Regigigas is Back on Top!

What’s goin’ on Po Town readers? Have you been keeping up with recent Pokemon TCG event results? Regardless if you’ve been watching the official Pokemon live streams of events or you’ve taken the past few weeks off of the game, I got you covered in this article! At the recent 2023 Oceania International Championships in Melbourne, Australia, we saw the best Pokemon TCG players see success with the best Pokemon TCG decks. Lost Zone Box won it all, Lugia VSTAR / Archeops [Silver Tempest] came in second, and Mew VMAX / Genesect V [Fusion Strike] made the Top 4! What about the other Top 4 deck? Well, you might’ve guessed it from the name of this article - Regigigas also made Top 4 at the event! Professional Pokemon TCG player Rahul Reddy played the deck with great success and put it on the map for the whole community to enjoy again. Regigigas has seen some amount of success since its release back in Astral Radiance, but it has recently been struggling to get those top finishes, until now! In this article, I’ll share Rahul’s Top 4 deck, the strategy, and shed some light on the more essential cards in the deck! If you need any Pokemon TCG Live code cards to complete the following Regigigas deck, consider picking up some codes right here at the PoTown store! After redeeming some codes, you’ll be closer to acquiring all of the cards for this deck, and you can use the credits you earn to craft any other cards you need! Let’s take a look at the Regigigas decklist!

Regigigas has been struggling in the Sword and Shield to Silver Tempest / Crown Zenith metagame because many of the top Lugia VSTAR lists have been playing both Dunsparce [Fusion Strike] and Manaphy [Brilliant Stars]. What does that mean? Well, typically, you want to match the right Regi to the right matchup, and Regieleki [Evolving Skies] typically does quite well against the Lightning-type weak Lugia VSTAR. Slap a Choice Belt [Brilliant Stars] on that Regieleki, and swing for 300 damage against it. Even if you don’t have a Choice Belt, you place 40 damage on two of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon, which allows you to KO a Lugia VSTAR without a Choice Belt (if it has 40 damage on it already). Well, Dunsparce and Manaphy have both stopped that plan from working, and prior to OCIC, they were both stock-list inclusions for most. At Orlando Regionals, we saw how a top-performing list could get away without these inclusions, and Regigigas really ran with that idea. Many top players have been cutting either Dunsparce, Manaphy, or both, and when they cut those cards, Regigigas starts to perform better! Rahul took that idea all the way to a huge Top 4 finish, and Regigigas is back in the metagame as a top deck! Let’s look at his list and then dive into the strategy of the deck!

Each game can play out differently, but the early game is going to remain mostly the same. Regigigas decks aim to quickly get out one of each Regi to activate Regigigas’ Ancient Wisdom Ability so you can start attacking! Let’s look at a quick overview of the strategy:

The above strategy is easier said than done because there are a lot of moving pieces in the deck; sometimes, games aren’t always going to go according to plan. When you start your setup for most games, you’ll want to try to start with Regidrago because as you utilize cards in your hand, you’ll be able to draw cards with its Ability. Upon your first deck search, you’ll want to quickly identify your missing Prize Cards to see if any of your important Special Energy or Regis are hiding away. If you have a Hisuian Heavy Ball [Astral Radiance], you can use that to expedite your search process. As you head towards your goal of getting one of each Regi in play, you’ll want to use your search cards to discard Special Energy in the process. It can sometimes be a difficult process, but it is exceedingly good to get Energy in your discard pile. If you ever had to target specific Energy, Aurora Energy [Sword and Shield] allows you to attack with most of your different Pokemon. A close second place is Gift Energy [Lost Origin] because you often want to have it attached to your attacking Regi so you can always have outs to drawing cards. Each Regi is important in different matchups, so let’s go over them.

Regieleki is going to be our main attacker against Pokemon that are weak against Lightning-type, and you can also use this Pokemon to spread damage on your opponent’s Benched Pokemon. The most important Pokemon that you are going to attack against with Regieleki is Lugia VSTAR, the most popular Pokemon in our Standard format. If you have a Choice Belt on Regieleki, you can swing for 150 damage x2 to hit for 300 damage due to Weakness. That OHKOs a Lugia VSTAR since they only have 280 damage! If you don’t have a Choice Belt, you can always use the spreading damage part of Regieleki’s attack to line up Lugia VSTAR with 40 damage, and attack with Regieleki for 120 damage x2to hit for 240 damage + 40 damage for the KO. Always watch out for Dunsparce, Manaphy, and any other card that might make this Regi less effective than normal. There is a Regieleki [Astral Radiance] that sees some play, but you mostly use it to gather cards back from your Discard Pile. You might have opportunities to Bench it late game if you don’t have access to your Regieleki [Evolving Skies], and you might even surprise your opponent by sniping their Bench for 120 damage. Look for unique opportunities to utilize these Lightning-type Regis to their fullest!

