The latest Pokémon TCG set, Sword & Shield - Fusion Strike, contains numerous cards that will be very helpful in competitive-level decks, making it a worthwhile purchase for collectors and competitive players. Officially released on November 12, Fusion Strike contains over 260 cards. There are 20 Pokémon V and eight Pokémon VMAX, as well as 20 Trainer cards.
The Pokémon TCG Fusion Strike set focuses on a new archetype of cards: Fusion Strike cards. Similar to Rapid Strike and Single Strike cards in prior sets, Fusion Strike cards have effects that synergize together, naturally forming the basis for new potential decks. With the appropriate Trainer cards to support them, some of these new Pokémon V and Pokémon VMAX cards have the potential to carry their own competitive decks.
Of Fusion Strike’s cards, some are suitable in every deck as staple acceleration or disruption. Others have a high chance of becoming highly powerful as future sets release and more cards are made that work well with them. Even more have a clear use right off the bat, thanks to the set’s extensive support for the new Fusion Strike archetype. As a result, this massive Pokémon TCG set is great not only for collectors, but for competitive players as well.
Competitive Pokémon TCG: Reprints In Fusion Strike
Some of the Trainer cards in Fusion Strike are reprints of older cards. Some reprints offer collectors the opportunity to get older cards with newer art, such as Skyla from Rebel Clash. But by printing a new version of an older card, that older Pokémon TCG card can be used in Standard rotation once more. Reprints are effective ways to reintroduce older cards into the current format when their general power level is appropriate again.
The first notable reprint in Fusion Strike is Shauna, the Supporter Trainer card based on one of the numerous friend characters from the Pokémon X and Y video games. The card first appeared in the XY set of the Pokémon TCG set. It has the helpful effect of letting the player shuffle their hand into their deck and draw a fresh hand of five cards. After Shauna was lost to rotation, a Supporter card based on the well-known Diamond and Pearl Champion Cynthia was made with a similar effect: Cynthia allowed players to draw six cards after shuffling their hand into their deck. It was a less aggressive but usable alternative to cards like Professor’s Research, which lets players draw seven cards but must discard their entire hand first. When Cynthia rotated out, players only had access to Professor’s Research, but with the return of Shauna, decks that prefer to not drop a lot of cards into the discard pile can still have a general draw Supporter.
The other big competitive level reprint in Fusion Strike is Judge. Judge has seen consistent reprinting since the HeartGold and SoulSilver set Unleashed, although at the start of the Sword and Shield block an alternative was made in the form of Marnie, Piers’ younger sister from Sword and Shield. Marnie is an effective disruption card that has both players shuffle their hands, place them at the bottom of their deck, then draw new cards. The user of the Marnie card draws five while their opponent draws four. Judge, which has both players shuffle their hand back into their deck and each draw four, gives the player one less card, but their hand gets shuffled into their deck rather than put at the bottom. Decks that don’t use any cards to organize the top of the player’s deck can get use out of Judge, which has been used in numerous Pokémon TCG World Championships winning decklists since its initial release.
Competitive Trainer Cards In Pokémon TCG Sword and Shield - Fusion Strike
Numerous new Trainer cards in Fusion Strike are based on older Pokémon series Gym Leaders. The first of these is Elesa’s Sparkle, a Fusion Strike Supporter card. Elesa’s Sparkle lets players select up to two of their own Fusion Strike Pokémon in play and attach a Fusion Strike Energy card to each one. Fusion Strike Energy is a great card for Fusion Strike Pokémon since it can count as one of any type of Energy, while also protecting them from opposing Pokémon Ability effects. Even better is that Elesa’s Sparkle gets the Fusion Strike Energy cards straight from the player’s deck, making it a highly effective Energy acceleration and deck thinning card. Numerous Fusion Strike Pokémon have attacks that cost only two Energy to use, so players can follow up Elesa’s Sparkle with their standard Energy attachment for the turn and have a strong attack ready to go.
Chili & Cilan & Cress is another strong Fusion Strike Supporter card. These Striaton City Gym Leaders let players search their deck for up to three Fusion Strike Pokémon and put them directly into their hand. Whether they’re looking for a single-prize Pokémon for support or a Pokémon V or VMAX, Chili & Cilan & Cress is immensely helpful for Fusion Strike decks in almost any situation.
A similar card in Fusion Strike that has a more general use is Adventurer’s Discovery: instead of searching for Fusion Strike Pokémon to put into the player’s hand, Adventurer’s Discovery allows them to put up to three Pokémon V from their deck into their hand instead. Pokémon VMAX are also considered Pokémon V and therefore can also be searched using this card. By placing the cards into players’ hands, they can even make use of special Ability effects that only activate when being played from the hand specifically, such as Crobat V’s Dark Asset.
