For my latest article, I decided to take an in-depth look at Regigigas. Like most top-tier decks, there is no one correct way to run them. Like most TCGs, there are countless ways to run each of them, which is a major part of continues to make Pokemon such a great game.
Since there is no one superior variant of any given deck, it allows for a lot of interpretation and creativity on the deck builder’s part. This is a very important part of the game as it keeps the format from being stale. To help give you an idea of what I mean, I would like to use the deck BLS as my example.
BLS was considered by most to be the BDIF of the ’05-06 format, which in turn allowed it to dominate its respective format. This threshold that BLS had on the format was very similar to how Plox/GG ruled the ’07-08 format.
For those of you that didn’t play back then, BLS was composed of three main cards; Blastoise ex, Steelix ex and Lugia ex. Both Steelix and Lugia had insanely powerful attacks (Steelix could snipe for 100 damage and Lugia could do 200 to the active Pokemon). However, either of these attacks required you to discard 2-3 Energy attached to them.
To compensate for this, players used Blastoise ex along with its Poke-Power, “Energy Rain”, to consistently attach Energy to power up their attacks (Holon’s Magneton was used cover the non-Colorless or Water Energy costs).
The point I’m sharing this example with you is to show that there’s no “best” way to run these decks. While it is safe to say that a Blastoise ex/Dustox ex/Steelix ex/Lugia ex/Pidgeot/Manectric ex/Lunatone/Solrock probably isn’t the best way to run BLS, there were a handful of different ways to run the deck. Some focused on using Blastoise ex to power up Steelix ex, some chose to divert their attention to Lugia while others chose to share resources equally between the two.
In this article, I have listed two different ways to run Regigigas. The first that I have listed is the standard, common way to run the deck. The second variant I included is a relatively new way to run Regigigas. It is also the variant that Alex Brosseau used during the Georgia Cities Marathon this year. Let’s gets started!
General Outlook
The goal of most Regigigas decks is to get a Regigigas LV.X up and running as quickly as possible. However, this can be a bit tricky as its attack, “Giga Blaster”, requires a massive WFMC cost, which has forced deck builders to shape their lists much differently than a standard deck.
There are two commonly used ways to power up “Giga Blaster”, to manually attach four Energy or to use “Sacrifice”, its Poke-Power. When used, it allows you to attach up to 2 Basic Energy cards in your Discard Pile to Regigigas LV.X as well as removing 8 damage counters.
Not only is “Sacrifice” a great way to power it up early-mid game, but it also makes Regigigas LV.X incredibly difficult to KO. However, the cost of this Poke-Power is that you must Knock Out of of your in-play Pokemon. If you ask me (or most Regigigas players), the cost is well worth it.
Now, you may be wondering why we want to devote so many resources into a single Pokemon. Like you read above, Regigigas is very difficult to KO. However, you also need to keep in mind the raw power “Giga Blaster” provides as well.
Not only does it do a massive 100 damage (with an Expert Belt, you’ll be doing a massive 120 damage), but it discards the top card of your opponent’s deck AND one random card from your opponent’s hand. While it is possible this could help your opponent (especially if you’re playing against Gyarados), but there’s a very real possibility you could discard a card that is crucial to your opponent’s plans (such as a Cyrus’s Conspiracy or the like). Unfortunately, after you use “Giga Blaster”, it cannot be used during your next turn.
To help get Energy in the Discard Pile to “Sacrifice” onto Regigigas, cards such as Regice/Regirock (builds that tech in Donphan will sometimes use Regirock), Junk Arm or Blissey PL.
I think you can now understand why Regigigas LV.X is such a powerful card. However, if you have been paying attention, you should have taken note that it usually requires a lot of cards specific cards to help get it up and running, which makes this a slower deck. Since this deck isn’t nearly as fast as LuxChomp, Sablelock or Machamp, you’ll need to run certain cards which allows it to compete with these more aggressive decks.
Most players choose to use a combination of Mesprit and Judge to do just that. Between the two, you’ll consistently be ruining their hands and preventing them from using Poke-Powers on key turns, preventing them from using a necessary “Set Up”, “Bright Look”, “Galactic Switch” or “Sacrifice” (during the mirror match).
