Guru Deck Challenge: LOCKBOX 1.0

[Rogue Archetype]

Hi PokeGymers!

GURU POINT CHALLENGES ARE BACK!!​

There are some very strong players visiting our forum, here's your opportunity to show off your knowledge of the game!

The GuRu SQuaD will only give Guru Points to those who bring their A-game in these Guru Point Challenge threads. So, let's test your witts! Respond to the challenge for a chance to earn points!

I'll be tossing up these brainteasing challenges to:

• Keep you from getting bored/ Give us all something to do.
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Today's Deck is: LOCKBOX

"Lockbox" is a name that I made up for any deck that uses Vileplume as a means of "locking" your opponent.

There are SO MANY different ways to use Vileplume in the format.
Can we can figure a way to build a beast deck that uses Vileplume?
(Vileplume does NOT need to be an attacker in your deck strategies)​

_____________________

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[cole]

Allright, I guess I'll be the first to give this a go (unless someone is posting now as I type)

Mew Lockbox

Pokemon

Mew Prime

Vileplume
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=50614
Yanmega Prime
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=51075
Muk
http://pokegym.net/forums/view.php?pg=towercard&imageid=50621
Jumpluff
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=49766
Crobat Prime
http://pokegym.net/forums/view.php?pg=towercard&imageid=50169

Basic idea is to setup vileplume to get the trainer lock going, meanwhile you using mew's attack to see off either Muk / Pluff / Crobat (most games normally ALWAYS muk)

Then use muk to sludge drag a big retreat cost like Abilityboar, Mangezone, donphan and then you can send out Yanmega's to snipe around it, you can Severe posion it with crobat's attack or you can just mass attack away. Vileplume is basiclly there to stop people using switch to get out of your sludge drag, using catchers / comm's / candy e.t.c just slowing there setup, while disrupting with your attackers.

Have found it to work very well against alot of the big decks out there right now

 

[untitled]

I really like Sunflora in the Mew version. Once Vileplume is setup Twins becomes the only way to search for evolutions. But if you can get a Sunflora out, it's like having a Communication every turn. Furthermore, you can use it after a Judge or Copycat to let you play one card from your hand before attacking with Yanmega. The 40HP basic is annoying but if you play it as the same time as a double Oddish, they usually just kill an Oddish because Vileplume is a lot more threatening than Sunflora.

 

[cole]

Hmmm, I had heard about it being run with sunflora but found my decklist was quite full without sunflora. I think I will find 4 spot's to add a 2-2 line and test out the idea. I do like the fact you can keep setting up yanmega's each turn with the sunflora. Until now I have found the copycat's and judge's to be good enough to draw into what I needed but the sunflora might make setting up the mega's alot more consistent

 

[luxray626]

One idea is Serperior/Reuniclus/Vileplume. When the deck gets set up, which will not happen very fast, it can be very hard to take down. Here is a sample list:
Pokemon: 26
3 Snivy (1/114)
2 Servine (3/114)
3 Serperior (6/114)
2 Oddish (60/90)
1 Gloom (27/90)
2 Vileplume (24/90)
2 Sunkern (85/123)
2 Sunflora (31/123)
3 Solosis (55/114)
1 Duosion (56/114)
2 Reuniclus (57/114)
1 Caterpie (57/123)
1 Metapod (46/123)
1 Cleffa (24/95)

TSS: 22
4 Twins
4 Sage's Training
4 Rare Candy
4 Pokemon Collector
3 Cheren
3 Pokemon Communication

Energy: 12
8 Grass Energy
4 Rescue Energy

The basic strategy is to set up a Serperior or two with a Reuniclus and Vileplume. With this setup, you can move damage counters around your Pokemon and have them healed off with Serperior's Royal Heal Ability while Vileplume locks your opponent from using key cards such as Pokemon Catcher, Junk Arm, Pokemon Communication and Rare Candy while attacking with Serperior. Without these cards, it can be hard for your opponent to disrupt this combination. Sunflora is also very good in the deck, because Vileplume and Serperior are both grass types. With a Sunflora in play, setting up Vileplume is much easier. Once Vileplume is in play, Sunflora can help get Serperior without having to use trainers. Metapod is used to remove the Fire weakness that Serperior has. When playing against Reshiram decks, they cannot OHKO Serperior without Plus Power, which Vileplume stops, if Metapod removes the Weakness. Cleffa is used to get out of bad starts.
The Supporter lines are very simple. Cheren and Sages Training help you dig for cards under trainer lock. Collector gets all of the basic Pokemon needed to set up. Although Vileplume locks trainers, this deck can still use them to get good set up. Twins is very good in this deck because you will often fall behind in prizes. This card can get any cards you need to get the lock.
The Energies are pretty basic. Rescue lets you get Serperior back to your hand after a knock out so you can set it up next in a few turns.

