Fusion Strike Set Review

2021's brought us a lot of great new Pokemon stuff: Celebrations was an incredible expansion, Evolving Skies was one of the most popular releases ever, Chilling Reign was full of cool legendaries, and Battle Styles shook up the game majorly with its aptly-named battle styles mechanic. Now we're here at the end of 2021, and it's time for the last major release of Pokemon's 25th year: Sword & Shield – Fusion Strike.

Fusion Strike is the biggest expansion ever released in English, with a whopping 284 cards. Building on the styles introduced in Battle Styles and continued through Chilling Reign and Evolving Skies, Fusion Strike introduces the brand new Fusion strike style to give you a new angle to your deckbuilding!

While Single Strike is all about big, direct damage, and Rapid Strike is about tricky effects, Fusion Strike mashes the two together and will give you benefits while simultaneously knocking back your opponent. For example, Gorebyss' Rapid Strike Canceler can completely turn off an opponent's Rapid Strike abilities, while Huntail can make a Single Strike Pokemon's attacks more expensive.

The Fusion Strike style also has an emphesis on synergy, with cards caring about if you have any other Fusion Strike Pokemon in play. Toxtiricity has the incredible ability of reducing a VMAX Pokemon's HP by 30, but only if every Pokemon you have in play have the Fusion Strike style. Meanwhile. Genesect V is an absolute powerhouse that lets you draw cards until your hand is the same size as the number of Fusion Strike Pokemon you have in play. Load up your bench and you'll be storming ahead!

To go with all your Fusion Strike Pokemon, there are a few trainer cards that can really help them out. Elesa's Sparkle lets you search your deck for Fusion Strike Energy (another new thing for the expansion) and put them on up to two Pokemon you control. Meanwhile, Cross Switcher is a really weird card that requires you to play two of them at the same time, but allows you to switch both your opponent's and your own active Pokemon with one from each player's benches.

While it's not a fancy full-art, it's also worth mentioning this expansion's Deoxys, who is the first Pokemon to have all three styles on a single card! Considering how much the Fusion Strike style cares about having other Pokemon with the style, it can be a really effective and flexible inclusion in your deck.

As the last expansion of the year, of course Fusion Strike was going to go out in style. There's a lot here for collectors to get their hands on, with the headliner being the full-art Mew V showing it just vibing with its Pokemon friends (including Smeagle, who appears in the background of a few cards in Fusion Strike!) and Mew VMAX, casually lifting up a double-decker bus with its psychic powers.

Of course, Mew isn't the only VMAX Pokemon to be found here. Gengar VMAX is an aptly spooky card releasing so soon after Halloween, and it's joined by Espeon VMAX resting on a Beauty and the Beast-esque house. All three of the Galar Starters get their VMAX forms too, with Rillaboom VMAX, Inteleon VMAX and Cinderace VMAX each getting new battle style cards.

Other highlights include the full-art Celebi V, which takes us back to Chilling Reign's Crown Tundra to bring a bit of springtime life back to the region. A particular favourite of mine is the alt-art Sandaconda V, which carries on this year's wonderful trend of showing normally intimidating Pokemon lounging around in blissful comfort. I loved it when Tyranitar V got it in Battle Styles, and I love it here.

Energy cards are severely underrated, but now you'll be able to get Grass and Fire Energy in golden foil secret rares! Loading up your deck with these is going to give it a heck of a lot more bling! The other golden secret rares are Flaaffy, the item card Power Tablet (a Fusion Strike item), and Training Court, a nice mix of different card types compared to other expansions.

Sword & Shield – Fusion Strike will be available in a few different ways. Alongside the usual booster pack (and eco-friendly cardboard booster), Elite Trainer Box, and Booster Box, you can also get it in a few different blister bundles. Checklane Blisters each come with one booster pack, a coin, and either one or three cards from a popular Pokemon line: the Rillaboom family, the Cinderace family, Tepig, or Blitzle. There are also two three-pack blisters available, which each come with three Fusion Strike boosters, a coin, and either an Eevee or Espeon card. All of these are great ways to kickstart your collection, or get a great foundation to build your deck around your favourite Pokemon!

Pokemon TCG: Sword & Shield – Fusion Strike launches on November 12. This set is going to be popular, so make sure you've got your pre-orders for packs and singles in through Magic Madhouse Today!