Skip straight to the scores and summary for a
concise overview.
Please note that while I denote δ Delta Species
Pokémon by adding a δ to the end of their name, but
that said symbol is not actually part of their name
for gaming purposes to my understanding. For
example, a “Pokémon δ” can Evolve from or into a
non-Pokémon δ, so long as no other rules are being
broken. That is, I can Evolve Dratini δ into
a Dark Dragonair, plain Dragonair, of
the “Dragonair δ”. I cannot, however,
Evolve a Dark Dragonair into a Dragonite δ
or a Dragonair δ into a Dark Dragonite.
Also, δ Delta Species Pokémon are now found
in a set outside of EX Delta Species, so don’t
assume the one means the other anymore.
Name:
Vileplume δ
Set:
EX Holon Phantoms
Card#:
17/110
Type:
Psychic, Metal
Stage:
2 (Evolves from Gloom)
HP:
90
Weakness:
Psychic
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Poké-Power:
Poison Pollen
Once during your turn (before your attack), you may
flip a coin. If heads, choose 1 of the Defending
Pokémon. That Pokémon is now Poisoned. This power
can’t be used if Vileplume is affected by a Special
Condition.
Attack:
(PM) Poltergeist [30+]
Look at your opponent’s hand. This attack does
30 damage plus 10 more damage for each Trainer
card in your opponent’s hand.
Name:
Gloom δ
Set:
EX Holon Phantoms
Card#:
42/110
Type:
Psychic
Stage:
1 (Evolves from Oddish)
HP:
70
Weakness:
Psychic
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Attack#1:
(C) Drool [20]
Attack#2:
(PC) Acid [30]
The Defending Pokémon can’t retreat during your
opponent’s next turn.
Name:
Oddish
Set:
EX Holon Phantoms
Card#:
73110
Type:
Water
Stage:
Basic
HP:
40
Weakness:
Fire
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Attack#1:
(C) Tackle [10]
Attack#2:
(W) Blot [10]
Remove 2 damage counters from Oddish.
Attributes:
Vileplume is a δ Delta Species Pokémon,
commonly referred to a Pokémon δ. Henceforth I will
refer to it as Vileplume δ, but the δ isn’t
actually part of the name. What it is hasn’t been
clarified yet: notice how the text is placed in gap
between name and HP. I just wished to be extra
cautious in clarifying this to avoid confusion.
Being a Pokémon δ is an advantage as far as I can
tell. I have seen just one card “punish” Pokémon δ,
Kingdra δ, and that can hardly be worked into
multiple decks like Desert Ruins can. All in
all, being a Pokémon δ is a good thing, allowing
access to some extra support.
Vileplume δ
is a Dual-Type Pokémon, which has become more common
to the TCG but is still fairly rare, and rarely
reflects the quite common Dual-Type Pokémon of the
source material (the video games), instead almost
always representing Pokémon that have been mucked
with in some way (Pokémon δ and Pokémon with “evil”
owners). Being a Psychic-Type Pokémon is probably
better than being a Grass-Type Pokémon as Psychic
Weakness is seen more often amongst the more popular
decks. Likewise, being a Metal-Type Pokémon is also
better than being a Grass-Type due to the ability to
use Metal Energy to reduce damage.
90 HP is low for a Stage 2 Pokémon, though at least
it is playable. Still it is a clear detriment to
the card that will need to be offset. Psychic
Weakness, as long as all Types are seeing play is
probably the best for a Psychic-Type (or half
Psychic-Type) Pokémon, since most Psychic Pokémon
Weak Pokémon are Psychic-Type themselves. Unless a
deck featuring some of the few non-Psychic Weak
Psychic-Type Pokémon is popular, at worst you
opponent will be in the same boat as you, taking
double damage as well as dealing it.
No Resistance is disappointing. I do wish they’d
stop using this trait so little. I may be wrong and
it may be necessary to leave it out for balance, but
I can’t see it working that way: since Resistance
only reduces damage by a fixed amount it doesn’t
have as dramatic an impact as Weakness does.
The single Energy Retreat Cost is nice. Although
you may need to be careful as this card requires
something providing Metal Energy to attack and thus
may not enjoy discarding such cards to retreat,
usually you can shed a Basic Energy and as such the
cost is easily met.
