Types in Base-Fossil: Psychic

It seems like the general premise behind Psychic types was that they would be a type that gets stronger as the game progresses with attacks like Psychic and Meditate. In reality, this ended up being a powerhouse type with some of the strongest attackers, walls, and utility cards in the format.

There is a LOT to talk about here, and most of it's good news!

Abra isn't the worst Basic in the world. It does have a miserable 30 HP, but Psyshock gives it some stalling potential and it has that crucial free retreat.

Still, you would never play Abra in a deck that isn't running Alakazam. It exists to help you get to a more important piece of your deck, and should sit on your bench unless you're completely out of options.

Grade: 3/10

Kadabra's existence is a bit tragic. It's one of the most efficient attackers, doing a solid 50 damage for 3 energy. But that will never matter because you're better off saving it on your bench to evolve into Alakazam, and the best decks for Alakazam aren't hyper-aggressive decks.

As such we have a frail, decent attacker with a high retreat cost that will probably never have energy attached to it. Which is why it usually gets skipped over with Breeder.

Grade: 4/10

Alakazam was once one of the three pillars upholding an ancient version of the Base-Fossil metagame. There was a time when it was just accepted that the best decks were Haymaker, Rain Dance, and Damage Swap.

Times have changed. Alakazam is a sitting duck for Gust of Wind and his frailty and high retreat cost have been called into question. Venusaur has largely taken over Alakazam's original position, and Lickitung is the new face of stall. Damage Swap is still a viable deck, but no longer a top tier deck.

Grade: 8/10

Slowpoke is one of the weirdest cards in the game. It certainly isn't meta, but it is a weirdly versatile card due to how Scavenge works.

The most popular use is to recycle Energy Removal over and over in order to bring the game to an utter standstill. This can be shockingly effective, but this card hasn't seen the widespread success necessary to receive a high grade yet.

Grade: 7/10

Slowbro is much more viable than it looks, at least as a rogue-level card. It's only a Stage 1 compared to the Stage 2 Alakazam, which makes for a more consistent supporter.

Unfortunately it is a little harder to set up big Pokémon Center blowouts since it quickly runs out of HP, but I found that Mr. Fuji is a great way to recycle it and stall out more turns.

Grade: 6/10

Base Gastly is an embarrassment to cardboard. If it were free at your local card shop, it would still be overpriced.

Destiny Bond may look tempting with those tantalizing words "knock out that Pokémon," but in reality the opponent has no obligation to attack after you use Destiny Bond. The best use for this card is to cheese the AI opponents in the game boy game, but that's all. And the Psychic type has other options for free retreaters, so it doesn't even get a point for that.

Grade: 1/10

Fossil Gastly, on the other hand, is a staple in every deck that uses Psychic energy. 50 HP, free retreat, a Fighting resistance, and the ability to inflict paralysis. Energy Conversion doesn't come up in every game, but being able to recycle Double Colorless Energy can be pretty clutch.

This is a rare example of a Basic that's usually played without its Evolutions because it frankly doesn't need them. It's already at peak performance in its base form.

Grade: 9/10

The only ghost card in franchise history comparable to Base Gastly is Base Haunter. You're either forced to include Base Gastly or forced to replace the excellent Fossil Gastly on your board with this piece of crap.

Hypnosis does what it always does, but Dream Eater is practically unusable. You need to use Hypnosis, win coin flips twice in a row, and only then do you get to do 50 damage. To add insult to injury, it doesn't even get the free retreat treatment that the other ghosts do!

Grade: 2/10

Fossil Haunter, by stark contrast, is a dream come true for stall decks. Between Transparency and the sleep induced by Nightmare, your opponent only has a 25% chance of damaging Haunter on any given turn. It even gets free retreat, no weakness, and a fighting resistance as per the usual ghost-type privileges.

But once they do get an attack through, Haunter really feels it connecting thanks to only having 50 HP. Most decks that use Fossil Gastly opt not to run Haunter, but it's a suitably sneaky option.

Grade: 7/10

Gengar is about as close to meta-relevance as you can be without actually being meta-relevant. Curse is a very fun Pokémon Power, allowing you to put your damage right where you need it.

