Standard Solid Volcanion/Volcanion EX deck!

[LovelyBuns]

Hi guys! This is my take on a Volcanion/Volcanion EX deck!

Deck is still in construction!

Pokemon - 10
4x Volcanion (STS)
4x Volcanion EX (STS)
1x Shaymin EX (ROS)
1x Hoopa-EX (AOR)

Supporters - 11
3x Professor Sycamore
2x N
2x Lysandre
1x Skyla
1x Professor Birch's Observations
1x Pokemon Ranger
1x Fisherman

Trainers - 25

4x VS Seeker
4x Ultra Ball
3x Trainers' Mail
2x Energy Switch
2x Energy Retrieval
2x Professor Oak's Letter
2x Fightning Fury Belt
2x Switch
1x Super Rod
1x Float Stone
1x Weakness Policy

Stadium - 3

2x Scorched Earth
1x Parallel City

Energy - 12
12x Fire Energy

A small breakdown of why everything is there ~

Less basics are always nice in this deck as we're aiming to start of with Volcanion as a starter, not only that bench space is really important in this deck! Cards also cycle through the deck pretty fast so only one Shaymin is needed in this case.

Ninja boy and Ranger both help with Volcanion EX's drawback of not being able to make a second attack. Escape ropes also help too! By attaching float stone to another pokemon, you can get another attack off while maybe disrupting your opponent.

Possible techs/changes?

I didn't choose to run Hex Maniac solely because it's a supporter. With Garbodor and Vileplume trying to lock most decks I think the best way to deal with it is to hold Lysandres in hand and just deal with them directly. Hex is a great card still! But it doesn't treat the problem for later turns.

 

[cymonguk]

I'd be tempted to start with a Hoopa-ex, I love Volcanion but it suffers from being pretty slow. Getting Hoopa out allows you to pick up the Volc-Exs and get even the basic attacks running at 90-120 early

 

[LovelyBuns]

I'd be tempted to start with a Hoopa-ex, I love Volcanion but it suffers from being pretty slow. Getting Hoopa out allows you to pick up the Volc-Exs and get even the basic attacks running at 90-120 early

I love running Hoopa-EX in this deck! But it takes up space on my bench + I'm scared I may start with it haha

I might swap out a normal Volcanion for now for one Hoopa-EX and see how we go I know how easy it is to set up with him and ultra ball

Thanks for the input!

 

[cymonguk]

It is always worth testing variations out. I might also be tempted to try swapping scorched earth for skyfield if running hoopa.

 

[cymonguk]

Another test is to get Blaziken swapped for Flareon it is less consistent but allows you to pull energy from the discard for the mid game.

 

[LovelyBuns]

Right! I saw on another person's deck list that they ran Dragonite-EX too! It would be an awesome combo that could work alongside sky field and gives you a reason to run 4 Volcanion EXs!

I'll definitely look into the Blaziken as well thanks for the suggestions again

 

[TuxedoBlack]

First of all, your list is solid; I don't see any "holes" per se that require a fix. So, my follow-on comments may reflect more of my play style and the meta-game in my general area.

A few comments for your consideration:

• I've incorporated 1 FCO Mew as a tech against M Mewtwo EX decks (quite popular here). In addition, it also helps in the mirror match. Another very helpful tech for the mirror match is Weakness Policy.
• Running only Professor Sycamore and N can actually hurt you at times in that you can replenish an opponent's hand (via N) when you may not really want to. Adding a Judge, Professor Birch's Observations, Professor Oak's Hint, and/or Shauna can provide greater card-draw diversity which can be quite helpful at times.
• For active Pokémon switching purposes, I run a mix of 2 Escape Rope, 1 Float Stone (the new EVO Rattata is gaining a lot of popularity right now), and 1 Olympia.
• Running 1 Parallel City can also be quite helpful in 2 ways: 1) you can reduce your bench size in order to remove unwanted Pokémon (e.g., Hoopa EX, Shaymin EX, and wounded Volcanion EXs), and 2) this Stadium can reduce the bench size of opponents running decks like M Rayquaza EX and Rainbow Force.

Why no Rough Seas? Some players also run Sky Field Stadiums (before EVO Dragonite EX was released) - thoughts?

I hope you find these comments helpful.

 

[LovelyBuns]

First of all, your list is solid; I don't see any "holes" per se that require a fix. So, my follow-on comments may reflect more of my play style and the meta-game in my general area.

A few comments for your consideration:

• I've incorporated 1 FCO Mew as a tech against M Mewtwo EX decks (quite popular here). In addition, it also helps in the mirror match. Another very helpful tech for the mirror match is Weakness Policy.
• Running only Professor Sycamore and N can actually hurt you at times in that you can replenish an opponent's hand (via N) when you may not really want to. Adding a Judge, Professor Birch's Observations, Professor Oak's Hint, and/or Shauna can provide greater card-draw diversity which can be quite helpful at times.
• For active Pokémon switching purposes, I run a mix of 2 Escape Rope, 1 Float Stone (the new EVO Rattata is gaining a lot of popularity right now), and 1 Olympia.
• Running 1 Parallel City can also be quite helpful in 2 ways: 1) you can reduce your bench size in order to remove unwanted Pokémon (e.g., Hoopa EX, Shaymin EX, and wounded Volcanion EXs), and 2) this Stadium can reduce the bench size of opponents running decks like M Rayquaza EX and Rainbow Force.

Why no Rough Seas? Some players also run Sky Field Stadiums (before EVO Dragonite EX was released) - thoughts?

I hope you find these comments helpful.

Thanks for the awesome input!

