Lumineon x Greninja x Articuno ex is definitely my highest win rate deck. Finneon has a 20dmg 1 energy attack and only requires one more energy after evolving to deal an amount of damage to the bench that leaves Pokemon vulnerable to Greninja + puts many basics in range of being KO'd off the bench by Articuno. 0 retreat cost is nice too, if you bring it in to sack it later you always have the energy to attack once
The Golbat line is actually lowkey solid as a soft counter to a lot of relevant psychic types. One energy colorless lets it slot into any deck. It deals 60 damage for that one energy to cards like Mew, Mewtwo and Gardevoir. It survives a Giovanni boosted psychic sphere from Mewtwo. It's got a cheap retreat cost. A turn 1 Zubat into Golbat on turn 2 can put in the work in the Mewtwo match-up or apply pressure lategame as an easy to set up revenge killer. I like to run it in fighting decks because Mewtwo players never expect it.
There is one particular niche that Porygon does fill: a beginner’s crutch. Back when I first started Pocket and was learning the game, being able to see my next card helped a lot with formulating strategy. Now that I’m more experienced, though, I don’t really use it anymore.
@@mikebougiamas3418Mythical Slab is designed specifically so that you don't have to use it with Porygon. Even if it whiffs, it will thin your deck, allowing you to get closer to your psychic mons. Porygon is just Lumineon/Hitmonlee/Sabrina fodder and a wasted Pokeball.
I wonder how long it will take for people in general to realize that not everything is meant to be viable at the top level. Even after Onix in the main games was shown as a learning tool I still hear people complain about its attack stat. Raticate is, I think, the exact manifestation of a learning tool. It's straightforward and doesn't need a lot of investment. It's in every pack so that you can get the cosmetics for something quickly. And it's in a lot of the given decks so that you don't have to make the connection between "oh, rapidash is the fire type Golbat." It's just: "oh that's Raticate, I know what that does so I can learn the other cards"
About that pikachu, I used to think so too, but then that card cost me a reward from a solo battle, when the inferior variant wouldn't lock me out of getting it. It won over my eyes, but hurt me in my soul.
Technically it would have too, bc that version is also a promo card, aka not a 1,2, or 3-diamond card That reward condition is kinda bs tbh, i assume the idea is "dont use ex cards" to make the fight harder for you, but it also restricts you frop using 1-star card, even though they’re the same as 1, 2 or 3 diamond cards, like damn. But yeah, promo card either way, same reward lock
Using art variants also ticks the timer down more as it shows the card being played. I doubt that 2 seconds lockout will ever be valuable enough to affect gameplay, but it's still a downside I suppose
3:42 got a chuckle out of me that I wasn't expecting. Very new to TCGs with Pocket being one of my first so these videos have been super interesting to me, I'd love to see more of them!
The devs of this game have done an amazing job at making sure every little detail of a card is a tradeoff. One of these tradeoffs is the ability to evolve. If something can evolve, it'll be straight up weaker than something that can't. Compare Farfetch'd to Spearow or Pidgey for example. One side effect of this is that pokemon that haven't gotten their final evolution yet are just flat out worse than their counterparts. Scyther has 10hp less than Heatmor or Hitmonchan. Golbat has 10hp less than Whimsicott or Mienshao. Rhydon and Seadra have no direct counterparts, but their rate is clearly worse than the things closest to them (Melmetal and Lumineon). Funnily enough, I think Tangela actually has a fine rate for its stats. The main problem with Tangela is that it's not good at any specific role. It's bad at aggro because it has an awful damage/energy ratio. It's bad at tanking because it has 80 health, 20 less than the standard rate for a basic non-EX tank. And it's bad at scaling because it can't evolve and has no built in scaling. Anyway, it's clear that the devs are really intentional about the balance of their cards. I think the game is extremely well balanced thanks to this tradeoff-centric design. It just leaves unevolved pokemon in a bad spot until their final evolution gets released.
@@linkthepringlesman3951 Oh I forgot about those two. Yeah Bisharp is equally as strong as its counterpart Golduck, not sure what's up there. And Primeape doesn't have any direct counterpart yet, but it seems quite useable. I've started noticing little imbalances. For example, Bulbasaur and Snivy are just better than Paras for no reason. And Drowzee is even worse than Paras (although I could understand the hesitation in making Drowzee playable, Hypno's effect isn't exactly a fun play pattern). And I don't get why Liepard has 90hp instead of 100 like literally every other 40 damage stage 1. If they felt like 100hp didn't fit the pokemon, they should've given it a different attack. In general, the balance is quite good. But I guess they just kinda wing it, no hard and fast balance rule.
@@linkthepringlesman3951 I get the feeling Pocket might have started developpment way before Gen 9 released. At the time they designed those two cards they might just not have accounted for the fact SV added new evos for them
Mentioning hypothetical double colourless energy. If they were to do that I think a support card that's effect is "attach 1 colourless energy to one of your pokemon" would be an effective version of it. Support makes it so you can't use other energy acceleration that turn, and it offers a slight buff from the classic double colourless by letting you split where your energy goes that turn to make up for taking up a support for the turn. Strong enough to run in some decks but not an auto add for every one.
I think a better aspect to implement DCE is instead of having it add "one Colorless energy" on top of your regular attachment, it instead _replaces_ your one energy per turn with Double Colorless. Replacing the energy also helps to widen the design space for future Special Energy cards so that they don't immediately ramp you and instead basically trade a card in your hand to grant additional effects to your energy per turn.
@@breloommaster12 Agreed. Making special energy a supporter card ending with the line "this counts as your energy attachment for this turn" or something would be interesting.
It might be good to make something that specifically affects colorless only pokemon. I could see +1 energy being a bit strong, lots of stuff isn't mono enrgy. Stuff like alakazam only needs 1 energy. I wouldn't mind something like this, but an actual +2 but only on splashable normal types like snorlax might be interesting. Maybe even add restrictions like it can only be used on a pokemon with no energy currently on it or something.
My Idea for a Double colorless would be to make it an EX pokémon Ability (Lugia would be nice) While that pokémon is Alive, every pokémon on your field is considered to have 1 colorless energy attached to it (cant be used to retreat)
@@Edujs23 that kind of effect is way too strong to have on a Basic Pokémon with 120+ HP; this needs to at least be on a Stage 2 Pokémon (doesn't have to be ex though, as Gardevoir and Serperior have demonstrated).
3:09 In defense of Golbat, before the new expansion a few people were using it in a fun anti-meta rogue deck. The advantage of Golbat over Liepard is it's colorless energy cost, meaning you can splash it into any deck. The deck had Marowak EX & promo Mankey/Primeape for dealing with Pikachu EX, and Golbat for Mewtwo. Going second, if the turn 1 actives were Mewtwo & Zubat, before they could attack you could hit once with Zubat and once with Golbat for only 1 energy, totaling to 90 damage due to weakness. From there they either switch out & you start dealing 60 to their other cards, (one-shots Ralts and puts Kirlia to 20), or they Psychic Sphere your Golbat which guarantees Mewtwo's death from one more Golbat attack. This fell out of favor as the meta progressed & Mythical Island released, but Golbat did have a niche use for a little bit.
I used to think that but I feel the metal cards are slept on. (Definitely not meta though) I gave it a few shots and I found more success that I expected. I personally believe that I won because of surprise factor rather than the cards being great. Mawile is really a "meh" card that just does the job. Honestly the metal card literally just needs 1 or 2 more cards and that's it imo.
4:05 I would argue that porygon is actually sort of useful in psychic decks because of mythical slab. You can check once per turn whether or not there's a psychic Pokemon at the top of the deck. That way each mythical slab is a guaranteed pull instead of a gamble.
