What I foresee happening is all the decks that run Espeon WILL win against the very few lock decks. Then lose to the mirror match, which also won against the lock deck WITHOUT Espeon because they do not need it, due to inconsistency from having a now useless line-up in their decks. We have done fine against lock decks without Espeon up until this point, I don't see why we would need it now.
^ Good argument, however the lock decks that I've done well against didn't initially have 130 HP's and were easy to KO. I can definitely say Zekrom variants do not need Espeon because all they need to do is get ahead and stay ahead the entire time (even one good heads flip from a Tynamo ruins Ice Creams day) even through the trainer lock. They don't have a 2 prize buffer to worry about, and its not really a factor with Zekrom because you really can just stay ahead in prizes the entire game if thats the case. Of course, I've seem smart VVV decks running Bellossom and/or Pokemon Center, so I'm not even sure THAT'S a good idea either.
Darkrai variants don't have it quite as easy because there is no paralysis flip Tynamo there to help you gain an edge on a Vanilluxe, You can't OHKO a Vanilluxe, and worse, you may not be able to THKO a Victini with the Pokemon Center or the Bellossom either.
This argument would hold water if this were the Mew variant, in which you could easily one shot Mew's all day and keep an even count on the prizes (especially off a T1-2 Darkrai EX). Unfortunately, this is no longer the case, as the deck has to now deal with 130 HP Ice Cream's, which cannot be one shot by anything in the format (barring the chunky Zekrom EX/Reshiram EX's.). I've had a 3 prize lead on Ice Cream diminished to a loss simply because it never flipped the quad tails. (And killing victini's wasn't an option because he had a Bellossom on the field.)
Also, the argument in consistency is a non-factor. Eevee has Call for Family which is a phenomenal starter any way you look at it. Assume I don't get a dual ball or I go 0/8 on Dual Ball flips (HAS HAPPENED BEFORE ON MANY OCCASIONS FOR ME), I now at least have a buffer to get my basics out of the deck. I cut one dark energy and a Skyarrow Bridge from my deck to put them in (Had 10 Dark's before, 3 Skyarrows.) My argument towards doing this, is I have Dark Patch's for energies, so essentially, the deck has 9 (+3) Dark's anyways (due to recyclables), and Skyarrow is a situational card that I ran 3 of for Tornadus EX donk factor (which I will admit I've only done ONE TIME since I switched from CMT to DTEX, and I've been playing this deck for 4 battle roads.). If I'm worried about Skyarrow never hitting the field, that's a delusion as well, considering most decks not named Ice Cream run 2-3 anyways, and AFTER they're on the field, they're a waste of space in your hand.
So, I fail to see where my consistency went..? (If its any consolation I'm 17-7 with DTEX overall with two different variants, and two top cuts, with one win. The only changes I made were to SSU numbers and other minor things) It hasn't left at all. Even after putting the Espeon in 2 days ago, I've noticed little to no differences, except that I don't always require Espeon. Its a tech, its not going to be used in every single game. I'd rather have the guaranteed win against a gimmick deck that can beat me and still do well against the mirror (which I have been. My losses are against random things and Zek/Terra)... And on that argument, if these lists are all splashing Espeon anyways, I fail to see how thats effecting the mirror in any way.
Just my opinion. Play what you want. I'm staying safe.