Sometimes, Pokemon TCG can be a complicated game. There will be moments when you’ll have to be aware of many things when playing, and that’s why easy-to-use decks are heavily appreciated in the community.
This is the case with Lugia VSTAR, which is simple to use, easy to set up, and has incredible damage output that can deal with most of the most powerful decks of the metagame. This deck is heavily recommended for rookies, as it’ll introduce you to the basics of the TCG. Nonetheless, it has some perks you have to be aware of. Let’s check it out!
Updated May 28, 2023, by Jesús Cruz: The Scarlet and Violet set has arrived, which means we are in a new Gen, which means the TCG went into a rotation. The cards from the oldest sets got removed from the meta, and they got replaced by new and cool cards. It seemed like Lugia VSTAR was the most affected after the rotation, as cards like Powerful Energy and Capture Energy got out of the rotation, as well as consistency cards that helped Lugia to be at the top of the game. Nonetheless, Lugia's best friend, Archeops, is still close by, and thanks to the new rotation, Lugia has made some good friends. Let's check them out, as this is a very good deck.
Changes For Scarlet & Violet
The rotation seriously hurt Lugia VSTAR to the point where it now works more like a support card to supply Single Strike cards than a serious attacker. It lost a lot of power as it lost some important cards, like Quick Ball and Marnie.
This doesn't mean it's not useful at all; in fact, Lugia and Archeops are great cards to use alongside Rapid Strike cards, and it's always a pleasure to see Tyranitar V ranking high again.
Lugia VSTAR Deck List
Pokemon Cards | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Lugia V SIT (x4) | Lugia VSTAR SIT (x3) | ||
Archeops SIT (x4) | |||
Tyranitar V BST (x2) | |||
Stonjourner BST (x2) | |||
Lumineon V BRS (x1) | |||
Drapion V CRZ (x1) | |||
Pumpkaboo EVS (x1) | |||
Energy Cards | |||
Double Turbo Energy LOR (x2) | Single Strike Energy BST (x4) | ||
V Guard Energy SIT (x2) | Gift Energy LOR (x3) | ||
Regenerative Energy SIT (x2) | |||
Trainer Cards | |||
Boss's Orders BRS (x2) | Judge SVI (x1) | Professor Burnet SIT (x1) | Professor's Research SVI (x3) |
Roxanne ASR (x1) | Serena SIT (x1) | Capturing Aroma SIT (x4) | Great Ball CRZ (x3) |
Ultra Ball SVI (x4) | Urn of Vitality BST (x3) | Collapsed Stadium BRS (x1) | Tower of Darkness BST (x3) |
Lugia VSTAR Key Cards
Let's take a deep look at the protagonists of this deck.
Lugia VSTAR
Lugia VSTAR is the offensive tool you'll use against VMAX and VSTAR cards, as well as Tyranitar V. It has an attack named Tempest Dive, which deals 220 damage and lets you remove the stadium in play. The only problem with this attack is that it costs four Colorless Energy cards, but thanks to Archeops, you can attach enough Energy Cards for Lugia in a couple of turns.
To make this work, you’ll have to use Lugia VSTAR's Power ability, Summoning Star, which lets you draw two Colorless Pokemon that don’t have a Rule Box from the Discard Pile and put them in play. This is important because if you don’t use this ability, you must put Archeops in the Active Spot to activate its ability.
All the Radiant Pokemon, Pokemon V, VSTAR, VMAX, and GX have Rule Boxes, so you can’t draw them from the Discard Pile to your hand.
Lugia V
Lugia V can help you send Archeops to the Discard Pile through its move, Read the Wind, which lets you discard a card and draw three cards.
The idea is to have Lugia V and Archeops, then use Lugia V’s Read the Wind to send Archeops to the Discard Pile.
Archeops
Without Archeops, Lugia VSTAR would be very hard to use. This Pokemon has an ability named Primal Turbo, which lets you draw and attach two Special Energy cards from your deck to one of your Pokemon.
That’s all this card will do; it has no other purpose. Nonetheless, it has a good attack that costs three Colorless Energy cards and deals 120 and can be a good option in case you can’t attack with Lugia VSTAR.
Tyranitar V
Tyranitar V is another excellent alternative in case you face Gardevoir ex or Mew VMAX. You also have to put Drapion V in this category in cases when you can't find a Tyranitar V.
