Written by Gabriel Smart on 6/22/2022 at category
Hey, what's up, PTCGO Store Readers! Stoked to be returning to write about the Pokemon Trading Card Game for you all! A Lot has changed over the past couple of months since my last article, and there is a ton to get into! Today we are going to be going over one of the newest and strongest Pokemon online decks to come out of Astral Radiance. Palkia VSTAR has been dominating the scene recently, and there are a couple of ways to build the deck. Today, we are going to go over both Turbo Palkia and Palkia Inteleon. Both of these decks are incredibly strong, but it's important to recognize the strengths and the flaws of both of the decks. If you are looking for any cards in this article, make sure to use code SMARTTCG, to save 5% off your next order of PTCGO Codes. With that being said, let's take a dive into everything you need to know about Palkia VSTAR!
Turbo Palkia VSTAR
This past weekend, we saw Christian Hasbani take down the Melbourne Australia Regional Championships! Although the regional only had around 190 players, the player pool featured some of the best in game-like Henry Brand, Kaiwan Cabbabe, Natalie Millar, Brent Tonisson and more were able to dominate the event all with Palkia VSTAR respectively. The majority of those players decided to play Turbo Palkia VSTAR. Turbo Palkia VSTAR comprises cards like Mew (Celebrations), Crobat V (Darkness Ablaze), Trekking Shoes (Astral Radiance), and more to make it one of the most hyper-aggressive decks in the standard format. It actually plays very similarly to old decks in the past like Zapdos Beasts and Ability Zard. Let's take a look at the list!
Decklist
Pokémon - 18
4 Mew CEL 11
2 Origin Forme Palkia V ASR 39
2 Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR ASR 40
2 Crobat V SHF 44
2 Diancie ASR 68
1 Radiant Greninja ASR 46
1 Suicune V EVS 31
1 Starmie V ASR 30
1 Lumineon V BRS 40
1 Pumpkaboo EVS 76
1 Galarian Zigzagoon SSH 117
Trainer - 32
4 Boss's Orders BRS 132
2 Melony CRE 146
4 Quick Ball FST 237
4 Ultra Ball BRS 150
4 Scoop Up Net RCL 165
4 Trekking Shoes ASR 156
4 Capacious Bucket RCL 156
2 Hisuian Heavy Ball ASR 146
2 Choice Belt BRS 135
2 Air Balloon SSH 156
Energy - 10
10 Water Energy BRS W
Key TCG Cards
Palkia VSTAR
Palkia VSTAR (Astral Radiance) is the newest shiny card to come out of the new set! With a bulky 280 HP and one of the best attacks in the game, it has immediately cemented itself as one of the most powerful cards to ever be printed! Its Subspace Swell attack is able to deal up to 290 damage with a Choice Belt (Brilliant Stars) and paired up with cards like Leon (Vivid Voltage), and インテレオン (Chilling Reign) you are able to one-shot anything in the Pokemon Trading Card Game! What makes this card truly a winner is its ability Star Portal VSTAR! VSTAR attacks/abilities for anyone who does not know, are some of the most powerful effects in the game! The only downside with them is that they are only able to be utilized once during the game. What this means, is that they will need to be used incredibly carefully, and at opportune moments in games to maximize their true potential. Star Portal VSTAR, is one of the most powerful abilities in the game! Being able to attach up to 3 energy to any of your Pokemon, will allow for Palkia VSTAR (Astral Radiance) to attack out of nowhere. This ability will also give you the option to attack with almost any other card in the deck! Palkia, is truly one of the most powerful cards the Pokemon Trading Card Game has seen, and it feels like a necessity to have like a 3 of in this deck!
Radiant Greninja
Greninja has been a card that has seen multiple playable cards over the years of its release in the original XY Base Set. Radiant Greninja (Astral Radiance) might just be the best one that we have seen yet! Its incredibly powerful ability “Concealed Cards” allows you to be able to discard one energy per turn in exchange for drawing 2 cards! This ability is able to be used multiple times with Scoop Up Net (Rebel Clash) allowing you to draw an abundance of cards per turn! Now, its ability is not the end of this card's incredible features. Radiance Greninja's Moonlight Shuriken deals 90 damage to any of your opponent's Pokemon, this will allow us to take down Sobbles (Battle Styles) and soften up those big VMAX and VSTAR Pokemon on your opponent's side of the field, allowing for Palkia VSTAR to clean them up with Subspace swell! If this deck could play more than 1 Radiant Greninja, I think it would, but unfortunately, there is a limit of 1 Radiant Card per deck.
Mew
Mew from Celebrations is the neck that turns Palkias head in this deck. It is the core and the main consistency engine of this deck. Everything runs through Mews ability Mysterious Tail, allowing you to pull one item card out of the top 6 cards. Mew has actually been a card that is finally beginning to see the hype and playability that it deserves! This card can be used multiple times with Scoop Up nets and can be easily moved out of the action with other cards like Air Baloon. Truly one of the best cards right now in the standard format, and can make almost any deck semi-playable. In Palkia, it is the perfect fit and the perfect 4 of.
Diance
Diance (Astral Radiance) is another brand new card that has hit the ground running and has already seen success in a regional winning deck! Its ability “Princess Curtain” allows for all basic Pokemon on the bench, to become immune to cards like Boss’s Orders (Rebel Clash). This is especially crucial in the Mew VMAX (Fusion Strike) matchup, as they will almost always try and chase down your Palkia V’s before they become VSTARS, and Diances “Princess Curtain '' stops them from being able to initiate that strategy.
