Neo Destiny Review - Trainers and Energy

While Neo Destiny's new 'mons were a mixed bag, the new batch of Trainer Cards really knocked it out of the park. There's something here for everyone, and most of the new cards are niche enough to buff one or two decks without disrupting the delicate balance between offense and defense.

There are no perfect 10/10 cards here, but a few of them do come close. Miracle Energy was also added, as a way to steer players toward the new Light and Shining cards.

Broken Ground Gym may read like a too-specific counter, but it's actually pretty solid. For starters, most decks in Neo assume their Babies will be able to retreat freely. This card greatly inhibits their mobility.

Decks that revolve around unusually mobile Evolutions love this card. Jumpluff and Dark Crobat are solid examples of cards that retain free retreat, even under the effect of Broken Ground Gym. But it is a little matchup reliant.

Grade: 7/10

Counterattack Claws does rely on the opponent's actions, but tanky cards that struggle to do high damage can still benefit from it. Personally, I don't love being reliant on both a coin flip and the opponent's decisions, but even then the thought of forcing suboptimal plays is appealing.

This is one of those cards that will have better results for some players than others, and it certainly doesn't fit in every deck.

Grade: 6/10

Energy Amplifier is a joke. You have a 50/50 chance of losing an Energy Card for no reason. A well-balanced deck will rarely be suffering from a drought in the first place, so this card only really exists to be a noob trap.

I suppose you could make Rain Dance even riskier if you want to, but you should just be drawing your cards with Cleffa and the Professors.

Grade: 1/10

Energy Stadium was an instant staple in many decks, especially those with expensive attacks. The recovery may be slow and flip-reliant, but it makes your deck practically immune to Removal stall, while still feeling completely viable on its own merits.

Unlike Energy Amplifier, there's no cost at all. I'd much rather recover 4-6 cards over the course of a long game than gamble with my hand. Keep in mind that it affects both players, so stall decks may want to steer clear of this option.

Grade: 9/10

EXP. ALL might not seem worthwhile at a glance, but it's a viable way to add some acceleration to decks that normally don't have access to it. The biggest issue is, obviously, that it's extremely passive.

But since the opponent is heavily incentivized to score a knock out whenever they can, you can usually count on this card activating eventually. I probably wouldn't run it at four copies, though. You won't need that many.

Grade: 8/10

Heal Powder gives you Potion and Full Heal on a coin flip. It honestly didn't need the coin flip, but I guess they were trying not to go all in on power creep in the early generations.

Unfortunately, both effects are at their best when you're already in danger, so you usually can't afford the gamble. If you lose the coin flip, it often means losing a team member.

Grade: 3/10

Impostor Professor Oak's Invention is too awkward to be of any real use. It does give you some information and minimal control over your opponent's draws, but most competent opponents won't be afraid of this strategy.

A good deck-builder knows to include an extra copy of their most important cards, just in case it gets prized. They'll rarely be in a situation where shuffling their prizes around can screw them over.

Grade: 2/10

Lucky Stadium is incredibly powerful, but it helps your opponent just as much as it helps you. The best home for this deck is a super aggressive deck that wants to win as fast as possible.

Aggro and combo decks don't usually care what their opponent is drawing, since they'll be winning before every card gets played anyway. Combo decks, especially, are always willing to do whatever it takes to draw just one card deeper.

Grade: 8/10

Magnifier isn't as practical as something like Resistance Gym, since it only applies once. It's hard to find a use-case for it.

That's not to say it would never come in handy. If Resistance Gym didn't exist, then I could see this being splashed into decks focused around Fighting-types. But it's just heavily outclassed at what it wants to do.

Grade: 3/10

Mail from Bill works well in the most aggressive decks, but only if they revolve around hard-hitting Basics. Due to the hard limits on how many Energy Cards and Evolution Cards you can play per turn, it can be hard to get your hand low enough to consistently use this card.

It also falls prey to the same downside as most draw cards: It's not Cleffa. That alone makes it a middling card.

Grade: 6/10

Pokémon Personality Test is compatible with stall decks that want to run the opponent out of cards, since it can force three draws. Most other decks will want to steer clear, since you can get similar value from much less risky cards.

Still, we can't disregard it entirely since it has a niche. It's a big step up from the quiz-themed cards that came before it, at least.

Grade: 5/10

Radio Tower allows each player to know what's coming up at all times. It's a nice little quality of life effect, and you can take advantage of it by purposely including various ways to shuffle your deck.

That's the only way you'll really get enough value out of it, though, since most other decks have a better option for their Stadium.

