In the Champions League Fukuoka tournament, a Japan-only Pokémon TCG tournament held in February 2024, Hajime Fujiwara and Kai Itazu put the previously-underrated Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR deck in the spotlight, securing multiple surprising victories and finishing the tournament in sixth and seventh places respectively.

This deck built around Arceus VSTAR and Giratina VSTAR—both from the VSTAR Universe [S12a] set—exhibits an impressive level of synergy. Arceus VSTAR is a highly underrated support Pokémon. Its VSTAR Power Starbirth can be used to take any two cards from the deck at any time to be placed in the player’s hand. Although a player may only use a VSTAR Power once per game, using Starbirth at just the right time can be exactly what’s needed to turn the tables on the opponent and set up the eventual W.

The consistency and stability that Arceus VSTAR provides pair well with Giratina VSTAR’s ferocious offensive power. For just three Energy cards, Giratina VSTAR’s devastating Lost Requiem attack, hitting for a whopping 280 damage, can be unleashed.

Furthermore, by equipping Giratina VSTAR with Maximum Belt, an ACE SPEC Pokémon Tool from Wild Force [SV5K], Lost Requiem one-shots almost every Pokémon-ex as this Pokémon Tool jacks up the damage dealt to them by 50, taking the total to 330.

In order to counterplay this deck’s hard counters such as decks built around Lugia VSTAR from Paradigm Trigger [S12] and Chien-Pao ex from Shiny Treasure ex [SV4a], Judge from Shiny Treasure ex [SV4a] can be used. Through this Supporter cards that requires both players to shuffle their respective hands into their decks before drawing four cards, the tempo of these ordinarily fast-paced decks can be greatly slowed.

The cumulative cost of all the cards in an Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR Deck is at least 6,000 JPY (~US$39).

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