Roaring Thunder - Jolteon VMAX

Alola Trainers! I’m back here at the PoTown Blog with an article about one of my favorite Pokemon ever: Jolteon VMAX! This Pokemon deck is one of the top-performing pokemon online decks at the moment, as it boasts a cool strategy, disruption, tech flexibility, and even comeback potential.

Since the 2021 - 2022 Standard format rotation took place, there is no way Pokemon Online decks can protect their benched Pokemon from attacks such as Jolteon VMAX’s Max Thunder Rumble. This allows you to threaten any support Pokemon such as Sobble or Houndour early on, along with setting up 4, 5 or even 6 prize turns with correct damage counter placement and targeting.

Since Evolving Skies came out, Jolteon VMAX has been a top deck in the Pokemon TCG Onlineladder and also in the online tournament scene. Taking over Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX as the prime bench Pokemon sniper, the deck has continually racked up wins in the online tournament scene.

Combining with Jolteon VMAX we have Galarian Zigzagoon with its ability Headbutt Tantrum, allowing it to place one damage counter on any of your opponent’s Pokemon in play. This allows Max Thunder Rumble to do a further 100 damage to that Pokemon, and combining that with the Elemental Badge Tool card which reduces the attack cost of Max Thunder Rumble to only a single Lightning Energy, doing 200 damage total for a single Energy is outstanding.

The whole Inteleon line is here to help sustain and support the deck's consistency through Shady Dealings, but also through Quick Shooting giving you bonus damage counters to place and further your damage from Max Thunder Rumble. Finding a lot of Sobbles early is key to this deck's success, especially if it wants to pull off the Dusknoir / Dream Ball / Peonia combo.

This combo allows you to have a fighting chance against fighting decks (pun intended) as the Spectral Breach ability turns all Rapid Strike and Single Strike Energy into Colorless. Most Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX decks aren’t playing any Basic Fighting Energy, only Darkness or Water depending on the version of the deck. And same goes for Single Strike decks. Pulling off the combo of placing the Dream Ball in your prize cards through Peonia, and then taking a prize, choosing the Dream Ball, and searching out Dusknoir will usually immediately auto win you both of those matchups. Nevertheless, Special Energy is everywhere in this format so it might prove useful against other decks or in other situations, even the mirror match as Jolteon VMAX decks run so little Basic Energy.

With Mew VMAX being the top deck in the format, Path to the Peak is an excellent card to combat its raw power by shutting down Genesect V. A Marnie or a Boss’s Orders combined with a Path to the Peak can sometimes be enough to buy you a couple of turns and dominate a game.

Finally, a key card that I don’t think gets enough credit here is Cheryl. As of today, winning or losing the coin flip to decide who goes first can be huge in the Pokemon TCG, no matter what deck you are using or what matchup you are up against. The format is basically big Pokemon VMAX 2HKOing each other as long as Weakness isn’t a thing. However, Cheryl allows you to tank a hit, heal off the damage and continue dishing yours back immediately. This is something that most decks would love to be able to do but very few can, and can make up for the fact that you end up going second against an opponent.

This is the decklist that I’ve been enjoying playing lately, and I will note a few changes afterward that you can do in order to improve the deck's utility whilst sacrificing the Dusknoir line:

I think the list is pretty settled in terms of the agreed-upon optimal 55-57 cards in the list. However, if we took out the Peonia, Dusknoir, and Dream Ball, we could add a second Quick Shooting Inteleon, second Boss’s Orders, and a Tool Scrapper.

This matchup is heavily dependent on how easily they can maneuver around your disruption options. Path to the Peak is essential to slow them down, and combining that with a Marnie or Boss’s Orders is ideal. Fusion Strike Energy stops Galarian Zigzagoon or Inteleon from placing damage counters on the Pokemon it's attached to, so always keep that in mind when choosing your targets.

Whether it Umbreon VMAX with Single Strike Urshifu VMAX, or a pure Gengar VMAX deck, you will get easily outrun and OHKO’d if you’re not playing Dusknoir tech, but you will easily take over the matchup once you set up Dusknoir if you do run it, as they won’t be able to attack you at all.

This matchup can swing either way depending on early set up but also the timing of the Cheryl from either player. If someone is running 2 copies of Cheryl, which is not unheard of, then they will usually have the advantage.

Same deal as Single Strike decks. It's a lost cause without Dusknoir, but a close auto-win with it, as long as you can pull it off which can sometimes be a bit tricky because of all the pressure they apply.

Weakness is a huge deterrent for them, combined with sniping down Sobbles, Drizzles, and Lotads on the bench to deny them further resources and this simply compounds on the huge advantage you already have against them.

Both Zamazenta V and Crystal Cave are annoying cards for you to deal with, as they can potentially prevent or reduce the damage that you deal to them. However, the four copies of Path to the Peak should prove sufficient to overcome them every time.

As of today, Jolteon VMAX is considered a tier 1 deck and continues to battle it out against Mew VMAX in the online tournament scene. One cool thing about this deck is how different it plays out from other VMAX decks, due to the lower damage output against the action but also the different strategies it can pull off. Building this deck is actually very easy as you can find PTCGO codes / PTCGL codes for both Jolteon V and Jolteon VMAX at Po Town Store, rather than having to trade for them or hope you pull them in Evolving Skies packs. I’m confident this deck will remain good for the rest of the season and will be a great choice to grind the Pokemon TCG Live Ranked ladder once that comes out in 2022! If you’re tired of the Pokemon VMAX strategy of just big damage and big HP, Jolteon VMAX might be that breath of fresh air that you need in this metagame.