Gym Series Review - Fire

As always, Fire-types love discarding energy and hitting things. The Fire-types from this set are largely tied to the gym leader Blaine, and that can come up since the Blaine card has a nice little acceleration effect. The ones that saw play were chiefly used as big attackers to pair with Typhlosion, but new applications for some of these cards have been found since.

Don't sleep on the potential damage output of a Fire-type deck in the WotC era. The type as a whole also becomes more prominent going into the Neo era, when Grass and Metal-types quickly started to creep into the metagame.

Blaine's Charmander (lv 18) is a respectable attacker, when judged on its own merits. It can't attack with Colorless energy and its only attack has an annoying downside, but it's perfectly usable.

You probably wouldn't consider it outside of a Blaine's Charizard deck though, since risking a discard this early in the game for such minimal upside just isn't worth it. After all, there are ways to do 20 damage on the first turn without a downside.

Grade: 4/10

Blaine's Charmander (lv 16) is the one more people will recognize. Kindle is an obnoxious attack, functioning almost like an early game equivalent to Hyper Beam from earlier sets. This card is worth playing even without its Evolutions.

It is unfortunate that it has a discard cost, but the decks that run this card are fully capable of planning around it to make sure that the opponent suffers more than they do. Energy Removal on legs is always going to be viable.

Grade: 7/10

Blaine's Charmeleon is mainly a means to an end, but it's a perfectly respectable Stage 1. Fire Claws is just a solid, efficient attack. Meanwhile, Bonfire can be fun for spreading damage across the opponent's entire board.

Everything aside from Bonfire is pretty average. The Retreat Cost isn't ideal, but since Blaine's Charizard does see some competitive play, this card deserves a solid score overall.

Grade: 7/10

Blaine's Charizard is a challenging card to play properly, but it absolutely has applications. The cost of Roaring Flames is miserable, but the damage is uncapped. This allows it to hit for big damage when it really needs to.

Flame Jet can snipe Babies in the Neo formats, but is otherwise mainly functioning as a way to attack without discarding energy. This card loves to be partnered with 'mons that have low energy investments, like Neo Revelations Kingdra.

Grade: 8/10

Brock's Vulpix is everything an evolving Basic should be. It has a stun effect to help it survive until the second turn and a decent attack to fall back on if you can't draw into its Evolution.

The Colorless cost of Hypnotic Gaze actually matters too, since Brock's Ninetales has a bad habit of becoming a completely different type right away. You'll see what I mean.

Grade: 6/10

Brock's Ninetales is one of the weirdest cards of the entire era, but there are a surprising number of applications to this weirdness. If you change into a 'mon with a detrimental Pokémon Power, like Misty's Gyarados, then you get to turn that downside off for free.

Or put Brock's Protection on any Evolution Card using this guy as a middleman. Or fill your bench with extra copies of Sabrina's Haunter to ramp up Night Spirits. I could write a whole article about ways to use this one card.

Grade: 10/10

Blaine's Vulpix (lv 18) likes retrieving energy. Call Will-o'-the-wisp looks like an amazing attack, but there isn't actually that much practical application for it, since it takes up your attack for the turn.

Still, having a nice utility effect is cool, even if it's generally outmoded by other options. There's probably some janky application for this card in a deck somewhere.

Grade: 5/10

Blaine's Vulpix (lv 9) is a really uncomfortable card to use. It needs three energy just to attack, and that's clunky even with the acceleration provided by Double Colorless Energy.

It can heal itself, but it also only has 40 HP. If I had to use a Blaine's Vulpix, I'd definitely gravitate toward the previous version. It's not worth discussing, though, since you'll soon see that this whole line is just not going anywhere.

Grade: 2/10

Blaine's Ninetales definitely had a good idea going. It does massive damage as early as the second turn and can heal every time it attaches energy to itself, which it's encouraged to do by the discard cost of its attack.

Sadly, this is all undermined by having 60 HP. It's really easy to just one-shot this card with various meta threats of the WotC era like Wigglytuff, Blastoise, Sneasel, Feraligatr, etc. As a result, I can't recommend this card in good faith.

