Standard Banette+Vileplume-Double Trouble Lock Deck

[Brown_Unibrow]

****** Pokémon Trading Card Game Deck List ******

##Pokémon - 18

* 1 Shaymin-EX ROS 77
* 2 Lugia FAC
* 3 Oddish AOR 1
* 3 Gloom AOR 2
* 3 Vileplume AOR 3
* 3 Shuppet ROS 30
* 3 Banette ROS 32

##Trainer Cards - 32

* 4 Ultra Ball
* 4 Trainers' Mail
* 4 Acro Bike
* 2 Float Stone
* 2 VS Seeker

* 4 Professor Sycamore
* 3 N
* 2 Team Flare Grunt
* 1 Teammates
* 1 Hex Maniac
* 1 Olympia
* 1 Skyla

* 4 Forest of Giant Plants

##Energy - 9

* 6 Psychic Energy
* 3 Double Colorless Energy

Total Cards - 60

****** Deck List Generated by the Pokémon TCG Online www.pokemon.com/TCGO ******

The overall strategy is to lock evolution with Banette, and items with Vileplume while denying energy with Team Flare Grunt and dealing damage with Burst Balloon and attacks. The Shrine of Memories is to give me access to Shuppet's "Bleh" attack for further energy denial.

When building the deck, I had Regice in there to handle EX decks, but with Banette doing only 20 damage (which is resisted by most Steel types) and Regice being weak to Steel, you can tell why I started using Entei. Another issue with Regice was that I had to have Psychic, Water, and DCE energy in my deck which overall made the deck less consistent. I chose Entei because he's a Basic, his attack costs only 1 fire energy, and I had nothing better. I'm definitely open to suggestions for other anti Steel types.

EDIT: Something I didn't add, a second problem I have is in the trainer department. It's hard finding the balance between Items and Supporters. If I have too many Items, my deck is dead once I get Vileplume up, which is usually turn one or two. If I don't have enough Items/too many Supporters, I can't get Vileplume up in a reasonable amount of time.

I've been thinking about adding a 2-2 Octillery line to keep the draw power going, but then my Pokemon space will be even tighter. I'll end up having the 3-3-3 and 2-2 lines I have now, plus the 2-2 Octillery, AND my anti Steel/"anything that does more than 20 damage as a Psychic Pokemon" Pokemon.

The deck is being used purely online, I stopped playing IRL competitively about a year ago.

EDIT2: I removed the Zoroark line, yet kept the Float Stones. Zoroark ended up not being very useful and only made the deck less consistent. Because of my lack of secondary attackers, I added a second Lugia. I kept the Float Stones because I can attach them to Vileplume directly and use him as a pivot I can retreat from after one of my Pokemon are KO'd, or to get an Oddish/Gloom out of my active slot.

I added an extra Trainers' Mail and Acro Bike to improve consistency, making it easier to get to my Float Stones and other early game cards.

Olympia is a secondary switch card that I can use in conjunction with a Float Stoned Vileplume for basically a free 30 damage heal by switching into Plume, then retreating back to the heal Pokemon.

With most of my Pokemon having low HP and being fairly easy to set up, I figured Teammates was a good option. If I have an active Banette that gets Ko'd with a Shuppet on the bench, I can Teammates for the Energy+Banette and get another set up right away. It also helps in case my Plume is pulled in then OHKO'd. With Teammates, I can search for the Gloom&Plume then have item lock set up once again. It is, however, a bit more situational.

 

[Yog]

What do you do if Vileplume is Lysandre'd? Float stone is turned off via Banette (not that you have one). I don't see any switching cards at all, no Rush In Zoroark, no Fairy Garden or Manaphy free retreat.

A clever player here will let you deck yourself out while you are only hitting for very minimal damage. Turning off people's Spirit Links is no good if you give them all the time in the world to manually evolve. I imagine it is a frustrating deck to play against, but also extremely easily defeated.

Unfortunately I don't think Banette & Vileplume work well together at all. I don't know what advice to give if the fundamental idea behind the deck is flawed. What is your hoped-for win condition?

