Erika's Victreebel

What Erika's Victreebel looks like when you open the box

Across the 38 lists we counted, this deck runs 19 to 26 Pokémon, 27 to 31 Trainers and 6 to 12 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Grass.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « erikas-victreebel ». Every card named in that label turns up in the tables below, which is what makes it a fair name for the deck.

Look at the Energy: 6 to 12 out of 60, when half the 125 decks we track run 11 or more. This one is lean. It lives on cheap attacks and leans on Trainers to find the right Energy at the right moment rather than stockpiling it.

It takes a while to set up. Erika's Victreebel is a Stage 2 Pokémon: you put down the baby, you evolve it, and then you evolve it again. Three cards stacked before anything attacks. That is what the hardest-hitting decks cost you, and it is also where they crack — a fast opponent can bury you before the line is standing.

Look at the Trainers: 27 to 31 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 125 decks we track. Inside that, 8 to 15 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 9 to 15 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 6 Stadiums, and 3 of the 125 decks we track bring that many or more. Only one Stadium sits on the table at a time: the one you play sends the one already there to the discard pile.

What Tools and Stadiums do — the two Trainer families we skipped here — and why the Energy count says so much: how to read a deck list.

How Erika's Victreebel actually wins

Erika's Victreebel attacks with Solar Beam for 130. It needs 3 Energy, 2 Grass and 1 Colorless attached, and it has 150 HP.

The cost of Solar Beam decides your first few turns. You only get to attach one Energy a turn, and that attack asks for 3. On your own attachments alone, your first real swing lands on turn 3. We have not found anything in this list that attaches Energy faster than that, so plan on holding out for 2 turns before you swing. Those turns still get played: you fill your Bench, you build your lines, and you keep something back to rebuild with when your attacker falls.

Here is the detail that quietly loses games. To pull Erika's Victreebel back to the Bench you have to discard 3 Energy attached to it. Retreating does not cost you your turn, you can step back and still swing right after. What it costs you is the 3 Energy you spent 3 turns attaching, and you start that climb again from nothing. Pack a card that moves it for free, or send it up knowing it stays up.

Not one ex Pokémon in the core, and only 26 of the 125 decks we track are in that position. It is a hidden advantage: every knockout your opponent takes is worth a single Prize, so they need 6, where 3 would do against a deck stuffed with ex cards.

The attackers in the deck's core, with their best attack, its cost and their Weakness

Pokémon	HP	Attack	Damage	Cost	Weakness	Retreat
Close Erika's VictreebelStage 2	150	Solar Beam	130		Fire ×2	3
Close Erika's WeepinbellStage 1	90	Leafy Cyclone	70		Fire ×2	2
Close Erika's TangelaBasic	80	Bind	50		Fire ×2	2
Close Erika's BellsproutBasic	60	Vine Slap	20		Fire ×2	1

The core: the 8 cards every list runs

These 8 cards appear in all 38 lists, without a single exception. That is 32 of the 60 slots. The other 28 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 32 slots break down: 10 Trainers, 15 Pokémon, 7 Energy. Pokémon dominate, which is unusual: this deck needs bodies on the board, and it depends on any single attacker less than it looks.

8 of those 8 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Erika's Bellsprout (3 to 4), Erika's Tangela (3 to 4) and Erika's Weepinbell (2 to 4), plus 5 more. Add those spreads up and you get 12 copies the 38 lists do not agree on, inside the core itself.

What "3 to 4" means in the copies column, what the "TWM 130" code under each name is for, and why we count dozens of lists instead of one: how to read a deck list.

The cards present in every list counted, with the number of copies

Copies	Card	Printing	Kind
3–4	Close Erika's Bellsprout	ASC 4	Pokémon
3–4	Close Erika's Tangela	ASC 7	Pokémon
2–4	Close Erika's Weepinbell	ASC 5	Pokémon
3–4	Close Erika's Victreebel	ASC 6	Pokémon
3–4	Close Forest of Vitality	MEG 117	Trainer
3–4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer
2–4	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer
5–8	Grass Energy	MEE 1	Energy

The 48 cards that change from list to list

48 cards fight over the 28 slots that are left: 5 above three lists in four, 27 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Gwynn at 97 %, Poké Pad at 97 % and Sacred Ash at 97 %, plus 2 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Lana's Aid, at 53 %: 20 of 38 players took it, 18 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 1 copy. Right at the bottom of the table, Energy Search (9 lists out of 38) and Dawn (5 lists out of 38).

Why a card at 45 % is not a bad card, and what order to buy all this in: how to read a deck list.

