Get more from Pokémon TCG Live when you use the in-game Battle Pass. With the Battle Pass, you can complete quests to earn experience and unlock new tiers by playing Ranked or Casual matches. Each Battle Pass is accessible only until the next expansion releases.

Begin your path along the Pokémon TCG: Sword & Shield—Silver Tempest Battle Pass with a new deck featuring Lugia VSTAR. Advance through the Battle Pass to unlock booster packs, Credits, a Collector Crate, and 15 additional cards that you can add to your new deck. 

You can also redeem Crystals for a Premium Pass to unlock an additional deck, which is centered around Regidrago VSTAR. Premium Pass tiers also offer a deluge of fun items themed around Lugia, booster packs, Coins, another Collector Crate, Crystals, and 15 additional cards to upgrade your Regidrago VSTAR deck. The Premium Pass + gives you a 15-tier head start to your journey, on top of the items offered with the Premium Pass. 

Learn how to play and upgrade these powerful decks in Pokémon TCG Live. 

The Lugia VSTAR deck has a simple goal: use Summoning Star as soon as possible. This powerful Ability is a VSTAR Power that lets you put up to 2 Colorless-type Pokémon that don’t have a Rule Box from your discard pile onto your Bench. Because you can only use 1 VSTAR Power per game, you’ll want to make sure it counts—aim to discard two Archeops as soon as possible so Lugia VSTAR can bring them directly into play. Thankfully, your deck is chock-full of effects that let you discard cards, like Professor’s Research and Ultra Ball, so you can quickly find and discard Archeops.

Archeops is an especially powerful Stage 2 Pokémon that normally has to evolve through the cumbersome Unidentified Fossil line. Its Ability, Primal Turbo, lets you search your deck for 2 Special Energy cards and attach them to 1 of your Pokémon every single turn. If you used Summoning Star to put 2 Archeops into play, that’s 4 Special Energy (without even counting your normal Energy attachment) every single turn!

Your deck has a bevy of Special Energy cards that can be accelerated with Primal Turbo. If you want your Lugia VSTAR’s Tempest Dive to do more damage, consider attaching multiple Powerful Colorless Energy. If your hand is a bit low after throwing away the many cards needed to get Archeops into the discard pile, maybe go for Lucky Energy.

Speaking of low hand sizes, don’t underestimate Bibarel. This Beaver Pokémon (which you may remember from its winning role at the 2022 Pokémon World Championships in London) can use its Industrious Incisors Ability to draw your hand back up to 5 cards every turn. While this Ability is useful, there’s no need to use up your VSTAR Power to get Bibarel into play faster—it’s much easier to evolve a Bidoof than to find and evolve an Unidentified Fossil into your Stage 2 Archeops.

Deck List

Pokémon: 15

2 Lugia VSTAR SIT 139

2 Lugia V SIT 138

3 Archeops SIT 147

3 Archen SIT 146

2 Bibarel BRS 121

2 Bidoof BRS 120

1 Dunsparce FST 207

Trainers: 29

4 Professor’s Research BRS 147

2 Marnie SSH 169

2 Boss’s Orders BRS 132

2 Cyllene ASR 138

4 Evolution Incense SSH 163

4 Quick Ball FST 237

4 Ultra Ball BRS 150

1 Hisuian Heavy Ball ASR 146

2 Air Balloon SSH 156

4 Unidentified Fossil SIT 165

Energy: 16

4 Capture Energy RCL 171

4 Powerful Colorless Energy DAA 176

4 Lucky Energy CRE 158

4 Treasure Energy EVS 165

This deck list focuses on pummeling your foes with Lugia VSTAR. With 3 Powerful Colorless Energy attached, Lugia VSTAR’s Tempest Dive attack will do 280 damage, enough to Knock Out most Pokémon VSTAR in a single hit.

To make sure you can keep hitting those big numbers, the Supporter card Cyllene can help put your Special Energy cards back on top of your deck after your Lugia VSTAR is Knocked Out, allowing you to use Archeops’s Primal Turbo Ability to attach them to a new Lugia VSTAR right away.

