Standard Deck Tech: Lugia VStar - Theories & Possibilities

Hello everybody. I'm Rodrigo, bringing news about the Pokémon TCG and its vast media.

With just a few days to go until the release of the Silver Tempest expansion, we're going to tackle one of the favorite Pokémon in tournaments in Japan these past two weeks: Lugia VStar, which is dominating 50% of the eastern meta, and which could be a good bet for the west.

Taking the liberty of seeing this deck on the Japanese list using Lugia VStar with Crobat VMAX SHF 45, decks using Radiant Charizard PGO 11 and even with Yveltal SHF 46, I created a list to give consistency in a deck that could be a bit tank-ish, using Blissey V CRE 119 in case Lugia is knocked out and loses special energies in addition to recycling its own energies.

Here's the Decklist:

Decklist Lugia Vstar + Blissey V

Pokémon: 17

3 Lugia V (Silver Tempest)

3 Lugia VStar (Silver Tempest)

4 Archeops (Silver Tempest)

1 Regigigas (Astral Radiance)

1 Radiant Gardevoir (Lost Origin)

1 Dunsparce (Fusion Strike)

1 Miltank (Astral Radiance)

2 Blissey V (Chilling Reign)

1 Crobat V (Darkness Ablaze)

Trainers: 29

4 Incense Evolution (SW/SH - Base Set)

4 Quick Ball (SW/SH - Base Set)

3 Ultra Ball (Brilliant Stars)

3 Choice Belt (Brilliant Stars)

1 Pal Pad (SW/SH - Base Set)

2 Cheren's Care (Brilliant Stars)

2 Marnie (SW/SH - Base Set)

2 Professor's Research -Professor Rowan- (Brilliant Stars)

4 Serena (Silver Tempest)

1 Roxanne (Astral Radiance)

3 Path to the Peak (Chilling Reign)

Energy: 14

4 Powerful Coloress Energy (Darkness Ablaze)

3 Capture Energy (Rebel Clash)

3 Double Turbo Energy (Brilliant Stars)

2 V Guard Energy (Silver Tempest)

2 Gift Energy (Lost Origin)

Lugia V and Lugia VStar: getting to know the cards

Lugia V

HP: 220

Weakness: Electric

Resistance: Fighting

Retreat cost: Two colorless energies

Pokémon V Rule Box: If it is KO'd, the opponent takes two prize cards

1) Attack - Wind Reading: For a colorless energy, discard a card from your hand, and if you do, draw 3 cards.

2) Attack - Aero Dive: For four colorless energies, deals 130 base damage and put a stadium into play.

Lugia VStar

HP: 280

Weakness: Electric

Resistance: Fighting

Retreat cost: Two colorless energies

Pokémon VStar Rule Box: If it is KO'd, the opponent takes two prize cards

1) Attack - Storm Dive: For four colorless energies, deals 220 base damage and put a stadium into play.

2) VStar Ability - Assemble Star: On your turn, you can search for two colorless Pokémon from the discard pile, as long as they don't have any Rule Box and put them on your Bench.

Given that, we have the key power-up resource Pokémon for Lugia, which is Archeops. Because it's a "baby" Pokémon and doesn't have any Rule Box, thanks to its Primal Turbo ability, where it looks for two energies in your deck and connects it to one of your Pokémon. So, the key is to put at least two Archeops on the bench after Lugia's VStar ability, so they can look for 4 Powerful Colorless Energy DAA 176, leaving Lugia with 80 more damage as each energy deals 20 extra damage.

Secondary Attacker Pokémon

Coming in as a secondary attacker in the deck, Blissey has the main attack Blissful Blast, which, for a colorless energy, deals 10 + 30 damage for each energy attached to it. And at the end of the turn, if you dealt any damage with that attack, you can attach up to 3 energies from the discard pile and attach it to Blissey-V.

So, we have the following logic with special energies, the Powerful Colorless Energy DAA 176, which guarantee 20 more damage to whichever colorless type Pokémon has them attached. So, we have (4 x 20 = 80, for the Powerful Colorless total), 10 + (30 x 4) = 130 damage. And considering another 80 for the passives of these energies, 210 damage per start with them alone.

We have on the list with 3 copies of Double Turbo Energy BRS 151, 3 Capture Energy RCL 171, 2 Gift Energy LOR 171 and a new special energy with two copies, the V Guard Energy , which grants a Defense of 30 damage against attacks from the opponent's Pokémon V, but cannot stack.

In addition, it is very useful for recycling special energies for itself, ensuring as a new attacker in the game.

As a secondary attacker, we have Miltank ASR 126:

1) Its ability, Miracle Body, prevents damage from Pokémon V.

2) And its attack Rout, for two colorless energies, does 10 + 20 damage for each Pokémon on your opponent's Bench.

Here Regigigas enters as an attacker against VMax Pokémon, which if it is accelerated by Archeops, will deal 300 damage for five energies.

