Types in Base-Fossil: Grass

The Grass type in the Base-Fossil format is mostly underwhelming, with a few massive exceptions. The type seems to have been conceptualized as a type that specializes in status and healing, but it mostly failed to live up to that promise in 1999, since there just weren't any real payoffs for status or healing effects at the time.

It's a type largely defined by the existence of a handful of cards, and you'll see that reflected in dozens of mediocre grades.

Bulbasaur isn't a very good Basic Pokémon if we're being brutally honest. 40 HP, no way to attack on the first turn, and a health-stealing attack on a 'mon that shouldn't really be staying in play.

While the Venusaur deck is meta-relevant, it sure isn't thanks to this little guy. I'll give him a little credit for being a decent Mr. Mime counter, but that's the only truly positive thing I have to say about this card. At least it evolves into something powerful later.

Grade: 3/10

Ivysaur is mediocre, but that's unfortunately par for the course when it comes to middle Evolutions of this era. It is compatible with Double Colorless Energy, but the deck that it belongs in doesn't really want to play DCE.

Its Poisonpowder does inflict guaranteed poison, though. It's important to keep one Bulbasaur or Ivysaur unevolved, just so that you have a way to deal with specifically Mr. Mime, and Ivysaur is definitely the better option.

Grade: 5/10

Base Venusaur is an unbelievably strong card. By shuffling Grass Energies around, you can duck under Super Energy Removal, avoid the downside of Pokémon Center, and always have your attacks and retreat costs ready.

As such, Venusaur is the cornerstone of one of the most resilient decks in the format. If it had a perfect partner or a better Bulbasaur card, the Venusaur deck could have easily been a serious contender. As it stands, this is still easily one of the best Stage 2 cards in the format.

Grade: 9/10

I would personally cut the Base-Fossil format off at Promo #9, so to me this Venusaur wouldn't count as Base-Fossil, but I've seen tournaments go as high as Promo #15.

When it is allowed, it's usable. It does have some synergy with Gloom and Vileplume, but I'd probably only play it as a one-of in VenuCenter. Including Bulbasaur and Ivysaur only for this to be the payoff doesn't sound worth it.

Grade: 6/10

Caterpie is a strictly worse version of Oddish, which is already a worse card than similar Basics like Lickitung and Fossil Gastly. Granted, paralysis is always pretty solid.

But it doesn't evolve into anything that shakes up the metagame. It's got all the same problems as a card like Squirtle, without the power to ever become a game-defining threat like Blastoise.

Grade: 3/10

Metapod is a genuinely decent Stage 1. 70 HP was above average for a Stage 1 at this time (sadly), and it does have respectable attacks with energy costs that make sense for a turn 2 'mon.

Unfortunately, it has an awkward retreat cost and is kind of a dead end, since Butterfree is a really underwhelming Stage 2. But it does have paralysis and is an acceptable card in a vacuum, so it deserves at least a little credit.

Grade: 5/10

Butterfree doesn't have more HP than the previous evolutionary stage. Let's start with that. Its first attack is worse than Metapod's attacks, since shuffling your opponent's 'mons around at random doesn't help you pile on damage any faster than usual.

The real nail in the coffin is the energy cost of Mega Drain. Sinking all your energy into a painfully frail Stage 2 isn't my idea of a good time. It does have a free retreat cost, but there are so many better options.

Grade: 4/10

Weedle has all the downsides of Caterpie, with a slightly worse status effect. There's really not much else to say about it. Not worse enough to warrant a different grade, at least.

The value of paralysis scales with the threat your opponent poses, since you might be shutting down a fully powered Hydro Pump or Do the Wave. But poison is always just a tiny damage boost that your opponent can easily retreat out of.

Grade: 3/10

Kakuna and Metapod are, ironically, among the best Stage 1 cards in the format. But that's less a compliment to them and more a showcase of how underwhelming most Stage 1 cards are in Base-Fossil.

It has 10 more HP than Metapod, which is nice, but again I consider poison to be worse than paralysis. Especially since it doesn't stack, meaning Poisonpowder basically has no effect if the defending 'mon has already been poisoned by Weedle.

Grade: 5/10

Beedrill is almost on the cusp of being playable, but it has a few issues. The first is that pathetic HP stat. The second is that its best attack is painfully redundant, since the whole evolutionary line inflicts poison.