5:30 I used to run Snorlax successfully in my Dragonite deck as a stall while I built my energy. With Dragonite’s potential to ruin an entire field on every attack and only 1 point on death, it meant I had time to set up 1 Dragonite pretty reliably. If they ignored it, I might be able to get a 2nd. I’ve since switched to running Kangaskhan for similar bulk, but an actual offensive threat if they brought in a backline attacker, while still working with dual energy decks
I actually love pokedex as part of a draw engine with meowth/pokeball/oak etc. When the next 3 cards aren't something needed use pokeball to shuffle the deck before you draw, or mythical slab to move a card to the bottom of the deck. Its my favorite way to play dragonite bc It makes stage 2 lines fast and more consistent. A fun card when you tune your deck around it. Also Golbat shook the meta for a bit when people started using it to aggro against Mewtwo ex. Mienshao wasn't as effective against Pikachu ex because of its HP and Pikas 90 atk though. Swanna is just hilariously bad xD
4:26 Ditto is insane in CPU matches, where you can use the moves of evolved Grass or Fire Pokémon from the opponent's bench, as long you play the same type of energy.
To further illustrate how bad snorlax is in compression to druddigon, you would think the 50 extra health would be better right? WRONG, because of the extra health and extermely slow damage output it's really hard to force sacrifice snorlax at a good time, meanwhile sacrificing druddigon for the 20 damage and free switch is crazy strkng and has won me many otherwise impossible games.
Swanna might be used with the new Dialga deck to offset the fire weakness, considering dialga gives 2 metal energy regardless of the type. 90 damage with possible gio is the perfect breakpoint to completely destroy Blaine decks which would be Dialga’s main counter.
Golbat is really funny because during that one period in late Genetic Apex I just splashed it in a random deck and used it to snipe the mewtwos that were literally everywhere before they could energy up
if i had a nickel for every fighting game youtuber that started making pokemon videos i would have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird (but also pretty cool) that it happened twice
As a self-proclaimed grass main, I've spent a lot of time trying to extend grass to do as much as it can. I've found Exeggutor ex to be extremely splashable across deck types, especially with the new colorless Exeggcute card! But also, grass really does not mind running extremely bulky. My main grass deck runs Venusaur, Serperior, Exeggutor, and 2x Celebi. Just a massive deck accompanied by Erikas and potions. I happily take my L's to fire decks most matches but I'm finding this slow growth deck to be extremely slept on just because of how massive it gets. I have tried decks with starring and feauring Venomoth, Lilligant, Butterfree, Beedrill and they make excellent 'on-curve' decks. I've tried to make Scyther and Tangela work but they just feel incongruent to grass, Scyther's pressure and secure are nice but lackluster in the long run; while tangela seems to have a similar issue with longevity but getting it online is a pain similar to opening with Bulbasaur. Victreebells pulling is nice for some decks but its prevolutions are kinda mid to me. I do think grass has significant room to make sleep decks, but the full sleep deck I made (Jiggly, Wiggly, vileplume, shiinotic) just felt underwhelming and like I was griefing for low damage and dragging the game out. Although the sleep was always being applied, that sleep deck does not feel as good as my massive 4EX grass deck. I'm excited for the new sets cards like Meganium, Forretress, Heracross, Scizor! Grass is winning!
Your video ideas are very good! And I actually used Mienshao on my first few days of the game as coverage in my water deck, before I had more copies of the good cards.
Also your deck can brick and you can end up just not pulling the basic or evo, leaving you with either a weak Rhyhorn with no strong wall or a Rhydon that facilitates burning a Poke Ball usage just to get the basic Meanwhile if you get Snorlax, you can just use it That being said, I can see the Rhyhorn line getting better if they ever add a good Rhyperior, but this Snorlax is as good right as it ever will be
@ it is *technically* possible that Snorlax could get better… in like 4 years, when they get to gen 8 and make a G-Max Snorlax card. I wouldn’t hold my breath, though.
Loving these! It's always interesting to hear about some of the forgotten cards in TCGs. I think it would be cool if you did a review of some of the best off-meta decks
No one ever talks about the card art when it comes to meta relevancy. Also Hi bafael it's awesome to see you expand to more games in your editing style! I'm hoping for the best for you. and i hope your xray adventures are going well
ive never played a tcg before but since its a video game instead of physical cards i hope they'll do balance adjustments at some point. also another downside of using lumineon instead of seadra is having to look at lumineon when you could be looking at seadra
Bro, I've been obsessed with the game as well. Got the premium pass for the perks and to try and delay any possibly predatory monetization for a bit (hopefully). As already mentioned, Porygon is used as a niche way to make sure that Mythical Slab draws instead of thins, boosting the consistency of Psychic decks further. I also went to mention a funny thing about Mew ex that's important for Celebi ex: Because of the way the effects are worded, Mew can take full advantage of Celebi's attack, since it just specifies "Energy", but I find that in that situation, I can use Dhelmise as a cheeky counter. With a Serperior, it's 2 energy for 90 damage and even without it, the effect requires specifically 4 Grass Energy so Mew can't use the 90 damage against it.
I think it would be great if you also made some videos just going over general gameplay terms and tips. This is a first TCG for a LOT of people (kinda including myself), so I think there's a huge market for that kinda content, especially since I haven't really been seeing any for pocket. You're very articulate and you have good game knowledge, keep it up
4:53 To add to Ditto, I tested Copy Anything on a Mew EX that was on my opponent's bench to see if I can copy Genome Hacking to freely bypass the necessary energy requirement and copy my opponent's Active Pokemon but it is not possible at all. The game just doesn't let you and says "The condition hasn't been met"
I once had an opponent try to stall with Snorlax against my Greninja/Bruxish deck. They took at least 7 turns to realize why I wasn't attacking Snorlax lmao
Nah, Porygon is underated, idk why people hating so much on that pokemon. The argument is, porygon just taking card slot and will be an useless pokemon in late game. While that is true, Porygon brings much to the table thnx to its unique ability. Not meant to be arrogant, but I swear I was the only few people first that was using porygon even before mythical slab came out. Porygon x meowth were such an underated combo in genetix apex. Be able to manipulate cards pull and control the flow of the game is such an underated tactic. Combine it with pokeball, after scanning the top of the card, ypu can either draw it with meowth if it was a good card, or reshuffle it with pokeball if it is a card you dont need. Now with mythical slab, porygon x mythical slab is crazy at thinning deck, since you have 100% at pulling psychic card with slab thnx to porygon ability. Now, I have seen more people using porygon in mythical island patch. Another good deck to using porygon is blane rush. Blane is the vital part of this deck. So scanning the top card to see if it is a blane or not is so crucial before using a pokeball, that I often win so much in early game thnx to porygon controling the flow of early game manipulation. I also bring 1 pokedex in blane rush, and the principle is the same with porygon x pokeball. See the top of your 3 card, if af least blane is on the second queue in pokedex scan, I would wait. If it was on 3 or even none, I would use pokeball to reshuffle.
if i had a nickel for every time a fighting game youtube channel suddenly pivoted to covering competitive pokemon, i would have two nickels. keep it up, baf!
I wonder how much better snowlax will be in pockets if it is the tcg version, that verisimilitude has the same hp and retreat cost, but the ability is block which prevent active spot opponent from retreating if snorlax is in the active spot, and the attack is collapse which deals 150 damage for 4 colourless energy but snoxlax is now asleep.
While not PvP, I actually use Ditto in the PvE modes sometimes to help clear some of the challenges, specifically the ones that require all 1,2, or 3 diamond pokemon for giving me access to EX Pokemon attacks.
pokedex is actually alright in psychic decks that use a ton of trainer cards, it mainly helps get more consistent value out of mythical slab, but there's a few other tricks like rerolling the cards by shuffling w/ pokeball
Love the pokemon tgc pocket videos. Just wanted to be a nerd and point out now with psychic slab or whatever it’s called you can now scan with porygon to find a stage 1 evolution for the inconsistent three stages and if it isn’t professor oak or the mid stage evolution you can send it to the bottom of your deck regardless of if you run a psychic deck
Primeape actually fits pretty well onto aerodactyl decks, as the extra 10 damage over farfetchd is often the difference between marshadow revenge killing or not
Watching this vid at the very least made me realize we don’t have a Snorlax EX card yet at the time of this comment and I find that to be pretty bizarre
Mawile going second can go kind of hard, its useful for its 1 retreat cost but just the ability to let you stall just a tiny bit more to get Melmetal/Bisharp active, especially with Melmetals attacking cost. It's luck based like all the coin flip cards are but an early heads on turn 1 going second means the opponent is one extra turn away from being able to do anything, and also means more opportunities to get further heads in the future. It's useless late game when the opponents full on energy already but again the 1 retreat cost means you can switch it out to Melmetal and wipe something out without needing deck space for Leaf if you use Druddigon. (I use Druddigon now for my metal deck but I love Mawile) I also think it's interesting and worth noting that all 3 current metal mons can eat really good with future support, thanks to Gigantamax Melmetal, Mega Mawile, and Kingambit existing
4:38 i remember i used ditto to copy a exeggutor's plant energy gain move to finally have it's use in my deck. I was so happy untill they switched out their Pokemon and oneshotted ditto. Never used it since. Maybe ditto needs more health like 110
Cards like Misty, Erika, Giovanni, and Sabrina will probably always have a viable use in the future. I feel bad for the other Gym leaders since they will probably be left by the wayside in future expansions since their abilities apply to such a limited amount of pokemon and situations.
