Vespiquen Box (TCG)

Vespiquen Box
Vespiquen and Unown Types used Major cards Vespiquen, Unown and Battle Compressor Era 2015–2018

Vespiquen Box was a Pokémon Trading Card Game 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 Vespiquen's Bee Revenge Attack, which scales damage for each Pokémon in the player's discard pile. Even if its setup and damage were not as strong as Night March, an archetype with a similar gimmick, people played it because of the versatility of supporting Pokémon Vespiquen could fit and the slightly higher Hit Points compared to Night March's attackers, resisting a few attacks and 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 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, Bebe Deck.

Strategy

Vileplume

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

At release, Vespiquen Box lists were focused in either being a mix of Vespiquen and Night March Pokémon or the more iconic combination of Forest of Giant Plants and Vileplume, attempting to play Vespiquen and Vileplume in the player's first turn and locking the opponent out of Item cards due to Vileplume's 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 Yveltal, Crobat 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 Expanded format, while Forest of Giant Plants got eventually banned from play, Vespiquen benefited from many supporting cards available 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.

Key cards

Battle Compressor

• Vespiquen - 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 minimal damage.
• Unown - If on the Bench, Unown's Farewell Letter Ability discarded itself while making the player draw a card, being a versatile fit in many lists.
• Battle Compressor - Each Battle Compressor could discard up to 3 Pokémon or useful cards to be retrieved with other Trainer cards.
• Professor Sycamore - Along with Ultra Ball, Professor Sycamore was an easy option to discard Pokémon.
• Double Colorless Energy - Usually the only type of energy played in Vespiquen lists, as it provided the necessary for Bee Revenge.

Typical decklist

Tamao Cameron's decklist at the 2016 UK Nationals

Quantity	Card	Type	Rarity
4×	Vespiquen
4×	Combee
3×	Vileplume
4×	Gloom
4×	Oddish
4×	Unown
4×	Shaymin
1×	Bunnelby
3×	Acro Bike	I
3×	Battle Compressor	I
2×	Level Ball	I
4×	Trainers' Mail	I
4×	Ultra Ball	I
2×	Float Stone	I
4×	Forest of Giant Plants	St
1×	AZ	Su
1×	Judge	Su
1×	Lysandre	Su
1×	Misty's Determination	Su
2×	Professor Sycamore	Su
4×	Double Colorless Energy	E

Decklist from Sun & Moon Expanded format

Flareon

The deck list appearing below is not official; it is meant to represent an average build of the archetype, not specifically constructed for any regional metagame. Being that this is merely an archetype, a player may wish to change any part of this deck when building his or her own version.

Quantity	Card	Type	Rarity
4×	Vespiquen
4×	Combee
4×	Flareon
4×	Eevee
4×	Unown
1×	Ditto ♢
1×	Tapu Lele
3×	Shaymin
1×	Exeggcute
1×	Oricorio
1×	Mr. Mime
1×	Giratina
4×	Battle Compressor	I
1×	Computer Search	I
3×	Trainers' Mail	I
4×	Ultra Ball	I
4×	VS Seeker	I
2×	Choice Band	I
1×	Float Stone	I
1×	Parallel City	St
1×	Colress	Su
2×	Guzma	Su
1×	N	Su
3×	Professor Sycamore	Su
4×	Double Colorless Energy	E

Possible tech cards

Yanmega

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

• Klefki - Klefki could be attached as a Tool card, preferably to Unown, being discarded at the end of the opponent's turn and synergizing with the deck's goal.
• Night March Pokémon - Played along some Vespiquen lists due to the synergy with discarding Pokémon and Double Colorless Energy.
• Forest of Giant Plants - This Stadium card allowed the player to evolve Pokémon regardless of turn they were played.
  • Vileplume - Its Irritating Pollen Ability prevented both players from using Item cards. Could be played in the first turn due to Forest of Giant Plants to limit the opponent's gameplay.
  • Yanmega - Played by Semifinalist Jesper Eriksen at the 2016 World Championship along with Yanmega BREAK as a Pokémon that could also land two hit knockouts and often attack without needing energies thanks to its Sonic Vision Ability.
• Yveltal - Strong counter to Night March and Trevenant BREAK decks, though it required the player to include energies in their list.
• Flareon - Plasma Freeze Flareon had the same Attack as Bee Revenge and a different typing to cover more weaknesses in the Expanded format.
• Zoroark - Secondary attacker that could provide another type coverage while attacking with Double Colorless Energy. Raichu and Zebstrika were other techs with similar purposes.
• Flareon and Vaporeon - Added and typings respectively to Stage 1 Pokémon due to their Abilities.
• Golbat and Crobat - Their Abilities put additional damage counters in the opponent's field for easier knockouts.
• Revitalizer - Retrieved two discarded Pokémon to the player's hand.

This article is part of Project TCG, a Bulbapedia project that aims to report on every aspect of the Pokémon Trading Card Game.