Discussion Best Partner for Decidueye-GX (Standard)

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Wockomtosh

Aspiring Trainer
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So I've heard a lot of hype around Decidueye-GX, or at least I'm super hyped about it, and I was wondering what would partner best with it? I suppose it could stand on it's own, but probably not very well, especially with Volcanion running around. I think Pidgeot-EX would be a good partner (but then again I'm probably biased because I love that card), because Pigeot could deal consistent damage with sniping the bench, and mirror move if your opponent decides to fight back. Combine this with disruption, and it could make an amazing deck, but I just don't know how to build it just right. Also, I'm sure I'm missing something. In expanded there is Seismitoad, and I'll definitely build that, but I would love to see Decidueye make his mark in standard.
 
Pidgeot would be O.K. but not necessarily good enough. It does all of the points you said but also is just too plain weak. I prefer when it comes to small Bench sniping to use Hoopa, which, for 1 or any Energy, does 20 to 2 of your opponents Pokémon, and it is a 1 Prize attacker. Sorry to say this, but I feel that the main and only Advantage Decidueye-GX has over Alakazam-EX/M Alakazam-EX is Hollow Hunt, which is not that big a difference. What might be big in here is maybe trying to use Wailord-EX and also some Hex Maniacs, to give you a better Volcanion matchup for that bulk. My last thought is adding Taurus-GX, as it takes a DCE for all of its attacks, which Decidueye can also use if you have a grass Energy from maybe using Hollow Hunt. Tauros-GX also can hit very hard for only that DCE too while it takes up damage, and makes it easier to eachive knockouts. I hope you found this helpful! :)
 
I'm going to be making a lugia ex deck with ducidueye. as lugia very splasable and combined with the 20 snipe from each mon it's quite quick and hits fast
 
Decidueye GX is a lot like Greninja, but more consistent at the cost of decking out quicker and giving up more prizes. When thinking about Decidueye partners, think about the limited space you have as well as the chances that you prize several Decidueye pieces. Can his partner clear out the field for you if need be?

In this order, Decidueye pairs well with any card that can:
-Output damage for low energy quickly, though not necessarily high damage, both as a main attacker or just to counteract games where your owls start slow
-Help you maintain your Decidueye line by searching out cards or locking up your opponent
-Address its glaring Volcanion weakness
-Likes abilities and can put some to good use

You ideally want something that is NOT COMPLEX. No stage 2s. No Big breaks. Can charge in 1 turn, or has item cards that provide similar bonuses. Vileplume, while cool, is out unless you tech rare candy. Chesnaught BREAK, don't hold your breath, is out.

