Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

My custom Vilegar deck needs an Umbreon Counter

L

Lancun

New Member
So I've simmed out my specially made Vilegar deck that utilizes Cursegar and Gengar Prime, and it performs reasonably well, the only deal is that I hit a brick wall when facing Umbreon. I need a decent tech to beat that thing quickly, lest it wreck havoc on me. SP is starting to tech it in as their Vilegar counter, and I'll say it's being really effective at it...
 
Haunter TM. Sleep and poison, doesn't waste a deck space. They flip tails once, and you're typically free to attack it next turn. Since you have no other options, you just use it with as many Haunters you need until they fail a flip.
 
^ That's quality advice. I've been trying the same thing out myself and it's just as effective as any of the other suggestions, and most importantly it doesn't clunk up you deck or need you to run Fighting Energy.
 
renfield89 said:
Haunter TM. Sleep and poison, doesn't waste a deck space. They flip tails once, and you're typically free to attack it next turn. Since you have no other options, you just use it with as many Haunters you need until they fail a flip.
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But that's not a counter...I absolutely refuse to let luck rule my chances against an Umbreon deck, when I still have to deal more damage to it because of Resistance. I actually found a decent, cheap answer for myself just now.

Lucario UL can 2HKO ANY Umbreon with Bulk Up, short of a belted one with the MD Umbreon on the bench removing its weakness, all at the cost of a single colorless energy. And since straight Umbreon decks have a bunch of holes against anything BUT Vilegar, I expect it to be used more as a tech in SP. In theory, it's a decent 1-1 tech for the Umbreon matchup.

While I'd love to say that Umbreon can be dealt with by a Haunter, that's simply not true. How many KOs can you take before HOPING that the opponent flips a tails on the sleep check just to do a small amount of damage to it? You can only have four Haunters in your deck, and most people only run three.
 
So assuming your gengar line is 3-3-1/1/1-1, 3 haunter would work, but with your gengar lineup, I don't think a counter matters, seeing as how with no trainers getting gengar out is going to be a big problem on it's own.
 
Anyone that runs straight Umbreon is probably new to the game. Umbreon is generally splashed in as a tech in Machamp or other decks that want to dump on their consistency in favor of a better matchup against things like VileGar. So chances are that you'll only have to knock out one or two Umbreon.

Do you run four Candy and max Rainbow? If so, run a 1-0-1 Machamp. If not, just take the autoloss. If, like, half the people in your area play Umbreon, which I doubt, you might want to look for another solution. Otherwise, trying to tech in some garbage like Lucario will result in a tremendous drop in your consistency and weaken your chances against every other deck.
 
The biggest problem with worrying about "absolutely refusing to let luck rule" vs umbreon is that you're absolutely destroying your consistency for it. Haunter TM is a great play. Just go with that.
 
Use anything that does damage and an Amnesia attack. Then you hit it AND it can't hit back. It will HAVE to get out of the way for a turn just to hit again. If they warp, you're amnesia tech gets to slide back.

Ambipom Triumphant would also frustrate the heck out of an umbreon that deals 30.
 
If you are running rainbow energies, then you could put in one Bellossom LA. It deals pretty good damage for two energies and you already have the oddich and gloom in your deck. With a benched vileplume, you deal 80 damage plus burn.

But that is just a thought though...

It's probably bad advice really, But couldn't you just snipe around the umbreon and then let it get knoked out with fainting spell?
 
thunderjolt said:
If you are running rainbow energies, then you could put in one Bellossom LA. It deals pretty good damage for two energies and you already have the oddich and gloom in your deck. With a benched vileplume, you deal 80 damage plus burn.

But that is just a thought though...

It's probably bad advice really, But couldn't you just snipe around the umbreon and then let it get knoked out with fainting spell?
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I don't run a traditional Vilegar build. Mine focuses on the combination of Cursegar and Gengar Prime. Makes sniping basically impossible.
 
Lancun said:
But that's not a counter...I absolutely refuse to let luck rule my chances against an Umbreon deck, when I still have to deal more damage to it because of Resistance. I actually found a decent, cheap answer for myself just now.

Lucario UL can 2HKO ANY Umbreon with Bulk Up, short of a belted one with the MD Umbreon on the bench removing its weakness, all at the cost of a single colorless energy. And since straight Umbreon decks have a bunch of holes against anything BUT Vilegar, I expect it to be used more as a tech in SP. In theory, it's a decent 1-1 tech for the Umbreon matchup.

While I'd love to say that Umbreon can be dealt with by a Haunter, that's simply not true. How many KOs can you take before HOPING that the opponent flips a tails on the sleep check just to do a small amount of damage to it? You can only have four Haunters in your deck, and most people only run three.
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You snipe around it for prizes WHILE you build one or two Haunter with two energy. Then their tech only has to fail ONE sleep check for you to retreat and Poltergeist KO it. Under the trainer lock, only Warp Energy can remove it from its sleep. Gengar/Vileplume has enough problems with consistency as it is, due to the self-imposed limit on trainers one can play effectively; therefore, teching in a new line, not just a basic Pokemon but a line, for an opposing tech, not even a deck, is silly to me.
 
renfield89 said:
for an opposing tech, not even a deck, is silly to me.
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Werd. This same thing happened to SP last year when everyone and their mom started playing Mewtwo lv X. Did every luxchomp start putting in a 1-1 Dialga or Mismagius line to counter the threat? Nope, they just kept their deck super consistent and learned to adjust their playstyle to play around it. Luxchomp still rocked a bunch of states, nationals, and even took home world's! Even with this near autoloss tech running around.

Haunter TM is a great way to counter the handful of umbreon you will face this season.
 
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^yup, exactly.

I haven't tried it yet, but DCL seems like a fair tech in GenPlume. Not only do you spread anyway, it also gets rid of Umbreon (if Fainting Spell doesn't already...)
 
I have played my vile-gar in BR with a 1-1 Toxicroak AR & 3 Rainbow E, to "OHKO" any Umbreon threat. Never faced a Umbreon in my BR's matches. Wasted spot that didn't help much in other matchups.

I will point this out for folks, if you don't OHKO the umbreon, they will retreat it, and move up a bigger bench hitter to take out your tech. Thus the tech needs to OHKO the umbreon, or have multiple ways to deal with Umbreon. I think I like the Haunter thought. I would rather just snipe take prizes with Gengar, Flip on Fainting spells. Move up Haunter if they go Solo Umbreon.
 
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