Volcarona has always been a favourite of mine, but unfortunately the cards have never been anything special. But since the launch of Larvesta STS, all of a sudden Solar Birth Volcarona has some serious potential. Now that Larvesta is bug instead of fire type, you can use FoGP to evolve on the first turn, and for one colourless energy set up something that might be otherwise tricky to get going.
A good pairing here is good old Vileplume, as item lock is always going to be powerful. Plus, you're already aiming for a turn one FoGP. As with last season's Vileplume builds, the general idea is to tear through your deck quickly enough from an initial burst to set up a lock before your opponent can get themselves set up. Once they are itemless, they should be easy pickings. Megas can't add spirit links, no Vs Seekers can be played, no Ultra Balls to Shaymin - you know the drill.
But alongside this duo you need a main attacker. So my question is who?
My first thought was Leafeon-EX - Volcarona allows you get past that awkward [G][G][C] energy cost, and you have a stadium out already, and continual healing under item lock is no joke for your opponent. Because you'd be running Grass energy anyway, you can afford to use a 4-2/2 split on the Volcarona along with 2 of the STS version. The shimmering scales attack, while weak, always hits for either paralysis or confusion. And under the item lock there are precious few ways to switch out of this chip away damage. This allows you time to manually build another Leafeon.
The same logic could be applied in a Giratina build. Volcarona gets you the [G][P] and now you just need a DDE or DCE to double up a Chaos Wheel lock on top of the item lock. No Special Energy or Stadiums too. VileTina has had success before, but with Fairy running rampant, it's maybe not the right time. Xerneas gets energy out too easily even under the lock.
Non-grass builds lose the split Volcarona, but it's not a huge loss. With no lightning decks big at the moment, Yveltal can shine again. I've played around with Zoroark as the main attacker too - since he can help getting around a stranded Vileplume - but the hits aren't always big enough. Plus it's tricky to use this strategy with anything but a basic.
Zygarde seems to be a decent partner for Vileplume since it's a straightforward no-items-required self-healing brawler, but you lose a lot of the thrust attaching basic energies instead of strong ones. And those same strong ones can't be used with Volc in the first place. Ho-oh has some potential, since you can pick and choose the energies you want to attach, and is the last deck I've put any serious time into - but it's just too awkward, and I find it brings nothing to the table that Leafeon doesn't do more easily.
So.. any ideas?
Who is that Pokemon you always wanted to use but the energy costs were too awkward? Can this even be a semi-viable deck?Something important to note is that you are unlikely to get a Belt attached to boost the HP. If things go to plan, the item lock is already in place by the time you pull out your attacker. Additionally, while there's no Az in format anymore, Vileplume is the one deck that can find use of a wide range of Supporters such as Stephen, Misty, Olympia - even Psychic Eye.
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