Suggestions:
  • As previously stated, Lugia EX or Yveltal EX. Both can get moving fairly quickly and capitalize on your opponent's energy. It's no secret that the 20 damage per energy attack has been absolutely killer since Mewtwo EX's X Ball.
  • As previously stated, Tauros GX attacks for a DCE and does so aggressively. He will be sponging hits and then charging onwards like a madman.
  • Lurantis GX. Everyone loves energy acceleration, and Lurantis is an all around feel-good buddy who can get your owls attacking on their own two wings. While this strategy pays off more late game, that kind of field is where Decidueye GX shines. After two of Lurantis's first attack, each of your owls can have one energy a pop, and this may/ may not just be basic grass.
  • Latios EX. This guy is built to donk. With 4 decidueye and 40 damage, you hit 120 T1, going first, enough to KO an Oranguru or lower. This combo is frankly ludicrous, however, Decidueye is generally not going to get this big donk in every game, and afterwards, Latios may prove lackluster. He may just be a 1-of tech for MLG plays UNTIL choice band comes out.
  • Espeon GX. Hear me out. His GX attack puts 10 damage counters wherever you want on the board, like a free turn of Decidueye resets. You can position multi-KOs with your birds to aim to quickly clear the field, and win. Just win. You can also use Espeon as a fairly stable main attacker with a 1 energy attack whose previous evolution's ability lets him evolve turn one. Steam Siege Drifblim also does roughly this as a one prize attacker, but is less useful overall and with an energy discard drawback. Really, the goal here is a big end game.
  • M Sceptile EX Really a good thing to have for the mirror. This bad boy's mega evolution, with ancient trait theta stop, will prevent opposing big birds from KOing it with their abilities. Whoops. It also shares an attacking type, an attack that heals your own guys AND attaches energy to them... Seriously, this makes the mirror a no-brainer.
  • Bunnelby. You're going to be running lots of deck laxative. With no Lysandre's Trump card, you've got a very ugly situation where you like playing a late game, but you don't have the cards left to finish off the endurance of your birds. This forest friend helps you out and is a quick one prize attacker who can also mill the mirror. While by no means a major partner, this could be a fun tech. Coincidentally, his attack is like a slightly weaker Hollow Hunt.
  • Mega Alakazam. This guy, while a more resource-needy build, screams to be paired with some damage acceleration. The deck would focus much more on Alakazam than Decidueye, but you could be dealing 40-80 damage from Decidueye, plus 20 + 30 from the mega evolution without even using an attack. Big if true.
  • My personal favorite, Trevenant EX. Forgot about him, right? Well, I did too. This tree deals damage on a model much like Keldeo EX with a one energy attack that stops the foe from retreating. The gist of Trevenant is that you use Lysandre to lock in an opponent's Pokemon to the active, and use bench damage to take KOs while they dig for switch cards. Where have we seen a strategy like this? Fright Night Yveltal, and boy, was he a big threat recently, as well as one of my favorite cards. Trevenant is hands down the best partner for Decidueye because he gives you almost complete control of the board, and he can still use some big attacks with customizable damage. Just give it a try and realize this tree is where your favorite salad bird should roost.
Decidueye decks will definitely crave the new timer ball item, as well as old staples level ball, Broken-Time Space (of Giant Plants), ultra ball. Revitalizers will prove key to streaming birds should one succumb to a stray ember. Devolution spray will be big in this deck, but is not a necessity. Puzzle of time as well as hammers may see some love, but ultimately this bird is for late game, and you need to not deck out once you get there.

Poor choices you may be tempted to make:
  • Vespiquen. No. You already play 12 pokemon designed to permanently stay on the field, which leaves you about 10-12 more slots for the usual Pokemon count in a bees deck. Don't do it.
  • Araquanid. No. The deck is so full of stuff as it is even a 1-1 line is a little heavy for a tech against just ONE big matchup. If you can't get it out, then its a waste of space! bad card for Decidueye unless we get a grass type Dewpider, in which case, this tech is still bad. Weakness policy is better, especially vs Hex maniac or even a garb if your opponent is crazy.
  • Vileplume. No. You already play 12 OTHER pokemon you usually want out T1. Vileplume added on to this is just a resource eater. You like trainer cards, probably more than you care to admit
  • Shiinotic. No. Just because it is in sun and moon doesn't make it good. If you search for this guy off of one of your search cards, you're literally wasting everyone's time by not searching for more owls. Anyone who decides after playtesting that this is worth keeping is clearly on shrooms.
EDIT: I now know that Vileplume works with Decidueye. The strategy I had in mind was abusing as much extra damage per turn as possible, and did not really think about how great the item lock could be. THAT SAID, I stand by my original claim, because running 2 stage 2s can make your deck brick, then lose.
 
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Thank you so much! That's perfect, and now I have plenty of builds to test. I especially love the idea of Trevenant, I totally forgot him. It does a similar thing to seismitoad that I've heard of, though not quite as strong. I could see that being huge though, especially with Shaymin being in every deck, and float stone being the retreat option of choice. Forcing them to dig will be nice. And it hits Greninja pretty hard, which I would love to take down :)
 
What do you guys think of Shiinotic in this deck? It could be really helpful, but I can also see it being in the way a ton. It would be very helpful getting the owls out though, so I'm not sure what to make of it. It could also grab Trevenant if necessary, or any other grass type partners.
 
