Erika's Vileplume Tank - 1.0

MyceliumMADNESS MyceliumMADNESS standard 464 views Aug 25, 2026 Updated Aug 25, 2026
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Deck Primer

I'm starting my quest to refine this deck to be viable.  I've been doing quite well on the PTCGLive ladder, and am looking to try it out at my local Saturday casual game.  As always, ANY suggestions for improvement is always appreciated.

Erika's Vileplume ex is the tank and main attacker.  At 310 HP, it can survive a hit from most common Pokemon.  Benching Ludicolo adds 40 HP, increasing it to 350 HP.  Attatching Hero's Cape, it jumps to 450 HP.  With each benched

...

I'm starting my quest to refine this deck to be viable.  I've been doing quite well on the PTCGLive ladder, and am looking to try it out at my local Saturday casual game.  As always, ANY suggestions for improvement is always appreciated.

Erika's Vileplume ex is the tank and main attacker.  At 310 HP, it can survive a hit from most common Pokemon.  Benching Ludicolo adds 40 HP, increasing it to 350 HP.  Attatching Hero's Cape, it jumps to 450 HP.  With each benched Vileplume able to heal 30 HP every turn to all your pokemon, you could possibly be healing everything 30, 60, 90, or 120 HP every turn. 

The idea is to attack with Vileplume's Bloom Powder, which does 160 damage as well as poisons (170) and puts opponent pokemon to sleep.  If they fail their coin flip, they cannot attack or retreat without supporter or item help.  Every turn, your Vileplume(s) are each healing all your pokemon 30, 60, 90, 120.  When one Vileplume becomes too damaged, retreat to another fresh Vileplume, allowing the damaged to be healed up to full again.  Causing 350 damage (170 from initial attack and poison, 10 more from poison if stuck in active their turn, and 170 your next turn) knocks out nearly any pokemon.

Erika's Tangela is for getting your Erika's Vileplume ex set up faster... and for sacrificial fodder.

Ludicolo grants all of your pokemon an additional 40 HP

Meganium doubles the effect of grass energy, so each Vileplume only needs 2 energy to attack instead of 3

All of the pokemon have 2 retreat, so Air Balloon should allow free retreat for anything benched.

Forest of Vitality allows evolution all the way up to stage 2 for any of our grass pokemon, as long as we have them in our hand.

Dawn allows us to pull a full basic, stage 1, and stage 2, and with Forest in play, we can instantly have one, or possibly multiple, Vileplume, Meganium, or stage 1 Lombre in play.

Poké Pad allows us to pull any evolution piece we need, with the exception of Vileplume.

I've gone back and forth with the idea of replacing the two Lombre with Rare Candy. It would allow an instant jump from Lotad to Ludicolo instead of the need to wait an extra turn to evolve a non grass.

I've also gone back and forth about using Growing Grass Energy in place of 2 to 4 Basic Grass Energy In most matches, the extra 20 HP did not make much of a difference, and I found being able to reliably grab/find grass energy to cover the 3 needed to power up the Vileplumes faster more helpful.  I still might swap out 2, as that seemed to be a pretty happy medium.

As always, ANY suggestions for improvement is always appreciated.

Main Deck (60 cards)

Pokémon (26)
4 Erika's Vileplume ex me2pt5-3
$0.94 Grass 310
2 Meganium me1-10
$0.26 Grass 160
2 Ludicolo sv9-37
$0.15 Water 140
2 Bayleef me1-9
$0.27 Grass 110
4 Erika's Gloom me2pt5-2
$0.17 Grass 90
2 Lombre me2-6
$0.09 Grass 90
2 Erika's Tangela me2pt5-7
$0.11 Grass 80
2 Chikorita me1-8
$0.20 Grass 70
2 Lotad me2-5
$0.14 Grass 70
4 Erika's Oddish me2pt5-1
$0.14 Grass 60
Trainer (24)
2 Air Balloon swsh1-156
$0.31
3 Boss's Orders swsh9-132
$0.39
4 Bug Catching Set sv6-143
$0.21
4 Dawn me2-87
$0.24
4 Forest of Vitality me1-117
$0.21
1 Hero's Cape sv5-152
$27.50
4 Lillie's Determination me2pt5-192
$0.35
2 Poké Pad me2pt5-198
$0.32
Energy (10)
10 Basic Grass Energy sve-9
$0.13 Grass

