Hitmonlee – Genetic Apex
Date Reviewed: February 21, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
Let’s kick it with Hitmonlee (A1 154)!
Yes, I have been waiting to use that one. Hitmonlee is a Basic, Fighting Type Pokémon with 80 HP, (P) Weakness, (C) Retreat Cost, and the attack “Stretch Kick”. This attack costs (F) and lets Hitmonlee attack a Benched Pokémon for 30 damage. Stretch Kick cannot target an opponent’s Active, and neither Weakness nor any existing card effects in Pocket can add to Bench damage. There is only one version of Hitmonlee, at the ♦♦ rarity.
We’re starting with Stretch Kick, as Hitmonlee’s attack is it’s defining trait. Both the full Pokémon TCG, as well as the Pokémon TCG Pocket, only allow your Active Pokémon to attack an opponent’s Benched Pokémon when another card effect says so. This gives the Bench a sense of security, even in the full TCG, where Supporters that force an opposing Benched Pokémon make Sabrina (A1) look like an Item card.1 It also means “Bench-hitters” can prove disproportionately useful to the damage they do.
Stretch Kick’s damage is decent for the Energy required. 30 is only enough to OHKO intentionally fragile Pokémon, like Magikarp (A1a 017). If luck is on your side, you can 2HKO most evolving Basics. If luck is really on your side, your opponent may be helpless, trapped behind their own Active. This is most likely to occur when meatshields “go wrong”. For example, Druddigon (A1a 056) is great meatshield, but it is almost never intended to attack, and needs (C)(C) to retreat at full price.
Without such circumstances most targets will take too long to KO on the Bench. Fortunately, Hitmonlee is also useful for softening up larger targets while they’re on the Bench. A 30 damage lead can be enough to transition into a simple 2HKO or 3HKO combo involving another attacker. Especially with Cyrus (A2 150, 190) to force an injured, Benched Pokémon of your choice into the Active position on a turn after it was Stretch Kicked. As Stretch Kick needs only one Energy, Hitmonlee doesn’t need to last too long for another Energy efficient attacker to become ready.
Stretch Kick’s last major purpose, while less important it used to be, is finishing off anything almost KO’d and hiding on your opponent’s Bench. Again, 30 isn’t much, but something retreating to the Bench when it has 10 to 30 HP remaining is still pretty common. Cyrus is the preferred method of dealing with this, but many (most?) (F) decks have room and enough other reasons, it’s still good to have both as an option.
So far, I haven’t seen any deck with an Energy Zone set to two or more Energy Types succeed enough to be worthwhile in competitive play. Which I bring up here to explain why you’re not running Hitmonlee off-Type. It might exist in mixed company, but because of attacks with all (C) costs, non-attacking off-Type Pokémon, or exceptions like Magnezone (A2 053), which uses the Ability of Magneton (A1 098) to supply its (L) Energy.
What about the rest of the card?
Being a Basic is a Basic remains the best. Hitmonlee requires the minimum time and resources a Pokémon can to hit the field. Poké Ball (P-A 005) can snag Hitmonlee from your deck. You can open with Hitmonlee, which can be good or bad, depending on specifics. There are two anti-Basic cards out there2,3. They saw some competitive success in the past, but not might in the present. Even if they did, they wouldn’t cancel out all the good already mentioned.
Hitmonlee being a (F) Type is a net negative, but only barely. Neither Weakness nor the “Fighting Coach” Ability on Lucario (A2 092, 170)4 benefit Hitmonlee, because neither affect the damage done by Stretch Kick. Hitmonlee plays well with other (F) Pokémon but that’s due to Stretch Kick needing (F). Hitmonlee’s Pokémon Typing thus skews negative because other Types have it better and because of the one anti-Fighting effect5 in Pocket. The card in question hasn’t proven competitive, but just existing is enough when the usual positives don’t apply.
It’s 80 HP is decent for Hitmonlee’s purposes, and for a non-evolving, single point Basic Pokémon. It won’t last long, even early game, but it often won’t need to. (P) Weakness isn’t much of a problem; the Type isn’t do so great in competitive play, outside of Mew ex (A1a 032, 077, 083, 086) being run off Type. Which means no (P) Types going from 3HKO to 2HKO or 2HKO to OHKO. The Retreat Cost of (C) is good! Even a single X Speed (P-A 002) allows Hitmonlee to retreat for free; if it survived attacking, it should have an attached (F) Energy to retreat at full price.
Hitmonlee is a pretty likely inclusion for most (F) decks, but not a guarantee. We’ll begin with Fighting Toolbox. You take advantage of Hitmonlee, maybe Hitmonchan (A1 155), and Marshadow (A1a 047, 074). Hitmonchan is your preferred opener when you need to attack your opponent’s Active. If all goes well, when either “Hitmon” gets taken out, Marshadow steps in for a solid 100 damage for just (F)(C). Things don’t always go well, and in fact, haven’t been going well for this deck over the past week.
The Magnezone version of the deck does what I just said, while trying to build up to Magnezone on your Bench. With the “Volt Charge” Ability on Magneton (A1 098), you can use most (if not all) of your manual Energy attachments on the deck’s Fighting Types, and still have a Magnezone ready to go in time to win. Farfetch’d (A1 198), Greninja (A1 089; P-A 019), Mew ex, and Tauros (A1a 060) have also played support roles in past versions of Fighting Toolbox.
There’s a lot of overlap between Fighting Toolbox and the other Fighting focused archetypes. We just covered Rampardos (A2 089) earlier this week and yes, Hitmonlee is often in that deck. The same goes for the still new(ish) and not yet proven Gallade ex (A2 095, 185, 200) decks. Aerodactyl ex (A1a 46, 78, 84) decks are not new, and like Fighting Toolbox, aren’t doing as well as they once were, but they’re still something you may see in a tournament and they usually include Hitmonlee.
Machamp ex (A1 146, 263, 278) decks surprised me by having had some recent, modest success. That’s more than I expected, and it included Hitmonlee, so it gets a mention. Mostly for nostalgia, I’ll mentioned Brock (A1 224, 271) decks – usually built around Golem (A1a 045) – and Marowak decks – built around Marowak ex (A1 153, 264), and sometimes also Marowak (A1 152). Golem almost always used Hitmonlee, and sometimes Marowak decks did as well. These decks seem to have gone extinct.
Rating: 3/5
Hitmonlee has had a prolific career in the short time that the Pokémon TCG has existed. It’ll find a use, be good for a bit, but then the metagame shifts, whether due to new cards or just to counteract the then top deck(s). Even if Fighting Toolbox never rebounds, I won’t be surprised if Hitmonlee finds a new home somewhere else.
1Literally: see Pokémon Circulator (HS – Unleashed 81/95).
2Pokémon Flute (A1a 064) is an Item that forces your opponent to Bench a Basic from their discard pile.
3Victreebel (A1 020) has an Ability that lets you force the opposing, Benched, Basic Pokémon of your choice into your opponent’s Active slot. The Ability states it can only be used while the Victreebel in question is your Active, and once during your turn.
4Lucario is the only piece of (F) Type support we have right now.
5Snover (A2 044) has an attack for (W) that does 40 damage when used against (F) Pokémon, but just 10 against everything else.
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