Lost Origin has taken the Pokemon TCG by storm, and while we tend to say splashy things in every TCG article's first sentence — narrative hooks are important! — the reintroduction of the Lost Zone mechanic is a big deal. Cards that are sent to the Lost Zone don't get the benefit that the discard pile offers, namely the chance to return through all sorts of spiffy future-turn tactics. They're just gone.
Turning that dread into the beating heart of one's deck sure does sound like the sort of thing a chap like Giratina would do. The Lost Zone is the fire in which Giratina VSTAR burns down the competition, no matter how mighty it may be. Pull up a chair and join our table, friends.
What Is The Giratina VSTAR Deck?
Ever since it was given a surprisingly grim story in Pokemon Platinum, Giratina has emblemized the power of darkness in a way few, if any of its Pokemon peers can. From the vagaries of the Distortion World to its role as a prominent antagonist in the Pokemon Adventures manga, Giratina has felt like the sort of thread we seldom see from this fictional universe.
It's no wonder, then, that the Pokemon TCG would bring back the long-dormant Lost Zone mechanic in tandem with the arrival of Giratina VSTAR. Players can retrieve all sorts of cards from the discard pile, provided their decks are built to do so. At the risk of sounding dramatic, the Lost Zone is where Pokemon cards go to die.
Giratina VSTAR thrives on this. By extension, the Giratina VSTAR Deck is thoroughly constructed around the Lost Zone, with the wielder's goal being to not only allow a fair number of their cards to be banished to it, but actively encouraging this. Needless to say, most Pokemon Trading Card Game decks... do not do this thing.
Here is the Giratina VSTAR Deck's most common build. Study up to your heart's content, but note that we'll be discussing some nifty card swaps shortly.
- Three Giratina VSTAR (Lost Origin)
- Three Giratina V (Lost Origin)
- Four Comfey (Lost Origin)
- One Cramorant (Lost Origin)
- One Lumineon V (Brilliant Stars)
- One Radiant Greninja (Astral Radiance)
- One Sableye (Lost Origin)
- Four Colress's Experiment
- Two Boss's Orders
- Two Roxanne
- One Training Court
- Four Battle VIP Pass
- Four Mirage Gate
- Four Scoop Up Net
- Two Air Balloon
- Two Escape Rope
- Two Ordinary Rod
- Two Quick Ball
- Two Switch
- Two Ultra Ball
- Four Grass Energy
- Four Psychic Energy
- Three Water Energy
- Two Capture Energy
A Deeper Dive
It's one thing to see a deck. It's another to know what you're doing with it. To that end, we need to look at the anatomy of a Giratina VSTAR card. Note the above picture, which is, indeed, a Giratina VSTAR. Star Requiem will knock out any Pokemon in the game, full stop. That means the bulkiest threats in the League right on down to Rattata. (Please do not use this on Rattata.)
We shouldn't just think of this in terms of gargantuan HP counts, either. Eternatus VMAX, Snorlax VMAX, and Copperajah VMAX share the current lead at 340 HP, respectively, but you're generally more likely to face contemporary threats from cards like Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR and Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR; Mew VMAX; Shadow Rider Calyrex. So on, so forth — the hottest deck leads, as of the time you read this article.
Star Requiem will trounce them, one and all, though being a VSTAR Power, it can only be used once per game. Which is fair, right? But its caveat, that ten or more cards must be in your Lost Zone, would be enough to nuke Giratina VSTAR's usefulness out of orbit in most decks. It requires a very specific sort of strategy, as many of the best decks in the Pokemon TCG do.
But before we get into that, let's briefly talk about Giratina VSTAR's regular attack, Lost Impact, seeing as it's what you'll be using on the regular. A Grass Energy, a Psychic Energy, and a Colorless Energy is an odd blend; the Colorless is whatever, of course, but needing Grass and Psychic in one deck does stick out. We don't mind. Heck, this deck's got Water Energy. The harder part, at least on paper, is that we have to send two Energy to the Lost Zone whenever we hit for this excellent 280 damage.
