Triumphant brought 103 new cards to play with and one of them is the focus of a new deck that is capable of disrupting the opponent’s field and simultaneously inflicting up to 3 locks at once. The card, Victreebel, has less than desirable top and bottom stats, but the Poké-Body and attack more than make up for that when combined with Vileplume UD.
Pokémon – 26
4 Victreebel TM |
Trainers – 20
4 Pokémon Collector |
Energy – 14 |
Let’s look at “Tangling Tendrils.” What are tendrils, you may ask? They are a specialized stem or leaf that plants use for support and attachment by twining it around a fixed object. By this mechanism, Victreebel entangles the defending Pokémon to increase its Retreat Cost by two, essentially forcing a substantial payment to retreat or use of a Trainer. Other alternatives will be discussed later. Ubiquitous support Pokémon like Azelf, Uxie, and Spiritomb will have a Retreat Cost equal to Giratina, and a printed cost of 3+ means the Pokémon will sooner be sent to the discard pile than the bench.
A smart opponent won’t sit idly by while a five retreat Bronzong G is stuck in the Active Spot. Naturally, Poké Turn, Warp Point, and Switch would be played to get around the trapping effect. This is where Vileplume comes into play. Its “Allergy Flower” Poké-Body eliminates Trainers as an option to bypass “Tangling Tendrils,” leaving only Warp Energy as an escape. Later on, I will explain how to remove that option as well. The 3 locks happen in layers, tied together by Memory Berry giving Victreebel access to Bellsprout’s and Weepinbell’s attacks. Let’s analyze what each Pokémon contributes to the deck so we can better see how the layers form.
4 Spiritomb AR
The quintessential starter of all trainer lock decks, Spiritomb fulfills multiple roles. Keystone Seal creates a temporary Trainer wall until Vileplume hits the field. It evolves a benched Pokémon by 1 stage, accelerating the setup process. If the either Tool is in your hand, here is a trick to attaching Memory Berry or Expert Belt early in the game while Spiritomb is active (Memory Berry is preferred to Expert Belt early).
Before evolving into Vileplume, attach Unown Q to Spiritomb and retreat it to Bellsprout, Weepinbell, or Victreebel. Attach the Tool and Warp Energy to switch back to Spiritomb. Finally, evolve into Vileplume with either Darkness Grace or from your hand. For this reason, it is better to attach a G Energy to a Bellsprout on the bench rather than an Energy that provides Colorless to avoid wasting an Energy attachment. Its final purpose is death fodder for Twins.
pokebeach.com2 Vileplume UD
This is the first layer in establishing the lock, ensuring SP decks never use their Team Galactic’s Inventions and single Energy stage 2 decks never use Rare Candy, essentially cutting their main attackers in half on account of the limiting nature of stage 1’s in 2-1-2 and 4-2-4 lines. “Allergy Flower” has minimal hindrance on a Victreebel deck because it contains only 6 Trainers, which should be played as mentioned above with Spiritomb or with Seeker and Broken Time-Space to return Vileplume to your hand, play the Trainer(s), and play it back down again.
Well into the game, you may find yourself with 2 or 3 fully charged Victreebel in play and extra Energy in your hand. If G Energy has been rationed carefully (4 or more remain in the deck) it’s OK to attach them to Vileplume. While Dazzling Pollen may seem like a mediocre attack, it still does a respectable 70 damage or 50 damage + Confusion. The latter will put your opponent in a difficult bind. When the defending Pokémon is Poisoned, Burned, and Confused, there is a very high chance it will be Knocked Out by special conditions going into your turn. At the end of the opponent’s turn the defending Pokémon has a…
25% chance to get damaged by Confusion + Burn + Poison = 60 damage
25% chance to get damaged by Confusion + Poison only = 40 damage
25% chance to get damaged by Burn + Poison only = 30 damage
25% chance to get damaged by Poison only = 10 damage
Based on these percentages, the chances of the defending Pokémon being Knocked Out going into your turn according to their remaining HP are
10 HP = 100%
20, 30 HP = 75%
40 HP = 50%
50, 60 HP = 25%
70+ HP = 0%
Keep in mind this is assuming Vileplume uses Dazzling Pollen and you flip tails, an unlikely scenario because Vileplume will not be attacking often, but it is useful information to have should the situation arise. Simply using “Acidic Drain” to inflict Burn + Poison we get
50% chance to get damaged by Burn + Poison = 30 damage in between turns
50% chance to get damaged by Poison only = 10 damage in between turns
Based on these percentages, the chances of the defending Pokémon being Knocked Out going into your turn according to their remaining HP are
10 HP = 100%
20, 30 HP = 50%
40+ HP = 0%
As expected, the outcome is easier to predict when fewer variables are involved. So why all this trouble over attempting to Knock Out the defending Pokémon going in your turn?
