Neo Genesis Review - Fire

Neo Genesis introduced very few new Fire-types to the game, but amazingly most of the 8 cards introduced see competitive play to some extent. This could be seen as a testament to the much more solid designs of the Neo era, having learned from the mistakes of Generation 1.

We'll also see the first Fire-type designed explicitly to be an enabler for the type's heavy discard focus, which finally made Fire-types feel like the powerful attackers they were always intended to be.

Magby is one of the lesser used Babies, but it still definitely has a role. Magby can shut down any Pokémon Power for a full round. This can give you time to play under the floodgates, break past a wall like Jungle Mr. Mime, or it can just slow down decks heavily reliant on Powers.

I'm not sure if this card would see play if it weren't also a Baby, but the combination of traits makes for a nasty little fellow.

Grade: 8/10

This Magmar probably only exists because Magby exists, but it's a perfectly respectable card. You could potentially use it with Double Colorless Energy in a donk deck, but you should be warned that donk decks are far, far less viable in the Baby-dominated Neo formats.

It's not as iconic as Fossil Magmar, but is a usable secondary attacker in Fire decks and can be a nice way to punish Grass-types elsewhere. I think it's underutilized.

Grade: 6/10

Cyndaquil (lv 14) is painfully outclassed by other Cyndaquil cards. I can't give it the lowest score since Leer at least shows some understanding of what an evolving Basic needs to do (survive), but my sentiments aren't positive.

There's no valid reason to use this in a Typhlosion deck over the competition. Its ONLY claim to fame is that it does neutral damage to the Totodile line with Swift...but it also dies to them instantly.

Grade: 2/10

Cyndaquil (lv 21) is good enough. The downside of Fireworks is frustrating, but at least it does enough damage to justify the risk. It can also technically attack with Colorless energy, but you're probably using it in a mono-Fire deck anyway.

The real appeal is that it has 10 more HP. The gap between 40 and 50 HP on a Basic is surprisingly vast in these early metagames.

Grade: 5/10

Quilava (lv 28) isn't my preferred option, but I have to give some credit to its ability to hit the Bench. Fire Wind can be a fun way to pick off a weakened opponent and Ember does respectable damage.

The low HP is annoying, but at least its only a middle-stage Evolution. If it weren't related to Typhlosion you'd never play it, but being so close to a major metagame threat tends to matter.

Grade: 5/10

Quilava (lv 35) is generally better than the previous version. Smokescreen helps you to survive until evolving without wasting any Energy Cards and having a little more bulk is always appreciated.

Char is especially interesting. It's basically the same mechanic as the burn status ailment, so this card could be seen as the prototype for an entire status ailment. It might be the only card in the game to have that distinction.

Grade: 7/10

Typhlosion (lv 55) is the best Fire-type printed up to this point, full stop. This is the Fire-type's answer to Meganium and Blastoise, and he's been paired with every Fire-type you can think of.

Fire Recharge may look unreliable due to the coin flip, but cards like Blaine's Arcanine can output such absurd damage that you're willing to do whatever it takes to charge them up. Hitting Steelix and Meganium for weakness certainly doesn't hurt.

Grade: 10/10

Typhlosion (lv 57) is often overshadowed by its sibling card, but is a seriously deadly attacker. You can accomplish a lot by abusing Hyper Devolution Spray and the Fire Boost Pokémon Power.

It sees more play in point-buy formats, where Typhlosion (lv 55) tends to suffer restrictions, but can be splashed in as a one-of in traditional Typhlosion decks too, if you so wish.

Grade: 8/10

Obviously enough, Neo Genesis only really contributes Magby and Typhlosion to the card pool, but those two additions were enough to completely reshape how the type was played.

The biggest issue with Fire-types in Generation 1 was that they discarded Energy Cards constantly without any form of acceleration (outside of Blaine), so the obvious solution is to just add acceleration. Fire-types have had a tradition of cycling through Energy Cards like this ever since, and you can mainly thank Typhlosion (lv 55) for the shift.