Regis – Dream Team or Just a Meme?
Recently I attended the Full Grip Games event, where there were tournaments for both the Standard format and Gym Leader Challenge with thousands in cash prizing. I was fortunate to win both of them, but one deck that nearly ended my Standard format run was the Regi deck. This deck has exploded in popularity since Astral Radiance’s debut at Full Grip, and for good reason. Nolan Freda brought Regi to the world’s attention with a Top 4 finish at Full Grip. The deck does not look good at first glance, as it can only function with all six different Regi Pokemon in play. Furthermore, each attacker is situational and requires several specific Special Energy to work. That said, the deck is actually surprisingly consistent and has strong matchups against the meta. While playing the deck, it feels like an anti-meta deck, but is soon becoming a meta deck itself.
This is the deck I’m going to discuss today to help you understand how the deck functions, its matchups, how to beat it, and how to beat its counters. Let’s take a look at my current list.
Regi Deck List
I’ve cut Powerful Colorless Energy and Boss's Orders entirely, simply because they are way too inconsistent. They are definitely strong cards, but only in niche situations, and they are difficult to find on demand. I’ve added a fourth Ordinary Rod and Stormy Mountains to help patch up the deck’s fragility. With Regi becoming more popular, counters such as Temple of Sinnoh and Collapsed Stadium are making their way into lists. Those Stadiums are instant game-enders if you do not have the immediate response with Stormy Mountains. Avery is also an annoying card to deal with, but the extra Ordinary Rod makes it less of an issue.
We play two of each Regi to take up as little deck space as possible, as well as one Hisuian Heavy Ball in case both copies of a Regi are in the Prize. However, the Hisuian Heavy Ball can be difficult to find especially when you need it most, so a second copy is a strong consideration. Furthermore, if you don’t Prize both copies of a Regi, the Hisuian Heavy Ball can still be useful as a regular search card. This is because it is fairly likely that at least one Pokemon is Prized, which makes Hisuian Heavy Ball have some value. The same logic applies for the argument in favor of adding a second Hisuian Heavy Ball. However, a second copy of this Item card is only truly needed when the following two criteria are met: 1) Both copies of a Regi are prized, and 2) You are unable to find the original copy of Hisuian Heavy Ball that’s already included. Because those conditions only apply in a very small percentage of games, I’ve concluded that the second Heavy Ball is ultimately not worth including.
There is another Regidrago and Regieleki that this deck could play. However, they are far too situational. This list is geared towards consistency, as this deck will usually win when it is able to function at its full potential. When testing with the other Regidrago, I never had an opportunity to use it in a match. Regidrago can be incredibly powerful and useful in theory. The current Regidrago is far too important with its draw-power Ability, and you can usually only have one Regidrago in play at a time anyway. I have not tested the other Regieleki yet, but that’s because I do not feel it is even worth considering over the current Regieleki.
This concludes the public portion of this article.
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