4 Bellsprout
This deck would not be possible without this 40 HP fragile flower. “Inviting Scent” drags any Pokémon on the bench to the Active Spot for only 1 C Energy. Victreebel has access to this attack as long as Memory Berry is attached and whatever is made active will stay there to be disposed of by your method of choosing. When the defending Pokémon is KO’d, the opponent will send out their main attacker.
If it happens going into their turn, Victreebel or something else in play will have to suffer an attack. If the KO happens going into your turn, their best option would still be to promote the main attacker, but it wouldn’t matter because “Inviting Scent” drags up another appropriate target for the lock. Here is a list of common (some less common than others) Pokémon to target with “Inviting Scent.”
Rayquaza LA
Regice LA
Regirock LA
Registeel LA
Azelf LA
Mesprit LA
Sableye SF
Giratina PL
Bronzong G PL
Spiritomb AR
Smeargle UD
Solrock TM
What do you do when a Pokémon has been locked active?
pokebeach.com4 Weepinbell
“Corrode Target” is the second locking layer and it establishes a very frustrating situation for your opponent. Imagine one of the above targets held active in an SP deck while you whittle away its HP and discard their LV.X’s, Double Colorless Energies, and Cyrus’s Conspiracies. Or play Judge followed by “Corrode Target” to discard the remains of their hand. Granted, the attack requires a coin flip, but the active Pokémon should have a Retreat Cost of at least 3, taking “Tangling Tendrils” into account.
If they attach energy in an attempt to retreat, “Corrode Target” can remove energy from their hand, too. This is also your best counter to Warp Energy, to discard it before it’s attached. You might argue that Warp Energy would be used before I can get to it with “Corrode Target,” but the card is useless until a main attacker on the bench is fully charged. Otherwise, they would switch to a Pokémon incapable of doing significant damage and “Inviting Scent” or “Acidic Drain” repair the situation. Against a 70 HP target, statistics predict you will flip 3-4 heads.
However, as previously stated, you should let special conditions KO the defending Pokémon at the end of their turn. Weepinbell has an attack to control that, too. “Poisonpowder” simply inflicts Poison. But when used on a Pokémon with 20 HP remaining, the ideal scenario described earlier occurs. Four Weepinbell are used because its attacks are integral to the deck and the primary setup is via Spiritomb, not Rare Candy.
Of course, none of these strategies would work if nothing held the active Pokémon in place.
4 Victreebel TM
Layer three of the Victreebel/Vileplume lock is the “Tangling Tendrils” Poké-Body. Even with “Allergy Pollen” working, the attackers and support Pokémon in most decks today have either zero or one Retreat Cost, making special conditions ineffective against them. “Tangling Tendrils” is exactly what this type of deck needed to push it beyond the competitive barrier. Low Energy decks like Donphan, Kingdra, and Machamp would especially struggle against Victreebel on account of needing to find enough Energy to constantly retreat and attack.
Furthermore, anything trapped active can’t use its Poké-Powers if affected by special conditions. “Acidic Drain” allows Victreebel to heal after possibly taking some damage from the techs and support Pokémon it traps. Later in the game you may want to attach Expert Belt to get faster KOs (pick up Vileplume with Seeker). [Insert Victreebel TM Picture]
Since no one ever agrees on matchups, I will instead give advice on how to play against certain categories of decks.
Versus Stage 1/Stage 2 Swarm: Generally running little energy and a high Trainer count, you want to see if they play any suitable targets for a lock before attaching Memory Berry. Most likely they will prioritize consistency over techs, so you can forgo Memory Berry for Expert Belt and 2HKO their attackers while healing off the average 60 damage most of these deck generate.
