Top 10 Worst Evolutions from the Classic Sets
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- Опубликовано: 16 июн 2024
- In the earliest days of the Pokemon TCG, there was often a huge difference in power level between basic Pokemon that couldn’t evolve and evolutionary Pokemon. Many evolution Pokemon were simply outclassed by basics, or lined up extremely badly into the established early metagame.
Script by ThePigThatCriedRii
Edited by Kevin
├ The List
Intro: (0:00)
10: Marowak: (0:21)
9: Dugtrio: (2:14)
8: Electrode: (4:10)
7: Vileplume: (5:40)
6: Nidoking: (7:26)
5: Machamp: (9:53)
4: Victreebel: (11:05)
3: Hypno: (12:35)
2: Omastar: (13:57)
1: Kabutops: (15:22)
#pokemon #pokemontcg 
Игры
That Dugtrio is actually WORSE than you made it sound. You got a big thing wrong. It does NOT damage your opponent's base, ONLY your own
So like the recent Steelix card?
Why does it have two retreat cost? I just realized that again
I had to reread it to see what you mean. That card text is so deceptive.
@@MazterP28yeah right? It’s supposed to be a fast fragile Pokémon… it doesn’t make sense, like Alakazam having three
I think they thought that it dealt so much damage that they should penalize you for trying to get it out of harm's way: like trying to make it a commitment to put out. Just a hypothesis, idk what they were thinking with half the decisions they made lol.
So what you're saying is, a ton more Pokemon and strategies could have been more viable if not for Hitmonchan, Electabuzz, Mewtwo, and Super Energy Removal being ridiculously overpowered.
And Scyther and Magmar. Basically being a 70HP Basic Pokemon was the name of the game
From what I see in later games, that ended up being the favorite method of powercreep too. Legendary basic pokemon. They really didn't think that element through like at least Yugioh's tribute system prevents powerful monsters from being summoned too easily for free. Though I always wished the main pokemon game would have a "Cost" system for sending out pokemon instead of a hard 6 for similar reasons. No point in using weaker pokemon unless they had a niche that countered the meta or more than made up for it's stats, which most gimmick pokemon didn't.
Even with energy removal and the big basics gone, most of these cards would still be terrible as you'd just run strong evo lines instead like Wigglytuff, Blastoise, and Arcanine instead
@serifAizawa But they would still be doing evolution lines rather than just speeding up on you with basic pokemon that have huge impacting attacks. Also, Arcanine is pretty balanced and has 2 drawbacks to both its attacks. It takes a long time to set him up and he still either has to discard an energy card or do damage to itself.
@@jerfuhrer2581 Uhh, no. Arcanine is a legitimately great card in Base Fossil and sees a lot of play with Electrode and Double Colorless Energy in order to get Take Down on turn 2 to start punching holes through big basics. If there were no energy removal options, you'd just play Arcanine instead of other gimmicky evo lines like Charizard or Machamp
10:34 Strikes Back only applies for Sleep, Confusion, and Paralysis, so Magmar actually can't block off the ability by poisoning Machamp
Even if it did include poison I don't think it would block Strikes Back due to the text "if Machamp is already statused when your opponent attacks", meaning beforehand.
Compounding the poor balance of evolutions, the poor fossils got budgeted as if they were a basic and stage 1 even though their gimmick made them a trainer, stage 1 and stage 2.
Man I'd forgotten just how much coin flipping was a thing back then
I remember my thumbnail was becoming blueish with all those coin flipping 😅
Back then? Go look at the 1st place deck for Worlds 2023. 4 copies of a coin flip card.
I just finished a playthrough of Pokémon TCG for the GBC. It's hilarious how bad most of the Pokémon cards were.
I think the game developers knew about how strong the Haymaker deck was because all the key cards were rare. It did force players to mess around with lower tier decks.
Honestly; I don't know how they came up with the original cards without realizing the problem with the basic cards being so strong compared to the stage 1+2 cards. Idk how they play tested them but the game we got so chaotic and wild, and I'm here for it lol.
The card game equivalent of fighting in a bouncy castle as a kid.
That feels like it. It seemed like they balanced the cards around the gameboy game since the power levels make sense for random CPUs as you trade booster packs to build up more powerful decks for each Club leader, but IRL.... you're not going to gamble a tournament win on a coin flip and playing casually, if the game's decided on coin flipping, you might as well just flip the coins and skip actually playing.
