Recently in the online tournament scene, Giratina Vstar has become very popular in both the Lost Zone and Arceus versions of the deck. In this article, I will be going over Arceus/Giratina and its matchup spread across the Standard meta to find out if it is a good play for the World Championships.
Arceus/Giratina Vstar has been gaining a lot of popularity because of its very straightforward and simple gameplan: play Judge with Path to the Peak, and hope your opponent bricks while you do huge amounts of damage with Giratina Vstar’s Lost Impact attack.
Here is a very Standard list that many people have been using:
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On top of the constant Judge/Path spam, there is also a Bibarel and Skwovet draw engine to the deck, to help find the cards you need to disrupt your opponent. Since you play heavy counts of almost all of your Supporter cards, it makes it very likely to pull off a Judge/Path combo or just simply find a Boss’s Orders without having to use your Starbirth Vstar Ability.
Matchups
Arceus/Giratina has a very strong matchup spread into the Standard meta right now. You have solid matchups against the two most popular decks (Gardevoir ex and Lost Zone Tina) and relatively close matchups against the rest of the meta.
The Lost Zone Giratina matchup should be pretty favored, since Arceus/Giratina usually plays one to two V-Guard energies. V-Guard can really swing this matchup, since Giratina Vstar can only OHKO your Pokémon V’s in play with V-Guard attached by using their Star Requiem Vstar attack. On top of all that, Lost Zone Giratina can be a very inconsistent deck at times, that can very likely fall to a simple Judge/Path combination in the early game.
Lost Zone Giratina also often depends on a strong late game Roxanne/Iono play to close out the game. However, since Arceus/Giratina plays Bibarel and Skwovet, it makes it very unlikely that you whiff the cards that you need to win.
The Gardevoir ex matchup is about even, depending on how well they can draw out of an early Judge/Path combo. If the early Judge/Path is able to slow down their start, the four Boss really comes in handy, so you can start taking early prizes off of their Kirlias and Ralts in play. It can also be very difficult for Gardevoir to be able to find a Path counter after their hand keeps getting disrupted every turn with Judges and Ionos, especially in the late game. However, if they are able to find a Stadium counter and attacker every turn, it could be very difficult for Arceus/Giratina Vstar to win the game.
The Lugia Vstar matchup is favored, since the deck can easily fail to set up off of a simple Judge/Path. Even though Spiritomb is usually a Mew Vmax counter, it is super effective in this matchup since it shuts off your opponent’s Lumineon V, which is the one of the main cards that helps Lugia not brick every game. However, if Lugia does manage to draw out of Spiritomb/Judge/Path and gets two Archeops down on the board, you kind of just lose the game since it is very difficult for Giratina to deal with Lugia taking two prize cards every turn with Tyranitar V or Urshifu Vmax.
The Rapid Strike Urshifu/Inteleon matchup is very unfavored since you cannot one-hit KO any of their Pokemon Vmax, even with Choice Belt. On top of that, their Urshifu Vmax is able to take quick knockouts on your Arceus V’s to make you fall behind in the prize race. Your main goal in the matchup is to use Boss’s Orders to knock out their Octillery, then follow it with a Judge/Path combination the next turn. Knocking out Octillery means that they do not have a consistent way to search for their Tower of Waters to bump your Path to the Peak. Not being able to have a Stadium bump is very crucial in this matchup, since it means that there will be no Double Gunners happening on that turn, and it also means that they are not able to easily get their Urshifu Vmax and other Rapid Strike Pokémon out of the active position.
The Mew Vmax matchup comes down to one thing: do you play Spiritomb? Spiritomb makes the matchup favorable, but without it, Path to the Peak is simply not enough to stop them, since they are playing multiple Lost Vacuums, multiple Forest Seal Stones, and multiple Stadium counters such as Lost City. With a Spiritomb in play, it limits their outs down to either putting Fusion Strike Energies on the Genesect V, or they knock out the Spiritomb with either a Boss’s Orders Techno Blast knockout, or an Eiscue Blockslider knockout. Either way, this is good since by killing the Spiritomb, they are leaving your Arceus V and Giratina V undamaged, making it super difficult to knock out down the line if you are able to attach a V-Guard energy.
The Chien-Pao ex matchup is very close, as it usually comes down to whether Chien-Pao can draw out of Iono/Path. Chien-Pao is also a very fragile deck, where four copies of Boss’s Orders in Arceus/Giratina can be very effective by constantly knocking out their Baxcaliburs and Frigibax. However, in some cases it could be better to knock out their Bidoof or Bibarel, since it would make the odds of Chien-Pao bricking off of an Iono/Judge/Path much higher, because all of their other Abilities such as Shivery Chill, Concealed Cards and Starbirth would be turned off by Path to the Peak, making it very difficult to get energies in play.
The Arceus Duraludon Umbreon matchup is favored for Arceus/Giratina. Giratina Vstar is able to OHKO an opposing Arceus Vstar, making you lead in the prize trade. Oon top of that, there is no threat of your opponent getting a return knockout back onto your Giratina Vstar. Another huge factor in the matchup is if Arceus Duraludon Umbreon can survive an early Judge/Path. In most scenarios, it can be difficult for Arceus Duraludon Umbreon to function after getting hit with a Judge/Path, since they have random limited cards in their hand. Plus, their Abilities such as Luminous Sign and Starbirth are shut off, making it harder to search out and draw the cards they need, such as Double Turbo Energy, a draw Supporter and potentially a switch card. However, the tables could flip if they are able to put Path to the Peak in play first, since Arceus/Giratina usually plays no Stadium counters, meaning they will not be able to use Starbirth for the entire game.
To sum it up, Arceus/Giratina Vstar is a very simple and very accessible deck with a very decent matchup spread, and the main goal is to Judge and Path your opponent, in hopes that it slows them down too much for them to catch up. I highly recommend this deck if you are new to the game, and I believe that it is a great play for the World Championships this year.
Deck List:
Pokémon: 8
4 Arceus V BRS 122
3 Arceus VSTAR BRS 123
2 Giratina V LOR 130
2 Giratina VSTAR LOR 131
2 Bidoof CRZ 111
2 Bibarel BRS 121
1 Skwovet SVI 151
1 Spiritomb PAL 89
Trainer: 12
4 Judge SVI 176
4 Boss’s Orders PAL 172
3 Iono PAL 185
1 Raihan EVS 152
1 Professor’s Research SVI 189
4 Ultra Ball SVI 196
4 Nest Ball SVI 181
1 Escape Rope BST 125
1 Switch SVI 194
1 Choice Belt PAL 176
1 Cleansing Gloves BRS 136
4 Path to the Peak CRE 148
Energy: 5
4 Basic {G} Energy Energy 1
4 Basic {P} Energy Energy 5
4 Double Turbo Energy BRS 151
1 V Guard Energy SIT 169
1 Jet Energy PAL 190
Total Cards: 60