Standard Tropical Totem (Alolan Exeggutor GX / Shining Genesect / Venusaur)

[Dark Espeon]

TROPICAL TOTEM

Pokémon (18):

• 2 Shining Genesect SM3+ (beatdown)
• 4 Alolan Exeggutor GX (beatdown)
• 4 Exeggcute SM4 (evolution)
• 2 Tapu Lele GX (beatdown)
• 2 Bulbasaur (evolution)
• 2 Ivysaur (evolution)
• 2 Venusaur (enable)

Trainer (30):

• 4 Professor Sycamore (draw)
• 1 Bridgette (search)
• 3 Guzma (control)
• 2 Skyla (search)
• 4 N (draw)
• 1 Rescue Stretcher (retrieval)
• 3 Choice Band (beatdown)
• 3 Rare Candy (evolution)
• 3 Field Blower (discard)
• 2 Heavy Ball (search)
• 4 Ultra Ball (search)

Energy (12):

• 12 Grass Energy

STRATEGY:

Start with Exeggcute and use Tapu Lele GX to set up with Bridgette. Search out Bulbasaur and additional attackers. Evolve the benched Bulbasaur into Venusaur to activate Jungle Totem and evolve the active Exeggcute into Alolan Exeggutor GX. Use Dragon Hammer to confuse the defender and hit the bench with Tropical Head next turn. Before the first Alolan Exeggutor GX is knocked out use Tower Go Round to redistribute the resources on the battlefield to enable other attackers to take over.

SPOILER:

Alolan Exeggutor GX
Stage 1 Dragon Pokémon - evolves from Exeggcute
HP: 220
[G] Tropical Head:
Does 20 damage times the number of energy attached to this Pokémon to 1 of your opponent’s Pokémon. (Don’t apply Weakness or Resistance for Benched Pokemon.)
[G][C][C][C] Dragon Hammer: 120
Your opponent’s active Pokémon is now confused.
[G][C][C][C] Tower-Go-Round GX: 180
Move as many Energy attached to your Pokémon to your other Pokemon in any way you like. (You can’t use more than 1 GX attack in a game.)
Retreat Cost: CCC
Weakness: Y

Exeggcute
Basic Grass Pokémon
HP: 50
[C] Hypnosis:
Your opponent’s active Pokémon is now asleep.
[G] Ram: 10
Retreat Cost: C
Weakness: R

 

[CaptZero]

Playing a stage two and a stage three lines is tough to do, but honestly I really like the idea of Venusaur and A Exeggutor GX. With all the decks around that rely on benched pokemon it's really appealing to go for this kind of heavy bench snipe style.

 

[TheCraftyScot]

It could be nice to try and squeeze in Allan vulpix to help with the setup, and depending on how it runs, possibly an additional bulb and venasaur.

If it were me, I would remove 1-1 exeggutor line, one genecect and one choice band to make room for 2 vulpix and 1-1 bulbasaur/venasaur.

 

[KabuTopgun]

Honestly think you should reverse the the focus; shining Genesect is perfect with Venusaur and I don't tihnk think you need more than 2 Exeggutor GX.

Otherwise 3 Rare Candy alongside 2 Ivysaur seems very heavy to reach Venusaur. They could both go down by one.

 

[Dark Espeon]

Hi CaptZero,

Thanks for the review. Still not sure if this deck is viable at all but I wanted to make a deck based on Alolan Exeggutor GX because I like the first and third attack despite the fact that the last two attacks do not seem to fair well in the current meta. Still need to test this list since this is mainly a first draft without any testing.

Hi TheCraftyScot,

Thanks for the review. Since only one Jungle Totem can be used at a time I do not think that increasing the number of Venusaur would be ideal. As stated above, I am not entire convinced that this deck works but I wanted to do a deck with Alolan Exeggutor GX because the attacks are in principle attractive if the second and third attack would cost one colorless less.

Hi KabuTopgun,

Thanks for the review. The main intend of this deck was to find a deck that works with Alolan Exeggutor GX since i like the snipe attack a lot and the other two attacks would also be attractive if only the costed one colorless less. While I can see Shining Genesect and Venusaur to be viable in principle I am not sure that this deck would offer much more compared to either Golisopod variants or Tapu Bulu variants. The main reason is that it might be more difficult to stream attackers with only four Max Elixir are the only energy acceleration means. What I woukld like to do is to find a mean that enables Alolan Exeggutor GX to hit for 120 and confuse the active. Keep it locked in the active position and hunt the bench while the defender is confused. That would be a quite flexible tactic that differs from Golisopod and Tapu Bulu. The list above was a first but insufficient attempt to accomplish this aim. Any other ideas?

 

[KabuTopgun]

Thanks for the review. The main intend of this deck was to find a deck that works with Alolan Exeggutor GX since i like the snipe attack a lot and the other two attacks would also be attractive if only the costed one colorless less. While I can see Shining Genesect and Venusaur to be viable in principle I am not sure that this deck would offer much more compared to either Golisopod variants or Tapu Bulu variants. The main reason is that it might be more difficult to stream attackers with only four Max Elixir are the only energy acceleration means. What I woukld like to do is to find a mean that enables Alolan Exeggutor GX to hit for 120 and confuse the active. Keep it locked in the active position and hunt the bench while the defender is confused. That would be a quite flexible tactic that differs from Golisopod and Tapu Bulu. The list above was a first but insufficient attempt to accomplish this aim. Any other ideas?

Golisopod does set a high standard for efficiency, but it's a turbo/2-hit strategy that uses a single energy, so of course it can stream without difficulty. Shining Genesect, however, is single Prize and can scale well for 1 hit-KO's with Venusaur doubling Grass.
In regards to streaming, I guess I forgot to mention something important. I've referred to it on another thread, but I think Wishful Baton is the optimal tool for use with Shining Genesect(+Venusaur); with your damage output scaling you want to have at least 3 Grass Energy cards attached to deal with common threats. The best part is not only will this give you the desirable 170 damage for intermediate KO's, but with Baton you are essentially saving 6 energy off a single card.
You could make an argument for Exp. Share, seeing as Genesect can channel energy from the bench, but I feel like you would need 2-3 attached to your bench for the real benefit of this, in which case your handing your opponent 2-1 Field Blower value without any challenge.

Anyway, Exeggutor GX is a fine card, I just don't think your primary strategy should revolve around Confusion when there are plenty of ways for free retreat already and, if anything, they will become more common; ie I see a possibility of people teching Zoroark more now they get extra value from being able to evolve Zorua into Zoroark GX and both provide useful support(so it's at least a given for any Dark deck IMO).