Grade: 7/10

Team Rocket's Evil Deeds is prone to backfiring on the user. You shuffle away the opponent's best card, only for them to immediately draw another copy of it plus a bonus card. It's not a great feeling.

Floodgate decks can get some use out of it, though. You're less likely to give your opponent the full value if a huge chunk of the cards in their deck are unusable due to a Dark Vileplume or Fossil Aerodactyl.

Grade: 5/10

Thought Wave Machine is a new take on the Removal cards, but they were obviously very careful to weaken it as much as possible. The coin flips were entirely warranted, but the real issue is that it only returns cards to the hand instead of discarding them.

So while it can affect tempo, it can't function as well in a true stall strategy. Which is fine. I hate stall anyway.

Grade: 2/10

Miracle Energy was supposed to be THE card that makes you want to play Shining cards in your deck. It didn't work. If it didn't discard itself, then it could have revolutionized the game. Sadly, that's not what we got.

Still, a deck that relies heavily on Light and Shining cards will at least consider this card. For about two minutes. Then they'll move on with their life and pick something more viable instead. Like a deck that's not reliant on Light and Shining cards, for example.

Grade: 3/10

While the new Trainers had shockingly little to do with the huge influx of Light, Dark, and Shining cards, there's enough meat on these bones to warrant a few packs. Neo Destiny definitely had some duds, as all sets do, but overall I'd consider this group of cards a success.

Most of them are admittedly locked to a very small number of decks, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. A good format is built on variety, not an all-you-can-eat buffet of staples.

Neo Destiny Review - Metal

The Metal-types of Neo Destiny follow a similar trend to the set's Darkness-types. That is, there are very few of them and they didn't drastically change the game.

One does have a niche that is entirely unique to itself, though, which makes it worth consideration in very specific builds.

I keep voicing my distaste for the Shining cards, and Shining Steelix isn't really changing my mind. Crushing Earth takes an hour to power up, only to fail half the time it's used.

It is a very bulky card, but that's about all it has going for it. You also have to support it with multiple ways to get it out of your active spot because of that retreat cost. If a Basic strains deckbuilding, it loses the one advantage Basics come with.

Grade: 3/10

Dark Scizor looks pretty unusable when you compare it to Jungle Scyther, which had very similar stats on a free retreating Basic. But the real power of this card comes from what it actually is, rather than just the text on the card.

As the only Dark Metal-type, this is the one card you can attach both of the new Special Energy cards to. Being able to get the damage boost from Darkness and the defense boost from Metal on one card is actually a pretty big deal, even if it's setup-reliant.

Grade: 7/10

If you have a deck that's trying to run both Darkness and Metal Energy, then Dark Scizor is a fun way to get the benefits of both cards. I won't pretend this is my preferred Scizor card, but at least it entered the competitive consciousness.

As for Shining Steelix, there are better options. Viable Fighting decks were few and far between, and Shining Steelix just isn't the card that's going to convince me I should splash Fighting Energy into a deck, nor does it function well in any of the existing archetypes.

Neo Destiny Review - Darkness

Neo Destiny did next to nothing for the Darkness type. Another Shining card with borderline unusable costs and a pretty bad evolving Basic. That's it. To be fair, every Darkness-type already had at least one usable card out there, so it's not like this set needed to push the envelope.

But that's reflected in a lack of Darkness-type cards and a noticeable dip in quality. At least one of them is a good collector's item.

Houndour isn't great. The Neo block released several Houndour cards in rapid succession and this is pretty clearly the worst one. It's too frail, it can't damage without a coin flip, and Corner just doesn't provide enough utility to make up for its shortcomings.

Lunge specifically wants a Double Colorless Energy, which is a big ask when you're a Darkness-type, since that would mean forgoing the damage boost you'd normally get from Darkness Energy.

Grade: 2/10

Shining Tyranitar certainly is bulky for a Basic, but the massive costs for both attacking and retreating knock it down several pegs. You'll either run this in a Fire deck or a Fighting deck. There's no reasonable situation in which both of its attacks would be usable.

If you can actually charge up Destructive Fire, you might render all opposition obsolete. But if Shining Tyranitar does go down, which isn't a huge ask, it's probably bringing you down with it.

Grade: 5/10

While Shining Tyranitar is a self-contained threat, it doesn't do enough on its own to make sweeping changes to the Darkness-type. It's not unusable, but it's far from an auto-include in any deck. Meanwhile the only other new Darkness-type is just the worst Houndour.

It kind of seems like this was intentional design, after the devastating impact of Neo Genesis Sneasel, but knowing the intent doesn't help me warm up to these cards.

