Vending Set Review - Lightning

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

The lightning-types of the Vending series feature a mix of risky recoil moves, bench sniping attacks, and unique swarming strategies. It feels like the designers had a lot of confidence in the direction that the lightning-type had already established in the Base-Fossil era and just kind of ran with it.

There are still some cool experiments here, though. 

Vending Pikachu (#49) almost works. It has solid attacks that could keep it alive and it has a free retreat cost. But it also has 30 HP. If you want to be playable at 30 HP, you need some bonkers upsides.

Rattata can do 20 damage for a single energy and resists the best type in the game, while ALSO having free retreat. Magikarp evolves into Gyarados. But this Pikachu? Well, it's probably just not worth including in your deck over other options. At least it's cute.

Grade: 2/10

I actually already discussed this Pikachu when going over the Base-Fossil format, since it was released in the west as a promo. But my opinions have also changed since then, and I've updated the previous post accordingly.

Tl;dr: This is the best Pikachu card of the first several sets. It may not look like much, but it allows you to get three energy onto your Raichu on turn 2, which leads into some very strong attacks.

Grade: 6/10

Vending Raichu is specifically designed to counter Rain Dance. Short Circuit can do 50 damage to a fully charged Blastoise, even if its on the bench, and 40 damage to a fully charged Articuno, despite it not having a weakness to lightning.

This is decent enough, but how often is your lightning deck struggling to beat a water deck? Additionally, this guy has higher retreat cost than any other Raichu that was available. Just doesn't stack up to the competition.

Grade: 4/10

Vending Magnemite's sole gimmick is that it helps you spam more Magnemite onto the board with its Pokémon Power. There is a different Magnemite in the Team Rocket set that can benefit from this, but both are worse than Base Magnemite so it's kind of a moot point.

Being a 40 HP lightning-type in the era of Hitmonchan's Jab isn't exactly ideal, either. But there aren't many 'mons that can fill the bench without attacking, so at least it's neat.

Grade: 4/10

Vending Magneton is not a very good card. Microwave is over-costed for the damage output, presumably to balance the unique effect. It can hit any 'mon, active or benched, for 20 damage and flip a coin to possibly remove an energy from it.

Now this is a very cool effect, but there just weren't enough cards to make up a lightning-type control deck at the time. Also, are you really going to stall with something that has a fighting weakness?

Grade: 4/10

Vending Voltorb is the glass cannon to end all glass cannons. It has the lowest possible HP and an attack that can hit for up to 60 damage for just 2 energy. It also has free retreat, although it's probably going down before you get to use it.

I could honestly see a deck themed around this Voltorb work, possibly spamming Revive and Nightly Garbage Run to keep them in circulation. It would be insanely frail, but at least it could make for a fun deck.

Grade: 5/10

Vending Electabuzz has markers. Oh, yay. Specifically, it puts Lightning Rod markers on your opponent's team one by one and then fires off a Lightning Bolt to hit them all for 20 damage at once!

Or it would, if you could afford to just waste several turns in a row placing markers, which you can't. This card is a gimmick. Stick with the tried and true Base Electabuzz.

Grade: 2/10

Vending Zapdos features an interesting take on recoil damage. Raging Thunder might blast one of your pokémon, but you get to choose where to put that damage. That's actually kind of cool.

Thunder Crash is your standard high-risk, high-reward lightning-type move, but it does have the potential to do 70 damage, so I kind of like it. I'd rather have the raw speed of Base Electabuzz, but this would be a very good card if it weren't for Super Energy Removal.

Grade: 6/10

Featuring new takes on recoil and sniping, as well as some ideas for decks themed specifically around Voltorb and Magnemite, these cards really did explore the design space that the type was leaning into in new ways. They didn't all land (looking at you, Electabuzz), but I'm always glad to see new takes on old ideas.

Sadly, they would have probably all lived in the shadow of Base Electabuzz if they'd been ported overseas, with the possible exception of Vending Voltorb, who really is unlike any other card at the time. It's hard to shine when the first act is so tough to follow.