The TCG video game actually made some Pokemon like Dugtrio viable. Especially when the games devs put the card in the Charmander and friends starter deck, making the Lightning club really easy!
Arcanine was also a really good pick, but I was always a Rapidash guy, and loved flipping for Agility!
I remember loving that game but there was always some elusive set of trainers I could never find, maybe it was based on the time of the day or something.
All of the cards in Haymaker were rare IRL too.
Kabutops is even worse in practice, when you consider what it evolves from. Kabuto only had 30 HP as a Stage 1 Pokemon, with a measly 10 damage attack. Its low HP was meant to be off-set by its Pokemon Power which cuts damage it takes in half (rounded-down), but really only gave it 60 effective HP at best.
And remember that Kabuto is a Stage 1. The "Basic Pokemon" it evolved from was Mysterious Fossil, a Trainer Card with 10 HP, no attacks, and couldn't retreat. It was easily pulled out by Gust of Wind and KOed by LITERALLY ANYTHING. The best you could say about it was that your opponent wouldn't get a prize card from it. This would render the entire evolution line unusable by a Basic Pokemon's 10 damage attack, when the line's strategy seems to be based around tanking!
..........And now I wanna fire up the GBC game and make a Kabuto tank deck. Dang it.
The best part about CPU opponents is they don't judge. XD
That Omastar was how I learned Santa Claus wasn’t real.
I never understood why the Fossil pokemon needed to be that complicated...and neither of them have a good payoff. the basic fossil was a 10 hp trainer card that turned into a basic card and did nothing at all except allow you to use Omanyte and Kabuto. So you'd expect Omastar and Kabutops to really crush but....as we see...no.
Later sets fixed issues around balance of Fossils by actually giving them good effects.
By third gen tcg mysterious fossile also ended up having 40hp
I wasn’t being sarcastic. That Omastar card was legit the way I found out Santa Claus wasn’t real.
I think with multi-set videos it would help to say what set the card comes from, like Jungle Electrode.
I was literally typing out this comment just now lol
Yeah. Base set electrode was amazing for getting big turn 2 attacks out of nowhere to completely shock and stun the opponents. Pun intended!
Your opponent would be crapping themselves when you get the turn 2 Arcanine with 2 fire energy and an electrode double fire energy.
Oh sweet, a new video to educate kids over why Fossil Kabutops is one of the worst Pokemon cards ever made.
🧢🧢
At least it can hit for some damage. Who in the right mind sat down and thought "hmm, okay; this wacky trophy pokemon based on a three-dimensional duck should have the lowest HP value (besides a literal stuffed doll and some ancient brittle fossilized rock), no damaging moves, no STATUSING moves, A RETREAT COST ANYWAY, and a stalling mechanic based on constantly switching types to either mess with the opponent or stall them... but adding an exploit where they can't switch their Resist to Colorless. Y-y'know; like the most common, friggin'... type. Practically. And splashed into nearly every deck.
...
Y'know next to Porygon, Kabutops is kind of a shooter, yeah?
@@bossrosslpBase Set Porygon was a joke card. Fossil Kabutops was just bad comedy.
A big thing this video overlooked was the prevalence of Scyther, which made the fossils (especially Kabutops) even worse since not only did it ohko with two attachments, but even resisted fighting making it a far more potent potential (because Kabutops never saw play) counter than Wigglytuff. It also made Marowak even more miserable ohko-ing it without Swords Dance or damage mods.
I also think Hypno got shafted pretty hard in the rankings here. 90HP stage 1 is good, first attack can be used for disruption (albeit less viable in gen 1 with insane, uncapped trainer/draw support), and second attack while expensive at least deals modest damage and has a good effect for the time. The bench chip can soften up Mewtwo or other 70HP haymakers. I can't see a way it's worse than Victreebel or its stage 1 contemporaries in Electrode and especially Marowak. I also fail to see how Dark Golduck's electric weakness is any better getting one shot by Electabuzz without damage mods unlike Hypno.
Yeah that Hypno only seemed to be "bad because there's better pokemon" but even the writer couldn't seem to justify why Hypno was worse. 90hp vs 70hp... similar attacks with completely different effects that seem balanced against each other, Hypno would be used for an entirely different strategy that seemed perfectly viable. If the only reason it's on the list is "use Mewtwo instead" That's like in Yugioh saying "Why would you play any deck except Tearlaments?" At least explain why DROWZEE isn't worth playing or is some hinderance as a basic maybe? That's a key part of what makes Stage 1/2's worth playing.
