Flash Forward: Beedrill, Eternatus VMAX, and Arctozolt Decks
by Mike Likes // Jun 12, 2020
Hello and welcome to Flash Forward, the article series that provides you with a sneak peek of some decks that will be Standard legal with the release of the next upcoming set. Japan's next expansion, Infinity Zone, has given us some exciting cards to build with. This week, I have a few more decks that you'll be able to build once these cards come out as part of our Darkness Ablaze expansion. Let's get started with our first deck.
Beedrill / Spikemuth Deck
The first deck I have for you this week offers a way to score a OHKO (One Hit Knock Out) every time, regardless of how many HP your opponent's Active Pokemon has. Let's check it out.
New Card Translations
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Crobat V – Darkness – HP180 Ability: Night Asset [D][C] Poison Fang: 70 damage. Your opponent’s Active Pokemon is now Poisoned. When your Pokemon V is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards. Weakness: Fighting (x2) |
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Spikemuth – Trainer Whenever a player’s Pokemon is moved from the Active Spot to the Bench during their turn, put 2 damage counters on that Pokemon. This card stays in play when you play it. Discard this card if another Stadium card comes into play. If another card with the same name is in play, you can’t play this card. |
Beedrill TEU 5 has the Destiny Stinger attack that you can use to score a Knock Out against any opposing Pokemon your opponent has. The trick is that in order to use this attack, you'll need to get a damage counter onto Beedrill TEU 5. That's where our new Stadium, Spikemuth, comes into play. Spikemuth puts two damage counters on a Pokemon whenever that Pokemon moves to the Active Position. So, simply by moving from your Bench to your Active Position, you'll be able to gain the damage counter you need for Beedrill TEU 5's Destiny Stinger attack. In the event that you don't have Spikemuth in play, if you have any damage counters on any of your other Pokemon, you can use the Ominous Posture Ability of Jynx UNM 76 to move a damage counter to Beedrill TEU 5. With the increasing amount of Pokemon V and Pokemon VMAX being played, using Destiny Stinger is a great way to Knock Out one of these powerful Pokemon, giving you more Prize cards than your opponent gets.
Eternatus VMAX Deck
The next deck I have for you this week features Eternatus VMAX. Let's take a look at the deck.
New Card Translations
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Crobat V – Darkness – HP180 Ability: Night Asset [D][C] Poison Fang: 70 damage. Your opponent’s Active Pokemon is now Poisoned. When your Pokemon V is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards. Weakness: Fighting (x2) |
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Eternatus V – Darkness – HP220 [C] Power Accel: 30 damage. You may attach 1 [D] Energy from your hand to 1 of your Benched Pokemon. [D][C][C][C] Dynamax Cannon: 120+ damage. If your opponent’s Active Pokemon is a Pokemon VMAX, this attack does 120 more damage. When your Pokemon V is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards. Weakness: Fighting (x2) |
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Eternatus VMAX – Darkness – HP340 Ability: Infinity Zone [D][C] Dread End: 30x damage. This attack does 30 damage times the number of your [D] Pokemon. When your Pokemon VMAX is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 3 Prize cards. Weakness: Fighting (x2) |
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Piers – Trainer Search your deck for 1 [D] Pokemon and any 1 Energy, reveal them, and put them into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck. You may play only 1 Supporter card during your turn (before your attack). |
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Rose – Trainer Choose up to 2 Basic Energy from your discard pile and attach them to 1 of your Pokemon VMAX. Then, discard your hand. You may play only 1 Supporter card during your turn (before your attack). |
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Rose Tower – Trainer Once during either player’s turn, that player may draw cards from their deck until they have 3 cards in their hand. This card stays in play when you play it. Discard this card if another Stadium card comes into play. If another card with the same name is in play, you can’t play this card. |
Eternatus VMAX's Infinity Zone Ability allows you to increase the size of your Bench as long as all of the Pokemon you have in play are Darkness Type Pokemon. With a Bench size increased to eight Pokemon, you'll be able to deal up to 270 damage when you use Eternatus VMAX's Dread End attack. That's enough damage to Knock Out a majority of other Pokemon in one shot. However, if Eternatus VMAX should happen to get Knocked Out, your Bench size goes back to five, so you'll want to make sure it stays healthy. You can do so by using Hyper Potion SSH 166 to heal 120 damage from it, but at a cost of having to discard two Energy from it. You can then use Rose to return those Energy right back to Eternatus VMAX, allowing it to continue the attack without missing a beat.
Arctozolt / Torkoal V Deck
The final deck I have for you this week features a new Fossil Pokemon, Arctozolt. Let's take a look at it.
New Card Translations
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Arctozolt – Lightning – HP130 Ability: Numbing Vortex [L][C] Electro Ball: 70 damage. Weakness: Fighting (x2) |
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Crobat V – Darkness – HP180 Ability: Night Asset [D][C] Poison Fang: 70 damage. Your opponent’s Active Pokemon is now Poisoned. When your Pokemon V is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards. Weakness: Fighting (x2) |
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Rare Fossil – Trainer – HP70 Play this card as if it were a 70-HP [C] Basic Pokemon. At any time during your turn (before your attack), you may discard this card from play. This card can’t retreat and isn’t affected by Status Conditions. You may play as many Item cards as you like during your turn (before your attack). |
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Turbo Patch – Trainer Flip a coin. If heads, choose a basic Energy card from your discard pile and attach it to 1 of your Basic Pokemon (excluding Pokemon-GX). You may play as many Item cards as you like during your turn (before your attack). |
You'll want to get a copy of Arctozolt into play as quickly as possible. Thanks to its Numbing Vortex Ability, you'll put two damage counters on an opponent's Pokemon whenever they attach an Energy to that Pokemon. If you happen to get multiple copies of Arctozolt into play, each Numbing Vortex Ability will trigger, allowing for additional damage to be placed. To make things more difficult for your opponent, you can begin attacking with Torkoal V SSH 24's Steam Crush attack, which will deal 120 damage in addition to discarding two Energy from your opponent's Active Pokemon. The combination of damage plus Energy removal might make it impossible for your opponent to attack with their Active Pokemon. They also might not be able to attach any more Energy without knocking themselves out due to the damage from Arctozolt's Numbing Vortex Ability. You can make your opponent miserable with this combo.
Wrapping Up
Whether you like dealing One Hit Knock Outs or slowing down games to the point that your opponent has no good options, the new cards in Infinity Zone will allow you to build a deck that suits your play style.
What do you think of these decks? Do you have any suggestions for improvements? Leave a comment below and let me know what Pokemon you'd like to see featured in next week's decks.
And be sure to join me here again next week as I continue showing you innovative decks using cards from upcoming sets. I'll see you then (in the future!).
- Mike Likes