Hello everyone! This is Elena from Gaia Storm TGC and welcome to another article here at CCG Castle. Every time a new set drops, it is very easy to get hyped and believe that the cards are going to completely change the game. In the case of Battle Styles, everyone is very excited but I really think that, unlike some of the past expansions, this will truly be one of the building blocks of Standard for the next few years. In this article, I want to cover which are the new archetypes introduced and why they look so promising.

Battle Style cards take inspiration from the different types of fighting movements that, according to the Pokédex, the fighter “sometimes flows like a river” and is “sometimes a strong believer in the one-hit KO”. The same principle is now appearing on the TCG: Strength versus Speed. In that regards, this new set we are covering features two new archetypes: Single Strike and Rapid Strike cards. When I talk about archetypes, I am referring to a group of cards that belong to the same category and that, regardless of their type or color, have a strong synergy together. For example, this was the case of Plasma cards, one of my favorite mechanics of the game. They had specific supporters, energies and items that, even if they could be used in other situations, helped a lot when played in the same deck.  

Let’s first start with Single Strike cards. As you can probably imagine by reading the name, these are focused on Pokémon that have very powerful attacks and can KO most of the things in one blow. One of the best examples is Single Strike Urshifu V and its VMAX version. It deals 100 damage for three energies and 270 for four energies. It might not seem very impressive at first sight but Urshifu is backed up with the new single strike energy that adds +20 damage to the attack. So, there you have it, attach a couple of those and Urshifu can even KO the most powerful VMAXs in the game. It is important to mention that this archetype counts with some very strong supporting Pokémon like Houndoom (that is able to effectively accelerate energies every turn) and even Emboar to add even more damage to every attack.

Then, we have the Rapid Strike style. In this case, this mechanic revolves around Pokémon that can attack quicker since they require less energy and can use the speed to put pressure from the very first turns on the game. Rapid Strike Urshifu is one of the most promising cards of the set due to the fact that it can deal up to 150 damage for one single energy.  Yes, you heard right. It’s exactly like good old Golisopod V but on steroids… and with all the support from the Rapid Strike cards, of course. Octillery for example searches for a rapid Strike cards every turn and the special energy provides two (two!) water or strong energies to its users.

You might be wondering… Which style will eventually arise as the winner? It is still very soon to tell. Without having tested the new format, I would be inclined to say that Single Strike will be slightly better because of its speed and the low set up they require.

There are still a lot of very good cards to cover from this set like Victini VMAX, Corviknight VMAX or the new collection of supporters but we will look at them in the following article. Stay tuned for that and thanks for reading!