Discussion What is the viability of Noctowl / Vileplume?

[NintendoAlian]

Alright, I am obsessed with this deck. I love lock decks in general so I was naturally attracted to Vileplume, but I couldn't get a good list working so I dropped it. Then came Noctowl. And Hoothoot can Quaking Punch(for no damage.) Bam, we just got another VileGar.

How good is VileOwl in Standard? The decks worst matchup is probably Giratina because it locks you out of Double Colorless. Another weakness is that since Noctowl only has 90 HP, it will usually get knocked out if your opponent has the energy to do so. Also, in my testing, it's really hard to set up a turn 1 Vileplume while managing resources, but that's a problem with most Vileplume decks and they still do well. Most decks now play a lot of item cards because the biggest threat to that besides Vileplume is Toad, which is usually played with Giratina, so players can play with the mindset that they can't play items, but they're only taking 30-50 damage a turn. I'd love to hear everyone's opinion on how competitive Vileplume/Noctowl is.

 

[Ms Hugo]

As you say, 90hp isn't a lot of health at all, and Manectric is pretty big in the format right now, so even as little as 2 Overruns could knock out a Noctowl. Of course, Vileplume helps stall against them, but that deck's a pretty bad matchup. There's also Vespiquen, but I don't know how well that deck fares against item lock.

I could see the owl being dropped into Regice/Vileplume as maybe a 2-2 line, to help close up the game after blocking stuff with Regice. So I think that's got some good potential, but may result in over-reliance on DCE.

If you're thinking about first-turn item lock, I guess you could always use Seismitoad instead of Vileplume. But that deck would also be reliant on DCE and they will probably just play down their items once you hit them with Noctowl once.

 

[GengarGuys]

I think that if you played something like Virizion EX in expanded with this deck it could be viable. You can't just run off of DCE and a 4-4 line of attackers. Maybe run grass energy and attack with Vileplume? This is also a great deck idea.

 

[NintendoAlian]

I think that if you played something like Virizion EX in expanded with this deck it could be viable. You can't just run off of DCE and a 4-4 line of attackers. Maybe run grass energy and attack with Vileplume? This is also a great deck idea.

I've been playing it with grass energies and a Miltank. Also, just in testing, I've been playing Winnona because it can get the Noctowl line, Shaymin, and Miltank under item lock.

 

[Elbow]

With Sycamore in format, I think it will be hard to hit good numbers. If they discard there whole hand, the odds that their entire hand is unplayable items is highly unlikely. There will likely be supporters, energy, and pokemon that will reduce the damage from 140, which is already weak, to around 40-100, maybe more from muscle band.
Also, it is very weak. 90 HP is only good when paired with something else. For example, Raichu with Yveltal, and Vespiquen with Flareon. This deck would need to be paired with eeveelutions to be built properly, but I doubt that will work with 2 stage 1 and a stage 2 line. It just seems clunky any way you work it.

 

[awesomeMSG]

You could play Giratina and Noctowl BREAK. Giratina can keep locking for a while until it is knocked out, and Noctowl BREAK can come in and hit for lots of damage with 60 + 30 more for each trainer. Lugia could also be a good second attacker.

 

[Ms Hugo]

Tried this deck out at League last week, and it actually fared pretty well against Yveltal/Zoroark. First game I drew badly, second I locked his items turn 1 and donked a lone Zorua, game 3 I was able to set up Noctowls and Manectrics (my backup) at a good pace and eventually Lysandre'd a Shaymin for the KO.

It's not as clunky as you might think, because Vileplume stalls so well that it doesn't matter if you're playing a Stage 1 alongside it. I plan to go 2-2-2 when Noctowl Break comes out, because that card would be an amazing sweeper in this deck.