Looking to learn how to play the dominant Regidrago VSTAR deck?

Months after the original resurgence in popularity of this now-famous Pokemon attacker, we are still witnessing the peak of Regidrago VSTAR’s power and the meta is loving it.

After utterly dominating the Pokemon TCG Sacramento Regionals, Regidrago has proven that it is still one of the strongest decks in the Pokemon TCG, and quickly becoming the most popular. It’s not hard to see why. Regidrago’s attack isn’t limited in the way that most are: it can do any attack from another Dragon Pokemon in your discard. Meanwhile, its VSTAR Ability gives you powerful card search by letting you discard the top seven cards of your deck and then adding any two cards from your discard into your hand.

As if that weren’t enough, powerful dragon type Pokemon released in recent sets have seriously ramped up Regidrago’s already impressive range of attacks, giving it answers for just about any situation.

In this guide, we’re going to look at the basics of Regidrago as well as how to counter this powerful deck.

Regidrago VSTAR Deck List

*4th Place Regional Sacramento, CA - Grant Shen*

Pokémon: 19
3 Regidrago V SIT 135
3 Regidrago VSTAR SIT 136
3 Teal Mask Ogerpon ex TWM 25
1 Dragapult ex TWM 130
1 Giratina VSTAR LOR 131
1 Hisuian Goodra VSTAR LOR 136
1 Alolan Exeggutor ex SSP 133
1 Kyurem SFA 47
1 Squawkabilly ex PAL 169
1 Fezandipiti ex SFA 38
1 Mew ex MEW 151
1 Cleffa OBF 80
1 Radiant Charizard CRZ 20
Trainer: 32
4 Professor's Research SVI 189
2 Iono PAL 185
2 Boss's Orders PAL 172
4 Ultra Ball SVI 196
4 Nest Ball SVI 181
4 Energy Switch SVI 173
4 Earthen Vessel PAR 163
2 Super Rod PAL 188
1 Superior Energy Retrieval PAL 189
1 Tera Orb SSP 189
1 Canceling Cologne ASR 136
1 Switch SVI 194
1 Prime Catcher TEF 157
1 PokéStop PGO 68
Energy: 9
7 Grass Energy SVE 9
2 Fire Energy SVE 10

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Regidrago VSTAR Deck basics

If you like decks that are pretty uncomplicated in how they set up, then you’ll love Regidrago. You don’t need to worry much about how many Pokemon you have in play turn one as you mostly just need two Regidrago V.

Beyond that, you’re going to want to use Squawkabilly’s ability turn one on most games. This helps thin your deck and get key cards into the discard. Unlike other decks that need to be careful about what gets discarded, this is less of an issue with Regidrago as its Legacy Star Ability makes it possible to bring back any two cards into your hand.

Regidrago VSTAR deck – supporting Pokemon

We’ll look at each of your Dragon type attackers in a moment, but first lets take a look at your supporting Pokemon. These Pokemon are vital to your strategy for both their energy acceleration capabilities and draw support. As Regidrago doesn’t have either of these natively, you’ll need these key Pokemon in order to win.

Teal Mask Ogerpon ex

Ogerpon ex is likely the single Pokemon that helped move Regidrago from rogue deck status to meta deck seemingly overnight. You will use its Teal Dance to accelerate additional energies and for added draw support. You can then easily switch these energies onto your Regidrago to start taking KOs via Energy Switch.

Mew ex and Fezandipiti

Having both of these cards in your deck gives you some pretty insane options to replenish your hand. While Mew ex doesn’t have any conditions set to use its ability, there are times when you won’t be able to use Restart because you will simply have too many cards in your hand.

Meanwhile, Fezandipiti lets you draw three cards regardless of what is in your hand. However, the ability only works if a Pokemon was knocked out in the previous turn.

Both also have handy attacks that you could technically leverage using your Energy Switch onto them. However, you will most likely be using your Energy Switches to power-up Regidrago so that may not be a necessary play.

Cleffa

Lastly, there’s Cleffa. Cleffa is an extremely handy card in decks that don’t have a turn one attack option. You’ll need to wait to start attacking most of the time (unless you are using Teal Mask Ogerpon ex to attack which won’t happen often). So why not go ahead and replenish your hand before ending your turn?

That’s what Grasping Draw is there for. It won’t bother your end game strategy if it is knocked out (indeed better it be in the active than a two-prize liability). Meanwhile, for no energy it lets you replenish your entire hand.

You won’t want to use this attack other than on your very first turn but as far as first turn attacks go in this deck, this is the one that’s going to help you the most to hit.

Regidrago VSTAR has an attack for every situation

Apex Dragon is the attack that really makes Regidrago VSTAR so compelling. It’s a sort of shortcut to use Dragon attacks that would otherwise be very difficult to get off. Let’s take a look at each of the attacks you have at your disposal and when and why you would use them.

