Neo Discovery Review - Metal

Like with the Darkness-type, the biggest issue with the Metal-type is that there's always going to be a clear best option for your limited supply of Metal Energy cards.

There are a lot of Metal-types that are objectively good in a vacuum, especially when backed up by the extra bulk provided by Metal Energy, but they're not Steelix. And it's an unfortunate thing to not be Steelix.

Magnemite is a really strange card. You're guaranteed to have an extremely powerful attack on turn 2 if you can set up Lock-on, but then you need to immediately evolve if you don't want to keep up this cycle.

Still, 50 damage and guaranteed paralysis on turn 2 is insane. But there are some serious downsides. At 40 HP, you need a Metal Energy if you want to survive a hit. And if the opponent switches out, you miss out on the combo completely.

Grade: 6/10

Scizor is okay if played as printed, but especially solid if played as it was intended to be played. Double Claw is supposed to do 20 damage and flip 2 coins for up to 40 more damage. It's another WotC mistranslation.

Not that it matters that much. This is a solid card and False Swipe is a cute way to cut walls down to size, but you could just use Steelix instead. I'd probably only run this in a gimmicky Meditate deck, to mess around with False Swipe.

Grade: 7/10

Forretress is fairly good. Rapid Spin can put your opponent in suboptimal positions that encourage them to switch, while Spikes punishes them any time they do. That's a fun trick.

But, as always, we have to address the Steelix in the room. Your Metal-types are all competing for the same handful of Energy Cards, and while this is an objectively great card, it's usually not going to be worth using over Steelix.

Grade: 7/10

The general pattern for Metal-type Evolution cards is, "This has efficient attacks, a high HP stat, and no serious downsides." If they weren't all competing for the same small supply of Energy Cards, there might've been extremely powerful decks that used multiple Metal-types.

Unfortunately, you're usually limited to just one Metal-type line per deck. You can absolutely make a Scizor or Forretress deck work, but it's always going to feel like you only used it because you were tired of using the mostly superior Steelix.