1st Place Giratina VSTAR Deck List and Strategy – 2024 Standard

Giratina VSTAR Deck List Strategy — *Illus. 5ban Graphics*

The Giratina VSTAR deck has been a strong contender in the Pokemon TCG standard meta for a while now, and it routinely shows up on our best decks in Pokemon TCG. In this updated guide, we’re going to get into the basics of the Giratina VSTAR deck strategy, including how it pairs with the Comfey/Lost Zone engine to maximize results.

We’re also going to be looking at what’s changed in this deck since the 2024 standard rotation, and what new cards from Temporal Forces have helped it.

I’m really excited about this update because the Giratina VSTAR archetype and Lost Zone Engine were a favorite of mine from the start. So let’s get into how you can update this deck with the latest cards to really make it stand out.

*Updated April 6, 2024 to Giratina VSTAR post rotation.

Lost Zone Giratina VSTAR – Deck Strategy Basics

As a brief recap, Giratina VSTAR is a massively powerful, dragon type Pokemon, meaning that on top of having incredible natural power, it also is immune from weakness. This makes dragon Pokemon like Giratina much harder to counter.

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And while Giratina VSTAR sure 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.

Should You Go first or Second?

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 ability. When you have four cards in the Lost Zone, Cramorant’s Spit Innocently can be used with no energies attached.

Giratina VSTAR Deck List

Pokémon (15)
4 Comfey LOR 79
3 Giratina V LOR 130
3 Giratina VSTAR LOR 131
1 Sableye LOR 70
1 Cramorant LOR 50
1 Radiant Greninja ASR 46
1 Manaphy BRS 41
1 Iron Leaves ex SV5M 16
Trainer (31)
4 Colress's Experiment LOR 155
2 Boss's Orders PAL 172
2 Roxanne ASR 150
1 Iono PAF 80
4 Mirage Gate LOR 163
4 Nest Ball PAF 84
3 Switch Cart ASR 154
2 Buddy-Buddy Poffin SV5K 63
2 Super Rod PAL 188
1 Hisuian Heavy Ball ASR 146
1 Lost Vacuum CRZ 135
1 Counter Catcher PAR 160
1 Prime Catcher SV5M 62
1 Emergency Board SV5K 64
1 Forest Seal Stone SIT 156
1 Artazon PAF 76
Energy (14)
4 Jet Energy PAL 190
4 Grass Energy 1
3 Psychic Energy 5
3 Water Energy 3

Giratina VSTAR Deck – Card Types

What’s changed after 2024 standard rotation?

Two big changes have come to Giratina VSTAR since the last time we updated this deck list. The first big change is 2024 rotation. Let’s get the elephant out of the room and reassure you – Giratina VSTAR is still good after rotation. But there are some notable changes. First of all, a few key cards that used to help this deck out have rotated out.

The biggest change is probably Path to the Peak. Path to the Peak has left the game and it’s not been fully replaced. Although Path to the Peak doesn’t directly help Giratina VSTAR, it does help it indirectly by inhibiting powerful decks that rely on Pokemon abilities.

Giratina VSTAR has also lost two more notable cards, and that’s Escape Rope and Battle VIP Pass. However, Battle VIP Pass isn’t a huge deal as you can instead run Buddy-Buddy Poffin. This achieves almost the same thing, allowing you to put two Comfey’s onto your bench.

Meanwhile, Escape Rope is relatively easy to play without.

New cards in Temporal Forces bolster Giratina VSTAR

Although rotation didn’t end up hurting Giratina VSTAR much, new cards in Temporal Forces have 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.

It’s like the buff Giratina VSTAR got with counter catcher all over again except much stronger this time.

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.

Giratina VSTAR Deck – Key Cards

Comfey 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.

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Giratina VSTAR is massively reliant on Colress’s Experiment, which is one of the reasons why this deck also runs a copy of Poke Gear – to give you an added chance of finding that Colress’s Experiment the first turn you can play it.

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As we mentioned earlier, Jet Energy is massively important in taking the full benefit of ‘Flower Selecting’. Although you can use it to switch in a Comfey early game, use its Flower Selecting Ability, then retreat it, it also goes really well when adding that third energy to your Giratina VSTAR before sending it into battle.

Super Rod is the New Ordinary Rod

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Giratina VSTAR players might be accustomed to using Ordinary Rod in the past. However, Paldea Evolved has brought Super Rod into the play, a card even more versatile than Ordinary Rod or Energy Recylcer, allowing you to choose three of either energy or Pokemon in any combination you need.