Versus SP w/o Dialga G and Blaziken FB: Set up a Victreebel with Memory Berry before getting Vileplume out so you can use “Inviting Scent” to disrupt their field. Azelf, Bronzong G, Smeargle, and Sableye are all good targets for “Inviting Scent.” Play Judge if they accumulate too many cards, as Victreebel needs minimal resources to sustain itself, especially while healing 30 HP every turn.
A Garchomp C LV.X will be entangled and 2HKO’d by a Victreebel with Expert Belt before it gets hit with 2 “Dragon Rushes.” A Bright Looked Vileplume can be returned to the bench with Warp Energy, picked up (along with the Warp Energy) with Seeker, Rare Candy or Tools can be played, and Vileplume returns to the bench through Broken Time-Space. The “Corrode Target” lock can be very useful, particularly after a Judge or when caught with few cards in their hand.
Versus SP w/ Dialga G and/or Blaziken FB: Letting the LV.X of either hit the field puts you at a massive disadvantage. Do anything to avoid this. In a best case scenario, you can trap an Azelf or Bronzong G, play Judge (unless you know the LV.X is in their hand) and hope for heads with “Corrode Target.” Then, get to work on discarding Aaron’s Collection. Keep an open bench space for Unown Q to help retreat a “Luring Flame” target.
pokemon-paradijs.comVersus Gyarados: This game could be either incredibly fortunate or catastrophic. First of all, if they don’t run Warp Energy you win by trapping anything on the bench and letting it get KO’d by special conditions. But most will run Warp Energy, though, so the scenario you have to set up is KOing a Gyarados without Rescue Energy attached with Vileplume in play (preferably using Judge in the same turn). Combee thwarts that plan, so save Judge until the KO is about to happen. Gyarados will see more play largely because of Junk Arm. With any luck, they will never use a single Trainer and their hand will be clogged with useless cards preventing a significant “Set Up” by Uxie.
Versus Trainer Lock: Besides Gengar/Vileplume, I have seen Drapion/Vileplume make a splash in the mid-Atlantic region. The way to beat Gengar/Vileplume is to wait until you have 3 or more Trainers, Supporters, and Stadiums in your hand before playing Judge. Victreebel runs them in relatively small amounts, so Poltergeist should not exceed 60 damage. The 6 Trainers in your deck will most likely be useless for the entire game, unless your opponent sees your Vileplume and decides not to play their own.
While Victreebel heals off Poltergeist damage, Gengar should be KO’d by special conditions between turns unless the opponent wishes to pay the two Retreat Cost. Drapion attempts to lock the active as well, only through an attack. Use your Warp Energy in combination with Seeker to both get Victreebel out of Poison or Paralysis and heal it, sending an undamaged Victreebel to attack. “Acidic Drain” may turn off “Tri-Poison,” but they will probably attach Warp Energy to get rid of the special conditions. Ultimately, I believe the lower energy cost of Victreebel’s primary damaging attack will allow it to prevail.
Versus Tank: Steelix Prime is the worst deck Victreebel can face. I can advise you to Inviting Scent a Blissey or Steelix Prime with no Energy (it would have a Retreat Cost of 6), but “Acidic Drain” will eventually do no damage and at that point it’s time to pick up your cards. Scizor Prime is much easier to handle because it can be overwhelmed by special conditions and has lots of techs like Skarmory, Azelf, Sableye, Spiritomb, and Smeargle to trap.
Versus Spread: Gallade 4 LV.X and Abomasnow are ineffective against Victreebel because of Trainer lock and the deck being Grass type, respectively. Against Giratina, you will want to Inviting Scent their Giratina with no energy, let it get KO’d going into your turn, then attempt to trap something else. It will take four “Darkness Lost” attacks to win the game. Solrock TM will increase Giratina’s popularity, but for Victreebel it’s simply a new victim that can be dragged up, then 1HKO’d with weakness .
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed this article. Comment and let me know your thoughts on the deck.
