Battle Styles 

Single Strike and Rapid Strike Come Together in Battle Styles

Urshifu VMAX is here, in both its Single Strike and Rapid Strike forms, and neither of these cards are ones to be overlooked.

The new Single Strike mechanic focuses on dealing huge amounts of damage to the opponent's Active Pokémon, with Single Strike Urshifu VMAX dealing 270 damage in a single attack. This can be booster further with cards like Single Strike Energy, an Energy card that adds 20 damage to each of your Single Strike Pokémon's attacks that the Energy is attached to. Houndoom is able to accelerate these energy using [Single Strike Roar], helping you hit turn after turn with heavier and heavier blows.

On the flip side, the Rapid Strike mechanic looks at a different strategy, attacking your opponent's Pokémon from many different angles. Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX deals two 120 damage snipes on your opponent's board, which can target their set up Pokémon on the Bench or their attacker to finish it off. The new Rapid Strike Energy helps pay for this attack, contributing two Water or Fighting to the cost of any attack the Rapid Strike Pokémon it is attach to may want to use. Each of these cards can be found very easily with the new Octillery's [Rapid Strike Search] Ability, letting you find a Rapid Strike card every turn to add to your hand!

Two New VMAXs to Shock and Burn

Urshifu isn't the only Pokémon that gets the VMAX treatment in the latest set. Both Victini and Tapu Koko, two Pokémon that originally had Pokémon V in the original Sword and Shield set, have great new VMAXs that have brilliant attacks.

Victini VMAX can use [Max Victory] to deal 100 damage, plus 120 more for just two Energy if the opponent's Active Pokémon is a Pokémon V or VMAX. This may seem unimpressive against VMAX Pokémon, but this will Knock Out almost every Pokémon V in the game. Normally, Fire Pokémon find themselves using Welder in the early turns of the game to accelerate Energy, but since this attack costs only two Energy, you can manually attach  thisto reach the requirement, meaning you can use Boss's Orders to take down the exact Pokémon your opponent is setting up on their Bench.

Tapu Koko VMAX has the [Max Shock] attack that deals 180 damage for three Energy and leaves the opponent's Active Pokémon Paralyzed if you are behind on Prize cards. Normally, being behind on Prizes would be a downside, but this turns the tables around and makes it difficult for your opponent to attack next turn. You can use Electrode from Vivid Voltage to force the opponent to take a Prize card, which then lets you set up your Tapu Koko VMAX ready to attach with the necessary Energy. And if you care for feeling extra disruptive, you can even play Omastar from Team Up to stop the opponent from using any Item cards at all!

What Is Your Battle Style?

Battle Styles releases on 19 March 2021. The set comes with some brilliant new attackers, amazing new art, and some very exciting new mechanics.  Whether you like the idea of dealing huge damage with Single Strike Pokémon or playing a more technical gameplan with Rapid Strike Pokémon, this set is certain to shake up the metagame for good!