Inteleon from Sword & Shield is the support
Pokémon of choice for this deck. With its Shady Dealings Ability, you can
search your deck for up to 2 Trainer cards when evolving Drizzile into
Inteleon. This is a powerful one-time effect that can turn the tide in a game.
Niche cards like Reset Stamp and
Path to the Peak—both of
which are virtually impossible to search for—are now at your fingertips with a
single card. Moreover, Drizzile has
the same Ability as Inteleon, although its version searches for only 1 Trainer
card. As early as turn two, you can grab the specific card you need to start
attacking.
The full Evolution line takes up a sixth of the deck list.
This is a hefty sum to pay but is well worth it when examining how the deck
operates. Dedenne-GX and
Crobat V are no longer
necessary because of Inteleon; it makes up for the lack of draw power with card
searching. The number one card that facilitates this strategy is Capacious Bucket: the fact that
it grabs 2 Water Energy—double that of Energy Spinner—is
important because it provides Energy for your current turn and the
following one. You don’t have to worry about maximizing your odds of finding
one on the following turn. Instead, you can play Boss’s Orders or Marnie
purely for its disruptive effect on that turn.
Another benefit of the Inteleon engine is that there are no
easy multi-Prize targets on the Bench. If the opponent scores a Knock Out on a Sobble early, they cannot pick off
a Dedenne-GX or Crobat V after Knocking Out an Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX to
easily take six Prize cards. Instead, they’ll have to fight through multiple
Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX each game. Though the damage cap of 250 is short of
Knocking Out Pokémon VMAX in one attack, an easy, two-Prize target on the
opponent’s Bench is enough to win the Prize race.
Inteleon incentivizes single-copy Trainer cards. The single
copy of Air Balloon and Switch are all we need here for
two reasons. First, they are immediately accessible with Shady Dealings. Other
Standard decks typically run four or more cards for switching out, whether they
be Escape Rope, Switch, or
Air Balloon—because those decks have no immediate access to them. The
additional copies are necessary to boost the probability of drawing them
naturally with a Supporter card. Second, this deck plays few Basic Pokémon, so you’re
already likely to start with Ice Rider Calyrex V. Moreover, Sobble is also a
fine starter because of its attack, Keep Calling, which sets up your field for
future turns.
In today’s fast-paced format, streamlined lists are the best
way to go. Because games are decided so quickly, it’s important to begin
attacking as soon as possible. You’re most likely going to be at a significant
disadvantage if your opponent attacks first—and even more so if they attack
twice before you can attack once! For that reason, it’s vital to allocate
enough deck slots to ensure consistency so that you rarely miss your attacks.
Pokémon search cards are as important as Supporter cards, if
not more so. Finding an Ice Rider Calyrex V on your first turn is the biggest
priority. And with the new Supporter rule change since Sword & Shield,
you can’t rely on a Supporter card to find your Basic Pokémon when going first.
Unsurprisingly, there are four Ice Rider Calyrex V and Quick Ball in our example deck.
The additional search cards, Level Ball
and Evolution Incense,
serve the specific purpose of finding pieces of Inteleon’s Evolution line and
Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX.
While you have a Sobble or Drizzile in play, Evolution
Incense effectively reads “search your deck for any card,” because Shady
Dealings can access any Trainer card, any Pokémon with one of the search cards,
or Water Energy with Capacious Bucket! This is incredibly powerful because it
eliminates variance that other decks must tolerate. In my opinion, the
elimination of variance is Inteleon’s greatest strength—you’re able to grab the
exact cards you need without the worry of drawing into them with Dedechange or
Dark Asset.
Path to the Peak is
this deck’s Stadium of choice. Since it only shuts off the Abilities of Pokémon
with a Rule Box, Drizzile and Inteleon’s Abilities remain untouched. This
effect is not only solid for gaining some quick wins against a poorly drawing
opponent, but provides a much-needed answer to Zamazenta V.
Path to the Peak
pairs especially well with Reset Stamp. Near the end of the game, your opponent
may only need one or two cards to close out and win, like Boss’s Orders and
another Energy card. Reset Stamp has been around for a while, so it’s no secret
that refreshing your opponent’s hand size is a great final measure. Some decks
even ran Power Plant to
further increase the odds the opponent would miss their desired cards, despite
it not shutting off Pokémon V. With Path to the Peak, now you can shut off
those Abilities, too!
The final piece to
the Stadium package is Marshadow.
Its purpose is to counter a pesky Chaotic Swell.
Without Marshadow, your opponent could put a Chaotic Swell into play the turn
before you unleash the Reset Stamp-with-Path to the Peak combo. Fear that no
longer, because with Marshadow, you can first discard the Chaotic Swell with
Resetting Hole—then put Path to the Peak into play. This combo is especially
useful against Mewtwo & Mew-GX
decks, as they wholly rely on the Perfection Ability.
There are a few tips
and tricks to remember when piloting Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX. The first and most
important thing to remember is that you should be targeting your opponent’s
threats. It doesn’t make sense to use Boss’s Orders on a Dedenne-GX and
discard 2 Energy with Max Lance for no reason. Your goal should be to keep pace
while disrupting them with Marnie or damaging the biggest threat with Boss’s
Orders. For example, if your opponent has an undamaged Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX on the
Bench with multiple Energy and not much else, it makes sense to use Boss’s
Orders to damage it with Ride of the High King to set up for a Knock Out with
Max Lance on the following turn. Most of the time, you won’t even need to use
Boss’s Orders, though. Your opponent must be attacking with something, so the
Active Pokémon is usually a fine target too!
Ride of the High
King is a perfect attack for damaging a high-HP target that you cannot
otherwise Knock Out with Max Lance. By using Ride of the High King first, you
save the Water Energy and don’t need to commit any further to that attacker.
Assuming that the first Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX is Knocked Out after using Max
Lance, you’ll have attached only 2 Energy to it, rather than 3 or 4 if you had
attacked with Max Lance first and needed to attach additional Energy.
Don’t be afraid to
attach a third or fourth Energy to an Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX if you’re about to
use Max Lance. Because you’re going to discard some Energy, you’ll only have 1
or 2 remaining—which means you may be vulnerable to Reset Stamp. Unless there’s
a reason to play a different Supporter, Melony
is the best choice for advancing your board state. Remember that you can
only use Melony’s effect to attach Water Energy to a Pokémon V.
One benefit to
picking up Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX now is that the deck’s core components are all
from the Sword & Shield Series, and therefore will be legal
in the new Standard format. From the earlier list, the only non-legal cards
will be Marshadow and Reset Stamp! Here’s an updated list with a few small
changes:
Source: Pokemon
