Vaporeon (A1a) – Mythical Island
Date Reviewed: February 20, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
Today I’m covering Vaporeon (A2 019, 072)! It’s a (W) Type, Stage 1 Pokémon that evolves from Eevee. Vaporeon has 120 HP, (L) Weakness, (C)(C) Retreat Cost, an Ability, and an attack. “Wash Out” lets you select a (W) Energy attached to one of your Benched (W) Pokémon, and move it to your Active (W) Pokémon, as often as you want during your turn. “Wave Splash” costs (W)(C)(C) and let’s Vaporeon attack your opponent’s Active for 60 damage. This card is available at the ♦♦♦ and ★ rarities.
The (W) Type is a good Type to be. Alongside Vaporeon itself, the Type two complimentary forms of Energy acceleration: Manaphy (A2 050, 162) and Misty (A1 220, 267). There are two cards with “anti” (W) effects, but they’re almost non-existent in competitive play.1 Vaporeon should only be attacking when you’ve got nothing better to use, neither that particular anti-(W) effect, nor almost all (R) Pokémon suffering (W) Weakness matters to Vaporeon. At least, not directly.
While we’ll get into the details of the Eeveelution line later in the review, remember that running Vaporeon requires running an Eevee, getting the Eevee into play first, then the next turn finally playing a Vaporeon… if you have it in hand by then. The 120 HP is good; medium attacks are going to fall short of that OHKO. (L) Weakness gives Magnezone (A2 053) a OHKO. The Retreat Cost of (C)(C) is alright. Lower would be better, but you can zero this out with a Leaf (A1a 068, 082) or double X Speed (P-A 002).
Wash Out is a good Ability. It may not always seem like it, but moving Energy around is a form of Energy Acceleration. Not due to a pun, but because it can allow you to conserve and reuse Energy that would have otherwise gone to waste. Manaphy and Misty benefit greatly, as Wash Out acts both as insurance against otherwise suboptimal attachments. They’re also a good reason for Wash Out to only work with (W) Pokémon and (W) Energy; those two are potent enough already!
Wave Splash is not potent. It isn’t bad, either. Several cards have an (X)(C)(C) Energy Cost2, and do 60 damage. They tend to be evolving Basics or Stage 1 Pokémon, or an attack on something fully evolved that has a useful Ability or bigger second attack. Vaporeon is clearly the former, so being able to do a reliable 60 for three is adequate. Something I mentioned with the attack on Serperior (A1a 006, 070); it’d have been better for the card if it had all on-Type Energy costs. Odds are slim to none you’re running Vaporeon with anything other than (W) Energy, and the designers usually let attacks do more for (X) Energy costs2.
Now we talk Eeveelutions, but I will not be running through all of them.3 There are four unique Eevee: Eevee (P-A 030), Eevee (A1 206, 207, 208, 248), Eevee (A1a 061), and Eevee (A2 126). All four are (C) Type, Basic Pokémon with 60 HP, (F) Weakness, (C) Retreat Cost, and one attack priced at (C). Eevee (P-A 030) can use “Growl” to place an effect on the Defending Pokémon, causing its attack(s) to do 20 less damage during the next turn.
Eevee (A1 206, 207, 208, 248) can use “Tackle” to do 20 damage. Eevee (A1a 061) can use “Continuous Steps” to flip a coin until “tails”, doing 20 damage per “heads”. Eevee (A2 126) can use Quick Attack to do 10 damage, while flipping a coin; “heads” means Quick Attack does +20 damage (30 total). I favor Eevee (A1a 061); you’re already desperate if you’re attacking with Eevee, or it’s Turn 2. Either way, try your luck; while half the time you’ll do zero damage, the other half you’ll do 20+…
Glaceon (A2 046) and Vaporeon (A1 080) can function decently with today’s Vaporeon, so I’ll discuss them quickly. They’re also Stage 1 (W) Pokémon with one attack, but neither has an Ability. Glaceon has 90 HP, (M) Weakness, (C) Retreat Cost, and the attack “Ice Beam”. Priced at (W)(W), it does 60 damage and – if you flip “heads” – Paralyzes the opponent’s Active. Vaporeon (A1 080) has 130 HP, but the rest of its stats are the same as today’s card. Even its attack has the same cost: (W)(C)(C) and does 60 damage, but it’s “Bubble Drain” also has an effect; the attack heals 30 damage from the Pokémon using it.
If you insist on running the iconic – and often non-competitive – Eeveelutions deck, use Vaporeon (A1 080) as your Water representative. More HP, just as splahable, and while the attack’s healing effect won’t do much, it’ll usually do more than Wash Out would in such a deck. It’d be different if Wash Out could move (W) Energy from non-(W) Pokémon and/or could move (W) Energy to non-(W) Pokémon.
You could try to use Glaceon and/or this other Vaporeon with today’s Vaporeon. As they all run on (W)(W) Energy, Wash Out could do its thing. Since they all must share Eevees, though, that is a bad idea. Yes, you only really need one instance of Vaporeon (A2 019, 072) in play, since you can use its Ability as often as you want during your turn… but I’d rather have two chances to snag that Ability (or run another card entirely) than go with Glaceon or Vaporeon (A1 080).
The decks that actually use Vaporeon well are Palkia ex (A2 049, 182, 204, 206) decks and Gyarados ex (A1a 018, 076) decks. There are more decks that attempt to use Vaporeon well, but they either have performed poorly, have almost no representation in the data, or both. These decks can and often do run a secondary (W) attacker, so there are other playmates for Vaporeon… but when tried on their own, in the present, they seem to come up short.
Palkia ex and Gyarados ex are Pokémon ex with pricey, hard-hitting attacks. Especially with Bench hits, damage spread, Cyrus (A2 150, 190), and Sabrina (A1 225, 272), it can be dangerous to power something up directly on the Bench. Manaphy’s attack provides good (W) Energy acceleration, but attaches one (W) a piece to two different Benched Pokémon. Like with excessively lucky Misty flips, Energy left on something that retreated, all of these reasons make Vaporeon quite handy in such decks, though they do have Vaporeon-less variants.
Rating: 3/5
Vaporeon is a good card, sometimes overshadowed by the insanity that is Misty, and the still really good Manaphy. As I wanted to cover a non-ex Stage 1, something from Mythical Island, and tidy up some lose ends, Vaporeon was an easy choice to review. Yes, having reviewed only two of three forms of (W) Energy acceleration bothered me. It’d be different if hardly anyone used (in the past or present) Vaporeon, but nope. It’s a good card, so I wanted Vaporeon to have it’s time in the sun.
1Piloswine (A2 032) and Mamoswine (A2 033, 160).
2(X) in this case represents a non-(C) Energy Cost.
3There are too many for the scope of this article, since they don’t work well with today’s subject.
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