Can you please post this on your site?
This time, I would like to talk about the 6 types of pokémon
(I'm not
sure if Colorless counts as a color).
I'll start off with the theme to each Type:
Psychic: Psychics mostly do something with damage counters, like Meditate
attacks or Alakazam's and Gengar's Pokémon Powers. Two thing I go by with
Psychic pokémon:
Psychic: Regular Psychic pokémon with a Weakness to Psychic.
Ghost: Psychic pokémon with a Resistance to Fighting and no Weakness.
Fire: Many people think that Fire pokémon are bad because they have to
discard energy to use strong attacks, but that's what they go by. This
will
be greatly amplified when Gym Leader Blaine cards come out.
Grass: Negative status effects are Grass pokémon specialty. Poison,
Paralyze, Confusion you name it. Some pokémon also go by
"draining" the
defending pokémon HP, like Butterfree or Venonat. I categorize Grass by
two
things:
Grass: Regular Grass pokémon that have a weakness to Fire.
Poison: Grass pokémon that have a weakness to Psychic.
Electric: Bench destroying is Electric pokémon specialty, like Jungle
Electrode, Jungle Pikachu, or Fossil Zapdos. Self-damage is also another
of
their theme. Some examples are Base Zapdos, Electabuzz and Magneton
especially. Many Electric pokémon also have the ability to Paralyze.
Water: Strong attacks that require lots of energy. Water pokémon requires
lots of Water energy to do attacks like Water Gun and Hydro Pump. Luckily,
Blastiose clears up this Con. Water pokémon are also good against Energy
Removals.
Fighting: Strong attacks for little energy. Hitmonchan is a great example
of
this. One Fighting energy for 20 damage is good. But, I categorize
Fighting
pokémon by three things:
Fighting: Regular Fighting pokémon that have a weakness to Psychic, like in
the gameboy game.
Rock: Fighting pokémon that have a weakness to Grass, but no Resistance to
Electric (examples are Geodude, Onix, and Kabutops)
Ground: Fighting pokémon that have a Weakness to Grass and a Resistance to
Electric. Lots of Ground type pokémon require a lot of Fighting energy to
use strong attacks.
Just for fun, I'll do Colorless:
Colorless have a wide verity when it comes to what kind to choose, though,
Colorless is not really the best when it comes to negative status. These
are
the categories I go by for Colorless pokémon:
Normal: Colorless pokémon that have a weakness to Fighting and a Resistance
to Psychic.
Flying: Colorless pokémon that have a Weakness to Lightning and a Resistance
to Fighting.
Dragon: Colorless pokémon that have a Resistance to Psychic or Flying with no
Weakness.
Now to the Good and the Bad:
Psychic:
The Good: The Ability to amplify damage to high attack damage is really
good. Recovery is also another theme to Psychic. Kadabra and
Alakazam are
great examples of this. Also, with the weakness to it's own type, the only
weakness to a Psychic deck is another Psychic deck. The Ghosts are also a
great Fighting AND Psychic "Knock Outer." (I will not use the term
"killer"
or "killed")
The Bad: A Psychic weakness is Confusion. If you get a Tails while
Confused,
it gives 40 damage instead of 20 because of the weakness to it's own type.
Except to the Ghosts. The low HP on most Psychics are bad. The high
Retreat
Cost is also bad. Plus a big baddie is the Resistance on many Colorless
pokémon. Almost all decks have a Colorless pokémon with a Resistance to
Psychic making Psychic pokémon decks almost useless without another color to
help it out.
Fire:
The Good: Very strong attacks that can even take out Water pokémon and
especially Grass pokémon. Fire's theme is also about fast damage.
It was
meant for an all out attack with damage. I will not talk about Charizard
and
how it's good/bad. All I want to say is that Charizard was meant for just
attacking and probably some other stuff, but I won't get into that...
The Bad: Fire pokémons big weakness is Energy Removal since most Fire pokémon
have to discard. Discarding energy is bad, period. Though, almost
all Fire
decks have Energy Retrievals to counter this. Another is the Weakness to
Water. Water has very strong attacks making Fire decks rare to find in a
tourney.
Just to let everyone know when Blaine cards come to the U.S. there's this
great Stadium card which does this:
Cinnabar Island Gym (I think)
Type: Trainer (Stadium Card)
Effect: Each player's Blaine Pokémon ignores its Weakness to Water.
If
another Stadium card is played, this card is discard this card.
In my opinion, this card is great against Water.
Grass:
The Good: With Nidoking as literally the king of Poison damage and Venusaur
with it's Pokémon Power to protect against Energy Removal, Grass is a little
hard to defeat. Also, with the Jungle Expansion out, Grass has been
greatly
powered up. One great thing is that some Grass pokémon have a Resistance
to
Fighting. Pretty much a great type to use.
The Bad: The weakness to Fire is a big problem since Fire have really strong
attacks and since lots of Grass pokémon have big evolutions, the Basics are
most likely to get Knocked Out.
Electric:
The Good: Bench destroying is great in battles since there's not that much
your opponent can do to prevent this. The best thing I like about Electric
pokémon is how fast they are, as in they have low Retreat Cost except for
Zapdos. They are also fast with Evolution since there aren't any Stage 2
Electric pokémon that I know of. "Average" HP is also ok.
The Bad: Fighting has lots of strong attacks with some Fighters having
Resistance to Electric, meaning Electric is powerless against Fighting.
Even
though Electric have lots of strong attacks, it takes a lot of energy to use.
And since the only strong Electric pokémon are rare, Electric decks are
expensive. The one thing that turns people off to Electric pokémon, I
think,
is the fact that lots of Electric damage themselves leaving them more
vulnerable to Fighting
Water:
The Good: Having some of the strongest attacks in the TCG, Water is a great
type to play. Even Common and Uncommon Water pokémon are strong.
Because of
the need to use lots of Energy, Energy Removal does little effect, especially
Rain Dance Decks.
The Bad: Having the need to use more energy for strong attacks also means
having to add lots of Water Energy to decks making less room for other cards
and Water isn't good with Negative Status except for a couple Paralyzation
attacks on a few.
Fighting:
The Good: Having lots of strong attacks make Fighting go by it's title.
Some
attacks don't take that much energy to attack. Ground pokémon, like
Cubone
and Rhyhorn, take a lot of energy to use attacks so the have stalling attacks
for until it has enough energy to attack. Also the "higher than
average" HP
is the best when you first start the battle.
The Bad: Many pokémon have Resistances to Fighting, especially lots of Grass
pokémon from Jungle. Flyers are more of a staple in a lot of decks now.
As you can see, I showed all the types of pokémon without being bias to a
type I don't like or a pokémon I don't like and I looked at everything
equally. I did this color analysis is to show you that no type of pokémon
"sux." Oh, and here's my Top 10 Pokémon Cards:
10)
9)
8)
7)
6)
5)
4)
3)
2)
1)
Why are they blank, you say? Because there are no Top 10 pokémon cards.
Maybe a Top 10 Useful, but not the Top 10 in your opinion. I think all
pokémon cards are equal and unique in their own way (at least in battle).
Hopefully, this article has taught everyone a lesson about not being so bias
about so many cards and about how to use your spell checker ;-)
Don
Send whatever to BrockCSWD@aol.com
"Give Charizard a break."
(I know this is long, but you can post this, right? This took me a long
time
to think about and a long time to type.)