Written by Zach Lesage on 11/9/2021 at category Articles
New Cards
What’s poppin’ PTCGO Store readers? Are you all excited for the release of Fusion Strike? I certainly am and I’ve been building as many pokemon online decks as possible with proxies to test this set for our community! While the set includes some amazing cards, like Mew VMAX (Fusion Strike), perhaps there are some other cards that you haven’t had the opportunity to discover. That's why this article is here - I’m going to do all of the heavy liftings and share my top five cards from Fusion Strike! I have a love/hate relationship with articles like this because on one hand it's difficult to choose the absolute best cards and on the other hand I get to laugh at myself when I miss one of the best cards from the future. Hindsight is20/20 and I’m hyped to share these cards with you. As a super awesome bonus, I’ve actually gone ahead and included a “buy list” as well to share all of the cards I plan on picking up from this set. If you’re trying to pick up some PTCGO codes to grow your online collection, use code zlesage5 to save 5% on your next order here at PTCGO Store. That being said, let’s jump into these new cards!
5. Gengar VMAX
Gengar VMAX (Fusion Strike) is an awesome addition to the already existing Single Strike Pokemon TCG deck because it adds the option of a two Prize Card attacker Pokemon. Its Panic Fear attack can quickly get powered up with Houndoom (Battle Styles) accelerating Single Strike Energy (Battle Styles) to hit hard against Pokemon V. It does 60 damage for each of your opponent’s Pokemon V, VMAX, V-Union, and VStar Pokemon in play and that adds up when many decks play Crobat V (Shining Fates), their main Pokemon, and other tech cards. And of course, you can’t forget about the bonus damage from Single Strike Energy to make this a powerful attacking option. If you ever need to OHKO anything, G-Max Swallow Up does a base 250 damage that can destroy any Pokemon V in its path and you can always add a few Single Strike Energy to this Pokemon to bring down a Pokemon VMAX. Of course, there are the other powerful aspects of the Single Strike variant, like Umbreon VMAX (Evolving Skies), which allows this new card to have a long list of tricks to use whenever it likes! Between gusting, Energy Acceleration, increasing damage output, and draw power - this card truly has a chance to shine!
4. Power Tablet
Power Tablet (Fusion Strike) is one of the most unique cards to Fusion Strike because it allows Fusion Strike decks to increase their damage output big time! Similar to Electropower (Team Up), Power Tabletallows you to increase your damage by 30 at a time, and yes, you can play as many copies as you like per turn. This allows you to hit for larger numbers and get as close to Knocking Out Pokemon VMAX as possible! Since it only works with Fusion Strike Pokemon, lemme paint a scenario with Genesect V (Fusion Strike) that could very easily happen in a Pokemon TCG Game. You wanna attack with Techno Blast against a Dragapult VMAX (Rebel Clash) that has 320 HP. You get Toxtricity (Fusion Strike) into play and activate its Max Downer Ability to lower all of your opponent’s Pokemon VMAX’s max HP by 30 so now that Dragapult VMAX has only 290 HP. This means that Genesect V’s Techno Blast is 80 damage short of an OHKO. If you play three copies of Power Tablet, which you can draw into with Fusion Strike System, you can now get an OHKO. Power Tablet makes the impossible possible and can only get better when more Fusion Strike Pokemon are printed in the future.
3. Inteleon VMAX
Inteleon VMAX (Fusion Strike) is likely my favorite new Pokemon TCG card from Fusion Strike because I love how synergetic it is with other Rapid Strike Pokemon. G-Max Spiral allows you to put an Energy attached to Inteleon VMAX back into your hand to do 140 damage and that attack has a bunch of players feelin’ some sort of way. On one hand, it seems like fairly low damage output, but you can also quickly power it up with a Rapid Strike Energy (Battle Styles) to attack ASAP. The best part about lifting it back means that you can easily use Cheryl (Battle Styles) to heal your Inteleon VMAX if your opponent ever damages it without OHKOing it. Did I mention that it has an Ability? Double Gunner allows you to pitch a Water Energy from your hand and ping two of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon for two Damage Counters each. This works great with the searchability of Drizzile (Sword and Shield) to search for Training Court (Rebel Clash) to grab those Energy back. That same Drizzile can evolve into Inteleon (Chilling Reign) to use Quick Shooter to place extra Damage Counters on your opponent’s board to give this deck a sniping strategy. Octillery (Battle Styles) seamlessly works with all of these Rapid Strike Pokemon to search out a handful of Rapid Strike cards to truly make this one of the most consistent pokemon online decks in the format.
