Giratina vstar

And while Giratina VSTAR is powerful, it needs the Lost Zone Engine to work well. That’s because its attacks require a lot of energy, and different kinds of energy. Typically, getting multiple different types of basic energies onto your Pokemon is a daunting feat. But with the Lost Zone Engine, it’s pretty easy to do.

Here’s how the Lost Zone Engine works with Giratina VSTAR

The main strategy of this Giratina VSTAR deck list is to leverage the Lost Zone engine to a) draw

And while Giratina VSTAR is powerful, it needs the Lost Zone Engine to work well. That’s because its attacks require a lot of energy, and different kinds of energy. Typically, getting multiple different types of basic energies onto your Pokemon is a daunting feat. But with the Lost Zone Engine, it’s pretty easy to do.

Here’s how the Lost Zone Engine works with Giratina VSTAR

The main strategy of this Giratina VSTAR deck list is to leverage the Lost Zone engine to a) draw cards and b) unlock powerful abilities. To do this, you need Comfey and Colress’s Experiment. Ideally, you would start the game with Comfey in the active position. To help facilitate this, this deck list runs four times as many Comfey cards than any other basic Pokemon (barring Giratina V). This makes it much more likely to be the basic Pokemon that you start out with. 

Play Comfey

Use “Flower Selecting” to look at the top two cards of your deck.

Choose one card to go into your Lost Zone and one card to go into your hand. 

Play Colress’s Experiment to look at the top five cards of your deck.

Choose three cards to go into your hand, two to go into your Lost Zone.

Take knockouts against lower HP Pokemon with Cramorant as early as turn one.

Once you have seven cards in your Lost Zone, you can play “Mirage Gate” to accelerate energies onto Giratina VSTAR.

Take OHKOs against most decks with Lost Impact, and use Star Requiem to take out really big Pokemon once you have 10 cards in your Lost Zone.

Clean up your opponent’s board with either Sableye or Radiant Greninja as needed.

As this is an evolve deck, I would highly recommend going first. The only time you might want to consider going second (if you have the choice) is against single prize decks. This way, assuming you have Comfey in active and a Colress’s Experiment in hand, you can be the one to get the first prize thanks to Cramorant’s Spit Innocently – an attack with free cost as long as you have four cards in the Lost Zone.

The last time we updated Giratina VSTAR was just after the 2024 rotation. Not a whole lot has changed since then, with the most notable alteration being Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex. This card replaces Iron Leaves ex as your primary secondary attacker given its versatility and effectiveness against most decks. It came out in the Twilight Masquerade expansion of Pokemon TCG, and is being used in other decks beyond Lost Zone as well.

Another card that came out in Twilight Masquerade that is seeing play in various Giratina VSTAR decks is the deadly Unfair Stamp card. This deck is running Prime Catcher instead, but Unfair Stamp makes up for Giratina VSTAR’s general reliance on Colress, enabling you the option to disrupt your opponent’s hand earlier on in the game.

Lastly, Iron Bundle is included in this deck list. Although not a new card, it can be helpful against the field of Pokemon seeing play that block abilities when they are in the active spot. 

Giratina VSTAR Deck – Key Cards

Although rotation didn’t end up hurting Giratina VSTAR much, new cards in Temporal Forces certainly made it stronger. The strongest new addition that Giratina VSTAR gets access to is Prime Catcher. Before, some top tier Giratina VSTAR decks would run multiple copies of Cross Switcher to achieve what Prime Catcher does on its own. It also gets around the fact that Giratina VSTAR can’t afford to use a Boss’s Orders until several turns in as it needs to play Colress’s Experiment in order to hit its ideal Lost Zone numbers. Other than Prime Catcher, the other card that’s helping Giratina VSTAR in Temporal Forces is Buddy-Buddy Poffin. Granting you the ability to put two Comfey’s onto your bench is a pretty big boost to Giratina VSTAR that not all decks will be able to take advantage of. While Battle VIP Pass may have given you more options, Buddy-Buddy Poffin has the advantage of not needing to be played on the very first turn.

Comfey

Comfey

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Comfey is incredibly important to this deck, acting as your primary draw engine and the means through which you can bolster your Lost Zone. Of course, having cards in your Lost Zone is an absolute must in order to accelerate energies, and use powerful attacks like Lost Impact and Lost Mine.

Going up against Lugia VSTAR has always been something of a toss-up, but currently Giratina VSTAR has the edge. The main advantage Lugia has here is that it can deny you a prize via Legacy Energy. Other than that, Giratina VSTAR hits harder and doesn’t have a problem dealing with Lugia VSTAR’s pesky one prize attackers.

Lost Zone Box – Disadvantage

Although the way Lost Zone is played currently makes it a little easier to keep pace with in regards to prizes, I have always struggled with the matchup and certainly would give the advantage to Lost Zone Box. While not a huge disadvantage, Lost Zone Box moves faster and is less reliant on Colress given other turbo options.