The main downside is that there just aren't a lot of decks in the format that specialize in spread damage. Dark Mind does give you some damage counters to work with, but it's also really underwhelming for the energy cost.

Grade: 6/10

Drowzee is fine. Having Pound to use on the first turn shores up the usual issue with Confuse Ray, but you do want to evolve right away since your damage output is so minimal.

Still, everything about Drowzee is basically on curve. It's the platonic ideal for what an evolving Basic should look like, even if it's not very compelling. The biggest issue is that its Evolution isn't quite competitive.

Grade: 4/10

In Hypno's defense, some players are experimenting with Hypno Control to see if it can be a valid strategy. The ability to rearrange the top of your opponent's deck has proven powerful in other card games, so there are some precedents that might be influencing this mindset.

But Hypno can only delay a good draw by a few turns at a time, and has to waste its one attack per turn to do so. If Prophecy were a Pokémon Power, it might have been omnipresent, but as an attack it's just a cute novelty.

Grade: 5/10

Mr.  Mime is the unsung workhorse of stall decks. Many of the game's strongest attackers are helpless in the face of this random 40 HP clown-thing, all because Invisible Wall just completely shuts down any attack that does 30 or more damage.

Mr. Mime can only be knocked out in a minimum of two attacks, unless your name is exactly Nidoking. This makes it an annoying card to pair with Potion, of all things, which just deletes a turn of progress when Mr. Mime is involved.

Grade: 10/10

Jynx has a sad, pointless existence in the Base-Fossil format. She has the same HP, attack costs, and retreat cost as Promo Mewtwo, one of the best cards in the entire game.

But she's not Promo Mewtwo. She's Jynx. With a woefully inefficient Doubleslap and a decent but overpriced Meditate. Her only possible home is in the Meditate/Raticate combo deck, but that's more of a funny meme than a real archetype.

Grade: 3/10

I guess I finally have to talk about the Mewtwo Barrier deck. There is, theoretically, a world in which you win a game by just spamming Barrier over and over in a deck that has four copies of Mewtwo and fifty-six Psychic Energy cards.

That imaginary world is undermined by the existence of Energy Removal, Super Energy Removal, Gambler, Mr. Fuji, and Lass. This Mewtwo could potentially buy you a few turns, maybe. But that's about it.

Grade: 3/10

Luckily, someone decided to design a real Mewtwo card shortly after that one. Movie Promo Mewtwo is one of the best cards in the game and is obligatory in any Psychic deck.

The first point of appeal is that it does a consistent 40 damage starting as early as turn 2. The second point is that it represents inevitability in the face of Energy Removal cards, since it provides built-in recursion for your Energy Cards. These two strengths are all it needs to be a dominant metagame staple.

Grade: 10/10

This Mewtwo usually isn't allowed at Base-Fossil tournaments, but it's not unheard of. Despite them printing a lot of fancy words on this piece of cardboard, it's objectively worse than the previous Mewtwo.

Energy Control is unreliable, only offering disruption on a coin flip. Telekinesis doesn't do enough damage to warrant attaching three energy to this card, especially when you could be attaching those to something better. But I've seen worse.

Grade: 3/10

Mew was exclusively a promo card for us westerners, but at least it's a pretty good promo card.

There's a whole deck dedicated to Mew's synergy with Aerodactyl, which isn't very good, but more importantly it sees extensive play as a counter to Mewtwo. Mew's Psywave almost one-shots a fully charged Mewtwo for a single energy, and can land the kill cleanly with a single Pluspower. Mew mainly sees play for this purpose, but it's a good purpose to have.

Grade: 6/10

The Psychic type is wildly over-represented in the Base-Fossil format, but largely because almost every card in the type does something wholly unique to that card.

The one glaring issue with this is that you can just slap all the best Psychic-types together and call it a day, which isn't uncommon. The best ones are mostly Basics anyway. After that, you only need a few solid Colorless 'mons to balance out the deck, since they give you a resistance to your only weakness. And maybe a Psyduck for good measure. Just like that, you've become Psy Stall player #946.