Regigigas is the main wait to accelerate Energy to your various Regis and is a key piece to the whole Regi combo. As part of the main strategy of acquiring one of each Regi in play to use Ancient Wisdom, it often doesn’t matter when you get out Regigigas, but you will need it out to get your 6th Regi into play. While you are getting your Regis into play, carefully get your Special Energy into your Discard Pile, and try to acquire the best Special Energy needed for the matchup. Let’s say you are playing against a Lugia VSTAR deck, you’ll want to get Aurora Energy and Speed Lightning Energy [Rebel Clash] in your Discard Pile to attack with Regieleki. Similarly, you’ll want to get out of Aurora Energy if you wanna attack with Regirock against a Stoutland V [Crown Zenith]. Regigigas is actually a hefty attacker itself, and you can quite often use it to OHKO Pokemon VMAX, like Mew VMAX, with a Choice Belt. Additionally, it has quite a bit of HP compared to most Pokemon in a Lost Zone Box deck, which makes it a great choice to attack to use in that matchup. How might you power up a Regigigas? Well, Twin Energy [Rebel Clash], allows you to get closer to that 5 Energy attack cost!

This is going to be one of our main ways to draw cards in most matchups, and you’ll often find yourself using its Ability in the early game (before you can start chaining Gift Energy). While it's true that there aren’t any Pokemon in Standard that are weak to Dragon-type Pokemon, its attack does an impressive 160 damage for only 3 Energy. With a Choice Belt, this is often one of my favourite Pokemon to attack with against Lumineon V [Brilliant Stars], Crobat V [Darkness Ablaze], and Eldegoss V [Champions Path]. Its 160 damage can also swing hard against other single Prize Card attackers or to be used to start building up damage on Pokemon with a large amount of HP.

Regirock is going to be our main attacker against Pokemon that are weak against Fighting-type weak Pokemon, like Arceus VSTAR [Brilliant Stars] and Stoutland V. Similarly to Regidrago, hitting for a decent number (in this case 140) can often lead you into attacking with this Pokemon for various KOs. When you are playing the Regis deck, you often want to attack with a Regis that you can easily replace the next turn (i.e. having a Regirock in hand and attacking with Reigrock that turn) so you can easily chain Ancient Wisdom. If you use that strategy, you’ll find yourself successfully attacking and attacking, which is where the Regi deck truly shines. As an added bonus, Regirock, Regice, and Registeel all have an attack that allows them to search out any Regi, so be sure to use that attack if you are struggling to set up.

Regice is one of the least used Regis in this deck, but that is only because it has one of the lowest damage outputs. It does make up for it because you briefly wall your opponent’s Pokemon V from attacking it, but they can usually find a way to Retreat out of those situations. If you aren’t attacking against a Radiant Charizard [Pokemon Go], you are likely using your attack in a last-ditch effort to wall your opponent. When in doubt, throw as many difficult-to-navigate situations at your opponent, and see if they are able to respond.

Here we have it, the least used Regi in the deck, but it can certainly still be effective. There aren’t too many Pokemon that have a Metal-type Weakness, but you can still effectively use it to attack against Pokemon that don’t have too much of a Retreat Cost. I find myself using Registeel to attack single Prize Card Pokemon, free Retreaters, and Pokemon that have an Air Balloon [Sword and Shield] attached.

Once you get out your 6 Regis and your Energy, you’ll often be swinging for damage turn after turn. Remember to slap on Gift Energy to your attacking Regi, so that you can draw cards after you are Knocked Out. I also want to note that sometimes this deck can crumble! You’ll have a couple of Regis Prized, or maybe you can’t find any of your Energy to discard. Either way, this deck is incredibly fun to play and quite effective in our current metagame!

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this article, and maybe you’re even picking up a few Astral Radiance Pokemon TCG Live codes right here at the PoTown store to complete this deck! In our current Sword and Shield to Crown Zenith metagame, Regigigas is one of the best decks, and I’m sure you’ll see yourself with a higher win percentage on the PTCG Live Ranked Ladder. I plan on covering a few more top decks in my upcoming Po Town articles, so stay tuned for those, my favourite cards coming out in Scarlet and Violet, and more! As for me, I’m starting to extensively test our new E-block - on Post Rotation format to prepare for the 2023 European International Championships in London, United Kingdom, this April! Maybe I’ll even meet one of your readers out there!

Zach Lesage is a contributing writer for PoTownStore.com. As a Toronto local, he has been playing the Pokemon Trading Card Game since 2005 and creates Pokemon content as his full time career. With multiple prestigious accomplishments in the game, such as 2020 Players Cup 2 Champion and 2020 Oceania International Championships Finalist, he has proven his success in the game. Outside of the game, he travels the world, enjoys the culture of designer streetwear, and is a professionally trained chef. You can catch him at most Pokemon events and follow him on Twitter @ZachLesagePTCG.