pokebeach.comHello 6P Nation! Today I’m here with a card requested by coolestman22 on TCGScans.com: Vileplume UD.
Vileplume is a Stage 2 Grass Pokémon with 120 HP. He has a x2 Weakness to Psychic, no Resistance, and a hefty 2 Retreat Cost. 120 HP is considered kind of low for a Stage 2 nowadays, and the 2 Retreat Cost isn’t fun either. So far it seems like a “meh” sort of card. Let’s hope the attacks/powers help him out.
Well, the attack certainly does not: Dazzling Pollen does, for the cost of GGC, only 50 damage and tells you to flip a coin; if heads it does 20 more damage, if tails the opponent is Confused. 50 damage is a very low output for three energy when you can do 60 for one with Donphan or 120 for three with Reshiram or Zekrom. But, as you can see in the picture to the right, Vileplume also has a Poké-Body to help it out; and help it does. Allergy Flower reads that neither player can play any Trainer-Item cards during his or her turn; yikes! This is the precise reason people use this card. Let’s take a look at where Vileplume is used.
Currently, Vileplume’s favorite spot is alongside Mew. Mew Box has been talked about numerous times, and for a reason. It is a Tier 1.5 – Tier 2 deck that has been played to victory before: two-time World Champion Jason Klaczynski won the Top Cut Challenge with it at Worlds :O It has also won two Battle Roads in Masters, two in Seniors, and none in Juniors. OK, maybe it’s not the best deck, but hey, it’s still worth putting out there :P
A deck that hasn’t been talked about in a while that uses Vileplume is Misplume: Mismagius UD and Vileplume. The deck is almost a copy of last format’s (MD-On) Vilegar; Mismagius has the exact same Poltergeist attack that Gengar SF did. The main strategy of the deck is to lock your opponent from playing Trainer-Items and use Mismagius’ Poltergeist attack to do 30 damage times the amount of Trainer-Items, Trainer-Supporters, and Stadiums in their hand. I don’t know about you, but I think that this deck deserves some HS-EP testing.
pokebeach.comAnother forgotten deck with Vileplume is LostGar. While this didn’t really have much success, it still deserves a talk. The goal of this deck is to use Gengar Prime’s “Hurl Into Darkness” attack to get six Pokémon in the Lost Zone. You then can lay down the Stadium Lost World from Call of Legends to declare yourself the winner — wait, what???
Yep, the Stadium card Lost World has created a new way to win: it says that if your opponent has six or more Pokémon in the Lost Zone, you can declare a win. So combine that with Gengar’s attack that puts Pokémon in the Lost Zone and you’ve got yourself a pretty nifty combo. But wait; I said that Vileplume is supposed to be in the mix; where does he fit in? Well Vileplume slows down the game enough that Gengar Prime can get enough Pokémon in the Lost Zone.
But why isn’t LostGar used very often? Well, the thing is that it sucks in Top Cut format (best-of-three in 60 min), which is why it almost never had any success (with the exception of when it got 2nd place in the European Cup, but that was last format; if you’re interested in it, read Franco’s first article). Now obviously this deck isn’t the greatest, but I think it should at least be tested a little (my friend is actually testing a LostGar list right now).
Finally, Vileplume is used in the now-famous Ross.dec. Ross Cawthon played a crazy rogue deck to 2nd place at Worlds which included Donphan, Zekrom, Reuniclus, Vileplume, Pichu, and Tropical Beach. Basically you use Donphan’s Earthquake to damage the bench, and then use Reuniclus’ Ability to move the damage counters to Zekrom. Then Zekrom can finish the field with Outrage. Vileplume is there to slow the deck down enough to be able to compare with the speed of the metagame decks. Pichu is there to search out all the basics you need, and Tropical Beach is there to give you draw. Complicated set-up, but very good. It has had moderate success at BRs, and like I said earlier, got 2nd place in the Masters division at Worlds. This is definitely a deck you need to test against.
Conclusion
So it isn’t the greatest card, but Vileplume has been led to moderate success in this metagame, and I think it deserves some more adequate testing. What do you think about Vileplume? Have you had any success with him? Do you have any more deck ideas? Please comment in the section below. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see ya next time. Bye!
