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Mewtwo: Thank you! And welcome to our talk show, "Steel and Psy". Whether Man isn't here, but we can do without him. Today's topic: Team Rocket! An expansion full of powerful attacks, coin flips, pokemon powers, and a boatload of lethal cards.

Eaamudo: According to Top Deck magazine, you can use 4 Charmeleons and four "Dark" Charmeleons. I liked "Evil" better, but at least dark is better than "bad". Oh, and greater shock, HERE COMES TEAM ROCKET ISN'T SUPER RARE!!! NO!!!!!

Mewtwo: Yes, but on to the type analysis. Well, first on line: Fire. Fire gets pumped up with the Dark Charizard and Dark Rapidash lines, and Dark Flareon. Rapidash isn't that good, since it lost agility and only has 60 HP. Same goes for Dark Flareon, who has a measly 50 HP, a 2 fire energy attack that may do 50 damage, and a below decent Rage attack. Dark Charizard, however, is a completely different matter. First, Dark Charmeleon, who has a 50-50 chance of doing 70 damage for 3 fire energy. Then Dark Charizard. This guy is probably one of the best cards in the expansion. A decent 80 HP, a resistance to fighting, a 10 damage attack for Mr. Mime, and an attack for two fire energy that allows you to flip a coin for each fire energy attached and do 50 damage for each heads! That's Big Eggsplotion on steroids!

Eaamudo: However, there is a wording error. It says you can only use those attacks if you have fire energy attached to the pokemon. Ummm.... How CAN you use the attacks without fire energy when it costs fire energy to use them?! Next: Water. Well, we got a whole new Magikarp. This time he has a 3 water energy attack that allows you to search for either Dark or normal Gyarados. Interesting, because we have a new Gyarados. This one has Ice Beam, which is exactly like Freeze Dry, and a pokemon power that gives you a 50-50 chance of doing 20 damage per water energy attached to him when knocked out. Talk about going out with a bang!

Mewtwo: We also get brand new Blastoise, Golduck, and Vaporeon lines! Squirtle now is a 50 HP version of Ponyta, without flame tail though. Dark Blastoise has no Pokemon Power, but he can do 70 damage for 4 water energy and has a 40 damage attack for WCC that can give you, if heads on a coin toss, no damage from your opponent's attacks! Dark Wartortle isn't that great though, but Breeders can fix that! Psyduck now has the ability to draw a card for P and a 20 damage Water Gun attack for WC. Dark Golduck is now a clone of Kadabra, but with only 2 Retreat and an awesome attack that lets you discard a card from your hand to draw 3! Dark Vaporeon isn't that great. He's basically Fossil Golduck with 10 less HP and with a 30 damage attack for 3 colorless.

Eaamudo: Next: Fighting. Fighting gets three evolution lines to work with. The Machop line's is okay, but can be replaced by Pidgeot's. Machop has 50 HP, a 20 damage attack for CC, and a 30 damage attack for FCC. Machoke is a fun card with 60 HP. Both attacks cost FFC, but one knocks the pokemon back to the bench and deals 2 damage to whoever comes out, and the other deals 30 damage first and sends a benched pokemon out. (It's confusing without the card in front of you, but trust me, they're different) Next, Dark Machamp. This card can do 30 damage for FF, which is good. He also has a FFFC version of Hurricane. Pidgeot's better.

Diglett's line's awesome! He's now a 40 HP mole with 2 new attacks. One can do 10 damage to anyone for F, the other can do 20 for FC. Dark Dugtrio rocks with the ability to do 20-40 damage for FF, and a pokemon power that has a 50-50 chance of doing 20 damage to any of your opponent's retreating pokemon. Lethal! Too bad he has only 50 HP. Dark Primeape has been overrated, with a below average basic, and an attack that would be good, but since it confuses him and he only has 60 HP, I'd say that if you flip tails, he's dead.

Mewtwo: Next in line: psychic. Slowbro, Alakazam, and Hypno all get upgraded. Well, at least Slowbro. Slowpoke now has an attack for C that lets you search for a Psy energy, and a 10 damage attack for P. He also keeps his 50 HP, which is pretty good. Dark Slowbro's new Pokemon Power allows him to retrieve up to 3 pokemon from your discard pile, and he also has a 50-50 chance of doing 40 damage for PP! (Man, there's a LOT of coin flipping here!!!)

Drowzee now has a pokemon power that has a (you guessed it!) 50-50 chance of putting your opponent's active to sleep. That's great, because after 3 years, Base Haunter can finally use Dream Eater!!! Dark Hypno has a brutal attack now that lets your opponent flip a coin for each of their benched pokemon, and does 20 damage for each heads! But now, Alakazam. Big A now has a basic that has 40 HP, keeps his old attack, and has an attack that does the exact same thing as Scoop Up. Dark Kadabra has a 30 damage attack for PP that can't be effected by weakness and resistance, and a pokemon power that's exactly like Promo Dragonite's, except you discard the card. Dark Alakazam's a waste, with only 60 HP (which is becoming a trend) a 40 damage version of Kadabra's previous attack, and an attack's like a 30 damage retreat. This entire line can be replaced by Nintendo Power Mewtwo, who also has 60 HP, like everybody in this freakin' set doesn't.

Eaamudo: Lightning strikes today! None of the lightning pokemon are worth your money, so skip this part. VOLTORB NO LONGER SUCKS!!! (Crowd cheers) He's basically the same with the only difference being his only attack does 20 damage for a lightning energy. Electrode is terrible, with his only good attack only doing 30 damage and makes you transfer ALL energy attached to a benched pokemon. You may as well have never played him and attached that energy to the benched guy to begin with!

