Unlike the other types, the Psychic-type actually received several new strategies in the Neo Discovery set, though this is admittedly mostly because of Unown. The gimmick of the Unown cards is that they have a whopping 26 different cards that are meant to be mixed and matched into dedicated Unown decks.
As a result, that one species of Pokémon weirdly accounts for several different strategies on its own, which can be combined into a variety of shapes.
Espeon (lv 38) follows the trends set by the Jungle Eeveelutions, with Quick Attack and a type-specific attack (in this case, Psybeam). This is passable, at least, but it's severely lagging behind Espeon (lv 45).
I suppose the confusion chance is cute, but there's just no tangible reason that you would ever use this over the card it's directly competing with, which costs it several points.
Grade: 4/10
Espeon (lv 45) is one of the best Eeveelutions of the era, and a solid Psychic attacker in general. While Eeveetron isn't a top tier deck in any format, it is really nice to have a Stage 1 with 80 HP and a free retreat cost.
It also retains the ability to attack for a single Double Colorless Energy, allowing it to slot right into the Eeveetron shell with no issues whatsoever. I guess they only printed the other version for tradition's sake.
Grade: 8/10
Natu is cute. It can potentially inflict confusion for a single energy, which is unbelievably rare. I would normally dock a point for being such a frail Basic, but honestly Confuse Ray is so good that I'm giving the point back.
It's just a shame that there were no meta-defining Xatu cards to pair it with, so it's never going to see play in a serious competitive environment.
Grade: 4/10
Xatu is painfully mediocre by this point. Super Psy is a very respectable attack, but compared to Espeon (lv 45) or even the old Promo Mewtwo, this card is just sorely lacking.
It probably only needed one more good quality to push it over the edge, but the incredibly minor disruptive effect from Energy Cycle was not the push it needed. At least its stats are serviceable.
Grade: 4/10
Unown A can power up an entire flock of Unown with its Anger Pokémon Power. It essentially turns Hidden Power on every Unown you have into a version of Rage, except that they get their boost from how much damage is on this card.
The maximum boost you can get from this is 30 damage, but you can use cards like Revive and Rainbow Energy to set this up, so it's not completely unusable as a strategy. Just really, really gimmicky.
Grade: 7/10
Unown D reduces damage taken from Darkness-type Pokémon. It's usable, but the main Darkness-type attacker is Sneasel, which does so much damage that I wouldn't really consider this thing to be worth the deck space.
It's also worth noting that its effect was supposed to only apply to other Unown cards, but WotC translators were pretty damn bad at their jobs, as we all know by now. It's also necessary for the FIND and UNDO effects, which we'll cover later.
Grade: 5/10
Unown E is weirdly just a generic draw engine. The symmetrical effect may seem like a big downside, but since it only draws 4 cards, the opponent may not always want to use it.
As a result, it's a playable piece in aggressive decks that want to get a little more draw power. It also shares many benefits with Cleffa, such as forming a mean little combo with Lass or being able to reuse its effect multiple times.
Grade: 7/10
Unown F is the centerpiece of the FIND strategy, which can get you any Trainer Card you want once per turn. But if you can assemble all of Unown F, Unown I, Unown N, and Unown D, then you probably could've just found whatever you needed with the draw engine that got you to this point.
It is cute that Pokémon tried to have its own little version of Exodia, though. It's just unfortunate that the payoff isn't quite enough for the setup.
Grade: 5/10
Unown I is mainly meant to help you spell out FIND and GIVE. I actually really love the concept of these little spelling decks, but none of them ended up being super viable strategies.
Still it's just a flat +1 in card advantage and is a consistency booster, even if it's a consistency booster in some really underwhelming decks. Those are enough qualities to warrant a fair score.
Grade: 6/10
Unown M almost exclusively exists to reduce damage taken from an incoming Steelix. The real threat of Steelix isn't even its damage output so much as its bulk, so this isn't that compelling.
It's even worse in Japan, though, where it only has this effect on other Unown cards. Unown D/M/N are super weird cards when you stop to think about it. They're matchup dependent, but you're forced to play them if you need to spell certain words. Weird design choice.
Grade: 3/10
Unown N is the most likely of the type-resistance Unown to come in handy, since any deck might splash in a random Colorless-type or two.
But the real benefit of this card is that it's used in four different Unown Powers: UNDO, FIND, WANT, and JOIN. So you'll be using this card in Unown-based strategies whether you want to or not.
Grade: 5/10
Unown O has a more useful effect than it may first appear. While you only get to look at the topmost cards of their deck, you can pair this card with any effect that shuffles your opponent's deck to reduce their chances of drawing their most wanted cards.
Even without that, having knowledge of what's coming can come in handy. If you know that something like Lass is coming up, you can prepare for it.
Grade: 6/10
Unown U is the enabler for a nasty stall deck thanks to its power, UNDO. If you can assemble the entire word, you get a coin-free Super Scoop Up effect every single turn. This can be used with cards like Jungle Mr. Mime to put your opponent in a lose-lose situation.
This is probably the one Unown word that comes the closest to feeling like an Exodia-style strategy, even if the win actually happens dozens of turns later.
Grade: 8/10
Wobbuffet is a pretty lame note to end on. It does have 90 HP and could potentially do big damage, since Counter stays active even if Wobbuffet is knocked out, but your opponent can choose not to attack.
Still, if you're playing a more stall/control playstyle, then discouraging attacks and occasionally getting a free revenge kill might be all you wanted from this card in the first place. Choose whether to run it based on your own preferences.
Grade: 6/10
One thing I should point out is that you get all of the cards necessary to spell UNDO and FIND from this one set, along with a few bonus Unown. I think this was a good decision, since it lets players start collecting for the words right away.
As for the non-Unown cards, Espeon (lv 45) is the only one worth writing home about. Psychic-type decks aren't nearly as dominant in the Neo formats as they were way back in Base-Fossil.
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