Let's take a look at the Bulbasaur Family.

Bulbasaur is a decent grass starter. His main problems are a Lowish 40 HP
and an Inability to attack first turn. Hitmonchan or electabuzz can destroy
this guy before he can attack. Once he does get two grass energy on him, he
can use "Leech Seed". Leech seed Does twenty damage and unless all of the
damage is prevented, bulbasaur can remove one damage counter. That means
that if the opponent has a defender card on thier active pokemon, Bulbasaur
can't remove a damage counter. If Lv. 16 Pikachu used "growl" last turn,
bulbasaur's attack would only do ten damage, but he would still remove a
damage counter. If The opponent was weak to grass, the attack would do
fourty damage, but Bulbasaur would still only remove one damage counter.
This makes "Leech seed" Inferior to "Leech Life" "absorb" and "Mega drain"
attacks. He's decent, but you wouldn't want to use him without his evolved
forms.
Bulbasaur - 2/5

Ivysaur is An Improvement over bulbasaur, with A clean thirty damage attack
and a Powerful twenty damage auto-poison attack. Vine whip is not too
expensive, and thirty damage is always good. But where Ivysaur really shines
is with it's Poisonpowder attack. Auto poison quickly forces to the defender
to do something. If Ivysaur uses Poison powder then vine whip over and over,
Damage really adds up fast. Ivysaur's weak point is it's 60 HP, low for a
stage one, but the power of it's attacks copensates for this. And a retreat
cost of one doesn't hurt either.
Ivysaur - 3/5

Base set Venusaur
Venusaur is tough. Wheather In the active slot KO'ing people with solarbeam
or on the bench using the potent "Energy Trans" power, this guy really makes
the game. Four grass is a trifle much for sixty damage, but It's unlikly
that you'd use this guy in anything but Mono-grass, and once it comes into
play, you can transfer energy from other pokemon to venusaur. It has a
fairly low retreat cost (2), and the hundred HP are close to the best in the
game.
4.5/5

Combos
Venusaur + Exeggcutor
Use venusaur to transfer all the grass energy you have to exeggcutor when it
comes into play. Then you can do a really, really, big eggsplosion.
Venusaur + Charizard
I don't like this combo, but some people do. This is what's supposed to
happen. You build a deck with both charizard and venusaur. First you
concentrate on getting venusaur out. Every turn, If you have a grass energy,
you play it on a pokemon, even if it doesn't need it.  Then when you get
charizard out, you transfer grass energy to it, and use Fire spin over and
over. I don't like this combo because it calls for two stage two pokemon to
be out at once, and we all know how frequently that happens.
Venusaur + Gloom
I've never seen this combo before, probably because I made it up and It's
not very good. This is how it works. You have a venusaur on the bench, and a
gloom as your active. You transfer energy to you gloom and use poisonpowder.
That poison's the opponents active. Next turn, you transfer more energy to
gloom and use foul odor to confuse both pokemon. Then you transfer all of
the energy away, so that when gloom dies, you don't lose energy. This would
also work with venomoth or Base Koffing. I know this combo makes no sense,
but it works. with the opponents active poisoned and confused, it's almost
helpless.
Venusaur + pokemon center
Everyone knows this one. Transfer all of your energy to an unhurt pokemon
before you use Pokemon center. Then no energy is discarded.
Venusaur + Dodrio
A dodrio in play will let your pokemon retreat for less, so less energy is
wasted, and venusaur lets you reuse that energy.

Promo venusaur
This venusaur is slightly less powerful than the base one. It's attack is
sometimes preferable, but usually Solarbeam is better than mega drain.
Healing your pokemn is nice, and if the defending pokemon is weak to grass,
you remove four damage counters.
Promo venusaur - 4/5
Combos:
Promo venusaur + Dark Gloom or Rocket Drowzee
Use Gloom or drowzee's Power, and if they affect your own pokemon, use Solar
power. Then nothing will be lost.

~Sri Lanka
amnesiapsyduck@hotmail.com
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