Name: Vileplume ex

Set: Hidden Legends

Card#: 100/101

Type: Grass

Stage: 2 (Evolves from Gloom)

HP: 140

Weakness: Psychic

Resistance: None

Retreat: CC

Poké-Body: Block Dust

As long as Vileplume ex is your Active Pokémon, your opponent can’t play Trainer cards (except for Supporter cards) from his or her hand.

 

Attributes: Vileplume ex is a Stage 2 Grass Pokémon that Evolves from Gloom, which in turn Evolves from Oddish.  This card also has the advantage of being part of a branched Evolution line.  Now, sometimes this can act like a disadvantage-if the alternative forms are really, really good, then why use the other one?  In this case though, I think they made a wise choice hat I will touch on more in the Uses/Combinations section.  As for the lower Stages of Vileplume ex, I suggest you avoid the Hidden Legends Oddish, if possible-given that we have a tiny Basic we hope to Evolve, you should think defensively.  In Modified, you can chose from Expedition and Aquapolis versions, as they do have ways of keeping themselves alive longer.  In Unlimited, Either of those or the Oddish from the Team Rocket set look to be solid choices, depending on how Grass heavy the deck is.  As for Gloom, Hidden Legends is the clear choice for either format.

 

Returning now to Vileplume ex, we must remember that, as a Pokémon ex, it has to be worth the cost of two prizes.  So let us keep that in mind as we review stats.  For example, it has 140 HP.  For a Stage 2 Pokémon ex, this is about average.  Moving on, we see a Psychic Weakness.  This will hurt it badly in Modified, were Sandstorm Wobbuffet is in most decks and one of the biggest, best decks in the format is mono-Psychic with huge damage (Gardevoir/Gardevoir ex).  Still, this might be best, since the primary alternative is Fire, which would be worse (Blaziken ex actually doesn’t OHKO this!).  Resistance, sadly, is lacking (Water here would have really helped this card).  Finally, a retreat of two is average-it will not be easy to pay, but neither should it be impossible.

 

Abilities: Ah, memories of my lovely, lovely Black Rose… @};-  Of course, I speak of Dark Vileplume, the original master of Trainer Denial.  Vileplume ex lacks the raw power of my beloved Black Rose, but has better “control”-by being active and only the opponent is affected (even if they can still use Supporters).  Supporters are important for Modified, but remember-their main use is Draw/Search power… for everything else.  And in Unlimited, Supporters are scarcely seen.  I myself usually run 2-4 in every deck, and of them, only two are draw power-the other two are recursion.  Block Dust, all though lame in name, is a potent effect.

 

As for attacks, Vileplume ex gets only one, but it’s solid.  For (GCC), we get not only 50 damage (15 more than paid for), but either Sleep and Poison or Confusion.  Pretty spiffy.

 

Definite synergy with these abilities-there are no Supporters that I know of the change out an opposing Active.  This means that they have to have an attack that can bench Vileplume ex, or they have to KO it to get access to their normal Trainers.  Half the time, they should either be Asleep or failing a Confusion check… unless they can afford to retreat out and still attack.

 

Uses/Combinations: This card needs to be the focus of its own deck.  In Unlimited, try backing it up with healing and just laughing as you do everything like normal but your opponent has to rely on maybe three Supporters… and Cleffa.  Yes, Cleffa will help them a lot, but it helps everyone a lot.  For Modified, I have heard that Bellossom from Hidden Legends makes a good partner to it-it’s the other Stage 2 a Gloom can evolve into, and this one means a guaranteed 20 healed each turn, and is a solid attack in its own right.

 

Ratings

 

Unlimited: 3.5/5-This is another tentative scoring.  I have heard some great things about this card here.

 

Modified: 3.5/5-Less potent here, since Supporters are the back bone of most decks.  Still, it has potential.

 

Limited: 4/5-But for different reasons.  Well, you do have a good chance at shutting down all their Trainers… but only because there is a single Supporter in the set that can’t be negated.  However, most decks won’t have a lot of Trainers anyway.  What really matters is the decent drafting odds.  I had bad luck-only one Oddish and Gloom, but two Bellossom (so far, about 1 in 10 of my HL packs have Bellossom).  So if you get Vileplume ex, good chance of supporting it.  The big thing is of course, the Special Conditions-these things are so wicked in Limited.

 

2-on-2: 3.75/5-Combine with Armaldo for a total lockdown of Trainers for your opponent while you can use anything but Supporters!

 

Summary

A wonderful new card, though you gotta work to play it right.