You may remember
an earlier Sword
& Shield—Fusion Strike
article by Ellis
Longhurst that discussed some of the new cards from the set, including Mew VMAX
and Genesect V. These two cards are the main components of this deck, which primarily
focuses on taking advantage of Mew VMAX’s attack. This move can be used to copy
Genesect V’s powerful Techno Blast attack—for only two Energy—or other useful attacks
from Benched Pokémon.
Before moving on to the main strategy, let’s start by explaining the purposes of the different cards in the list:
The star of
the show is Mew VMAX.
This will be the main attacker in almost every game. For only two Colorless Energy,
this Pokémon can use its Cross Fusion Strike attack to copy any attack of a Benched
Fusion Strike Pokémon. The best attack to copy will usually be Genesect‘s
Techno Blast, which does an impressive 210 damage but removes the option to
attack on the following turn. Luckily, Mew VMAX has no Retreat Cost, meaning it
can easily retreat from the Active Spot to reset the effect. In addition, Mew
VMAX has a secondary attack, Max Miracle. Its 130 damage might not seem like
much, but the attack can crush any pesky effect standing in the way. This means
Mew VMAX has a built-in answer to troublesome Abilities like Decidueye‘s Deep Forest Camo or Zamazenta V‘s Dauntless
Shield.
With the Mew
VMAX card being as good as it is, it can be easy to overlook the strong
features of its Basic version, Mew V. Mew V also has no Retreat Cost and comes
with two very solid attacks: Energy Mix and Psychic Leap. For a single Psychic
Energy, Mew V can search the deck for any Energy card and attach it to 1 of
your Fusion Strike Pokémon—which, in this deck, means any of your Pokémon. This
is an excellent attack to use on the first turn of the game to help set up a
backup attacker. The Psychic Leap attack does 70 damage and can shuffle Mew V
back into the deck. Although Mew V will rarely be in a good position to use
this attack, Mew VMAX can take advantage of Psychic Leap by using Cross Fusion
Strike to copy it. A heavily damaged Mew VMAX can then be shuffled back into
the deck, essentially removing all damage from itself.
The card
that functions as the deck’s engine is Genesect V. Its Fusion Strike System
Ability allows the player to draw cards until their hand size matches their number
of Fusion Strike Pokémon in play. As far as consistency cards go, this is
nothing short of amazing. With a full Bench of five Pokémon, Fusion Strike
System functions the same as Crobat V‘s Dark Asset Ability, except that it
can be used multiple times every single turn. To take maximum advantage of this
Ability, the list is constructed in such a way that most cards drawn can be
played immediately, freeing up the hand and allowing multiple Fusion Strike
System Abilities to effectively dig through the deck.
To use
Techno Blast, Genesect needs three Energy attached. Since Mew VMAX can copy the
attack for only two Energy and has considerably more HP, focus on powering up
multiple Mew VMAX instead of charging Genesect V directly.
To round out
the Pokémon, one copy each of the Fusion Strike Pokémon Latias
and Oricorio
have been added. Latias provides a powerful attack for Mew VMAX to copy in Dyna
Barrier, which does 70 damage and on the following turn prevents all damage
done to the user by the opponent’s Pokémon VMAX. It’s a similar effect to
Zamazenta’s Dauntless Shield Ability. Oricorio gives the deck the useful
Ability Lesson in Zeal, which reduces by 20 all damage from your opponent’s
Pokémon’s attacks done to your Fusion Strike Pokémon. That can sometimes mean
the difference between getting Knocked Out or barely surviving. Combining this
with Psychic Leap can be especially difficult for your opponent to overcome. Mew
VMAX can also copy Oricorio’s Glistening Droplets attack to finish off heavily
damaged Pokémon on the Bench.
When
choosing Trainer cards for this archetype, it’s important to keep Genesect’s
Fusion Strike System Ability in mind. For that reason, this deck doesn’t run a
single card-drawing Supporter; that job is left to Genesect V. Instead, this
list features three different powerful Supporters: Peony,
Elesa’s Sparkle, and Boss’s Orders (Giovanni).
Peony is the
perfect fit for this archetype, as it allows the player to search out any two
Trainer cards from the deck at the cost of discarding their whole hand. What is
usually a huge drawback for other decks is turned into an advantage here, as
Fusion Strike System can refill the hand in an instant. This is comparable to
using Professor’s Research, but instead of drawing seven random cards, the
player can first search out two Trainer cards they want, use them, and then
draw up to six cards.
Elesa’s
Sparkle attaches a Fusion Strike Energy from the deck to two of the player’s Fusion
Strike Pokémon, which gives the deck some additional Energy acceleration. When
facing opposing Fan of Waves
or Crushing Hammer Item cards, this can be a lifesaver, since being
an Energy short of an attack can quickly spell disaster. In a pinch, this also
allows Genesect V to be powered up in a more reasonable number of turns. That
could be relevant if the opposing Pokémon is a Darkness-type Pokémon (which
threatens Mew VMAX) or is weak to Metal-type Pokémon.
Boss’s Orders
(Giovanni) is an invaluable inclusion in every attacking deck, giving the main
attacker access to the opponent’s Benched Pokémon. This deck will have plenty
of time to play this card, since draw Supporters are not competing for
Supporter usage.
Further, the
list is running a heavy amount of Pokémon search cards. Quick Ball,
Fog Crystal
(for Psychic types), and Great Ball are all great for finding Basic Fusion
Strike Pokémon in the first few turns. Fog Crystal also doubles as a way of
finding a Psychic Energy card, letting the deck get away with a relatively low Energy
count. Evolution Incense only has one target, Mew VMAX, so you don’t need
to run a lot of them. After the initial setup, all these Pokémon-searching
cards can be used for no effect (since you can always “fail to find” when
searching your deck)—which will result in fewer cards in hand, allowing Fusion
Strike System to draw even more cards. Quick Ball is extra helpful here since
it allows the player to discard excess cards that would otherwise be stuck in
the hand.