Seadra, Tangela, Golbat and Porygon all feel like they we're designed thinking on the evos. You need to make a video as soon as the next expansion comes out!
I think Flareon deserves mention. At first it just looks like Ninetails with more damage for more energy cost, but that one energy cost is huge, ninetails works because it's so quick to set up and the 90/120 damage can disrupt you opponent's plans before they can get their win conditions going. It also doesn't work in Moltres EX decks since moltres can't attach energy to Eevee, and it's a worst spender of excess fire energy than other high cost fire types
Ditto's a tough card to work with but I like him. I've got him on a water/grass deck just to deal with Celebi or Gyarados without committing just playing one or the other ex. When the meta changes, I'll probably just put a ditto into a deck of whichever type is currently dominating. But I could never run 2 dittos in one deck. If I don't run into my deck's type, now I've just got 2 sandbags on my team.
In base set, I messed around with Snorlax in some decks. The idea is just to use it as a wall while you set up an endgame sweeper like mewtwo or alakazam or something and never give it any energy unless your opponent simply refuses to kill it. It could be used sort of like drudd is now, except without any chip damage to make it actually useful. people would also use chansey for this, but at the time the extra 30HP and 4 retreat cost vs 3 made it a better option. Snorlax definitely isn't that bad, although it's not optimal in anything, it does or at least used to have some nitche it could... try to fulfill.
Looking forward to examining each type. There's probably a decent overlap with your FGC fans here :) Maybe it could also be fun to add in an angle of what the best possible deck for each bad mon might be? Actually now that I type this out I'm not sure if that would be an interesting enough topic with how small the card pool currently is. Probably for most slow-bad mons the answer would just be "Druddigon and/or Weezing+Koga" and all fast-yet-understatted-bad mons would be "use them as body blockers while you prepare that type's best EX mon on the bench". That kind of topic might be better after another expansion set or two is released.
I'd like to hear your thoughts on Genetic Apex Raichu, MI Liepard, and MI Volcarona. Raichu has a single attack that discards minimum 4 electric energy from itself. Liepard came out in Mythical Island in the undersupported dark archetype but still seems pointless when Apex Weezing and even Golbat already exist. Volcarona is also an extremely tough sell, Larvesta having a 2 energy 30 damage attack and 2 retreat cost, while Volcarona itself having a 3 energy 80 damage attack that discards 2 energy.
this is the type of comment section im about: good discussion, informative thoughts, no negative hooplah. keep it up ppl 👍🏽 this is possible bc Baf's style of video captures all tht i've said prior. it's just nice to read comments & nit get a headache
i play pokedex in my psychic deck since it can use it to guarentee a slate draw or use it before a pokeball to shuffle the top of my deck if it doesnt have relevant cards
i have 2 Pokedex in my deck and it works well, using 2 basics (2 articuno Ex), you use the pokedex to chase misty sooner (or chase a sabrina or giovanni late game). You see the top 3 cards and can rearrange the deck with a pokeball (you must hold it for that or a emergency), i even use mythical slab to skipp one of the three cards
Ditto was really good on release because ppl were running the same decks over and over. It essentially gave me 90% win rate against mewtwo and did well against fire and water(the other energys I used) it really struggled against electric tho and electric energies were of no use because of certain attacks. I backed it up with other pokemon tho and imo it was one of my favourite decks
What if you tried to put 4 energy types in a deck with 2 ditto and rounded it out with kangashkan and Pidgeot EX? In fact I think I'm gonna try that troll deck right now.
One of my favorite cards in the game is Centiskorch. He's a decent alternative to Charizard Ex I usually pair with him in case I don't draw into Zards line quickly. And when you look at it, he sadly just does what normal moltres does better for an extra energy, but 30 more hp and consistency.
Pokedex isn't as bad as it seems: If your next three cards are bad draws you can play a pokeball or use chattot to re-roll. It can also inform you on which trainer you can afford to play now (if you know you'll get them back later), or wether or not playing mythical slab or prof research is a good move. I'm not saying it's amazing, but seeing seeing 3 cards out of 15 ahead of time is a LOT of information for an item card.
Both Moltres and Snorlax have a key benefit in being Basic Pokémon; Charizard ex can be a bigger liability if your Charmeleons are sitting at the bottom of your deck (rare, but, still). With Dragonite in existence, it's not unreasonable for Snorlax to be worthwhile as nothing but a meatshield that doesn't potentially cost you two points to lose, though I imagine Mew ex is safer overall with 1 retreat cost and a tech in Genome Hacking against their boss monsters. I'd still go with Rhyhorn as the worst.
high investment luck cards are pretty suspect but it's just an attacking misty, every now and then it's gonna murder something even if it's average damage is only 30 or w/e
I actually use snorlax in a deck with dragonite and greninja, I think you’re underrating how impactful getting 2 generally safe turns for only one point for the enemy is. If you run archetypes that benefit from long term, you can just generally stuff out decks that do fast chip damage like Pikachu or florges
i don't get the reasoning here -- your bench might be safe behind that snorlax but so is your opponent's, since both the attack and retreat cost are so prohibitively high on your side, in fact it’s much easier for the opponent to get your Snorlax out of their way than it is for you to get it out of your own way, which is a crazy predicament for you to be painting yourself into. you aren't even guaranteed to get turn advantage when the Snorlax dies and your opponent takes the free point ex. what if it dies to poison tick at the end of your own turn? what's worse is that even once you see that particular situation coming there's nothing you can do without burning a ton of resources and hustling backwards. you're just engineering a slow situation where you're on the back foot for no reason in most cases, Greninja's ability to attack from the bench notwithstanding. I think the idea that this card is clutch rests on the assumption that your opponent is going to just mindlessly rush to kill the Snorlax. (Druddigon wallers have a version of this problem where so many of them very clearly have no idea what to do if the opponent does anything but brainlessly attack Rough Skin.) if I’m playing you, I’m making moving your own Snorlax out the way of your own offense your problem.
@@mirutanku The point being that Dragonite is so powerful and can survive against a lot of archetypes for 2 hits, so even if I have to spend a turn just attaching energy to snorlax and using x speed + leaf, it is still worth. and while yes, it is not very smart to keep hitting snorlax, people still do it, and imporantly, snorlax doesn't necessarily have to come in if I don't deem in necessary. not saying snorlax is super good (i'm sure i could do just fine with a druddigon) but he has clear benefits over a pokemon like tangela or rhydon who just get more vastly outshone by their counterparts
(kind of off topic) Imo, i find a good amount of success with metal deck. Mawile is not great, but annoying enough to force your opponent to play in specific ways (aka attaching energy not in the way they want). Bisharp 30 damage is fine and the evolution 70 damage does the job. Melmetal 120 damage and the ability basically negates the fire damage.
listen ditto kinda sucks but I've had a lot of fun with it in a colorless deck where I pick grass and sometimes psychic as my energies. it's gimmicky and not optimal but the meta is reliably dominated with celebis and mewtwos and it's so satisfying to start flipping coins back at a celebi deck, especially since powerbloom doesn't specify grass energy so you can build up the ditto with anything. if it had even like 30 more health it would be a legit build I think (I thought it would be better against psychic decks until I realized mid battle it can't copy mew's copy! which is a pointless limitation for such an already limited card imo)
Also snorlax can retreat now that you can have a leaf and 2 xspeed. Try this deck. 2 ex blastoise, 2 snorlax, 1drudigon, 2 x speed, 1 leaf, blue, gio, sabrina, misty. This deck will guarantee a blastoise ex with 5 energy will come into the game. Hey it might be after 2 dead snorlaxs, but 5 energy blastoise ex one shots what ever is standing infront of him, then he will tank 1 hit from anything other than Charizard, then he will kill the final guy and you win. Sabrina might mess you up but if you can build 2 blastoises by the time they kill 2 snorlaxes you can make the Sabrina play useless, and it's quite possible. Don't underestimate 150 health with blue giving -10 buff. It takes most people 4-5 turns to kill the first snorlax. If you play your cards right, they can kill one snorlax, then drudigon, then if you still need time, you throw out the last snorlax with blue supporter, tank the hit, then retreat with leaf and 2 xspeed into your 5 energy blastoise
Yknow, seeing Golbat, Rhydon, Seadra, Magmar, Tangela, Scyther, Onix and Electabuzz and evaluating them - their evolutions being added down the line seems really obvious! They are nerfed versions of other lines, like it is for most stage 1 middle-evos!
