Vending Set Review - Grass

Credit for the English-translated images goes to tcgone.net.

The Vending series was a set of cards released exclusively in Japanese vending machines early into the TCG's lifespan. The vast majority of these cards were never printed in English, though some did make it over here as promos, etc. When grading them, I'll treat them as if they had been released into the Base-Rocket metagame.

The vending cards were highly experimental, featuring lots of art drawn by contest-winning children and lots of mechanics that hadn't been explored yet. Not all of these cards would've been meta-relevant if released in the west, but a surprising number of them do look as good or better than their Base-Rocket counterparts.

Vending Bulbasaur is basically a strict upgrade over the version from base set. It has higher HP and cheaper, more usable attacks. First Aid isn't anything special, Poison Seed lets you inflict guaranteed poison for a single grass energy, which is more than enough progress for the first turn.

This card would have given VenuCenter decks a much needed boost to their early-game if it had been released overseas.

Grade: 5/10

Vending Caterpie has a little more HP than Base Caterpie, but it loses the ability to paralyze with String Shot. String Wrap is kind of interesting, being able to potentially prevent retreating or switching in any way, but it's not like Caterpie is some deadly predator.

Overall, I'd still call it an incremental upgrade over the original, but there's still no solid Butterfree to evolve into.

Grade: 4/10

Vending Metapod continues the trend of cocoon 'mons being weirdly good cards. But unlike the original Metapod and Kakuna, this one actually has a very interesting Pokémon Power. Turning off all the weaknesses of the grass type can allow you to run a mono-grass type...in theory.

In practice, the colorless types of the era were so good that there wasn't any reason to exclude them from most decks anyway. Mysterious Powder is also a solid attack, though.

Grade: 6/10

Vending Weedle is a pretty clear upgrade over Base Weedle. It has higher HP and can choose between either inflicting 10 damage or guaranteed poison on the first turn (with the poison being preferable 90% of the time).

Granted, Base Weedle can inflict both if you flip heads, but the consistency and extra bulk of this Weedle both make it a significantly better card competitively.

Grade: 4/10

Vending Kakuna is less bulky than its Base counterpart, but it does inflict guaranteed poison if it takes damage. This can be annoying for your opponent to play around.

On the flip-side, your opponent can obviously see this effect and react accordingly. Between that, the lower HP, and the lower damage output, I actually think this is worse than Base Kakuna overall.

Grade: 4/10

Vending Arbok is better than Fossil Arbok and it's hardly even a contest. Wrap is an on-curve paralysis attack (always decent), and Deadly Poison either does 30 damage with guaranteed poison or does 40 damage if the opponent was already poisoned.

None of this really makes up for the pathetic HP stat, but at least it's several leagues ahead of the original Arbok card. You could make a case for using Dark Arbok, but I prefer this one.

Grade: 4/10

Vending Nidoran (female) is fine, but is just barely a step behind the Jungle version. Being able to inflict poison is nice, but the damage output from Fury Swipes on the Jungle card is comparable.

Meanwhile this one has 10 less HP, and in these early formats every damage counter matters. You'd be surprised how much bulkier a 60 HP basic feels than a 50 HP basic. In a vacuum she'd be a 5/10, but she's outclassed by an existing card with the same name.

Grade: 4/10

Vending Nidorina, on the other hand, is probably better than the original, overall. She does have 10 less HP and a higher retreat cost, but the potential damage output of Strength in Numbers is high enough to build a whole deck around.

It's not inconceivable to start doing 60 damage as early as turn 2. Her Fury Swipes is a fine attack too, but it's not the selling point of the card. That HP stat really is a shame, though.

Grade: 6/10

Vending Nidoran (male) is a strange card to rank. It technically does something on the first turn, but that something might amount to nothing if you flip tails on the second turn. On the other hand, this card can potentially do a massive 80 damage in one shot.

The higher HP is nice, too. It's theoretically better than the original, but is a very high-risk, high-reward card. Still, it might one-shot a Wigglytuff or Lapras if you're lucky.

Grade: 4/10

Vending Zubat is better than Fossil Zubat and roughly equivalent to the Rocket Zubat. I personally value doing 20 damage over the chance of confusion, but only just barely.

And it still has the free retreat and laughable 40 HP that Zubat cards really seemed to love at the time. Not a great card, all things considered, but that was par for the course.

Grade: 4/10

For some reason, they decided Vending Golbat needed lower HP, a higher retreat cost, and a more expensive attack than the original Golbat. Fossil Golbat was already pretty lackluster, so you can imagine how I feel about this one.

It doesn't help that Dark Golbat released around the same time and was far, far better than either one. I can't think of any serious incentive to play this version of Golbat.

Grade: 2/10

Vending Paras has more HP than Jungle Paras and can search out copies of itself for a single energy, so it's an auto-include in any deck trying to run Parasect. Unfortunately, Parasect isn't the most compelling motivation.