Neo Destiny Review - Colorless

The Colorless cards of Neo Destiny feel suspiciously "safe" considering their inspirations. You would think a set with so many different gimmicks would be the perfect place to print some splashy unorthodox Colorless card, but they were probably wary of doing that at this point.

The game was still recovering from the trauma of cards like Jungle Wigglytuff and Erika's Jigglypuff, so it was a logical choice to play it safe for a while.

Jigglypuff isn't awful, but it's a step behind Jungle Jigglypuff. The most annoying thing about this card is that it needs a Double Colorless Energy just to do anything on the first turn.

If we're being honest, this is one of the worst Jigglypuff cards ever printed. Don't use it if you have other options with the same name, but the decent HP and low retreat cost are at least valid specs.

Grade: 3/10

Dark Wigglytuff's biggest problem is that Jungle Wigglytuff already existed. The whole gimmick of Dark cards is that they're supposed to be frail with better attacks, but you were never going to get a better attack than Do the Wave.

As a result, it really feels like this card never had a fair chance. It's not bad, but it is squarely outclassed by other options. Dark Song would've been a crazy stall move on something with more HP.

Grade: 4/10

Light Wigglytuff obviously isn't worth using in any format where Jungle Wigglytuff is legal, and has no role in any other format because Dark Dragonair is better at doing what it wants to do.

Evolution Song puts it in direct competition with Dark Dragonair's Evolutionary Light, but obviously comes up short. Meanwhile Body Slam is only a mediocre move at best here. The low retreat cost is nice, though.

Grade: 3/10

Chansey is far, far below the standard set by Base Chansey. But then again, Base Chansey isn't legal in Rocket-On and usually has a point value assigned to it in Point-Buy or Hall of Fame formats. It's hard for anything to measure up to THAT card.

And this really isn't a bad Basic when judged on its own merits. It's a rare example of a bulky Basic that can put out 20+ damage on the first turn, provided you have a Double Colorless Energy.

Grade: 8/10

Porygon is fine on paper. Yes, it's awkward relying on Double Colorless Energy just to attack. That's always awkward. But the really damning thing about this card is that it's uncharacteristically boring.

Porygon cards can often find some quirky niche due to their type-changing attacks, but this is a purely offensive Porygon. Attacking for damage isn't really what this evolutionary line excels at.

Grade: 3/10

Dark Porygon2 marks a pivotal moment for Porygon2 cards. Porygon2 cards would go on to be known for their various support abilities, generating card advantage and stabilizing engines.

Retrieving a Stadium wasn't absurdly powerful, but was a welcome effect in the decks that needed it. This was also the moment that they finally realized the Porygon line should be allowed to do something other than type manipulation.

Grade: 8/10

This Dratini isn't great. It's essentially like a worse version of the original Doduo in every way. Unfortunately, you don't have amazing options when it comes to Dratini cards in the old sets.

The short version is that you'll only ever play Dratini to your bench and pray you don't open the game with it, so it almost doesn't matter which one you choose. But they're all pretty bad.

Grade: 2/10

Light Dragonair is a solid enough Stage 1. This wouldn't be worth including in a deck as a final form, but it's a reasonable stopgap between Dratini and Light Dragonite. The energy costs are annoying since Light Dragonite discourages you from attaching Double Colorless Energy to this line.

So the real question is whether or not it evolves into anything worthwhile. And thankfully, it does.

Grade: 6/10

Light Dragonite is a stellar anti-meta card with fantastic damage output and bulk. Miraculous Wind puts opponents relying on the new Darkness Energy and Metal Energy in a tough spot, while also preventing acceleration via Double Colorless Energy.

It's kind of a double-edged sword in that regard, though. You'll want to build your deck around it, prioritizing Basic Energy cards wherever you can.

Grade: 8/10

Shining Noctowl is capable of some top-tier annoyance if it ever gets charged up, since Flashing Eyes is almost guaranteed to inconvenience the opponent. But that alone isn't enough to warrant inclusion in most decks.

After all, it's still a frail card that can't evolve and takes too much effort to get going. If you're going to use a Base Electrode or Rainbow Energy to get a powerful attack going, there are scarier options out there.

Grade: 4/10

Togepi isn't stellar, but at least it can protect itself somewhat with Charm. Spike Ball Tackle can technically do solid damage on the first turn, but I'd hate to waste my first turn and a DCE on taking recoil damage when I could be resetting my hand with Cleffa.

It feels more thematically appropriate than the one that randomly inflicts poison, for what it's worth, but it really doesn't belong in any serious deck.

Grade: 2/10

Wow. I sure do love when my cards let the opponent draw cards. If your strategy completely revolves around a specific Tool Card, then maybe you could get some niche use out of this.

