Lugia VSTAR Survives Rotation! A guide to Single Strike Lugia post rotation

Lugia VSTAR is now pairing with the single strike attackers in Tyranitar V (BST 97), Stonjourner (BST 84) and Yveltal (FST 175). These attackers are able to hit some key numbers in the meta, however, are further powered up by the effect of Single Strike Energy which  enables the “attacks of the Pokémon this card is attached to do 20 more damage to your opponent’s Active Pokémon (before applying Weakness and Resistance)“

Tyranitar V (BST 97) is a two prize attacker that enables you to hit key numbers through its Single Strike Crush attack or to mill resources away from your opponent through Cragalanche which discards the top 2 cards of your opponents deck.

The key numbers in your Single Strike Crush attack hit for 240 Damage / 280 Damage (2x Single Strike energy attached) / 320 Damage (4x Single Strike energy attached). These numbers enable OHKO’s against most V, VSTARs, VMAX and ex Pokémon; before factoring in weaknesses and resistance.

It is to be highlighted that that the use of Single Strike Crush has a negative drawback whereby you are required to discard the top 4 cards of your deck which can potentially lead to game-ending discards of other attackers, energies or key supporters with no way around it. It’s a risk that you must take when playing this deck.

Committing all 4 Single Strike energy may seem like a large commitment, the decks are running several copies of Urn of Vitality to recover and re-utilize them on other attackers.

Stonjourner (BST 84) is a single prize attacker, which takes advantage of the damage boost from single strike energies, and its fighting type provides favourable advantages against Miraidon ex decks which threaten Lugia VSTAR.

As a single prize attacker, it provides good synergy with Tyranitar V to pull ahead in prize trades and/or outright win the prize trades between attackers. This is especially important against lost box based decks.

Stonjourner’s Land Pulse attack for 30+ Damage can hit for 60 Damage if a stadium is in-play. When combined with the damage boosts from Single Strike energy this attack, with no drawbacks, can trade efficiently against other single prize attackers.

Stonjourner also has the ability to hit for 200 Damage before weakness and resistance through its Giga Hammer attack when combined with 4 single strike energies. This allows Stonjourner to OHKO opposing Miraidon ex, Regieleki VMAX, Arceus VSTAR and take multi-prize turns and trading effectively.The only drawback is that Stonjourner cannot use Giga Hammer in the next turn.

Yveltal (FST 175) is a single prize attacker, which takes advantage of the damage boost from single strike energies, and its Dark type provides favourable advantages against Mew VMAX and Gardevoir ex decks whilst enabling efficient prize trading.

Yveltal’s Single Strike Wings attack is able to land powerful OHKO’s against Mew VMAX and Gardevoir ex hitting for 340 Damage due to weakness and 3x 20 damage boosts from Single Strike Energy.

Yveltal is also able to trade effectively against the lost box match-up as it is able to survive an attack from Radiant Greninja, Cramorant or Sableye thanks to its 130 HP number and return KOing. However, be vigilant of Hawlucha pings.

Lugia VSTAR (SIT 139) is the final main-line attacker within the Single Strike Lugia VSTAR lists.Lugia VSTAR is the bulkiest attacker within the list reaching an effective HP of 310 with a V Guard Energy attached against opposing V Pokémon. Lugia VSTAR continues to be a crucial attacker in the meta-game enabling high damage numbers, discarding stadiums and being able to tank hits thanks to supportive cards.

Reminder! Lugia V / Lugia VSTAR is not a single strike Pokémon and as such cannot be powered up with Single Strike Energies. 

Within the post-rotation environment, successfully leveraging and protecting your Lugia VSTAR is even more important, especially against mirror matches. As you are not able to power-up a Lugia VSTAR to net large OHKO’s due to Powerful Energy rotating, the focus of Lugia VSTAR is to tank hits, retreat / heal, and continue to apply pressure without giving up prizes.

