Vespiquen Box (TCG): Difference between revisions

'''Vespiquen Box''' was a [[Pokémon Trading Card Game]] {{TCG|deck archetype}} mainly played in the 2015-2016 season, remaining as a contender up to the 2018-2019 season. The deck's strategy revolved around {{TCG ID|Ancient Origins|Vespiquen|10}}'s ''Bee Revenge'' {{TCG|Attack}}, which scales damage for each Pokémon in the player's discard pile. Even if its setup and damage were not as strong as {{TCG|Night March}}, an archetype with a similar gimmick, people played it because of the versability of supporting Pokémon Vespiquen could fit and the slightly higher {{TCG|Hit Points}} compared to Night March's attackers, resisting few attacks and {{TCG|Ability|Abilities}} Night March otherwise could not. Vespiquen Box's best results were 4th place in the Masters Division and 1st and 4th place in the Senior Division at the [[2016 World Championships|2016 Pokémon Trading Card Game World Championships]], also scoring well in other events such as 1st place in the Master Division at the 2016 UK Nationals. Senior Division Champion of the Masters Division Jesper Eriksen's version was printed as a promotional World Championships deck, {{TCG|Bebe Deck}}.

Vespiqueen Box focused in discarding as many possible Pokémon to maximize the damage output from Vespiqueen, using {{TCG ID|Phantom Forces|Battle Compressor|92}} or other cards to do so. As a non-{{TCG|Pokémon-EX}}, it was often fine to deal two-hit knockouts against Pokémon-EX as long the player could not miss following Attacks. Being the only competitive {{e|Grass}} archetype at the time, it was favoured against Pokémon with this weakness such as {{TCG|Wailord Stall}} Pokémon. Vespiquen lists have always used {{TCG|Double Colorless Energy}} to be able to use its attack for a single energy.

At release, Vespiqueen Box lists were focused in either being a mix of Vespiqueen and Night March Pokémon or the more iconic combination of {{TCG ID|Ancient Origins|Forest of Giant Plants|74}} and {{TCG ID|Ancient Origins|Vileplume|3}}, attempting to play Vespiquen and Vileplume in the player's first turn and locking the opponent out of Item cards due to Vileplume's {{TCG|Ability}}; The player was affected by the Ability as well, so the list focused in playing as many possible of them before setting up Vileplume. Other relevant variants tagged Vespiquen with {{TCG ID|XY|Yveltal|78}}, {{TCG ID|Phantom Forces|Crobat|33}} or Pokémon that could also benefit from DCE or Forest of Giant Plants. During the XY BREAK era, the Vileplume variant faded out by such more consistent lists.

In the {{TCG|Expanded format}}, while Forest of Giant Plants got eventually banned from play, Vepiquen benefited from many supporting cards avaliable in the pool. Night March still had more positive results on average than Vespiquen in this format, but due to their small differences, this deck guaranteed a special spot in some tournaments.

* '''{{TCG ID|Ancient Origins|Vespiquen|10}}''' - Vespiquen's ''Bee Revenge'' Attack dealt 20 plus 10 damage times the number of Pokémon in the player's discard pile. While less powerful than the Night March Attack at a glance, it did not rely on specific Pokémon and could surpass NM's damage output, though that required a large number of discarded Pokémon. ''Intelligence Gathering'' could be also used at rare occasions to draw cards while doing minimun damage.

* '''{{TCG ID|Ancient Origins|Unown|30}}''' - If in the Bench, Unown's ''Farewell Letter'' Ability discarded itself while making the player draw a card, being a versatile fit in many lists.

''The following cards are often used in Vespiqueen Box in place of certain cards included in the above lists.''

* '''{{TCG|Night March}} Pokémon''' - Played along some Vespiquen lists due to the sinergy with discarding Pokémon and Double Colorless Energy.

** '''{{TCG ID|Steam Siege|Yanmega|7}}''' - Played by Semifinalist Jesper Eriksen at the 2016 World Championship along with {{TCG ID|Steam Siege|Yanmega BREAK|8}} as a Pokémon that could also land two hit knockouts and often attack without neededing energies thanks to its ''Sonic Vision'' Ability.