Hey everyone! My name is Gabriel Smart, and I am ecstatic to begin writing for Cut or Tap. I am a professional Pokemon TCG Player based in California, and I travel the world playing the TCG. Currently, I am ranked in the top 10 players in US/Canada, and have already achieved my Worlds invite. You might know me from my consistent tournament placements, Youtube Videos, or Twitch Streams. Today, I am going to go into everything you need to know on Lugia VSTAR. Currently, in the standard format, Lugia VSTAR has continued to dominate and prove itself as the best deck in format. Over the past few months, we have seen the deck capture multiple major tournament wins, most notably Tord Reklev’s 1st place Latin American International Championship win. Personally, I have piloted the deck to two Top 16 Regional Finishes, one Regional Top 32 Finish, and an International Championship Top 32. With that being said, let’s embark on our journey in Lugia VSTAR!
Here is the list that I chose to pilot to my most recent finish at Orlando Regionals. This was the exact same 60 that Isaiah Bradner, Jon Eng, and Regan Retzloff took to Top 8 finishes of the event!
The List
| Pokémon – 19 | Trainers – 25 | Energy – 16 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dunsparce | 3 | Professor’s Research | 4 | Capture | ||||
| 3 | Lugia V | 3 | Marnie | 4 | Powerful | ||||
| 2 | Lugia VSTAR | 2 | Boss’s Orders | 4 | Aurora | ||||
| 4 | Archeops | 1 | Serena | 2 | Double Turbo | ||||
| 1 | Stoutland V | 1 | Heat | ||||||
| 1 | Yveltal | 4 | Evolution Incense | 1 | Speed | ||||
| 1 | Radiant Charizard | 4 | Quick Ball | ||||||
| 1 | Raikou VIV | 4 | Ultra Ball | ||||||
| 1 | Pumpkaboo | 2 | Choice Belt | ||||||
| 2 | Lumineon V | 2 | Lost Vacuum | ||||||
| 1 | Manaphy | ||||||||
| 1 | Oranguru | ||||||||
Lugia VSTAR has been an archetype that I have been consistently piloting for numerous reasons. For starters, I love the adaptations that this deck can inherit during any game that you play. If you want to attack with mostly one-prizers, you can, but if you want to focus on a more Lugia VSTAR-centric game, you have the luxury to do so! Secondly, I love how this deck STILL has room to be improved. Every single tournament, there seem to be new and improved ways to play this deck. Lugia VSTAR feels like a puzzle that is still waiting to be completed. It seems that in every tournament, there is a new card that can be injected into the list, to give itself new life and energy. This is very similar to Palkia VSTAR, where that deck always seemed to have one or two new additions every tournament, which made it such an interesting deck to build before tournaments.
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