Recursive Pokémon

- Dunsparce FST 207 enters as a protector for colorless Pokémon, that is, taking away their weakness, and ensuring that Lugia VStar is immune to electric damage, like the main threat, Arceus VStar that runs Flying Pikachu VMax, or even the return of Vikavolt V DAA 60, and of course Regieleki VMAX, which will come in Silver Tempest as well.

- Radiant Gardevoir LOR 69 will grant damage reduction applied to your Pokémon.

- Crobat V DAA 104 uses its Dark Asset ability that, if played on your bench from your hand, you draw cards until you have six in your hand.

Trainer Cards

- Professor's Research BRS 147 is the deck draw accelerator: you discard your hand and draw seven cards.

- Cheren's Care BRS 134 is used precisely to heal one of your colorless Pokémon completely, returning the energies of that Pokémon back to your hand.

So, creating a combo for the next turn, assuming you had healed a Lugia VStar the previous turn with Cheren's Care and having saved those energies to your hand, you can use Marnie SSH 169 to shuffle your hand back to the deck, use Archeops to filter the search for special energies again to link them to the Lugia VStar and come back hitting aggressively.

- Roxanne ASR 150 serves precisely to disrupt the opponent's hand. If your opponent is down to three prize cards to win the game, you and your opponent shuffle both hands, in which the opponent draws two cards, and you draw six cards. Roxanne is like an improved N DEX 96.

Finally, we have a special consideration for the Supporter card of the deck that will be Serena, which will debut in this expansion.

Choose only one of two options:

- Discard up to 3 cards from your hand (at least one discard must be done). Then draw until you have 5 cards in your hand.

- Switch a Pokémon V from your opponent's Bench to Active Position.

- The Stadium Path to the Peak CRE 148 is used to stop Pokémon with Rule Box that have abilities. Ideally, play this card after using your Lugia VStar to call Archeops into play, as Lugia's attacks are also good for countering decks that try to apply this stadium first before you build your set-up.

Special Energies

- Powerful Colorless Energy DAA 176 grants 20 more damage to Colorless-type Pokémon.

- Capture Energy RCL 171 is used to summon a Basic Pokémon to your Bench in play.

- Gift Energy LOR 171 serves as a kind of Lucky Egg SSH 167, where if equipped to a Pokémon, and it is knocked out, you draw until you have 7 cards in your hand.

- Double Turbo Energy BRS 151 grants two colorless energies, but has its damage reduced by 20 points (which is bad, in my opinion, but that's what we have for the absence of Double Colorless Energy).

And finally, the energies, we have the one that will come in the expansion, the V Guard Energy, which guarantees a 30 damage reduction against attacks from the opponent's Pokémon V, but which cannot be a cumulative effect on the Pokémon, that is, if you have two of these energies on the same Pokémon, you won't get a 60 point reduction — it's just 30 points and nothing else.

Advantages

This deck was very popular in Japan, in recent times there have been local regionals that you can follow here on Youtube one of the examples of their performances in tournaments:

On October 24th to 28th, it was in this preference:

As of October 30, it was in this position:

It's a deck that if all the Powerful Colorless Energy DAA 176 are in the deck, with two Archeops on the bench after using Lugia VStar's VStar ability, it will be dealing 300 damage, practically destroying most VStar Pokémon in the current Metagame, in a scenario where this can favor, and of course, with the Choice Belt BRS 135 increasing 30 more damage against the opponent's Pokémon V, it will easily have 330 damage to face most VMax Pokémon.

Keep in mind that for Lugia to cause this maximum damage, these sequences that I mentioned must happen to guarantee a satisfactory victory.

In addition to its electrical weakness, where there will likely be new Pokémon of this archetype in the current format like Regieleki VMax with Vikavolt V probably, the deck's Dunsparcer will guarantee immunity to its weakness.

Disadvantages

The downside is the deck's execution. It needs many factors, systems for everything to work: you need to discard two Archeops, and manage to use Lugia's VStar ability so that you can attack frequently and maintain pressure.

There is still a risk that the Powerful Colorless Energy DAA 176 are not in the deck, being able to stay in the prize cards, being one or two or in the worst case, the 4 energies, as they are the ones that guarantee Lugia's potential damage.

It's also a heavy Pokémon with four energies costs (even if Archeops energizes), 220 damage still only knocks out basic Pokémon V and not a VStar and neither a VMax. There can be serious risks of Lugia's deck not exploding right away as quickly as possible.

It's a deck that, even with Japanese favoritism and with an absurd hype so far for the West, I don't like it so much for having a "lacking" mechanic that depends on several elements to run and not being self-sufficient to deal raw damage, like Lost Box decks Giratina VStar, Kyurem VMax decks with Origin Forme Palkia VStar, Mew VMax for the versatility of copy attacks by just hitting two energies beyond 300 damage, and so many other examples.

In the current format, we have other strong decks like Regidrago VStar, that has a lot of potential and is more versatile in aggressiveness according to the responses during the game. We'll see who excels in tournaments over time!

But that's it. Do you agree with my analysis? Disagree? What would change in the Lugia VStar deck? What are your expectations?

Leave your thoughts on the comments!