Hello, Cut or Tap readers! My name is Benny Billinger, and I am a first-year Master who was ranked Number 2 globally last year in the Seniors division.
With the release of the new Stellar Crown set and Louisville being the next North American Regionals on the calendar, I figured I would take a look at some of the Stellar Crown decks that have done well in Japan. One deck that caught my eye was Palkia VSTAR paired with Noctowl from the new set. This combo reminds me of the Palkia VSTAR/Inteleon archetype that I piloted to a 2nd place finish at the 2022 Peoria Regionals, and 3rd place at the 2023 Salt Lake City Regionals. In this article, I will go over the list I created, the matchup spread against the top decks, as well as my thoughts on the deck going into Louisville.
The release of Stellar Crown introduced two significant cards that help improve Palkia: Area Zero Underdepths and Noctowl. Area Zero Underdepths is a Stadium card very similar to Sky Field from Roaring Skies, allowing the player to bench up to eight Pokemon. However, Area Zero requires a Tera Pokemon in play for this to take effect (not difficult with Terapagos ex in the deck).
Noctowl, on the other hand, has the Jewel Seeker ability comparable to Inteleon’s Shady Dealings, which allows you to search for two Trainers and put them into your hand. The main difference between the two cards is that Noctowl is a Stage 1 Pokemon (as opposed to the Stage 2 Inteleon) and, like Area Zero, requires a Tera Pokemon in play.
Here is the list that I am currently testing:
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You must have a Stage 2 Membership or greater to see the rest of this post. If you don't have a Stage 2 account, you can Sign Up for one here.