@@MarioMastar What surprised me most is that Kadabra, with 60 HP and a 50 damage Super Psy was never brought up. That would have been a fairer comparison.
very nice video! clear explanations, nice presentation, and very relaxing with the calm narration and nice quiet music instead of loud memes popping up everywhere :)
Neat analysis video! Thanks for uploading!
Vileplume is also worse than you described, as its attack leaves it confused.
Leafs it confused
Would love to see a list on most improved reprints in a future set (like the XY-Evolutions Set reprints of Base Set cards)
How did you not mention Kabutops’ getting OHKO’d by Jungle Scyther at any of its stages of evolution, in addition to Scyther’s practical immunity to Kabutops’ damage? Many of the rest of the cards on the list were justified as having terrible matchups against or comparing unfavorably against Haymaker staples like Hitmonchan and Electabuzz, that it seems odd to have not brought up Scyther in this case.
Magmar wouldn't stop strikes back as the power only turns off while paralyzed, asleep, or confused. Magmar's smog poisons the opposing Pokemon.
Dugtrio is actually a key component in the infamous “let your opponent win” strategy
It's funny, that HP went up over 200 yet resistance is still -30
Wow, I never realized how bad the fossil Pokémon are. It's like the devs treated them like stage 1 instead of stage 2 Pokémon.
Tbf Aerodactyl was good (based on my experience in the TCG video game for GBC)
Kabuto apparently got a lot better when Metal Energy was introduced, making it very tough to KO despite its 30 HP because of the combination of Kabuto Armor and Metal Energy. But on release, those Pokemon absolutely sucked. Especially since Mysterious Fossil, which was required to even play them, had only 10 HP.
I remember using a vileplume deck, but not for the reason you'd think. The main purpose of the deck was to use Gloom's foul odor which confuses both active pokemon (the only attack in the game that causes confusion 100% of the time without a coin flip) and then next turn evolving to vileplume to undo the confusion, and devolution spray to become gloom again. Of course sometimes you don't have devolution spray so you might end up attacking with it every once in a while or just leave it active to soak up damage and hope they hit themselves in confusion.
Confusion is SO BROKEN in base set that this deck actually was somewhat successful.
The Dugtrio card was only really good in the Pokemon TCG Video Game, as it decimated the Lightning club. Though, as Pojo would say. You were better off "Flinging Digletts at the enemy".
I actually successfully built a Vileplume deck on TCG ONE, but it relied more on Glooms Foul Odor attack, and would use the Promo Venusaur to heal all status conditions once per turn.
I even threw in a Dark Gloom for extra confusion, since I could heal the confusion if I confused my self, so I could use Poison Powder instead. Actually had a few people rage on me, when I got set up, as they probably saw the Oddish and thought I was a Dark Vileplume player.
5:40 - It never got mentioned, but Vileplume had one more issue that should have been mentioned: Petal Dance's confusion. Once Petal Dance was used, even when the result was three tails, Vileplume ended up Confused. So now, if it wants to attack, it needs to win a coin toss to be able to do so or deal 20 damage to itself. Healing it of Confusion is a bit more painful since it is already fully evolved, so you likely needed to use up a Full Heal since the retreat is two energy. The worst aspect of all this? Vileplume could not use its Pokémon Power if it was Confused. So you couldn't even use Heal on your next turn unless you got rid of the Confusion.
Do what I did. Don't evolve your gloom into Vileplume. Instead. Just use Glooms Foul door attack.
You confuse both active Pokemon, but that doesn't matter, when you have the Promo Venusaur in play.
Unlike the energy trans Venusaur that moves energy around, the Promo Venusaur heals both active Pokemon of all status conditions.
So you can basically do 20 damage and auto confuse every turn!
And in gen 1, if a Pokemon wanted to retreat, they would have to pay the cost for retreat first, then flip a coin. If the coin is tails, they stay confused and in the active position, with all their energy gone!
Unless I'm mistaken, wasn't Drowzee released *before* Hypno? EDIT: sure enough, released 8 months apart.
As in 'If you played Drowzee you couldn't evolve it until Fossil released' before.
The earliest sets of Pokemon were *so* scuffed it wasn't even funny...I miss those days.
9:24 Mr. Mime with energy removal as backup.