 

[Brown_Unibrow]

What do you do if Vileplume is Lysandre'd? Float stone is turned off via Banette (not that you have one). I don't see any switching cards at all, no Rush In Zoroark, no Fairy Garden or Manaphy free retreat.

A clever player here will let you deck yourself out while you are only hitting for very minimal damage. Turning off people's Spirit Links is no good if you give them all the time in the world to manually evolve. I imagine it is a frustrating deck to play against, but also extremely easily defeated.

Unfortunately I don't think Banette & Vileplume work well together at all. I don't know what advice to give if the fundamental idea behind the deck is flawed. What is your hoped-for win condition?

At one point, I had a 2-2 Zoroark line and 3 DCEs, but that got dropped because my opponent never put enough Pokemon on the bench for me to do damage.

I don't see how they would manually evolve if Banette is blocking the opponent's ability to manually evolve their Pokemon.

I wanted Banette because he seemed like a fun card. My idea was for Banette to block out evolution so he could hit those little 60-90 HP Basics. I guess I should've put this in the original post. I didn't know what to pair it with, and figured I should use other lock Pokemon. I went with Vileplume for 2 reasons. 1) He can get set up turn one, just like Banette. My hope was to get turn one dual lock. It happens sometimes, but the deck still needs work.
2) Vileplume can block the opponents Special Charge, so once I remove their Special Energies, they're gone so Banette can worry less about being hit by those DCE-charged Pokemon. A situational thing that can happen is I block out their Evosoda with Vileplume, but that's a rare sight.

Any suggestions for other Pokemon to pair with Banette?

EDIT: I didn't realize until now that you were thinking of the Tool Lock Banette. I'm using the Ancient Trait Evolution Lock Banette.

 

[Yog]

Oh my apologies, indeed I was thinking of Tool Concealment Banette, rather than Evo Jammer. Still, what do you do if Vileplume is Lysandre'd? Every deck carries at least one if not two.

I guess it can take out evolution decks, and it ought be decent against special energy reliant decks too, but some of the biggest baddest decks in format right now are neither of those things. I still feel like you need to find at least one way to swing in for heavy hits when required. Even a stray single Lugia line or something.

 

[Brown_Unibrow]

Oh my apologies, indeed I was thinking of Tool Concealment Banette, rather than Evo Jammer. Still, what do you do if Vileplume is Lysandre'd? Every deck carries at least one if not two.

I guess it can take out evolution decks, and it ought be decent against special energy reliant decks too, but some of the biggest baddest decks in format right now are neither of those things. I still feel like you need to find at least one way to swing in for heavy hits when required. Even a stray single Lugia line or something.

When Vileplume get Lysandre'd, I usually let it die and get a second set up. Not really any other way to deal with it.

The Pressure Lugia that hits for 60 or 120 if attacking an EX? That's actually a really good idea.

What do you recommend using as a switch card? I could use Olympia, but I feel it'd be hard to get it when I need to.

Do you think I could do:
-2 Entei
-4 Fire Energy
-1 Shrine of Memories
-4 Burst Balloon

And then:
+2 Zoroak
+2 Zorua
+2 Float Stone
+3 DCE
+1 Lugia

One slot left to do things with. I could add another Trainers' Mail or Acro Bike, keep the Shine of Memories, remove another card and out in a 1-1 Octillery line. (though I think that'd raise my amount of Pokemon too much)

 

[Yog]

Looks better alright.

I have found the one deck where Steven is actually worth playing is in Vileplume lock decks. He allows you to find that one-off awkward supporter like your Olympia or your Ninja Boy, and with the slower pace under lock, not such a waste as he is otherwise.

 

[Brown_Unibrow]

Looks better alright.

I have found the one deck where Steven is actually worth playing is in Vileplume lock decks. He allows you to find that one-off awkward supporter like your Olympia or your Ninja Boy, and with the slower pace under lock, not such a waste as he is otherwise.

I made a few other changes. I figured Skyla would be more useful than Steven, so I left him out.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Brown_Unibrow]

My one and only bump, now gone...