Zacian V/Inteleon: Is it the BDIF Post-Rotation?

Good morning everybody reading this article today! To those of you who aren’t, I suspect it’s just because you’re too busy buying PTCGO codes from our store and putting them into your accounts. The Atlas POG Championships are now completed, which means that we’re embarking on our new format, the 2021 rotation. This rotation occurs every year without fail, and it usually kicks off around September. The format usually feels very basic in nature because of the limited card pool, and decks that are highly consistent are oftentimes considered the best deck. The deck we’re going to talk about today, Zacian/Inteleon, is very simple in nature as well, however, it also has the ability to be very reactive with its Inteleon engine. Zacian is a beast in its own right because it can hit high numbers and do it at an alarmingly fast pace. This deck first came under my radar when I saw it perform well at an IRL post-rotation tournament. Now that we’re actually playing in the format, we can see Zacian decks are doing quite well - Zacian/Inteleon should prove no different. Let’s take a peek into one of my favorite decks at the moment, Zacian/Inteleon!

I booted up my Pokemon Trading Card Game Online app, loaded up some PTCGO codes, and then traded those Pokemon online codes to trade for this deck. I was very excited, and it honestly didn’t take that many PTCGL codes to make the deck. If you’re looking to buy some codes, we sell them here on PTCGO Store, and I highly urge you to check out our competitive pricing and swift delivery! Let’s talk about the newest way to play Zacian V/Inteleon today.

  

The main point of this deck is to focus on consistent Pokemon cards that can also attack for lots of damage. We ultimately want to trade very efficiently with opposing VMAXs which dominate the entirety of the post-rotation format. Zacian V alongside Cape of Toughness and Circhester Bath can make it so our opponent will have a very hard time OHKOing any of our main attackers. We want them to attack us twice so we can get off two Brave Blades with the same Zacian. Inteleon is in here as a supporting role to help us search out key cards for our Zacians. Inteleon will rarely ever attack however it can in a pinch if you’re using the CRE one. By being able to setup swiftly with Metal Saucer and other powerful Supporter cards we have, we can gain a small edge on our opponent and steal the game at the last minute. If we ever can’t attack, we can always take a turn off and use our Intrepid Sword ability as well. I love this deck so much – it’s been such a joy to play! Let’s take a look at what a list looks like for this deck:

4 Zacian V SSH 195

4 Sobble CRE 41

3 Drizzile SSH 56

1 Inteleon SSH 58

2 Inteleon CRE 43

4 Switch SSH 183

2 Circhester Bath VIV 150

4 Metal Saucer SSH 170

2 Evolution Incense SSH 163　

4 Quick Ball SSH 179　

1 Air Balloon SSH 156　

1 Escape Rope BST 125

3 Boss's Orders RCL 154　

4 Level Ball BST 129　

3 Professor's Research SSH 178

3 Cape of Toughness DAA 160

3 Marnie SSH 200　

1 Energy Search SSH 161

11 Metal Energy Energy 8

4 Zacian V – This card is an absolute beast in post rotation, and is one of the strongest V Pokemon to have been printed so far. An ability that draws cards in the form of Intrepid Sword is potent enough to make most strategies work, however when you look closer the ability also reads that you can accelerate energy onto your Zacian V as well. This is inherently one of the strongest abilities in standard as well because going first you can use Intrepid Sword to end your first turn (since you can’t attack) and potentially get a fully powered Zacian by the end of your turn. You can also use this ability to end turns at any point of the game where you either can’t attack or it isn’t beneficial to attack. That being said, sometimes you don’t accelerate any energy onto Zacian with Intrepid Sword, but the games where you even hit single energy just feel so strong. I feel like I win almost every game I start where I hit additional energy off of Intrepid. 220HP is quite good right now (it can be higher with Cape of Toughness) as it can stand a chance against many VMAX Pokémon. Victini may be an issue if it becomes more popular because this Pokémon has Fire-type weakness; Grass resistance is quite nice against things that may become popular such as Leafeon VMAX. Two retreat cost is steep, but not too steep as we can mitigate it with Air Balloon. Brave Blade hitting for 230 (or 260 if you opt to play a list with Rusted Sword) is a sweet number for many Pokemon, and often can pick up OHKOs. I like four Zacian V for maxed consistency, as this is the main attacker in our deck.

4 Sobble – We’ve covered the Inteleon line before in a few previous articles however I want to touch on how powerful each stage of this engine is in summary. Sobble’s first attack is extremely efficient at setting up your side of the field consistently; being able to search out all of the other Sobble in your deck, prepares you to later evolve them into Drizzile and Inteleon which can help you to setup further and just progress the game. Searchable via Level Ball.

