The Birds are Back — Lugia VSTAR After Rotation
Hello everyone! We’re now past our first event of the new post-rotation format, and while it may not have been a massive shake-up, the new format does appear to be an interesting one. Two new archetypes — Gardevoir ex and Miraidon ex — have joined the fray, and both did well at the European International Championship, finishing second and eighth, respectively.
Even with the new-deck excitement though, the post-rotation format was similar to what we had pre-rotation. Lost Box, Lugia VSTAR, Mew VMAX, and Arceus VSTAR all saw play at high rates, and while the format was certainly diverse, it is notable that six of the Top 8 decks were archetypes that had already existed.
Still, even some of those old archetypes came with a twist. The addition of Alolan Vulpix VSTAR to Arceus VSTAR / Duraludon VMAX was an incredible call, one which ended up being tournament-winning. And while the Lost Box decks didn’t change much, the Lugia VSTAR decks certainly did, as Lugia players needed to completely revamp their set of attackers from the pre-rotation cadre of powerful Amazing Rares. Lugia decks also lost most of the Special Energy that they used, as Aurora Energy and every one of the early-SWSH type-specific Special Energy rotated.
Given all those losses, it wouldn’t have been surprising to see Lugia fall from the list of top-tier decks — and yet, it appears to be heading nowhere but up. Lugia VSTAR remained a formidable deck at the EUIC, and looks to be a meta mainstay going forward. Lugia was no longer the top deck in terms of meta share — that crown was ceded to Lost Zone decks — but it did clock in at 20% of the field. It outperformed its meta share as well, as it had a robust Day Two share at over 27%, an excellent showing that made it the most played Day Two archetype. Lugia VSTAR was the only deck to clinch more than one Top 8 spot, and while it didn’t advance beyond that, this kind of performance shows that even a weakened Lugia is here to stay.
It’s also worth noting that this is the weakest Lugia VSTAR will be; with every new set, the deck will get new attackers and new Special Energy, which will only make it stronger and stronger. So, if the deck is already seeing success in the post-rotation meta, it stands to reason that it will be hanging around for a long time to come. In this article, I’ll be taking a look at the new Lugia VSTAR, what has allowed it to stay successful, and how the deck might look going forward.
The New Lugia VSTAR
While the core of Lugia VSTAR and Archeops remained intact, Lugia VSTAR decks did lose most of their attackers and their Special Energy. Without Aurora Energy, Lugia is far more limited in the set of attackers that it can play. The Special Energy available in the post-rotation format effectively limit the deck to attackers that require Colorless Energy, or else that are Single Strike, Rapid Strike, or Fusion Strike Pokemon.
As it turns out, the Single Strike strategy works quite well with Archeops. Tyranitar V is capable of OHKOing most Pokemon with the boost from Single Strike Energy, and Stonjourner and Yveltal are solid non-V attackers that can allow the deck to play the same late-game single-Prize attacker strategy as it did last format. While these Pokemon certainly aren’t as strong as Amazing Rare Yveltal and Raikou, they can still attack decently well, and have excellent typing against the current meta. Stonjourner can hit Miraidon ex, Regieleki VMAX, and Arceus VSTAR for Weakness, while Yveltal and Tyranitar V can do the same against Mew VMAX and Gardevoir ex. Stonjourner is also particularly strong against Lost Box decks, since it can’t be OHKO’d by Cramorant or Sableye.
The other major changes to the deck are in its means of searching out Pokemon; without Evolution Incense, it can be a bit harder to find what you need. Capturing Aroma can be a decent replacement, as can the new Stadium Mesagoza, but it still can feel a bit less consistent than it did last format. To help shore things up, Professor Burnet has become a common inclusion in Lugia lists, as it makes it much easier to discard your Archeops.
The New Lugia Decklist
To illustrate how it all comes together, here is the Lugia VSTAR list that I had heading into this weekend:
With the loss of Evolution Incense, you want to have a larger Lugia line to make it easier to get Lugia VSTAR into play, which is why this list plays a 3-4 Lugia VSTAR line instead of the 3-2 common to pre-rotation lists. The 3-4 Lugia VSTAR is a bit unorthodox, but I like the change away from 4-4 as a way to include an additional copy of Nest Ball. By cutting a Lugia V for a Nest Ball, you still have the same number of outs for finding Lugia V, so that consistency doesn’t change. Once you do have your Lugia V though, the additional Nest Ball increases your consistency for the rest of the game, since you can use it to find any other Pokemon. In addition, if you’re in a position where Nest Ball is no longer a useful card, you can play it just to get it out of your hand (so that you don’t draw back into it after Judge or Roxanne), which is something you can’t do with Lugia V.
In addition to Lugia VSTAR, your main attackers are Tyranitar V and Stonjourner. I also mentioned Yveltal above, but I chose not to play it in this list, instead opting for a second copy of Stonjourner. The reason for this is that in most of the scenarios where you would use Yveltal, you can also use Tyranitar V without much difference. (There can be some variants of Gardevoir where the Yveltal is better, but that tends to only be in cases where they play Gallade, which isn’t terribly common at the moment.) By contrast, Stonjourner is extremely important in multiple matchups, including against Lost Box decks, Miraidon ex decks, and Arceus VSTAR decks. With two Stonjourner and the Thorton, you can use Stonjourner three times; the second Stonjourner also gives you more protection against unlucky Prizes.
Without Aurora Energy, Lugia can no longer effectively utilize Radiant Charizard, so we’re forced to find a different Radiant Pokemon to fit in. Options include Radiant Gardevoir and Radiant Jirachi, or not including a Radiant Pokemon at all, but you’ll commonly see the Radiant Tsareena that I have in this list. Radiant Tsareena is mostly for the Lost Box matchup, as it does an excellent job of shutting down any spread strategies they might try. Without Tsareena, the opponent can use Radiant Greninja‘s Moonlight Shuriken and Sableye‘s Lost Mine to KO both of your Archeops over the course of two turns. With Radiant Tsareena, however, you can prevent that play from being effective. Radiant Tsareena can also come up at other times, such as if your Lugia VSTAR takes a hit — you can simply retreat it into a different attacker so you can heal up over several turns.
The Supporters in this deck aren’t drastically different from what you might have seen pre-rotation. Without Marnie, lists now play Judge to provide some hand disruption, but the overall numbers of draw and gust Supporters are about the same. Professor Burnet is a must-have for making sure that you get your Archeops into the discard pile, as it makes that task much easier. There are a lot of situations where having Professor Burnet turns Capturing Aroma into a win-win card, since you can use it to grab Lumineon V (to then grab the Professor Burnet) if you flip tails.
This concludes the public portion of this article.
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