Fusion Strike also introduces two new Item Trainer cards that are incredibly helpful: Crossceiver and Cross Switcher. To use either of these cards, players have to play two of them at once, either two Crossceiver cards or two Cross Switcher cards. But if they do, they can pull off very powerful effects. Crossceiver allows the player to put a Pokémon or Supporter card from their discard pile directly into their hand. This can turn the tide of battle easily, especially when getting a Supporter card that can disrupt the opponent. Cross Switcher allows the player to select an opponent’s Benched Pokémon to bring into the Active position, and then switch their own Active Pokémon out, similar to the highly competitive card based on Pokémon Team Skull’s leader Guzma. Although it can be tough to get two copies of the same card at once to use, a similar effect has been done in the past with cards such as the popular Custom Catcher. These cards’ effects are powerful enough to justify the drawback of needing to use two at once to activate them.
Competitive Single Prize Pokémon In Fusion Strike
Pokémon that give only a single Prize Card when defeated usually aren’t strong enough in Pokémon TCG to form the backbone of a deck by themselves, but they can still provide helpful support to other key players. In Fusion Strike, Oricorio makes an appearance as a Fusion Strike Pokémon with the Ability Lesson in Zeal. With this Ability in play, its owner’s Fusion Strike Pokémon all take 20 less damage from opposing attacks. While this Ability doesn’t stack with itself, it does mean players won’t feel pressured to play multiple Oricorio onto their Bench at once as easy attack targets.
Another single prize Pokémon that may see some future use is Dunsparce. Dunsparce’s Mysterious Nest Ability removes any and all Weakness from all Colorless Pokémon in play on both sides of the field. While this may not prove too useful right away, future Pokémon TCG sets, such as Brilliant Stars, are confirmed to include sizable Colorless support and powerful Colorless Pokémon. Within Fusion Strike, Dunsparce may not seem all too useful, but this card may be setting the stage for Colorless-centric decks in the near future.
Pokémon TCG Fusion Strike: Competitive Pokémon V & VMAX
Similar to Dunsparce, Fusion Strike’s Chandelure VMAX may see more play in the future depending on what kinds of cards are printed in future sets. Item lock, or stopping the opponent from playing Items or Trainers, can be deadly in its own right as it can stop many strategies right in their tracks. Chandelure VMAX’s Ability Cursed Shimmer already stops the opponent from playing Tools. Its attack, Max Poltergeist, does 70 damage for each Trainer card the opponent has in their hand at the low cost of only two total Energy. This can add up incredibly quickly if more consistent Item lock cards are released in the future.
Inteleon VMAX has a lot more current application as a powerful card. This Rapid Strike Battle Style Pokémon TGC card can chip away at opponents’ Benched Pokémon with its Ability and stay healed using the Supporter card Cheryl. The Stadium card Training Court can even return Energy cards used to activate Inteleon VMAX’s Ability or to heal using Cheryl back to the player’s hand.
But the Fusion Strike set also introduced powerful Fusion Strike Pokémon VMAX. Mew VMAX, the set’s cover card, can use any of its owner’s Benched Fusion Strike Pokémon’s attacks as long as Mew has any two Energy attached, one of which can easily be equipped by Elesa’s Sparkle. Even if the original attack costs more Energy, Mew can use it as part of its Cross Fusion Strike attack. This gives popular Pokémon Mew the potential to be very powerful so long as other powerful Fusion Strike Pokémon appear in decks with it.
Of course, Mew arrived with a very strong friend in Fusion Strike in the form of Genesect V. As a Metal-type Pokémon, Genesect V already has stellar support in Items such as Metal Saucer. Genesect V also has the Fusion Strike System Ability which lets players draw cards until they have a hand equal to the number of Fusion Strike Pokémon they have in play. For example, if the player has five Fusion Strike Pokémon in play, they can draw until they have five cards in their hand. This man-made, artificial Pokémon’s amazing acceleration Ability can only be used once per turn, but it can stack. A player with four Genesect V in play can use the Ability up to four times, while also having at least four Fusion Strike Pokémon in play already. Mew VMAX is a fifth, and a sixth, such as the aforementioned Oricorio for defensive support, shouldn’t be hard to find thanks to cards like Chili & Cilan & Cress, or by just drawing into them with Genesect V’s outstanding Ability. Together with Trainer support, Genesect V and Mew VMAX make a powerful team in Pokémon TCG.