Leaving a Legacy — Lugia VSTAR at NAIC

Hello PokeBeach readers! Isaiah here, and I am happy to be writing another article for you all! It has been a while since my last article, and despite how much has changed about the format, one thing has somehow managed to stay the same: Andrew Hedrick has won the most recent tournament. This time, though, he did so with a much more common deck; turbo Lost Zone box featuring a copy of Iron Thorns ex which he used to get an edge in the Lugia VSTAR matchup, a deck that many players expected to be the most played deck in the format (I will be coming back to this!). In the finals, Andrew hit former PokeBeach writer Stephane Ivanoff piloting Gardevoir ex, which is normally a bit of a difficult matchup thanks to Flutter Mane , and especially Klefki, but after a hard-fought Game 1 he was able to win the game on a Confusion flip and then finally close out the set by taking a Prize card lead on turn three of time.

This finals matchup was a pretty common matchup in the Top 8 overall, as the only two decks that made Top 8 at the North America International Championship were turbo Lost Zone box and Gardevoir ex, with two instances and six instances respectively. The rest of the event’s Top 32 was made up of a wide variety of decks, with decks like Miraidon ex, Chien-Pao ex, and even Regidrago VSTAR. I was also fortunate enough to make it into the Top 32, landing at exactly 32nd! I played Lugia VSTAR for this event, which is also going to be the focus of this article, as I think that the deck may still be the best deck in the Standard format.

What Drew Me to Lugia VSTAR?

For a long time, I have said that Lugia VSTAR was some form of a “rainbow” Energy away from being good, whether it was Rainbow Energy itself, Aurora Energy, or any other form of multi-typed Energy (except Luminous Energy…). Cinccino  ‘s strength in particular was incredibly apparent, especially following the deck’s strong finishes at the Los Angeles Regional Championship, so the only piece that was missing was an efficient way to utilize Iron Hands ex, as it is probably the single best attacker in Standard and also a near perfect answer to many of Lugia VSTAR’s biggest issues. As you might guess, I was blown away when Legacy Energy was revealed — it’s kind of difficult to put into perspective how massive this card is for Lugia VSTAR for so many reasons. Notably, one of Lugia VSTAR’s biggest weaknesses in the format was that it struggled to play any significant ACE SPEC, as Prime Catcher was relatively low-impact in Lugia VSTAR due to how difficult it is to find it when you need it, and Master Ball is equally underwhelming. Not only that, but the case of it being a “rainbow” Energy for the deck is huge, as even one copy gives you access to so many strong attacks, with the two most important ones being Amp You Very Much on Iron Hands ex (an attack significant enough that people were willing to play Earthen Vessel to have access to it in the past) and Aqua Return on Lumineon V.

Having access to these two is a huge buff to the deck’s Lost Zone box matchup in particular, with Iron Hands ex becoming a way that the deck can overrun the inherently somewhat slow Lost Zone decks and Aqua Return later in the game could give you access to searching out an Iono and then immediately remove the liability from the board if needed (this play comes up much more than you would think, not only in the Lost Zone box matchup). On top of this, though, the card somehow manages to get better with the card’s secondary effect; making the Pokemon it is attached to worth one fewer Prize card. The impact of this effect is unbelievable, with the main use cases being turning Iron Hands ex into a single-Prize Pokemon or making Cinccino worth zero Prize cards, both of which can be game-ending on their own if the opponent does not have access to Enhanced Hammer or Temple of Sinnoh. Understanding how to use Legacy Energy properly has now become the most critical part of mastering Lugia VSTAR, as the card is certainly one of the single strongest cards in Standard, forcing some decks to warp their deck-building strategy around having to deal with it.

Unbelievably, the set got even better for Lugia VSTAR too, with Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex, Carmine, and Jamming Tower finding their place in most Lugia VSTAR deck lists. Of these, Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex is by far the most significant addition, serving a role somewhat similar to the role Radiant Charizard served in Lugia VSTAR when Silver Tempest first released, acting as an efficient attacker capable of at least Knocking Out most non-evolved two-Prize Pokemon. Unfortunately, Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex is much less efficient at doing so than Radiant Charizard was, as it is worth two Prizes instead of one, so more often than not Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex is better suited for the end of the game when you only have a few Energy left, as Cinccino is usually able to get you over the finish line if you have a large volume of Energy left. Its large amount of HP can also come up sometimes, as some decks, such as Andrew Hedrick’s North America International Championship winning deck list are not capable of taking a one-hit Knock Out on a Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex, so you can sometimes use it early in the game as a way to guarantee a favorable trade if it is fairly clear that the opponent will not have a way to respond to it.

This concludes the public portion of this article.

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