Lugia VSTAR is a deck that can operate at great speed and quickly power-up their attackers netting effective KO’s from Turn 2/3. However, the deck is susceptible to burning resources extremely quickly and poor management of their resources can lead to game-losing outcomes, especially when factoring in Tyranitar’s Single Strike Crush attack.

The best resource management available to Lugia VSTAR players is to ensure that they maximise the efficiency of their attackers, special energies and board-state in such a way that they can continuously apply pressure without giving up prizes unnecessarily. 

Attrition pertains to the ability of the deck to manage their resources, sustaining these resources whilst continuously applying pressure. The War of Attrition in a mirror match is all about which player is better at handling their resource management whilst taking prizes.

Defense is a key aspect of resource management as this principle is often used to provide a variance mechanic against your opponent’s match-up route. An example of defense in the Lugia match-up is through attaching a V Guard Energy to Lugia VSTAR bolstering its HP to 310. This now ensures that Lugia VSTAR is able to survive almost all attacks from V Pokémon – having a clear advantage as Lugia is able to attack twice where the opponent might have only planned for Lugia remaining on the board for a single turn. Netting you an extra turn and potentially closing out the game much earlier.

Single Strike Lugia VSTAR decks utilise Urn of Vitality (BST 139), V Guard Energy (SIT 169), Radiant Tsareena (SIT 16) or Radiant Gardevoir (LOR 69) as the core mechanics behind the attrition and defensive options.

Urn of Vitality (BST 139) is an item card that allows you to shuffle up to 2 Single Strike energy cards from your discard pile into your deck. This is a fundamental attrition tool available to the single strike deck allowing you to recycle already committed resources to power-up additional attackers.

Thanks to Archeops’ Primal Turbo ability these recycled special energies can be attached immediately to a new attacker.

The combination of Urn of Vitality with Archeops allows for resource management and prize mitigation strategies to be formed. An illustrative example of this:

• Retreating a damaged Tyranitar V (retreat cost of 3) and replacing it with a healthy Tyranitar V.
• By playing a single Urn of Vitality; 2 of the 3 energies discard due to the retreat cost can be recycled into the deck and attached through Archeops’ Primal Turbo to the healthy active Tyranitar V. Effectively resulting in a 1 retreat cost for the pivot.
• This pivot forces the opponent to have to play a gusting option to take their prize cards.
• The active Tyranitar V can be fully powered up through 2 Single Strike energies and a Double Turbo energy and hitting for 260 Damage.
• Furthermore, if the Lugia player has access to a full bench and collapsed stadium they can discard the damaged Tyranitar V and fully mitigate the risk of an easy KO from the opponent. Essentially resulting in a turn wasted for the opponent and allowing you to take 2 turns of applying pressure through damage and prize trading.

V Guard Energy (SIT 169) is a defensive special energy that is extremely useful to sustain a hit from your opponents’  V Pokémon through apply a damage reduction of 30 after applying weakness and resistance. This damage reduction often results in ensuring your tankier Pokémon survive for an extra turn and delay the prize taking capabilities for your opponent.

The 30 damage reduction increases your Pokémon’s effective HP; which is significant as it limits the options for your opponent into the late-game when attempting to close out matches. Some examples of where this is effective within the Single Strike Lugia match-ups are as follows (assume a V Guard Energy has been attached to a healthy Pokémon in each of the below);

• Lugia VSTAR will not be OHKO’d by Giratina VSTAR’s Lost Impact Attack as the 280 Damage by Giratina will only deal 250 Damage thanks to the 30 damage reduction. Resulting in your Lugia VSTAR surviving the attack and buying a turn.
• Lugia VSTAR often will not be OHKO’d by a Mew VMAX (DTE) as it requires a lot of cards to be found at the right time by the opponent. However, the Mew VMAX (DTE) player will need to find all four Power Tablets to modify their damage from 190 (Cross Fusion Strike – Techno Blast) to 310 to land the OHKO.
• Tyranitar V will have an effective HP of 260 which requires Mew VMAX to find three Power Tablets to modify their damage from 190 (Cross Fusion Strike – Techno Blast) to 280 to land the OHKO. 

