Flycatcher Fever (Victreebel/Vileplume Deck Analysis)

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 Poke-Body and attack more than make up for that when combined with Vileplume UD.

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 Pokemon 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 Pokemon like Azelf, Uxie, and Spiritomb will have a retreat cost equal to Giratina, and a printed cost of 3+ means the Pokemon 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 position. Naturally, Poke Turn, Warp Point, and Switch would be played to get around the trapping effect. This is where Vileplume comes into play. Its “Allergy Flower” Poke-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 Pokemon 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 Pokemon 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 Grass 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.

2 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 Grass 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 Pokemon 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 Pokemon 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 Pokemon 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 Pokemon 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 Pokemon going in your turn?

4 Bellsprout
This deck would not be possible without this 40 HP fragile flower. “Inviting Scent” drags any Pokemon on the bench to the active position for only 1 Colorless 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 Pokemon 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) Pokemon 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 Pokemon has been locked active?

4 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 Pokemon 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 Pokemon 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 Pokemon at the end of their turn. Weepinbell has an attack to control that, too. “Poisonpowder” simply inflicts Poison. But when used on a Pokemon 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 Pokemon in place.

4 Victreebel TM
Layer three of the Victreebel/Vileplume lock is the “Tangling Tendrils” Poke-Body. Even with “Allergy Pollen” working, the attackers and support Pokemon 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 Poke-Powers if affected by special conditions. “Acidic Drain” allows Victreebel to heal after possibly taking some damage from the techs and support Pokemon it traps. Later in the game you may want to attach Expert Belt to get faster KO’s (pick up Vileplume with Seeker). [Insert Victreebel TM Picture]

Since no one ever agrees on match-ups, 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.

Versus 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 OHKO’d with weakness .

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed this article. Comment and let me know your thoughts on the deck.