I like this deck idea–In fact, when I first saw Bellsprout/Victreebell, I thought “WOW, attach a Memory Berry and this thing is awesome.”–But I think this deck could use a 1-1 Dodrio UD tech instead of 2 Warp Energy. Dodrio ensures all the Pokemon in your deck have free retreat, so you don’t have to worry if they get active.
it should be active all game unless in certain situations. never should have to retreat it 30 heal 30 + burn and poison no reason to not just let it get KO’d it will take even a luxray 3 turns to ko 1.
it should be active all game unless in certain situations. never should have to retreat it 30 heal 30 + burn and poison no reason to not just let it get KO’d it will take even a luxray 3 turns to ko 1.
there is no way you can attach memory berry with tomb starts and plume…. need to fix this problem or this wont work. already tested.
ALSO palmers over flower shop lady and no expert belt.
“Before evolving into Vileplume, attach Unown Q to Spiritomb and retreat it to Bellsprout, Weepinbell, or Victreebel. Attach the Tool and Warp Energy to switch back to Spiritomb. Finally, evolve into Vileplume with either Darkness Grace or from your hand.”
Reading Decklists without analysis is just plain lazy….
Good Deck btw, but I agree that 2 more bebe’s>>>>>expert belts.
there is absolutely no way to get memory berry out late game and its even hard for you to get it out early game think it through a little more and put certain decks in front of you and it should show you that you really dont have that many options.
there is absolutely no way to get memory berry out late game and its even hard for you to get it out early game think it through a little more and put certain decks in front of you and it should show you that you really dont have that many options.
that play requires alot of work to simply attach a tool… the warp energy and memory berry plus unown q in hand that early is not consistent or reliable at all. 2 warp energy and 2 tools and 2 unown q in the deck, and you have to have one of each wont happen before your opponent gets going.
i like the idea, but i bet he’ll find getting the memory berry on his victreebels consistently will be problematic IMO
that play requires alot of work to simply attach a tool… the warp energy and memory berry plus unown q in hand that early is not consistent or reliable at all. 2 warp energy and 2 tools and 2 unown q in the deck, and you have to have one of each wont happen before your opponent gets going.
i like the idea, but i bet he’ll find getting the memory berry on his victreebels consistently will be problematic IMO
I see this deck as being more of speed Victrebell with a 1-1-1 Vileplume line. You setup and then in the right time drop a vileplume.
The traditional lock deck build won’t work here because you need memory berry’s.
You have a decent deck here, but need a little more work on it.
I don’t know if that’d work as you’d have a lot worse match via SP, wouldn’t you? No trainer lock would hurt, I’d imagine.
I think this idea seems pretty good, but something needs to be tweaked to be the best it can be.
scrap the memory berry idea. go with cyrus’s initiative or Weavile UD
Saw someone playing around with a deck like this at the Triumphant Prerelease I went to. Hadn’t seen that Victreebell yet, but it has some serious potential. Might be a serious rogue deck for cities.
Saw someone playing around with a deck like this at the Triumphant Prerelease I went to. Hadn’t seen that Victreebell yet, but it has some serious potential. Might be a serious rogue deck for cities.
wheres the sunflora love.
I agree. I think Sunflora would be good in something like this, a 2-2 maybe considering most your deck I grass Pokemon. It also works well in Jumpluff/Vileplume so I don’t see why it wouldn’t work in here.
Yea, Sunflora could help a lot.
Ok, I see a lot of people saying it will be impossible to attach Memory Berry with Spiritomb out and late game. What happens is if the Warp Energy trick isn’t applicable I either retreat Spiritomb with Unown Q into Victreebel, attach the Memory Berry, then evolve into vileplume from my hand or if I need to play a tool later, I can use Seeker to pick up Vileplume (only with Broken Time-Space out or with Rare Candy in hand). 1-2 more Bebe’s Search wouldn’t hurt, but there’s simply no room for them in the list I prefer. I’m not saying you have to play this exact list, this is just the build that works for me and is able to set up most of the time in a timely manner. Expert Belt is an important alternative to Memory Berry because otherwise the damage output against efficient decks like Machamp, Kingdra, and Donphan is relatively poor, even with the special conditions. The increased survability is worth it and 1 Victreebel can tank through several Donphan/Kingdra/Machamp, made even more effective when their recovery and set up are limited through Trainer lock.
Won’t you have Vileplume out by late game? If you really are looking to rely on Memory Berry and Expert Belt, a 3rd or so Seeker would be the play so you can have a greater chance at picking it up and dropping it again after attaching your tools with Broken Time-Space.