Funnily enough I did use Snorlax successfully, as a placeholder until I got Druddigon in a Dragonite deck. Clearly Druddigon is better, but the fun thing is that I got something like 20 straight wins with it while it still had Snorlax, and lost my first game only after I’d swapped in Druddigon. Snorlax W I guess
2Greninja, 2non ex moltres, 2hypno, 1drudigon is a crazy exciting team, try it out with a blue gio and leaf, no physic energy only fire and water. One coin flip for 130/140 is better than flipping 3 celebi coins for 150, think about it. Would you want to flip a coin after 60 damage to potentially do 60 more (articuno) or just flip 1 coin for 130?
If there will be a no-ex format probably most card here wouldn't be that mediocre since some of these cards was obsolete due to how many ex cards has the same requirements with absurd damages.
I absolutely love my Ditto jank deck. I use it with grass & psychic energy because they give me the most potential to copy opponent's one shot attack. You can easily copy Celebi, Exeggutor, Mewtwo, Alakazam, or Jinx to oneshot their boss mons. Facing any other color I'll just surrender tho.
I dunno if it'd be enough for a full video, but what about cards that you think are outclassed that are literally the same mon or ones that are in both sets but with distinct design? There's the promo eevee, who has growl instead of an actual attack, which I think is the worst option all things considered. it also has the same health as the others so there's no advantage there. Poor GA Golem who INSTANTLY got a better version in the island packs, getting a buff instead of hurting itself even though the damage is good (plus the rest of the line, but I feel those are interchangeable on preference). Meanwhile the promo jigglypuff is kinda diabolical compared to the original, especially since it wants to survive to 3 energy for wigglytuff EX. Also, I would have literally never noticed that purrloin line is weak to grass for some reason if you hadn't mentioned it. I can't really imagine why.
The grass weakness is definitely to represent dark's weakness to bug but I did a double take seeing that too. Idk how common that is in the tabletop tcg but I know tabletop does that with other types, such as water types occasionally being weak to grass rather than elec
I agree with a lot of this, snorlax is just meat for the punch, 150 hp is massive but primordial island primeape can destroy that in 2 turns if have Giovanni, so little time that you set up is not even half done, tangela is sad, it shows how much the evolution is coming, and the worst scenario is seadra, because not just is outclased by lumineon but also is almost garanted that in gen 2 we get other seadra that is even more fit for kingdra, is not garanted but chances are not low at all
It's REALLY bad at that though. -It doesn't have any damage to threaten the opponent with unless you put 4 energy on it, but if you do, you weren't setting up behind it. Druddigon does damage for literally no cost. -It's biggest problem by far is retreat cost. 4 retreat cost is MASSIVE. It basically means you can't retreat. That basically means it's a wall that works for your opponent also because, unlike Druddigon, who can be retreated at a moment's notice with Leaf, you can just play assuming Snorlax won't be retreated ever. -4 Retreat cost also means you have basically no counterplay to backrow hitters, which are currently very good in the meta. Snorlax's inability to retreat means a Zebstrika, Lumineon, Electabuzz, Volcarona, or especially Hitmonlee can beat up your backrow with no threat to them because you can't switch in something to hit them.
Snorlax is terrible for current meta for it’s massive retreat cost and 150hp isn’t enough of the upside to use it over mons like Kangkastan. Water/fighting/electric pretty much have free win against you due to them access to cards that hit bench pokemon and even you don’t face those deck, psychic/grass and fire can 1/2 shot it before you even have chace to make plays while at full hp. Druddigon being so good as a tank is mainly rough skin and only need 2 retreat cost which turns 0 if you use leaf,take 20 damage from attacking makes ppl think twice before they commit to attacking it multiple time or build their deck to one shot it and being able to retreat free if you use leaf makes the water/fighting/electric more manageable
the very first thing i noticed in this game was how bad Golbat is compared to everything who does 40 for 1 energy. Zubat is also horrible. which is a shame, but at least Golbat will probably evolve (but they'll also probably print another Zubat/Golbat in the set Crobat would be in so...). Golbat should have had no retreat in exchange for its terrible everything else. Snorlax /is/ useful simply because its the only basic mon with 150 hp. ive seen many Dragonite + Snorlax decks which i think all got replaced by Druddigon by the new set, or are just playing regular Mewtwo as a 120 sponge with only 2 retreat. Lapras EX should have gotten more HP than regular snorlax imo
1:43 joke's on you, I use giovanni on mythic island Mankey all the time! Works more often than not, for whatever reason, and I have many screenshots of turn 1 wins with mankey when the opponent fails to find a second basic on turn 1.
"This Pikachu has better art than the other Pikachu."
Now a meta I can understand.
Imagine a world where Lumineon is a better version of ANYTHING
Lumineon V
Lumineon x Greninja x Articuno ex is definitely my highest win rate deck. Finneon has a 20dmg 1 energy attack and only requires one more energy after evolving to deal an amount of damage to the bench that leaves Pokemon vulnerable to Greninja + puts many basics in range of being KO'd off the bench by Articuno. 0 retreat cost is nice too, if you bring it in to sack it later you always have the energy to attack once
It's a better version of Finneon 🤐
And Lumineon V is an excellent card!❤
@@boshman11not in terms of STYLE!
@@Alex-vm6ef I use a slightly more aggro version of this that has Vaporeon instead of Greninja and it does so well.
The Golbat line is actually lowkey solid as a soft counter to a lot of relevant psychic types. One energy colorless lets it slot into any deck. It deals 60 damage for that one energy to cards like Mew, Mewtwo and Gardevoir. It survives a Giovanni boosted psychic sphere from Mewtwo. It's got a cheap retreat cost. A turn 1 Zubat into Golbat on turn 2 can put in the work in the Mewtwo match-up or apply pressure lategame as an easy to set up revenge killer.
I like to run it in fighting decks because Mewtwo players never expect it.
Yes, used to be used with the Mankey fighting deck to give the deck a chance vs mewtwo.
mienshao in my water deck serves a similar purpose to counter electrics
If golbat was a basic, even if it had 10 less hp, i think it would be seen p frequently
@@jmcbango yh it would just be dark farfethcd
WRITE THAT DOWN WRITE THAT DOWN-
"adding Tangrowth is a low priority" SPACE-TIME SMACKDOWN with the steel chair!
There is one particular niche that Porygon does fill: a beginner’s crutch. Back when I first started Pocket and was learning the game, being able to see my next card helped a lot with formulating strategy. Now that I’m more experienced, though, I don’t really use it anymore.
Porygon synergies pretty well with mythical slab
@@mikebougiamas3418Mythical Slab is designed specifically so that you don't have to use it with Porygon. Even if it whiffs, it will thin your deck, allowing you to get closer to your psychic mons. Porygon is just Lumineon/Hitmonlee/Sabrina fodder and a wasted Pokeball.
Porygon prevents mythical slab from trashing oaks/pokeballs or any card that could immediately help you.
@@averyjefferson2799even if you slab one of those cards, you can get them back by using another pokeball to shuffle the deck
I wonder how long it will take for people in general to realize that not everything is meant to be viable at the top level. Even after Onix in the main games was shown as a learning tool I still hear people complain about its attack stat.
