Arceus VSTAR Technique: Enhancing a Successful Deck with Scarlet & Violet—Obsidian Flames

By Natalie Millar, Contributing Author

The new Scarlet & Violet—Obsidian Flames growth has considerably shaken up the metagame, each by including new decks to the Normal format and by respiration some new life into older choices. Ever since regulation mark D rotated out of Normal, the Arceus VSTAR decks have been extra centered on facet attackers, comparable to Duraludon VMAX, Umbreon VMAX, or Giratina VSTAR. Nevertheless, with the current launch of Pidgeot ex, it has turn into attainable to play a deck centered round simply Arceus VSTAR once more. This was beforehand seen with the favored Arceus VSTAR / Inteleon archetype, which merely tried to loop Cheren’s Care to slowly defeat your opponent. Whereas Inteleon has rotated out of Normal, Pidgeot ex’s Fast Search Potential can act as a viable different to Shady Dealings and permit the slower fashion of Arceus VSTAR to rejoin the motion!

The core of this deck is Arceus VSTAR itself. Its Trinity Nova assault hits for 200 harm (180 with a Double Turbo Vitality hooked up) and accelerates 3 Primary Vitality out of your deck onto every other Pokémon V, which on this deck is at all times one other Arceus VSTAR. To assist this, we have now Radiant Greninja and Pidgeot ex. Radiant Greninja’s Hid Playing cards Potential enables you to discard an Vitality card to attract 2 playing cards, which is useful each for letting you employ Melony and for locating one thing to do together with your further Vitality, as you want little or no all through a recreation. Pidgeot ex’s Fast Search Potential is the entire cause to play a deck like this. This isn’t the primary time we have now seen Fast Search on a Pidgeot, in fact. The Pidgeot within the EX FireRed & LeafGreen growth noticed a ton of success again in its day with its Fast Search Poké-Energy…almost 20 years in the past! This sort of Potential is strictly what this deck desires—since Cheren’s Care doesn’t draw any playing cards, you want some solution to constantly gasoline your hand in the course of the recreation. With Fast Search in thoughts as the primary engine for this deck, that is the deck checklist I’ve been working with for Arceus VSTAR.

I selected to fill this deck with numerous packages of playing cards that mix in useful methods. The primary massive one which jumps out is the inclusion of Solrock and Lunatone. Whereas Solrock does have a neat Name for Household assault that searches out Primary Pokémon, the true star of the pair is Lunatone. Its New Moon Potential prevents all results of Stadium playing cards completed to your Pokémon. If you first take a look at this deck, this can be very weak to Path to the Peak, since our Skills are so vital and they’re tied to Pokémon with a Rule Field. Whereas simply taking part in common Stadium playing cards might work, I additionally suppose that Path to the Peak is extraordinarily effectively positioned within the present metagame, as virtually each single deck depends on some Rule Field Pokémon with an Potential.

Lunatone and Solrock had been playing cards that I used to be excited to play with after they had been revealed—their impact is exclusive, as we have now by no means had playing cards that may make one participant ignore the impact of Stadium playing cards. Nevertheless, numerous the decks within the present format are simply unable to assist them. The Bench area required to make use of Lunatone and Solrock is usually an excessive amount of of a value—decks like Gardevoir ex, Mew VMAX, and even Misplaced Zone variants want virtually all of their Bench area to make their very own engine work, or maintain a spot open for Manaphy to guard their different playing cards. Having the ability to put Path to the Peak in your deck is a big benefit proper now, and I believe Solrock and Lunatone are definitely worth the deck area required to take action. In addition they act as a way more environment friendly Stadium counter than playing cards like Misplaced Vacuum or Pumpkaboo since their impact is at all times on. You not have to fret about your opponent disrupting your hand with Decide or Iono since you possibly can simply use Fast Search or Starbirth beneath Path to the Peak.

I structured the remainder of the deck equally to what the previous Arceus VSTAR / Inteleon decks regarded like, protecting in thoughts that we’d have the ability to discover any card at any time with Fast Search. Whereas most variants of Arceus VSTAR decks select to not embody Battle VIP Cross, I included them right here due to the amount of Pokémon we have to get onto the Bench shortly. Your ultimate board appears to be like like this: Arceus VSTAR within the Lively Spot, and a Bench comprised of Pidgeot ex, a backup Arceus VSTAR, Radiant Greninja, Solrock, and Lunatone. With simply Nest Ball and Extremely Ball, I discovered that you simply by no means had sufficient search playing cards in your hand for all these Pokémon, however the “two for one” nature of Battle VIP Cross enables you to discover all of them with a small variety of search playing cards.

Cheren’s Care and Boss’s Orders are the perfect Supporter playing cards to make use of in the course of the sport. Cheren’s Care lets you decide up any broken Colorless-type Pokémon, letting you fully heal Arceus VSTAR! With Radiant Greninja’s Hid Playing cards Potential, you possibly can even discard the surplus Vitality playing cards that find yourself in your hand with a view to draw extra playing cards. There are a lot of video games with this deck the place you’ll play each copies of Cheren’s Care on consecutive turns to get forward within the harm race, so managing your Vitality attachments is essential.