Using a Double Colorless Energy with Twineedle might look tempting, but there's no logical reason to build up to Beedrill when Scyther exists and doesn't rely on coin flips. So overall Beedrill just kind of...exists.

Grade: 6/10

Ekans isn't even good enough to make the "run-of-the-mill" tier. Another 40 HP basic, except this time its only option on turn 1 is to use a strictly worse version of Weedle's Poison Sting.

As if that weren't embarrassing enough, Arbok is such a bad card that you might legitimately be better off leaving this underwhelming Basic in play for an extra turn to use Wrap. This is an evolutionary line that starts nowhere and goes nowhere.

Grade: 2/10

Arbok is the living embodiment of everything wrong with Base-Fossil card design. Over-costed mediocre attacks. Super low HP on an evolved 'mon. A clunky retreat cost that you would expect to reserve for stronger cards.

If you thought that Jessie's Arbok had a bad track record, then I dare you to try to use this thing in a tournament. I can't even call Poison Fang a good answer to Mr. Mime, since this thing is weak to Psychic. Just an all-around terrible card with no real redeeming qualities.

Grade: 1/10

Nidoran (female) is actually pretty good. It has above average HP for an evolving Basic, and Fury Swipes is a solid attack that inflicts an average of 15 damage for a single energy.

I'm not sure why they randomly decided to give her the same HP as a Mewtwo card (we'll get there), but she functions well in her intended role. She's not meta-relevant, but she is a good card in a vacuum.

Grade: 5/10

Nidorina is fine. 70 HP is just barely tolerable and Supersonic ensures that she'll always be able to do something, even if she gets hit by Energy Removal.

The cost of Double Kick is slightly awkward, though. The Nido family really wants you to spam Double Colorless Energy onto their evolutions, but the payoff for doing so is pretty mid.

Still, I can't find too much to complain about here.

Grade: 5/10

Nidoqueen encourages bad deck-building. She's not a bad card on her own merits, but the effect of Boyfriends just begs the player to fill up half their deck with Nidos and Breeders.

But in reality that's not the best way to play Nidoqueen. It's better to think of Boyfriends as "a consistent 40 damage on turn 2, with the upside of maybe doing more." Don't convince yourself that you need a full playset of every Nido. It's an easy trap to fall into.

Grade: 6/10

Nidoran (male) historically saw some play as a donk card, but it doesn't turn many heads nowadays. There just aren't any top tier cards with a Grass weakness. Your best snipe is...maybe an Aerodactyl?

The potential to do 30 damage on the first turn is pretty cool, but with only 40 HP of its own, it really can't afford to flip that coin more than once. It's a card you'll begrudgingly put into a Boyfriends deck, which is already not anywhere near the top decks.

Grade: 3/10

Nidorino's Horn Drill wants you to pour up to 4 Energy Cards on a 'mon that only has 60 HP. Friendly reminder: This attack costs more than any of Nidoking's attacks.

Double Kick is the same clunky move that we saw on Nidorina, except now there's not a single-energy attack for us to fall back on in a pinch. When cutting Stage 1 'mons from your Boyfriends deck for Breeder, start by cutting out most of your copies of Nidorino.

Grade: 3/10

Nidoking may look mediocre, but 90 HP gets you further than you might think in this metagame. Unfortunately, his attacks are quite expensive.

Thrash is identical to Electabuzz's Thunderpunch, but costs one more energy. Toxic does have a really powerful side-effect, but it always feels a little iffy since this is around the time other decks are doing 50-60 damage. He's a solid backup attacker in the one deck that uses him, but he would be a much better card if his attacks were just one energy cheaper.

Grade: 5/10

Zubat needed lower energy costs on its attacks. Having a free retreat cost on a Basic is always a big plus, but Zubat is practically forced to retreat unless you're willing to waste a Double Colorless Energy on Supersonic.

This is also another case where the line doesn't really go anywhere meaningful, since we're definitely in an era of subpar Evolution cards. Leech Life might theoretically help that 40 HP to last longer, but there's no incentive to keep Zubat in play longer than you need to.

Grade: 4/10

Golbat is a fairly lackluster payoff for a fairly lackluster basic. Again, the whole line has free retreat and that's very nice. But, just like with Zubat, it just feels like these energy costs make the overall package much less appealing.