Raticate is, I think, the exact manifestation of a learning tool. It's straightforward and doesn't need a lot of investment. It's in every pack so that you can get the cosmetics for something quickly. And it's in a lot of the given decks so that you don't have to make the connection between "oh, rapidash is the fire type Golbat." It's just: "oh that's Raticate, I know what that does so I can learn the other cards"
About that pikachu, I used to think so too, but then that card cost me a reward from a solo battle, when the inferior variant wouldn't lock me out of getting it. It won over my eyes, but hurt me in my soul.
Technically it would have too, bc that version is also a promo card, aka not a 1,2, or 3-diamond card
That reward condition is kinda bs tbh, i assume the idea is "dont use ex cards" to make the fight harder for you, but it also restricts you frop using 1-star card, even though they’re the same as 1, 2 or 3 diamond cards, like damn.
But yeah, promo card either way, same reward lock
Using art variants also ticks the timer down more as it shows the card being played. I doubt that 2 seconds lockout will ever be valuable enough to affect gameplay, but it's still a downside I suppose
@@chasesayshi9194imagine having flairs actually make it worse in the future
Baf you could make a video on different types of lawn grass and I would still be entertained.
Yeah I like the style of his videos in general.
Good idea for April fools video
Realest comment ever ong
3:42 got a chuckle out of me that I wasn't expecting. Very new to TCGs with Pocket being one of my first so these videos have been super interesting to me, I'd love to see more of them!
The devs of this game have done an amazing job at making sure every little detail of a card is a tradeoff. One of these tradeoffs is the ability to evolve. If something can evolve, it'll be straight up weaker than something that can't. Compare Farfetch'd to Spearow or Pidgey for example.
One side effect of this is that pokemon that haven't gotten their final evolution yet are just flat out worse than their counterparts. Scyther has 10hp less than Heatmor or Hitmonchan. Golbat has 10hp less than Whimsicott or Mienshao. Rhydon and Seadra have no direct counterparts, but their rate is clearly worse than the things closest to them (Melmetal and Lumineon).
Funnily enough, I think Tangela actually has a fine rate for its stats. The main problem with Tangela is that it's not good at any specific role. It's bad at aggro because it has an awful damage/energy ratio. It's bad at tanking because it has 80 health, 20 less than the standard rate for a basic non-EX tank. And it's bad at scaling because it can't evolve and has no built in scaling.
Anyway, it's clear that the devs are really intentional about the balance of their cards. I think the game is extremely well balanced thanks to this tradeoff-centric design. It just leaves unevolved pokemon in a bad spot until their final evolution gets released.
I do find it interesting that Bisharp and Primape don’t follow this rule, likely because their evolutions aren’t planned to be added for a long while.
@@linkthepringlesman3951 Oh I forgot about those two. Yeah Bisharp is equally as strong as its counterpart Golduck, not sure what's up there. And Primeape doesn't have any direct counterpart yet, but it seems quite useable.
I've started noticing little imbalances. For example, Bulbasaur and Snivy are just better than Paras for no reason. And Drowzee is even worse than Paras (although I could understand the hesitation in making Drowzee playable, Hypno's effect isn't exactly a fun play pattern). And I don't get why Liepard has 90hp instead of 100 like literally every other 40 damage stage 1. If they felt like 100hp didn't fit the pokemon, they should've given it a different attack.
In general, the balance is quite good. But I guess they just kinda wing it, no hard and fast balance rule.
@@linkthepringlesman3951 I get the feeling Pocket might have started developpment way before Gen 9 released. At the time they designed those two cards they might just not have accounted for the fact SV added new evos for them
Mentioning hypothetical double colourless energy. If they were to do that I think a support card that's effect is "attach 1 colourless energy to one of your pokemon" would be an effective version of it. Support makes it so you can't use other energy acceleration that turn, and it offers a slight buff from the classic double colourless by letting you split where your energy goes that turn to make up for taking up a support for the turn. Strong enough to run in some decks but not an auto add for every one.
I think a better aspect to implement DCE is instead of having it add "one Colorless energy" on top of your regular attachment, it instead _replaces_ your one energy per turn with Double Colorless. Replacing the energy also helps to widen the design space for future Special Energy cards so that they don't immediately ramp you and instead basically trade a card in your hand to grant additional effects to your energy per turn.
@@breloommaster12
Agreed. Making special energy a supporter card ending with the line "this counts as your energy attachment for this turn" or something would be interesting.
It might be good to make something that specifically affects colorless only pokemon. I could see +1 energy being a bit strong, lots of stuff isn't mono enrgy. Stuff like alakazam only needs 1 energy.
I wouldn't mind something like this, but an actual +2 but only on splashable normal types like snorlax might be interesting. Maybe even add restrictions like it can only be used on a pokemon with no energy currently on it or something.
My Idea for a Double colorless would be to make it an EX pokémon Ability (Lugia would be nice)
While that pokémon is Alive, every pokémon on your field is considered to have 1 colorless energy attached to it (cant be used to retreat)
@@Edujs23 that kind of effect is way too strong to have on a Basic Pokémon with 120+ HP; this needs to at least be on a Stage 2 Pokémon (doesn't have to be ex though, as Gardevoir and Serperior have demonstrated).
3:09 In defense of Golbat, before the new expansion a few people were using it in a fun anti-meta rogue deck. The advantage of Golbat over Liepard is it's colorless energy cost, meaning you can splash it into any deck.
The deck had Marowak EX & promo Mankey/Primeape for dealing with Pikachu EX, and Golbat for Mewtwo. Going second, if the turn 1 actives were Mewtwo & Zubat, before they could attack you could hit once with Zubat and once with Golbat for only 1 energy, totaling to 90 damage due to weakness. From there they either switch out & you start dealing 60 to their other cards, (one-shots Ralts and puts Kirlia to 20), or they Psychic Sphere your Golbat which guarantees Mewtwo's death from one more Golbat attack.
This fell out of favor as the meta progressed & Mythical Island released, but Golbat did have a niche use for a little bit.
The steel type being SO underwhelming might be why florges is so good. It basically doesnt have a weakness
I used to think that but I feel the metal cards are slept on. (Definitely not meta though)
I gave it a few shots and I found more success that I expected.
I personally believe that I won because of surprise factor rather than the cards being great.
Mawile is really a "meh" card that just does the job.
Honestly the metal card literally just needs 1 or 2 more cards and that's it imo.
4:05 I would argue that porygon is actually sort of useful in psychic decks because of mythical slab. You can check once per turn whether or not there's a psychic Pokemon at the top of the deck. That way each mythical slab is a guaranteed pull instead of a gamble.
5:30 I used to run Snorlax successfully in my Dragonite deck as a stall while I built my energy. With Dragonite’s potential to ruin an entire field on every attack and only 1 point on death, it meant I had time to set up 1 Dragonite pretty reliably. If they ignored it, I might be able to get a 2nd.
I’ve since switched to running Kangaskhan for similar bulk, but an actual offensive threat if they brought in a backline attacker, while still working with dual energy decks
Plus you can leaf away kangashkan when you're ready to start attacking with your main hitter
I actually love pokedex as part of a draw engine with meowth/pokeball/oak etc. When the next 3 cards aren't something needed use pokeball to shuffle the deck before you draw, or mythical slab to move a card to the bottom of the deck. Its my favorite way to play dragonite bc It makes stage 2 lines fast and more consistent. A fun card when you tune your deck around it.
Also Golbat shook the meta for a bit when people started using it to aggro against Mewtwo ex. Mienshao wasn't as effective against Pikachu ex because of its HP and Pikas 90 atk though.
Swanna is just hilariously bad xD
4:26 Ditto is insane in CPU matches, where you can use the moves of evolved Grass or Fire Pokémon from the opponent's bench, as long you play the same type of energy.
To further illustrate how bad snorlax is in compression to druddigon, you would think the 50 extra health would be better right? WRONG, because of the extra health and extermely slow damage output it's really hard to force sacrifice snorlax at a good time, meanwhile sacrificing druddigon for the 20 damage and free switch is crazy strkng and has won me many otherwise impossible games.
