Base Set: Pokémon Trading Card Game

[Music] thank you slap the base big time what do you what is that you sound like a leprechaun hello my friends so I think it's high time that we embark on a new journey together that's right just you and me I've made a handful of card videos over the years where I tend to focus on some specific type of card like all of the vending cards all of the early dark Pokemon and so on but what if I decided to do something slightly different here and do an analysis of an entire set and then like I don't know maybe move on to other expansions Beyond this or something I do want to make one thing clear though in that at least for now I really have no desire to make videos on cards beyond the Wizards of the Coast Era and if you don't know that's basically up until 2003 with the Sky Ridge set nothing against those cards that Nintendo made or anything I just really don't have much of a personal connection to the modern cards this is a retro Channel baby but for now I'm only going to focus on the very first set here the base set also known as expansion pack in Japan and what I really want to do is do a thorough examination of the set as a whole in the past I've gone car by card talking about all their moves HP weaknesses Etc and while I do enjoy making those videos I'd like to get a little more in depth and look at averages how balanced the types are from each other which cards do I think are the best in their classes and so on I'll also give a look at the trainer cards theme decks most valuable and which ones have my favorite artwork should be a heck and fun time some of this video will be strictly fact-based and some will be personal opinions based on my own thoughts and experiences I am by no means an expert at this game I just like to do the challenges for it so my knowledge of cards used in past tournaments are top Jack strategies are pretty limited if I say something that you think is absolutely ridiculous because I missed some deck strategy that our winner used in 1999 or something just know that I really only want to have some fun here I'm just a guy who re-bought his childhood cards within the last year and makes silly videos on YouTube with a stuffed Parasect so with that said let's check out the base set of the Pokemon Trading Card Game the Pokemon Trading Card Game originated with this base set in Japan on October 20th 1996 just eight months after the red and green versions came out for the Game Boy it kicked off the TCG craze implementing the gameplay rules and showcasing 69 of the 151 Pokemon you know how it's played two players take turns drawing cards from their 60 card decks to find Pokemon use energy cards to use the moves on their cards and try and knock out the other person's Pokemon out to obtain prizes and win this set consisted of 102 different cards 69 Pokemon 26 trainer cards and 7 energy cards of the 15 Pokemon types that existed at the time the trading card game decided to narrow this down to seven different types colorless which mostly joined together the types of normal flying and dragon fighting which joined together fighting Rock and ground fire which was simply the fire type grass which joined together grass bug and poison lightning which was simply the electric type psychic which consisted of psychic and ghost and finally water which combined water and ice some of these had some overlap as many of the Pokemon are two types but they tended to place them based on their primary type Gastly for example is Ghost poison but is a psychic type rather than grass the only one who doesn't match this is jinx as it's a psychic card but is actually ice psychic but basically this was how they chose to condense the base set down in total there are 11 colorless Pokemon 8 fighting 9 fire 13 grass eight lightning eight psychic and 12 water types in the base set I think this is a pretty good balance as the original 151 weren't meant to be evenly balanced anyway I mean there were originally only three ghosts and three dragon types and then 32 water types grass takes the majority in this set while lightning fighting and psychic have the minority the base set finally got its English release on January 9 1999 only a few months after the red and blue these booster packs hold a ton of nostalgia for me too as they came with either Venusaur Charizard or Blastoise on the front no Pikachu in sight just three starters living in the moment the Japanese packs known as the expansion pack had a mix of Pokemon on the cover of Charizard far-fetch'd Clefairy Venusaur Rattata Nidoking and Tangela all Pokemon found in the set these cards can also vary by when they were released as well there are first edition ones which is just how it sounds these have a little first edition symbol on the left side to show they are among the earlier releases hence more valuable the base set also had shadowless versions which are among the limited releases and you can tell by the artwork not having a drop shadow on the right also some of the font and brightness is a little different too these are also more valuable and then there is the standard base set cards known as unlimited which are the easiest to find a lot of collectors tend to seek out the shadowless and especially the first edition shadowless so okay without further Ado let's go type by type and examine every single Pokemon in the set and rank them by the Rarity strap in because we have a lot to get through starting off with the colorless type there are only three Commons in the base set Pidgey Rattata and Doduo and rather than saying in my opinion at the start of every single one of these I'll only say it here in my opinion the best of these is Rattata it does have the lowest HP in the game at 30 but it can dish out 20 damage for a single any energy it's a fast attacker that can go into any deck it resists psychic and has no retreat cost I would put Doduo as the second best here 50 HP with no retreat cost is pretty good but Fury attack is simply worse than bite coin flipper Alliance as its only attack is rarely a fun time and the worst colorless common is Pidgey it has 40 HP and needs two energies just to deal 10 damage with Whirlwind resulting in a different Pokemon being active after very difficult to strategize around it although it does have potential to be useful for a turn or so of the four uncommons Raticate far-fetched Porygon and Dratini the best for me is going to be eradicate it doubles ratata's HP to 60 than most of these four has the exact same Vite attack of 20 damage for one of any energy and it gets the bonus of super Fang to take out half of the defending Pokemon's Health Raticate isn't flashy but it's pretty good for what it can bring and it does it fast farfetched is a close second as leak slap doing 30 for a single energy is boss but you could only use it one time and it has a 50 chance of missing anyway but then you can just power it up to use pot smash for the three energies then it's a toss-up for me but I think I gotta go with Dratini third the only attack it has is pound dealing 10 damage for one energy but it does have the bonus of a psychic resistance and no weakness but the worst for me has to be Porygon it only has 30 HP and can't even deal any damage it literally