Magnemite has a CC attack for 20 and a LC attack that does 20 plus 20 for each Magnemite and Magneton on your bench. Magneton now has Sonicboom, which never was good, and Magnetic Lines, which deals 30 damage, and moves one energy attached to the defending pokemon and moves it. Not that great.

Dark Jolteon, with only 50 HP, has a 20 damage Sand-attack clone, and an attack for LLC that either paralyzes the defender, or deals 10 damage to you. See I told you they were all bad, but no, you had to keep reading!

Mewtwo: Next: Colorless. Raticate, Dragonite, Persian, Porygon and Eevee get boosted up by the Rockets! Okay, now if you haven't noticed the pattern with Eevee (I know there's a lot of patterns but try to remember this one.) all pokemon in the Eevee line are terrible compared to both their Jungle versions, and terrible overall. Eevee has 40 HP a 10 damage attack for C, and Sand Attack for CC. Not as good as Jungle Eevee.

Porygon gets beefed up with 40HP, his original Conversion 1 attack, and a 20 damage attack for CCC that might confuse. Pretty good compared to the original. Rattata now gets a pokemon power that lets you exchange a prize card for the top card in your deck, 40 HP, and quick attack for C. Dark Raticate isn't as good, though. He has 50 HP, the same bite attack only for 2 energy, and a 50 damage attack for CCC that has a 50-50 chance of working. Not too good.

Meowth has a 2 energy attack that allows you to choose any of your opponent's pokemon and flip a coin. If heads, that pokemon takes 20 damage. Dark Persian has 60 HP, a lure attack for 1 colorless (you have to flip a coin, though), and a 10 damage attack for CC that may poison.

Dratini has similar stats to his base set counterpart, only now he has an attack for CC that does 10 damage and paralyzes. Dark Dragonair only has 60HP, but has an attack for CCC that can do 20-40 damage, and a pokemon power that lets you search for an evolution card and put it into your hand. And then there's Dark Dragonite. If you haven't noticed, all Dragonites have you flip coins for their attacks. This Dragonite has a four energy and +10 damage version of the promo Dragonite's attack. Plus he has an okay pokemon power that lets you search for 2 Basic pokemon from our deck and instantly play them. Not exactly the "God of Destruction", but it will do.

DJ Rootmaster:And, saving the best for last, Grass! The guys in green get pumped up in rocket, and poised to strike with their powerful disruptive techniques! First Dark Arbok. Ekans now has 50 HP and two decent attacks. Dark Arbok stands out from the crowd. He may have only 60HP, but for 2 grass he do 10 damage to any pokemon and shut down that pokemon's pokemon power for a turn! For 3 grass, he can deal 10 damage, poison, and deal 10 damage to your opponent's bench! Awesome!

However, Dark Muk may not like Dark Arbok getting all the credit. His basic isn't as good as the fossil Grimer, and he only has 60 HP, but check out his stats. For 2 grass he can deal 20 damage and auto-poison, and he has a broken pokemon power that increases your opponent's pokemon's retreat costs by 2! Dark Weezing isn't as great though, so I won't mention him to save time.

Dark Golbat is interesting. His basic can do 10 damage for C, and 20 damage for GC. Not bad. Dark Golbat, however, has a pokemon power that does 10 damage to any pokemon when you play him. Also, for two grass energy, he can do 20 damage to any pokemon. Pretty good.

But they are nothing compared to the Dark force that is Dark Vileplume. Oddish now has 2 attacks for one grass, one auto-poison, the other auto-sleep. Then there's Evil Gloom, who not only has a pokemon power that can confuse either your or your opponent's active, but also has a 2 grass energy auto-poison. Then (dun, dun, da!) Dark Vileplume, who has the pokemon power Hayfever. This power doesn't allow anyone to play any trainers at all. No SER, no gusts, nothing. Ultimate disruption, since all major archetypes run on trainers. You play Dark Vileplume, you're now running this game. Okay, he's hard to get out, and you need backup trainers in case of an emergency, but getting him out's worth the hassle.

Mewtwo: Dark Vileplume probably won't bring the end of trainers, because he's hard to get out, but he'll become pretty close. Well, I never thought Here Comes Team Rocket! (which isn't super rare) was that good, but no one will listen to me so... Rocket's Sneak attack is one of the best cards in the game. It's even broken in Japan. It let's you look at your opponent's hand and make them shuffle a trainer of your choice back into their deck. No drawback. That's pretty darn good!

We also get The Boss's Way, which let's you search for a Dark pokemon and put it in your hand with no drawback. Goop Gas Attack is a trainer that makes all pokemon powers stop working for a turn, which is okay actually. Nightly Garbage Run let's you shuffle 3 cards other than nonbasic energy into your deck, and Imposter Oak's Revenge allows you to discard a card to make your opponent must shuffle their hand into their deck and draw 4 cards. Hand disruption. Challenge! allows you to ask your opponent to accept your challenge (both players play as many basics as they want), or reject it (you draw 2 cards). These trainers rock! The other trainers in this deck aren't too good because they are too dependant on coin flips.

Eaamudo: 3 new energy cards, here we go... Rainbow Energy. This card is great in multi-type decks. It is a "special energy card", but I don't know what that means. This card counts as all types of basic energy at once, though it only provides one. For example, you can move this card using Venusaur to, say, promo Mewtwo, and it will count as psychic energy. It deals 10 damage when you play it from your hand, but that's a small price to pay.

Full heal energy and potion energy are exactly what they sound. They provide one colorless energy, and do what the card they refer to does. (i.e. removes 2 damage counters.) Personally though, I don't find these cards superior to basic energy cards, as basic energy can count as colored energy and the gain from Full Heal and Potion energy is so low it doesn't really matter.