Pokemon Contest Hall? just try to have a way to get rid of it vs. sp matchups… E-gains love pch…
interesting.. very interesting
i love the idea. keep ideas like this coming, dude
umbreon= wall. you need to put in an LA victreebel.
It has an awesome free attack
I like the idea, is just that dialga g lv x is really popular. I mean, most luxchomp run it, dialgachomp is based around it. Sablelock usually runs blaziken. However I supposed it will do really good against stage 2 decks.
why not run cherrim sf to boost dmg and heal? =D
You’re saying that it can go either way against Gyarados? Sorry, but I really don’t see it. As you mentioned most Gyarados players will be running warp energy. There are also some players who run Blissey Prime, and since you dont do anywhere near enough damage to 1 or even possibly 2HKO, theyll just reheal every couple of turns. In my case, I run a Mesprit, and I use to lock the beginning of the game against unwanted Uxies/Azelfs.(In your case that would thwart the Unown Q plan). My Regice will ALWAYS keep my hand free of useless cards. I sometimes even use his power twice by picking him up. The Regice will also let me use trainers at the beginning of the game by switching Spiritomb. (You’d have to have two, but at that point youre not grabbing other needed cards). If you dont have a Vileplume by turn 2 or 3, there will be a BELTED Gyarados who will 1HKO the Victreebel. And even an unbelted one will 1HKO the Victreebel even as it heals.This isn’t meant to be a bash btw. I like this deck idea in general. I love lock decks. But Gyarados WILL kill this deck. Too much damage too quickly
Deck looks extremely and I honestly love the unique-ness. I can see this being a Hinder in Gengar Decks. I personally play VileGar and currently looking into Gengar Prime for the rest of this format and so-on. Reason i say that is because I exploit Gengars Retreat of 0 quite a bit. Specially with Seeker in the format now. Take damage, retreat seak, BTS and get it back out.
One deck I see overpowering this deck though is Machamp Prime. With his power, basically giving any pokemon on their side a free retreat could seriously be a huge down fall to this deck, specially sense Machamp Prime would easily be able to OHKO V-Bell with 110 hp.
To keep speed consistency, you may want to think about running Rescue Energy? May be a stupid suggestion but maybe trying to fit in 2 may not be a bad idea. If your V-Bell is gonna die, just have it and the evo line return to your hand and evolve it as turns go on. It only requires 2 energy, so It could be tough to do.
Hope this helped :) and once again, I appreciate the deck uniqueness.
Great article dude, props on the concept, I have a few suggestions. I would certainly include another Memory Berry or a Department Store Girl given how important Inviting Scent is to the deck. I would drop 1 TR Victreebel for the LA version which has an excellent first attack. Vileplume LA is also an option but only if you are going to run Rainbow Energy. I would drop the Call Energy and increase the Warp Energy count. Add another Bebes for consistency.
Lastly I would recommend Metapod HS and Shaymin Lv.X but I see your point about DGX shutting off their Bodies
Love this Deck and its strat….but I would keep an Eye out for Blaziken FB and Charizard AR….it would be good to run Dialga G Lv X….well done again keep on writing bro…peace :)
-Cyrus’s Initiative and/or Weavile UD wouldn’t work in this deck because it can’t explode with big damage once they run out of resources.
-Cherrim SF can boost damage, but doesn’t increase healing, which is set at 30 HP in the text. I don’t think it warrants the bench space.
-Umbreon is a problem. I suppose you can attack with Gloom? lol It’s too rare of an encounter. Victreebel LA kind of combines Victreebel TM’s and Bellsprout’s attacks into one, but the second attack cost and lack of the helpful Poke-Body really limits its options after using Burning Scent. Certainly something to try.
-Sad to say, but Machamp Prime (if run in 2 or more) destroys this deck. Nothing can be locked active and it can potentially OHKO a Victreebel.
-I would say Gyarados is an unfavorable match-up, especially with Warp Energy + Seeker giving it a perfect out against this deck.
-Sunflora works in a Jumpluff deck because you need to recover very quickly. Not the case here with Victreebel stalling for many turns, giving you time to get more of them out.
Really like this idea!! Thinking about trying this out. I love grass type decks.