Team Rocket Set Review - Fire

The new fire-types added in the Team Rocket expansion had very little impact on the game overall. Of course, you kind of expect that with a set this small, but the low HP of the dark 'mons didn't help.

We don't have a lot to cover this time, at least.

Charmander is a pretty solid card for the time. Fire Tail is an outstanding attack, with the same damage output as Hitmonchan's Jab, and Gather Fire makes it a little easier to charge up your Charmeleon or Charizard cards.

The low HP is problematic, but I can't find anything to hate about this card. Unfortunately none of the Charizard cards were ever among the era's best fire-types. Still, this is definitely one of the better evolving basics of the time.

Grade: 6/10

Dark Charmeleon has a horrible HP stat and a risky attack. The fact that Fireball might just fizzle completely due to a coin flip is a huge misstep. This card is only more egregious when you remember that Base Charmeleon was one of the best Stage 1 fire cards in the Kanto sets.

Obviously not a good card. This guy's just lucky that there's no alternative for his evolution line due to how Dark pokémon work.

Grade: 2/10

Dark Charizard is ultimately worse than Base Charizard imo. If it has four fire energies attached, it averages out to doing the same damage as the original, just with lots of coin flips involved. Losing 40 HP and Energy Burn's unique effect is also a huge detriment.

At least the damage is uncapped, meaning you could theoretically get really high damage rolls if you can get enough energy in play. But it's not exactly a stellar card, overall.

Grade: 4/10

Ponyta does have a little extra HP over its previous incarnation, but that's where the good news ends. Ember is far worse than Flame Tail, which was already not usually used thanks to the more universal utility of Smash Kick.

When you only have a worse version of your other version's worst attack, that's not a recipe for success by most metrics. Bonus points for being an objectively worse Base Charmander.

Grade: 2/10

Dark Rapidash comes so close to greatness. Flame Pillar is actually an excellent attack, being a strong on-curve attack that gives you the option of doing bench damage. This optional bonus approach is a marked improvement over how many of the other energy-discard attacks worked at the time.

Free retreat is also nice, but Dark Rapidash fails to get over the crucial 70 HP benchmark. Dying to Do the Wave is a very real concern in all of the Kanto sets, so 60 HP on a Stage 1 is rough.

Grade: 4/10

Dark Flareon's attacks are very nice, as is the theme for Dark 'mons. Playing with Fire is either a cheaper Flamethrower or an Ember with no discard cost, and both options are great.

Rage for one colorless energy would be crazy good...if this thing didn't have an embarrassing 50 HP. That's the same HP as the original Eevee. That's a pretty shameful state for an evolution card to be in, and even these great attacks can't make up for that.

Grade: 3/10

That's already it. Just six new cards. Unfortunately, none of these cards were excellent new additions to the card pool and are mostly downgrades to the existing options.

They are flashy though, and these attacks would have been great additions to the metagame if they weren't so deeply hindered by the low HP gimmick. I could easily see little boys arguing over whether the new Dark cards were worth playing or not, so we'll be generous and say that these cards were designed to "spark discussion."