I just want to comment on something: As an evolution Pokemon, Dugtrio is not just gonna sit there as you wait to attach 3 energy to it. The idea behind it is that you are attaching energy to Diglett Who starts doing 10 damage on turn 1 and 30 damage on turn 2, then evolves into Digtrio on turn 3 and can start using slash. This actually keeps pace with Hitmonchan, plus heals any damage if Diglett wasn't KO'd, and you have a 70 desperation attack. While not AMAZING, if you're already running a full set of Hitmonchan it could make for a decent backup choice back in the day.
Edit: I was wrong about the damage healing, but it does cure conditions. Situational, but could be a plus.
"plus heals any damage if Diglett wasn't KO'd"
Uhh, Pokemon don't heal when they evolve
@@maskofthedragonCould have sworn that was the case when I played the video game, but it looks like I'm misremembering. It cute any condition it had though.
Base Diglett has zero retreat cost though compared to Hitmonchan, which needs to discard two. The downside is that it also only has 30HP
Maybe you were just playing it wrong like a bunch of kids were back then? We all did that with card games back before we knew all the rules.
@@andreivaldez2929 Perhaps, but I thought it was that way in the video game as well, which I played again just a couple years ago.And again, I know I'm wrong here, its just weird.
The one thing that got completely glossed over in this whole video with all of the Fighting types that have Grass weakness - Scyther. Scyther would generally one shot every single one of them or their Basic forms before they could even consider setting up and they'd do 30 less damage due to Scyther's Fighting resistance.
Vileplume also becomes worse when you consider that Dark Vileplume exists and had a better Pokémon Power to shut out decks reliant on Trainer cards.
Watching this video to make certain cards playable for casual play to get some strategies
i remember there being so many cards where as a kid i looked at them and thought.. there are basic pokemon better than this evolution lmao
These cards are the epitome of "Why would I Ever?!" in Pokemon TCG history.
Cloyster should be an honorable mention
50 HP on a stage 1 lmfao
@@serifAizawa and both attacks can miss / no resistance / hefty retreat cost as well. At least it's awesome in the games
Given that you put Hypno at number 3, I'm surprised you didn't put Gengar on the list. It has the exact same Dark Mind attack and takes longer to set up since it's a stage 2 pokemon. I don't think it's pokemon power is good enough to spare it from this list.
Also, one utility of Nidoking that I think got missed was that I believe Nidoking was the only Pokemon in the original format that could 1-hit kill Mr. Mime without any additional setup (such as getting Muk out). Toxic's attack would get under Invisible Wall, and then the poison damage would kill it between turns. Requiring Grass energy created good synergy with Venasaur's pokemon power even if it wasn't a meta competitive strategy.
Gengar had Fossil Haunter. An absolute nightmare to deal with.
It's Pokemon Power gave it damage immunity on a coin flip, meaning that a Charizards Fire Spin, would only hit Haunter 50% of the time!
This stalling Pokemon Power, actually gave the Haunter player, enough time to find the Psychic energy needed before they evolved into Gengar.
Oh and the entire Gastly family have no weakness, and a resistance to fighting, which is actually a big deal.
(10:34) Actually, being poisoned doesn't stop Machamp's Pokémon Power. It's only turned off if Machamp is asleep, confused, or paralyzed. (It's still pretty bad, though.)
Yo hirumaredx really putting work in on youtube hooooly
So it seems unlikely but did the OG Dragonair ever see play? That was always my go to in the gameboy card game. Setup dragonairs and slowly burn my opponent's energies until they can't play, and if one of them gets too close to dying evolve it to dragonite to try and yolo out 80 damage.
Dunno about Dragonair, but there was a gimmicky deck that used Fossil Dragonites "Step in" Pokemon Power with Jungle Dodrios retreat aid, to basically give all your Pokemon free retreat, and have status immunity. But it was a lot of work and set up to pull off.
I made it work on the site TCG ONE, by combining this strategy with Dark Dragonair for an easier set up, and Wigglytuff for the main attacker. Dark Dragonite could also use it's "Summon minions" Pokemon Power, to put basic into play to increase the attack of Wigglytuffs do the wave!