Vileplume δ
Evolves from Gloom which in turn Evolves from
Oddish. I don’t much care for either new
version and would only use them if you as many of
your Pokémon as you can to be Pokémon δ. For the
Gloom I’d recommend the EX Hidden Legends
version as it just has very nice attacks for
something you will only occasionally need to attack
with. Oddish δ is too small to safely
use at 40 HP which undermines its Blot attack: you
can’t heal what has already been KO’d. Well,
barring the Revive cards from long ago, but
that’s really just nitpicking. So I’d use one of
the other Oddish. For Modified, it will then
depend on the deck: if Poison or not needing Grass
Energy is important, go with EX Hidden Legends
version, otherwise use the EX Unseen Forces
version. For Unlimited, they are all pretty horrid.
Abilities:
Poison Pollen returns to us. First seen on
Expedition Vileplume, this attack is a flip
to see if you can Poison the Defending Pokémon (the
newer one letting you choose one if there are
multiples). This is a fairly handy Poké-Power,
since Vileplume δ can do it from the Bench
and basically act as something of a “Plus Power”
for a different Active Pokémon.
The attack doesn’t really combo well but it is
solid: Poltergeist lets you not only see the
opponent’s hand, but do extra damage based on the
amount of Trainers found there. If the opponent has
no Trainers in hand, the attack is a bit
underpowered (since its on a Stage 2) but as long as
there are two you’re getting quite the deal.
Uses and
Combinations:
First, this can be interesting TecH for use with
Vileplume ex and Dark Vileplume. Either
should force the opponent to keep several Trainers
in hand. Vileplume ex must, of course, be
kept Active for this to work, so it would mostly be
used with Surprise! Time Machine to deliver a
massive final blow. Final because either it’s for
game or else you can’t expect to survive too long
afterwards. Try to make it the former.
With a Dark Vileplume, it actually could sit
out front and attack: the opponent’s hand will no
doubt be swelling with Trainers so as long as you
have a decent set up (probably at least one card to
heal with already in play) and they can’t stall into
something big, you can take them. Just be warned
that if they do outpace you and set up before you
can lock down Trainers (or manage to without
Trainers), then you are in trouble.
For Modified, it has already spawned a new form of
“Liability” deck, which is really just the
modernization of the old and obscure Life Drain
deck, but less flippy. I can’t be sure as my own
attempts are having trouble stabilizing the deck,
but if you can stabilize the deck, it is very likely
to be the first Liability that cannot be ignored.
Yes, it will be coin flip dependant… for KOing cards
that aren’t 100+ HP Pokémon-ex (love that Desert
Ruins), but if you have at least two on your
bench, odds are you will be able to do it. Also, in
a worst case scenario (all Vileplume δ fail
at Poisoning) you can use Smogscreen on EX Deoxys
Weezing instead to set up for Liability (and to
stall). It’s the 50-75% success rate that will be
hard on opponents, as this Poisoning from the Bench
means you can use Energy Root (or run a few
of the Fossil cards) so that the attack right
after Liability KOs something is more or less
wasted. Not that it really is wasted: if you don’t
send something up to do the last 10 to 20
damage to KO a Weezing with Energy Root,
they can just turn a single Weezing into two
KOs, and upwards of a 1 for 4 Prize trade in their
favor. Ouch.
Ratings
Unlimited:
3/5 – I think it could be decent TecH in
Vileplume ex decks, and maybe even with Dark
Vileplume as their own deck.
Modified:
3.75/5 – Flips scare people, and as stated I have
had difficulty stabilizing the deck so far, but I
haven’t had a whole lot of time to work on it, let
alone play test. There is also the chance that many
players will overlook this version of Liability as
they have the others, and even though it could end
up being well worth playing, most won’t.
Limited:
3.5/5 – Its hard to turn down running it, but even
if you can power the attack it won’t do very much
damage in this format, so it mainly matters if you
have at least several Gloom δ and Oddish δ
so that this becomes little more than a nice Bench
sitting bonus for your normal forces.
Summary
I believe the HP is just a hair lower than it needed
to be, but overall Vileplume δ is a very nice
card I think should see some significant play, but
fear won’t “just because”.
