Gym Series Review - Water

The Water types from the Gym series were heavily focused around Misty. While Misty's biggest claim to fame in the WotC era is probably the Misty's Wrath trainer card, you should be careful to never underestimate her 'mons when they're on the board.

At any point in time, a copy of Misty herself can suddenly boost their damage by 20 points out of nowhere. As a result, all of the Misty's cards get a significant boost to their viability on the back of that one card. Weirdly enough, Blastoise got left out of the Gym series. For some reason they decided a trio of Erika's Venusaur, Blaine's Charizard, and Misty's Blastoise would just be too much, I guess.

Misty's Psyduck (lv15) is a fine addition to a Misty deck. Scratch may not look like much, but keep in mind that you can spam Misty and Pluspower cards to get that damage up to 40 or 50 on the first turn pretty easily.

Call for Friend also lets you search for any basic Misty's 'mon, which gives the deck some consistency. But I don't think this card is crazy strong; it's more that the gym leader who uses it is a little overpowered herself.

Grade: 6/10

Misty's Psyduck (lv18) is a beacon of chaos. Its attack has a random effect, but all three effects are solid. Statistically, it's most likely to either do 20 damage or draw a card. Both are respectable outcomes for a single energy.

It can rarely whiff completely, but there's also that small chance it'll use an effect just like Clefable's Metronome. Personally, I think you should base your choice of Psyduck on what your plans are for Misty's Golduck, since it can use either energy type.

Grade: 6/10

Misty's Golduck is a beautifully designed card. Electro Beam does have a scary downside, but keep in mind that the Misty Trainer Card can boost that damage to 60, far above curve for a cheap attack.

Super Removal is also fun, if your opponent's board is full of energy. You can either build an aggro deck around this card or a control deck around it, and the versatility is really fun to have. But the coin flips do make it quite risky.

Grade: 7/10

Sabrina's Psyduck is fun. The downside of Random ESP may seem debilitating, but in practice you'll just evolve away the confusion even if you fail the coin flip.

With that in mind, this becomes a 50 HP 'mon that can do 20 damage for a single energy while possibly inflicting confusion. Yeah, that's extremely solid for an evolving Basic.

Grade: 7/10

Sabrina's Golduck decks are mostly focused on Damage Shift. You want to spread damage around your board with tools like Base Alakazam, Rainbow Energy, and even Darkness Energy (if all else fails).

These decks are pretty weird, but they can put in some work if you don't do anything to stop the combos. Unfortunately the whole deck grinds to a halt if anything happens to Sabrina's Golduck, which is likely given that its HP is only average.

Grade: 7/10

Misty's Poliwag (lv 16) is terrifying, largely because it's a Misty's pokémon. The downside of Bubbles is probably there to encourage the player to use Amnesia, but it barely matters. Misty lets you do 40 damage with this card on turn 1, a feat normally reserved for Erika's Jigglypuff.

Amnesia is a cute gimmick, but I'd rather just evolve if I'm locked out of Bubbles. This card has stiff competition in the "kills things fast" department, but it's up there.

Grade: 7/10

Misty's Poliwag (lv 15) is a perfectly playable card, but it has the misfortune of competing with an amazing attacker that shares its name. Hypnotic Stare really is an amazing stalling move, though, for what it's worth.

It suffers from a similar issue to Fossil Haunter, though, where the low HP just doesn't lend itself to what the card wants you to do, and it's way too passive in its role. Absolutely playable, but the other version is far more meta-relevant.

Grade: 5/10

Misty's Poliwhirl is a perfectly solid Evolution. Rapids is more than fair with the cost, and can be great against opponents hoping to hide behind a Metal Energy in later formats.

Water Punch is an efficient attack that gets stronger if you charge it up with basic Water Energy cards. The only real downside to this card is the clunky Retreat Cost. In every other way, this is a great Stage 1.

Grade: 7/10

Misty's Poliwrath is a questionable inclusion when compared to its previous forms. Water Ring is a costly attack, and the upside is pretty tame. I'd usually rather have the lower cost of Water Punch, frankly.

Also, that Retreat Cost is downright criminal. You're completely locked in with a 'mon that flops hard against Super Energy Removal. Overall, you probably shouldn't include this card, even in a dedicated Misty's deck.

