Return of the Pao? How Regigigas Changes Everything!
Hey PokeBeach readers, Ciaran here with my first article of the new year! 2024 was a great year of Pokemon for me, and I am hoping I can carry that forward to 2025! We are approaching the end of the Surging Sparks format with the release of Prismatic Evolutions right around the corner. Most of the attention has been on the new Budew, and rightfully so. This card is definitely going to shake up how the game is played. We saw Banette ex see a decent amount of success and now every deck can play item lock on a basic Pokemon that attacks for no Energy and has free Retreat Cost! In Japan, we have seen Dragapult ex and Gardevoir ex rise to Tier 1 decks with the addition of Budew. For both decks having the ability to slow the game down while you set up has proven to be a massive buff, especially in Dragapult’s case. I expect the way decks are built in the next format will definitely keep Budew in mind!
While Budew is the star of Prismatic Evolutions, there is actually a card I am much more excited for, that being Regigigas. I think this card is one of the strongest single-Prize Pokemon printed in a long time. Regigigas requires your opponent’s Active Pokemon to be a Tera Pokemon to go from dealing 100 damage to 330 damage, but so many decks in the format feature one as a centerpiece of their strategy. Some decks like Charizard ex , Ceruledge ex, and Dragapult ex uses one as their main attacker, and decks such as Regidrago VSTAR and Raging Bolt ex use Teal Mask Ogerpon ex for support. While not every deck has a Tera Pokemon to take advantage of, a majority of decks play one! Being able to trade up by taking two Prize cards with a single-Prize Pokemon has always been incredibly strong, and Regigigas is going to be doing a lot of that! Regigigas does require a hefty four Energy to use the aptly named Jewel Breaker attack, so it can’t just be slotted in to any deck, but I am particularly excited to add Regigigas to two of my favourite decks in the format!
When reflecting on my 2024 season there were two decks that really defined my year, Chien-Pao ex and Lugia VSTAR. I played other decks here and there, but a majority of my success came with those two decks. I think Regigigas slots perfectly into these two decks, and in Chien-Pao’s case, breaths desperately needed life back in to the archetype! Both decks have the necessary Energy acceleration to power up Jewel Breaker and take advantage of it’s Colorless Energy Cost. I’m going to focus on these two decks today, particularly Chien-Pao since it has been a while since I’ve wrote about the deck.
Why Did Chien-Pao Fall Off?
It feels like it has been a long time since we have seen Chien-Pao consistently at the top tables, and there are a couple reasons for that. The main one is Dragapult ex, and by extension Regidrago VSTAR. Dragapult lets your opponent set up damage counters on Baxcalibur and/or Bibarel to wipe multiple copies from play at once, or just take out Frigibax and Bidoof before they can evolve. Sometimes Chien-Pao can plan for Baxcalibur going down by leaving enough Energy in play for the following turn, but this becomes difficult when Chien-Pao needs to discard five or six Energy to Knock Out high HP two-Prize Pokemon. This is where I see Regigigas providing immense value to the deck. Now you can Knock Out something like a Dragapult ex or Charizard ex and not have to worry about Baxcalibur getting wiped from the board. If your opponent decides to target Baxcalibur, your Regigigas goes unchecked and can take another Knock Out.
One other problem the deck has is it struggles to come back when down two-Prize cards since you need Chien-Pao to take Knock Outs on large HP Pokemon. This allows your opponent to keep their two Prize lead over you, especially since Chien-Pao has a low amount of HP for a Pokemon ex. However, with Regigigas, the deck has a very viable alternative that actually requires less Energy in most cases to take a Knock Out. Even against decks like Raging Bolt that won’t attack with their Tera Pokemon often, you can just gust their Teal Mask Ogerpon ex and swing the Prize trade into your favour by using Regigigas.
While Regigigas is a big buff for the deck, I do think Budew can be a bit troublesome. Chien-Pao relies on cards like Super Rod and Superior Energy Retrieval to get Energy back from the discard pile. If you aren’t careful, your opponent can Item Lock you out of Energy for the game! Historically, the deck hasn’t ran Arctibax, instead relying solely on Rare Candy to set up Baxcalibur. I think you do need to play Arctibax now to ensure you can actually get Baxcalibur up and running. I’ve actually included Technical Machine: Evolution in my build now to help set up against Budew decks and give the deck a better set up when playing second!
This concludes the public portion of this article.
If you'd like to continue reading, consider purchasing a PokeBeach premium membership! If you're not completely satisfied with your membership, you can request a full refund within 30 days.
Each week we post high-quality content from some of the game's top players. Our article program isn't a corporate operation, advertising front, or for-profit business. We set our prices so that we can pay the game's top players to write the best content for our subscribers. Each article topic is carefully selected, goes through multiple drafts, and is touched up by our editors. We take great pride in our program!
