The reason I would make sure that the defending Pokemon is poisoned is because without this, Whirlipede can only do 40 damage and needs three energy cards, but if the defending Pokemon is poisoned, you only need to attach one energy card to Whirlipede and you can do 70 damage
There is no strict relationship between Lightning Bolt and Incinerate (Incinerate is a more powerful effect than Lightning Bolt), but
Grand Spiritual Art - Ichirin X SPELL Field Negate your opponent's first monster effect that resolves each turn while you control a Spellcaster monster with 1500 DEF
its airbending trigger also removes threats, albeit temporarily, or you can use it to pseudo-flicker your permanents
With such an emphasis on the exile zone, though, we have to wonder if well see the return of Pull from Eternity or Riftsweeper to start building some machines
so we can easily win the match if we draw the good half of our deck