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Pokemon TCG Pockethas a wide variety of powerful decks that you’re able to use to battle other players. While the meta has usually been filled with strong combo decks like Mewtwo ex or Pikachu ex, there are always exceptions that can stand their own against the meta.
The Venusaur ex and Butterfree deck isn’t based on the same principle as most other popular deck compositions. Instead of focusing on aggression and ending the opponent before they can react, Venusaur’s self-healing and Butterfree’s Powder Heal ability create a deck where you outlast your opponent through sustain, pecking away at their health 100 damage at a time with your Venusaur ex’s Giant Bloom.
Venusaur ex and Butterfree Deck
Venusaur ex x2
Ivysaur x2
Bulbasaur x2
Butterfree x2
Metapod x2
Caterpie x2
Erika x2
Potion x2
Important Cards
Venusaur Ex
Venusaur ex is the highlight card of this deck, acting as both the main (and oftentimes only) source of damage, as well astanking enemy hitsto let the Butterfrees make full use of their healing.
Venusaur ex is a great tank due to its190 HP being safe from most one-shots in the game, includingMewtwo ex’s 150 damage and Pikachu ex’s 120. Furthermore, the Giant Bloom deals a decent 100 HP while alsohealing Venusaur ex for 30 HP.This lets you two-shot any enemy card while alsosustaining yourself through any barrage of attacks.
Butterfree
Butterfree is the dedicated support for this deck due to its Powder Heal ability. If you have two Butterfrees up on your bench,you can heal your Venusaur ex (and any other damaged units) 40 HP each turn.
Paired with Venusaur ex’s Giant Bloom attack, thisheals your Venusaur ex for 70 HP each turn, letting it heal back most attacks that don’t immediately reduce its HP to 0.
Erika
Erika’s a Trainer card that heals any Leaf-Type Pokemon for 50 HP. While a generally useful card for protecting any of your Pokemon within KO range,Erika becomes integral for a Venusaur ex and Butterfree deckdue to its ability to add 50 HP to the passive healing each turn, getting the total healing to 120.Paired with two Potions, this reaches 160, ten more than what a Mewtwo ex can hit you with.
If your 190 HP Venusaur ex gets hit with a 150 HP attack, you’d be reduced to 40. Add in the Butterfrees 40 and Venusaur ex’s Giant Bloom’s 30 HP heal, which puts you at 110, and a singleErika can get you back to 160 HP, safe from being one-shot.
Potion
Potions work similarly to Erika in this deck,giving you just a bit more healing in case you ever need it. While extremely important for stalling,this card may be switched out for another, like the Red Card, for quicker game ends.
Caterpie
Caterpie is mostly a card you use only so it can eventually evolve into Butterfree. However, the card’sFind a Friend attack ends up being extremely strongagainst decks that don’t have a strong opener.
Find a Friend lets you draw a Leaf-Type card to your hand. While Professor’s Research and Pokeballs are usually enough to get you all your necessary winning pieces,one or two instances of Find a Friend can greatly change the course of the game in your favor.
Venusaur Ex And Butterfree Deck Strategy
With a Venusaur ex and Butterfree deck,you’re not aiming for a single game-ending turnlike with a Charizard ex deck. Instead,you want to stall until you have your two Butterfrees on the bench and a Venusaur on the active spot.
Opening
At the start,try to get either a Caterpie or a tank on the active spot. Use Caterpie’s Find a Friend attack to get your required cards in your hand, and thenswap out to your Ivysaur or Venusaur ex. Since your Butterfrees don’t need any Energy to use their Ability,you can Retreat without using any X-Speed.
If you’re using a variation of the deck with a tank,you can instead let the tank die while you build your backline.This is because you don’t have a good way to retreat your Pokemon due to there being no X-Speeds.
Late Game
Once your Venusaur ex is active,continue to use Giant Bloom to obliterate your enemies while you heal yourself up with your backline Butterfrees.
Since your Venusaur ex will only ever need four Leaf-Type energy to function, you can startinvesting the rest into your Butterfrees.
Butterfree doesn’t have the best attack, but this helps you Retreat them when needed, ordeal 60 HP to end the gameif your Venusaur ex ever dies.
If you ever find yourself dangerously low on HP,pop a few Potions or use Erika to get back your health.If you get Sabrina’d,Butterfree’s low Retreat cost ensures you waste only one Energyto get your Venusaur ex back.
Venusaur Ex And Butterfree Deck Advantages
The Venusaur ex and Butterfree deck isgood against most decks that have attacks on the lower side, such as aPikachu ex’s max 120 HP damage. The deck is alsogood against decks that don’t have any strong startersor decks that want to stall their openings, like a Dragonite deck. We’ll talk about a few important cases here.
Pikachu Ex
Venusaur ex and Butterfree heal for 70 HP each turn, which ismore sustain than a Pikachu deck can usually keep up with. However, for such decks,replacing your Potions with a Druddigon or another opener may work better, since if your opponent gets lucky, they can KO your pieces before they get to evolve.
Dragonite
Dragonite decksusually stall for one or two game-ending turns. Since their opener would likely be a Koffing or another tank,you’re able to exploit Caterpie’s Find a Friend attackto ensure you have everything you need to win.
Later on, even if their Dragonite is online, theButterfrees heal all your cards enough to counteract Dragonite’s damage.Even if your opponent gets lucky and hits thrice on your Venusaur ex, the 190 HP meansit’ll survive on 40 and the healing will put it back to 110, requiring another three Draco Meteor hits to be KO’d.
Starmie Ex
Starmie ex decks are similar to Pikachu ex decks in that they’resafer to play and can get active sooner. However, sinceStarmie doesn’t deal enough damage to one-shot your Venusaur ex, you’ll have a comfortable time bursting them down 100 HP at a time while yourest easy with close to full HPdue to all thehealing you have access to.
Venusaur Ex And Butterfree Deck Counters
The worst Decks to go into as a Venusaur ex and Butterfree decks are eitherdecks that can one-shot Venusaur ex, such as a Charizard ex or a Celebi ex deck, ordecks that can start dealing damage before the three turns you need to evolve into Butterfree.
Charizard Ex
While having a Moltres on board gives you the time you need to set up your Butterfrees,Charizard ex’s absurd 200 damage can one-shot your Venusaur ex, making all forms of healing useless.
Celebi Ex
Celebi ex deckshave the largest damage potential,easily reaching 300+ damage as early as turn 5. This, much like the Charizard ex decks,makes any form of sustain completely useless, and even in the best-case scenario, you’ll end up losing without a solid game-ending combo.
