Hey guys! I wanted to write a quick article because a lot of people have talked about Jumpluff and Beedrill being really similar at the last couple of tournaments I went to and I wanted to hear some more opinions about what deck people think is better in a competitive tournament (or if you think the decks are basically the same.) I’m going to try to compare the basic strategy between each deck, what advantages/disadvantages each deck has, and what match-ups would be good or bad against each deck.
Strategy:
Beedrill:
Focus/Objective: Beedrill decks are usually focused around getting Beedrill’s attack, band attack, to do as much damage as possible, by getting as many Beedrill into play as fast as possible. Band attack does 30 damage times the amount of Beedrill you have in play, so the maximum amount of damage you can do is 120, without tools/techs.
Drawing Power: Most Beedrill decks use either one or more Claydol GE/Beedrill RR to try to search for cards to set up the max 120 damage the Beedrill GE can do. Claydol GE does the expected “Cosmic Power” to try to search for cards that you need and Beedrill RR uses the Poke-Power “Flutter Wings”, which allows you to search for a grass type Pokémon in your deck and then lets you put it into your hand.
Overview: Overall Beedrill is a very consistent deck that can cause a lot of damage if played right and sets up extremely fast.
Jumpluff:
Focus/Objective: Jumpluff decks are currently based on trying to do as much damage with Jumpluff’s attack, Mass Attack, by getting as many Pokémon in play as fast as possible. Mass Attack does 10 damage times the amount of Pokémon in play (both yours and your opponent’s). Overall the maximum damage you can do is 120, just like Beedrill, if you are not using any tools/techs.
Drawing Power: To search for cards to make the deck faster and more consistent most people I have seen usually use one or a combination of Claydol GE and Sunflora HGSS. Claydol is used for the ALWAYS popular “Cosmic Power” ability and Sunflora HGSS uses the Poke-Power, “Sunshine Grace”, which allows you to search for a grass type Pokémon in your deck and put into your hand.
Overview: Jumpluff is an insanely fast deck that can constantly attack with a lot of damage if played correctly.
Advantages/Disadvantages:
Beedrill:
Advantages:
• Can constantly cause an insanely large amount of damage
• Attack costs only one grass energy card
• Has a free retreat cost
• Sets up extremely fast
• Has a decent amount of HP for a stage 2 Pokémon
• Easily recovers after a kill
• Beedrill is Epic
Disadvantages:
• Completely walled by Mr. Mime MT
• Can get killed in 1 or 2 shots by most decks
• If you lose the ability to play trainer cards you will suffer tremendously
• Has a +30 weakness to fire types (not too bad except for match-ups against Blaziken FB and Charizard)
Jumpluff:
Advantages:
• Can constantly cause an insanely large amount of damage
• Attack costs only one grass energy card
• Has a free retreat cost
• Sets up extremely fast
• Easily recovers after a kill
• Jumpluff is Epic
Disadvantages:
• Completely walled by Mr. Mime MT
• If you lose the ability to play trainer cards you will suffer tremendously, not as bad as Beedrill in my opinion
• Has a x2weakness to fire types (not too bad except for match-ups against Blaziken FB and Charizard)
• Very low HP for a stage 2 Pokémon
Match-Ups:
Beedrill Match-Ups:
Diagla G vs. Beedrill: Chances are that Diagla G would easily win by just using Deafen because Beedrill really relies on using trainers to set up and Diagla G is so bulky that it is really hard to kill.
Garchomp C vs. Beedrill: Overall the winner would probably be Beedrill because it would probably be able to survive getting attacked at least once and it could set up faster.
Jumpluff vs. Beedrill: The winner would probably be who ever could set up faster!
Gengar vs. Beedrill: Beedrill would easily get killed by Gengar considering all of the trainers, stadiums and supporters you will most likely have in your deck and Gengar is really difficult to kill without getting knocked out yourself.
Machamp vs. Beedrill: Beedrill would easily win considering Machamp can do almost nothing to Beedrill because Beedrill can easily set up and Machamp can’t cause a lot of damage to Beedrill.
Shuppet vs. Beedrill: Shuppet would most likely win because most Shuppet decks use Mr. Mime MT and Beedrill suffers a lot from not being able to attack quickly.
Gyarados vs. Beedrill: Beedrill will probably win against Gyarados because Beedrill can usually take a hit when battling against Gyarados and Beedrill can usually hit harder.
Flygon vs. Beedrill: Flygon would probably win against Beedrill because Flygon would most likely discard something that would be essential for Beedrill to have and Flygon has a lot of HP.
Charizard vs. Beedrill: Even though Beedrill does have a weakness to Charizard, Beedrill would be able to set so fast that Charizard couldn’t keep up with Beedrill.
Donphan Prime vs. Beedrill: Although I have not had a lot of experience battling against Donphan Prime, I believe Beedrill would be able to simply overpower Donphan, unless Beedrill was not setup fully.
Jumpluff Match-Ups:
Diagla G vs. Jumpluff: I think Jumpluff would actually win because it can cause a lot of damage quickly and Jumpluff doesn’t rely on trainer cards as much as Beedrill.
Garchomp C vs. Jumpluff: The winner was usually Garchomp C because it was actually harder to protect the bench, then when I was using Beedrill.
Beedrill vs. Jumpluff: The winner would probably be who ever could set up faster!
Gengar vs. Jumpluff: Almost all the Pokémon I had in play had a Poke-Power, which made my bench really easy to kill.
Machamp vs. Jumpluff: Jumpluff would easily win considering Machamp can do almost nothing to Jumpluff because Jumpluff can easily set up and Machamp can’t cause a lot of damage to Jumpluff.
Shuppet vs. Jumpluff: Shuppet usually won because of Mr.Mime MT.
Gyarados vs. Jumpluff: Gyarados usually won because it was able to kill Jumpluff in one hit because of Jumpluff’s low HP.
Flygon vs. Jumpluff: Jumpluff had a lot of trouble against Flygon and usually lost because of Flygon’s power and Jumpluff’s low HP.
Charizard vs. Jumpluff: Jumpluff was able to move so fast that it usually killed off Charizard before it could set up.
Donphan Prime vs. Jumpluff: Jumpluff was easily able to kill off Donphan Prime because Jumpluff was able to take a few hits because of its resistance.
My opinion:
Overall I thought, both decks were pretty much the same kind of deck because they both used a strategy that was the same and all of the cards that were usually in each deck, did the same exact thing! There were only a few differences I found in the decks that may have made me like one of the decks better.
1. When playing Jumpluff my opponent was able to somewhat control the amount of damage I could cause by only playing a certain amount of Pokémon.
2. Beedrill needs to have certain Pokémon in play to be able to do the max amount of damage, which was a problem when I had a lot of Beedrill’s evolution cards prized, unlike Jumpluff who could cause the max amount of damage by playing any kind of Pokémon.
3. Jumpluff doesn’t rely on using trainer cards as much as Beedrill does, which helps when playing against Diagla G or Spiritomb AR.
4. Jumpluff usually could have a lot more techs in play.
Please comment on my article! Which deck do you think is better? Please leave constructive criticism!