It does but only as an evolution stopgap for Dragonite, not as an attacker. Fossil Golduck outclasses it as a Pokemon with access to energy removal due to needing less energy and having access to the amazing Fossil Psyduck
Awe... sad about Hypno. I did use to use it. It had high HP and did Dark mind like Gengar. With Alakazam and Chansy you could move Hp tokens around and keep them stacked up on a hypno until a chansy got out to pokemon center it. Was fun deck for young me... guess hypo isn't that good though.
in the case of dugtrio, having to evolve it from diglett (a card with only 30 HP) was also one of its biggest weaknesses imo
12:13 "There isn't anything interesting about acid." -The Duel Logs from The Duel Logs Duel Logs, 2024
I was very successful with Nidoking by the exact reason said in the video, it forces your opponent to react, burning their resources.
Top reoccurring abilities/atk effects
Even if Dugtrio's 'Earthquake' affected BOTH benches, it still probably wouldn't have been that good. But as is, it's pretty darn bad!
Is this supposed to be in order from best to worst? I'm trying to figure out the universe in which Marowak is better than Hypno...
They did my boy kabutops so dirty. At least the holo card looked good.
FYI, Machamp's power is only restricted by volatile status conditions, not poison.
Its a bit funny Dugtrio has a place in my heart bc I used it so much in the GBC game, I know you are talking the truth, but still, a fragile basic 30 hp that can either hit for 30 with 2 energy or retreats for free and evolving it into a 3 energy for 40 damage vanilla that can go for 70 damage if really needed can win a lot in that game. So my mind screams that its not that bad, even if it is (yeah, hitmonchan is hard as fuck to get)
Victreebel is so weird. Its attacks are contradictory and its low damage means it never gets to get anything done. At least it has low energy costs i suppose
Loved my machamp deck...
So did Mewtwo!
I wonder if Victreebel would've been decent if Lure was a poke power instead and acid flat out paralysed on a coin flip?
IMO that Nidoking is way worse than it initially seems. At the time there was only 1 Nidoran Male and one Nidorino you could play with it. Nidoran's Horn Hazard was strong at 1 grass for 30, but if you got tails it did nothing so it wasn't very reliable + psychic type weakness. Then the Nidorino you'd need to evolve into next had 2 attacks, with the second one costing 4 energy total. So if you wanted to use it, if you evolved into Nidoking later you'd just have a dead energy card attached to it since both of nidoking's attacks only need three.
That line has always been a head scratcher to me for how poorly designed it is. I play grass decks in the Game Boy Color TCG games all the time and that is one of the cards I literally never use. Same with the Victreebel on this list. If I'm playing grass types with a fire or psychic weakness, it's either Beedrill and Venasaur or Arbok and Muk.
Given the incredible levels of power creep in the Pokemon TCG I don't really think it's fair to compar Marrow's call for friends with a more recent card seeing as just about all the cards from back then their abilites and powers stack up incredibly poorly
Man, makes me sad that Nidoking was not viable. When I was young I wanted to make a deck around it. I did use Nidorino a bit in the Game Boy game, but never pulled Nidoking.
It was viable IMO with venusaur exeggutor kangy and wigglytuff. Substitute breeders in place of ivysaur and nidorino. Not the best by any means but it could be scary if set up
"There just isn't anything interesting about acid" Okay, friendo.
I am not so sure I agree on the Vileplume, odish looks solid for that time given that it could para a hitmonchan or electabuz. Foul odor and poison powder weren't terrible either on gloom though its low hp does suck a bit.
Now I am not saying it is good but compared to the other dumpster fires you showed here I am not sure it belongs in this list.
Seems like Vileplume is a high risk/reward pokemon. it's healing and chance of nuking is nothing to sneeze at. and like you said, Oddish can stall for those energy cards as it evolves. I think the luck factor doesn't compare to consistency, but if I were to attach a luck mechanic to the game, a pokemon having 3 chances to do 40 damage, for up to 120 (the highest HP in the game), and a decent chance of doing the 80 damage required to KO most pokemon, so you don't even need to get all three flips, that sounds balanced to me. Kind of like Time Wizard's "all or nothing" effect in Yugioh
Dugtri'o's quake only hurts your bench! Even worse!
Id argue Omastar is even worse than mentioned since you need to play Mysterious Fossil as its basic stage, which only had 10 hp back then
Same with Kabutops
Yay
I would argue that Machamp has a pretty decent Pokémon power for the classic set. Looking through the og pkmn powers right now about half of them are pretty useless, this at least does some chip damage.
