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Pokemon Card GB1: Mono-Grass
Apr. 30th, 2015 12:41 amEncompassing its own type in addition to Bugs and Poison types, Grass is not a very good type in the early TCG. While it doesn't suffer from Resistance problems, its Pokemon seem to just be underpowered, random, or have some high Energy Costs. Compare it to Fire, where you can get a ton of power, as long as you pay the costs. Compare it to Water, which has some powerhouses like Dewgong that you can get going without too much trouble.
Of course, Grass is also home-type to one of the TCG's most famous cards: Scyther. A very strong Basic Pokemon with zero retreat cost and a resistance to Fighting, though one that really appreciates the presence of Double Colorless Energy. Besides that, many of them either require two evolutions to be strong and/or are not worth it. There are still plenty of useful cards in it though, and these will be our highlights:
Scyther: Our all-purpose destroyer!
Exeggute/Exeggutor: Our superultramegadestroyer!
Grimer/Muk: Our screw with the gimmicks card!
Nidoking/Nidoqueen: Our gimmicky lovebirds!
__________
Getting going was very difficult. I don't know how I hacked in the Fire Energy before, but it wasn't working this time. I started with the Rock Club due to their weakness of them. It went okay, but the frustration of high energy costs or unreliability on many of the cards (the Nidos being some of the bigger offenders) caused me to lose a few duels with the underlings.
Unlike Blastoise, Venusaur's Pokemon Power is of questionable usefulness. It's nice when you want to get all the Energy off a Pokemon that's about to kick the bucket, or move it to something that needs it (like itself), but that's all. Still, its Solarbeam is nice with it doing 60 damage and all. The only problem is getting through Bulbasaur and Ivysaur, which sort of disappoint. I didn't end up using it much.
Gene was an absolutely hilarious fight. I got some bad luck of the draws, and he managed to get up some very nasty Dugtrios. My answer? He only had out an Onix, and wasn't very keen on retreating and bringing out the high-damaging enemies. So I just waited, since it could only do 10 damage a time compared to the Dugtrio's 70, which would one-shot anything I had on the bench. I just kept on waiting, and eventually, he decked out.
I managed to get a Nidoqueen in a random booster pack, which came in handy when it showed up. This was an especially close fight: I didn't have much else, but took out this Cloyster because of a convenient Full Heal. The rest of the Water decks fell with a bit of typical coinflipping difficulty, but lost to Amy because this deck is an unreliable piece of trash.
At this point, impatience took over, and I crafted a deck from what I had. The Pokemon? A single Exeggcute and some Exeggutor. The latter's Big Eggsplosion sees you flip a coin for every Energy attached to it. It does 20 damage times the number of heads. This could theoretically do 1240 damage if you have 54 Energy of any kind and 4 Double Colorless Energy attached...and flip 58 heads in a row.
End result? I had 14 Energy on Exeggutor by the end of it. Check out those flips too. 200 damage! It can overkill anything in the game!
Later on, I would add two more Exeggutor to the deck, to reduce the chance of being unable to find any. Now, this was a completely retarded deck, and it often took ages to find my own Exeggcute at the start of a match. It's a good thing this game doesn't have the rule where if that happens, the other player can draw two cards! And yet this deck was so much fun too. Exeggcute's Leech Seed and my Trainer Cards could often stall just long enough for me to get Exeggutor, after which I could tear things apart. Though getting multiple tails in a row was frustrating at times...
Nikki amusingly uses much the same strategy, though has other Pokemon to support it - particularly Venusaur. An Exeggutor vs. Exeggutor showdown got to happen, but hers never got going, so it was a short confrontation. It tore up her team as always after.
I did a bit more grinding after this and was able to accumulate a few Scythers. These things were a viable alternative for a solo Pokemon, albeit not as fun, but had the advantage of having multiple in a deck so they could retreat out of nasty attacks like Smokescreen and such, and it would take less time to find them at the start of a match. They have a very good advantage of having a Fighting-resistance. If I had them for Gene, I wouldn't need to stall at all! Sure came in handy
I also participated in the Challenge Cup because I could, winning a promotional Mewtwo I had no use for in this Grass-only variant.
With these, the Science and Lightning medals were not too difficult, though I did a bunch of matches in-between to add some new options for the lategame. Even with the new Pokemon I had grinded, solo Scyther was still the best shot against Mitch and his underlings. Barely any of his Pokemon could damage it, and I made sure to Gust out those that could to Slash them apart before they could get going.
