Vending Set Review - Trainer Cards

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

The trainers from the Vending series were mostly consistency boosters; cards focused on getting you through your deck faster and more efficiently, or recurring cards from the discard pile in ways that weren't possible before. Notably, they focused on getting you to specific cards instead of just drawing several cards at once.

This is a sensible direction, since the game already had more than enough raw draw power.

Flash might be the most pointless card ever printed. It works like Pokédex, except that both players get to take advantage of it, and both players get to see the top card of the opponent's deck for the next few turns.

There's probably some stylish janky use for it that isn't coming to mind, but ultimately this card is a dud. The fact that every part of it is symmetrical is icing on the cake.

Grade: 1/10

Fossil Excavation is the final piece of the Mysterious Fossil engine that this set went out of its way to build up. And honestly, I do think the fossil cards would have been a lot more playable if they'd had all this support in the west.

They'd still be bad, since they don't have any big powerhouse cards to actually win the game with, but they'd be a lot better than they were, at least. This card is a theoretical 10/10, but it loses points for the low power level of the overall package it supports.

Grade: 7/10

Guard Spec is one of those rare cards that experimented with the idea of attaching trainers to 'mons before Tool Cards were implemented. But unlike Pluspower, which became an instant staple, Guard Spec is trash.

It only prevents the additional effects of attacks. It can't block damage. So not only will there be certain turns that this isn't useful, but there will be entire games where this isn't useful.

Grade: 1/10

This iteration of Master Ball has the same effect as the Great Ball from modern sets. It's less likely to completely whiff than Poké Ball, but there's also no guarantee that the top 7 cards of your deck will have the right 'mon.

So essentially it's less likely to find exactly one specific 'mon, but more likely to at least find something, which is usually a more powerful effect, all things considered. I like that it's not a strict upgrade, though. Clever design.

Grade: 7/10

Since no one was playing Revive, they decided to make it restore a 'mon from the discard to full HP at the cost of discarding 2 energy cards. Cool. So I only have to go -2 and throw away the next few turns in order to get a single basic 'mon back?

Would you like my kidneys and my left arm while you're at it? Obviously, this is not a very good card.

Grade: 1/10

If Moon Stone had been printed in English sets, it would have mostly been used to search for Wigglytuff, Dodrio, Dragonair, and Dragonite. But considering how dominant those options are, we would have been glad to have it. It does cost you a card from your deck, but the aggro decks wouldn't necessarily mind that.

It would be a nearly automatic inclusion in a significant number of top-performing decks, so obviously it deserves a high score.

Grade: 9/10

Pokémon Retransfer tries to solve one of the game's early problems in the clunkiest way possible. There's finally a way to get your evolution cards out of the discard pile...but they go on top of your deck instead of into your hand.

Not the most elegant solution, but it might be a necessary evil if you're playing an especially aggressive evolution deck. I could imagine this seeing play in some builds of Rain Dance and VenuCenter, but only as a last resort to be retrieved with Item Finder.

Grade: 6/10

Pokémon Tower is the only Stadium in the set, but it's pretty interesting. By shutting down access to all discard piles, you effectively turn off Item Finder, Energy Absorption, and similar effects completely. I have to wonder if that was the intent behind its design, since Item Finder is one of the most broken cards of the era.

This would be a neat tech card if your deck is weak against Movie Promo Mewtwo, but it pales in comparison to Stadium cards in future sets.

Grade: 5/10

Bill's PC isn't actually a playable card, which is why it goes at the very end. The idea behind this card was that you would mail in a copy of Bill's PC along with a copy of Omanyte, Haunter, Machoke, Graveler, or Kadabra in order to receive that card's evolved form in the mail.

This was a cute way to emulate trade evolution in the real world, although I can't for the life of me figure out why Omanyte was randomly included in this promotion.

If you wondered why there were multiple versions of each of these cards, this is why. They're meant to be easier to find so that you're more likely to be able to participate in the promotion. I wonder how many kids actually redeemed their evolution cards?

Grade: Nostalgia/10

In short, the only one of these cards that had any potential to see competitive play was Master Ball. But even then, decks were already capable of finding whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted it. The combination of Computer Search, Professor Oak, and Item Finder made it easy to dig and dig and dig.

But I like that they decided to buff specific themes like "fossils" and "colorless-types." They were trying to breathe new life into specific decks and I respect that.