Vileplume – Grass – HP130
Stage 2 – Evolves from Gloom
Ability: Frustrating Pollen
As long as this Pokemon is in play, both you and your opponent can’t play Item cards.
[G][G][C] Solar Beam: 70 damage.
Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3
Giant Plant Forest – Trainer
Stadium
Each player’s [G] Pokemon can Evolve during the first turn and on the turn they were put into play.
This card stays in play when you play it. Discard this card if another Stadium card comes into play. If another card with the same name is in play, you can’t play this card.
Hex Maniac – Trainer
Supporter
Until the end of your opponent’s next turn, each Pokemon in play, in each player’s hand, and in each player’s discard pile has no Abilities.
You may play only 1 Supporter card during your turn (before your attack).
Stage 2 – Evolves from Gloom
Ability: Frustrating Pollen
As long as this Pokemon is in play, both you and your opponent can’t play Item cards.
[G][G][C] Solar Beam: 70 damage.
Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3
Giant Plant Forest – Trainer
Stadium
Each player’s [G] Pokemon can Evolve during the first turn and on the turn they were put into play.
This card stays in play when you play it. Discard this card if another Stadium card comes into play. If another card with the same name is in play, you can’t play this card.
Hex Maniac – Trainer
Supporter
Until the end of your opponent’s next turn, each Pokemon in play, in each player’s hand, and in each player’s discard pile has no Abilities.
You may play only 1 Supporter card during your turn (before your attack).
As you have probably seen, the new Vileplume can block all items from the bench, which is extremely powerful. When this card was in standard before, it dominated the format along with Gengar SF. With the combination of item locking, Poltergeist making all those items a liability, and a coin-flip ability that could get a free knockout, it had a good matchup against many decks. It helped that Spiritomb AR was available, but with Giant Plant Forest the set-up should be similar.
We have Chandelure PHF which has the same ability, but the attack is much weaker. For 3 energy (2 with DCE or Dimension Valley), it places 6 damage counters on your opponent's Pokemon as you choose. This is relatively weak, and I don't think it's fast enough.
Miltank FLF hits for 80 with a stage 2 on the bench, so not only can you set this up right away with Giant Plant Forest, but you can hit for one colorless energy on a non-EX basic.
Noivern FUF has another potentially powerful coin-flip ability that can prevent all damage done to it by attacks, so you have a 50/50 of slowing down your opponent even further alongside the T1/T2 item lock. Combined with spread and item denial, it can be a very frustrating, up-hill battle for your opponent.
Pyroar FLF prevents all damage from basic Pokemon, and can help in the event of going second against a speed deck. It is also not terrible as an attacker.
Support:
Crawdaunt PRC has the ability to slow them down even further, without having to attack or use items.
AZ is a necessary addition in my opinion. If your Vileplume becomes targeted by Lysandre and brought active, it can be difficult to retreat. AZ with Giant Plant Forest resolves this, and has the added benefit of being able to re-use your come into play abilities. It can also let you use items for a turn before playing Vileplume down again.
Golbat/Crobat PHF can pick off weak main attackers like those in Night March, and are all around good to have. These can be a source of extra damage in a deck where you may not want to run Muscle Band.
Weaknesses:
Wobbuffet PHF is probably the most played Pokemon that comes to mind, as he can stop all abilities in the deck just by being active. When combined with a strong bench, they can use all the items they want to set-up.
Hex Maniac (text at beginning of post) can blank all abilities for a turn, allowing them to get their set-up. It can also be VS Seeker'd right after, allowing for multiple uses. However, this takes up their supporter for the turn and shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Lysandre against Vileplume is pretty bad, but we already have a solution in the AZ/Giant Plant Forest combo. If you want to do something different, you can always run rainbow energy and Fairy Garden for free retreat.
I mostly wrote this up to organize my thoughts, but I think it's a good question to ask. What do you think? Will Vileplume be as polarizing as it was the last time it was in standard? What else could be paired with it, and can benefit from the item-lock?