That brought me to the Fire club...but before that, would you take a look at this garbage? I got 26 Machamps in Evolution Booster packs while grinding for what I wanted - a bunch of Nidokings. They're Grass, and they're not vulnerable to Fire. I tried to get some earlier, got one now, and 10 more Machamps later, just resorted to savestates at this point, If I hadn't, I would've ended up with like 50. Makes me wonder how rarity in this game really works. I would get even more when doing a bit more duels to find a place to grind Nidorinas from.
The point of all this lies in Nidoqueen's first attack. Boyfriends does 20 damage ordinarily for two Energy, but with more Nidoking on the bench, it does 20 more damage for each. You can also use Nidoran female's Call for Family to get the base Nidoran males easily. I actually managed to get the full strength of it going against Ken.
Nidoking isn't too shabby either, being able to Toxic an enemy for 20 damage at the end of every turn.
Of course, it wouldn't be used against Murray, with them being weak to Psychic and all. Instead, I used a new deck, a much more stable one than the gimmicky solo Scyther or solo Exeggutors I'd been using. They were still a part of it, but they were joined by a new entry: Muk. Its Pokemon Power prevents other Pokemon Powers from working. I got it down, and though he did get down Alakazam, he couldn't use its Damage Swap! It also stopped Mr. Mimes and their invulnerability to hits over 20 damage
The gimmick of this duel killed, the only problem would be his Gusts of Winds - Muk does have a Psychic weakness. In fact, he did do that to KO a Grimer I had on the bench for just such an occasion that Muk be targetted. Still, this was an easy fight overall.
I have two decks this time, so here they both are. The first one, Gassing Garden, is my main one, and its big thing is the combination of the Exeggutor and Scyther strategies, with Muk as well. Muk's Pokemon Power has already been demonstrated. There are a couple screwy things here: namely, that Muk requires Grass energy (Eggy and Scyther are fine with Double Colorless), though I won't expect to be using it to battle too much. Also, I could only fit in less Exeggutors than I want, but that's what the four Computer Searches are for.
Meanwhile, the Love Sign deck is based on that Nido abuse from before. I put all my Computer Searches in the first deck, but it has enough tools and such that finding what I need shouldn't be too difficult.
I lost the first battle against Courtney, using the second deck due to the Fire weakness Scyther and Exeggutor share. I had everything I needed to get a Nidoking going, but a Fossil Magmar's Smokescreen refused to let my Nidoran female Call for Family. The second time, I did manage to get the love train going. Combined with Energy Removal, she didn't stand much of a chance.
Lightning Steve was a bit of a scary fight, as I ended up in that exact situation with Double Colorless and a Muk. Luckily, I had two Grimer, and the one was able to hold out just long enough for Muk to get three Grass Energy. It then was able to Poison the Electabuzz that was out, making him retreat it. From there, Muk plus some Potions were able to handle a couple Voltorbs, even Gusting out the weakened Electabuzz to KO it.
Eventually, support arrived in the form of some Scythers, which I brought out after an Eevee got off Tail Wag (one before tried, failed, then died to Pluspowered Sludge that procced Poison). He eventually murdered Scyther with a Base Zapdos, with its incredibly powerful but incredibly wasteful 100 Damage Thunderbolt, losing all its Energy and making it easy pickings for Muk.
Not much to say about Jack, except for something amusing. His AI loves to Scoop Up his Legendary Articuno and place it back down in order to abuse its Pokemon Power, that paralyzes your opponent's Pokemon when you place it on the bench and flip heads. With Muk down, he still Scooped it up, but never placed it back down. Though Scyther was eventually worn down from accumulated damage. Exeggutor was powered up enough by that point to blow him away.
Rod was quite possibly the easiest fight I've had against any major opponent. I had one Pokemon: Scyther. He had three: Two Dratini and a Magikarp. Turn 1, I draw a Grass Energy and Swords Dance. Turn 2: I attach Double Colorless and Slash the Dratini down. Turn 3: Slash one-shots Magikarp. Turn 4; Pluspower Slash one-shots the Dratini.
Ronald was a bit trickier. He was able to use Legendary Moltres' Firegiver twice on the same first turn, but would never be able to get anything beyond that because I got down a turn 2 Muk. Scyther was able to handle most things from there, before getting wrecked by a Kangaskhan's Comet Punch. Muk came in to pick up the slack. This was funny, because many times, Ronald would retreat a Pokemon about to die. He had a chance to destroy it with a Legendary Moltres' Dive Bomb at the very end, but flipped tails twice in a row.
Still, I had a backup in the wait, and decided the only run way to end this was how it all really began.
