V for Victini - The best VMAX Pokémon from Battle Styles!?

Hi everyone, my name is Joshua Vanoverschelde, also known as ZapdosTCG, and today we will talk all about Victini VMAX! As you all know, it is a wonderful and underrated card from Battle Styles. After a couple of weeks, Victini VMAX seems to be winning more than any other VMAX archetype out there. Why? That's what we're gonna be talking about today.

Well, to start things off, it has an amazing base V Pokémon that came out in the Sword & Shield set, Victini V. Its attack, Spreading Flames, allows you to attach 3 energies from your discard to your Pokémon in any way that you like. This is an interesting attack that helps you set up some energies on the field, and Victini VMAX also has access to it. It’s ideal for stuff like Heatran GX to come with a powerful Hot Burn GX or how about to set up a Charizard & Reshiram GX, quite a nice amount of ideas! These attacks are only used in emergencies, seeing as we still have the broken supporter Welder by our side. The Victini V also comes packed with Energy Burst, which dishes out 30 damage for all energies attached to both active Pokemon. This attack can come in the clutch against stuff like Centiskorch VMAX with a ton of energy. Or how about against Pikachu & Zekrom GX that used a Full Blitz and now has 6 energies attached!

In my conclusion, the Victini V is already great to put up some pressure, but the Victini VMAX is just a super aggressive card in a metagame full of VMAX Pokemon. Let me explain why.

Victini VMAX comes packed with the attack Max Victory, which deals 100 damage, but if the opponent is a V Pokemon, it deals 220 damage instead. And that is enough to OHKO 99% of all evolving V Pokemon out there! Think about Eternatus V, Dragapult V, Centiskroch V, Rapid Strike Urshifu V, and many more! We can OHKO them before they are able to evolve into their VMAX form. That makes this deck very dangerous for all those VMAX archetypes.

The Victini VMAX deck is also a deck that wants to go first. This is the first Welder deck that doesn't actually need Welder to succeed. That's why the lists typically run a couple of Research in there as well. The only thing you need on turn 1 is a Victini V and an attachment to it. With Giant Hearth in the format, that's a piece of cake. We have draw support Pokemon like Dedenne GX, Crobat V, and even the new Kricketune V, which also protects you from Marnie, and Reset Stamp, which rocks!

Victini VMAX might not have the most HP out of the VMAX family, but it's definitely a tier 1 deck, in my opinion. Because the game could be over before you know it when knocking out an evolving V Pokemon. The deck typically relies on 4 copîes of Boss's Order and a couple of Escape Rope to gust up those Evolving V Pokemon. And that's not all with the high amount of fire support out there: Welder, Giant Hearth, Fire Crystal, etc... The deck can perform really well. The only downside I see is the Tag Team GX matchups, but for those, you can rely on good old Charizard & Reshiram GX or Heatran GX (if you can find Welder, of course). Other techs you might think about are Ninetales, Volcanion, and Blacephalon. This is a different variant of Victini VMAX, but as mentioned, because of the high amount of Fire Support, you can make it work.

Now that we talked about the main card, let's talk about some matchups. Which matchups are favorable and which ones are unfavorable? You'll hear it right away!

First off, it should be mentioned that all VMAX decks are favorable because of the strategy mentioned earlier. You go first, attach to Victini V, turn 2 evolve, attach second energy, and use Boss's Order to OHKO an evolving V Pokemon. If the opponent happens to evolve before that, you are still able to 2 shot them—highly efficient damage output.

We also can’t forget we are a Fire deck, so matchups like LucMetal are also pretty good!

Considering most of the Victini VMAX decks run Giratina or Fan of Waves. I would say the VMAX deck that has the best chance would be the Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX as it typically also plays Cheryl and can heal off damage while spreading with G-MAX Rapid Flow, but most of the time, you secure that matchup by being the faster deck.

Centiskorch VMAX

Corviknight VMAX

Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX

Single Strike Urshifu VMAX

LucMetal

As for even matchups, there isn't a lot, to be honest. Either you go full swinging winning against VMAX, or you lose against 1-prize Pokemon. The only close matchup is the one against ADP Zacian, to be honest. Against that deck, you can use tech in Charizard &Reshiram GX to help the matchup or just go blazing with a Heatran GX. Also, with Escape Rope, you can sometimes take a cheeky KO before they can use Altered Creation GX. Try to start by only slapping down one 2-prize Pokemon because if you slap more of those, the game could be over with 2 Boss's Orders from the opponent. Early pressure is the key in this matchup. Don't forget you can also go around ADP and gust up their Zacian V, Eldgoss V, and Crobat V to win the game.