Issues:
One large issue with this deck is damage output. Being able to do a mere sixty damage a turn is very bad. I think that a card such as Zekrom could be added with some Double Colorless Energy. Moving a ton of damage counters onto Zekrom and using Outrage is a common thing to do with Reuniclus. This could help solve some of the low damage output problems that the deck has. A problem with Zekrom is that the main strategy of the deck is to heal away the damage. This means that there may not always be enough damage to make Zekrom relevant, but is still a possibility for the deck.
The next major issue is Reshiram based decks. Although Metapod helps with the problem, they can easily outspeed this deck. Not to mention that we 3-shot them (not counting Afterburner damage).

Techs:
Tyrogue is and option becuase it can kill other babies. Only yreal application.

Zekrom/Reshiram can be used to Outrage and do large amounts of damage.

Pichu can be used to set up the perfect bench you need.

Copycat can be used as a hand refresher because trainers can cause their hands to become large.

This is just a possibility that I have not playtested. I'm sure this deck could be fine-tuned to be competitive.

THIS POST HAS RECEIVED GURU POINTS! ( click here to discover why ) - GuRu SQuaD

 

[Victory Bell]

Excellent. if the thread was up i'd give you guru points. i think you need a starter though, more than a single cleffa. also try Reshi/Zek for huge damage output with Outrage. Cut a candy or two, after all, once Plume is down they become dead cards. Nice, AND creative.

 

[Scottistru]

Lets give this a go:
My List

Pokemon:
4 mew (tr 97)
2 muk (ud 31)
4 yanma (tr 85)
3 yanmega (tr 98)
2 sunkurn (hs 85)
2 sunflora (hs 31)
3 oddish (ud 60)
1 gloom (ud 27)
2 vileplume (ud 24)
2 jirachi (ul 1) or (cl 11)
1 spinarak (hs 83)
1 aipom (ul 43)

Trainers:
4 pokemon collector (hs 97)
4 sage's training (ud 77) or (cl 85)
3 judge (ul 78)
3 copycat (hs 90) or (cl 77)
2 professor elm's training method (hs 100) or (cl 82)
3 pokemon communication (hs 98) or (bw 99)
3 rare candy

Energy:
7 psychic
5 grass

Strategy:
Start with a mew or a yanma if possible, and use collector to get oddish, 2 if you are going second and your opponent has a yanma in play, as well as a sunkurn. then use mew's see off to send a muk to the lost zone. On your next turn, don't be afraid to use a good number of rescoures to get a vileplume or sunflora out, in order to lock you opponent or set up your field. Then if your opponent has a heavy retreat pokemon on their bench, use mew to use muk's sludge drag to bring it up, poisoning and confusing it. Then damage your opponent's bench with yanmega's linear attack for no energy, after using a judge or copycat to match hand sizes with your opponent. Aipom is used to stall heavy retreaters by tail coding their energy away so they can never attack or retreat, until they or knocked out by poison. Spinarack can be used to stall against pokemon that can't do damage until time is call or they are knocked out by poison. Finally, jirachi can get psychic energy back from your discard, and use them to devolve heavy hp pokemon, KOing the weaker basics. It can also be used to devolve rare candied pokemon, which must be re-evovled manually because of vileplume

Possible Additions:

Twins:
Vileplume decks are notorious for falling behind early game, and twins can be useful to help lessen the early game gap, and complete the deck's required set-up. However, this deck is faster than most vileplume decks, and I chose to include consistancy card over twins, so I never fall behind to begin with.

Jumpluff:
Since the deck already runs grass energy, seeing off a jumpluff can allow the deck to hit heavy; something the deck lacks, and can help compete with an early one energy attacker.

