Boltund V – Top 15 Pokemon Cards in Rebel Clash #8

Vince

Our eighth best card of Sword & Shield Rebel Clash, Boltund-V, could be a force to be reckoned with as long as the support is still there. Pretty much, I would have to compare how much it would do in the 2019-2020 rotation and the 2020-2021 rotation. I realize that the 2019-2020 season is over with due to concerns around the world, but it doesn’t hurt to reminisce the potential good times it would’ve had if the season is still running. And also, the PTCGO can still let you find a Standard match no matter what time it is.

Every part of the card matters. From being a Basic, being a lightning type, having 200 HP, Fighting weakness, and retreat cost of two. Electrify costs L and attaches up to two Lightning energies from your deck. This could be useful in the first few turns, thinning your deck AND accelerate energy, but eventually you would have to deal damage. Energize could lead to Bolt Storm, which costs LC for 10 damage, plus 30 more damage for each L energy attached to all of your Pokemon. This attack could achieve OHKOs if you put enough investment. To OHKO anything, you would have to have 11 Lightning energies on the board.

So let’s see how much it can benefit from the 2020-2021 rotation. Lightning typed support will have Tapu Koko Prism Star and Speed Lightning Energy. Our current defunct season IRL would also have Thunder Mountain Prism Star, Volkner, Electropower, and Zeraora-GX. And Expanded has stuff like Max Elixir and Dynamotor Eelectrik to quickly get Lightning energies on the board. I feel like Boltund-V has almost everything it needs to build a deck around in Expanded than in Standard.

Ratings:

• Standard: 3/5 (next season it would be 2/5)
• Expanded: 4/5
• Limited: 3.5/5

aroramage

…well, the fully-evolved version of younger pupper Yamper, and with a new Pokemon-V form!

Boltund-V is a Basic Lightning-Type Pokemon, 200 HP, with a Fighting Weakness, no Resistance, and a Retreat Cost of 2. Electrify lets you attach 2 Lightning Energy to your Benched Pokemon in any way you like, all for just 1 Energy on its own. That feeds well into Bolt Storm, a 2-for-10 that does 30 more damage for each Lightning Energy on each of your Pokemon.

Outside of Electrify, there’s plenty of ways to get Lightning Energy fueled fast to your Benched Pokemon and to Boltund-V – Pikachu & Zekrom-GX certainly come to mind, but even stuff like Vikavolt has its place in that kind of set-up. ..or at least the Sun & Moon version did. In general, there’s only a few different ways to get Lightning Energy out, but the good news is that that’s not a problem right now! Lightning’s still got tools like Electropower for damage-boosting and Thunder Mountain <Prism> for cost reduction, so it’s not like Boltund’s left to dry.

Even on its own, Boltund doesn’t have many problems! Assuming Electrify goes off once, and you use nothing but Lightning Energy, Bolt Storm still does a minimum of 130 damage – enough to 2HKO most Pokemon in general, short of Tag Team-GX and VMAX forms! It can also set itself up faster than a Zacian-V powered by with Altered Creation-GX – a lucky Intrepid Sword not withstanding. Combine the extra turns with a massive board of Energy, and it’s possible to have Boltund-V sweep through the competition!

I definitely think Boltund-V has a spot in the upcoming meta, though it’s hard to say whether or not it’s going to pair with Pikachu & Zekrom-GX. Sure, it’s the obvious pairing, but they have a hard time with the Zacian-ADP deck as is, and I don’t think Boltund-V necessarily brings about a renaissance to them. Still, I wouldn’t say it’s a bad showing – just don’t want to oversell it.

Boltund-V is going to definitely supercharge the competition, and it’s going to Electrify the world!

Rating

Standard: 4/5 (solid card for the Lightning decks of the future)

Expanded: 4.5/5 (combined with more Lightning support, I think Boltund-V looks favorable here)

Limited: 5/5 (easy use)

Arora Notealus: Definitely being a very good boy here, Boltund-V managed to make my Top 5! Though there are other members on the list that I feel could’ve been replaced with some better cards here and there, Boltund-V is one of the bigger cards from the set in my opinion. I can’t say it’s going to be format-defining, but then again, I couldn’t say that about the Falinks, and I still put them on my list! Not as high up as Boltund-V, but still!

Next Time: Choke upon the most esteemed of pollutants!

Otaku

Boltund V (SSH – Rebel Clash 67/192, 181/19) is… a card that has been pretty thoroughly covered by the above two reviews, but I’ll run through it and give you my take anyway.  It is our 8th-place finisher, after all.  Boltund V is a [L] Type, and that’s pretty good: decent amount of Weakness, almost no Resistance, almost no counters, but some crazy support (and it’s still Standard-legal).  This is a Pokémon V, so Boltund V should have better stats and effects than usual, because its worth an extra Prize when KO’d, is excluded from Scoop Up Net, and has to deal with anti-V effects.  Granted, for now, only those first two really matter.

