What are the best Pokemon?

OK, enough on Scyther vs the world. Scyther-1, World-0. End of discussion.

My Q is this: What is the best Pokemon at each stage? I’m sure the debates
will rage (Scyther has to be the fave for Basics) but let’s
try to keep this respectable. Seeing as how it’s near impossible to
accurately rate different stages against each other I figured this
would be the best way. Keep in mind this is all taken in a “Deck”
sensability as opposed to just one card vs another since we’re all
card players, right? Keep in mind also this article does not account for any
trainers so Pokemon Breeders are not part of the
equation. OK, here’s my choices:

Basic- Ok, no brainer. Scyther fits any deck and is not a liability in any
way at all. Were I not picking him tho, I’d probably go with
Articuno. He’s like a slower Scyther and has the Status Effect bonus. The
extra HPs also equal up for his slow nature. The retreat is
where he fails but who retreats a Legendary Bird? They’re all overpriced in
that area. (Why would any of them have anything more
than a 1 retreat cost anyway?)

Stage 1- My personal fave, Jungle Flareon. Expensive in terms of energy
discard but he can do 60 (taking out most Pokemon and
every non-typo’d Grass type) on turn three and Eevee isn’t too bad a Basic
to start with since he can stall if does get put out before
you want him. His HPs are also decent enough although a greedy person could
want more. I’m guessing that Dewgong, Gyrados, or
Wiggly could be comp but Seel is too weak oiffensively, Magikarp is...well,
Magikarp, and Wiggly is better as Jigglypuff (any of the
millions of versions) until you fill up the bench. Team Rocket Raichu is also
a good choice but Electric decks are too hard to get to
work for me and are pretty rare anyway.

Stage 2- This is tough. My fave is Gengar due to the millions of Movie
Mewtwos popping up but my Raindance deck is my top deck
therefore giving Blastoise the nod. Either Alakazam is also worthy of votes
but Fossil Gastly and Fossil Haunter beat out the
Squirtle/Wartortle and Abra/Kadabra combos (just barely because of zero
retreat cost and Fighting resistance) since they can both
stall enough for you to get to Gengar and Haunter is actually a force in his
own right. Gengar’s bench attack ability is what pushes
him over the top.

So in summary my top three are Scyther, Flareon, & Gengar. What are yours?

-Harerazer@aol.com

Later...