Along with Triumphant came some very powerful cards, many of which greatly benefit Regigigas including the previously mentioned Junk Arm.
The other notable cards where Seeker, which helps us to consistently reuse Mesprits, and Twins, which allows you to search for any two cards you like from your deck as long as you’re behind on Prize Cards. This is extremely powerful for slow Regigigas decks, which are usually behind for at least the first 30% of the game.
Standard/Household Regigigas
When Regigigas was first released, this was (and still is) the most common way to run the deck. This version, like described above, focuses on getting out a fully charged Regigigas LV.X as quickly as possible. The goal is to use Regice, Junk Arm or sometimes Volkner’s Philosophy to get two Basic Energy cards into the Discard Pile as well as two attached to Regigigas. Then, you level it up and use “Sacrifice” to start attacking right away.
Judge and Mesprit play a key role in slowing your opponent down enough so that you aren’t too far gone by the time you get Regigigas into play. Twins is also a key card in ensuring you’re able to do this as it allows you to get any two cards you like (granted you’re behind on prizes, of coarse), which is a key advantage in making an unstoppable comeback.
Here is my Standard Regigigas list:
| Pokemon – 16
3 Regigigas Promo-40 |
Trainers – 32
2 Bebe’s Search |
Energy – 12
1 Double Colorless Energy |
One thing you may have noticed is that I run three “Drag Off” Regigigas. While a lot of people used to run Regigigas LA-37, most people have switched over to including at least one in their decks since it was included in a Regigigas deck that made it into the Top 32 at Worlds last year.
Being able to consistently drag up a Vileplume or another heavy-Retreat Bench Sitter turn after turn is a very powerful a ability that has made Blaziken FB and Froslass GL very powerful cards.
Most Regigigas decks are slow. Unfortunately, this one isn’t much different, it relies on letting your opponent get ahead by a few prize cards, then making a massive comeback by searching my deck for any 2-4 Cards I like. My other option is to start a Twins chain, where use it to search my deck for Twins and one other card. While it does lower Twins’ usefulness a bit, it ensures I have another one to use turn after turn.
I include two Poke Healer + to mainly help against SP decks. Often times, they will try to 2HKO me. When I try to “Sacrifice” to remove the damage, my opponent will just Power Spray it. However, they cannot Spray a Trainer Card, so it often comes in handy.
Also, they can both be searched out from by deck with Twins to get them exactly when I need them. Having another option to remove 8 damage counters from one of my Pokemon (as well as Special Conditions) is a very handy thing to have, so I am quite glad I include these cards in my list.
Most Regigigas decks run a minimum of 2 Judge, while most run 3-4. However, I include a single Judge along with two Looker’s Investigation. In most disruption decks, I believe that Judge is superior, in this case, I really like the option of crushing my opponent’s hand or refreshing my own. Not as disruptive as Judge, but it still works well. Also, if I really need to lower both of our hands, I do run one copy of Judge, so I haven’t eliminated it from my list completely.
I had originally included 1 Copycat in my deck as well, but I took it out to help make room for Poke Healer +. Playing three Expert Belt in this deck is a good idea because it increases the chance of my drawing into it by 50%, which means I don’t need to waste a Twins to search it out. Also, it can help me get a crucial OHKO on a Machamp SF via Uxie LV.X as well.
Two very useful techs that I’m currently running are Warp Energy and Double Colorless. Warp Energy is to help correct an undesired start as well as a way to help counter “draggers”. Double Colorless helps slightly against Machamp, but the real reason it’s in the deck is if I’m playing against VileGar.
I can use DCE to get “Drag Off” powered up by turn 2, meaning I can keep dragging up Vileplume from my opponent’s bench. Between the four Twins and two Energy Exchangers, I rarely have difficulty getting these cards when I need them.
Speaking of Energy Exchanger, I include two of them in the list and I don’t think I could every justify running any less. Being able to get the precise Energy card when I need it is necessary in consistently powering up Regigigas LV.X each during each match. Also, I run four Rainbow Energy along with two of each Basic Energy type needed to power up “Giga Blaster”, so it isn’t too difficult to get the Energy I need.