Boltund V is a Basic Pokémon, the easiest and fastest Stage to run, even though Boltund would normally be a Stage 1; one of the perks of V-dom.  200 HP is on the lower-end of what is typical for Basic Pokémon V; it is good but not great, considering how many attackers swing for 200.  Still, often enough Boltund V can survive an attack.  Besides heavier hitters, it also has to fear [F] Types; just 100 damage becomes a OHKO thanks to Weakness.  No Resistance is the most common; it’d be handy to have some but lacking it isn’t a problem.  A Retreat Cost of [CC] high enough you don’t want to pay but low enough you often can.

Boltund V has no Ability.  It’s first attack is “Electrify” for [L], which lets you search your deck for up to two [L] Energy and attach them how you like to your Benched Pokémon.  Only basic Lightning Energy count as [L] when not in play, so don’t think you can grab any Special Energy with Electrify.  It cannot attach to itself, but the Bench is where you’d usually want to attach the Energy anyway, and two Energy means you are accelerating some Energy and not just using Boltund V as a meatshield.  This isn’t the greatest attack in the world, but it is a nice option for [L] decks as back-up acceleration, or maybe just used once or twice early game.

Boltund V’s second attack is “Bolt Storm”, priced at [LC].  This amount means Tapu Koko {*} or Thunder Mountaint {*} can make this a single attachment attack, and both together allow Boltund V to use Bolt Storm for just [L] while you still have your manual Energy attachment elsewhere… but you might want to save Bolt Storm for a bit later in the game.  Why?  It does 10 damage plus 30 per [L] Energy attached to your Pokémon (all of your Pokémon).  So, even with the combo – you’d only be doing a quick 100 damage.  Not bad, but why not wait until you’ve a nice spread of [L] Energy in play and hit really hard?

Electrify is a solid lead-in to Bolt Storm, simultaneously readying other attackers while also feeding Bolt Storm’s damage.  However, the most iconic [L] Type deck right now, Pikarom, is usually going to shift to Pikachu & Zekrom-GX as soon as it can, and Boltund V wants that.  Why?  Because Pikachu & Zekrom-GX’s “Full Blitz” attack costs [LLC] to do 150 while attaching up to three [L] Energy from your deck to one of your Benched Pokémon.  If you can pull off the Thunder Mountain {*} and Tapu Koko {*} combo, Pikachu & Zekrom-GX can even start attacking right away on Turn 2 (Player 2’s first turn).

Being the “back-up” opener is hardly a bad deal, but I want to stress that Boltund V is not “making” this deck.  What about Bolt Storm?  A very nice attack mid-to-late game in a Pikarom deck.  Full Blitz likely has a three to nine Energy in play for you; not a huge hit on the lower end, but we do eventually reach serious OHKO levels.  OHKOing anything and everything isn’t likely, but – apart from defensive buffs – is at least plausible.  It would probably require every Energy in your deck – specifically 11 – but then Bolt Storm can OHKO even a Snorlax VMAX!

Just remember that this is a post-Rebel Clash metagame.  Lysandre is back, in the form of Boss’s Orders.  Loading a Pikachu & Zekrom-GX with six Energy so it can pull off “Tag Bolt-GX” for 200 to the opponent’s Active and 150 to one of they’re Benched Pokémon, then moving it to the Bench was never “safe” but now it has almost no hope of working.  Speed [L] Energy makes set-up attacks for [L] decks even better, but you’re probably not going to use Electrify more than once or twice in a game.  I’ll also add we do have Tapu Koko V and Zeraora-GX as alternate attackers in many Pikarom builds, and if you don’t have 5+ Energy in play, Bolt Storm isn’t even outperforming “Plasma Fists”.

For Expanded, I’ve got no recent play-testing and no recent tournament results.  The best I can do is consider the Regional Championship from Collinsville, IL back on February 29th.  No [L] decks made the Top 70 (out of 640 Masters players) which doesn’t bode well for Boltund V.  Maybe Boltund V can revive Eelektrik (BW – Noble Victories 40/101); I’d mention other Pokémon that can get a lot of [L] Energy in play, but I think Eelektrik is your best bet.  Or maybe Pikarom is due here and I just couldn’t tell.  Maybe even just backing it with Regirock (XY – Black Star Promos XY49) and Exp. Share  For now, I’ll assume Boltund V is good in a deck (or decks) that aren’t currently on top.

If you pull Boltund V, you probably should take the risk and run it in a Mulligan build, with 39 non-Pokémon cards.  A turn or two of Electrify and after that Boltund V ought to be scoring OHKO’s with ease.  However, it is also possible that you’ll crash into something that can exploit its [F] Weakness or just sacrifice warm bodies until their “real” attacker is ready, and Boltund V goes down, so you could just use Boltund V in any deck with sufficient [L] or [C] requirements.

Ratings

• Standard: 3/5
• Expanded: 3/5
• Limited: 5/5

Boltund V is a good card, but I’m not sure if it is a great card.  A lot of reviewers I listen to do think it is, so please take what I am saying with a grain of salt!  It didn’t make my personal list, though it would have been a good “safe” pick; this helps Pikarom, and  Pikarom is already pretty good.  I think it might become a star after the next rotation, though it might technically perform worse; with a lot of the best [L] support (as we currently know it) gone, Boltund V becomes more important to [L] decks!