Despite not being one of the more commonly seen decks in the current Pokémon TCG meta, a number of players have taken the Arceus VSTAR/Armarouge ex Deck to big tournaments and been relatively successful with it. Most recently, Canadian player Julian Gort-Barry finished in 17th place at the Pokémon Europe International Championships (EUIC) with this deck.

Similar to many Arceus VSTAR deck builds of yesterday and today, this deck is a toolbox deck that uses a variety of attackers to counter specific metagame threats. That being said, the deck’s primary attacker is the Arceus VSTAR card from Star Birth [S9]. After being powered up by Fire Off, the Ability of Scarlet ex [SV1S] card Armarouge, Arceus VSTAR can hit for 200 damage with each blow of its devastating Trinity Nova attack without needing much setup.

Stadium card Magma Basin, taken from the Star Birth [S9] set, plays a critical role within this deck. With Magma Basin in play, the player has the opportunity to attach Fire Energy cards from the discard pile to any Pokémon. Although doing so inflicts 20 damage upon that Pokémon, this isn’t a major issue because this deck is full of bulky Pokémon.

Magma Basin also combines beautifully with the Radiant Heatran card from Battle Region [S9a]. Once Heatran has sustained just 40 damage, its Raging Blast attack hits for a massive 280 damage—enough to one-shot almost anything. Requiring just three Energy cards and boasting a decent 160 HP, Radiant Heatran is arguably the deck’s “secret weapon”.

Buying all the cards in an Arceus VSTAR/Armarouge ex Deck costs at least 9,700 JPY (~US$63).

In other TCG-related news, check out the Radiant Greninja card from Battle Region [S9a]. Alternatively, you can also head over to the SNKRDUNK App via the banner below and find the top trending and latest single cards and boxes.