Vending Set Review - Psychic

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

It's no secret that the psychic-type dominates the modern Base-Fossil metagame, so it's kind of amazing that the Vending series arbitrarily decided to put most of its good cards in the psychic type. Most types in the Vending series are lucky if they get a single half-decent card, but this is where we're going to see a snapshot of a wholly different metagame.

A part of me is almost glad we didn't get the Vending series in the west, because some of these cards were undeniably a problem when combined with cards from previous and later sets.

Vending Abra is not one of those aforementioned powerful cards, though. If we're going to be stuck with a 30 HP Abra, then I'd prefer the one from Base Set that can inflict paralysis.

Then we have the Abra from Team Rocket who just has more HP. This is the worst of the first three Abra cards and that's really saying something, since Abra's not exactly a powerhouse 'mon.

Grade: 2/10

Vending Kadabra (#57) is mediocre. Its HP and retreat cost leave a lot to be desired, but its attacks are fine. Psy Panic is efficient as-is, and can one-shot anything with a psychic weakness comfortably. (Look out, Promo Mewtwo!)

Blink is just a "fine for the cost" attack, potentially preventing some damage. I do like this guy a little more than Base Kadabra, whose HP was too low to make effective use of his Recover attack, but that's not saying much.

Grade: 4/10

Vending Kadabra (#58) is much more interesting. He can recover Special Energy cards for you and his Energy Shock can really screw over the enemy's plans, practically forbidding them from attaching energy to their active unless they want to be paralyzed.

He even has higher HP and lower retreat than the other two versions of Kadabra. If I have to choose a "best Kadabra" for the time period, then this is probably the guy.

Grade: 6/10

Vending Alakazam is a weird payoff for the Abra line but it might be fun as a one-of. It has just a little more bulk than Base Alakazam and the same nasty Psy Panic that was on one of the Kadabra cards.

But the star of the show is Trans Damage. By removing all energy cards attached, he can shoot all of the damage counters on himself straight onto the opponent. The synergy with Damage Swap is fun, but that discard cost is crazy steep.

Grade: 5/10

Vending Slowbro is another freak. They basically took Base Haunter's design and flipped it on its head. You can inflict sleep on both the defending 'mon and Slowbro, but then Slowbro needs to stay asleep to use Big Snore (for a mediocre 30 damage).

Sleep is the weakest status in the TCG and Big Snore is a laughably bad payoff, doing the same damage as several attacks that don't have any restrictions.

Grade: 2/10

Vending Gastly is why we can't have nice things. It has the same effect as Fossil Psyduck's Headache, locking down Trainer Cards for a turn. And now we get to do it for a single colorless energy!

Being able to do that on a 'mon with free retreat is sick and wrong, but it only gets more messed up when we look at one of the upcoming Haunter cards. Easily one of the strongest cards from the Vending series.

Grade: 10/10

Vending Haunter (#61) mostly exists to be a comeback mechanic. The more prizes your opponent has taken, the harder Grudge hits. You can even speed this up yourself by using Base Electrode to forcibly give your opponent prizes if you're feeling sneaky.

Everything else about the card is forgettable, but doing upwards of 70 damage for 2 energy is good enough to warrant a mention, even if it pales in comparison to the other Haunter...

Grade: 6/10

Vending Haunter (#62) is the stuff nightmares are made of. Poltergeist does damage based on the number of trainers in your opponent's hand. Keep in mind that most decks at the time had dozens of trainers and that Vending Gastly locked those trainers up.

With a little luck, this card can easily hit for 50+ damage off a single energy. If you don't like that, then Night Terror is guaranteed to inflict a status (sleep or confusion), while doing 20 damage.

Grade: 9/10

Vending Gengar seems almost tame compared to his pre-evolutions. Still, he can undo multiple turns of progress on your opponent's board with a single coin flip, just in case they were building something up.

Psy Horror is essentially the upgrade of Night Terror, just doing 10 more damage. This Gengar mainly exists to finish off the opponent after you're done blowing holes in their team with Vending Haunter (#62), and I'd honestly consider him optional.

Grade: 6/10

Vending Hypno is one of the most creative and unique cards in the set. By hiding behind an army of Clefairy Dolls, this guy can chip away at the opponent 30 damage at a time without even touching your active spot.

His HP might as well read "60 HP + 4 Clefairy Dolls." Needing to blow through so many dolls just to finally get to him makes him a serious threat, especially since you can safely spam Team Rocket Drowzee's Long-Range Hypnosis the whole time.

Grade: 8/10

Vending Mr. Mime turns off all of the easy answers to your deck, simply by turning off type weaknesses and resistances. Birds don't resist Hitmonchan, Electabuzz doesn't beat Blastoise, and Magmar struggles with Scyther. It's Mr. Mime's own little madhouse.

If this card had been in our Base-Rocket format it would have completely upended conventional deckbuilding strategies. It fundamentally changes the rules of the game.

Grade: 10/10

Vending Jynx is...a psychic-type that requires Water Energy to attack? She's unique, if nothing else, and both of her attacks are on-curve. Unfortunately, "unique" doesn't win you any prizes.

With 50 HP and capping out at 20 damage per turn, she suffers a similar fate to the Tangela cards of the era, where she has the stats of something that should evolve, but she doesn't evolve. Even with more HP, I'm not sure she would've had a home anywhere.

Grade: 3/10

Vending Mewtwo (#66) is fine, but not on par with the best Mewtwo. Psycho Crush is clearly designed to be the ultimate anti-psychic attack, doing more damage if the opponent's board is loaded up with psychic energy, which is certainly interesting.

But that's your only attack until you can fully charge up Super Confusion, which is just a generic 50 damage for 3 energy. Starting with this as your only basic against a non-psychic deck would be miserable.

Grade: 3/10

Vending Mewtwo (#67) has the same problem, where its first attack is situational and its second attack is the decent generic attack. These guys both have an impressive 80 HP, but it's awkward to have your cheaper attack be only situationally useful.

On top of that, it's just a new version of Recover that discards all of Mewtwo's energy to remove damage and heal status. No thanks.

Grade: 3/10

This time we have a 60 HP Mewtwo (#115) whose first attack is unreliable at best. He doesn't even build up to some massive damaging attack, since Telekinesis can only do 30 damage at a time. It does have the flexibility of hitting any foe in play, but 30 is 30.

Compare all of these guys to the Movie Promo Mewtwo we already had in our the Base-Fossil format. Would you rather have these, or be functionally immune to Energy Removal?

Grade: 2/10

Vending Mew looks like Jungle Clefable at a glance, able to copy any attack. Then you notice that it also copies the energy costs of attacks. That's right, you actually need to be playing the same type of energy as your opponent to use Psydupe.

If I need to explain why this is a terrible card, then you really need to spend some more time actually playing the card game. I'll give it a point for having free retreat, though.

Grade: 2/10

The psychic-types of this series seem to hate other psychic-types for some reason, with multiple cards dedicated to just doing bonus damage against opposing psychics. Aside from that, we're continuing with the trend of this type having all of the best tech cards in the game.

I suppose it makes sense when you remember that psychic was originally conceptualized as the big powerhouse type of the franchise, before they reined in that philosophy in the second generation, but it's interesting to see just how desperate the TCG was to simulate the iconic feel of the mighty psychic-type.