And Sweet Kiss does hit very hard for the cost, which is cute. The real saving grace here is the free retreat cost, since you can at least swap out this terrible card for something less terrible.

Grade: 3/10

Girafarig misses out on the Psychic resistance that its many contemporaries have, and has little else to show for it. This is an extremely by-the-numbers Basic and was clearly designed to be a boring pack filler card.

In order for a non-evolving Basic to see competitive play, it has to do at least one thing that no other card can do. Girafarig doesn't do anything even remotely unique.

Grade: 3/10

Dark Ursaring kind of sucks. Battle Frenzy may trick you into thinking it's worth it, and Provoke certainly does try to set up a scary one-two combo. But the reality is that you're doing an average of 10 damage to every 'mon in play. And that includes itself.

With 60 HP, a clunky retreat cost, and underwhelming attacks, this doesn't feel anywhere near as intimidating as a bear probably should.

Grade: 1/10

The obvious standout here is Light Dragonite, but even that isn't going to stand up to the best decks out there. These cards mostly came and went, forgotten within months of being printed.

Still, I think this is the lesser of two evils, if our other option was for the game to experience another upheaval at the hands of some broken Colorless staples again.

Neo Destiny Review - Psychic

I am so, so tired of talking about Unown cards. Thankfully Neo Destiny completed the set, so we'll FINALLY be able to put this long list of gimmicky cards behind us.

The other Psychic-types of the set barely had any impact, but I'll forgive all of these underwhelming cards because Dark Gengar exists. Dark Gengar single-handedly justifies the existence of several cards that inflict sleep.

Light Slowbro looks underwhelming and plays even worse. Doing 40 damage for 2 energy would be nice, except that the opponent needs to have at least 3 energy attached to actually use it properly. That's a surprisingly clunky requirement in practical application.

Fish Out sounds powerful, until you remember that you could just play another copy of Nightly Garbage Run instead. There are far better Stage 1 cards.

Grade: 2/10

Dark Slowking is usable, just barely. Mind Shock makes it easy to deal damage consistently and Cunning can be a surprisingly effective tool for lockdown decks since it can be used from the bench.

It only has niche applications in very specific control builds, but that's more than I can say for a lot of other cards. You'd rather keep it on the bench, though, since it's dreadfully frail.

Grade: 5/10

Neo Destiny Gastly looks objectively worse than Fossil Gastly, but it is worth considering in a Dark Gengar deck since Dark Gengar is entirely reliant on inflicting the sleep condition.

Dark Gengar is actually the most competitively relevant Gengar during the Neo era, so this card gets a big boost from this synergy. You obviously shouldn't use it over Fossil Gastly in other decks, though.

Grade: 7/10

Dark Haunter only exists to help you get to Dark Gengar. It's honestly really frustrating to be stuck with 50 HP on a Stage 1, even with the free retreat cost. You could use Call Back and Surround to keep up a fresh supply of weak 'mons to knock out, but that's more gimmicky than just evolving ASAP.

You're kind of stuck with it in a Dark Gengar deck, but that doesn't mean it's an especially good card on its own merits.

Grade: 5/10

Dark Gengar is brutal. Deep Sleep is obviously powerful, making sleep last twice as long on average. Pull In is primarily used to snipe weakened foes or Babies. This is surpisingly consistent, since every deck will at least want to run Cleffa.

The only real downsides are the low HP and clunky retreat cost. I suppose it does struggle to knock out tanks, but it can stun them easily.

Grade: 9/10

Exeggcute has the potential to stall with both of its attacks, meaning you're safe either way. It clearly wants to be in a Grass/Psychic deck, but most players will prioritize one or the other.

The low HP sucks, but there aren't many Psychic types that can do 20+ damage on the first turn, so you should be fine. As an evolving Basic, it does what it needs to do.

Grade: 5/10

Dark Exeggutor's MAX Burst is very cool, but also painfully inconsistent. You obviously don't have any control over how much energy the opponent puts in play, so I wouldn't want to use this as the main attacker for a deck.

It can be splashed into a deck featuring a different Exeggutor, though. Exeggutor cards tend to be fun cards to build janky all-or-nothing decks around, so it actually does have a small niche.

Grade: 6/10

Shining Mewtwo has interesting attacks, but the mixed energy costs suck. Rainbow Energy and Base Electrode can certainly makes it a little more palatable, but I always hate when a card requires outside support to function at a basic level.

Reflect Shield is an improved version of attacks like Withdraw and Stiffen, but the coin flip is annoying. Psyburst will usually do 50-60 damage, but the discard cost is awful.