I'm going to run my build with Pidgeot-EX because I think it can force my opponent to do something they don't want to and with FoGP in the format, you can get something out fast and rather than waiting for them to hit you first, you can be applying pressure. Backed by Bursting Balloon, you can make your Mirror Moves do 140 more damage. I'm actually working on the list now.
 
After testing with Shiinotic, I've realized that it is absolutely horrible. You waste a search card and a bench space, both of which you could just be using for your owls.

Regarding the thread's question, I think that Lugia, Tauros, and just attacking with Decidueye are the three best options. Trevenant hits hard, but your focus is Decideueye, so getting a Trevenant out early is going to be extremely tough. Although Tauros-GX can be decent, I think it lacks the ability to hit hard early before it's damaged, making it the worst of the three good options. Lugia could be fairly good, as long as we still have the option to use Decidueye as a backup attacker.
 
I'm also leaning away from Tauros, I don't think he will be able to hit the big numbers in a lot of situations. Trevenant ex is a basic, so I think that will be just as easy to get out as any of the others, and it can function on its own or with Decidueye as backup. I see your point with Lugia though, it runs DCE which helps Decidueye and lugia, and it can hit some big numbers with stadium disruption too. My main concern is mega Mewtwo with that, but who knows if that will be viable. Trevenant doesn't have a great matchup there either, but it can attack for a single energy with disruption, which I really like. It gives plenty of time to spread damage and prepare some owls on the bench. And yes, Shiinotic does not seem as good as originally thought, I doubt I'll include it in my list.
 
How do you guys feel about using Promo Celebi? Obviously much less focused on raw damage output but its a 1-prize attacker, is easily streamed, and also spreads damage. If you're lucky it may not even give up a prize forcing your opponent to take around 6 KOs as opposed to 3 or 4, which translates to more turns of Feather Arrow volleys.
 
Arizaiaz said:
How do you guys feel about using Promo Celebi? Obviously much less focused on raw damage output but its a 1-prize attacker, is easily streamed, and also spreads damage. If you're lucky it may not even give up a prize forcing your opponent to take around 6 KOs as opposed to 3 or 4, which translates to more turns of Feather Arrow volleys.
Click to expand...
I like this as a method of prize denial, but its better for late game. It's also not as effective at stalling compared to Trevenant, but the prize denial chance is certainly worth investigating if your opponent runs out of Lysandre-esque resources.
 
Interestingly enough, I pre-ordered a near-complete play-set of Decidueye GX cards, not for Standard play as much for Expanded... But, your thread's heading did pique my interest and I did not want to possibly miss any possible Standard opportunities.

So, after reviewing the various comments above, I'd like to also share a few thoughts:
  • From my experience, one still needs to be able to inflict "meaningful" output damage when attacking in order to still take prizes. With Garbotoxin, Hex Maniac, Lysandre, Parallel City, etc., players may still be able avoid game losses by just managing their resources well IF your attacking Pokémon does not inflict sufficient damage.
  • Volcanion with Volcanion EX will be the bane of any Decidueye GX deck. As long Volcanion can leverage multiple Steam Up Abilities, Volcanion (Entei, Flareon EX and/or Volcanion EX) can easily 1HKO any of your G Pokémon. IMO, this matchup will be a near auto-loss for any G deck regardless of G-type Pokémon. Another advantage Volcanion EX decks may have s Rough Seas for some healing. Should you get 3+ Decidueye GX (and/or Shaymin EX) into play, you provided your opponents the Lysandre - 1HKO targets for game. So, if Volcanion EX decks are popular in your area, then consider also running Weakness Policy too or the new SM Muk.
  • I definitely think pairing Decidueye GX with M Tyranitar EX or Alakazam EX has solid merit since you will have a capability of 1HKO'ing many, if not all, Defending Pokémon.
  • A combo of Decidueye and the Eeveelutions (Flareon (AOR), Espeon GX, Jolteon (AOR), Umbreon GX, and Vaporeon (AOR)) seems interesting too and worth investigating.
  • In addition, Decidueye GX with Yveltal (Fright Night) and its BREAK will also be on my list of combos to investigate for Standard play.
Needless to say, I have lots of play-testing ahead.

