Trainer Cards (and DCE) in Base-Fossil

It's finally time to discuss the core of the Base-Fossil metagame: Trainer Cards. The Base Set famously introduced several of the most powerful cards in the history of the game, many of which were outright broken or close to it.

Keep in mind that "Trainer Cards" in this era functioned like the "Item Cards" of the modern day. There is no once per turn restriction on any of these cards. Supporters just didn't exist.

Some players swear you should always run a full playset of Bill. Others believe you're better off without, since losing by deck out is such a common occurrence. I tend to think he fits well into Evolution-based decks, which don't appreciate the discards from Oak, and need a speed boost desperately.

If you need a snapshot of how powerful the draw engine was at the time, you only need to know that a "draw 2" effect with no restrictions is sometimes not worth running. Yes, it was truly a different time.

Grade: 8/10

Clefairy Doll is fine. It can buy you a turn. It can fill up bench slots for Wigglytuff. It just doesn't do anything particularly special.

It does have a unique synergy with the Hypno from the Japanese-exclusive vending series, but it didn't do much for us here in the west. I suppose it's worth mentioning that it's immune to status, which does matter for a few unique cards from the Team Rocket set.

Grade: 5/10

Computer Search is hilariously overpowered, although it seemed reasonable at the time. Get the Pluspower or Gust of Wind you need for a KO on demand. Grab Scoop Up or Pokémon Center at the rudest possible moment. Snag Pokémon Breeder right when you need it.

But the most messed up option is to simply search out a copy of Professor Oak. Since you're going to discard your whole hand anyway, you really don't care about the discard cost of Computer Search at that point.

Grade: 10/10

Defender is a little underrated. People tend to think that it's only worth using with self-damaging moves like Take Down, but throwing off your opponent's math by 20 can actually be a pretty big deal.

The most noteworthy problem this card faces is that the most prominent decks of the modern Base-Fossil metagame are stall decks. You might assume it would fit right in at face value, but it does absolutely nothing for you in the mirror, and you can't afford to have any cards that don't contribute.

Grade: 5/10

Devolution Spray is almost completely useless. There are no Evolution Cards with effects that activate when played in this format, and even if there were this iteration of the card discards the Evolution instead of returning it to your hand.

I have found precisely one application for this card. Because Charizard's only attack has a hefty discard cost, there are situations where you'd rather go back to being Charmeleon after landing a Fire Spin. The tiniest of tiny niches.

Grade: 2/10

Energy Removal was the end result of a valid idea, at least. If one player gets a big Evolution in play with four energy on it, how is the other player expected to get back into the game?

This was their answer to that question. The original comeback mechanic. Unfortunately, this card is good at every stage of the game, not just when you're falling behind. It, paired with Super Energy Removal, gatekept most Evolution Cards out of the game entirely.

Grade: 10/10

Energy Retrieval is a rare example of a Trainer Card that was worse in its original incarnation, since it originally required a discard.

Even with that discard, this was always a solid card. Even more so with Energy Removal and Super Energy Removal running amok. This card ends up being an auto-include in many, many decks.

Grade: 9/10

Energy Search is the closest thing the format has to Rainbow Energy. All it does is replace itself with a Basic Energy Card.

In multitype decks it can be worth finding space for it. But thinning your deck is a very real cost in this format, since so many games are lost because of deck out. In practice, most players just stick with a single type of energy instead, opting to run Colorless 'mons to flesh out their deck.

Grade: 6/10

Full Heal needed to exist for logic reasons, but probably should have had some minor second effect. The issue with this card is that there are multiple ways to cure status built in to the game mechanics.

Evolving cures status. Retreating cures status. Being switched out of the active via card effect cures status. There are plenty of ways around status already, so Full Heal just ends up being completely redundant.

Grade: 1/10

Gambler doesn't look like it would be worth the risk. You can already run 4 copies of Professor Oak, so this doesn't look tempting at first glance.

It's not really used for draw power, though. Many players tech in one copy of Gambler just to use it in the late game. If you get tails it can slide a massive stack of cards back into your deck to prevent deck out. And with a big enough hand, there's no real downside to using it this way, since heads will just benefit you a bit less.

Grade: 7/10

Gust of Wind is and always was a broken card, but it was absolutely necessary for the format to function. There are a lot of Pokémon with powerful support or lockdown effects that will happily sit on the bench indefinitely if you don't have some way to damage them.

But this also made protecting a weak Basic nearly impossible. A Magikarp on your bench was always one Gust away from death, so it makes sense that modern Gust effects are usually restricted to Supporters.

Grade: 10/10

Impostor Professor Oak is...questionable. Like, the idea makes sense. You disrupt your opponent's plays by making them draw a new hand just as they're starting to get warmed up.