Cheren:
Since the deck lacks consistant draw power, cheren can be a nice inclusion to the deck. However, I chose not to include it simply because early game, I'd rather use a collector or an elm's, and if my hand is bad enough to not include any of those cards, I'd rather have shuffle draw such as copycat

Conclusion:
All in all, I think vileplume lock could become a very compititive deck this season, seeing as decks are becomeing more trainers based with the release of cacther and max potion, and a turn 2 vileplume can completly shut down many decks. However, attention may shift over to gothitelle for a time, due to the fact that it only locks your opponent. Most likely, one will be decided superior to the other, and it will be the only locker commonly used. Will vileplume be decided the stronger locker? Only time will tell.

THIS POST HAS RECEIVED GURU POINTS! ( click here to discover why ) - GuRu SQuaD

 

[cole]

@ Scottistru

I like the deck idea, but i would remove spinirak and jirachi. Have played alot of games with mewbox and I find them often abit useless, it's a low energy attacking deck so jirachi dosen't help to much, you have the de-volve option but often this deck is so fast I find that it's not needed. I would remove all 4 sage's aswell and use the 4 spots to add the two jumpluffs and max out copycat and judge.

The mewbox has no problems at all with gothitelle, as you setup your vileplume which ruins there plans of being able to play trainers while blocking yours and shuts down there deck quite abit. Ontop of that if you see off jumpluff turn one, from turn two onwards you can 1HKO gothitelle simply by having a full bench and them having one active (7 pokemon = 70dmg x 2 = 140)

I was playing gothitelle untill I discovered mewbox, mewbox has the ability to totally outspeed it and then hit for weakness

 

[masterswrd]

Pokemon: 25
3-2-2 Vileplume
3-2-2 Reuniclus
3-3 Steelix (prime)
1-1 Blissey (prime)
2 Pichu
1 Cleffa

T/S/S: 22
4 Sage's Training
3 Pokemon Collector
3 Pokemon Comm.
3 Rare Candy
3 Twins
3 PONT
2 Seeker
1 FSL

Energy: 13
5 Metal Energy
4 DCE
4 Sp. Metal

I have been thinking of this since we got Reuniculs. The basic concept is from a deck awhile back called HeaLix, the idea is to tank the whole entire game with Steelix(prime) and keep it alive with the aid of trainers such as Moomoo Milk and Potion. In this version however I have opted to forego the trainer and use Reuniculs to simply move the damage from Steelix to a benched pokemon such as Vileplume or Blissey(prime). Of course if you manage to get a Steelix benched it also provides a very nice damage sink (90 damage).

Set Up:
As with most Vileplume lock deck the idea is to get Vileplume up and going by turn 2 and should be the main goal. This is because with out Vilplume, Reuniculs cannot do its job as it will simply get hit with Catcher and be any easy K.O. . Steelix is a stage 1, so it will be quite easy (hopefully) to get by turn 2 also and to the active slot. To accomplish this we have both Pokemon Collector and Pichu and no matter which you have used, you will always go get 2 Oddish (if you dont have one benched) the other card got with Collector would be most likely Solosis. Pichu's playground would be 2 oddish, 1 Solosis, 1 Onix (assuming that you dont have them benched already).

The real con(s) of this deck is that its slow, and I mean slow. Even with DCE, Steelix's main attack cost five energy and will take quite a bit of time to get up and going even with his energy stream attack. Let say for example you manage to put 1 special metal on Onix turn 1 and turn 2 evolve into Steelix and attach a DCE, you are still 1 Metal and 1 colorless away from being able to swing for 100, that means either 2 more turns or 1 turn and a Energy Stream attack. Which as a result means that if you run into a deck with energy manipulation or hate, you will find yourself playing a game to time most likely. The other bad thing is that as a steel type, Steelix is 2x weak to fire, that means a simple 70 damage attack OHKO's him (without Sp. Metal). This though is only a real problem later in the game where if they are playing reshiram and he has enough damage counter on him for outrage. I would like to somehow see Blissey (prime) at 2-2 just because of the chance of it getting prized so if you have any ideas on that LMK. Blissey is important as it will heal Vileplume (who should never have more than 90 damage on it) then be a bench sitter to move damage to ( no more than 80 ) before having Seeker used on it. The damage amounts listed in the () is how much damage can be on the pokemon on your opponents turn to keep them out of snipe range of Yanmega(prime), on your turn you can take them up to 10hp from KO if you want as long as you plan on using Seeker or Blissey. I mentioned Reshiram earlier, it should be noted that you can hit it with energy stream and live through the outrage if they do not have damage on Resh already or some way to move damage on to it ( 30 damage + 20 attack =50*2=100) and then can be KO'd on your turn by Gaia Crush (if you have the energy).

