Advancing with Regidrago VSTAR
A Brief Guide to Huge Plays
Today I am sharing my knowledge and opinions on Regidrago VSTAR in the BRS-SSP (F-Block on) standard format. The next NA major event at this time is San Antonio.
Below is a 55 card skeleton which includes the cards I deem necessary and staple for Regidrago in this format. I wanted to talk about some of the more advanced and technical concepts within Regidrago. This article is completely free. If you enjoy this, please share and keep an eye out for future pieces of content like this from me. I have 1-on-1 coaching as well as a fundamentals masterclass available here: https://metafy.gg/@celio-s-network/about
55 card skeleton
My preferred list
A large part of the awesome power of Regidrago VSTAR comes from the choices you make as its pilot. You want to be cognizant of all of the cards, abilities, combinations, and otherwise effects that are available to you at any time.
The namesake of the deck as well as the main attacker - as well as your deck’s only usable VStar Power - Regidrago VSTAR. Regidrago V is a very poor starting pokemon since it has 3 retreat and in the event you’re against a deck like Raging Bolt, you don’t want your regidrago to be the pokemon they KO on turn 1. Teal Mask Ogerpon ex is your best 2-prize starter since you can teal dance an energy to it, have the option to retreat for 1 energy, and then still have your manual attachment left over. (Mew ex is not your best 2-prize starter in a blind matchup because its a liability in some matchups ie: the mirror bc it can open up a double trifrost win con). This is why we only play 3 regidrago v instead of 4 even though its the main attacker. I would never considering changing this 3-3 line to anything else.
Regidrago V’s Celestial Roar should almost never be used. Dragon Laser is optimally used when you’re taking a turn 1 going 2nd KO that neutralizes a threat with little to no threat of retaliation from the opponent (KO-ing a ralts vs gardy, KO-ing the only pidgey vs pidgeot control). If you’re in a position to use Dragon Laser but could interchangeably use cleffa’s grasping draw, calculate if that early prize will change the amount of turns it takes you to win, stifles your opponent completely, and if your hand is good enough for next turn without grasping draw.
Another use of Dragon Laser is to set up multi-knockout turns for later. For example:
Let’s say we’re in a mirror match. Your opponent ends turn 1 going second with Drago V in the active, Drago V, Squawkabilly, 2 Ogerpons, and Fez on the bench. If you have a backup drago v on the bench and with your active drago v use Dragon laser to put 130 on drago V and 30 on squawk - you’ve just opened a potential 6-prize turn in 2 more turns. Even if your opponent kos your active (which would require lost impact so they’re more likely to gust around and kill something with phantom dive or rolling iron), you should still be fine since you just need two more attacks to win the game and you still have your vstar power available. Assuming they evolve into drago vstar, their vstar now has 150 HP remaining and squawk has 130 HP remaining. Next turn you gust up Fez (or ogerpon if they dont have fez) and phantom dive putting 20 on Squawk and 40 on Drago vstar. At this point your opponent has Squawk with 110 remaining, Fez or Pon with 10 remaining, and Drago VSTAR with 110 remaining. From there your final turn just needs to consist of a tri frost (if damaged fez), a boss plus trifrost (if damaged pon), or a Hawlucha ping on pon + tri frost for 6 prizes on the final turn. I used this exact sequence to win game 2 of my win and in to Day 2 at Baltimore Regionals 2024.
Of course, Regidrago VSTAR has Apex Dragon which will be the main attack, but it comes with a lot of options.
In my opinion you only need Dragapult, Giratina, Goodra, and Kyurem. While Alolan Egg is really good against Raging Bolt, I have long thought that matchup was closer to 50/50 than it is typically denoted.
Kyurem’s Trifrost is the most volatile attack available. You can end games from turn 2, piece together a 6 prize turn, or throw the game with this attack (more about throwing the game later). The example above with dragon laser > phantom dive > trifrost is just one of the unorthodox ways Kyurem can be used. I am commonly looking for 4 prize or 6 prize turns against namely Regidrago and Klawf, but always keep an eye out for checkmate scenarios regardless of the matchup. This is less often viable against Raging Bolt and Miraidon since they play switch carts and/or bravery charms that can mess with the math - but it becomes viable against those decks as well if you can place damage in a way that a single switch cart wont save them OR they have used the amount of switch carts you believe their deck to run.
Kyurem’s Trifrost should never be used if A) you’ve used legacy star already and B) this use of trifrost doesn’t immediately end the game or put yourself in such a position that you’ve mapped out your win to be very very likely. If you haven’t used legacy star yet, you can be more liberal with trifrost but always make sure that its worth the energy. Similar, lost impact can sometimes be a throw if you could have maneuvered the prize trade in a way that doesn’t cost energies. It can also be a throw because its the easiest way for regidrago to go 2-2-2 which seems good, but actually isn’t sometimes because it gives the opponent guaranteed procs of Flip the Script.
Example: My opponent has a Raging Bolt in active that I could lost impact for 2 prizes. If they have a bench of raging bolt, 2 pons, and a fez, its very likely I’m going to get return KO’d - so I would lost zone energies from the active. However, I am much more often going for the following play: Gust up fez and roll iron. This way they’re not getting to draw from flip the script since i didnt KO anything, they need to retreat fez now, AND since I rolled iron they need to discard 2 extra energies to KO with bellowing thunder. Assuming they get the KO, the prize trade will now be in their favor 2-6. This is when we ideally go Iono + hawlucha fez and ko active with rad zard. The prize trade is now 2-2 and the opponent got iono’d to 2 with no fez, likely no energy on board, and we have a single prizer active.
When you break it down, taking prizes in the form of 2-2-2, 0-4-2, 0-2-4, or 0-0-6 all result in taking a total of 6 prizes by the 3rd turn of meaningful attacks. Based on the matchup and what the opponent’s deck is capable of, it will sometimes be advantageous to “bank” your knockouts for a later turn to avoid proccing fez, avoid giving the opponent a bench space, avoid activating unfair stamp, or avoid getting iono’d to 4 or 2 instead of 6. Don’t be discouraged from simple prize maps of 2-2-2 if you’ve considered your options and that's the best route to victory. But, once you become comfortable and confident with 4 and 6 prize turns, you’ll level up as a drago pilot.
Hawlucha Math
Hawlucha is really versatile in the amount of matchups and situations it can assist in. Hawlucha can be tricky to use since it has to put its damage on benched pokemon, but often you will use hawlucha to prepare for a future attack, or you’ll attack leaving them with 10 health and use the hawlucha on a later turn. Iron Bundle being in the deck can help if you need to move the active to the bench for hawlucha or for cleaning up with Phantom Dive.
Myriad Leaf Shower for 4 energy does 150, + hawlucha ping 160 ko Squawk
Rolling Iron or Phantom Dive anything with 210 (ogerpon, fez), + Hawlucha ping = 210
Phantom Dive Lugia for 200 + 3/3 on archeops, hawlucha ping bring the chops to 4 each, tri frost next turn for 4 prizes. (this is negated by vguard and mist - im choosing to not play sinnoh but if you want to respect lugia you should play sinnoh).
Lost impact a bolt with charm + hawlucha ping =290
Ping + Phantom Dive KOs anything with 70 (charmander, ralts, manaphy)
Ping Bloodmoon Ursaluna then rad zard it = 260
Conclusion
I wanted to put this resource out there before San Antonio and before Prismatic Evolution (hopefully) shakes things up with budew. I didn’t have time to do matchups but I hope this has helped you understand more advanced plays with Regidrago!