Hi. In this Pokemon trading card game post, I provide a review of the Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR League Battle Deck in January 2024. Even though this sealed product was released in May 5, 2023 and the deck is not as popular as in 2021 to 2023 (according to Bulbapedia) there are a bunch of good cards to start out with from a competitive standpoint.
I write this post in January 2024 one week before the release of Paldean Fates during the Paradox Rift expansion. The regulation cards that are legal are E, F and G with E cards rotating out of standard format in early April 2024.
Box image from here.
Topics
- Decklist
- Origin Forme Palkia & VSTAR As Main Attackers
- The Good Cards In The Deck
- Cards To Swap Out & Upgrading
- Pricing
- Other Notes
Decklist
Pokemon (15 with 10 Basics)
- x2 Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR
- x3 Origin Forme Palkia V
- x3 Bibarel
- x3 Bidoof
- x1 Radiant Greninja
- x1 Manaphy
- x2 Hisuian Basculin
Trainers (34)
- x4 Battle VIP Pass
- x3 Boss's Orders (Cyrus)
- x3 Choice Belt
- x1 Echoing Horn
- x2 Energy Search
- x2 Hisuian Heavy Ball
- x4 Irida
- x1 Klara
- x2 Lake Acuity
- x3 Melony
- x1 Roxanne
- x2 Switch
- x4 Trekking Shoes
- x4 Ultra Ball
Energy (9)
Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR As The Main Attacker
The main attacker in this deck is Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR. Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR evolves from Origin Forme Palkia V so you need Origin Forme Palkia V in play and then evolve into Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR in the next turn. Its attack of Subspace Swell is quite an energy efficient attack. Two water energy for its attack cost is not too much and it does 60 + 20 times the number of benched Pokemon on both player's side. The minimum damage is 60 with a maximum damage of 260 damage if both players have 5 benched Pokemon each (10 both sides).
Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR has a very powerful VSTAR ability called Star Portal which allows the player during their turn to attach up to 3 Water energy cards from the discard pile to Water Pokemon in any way you like. This ability can powerup Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR or the deck's alternate attacker such as Radiant Greninja.
Image from here.
The Good Cards In The Deck
This sealed product battle deck has a lot of good cards. I provide a brief on most of the good cards here.
Pokemon
Radiant Greninja is a good alternate attacker than can attack opponent's benched Pokemon for 90 damage each from its Moonlight Shuriken attack. If the opponent has a Manaphy on their side of the field then the benched Pokemon get hit for 0 damage from Moonlight Shuriken or any other attacks to the bench. Radiant Greninja also has a good ability where you can discard one energy card (Basic or Special Energy) from hand during your turn and then draw two cards. This ability can accelerate water energy into the discard pile so you can combo this with Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR's Star Portal ability.
Manaphy is a good support Pokemon in a lot of decks. It helps protect your benched Pokemon from Pokemon which have attacks that target benched Pokemon like Radiant Greninja, Scream Tail and Zapdos ex.
Bibarel is a popular Pokemon with its ability of drawing cards until you have 5 cards in hand. Bibarel evolves from Bidoof or this more popular Bidoof. You don't really attack with Bibarel unless absolutely necessary.
Trainer Cards
Boss's Orders (Cyrus) is a powerful staple cards that brings out a benched Pokemon to the opponent's active spot. This is commonly used to target a Pokemon (full HP or weak) and then attack it for a large amount of damage, knockout or even a game ending knockout. This card can also be used to stall for one turn or more by target a Pokemon with a high retreat cost.
Battle VIP Pass can only be used in the player's first turn. If the player is lucky to play this card on turn one you can bench up to 2 Basic Pokemon (rule box or non-rule box) on your side of the field. You get a very good early game setup if you are able to play this card in your first turn. After the first turn Battle VIP Pass has no use. This card has a regulation letter of E. This card would not be for legal tournament play once rotation occurs in early April.
Hisuian Heavy Ball is a nice ball card that lets you look at your face down prize cards. If there is Basic Pokemon from the prize cards you may place that Basic Pokemon to your hand and replace that Basic Pokemon with Hisuian Heavy Ball as a prize card. This card is helpful if your only copy of Radiant Greninja is in the prize cards or you need a different basic Pokemon from the prize cards. You do not really need two Hisuian Heavy Balls. One is enough.