THIS POST HAS RECEIVED GURU POINTS! ( click here to discover why ) - GuRu SQuaD

 

[SaLaMeNcE Xx]

ok, i havent posted in this guruchallenge before, but here goes...
This is a "lockbox" ive playing around with a little.

Pokemon: 21
4 Mew Prime
3-3 Mismagius (2 undaunted, 1UL)
2-1-2 Vileplume
2 jirachi (CoL)
1 Cleffa
1 Muk
1 Crobat Prime
1 Jumpluff
T/S/S: 26
4 Pokemon Collector
4 PONT
3 Twins
3 PETM
2 Sages
3 Candy
2 Copycat
2 Seekers
2 prof. juniper
1 pokemon communication
Energy: 13
8 Psy
3 Rescue
2 Rainbow

Ive allways liked to play lock/distrupting decks and ive allways liked the VileGar consept and i wanted to make something "similar" to that deck. And after looking around at a lot of different forums i startet getting an idea of what kind of deck i wanted.

The pokes:
Mew Prime:
Mew is kinda the starter of this deck, i like to start using mew to get a Muk and Crobat prime in to my lost zone. Usualy i start dragging out some heavy retreat pokemon (with Muk) and poison (crobat primes sevre poison)
Vileplume:
Is the locking part of the deck, and that is why i play 3 candies so that i can get a Vileplume up asap.
2 Mismagius UD, 1 Mismagius UL:
The UD Mismagius is the attacker of this deck (mew also attacks, but Mismagius is the heavy hitter) when ive got the locking part in with Vileplume and my opponents hand is getting large i use mismagius to ko the high hp pokemon.
The UL Mismagius propose is so that i can move energy around. for example if im attacking with jirachi i can move an energy so that i can deevolve more pokemons.
Cleffa:
Drawpower and wall.
Muk, Crobat Prime and Jumpluff:
Are all pokemon i put in my lost zone with Mew prime. I use Muk so that i can drag out a pokemon with heavy retreat. Crobats sevre poison is soo good against the pokes i have dragged out, and i can also snipe pokes on the bench. I usually uses jumpluffs attacks as one: i can ko pokemons with low hp with leaf guard (giving mew a little leverage) or i can ko pokemons with higher hp with mass attack..
Jirachi:
Also has two proposes in this deck. First is that if im running low on energys i can use his power and moove energys around with Mismagius UL. The second is that i usually uses Crobat primes sniping attack a lot on my opponents benched pokes. And when they all got enough dmg on them i can deevolve them with jirachi.

T/S/S:
I use allmost only supporters in this deck because of Vileplume, but as i said earlier i use 3 candy so that i can get Vileplume up asap.

[IEnergy:[/I]
I use 8 psy because allmost all of my attackers needs psy energy. The 3 rescues is there so i can use on psy and one rescue on Mismagius (its allways nice to get Mismagius back on your hand, because mismagius dont have that much hp) And i use 2 Rainbow energy so that i can use jumpluffs attack.

Possible techs/changes:
Metagross (UL)
I used Metagross in this deck earlier, but i feel that the attack cost is a little too bulky for this deck, but it works well to snipe with 3 psy energys on mew if your opponents pokemon has trouble retreating his/her active pokemon.
1-1 Mismagius (UD)
If you feel 3-3 is a small mismagius line you can probably up it to 4-4. Because most of the time if u get your Vileplume up fast your Mismagius can ohko most of your opponents pokemon ( at least late game)
Crobat prime
One more Crobat prime can help you a lot if the one you are playing is prized.

Strategy:
Your optimal start is to start with Mew prime and start lost linking Muk, then drag out a pokemon with high retreat. Then you should lost link a crobat so you can poison the active pokemon you dragged out. By turn 2 or 3 you should have your Vileplume up so your opponent cant play any trainers. Then you should start sniping your opponents benched pokemons so you can deevolve them later. Your Mews wil probably die quickly if your opponen can retreat the pokes you have dragged active som you have to prepared let some mews die, and you will fall behind on prizes but thats just how the deck is. But continiue to snipe with mews and ko your opponents mean pokes with Mismagius. And in the end you should be able to take 3-5 prizes with jirachis time hollow.