From the above, it is clear the impact that V Guard Energy has as a defensive option and inadvertently a card the enables sustain for a turn. This mechanic can allow you to take a significant prize lead and potentially remove damage from the board thanks to Collapsed Stadium.

ZO Tip: The damage mitigation of V Guard Energy does stack with further damage mitigation that might be available; such as from Radiant Gardevoir – which can further delay the opponent and provide an extra turn even when a KO would have happened without Radiant Gardevoir.

Radiant Tsareena (SIT 16) is a sustain tool within the Single Strike Lugia decks and heals 20 damage from all your Pokémon each turn. This is particularly effective against the Lost Box archetype decks as they are reliant on spreading damage across the board and taking multiple KO’s in a later turn.

As you are limited to only one radiant Pokémon in your deck, you would turn to Radiant Tsareena if you anticipate a lost box heavy meta-game to better assist in that match-up and limiting their ability to take multiple KO turns through Sableye and/or Radiant Greninja.

Radiant Gardevoir (LOR 69) is an additional sustain mechanism available to the deck; with the focus on surviving an attack rather than healing off damage turn after turn. The Loving Veil ability decreases the damage taken from attacks of your opponents Pokémon V by 20.

This damage reduction of 20 can significantly change the outcome of games as it allows you to survive hits that you ordinarily would not be able to, especially in conjunction with V Guard energy. When combined, you are reducing the damage taken by 50 which enables your Lugia VSTAR to survive a Lost Impact from a Giratina VSTAR with a Choice Belt attached.

Reminder: The damage reduction is only applicable to attacks from Pokémon V and not ex Pokémon.

The bulkier 4-3 line of Lugia V to Lugia VSTAR significantly improves the consistency of finding the Lugia V on Turn-1 and a developing into a Turn-2 Lugia VSTAR.This makes it easier to tank hits and retreat into a healthy Lugia VSTAR to continuously apply pressure without giving up prizes and heal on the bench (if Radiant Tsareena is played).

Lumineon V (BRS 40) is run in a count of 2 to access key supporters that either enable you to ensure the Archeops are in your discard pile through Professor Burnet (SSP 167), dig for additional resources through Professor’s research or acquire the much needed Boss’ Orders to shut-down your opponents’ potential attackers or to close out the game.

Professor’s Research assists in furthering your board state by potentially drawing a significant amount of cards and often providing you with tools / options required to achieve this.

Boss’s Orders enables you to deal with threats before they are set up, whilst Judge allows you to disrupt your opponent whilst resetting your hand.

Nest Balls & Ultra Balls are extremely key to the deck being able to find the right Pokémon whilst the latter assists in discarding Archeops.

ZO Tip: Remember that Nest Ball can only be used if you have available bench space and that it will not activate the effects of Pokémon such as Lumineon V as it was not played from your hand, but rather from your bench. Always be sure to ensure you know your targets for Nest Ball compared to Ultra Ball.

Gift Energy is an extremely powerful energy when utilized optimally and attaching it when you anticipate a K.O., it allows for extra consistency through drawing cards until you have 7 in your hand whilst simultaneously withstanding any form of hand disruption in the late-game through Judge or Roxanne.

The vulnerabilities of single strike Lugia VSTAR lists are in the reliance of finding the right pieces at the right time, without guaranteed searching options. The reliance on coin flip mechanics through Capturing Aroma and/or Mesagoza add an element of variance into the your consistency which can significantly alter the outcome of games should the coin flips not go your way.

The extended use of Tyranitar V’s Single Strike Crush attack potentially milling away 4 important resources from your own deck which could include important special energies, recycling cards (Urn of Vitality) or additional attackers.

Lugia VSTAR is able to rapidly power-up big hitting attackers, however, their resources to do this finite in nature; whether it be through special energies or clogged bench space. Lugia VSTAR might be susceptible to clogged benches resulting in optimized VSTAR powers and/or burning through special energies at a rapid rate to cycle between attackers.