I will say, though, if you can get a Golbat fully charged up then it can become incredibly frustrating to deal with, between healing 20 HP every turn and being able to switch out for free at any time. I could see a flock of Golbat being a real problem...if they weren't all such easy one-shots for Wigglytuff, Blastoise, and Mewtwo.

Grade: 4/10

Oddish is a respectable Basic. 50 damage and the ability to inflict paralysis. Those are the same properties that make Fossil Gastly such a good card, although we don't get the free retreat and Fighting resistance here.

You're not going to use Sprout very often in practice, but just think of it as an extra option that you get for free. Now this is not the best paralysis Basic out there, but it evolves into some solid 'mons that actually can get some work done, so don't sleep on this line.

Grade: 5/10

Gloom is a much better card than it looks. Sure, it only has 60 HP. That's usually a hallmark for this format's many terrible Stage 1 'mons.

However, this is the only card in the format that can inflict guaranteed confusion. While it does also confuse itself, that won't matter much in practice. You'll usually be playing Gloom with plenty of ways to switch it out of the active, as well as its Evolution. Since switching and evolving both cure status, it's surprisingly easy to work around Gloom's apparent downside.

Grade: 7/10

Vileplume was just a little more HP away from being a really great card. The cool thing about this evolutionary line is that it has a smooth energy curve, buffered by Gloom's Poisonpowder just in case something goes wrong.

This makes it a surprisingly comfortable line to play with, working up to an average of 60 damage, starting on turn 3. You may think the confusion would be hard to work around, but Vileplume can be paired with Dragonite to dodge confusion completely.

Grade: 8/10

Paras is living proof that the card designers didn't love every pokémon equally. I guess the good news is that it can do 20 damage for a single attachment, if you have a DCE to spare.

The bad news is that it has 40 HP, a sleep-inducing attack so over-costed that it feels like an insult, and doesn't evolve into anything even remotely usable. If there were something meta-relevant with a weakness to Grass, then maybe this could've seen play in gimmicky donk builds?

Grade: 2/10

Parasect. The fact that this card came out in the same set as Scyther is just shameful. Everything about this card reeks of pack filler.

I already touched on this with Paras, but let me just hammer home how bad Spore actually is. Jigglypuff can inflict guaranteed sleep with Lullaby for a single Colorless energy, and it's a Basic. And that's not considered Jigglypuff's best attack, to begin with. So yeah, having your whole identity revolve around a strictly worse Lullaby is...not great.

Grade: 1/10

Venonat is a slightly better Caterpie, if you count Leech Life as a point in its favor. The reality is that you'll never use Leech Life, because there's no strong incentive to keep Venonat in play instead of evolving it.

Still it's your typical paralysis-inflicting Basic, and its Evolution isn't completely incompetent. I'd say it's fine. Just don't expect it to blow your mind or anything.

Grade: 4/10

Venomoth is weird, and that makes it kind of hard to rate. The free retreat cost is a lot more relevant on this Stage 1 than it was on Butterfree or Beedrill. Venom Powder may not hit hard, but it has a scary side-effect.

And Shift is a super oddball power that will allow you to sometimes do double damage, although it can always do super-effective damage to most Psychic types since they're weak to themselves. I've seen Venomoth in some experimental builds, but I'm not much of a believer, personally.

Grade: 6/10

Bellsprout is trash. Bad HP, bad attacks, no metagame relevance.

The only somewhat redeeming quality this card has is Call for Family, but it's not like that's anything special. It's just that the 10 damage from Vine Whip is so pointless, you might as well thin your deck instead.

Truly a masterclass in bad card design.

Grade: 1/10

Weepinbell is a respectable Stage 1. Its attacks are efficient, its HP is decent, and it has a low retreat cost. It even has some resistance to Energy Removal thanks to the low-cost Poisonpowder.

This all only contributes more to its tragic existence, though. It evolves from a terrible card and into a terrible card, meaning that this tiny little glimpse of competence is the only thing we get out of the entire Bellsprout line. Its lackluster family severely drags down its score.

Grade: 5/10

Victreebel seems like it was blatantly designed to be a noob trap. The combination of forcing an opponent's benched 'mon to switch in and then preventing it from retreating sounds synergistic and powerful.