THIS POST HAS RECEIVED GURU POINTS! ( click here to discover why ) - GuRu SQuaD

 

[Nintendan]

Wall 'o' text.

I love playing this deck. Except I had the most stupid TSS lines ever like only 2 or 3 Twins =/

 

[Rogue Archetype]

Good stuff here! Thank you for sharing ideas. I've seen them being tested online! So, you're helping many others get their ideas for BRs together!

 

[Excalibar]

Donphan/Vileplume:

Pokemon:#22
3-2-3 Vileplume
4-4 Donphan
1 Cleffa OR Manaphy(UL)
2 Reshiram
2 Zekrom
1 Boufalant

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums:#25
4 Pokemon Collector
4 Sage's Training
4 Judge
3 Twins
4 Pokemon Communication
4 Rare Candy
2 PONT(Professor Oak's New Theory)

Energy:#13
6 Fighting Energy
3 Double Colorless Energy
4 Rainbow Energy

Strategy:

The idea of this deck is very simple: Set up an early Vilplume to get your Trainer Lock started, and start attacking via Donphan Primes Earthquake, while slowly building up damage on your benched Reshiam(s) and/or Zekrom(s).

The Cards:

Vileplume:
Quite simply, it is used to Trainer Lock your opponent to(hopefully) cripple their set up and allow you to sweep with Donphan Prime

Donphan Prime:
One of my personal favorite cards, this elephant-armadillo mutation dishes out 60 Damage with one energy(which, for those of you who experienced last years format, sounds vaguely familiar:wink, while dealing 10 damage to all of your bench. Now, while that damage to your bench would generally be a problem(as it can be in decks such as Stage 1 Rush), in your case it is actually a plus. The build up of this damage on Zekrom/Reshiram allows them to dish out large amounts of damage via their attack Outrage.

Zekrom/Reshiram:
The sole purpose of the Dragons is to absorb damage from Donphan Prime's Earthquake attack, allowing them(after having taken repeated damage from Earthquake) to KO many of the Pokemon in format. 1 Zekrom with 4 Damage Counters on it alone is capable of 1-hit-KOing a Yanmega Prime.

Boufalant:
Whether you want to use this card or not is up to you. It is simply in the deck to revenge KO after one of your Donphans or Dragons have been KO'd. It is also the only card in your deck capable of knocking out your opponents Rayquaza/Deoxys Legend(a card still found in Magnaboar and, on occasion, Reshiboar).

I hope this list offers you some help in your search for your deck.

 

[Politoed666]

4x Tyranitar Prime
3x Pupitar UL
4x Larvitar UL
2x Vileplume UD
1x Bellossom UD
2x Gloom UD
3x Oddish UD
4x Absol Prime
1x Mew Prime
1x Cleffa HGSS
Twins-heavy T/S/S line.
NO Psychic Energy

Reuniclus is an option if you want to decrease your consistency a little.

With this deck, you probably lose to Donphan or Beartic, but shouldn't have a whole lot of trouble against anything else. T-Tar's massive spread ability, along with it's Psychic resistance, will mean Goth has massive issues with it. ReshiPhlosion doesn't function as well under Trainer lock, meaning it could have some problems as well.

Absol, Bellossom, and Mew are the "abnormal" cards in here. Since you'll usually try to bench 2 Oddish to avoid one being Catchered, you'll often end up with an extra. Bellossom fits perfectly into a tank deck, so why not?

Absol is your ideal starter, just spreading around like he doesn't care. I played a game agains Kingdra/Mandibuzz the other day and his Absol start was just a constant annoyance. It put all my dragons in OHkO range of T-Tar, which is a big deal. T2 70, when you can manage it, is also nothing to scoff at.

Mew fits in with Absol perfectly, especially in here. LZing a T-Tar with Bloody Claw early on is great, since you have at least one turn of extra spreading with Mew later on. It's just a 1-of, though, since 60 HP is just too bad right now, especially when the deck already has a difficult Donphan matchup.

That is all. Fairly standard T-Tar list with some hopefully useful insight.

 

[Rogue Archetype]

I'm about to move this to the Guru Forum and introduce a new challenge.