Swanna might be used with the new Dialga deck to offset the fire weakness, considering dialga gives 2 metal energy regardless of the type.
90 damage with possible gio is the perfect breakpoint to completely destroy Blaine decks which would be Dialga’s main counter.
Golbat is really funny because during that one period in late Genetic Apex I just splashed it in a random deck and used it to snipe the mewtwos that were literally everywhere before they could energy up
The video ideas sounds awesome bro- keep it up!
I'm all for a continuation of this series, very simple yet informative and entertaining
if i had a nickel for every fighting game youtuber that started making pokemon videos i would have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird (but also pretty cool) that it happened twice
Someone already probably brought this idea, but a video ranking all of the game's premade decks would be interesting
Id be down to watch u stream this game
Also Porygons a really cool consistency tech on mythical slab decks
Nice synergy, never thought of that pairing. Extra basics also let you protect ralts from sabrina
@@BafaelFeels like another basic in that deck is just clogging up pokeball draws though
@@유-k6fit definitely is and thats why top decks wont touch it
As a self-proclaimed grass main, I've spent a lot of time trying to extend grass to do as much as it can. I've found Exeggutor ex to be extremely splashable across deck types, especially with the new colorless Exeggcute card! But also, grass really does not mind running extremely bulky. My main grass deck runs Venusaur, Serperior, Exeggutor, and 2x Celebi. Just a massive deck accompanied by Erikas and potions. I happily take my L's to fire decks most matches but I'm finding this slow growth deck to be extremely slept on just because of how massive it gets.
I have tried decks with starring and feauring Venomoth, Lilligant, Butterfree, Beedrill and they make excellent 'on-curve' decks. I've tried to make Scyther and Tangela work but they just feel incongruent to grass, Scyther's pressure and secure are nice but lackluster in the long run; while tangela seems to have a similar issue with longevity but getting it online is a pain similar to opening with Bulbasaur. Victreebells pulling is nice for some decks but its prevolutions are kinda mid to me. I do think grass has significant room to make sleep decks, but the full sleep deck I made (Jiggly, Wiggly, vileplume, shiinotic) just felt underwhelming and like I was griefing for low damage and dragging the game out. Although the sleep was always being applied, that sleep deck does not feel as good as my massive 4EX grass deck.
I'm excited for the new sets cards like Meganium, Forretress, Heracross, Scizor! Grass is winning!
I would like to see more of these.
Your video ideas are very good!
And I actually used Mienshao on my first few days of the game as coverage in my water deck, before I had more copies of the good cards.
IMO Rhydon is worse than Snorlax for the simple reason that you are dedicating 2 or 4 cards in your deck to that garbage instead of just 1 or 2
Also your deck can brick and you can end up just not pulling the basic or evo, leaving you with either a weak Rhyhorn with no strong wall or a Rhydon that facilitates burning a Poke Ball usage just to get the basic
Meanwhile if you get Snorlax, you can just use it
That being said, I can see the Rhyhorn line getting better if they ever add a good Rhyperior, but this Snorlax is as good right as it ever will be
@ it is *technically* possible that Snorlax could get better… in like 4 years, when they get to gen 8 and make a G-Max Snorlax card. I wouldn’t hold my breath, though.
Loving these! It's always interesting to hear about some of the forgotten cards in TCGs. I think it would be cool if you did a review of some of the best off-meta decks
Love the content dude, looking forward to your type breakdown vids!
No one ever talks about the card art when it comes to meta relevancy.
Also Hi bafael it's awesome to see you expand to more games in your editing style! I'm hoping for the best for you.
and i hope your xray adventures are going well
ive never played a tcg before but since its a video game instead of physical cards i hope they'll do balance adjustments at some point.
also another downside of using lumineon instead of seadra is having to look at lumineon when you could be looking at seadra
Bro, I've been obsessed with the game as well. Got the premium pass for the perks and to try and delay any possibly predatory monetization for a bit (hopefully). As already mentioned, Porygon is used as a niche way to make sure that Mythical Slab draws instead of thins, boosting the consistency of Psychic decks further. I also went to mention a funny thing about Mew ex that's important for Celebi ex: Because of the way the effects are worded, Mew can take full advantage of Celebi's attack, since it just specifies "Energy", but I find that in that situation, I can use Dhelmise as a cheeky counter. With a Serperior, it's 2 energy for 90 damage and even without it, the effect requires specifically 4 Grass Energy so Mew can't use the 90 damage against it.
I think it would be great if you also made some videos just going over general gameplay terms and tips. This is a first TCG for a LOT of people (kinda including myself), so I think there's a huge market for that kinda content, especially since I haven't really been seeing any for pocket. You're very articulate and you have good game knowledge, keep it up
Big yellow made bafael realize that fighting game players are also interested in pokemon lol
I like Pokedex! Good for deciding when to use your pokeball because it shuffles your deck
This gotta be one of the funniest video titles I have read in a while
You got me and my family into this game! Thanks! It's cute and fun =3
Im trying to get a dark deck but they are all rare! Haha
I still don't have muk myself but the koga/weezing/scolipede line isn't too hard to get and it's not bad
@Bafael Still need weezing set and koga, but i do have scolipede! We will get there.
Huge fan of the pocket content, I'm definitely looking forward to the type-specific breakdowns
4:53 To add to Ditto, I tested Copy Anything on a Mew EX that was on my opponent's bench to see if I can copy Genome Hacking to freely bypass the necessary energy requirement and copy my opponent's Active Pokemon but it is not possible at all. The game just doesn't let you and says "The condition hasn't been met"
I once had an opponent try to stall with Snorlax against my Greninja/Bruxish deck. They took at least 7 turns to realize why I wasn't attacking Snorlax lmao
Mienshao was actually a card I used in the first week of TCGP. It used colorless energy, so I splashed it as in option with Zapdos EX and Farfetcd
Nah, Porygon is underated, idk why people hating so much on that pokemon. The argument is, porygon just taking card slot and will be an useless pokemon in late game. While that is true, Porygon brings much to the table thnx to its unique ability.
Not meant to be arrogant, but I swear I was the only few people first that was using porygon even before mythical slab came out. Porygon x meowth were such an underated combo in genetix apex. Be able to manipulate cards pull and control the flow of the game is such an underated tactic. Combine it with pokeball, after scanning the top of the card, ypu can either draw it with meowth if it was a good card, or reshuffle it with pokeball if it is a card you dont need. Now with mythical slab, porygon x mythical slab is crazy at thinning deck, since you have 100% at pulling psychic card with slab thnx to porygon ability. Now, I have seen more people using porygon in mythical island patch.
Another good deck to using porygon is blane rush. Blane is the vital part of this deck. So scanning the top card to see if it is a blane or not is so crucial before using a pokeball, that I often win so much in early game thnx to porygon controling the flow of early game manipulation. I also bring 1 pokedex in blane rush, and the principle is the same with porygon x pokeball. See the top of your 3 card, if af least blane is on the second queue in pokedex scan, I would wait. If it was on 3 or even none, I would use pokeball to reshuffle.
if i had a nickel for every time a fighting game youtube channel suddenly pivoted to covering competitive pokemon, i would have two nickels. keep it up, baf!
I wonder how much better snowlax will be in pockets if it is the tcg version, that verisimilitude has the same hp and retreat cost, but the ability is block which prevent active spot opponent from retreating if snorlax is in the active spot, and the attack is collapse which deals 150 damage for 4 colourless energy but snoxlax is now asleep.
Excited for the type potential followup vids
4:10 I actually love using Porygon with Mythical Slab, it makes Slab so much stronger than it already is
While not PvP, I actually use Ditto in the PvE modes sometimes to help clear some of the challenges, specifically the ones that require all 1,2, or 3 diamond pokemon for giving me access to EX Pokemon attacks.
pokedex is actually alright in psychic decks that use a ton of trainer cards, it mainly helps get more consistent value out of mythical slab, but there's a few other tricks like rerolling the cards by shuffling w/ pokeball
Love the pokemon tgc pocket videos. Just wanted to be a nerd and point out now with psychic slab or whatever it’s called you can now scan with porygon to find a stage 1 evolution for the inconsistent three stages and if it isn’t professor oak or the mid stage evolution you can send it to the bottom of your deck regardless of if you run a psychic deck
Primeape actually fits pretty well onto aerodactyl decks, as the extra 10 damage over farfetchd is often the difference between marshadow revenge killing or not
Watching this vid at the very least made me realize we don’t have a Snorlax EX card yet at the time of this comment and I find that to be pretty bizarre
Mawile going second can go kind of hard, its useful for its 1 retreat cost but just the ability to let you stall just a tiny bit more to get Melmetal/Bisharp active, especially with Melmetals attacking cost. It's luck based like all the coin flip cards are but an early heads on turn 1 going second means the opponent is one extra turn away from being able to do anything, and also means more opportunities to get further heads in the future.