Now, sending two cards to the Lost Zone is a good thing when we're building toward Star Requiem. Every Lost Impact helps to feed into that, at least up until such time as we have used the VSTAR Power for the match. If that was our full strategy, though, we'd be looking at a deck bursting with Energy cards, destined to get bludgeoned.
Enter The Mirage Gate
Every winning deck's got that one iron-knuckled strat that the world's best players familiarize themselves with in short order. Afterward, the decks get twisty in all sorts of ways, since playing the vanilla version quickly becomes predictable. And yet, there are certain fundamental elements to the decks, however wild they get in build, that simply cannot go away.
Giratina VSTAR, and Giratina V by proxy, are six such cards. Obviously! Your quartet of Mirage Gate Trainer cards, however, share the spotlight. You'll already need seven or more cards in the Lost Zone in order to use it, but once you've fulfilled that requirement, all four Mirage Gates will function as intended, no strings attached.
Being able to directly seek up to two Energy (of any combination, which in our case, will usually mean one Grass and one Psychic) is a powerful tool, but being able to simultaneously attach them is, in the case of the Giratina VSTAR Deck, a strong enough backbone to support an entire tournament-winning plot.
Here's how we'll fulfill Mirage Gate's requirement, in turn pushing us well on our way toward Star Requiem, whilst keeping the Energy coming for the multiple usages of Lost Impact you will need before winning your match.
Comfey's 'Flower Selecting' requires it to be in the active spot, thus necessitating that we stack our deck with stuff like Air Balloon and Scoop Up, but we want it out there on the field briefly so that we can draw two cards, keeping one and sending the other to the Lost Zone. We get a card out of it, and we power up the so-called Lost Zone Engine in the process.
Colress's Experiment is a Supporter-type Trainer card, a one-per-turn wham-bam that allows you to draw five cards, keep three, and send the remaining pair to the Lost Zone. We emphasized a whopping three words in that sentence, because it cannot be overstated just how rad this is for Giratina VSTAR's strength.
Radiant Greninja plays a fascinating role in the Giratina VSTAR Deck, not so much because it's an unconventional application of the popular card — it isn't — but because our four Water Energy are here in large part just for this one card. The 'Concealed Cards' ability costs us a Water Energy (and not even to the Lost Zone, where we'd love to have it for dinner, but to the more traditional discard pile). In turn, we get to draw two cards, which can assist us in finding, oh, let's see, Giratina V, Giratina VSTAR, Comfey, Colress's Experiment, Energy in general, and more.
Cramorant and Sableye gain powerful attacks for no Energy cost whatsoever (!!) so long as you have a set number of cards in the Lost Zone. In Sableye's case, this means you can continue to utilize its chance to place 12 damage counters across your opponent's Active and Benched Pokemon as many times as you can, making having ten or more cards in the Lost Zone even mire vital to the Giratina VSTAR Deck.
Looking Ahead
What we have here in Giratina VSTAR is a deck that's bursting with enough power to down anything, and equipped to handle itself admirably. What can make it even better? Well, to a point, that's a subjective query, and it depends on what you feel most confident with in the TCG. But that's kind of a non-answer, so here's a recommendation.
More often than not, customization of prominent deck builds boils down to countering other popular builds. As such, Drapion V, with its 'Wild Style' ability, cuts its four-Colorless Energy cost by one for each Rapid Strike, Single Strike, or Fusion Strike Pokemon your opponent has in play. If you're going up against the almighty Mew VMAX Deck, you can often drop this to one or even zero Energy, hitting for 190 plus another 60 to anything of your choice.
Imagine getting whipped by that (the attack is called 'Dynamic Tail') every turn as punishment for bringing a Mew to a Giratina fight.
Beyond Drapion V, our suggestions are a broader canvas. What hits hard? What else benefits from the Lost Zone? The former is nigh-endless; the latter, not so much, seeing as Lost Origin is the first expansion to tap into the Lost Deck in the current meta. (And, if you're reading this thing years down the line, and we've failed to update it, even that may be a thing of the past. Or maybe Lost Zone took over the entire meta. Who knows!)