Irida is a very nice supporter card for decks that have a lot of Water Pokemon. You can search for any Water Pokemon plus search for one item card and put then into your hand.
You can use Irida to search for Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR instead of using Ultra Ball with a discard cost of 2 cards from hand.
Melony provides a dual purpose in its card effect. You need at least one water energy in the discard pile and one Pokemon V to use this card (even though it does not say that on the card). The card allows the player to attach one water energy from the discard pile to one Pokemon V (or VStar or VMAX) and then draw 3 cards. This card is also a E regulation card so you have about 3 months to use this before rotation in April.
Ultra Ball is a nice card which allows the player to search for any Pokemon from deck to hand as long as you discard two cards from hand for the cards cost.
Cards To Swap Out & Upgrading
There are some cards in the deck that are okay or not really needed. Here are my suggestions to modernize the deck a bit.
Echoing Horn could be replaced with Counter Catcher.
One of the Boss's Orders (Cyrus) could be replaced with Professor's Research for additional drawing power.
Notice how there are no Nest Balls. I think Nest Ball was not around when this deck got released. Nest Balls was from the Scarlet & Violet Base Set. The four Trekking Shoes could be replaced with 4 copies of Nest Balls.
The two copies of Energy Search can be replaced with one of the new staple cards from Paradox Rift in the form of Earthen Vessel.
One copy of Bidoof and one copy of Bibarel could be replaced with a fourth copy of Origin Forme Palkia V and a third copy of Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR.
One Hisuian Heavy Ball out of two can be removed for a tenth Water Energy.
Roxanne is okay here but you could replace it with Iono. The card Iono is pretty popular and is priced at 4 or 5 CAD each.
One of two Hisuian Basculin could be replaced with one copy of Spiritomb perhaps.
Three Choice Belts are too much. One copy could be kept but I would remove all three for cards of your choice. You can put in a Chien-Pao ex as another attacker, another Iono and a Super Rod.
Klara is an okay card in this deck. It is optional to replace this card for a Super Rod.
Pricing
In the Toronto area this deck is sold for around 32.99 CAD. If this product is found in Gamestop or a big box store they usually price it higher at 40 or 50 CAD. There is one Toronto card store that sells this sealed deck as low as 28 CAD which is a very good price.
(Note on January 19, 2024, Gamestop Canada has this Palkia deck priced at 25 CAD!! The deal may not last.)
This deck is very good for a beginner or someone getting back into the Pokemon TCG. It could also appeal to someone who needs some staple cards. I provide a decklist again with approximate market price estimates. Some estimates could be overestimates or underestimates. I provide a cost comparison of buying the cards individually versus buying the sealed product deck.
Decklist With Price Estimates (CAD)
Pokemon (15 with 10 Basics)
- x2 Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR [2.50 CAD each so 5 CAD for two]
- x3 Origin Forme Palkia V [4.50 CAD]
- x3 Bibarel [3 CAD]
- x3 Bidoof [1.50 CAD]
- x1 Radiant Greninja [7 CAD]
- x1 Manaphy [1 CAD]
- x2 Hisuian Basculin [1 CAD]
Estimated Cost of Pokemon If Bought Individually: 23 CAD
Trainers (34)
- x4 Battle VIP Pass [2 CAD each so 8 CAD]
- x3 Boss's Orders (Cyrus) [1.50 CAD]
- x3 Choice Belt [50 cent each, 1.50 CAD]
- x1 Echoing Horn [50 cents CAD]
- x2 Energy Search [1 CAD]
- x2 Hisuian Heavy Ball [1 CAD]
- x4 Irida [1 CAD each so 4 CAD]
- x1 Klara [50 cents CAD]
- x2 Lake Acuity [1 CAD]
- x3 Melony [1.50 CAD]
- x1 Roxanne [50 cents CAD]
- x2 Switch [1 CAD]
- x4 Trekking Shoes [2 CAD]
- x4 Ultra Ball [2 CAD]
Estimated Cost of Trainers If Bought Individually: 26 CAD
Energy (9)
- x9 Basic Water Energy [10 cent each, so 90 cents or round up to 1 CAD]
Approximate Cost of Cards If Bought Separately: 50 CAD
Buying the deck as a sealed product at a price of 27 CAD or as high as 32 CAD before tax is a good buy. It is a good buy for a beginner or for someone who needs at least half of the cards in this deck.
Thank you for reading.