Pokémon Catcher. This only works 50% of the time, so we are playing two copies. Pokémon Catcher allows us to close off games way easier. Definitely try it out.

Cards I also really like in this deck are Scoop Up Net and Rescue Carrier. Both these cards can get you over the edge to suddenly get more Rapid Strike cards in hand.

You can use Scoop Up Net in the late game to grab Octillery and Remoraid back in hand to smack for 80 additional damage. Scoop Up Net can also help you if you're stranded in the active position with a Cinccino or to heal up a Pokémon after they got sniped by an Inteleon.

The Rescue Carrier card is a card which you definitely need against archetypes like Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX. Decks like those KO 2 Inkays at once which make it challenging to come back. Rescue Carrier can also give you that 80 damage boost when you need it.

Now let us talk about some matchups, shall we? The matchup spread looks like this:

Umbreon VMAX/SS Urshifu VMAX

Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX

Leafeon VMAX

Victini VMAX

Rayquaza VMAX

Decidueye

Suicune V

Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX

Sylveon VMAX

Jolteon VMAX

I'm not going over all the individual matchups in this blog post because most of them are the same. Rapid Strike Malamar is kind of a one-trick pony, so you basically do the same thing in every matchup. But I will cover some interesting tips for specific matchups.

Against VMAX decks, you typically win the prize race as at one point you'll be able to OHKO their V or VMAX Pokémon. Focus on setting up 2 Cinccino and 1 Octillery. Against decks that don't take multiple targets, 2 Inkays early game is enough.

If you face off against Dragapult VMAX and Jolteon VMAX, it's almost impossible to win because they are low-maintenance attackers that target 2 Pokémon every single turn. Against Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX, you do have a chance since you hit them for weakness. Just try and focus on getting out 3 Inkays by turn 2. Rescue Carrier really can swing that matchup in your favor after a G-MAX Rapid Flow.

Suicune V might be a closer matchup than you think because they use Cape of Toughness, putting them to 260 HP. This means we need 7 Rapid Strike Cards in hand to get a KO. The reason why this is a problem is that the Suicune V deck is fast. You might think that against Zacian V, it's the same story, but there they are not as aggressive as Suicune V, that can attack back-to-back thanks to Melony. Suicune V is quite doable, but they also come paired with some Quick Shooting Inteleons, which will hunt down your Cinccino, so save your Scoop Up Net for that situation.

And that's it for my detailed blog post about my favorite deck: Rapid Strike Malamar. This is very cheap to make a deck, so it's categorized as a budget deck. No need for fancy VMAX cards when you can win with this beauty of a deck. If you face off against decks that don't take multiple prize cards in turn, you'll win most of the time. Definitely try out the deck for yourself and see it in action on my YouTube channel: ZapdosTCG. If you’re looking for any PTCGO codes to build this deck on PTCGO, be sure to pick up some PTCGL codes right here. PoTown store offers PTCGO codes at a very competitive price and ensures instant delivery of your PTCGL codes directly to your email. Thank you for reading the blog post, and see you all in the next one!