That is the place the only Tremendous Rod is available in. Whereas at first Tremendous Rod appears a bit of underpowered on this deck since we have now extra copies of most Pokémon, it synergizes rather well with Cheren’s Care. It lets us shuffle Water Vitality that has been discarded to Hid Playing cards or Extremely Ball again into the deck, so we will discover them with one other Trinity Nova! With out Tremendous Rod on this deck, we run the chance of getting all our Vitality playing cards trapped in our hand, so I prefer to play Tremendous Rod on this extra controlling fashion of an Arceus VSTAR deck. Boss’s Orders is essential to this technique since we’re unlikely to ever take a one-hit Knock Out on a big Pokémon, so with the ability to change in a broken Pokémon to complete it off is extraordinarily helpful.

Whereas solely having two copies of Double Turbo Vitality appears to be like a bit bizarre since it’s usually what permits us to make use of Trinity Nova on Flip 2, the harm discount has turn into rather more related within the present format than in earlier ones. It is because many Pokémon V that we need to Knock Out in a single assault—Dragonite V, Giratina V, or different Arceus V, to call a couple of—have sufficient HP to require the total 200 harm from Trinity Nova plus the additional 30 from Alternative Belt, which isn’t suitable with Double Turbo Vitality. As an alternative of simply utilizing Double Turbo Vitality to energy out our Flip 2 Trinity Nova, I needed to focus extra on Melony to get us to that third Vitality. We are able to simply discard Water Vitality with Hid Playing cards to permit us to make use of Melony.

Jet Vitality additionally helps us so much with this—if Arceus V is on the Bench with two Vitality hooked up, we will use Jet Vitality to effectively transfer it to the Lively Spot. This protects us sources, since we don’t have to search out each a switching card and an Vitality! I actually like this sequence as a result of it helps us considerably within the Misplaced Zone Giratina matchup. If Giratina V makes use of Abyss Searching for and isn’t Knocked Out right away, then we are inclined to fall behind shortly, so having three single Vitality playing cards and a Alternative Belt on an Arceus V is vital to get you far forward in that matchup. The Alternative Belt can also be useful in opposition to the Misplaced Zone Toolbox, because it lets us take care of a Dragonite V in a single assault and prevents us from getting overwhelmed within the early recreation. Alternative Belt is a robust inclusion in Arceus VSTAR decks proper now, and it properly slots into this deck. V Guard Vitality can also be primarily on this deck due to the Misplaced Zone Giratina matchup. Stopping Misplaced Affect from taking a one-hit Knock Out in your Arceus VSTAR is essential and can usually purchase you an additional flip in opposition to anybody taking part in Giratina VSTAR.

Radiant Greninja isn’t only a draw engine on this deck—you possibly can even assault with it! It takes a bit of labor, however you need to use a mix of Raihan and Vitality Swap to energy it up in a single flip. Raihan can connect a Water Vitality out of your discard pile to Radiant Greninja, after which search up an Vitality Swap to maneuver a second Water Vitality to it from one among your different Pokémon (most likely Arceus VSTAR). Then, connect an Vitality for the flip, and Moonlight Shuriken is able to go. Shock!

Raihan and Vitality Swap are nice playing cards in different methods, too. Raihan may help you simply energy up one other Arceus VSTAR in case your earlier one simply bought Knocked Out. You’ll be able to even really feel snug stashing Water Vitality on Pokémon that you simply by no means intend to assault with, simply to Vitality Swap it later—even a Water Vitality on a Solrock has worth! Radiant Greninja can also be very helpful as a single-Prize Pokémon. Usually with this deck, your opponent is ready to skip taking Knock Outs on single-Prize Pokémon fully since they will take the total six Prize playing cards by way of Arceus alone. Nevertheless, in the event you can power your opponent to Knock Out your Radiant Greninja, they are going to nonetheless need to Knock Out three Arceus to win the sport, basically shopping for you a complete flip. As well as, everytime you play an Iono, they are going to draw one much less card, making them a lot much less possible to attract what they want!

Whereas this deck would possibly look slightly easy, there are numerous hidden complexities to it. Having the ability to search your deck for actually any single card opens up a complete vary of potentialities each whereas constructing your deck and whereas taking part in. Good luck Fast Looking for no matter it’s you would possibly want—hopefully you possibly can fly excessive to victory!

For extra Pokémon TCG technique and evaluation, take a look at Pokemon.com/Technique.

Natalie Millar
Natalie has been taking part in Pokémon casually since late 2013 however began attending extra aggressive tournaments in late 2017. She gained the primary Regional Championships after the pandemic in her residence metropolis of Brisbane, Australia, and has been attending most main tournaments since. Exterior of Pokémon, she studied psychology, but it surely doesn’t assist with studying opponents as a lot as you’d suppose. Yow will discover her at most main tournaments and may comply with her on Twitter at @nataliem9999.