Phantom Dive

There’s a reason Dragapult ex is the only Dragon type Pokemon of other than Regidrago that this deck runs more than one copy of. Dragapult ex’s Phantom dive is your most deadly attack, and it’s much easier to get off in this Regidrago VSTAR deck than it is in a Dragapult ex only deck. The reason – no rare candies.

Meanwhile, you can start destroying the playing field by quickly decimating your opponent’s board with Hawlucha’s Flying Entry, easily Koing most meta relevant single prize Pokemon.

How deadly Phantom dive is depends on the matchup, ranging from game ending to simply handy. For example, this move can be devastating against a Charizard ex deck if you manage to get rid of the Pokemon it needs to evolve and start attacking the next turn.

Meanwhile, it’s just mildly annoying against a Raging Bolt ex deck, and not going to let you take multiple prizes in a turn outside of special circumstances.

Lost Impact

For decks that don’t field weaker HP Pokemon, you have Giratina VSTAR and its Lost Impact attack. Lost Impact is going to be your attack that you use to OHKO powerful Pokemon VSTAR attackers and basic Pokemon ex. This will enable you to stay ahead in the prize race against the likes of Chien-Pao ex or Lugia VSTAR.

However, it comes with a drawback: you’re going to be bleeding energies each and every time you use this attack, making it critical that you manage your resources well and have plenty of Energy Switches handy.

Rolling Iron

Regidrago VSTAR isn’t all offense. One attack that certainly adds to its versatility is the powerful Rolling Iron attack. This attack dishes out a pretty insane 200 damage while protecting you from 80 damage the following turn.

One matchup that this is really helpful against is the Ancient Box matchup, helping you ensure you can take OHKOs without giving up too many prizes in return.

Trifrost

Last but not least, Trifrost is an attack with a ton of potential but also one you probably won’t use very often. This attack only really works if your opponent isn’t able to get a Manaphy in play or if they are fielding a ton of weak Pokemon. While there are scenarios where you can use this to take multiple KOs in a turn, usually this attack will be sitting on the bench.

New cards from Surging Sparks add incremental power to Regidrago VSTAR

While some decks (like Miraidon ex) gained huge benefits from Surging Sparks, Regidrago VSTAR was pretty moderately impacted by that set. However, two new cards are in this tournament topping deck. Let’s look at what they are and why they are good below.

Tera Orb

Tera Orb is one of the cards widely used from Surging Sparks. And there’s no secret why. The ability to search out any Tera Pokemon from your deck without sacrificing cards from your hand or any other negative drawback is insane in a meta dominated by Tera types. Use this card to pull the all-important Ogerpon ex or Dragapult ex from your deck.

Alolan Exeggutor ex

While Alolan Exeggutor never made it as a deck on its own, of course it’s bonkers when included in Regidrago VSTAR. Swinging Sphene is an insane attack, letting you take an instant knockout when you use it as long as your opponent has a basic on the bench and in the active.

It won’t be an attack you’ll want to use in every matchup – but against some of your strongest rivals it can be exceptionally powerful.

Regidrago VSTAR matchups

Let’s look at how this deck matches up against other decks in the meta.

Charizard ex: absolutely dominant. Regidrago VSTAR is the only reason a deck as powerful as Charizard ex isn’t number one. Phantom Dive absolutely wrecks havoc on Charizard ex and Regidrago ex has no issues pulling that attack off.
Raging Bolt ex: not a great matchup but your Alolan Exeguttor will help here, granting you an automatic knockout.
Miraidon ex: relatively unfavorable but not un-winnable. Miraidon is much, much faster but you are stronger in a protracted battle.

Countering Regidrago VSTAR

A deck with answers to so many other decks certainly is a challenge to beat. But to be honest, facing Regidrago VSTAR doesn’t worry me much. In some ways, you can think of Regidrago VSTAR as a jack-of-all-trades but master-of-none. While yeah it has a lot of powerful attacks, it doesn’t run deep in any particular strategy, making it relatively easy to deal with as long as you dance around it efficiently enough.

The main thing I always do when playing against this deck is to make sure I don’t burn through my gust cards: in my case that’s Boss’s Orders and Prime Catcher.

You’ll need these cards to deal with a plethora of Regidrago’s defensive strategies, such as its Rolling Iron attack.

Additionally, you will need to make sure you have a defense up against its Trifrost attack as that one can easily decimate your board if you aren’t being careful. Either make sure to only field Pokemon that can’t be knocked out this way or have a Manaphy on deck before Regidrago VSTAR attacks.

Lastly, as this is an evolve deck, if your opponent manages to only field one Regidrago V and you have a chance to knock it out, you’ll gain significant advantage as they will take a long time to set up.

So while this deck is very strong and versatile, it is not nearly invincible.

Despite what many thought were signs of Regidrago VSTAR slipping in the meta, after an undeniably strong performance at the Sacramento Regional where it finished in five of the top eight slots, it’s clear Regidrago VSTAR remains the deck to beat in the Pokemon TCG meta.

The Best Regidrago VSTAR Deck List and Guide