Finally, I include four Smeargle, which act as my ideal “Starter”. Since I run a high count of Smeargle, there’s a good chance I’ll be able to “Portrait” Turn 1, which is a huge advantage. First of all, I get to see my opponent’s hand, which is crucial in helping me decide how aggressive I should be during the match. Also, I get to see what kind of start my opponent got, which you can’t always do based on the field alone.
For example, let’s say you’re playing against DialgaChomp. Their starting Pokemon is Bronzong G on their bench and Dragonite FB active. Judging by this, you would think that their start isn’t amazing, at the very least. However, your opponent’s hand could look something like:
Cyrus’s Conspiracy
Double Colorless
Premier Ball
Luxury Ball
TGI Poke Turn
Yeah, my thoughts exactly.
In addition to knowing exactly what kind of start your opponent has and what deck they’re playing, you can also get an idea of what techs they’re playing as well. This information can be very useful in a lot of different situations. For example, let’s say you’re playing LuxChomp, you use “Portrait” and see your opponent has an Ambipom G in their hand.
Since most decks only run a single Garchomp C LV.X counter, you now know how to more effectively play the match up and make Ambipom G much less effective. For the final and most obvious reason to use Smeargle, you (usually) get to use a second Supporter in a single turn! More often than not, this is a massive advantage.
Regigigas Lock
What you just read is my take on the commonly accepted way to play Regigigas. Regigigas Lock (or Colorless Regigigas, as I sometimes call it), runs no Basic Energy whatsoever. No, some computer genius didn’t hack into SixPrizes and mess up all articles on the site.
You see, instead of focusing a lot of resources on getting the correct Energy into your Discard Pile to be attached via “Sacrifice”, the deck runs much more disruption. The best way to describe the deck is Sablelock using Regigigas LV.X over Garchomp C along with a heavy Power Lock.
Before I go any further in describing the deck, here’s the list:
| Pokemon – 16
2 Regigigas LA-37 |
Trainers – 31
2 Bebe’s Search |
Energy – 13
4 Call Energy |
As you can see, this list is very different from Standard Regigigas builds. In fact, “Giga Blaster”, with the Energy I run, cannot be used even if I wanted to. Since I cannot use “Giga Blaster”, the most powerful attack in this deck is “Gigaton Punch”, which does 80 damage along with a coin flip.
If heads, it does an extra 20 damage and 20 to one of your opponent’s benched Pokemon. I factored Expert Belt into those numbers as I am rarely in a time where I’m unable to get one of the three that I run on Regigigas very quickly.
Most Regigigas decks run a few Mesprit along with Super Scoop Ups, Seekers and the like, which allows them to maintain a Power Lock for Beginning of the game along with Mesprit drops on key turns. This deck’s goal is to maintain a constant Power Lock throughout each and every game it plays.
To help ensure that I drop Mesprits when I need them, I run a high count of powerful Trainer cards which allows me to search for the Pokemon I need throughout the game (similar to Uxie/Shuppet Donk decks). Note: I include 3 Dual Ball, 1 Luxury Ball, 3 Pokemon Communication, 1 Energy Exchanger and 1 Junk Arm as well as a VS Seeker to keep the deck fast.
Now, you may be thinking with such an extensive Trainer Engine that I’m quite weak against Trainer Lock. On the contrary, this deck is anything but. You see, this build runs a Regigigas Promo-40. “Drag Off” does a low 30 damage, but allows me to drag up one of my opponent’s benched Pokemon each time I use the attack.
The goal is to keep bringing up Vileplume to the active slot again and again. Eventually, my opponent will run out of Energies and will be forced to leave it active or I’ll have enough damage on Vileplume to KO it. I’m not saying it’s a cakewalk to break out of the Trainer Lock every game, just that I have a really solid counter to Vileplume.
I debated for a while on whether I should flip my Regigigas counts to really make it easier to consistently use “Drag Off” when I need to. I’m still testing out both options to see which works best. If I find that it’s better for the deck to run a second Regigigas Promo, don’t think that I won’t.
