Deck Surgery - Muk/Vileplume from carlitosbob

Hey all, this is going to be my first written Deck Surgery for the site and I've chosen a rogue deck built and sent to me by carlitosbob via YouTube.


This is the list I was given:

Pokemon - 21	T/S/S - 19	Energy - 20
2-2 Muk UD 2-1-2 Vileplume UD 2-1-2 Metagross UL 1-1-1 Crobat Prime UL 1-1 Houndoom Prime UD 1 Jirachi UL 1 Celebi Prime TM	2 Black belt 2 Interviewer's Questions 2 Judge 3 Pokemon Collector 2 Professor Elm's Training Method 3 Professor Oak's New Theory 3 Rare Candy 2 Seeker	4 Special Dark 4 Double Colourless 4 Grass 8 Psychic

As you can see, this deck focuses on using a combination of Muk UD and Vileplume UD to drag up an opponent's Pokemon, Poison and Confuse it. This gives you an effective form of lock since your opponent's Pokemon will have to risk a coin flip to attack and if the defending Pokemon has a heavy retreat cost, they will be stuck there with Poison damage slowly building up. The addition of Vileplume UD makes the lock even tougher to get out of seeing as its 'Allergy Flower' Poke Body blocks trainers, meaning the opponent can't simply use Switch to break free.

With a fair amount of Pokemon in the top decks so far having a high retreat cost, this deck has potential to give them a headache seeing as Switch won't help them. Pokemon like Emboar and Feraligatr Prime will be prime targets for Muk's 'Sludge Drag', sticking them to the active spot while you deal with the rest.

Crobat Prime is a great candidate for this. Both of Crobat Prime's attacks work well in this deck. 'Severe Posion' for a single Psychic energy continues the poison, but in a much harsher form seeing as it deals 40 damage in between turns rather than the normal 10. Its second attack 'Skill Dive' also for just one Psychic Energy does 30 damage to any Pokemon in play. This attack is perfect for attacking around the Pokemon you've dragged up and stuck there with Muk.

As for changes I would make to the deck, I just feel that there may be too much in it for it to work consistently. For example, I would take out the Houndoom and Metagross line to keep your deck as simple as possible. This means that you will be able to pull of your strategy far more effectively and have room for some easier techs to put into action.

Since the Metagross was there to aid the free retreat of Muk, I would change that for Dodrio from Undaunted. Dodrio will act similarly to Metagross by reducing your Muk's retreat cost by 2 which means you'd only need one energy to retreat Muk from the active spot. You won't have completely free retreat, but the single energy you've used for Sludge Drag will serve the retreat cost perfectly. If you're worrying about getting the energy back, it will serve a purpose if you need Jirachi during the game, so all is not lost.

I would also take out the Celebi Prime simply because it doesn't really give you much to work with. It does give you an extra energy attachment, but that will have to be spent on getting it out of the active spot, meaning it really isn't doing much for you at all.

Instead of the Crobat Prime, you should consider using Yanmega Prime. Since you already run Judge, you will be able to snipe for stronger damage for free, or even use 'Sonicboom' to finish off an already damaged Pokemon.

If I were to build the same list as you, here's what it would look like:

Pokemon - 23	T/S/S - 23	Energy -14
2-2 Muk UD 2-1-2 Vileplume UD 2-2 Dodrio UD 3-3 Yanmega Prime TM 4 Cleffa HS/CoL	2 Interviewer's Questions 4 Judge 4 Pokemon Collector 3 Copycat 3 Rare Candy 3 Professor Juniper/PONT 2 Professor Elm's Training Method 2 Black Belt	4 Double Colourless 6 Psychic 4 Grass

This build should give your deck more stability during games. I've traded the Crobat in for Yanmega simply because the snipe is better and makes for a better and quicker way to deal damage around the board. The extra poison from Crobat's attack is nice, but I think you'll find Yanmega helps you deal better damage as you can always use 'Linear Attack' to deal 40 damage to the active plus another 10 for the posion. If you do miss the Crobat still, you can change the Yanmega for a 2-1-2 Crobat and a 4th Rare Candy. Yanmega helps you massively in the Donphan matchup also.

I switched up your Trainers and Supporters to help you to deal damage with Yanmega and disrupt the opponent as much as possible while they are locked. I also changed it so your only trainer is Rare Candy since you don't plan on using any others after you've got Vileplume out.

The energy was changed so that you can still use Yanmega's attacks if it isn't going well for you in keeping the same hand size. I kept in the Double Colourless along with the Interviewer's Questions so that you can still make full use of 'Pester' since it is a fairly powerful attack when combined with poison.

Cleffa has also been added as a starter since it has a great ability to get you out of bad starts and just net you a few extra cards if needed.

That's pretty much all I feel I can help you with about the deck. I hope what I've highlighted helps you out in taking this deck further since it is a very interesting idea.

Thanks for sending me your list and the rest of you subscribe to the mailing list to see if your list gets published during the week.

Dan