ZO Tip: Always ensure you have an accurate count of the energies available to you and what type of attackers these energies are applicable to. Additionally, ensure that you only utilize your Archeops to power up specific threats as and when they hit the board, unless you are concernced of losing your engine through bench snipes. This is an area that seperates the average Lugia VSTAR players apart from those that will consistently perform well.

Additional vulnerabilities include the risk of shut-off through Path to the Peak, Aerodactyl VSTAR and Templte of Sinnoh plays negating the effects of your special energy.

Pokémon (20)
4 Lugia V SIT 138
3 Lugia VSTAR SIT 139
4 Archeops SIT 147
2 Lumineon V BRS 40
2 Tyranitar V BST 97
2 Stonjourner BST 84
1 Drapion V LOR 118
1 Pumpkaboo EVS 76
1 Radiant Tsareena SIT 16

Trainers (27)
3 Professor’s Research SVI 189
3 Boss’s Orders BRS 132
2 Judge SVI 176
1 Professor Burnet PR-SW 167

4 Ultra Ball SVI 196
3 Capturing Aroma SIT 153
3 Urn of Vitality BST 139
2 Nest Ball SVI 181
2 Great Ball CRZ 132

3 Mesagoza SVI 178
1 Collapsed Stadium BRS 137

Energy (13)
4 Single Strike Energy BST 141
3 Double Turbo Energy BRS 151
2 Gift Energy LOR 171
2 V Guard Energy SIT 169
2 Regenerative Energy SIT 168

The key focal point of the attached sample list is to increase the probability of finding the right Pokémon card at the right time, albeit still subject to coin-flips and/or variance.

Search options for Lumineon V and Pumpkaboo are Capturing Aroma, Great Ball, Ultra Ball and Mesagoza. Remember: Their abilities only activate when played onto bench from hand as such you cannot search these cards with a Nest Ball.

The list has room for innovation and tweaks depending on the field that you are expecting:

• Drapion V is only to be included if you anticipate a lot of Mew VMAX and provides you energy relief in that match-up.
• Radiant Tsareena should be used if you expect the field to be flooded with lost box and you want to heal off damage to through out the numbers.
• Radiant Gardevoir should be used if you want to tank hits better against Pokémon V.
• Great Balls can be dropped if you are fine with flipping coins for your search options, Great Balls are particularly effective once you have thinned your deck below 40 cards.

We have outlined some of the key-aspects to consider against the top 6 expected decks in the SV1 meta game. This is not an exhaustive list and should only serve as a guide as to your decision making when going into tournaments; there is always a risk that that meta-game develops further than what we have predicated at the time of writing.

vs. Mew VMAX you are in a significant advantage as Tyranitar V, Yveltal and Drapion V hit into Mew VMAX for weakness and easily OHKO’ing opponent VMAX’s.

Thanks to Archeops’ Primal Turbo ability you are easily able to power-up the Drapion V; should its Wild Style ability not be available due to Path to the Peak and secure OHKO’s.

Additional key match-up notes to consider when playing against a Mew VMAX deck:

• Establish an understanding as to whether they are playing Meloetta Fusion Strike Mew or Double Turbo Energy Mew. These decks carry different risks into the match-up and could influence the prize trading between attackers.
• Against a Meloetta Fusion Strike deck-list you need to respect their ability to OHKO your Lugia V, so it is strongly advised to play defensively and bench a second Lugia V on your first turn if possible. You play a lot of gusting supporters which allow you to swing the prize trades pretty quickly.
• You can play around Judge & Path to the Peak combinations through the use of Gift Energy and attaching it when you expect a KO. This enables you to draw further and potentially provide options to counter the Path to the Peak.
• Mew VMAX is reliant on Power Tablet  / Choice Belts to hit high numbers. You can take advantage of this through attaching a V Guard Energy onto your Lugia VSTAR / Tyranitar V to burn their resources which may shut them out of closing the game.
• Mew VMAX do not have the capability to retrieve already utilized resources from their discard pile, so ensure you are continuously counting the energies, power tables and search cards every turn.
• A liability is having a Lumineon on your board; this card is not able to attack and is a prime Boss’ Orders target for your opponent if you have an under-developed board.
• Always ensure that you have a second attacker on your bench ready for powering up. You want to always display threats on the board and make it extremely hard for your opponent to KO your only attacker and delaying a turn.
• Critically Important: There is a high likelihood of the Judge & Path to the Peak combination from your opponent in this match-up. You play a lot of counter-stadiums (Mesagoza) as well as a one-of Pumpkaboo. Pumpkaboo will only bounce the stadium if played from your hand. Do not fetch it with a nest ball.