The original was able to do 20 damage for a single DCE attachment, though, so it's not a bad idea to add one in to search off of this one's effect...if you absolutely must run Paras, I mean.

Grade: 3/10

Vending Parasect's attacks aren't terrible. Guaranteed poison is nice and Leech Life is a reasonable enough escalation, but it can't attack for a single energy and Super Energy Removal is still floating around at this time.

The low HP and clunky retreat cost really destroy this card, though. The entire Paras line just begs the question, "Why aren't you running Scyther?" It's probably better than Jungle Parasect, but not by much.

Grade: 2/10

Vending Venonat is weird, but comparable to Jungle Venonat. It does have higher potential damage output due to Psybeam, but the only attack you're actually going to use before evolving is the one-energy Disable. And having to flip a coin for a niche stun effect is laughable.

Still, it also has 10 more HP. With the Charmander line and Magmar running around, you might appreciate the added security. Not sure it's "better" but it's at least as good as the original.

Grade: 4/10

Vending Venomoth sure does exist. Its HP is low for an evolution card, but Stir Up Twister is an interesting disruption effect, acting as both a Gust and a Switch in one attack.

Rainbow Powder is markedly better than Jungle Venomoth's attack, doing more damage and being guaranteed to inflict a status. I think this card is on the cusp of being viable, and could probably sneak a win here and there.

Grade: 6/10

Vending Bellsprout has the same awful HP as the original, but its attacks are actually fine. Both attacks can potentially prevent damage, and I like that Sway gives you a way to still get that protection if you draw a different energy type.

Sadly we're still talking about a time in the TCG when good Victreebel cards just didn't exist, so it's not like this little guy has much to look forward to.

Grade: 3/10

Vending Weepinbell's purpose in a grass-type deck is unclear. Grass-types didn't really care about discarding energy from the opponent (especially on a coin flip), and while removing damage counters from itself is cute, what are you really preserving?

I suppose it could theoretically be built around as a grass stall variant, but this little game ends when Wigglytuff's Do the Wave connects, and that's still a very real threat at this point in time.

Grade: 5/10

Vending Grimer is the first of several cards featuring "markers" in this set. Markers work much like counters in other card games, just signifying that a card has accumulated a specific resource or has a specific effect placed on it.

In this case, the markers just raise the retreat cost of the target. Not terrible, but I personally wouldn't sacrifice Fossil Grimer for this. The fact that Nasty Goo is colorless lets the original Grimer slot right into multiple decks comfortably.

Grade: 5/10

Vending Koffing is an oddball in every way. Its Pokémon Power lets you swarm the bench with Koffing as long as you're taking damage, and then Strange Gas can shut off Pokémon Powers...temporarily. And on a coin flip.

Keep in mind that Fossil Muk exists, so the effect of Strange Gas adds virtually no value here. This one probably adds the most to a deck, since it can fill the bench for Dark Weezing.

Grade: 6/10

Vending Weezing is actually a really cool card. You could build an entire deck around the poison status with this card as the centerpiece. Additionally, Gas Explosion has a really unique effect, but an attack that does 40 damage and recoil damage really shouldn't cost three energy.

The low HP is also a bit of a bummer. If I did play this one, it would be a benchwarmer in a poison-themed strategy, but I can't imagine that being a competitive deck.

Grade: 5/10

Vending Tangela can attack for one energy, so that's nice. It also has lower retreat cost than the original Tangela. But it's worse or similar to a long list of basics that actually evolve, whereas Tangela didn't have an evolution at this time.

What you see is what you get, and you're not getting much here. At least the original had attacks that scaled a little better into the midgame.

Grade: 4/10

Vending Scyther is the first in a long, long list of Scyther cards that are all worse than the original Jungle Scyther. They were afraid of giving him free retreat after the damage he caused, and he paid the price for generations to come.

Needless to say, no one would ever run this when Jungle Scyther is an option. It's not a terrible card on its own merits, but it is pretty bad on the scale of 1 to Jungle Scyther.

Grade: 3/10

Vending Pinsir is perhaps even more questionable. It has the same Slash as Jungle Scyther. Cool. But it has 20 less HP. And a retreat cost. Oh.

Slicing Throw, to its credit, is a perfectly serviceable first turn attack. Unfortunately, this card made a big mistake by trying to imitate the single best grass-type card of the entire first generation. Just like Vending Scyther, this card is totally outclassed in the role it wants to perform.

Grade: 3/10

Phew! The Vending series nearly has as many grass-type cards as the first three sets combined! Unfortunately, most of them are treading old ground and don't add a lot to the early formats even when they're included.

But the hidden gems here are insanely cool. Nidorina, Weezing, and Metapod stand out as cards that you could build a whole deck around. None of these cards on on par with Jungle Scyther or Base Venusaur, but there are some worthy additions to the card pool here and there.