Why is Counter Catcher So Strong in this Deck?

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Giratina VSTAR always had one glaring weakness despite all of its considerable power and versatility – it couldn’t reliably use Boss’s Orders to bring out Pokemon from the bench. That was simply because of its sometimes frustrating reliance on Colress’s Experiment to start getting cards into the Lost Zone.

With Counter Catcher, however, you can eliminate this obstacle and still use supporters like Colress’s Experiment or even the deadly Roxanne and benefit from selecting a more advantageous active Pokemon to knockout with Giratina VSTAR’s powerful attack.

Giratina VSTAR Deck List – Techs to Consider

There are a lot of different ways to play Giratina VSTAR. You can leverage Beach Court to make it easier to retreat your Comfey’s (now that scoop up net is no longer in the picture), or you can play Temple of Sinnoh to counter Lugia and other Pokemon running special energies.

While this deck list carries the bulk of what you will need in any successful Giratina VSTAR deck, there are several additional techs you may want to consider. What you ultimately end up using in your card count will depend on what works for your unique play style. But here’s some more info on the cards included in this deck list, as well as additional techs you could include your Giratina VSTAR deck.

Use Hisuian Heavy Ball to Get the Cards You Need

Running less copies of each card has some significant advantages in this deck, as it makes it more likely to start out with Comfey as well as giving you more room for added utility. To make up for the lower card counts, use Hisuian Heavy Ball. Heavy Ball is great for pulling out one of your critical basics out of the prizes, like Radiant Greninja or Cramorant.

Iono Levels the Playing Field

Without a doubt, one of the most significant cards to come out of Paldea Evolved is Iono. Iono fills the void felt by Marnie leaving the format. However, Iono can be used even more strategically than Marnie, acting as a midpoint between Roxanne and Marnie in regards to its ability to offset your opponents hand and making winning more feasible.

Iron Leaves ex

Last but not least, another card that you’ll notice this deck list has added that we’ve not talked much about yet is Iron Leaves ex. Iron Leaves ex is not a core card to Giratina’s strategy. However, it is a powerful tech right now, making it easier for Giratina VSTAR players to deal with the Charizard ex matchup or even Roaring Moon ex.

Both Pokemon are weak to Iron Leaves ex, and thanks to Iron Leave’s ability, it’s relatively easy for it to switch into the active spot and start taking OHKOs against those decks.

New threat facing Giratina VSTAR

There is one major threat facing Giratina VSTAR that wasn’t there before, and that is the new Mist Energy released in Temporal Forces. Mist Energy is a powerful counter to Giratina VSTAR, and it can be included in a variety of decks to grant protection from Giratina VSTAR’s Star Requiem attack.

Not only does it block Star Requiem, it also counters Sableye’s Lost Mine. While not a death knell for this deck, if that card gets played too popularly, it could certainly make it tougher to win certain matchups.

Giratina VSTAR Strengths and Weaknesses

Strength: OHKO anything

Giratina VSTAR’s Lost Requiem VSTAR Power is a strong attack that is capable of OHKOing almost anything (assuming they don’t have a Mist Energy attached. Lost Impact is no slouch either and hits for 280 a pop. Giratina VSTAR still is one of the hardest hitting Pokemon out there.

Weakness: early game gust

Giratina’s major weakness before recent sets was its heavy reliance on Colress. You could safely play around Giratina knowing your opponent couldn’t gust out any of the Pokemon on your bench. Now with Prime Catcher or Counter Catcher, it’s possible to target more advantageous KOs during those opening turns when you need to be using Colress. However, it’s still somewhat of a weakness as you won’t always be able to play Counter Catcher and Prime Catcher is relatively hard to find when you need it.

Strength: Comfey/Lost Zone Engine

Being built on the Lost Zone engine is one of Giratina’s greatest strengths. Not only do you get access to Giratina’s powerful attacks, you also have a plethora of powerful secondary attackers at your disposal. This includes Cramorant and its Spit Innocently attack and Sableye’s Lost Mine.

Of course, Mirage Gate is an essential part of this, making an otherwise restrictive energy requirement easy to achieve.

Weakness: eats up energies

Perhaps the hardest thing about playing Giratina VSTAR is managing your resources. You need to make many hard deceisions about which energies to add to your Lost Zone either when they are drawn with Flower Selecting, Colress or sent out of play via Lost Impact. This makes keeping track of the number of energies in your deck and prizes of the utmost importance.

Regardless how good you are at tracking all of this, however, there is no denying that Giratina VSTAR eats up energies like nobodies business and won’t do great in a protracted battle.

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