It's useless late game when the opponents full on energy already but again the 1 retreat cost means you can switch it out to Melmetal and wipe something out without needing deck space for Leaf if you use Druddigon. (I use Druddigon now for my metal deck but I love Mawile)
I also think it's interesting and worth noting that all 3 current metal mons can eat really good with future support, thanks to Gigantamax Melmetal, Mega Mawile, and Kingambit existing
4:38 i remember i used ditto to copy a exeggutor's plant energy gain move to finally have it's use in my deck. I was so happy untill they switched out their Pokemon and oneshotted ditto. Never used it since. Maybe ditto needs more health like 110
Cards like Misty, Erika, Giovanni, and Sabrina will probably always have a viable use in the future. I feel bad for the other Gym leaders since they will probably be left by the wayside in future expansions since their abilities apply to such a limited amount of pokemon and situations.
Seadra, Tangela, Golbat and Porygon all feel like they we're designed thinking on the evos.
You need to make a video as soon as the next expansion comes out!
I think Flareon deserves mention. At first it just looks like Ninetails with more damage for more energy cost, but that one energy cost is huge, ninetails works because it's so quick to set up and the 90/120 damage can disrupt you opponent's plans before they can get their win conditions going. It also doesn't work in Moltres EX decks since moltres can't attach energy to Eevee, and it's a worst spender of excess fire energy than other high cost fire types
Ditto's a tough card to work with but I like him. I've got him on a water/grass deck just to deal with Celebi or Gyarados without committing just playing one or the other ex. When the meta changes, I'll probably just put a ditto into a deck of whichever type is currently dominating. But I could never run 2 dittos in one deck. If I don't run into my deck's type, now I've just got 2 sandbags on my team.
Tangla is super powerful
Evolve it into tangrowth EX to one tap all the cards and gain 4 energys from the discard pile
this is tcg pocket
In base set, I messed around with Snorlax in some decks. The idea is just to use it as a wall while you set up an endgame sweeper like mewtwo or alakazam or something and never give it any energy unless your opponent simply refuses to kill it. It could be used sort of like drudd is now, except without any chip damage to make it actually useful.
people would also use chansey for this, but at the time the extra 30HP and 4 retreat cost vs 3 made it a better option. Snorlax definitely isn't that bad, although it's not optimal in anything, it does or at least used to have some nitche it could... try to fulfill.
Looking forward to examining each type. There's probably a decent overlap with your FGC fans here :)
Maybe it could also be fun to add in an angle of what the best possible deck for each bad mon might be? Actually now that I type this out I'm not sure if that would be an interesting enough topic with how small the card pool currently is. Probably for most slow-bad mons the answer would just be "Druddigon and/or Weezing+Koga" and all fast-yet-understatted-bad mons would be "use them as body blockers while you prepare that type's best EX mon on the bench". That kind of topic might be better after another expansion set or two is released.
You can sincerely run druddigon + mew EX + greninja line + literally any evolutionary line. All those cards work with any energy too
I'd like to hear your thoughts on Genetic Apex Raichu, MI Liepard, and MI Volcarona.
Raichu has a single attack that discards minimum 4 electric energy from itself.
Liepard came out in Mythical Island in the undersupported dark archetype but still seems pointless when Apex Weezing and even Golbat already exist.
Volcarona is also an extremely tough sell, Larvesta having a 2 energy 30 damage attack and 2 retreat cost, while Volcarona itself having a 3 energy 80 damage attack that discards 2 energy.
this is the type of comment section im about: good discussion, informative thoughts, no negative hooplah. keep it up ppl 👍🏽
this is possible bc Baf's style of video captures all tht i've said prior. it's just nice to read comments & nit get a headache
I'm only in this game for the card collecting, but I still love your analysises. Thoughts on the Lilligant card line?
I think it was better before serperior but it's not horrible. Petilil isn't great but it's only there to get lilligant on the field so whatever
@@Bafael Works for me!
THEY DID IT AGAIN! bafael ptcgp my beloved
i play pokedex in my psychic deck since it can use it to guarentee a slate draw or use it before a pokeball to shuffle the top of my deck if it doesnt have relevant cards
i have 2 Pokedex in my deck and it works well, using 2 basics (2 articuno Ex), you use the pokedex to chase misty sooner (or chase a sabrina or giovanni late game). You see the top 3 cards and can rearrange the deck with a pokeball (you must hold it for that or a emergency), i even use mythical slab to skipp one of the three cards
i know that's disgusting
Ditto was really good on release because ppl were running the same decks over and over. It essentially gave me 90% win rate against mewtwo and did well against fire and water(the other energys I used) it really struggled against electric tho and electric energies were of no use because of certain attacks. I backed it up with other pokemon tho and imo it was one of my favourite decks
Raticate is especially terrible when you consider that Dodrio is just superior to it.
If they follow suit with Jotho then we are probably getting a new horsea to pair with Kingdra, OR Kingdra might end up being a sniper with 70 attack.
What if you tried to put 4 energy types in a deck with 2 ditto and rounded it out with kangashkan and Pidgeot EX? In fact I think I'm gonna try that troll deck right now.
If you do have any unique deck lists you've made, a video about deck building more generally and the problem solving there from you would be great
2:52 Mienshao will become more relevant soon when the new Pachirisu EX comes out.
mawile hurts cuz the fix seems REALLY simple; 10 damage for guaranteed energy removal
One of my favorite cards in the game is Centiskorch. He's a decent alternative to Charizard Ex I usually pair with him in case I don't draw into Zards line quickly. And when you look at it, he sadly just does what normal moltres does better for an extra energy, but 30 more hp and consistency.
Pokedex isn't as bad as it seems: If your next three cards are bad draws you can play a pokeball or use chattot to re-roll. It can also inform you on which trainer you can afford to play now (if you know you'll get them back later), or wether or not playing mythical slab or prof research is a good move.
I'm not saying it's amazing, but seeing seeing 3 cards out of 15 ahead of time is a LOT of information for an item card.
Both Moltres and Snorlax have a key benefit in being Basic Pokémon; Charizard ex can be a bigger liability if your Charmeleons are sitting at the bottom of your deck (rare, but, still). With Dragonite in existence, it's not unreasonable for Snorlax to be worthwhile as nothing but a meatshield that doesn't potentially cost you two points to lose, though I imagine Mew ex is safer overall with 1 retreat cost and a tech in Genome Hacking against their boss monsters. I'd still go with Rhyhorn as the worst.
I find it interesting that lickitung wasnt mentioned
high investment luck cards are pretty suspect but it's just an attacking misty, every now and then it's gonna murder something even if it's average damage is only 30 or w/e
We love variety content!
I mentioned running a team of pokemon that run colorless moves and you featured them all here! Yes it IS a mediocre deck.
I actually use snorlax in a deck with dragonite and greninja, I think you’re underrating how impactful getting 2 generally safe turns for only one point for the enemy is. If you run archetypes that benefit from long term, you can just generally stuff out decks that do fast chip damage like Pikachu or florges
i don't get the reasoning here -- your bench might be safe behind that snorlax but so is your opponent's, since both the attack and retreat cost are so prohibitively high on your side, in fact it’s much easier for the opponent to get your Snorlax out of their way than it is for you to get it out of your own way, which is a crazy predicament for you to be painting yourself into. you aren't even guaranteed to get turn advantage when the Snorlax dies and your opponent takes the free point ex. what if it dies to poison tick at the end of your own turn? what's worse is that even once you see that particular situation coming there's nothing you can do without burning a ton of resources and hustling backwards. you're just engineering a slow situation where you're on the back foot for no reason in most cases, Greninja's ability to attack from the bench notwithstanding.
