[Pokémon TCG] The Palkia VSTAR/Dusknoir Deck: A Fresh Take on the Metagame’s Dominant Build
Yes, Dusknoir is now so ubiquitous that it turned a former "sidekick" card into the deck's focal point.
The Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR card from Space Juggler [S10P] has historically been best known in the Pokémon TCG metagame as the “sidekick” of the Gholdengo ex deck. However, following Grafton Roll’s ninth-place finish at the Baltimore Regionals with this deck which opened the floodgates for many other players to follow suit, the card depicting the Pokémon universe’s deity of space has been shown to clearly be capable of carrying a deck—especially when paired with a card that’s in so many decks these days.
Strategy
This deck uses a similar strategy to that of the Terapagos ex/Dusknoir deck. Ideally, the player would like to get as many Pokémon in play as possible. Doing so powers up Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR’s Subspace Swell attack which starts out at 60 base damage with 20 more added for each Benched Pokémon in play between both the player’s and opponent’s Benches.
Before this, however, if necessary the player can bring in the card that’s made its way into countless decks in the current meta: the Dusknoir card from Night Wanderer [SV6a]. By using Dusknoir’s Ability of Cursed Blast, the player sacrifices Dusknoir to unleash massive damage on one of Pokémon. Using this as a setup play, the player can then follow it up with Subspace Swell to finish off the opponent; this enormous amount of total damage will likely be enough to KO a multi-Prize Pokémon and create a 2-for-1 Prize trade in the player’s favor.
This deck has strong matchups against the Dragapult ex and Charizard ex decks because of its access to Radiant Greninja from Battle Region [S9a] and its Moonlight Shuriken attack. Combined with Cursed Blast, this allows the player to snipe opposing Benched Basic Pokémon before they can evolve into their final forms. For that same reason, this deck does well against other decks that include Dusknoir too.
Price
Buying every card in the Palkia VSTAR/Dusknoir deck costs at least 13,390 JPY (~US$88).
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