Inteleon V – Rebel Clash Pokemon Review

Vince

So, we’ve already looked at Pokémon-V and V-Max counterparts of Rillaboom and Cinderace, but we still have one more starter Pokémon to review. Inteleon-V appears in both the a Rebel Clash expansion and as a promo card guaranteed in the Galar starter tins. It has the lowest HP of the three, sporting 200 HP with Lightning weakness, which is still bad at the moment. And a retreat cost of 2 is quite unfitting for a very fast Pokémon.

Inteleon-V has no ability but two attacks. It’s signature attack of Snipe Shot costs a single water energy and does 40 damage to 1 of your opponent’s Pokemon. This is good damage and range for the shot, even if this attack alone isn’t worth justifying this card, it can take out small targets waiting to evolve such as Ditto Prism Star, which is rotating soon. Aqua Report costs WWC for 130 damage and your opponent reveals their hand. This seems like a timing issue; by the time you found out what your opponent currently has, your turn just ended due to using an attack, so you can’t disrupt their hand. Without any damage boosting Pokémon tools like Vitality Band, it can’t even OHKO ReshiZard.

Inteleon-V might be another alternative card for water based decks, but it’s entering into a very crowded field of other Water type Pokémon-V such as Keldeo-V and Lapras-V. But as you see more in the SS Rebel Clash expansion, you’ll notice that Inteleon-V is a stepping stone to evolve into its V-Max counterpart, which we’ll be looking at tomorrow. In case I am somewhat busy tomorrow, I can briefly say that this could be another Pokémon that you can build a deck on, as it has similar stats of Lapras-V but with two different attacks.

Ratings:

Standard: 2.5/5

Expanded: 2.5/5

Limited: 3.5/5

Otaku

Inteleon V (SSH – Black Star Promos SWSH016; SSH – Rebel Clash 049/192, 180/192) is a Water type.  This is… ambiguous.  It is one of those types that looks good, but hasn’t proven itself in many, many months.  Being a Pokémon V is still somewhat new, so there aren’t any really good explicit Pokémon V counters, and only a few cards that exclude them from beneficial effects.  They give up an extra Prize when KO’d, like Pokémon-EX and (non-TAG TEAM) Pokémon-GX before them, but that’s practically the norm now.  Inteleon V should at least get better-than-normal HP from this deal, and possible stronger effects or other beneficial stats…

…like being a Basic.  Baseline Inteleon are Stage 2 cards, so this means Inteleon V is fast and easy to run, instead of being (comparatively) slow and demanding.  200 HP is actually a bit low for a Basic Pokémon V.  When facing a deck focused on scoring OHKO’s, Inteleon V is a little more likely to survive than not.  2HKO strategies are still going to be just that, unless they involve a [L] Type attacker.  [L] Weakness isn’t quite as bad as it looks, just because the Type can hit pretty hard at the moment; you’re saving them some Energy or a copy of Electropower, as opposed to enabling a OHKO that was otherwise unlikely or impossible.  No Resistance is the worst, but typical.  A [CC] Retreat Cost is neither easy nor hard to pay, at least most of the time.

Inteleon V’s first attack is “Snipe Shot”; priced at [W], it lets Inteleon V do 40 damage to the opposing Pokémon of your choice (Bench hits ignore Weakness/Resistance).  As a 200 HP Basic Pokémon V, 40-for-one is decent, with the option of hitting the Bench being somewhat good.  [WWC] for “Aqua Report” to do 130 damage, and forces your opponent to reveal their hand.  For the Energy, the damage plus effect are merely “okay”; its enough to OHKO smaller single Prize Pokémon, and 2HKO most two-Prize Pokémon.  Seeing your opponent’s hand at the end of your turn isn’t all that great; your opponent has an entire turn to change the contents, with something like Cynthia essentially undoing Aqua Report’s effect (but not damage).

As is often the case, we’ll be covering Inteleon VMAX tomorrow, so I won’t go into detail about the card.  Let us just say that it being able to evolve into Inteleon VMAX is a benefit for Inteleon V.  I haven’t seen any decks featuring Inteleon V in the results over at LimitlessTCG.  That isn’t a huge surprise; I doubt Inteleon V would be seeing much play even if its [L] Weakness wasn’t so dangerous.  It can hit the Bench for one Energy, but not quite hard enough to really matter.  You see your opponent’s hand at the end of your turn, when it can’t help most combos.  Etc.  Even with increased [W] support, it isn’t impressing in Expanded.  Limited is the only place where it really shines.

Ratings

• Standard: 2/5
• Expanded: 2/5
• Limited: 4/5

Inteleon V is strong in the Limited Format, but mostly due to the generic benefits of being a Basic Pokémon V.  Its attack effects should matter more, though.  In the Standard or Expanded Formats, only bother with it if you want to run Inteleon VMAX and do not want to field it via Archie’s Ace in the Hole.

aroramage

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