The cards some lists run and others don't, most common first

Lists running it	Card	Copies	Printing	Kind
97 %37/38	Close Gwynn	2–4	PBL 78	Trainer
97 %37/38	Close Poké Pad	3–4	POR 81	Trainer
97 %37/38	Close Sacred Ash	1–2	DRI 168	Trainer
95 %36/38	Close Meganium	2	MEG 10	Pokémon
76 %29/38	Close Bug Catching Set	4	TWM 143	Trainer
74 %28/38	Close Brave Bangle	1–2	WHT 80	Trainer
71 %27/38	Close Secret Box	1	TWM 163	Trainer
68 %26/38	Close Chikorita	1–2	MEG 8	Pokémon
61 %23/38	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
58 %22/38	Close Erika's Gloom	1–2	ASC 2	Pokémon
58 %22/38	Close Erika's Oddish	1–3	ASC 1	Pokémon
58 %22/38	Close Erika's Vileplume ex	1	ASC 3	Pokémon
55 %21/38	Close Bayleef	2	MEG 9	Pokémon
53 %20/38	Close Lana's Aid	1	TWM 155	Trainer
39 %15/38	Close Bayleef	2	ASC 9	Pokémon
34 %13/38	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1–2	DRI 176	Trainer
34 %13/38	Close Switch	1–2	MEG 130	Trainer
32 %12/38	Close Energy Recycler	1	DRI 164	Trainer
32 %12/38	Close Tool Scrapper	1	ASC 212	Trainer
29 %11/38	Close Chikorita	1–2	ASC 8	Pokémon
29 %11/38	Close Special Red Card	1–2	CRI 82	Trainer
24 %9/38	Close Energy Search	3–4	POR 72	Trainer
13 %5/38	Close Dawn	1	PFL 87	Trainer
13 %5/38	Close Hilda	1	WHT 84	Trainer
13 %5/38	Close Pokégear 3.0	1–2	SVI 186	Trainer
5 %2/38	Close Teal Mask Ogerpon ex	1–2	TWM 25	Pokémon
5 %2/38	Close Patrat	1	CRI 70	Pokémon
5 %2/38	Close Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
5 %2/38	Close Rabsca	1	TEF 24	Pokémon
5 %2/38	Close Rellor	1	TEF 23	Pokémon
5 %2/38	Close Crispin	3–4	SCR 133	Trainer
5 %2/38	Close Air Balloon	1–2	ASC 181	Trainer
5 %2/38	Close Area Zero Underdepths	2	SCR 131	Trainer
5 %2/38	Close Max Rod	1	PRE 116	Trainer
3 %1/38	Close Crustle	2	DRI 12	Pokémon
3 %1/38	Close Dwebble	2	DRI 11	Pokémon
3 %1/38	Close Rare Candy	2	MEG 125	Trainer
3 %1/38	Close Ultra Ball	2	MEG 131	Trainer
3 %1/38	Close Colress's Tenacity	1	SFA 57	Trainer
3 %1/38	Close Counter Gain	1	SSP 169	Trainer
3 %1/38	Close Enhanced Hammer	1	TWM 148	Trainer
3 %1/38	Close Night Stretcher	1	ASC 196	Trainer
3 %1/38	Close Survival Brace	1	TWM 164	Trainer
3 %1/38	Close Growing Grass Energy	4	POR 86	Energy
3 %1/38	Darkness Energy	3	MEE 7	Energy
3 %1/38	Lightning Energy	2	MEE 4	Energy
3 %1/38	Fire Energy	1	MEE 2	Energy
3 %1/38	Psychic Energy	1	MEE 5	Energy

The most common Erika's Victreebel list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 32 slots come from the core, the cards all 38 lists run. The remaining 28 come from the table just above, working down it: the cards the most players chose, each at its most common copy count, until the total lands on 60.

This list is nobody's list in particular. It takes, slot by slot, what the most people played, under the guardrails a judge would hold you to: never more than four copies of a card, and one ACE SPEC. Behind the core it took 14 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 25 Pokémon, 28 Trainers and 7 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 38 lists we counted are all from players who came in the top twenty of their tournament. Nobody publishes the lists of the players who lost. So what you have in front of you is what the players finishing near the top bring most often.

The text under the table is the one the game expects: copy it, paste it into the deck manager, and the list builds itself.

Why we only read lists from players who came in the top twenty of their tournament, and what that changes about every percentage on this page: how to read a deck list.

Pokémon: 25
4 Erika's Bellsprout ASC 4
4 Erika's Tangela ASC 7
4 Erika's Weepinbell ASC 5
3 Erika's Victreebel ASC 6
2 Meganium MEG 10
2 Chikorita MEG 8
1 Shaymin DRI 10
1 Erika's Gloom ASC 2
1 Erika's Oddish ASC 1
1 Erika's Vileplume ex ASC 3
2 Bayleef MEG 9

Trainer: 28
4 Forest of Vitality MEG 117
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
2 Boss's Orders MEG 114
4 Gwynn PBL 78
4 Poké Pad POR 81
2 Sacred Ash DRI 168
4 Bug Catching Set TWM 143
2 Brave Bangle WHT 80
1 Secret Box TWM 163
1 Lana's Aid TWM 155

Energy: 7
7 Grass Energy MEE 1

Total Cards: 60

How many different cards Erika's Victreebel needs, and how long it will last

You need 56 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 8 of which nobody argues about. The rest is where lists differ from one another, and that is where you have room to choose.

30 of these 38 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 27 took Secret Box, 2 took Max Rod and 1 took Survival Brace. You are allowed ONE ACE SPEC card in your whole deck, so a single copy covers it whatever it costs. New to this deck? Take Secret Box and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time, and the answer is a good one: not one of the 8 core cards carries the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation. This deck walks through the change whole.

What Erika's Victreebel struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Fire, so they take DOUBLE damage from that type. 13 of the 125 decks we track attack in exactly that type.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex, Ethan's Typhlosion and Ceruledge ex, plus 10 more decks. The table below takes them one at a time, and those are the lists you practise against first before an event.

This table counts one thing, Weakness, and that comes to 13 decks out of the 125 we track. The other 112 do not attack into yours, and this table says nothing about them. You will still run into them.

Going the other way, your attackers are Grass, and 24 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: N's Zoroark ex, Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama and Mega Sharpedo ex / Toxtricity, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.