I was expecting Base Charizard at no. 1 😅
Any energy can be a fire energy and a 100 damage nuke would destroy most pokemon even with resistance. It couldn't be the worst cause it had a really strong niche and a lot of flexibility. slap 2 double colorless on it and nuke. Plus Charmeleon was pretty solid IIRC as a bridge, so you could hold on to Charizard and wait until you needed to nuke. There's a viable strat there and it can slide into any deck that needed it.
@@MarioMastaryeah but for the meme
Yo Hiru is that you?! Wtf why didn’t I found you earlier my guy - I’m pissed!
Should have shown the pre-evolutions too.
Top 10 competitive promo cards
Even as a kid I knew Victreebell was bad and I pulled a TON of those things out of packs.
I like how it's effect LITERALLY contradicts itself. You can force switch a pokemon, OR you can prevent them from switching. but....then do what? I guess you could prevent them from switching then you can switch to a pokemon to get rid of a problem, but you're spending a lot of resources to out one pokemon at best. If Victreebell could do poison with it's "Stay in" effect, there'd be something. but I don't think many pokemon are afraid of Victreebell. Plus they can still switch out if you lure them in before you lock in the one you want and 20 damage per turn...even the 40 with weakness isn't going to scare ...welll... a rock deck (as most water pokemon were weak to electric, rock/ground pokemon were weak to grass. so....)
I was there play the first Pokemon card game been in the first tournament
Vileplume sounds like a Joey Wheeler card. Luck baby.
Why was Electrode banned?
If you have a haymaker deck and you use energy en super energy removal, all the decks that needed 3 to 4 energy are pretty FU.......
I've followed TheDuelLogs for years and I love Pokemon. But every time I try to watch a TheDexLogs video, there's always something or many things wrong with it. This video took 3 minutes to make 2 mistakes that could have easily been fixed just by reading the card being discussed. I'm sorry, but I just can't keep watching these videos on Pokemon because it irks me too much. Good luck though!
None of these choices are wrong, but there are a lot of other Pokémon that could have very easily made this list. Parasect, anyone? It takes two COLORED energy to put something to sleep, something Jigglypuff in the same set can do for one colorless!! Practically no reason to run it over Scyther.
I think you're undervalueing toxic. you will for sure do 40, but its value is in keeping control of the pacing of the match.
also machamp does have a 4 energy attack, but it's previous evolutions are probably the most solid in the first 3 sets.
machop is a 50hp mon with 1 energy 20 damage attack, which is amazing. machoke is also pretty good with 80 hp and a 50 and 60 damage attack both with a downside.
if you have enough energy to use machokes attack then one more makes it so you can use machamps. psychic weakness does kind of suck tho
Scyther was splashed in basically every deck back in the day, not only as a Hitmonchan-resist, but as a free-retreating pivot. It doesn't help that basically all the Fire-types were kinda bad, with Magmar being the best of the bunch, but still a step below Hitmonchan and Electabuzz.
You could Switch/retreat to Scyther, then retreat back to your attacker. Getting around poison was pretty easy. 3 for 40 on a Stage 2 is bad when basics were doing the same thing, with more flexible energy requirements. And, Nidoking getting KO'd represents a bigger loss of resources than a basic.
And Machop absolutely saw play, but Machamp is just way too inefficient to justify running. Just run Hitmonchans over it and you'd do better. Big, top-end threats did not exist in competitive Pokemon at the time (outside of Water). Energy Removal and Super Energy Removal were a 4x in every deck, and Fighting has no acceleration.
@@parabola01 maybe in a competitive sense nidoking wasn't that great, but there is no way machamp deserves to be on this list. especially since golem was a strictly worse version of machamp with weaker basic and stage ones compared to the machamp line as well.
@@Ubernewb111 Golem is another stinker, but Machamp is still really bad. When Promo Mewtwo came out, Psychic-weakness was much, much worse than Grass. Most decks ran Scyther, but not every deck wanted to attack with it. 3 for 30 is just okay on a basic, and having it in active diminishes it's usefulness as a pivot vs status.
Fwiw, I try looking at Jason Klaczynski's blog to see if Machoke was ever worth playing. I suspect not, but it looks like Jason's redone his site, and the old Base-Only format is gone. That would have been its best chance. So, I doubt it, but I can't prove it.
Is Machamp worse than Golem? Eh, maybe not. They're both really bad, so I don't think Machamp's placement on this list is egregious.
@@parabola01 I guess, but even with psychic weakness machamp is gonna one hit mewtwo with strikeback and 2 hit scyther with it as well.
imo it's one of the better evolutionary lines if you want to run a fighting type evolution
@@Ubernewb111
Good news: I get to eat humble pie.