Mono Grass may not be, and even so far have been the easiest Card GB type to monotype, but it was definitely the most fun. Between Exeggutor, Nidoqueen, Muk, and Scyther, there's plenty enough in here to have good and fun times.
Index
Of course, Grass is also home-type to one of the TCG's most famous cards: Scyther. A very strong Basic Pokemon with zero retreat cost and a resistance to Fighting, though one that really appreciates the presence of Double Colorless Energy. Besides that, many of them either require two evolutions to be strong and/or are not worth it. There are still plenty of useful cards in it though, and these will be our highlights:
Scyther: Our all-purpose destroyer!
Exeggute/Exeggutor: Our superultramegadestroyer!
Grimer/Muk: Our screw with the gimmicks card!
Nidoking/Nidoqueen: Our gimmicky lovebirds!
__________
Getting going was very difficult. I don't know how I hacked in the Fire Energy before, but it wasn't working this time. I started with the Rock Club due to their weakness of them. It went okay, but the frustration of high energy costs or unreliability on many of the cards (the Nidos being some of the bigger offenders) caused me to lose a few duels with the underlings.
Unlike Blastoise, Venusaur's Pokemon Power is of questionable usefulness. It's nice when you want to get all the Energy off a Pokemon that's about to kick the bucket, or move it to something that needs it (like itself), but that's all. Still, its Solarbeam is nice with it doing 60 damage and all. The only problem is getting through Bulbasaur and Ivysaur, which sort of disappoint. I didn't end up using it much.
Gene was an absolutely hilarious fight. I got some bad luck of the draws, and he managed to get up some very nasty Dugtrios. My answer? He only had out an Onix, and wasn't very keen on retreating and bringing out the high-damaging enemies. So I just waited, since it could only do 10 damage a time compared to the Dugtrio's 70, which would one-shot anything I had on the bench. I just kept on waiting, and eventually, he decked out.
I managed to get a Nidoqueen in a random booster pack, which came in handy when it showed up. This was an especially close fight: I didn't have much else, but took out this Cloyster because of a convenient Full Heal. The rest of the Water decks fell with a bit of typical coinflipping difficulty, but lost to Amy because this deck is an unreliable piece of trash.
At this point, impatience took over, and I crafted a deck from what I had. The Pokemon? A single Exeggcute and some Exeggutor. The latter's Big Eggsplosion sees you flip a coin for every Energy attached to it. It does 20 damage times the number of heads. This could theoretically do 1240 damage if you have 54 Energy of any kind and 4 Double Colorless Energy attached...and flip 58 heads in a row.
End result? I had 14 Energy on Exeggutor by the end of it. Check out those flips too. 200 damage! It can overkill anything in the game!
Later on, I would add two more Exeggutor to the deck, to reduce the chance of being unable to find any. Now, this was a completely retarded deck, and it often took ages to find my own Exeggcute at the start of a match. It's a good thing this game doesn't have the rule where if that happens, the other player can draw two cards! And yet this deck was so much fun too. Exeggcute's Leech Seed and my Trainer Cards could often stall just long enough for me to get Exeggutor, after which I could tear things apart. Though getting multiple tails in a row was frustrating at times...
Nikki amusingly uses much the same strategy, though has other Pokemon to support it - particularly Venusaur. An Exeggutor vs. Exeggutor showdown got to happen, but hers never got going, so it was a short confrontation. It tore up her team as always after.
I did a bit more grinding after this and was able to accumulate a few Scythers. These things were a viable alternative for a solo Pokemon, albeit not as fun, but had the advantage of having multiple in a deck so they could retreat out of nasty attacks like Smokescreen and such, and it would take less time to find them at the start of a match. They have a very good advantage of having a Fighting-resistance. If I had them for Gene, I wouldn't need to stall at all! Sure came in handy
I also participated in the Challenge Cup because I could, winning a promotional Mewtwo I had no use for in this Grass-only variant.
With these, the Science and Lightning medals were not too difficult, though I did a bunch of matches in-between to add some new options for the lategame. Even with the new Pokemon I had grinded, solo Scyther was still the best shot against Mitch and his underlings. Barely any of his Pokemon could damage it, and I made sure to Gust out those that could to Slash them apart before they could get going.
That brought me to the Fire club...but before that, would you take a look at this garbage? I got 26 Machamps in Evolution Booster packs while grinding for what I wanted - a bunch of Nidokings. They're Grass, and they're not vulnerable to Fire. I tried to get some earlier, got one now, and 10 more Machamps later, just resorted to savestates at this point, If I hadn't, I would've ended up with like 50. Makes me wonder how rarity in this game really works. I would get even more when doing a bit more duels to find a place to grind Nidorinas from.
