Official Pokémon TCG: Sword & Shield—Lost Origin Battle Pass deck strategies revealed to teach you how to unlock the potential of two devastating decks in Pokémon TCG Live

Get more from Pokémon TCG Live when you use the in-game Battle Pass. With the Battle Pass, you can complete quests to earn experience and unlock new tiers by playing Ranked or Casual matches. Each Battle Pass is accessible only until the next expansion releases.

Begin your path along the Pokémon TCG: Sword & Shield—Lost Origin Battle Pass with a new deck featuring Hisuian Zoroark VSTAR. Advance through the Battle Pass to unlock booster packs, Credits, a Collector Crate, and 15 additional cards that you can add to your new deck.

You can also redeem Crystals for the Premium Battle Pass to unlock an additional deck, which is centered around Arceus VSTAR. Premium Pass tiers offer a deluge of fun items themed around Giratina, booster packs, Coins, another Collector Crate, and Crystals, and 15 additional cards to upgrade your Arceus VSTAR deck.

Learn how to play and upgrade these powerful decks in Pokémon TCG Live.

The Hisuian Zoroark VSTAR deck focuses on aggressive early attacking. As early as Turn 2, Hisuian Zoroark VSTAR’s Ticking Curse attack can do 50 damage for each of your Pokémon with a damage counter on it for . If each of your Pokémon in play has a damage counter on it, that’s 300 damage!

Try to wait to fill your Bench until you have a Gapejaw Bog in play—this Stadium card puts 2 damage counters on any Basic Pokémon placed onto the Bench from the hand. Not can this soften up your foes, but it also puts damage counters on your Pokémon, powering up Ticking Curse.

Gengar can also power up Ticking Curse: its Netherworld Gate Ability moves Gengar into play from your discard pile and places 3 damage counters on it as well. And because Gengar comes from the discard pile, Gapejaw Bog won’t add any additional damage to the Pokémon.

A great way to get Gengar into the discard pile is using Hisuian Zoroark VSTAR’s Phantom Star VSTAR Power. This Ability discards your hand and draws 7 cards, so make sure to load up with Gengar before you commit to using this once-per-game VSTAR Power.

The Damage Pump Item card is yet another way to get (minimal) damage onto more of your Pokémon. This card allows you to remove damage counters from Gengar or another damaged Pokémon and move them to your undamaged Pokémon, which could ultimately increase the damage that Hisuian Zoroark VSTAR can do.

Pokémon: 18

2 Hisuian Zoroark VSTAR SWSH11 147

2 Hisuian Zoroark V SWSH11 146

1 Dunsparce SWSH08 207

4 Gengar SWSH11 66

2 Cresselia SWSH11 074

2 Liepard SWSH09 091

3 Purrloin SWSH03 106

2 Crobat V SWSH03 104

Trainers: 35

4 Professor’s Research SWSH09 147

2 Marnie SWSH01 169

2 Boss’s Orders SWSH09 132

2 Cheren’s Care SWSH09 134

1 Roseanne’s Backup SWSH09 148

4 Evolution Incense SWSH01 163

4 Quick Ball SWSH01 179

4 Ultra Ball SWSH09 150

2 Energy Loto SWSH10 140

2 Damage Pump SWSH11 156

2 Air Balloon SWSH01 156

2 Big Charm SWSH01 158

4 Gapejaw Bog SWSH10 142

Energy: 7

4 Double Turbo Energy SWSH09 151

3  Energy

This deck list focuses on swinging hard with your Hisuian Zoroark VSTAR fast and early, while making sure they can soak up the hits with Big Charm. If your Hisuian Zoroark VSTAR take too much damage, don’t be afraid to pick them up with Cheren’s Care.

Liepard’s Trade Ability helps you discard Gengar and draw 2 cards. Combined with Hisuian Zoroark VSTAR’s Ability, Phantom Star, you can draw and discard cards to build the hand that you need. Don’t be afraid to discard other cards too—Roseanne’s Backup will help keep your deck stocked up on useful resources.

Advance through to Tier 16 to unlock the following 15 cards:

Adding these cards will go toward making your deck as aggressive as possible. With even more copies of Hisuian Zoroark V and VSTAR, you’ll be able to get it into play by Turn 2 more consistently. Ditto V’s V Transformation Ability helps here as well: it’s a great Pokémon to start with, since it essentially gives you 7 effective copies of Hisuian Zoroark V.

Cancelling Cologne is useful against opposing Pokémon like Miltank, whose Miracle Body Ability would otherwise prevent Hisuian Zoroark VSTAR from doing damage to it.

That said, adding cards to our deck necessitates removing other cards to fit them in. Here are suggestions for cards to remove from your deck:

2 Liepard SWSH09 091

3 Purrloin SWSH03 106

2 Cresselia SWSH11 074

2 Big Charm SWSH01 158

2 Cheren’s Care SWSH09 134

1 Roseanne’s Backup SWSH09 148

3  Energy

Without these cards, our deck loses a good deal of its bulkiness and midgame draw power, but we can use Ticking Curse more consistently on Turn 2 in exchange.

