Weezing – Genetic Apex
Date Reviewed: January 18, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
The fourth best card from Genetic Apex is Weezing (Genetic Apex 177/226, 243/226)! It’s a (D) Type Stage 1 Pokémon that evolves from Koffing. With 110 HP, (F) Weakness, (C)(C)(C) Retreat Cost, the Ability “Gas Leak”, and the attack “Tackle”. The Ability states that, if this Pokémon is your Active, you can Poison your opponent’s Active. Tackle costs (D), and does 30 damage. Weezing is available in both ♦♦♦ and ★ rarities.
Being a Stage 1 is decent. Though obviously more difficult to run than Basics, but easier than Stage 2, for now things are still balanced enough that being a competitive Stage 1 is perfectly plausible. I can’t say the same about being a (D) Type. The only thing really going for the Type is multiple competitive Psychic Pokémon are (D) Weak. They have zero Type-based support. Unless we count Weezing itself, since it’s a great (D) Pokémon.
110 HP is good for a non-ex Stage 1. Both in terms of statistics1 and functionality. The short version is that heavy hitters will score the OHKO. The high end of medium hitters will also score the OHKO if they’re exploiting combos and/or Weakness. In this case, Weezing’s Weakness is (F), which is still… kind of weird. In the competitive scene, Fighting Decks aren’t Top Tier or High Tear, but they’re present among the Middle Tier, Low Tier, and “Promising Decks” Tier. And yes, some of the attackers score OHKO’s they’d otherwise miss due to Weakness.
Weezing has a Retreat Cost of (C)(C)(C). This is hurts Weezing. Even with a double X Speed or single Leaf, you’re paying (C) to manually retreat. To do so for free, you’ll need one of each. Which is a little more obvious because Gas Leak is great! If Weezing could retreat for free, it might become a Staple. Promote Weezing anytime your Active is KO’d, Gas Leak to Poison, then retreat out of the way for you actual attacker. Why not attack with Weezing, though?
Tackle is okay. I generally expect Stage 1 Pokémon to hit harder than evolving Basics and it does, but often just barely, or because of the costs or conditions contained in that Pokémon’s attack effect. I’d be a lot happier if it was priced at (C), as it’d make it much easier to run Weezing off-Type. Just (D) means it can still work in a mixed-Type deck, though. Gas Leak also means that 30 fakes being 40-for-one, or 50-for-one if your opponent doesn’t get rid of the Poison by the end of their next turn.
There’s more to Weezing’s success than just itself, though. Let’s start with its Basic counterpart, Koffing. You’ve got two to pick from: Koffing (Genetic Apex #176/226) and Koffing (Mythical Island 049/068). Both are Basic (D) Pokémon with 70 HP, (F) Weakness, and one attack. The one from Genetic Apex has a Retreat Cost of (C), and can use “Suffocating Gas” for (D) to do 20 damage. Koffing (Mythical Island 049/068) has a Retreat Cost of (C)(C), and the attack “Division”, also for (D). The attack lets you search your deck for another card named “Koffing”.
I suggest Koffing (Genetic Apex #176/226), because of its better Retreat Cost. Not that Suffocating Gas is bad. I think they should have just called it “Tackle”, like Weezing’s attack, since its pure vanilla damage for one Energy, but it’ll probably be barely more useful than Division. 70 HP is good for only a turn or two most games, but Division is good at most once. You can’t run more than two Koffing cards in your five card opening hand, of your 20 card deck, that should be running two Poké Ball and two Professor’s Research. Plus, that (C)(C) Retreat Cost is chunky for an Evolving Basic.
Of course, there’s more. There’s Weezing (Mythical Island 050/068). It’ll probably get its own CotD eventually, but for now, know it has the exact same stats as today’s Weezing. It only knows one attack, though. “Smokescreen” costs (D)(D) and does 50 damage, and leaving an effect on your opponent’s Active. Unless your opponent evolves or changes out their Active, they’ll have to flip a coin or the attack does nothing. Its a solid attack, but in no way competition for Gas Leak, let alone Gas Leak plus Tackle.
At last, we come to Koga. It was the fourth best Supporter of this set for a reason; combining it with Weezing is great! It allows Weezing to become a good, early game meatshield. Ideally, you evolve Koffing into Weezing ASAP, use Gas Leak to Poison your opponent, then after surviving an attack or two, bounce Weezing (and the Koffing under it) back into your hand. If you’re running (D) Energy, and can spare one for Weezing, all the better!
The most natural partner for Weezing is Muk (Genetic Apex 175/226), but its “Venoshock” attack needs (D)(D)(C), making it slow. It’s also a legal Koga target, though you’ll want to save Koga for Weezing if you can. Since Muk was found wanting, some found success combining Weezing (and Koga) with Arbok (Genetic Apex 165/226). Arbok has less HP than Muk, can’t use Koga, and only hits for 60 damage with its “Corner” attack. Corner only costs (D)(C) and prevents the attacked Pokémon from retreating, though, so it rivals Muk in usage.
Then came Scolipede (Mythical Island 055/068) and Sandalit (Mythical Island 015/68, 071/068), both of whom also know Venoshock. Scolipede is a Stage 2, but otherwise has better stats than Muk and only needs (DC) to attack. Sandalit is a small, evolving Basic that does far less damage than either Muk or Scolipede, but it is a (R) (instead of Darkness) and just needs to pay (C) to attack. Decks sporting one or two of these attackers have done well enough to get Koga decks classified as High Tier.
There’s more. While being able to use Tackle is nice, even in Darkness decks you’ll often need the Energy elsewhere. However, there are decks that could use a meatshield up front, that Poisons via Ability, but don’t want to run Darkness Energy. So they deselect it from their deck’s settings – something I’m embarrassed a friend had to remind me that you could do – and never worry about attacking with Weezing, just using the Ability.
Rating: 4/5
I may have been too generous here, because I normally would have lowered Weezing’s score a bit more as it owes so much to other cards… but its potential is broad enough, I didn’t. Maybe I just have more of a soft spot for Weezing than I realized, but it seems like a really good card to me. As potent as, say, yesterday’s Greninja (Genetic Apex 089/226; Promo Series A 019/P-A). After factoring in Greninja being a Stage 2 versus Weezing being a Stage 1, I think it just barely has more, hence taking fourth place.
1For Stage 1, non-Pokémon ex HP scores:
Minimum: 070
Maximum: 150
Mean: 100 (rounded to the nearest 10)
Median: 090
Mode: 090
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