Water actually did get a few relevant cards with the Neo Discovery set. We're still well below the excellent quality of Neo Genesis, but at least there's some progress being made.
It's also worth noting that these new Water-types are extremely aggressive. They balanced this out by giving the best attackers some pretty wacky deckbuilding requirements, but this ends up creating whole new decks, which is always welcome in my book.
Poliwag is lame but it's at least an improvement over the original Poliwag card. The Colorless cost of Rollout is convenient, but you'll mainly be using Hypnosis to try to buy yourself a turn. Or hoping you don't start with this in the active.
While it gets some cool Evolutions, I can't overlook how aggressively mediocre this card is. The frailty is obviously a major issue, but the fact that it has to choose between damage and sleep (not both) is really unfortunate.
Grade: 3/10
Poliwhirl's Belly Drum pairs nicely with the new Berry cards, and gets you set up to attack. So if you stayed as Poliwhirl, you could be doing 50 damage with Water Gun on turn 3, which isn't terrible.
But of course, its main purpose is to evolve one more time. It has respectable bulk and a low retreat cost, so I can't find any particular reason to dock points. It's a fine card, all things considered.
Grade: 5/10
Politoed's Doubleslap may look underwhelming (and it is), but Frogsong will boost that damage up to an average of 80 if you can build up a frog/tadpole army. Unfortunately, we were hit with a really bad translation.
It was supposed to require 3 or more Poli's, not more than 3. It sounds minor, but asking the player to get that last Poli is a tall order. The reward is compelling, but ultimately not worth the trouble. Still fun, though.
Grade: 6/10
Kabuto is cute, at least as a concept. It lets you cheat more copies of itself into play, circumventing the need for Mysterious Fossil, and even gets stronger if you load up on fossil 'mons.
It also has a powerful Evolution card, so even though it has miserable stats for a Stage 1, I can't overlook the value this card provides in fossil decks. It's a shame that this version only searches for Kabuto, though...
Grade: 6/10
Kabutops can do massive damage. It averages 20 damage per energy card and the need for Fighting Energy means it can slot right into Steelix decks, if you feel so inclined. With Steelix as your shield and Kabutops as your sword, anything is possible.
It isn't the most convenient card in the world, though, being a Stage 2. But that's immediately forgiven for the sheer carnage this thing can bring to the table.
Grade: 8/10
We're already getting another Wooper, but I personally prefer the original. Amnesia for one energy was really interesting, whereas this one is just an okay Basic. Don't misunderstand me, though. It has the 50 HP and protection that I've praised many times before.
It's just that this one doesn't bring anything new to the table whereas the other Wooper actually did, so it's hard to recommend this guy.
Grade: 4/10
Corsola sucks. I'm not going to sugarcoat it in anyway. It expects you to play two different kinds of energy for a Basic that can't evolve, yet has stats on par with evolving Basics.
And Recover? With 50 HP? This card is a joke in almost every way it possibly can be. Steer clear unless you desperately need exactly this card's weirdly specific combination of qualities.
Grade: 2/10
Despite introducing very few new cards, the new Water-types in Neo Discovery are kind of intriguing. Well, Kabutops and Politoed are, anyway. These both pale in comparison to the obvious best Water-types (Blastoise and Feraligatr), but they do exist on the outskirts as relevant cards in unrelated decks.
If we were only going to get a few new lines for the type, then at least we got something out of the set, however minor it may have been.
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