Team Rocket Set Review - Fighting

The fighting types of the Team Rocket set review are actually pretty interesting. Like with the water-types, it feels like they focused on making these cards fun instead of powerful. There's also a mild focus on manipulating your opponent's bench and active slot, hinting that there may have at least been some attempt at a cohesive theme.

As with most of the set, none are outstanding, but some are usable and fun.

This Diglett does have 40 HP instead of Base Diglett's 30. I'm not going to sit here and pretend that it suddenly became playable, but I'd probably rather use this than the original.

Dig Under is a cute way to do some chip damage to the bench. Scratch is weaker than Base Diglett's Mud Slap, but we'd rather not be attacking with a Diglett anyway if we can help it. It retains Diglett's signature free retreat.

Grade: 3/10

Dark Dugtrio's Sinkhole is a delightful way to punish pivots like Scyther and Dodrio. Your opponent has to flip a coin for each retreat and if it's tails, they take 20 damage on the way out.

While not consistent, forcing your opponent to pay a tangible retreat tax is a good way to mess with their plans. It also doesn't have to be active to pull this off, unlike Dark Muk. Far from a staple, but definitely fun.

Grade: 5/10

This Mankey ends up being largely pointless. Anger is an efficient attack, but it requires a coin flip and you'd rather not keep a 40 HP 'mon active past your first turn.

Shuffling your opponent's deck is perhaps the most low-impact attack ever. The intent was probably to use Base Mankey's Peek to look at their top card, then decide whether to use this Mankey's Mischief to shuffle it away. Cool concept, at least.

Grade: 2/10

Dark Primeape is the epitome of "fun but bad." It's the living embodiment of the concept. He spends most of his life confused, but if his attack lands while he's confused then he does a whopping 70 damage due to Frenzy!

And if he hits himself while confused, then he nearly one-shots himself. Oops. A very fun card for gamblers, but this is by definition not a very competitive card. At least the first hit from Frenzied Attack is actually well above curve. That counts for something.

Grade: 4/10

It's generally better to go with Base Machop due to the lower energy cost, but if you need a more splashable option then this one's Punch does only use colorless energy.

When we last visited Base Machop, he was seeing play as a dedicated donk card and as an occasional side-grade to Hitmonchan. This one is, in my opinion, slightly worse on both fronts, but a very playable basic.

Grade: 6/10

Dark Machoke is a very interesting card. It can either bring a benched 'mon in and damage it with Drag Off, or damage the defending 'mon and knock it out of the active spot with Knock Back.

The low HP is just as annoying as it is on every dark 'mon, but Dark Machoke has a lot of control over the battlefield. It can be fun to play with, especially against 'mons that like hiding on the bench. The attacks are a little over-costed, though.

Grade: 5/10

Dark Machamp actually has a cheap powerful attack, something most Machamp of the time didn't get access to. Unfortunately it only has the same HP as Hitmonchan, which makes it hard to get excited about it.

Fling's ability to shuffle the defending 'mon away is pretty crazy and can delete an entire party if your opponent doesn't do something about it. But with Energy Removal in the format, your opponent will most likely stop you from ever using it.

Grade: 5/10

None of the new fighting types dethroned Base Hitmonchan. Some of their effects are kooky and fun, but the vast majority of players would rather just use a 70 HP basic that does 20 damage for a single energy.

At least they made for some really fun jank decks, which may have been the intent.