Neo Destiny Review - Water

While remnants of the old "does more damage with more energy" gimmick remain attached to the Water-type, it does start to build out into a more balanced type as time goes on.

This set introduced more status inflictors, defensive effects, and ways to increase damage that aren't dependent on Water Energy.

There's definitely nothing wrong with this Psyduck, but it's just so hard to compete with the original. The first ever Psyduck was able to completely lock the opponent out of trainers for a few turns.

There's just nothing the other Psyduck cards can do to compete with that. Still, it has respectable HP and Migraine is a surprisingly efficient way to confuse and damage the opponent. It's a solid Basic. Just not on par with the original Psyduck.

Grade: 4/10

Golduck weirdly got a lot of solid off-meta variants that are all usable to some extent. Light Golduck has high HP for a Golduck and Core Blast can do crazy damage as long as the opponent is using Special Energy.

You might actually want to avoid using Flipper Stroke, though. If the opponent has no Basic Energy in their hand, it might encourage them to use their Special Energy cards. As such, Flipper Stroke kind of works against the goal here.

Grade: 6/10

I'd rather use Base Seel over this one. Having lower HP and being unable to attack on the first turn really sucks. Take Down does do massive damage to anything weak to Water, but it's a stretch to call that a niche.

It's kind of a moot point since none of the Dewgong cards are incredibly viable, but this isn't even the best Seel on the market, in my opinion.

Grade: 2/10

Light Dewgong's Freezing Breath does have a 75% chance of forcing your opponent to skip their turn, assuming they don't have a Switch, Warp Point, or Double Gust. But they probably do.

Ice Pillar's defensive effect is too specific to matter and the damage output is low. It doesn't even have higher HP than the original Dewgong, so I'm not sure what the selling point of this card was supposed to be.

Grade: 2/10

Light Vaporeon loves healing, but its viability as a healer is questionable. You either need to rely on a coin flip or heal your opponent while you heal yourself. I suppose you could use it to recover from the spread damage of an Earthquake or Blizzard, but how important is that to you?

It just feels suboptimal to devote your attacks to healing unless there's a whole strategy you can build around it.

Grade: 4/10

Dark Omanyte sucks. Just like the original Omanyte, it feels like it has the power level of a Basic, even though it requires you to jump through all the same hoops as any other Stage 1.

Water Cannon can snipe the bench, though. So it's at least a much better attack than Water Gun. But there's just no valid reason to use this card in a deck.

Grade: 2/10

Dark Omastar really hates Evolution cards...but is weirdly bad at dealing with them. It has a worse version of Mew's Devolution Beam and a MUCH worse version of Aerodactyl's Prehistoric Power, but neither of those cards required you to build up a full Stage 2.

There's also no benefit from putting both effects on a single card, especially in this weaker form. It's just a bad card.

Grade: 1/10

Totodile is a perfectly playable Basic. Water Gun is just as inefficient for the cost as ever, but even doing anything on the first turn is a selling point. It also has the solid 50 HP that I look for in a WotC-era evolving Basic.

One fun side-note about the Feraligatr line is that they're always weak to Grass instead of Lightning, which can make them fun inclusions alongside other Water-types.

Grade: 5/10

Dark Croconaw is a solid attacker. Clamping Jaw traps the opponent and inflicts a Smokescreen-like effect, putting the opponent in a terrible situation. It does have low damage output for an Evolution, but it'll be evolving again, so that's forgivable.

The 60 HP is a little questionable, but at least this is after the release of Team Rocket's Hideout.

Grade: 5/10

Dark Feraligatr tries to be a hard counter to Babies, but it fails in the most crucial way. You would think shutting down their attacks and powers would make them useless, but the most powerful element of a Baby is the Baby Rule, which is not a power.

Because of this, you still have to deal with those annoying coin flips, even if you Scare every Baby in play. Crushing Blow is a very solid attack, though.

Grade: 5/10

Light Azumarill is better than it looks. Bubble Jump can be used to potentially fully heal itself while setting up a second Light Azumarill. By bouncing between them, you can get a pretty tanky Water deck going.

But once your opponent breaks the chain, you're in trouble. It only takes a few bad coin flips in a row for the whole deck to fall apart. I can't bring myself to give it a bad score, though.

Grade: 7/10

Swinub has solid HP but can't attack on the first turn. I will always, always hate to see that on a Basic. But I suppose it is a rare example of a Water-type that resists Lightning. That alone gives it some utility.

It's an underwhelming card, but you'll hopefully be starting with a Cleffa in your active spot anyway.

Grade: 3/10

Light Piloswine's Fluffy Wool may initially look just as good as similar Pokémon Powers, but keep in mind that your opponent will get two separate coin flips before their next turn to potentially wake up.

On top of that, the damage output of Knock Over isn't very good for a fully evolved Pokémon. Sure, it removes a Stadium, but you can do that by just playing your own Stadium. Even in Dark Gengar decks that thrive on sleep, this isn't a good fit.

Grade: 3/10

Remoraid does solid damage for the cost and has a free retreat cost. So you kind of get the best of both worlds here, although the low HP is scary to open with in a world where Rocket's Zapdos is running around.

Avoid letting it get stuck in against a Lighting-type and it'll put in some work. And if I could award bonus points for the artwork, this would be pretty high up there for me.

Grade: 6/10

Dark Octillery's Ink Blast is uniquely powerful when compared to a move like Water Gun. It starts at 20 damage instead of 10, and counts EACH energy attached instead of just Water Energy.

You can pair this with Double Colorless Energy or Darkness Energy to easily get to 40 damage on turn 2. Tentacle Wrap won't see as much use by comparison, but it can come up as a way to soften up the foe first.

Grade: 6/10

Mantine is a little awkward since it can't attack on the first turn, but it can be a decent tech option against Fire-type decks. Being able to do 80 damage on turn 2 to most Fire-types in the game can put the opponent in a difficult situation.

The downside is obviously debilitating, so make sure you have some ways to switch out Mantine without paying the obnoxious retreat cost.

Grade: 5/10

None of the Water-types from Neo Destiny really wow me, but I do appreciate that only one of these sixteen cards has the generic Water Gun from earlier sets. The faster we move on from that inefficient nonsense, the better.

Of course, none of these cards come close to Base Blastoise or Neo Genesis Feraligatr. But were you really expecting them to?