I hope you find my comments helpful.
 
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After some more testing, here are my thoughts:
  • A pure Decidueye build is definitely the best. The first big reason is bench space. You want to, ideally, have three or four owls on the bench, and you're going to be using at least one Shaymin. That's a minimum of four bench spaces. Often, you are going to have one bench space free, which really isn't enough to run a separate attacker. The other big thing is consistency. If you run another attacker you have to get out that and then your owls which slows down your setup a lot. Not to mention running a big line of owls as well as attackers takes up a bunch of space which hurts your consistency even more. It's a lot more reliable and efficient to just run pure Decidueye.
  • I think it's a must to run two Revitalizer. Otherwise, it's fairly difficult to constantly have a good amount of Decidueye on the board when they start getting KO'd.
  • A 4/2/2 Ultra/Level/Timer Ball split is really consistent and effective, I'd recommend it.
  • When it comes out, Choice Band is going to be great with Decidueye when it comes out. A Razor Leaf plus three Feather Arrows and a Choice Band gets you a OHKO on non-belted EXs if you need to. It also makes everything a 2HKO with one Feather Arrow, so that's good. Kukui is also decent, Razor Leaf, three Feather Arrows, and a Kukui OHKOs a belted baby Yveltal. It also gets you the OHKO on Shaymin, so you can spread damage to places where it'd be more useful.
  • Even with Weakness Policy, the Volcanion matchup is pretty horrible. Often, you'll only be able to use one Weakness Policy in a game, and they knock out the owl with it, they can just steamroll through the rest of your 'mons. Alternatively, they could just Lysandre around it. You could run Eco Arm, but they uses up yet another space, and it really won't shift the game in your favor too much. Alolan Muk is even worse, there are ways they can easily knock it out, and you have to dedicate a bench space and four deck spaces. To be honest, I'd just give up on the Volcanion matchup.
  • Garbodor isn't too big a problem. When the Trubbish comes down, just make sure to Feather Arrow it once before it evolves, then Lysandre it up later and one shot it with Razor Leaf. Optimally, you get two turns worth of Feather Arrows on it or Lysandre it and KO it before it evolves, but that can be tough to do.
 
xTITAN said:
After some more testing, here are my thoughts:
  • A pure Decidueye build is definitely the best. The first big reason is bench space. You want to, ideally, have three or four owls on the bench, and you're going to be using at least one Shaymin. That's a minimum of four bench spaces. Often, you are going to have one bench space free, which really isn't enough to run a separate attacker. The other big thing is consistency. If you run another attacker you have to get out that and then your owls which slows down your setup a lot. Not to mention running a big line of owls as well as attackers takes up a bunch of space which hurts your consistency even more. It's a lot more reliable and efficient to just run pure Decidueye.
  • I think it's a must to run two Revitalizer. Otherwise, it's fairly difficult to constantly have a good amount of Decidueye on the board when they start getting KO'd.
  • A 4/2/2 Ultra/Level/Timer Ball split is really consistent and effective, I'd recommend it.
  • When it comes out, Choice Band is going to be great with Decidueye when it comes out. A Razor Leaf plus three Feather Arrows and a Choice Band gets you a OHKO on non-belted EXs if you need to. It also makes everything a 2HKO with one Feather Arrow, so that's good. Kukui is also decent, Razor Leaf, three Feather Arrows, and a Kukui OHKOs a belted baby Yveltal. It also gets you the OHKO on Shaymin, so you can spread damage to places where it'd be more useful.
  • Even with Weakness Policy, the Volcanion matchup is pretty horrible. Often, you'll only be able to use one Weakness Policy in a game, and they knock out the owl with it, they can just steamroll through the rest of your 'mons. Alternatively, they could just Lysandre around it. You could run Eco Arm, but they uses up yet another space, and it really won't shift the game in your favor too much. Alolan Muk is even worse, there are ways they can easily knock it out, and you have to dedicate a bench space and four deck spaces. To be honest, I'd just give up on the Volcanion matchup.
  • Garbodor isn't too big a problem. When the Trubbish comes down, just make sure to Feather Arrow it once before it evolves, then Lysandre it up later and one shot it with Razor Leaf. Optimally, you get two turns worth of Feather Arrows on it or Lysandre it and KO it before it evolves, but that can be tough to do.
Click to expand...
I agree with all of this. The only pokemon I've chosen to run besides the owls and Shaymins is a single Promo Celebi. Mainly as a way to force a 7 prize game but it also helps in the early game against Garb. Getting that 10 damage on Trubbish/Garb means a single Lysandre/Razer Leaf play will eliminate the problem relatively risk free. Which is handy if you somehow whiffed the turn 1 Decidueye.
 