Trekking Shoes
Another brand new card from Astral Radiance has begun to completely reshape how many decks are built. Decklists are beginning to be more aggressive, and Trekking Shoes (Astral Radiance) is a major culprit in the evolution of deckbuilding. Trekking Shoes will allow us to dig just a little bit deeper into the deck, to be able to find the combination of cards that are so often required to be able to make this deck work. Without this card, the deck would not be able to dig as deep as it would like and would fail to struggle to function the way it does right now
Hisuian Heavy Ball
Last but not least, the final new card from Astral Radiance I will be discussing in this list is Hisuian Heavy Ball (Astral Radiance). Have you ever had a situation where you prized that critical Pokemon, that altered a game from a Win to a Loss? Hisuian Heavy Ball is here to save the day! Being an easily burnable card at the very least, and also allowing you to switch a basic Pokemon with the Heavy Ball, will make prizing Pokemon much less of a detriment to your success in a game. One little added bonus is that you also can check to see exactly what is in your prizes with this card. Fantastic new card and with how many different Pokemon we play in this list, it is a no-brainer 2 in the deck!
Conclusion on Turbo Palkia
Turbo Palkia VSTAR is here to stay and has solidified itself as one of the most powerful decks in the standard format. Let's take a look now at the Inteleon Version. Both the turbo, and Inteleon versions play very differently, so it's important to look at each version and how they work.
Palkia Inteleon
Decklist
Pokémon - 18
1 Manaphy BRS 41
4 Origin Forme Palkia V ASR 39
1 Radiant Greninja ASR 46
4 Sobble CRE 41
3 Drizzile SHF 99
1 Inteleon SHF 100
1 Inteleon CRE 43
3 Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR ASR 40
Trainer Cards - 35
2 Evolution Incense SSH 163
2 Ultra Ball DEX 102
1 Leon VIV 154
1 Echoing Horn CRE 136
4 Quick Ball SSH 179
1 Tool Jammer BST 136
2 Melony CRE 146
1 Roxanne ASR 150
2 Boss's Orders SHF 58
3 Level Ball BST 129
2 Scoop Up Net RCL 165
2 Choice Belt BRS 135
1 Temple of Sinnoh ASR 155
2 Professor's Research SSH 178
2 Battle VIP Pass FST 225
2 Irida ASR 147
1 Path to the Peak CRE 148
3 Capacious Bucket RCL 156
1 Ordinary Rod SSH 215
Energy - 7
7 Water Energy SWSHEnergy 12
Why Palkia Inteleon?
You might be wondering why you would play this version over the turbo version. The simple answer is インテレオン! That would be the obvious answer that many would give, but it is a little more in-depth than that. One of the traits that Turbo Palkia VSTAR struggles with, is the linearity of the deck. The deck does not necessarily have any strong comeback mechanic so if you fall behind, it's very likely it will remain that way. One of the nice things about the Inteleon engine is that you are a lot less fragile to decks that run cards like Zeraora, and Raikou V, due to the fact that you have the ability to attack with Aqua Bullet, and have cards like Tool Jammer (Battle Styles) and Roxanne (Astral Radiance) to give the deck exception depth in matchups.
Key TCG Cards
In this section, I am going to not repeat the cards that I spoke about in the above section. I will go over the new cards in this list that make the deck significantly different.
Inteleon Engine
The Inteleon engine for quite some time has dominated the standard format. インテレオン (Sword and Shield) and インテレオン (Chilling Reign) have had a vice grip over the standard format for the past year or so. This does not seem to be stopping anytime soon! Shady dealings allow for your deck to be one of the most consistent engines and allows you to have some type of answer for almost any situation that is thrown at you. Let's take a look at the benefits
Benefits
Sustained Consistency
One of the most significant benefits that the Inteleon engine has over the Turbo version is prolonged sustainability of a board state. One of the biggest cruxes to decks that don't play Inteleon is that they can suffer from burnout, or their consistency engine is incredibly fragile and easy to break. With the Inteleon engine, you can rest assured that you will be able to see prolonged success in games.
Flexibility in matchups
Another benefit of the Inteleon engine is that it truly has some answer to all of the meta decks in the format. Even decks that are built around lighting attackers like Zeraora, can easily be contained with cards like インテレオン (Sword and Shield). Even in matchups that you fall behind in, you always have a comeback option with cards like Roxanne, Path tothe Peak, and Temple Of Sinnoh. All of these give you viable win cons against some of the best decks in format! It is safe to say, that this deck is never out of a game, and truly has the potential to succeed against the majority of the format.
Negatives
Aggression
I will say that one of the problems this deck can sometimes run into is the fact that it can be a little slow at times. Since you do not play cards like Lumineon V (Brilliant Stars) and Crobat V (Darkness Ablaze), you can run into scenarios where you aren't able to punish decks that may stumble against you.
Fragile Early Game
This is arguably the biggest issue with this deck by far. As stated above, since you do not play Lumineon V or Crobat, you can run into scenarios where your deck is incredibly fragile in the early turns. There are going to be games where only 1 Palkia hits the field turn 1, leading to your opponent using a Boss on it, and being able to knock it out.
Conclusion
It is safe to say that Palkia VSTAR is here to stay, and it is going to remain one of the best Pokemon online decks in the format for quite some time. If I had to pick one I would pick the インテレオン version, as it has the most answers to its counters. If you are looking for a much more linear version that might handle the top decks better and struggle a little bit more with the overall field, then the turbo version is for you. To be honest, it all depends on how you think the metagame will shape up to be. That is all for me today. Thank you for reading another one of my articles on the PTCGO Store! It always is a pleasure to write for them, and I hope to speak with you again soon! Cheers!