Tyranitar V has an attack named Single Strike Crush, which deals 240 damage. Its only drawback is that it forces you to discard the top four cards of your deck. This is a problem as you can potentially lose a useful resource; that's why you should use Tyranitar V in emergencies or only when you are sure it'll help you greatly.
Stonjourner
Stonjourner will have the same purpose as Tyranitar V, but in its case, you'll use it only when facing a Lost Box deck or a deck that uses a lot of mini-cards.
Stonjourner has only offensive moves. You have Giga Hammer, which deals 120 damage, more than enough to sweep most of the minis out there, and Land's Pulse, which deals 30 - plus 30 if there's a stadium in play.
Single Strike Energy
Tyranitar V and Stonjourner wouldn't be as good as they are without this card. The Single Strike Energy is what gives those two Pokemon the power they need to sweep your opponent's deck.
If a Pokemon has this card attached to it, it provides either Fighting or Dark energy, but only one at a time. Also, the attacks from Pokemon attached to this card will deal 20 more damage.
You'll usually use two or even three of them in Tyranitar or Stonjourner, meaning Tyranitar can reach a whopping 300 damage, more than enough to sweep any VSTAR with a single hit, while Stonjourner can reach 180 damage, which is a lot for a mini card.
You can only attach this card to Single Strike Pokemon.
Lumineon V
Thanks to Lumineon V, you’ll get access to Support Cards on every turn. This is because it has an ability named Luminous Sign, which lets you draw a Support Card whenever you send Lumineon from your hand to your bench.
Collapsed Stadium
The Collapsed Stadium will work to negate your opponent from building a strategy as it forces both players to have only four benched Pokemon. This can be a problem for decks like Mew VMAX or Eternatus VMAX.
Strategy
With this deck, it's ideal to start first. Nonetheless, you must be aware of what your opponent will use, as it'll determine what you will do and which Pokemon you will use to attack.
If you want to attack with Lugia VSTAR, try to find a Lugia V and put it on your Active Spot. You also have to look for Archeops and a Lugia VSTAR and, if you have the chance, try to find a couple of Energy cards from your deck. You’ll have resources like Serena, Crobat V’s Dark Asset, and Professor Research to draw more cards from your deck.
As soon as you have an Archeops, try to send it to the Discard Pile. You can do it by using cards like Serena or Professor Burnet to do it.
Now that you have Lugia V on your Active Spot and more cards in your hand and on your bench, try to evolve Lugia V into Lugia VSTAR and then activate its VSTAR Power ability to draw Archeops from the Discard Pile to activate its ability, Primal Turbo.
Thanks to this, you can attach a couple of Special Energies to Lugia VSTAR. The best ones you can use are the Powerful and the Double Turbo Energy. Still, if you only need a few Energy Cards to make Lugia attack and are against a Pokemon V, you can also attach a V Guard Energy.
If you want to attack with Tyranitar V or Stonjourner, you'll have to use cards like Great Ball, Ultra Ball, or Capturing Aroma to pull them from the deck. Then, use Lugia V and Archeops the same way you would use them to supply a Lugia VSTAR to attack, but instead of looking for Double Turbo Energy cards, you should look for the Single Strike Energy cards to attach them to Tyranitar or Stonjourner.
If you are stuck with Single Strike cards in your hand and want to attack with Lugia, you can always put Tower of Darkness in play. It'll supply you with two cards from your deck only if you discard a Single Strike card.
Lugia VSTAR Common Threats
One of the common problems this deck has is that it's now forced to have only a few Supporter cards. As it lost good consistency cards like Marnie or Capture Energy, the only setup Lugia VSTAR has and is viable to play at the highest level lacks a bit of consistency.
It will sometimes be hard to pull what you need from the deck to your hand, and there will be moments when you'll need a specific card, and it'll be hard to pull it out from the deck. At least this problem gets a bit solved thanks to Lumineon V and Professor Burnet, which will help you with the setup, but, nonetheless, there will be times when you'll get stuck, and that's unavoidable.
Aside from that, if we talk about matchups, Lugia VSTAR will have problems against Lost Box, and it's for a single problem; all the Lost Box decks use Cards that, if you defeat them, will only give you a Prize Card. Meanwhile, most of your Pokemon will give two or more Prize Cards.
This is an issue as any Lost Box variation, except for the ones with Giratina, will have enough time to defeat your Pokemon and claim Prize Cards, while you must defeat six to win.