Neo Genesis Review - Water

The new Water-types of Neo Genesis were mostly defined by a move toward attacks that have a solid damage-per-energy ratio. There is one obvious winner among all the new Water-types that helped to define the era, but at least there's finally a Water-type deck outside of Rain Dance as a result.

It's also noteworthy that a fair few of these new Water-types aren't weak to Lightning. The ones that resist it are especially interesting, and may have some (very) niche applications in Water-centric decks.

Horsea may not look like much, but the combination of 50 HP and no Retreat Cost is good enough. You're unlikely to actually use Fin Slap, but just the fact that you can take a hit safely and pivot around while setting up gives this card utility.

It's definitely a better fit for the Neo Revelation Kingdra, but there's room for debate when running it with the Kingdra from Neo Genesis. Either way, it's amazing what base stats alone can do for a card.

Grade: 5/10

Seadra is a marked improvement over earlier Seadra cards, and this particular Seadra will also be mandatory for the Kingdra from Neo Revelation. Since this set is being graded on the context of all Neo formats, that makes a big difference.

It was already a solid card with fair HP and decent damage output for a middle-stage Evolution, though.

Grade: 7/10

Kingdra is outclassed by another card with the same name in sets with wider card pools, but it was pretty usable on its release. Having 90 HP and no Weakness makes this card deceptively hard to deal with.

It also has respectable damage output, but does require dedicated answers to the Energy Removal cards. It's honestly a good Stage 2 that doesn't get a lot of discussion because of its famous younger brother.

Grade: 7/10

Totodile (lv 13) is a bit too frail for my taste. Don't let the text on Rage get you excited; it needs to be on 10 HP just to do 40 damage. There's also no real benefit to having a colorless Bite, since it's historically played in mono-Water decks anyway.

You're better off using the other Totodile, but I can't give this card a completely terrible score, since it's related to one of the strongest cards in all of Generation 2.

Grade: 3/10

Totodile (lv 20) is generally the one you're going to prefer. It's bulkier, hits harder on the first turn, and can potentially protect itself with Leer if you're forced into a corner.

It's strange how far apart these two are in terms of viability, but I suppose they didn't put too much thought into evolving Basics back in the day.

Grade: 6/10

Croconaw (lv 34) has a really awkward split between its attacks. The intent here is to use Screech on turn 2 and follow it up with Jaw Clamp, but the best Feraligatr should be ready to go by the time you can afford Jaw Clamp.

I wouldn't really advise you to use this one, but at least keep it to a minimum unless you have some clever idea for it. Jaw Clamp would be really nice if it had been redesigned as a turn 2 attack.

Grade 4/10

Croconaw (lv 41) is a much more user-friendly card. 80 HP for a Stage 1 is high and both of its attacks are excellent on-curve attacks. I especially love that Sweep Away is purposely designed to set up for Feraligatr's Riptide in situations where you need a little more setup.

This was an early example of the designers building Evolution lines with synergy in mind, and I love that.

Grade: 8/10

Feraligatr (lv 69) continues the trend of each Johto starter having an obvious best card. Riptide can do massive damage if you can keep filling your Discard Pile with Water Energy cards, and there are a LOT of ways to do that.

By cycling through the deck with Misty's Wrath, Trash Exchange, Professor Oak, and Downpour, you can pretty easily hit hard over and over again. This was one of the most dominant cards in the Neo formats, and ruled over Rocket-On with an iron fist.

Grade: 10/10 

Feraligatr (lv 56) seems like it was probably intended to synergize with Feraligatr (lv 69). Why else would Berserk dump a bunch of cards from the deck to the Discard Pile?

But there's no reason to relegate your setup to a coin flip, nor should a Stage 2 be setting up for a different Stage 2 in the first place. Chomp isn't a terrible attack, but it pales in comparison to the damage output from Riptide. This is just the worse card.

Grade: 6/10

Marill is an okay Basic, but not outstanding. Having 40 HP and a Lightning Weakness at this time was a potential death sentence, though, since Rocket's Zapdos can donk it on the first turn.

Defense Curl will increase your survivability a little bit, but you would really prefer just a little more bulk. Bubble Bomb has solid damage, but there are stronger things you can do on turn 2.

Grade: 3/10

Azumarill isn't awful but doesn't have a real home anywhere. The biggest Water decks at the time weren't willing to commit space in their deck to a Stage 1 that's only "decent."

It doesn't help that it's competing with cards like Base Blastoise, Fossil Articuno, and Genesis Feraligatr (lv 69). I can't imagine a real situation where this would be your best option.

Grade: 5/10

Wooper is weirdly good. The trick to this card all lies in Amnesia. There are quite a few strong cards that only have one attack (usually due to having a Power instead of a first attack).

Wooper can turn off your opponent's strongest (or only) attack, which can buy you some much needed time. It's honestly a much stronger card than you might think at a glance.

Grade: 7/10

Quagsire is super weird. It resists lightning, which is an amazing quality for a water-type, but it also can't use its strongest attack without fighting energy. I think you could probably make this work in a deck, but I'm not entirely sure why you'd want to.

The mixed energy costs are nearly a death sentence for this card. I do understand the idea here, but the payoff isn't worth the clunky execution.

Grade: 4/10

Swinub is almost exactly on par for an evolving Basic, aside from having an unfortunately low HP stat. I would've loved to have just a little more bulk, but at least it can put the foe to Sleep to defend itself.

Evolve it as quickly as you can. It really can't do that much on its own. The Lightning Resistance is neat, though.

Grade: 3/10

Piloswine is a different take on Quagsire's whole "Water Type that resists Lightning" shtick. Freeze is actually very cool, since the effect is permanent until the opponent switches out, but that's the only distinguishing feature of the card.

I wouldn't laugh you out of the room if you played this in a Rain Dance deck, but I would be quietly concerned for you.

Grade: 5/10

Mantine's biggest issue is that it can't attack on the first turn. Some 'mons get away with this by having a free Retreat Cost, but we don't get that kind of benefit here. Instead it's just a bog standard card that functions, but is outclassed by existing cards.

Stick with Fossil Articuno or Fossil Lapras as your Water-type big Basics. This guy just doesn't cross the finish line.

Grade: 4/10

One big distinction for the new Water-types is that they don't seem to be afraid of printing water-types with efficient attacks anymore. During Generation 1 it felt like they designed every new Water-type to hit a little softer than it should in order to work around the existence of Blastoise and Misty, but here they finally let the type off the leash.

This arguably should've happened much sooner, since Fossil Articuno was never going to be replaced by Evolution Cards in Rain Dance anyway, but better late than never.