VirGen w/Toxicroak (Virizion EX / Genesect EX / Toxicroak EX)

[ESVDiamond]

Pokemon:

• 
  4x Virizion EX
  3x Genesect EX
  3 Toxicroak EX
  1 Mewtwo EX

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums:

• 
  2 Energy Retrieval
  4 Hypnotic Laser
  1 Professor's Letter
  1 Startling Megaphone
  3 Switch
  4 Ultra Ball
  2 Skyla
  1 Lysandre
  4 N
  4 Professor Sycamore
  3 Virbank City Gym
  2 Shadow Triad
  2 Colress
  1 G-Booster

Energy:

• 
  3 Double Colorless Energy
  3 Plasma Energy
  9 Grass Energy

V1.02

Strategy:
I have been playing VirGen since the day Plasma Blast came out and love the deck in every way. However as more quality Pokemon with immunity to some of the deck (ex: Pyroar). came out combined with the upcoming rotation (that hit today) I needed to modify my VirGen deck.

I am far from a good player but do play very frequently and did not find the other known versions to my liking. Raichu is decent but I found myself fusing him very rarely. Other versions such as the WC deck still felt off to me.

Just last night I created a deck around Toxicroak with VirGen. I don't think a huge amount of the other stadiums really fit this deck with Skyarrow gone, and VirGen as a deck is largely immune to poison so Virbank does not harm you.

I have several hundred games played with VirGen decks, and right away this felt like a major upgrade when I tried it last night. I no longer feared Pyroar in any way. I was tearing down EX's in quick fashion. Virbank + Toxi is 100 damage per full turn it is allowed to stay, and when combined with the 100 dmg Genesect can kill any non M-EX.

I am curious what modifications you would do to this deck? I know my trainers are likely a mess, getting the right balance of them has never been my strong suit. I am also very unsure of the Mewtwo EX, and think it could go for another trainer/toxicroack?

I know maybe this isn't the best deck ever, but I think it's worth pursuing for me, and would love some good input! I played 40~ games so far with a 60% winrate on PTCGO but want to really fine tune this beast!

Thank you all for your time!

 

[My Little Keldeo]

RE: VirGen w/Toxicroak

Mewtwo is definitely a good pick. I'd even consider running a second copy just because of how strong a Pokemon he is. I keep hearing people say that Virizion / Mewtwo could return to glory, but that's another story. Personally, I'm curious as to why you picked Toxicroak over a strong Stage 1, Triple poison is good, but it can be slower than you want it to be at times. Have you considereed the new Beartic? For a DCE it will one-shot Pyroar, and it has 130 HP, so it can't be one-shotted in return. It can also do serious damage to Landorus, leaving them within sniping range for a Megalo or one-shotting it if a Muscle Band is attached. The downside its Beartic's heavy retreat cost, but since you are running Switches it becomes somewhat less of an issue.

I would also suggest replacing Biana with a different Supporter, perhaps Skyla. I always seem to have a massive hand whenever I draw Bianca, so she doesn't do much for me. Skyla will let you search out any Trainer in your deck, including G-Booster, so it's pretty useful in any VirGen variant. You can also replace your Lysandres (maybe leave one in just in case) with other supporters to max out draw power; Ideally you'll be using Red Signal for the switching effect.

You seem partial to Toxicroak, so it will be your call as to whether to keep him in or not. As for the supporters, I'd suggest the following changes:

-2 Lysandre
-1 Bianca

+2 Skyla
+1 Colress

 

[ESVDiamond]

Yea i uploaded the wrong list and had the one where I forgot Skyla, oops!

Fixed now, and will check out the suggestions you have! Thank you!

 

[My Little Keldeo]

-2 Skyla: You don't need a huge count of these, or elase you'll get them when you need a hand refresh. Skyla's main purprose is to search out G-Booster midgame. It's useful, but too much of a good thing will cause trouble.
-1 Lysandre: As I said before, you'r main way of accomplishing this is G-Booster. It's still good to keep one in an emergency or when facing Garbodor though.

+1 Shadow Triad - It's a good idea to have more than one copy of this card. People are eater to Megaphone your G-Booster away, or target the Pokemon it's attached to, so you want a way to get it back. This can also return a Genessect to you in an emergency.
+2 Colress: This deck fills uip the bench pretty quicjly, being largely composed of big basics. You'll easily be able to take advantage of Colress for a large hand much of the time.

I wouldn't suggest Pokemon Fan Club unless you're planning on running Jirachi, but it is a decent card in the right deck.

 

[pygohan]

Safeguard still gets you though. "Prevent all effects of attacks, including damage, done to this Pokemon by Pokemon-EX."

 

[ESVDiamond]

Modified it based on your suggestion, trying it out now! Thank you!

Safeguard still gets you though. "Prevent all effects of attacks, including damage, done to this Pokemon by Pokemon-EX."

My mistake, the only thing I saw with Safeguard while trying it out ended up getting G-Boostered, my bad. However I know it does work on pyroar which was the thing that was giving me the main problem.

Edit: What about Colress machine?

 

[My Little Keldeo]

Safeguard Pokemon aren't a huge issue for Virgen. G-Booster wroks on them, since it ignores all effects. Both Sigilyph's and Suicune's attacks don't hit hard on your main attackers (in fact it's rare to see them attack), so they can be safely dealt with or Red Signaled around. Pyroar is dangerous due to his fire typing, allowing him to one-shot both Virizion and Genessect. Toxicroak's attack does get through Pyroar like you said, but be careful as these decks tend to run high counts of Lysandre/ Catcher.

 

[ESVDiamond]

Safeguard Pokemon aren't a huge issue for Virgen. G-Booster wroks on them, since it ignores all effects. Both Sigilyph's and Suicune's attacks don't hit hard on your main attackers (in fact it's rare to see them attack), so they can be safely dealt with or Red Signaled around. Pyroar is dangerous due to his fire typing, allowing him to one-shot both Virizion and Genessect. Toxicroak's attack does get through Pyroar like you said, but be careful as these decks tend to run high counts of Lysandre/ Catcher.

Actually that was one thing I liked about the Toxicroak over others (like Beatric) was the low retreat cost if it gets caught out when I need a Genesect or something. It's got 170hp so it needs a big punch to get OHKO'd although possible, and is more durable than the Raichu.

Really Pyroar was the main problem I was hitting and it pretty much wrecks Pyroar from what I have played so far (PTCGO is like 80% Pyroar atm). But could be off, like I said I'm not the best.

 

[My Little Keldeo]

I'm curious to see how Toxicroak works out for you. What's important is making sure you're taking prizes faster than your opponent.

 

[pygohan]

I think what might get you though is the low damage output on Toxicroak even with Virbank City Gym on Pyroar. About your comment though about Mewtwo Ex, I would keep that in as you should be encountering other Mewtwo Exs in other decks which is a great counter plus its a overall good attacker.

 

[ESVDiamond]

Ok after trying it out about another 20~ games last night couple things I noticed.

Think I should up the megaphones. Muscle Bands, Muscle Bands everywhere!

Likely going back to 2 or so Mewtwo EX, had some real clutch plays from him.

Plasma does pretty well vs this deck (although VirGen always struggled with Plasma for me), should I mainboard something to deal with it? Will it even be that strong with the new rotation?

Feel like a Colress Machine would go a long way in this deck.

Faced about 80% pyroar decks, seems like only the one with Mewtwo EX gave me any real problems.