Rotom Phone
can be surprisingly helpful for this deck as it can always be played.
Manipulating the top card of the deck has great synergy with Fusion Strike System,
making it a lot easier to find specific cards at the right time.
Switch
might seem redundant at first, since both Mew V and Mew VMAX have no Retreat Cost,
but often the deck will find itself in a position where only one Mew VMAX is available.
Remember that Mew VMAX cannot attack the next turn after using Genesect V’s
Techno Blast, but using Cross Switcher or Switch to send Mew VMAX to the Bench
will reset all effects, including this one.
Cross
Switcher is another Fusion Strike card that fits perfectly into this deck. These
cards can only be used in pairs, granting the effects of both Switch and Boss’s
Orders at the same time. Remember that Peony can be used to fetch a pair of
Cross Switchers out of the deck, guaranteeing that they’ll be usable at some
point during the game. This is great for resetting Mew VMAX’s attack and accessing
the opponent’s Benched Pokémon. These cards make the deck a lot more flexible
and are especially useful in the early turns.
Power Tablet
boosts Fusion Strike Pokémon’s attacks by 30 damage. There’s no limit to how
many of these can be played in the same turn, so using all four of them results
in an additional 120 damage. They’re always playable and can help Mew VMAX achieve
one-hit Knock Outs on opposing Pokémon VMAX. Another good use for this card is to
make sure that copying Latias’s Dyna Barrier or Mew V’s Psychic Leap can still
threaten to Knock Out a Pokémon VMAX on the following turn by using one or more
Power Tablets.
For Stadium
cards, this deck runs Rose Tower and Training Court.
The main purpose of these Stadiums is not the effect they provide, but rather
to counter the opponent’s Path to the Peak, which turns off Genesect V’s Fusion
Strike System and poses a major threat to the deck’s consistency engine.
Rose Tower
can still be helpful on its own, as the player will often have very low hand
sizes when using this engine. Activating Rose Tower before Fusion Strike System
can result in some additional cards drawn, if the cards from Rose Tower are
playable.
The deck runs
a low number of Energy cards, meaning Training Court can help in the later
stages of the game to recycle that precious Psychic Energy.
This deck
doesn’t want to play a lot of Energy cards in total since they’ll clog up the
hand and make Fusion Strike System less effective. Cross Fusion Strike also
needs only two Energy cards to work. It’s still worthwhile to include a full
playset of Fusion Strike Energy for Elesa’s Sparkle and a few Psychic Energy for
Fog Crystal and Training Court.
Fusion
Strike Energy provides 1 of any type of Energy when attached to a Fusion Strike
Pokémon, and if that wasn’t enough, it comes with an additional effect. The Pokémon
it’s attached to is immune to opposing Pokémon’s Abilities—most notably Inteleon‘s Quick Shooting.
As already
mentioned, this deck’s focus is using Mew VMAX’s Cross Fusion Strike attack to
copy powerful attacks from Benched Pokémon. To do so, the player needs a Mew
VMAX with two Energy attached. Like most other top Pokémon VMAX decks in the standard
format, it’s important to get a Basic Pokémon V of the main attacker in play
with an Energy attached on the first turn of the game. Make attaching an Energy
to Mew V the primary goal of the first turn. This will allow for evolving,
attaching another Energy, and unleashing powerful Cross Fusion Strike attacks
as early as the second turn of the game.
Additionally,
since this deck’s engine is centered around Genesect V’s Fusion Strike System
Ability, try to get as many Pokémon as you can in play as quickly as possible.
This allows Fusion Strike System to draw more cards and increases the chances
of finding the cards needed.
With the
help of Peony, a devastating turn is never far away. Using all four Power
Tablets in the same turn can happen frequently by combining the power of Peony
and Fusion Strike System, allowing for big one-hit Knock Outs on opposing
Pokémon VMAX.
In some
matchups where a player may want access to Mew V’s attack Psychic Leap, make
room for three Mew on the field. This will enable the player to have one backup
Mew VMAX and one Mew V to copy.
When playing
against Path to the Peak, make good use of Rotom Phone. A common combo to
strip away the Fusion Strike deck’s options is playing Path to the Peak
combined with Marnie.
Use Rotom Phone in anticipation of this happening and put a Stadium card on the
top of the deck before ending the turn.
Sometimes it
can be better to hold Rotom Phone in hand when you have multiple Genesect V in
play. Wait until the last Fusion Strike System Ability is used before employing
Rotom Phone for maximum reach.
If Peony
needs to be used before a proper field with Genesect V is established, consider
searching for Quick Ball and Rose Tower.
The Mew VMAX
deck is arguably the strongest deck in the current Standard format—it’s
efficient, it’s powerful, and it’s a ton of fun. If you haven’t done so already,
consider trying this deck out for yourself. The number of options the deck
presents in gameplay is way more than expected initially—you don’t want to miss
out!
Look for more Pokémon TCG strategy and analysis at Pokemon.com/Strategy.
About the Writer
Tord Reklev
Tord Reklev is a contributing writer for Pokemon.com. He is a longtime player from Norway, playing the game since he was 6 years old. He is notable for being the only Masters Division player to win the North America, Europe, and Oceania Internationals, and he recently made Top 4 at the World Championships. Outside of the game, he is a student and enjoys playing tennis. You can find him at most big events, and can follow him on Twitter at @TordReklev.
Source: Pokemon
