Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX is SNIPE-Tastic

What’s poppin’ Po Town readers? It’s ya boi Zach and I’m back with another Pokemon TCG article to share the best decks in the format. Today it’s going to be Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX (Battle Styles) - one of the best Pokemon online decks in our Sword and Shield to Evolving Skies format. My goal with this article is to explain where the deck is at, some amazing lists, share the strategy, and explain the matchups. By the end of this article, you should have a solid understanding of this archetype and maybe you’ll even want to play it on PTCGO too. If you’re missing any cards for this deck or if you need to fill out your collection, feel free to pick up some PTCGL codes right here at PoTown Store.

When Battle Styles was first released, there was a huge debate among the Pokémon community - which deck was better? Single Strike Urshifu VMAX (Battle Styles) or Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX. While most of the community went to one side or another, Azul Garcia Griego (@Azul_GG) showed the world that Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX was the better deck by winning the Players Cup 3. Fast forward a few months later, Alex Schemanske (@aschemanske) added Inteleon (Chilling Reign) to the deck and won both the Players Cup 4 and the Players Cup Invitational. Those massive results have bolstered this deck as one of the best, but those are all Pre Rotation results, right? Well, yeah, things can change from a Rotation, and depending on how important some cards are to a certain deck, some decks become nearly obsolete. We’ve seen this with powerful decks, such as Eternatus VMAX (Darkness Ablaze), that need certain cards, like Pokémon Communication (Team Up), to be truly successful. Luckily for us, we have a large Post Rotation dub for this deck at the Full Grip $1000 event by Azul Garcia Griego. He definitely knows what’s up with Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX, so let’s check out his list:

I’ll be the first to say that our Post Rotation format feels stripped down when it comes to skill level, but it makes up for it in deck variety. This is certainly not one of those stripped-down decks, it likely has one of the larger skill caps in the game. The reason why isn’t surprising, you have to pick multiple Pokémon targets for G Max Rapid Flow instead of the usual one. So while decks like Suicune V (Evolving Skies) are extremely effective, it’s way easier to be forced to attack the Active Pokémon with Blizzard Rondo instead of having to choose where to deal your damage. More decisions always equal more skill. This is amplified by using Quick Shooting and determining where to put that extra damage from Inteleon each turn. The strategy of this deck is to use Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX as your main outlet to damage your opponent's Pokémon. You’ll either go for rapid attacks with Gale Thrust to line up Knock Outs or spread damage to your liking with G Max Rapid Flow. Both Telescopic Sight (Vivid Voltage) and Passimian (Chilling Reign) can help increase the Bench damage to get you closer to winning the game. Shady Dealings Drizzile (Sword and Shield) is the backbone of this deck because it gives you outs to grab any of your Trainer cards. Some of those searches might be to draw cards, like Professor’s Research (Sword and Shield), and others might grab cards to jump back into the game, such as Raihan (Evolving Skies). Inteleon allows you to laser focus your damage across the board and allow you to line up Knock Outs as necessary. I’ve changed a few cards from the above list to better match my understanding of the deck so let’s check out my list:

As a skill-based deck, there are many things you can do in a game, but there are different things you might need to do in a particular matchup. The ways to focus the damage on particular Pokémon or attempt to change up your strategy. Let’s look at some of the more popular decks in the format and see how Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX does against them.

Let’s start off with one of the more difficult matchups because this is usually the first matchups players talk about when trying to sway someone to one deck or the other. Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX (Chilling Reign) is tough because it is a Psychic-type Pokémon that hits Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX for double damage due to Weakness but we might be able to outspeed them. Focus on attacking two Pokémon VMAX with G Max Rapid Flow two to three times (Raihan is your friend here) and grabbing six Prize Cards out of nowhere. Gale Thrust is a decent substitute attack if necessary, but you really need to focus on two Pokémon VMAX to make this matchup work.

The mirror match will often be decided by who starts first in the match because they can start piling the damage on the opposing Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX or Benched Sobble (Chilling Reign) / Drizzile. You should avoid Benching Crobat V (Darkness Ablaze) because it can easily get OHKOd by Gale Thrust or G Max Rapid Flow with Passimian and Telescopic Sight. You can also double up on Prize Cards by OHKOing a Sobble / Drizzile and the Crobat V, which would allow you to have only three Prize Cards left. At that point, you could quickly two-shot a Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX for the win. My other helpful hint is that both decks play Inteleon usually see more success when there are more Intelleon in play.

Jolteon VMAX (Evolving Skies) is the new deck on the block and it also suffers from a Fighting-type Weakness. Most matchups require a tremendous amount of effort in order to win, but this matchup comes down to using Gale Thrust or even attacking with Rapid Strike Urshifu V (Battle Styles) to OHKO either Jolteon V (Sword and Shield Promos) or Jolteon VMAX. There isn’t a way for their deck to get around the Weakness and their damage output can’t compare in this particular matchup.

This is a tough matchup because Sylveon VMAX (Evolving Skies) is Psychic-type and not Fairy-type. This means that they can hit for double damage due to Weakness, but I think this matchup is slightly more favorable than Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX. Basically their deck focuses on two to three VMAX Pokémon, such as Sylveon VMAX, Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX, and / or Blaziken VMAX (Chilling Reign), which means their deck is less consistent. If you make more room for Pokémon in your deck, you need to find the space somewhere, and this deck takes from draw Supporter space. If they can’t draw into Sylveon VMAX to get it set up quickly, you might just be able to outspeed them. Focus on two Pokémon VMAX or one Pokémon VMAX / one Pokémon V / one Pokémon to see success.

Similarly to Jolteon VMAX, Eternatus VMAX also suffers from a Fighting-type Weakness. Use that to your advantage by focusing onEternatus V (Darkness Ablaze) or Eternatus VMAX to stop their attacking presence and you should be fine! They can’t play Weakness Guard Energy (Unified Minds) anymore so this is more or less a free win if you get set up.

What a journey peeps! We’ve touched upon the early success of Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX, looked at Azul Garcia Griego’s winning list, shared the strategy, looked over the matchups, and more! While this deck can struggle against a handful of poor matchups in the format that are Psychic-type, this deck holds its own against the rest of the metagame quite well! If you’re new to the game or looking to improve - this is the deck that can take you there! There are plenty of cool plays you can make and your wins will make you feel smart when you piece it all together! If you’re missing any cards for this deck, you can grab Battle Styles PTCGO codes right here or anything else you might need to make this deck today! I’ll be covering more top tier decks in the future so stay tuned - happy testing and have a great day!

Zach Lesage is a contributing writer for PoTown Store. As a Toronto local, he has been playing the Pokemon Trading Card Game since 2005 and creates Pokemon content as his full time career. As Zach Lesage PTCG, he creates YouTube content, streams on Twitch, and provides hot takes on his Twitter. With multiple prestigious accomplishments in the game, such as 2020 Players Cup 2 Champion and 2020 Oceania International Championships Finalist, he has proven his success in the game. Outside of the game, he travels the world, enjoys the culture of designer streetwear, and is a professionally trained chef. You can catch him at most Pokemon events and follow him on Twitter @ZachLesagePTCG.