Hello everyone! This is Elena from Gaia Storm TCG and welcome to another article here at CCG. Last week we took a look at Rillaboom Box and saw how it could be played in the Standard format. It is only natural that today we go over another of the starters from Galar: Inteleon. As it happens with Rillaboom, Inteleon has two different version on the TCG, a regular one and a V/VMAX evolution line which we are going to be covering today.Hello everyone! This is Elena from Gaia Storm TCG and welcome to another article here at CCG. Last week we took a look at Rillaboom Box and saw how it could be played in the Standard format. It is only natural that today we go over another of the starters from Galar: Inteleon. As it happens with Rillaboom, Inteleon has two different version on the TCG, a regular one and a V/VMAX evolution line which we are going to be covering today.

Even if it is not the top tier deck of the format, Inteleon VMAX is a powerful card on its own that can be played in different ways. For just one water energy, Inteleon deals 60 damage and returns one energy from the opponent active Pokémon to the hand. This attack alone is very solid and, in fact, can be deadly when combined with other disrupting cards like Crushing Hammer or Team Yell Grunt. Inteleon’s second attack, Max Bullet, is probably the one you are always going to use as it does 160 damage and a very solid additional 60 to any benched Pokémon. This really helps setting up the numbers to take multiple prizes in the same attack. For instance, Inteleon can soften up a benched Zacian V (220 HP) and then finish it off with a Boos Orders.

There are two main issues with Inteleon right now. The first one is that sometimes it can be difficult 2HKO on these big VMAX Pokémon like Eternatus or Coalossal that are now popular. And the second one is the fact that it is weak to lighting and that means Pikachu Zekrom Tag Team can give it a really difficult time. However, there are solutions for both! Telescopic Slide, the new tool from Vivid Voltage, takes you snipping to the whole next level, providing an additional +30 damage to Pokémon in the bench, so Inteleon can consistently hit for 160 + 90 damage every turn. And regarding weakness, remember we can still make use of Weakness energy so to have a fair chance against lighting type decks.

Another strong point in favor of Inteleon is the fact that we have Frosmoth in the format. Even if not as powerful as the old Deluge ability from Blastoise, Frosmoth can accelerate as many water energies as wanted to other water Pokémon in the bench. If the Inteleon deck has a strong set up, it can easily have a fully powered Inteleon by turn two and start exerting a lot of pressure in the game. And last but not least there is also the possibility to build a version that purely revolves around disruption but it has not been seeing as many play in these past months… after all, you know what they say, the best defense is a good offense.

So, all in all, give this water Pokémon a try in the TCG and see all it can do. Maybe next time we will look at Cinderance and compare the 3 Galar starters? Thanks for reading!