I think the idea that this card is clutch rests on the assumption that your opponent is going to just mindlessly rush to kill the Snorlax. (Druddigon wallers have a version of this problem where so many of them very clearly have no idea what to do if the opponent does anything but brainlessly attack Rough Skin.) if I’m playing you, I’m making moving your own Snorlax out the way of your own offense your problem.
@@mirutanku The point being that Dragonite is so powerful and can survive against a lot of archetypes for 2 hits, so even if I have to spend a turn just attaching energy to snorlax and using x speed + leaf, it is still worth. and while yes, it is not very smart to keep hitting snorlax, people still do it, and imporantly, snorlax doesn't necessarily have to come in if I don't deem in necessary. not saying snorlax is super good (i'm sure i could do just fine with a druddigon) but he has clear benefits over a pokemon like tangela or rhydon who just get more vastly outshone by their counterparts
Porygon is decent in psychic builds to get slab to resolve
(kind of off topic) Imo, i find a good amount of success with metal deck.
Mawile is not great, but annoying enough to force your opponent to play in specific ways (aka attaching energy not in the way they want).
Bisharp 30 damage is fine and the evolution 70 damage does the job.
Melmetal 120 damage and the ability basically negates the fire damage.
listen ditto kinda sucks but I've had a lot of fun with it in a colorless deck where I pick grass and sometimes psychic as my energies. it's gimmicky and not optimal but the meta is reliably dominated with celebis and mewtwos and it's so satisfying to start flipping coins back at a celebi deck, especially since powerbloom doesn't specify grass energy so you can build up the ditto with anything. if it had even like 30 more health it would be a legit build I think
(I thought it would be better against psychic decks until I realized mid battle it can't copy mew's copy! which is a pointless limitation for such an already limited card imo)
Also snorlax can retreat now that you can have a leaf and 2 xspeed. Try this deck. 2 ex blastoise, 2 snorlax, 1drudigon, 2 x speed, 1 leaf, blue, gio, sabrina, misty. This deck will guarantee a blastoise ex with 5 energy will come into the game. Hey it might be after 2 dead snorlaxs, but 5 energy blastoise ex one shots what ever is standing infront of him, then he will tank 1 hit from anything other than Charizard, then he will kill the final guy and you win. Sabrina might mess you up but if you can build 2 blastoises by the time they kill 2 snorlaxes you can make the Sabrina play useless, and it's quite possible. Don't underestimate 150 health with blue giving -10 buff. It takes most people 4-5 turns to kill the first snorlax. If you play your cards right, they can kill one snorlax, then drudigon, then if you still need time, you throw out the last snorlax with blue supporter, tank the hit, then retreat with leaf and 2 xspeed into your 5 energy blastoise
Yknow, seeing Golbat, Rhydon, Seadra, Magmar, Tangela, Scyther, Onix and Electabuzz and evaluating them - their evolutions being added down the line seems really obvious! They are nerfed versions of other lines, like it is for most stage 1 middle-evos!
Funnily enough I did use Snorlax successfully, as a placeholder until I got Druddigon in a Dragonite deck. Clearly Druddigon is better, but the fun thing is that I got something like 20 straight wins with it while it still had Snorlax, and lost my first game only after I’d swapped in Druddigon. Snorlax W I guess
2Greninja, 2non ex moltres, 2hypno, 1drudigon is a crazy exciting team, try it out with a blue gio and leaf, no physic energy only fire and water. One coin flip for 130/140 is better than flipping 3 celebi coins for 150, think about it. Would you want to flip a coin after 60 damage to potentially do 60 more (articuno) or just flip 1 coin for 130?
I’m thinking that we are gonna get a Crobat EX to bolster the dark type. Some sort of HP draining move and a type advantage to counter Mewtwo.
If there will be a no-ex format probably most card here wouldn't be that mediocre since some of these cards was obsolete due to how many ex cards has the same requirements with absurd damages.
I would like to see a stage 2 that is anything other than support.
I absolutely love my Ditto jank deck. I use it with grass & psychic energy because they give me the most potential to copy opponent's one shot attack.
You can easily copy Celebi, Exeggutor, Mewtwo, Alakazam, or Jinx to oneshot their boss mons.
Facing any other color I'll just surrender tho.
I dunno if it'd be enough for a full video, but what about cards that you think are outclassed that are literally the same mon or ones that are in both sets but with distinct design?
There's the promo eevee, who has growl instead of an actual attack, which I think is the worst option all things considered. it also has the same health as the others so there's no advantage there. Poor GA Golem who INSTANTLY got a better version in the island packs, getting a buff instead of hurting itself even though the damage is good (plus the rest of the line, but I feel those are interchangeable on preference). Meanwhile the promo jigglypuff is kinda diabolical compared to the original, especially since it wants to survive to 3 energy for wigglytuff EX.
Also, I would have literally never noticed that purrloin line is weak to grass for some reason if you hadn't mentioned it. I can't really imagine why.
The grass weakness is definitely to represent dark's weakness to bug but I did a double take seeing that too. Idk how common that is in the tabletop tcg but I know tabletop does that with other types, such as water types occasionally being weak to grass rather than elec
I agree with a lot of this, snorlax is just meat for the punch, 150 hp is massive but primordial island primeape can destroy that in 2 turns if have Giovanni, so little time that you set up is not even half done, tangela is sad, it shows how much the evolution is coming, and the worst scenario is seadra, because not just is outclased by lumineon but also is almost garanted that in gen 2 we get other seadra that is even more fit for kingdra, is not garanted but chances are not low at all
That's cool and all but when's Bad Balance Yang coming out
I started playing cuz ur vid put it on the radar for me. Any early game suggestions?
idk blaine + rapidash or something. In the beginning just use type you have the most of.
Snorlax is meant to be a big damage shield for early game, like how people use druddigon
It's REALLY bad at that though.
-It doesn't have any damage to threaten the opponent with unless you put 4 energy on it, but if you do, you weren't setting up behind it. Druddigon does damage for literally no cost.
-It's biggest problem by far is retreat cost. 4 retreat cost is MASSIVE. It basically means you can't retreat. That basically means it's a wall that works for your opponent also because, unlike Druddigon, who can be retreated at a moment's notice with Leaf, you can just play assuming Snorlax won't be retreated ever.
-4 Retreat cost also means you have basically no counterplay to backrow hitters, which are currently very good in the meta. Snorlax's inability to retreat means a Zebstrika, Lumineon, Electabuzz, Volcarona, or especially Hitmonlee can beat up your backrow with no threat to them because you can't switch in something to hit them.
Snorlax is terrible for current meta for it’s massive retreat cost and 150hp isn’t enough of the upside to use it over mons like Kangkastan. Water/fighting/electric pretty much have free win against you due to them access to cards that hit bench pokemon and even you don’t face those deck, psychic/grass and fire can 1/2 shot it before you even have chace to make plays while at full hp. Druddigon being so good as a tank is mainly rough skin and only need 2 retreat cost which turns 0 if you use leaf,take 20 damage from attacking makes ppl think twice before they commit to attacking it multiple time or build their deck to one shot it and being able to retreat free if you use leaf makes the water/fighting/electric more manageable
the very first thing i noticed in this game was how bad Golbat is compared to everything who does 40 for 1 energy. Zubat is also horrible. which is a shame, but at least Golbat will probably evolve (but they'll also probably print another Zubat/Golbat in the set Crobat would be in so...). Golbat should have had no retreat in exchange for its terrible everything else.
Snorlax /is/ useful simply because its the only basic mon with 150 hp. ive seen many Dragonite + Snorlax decks which i think all got replaced by Druddigon by the new set, or are just playing regular Mewtwo as a 120 sponge with only 2 retreat. Lapras EX should have gotten more HP than regular snorlax imo
I LOVE BAD CARDS; JUST THINK OF THE POTENTIAL!
1:43 joke's on you, I use giovanni on mythic island Mankey all the time! Works more often than not, for whatever reason, and I have many screenshots of turn 1 wins with mankey when the opponent fails to find a second basic on turn 1.