When you were reading the list, you may have noticed the inclusion of three Smeargle as well as a Sableye. Just like in my standard Regigigas list, Smeargle is still my desired starter and a good one at that. However, since this decks focus is disruption, I am including a Sableye as well because it really opens up a lot of options. If I’m able to “Portrait” a Pokemon Collector or play my own (on my first turn), I can get Sableye.
If I’m doing pretty well set up wise, but I saw my opponent has a good hand (via Portrait), I could use Judge or Cyrus’s Initiative to ruin it. On the flip side, if I’m able to only copy a Bebe’s Search from my opponent’s hand, I can use it to get Sableye. Then, I proceed to attach an Unown Q in my hand or a Basic Energy to Smeargle, retreat it and “Impersonate” for whatever I need.
As for disruption Supporters, I run three Judge, Cyrus’s Initiative and one Looker’s Investigation. Obviously, the Judge are for ruining my opponent’s hand. I can use it early-game to crumble their set up or mid-late game to shuffle away key cards from their hand. Sometimes, I’ll be sitting their with Sableye active and I know I want to disrupt my opponent’s hand. However, my hand is godly, so I don’t want to use Judge.
That’s what Cyrus’s Initiative is for, to pick off one or two key cards that can crumble their set up. Looker’s Investigation can work like that as well (a Judge just for your opponent), but I use it mostly mid-game if I want a new hand. However, I use it over Copycat or PONT because it does allow me the option to disrupt, if I need it.
Running four Call Energy really helps me to set up and is especially effective when you run a high Smeargle count. I can use a Pokemon Collector (from either player’s hand) for a few Mesprit and perhaps an Uxie. Then, I’m free to use Call Energy for a Regigigas and perhaps another Smeargle.
Now, just having a lot of disruption isn’t enough to win the game. You can completely obliterate your opponent for 5+ turns, but if you aren’t actually attacking during that time, you’re actually hurting yourself because, during those turns, you’re wasting resources.
It is important that when playing this deck that you’re able to get a Turn 2 Regigigas attacking and KOing your opponent’s Pokemon left and right. Soon after wards, you should have Regigigas LV.X along with an Expert Belt in play as well.
When this deck works at maximum potential, three things come into play; Power Lock, Hand Disruption and Early-game Pressure. The combination of all these things allows me to overwhelm a great number of my opponents during the first few turns of the game and make it impossible for them to make a comeback.
If my opponent does manage to get an attacker set up, it usually doesn’t do them much good. By the time they’re able to do so, I have a fully-loaded Regigigas LV.X in play. They can try to 2HKO it, but I can just a “Sacrifice” or two to heal it. Eventually, the Power Lock and constant hand disruption just stops them from being able to get more main attackers out because they can’t keep setting up, giving me the win.
Double Colorless Energy should be pretty obvious, every single Energy Requirement in the entire deck (apart from Sableye’s “Overconfident”) can be payed by Colorless Energy. Also, “Gigaton Punch” and “Drag Off” require me to run four as well, otherwise the deck would be way too slow and I’d never be able to get a Turn 2 Regigigas going.
The final change I made to the list was taking out 1 Judge and adding in a Giratina. Essentially, they both do the same thing: Reduce each player’s hand down to four cards. While originally hadn’t including it in my list because it’s a really bad starter, since I run Warp Energies, I decided to try it out.
After playing it for just a couple of games, I realized it was essential. If I was able to use/”Portrait” a Pokemon Collector during the first few turns of the game, not only could I get my Power Lock going, but I could reduce my opponent’s hand to four cards as well.
Also, during the middle game, I would sometimes find myself wanting to use a Judge and another Supporter in the same turn. With Giratina, I can usually do both. Its a Search-able, non-Supporter Judge.
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Hopefully, you enjoyed reading this article and maybe even learned a few new tricks for the next time you play Regigigas.
Until next time,
Dakota Streck
dstreck96@yahoo.com
I’ve posted this at the end of a few of my articles already, but I’ll include it once or twice more just in case someone didn’t see it. I’m still helping people with their decks, if you want a second opinion on your deck, just let me know.
