Team Rocket Set Review - Lightning

If there's any type that didn't need lower HP, it's the lightning-type. The dark pokémon gimmick already had questionable results throughout the set, but it synergized so poorly with the lightning type that almost all of these cards were quickly relegated to binders and never considered again.

Even the "stronger attacks" angle ended up falling flat, because the lightning-types that existed at the time already had some of the strongest high-risk attacks in the game. The designers weren't willing to push the envelope here, so these really did end up being some truly disappointing additions.

But before we talk about all the cards that didn't work, here's one that actually kind of did. Dark Raichu's 70 HP isn't really that low for a Stage 1 of the time, and its attack, Surprise Thunder, is legitimately good. This is how the dark 'mons probably should have been designed, but oh well.

While the bench damage is slightly inconsistent, there's a 75% chance that you're damaging your opponent's entire board. This 'mon hits extremely hard, and that's good enough for me.

Grade: 7/10

Magnemite doesn't look awful right away, but let's compare it to Base Magnemite. It needs a Double Colorless Energy to attack on the first turn, and needs a bench full of magnets to do 40 damage, which Base Magnemite could do without setup thanks to Selfdestruct.

The colorless attack can probably give it a micro-niche somewhere, but Magnetism is a laughable attack. There are much better versions of the same concept (Do the Wave, anyone?).

Grade: 4/10

The first two Magneton cards were nearly unusable. Dark Magneton is no exception. It has the same miserable 60 HP as Base Magneton and Sonicboom was already weak when we saw it on Fossil Magneton.

Magnetic Lines is nice, at least. It's an efficient attack that can be a little disruptive. But evolutions need to have more going for them than one decent attack to be playable. I never loved Selfdestruct on the other 'Tons, but at least it did solid damage.

Grade: 4/10

Voltorb is, surprisingly, mostly a flat upgrade over Base Voltorb. It does 20 damage for a single energy instead of 10, and everything else is the same. The one downside is that it needs lightning energy to attack instead of colorless, but no one was using Base Voltorb to attack anyway.

This Voltorb is playable, but there's not really any major deck that desperately wants it. It does one-shot Squirtle and only needs a Pluspower to one-shot Doduo, though.

Grade: 5/10

Dark Electrode is super awkward. There are scraps of a good idea here, but it just doesn't come together. While Energy Bomb can theoretically accelerate a benched 'mon, it does so at the cost of leaving Dark Electrode running on empty.

This is especially questionable when looking at how broken Base Electrode is by comparison. To me this 'mon just feels like a tribute to the GB-exclusive Electrode and not much else.

Grade: 3/10

Dark Jolteon is a little too frail to matter. Lightning Flash is actually an alarmingly solid attack, effectively being a flat upgrade over Fossil Magmar's Smokescreen, but Dark Jolteon can be knocked out by a single Pluspower Jab from Hitmonchan.

Thunder Attack, on the other hand, is awful for the cost and should be ignored. If only Dark Jolteon had 20 more HP, it could've been pretty decent. Stick with the Jungle Eeveelutions.

Grade: 3/10

The Team Rocket set did maintain the high-risk, high-reward concept of lightning-types at least. The problem is that most of the cards are too high-risk to merit using. It's not much fun to get your evolution all set up and then get instantly knocked out by an attack your HP can't handle.

Dark Raichu is the one saving grace of these cards, and even that one was an English exclusive at first. It was actually designed by Wizards of the Coast rather than Creatures Inc. But considering how much better it is than most of the dark pokémon, a part of me wishes that WotC had gotten to design more cards for the pokémon TCG at the time. Oh well.