vs. Lugia VSTAR you want to ensure that you are cycling between your Lugia VSTAR’s to continue pressure and smart usage of your V Guard Energy allows you to deny prize taking opportunities. Radiant Tsareena enables you to heal extensively if the game extends further and you have the ability to burst OHKO with Tyranitar V.

• The mirror match-up is very tricky and often comes down to who could set-up first and ensure an efficient board state.
• Where possible, you always want to go first so that you can get the first VSTAR of the game and start applying early pressure.
  
• Energy management is fundamental in the match-up especially if you are attaching to retreat, make sure you know your energy count at all times as one wrong switch-out can lose you the game.
  
• Gift energy is exceptionally powerful to bring you back into the game, should you have had a slow start.
• At all times you want to try limit your opponents board state or hit their vulnerabilities. This is where over-benching from your opponent can be detrimental as they might have had to bench a Lumineon V to dig for a specific supporter, in this case a Collapsed Stadium play is beneficial as it could limit them to only Star Summoning Power for a single Archeops only which is a huge setback.

vs. Miraidon ex and without a Dunsparce there is no need to set-up more than two Lugia V’s and once you have established your Summoning Star Ability you are able to quickly close the game out with Stonjourner taking advantage of the Fighting type advantage into the electric typing.

• Miraidon ex is a deck that can consistently set-up their board thanks to Miraidon ex’s Tandem Unit ability. However, in order for them to maximise their power they often bring in two Regieleki VMAX’s which is a prime Boss’ Orders target.
  
• Stonjourner’s Giga Hammer attack hits for 130 Damage before weakness and with 2 Single Strike Energies (and a colourless) hitting for a total of 340 Damage after weakness. This allows you to take OHKO’s on their Regieleki VMAX and quickly close the game.
• Your Lugia VSTAR is capable of taking KO’s against Miraidon ex with its Tempest Dive attack, however, remember that you cannot attach a DTE for this to result in a KO.
• Tyranitar V is able to OHKO Regieleki VMAX with 4 Single Strike Energies attached dealing 320 Damage with its Single Strike Crush attack.
• Your most important aspects in this match-up are ensuring you have an accurate count on your Stonjourner’s as they are your primary attacker, thinning your deck to hit the necessary Urn of Vitality to cycle your Single Strike Energies back into deck and accessing your Boss’ Orders.
  
• It is almost guaranteed that your Stonjourner will be return KO’d by your opponent, with that knowledge it is best to always ensure you attach gift energy onto your Stonjourner to maximise the impact that it has on the game by drawing you further into resources.

Gardevoir ex is usually a slower deck to get set-up and hit their high damage numbers. The key focus area is to utilize your Tyranitar V’s Cragalanche that will discard the top two cards of your opponents deck whilst simultaneously applies pressure on their Pokémon. Gardevoir ex is reliant on their Item cards (Ultra Balls, Rare Candies etc.) and anything that you discard through Cragalanche that isn’t an energy or Battle VIP Pass after turn 1 is detrimental to them.