Grade: 4/10

Blaine's Growlithe (lv 20) can set up Blaine's Arcanine with Stoke. Accelerating energy is always nice. If you can't draw into Blaine's Arcanine, then Body Slam is a respectable attack that can inflict paralysis, and this card doesn't feel too frail to stick around for an extra turn.

As far as evolving Basics go, this is well above average. It does everything it should do and then some.

Grade: 7/10

Blaine's Growlithe (lv 17) is usually a worse option than the previous version, but keep in mind that the Blaine trainer card can turn Fire Tackle into a first turn attack. This may be worth the trade-off in a heavily aggressive build.

Shake is essentially Base Pidgey's Whirlwind, but for a more reasonable energy cost. It's unfortunate that you don't get to choose what switches in, but it's a usable attack, if nothing else.

Grade: 6/10

Blaine's Growlithe (lv 15) is proof that not all cards are created equal. Blaze can theoretically be a super-powerful attack in the event that your opponent is playing a mono-Grass deck.

But obviously enough, you have no control over that whatsoever. Against any other deck it's strictly worse than Base Growlithe, which was only propped up by its above average HP. Avoid using this card. It's a waste of cardboard.

Grade: 2/10

Blaine's Arcanine is one of the best Fire-type attackers in the entire WotC era, if not the very best. Firestorm may look like a worse version of Base Charizard's Fire Spin, but this guy only requires you to play a Stage 1 line and can use Heat Tackle when you don't need the explosive power of Firestorm.

He's one of the most popular partners for Typhlosion in the Neo formats, and one of the best counters to Grass and Metal decks, period.

Grade: 10/10

Blaine's Ponyta (lv 11) can retreat for free. That's the main thing. Agility is actually a solid attack for the cost, with its usual protection on a coin flip, but it's preferable to use this as a pivot, if anything.

It normally wouldn't deserve much attention, but it's actually really rare for a Fire-type Basic to be able to retreat for free. You should still only use it if you're running its Evolution, though.

Grade: 5/10

Blaine's Ponyta (lv 13) is a decent card. It definitely wants you to put a Double Colorless Energy on it, but that was a running theme of Ponyta and Rapidash cards at the time.

Just like the original Ponyta, hitting in on the first turn for 20 damage is nice. Make sure your deck is full of solid Basics, though, since you don't get to decide whether it switches out or not. I guess this little pony is a rebel?

Grade: 5/10

Blaine's Rapidash doesn't look impressive at a glance, but it's a very solid card. Stamp can start spreading damage all over the place as early as turn 2, and Fire Mane is a reasonable backup plan for when the opponent uses Super Energy Removal.

It's often overlooked for more popular attackers, but there's really no reason to dismiss the raw efficiency that this card provides. It's a really good 'mon, just in the most boring way.

Grade: 8/10

Blaine's Magmar deserves credit for going in a completely different direction than Fossil Magmar. Lava Burst can in theory do up to 100 damage for 3 energy. But in practice?

Well, competitive decks don't actually run much energy. As a result, this guy usually doesn't get to deal more than 20-40 damage at a time. He also has worse base stats than Fossil Magmar, so he's kind of a flop.

Grade: 5/10

Blaine's Moltres might be my favorite card ever printed. Not because it's good, no, no. It's not even remotely close to anything resembling a good card. But it's FUNNY, and that's extremely important to me.

This card has the audacity to ask for 5 energy cards and then flips a coin to see if it can just fly away with them. That's a hilarious downside to print on a legendary Pokémon. Don't actually use it though, for the love of all that's sacred.

Grade: Meme/10

Rocket's Moltres gets my jank senses going, and I really want to find some way to make this card good. But the reality is that having one more card in hand is a pretty minimal upside in such draw-heavy formats.

If it had just a little more HP it could have maybe been a viable candidate for Typhlosion decks, but as printed it's really not a great card. It especially sucks to have this thing as your starting active.

Grade: 3/10

Of all the types, I would probably argue that the Fire type benefitted the most from the gym sets. A solid number of the Evolutions are playable and there really is a lot to like here, despite the fact that the Blaine theme isn't really at the forefront like you would expect it to be.

Of course, I might be biased. After all, just looking at Blaine's Moltres again put me in a good mood.