Alt. Format Tropical Jungle (Sceptile GX / Sceptile / Shuckle / Pheromosa)

[Dark Espeon]

TROPICAL JUNGLE

Pokémon (16):

• 1 Sceptile SM7 (beatdown)
  
• 3 Sceptile GX (beatdown)
• 2 Grovyle SM7b (evolves)
• 4 Treecko SM7 (evolves)
• 2 Tapu Lele Gx (search)
  
• 2 Lurantis (enables)
• 2 Fomatis (evolves)

Trainer (32):

• 1 Pokémon Fan Club (search)
• 3 Sightseer (draw)
• 3 Guzma (control)
• 4 Cynthia (draw)
• 3 Lillie (draw)
• 1 Rescue Stretcher (retrieval)
• 3 Choice Band (beatdown)
  
• 3 Rare Candy (evolution)
• 2 Field Blower (discard)
• 4 Ultra Ball (search)
• 4 Net Ball (search)
• 1 Life Forest Prism Star (heal)

Energy (12):

• 12 Grass Energy

STRATEGY:

This deck is intended to be used in the SM-on format. Start with Treecko and use a combination of Pokémon Fan Club and the four search items to bench two additional Treecko and one Fomatis. Next turn evolve one benched Treecko into Grovyle and search for a second one with its ability. Use the second one to search for either Sceptile GX or Lurantis. Next turn evolve one Grovyle or Treecko into Sceptile non-GX and evolve the other two into Sceptile GX and start to attack. Lurantis and Choice band to enable Sceptile GX to achieve ohkos with it's main attack. Life Forest Prism Star provides some healing potential to keep Sceptile GX alive.

 

[Duo]

You're only allowed to play this deck if you use Rainforest Cafe card sleeves.

Just kidding.

I think this deck has some pretty solid potential. Between Shuckle and attaching per turn as well as Sceptile GX being able to shift its energy to the bench to prevent big energy losses on KOs, I think getting a good energy count to fuel non-GX Sceptile wouldn't be too hard.

I do think the deck could definitely benefit if grass got a Prism Star Pokemon that accelerated Grass in a similar fashion to Solgaleo or Lunala Prism, but we take what we can get for now I suppose.

Do you think that running the promo Lurantis as a 2/2 line would make the deck too clunky? I imagine a lot of people try to consider it for Grass & Fire-centric decks, but perhaps the 20 damage increase doesn't really help hit valuable enough numbers to be worth 4 deck slots.

What do you think about running 3-4 copies of Shrine of Punishment in this deck to help both Sceptiles hit their numbers while getting set up? This deck has a very naturally low GX count, and even if you do play your Lele and your Sceptile GXs, you have the GX attack in order to heal any damage that you do to yourself while your opponent is still slowly bleeding away. I'd say this is fantastic against Basic GX attackers like UNGX, Necrozma GX, Buzzwole GX, Ray GX, so on and so forth. They are all resting at a fairly low 180-190 HP making your ability to swing for 160 damage choice banded actually become a pseudo OHKO once 2 turns pass between you and your opponent and they have 4 damage counters on their GX Pokemon.

Speaking of which...any particular reason for no Choice Band? I think it becomes relevant if you consider Shrine of Punishment to push for turn 2 or 3 OHKOs.

 

[Dark Espeon]

You're only allowed to play this deck if you use Rainforest Cafe card sleeves.

Just kidding.

I think this deck has some pretty solid potential. Between Shuckle and attaching per turn as well as Sceptile GX being able to shift its energy to the bench to prevent big energy losses on KOs, I think getting a good energy count to fuel non-GX Sceptile wouldn't be too hard.

I do think the deck could definitely benefit if grass got a Prism Star Pokemon that accelerated Grass in a similar fashion to Solgaleo or Lunala Prism, but we take what we can get for now I suppose.

Do you think that running the promo Lurantis as a 2/2 line would make the deck too clunky? I imagine a lot of people try to consider it for Grass & Fire-centric decks, but perhaps the 20 damage increase doesn't really help hit valuable enough numbers to be worth 4 deck slots.

What do you think about running 3-4 copies of Shrine of Punishment in this deck to help both Sceptiles hit their numbers while getting set up? This deck has a very naturally low GX count, and even if you do play your Lele and your Sceptile GXs, you have the GX attack in order to heal any damage that you do to yourself while your opponent is still slowly bleeding away. I'd say this is fantastic against Basic GX attackers like UNGX, Necrozma GX, Buzzwole GX, Ray GX, so on and so forth. They are all resting at a fairly low 180-190 HP making your ability to swing for 160 damage choice banded actually become a pseudo OHKO once 2 turns pass between you and your opponent and they have 4 damage counters on their GX Pokemon.

Speaking of which...any particular reason for no Choice Band? I think it becomes relevant if you consider Shrine of Punishment to push for turn 2 or 3 OHKOs.

Hi Duo,

Thanks for the review. This is just a first draft without any testing done with it. I like Lurantis a lot but it could make this deck too clunky. I sure would run a 3-3 line in other Grass decks such as Golisopod and Virizion deck who can also afford to run some Shaymin. I consider to test this deck since all other decks that I took into consideration thus far revolve around Basic Pokémon or Stage 1 Pokémon. Sceptile seems to be rather self-sufficient with his new evolution line which makes it appealing to me.

I do not run Choice Band in this deck for two reasons: (1) It does not enable Sceptile GX to achieve ohkos, and (2) there was no room left after an attempt to focus on the consistency of the deck. I believe that this is a common issue with stage 2 decks and one of the main reasons that these decks are less successful than Basic Pokémon decks and Stage 1 Pokémon decks. There is little room left to support the Pokémon and to increase the consistency of the deck.

I would use Shrine of Punishment as the main stadium if I remove Sceptile GX but I am not sure that Sceptile can hold its own without the initial game assistance from Sceptile GX in terms of damage output. It also isn't exactly the beefiest Pokémon out there.

 

[Duo]

If you do get around to testing it, I would love to hear what you experience with it. I can only playtest so many decks myself with the time that I have (I assume the same applies to you).

I think that Shrine of Punishment + Choice Band is a great combination if and only if it can enter the deck without crashing its consistency, and I really don't think it requires the removal of Sceptile GX when it has a GX attack that fully heals any Pokemon with Grass energy attached. This, of course, is just how I see it on paper.

Perhaps an even better build will come up for this deck as more cards are revealed.

 

[Dark Espeon]

Hi folks,

Did not test the deck much since the cards have not been released in Japan thus far but nevertheless decided to revise the list and turn in into a more offensive build with Lurantis as and additional means to allow Sceptile GX to achieve ohkos with Choice Band.