Grade: 3/10

Misty's Tentacool (lv 12) is mostly noteworthy for its free Retreat Cost. Jellyfish Pod may look powerful, being able to swarm the bench at a moment's notice, but there's actually no payoff for having a bench full of jelly.

Only use this card if you have an idea for some sort of meme deck. It just doesn't do anything meaningful. It even has an attack with the same effect as Base Clefairy's Sing, just to really hammer home its uselessness.

Grade: 2/10

Misty's Tentacool (lv 14) somehow manages to be about as bad as the other one. The superior 50 HP is undermined by being completely unable to attack on the first turn and having an actual Retreat Cost.

Even when you do charge up Crystal Beam, it's only decent at best, since it wants to stall but doesn't have the bulk for it. They really didn't have a clear idea of what Tentacool should do exactly and it shows in the low quality of these cards.

Grade: 2/10

Misty's Tentacruel was almost a solid card. Jellyfish Poison is a genuinely menacing attack, inflicting a status ailment regardless of how the coin flip goes. But there are better attacks you could be using for that much energy.

Flee is a neat Pokémon Power, at least. A swarm of these could theoretically switch around over and over to avoid being knocked out, but it's not really practical.

Grade: 3/10

Misty's Seel (lv 14) is underwhelming. It can trap the opponent in with it, so I suppose you could use Gust of Wind to lock in something that doesn't want to be in the active.

Mirage is just a worse version of attacks like Smokescreen and Sand-Attack. I suppose the idea is that you lock something in and then keep it from attacking, but it doesn't come together in the way that the designers probably hoped it would.

Grade: 4/10

Misty's Seel (lv20) is essentially a type-shifted version of Base Growlithe. But while Base Growlithe evolved into a meta-relevant 'mon, this poor thing is only going to get even more forgettable with age.

There's no real incentive to put this in a deck. Even if you wanted to use this Evolution line, you'd probably rather be able to attack on the first turn, so I just can't see the vision here.

Grade: 3/10

Misty's Dewgong is a truly questionable card. Its Take Down is functionally just as hard to use as Base Arcanine's Take Down, but is much weaker. Meanwhile Ice Throw is only good if the opponent just happens to be a Fighting-type, but that's far from guaranteed.

It's like someone tried to slap everything about the Base Growlithe line onto a Water-type line, but without knowing what made those cards work.

Grade: 3/10

Misty's Shellder is a slight improvement over the original, but that's not exactly a glowing review, all things considered. Clamp is risky and can be miserable to use if you're prone to flipping tails.

At least it can do a little chip damage on the first turn, but that's basically all it can accomplish on its own.

Grade: 2/10

Misty's Cloyster is deceptively tanky, thanks to Shell Armor, which functions like a free Metal Energy. It ends up feeling more like a 'mon with 90-100 HP as a result.

But even if it can stick around a little longer than its HP would imply, what's it really doing with that time? Triple Cannon is inefficient and inconsistent and this card doesn't contribute much to any particular strategy.

Grade: 5/10

Misty's Horsea (lv 10) is just barely passable as an evolving Basic. The free retreat is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. It seems like many of Misty's cards were purposely nerfed to keep the Misty trainer card in check, which does make logical sense.

Smokescreen isn't as good here as it is on other cards, since devoting 2 energy to a 40 HP 'mon is never going to feel safe. Especially with a Weakness to Rocket's Zapdos.

Grade: 3/10

Misty's Horsea (lv 16) traded in the other Horsea's Tackle for 10 more HP. Note that Ink Spurt actually has a lingering effect on the defending Pokémon. This can be deceptively annoying.

I don't like either one of these cards, but if I had to pick one I'd take the one with more HP. After all, it can just retreat out into something else anyway. It's not obligated to stick around.

Grade: 3/10

Misty's Seadra would have been such a powerful basic, but as a Stage 1 it's pretty mid. Sadly, the coolest thing about this card is actually it's biggest problem. Knockout Needle can do massive damage with good luck, but Misty's 'mons really need consistent damage so that they can pair safely with Misty and Pluspower.

I really don't think this is a terrible card, but it fails at synergy. It just doesn't have a real home in any deck.