Upgrading Your Lugia VSTAR Deck

Advance through to Tier 16 to unlock the following 15 cards:

Unlocked Cards

2 Lugia VSTAR SIT 139

2 Lugia V SIT 138

1 Radiant Gardevoir LOR 069

2 Serena SIT 164

2 Cheren’s Care BRS 134

2 Choice Belt BRS 135

4 V Guard Energy SIT 169

Adding these cards will help turn your Lugia VSTAR into a tank. With a V Guard Energy attached and Radiant Gardevoir in play, your Lugia VSTAR will take 50 less attack damage from your opponent’s Pokémon V (but note that V Guard Energy’s effect doesn’t stack if you have 2 or more attached to the same Pokémon).

Aim to have the following attached to your Lugia VSTAR:

• 2 Powerful Colorless Energy

• 1 V Guard Energy

• 1 Lucky Energy

• 1 Choice Belt

With the above combination of cards, your Lugia VSTAR will hit your opponent’s Pokémon V for 290 damage, take 30 less damage from their attacks, and draw you a card whenever it does take attack damage.

Your new Supporter cards are also useful. If you find one of your Colorless-type Pokémon barely hanging on, you can play Cheren’s Care to pick it up and deny your opponent an easy Prize card or two. Serena is an incredibly versatile card and works splendidly in this deck. It can act like a Boss’s Orders, pulling 1 of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon V into the Active Spot. Alternatively, you can use it to discard up to 3 cards and draw back up to 5 cards. This latter option can be useful early in the game to find and discard Archeops, allowing you to use Summoning Star to put them onto your Bench later.

Adding cards to your deck requires removing other cards to fit them in. Here are suggestions for cards to remove from your deck:

Suggested Cuts

3 Archen SIT 146

2 Boss’s Orders BRS 132

2 Cyllene ASR 138

4 Unidentified Fossil SIT 165

4 Treasure Energy EVS 165

Removing the Unidentified Fossil and Archen cards leaves you with no backup method to get Archeops into play—you’ll have to use Lugia VSTAR’s Summoning Star Ability. Your deck is designed to achieve this, so once you feel comfortable with how the deck functions, try taking out these cards.

While Cyllene can be a good way of getting back your Special Energy cards from the discard pile, the addition of Radiant Gardevoir and V Guard Energy should make it much less likely that your Lugia VSTAR will go down quickly—and if it’s in trouble, Cheren’s Care can put it and all its attached cards back into your hand.

Enjoy playing your new Lugia VSTAR deck, Trainers! Next, let’s take a look at the Regidrago VSTAR deck that you’ll unlock if you acquire the Premium Pass.

Regidrago VSTAR is a specialized attacker…specialized at using your Dragon-type Pokémon’s attacks, that is! Its Apex Dragon attack allows it to copy the attack of any Dragon-type Pokémon in your discard pile for 3 Energy (2 Grass and 1 Fire).

One of the best attacks you can copy with Apex Dragon is Dragonite’s Energy Hurricane. It does 180 damage and searches your deck for up to 3 basic Energy cards, allowing you to attach them to your Pokémon in any way you like. If you’re familiar with Arceus VSTAR’s Trinity Nova, this attack will feel right at home (except Energy Hurricane doesn’t have the restriction of only attaching to Pokémon V).

In order to get your discard pile full of Dragon-type Pokémon, think about using Regidrago VSTAR’s Ability, Legacy Star. This VSTAR Power discards the top 7 cards of your deck and then lets you put any 2 cards from your discard pile into your hand. Think about making one of those cards Gardenia’s Vigor, paired with Eldegoss or a Grass Energy. This Supporter card draws 2 cards and then attaches up to 2 Grass Energy to 1 of your Benched Pokémon, which can help you reach Apex Dragon’s otherwise daunting attack cost.