Except that they have a whole turn after Lure to switch out again. And Acid does such low damage that they won't mind being trapped. And Victreebel only has 80 HP on a Stage 2. Sorry, but if you put Victreebel in your deck, then you're the one who really fell for its trap.

Grade: 2/10

Grimer is easy to overlook since all the attention goes to its Evolution, but it is an extremely solid Basic. Of note, Nasty Goo only requires Colorless energy. This means that Grimer can be a useful emergency attacker in any deck that's running it.

Minimize is also a surprisingly solid attack, but it requires you to actually run Grass Energy, so you'd probably only use Minimize in some unorthodox Grass stall deck.

Grade: 7/10

Muk is not used for that low-damage attack with the prohibitive attack cost. In fact, it usually stays on the bench in games where it's played.

And yet that's enough to make it a terrifying card. Toxic Gas is the only way to turn off Pokémon Powers in this format, and is the most powerful version of this effect ever printed. As one of only two true floodgates in the format, Muk sees some play almost by default. There aren't many decks reliant on powers, but the ones that are can lose due to a single Muk.

Grade: 8/10

Exeggcute is a disappointing card when you use it as a Grass-type, but actually functions decently in a Psychic-type deck built around its Evolution.

Hypnosis might not be anything special, but it does give you a 50/50 chance of skipping your opponent's turn, which is perfectly respectable for a first turn attack. The rest of its stats are pretty bog-standard for an evolving Basic, but that's not a bad thing.

Grade: 4/10

Exeggutor is an extremely compelling card. It has high HP for a Stage 1, and is the only card in the format with completely uncapped damage. It could theoretically one-shot any 'mon.

The real secret sauce is Double Colorless Energy. It gets an average of 20 damage out of each DCE attached to it. This lets it build up surprisingly fast. Just be careful to start building up a second attacker before it gets KO'd.

Grade: 8/10

Koffing is a clunky card, but is actually pretty solid. Foul Gas guarantees some sort of status ailment either way, and this can be incredibly debilitating.

The problem this card faces is obviously the energy cost. Koffing can't really do anything on the first turn, so you don't want this thing stuck in the active spot if you can avoid it. Every deck that runs Koffing is inherently a little less consistent, but it can be a really annoying card for your opponent when played at the right time.

Grade: 6/10

Weezing is pretty bad. In fact, most decks that run Koffing just opt to run it without its Evolution. Foul Gas is arguably better than Smog, so all you really get for evolving is 10 HP and the ability to KO yourself. Not super compelling.

I guess suddenly doing 60 damage could be decent if you already got some value out of Koffing beforehand, but I just can't bring myself to see this as a worthwhile inclusion to any serious deck.

Grade: 3/10

Tangela is okay as an attacker, but being stuck with 50 HP, no Evolutions, and a clunky retreat cost is problematic.

It really is good at inflicting status, though. Sadly, Tangela's Poisonpowder demands some serious devotion to the Grass-type, and that's not usually how you want to play Grass-types in this format. It has seen high-level competitive play, but I'm not the type to let that sway my opinion. To me, Tangela is just "not terrible."

Grade: 5/10

Scyther single-handedly renders most Grass-types irrelevant by existing. It is undeniably the best Grass-type in the game, and is in contention for best 'mon in the format overall.

70 HP, a Colorless attack that deals solid damage, free retreat, Fighting resistance, and the potential to play mind games with Swords Dance. Decks sometimes add in a Fire-type just specifically to hit Scyther. If I didn't give this card a perfect 10 out of 10, then nothing else would make the cut by default.

Grade: 10/10

Pinsir wanted so badly to be a side-grade to Scyther. The concept seems sound on paper. 50 damage every turn instead of 60 damage every other turn, but with lower HP and a higher retreat cost. It sounds like a fair trade.

Unfortunately, having a free retreat cost multiplies the power level of a card several times over. There is nothing Pinsir could have possibly offered to compete with that. Some players have experimented with using Pinsir as the secondary attacker in VenuCenter, but it's far from being a staple.

Grade: 6/10

The basic summary of the Grass type is that you should probably just play Scyther and nothing else. And even Scyther has to compete with Dodrio for deck space nowadays.

Not all hope is lost, though. The Venusaur deck will always be around to pay the bills, so while Grass is one of the less relevant types in the format, it's never going to wilt completely.