Chandelure/Vileplume

Chandelure/Vileplume
Deck Founded: 2011 (HGSS-NV)
Other Names: ChandyPlume
Top Performances: Over 10 City Championship Wins

Skeleton List

Spaces Available: 3

Strategy:
This deck actually involves quite a different concept to many of the most popular decks out there at the moment since it doesn’t have a lot of firepower behind it. However, it does have a very versatile way of dealing damage and when you throw in the aspect of trainer lock with a couple of special conditions too, you have yourself a deck that’s ready to take on the competitive scene.

Chandelure’s Ability ‘Cursed Shadow’ allows you to place 3 damage counters on any of your opponent’s Pokemon, in any way you like as long as Chandelure is active. With 2 Chandelure in play, that gives you a flexible 6 damage counters to place on your opponent’s side of the field, but you’re going to need something that helps out with that retreat cost to be able to do it more effectively. Dodrio is there to sit on the bench and allow you to use its ‘Retreat Aid’ PokeBody, which does exactly what it says on the tin. It gives each of your Active Pokemon 2 less retreat cost, which makes all of your Pokemon’s retreat cost free, allowing you to use Cursed Shadow multiple times per turn. On top of the Ability, Chandelure’s attack, ‘Eerie Glow’ does 50 damage plus inflicting the status conditions Burn and Confusion, so unless your opponent wants to risk having 3 damage counters put onto themselves with a bad flip, they won’t be attacking you and will be forced to retreat. This puts your opponent in very tricky situations and also helps to get more damage on your opponent’s side of the field. And lastly in support, you have yourself Vileplume, which provides trainer lock on the whole field with its PokeBody, ‘Allergy Flower’.

Techs:
3 spaces is really tight, but you have a lot to fit into here and surprisingly not that much choice because of the limited amount of Supporters you have available, nevertheless, here are some things you can try out.

Tropical Beach: This card hasn’t been included in the skeleton list because of the sheer difficulty some people have in getting hold of these cards. These were only given out to competitors in Worlds 2011, so they are getting increasingly expensive as time moves on since they are still really playable. It is really powerful in this deck since you can still draw cards and deal damage with Chandelure’s Ability, so not being able to attack doesn’t matter that much, which is the downside to using Tropical Beach’s effect. If you can get hold of these for tournament use, then definitely try these out since it gives you a very nice form of draw support when you just aren’t ready to attack or don’t have the resources yet to go offensive. Some people recommend up to 3 copies of this in here, but because of how hard they are to get hold of, some players can deal with just 1.

Jirachi UL/CL: I was really close to putting this card into the skeleton list since I feel that so many games are won simply because of the amazing synergy between Chandelure’s Ability and this card’s attack. Jirachi is able to fuel it’s own energy requirement through its ‘Stardust Song’ PokePower and allows you to devolve one of your opponent’s Pokemon for each energy attached to Jirachi. When you pair this with Chandelure’s Ability to drop damage counters around the board, you can cover enough damage to KO the Stage below the Pokemon your opponent has in play and then devolve them with Jirachi in the same turn to take a cheap KO. This is an incredible strategy in the late game to take simple prizes, but it can also be really powerful early on since you can send back Rare Candied Stage 2s to the opponent’s hand after Vileplume hits the field to give them the worry of having to find the Stage 1 before getting the Stage 2 back onto the field. Definitely try this card out if you have a single space left in your list.

Professor Oak’s New Theory: This card is an alternative to having Tropical Beach in the deck or as an alternative to cards such as Sage’s Training in the skeleton above. PONT gives you the opportunity to shuffle your own hand back into the deck for a fresh six when you don’t really want to use N on your opponent and just keeps recycling your hand around to find those parts of Stage 2s that you need, especially that Vileplume, in the early Stages.

Aipom UL: This card is a really nice tech when you’re up against Magnezone. Magnezone is going to give you the most trouble since it can still OHKO you even when under trainer lock thanks to its unlimited damage output, but this little monkey can give it quite the tricky scenario if used in the right way. If you find your opponent has left a Magnezone on the bench or in the active spot with no energy on it, then get Aipom ready with energy attached to start using ‘Tail Code’ to move the energy they try to attach to it to attack or retreat onto a useless Pokemon such as Cleffa or Eelektrik. This will put them into a very unfortunate lock that they will not be able to get out of unless the run Shaymin or Typhlosion, which isn’t very popular right now. This technique can work when you pair this with Lampent’s ‘Luring Light’ since you can drag up unsuspecting Pokemon with 2 or higher retreat cost, let them attach the energy and then start moving it around. When the opponent starts missing energy attachments, you can then retreat to Chandelure, place some damage counters and then start Aipom-ing again when they try to attach energy to the active. It’s a very gimmicky tactic which is hard to pull off, but when done right, you can win games with this guy.

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