But the execution flopped. Letting your opponent draw seven fresh cards means there's a good chance they're just going to draw one of the cards you were worried about. I suppose it could be used as the world's most awkward mill card when their hand is low?

Grade: 2/10

Item Finder is not okay. On the surface, it just looks like a worse Computer Search. Retrieve specifically a Trainer, and from the discard pile instead of the deck. But that's not the issue.

The problem with this card is that it lets you circumvent the "4 per deck" rule entirely. Do you want 4 extra copies of Super Energy Removal? Or perhaps extra copies of Professor Oak? This is probably one of the first cards I would ban if I were making a Base-Fossil banlist.

Grade: 10/10

Lass is another card that seems inconceivable at a glance. Shuffle all Trainers back into the deck? Sure, the effect is symmetrical, but you're just going to play all of your Trainers first and then bludgeon your opponent with this BS.

She can also be used to purposely shuffle your Trainers away in the late game to prevent a deck out loss. Most decks will find room for at least a singleton copy of Lass, if only for that purpose.

Grade: 10/10

Maintenance reads like a card that was designed to be bad. Compared to Computer Search, it sounds like a joke card. Discard Maintenance and shuffle away 2 other cards just to draw 1?

And yet this card sees play. The real purpose of this card, at least for skilled players, is to shuffle a few cards you want to protect back into your deck before you use Professor Oak. This is especially relevant in evolution decks, who can't afford to just throw away everything.

Grade: 6/10

Mr. Fuji is another card that looks like pure downside. Releasing one of your 'mons back into the deck is a bad thing...right?

Well, yes and no. You get to toss out all the damage counters on it, which is nice. But more importantly it shuffles that Pokémon and all cards attached to it back into the deck. This can be used at the tail end of a game to shuffle multiple cards into your deck, right before you would normally deck out. That's the main way Mr. Fuji is used and it, surprisingly, is a staple card.

Grade: 8/10

Mysterious Fossil exists for the sole purpose of getting Aerodactyl into play. While the other fossil 'mons kind of suck, Aerodactyl specifically has one of the only two true floodgate effects in the game: A complete lockdown on Evolution Cards.

It can also be used in a clunky stall deck with Clefairy Doll, but the vast majority of its playtime is the result of a player trying to freeze up evolution decks in their tracks.

Grade: 5/10

Pluspower is a deceptively powerful card. An amateur might see "10 damage" and laugh it off, but a skilled player will think of all the times they were just 10 damage short of a KO.

This card turns Hydro Pump and Do the Wave into instant KO's on all of the meta-relevant 70 HP 'mons of the format. It can be the difference between being indefinitely walled by Lickitung or 2-shotting it with Jab. This is an auto-include in every aggressive deck.

Grade: 9/10

Poké Ball gets a bad rap, and it's easy to see why. Having a 50/50 chance of doing nothing is pretty rough, especially when Pokémon Trader exists. I have found some uses for it in just a few decks, though.

The donk deck lives and dies by whether or not it can get the advantage right exactly now. Boyfriends needs all the search it can get. These rogue decks are so far behind the meta decks that they're willing to bet it all on a coin flip. But in the top level decks? When playing those, keep your balls off the table.

Grade: 3/10

Pokédex is a little hard to rate. It's not really bad in the traditional sense. Card selection is nice, even if it's delayed. In theory you could use Dex to set up a good top-deck before using Bill or Kangaskhan's Fetch.

But in practice, it's hard to find any space in your deck for this when the format's core draw engine is already overkill. That's space you could use on any other Trainer Card, so the opportunity cost ends up making Dex a bad card by proxy, even if it's an okay card in a vacuum.

Grade: 3/10

Pokémon Breeder is rarely an obligatory card, but it's a card the format is always happy to have. It works like Rare Candy, for any players unfamiliar with the older formats.

Thanks to Breeder, Stage 2 decks can breathe a little easier knowing that they could get their biggest 'mons into play on the second turn if they really wanted to. This is especially important for decks that only care about the Pokémon Power of their Stage 2, like Damage Swap or Rain Dance.

Grade: 8/10

Pokémon Center is a card you have to read to believe. Remove all damage counters from all of your 'mons. In a format where stall is king. Yes, please.

Energy Trans and Damage Swap can even set up free uses of this card that circumvent the energy discards, due to a fun little loophole built into the card. Since you only need to remove energy from damaged 'mons, you just need to move the energy or damage around a bit to avoid that downside.

Grade: 10/10

The only use case for Pokémon Flute in the Base-Fossil format would be that your opponent has a weak Basic in their discard, and you have Gust of Wind in your hand, and you have a Pokémon in play that can one-shot that target. Not super likely.

This card did finally find a home in decks centered around abusing Babies in the Neo era, but it's probably the most useless Trainer Card in the game during this format.