Grade: 5/10

Dark Espeon's only selling points are the free retreat cost and the potential damage output for Psysplash. It could be a devastating spread move in the right situation, but you should probably only use it as a backup for a different Eeveelution card.

The main reason for this is that you just can't control how your opponent uses their energy cards. It's weird how much they tried to push this gimmick on the Psychic type.

Grade: 5/10

Unown C can do some damage when the opponent retreats...but only when it's active and only on a coin flip. The foe won't usually be too intimidated by a 40 HP Basic with low damage output, so I don't love this card.

Only use it if you're going all-in on one of the Unown strategies and really need the oddly specific utility that Chase provides.

Grade: 3/10

Unown G is comically underpowered. Requiring 4 different specific names on your side of the field just to maybe accelerate your energy is a pretty big ask. Still, acceleration was incredibly rare at this time and was gatekept behind just a handful of cards.

Looking at it that way, I at least can't give this card a miserable score. But it's not a good card.

Grade: 3/10

Unown H would be a lot more important in a different card game. Refilling your hand in the Pokémon TCG is brain-dead easy in every era, so there's really no situation in which you'd be willing to make such a big commitment just to have a worse Cleffa.

They surely must have known this was just useless pack filler, right?

Grade: 1/10

Unown L might as well stand for "loser." If it didn't require a coin flip, there might be some extremely niche applications for shuffling the decks. At least it doesn't require you to spell out its word on the bench?

I just can't think of any reason to use this, outside of holding it up to your forehead to taunt someone.

Grade: 1/10

Unown P wants to perform a big retaliatory attack after taking damage, but it only has 40 HP. Do I need to tell you how bad that is? I suppose you could combine it with Focus Band, but there are better uses for such a powerful Tool Card.

Pass on it if you can. There are far better Psychic-type attackers.

Grade: 1/10

Unown Q's Quicken may just look like Withdraw, but the difference here is that it can be used from the bench and doesn't take up your attack for the turn. This allows an entire Unown deck to function as if they're spamming Withdraw every turn.

That would already be powerful, but using it alongside something like Rapid Spin or Teleport Blast is even more fun.

Grade: 8/10

Unown S has a slightly underwhelming Pokémon Power, but it can take and do more damage than most other Unown cards. It could function as your main attacker in an Unown deck if you want it to, bolstered by the various support effects that other Unown cards have.

Search is a niche effect that you won't get too much use out of, though. There were already better ways to check your Prize Cards at the time.

Grade: 4/10

Unown T is another intel-gatherer. You can tell they were running out of ideas at this point. Looking at your opponent's hand is a lot more useful than looking at a Prize, though. For that reason alone, this is a respectable card.

Aggressive and control strategies alike benefit from knowing the exact right time to play a card like Rocket's Sneak Attack or Lass.

Grade: 7/10

Unown V's Vanish looks awesome, but most of the Unown cards don't have super oppressive Powers for you to recycle. They're also a bit too frail for the Scoop Up effect to matter much.

Still, there are a few instances where you might want to reuse a once-per-turn Power, so it has applications. But being locked to the Unown archetype is obviously a bit of a problem.

Grade: 3/10

Unown W can recycle an endless supply of Trainer Cards with Want if you manage to set it up, and that is an extremely tempting premise. It's pretty hard to optimize a Want deck, but you could absolutely make some powerful control builds if you can figure it out.

Just keep in mind that Fossil Slowpoke can do something similar without all the set up. That makes it look quite a bit less impressive.

Grade: 6/10

Unown X missed a chance to call its Power "Xtreme" and, as a 90's kid, I'm actually super mad about it. But whatever.

It boosts damage in an Unown deck and is generic enough to always be useful, even if the damage boost is inconsistent. But as with many other Unown, its biggest problem is that it's locked down to the Unown archetype and nothing else.

Grade: 6/10

Unown Z may look like an auto-include in Unown decks, but they already have a pretty low retreat cost. Still, I would personally play it as a one-of in any Unown-themed deck that has space for it.

It's just unfortunate that Unown decks aren't exactly superstars in competitive play. It's amazing that an archetype with 26 Basics dedicated to it ended up so underwhelming.

Grade: 7/10

I cannot put into words how happy I am to finally be out of the absolute swamp of Unown cards. There were some interesting ideas in the earlier sets, but it really seems like they started running out of ideas and just printed whatever they could think of on the last wave all at once.

The biggest issue with the Unown deck is that it never had one unified strategy. Is it control? Aggro? Stall? Combo? It kind of wants to do everything, but fails to do anything. Even the Unown used in combination to spell specific words clearly weren't designed with synergy in mind, and it deeply hurts their viability.