Fleet Footed a look into Suicune V Archetypes

Hey everyone Gabriel Smart is back with another article! I hope you all are having a great day, and I am excited to be writing again! With the new set Evolving Skies being released, a bunch of new combos has arrived in the meta for us to utilize. Evolving Skies has brought us great new cards like Raihan (Evolving Skies), Rayquaza VMAX (Evolving Skies), Flaaffy (Evolving Skies), Umbreon VMAX (Evolving Skies) and so much more! Although there are a plethora of new cards that have arrived, there are a few particular cards that have caught my eye. Let's get into my new favorite deck! 

Throughout the past few weeks, Suicune decks of all variants have been popping up. There have been Suicune paired with Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX, Suicune / Inteleon, Suicune / Galarian Moltres (Chilling Reign), and much more! With all of these other versions, it gives us quite an assortment of options to look at. Currently, Suicune Ludicolo is the variant I have been having the most fun with! It has been quite some time from my personal testing that I have found a deck that I have enjoyed as much as this deck! Now let's get into the list I currently have built.

1 Oranguru VIV 199

1 Swablu CPA 48

1 Crobat V PR-SW 98

1 Altaria EVS 106

3 Lombre RCL 8

4 Lotad EVS 32

4 Suicune V EVS 31

3 Ludicolo EVS 34

2 Level Ball BST 181

3 Melony CRE 218

3 Evolution Incense SSH 163

3 Boss's Orders RCL 200

2 Rare Candy DEX 100

1 Echoing Horn CRE 225

2 Air Balloon SSH 156

4 Scoop Up Net RCL 165

2 Cape of Toughness VIV 200

4 Quick Ball SSH 216

3 Professor's Research SSH 209

2 Marnie SSH 208

1 Raihan EVS 202

1 Ordinary Rod SSH 215

3 Capture Energy RCL 171

6 Water Energy Energy 3

Total Cards - 60

 

The answer is yes! Suicune V’s ability fleet footing allows for the deck to be fast, consistent, and achieve its strategy every single game. You may not think that one extra card a turn adds up, but when you pair it with Oranguru (Sword & Shield) and Altaria (Evolving Skies), you are able to set up your board state every game! Let's get into some of the deck's key cards! 

The star of this deck is Suicune V. Coming in with 210 HP, and a great attack, Suicune has cemented itself as one of the best V Pokemon in the game. One of the most important factors that set it apart from other powerful V Pokemon, is that it is not a VMAX. Typically cards as powerful as Suicune, would be hindered by 3 prize trade it gave up for being knocked out. Luckily for this deck, that is not the case! Suicune's attack Blizzard Rondo will two-shot almost every Pokemon in the format. With that being said, there will come scenarios where one shooting Pokemon will be a necessity. Let's take a look at how we take our big knockouts!

From the new expansion Evolving Skies, we gained a wonderfully fun new card in Ludicolo. Ludicolo's ability ”Enthusiastic Dance” allows your basic Pokemon on your field to do 100 more damage for just one turn. With Suicune’s damage capping in the low 200’s, this will allow us to be able to take big one-hit knockouts on VMAX Pokemon. Another great benefit of this card is the ability to be used multiple times a turn. With Pokemon VMAX having so much HP, there will be points in games where you may need two “Enthusiastic Dance” abilities in a turn. Although this is unlikely, having the option is always nice. 

Another brand new card from the Evolving Skies expansion set is Altaria! The need for supporter consistency is one of this deck's biggest crux’s and Altaria (Evolving Skies) ability “Tempting Tune” allows you to put one supporter card on top of your deck. Paired up with Suicune (Evolving Skies) “Fleet Footed” ability, and Orangurus (Sword and Shield) “Primate Wisdom” ability, you will have no problem being able to retrieve that supporter card from the top of your deck!

Echoing Horn (Chilling Reign) is a card that really has seen very niche play over its lifespan in the standard format. This card would occasionally see play in Pokemon online decks like ADP Zacian but did not really see much use in anything else. With that being said, this card has finally found a home! Although Suicune's attack is powered up by the amount of bench Pokemon you put into play, it also is reliant on how many your opponent puts down as well. Having Echoing Horn will force more Pokemon onto the field and will make your “Blizzard Rondo” attacks even stronger! Echoing Horn also can serve as a disruption card. Oftentimes, your opponent will discard Pokemon like Crobat (Darkness Ablaze) because they do not want it on the field. With the use of Echoing Horn, you will also be able to disrupt opponents' boards, along with powering up our attacks!

Overall, this version of Suicune is super fun and can really surprise some people. This deck has recently been seeing success in PTCGO online events, and I am excited to see how the deck evolves over the next few weeks. If you are looking for a deck that does not run like your typical Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX (Chilling Reign) or Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX (Battle Styles), then this is the deck for you! Now let's look into another Suicune variant. 

