Hello, Cut or Tap readers! The 2024 World Championships in Honolulu, Hawaii is quickly approaching, and it will feature a different metagame than the one that we have had for the last couple months with the North America International Championships and local tournaments.
Following the release of Shrouded Fable, it is expected that some new decks like Regidrago VStar will emerge as top contenders, and others such as Lost Zone Box will see large decreases in play. This shakeup to the meta makes deciding on a deck to play for the World Championships difficult, but I feel one of the strongest decks is actually one that didn’t change at all: Lugia VStar.
Lugia saw a rise in popularity last format with the release of Twilight Masquerade, giving it access to Legacy Energy, but did not perform up to the standard that people expected at NAIC, with not even one making it into the Top 16 of the event. However, there are reasons to be optimistic about it being a stronger play in this format. Most importantly, the deck has a strong Regidrago VStar matchup, which is expected to be the most popular deck. Due to its ability to take multi-prize knockouts every turn on the weak benched liabilities such as Teal Mask Ogerpon ex and Squawkabilly ex, the threat of a Cinccino’s Special Roll taking out a Regidrago VStar in one hit, and disruptive options such as V-Guard Energy and Mist Energy making it difficult for Regidrago to take enough knockouts, Lugia is certainly one of the biggest threats to this deck.
In this article, I will talk about important card inclusions and how they tie into Lugia’s most popular matchups in the Shrouded Fable format.
Here is the current list I would start working from:
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