Regidrago Tier S VSTAR Toolbox Iconic

The poster child for the Expanded format, Regidrago VSTAR has endless options available to it thanks to Double Dragon Energy and the huge pool of Dragon-type attackers. It can use Dragapult ex's Phantom Dive as a main attack, Kyurem's Trifrost to wipe out boards of small evolving Pokémon, Mega Dragonite ex's Ryuno Glide as a delete button, and more importantly, Dialga GX's Timeless GX to get an extra turn once per game. Coupled with a great VSTAR Power and cards that use the discard pile such as VS Seeker and Battle Compressor Team Flare Gear, Regidrago is the definite best deck in the format, and the number one deck you must prepare to face if you're playing Expanded. As you'll notice if you look at other archetypes, every deck must have a plan against Regidrago in order to stand a chance in the format.

What makes Regidrago so good, though, is that it can always find ways to beat its supposed counters. Thanks to its great baseline consistency, the deck can run many techs, from Tate & Liza to counter decks that aim to trap a Pokémon Active, to Goomy to stop some first-turn attacks. In fact, Regidrago's Legacy Star gives the deck a built-in way to use these techs multiple times, if needed. Regidrago's only issue is that it can't run all these counters in the same decklist.

This incredible versatility makes it hard to deal with and many players feel like its dominance is oppressive, with "should Regidrago / DDE / Dialga-GX be banned" being a common topic of discussion. Despite that, Regidrago is in no way an easy deck to master, and many of its matchups, including the mirror match, can be very intricate.

My personal opinion, for what it's worth, is that Regidrago is fine as it is. It is very strong and definitely warps the format around itself, but it's also a very interesting deck to play and to face (as long as you accept that you can't play a deck that autoloses to it). The results of the 2026 Aichi Champions League also showed that Regidrago was far from unbeatable.

If you're new to the Expanded format, I recommend giving Regidrago a try. Not simply because it's so strong, but also because it embodies a lot of what makes Expanded interesting: discard synergies that nonetheless require good resource management, a variety of attacks that guarantee a wide choice of options each turn, and the presence of counters and counter-counters to many strategies.

On the flip side, if you're looking to counter Regidrago, there are multiple things to try. Girafarig's Get Lost can punish a player who discards their attackers carelessly, though experienced players will play around it. Karen, especially combined with any form of Item lock, is another way to deny Regidrago its attacks. While Regidrago has no Weakness printed on it, it can be given one with Lillie's Clefairy ex, which makes Psychic-type decks effective. And since Regidrago needs two turns to power up (except with Crispin or Raihan), Energy denial can be effective, especially combined with other forms of disruption such as Iron Thorns ex.