4 Drizzile – Drizzile is one of the best setup Pokemon in general with post rotation. It isn’t often that we play a Stage 2 without Rare Candy, however in this case we really want to evolve our Pokémon up manually because we get access to Drizzile’s amazing ability. Being able to search for anyone Trainer card in your deck offers up a lot of skill, which allows for us so many options in order to outpace the opponent. Drizzile can search for Level Ball, which can grab other Drizziles and continuously create a chain until all Drizzile are evolved. Drizzile can then evolve into Inteleon, which gains access to TWO Trainer cards with its ability. You can alternatively evolve into Inteleon CRE and hit key numbers on opposing Pokemon. This whole line of Pokémon just aims at setting up your board, and it all is without the use of a Rule Box Pokémon! If your opponent decides to attack your Inteleons, they will only draw one Prize Card.

1 Inteleon SSH – This Inteleon is very clutch at times because it can search out two copies of Metal Saucer, an otherwise unsearchable card within our deck. This means we can power up a Zacian in a single turn without the use of a Rule Box Pokemon! Alternatively, another great search combo for this card is to find Cape of Toughness + a Circhester Bath to form a bulky Zacian.

2 Inteleon CRE - This Inteleon is very interesting, and is cuttable for a second of the other Inteleon to focus on consistency. The main strength of running one of these Inteleon is that it allows you to use its ability in order to soften up future threats and also simultaneously finish off Pokémon that wouldn’t normally be KO’ed. One example of this is against Victini VMAX – if you have two Inteleon CRE in play, and snipe a Victini VMAX twice + Brave Blade, the next turn you can just snipe it twice again to hit 310 damage total (230 + 40 + 40 the following turn).

4 Switch - This card is extremely important for getting our Zacian V into the active in order to use its Brave Blade attack as soon as possible. These keep our deck mobile and also allow us to reset the negative clause on Brave Blade too. Switch is essential in this post-rotation format.

1 Escape Rope - This card can come in clutch depending on the size of our opponent’s bench, and what options they can possibly send-up. Alongside our Inteleon lineup, we can really abuse this card to the fullest by having access to it within our deck at most points of the game.

1 Air Balloon - This card allows us to consistently have a pivot, while also giving our deck a valuable card that may be able to be utilized more than one time. You may want to consider cutting a Switch for another Air Balloon.

4 Metal Saucer - This card allows us to manage the pace of our game and provides an opportunity to keep tempo against aggressive decks. Inteleon SSH can search out two Metal Saucer in one turn to setup a Zacian V out of nowhere.

2 Circhester Bath - This card really doesn’t have much synergy with our deck, however, it is very important in order to remove Path to the Peak from play when it inevitably makes its way onto the field at some point. Circhester Bath does just that, and also makes our Pokémon just a little bit tankier. Alongside Cape of Toughness, you’ll have one-touch Zacian to get through.

3 Cape of Toughness - This Tool card is pretty tough I’d say; gaining the benefit of being able to take two hits from a VMAX is massive in this post-rotation format, and we want to take full advantage of it that. With a Cape of Toughness, we can boost our Zacian’s HP to 270, and with Circhester Bath, that number hops up to 290! We can easily evade an OHKO from scary VMAX Pokémon, and trade very efficiently. Capes are part of the reason why this deck is so freaking good - because if you can’t OHKO a Zacian, you’re in big trouble! I’d expect to see Tool Scrapper in many decks very soon.

1 Energy Search - This card replaces Energy Spinner in our current format. We play this card as opposed to Metal Energy because we can search it out with Drizzile’s ability (or Inteleon SSH’s ability) in order to ensure we don’t whiff an energy drop. In a perfect world, we’d rather play an extra Metal in order to have higher odds of drawing into one with Intrepid Sword, however, we need an Item-based energy search card to evade scenarios where we whiff energy. Consider this card a safety net.

Zacian is one of the most consistent top-tier decks within the format, and it really stands a chance against almost anything on its path; I suspect Inteleon could take it over the top. If you like drawing tons of Prize Cards quickly then I highly urge you to try out this deck. This deck doesn’t require too many PTCGO codes because it only needs a few cards from the new expansion, so it’s perfect for beginners. You can consider adding in a copy of that new card Raihan, which you can find in the Evolving Skies expansion. I’d suggest nabbing some PTCGO codes and building this deck online because this deck will only get stronger. Until next time, have fun!

 

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