Check out my website for more Pokémon TCG, Pokémon VG, and Stop Motion articles!!!
Just like how Gothitelle’s been dominating, I know of a Vileplume deck that’s been dominating (which my friend didn’t take to BR’s, but oh well.) I think it’s situational whether or not Vileplume’s good – If you’re facing a snipe deck (Stage 1 Rush – Yanmega, or T-Tar/Mandibuzz), your Oddish (or your Vileplume) will be taken down within 3 or 4 turns. But if your opponent’s deck relies on trainers (as some decks do), then Vileplume is great to have. It all depends on the deck you’re facing, and, personally, I would choose Gothitelle over Vileplume because, even though Gothitelle has to be the active pokemon, at least you can use Catcher with Gothitelle.
“Why are all the good players starting to play Vileplume?”
“Because all the good players don’t like getting Catcher’d for 6 prizes” -Ness
Something I feel worth mentioning, though rather obvious, is in today’s format, before you make any deck, you really have two options: Pokemon Catcher or Vileplume. Some may run both, but considering Vileplume really needs to be out by T2 or T3 to be very effective (stopping the other player from quickly setting up with trainers, particularly Junk Arm) then I do not really see a point. You do describe several decks that Vileplume can be used in, however, when you write a COTD you may want to get into a little more detail about the uses of the card in general. An example:
At my Battle Roads I played a Vilebox (Vileplume/Dodrio/Yanmega/Cinccino/Zekrom/Reshiram) and found that if it was already T3 or T4 and I had not set up Vileplume, I was already in some trouble and may not even need bothering putting the flower out. Fast decks are very popular now (I guess they always have been?) and playing against a Cinccino/Yanmega/Kingdra deck or a Tornadus/Weavile/Zoroark, they were already fully set up and hitting me for either 80 or 110 (Cinccino w/ Kingdra drop) by T3 due to my not getting a Collector T1 and not getting Vileplume out soon enough.
To wrap this all up, it seems to me that Vileplume can crush many decks by disruption (especially with big name trainers coming out soon like Evolite and Rocky Helmet) due to such a high reliance on trainers seen in many decks (like ZPST) and the fact that it is basically an auto-win to Gothitelle. We are in a unique spot right now with Vileplume and Gothitelle being the only counters to Pokemon Catcher. The problem? Getting the flower out fast and consistently enough to actually do this “disruption crushing” before your opponent is crushing you.
Before Battle Roads, I was confident that I could consistently got my Vileplume out by T3 as that was always how it went in testing and playing. After Battle Roads, I realize now, if I did not get a Pokemon Collector T1 or T2, this did not necessarily happen. Pichu may be a solution, but it seems babies are quickly dissapearing, and even if you do abuse the Twins engine for him, there is always the problem he will get stuck sleeping and let your opponent set up while you scramble around for the big green flower. I pray we may get a solution for this consistency issue and trainer lock can become just as viable as Catcher, but until then, decks are just a bit too fast for Vileplume to always work.
Vileplume/ Ttar Prime.
I do not think that I could ever do well in a tournament if I did not use a deck with Vileplume in it.
its a good card paired with a skilled player and a deck that suits it.
Yeah, it is a little difficult for a newer player to use Vileplume. Maybe I was over-exajerating when I said I could never do well, but hey, it locks a lock of decks out of direly needed cards so you know, that’s why I love it so much.
Gothitelle and Vileplume are both just ok. They have potential like a Sharpedo TM Vileplume UD Slowking HS and Victini deck will be the bdif after noble victories.
I’m a bit confused as to how Gengar’s ability is advantageous to traditionally knocking out Pokemon. After all, the Pokemon in question has to be “knocked out” by an attack to put it into the Lost Zone; you would draw a prize regardless of where it goes. And, as Gengar’s attack calls for six such Pokemon in the Zone, is it not the same as merely knocking out Pokemon without the hassle of the Zone? I feel like I am missing something obvious here.
There are two attacks: Hurl Into Darkness, which simply puts Pokemon from your opponent’s hand equal to the amount of Psychic on Gengar into the Lost Zone, and Cursed Droplets can traditionally KO Pokemon as well as put them into the Lost Zone (because of the Catastophe body).