Neo Destiny Review - Fighting

If there's one running theme for the Fighting-types in Neo Destiny, it's that they tend to have weirdly restrictive or conditional ways to do damage.

This does betray the simplicity that the Fighting-type has adhered to so strictly up to this point, but at least it made for some interesting concepts. But while these cards are fascinating conceptually, very few of them are good.

This Machop should never be used over Base Machop. The HP is lower and the attacks are worse. Machop isn't a card that benefits from having Colorless costs, since its goal is to evolve into a Machoke or Machamp, which always feature Fighting-type costs.

It's unclear why they even bothered with this. A simple reprint of Base Machop with an alternate artwork would have been more worthwhile.

Grade: 2/10

Light Machoke can do 40 damage on the second turn...if your opponent took no damage beforehand. This does limit its usefulness a bit, but you can always use setup moves on other cards with your first few turns and then swing in for one big hit before evolving, so it's fine.

Return Home is just Mr. Fuji on an attack, but that's at least interesting. It could be a fun way to recycle damaged tanks.

Grade: 5/10

Light Machamp is a respectable attacker that can heal your active, switch itself in, and then start doing solid damage. The secondary effect of Beatdown might come up, since there are quite a few meta-relevant Dark and Darkness-type cards in the Neo formats.

It's not on par with the starters, but you can build a deck around it. Make sure you include cards like Double Gust and Warp Point, since this line cares so much about positioning.

Grade: 7/10

Hitmonlee is heavily reliant on coin flips and the expected damage is quite low. One-Two Kick is doing an average of 20 damage for 2 energy, while Heel Drop is doing an average of 30 for 3.

If there were some way to always flip heads, this would be an incredible card. But when factoring in how luck-reliant it is, this just isn't worth using over superior options.

Grade: 2/10

Compared to Base Hitmonchan, it's obvious that they nerfed this card into the ground out of fear of the Big Basics formats that came before the Neo block. Fair enough, honestly. But they nerfed a little too hard.

The inefficiency of Supersonic Jab is disgusting and Dodge is outperformed by the original Caterpie's String Shot, of all things. Don't bother with this card.

Grade: 2/10

Shining Kabutops is mainly let down by the cost of its attacks, as is typical with Shining cards. You can basically only power this up with a Base Electrode deck, and even then you're stuck choosing one of its two attacks to focus on.

Neither one is worth all the hassle and there are frankly better things to pair with Electrode. Hell, Electrode decks in general aren't actually very good in Base-Neo.

Grade: 6/10

A much, much better Gligar already existed. The free retreat cost is always nice, but why should I settle for this card when Neo Genesis Gligar is so many leagues above him?

Lower HP. Unable to attack on the first turn. Heavy reliance on coin flips. Yeah, no. I'll use the original Gligar all day, every day.

Grade: 2/10

Phanphy's HP is pathetic, but Crushing Step could potentially one-shot a frail Colorless or Lightning-type. The HP is also a little more tolerable here, just because there aren't many Grass-types that can do 20+ damage on the first turn to knock out Phanphy.

It's honestly only passable as far as Basics go, but this is probably the Phanphy you should use if you want to run its Evolution.

Grade: 4/10

Dark Donphan is NOT the Evolution you should run for that Phanphy, though. The regular Donphan from Neo Genesis was a far stronger card.

Dark Donphan has low HP, a ridiculous retreat cost, a coin-reliant first attack, and an efficient but expensive second attack. It ticks most of the boxes I associate with pack filler. Avoid it.

Grade: 3/10

Larvitar isn't good, but Leer could at least buy you a turn if it gets stuck in your active spot. Try to start with something else, if possible. Rock Throw is inefficient, but you should evolve before ever using it anyway.

The low HP sucks, but at least its retreat cost is reasonable. I at least like it slightly better than the one from Neo Discovery.

Grade: 4/10

Dark Pupitar is a solid middle-stage, aside from the low HP. Rock Tackle does an impressive 40 damage early, and Explosive Evolution gives you something to shoot for if you're having trouble drawing Dark Tyranitar.

You should play Dark Tyranitar the normal way if possible, though. Otherwise you could waste multiple turns flipping coins for no effect.

Grade: 6/10

Dark Tyranitar, which is weirdly not a Darkness-type, is a fairly powerful Stage 2. The HP is far above-rate for a Dark card and will hit a staggering 110 HP with Team Rocket's Hideout.

Mountain Smasher is a solid attack, although it does work similarly to Jungle Exeggutor. Pairing Dark Tyranitar with Base Electrode could be really fun. Fling Away is a little inefficient, but you might get to snipe a Baby while damaging the active.

Grade: 7/10

It should come as no surprise that the discussion of "best Fighting-type" rarely turns to Neo Destiny. When compared to Neo Genesis Donphan, Base Hitmonchan, Neo Genesis Gligar, or even just Base Machop, these cards just don't meet the standard.

Still, it's the most complex group of Fighting-types on offer so far, so at least I had a little fun puzzling out ways I would use the cards in a deck.