Potential double-post: I wrote all this out, thought I hit Reply, then refreshed the page, but my comment isn't showing up. Maybe the url I included is the reason? Just in case, I'll leave it out.
Anyways, I dug up Jason Klaczynski's Base Set-Only format review. It's not linked on the main page anywhere, but you can still find it via search anyways. Machamp/Alakazam was on of the featured decks in the article, focusing on the weak opposing attackers of Base Set and the lack of any good Psychic attackers, to tank with Machamp, wrack up free damage with the PokePower, then Damage Swap all the hits Machamp has taken to a Chansey to Scoop Up/Pokemon Center it away.
Machamp stops showing up once Jungle comes out, and this also isn't proof that Machamp saw any play back in the day, but it's proof enough to leave Machamp off this list, imo. So, I agree with you.
"imo it's one of the better evolutionary lines if you want to run a fighting type evolution"
I agree with this statement, even before finding Jason's decklists, but more because so many Fighting-types not named Hitmonchan were so bad. Like, not bad compared to Hitmonchan, but just bad in general.
Why do all these fast Pokémon have retreat cost?
Because obviously in-game base speed does not correlate very well with retreat cost.
Why does [any dumb decision in TCG compared to in-game stats]? 🤔
Something I am noticing is based on these videos and current decks I see.
Evolved Pokemon (with VERY few exceptions) have apparently never been good at all.
Is that an accurate assessment?
A fan-mod team should rebalance the first generation cards and make it a mod for PTC Gameboy.
Make evolutions MUCH stronger. Give high energy cost attacks BIG damage/effects
And most importantly: Balance the trainer cards, make those fair.
Optionally, less coin flips, coin flip based cards could be reworked where the effect is based on other factors (hand size, number of benched pokémon, discarding cards etc.)
Doing this could stray too far from the familiarity of the cards though.
Kabutops, not even the best Pokemon with sickles for hands.
It's pretty wild seeing that Nikoking have the same attack as Ebuzz except Nidoking's costs more. What is up with that?
wasnt weakness in this era just +30?
It's funny how several of these cards are actually very useful in the game boy games. Structuring decks with powerful basics and super energy removal completely changes the game. I found Electabuzz to be pretty unreliable because the recoil damage would often make it pretty easy to knock out, but in competitive play it was probably a lot more useful since it can attack quickly.
The toxic of nidoking was very usefull for me in my triple gangar deck basily soing two damages eaxh turn and using gengars to move them to the weaker base pokemons
And I actually own everything on the list.
Nidoking was awesome. Who else could one shot Mr mime
Victreebel could have been great if Acid did 60
You sound like hiruex or something like that. He makes wow videos
I just love you click bait with omastar when it was a part of the meta at the time
haha i still have 7 base set decks
Hurt my feelings. My favorite pokemon is the worst 😭
It was a top tier threat in the actual game at least (well for gen 3 I think). according to FalseSwipeGaming
@@MarioMastar thank you.
How dare you slander my kabutops. Wheres H.R i wana file a report
Vilplume is good. Especially since usually ran with a deck that has multiple Venusaur. It's a great late game card. Venusaur, 1vilplum, Raichu, Zapdos, Scycher, Kangesghan or Snorlax is good deck. Not my style but does work. Venusaur is great against energy removal. 50/50's were more like 70/30 with people mastering coin flips.
You can't "master" coinflips, they will always be random 50/50s. Also even with Venusaur it takes far too much setup only for a completely luck reliant strategy. You're much better off just using Scyther on its own. Venusaur also doesn't increase the amount of energy you can play per turn so it doesn't help much either.
If i recall dugtriu is very good in the video game to speedrunn with
You don't have worry about 4 Energy Removal + 4 Super Energy Removal + 4 Item Finders in the video games
@@maskofthedragon fair but I wanted to share that fact with him in case he like the game but didn't know that. He one of the two RUclipsrs related to Pokémon tcg that I watch this the other one is more focus on the video game one.
Funny enough I ran a Dugtrio deck in the Pokémon TCG 2 game for GBC. It worked for the most part, except there is one trainer who uses the mentioned meets strategy of stealing out with (Super) energy removal + Item Finder, while using double colorless energy for his own tanky Pokémon to overwhelm you. Even with the type advantage there wasn't much you could do against this deck