Grade: 1/10

Pokémon Trader is an amazing search card. You can set up your Evolution decks more easily, or hide an Evolution Card from the Oak you're about to play, or grab a 'mon that you need for your strategic combo. It has lots of potential and is a staple of the format.

But there is one key issue. Because it can only trade away a Pokémon specifically, it does sometimes end up a dead card in hand. As such, I wouldn't play a full playset unless your deck really NEEDS that much search.

Grade: 8/10

Potion is boring but generically useful. I can't imagine tossing out any of the other broken Trainer Cards of the meta for Potion in the majority of builds, but there is one card that it just happens to pair very nicely with.

Mr. Mime. A Mr. Mime backed by a steady supply of Potions can be nearly impossible to break through, thanks to Invisible Wall blocking powerful attacks. I wouldn't call this a staple strategy by any means, but it is something a savvy opponent might do to screw you over.

Grade: 5/10

Professor Oak defines the pace of the format. A full hand reset whenever you want, with no once per turn restriction. Every deck plays Professor Oak.

Evolution decks hate the discard cost and must still find space for at least 2 copies of Professor Oak, just in case one ends up in the prizes. It's that powerful. Base-Fossil isn't Base-Fossil without Professor Oak, for better and for worse.

Grade: 10/10

Recycle is awful. You have to flip a coin to retrieve one card. Now admittedly, this is the only generic way to get back Evolutions and Double Colorless Energy. But if you're relying on a coin flip for a delayed recursion effect, you've probably already lost.

If it didn't require the coin flip or retrieved the card to hand it probably would have been another Base Set staple, but unfortunately it was printed with multiple downsides and is almost completely unusable.

Grade: 4/10

Revive is only really usable in the Rage deck. That's the one deck that actually wants damage counters, since it consists of attackers that get stronger when they've taken damage.

Every other deck would've preferred a version that didn't put damage counters on the revived 'mon, for obvious reasons. But I have to give it a few points, since Rage is a somewhat competent deck.

Grade: 3/10

Scoop Up is yet another base set card that had to be redesigned and heavily nerfed for future sets.

But in this format it's at full power, fully healing a Pokémon and letting you select a new active at a moment's notice. The biggest abuser is Lickitung, who only loses a single energy when scooped, since it only ever uses its first attack. If any Trainer Card was to be named the face of stall decks, I'd vote for this one.

Grade: 10/10

Super Energy Removal is a card so broken and degenerate that it makes the wage gap look fair and reasonable. Many, many cards with expensive attacks are unplayable for the simple reason that Super Energy Removal exists.

I can't for the life of me figure out how any self-respecting game designer looked at this card and said, "Yeah, that'll probably be fine." Energy Removal, I understand. But this? THIS? This isn't just a comeback mechanic. This is a war crime immortalized as a slab of colorful cardboard.

Grade: 10/10

The only home I can find for Super Potion is Rain Dance, and it's far from a staple. The reason it's tempting in Rain Dance is because you have unlimited energy attachments, so wasting one to remove 40 damage seems perfectly reasonable. But giving up a slot in your deck for it? Iffy.

You might think it would see play in stall decks, but nope. Between Scoop Up, Mr. Fuji, and Pokémon Center, you already have plenty of ways to remove ALL damage from your 'mons. It's an okay card. It's just not needed anywhere.

Grade: 4/10

Switch is about as self-explanatory as it gets, but it's an auto-include in every deck. Cure status and avoid paying a retreat cost wrapped up into one card.

The only, and I mean only, situation I can imagine where you wouldn't use Switch is if every single 'mon in your deck has a free retreat cost. That might be the one time where you'd rather have a single copy of Full Heal instead. Switch is almost as fundamental to Base-Fossil decks as Basic Energy Cards and Professor Oak.

Grade: 10/10

Double Colorless Energy is mandatory in the decks that use it and useless in the decks that don't. It influenced card design for the entire WOTC era of the game, since every card printed with multiple Colorless energies in an attack cost had to be designed around the existence of this card.

The acceleration it provides defines some of the strongest cards in the format. Imagine Scyther or Wigglytuff without this card. DCE is proof that sometimes the simplest designs are the most impactful.

Grade: 10/10

You may have noticed that Trainer Cards received more 10/10 grades than any of the Pokémon types. This isn't even remotely surprising. The Trainers of the Base Set were so broken that they were part of the inspiration for the first ever rotation in the game's history, a rotation that conveniently only cut out the first three sets of the game.

They were cards so dominant and so omnipresent that even after spending multiple sets trying to print counters and checks to these cards, they ultimately realized that the ONLY viable solution was to undo their very existence. But the Base-Fossil metagame lives and breathes on these cards. Without these Trainers paving the way forward, the game as we know it wouldn't have been possible.