The metagame has stabilized around Basic EX powerhouses. Darkrai, Arceus, Mewtwo and Giratina are everywhere, and their HP stats hit 140 and 150. With Giant Cape in the mix the HP cap most decks hit is 170. Unsurprisingly, Red has turned out to be the most meta defining Supporter card of the expansion. With a Red boost, Giratina’s Chaotic Impact attack paired with Darkrai’s Nightmare Aura ping lead to a total of 170 damage. This is a big reason as to why this combination is so popular, as most EX Pokemon succumb to this kind of hit.

Venusaur is built different. With 190 HP, there isn’t a meta relevant deck that can reliably one shot him. On top of that, Venusaur’s Giant Bloom attack is an amazing counter to Darkrai’s ability, allowing us to heal off the 20 damage pings. This metagame is lowkey perfect for Venusaur EX, and with the new trainer card Iono… Venusaur is better than he's ever been.

Today’s deck is an upgraded version of my Venusaur Leafeon list. While we are running a combination of stage 1 and 2 evolutions, a full set of Iono elevates the deck's consistency to a whole new level. The game plan is simple, send eevee to the front line, evolve into Leafeon, and use forest breath to enable solar beam, and then enable Venusaur to come in right after. Once Venusaur is online, you can sit back and enjoy your enemies' despair as they desperately attempt to pivot around our chonky plant dino, trying to find a way to knock him out that quite simply doesn’t exist. Darkrai’s pings will be nullified, misty high rolls will be dismissed and fighting type decks will be bullied.

We play inbred Eevee not only because his face is funny, but also because quick attack flipping heads into Leafeon’s Solar Beam allows us to 2 hit KO pokemon like Druddigon. Since we run 10 pokemon, our deck space is quite limited, but we can still manage to squeeze in a Giant Cape so that our Venusaur's HP caps over 200, and one copy of Cyrus to make sure those stupid basic EXes do not get to run away.

This deck performed exceptionally for me on ranked, and is a prime example of how once a metagame stabilizes, the card pool allows for you to find an old forgotten gem who can absolutely thrive in it.