I'm still not convinced that pure Decidueye is best, but maybe it needs to be run with fewer attackers. Pure Decidueye forces you to keep recycling owls, when I would prefer to leave them on the bench to snipe. That's the idea behind Seismitoad/Decidueye, which I've heard has seen great success in Japan. I could be wrong about that of course, but I think he needs some sort of partner, though they would probably have to be a basic. Any other evolutions would get in the way. I like the idea of Trevenant, but that can be played around fairly easily (not benching pokemon to get trapped, extra switches, etc). I love the idea of promo celebi, but just one or two. And though I just said no evolutions would work, maybe an Eeveelution would work with it, due to the new eevee being so easy to evolve, though that still takes up a lot of deck space.
 
xTITAN said:
After some more testing, here are my thoughts:
  • A pure Decidueye build is definitely the best. The first big reason is bench space. You want to, ideally, have three or four owls on the bench, and you're going to be using at least one Shaymin. That's a minimum of four bench spaces. Often, you are going to have one bench space free, which really isn't enough to run a separate attacker. The other big thing is consistency. If you run another attacker you have to get out that and then your owls which slows down your setup a lot. Not to mention running a big line of owls as well as attackers takes up a bunch of space which hurts your consistency even more. It's a lot more reliable and efficient to just run pure Decidueye.
  • I think it's a must to run two Revitalizer. Otherwise, it's fairly difficult to constantly have a good amount of Decidueye on the board when they start getting KO'd.
  • A 4/2/2 Ultra/Level/Timer Ball split is really consistent and effective, I'd recommend it.
  • When it comes out, Choice Band is going to be great with Decidueye when it comes out. A Razor Leaf plus three Feather Arrows and a Choice Band gets you a OHKO on non-belted EXs if you need to. It also makes everything a 2HKO with one Feather Arrow, so that's good. Kukui is also decent, Razor Leaf, three Feather Arrows, and a Kukui OHKOs a belted baby Yveltal. It also gets you the OHKO on Shaymin, so you can spread damage to places where it'd be more useful.
  • Even with Weakness Policy, the Volcanion matchup is pretty horrible. Often, you'll only be able to use one Weakness Policy in a game, and they knock out the owl with it, they can just steamroll through the rest of your 'mons. Alternatively, they could just Lysandre around it. You could run Eco Arm, but they uses up yet another space, and it really won't shift the game in your favor too much. Alolan Muk is even worse, there are ways they can easily knock it out, and you have to dedicate a bench space and four deck spaces. To be honest, I'd just give up on the Volcanion matchup.
  • Garbodor isn't too big a problem. When the Trubbish comes down, just make sure to Feather Arrow it once before it evolves, then Lysandre it up later and one shot it with Razor Leaf. Optimally, you get two turns worth of Feather Arrows on it or Lysandre it and KO it before it evolves, but that can be tough to do.
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With weakness policy I actually found the volcanion match up not that bad, well thats just from my experience with a two of in my list (while play testing)
 