Card Types

Pokémon 26
Trainer 24
Energy 10

Energy Types

Grass 34
Water 2

Energy Curve

Distribution of attack energy costs in your deck

1 Energy 6 attacks
6
23.1% of attacks
2 Energy 12 attacks
12
46.2% of attacks
3 Energy 6 attacks
6
23.1% of attacks
4 Energy 2 attacks
2
7.7% of attacks

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Comments

jing953 avatar
jing953

have you done a draft of the deck w/ jumbo ice cream? since you're always going to have 3 energy at minimum on a vileplume, it could benefit from the healing and add to the tanky aspect

👍 1
MyceliumMADNESS avatar
MyceliumMADNESS

I did initially consider Jumbo Ice Cream, but am still unsure what I would drop to add one or two. I could possibly remove a grass energy, a Forest, and/or a Dawn.

  • Energy wise, worst case scenario I need 3 grass energy to attack with a Vileplume.
  • Forest is important to keep evolving all the grass pokemon as quickly as possible... but of the three options, lloosing one might be the least impactful.
  • Dawn is also great for instantly installing a stage 2 pokemon... but loosing one might be an option.
👍 1
Ryoka22 avatar
Ryoka22

tbh you might be able to cut the tangelasa and one ludicolo line for some ultra balls and the hydrapple ex line which will allow for more energy placement and more healing. its attack isnt bad either so it could be good as a pinch attacker

👍 1
MyceliumMADNESS avatar
MyceliumMADNESS

I am guarded about loosing Tangela. In all my games on LIVE, Tangela has always been a great boon, helping quickly getting Vileplumes out. Every turn I am able to grab the next evolution piece, or with one of the 4 Forests in play, I can usually get at least 2 Vileplumes up and healing before they can get a heavy hitter set up. Once I get a Tangela, I almost don't have to think of what I need for Vileplume, between its ability and Pads/Dawn. I usually just focus on getting a Meganium and Ludicolo. Ludicolo is still a small pain point, as since it's final is water, I cannot fully get it out in one round. Been trying Rare Candy in place of stage 1 Lombre.

I am apprehensive about adding a 1/1/1 Hydrapple Ex line. I can see the benefit of the extra energy acceleration, quickly scaling damage with Meganium energy doubling, and precision 30 HP heal, but I also see it more as a liability. First, it takes up a bench slot, which ideally could be used for Vileplume, which reduces a possible guaranteed heal of 30 HP to every pokemon, every turn. Second, prizing just one piece makes it somewhat useless early game, and loosing just one piece early game makes it somewhat useless later in game. Hydrapple could be a great addition, but I would want to run at least a 2/2/2 line, again with possible stage 1 replaced by Rare Candy. Sadly, I can't see what 6 cards of the deck I would replace/switch.

MyceliumMADNESS avatar
MyceliumMADNESS

I have had a change of heart, and am currently testing swapping out the 2 Tangela, for 2 Mega Evolution Celebi.

Tangela was great for quickly building Erika's Vileplume, but Celebi allows you to search your deck for any combination of 3 grass pokemon and stadiums. At a cost of one grass, you can pull out a stadium and 2 missing pieces for a full 3 evolutions, instantly benching a Meganium or Vileplume. Then pull out another full 3 evolutions every round Celebi survives in the active.

Weighing the two...

  • Tangela has the bonus of being able to pull one Erika's pokemon piece, at no cost as an ability, even on the bench. It's slower, but with a forest in play, much more consistant and a little more protected.
  • Celebi has the small pain point that it must be in the active, with a grass energy. With every other pokemon having a 2 retreat cost, if I don't pull an air balloon, I find I am sometimes wasting 3 energy to get Celibi in the active to do its thing for one, or if I am lucky, two turns.
👍 1
Khánh Duy Hồ avatar
Khánh Duy Hồ

Did you ever having trouble with retreating? With only 2 Air balloon?

👍 1
MyceliumMADNESS avatar
MyceliumMADNESS

Unfortunately yes, especially while trying Celebi in place of Tangela. With only 2 air balloons, and no Petral to seek them out, I do often have to waste 2 grass energy for movement early game. Surfer might be a good card to add, but likely would have to swap out 1 or 2 Lillie's and/or Dawns. Later game, with Meganium, dropping 1 grass if I need to move isn't usually an issue.

I do find that my opponent does help me out quite frequently though. Most only see the ability, and Vileplume is usually mistaken for a healing supporter. More often than not, it is gusted to the active, thinking it is blocking my intended attacker and an easy 2 turn knockout.

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