Have you ever wondered... about the fate of the Pokemon TCGverse as we know it... The balance is shifting, ever so slightly, but inevitably these walls around us will crumble, the mold shall be broken, and dark tidings will be upon us all... Prepare yourselves to fight till the end against... the psychic overlord! 


*Insert ominous movie trailer music here*

Once again, we are back with a deck primer introducing one of the hottest Pokéstars around right now, Urshifu VMAX (Rapid Strike), in it's blockbuster debut in the 2021 post Fusion Strike format! This deck is filled with a whole lot of Kungfu fighting and double the fiery action with your trusty sidekick Galarian Moltres V! Come follow us and read on to see how they try to take on the TCG world!


Urshifu VMAX (Rapid Strike) sample decklist piloted by online user [Dangerous Rogue] to a first place finish in the recent "ATLAS x Battle Factory - Peladão da Baixada #35" online event.

*If you aren't familiar with some of the cards, here's a written list!

4 Rapid Strike Urshifu V BST 87
3 Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX BST 88
4 Sobble CRE 41
4 Drizzile SSH 56
3 Inteleon CRE 43
1 Inteleon SSH 58
2 Galarian Moltres V CRE 97
1 Crobat V SHF 44
1 Passimian CRE 88

4 Professor's Research CEL 23
2 Marnie CPA 56
1 Bird Keeper DAA 159
1 Boss's Orders SHF 58
1 Raihan EVS 152
4 Quick Ball FST 237
3 Evolution Incense SSH 163
3 Level Ball BST 129
2 Energy Switch SSH 162
1 Scoop Up Net RCL 165
1 Escape Rope BST 125
1 Energy Search SSH 161
1 Air Balloon SSH 156
2 Tower of Waters BST 138

4 Darkness Energy 7
4 Rapid Strike Energy BST 140
2 Fighting Energy 6

And without further ado, let's take a look at the star of our deck this time round and see what he brings to the table!


Going with the flow, taste my furious blows! 

While Urshifu VMAX (Rapid Strike) didn't get any upgrades coming out of fusion strike, the core of the deck has not been shaken since it's conception in Battle Styles! Aiming to go for a swift and decisive victory, it truly is rush hour with this deck when you have the ability to deal a whopping 120 damage to 2 of your opponent's Pokémon with Urshifu VMAX's [G-Max Rapid Flow] attack easily stopping evolution lines before they can set up or weakened Pokémon retreating to the bench. As we've seen last week from Inteleon V who had the ability to continuously pelt away at your opponent with covering fire and then slowly and methodologically picking off Pokémon, Urshifu is just determined to launch tanks, rockets, and other huge debris, right into the opponent's face and causing downright massive damage to them, all while striking the manliest fighting poses to rub salt on their wounds post victory! It's basically the brute force version of Inteleon that sacrifices safety and a little consistency in favour of efficiency! 

If that weren't enough, bad guys who can't take a fighting type beatdown beware *CoughGengarJolteonCough*, as this deck strikes hard with Urshifu V's [Hundred Furious Blows] or a tagged in [Gale Thrust] from Urshifu VMAX, both of which do 150 damage at base and can be set up pretty easily with cards like "Rapid Strike Energy", "Raihan" or even "Melony" in particular deck builds for energy costs, and "Tower of Waters" or "Escape Rope" for some double team action between 2 Urshifus to pile on the damage and distribute the workload and pain amongst fellow pugilists! "Tower of Waters" is key to this strategy as it allows almost your whole deck to take easy retreats, enabling you to keep the pressure on with repeated [Gale Thrust]s or having the option to find different lines of plays with your benched Pokémon! 


Confuse your enemies with your quick footwork and fast punches! 

Speaking of double teaming, this ain't a solo act! In a harsh meta where the up and coming upstart is quite an unfavourable match-up for Urshifu, namely Mew/Genesect decks, we've gotta get some help from some unlikely allies! This is where our sidekick Galarian Moltres V and our other allies swoop in to save the day! 


The Agent Carter to our Inspector Lee.   
 
Agent Galarian Moltres V comes in clutch against our main star's biggest weakness- Psychic-Types. On wings of fiery vengeance, this legendary bird will be there to scorch any unprepared victims for a whopping 190 damage with it's [Aura Burn] attack, which Moltres is able to set up with it's own ability [Direflame Wings] and trainer cards like "Raihan" and "Energy Switch", and being able to dish up to 380 damage to Pokémon that fear the dark!

Speaking of backup, your opponent's may have to back up and run for cover when another familiar secret agent in the form of Inteleon (Chilling Reign) and a new face round these parts, Passimian (Rapid Strike) hit the field. With Inteleon's [Quick Shooting] ability providing a little more coverage and reach against beefier Pokémon who's HP might just be out of reach, and Passimian just going the whole hog with it's [Throwing Coach] ability providing 30 bonus damage to each of your Ushifu's [G-Max Rapid Flow]s targets, the game may well be over in one fell swoop if your opponent doesn't pay attention to what he/she is benching!   

As the threshold of potential damage dealt via most of your [G-Max Rapid Flow]s will tether between the 150 damage range, dealing 190 damage with Moltres is key to trading when the odds are against you and is an extremely strong backup plan in both scenarios where you have successfully set up a prior [G-Max Rapid Flow] or a later one against other VMAX Pokémon! Truly having some good backup in the form of trusted allies is something that's always a blessing to have!


Love 'em, hate 'em, can't live without 'em.

One other limiting factor to this deck would be consistency as you perform a juggling act between your fighting and darkness pokemon, but Drizzile is there to help you gather your deck to find the right tools for the job as usual, of if you ever find yourself in a locals where Psychic decks aren't as prevalent, you could consider running a 2-2 lineup of "Remoraid" and "Octillery (Rapid Strike)" to help out with the consistency of the deck, or perhaps you could opt to run the supporter "Melony" for greater energy control and more consistency through the 3 card draw she provides. You may also consider running other viable water Pokémon such as the Inteleon VMAX line, a "Basculin (Rapid Strike) or a cheeky little "Medicham V(Rapid Strike), all of which benefit from "Tower of Waters" as well to set up for more furious punching! 

"Know thy enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated.

While the deck seems more straight forward than the Inteleon VMAX deck we introduced last time, this deck is actually less forgiving mechanically, but is able to achieve speedy victories if your plays are clean! However, with proper practice and decision making, this deck is definitely a force to be reckoned with! Just imagine the pressure that a Urshifu VMAX backed by "Passimian (Rapid Strike) and equipped with a "Telescopic sight" has on the opposing team! Set up might be completely out of the question as you basically just rain meteors down on their bench with [G-Max Rapid Flow] as quickly as turn 2 and squash their dreams flat!

If you had started with the Urshifu VMAX League Battle Deck (or are considering pickup up the deck), well you're in luck! While you'll need to find the engine pieces like the Shady Dealings Sobble line, you'll have easy access to the main lead Urshifu V and VMAX (Rapid Strike) in this deck, and it's an ideal deck to pick up for newer players interested in playing competitively as well as it comes with various trainer staples! 


*To achieve greatness, you have to first master the basics.*

Once again, we hope that everyone has learnt something new about this deck and maybe gleaned some interest into some of the other decks mentioned in the post which we will definitely cover soon! As always, keep having fun playing the PTCG and we'll see you in the next article and till then, be like water and train hard! 

*Queue Enter the Dragon OST*