2. Mew VMAX
Every set seems to have iconic cards that will change the face of the game for months to come!Battle Styles has Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX, Chilling Reignhas Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX, Evolving Skies has Rayquaza VMAX, and Fusion Strikehas Mew VMAX. Similar to Mew ex (Celebrations) or Mewtwo & Mew-GX (Unified Minds), Mew VMAXcan easily copy any Fusion Strike Pokemon on your Bench with its Cross Fusion Strike attack for only two Colorless Energy. While the options are currently only limited to Fusion Strike, it seems like the game will continue to add Fusion Strike Pokemon into the game for the foreseeable future which can give Mew VMAX even more options. It has a large support system and can even accelerate Energy with the newly printed Elesa’s Radiance (Fusion Strike). While the community accepted build of Mew VMAX will eventually find its way to the public, there are so many different ways to play this card and it seems like a great opportunity to test all of them!
1. Genesect V
Here we are, my favorite card in the whole set! And for a great reason, Genesect V is great at drawing cards! Fusion Strike system is a great way to draw a bunch of cards in any Fusion Strike deck and many pokemon online decks will have to change cards in their deck to reflect how this Ability works. You see, Fusion Strike System allows you to draw cards until you have as many cards in your hand as you have Fusion Strike Pokemon in play. Looking at a normal situation, if you have six Fusion Strike Pokemon in play, this Ability plays out like an Ability version of Korrina’s Focus (Battle Styles). You can use this Ability as many times as you have Genesect V in play so thinning your hand to draw more cards sounds like a must. This means fewer Supporter cards and more “burnable” cards. Cards like Quick Ball (Sword and Shield), Great Ball (Champions Path), and even Pokemon Catcher (Sword and Shield) are all options that you can “burn” out of your hand. The only warning I have about this card is that with all of the drawing power it has, be sure to avoid yourself decking out! It might be worthwhile to add a few copies of Marnie (Sword and Shield) to put some cards at the bottom of your deck.
Buy List
While I don’t usually include “buy lists” in my articles for this site, I found myself really excited about this set and I figured I should share my list here with our community! While I’m sure there are some cards that I could possibly take off or eventually add on - this is a solid guide to the whole set of Fusion Strike. Let’s check it out!
Must Haves
- 1 Oricorio FST
- 2 Clamperl FST
- 2 Huntail FST
- 2 Gorebyss FST
- 1 Basculin FST
- 4 Inteleon V FST
- 4 Inteleon VMAX FST
- 2 Toxel FST
- 2 Toxtricity FST
- 4 Mew V FST
- 3 Mew VMAX FST
- 2 Galarian Corsola FST
- 2 Galarian Cursola FST
- 1 Meloetta FST
- 3 Gengar V FST
- 3 Gengar VMAX FST
- 4 Genesect V FST
- 2 Latias FST
- 2 Latios FST
- 1 Dunsparce FST
- 3 Greedent VMAX FST
- 4 Cross Receiver FST
- 4 Cross Switcher FST
- 4 Power Tablet FST
- 1 Sponge Gloves FST
- 2 Sidney FST
- 4 Elesa's Radiance FST
- 4 Chili & Cilan & Cress FST
- 2 Cook FST
- 4 Judge FST
- 4 Shauna FST
- 4 Fusion Strike Energy FST
Time to Test
With all of the knowledge of the new Fusion Strike Pokemon set in this article, I hope it has inspired many of you trainers out there to play some Pokemon! It seems like this will be the first set available on PTCG Live, but we’re currently unsure how the rollout will happen overall. That being said, PTCGO Store aims to be the best way for you to acquire PTCGO codes no matter which platform players are playing Pokemon on. You can use my discount code zlesage5 to save 5% on your next order! As for me, I always get inspired by new set releases and use it as a time to explore as much of the format as possible. I hope to share my findings with our community and write about them here! I still have a bunch of testing let to do so I’m gonna start that and catch up with all of you later!
筆者について
Zach Lesage is a contributing writer for the PTCGO 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 the 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.