The point of all this lies in Nidoqueen's first attack. Boyfriends does 20 damage ordinarily for two Energy, but with more Nidoking on the bench, it does 20 more damage for each. You can also use Nidoran female's Call for Family to get the base Nidoran males easily. I actually managed to get the full strength of it going against Ken.
Nidoking isn't too shabby either, being able to Toxic an enemy for 20 damage at the end of every turn.
Of course, it wouldn't be used against Murray, with them being weak to Psychic and all. Instead, I used a new deck, a much more stable one than the gimmicky solo Scyther or solo Exeggutors I'd been using. They were still a part of it, but they were joined by a new entry: Muk. Its Pokemon Power prevents other Pokemon Powers from working. I got it down, and though he did get down Alakazam, he couldn't use its Damage Swap! It also stopped Mr. Mimes and their invulnerability to hits over 20 damage
The gimmick of this duel killed, the only problem would be his Gusts of Winds - Muk does have a Psychic weakness. In fact, he did do that to KO a Grimer I had on the bench for just such an occasion that Muk be targetted. Still, this was an easy fight overall.
I have two decks this time, so here they both are. The first one, Gassing Garden, is my main one, and its big thing is the combination of the Exeggutor and Scyther strategies, with Muk as well. Muk's Pokemon Power has already been demonstrated. There are a couple screwy things here: namely, that Muk requires Grass energy (Eggy and Scyther are fine with Double Colorless), though I won't expect to be using it to battle too much. Also, I could only fit in less Exeggutors than I want, but that's what the four Computer Searches are for.
Meanwhile, the Love Sign deck is based on that Nido abuse from before. I put all my Computer Searches in the first deck, but it has enough tools and such that finding what I need shouldn't be too difficult.
I lost the first battle against Courtney, using the second deck due to the Fire weakness Scyther and Exeggutor share. I had everything I needed to get a Nidoking going, but a Fossil Magmar's Smokescreen refused to let my Nidoran female Call for Family. The second time, I did manage to get the love train going. Combined with Energy Removal, she didn't stand much of a chance.
Lightning Steve was a bit of a scary fight, as I ended up in that exact situation with Double Colorless and a Muk. Luckily, I had two Grimer, and the one was able to hold out just long enough for Muk to get three Grass Energy. It then was able to Poison the Electabuzz that was out, making him retreat it. From there, Muk plus some Potions were able to handle a couple Voltorbs, even Gusting out the weakened Electabuzz to KO it.
Eventually, support arrived in the form of some Scythers, which I brought out after an Eevee got off Tail Wag (one before tried, failed, then died to Pluspowered Sludge that procced Poison). He eventually murdered Scyther with a Base Zapdos, with its incredibly powerful but incredibly wasteful 100 Damage Thunderbolt, losing all its Energy and making it easy pickings for Muk.
Not much to say about Jack, except for something amusing. His AI loves to Scoop Up his Legendary Articuno and place it back down in order to abuse its Pokemon Power, that paralyzes your opponent's Pokemon when you place it on the bench and flip heads. With Muk down, he still Scooped it up, but never placed it back down. Though Scyther was eventually worn down from accumulated damage. Exeggutor was powered up enough by that point to blow him away.
Rod was quite possibly the easiest fight I've had against any major opponent. I had one Pokemon: Scyther. He had three: Two Dratini and a Magikarp. Turn 1, I draw a Grass Energy and Swords Dance. Turn 2: I attach Double Colorless and Slash the Dratini down. Turn 3: Slash one-shots Magikarp. Turn 4; Pluspower Slash one-shots the Dratini.
Ronald was a bit trickier. He was able to use Legendary Moltres' Firegiver twice on the same first turn, but would never be able to get anything beyond that because I got down a turn 2 Muk. Scyther was able to handle most things from there, before getting wrecked by a Kangaskhan's Comet Punch. Muk came in to pick up the slack. This was funny, because many times, Ronald would retreat a Pokemon about to die. He had a chance to destroy it with a Legendary Moltres' Dive Bomb at the very end, but flipped tails twice in a row.
Still, I had a backup in the wait, and decided the only run way to end this was how it all really began.
Mono Grass may not be, and even so far have been the easiest Card GB type to monotype, but it was definitely the most fun. Between Exeggutor, Nidoqueen, Muk, and Scyther, there's plenty enough in here to have good and fun times.
Index