• Tyranitar V and Yveltal hit Gardevoir ex for weakness and as such is an efficient manner for you to trade into them should they have been set-up.
• Gardevoir ex is a Stage 2 Pokémon and as such is heavy reliant on their Rare Candy evolution plays, try punish their engine (Ralts / Kirlia) if they had a slow start or through starting to take early prizes through targeting their Pokémon V.
• Yveltal is a fantasic addition in this match-up as with 3 Single Strike Energies and weakness can hit a Gardevoir ex for 360 Damage resulting in an efficient prize trade and with a gift energy attached provides you with a hand reset.

vs Lost Box there are generally too many variants that you could run into in a tournament to provide specific match-ups for all of them. There is, however, a common trend that you want to account for against any lost box match-up which is the use of their Water Energy to use Radiant Greninja’s Moonlight Shuriken attack to do 90 Damage to both your Archeops effectively setting up for Sabeleye to K.O both later in the game with a Lost Mine attack.To safeguard against this, benching Radiant Tsareena and healing damage is critical as it will prevent both from being K.O’d through this play as the heal takes them out of Knock-Out range.

• Ensure you pay close attention to the count of their Water Energy. In order to use Radiant Greninja, they need to have access to two Water Energy. Most lost box lists run 3-4 copies of Water Energy. If you notice any more than those then this should indicate that you are playing into a Kyogre (CEL) variant.
• Tyranitar V is extremely strong in this match-up as you are able to use Cragalanche for weakness into their Comfey’s and net K.O’s whilst simultaneously discarding potential vital resources from your opponent. When doing this, you want to pay special attention to if you discarded anything critical which forces their hand to either recover or pivot to a new strategy which may not be optimal.
  
• If you have the ability to the target any of their benched Pokémon V with a Boss’ Orders that is always ideal as you are ensuring an equal prize trade.
  
• The lost zone engines rely on Comfey and Radiant Greninja to thin their deck, if you see that they started off slow; targeting these engines whilst discarding their cards is massively detrimental.
  
• In the late-game, it is crucial not to provide them with access to multi-prize Pokémon (Lugia V/VSTAR, Tyranitar V, Lumineon V etc.) and as such you do want to pivot into attacking with your Stonjouner, Archeops and/or Yveltal.

vs Giratina Lost Box this will largely be similar to the Lost Box match-up as discussed above; whereby they will set-up for the Sabeleye double K.O onto your Archeops through the Radiant Greninjna and Sableye combination.  In this match-up the Radiant Tsareena is key as it prevents your engine from being removed from the board through the Radiant Greninja and Sableye combination. However, Giratina VSTAR now adds multi-prize Pokémon onto the Board which makes the prize trading more quicker for the Lugia VSTAR. The other key-areas to consider are:

• Ensure you pay close attention to the count of their Water Energy. In order to use Radiant Greninja, they need to have access to two Water Energy. Most lost box lists run 3-4 copies of Water Energy.
  
• Tyranitar V is extremely strong in this match-up as you are able to use Cragalanche for weakness into their Comfey’s and net K.O’s whilst simultaneously discarding potential vital resources from your opponent. When doing this, you want to pay special attention to if you discarded anything critical which forces their hand to either recover or pivot to a new strategy which may not be optimal.
  
• Taking note of your opponents lost-zone size as this will provide you with information as to what the supporter is likely to be next turn. They only start playing fast when they hit a lost zone of 7 for where their Mirage gates are online. Once they hit a lost zone of 10 then both the Sabeleye and Giratina VSTAR are significant threats.
• Tyranitar VSTAR can OHKO a Giratina VSTAR with 3 Single Strike Energies attached and a single colourless energy.
  
• You want to reserve your V Guard Energies for your Lugia VSTAR as this will allow them to tank a hit from a non-Choice Belt Giratina VSTAR’s Lost Impact.
• Take special note of whether the Giratina VSTAR is running a Temple of Sinnoh as that will negate the effect of V Guard Energy and can surprise you with a K.O without a retaliation.
  
• Once you have removed their Giratina(s) from the Board you want to start setting up your single prize attackers; Stonjourner and/or Yveltal.
  
• If the opponent used “Abyss Seeking” with their Giratina V, it is a signal that they did not have the option to enhance their lost-zone in the following turn as they are offering up a two prize Pokémon to put an additional 2 cards into the lost zone, these cards have to be energies, so ensure you keep a track of which energies are being removed from play.