Well I'm also very interested in running Decidueye in standard and one of the best partners I found in my testing is Glaceon EX:
  • Decidueye ability helps to buff its "Second Bite" attack
  • It can be a wall for evolved pokemon like Megas and Breaks. Plus, it seems that deck with evolutions will become more prominent following SM expansions.
  • It uses DCE as your Decidueye.
  • It helps a lot with the Volcanion matchup.
Besides that I also run one Taurus GX and Lugia EX so I can Ninja boy Glaceon when it is badly damaged or if I need to hit big numbers with both Lugia attacks.

When we can use choice band, it will practically one shot Shaymins (thank to Feather Arrow) and 2HKO everything else

EDIT: I forgot to mention that you have to run at least a couple of rainbow energies for consistency if you want to use any of Decidueye attacks
 
Pure decidueye is the best. You need 2 shaymin to go through your deck and 4 spots for sniping. 90 Damage on turn 2 isn't even that bad, and you really just want to snipe benched shaymins with this deck anyway, so its nice to have an attack like this, not to mention his gx attack is great to. If the active has low hp you can let it get knocked out, and you can use:
*Hollow hunt to get them back
*Revitalizer
*super rod
*or let them stay dead
You could also manually retreat for a DCE
Also while playtesting and my decidueye dies, I can super rod and then VS Seeker for sycamore and since my deck is relatively thing get the decidueye out just like that.
What im saying is pure decidueye is the most consistent and is easiest to use, while at the same time preforming the best.
 
MegaCentral said:
Pure decidueye is the best. You need 2 shaymin to go through your deck and 4 spots for sniping. 90 Damage on turn 2 isn't even that bad, and you really just want to snipe benched shaymins with this deck anyway, so its nice to have an attack like this, not to mention his gx attack is great to. If the active has low hp you can let it get knocked out, and you can use:
*Hollow hunt to get them back
*Revitalizer
*super rod
*or let them stay dead
You could also manually retreat for a DCE
Also while playtesting and my decidueye dies, I can super rod and then VS Seeker for sycamore and since my deck is relatively thing get the decidueye out just like that.
What im saying is pure decidueye is the most consistent and is easiest to use, while at the same time preforming the best.
Click to expand...
But, "pure" Decidueye GX has a definite (IMO) auto-loss to one of the most popular decks right now: Volcanion. In addition, should your opponent manage to get Garbodor into play, will you be able to counter Garbotoxin "in time"?

Are these situations acceptable to you to play a "pure" Decidueye GX deck at a major tournament? Just curious to know your thoughts.
 
I'm my build, I'm using two Pidgeot-EX and a single Shaymin-EX. The biggest problem is the lack of space so your partners need to take as little space as possible since you're giving 16 spots for the bird and stadium. On top of that, you want to be running pretty much 10+ ball cards so you can get them down quickly. You also don't want that many cards in your hand that sit there. You pretty much want to burn your first few turns. I'm also going to test with four Unown just for more card draw. You pretty much want to get like three Decidueye-GX down on the first turn if you can. Your best partners IMO are Pokemon that can snipe and next to Pidgeot-EX and Yveltal Fright Night, you don't have that many.

TuxedoBlack said:
But, "pure" Decidueye GX has a definite (IMO) auto-loss to one of the most popular decks right now: Volcanion. In addition, should your opponent manage to get Garbodor into play, will you be able to counter Garbotoxin "in time"?

Are these situations acceptable to you to play a "pure" Decidueye GX deck at a major tournament? Just curious to know your thoughts.
Click to expand...

If you see a Trubish come down, you put as much damage as you can on it and Lysandre it next turn. That same thing happened to me today at league and thats what I did. When the other Trubish came down, I put 60 on it and sniped it off with Pidgeot-EX. It is scary but if you set up well, you can remove it or set it up before it becomes a real problem.
 
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