Deck List

Pokémon: 21

2 Regidrago VSTAR SIT 136

2 Regidrago V SIT 135

1 Dragonite SIT 131

1 Noivern SIT 133

1 Regidrago ASR 118

1 Appletun EVS 121

2 Flapple SWP SWSH189

1 Flapple EVS 120

1 Flapple RCL 022

4 Applin RCL 021

1 Crobat V DAA 104

1 Bibarel BRS 121

1 Bidoof BRS 120

1 Eldegoss EVS 016

1 Gossifleur SSH 020

Trainers: 27

4 Gardenia’s Vigor ASR 143

2 Boss’s Orders BRS 132

3 Trekking Shoes ASR 156

4 Level Ball BST 129

4 Quick Ball FST 237

4 Ultra Ball BRS 150

2 Switch SSH 183

1 Escape Rope BST 125

1 Energy Recycler BST 124

2 Training Court RCL 169

Energy: 12

7 Basic Grass Energy

5 Basic Fire Energy

Wow, that’s a lot of one-offs—13, to be precise! The Legacy Star Ability grants more effective copies of these single cards—it can dig through your deck to find them early, or it can retrieve them for reuse later on.

The Applin Evolutions are all incredibly useful here. There are three different Flapple in this deck list. The two Dragon types have useful attacks with cheap Energy costs that can be used as is or copied by Apex Dragon, as needed. The Grass type can use its Apple Drop Ability to put 2 damage counters on 1 of your opponent’s Pokémon and then shuffle itself back into the deck from play. Appletun is another cheap attacker that can punish decks that focus on flooding the board with Special Energy (like Lugia VSTAR).

Upgrading Your Regidrago VSTAR Deck

Advance through to Tier 14 to unlock the following 15 cards:

Unlocked Cards

1 Regidrago VSTAR SIT 136

1 Regidrago V SIT 135

1 Duraludon VMAX EVS 123

1 Giratina VSTAR LOR 131

1 Garchomp V ASR 117

3 Zoroark EVS 103

3 Zorua EVS 102

2 Serena SIT 164

2 Choice Belt BRS 135

Adding these cards will really highlight the potential of the Apex Dragon attack, giving you the option to use the attacks of powerful Pokémon VMAX and Pokémon VSTAR! Duraludon VMAX’s G-Max Pulverization does 220 damage and ignores any effects on your opponent’s Active Pokémon, such as Miltank’s Miracle Body. Giratina VSTAR’s Lost Impact is a more aggressive option, as the attack does a hefty 280 damage at the cost of sending any 2 Energy you have in play to the Lost Zone. And don’t sleep on Garchomp V: its Sonic Strike attack can hit any of your opponent’s Pokémon for 220 damage. Consider using Sonic Strike to end the game by Knocking Out a Benched Pokémon V, like Crobat V or Lumineon V, and taking your last 2 Prize cards. Using this attack requires discarding 3 Energy attached to your Regidrago VSTAR, though, so you’d have to power it up all over again.

Zoroark may seem like an odd choice, but because this deck can be very reliant on using Legacy Star early, discarding crucial Stage 1 Pokémon like Bibarel or Eldegoss (or the Basic Pokémon they evolve from) can really slow down your game. Zoroark turns those single copies into more with its Phantom Transformation Ability, which allows it to swap itself with a Stage 1 Pokémon from your discard pile. It can even transform into a Pokémon like Appletun to give you additional attackers—easy as pie!

To make room for these new cards, consider removing the following from your deck:

Suggested Cuts

1 Noivern SIT 133

2 Flapple SWP SWSH189

1 Flapple EVS 120

1 Flapple RCL 022

4 Applin RCL 021

2 Boss’s Orders BRS 132

4 Level Ball BST 129

Cutting the Applin and Flapple from your deck frees up space for your new toys. The Choice Belt fills the same extra-damage role that Flapple had with its Apple Drop Ability. And now that Zoroark can act as three additional copies of your Stage 1 Pokémon, the deck is less reliant on finding Pokémon like Bidoof and Gossifleur, meaning Level Ball can be cut.

Good luck with this brand-new Regidrago VSTAR deck, Trainers, and may your discard pile be full of Dragon-type Pokémon!