Grade: 5/10

Misty's Goldeen (lv 8) suffers from the same exact issue that Misty's Seadra does. This archetype doesn't want to rely on coin flips for damage and the card doesn't have a real home anywhere else.

The free retreat is nice, but there are actually quite a few Water-types with free retreat. Not much reason to use specifically this one. And it's even less compelling in the formats where Tyrogue is legal.

Grade: 2/10

Misty's Goldeen (lv 10) has really bad attacks, 40 HP, and isn't even a free retreater. At least the other one had some minor upsides to using it. You might think the 10 extra HP matters, but they both die to Rocket's Zapdos in one hit, so who cares?

Overall, just not a competent card by any stretch of the imagination. I would give it the lowest possible score but I have, surprisingly, seen worse.

Grade: 2/10

Misty's Seaking is the single laziest card design I've ever seen. They literally just took the original Seaking and added an extremely minor effect to the second attack. It's compatible with Misty, at least.

I was lenient with the original Seaking because it was only competing with other Base-Fossil cards, but this set is being judged in the context of the entire WotC era. This card is average, and has bad pre-evolutions.

Grade: 4/10

Misty's Staryu (lv 20) can't attack on the first turn. In what's supposed to be an aggro deck. So we're off to a terrible start. And Swift can't hit Fire-types for Weakness. Swift really isn't an attack meant for Water-types, who rarely struggle with resists in the first place.

Overall, the only thing this card has going over its counterpart is a little bit of HP. Not enough to make a huge difference, either.

Grade: 2/10

Misty's Staryu (lv 16) is a killing machine. Star Boomerang may only do the same damage as the original Staryu's Slap, but this card benefits from Misty and can potentially return all Pluspowers attached to it back to your hand.

You normally don't want your 'mons to bounce back to your hand. But if it's scoring a knockout for one energy and then possibly doing it again on the next turn? Oh yeah, at that point it's perfectly understandable.

Grade: 8/10

Misty's Starmie is serviceable, but you're really better off running the previous card by itself. Both of this card's attacks have a rate of 10 damage per energy. Even if Misty's Staryu keeps flipping tails and returning to the hand, it'll do 60 damage in the time it would take just to build this card up to 30.

It's not like there's anything wrong with Misty's Starmie, though. It's just an odd case of a card being mostly overshadowed by its pre-evolution.

Grade: 4/10

Misty's Magikarp is a Magikarp. But it does actually have a way to protect itself (if you flip heads on a coin flip) for a single Colorless energy, which is a huge step forward for the whole 'Karp race.

Aside from that, 30 HP. No damage output. Evolves into a broken dragon monster. Yep. This sure is a Magikarp.

Grade: 2/10

Misty's Gyarados may seem way too risky if you only judge it at a glance. A chance of shuffling itself into the deck when it attacks? Gross, right? Except that this is a card game, and as such we're going to cheat.

We could play it alongside Muk to just shut off that power or, more commonly, slap it on top of a Brock's Ninetales with Brock's Protection to turn off its Power AND make it immune to Energy Removal. But you do have to bend over backwards to use this card properly.

Grade: 7/10

A Magikarp that can do 40 damage!? Blasphemy! Oh, but it does fail and lose access to the attack permanently if it misses. That sounds a lot more like the 'Karp we know and love.

Still, a 50/50 chance of doing 40 damage on the first turn is deadly, so I don't actually hate having this little guy in the Active that much. Aside from, you know, the fact that he dies to a stiff breeze.

Grade: 3/10

Giovanni's Gyarados is a fairly typical Gyarados. Massive HP for a Stage 1 and hard-hitting attacks, although the first one smashes your own board, too. Dragon Tornado isn't bad, but is a little hard to maneuver with, since you don't get much control over it.

There are better Gyarados cards, better fits for Rain Dance, and better fits for the Giovanni deck. This is a deceptively average card that only looks good at surface level.

Grade: 4/10

The best thing I can say about any of these cards is that some of them hit really hard when powered up by Misty, but Erika's Jigglypuff can do that without any help whatsoever. Then again, if we compare everything in the Gym sets to that card, they'd all come out a little lacking.

The top performing Water-type decks of the era generally won't use anything from the Gym sets, but there's some half-decent material here for a few rogue builds.