With the Pokemon Online Global Championships just wrapping up, we saw a new champion crowned. That player was Shoichi S with Suicune V Ice Rider! Although the tournament was a prerotation event, that doesn't mean we can't adapt it to the new format! Out of most decks, this deck lost the least from rotation, and it still has all the tools it needs to dominate the format! One of Ice Riders' biggest problems is its metal weakness. With Zacian V(Sword and Shield) and Zamazenta V (Sword and Shield)  decks being so prevalent in the metagame, Suicune V provides a great counter to those decks. Both Suicune and Ice Rider cover each other's weaknesses greatly! Let's take a look at my list.

4 Sobble CRE 41

4 Drizzile SSH 56

2 Inteleon SSH 58

2 Inteleon CRE 43

3 Suicune V EVS 31

2 Ice Rider Calyrex V CRE 45

2 Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX CRE 46

1 Crobat V SHF 44

3 Melony CRE 146

3 Boss's Orders SHF 58

2 Marnie CPA 56

2 Professor's Research SHF 60

1 Raihan EVS 152

4 Quick Ball SSH 179

4 Level Ball BST 129

2 Capacious Bucket RCL 156

4 Evolution Incense SSH 163

1 Escape Rope BST 125

1 Scoop Up Net RCL 165

2 Cape of Toughness DAA 160

1 Air Balloon SSH 156

2 Path to the Peak CRE 148

8 Water Energy 

I already spoke about Suicune V in depth in the earlier portion of the article, but this deck uses this card relatively differently. Suicune V is used as a set up Pokemon in the early turns, to allow yourself to get chip damage on the field. Early chip damage will allow for your Ice Rider Calyrex to finish off the game. Along with Inteleon pings, Suicune attacks will pack quite a punch early in games, and set yourself up to finish the game with ease!

Suicune V’s partner in crime and the true star of this deck is Ice Rider! Clocking in at 320 HP, Ice Rider is one of the toughest Pokemon to knock out and will serve as the attacker in this deck during the middle and ladder portion of the games. Its attack “Ride of the High King” can set up two shots on almost any Pokemon, and “Max Lance” will provide that big one-hit potential that this deck needs! Suicune V on its own is often not enough, and Ice Rider really covers its weaknesses!

 

In this version of the deck, both Inteleons are included! Inteleon (Chilling Reign) will set up crucial damage on the field to set up big one-hit knockouts with Ice Riders “Max Lance”. Inteleon (Sword and Shield) will allow you to set up every single game. It will be critical to focus early on building a board of as many Drizzile as possible, and then transition into setting up Inteleons (Chilling Reign) to soften up Pokemon for the end game. Ice Riders and Suicune's attacks may be strong, but it will be essential to get as many damage counters on the board as Inteleon (Chilling Reign) to succeed in the end game!

Another brand new card from the Evolving Skies that we have included in this deck is Raihan! In the past, water decks always ran four Melony (Chilling Reign). Now with the inclusion of Raihan, provides a similar effect to Melony, and allows you to search your deck for any card! I have considered going to two Raihan in this deck, but the drawback to Raihan is that one of your Pokemon has to be knocked out for it to be played. Currently, I am feeling comfortable with one Raihan and three Melony.

Path to the Peak is another card that I have included in this deck. With Zamazenta V being prevalent, along with Pokemon with strong abilities like Shadow Rider patrolling the top tables, it is critical to have an answer to them. With Marshadow (Unbroken Bonds) rotating out of Standard format. Path to the Peak becomes much more powerful! Since there are so many less ways to remove this card from the field, its effect on games becomes immeasurable. Being able to pair up Path to the Peak with Marnie (Sword and Shield) you will be able to disrupt your opponent game after game! Currently, there are only 2 of them in this deck because of the Inteleon engine! Drizzile, and Inteleon, will allow for Path to be searched at ease, and will allow this deck to always be able to disrupt your opponent when you choose to!

Ice Rider Suicune can do it all! It has consistency, aggression, and its ability to handle any deck in the format truly makes it a contender! Expect to see this deck continually topping events in the future. Both Suicune variants make great choices for upcoming events, and my interest is piqued to see how well they continue to do. That's all for me today, thank you for reading another one of my articles! If you’re looking to buy some PTCGO codes, feel free to pick them up in our shop. We offer PTCGO codes at a very competitive price and ensure instant delivery of your Pokemon TCG Online codes directly to your email. Make sure to check out all of the other great amenities on the PTCGO Store. Thank you all for your time, and I can't wait to speak with you again soon. Cheers!

Gabriel Smart is a contributing article writer for PTCGO Store. Gabriel currently resides in the Sacramento, California area and has been playing the game casually since 2010 and competitively since 2018. He streams on Twitch under the name GabrielSmartTCG, creates competitive Pokemon content on Youtube under the name SmartTCG, and posts about his tournaments results and life on Twitter @GabrielSmartTCG. Outside the game, he is a huge baseball and basketball fan and loves everything to do with athletics.