Pokemon TCG’s Pokemon 151 has been a blessing for older players, as all of those first-gen Pokemon, such as Blastoise, Alakazam, or Arbok, got a lot of love via powerful cards that have the potential to be part of a menacing deck.
Then we have Venusaur. It’s a good card, but it falls behind compared with other decks from the same expansion. This doesn’t mean it’s a bad card that is part of a back deck; in fact, it’s pretty fun to use as it goes around stalling your opponents and healing Venusaur.
Venusaur ex Decklist
These are the cards that you’ll use on this deck:
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Pokemon Cards |
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|---|---|---|
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Bulbasaur MEW (x4) |
Ivysaur MEW (x1) |
Venusaur ex MEW (x3) |
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Hisuian Lilligant VSTAR ASR (x2) |
Bidoof CRZ (x2) |
Bibarel BRS (x2) |
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Manaphy BRS (x1) |
Radiant Tsareena SIT (x1) |
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Trainer Cards |
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Boss Orders PAL (x2) |
Colress Experiment LOR (x3) |
Gardenia’s Vigor ASR (x3) |
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Iono PAL (x3) |
Super Rod PAL (x1) |
Nest Ball SVI (x4) |
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Rare Candy SVI (x4) |
Ultra Ball SVI (x4) |
Fighting Au Lait PAL (x1) |
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Switch SVI (x2) |
Artazon PAL (x3) |
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Energy Cards |
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Grass Energy Cards (x12) |
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Venusaur Ex Deck Key Cards
These are the most important cards of this deck:
Venusaur ex
The main card of this deck is Venusaur ex. It has an ability named Tranquil Flower, which, if Venusaur is in the Active Spot, you can heal 60 damage from one of your Pokemon once per turn.
This ability lets you think this deck goes around hanging on in the field while healing your attackers.
Aside from its ability, Venusaur Ex also has an attack named Dangerous Toxwhip. It deals 150 damage, costs two Grass Energy and a Colorless Energy, and poisons and confuses the target.
A Poisoned Pokemon will receive 10 damage every turn. If a Pokemon is Confused, the player must flip a coin whenever it’ll attack. if heads, the attack will proceed as usual, but if tails, the confused Pokemon will receive 30 damage.
This card is good because it forces the opposite player to switch their Active Pokemon if they want to avoid their Pokemon getting status effects, which gives you a clear advantage. Nonetheless, 150 damage for an attack is a bit low.
Hisuian Lilligant VSTAR
That’s why we must combine Venusaur ex with Hisuian Lilligant. This card is known for being the usual attacker on Grass-type builds as its attack, Parallel Spin, is really good and can take down many ex Pokemon.
Parallel Spin deals 130 damage, costs two Grass Energy and a Colorless Energy card, and you can choose to detach one of Lilligant’s Energy cards and send it back to your hand. If you do, this attack will deal 100 more damage, so Parallel Spin has a potential damage output of 230.
But undoubtedly, the best feature of Hisuian Lilligant is its VSTAR Power ability, Star Perfume. Upon usage, you must search your deck for up to five Grass-type Pokemon and/or Energy Cards to put them in your hand afterwards.
Gardenia’s Vigor
After getting Grass-type Energy cards from your deck to your hand via Hisuian Lilligant, you must use Gardenia’s Vigor to attach those Energy Cards to Lilligant or Venusaur, as you wish.
With Gardenia’s Vigor, you must draw two cards from your deck. After that, you can attach two Grass-type Energy Cards to one of your benched Pokemon.
Radiant Tsareena
If you want to be sure Venusaur will never get defeated, you must use Radiant Tsareena. It has an ability named Elegant Heal, which heals 20 damage from each of your Pokemon. You just have to set it on your bench, and it’ll be healing your Venusaur and Lilligant cards.
With it, Venusaur has a potential healing output of 80, which is a lot.
Bidoof & Bibarel
Bidoof and Bibarel have a highly rated spot in the meta because of their great efficiency as the engine of every deck. They are in charge of letting you draw cards from your deck.
Bibarel has an ability named Industrious Incisors, which lets you draw cards to your hand until you have five. This is important as you’ll be using many cards every turn.
Fighting Au Lait
Now, let’s spotlight those semi-forgotten items that are heavily situational. In this case, we have the Fighting Au Lait, which you can only use if your opponent has fewer Prize Cards to claim than you (which means you are losing the match).
The Fighting Au Lait heals 60 damage to one of your Pokemon. So, if you have a Venusaur about to get knocked out and use its ability, plus Radiant Tsareena’s Elegant Heal and a Fighting Au Lait, you’ll heal 140 damage, more than double the usual amount.
Venusaur Ex Deck Strategy
The setup is fairly standard for this deck. You want to go first in the match, as it’s needed to build Bibarel and, therefore, Venusaur. First, look for Bidoof and Bulbasaur via Nest Balls, then try to find both Venusaur and Rare Candies to evolve Bulbasaur. You can find Bibarel with your Ultra Balls.
As you have them ready, find and use Hisuian Lilligant to find even more Bulbasaur and Venusaur Cards and Grass-type Energy Cards, then try to find Gardenia’s Vigor while attaching the Energy Cards to your Venusaur cards by hand. You’ll get Gardenia’s Vigor with Bibarel. Use it to have your Pokemon ready to attack.
Look for Radiant Tsareena to have it on your bench, and keep healing Venusaur while forcing your opponents to switch. Be sure you have at least another Venusaur ready to jump to the Active Spot in case one of them gets defeated.
Venusaur Ex Deck Common Threats
As usual with these kinds of decks, the biggest threat of Venusaur Ex is itself. It has a poor damage output, which makes things harder for both you. And if you are against a deck that can recycle cards (a thing you can’t do with Venusaur ex), then they’ll win because they’ll eventually sweep Venusaur down.