Mew is a great idea in the deck actually, being a one prize attacker and against M Mewtwo decks which i'll try find room for a bit later.

I might take out a Float Stone for a Weakness Policy against any water decks I may go up against, including mirror matches.

I used to run both 2 N and 1 Birch, but I found the risk of flipping heads a bit too inconsistent. I might put in a Shauna instead of another N so i'll give that a try.

I've chosen to run 3 Scorched Earth because its' a great engine to discard energy and combos great with professor oak's letter. I actually forgot about Volcanion-EX being both a fire/water type for a second! So the thought of Rough Seas left my mind for a second. It's definitely worth trying but i'll need to rework some of the trainers.

What I might try to play test later on is:

- 3x Scorched Earth
- 1x N
- 1x Float Stone
- 3x Max Elixir
- 1x Ninja Boy

For:

+ 1x Skyla
+ 2x Sky Field
+ 1x Parallel City
+ 1x Dragonite EX
+ 1x Shauna
+ 1x Weakness Policy
+ 2x Energy Switch

I find that Max Elixir can be pretty risky sometimes in setting up as it's not a 100% you'll land anything. With energy switch I think it'll be a nice way to set up Volcanion-EX's attack turn 2 and saving energies in the deck for later.

What are your thoughts on the changes? Really nice input again thanks

 

[21times]

I've been working on adding a 2-2 line of Starmie. I've also been running 2 Hoopa, 2 Shaymin, and 3 Flareon EX with no baby Volcanion. I know it's somewhat controversial, but I have a ton of data that supports the Flareon version of this deck over the baby Volcanion version when I go up against Volcanion (meaning, I beat Volcanion a lot more when it doesn't run Flareon). I've only just started working Starmie into my Volcanion deck though, and I haven't got enough solid testing behind it to claim that it's a tier 1 deck yet.

 

[LovelyBuns]

I've been working on adding a 2-2 line of Starmie. I've also been running 2 Hoopa, 2 Shaymin, and 3 Flareon EX with no baby Volcanion. I know it's somewhat controversial, but I have a ton of data that supports the Flareon version of this deck over the baby Volcanion version when I go up against Volcanion (meaning, I beat Volcanion a lot more when it doesn't run Flareon). I've only just started working Starmie into my Volcanion deck though, and I haven't got enough solid testing behind it to claim that it's a tier 1 deck yet.

That Starmie is a really interesting choice and nice idea!! It'll be fun to play around with and searchable with Dive Ball too! I may try this 2-2 line out for fun + it'll give me an excuse to run dive balls ahaha

Not entirely sure how you'd set up the Flareon-EX fast enough without the use Volcanion so that's pretty interesting too...but hey! Everyone has their own little preferences here and there.

Thanks for sharing the build! Maybe when Breaks become popular you could throw in a sneaky Starmie Break

 

[TuxedoBlack]

What are your thoughts on the changes?

Now that you are about to test your revised list that includes Sky Field Stadium, you may also want to add a 4th Volcanion EX (for an additional Steam Up opportunity), as well as a 4th Volcanion (to maximize your chances of starting with it).

Without the Scorched Earth for supplemental card-draw support, you'll only have the 1 Shaymin EX, 3 Professor Sycamore, 1 Shauna, and 3 N. Will these be sufficient to provide you with consistent, card-draw support throughout a game? I prefer to run 1 Shaymin EX with a minimum of 8 card-draw Supporters. Aslo, given the increased bench size (via Sky Field), is this a time to also include a 2-2 Octillery line for testing too?

I too have a love-hate relationship with Max Elixir.... I've tested with and without them, and have had mixed results. When I've hit them, they're great; but when I go 1 for 4, they're not so great... However, in a mirror match, you will be at a disadvantage should your opponent run and hit his/her Max Elixirs. Given my experience, I've observed increased Garbodor and/or Hex Maniac play; so, my stance is to be as agressive as I can with this deck and Max Elixir fuels that aggression most of the time. Lol.

For me, the "jury is still out" on including Dragonite EX in this deck. I can see pluses (getting 2 Volcanion EX for 2 additional Steam Up in order to KO a major threat or win the game, and retrieving a discarded Shaymin EX and/or Hoopa EX for replay), as well as negatives (e.g., "extra" Lysandre targets on the bench...). I need to test this Pokémon in order to assess its value.

I'd also suggest keeping the Ninja Boy since it can be a clutch play to swap to Basic (e.g., Volcanion EX) for a Mew to KO a M Mewtwo EX.

 

[LovelyBuns]

Thanks for more great info!

I'll stick to the current build for now and see how we go. I've made a couple of changes on the deck list but nothing too drastic. The Mew-EX is a placeholder for Mew until I can get one, or maybe it could work against some mewtwo matches? Say if they were to knock out a benched ex with 3 energies and you had a Volcanion with one energy on bench you could put that as your active and swap it for Mew-EX for an easy Psychic Infinity?

UPDATE: Leaving Mew-EX out for now, waiting on a normal Mew maybe.

More Pokemon is definitely needed in a Sky Field build but the hard part would be on what to take out...

Octillary would be perfect for Sky Field! It'll also give me another reason to run dive ball as well. The trouble is I need to find some now...ahaha

I'll be testing out 4 Max Elixir instead but I'm kind of reluctant... I'll be trying to draw out energies using Professor Oak's Letter and I'll be discarding energies from hand as well... Would I have enough energies in deck for a good chance to hit Max Elixir? A great turn one card but might not be as useful later.

Really appreciate the advice TuxedoBlack, thanks to you I've managed to see another view on the deck