Done Making Metal — Dialga Has Achieved Structural Integrity

By: Grant Manley · Posted Posted onNov 25, 2024 at 3:57 PM · 6 Comments

Hello everyone! At the time of writing, I have been trying out some of the new stuff in preparation for the upcoming Sacramento Regionals. While I still think the meta will mostly be dominated by decks that have already been established in the metagame, there are a couple new things that show some promise. In my last article, I covered the new and improved version of Miraidon ex. I also went on record saying Archaludon ex is bad, which is mostly true, but that was not taking Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR into consideration. Dialga has been around for a few years now, and it’s always been noteworthy thanks to its incredibly unique VSTAR attack. Star Chronos is probably the strongest attack in the format, if not in all of history. Of course, it is balanced by its ridiculous Energy requirement.

Previously, this was managed with Metang , but now, Archaludon enters the fray as a partner for Dialga. Metang wouldn’t always guarantee Metal Energy, but it could be used every turn, allowing you to build up multiple Dialga over the course of the game. Archaludon is the exact opposite, guaranteeing two Energy with its one-time use Ability. This lends itself to faster games that you can potentially end quickly with a consistent turn 2 Star Chronos. However, Archaludon isn’t all in on blitzing the opponent. What sets Archaludon above Metang is that it’s not purely a support Pokemon. Archaludon has 300 HP, which is beyond absurd for a Stage 1 Pokemon. It also deals a respectable 220 damage, and it can power itself up with its Ability. This is useful for some games and situations, particularly against single-Prize Pokemon, as they force a longer game and usually can’t deal 300 damage. If Dialga isn’t the best attacker for a particular situation, sometimes you can go with Archaludon instead.

I currently have two builds of this deck. They have some similarities, such as being inspired by the PokéStop and Night Stretcher engine. This makes the deck look a bit like current Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR / Dusknoir decks. Dialga being built like Palkia is consistent with the lore, after all. The first list I’ll discuss is one that’s all in on speed, consistently delivering a turn 2 Star Chronos to overwhelm opponents and quash their setup with tons of pressure. The second is a bit more balanced and adapted for the possibility of longer games.

Unfortunately, Dialga has never had its own trademark consistency engine, so it will be relying on high copies of Professor's Research as it always does. This is a bit stronger with help from PokeStop. We play tons of Items anyway, and PokeStop is an amazing Stadium. High counts of Night Stretcher protect us in case PokeStop discards Pokemon, and it actually functions as a setup combo along with PokeStop. PokeStop is more of a way to find Pokemon by discarding them, so the discard effect is less of a downside since it helps consistency. We typically want two Duraludon and at least one Origin Forme Dialga V on turn 1, so that we can evolve all of them on turn 2. This deck also relies on the quintessential array of Squawkabilly ex, Fezandipiti ex, Mew ex, and Radiant Greninja for draw power. These Basic Pokemon are way too efficient and can easily be slapped into any deck without an otherwise established consistency engine. This gaggle is preferred by most PokeStop decks, and Dialga is no exception. One funny interaction is that if you use Flip the Script followed by Star Chronos, you can use Flip the Script again. This feels illegal but is not.

Between Professor’s Research, PokeStop, and the Basic support Pokemon, this deck finds itself with plenty of consistency. Although all of these cards are built for tempo rather than longevity (such as Pidgeot ex), that suits Dialga just fine. Games in this format aren’t that long to begin with, and Dialga aims to shorten that even further. Another card I’ve been liking is Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex. Ursaluna has synergy with Dialga in the same way it does with Lugia VSTAR. These decks have the means to commit tons of Energy to high-maintenance attackers in exchange for massive short-term output. However, they tend to run out of steam if the opponent is able to respond. Ursaluna requires no Energy, which is great after you’ve spent it all to take four Prizes with Dialga. Ursaluna can efficiently close out games in plenty of spots, and it can be conveniently stored in the discard pile until you’re ready to retrieve it with one of the deck’s four Night Stretchers.

This concludes the public portion of this article.

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The deck is ass. It's board is super fragile like chien pao bax but without a dedicated draw enginge. Your first attack will always be with an archuladon ex so that's one less duraladon you use to power up dialga. In order to star chronos, you need to evolve two archuladons on the same turn, so on your board needs to have at minimum of 2 additional duraladons on top of the archuladon you need to use to first attack. Of course you will need atleast 1 dialga v on the board as well but to prevent being gusted, you're going to want a 2nd one. This leaves your bench open to 1 slot, which is probably greninja. They can literally gust anything on your board and you're stuck with only 220 each turn. That's not good in the current metagame.

If your opponent knows this, you can never get a winning star chronos in any of your games. You also just get shit on by dusknoir decks.
 
angooseburger said:
The deck is ass. It's board is super fragile like chien pao bax but without a dedicated draw enginge. Your first attack will always be with an archuladon ex so that's one less duraladon you use to power up dialga. In order to star chronos, you need to evolve two archuladons on the same turn, so on your board needs to have at minimum of 2 additional duraladons on top of the archuladon you need to use to first attack. Of course you will need atleast 1 dialga v on the board as well but to prevent being gusted, you're going to want a 2nd one. This leaves your bench open to 1 slot, which is probably greninja. They can literally gust anything on your board and you're stuck with only 220 each turn. That's not good in the current metagame.

If your opponent knows this, you can never get a winning star chronos in any of your games. You also just get shit on by dusknoir decks.
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Tell me you don’t know shit about playing Pokemon tcg without telling me.
 
While all of this is true, I have to put out a disclaimer saying that the Archaludon Engine does not work the way many people believe it does.

Turo's Scenario lets you reaccelerate by reactivating the ability, but it does not guarantee a Star Chronos on its own. You must have two evolutions in a row lined up plus an attach to Dialga VSTAR. That kind of niche lineup is easily exploited by Dusknoir, which means you need two benched Duraludon prior in order to ensure this. Plus, your opponent may even ignore the benched Duraludon and just one-shot the Archaludon ex that way.

On top of the setup being slow overall, I can't imagine this performing any better than just using Metang, Basculegion, and Zamazenta. It's a valid way to use Dialga VSTAR but the consistency is not there much like Metal Maker can be wholly unreliable.
 
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