Sylveon VMAX – Evolving Skies
Date Reviewed: December 20, 2021
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 4.00
Expanded: 3.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
Sylveon VMAX is our pick for the 10th best card of 2021! We looked at this card once before, and its Basic counterpart, Sylveon V, even got its own review as the 4th best card of SW – Evolving Skies. I don’t think Sylveon V lived up to my expectations, but Sylveon VMAX? It used its ribbons to gently sit me down, turn me around, and slap me until I wrote not only my previous review, but remembered to include it in our countdown! Sylveon VMAX has earned its place here; at the time of writing this, you can head over to LimitlessTCG and see Sylveon VMAX decks have secured 12th-Place. It isn’t showing up and winning every event, but it is claiming its own slice of the pie when it comes to finishing in the top cut. Much lower but only a little less impressive, Sylveon VMAX decks managed to secure 33rd-Place out of the 50 listed for the current Expanded Format… in a place that can be more than a little broken a times. So, why is it doing that well?
As mentioned in yesterday’s CotD, I’m not going to carefully run through every stat and effect found on Sylveon VMAX. I think I did that job well enough in the original review. I’ll give a brief overview in case you can’t or just don’t feel like reading the original, I just won’t be as meticulous as normal. While slightly small for a Pokémon VMAX, Sylveon VMAX still has a good deal of HP even when you take into account that it is worth three Prizes. It is the right type to punish popular Single Strike Urshifu VMAX decks and Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX decks. It can make good use of Rapid Strike support, and its fellow Rapid Strike Pokémon – plus a few non-Rapid Strike ones like Crobat V – span a variety of Pokémon types. Which is relevant because Sylveon VMAX’s second attack does 70 damage plus 30 for each different Pokémon type on your Bench. Some of the partners I’ve seen for it are
- Blaziken VMAX
- Galarian Moltres V
- Octillery (SW – Battle Styles 037/163, 178/163; SW – Black Star Promos SWSH089)
- Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX
which means it can also exploit additional forms of Weakness.
Sylveon VMAX, being a nice mix of power and cuteness, is doing the Pokémon TCG proud.
Ratings
- Standard: 4/5
- Expanded: 3/5
Vince
Our tenth best card of 2021 is something I didn’t expect my most favorite card to be placed.
Sylveon VMAX from Sword & Shield Evolving Skies is our 10th best card of 2021 and both Sylveon-V and Sylveon VMAX has been reviewed by us:
-Sylveon-V being the 4th best card of Evolving Skies
And…
–Sylveon VMAX getting a regular review
Those two are great cards, and they have been used as a deck focus. This is because Sylveon-V has a useful ability called Dream Gift that lets you fetch for any item card from your deck, with the expense of instantly ending your turn (though it wouldn’t be a concern when you’re going first). And Sylveon VMAX has a colorless friendly attack of Max Harmony, which costs three energies for 70 damage plus 30 more damage for each different type of Pokémon in your Bench. Because Max Harmony doesn’t require a specific energy type, it can be splashed into any deck. Ideally, however, you would want to maximize the damage output of Max Harmony to make the deck include at least five different types of Pokemon. This may seem like it would hurt the consistency of your deck, but there are some Pokemon that wouldn’t need specific energies to use their attacks. Crobat-V and Jirachi (SS Vivid Voltage 119/185) are useful Pokemon that mostly use their abilities to help keep your deck going.
Although I mentioned that Sylveon VMAX can fit in any decks, and while there are many deck lists of Sylveon VMAX (Sylveon – Best Finishes – LOTP (limitlesstcg.com)), they’re all pointing into one direction in the Standard format: Sylveon VMAX is being used alongside many other Rapid Strike Pokemon, specifically Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX, Octillery, and Blaziken VMAX. Rapid Strike Energy alleviates some of the attack costs by providing two units of energies (1 Water and 1 Fighting), easily meeting Urshifu’s Gale Strike and Blaziken VMAX’s Max Blaze. And add in some other non-Rapid Strike Pokemon such as Galarian Moltres, Oranguru, and Leafeon-V, and Max Harmony is already reaching max capacity of 220 damage, 2HKOing any Pokémon in the game. It does have a nifty useful Pokemon Tool for Sylveon as Ribbon Badge makes your opponent take one fewer prize cards if Sylveon-V or Sylveon VMAX gets Knocked Out.
Overall, Sylveon VMAX decks are still going strong, but it’ll be a matter of time until the next rotation that they’ll have to adjust some of the Pokemon and/or trainer cards if they rotate (Rapid Strike Pokemon are unaffected though). Until then, have fun using it.
Ratings:
Standard: 4
Expanded: 3
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