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Battle Styles came roaring onto the scene earlier in 2021, and immediately changed the Pokémon scene with the Rapid and Single strike archetypes, which are planned to continue into the rest of the Sword and Shield series for the foreseeable future. These new card types allow you to set your deck around either hitting fast and safe, or hard and risky. And what better way to play these than with the box legendary itself: Urshifu!
A Steady Mind
Urshifu comes in two types, the Fighting/Dark type Single Strike and the Fighting/Water type Rapid Strike! These Pokémon form the basis of the two archetypes. Single Strike is primarily Dark, Fire, and Fighting, and Rapid Strike is Water, Electric and Fighting! These are designed to helpfully cover their own counters!
The Urshifu Rapid Strike and Single Strike V Boxes contain exclusive cards of Urshifu V! Not just exclusive arts, these cards have gameplay differences to the normal ones found in Battle Styles packs!
Rapid Strike Urshifu V has the ability to hit your opponent’s benched Pokémon for 2 fighting and 1 colourless, while also dealing 90 to the active Pokémon! Single Strike Urshifu V, on the other hand, gets to deal a flat 180 damage, ignoring resistances! On top of that, a jumbo card of your specific Urshifu, a reverse-holographic Single Strike or Rapid Strike energy and 4 packs are included! The inclusion of the energy card is a little strange. Like, there’s a brand new print of a legendary Pokémon and a normal reverse holographic in one package.
Punching Open Some Packs
The packs, however, are fantastic! 2 Battle Styles packs, a Rebel Clash and a Darkness Ablaze pack really work into the Single and Rapid Strike archetypes. Both of these packs printed a lot of Dark and Electric-type cards, letting Single and Rapid Strike decks pick them up immediately! Cards like Crobat V (Darkness Ablaze #104/189) and Inteleon V (Rebel Clash #049/192) slot directly into the Urshifu decks already, letting you have a good start on playing with the new archetype.
What Next?
If you’re looking to get even further ahead, buying the Battle Styles Elite Trainer Box gives you a perfect way to learn the Pokemon TCG proper, as well as including 8 packs! If you’re looking for a collection, the Empoleon and Tyranitar V-Tins include a rare Steam Siege pack as well as special arts of Empoleon and Tyranitar V! These cards fit perfectly into Urshifu Single and Rapid Strike too!
All bundled up, even with the weird inclusion of the reverse holo energy, the boxes are a great purchase. Mechanically different cards allow Urshifu players to use different route to get their VMAXes on the board in new ways! The packs will remain legal in 2022, meaning they have some longevity to them. The jumbo cards, as always, make great collector pieces!