Dropping  Energy means we can’t do 300 damage since our only remaining Energy is now Double Turbo Energy. But Choice Belt and Radiant Hawlucha help fill the gap—with both in play, your Ticking Curse can still hit a Pokémon VMAX for 340 damage.

Hisuian Zoroark VSTAR is a fast and terrifying deck; hopefully you’ll have fun advancing through the Battle Pass with it!

Now let’s take a look at the Premium Battle Pass deck, Arceus VSTAR.

Arceus VSTAR is an attacker that’s all about accelerating your gameplan by searching for cards from your deck. Its Trinity Nova attack does a hefty 200 damage, plus it lets you attach 3 basic Energy cards from your deck to your Pokémon V in any way you like.

Arceus VSTAR’s Starbirth VSTAR Power is an Ability that lets you search for any 2 cards and add them to your hand, making it both a good early-game choice to help you set up quickly and a powerful late-game option to find the exact cards you need to secure victory. Remember that you can only use one VSTAR Power per game, so time this Ability wisely.

A powerful card to search for with the Starbirth Ability is Single Strike Style Mustard, a Supporter card that can subsequently search for any Single Strike Pokémon (including Evolution Pokémon) and put it onto your Bench. This is an efficient way to surprise your opponent with Beedrill or power up your Single Strike Pokémon with Emboar. You can play this card only when it is the last card in your hand, so consider using Starbirth to grab an additional card, like Ultra Ball or Quick Ball, that will enable you to discard cards.

Pokémon: 18

2 Arceus VSTAR SWSH09 123

2 Arceus V SWSH09 122

1 Oranguru SWSH01 148

2 Beedrill SWSH06 003

2 Kakuna SWSH06 002

3 Weedle SWSH06 001

1 Emboar SWSH05 025

1 Pignite SWSH05 024

1 Tepig SWSH05 023

1 Sylveon V SWSH07 074

1 Crobat V SWSH03 104

1 Lumineon V SWSH09 040

Trainers: 31

3 Professor’s Research SWSH09 147

3 Single Strike Style Mustard SWSH05 134

1 Avery SWSH06 130

1 Marnie SWSH01 169

2 Boss’s Orders SWSH09 132

2 Pokégear 3.0 SWSH01 174

4 Quick Ball SWSH01 179

4 Ultra Ball SWSH09 150

1 Energy Search SWSH01 161

2 Rare Candy SWSH01 180

1 Ordinary Rod SWSH01 171

1 Escape Rope SWSH05 125

2 Air Balloon SWSH01 156

2 Choice Belt SWSH09 135

2 Training Court SWSH02 169

Energy: 11

4 Double Turbo Energy SWSH09 151

7 Basic  Energy

This deck list focuses on consistently getting your Arceus VSTAR online and your Single Strike Style Mustard into play. It uses four copies each of Quick Ball and Ultra Ball, cards that discard cards in order to get a Pokémon card from your deck.

If you already have an Arceus V in play on your first turn, consider using one of these search cards to get a Sylveon V. Sylveon V’s Dream Gift Ability lets you search for any Item card and add it to your hand, helping to craft the perfect hand for your next turn. However, your turn will end after you use it. It is particularly effective when used early in the game, especially if you’re going first since you can’t attack anyway.

Beedrill is a powerful secondary attacking option. Not only can it use Jet Spear to do 110 damage for 1  Energy, but for that same attack cost, it can also Knock Out your opponent’s Active Pokémon if it has a Special Energy attached. This is a great way to deal with decks that use a lot of Special Energy, including Hisuian Zoroark VSTAR.

Advance through to Tier 14 to unlock the following 15 cards:

Adding these cards to your deck opens up a bevy of new options: Sylveon VMAX and Drapion V are attackers who can two-hit KO most opponents or hit for Weakness to secure one-hit KOs, even against some bulky Pokémon VMAX.

Gardenia’s Vigor is another good target for Arceus VSTAR’s Starbirth—it lets you draw 2 cards and attach up to 2  Energy cards from your hand to 1 of your Benched Pokémon. This is especially useful if you missed an early Energy attachment; you can catch up by attaching up to 3 total Energy cards in a single turn with its help.

Radiant Greninja ties this deck together. Its Concealed Cards Ability lets you discard an Energy card to draw 2 cards. This pairs perfectly with Training Court, which gives you easy access to Energy as long as it remains in play. Radiant Pokémon are limited to a single copy per deck list, making Hisuian Heavy Ball an important addition to rescue Radiant Greninja from your Prize cards.

To make room for these new cards, consider removing the following from your deck:

Slimming down the Single Strike Pokémon to just Beedrill does make us rely on Single Strike Style Mustard to get it into play, but as an added benefit, it also removes cards that can be difficult to get out of your hand without cards that discard, such as Ultra Ball.

Removing Professor’s Research, Avery, and Marnie help make way for more tempo-oriented options that focus on creating a big swing in the game. Radiant Greninja’s Concealed Cards Ability shores up some of the sacrificed draw power.

One of the many awesome aspects of Arceus VSTAR is its flexibility in deck construction. You can enjoy this deck as is, or change it to better complement your favorite Pokémon V!

Good luck, Trainers!