Bellossom/Jellicent ??

[Raymund]

Hi guys, I was looking through the Boundaries Crossed scans and immediately noticed there was both Vileplume AND Bellossom. Decks which utilize dual evolutions (such as plox) have always been interesting strategically in my opinion, and I already had prior knowledge that the new Vileplume was particularly interesting. Bellossom's Grass Knot attack does the following:

[G] Grass Knot: 10+ damage. This attack does 20 more damage for each Energy required for the Defending Pokemon to retreat.

This attack immediately intrigued me, since EX Pokemon tend to have a hefty retreat cost, such as the new Landorus EX (3 retreat cost). Already, this attack is hitting 70 damage for a single energy. But can we make this even more? Of course we can.

The new Jellicent has the following ability:

"The Retreat Cost of each of your opponent's Pokemon in play is :colorless: more."

This ability can also stack. So for instance, if you have two on the bench, then Bellossom's Grass Knot is now hitting for 110 for a single energy. Combining Emolga as a starter, and this deck can set up quite nicely. A nice tech could be Keldeo EX in combination with Vileplume (You have the evolution line). Keldeo's attack requires colorless energy, so it can fit into this deck. With a x4 weakness, then Keldeo can wreck havoc on your opponent's Landorus EX.

What do you guys think?

 

[Kayle]

This really sounds like fun, and could make Keldeo sadface, but a single Darkrai drop renders Bellossom's attack harmless, so I'm fairly sure that renders Bellossom unusable for competitive play (as usual).

Great league deck idea, though, and a way to hate on Keldeo, Terrakion, and Landorus for sure.

 

[Otaku]

Even without worrying about Dark Cloak, you might be able to hit hard for one Energy, but it remains a "fun deck" since most decks will be able to deal with that while OHKOing your Stage 2 Pokemon.

 

[MrScaryMuffin]

Definitely relegated to fun decks, but I know a lot of people are trying to find a way to use Vileplume's x4 weakness ability in some way. It's just too bad that the current meta is too wide and varied to make it easy

 

[Otaku]

The last time we had a similar effect it was on a Stadium, Lake Boundary (Mysterious Treasures 112/123). That Stadium causes Pokémon to have x2 Weakness... which matters because it came out during the +X phase. As the effect of a Stadium, Allergy Panic would certainly be easier to use, and with the speed of the format, not really that much easier to deal with overall; easier for decks with Stadiums, harder for decks without.

Still, besides the other "issues", it is hurt by this format lacking something that I was normally quite used to; slightly sub-par big Basic Pokémon with vanilla Colorless attacks. I was just so used to them I was kind of surprised we don't really have them. The original Unova Dragons all have Outrage, but beyond that there isn't much else.