Discussion Viability of Ancient Origins Vileplume

[Ghazernado]

Many people have bee discussing Vileplume from Ancient Origins and have been saying it pairs very well with Giratina-EX to create the ultimate lock. I believe the deck can be good, but there's one problem with the strategy: Lysandre. You see, Vileplume (also, should I include an image of Vileplume?) has a retreat cost of three, perfect Lysandre bait. There's no adequate solution to this problem that doesn't clunk up your deck. Switch, Super Scoop Up, and Escape Rope are out because of Vileplume's ability. AZ? Well, I suppose so, but you give your opponent access to items again. The best solution is to run fairy energy and Fairy Garden, but that clunks your deck, and you have to devote resources to retreat Vileplume. So, how can you get past this Lysandre road block?

 

[Lanstar]

AZ is Probably your best bet, for if giant plant forest is in play, you can easily put Vileplume back on the bench the same turn. No problem about that...

The main problem Vileplume will deal with outside of that are Ability Disablers like Wobbuffet and Hex Maniac. In that way, Vileplume's item lock won't be permanent all the time.

 

[Talkingcat]

AZ is Probably your best bet, for if giant plant forest is in play, you can easily put Vileplume back on the bench the same turn. No problem about that...

The main problem Vileplume will deal with outside of that are Ability Disablers like Wobbuffet and Hex Maniac. In that way, Vileplume's item lock won't be permanent all the time.

AZ, almost certainly. Some people will use it aggressively- AZ, play items, then put Vileplume back.

But still, you can't always count on having your choice of stadium in place, or having AZ when you neeed it. And overall it's a combination of several moves, which makes it inherently inconsistent.

 

[squiggleblorg]

I'm sort of looking forward to it in expanded, paired with Exeggutor & Vileplume you can lock items and supporters and keep more reliable poison damage than you could with hypnotoxic laser, maybe run one or two virbanks along with giant plant forest, run few items yourself, would take some working but could make a terrifying rogue deck for day 2 of regionals if worked on

 

[TheStrictNein]

I'm sort of looking forward to it in expanded, paired with Exeggutor & Vileplume you can lock items and supporters and keep more reliable poison damage than you could with hypnotoxic laser, maybe run one or two virbanks along with giant plant forest, run few items yourself, would take some working but could make a terrifying rogue deck for day 2 of regionals if worked on

Dammit, we need a good cheap Fire type card to come into this meta

 

[squiggleblorg]

Dammit, we need a good cheap Fire type card to come into this meta

yeah the problem with most fire pokemon is they are all designed around this "big damage, discard lots of energy" system that only really makes them well suited to be the main core of a deck, although flareon ancient origins might be the choice, i can see quite a few decks running a thin line of various of those eeveelutions to counter all kinds of decks, but I don't really know if that will end up being viable in the long run since there are all sorts of downsides to having them (unreliable if running a thin line or various types, the one you need could easily get prized, kinda squishy, stage 1 so not instant evolution without an energy attachment) but that's for a different topic entirely i think!
Edit: If M sceptile or various decks including ariados or vileplume become popular i can definitely see that flareon seeing play more play than the others though (Jolteon is nice and all but Altaria nerfs it in the only real deck where its likely to count, I can't even think what good cards are weak to water for vaporeon to matter, camerupt is about all that springs to mind, please tell me if i'm being silly and forgetting something important!), it just remains to be seen how good those decks end up being

 

[asdjklghty]

Entei (non-Ancient Trait) seems to be a more splashable counter. I feel he's been overlooked. For 2 Fire energy, he does basically Absol's Mind Jack.

 

[squiggleblorg]

Entei (non-Ancient Trait) seems to be a more splashable counter. I feel he's been overlooked. For 2 Fire energy, he does basically Absol's Mind Jack.

yeah I just saw that while looking through cards from Ancient Origins, definitely looks like a viable card. also saw that Flareon is of less use since it only changes the type of stage 1 pokemon (forgot about that bit)

 

[aernold]

az is probably the only way i see get rid of an active vileplume. cassius is also a another choice, but that gets rid of the vileplume along with its pre-evos