exists to change the weakness of the defending Pokemon with conversion 1 to something that could benefit you with a different one on your team but then all it can really do is stall with conversion 2 to resist hits but at that point Porygon is enough too much use anymore Porygon pretty much exists to boost other Pokemon on your team but it could be possible to win or at least stall with conversion 2 if the new resistance counters any damage it would take on to the rares and there are four Pidgeotto Clefairy Chansey and Dragonair the best colorless rare is going to be Dragonair it has a lot of HP with 80 no weakness it resists psychic and has some pretty decent moves although a bit costly slam will either deal 0-30 or 60 and then Hyper Beam while pretty weak dealing only 20 damage for 4 energies it does cause energies to be lost on the defending Pokemon and on top of that there's still Dragonite to be released down the line but for now that's a moot point Dragonair is actually quite good and double colorless energies are its best friend second for me has to be Chansey although I think it's way too risky of a Pokemon to take the top spot it has the highest HP in the set with 120 can prevent damage half of the time with scrunch but double edges such an All or Nothing move four energies to deal 80 and then Chansey takes 80 damage now counting healing it will only be able to attack twice so you really gotta plant Chansey accordingly Pidgeotto is third although not all that great Whirlwind is the same as pidgeys but now does 20 instead of 10 which is a nice bonus mirror move though is pretty Hit or Miss quite literally it dishes damage that Pidgeotto took back to the defending Pokemon which could cause your opponents to strategize otherwise not great for a rare and the worst rare here is going to be Clefairy there is no clefable yet so it's kind of a strange choice that Clefairy is rare probably because it's actually rare to find a mount moon in red and blue but it has low HP with 40 with its moves being sing and metronome Singh is super unreliable as it takes a coin flip for sleep to land and then they're flipping the coin each turn to try and wake up anyway that's two successful flips needed just for it to take effect for one turn then it has metronome which could be scary but it entirely depends on who the defending Pokemon is it makes the defending Pokemon hit itself with the same move of your choosing but it's very situational if you're against a strong Pokemon Clefairy can deal some damage but with only 40 HP it probably won't be lasting too long if you're against a weak one metronome will also be weak it is pretty much better than pidgeotto's mirror move though as Clefairy doesn't need to be hit in order to use it on to the fighting type here we have four Commons Sandshrew Diglett Machop and Onyx the best comment for me is going to be Machop Machop has 50 HP and can deal 20 damage for only a single energy very No Nonsense with good offensive and defensive qualities for a starting card and it can still evolve into both Machoke and Machamp later Machop Takes the Cake here for being a straightforward fast hitter with pretty good HP second best is a tough one I want to say Sandshrew because that's my boy but I think it should be Diglett Diglett has the worst HP but a lightning resistance no retreat cost and two attacks put it in second dig is super basic with 10 for one fighting but mud slap dealing 30 for two fighting is pretty sweet Sandshrew just barely has more HP and has the same 10 damage for one fighting however same attack preventing damage half of the time is great for adding a few more turns with Sandshrew out the worst one for me though is Onyx Onyx does have a ton of HP with 90 but the most damage it's going to be doing is 10 for a single energy it's the same as diglett's dig but I'd take mud slap over Harden and more HP Hardin basically gives it a resistance of your choice for one turn but that pretty much exists for you to stall and that's what Onyx is a stalling Pokemon for you to get better cards it has a three Retreat costs so it isn't intended to be going anywhere what is pretty funny about this Onyx is that the level 52 two Blastoise using hydro pump at full power with the extra two water energies on it will not knock out this level 12 Onyx in one hit the level 41 Gyarados using two bubble beams on onyx will still not knock it out ah good times but yeah Onyx is basically a wall here great if you need to get better cards but not offensive in the least as far as uncommons go machok is the only one here so nothing to compare it to you it has a lot of HP with 80 but its attacks could be anywhere from bad to Great karate chop gets weaker the more damage Machoke takes and then submission is costly with four energies and is self-damaging Amma choke won't be retreating much with the three cost but of the three rares Doug Trio Machamp and Hitmonchan if you know anything about early competitive decks the notorious Haymaker deck is considered one of the strongest decks to make of the early sets the only Pokemon in that deck are Scyther Electabuzz and of course Hitmonchan because of how fast they can attack while being basic Pokemon with high HP Hitmonchan is a beast here 70 HP can be played on turn one can hit for 20 for a single energy and then you can power it up to hit for 40 with only three energies there's absolutely no flash to it it just hits hard and fast it will last decently long one of the best Pokemon period from the base set second for me is a pretty easy Choice Machamp is pretty beastly with 100 HP has a sweet Pokemon power of Strike Back which is anytime a champ is hit by an attack that Pokemon takes 10 damage but it does have a couple drawbacks with the highest Retreat cost they need to have both Machop and machoka to use it and its only attack requires four energies to use three of them being fighting seismic toss is a good standard move though addition out 60 damage and then and last is of course Doug Trio Dugtrio has some positives here though 70 HP isn't bad and has a resistance to lightning you only need to diggle it out to use it and has some decently strong attacks slash dealing 40 for three energies is the same as hitmonchan's special punch so that's nice but its other attack being earthquake could be a rough one four fighting energies to dish out 70 damage but your entire bench also takes 10 damage if Doug Trio is your only Pokemon and you have the energies yeah earthquake is the way to go but yikes it's pretty costly next is fire and this was honestly super tough to rank all three categories even I could see arguments to change my mind for any of these but this is what I went with the fire type has three Commons Charmander Vulpix and Ponyta for the best of the commons I had to go with Charmander but not by much it has the same HP as Vulpix but charmada can actually hit on the first turn for a single any energy with scratch then Ember is pretty good with 30 damage for only two energies but you do discard a fire one each time you gotta weigh your pros and cons there but Charmander can still evolve two more times in the base set alone so it's a pretty valuable starting card I also think it's the best of the three starters too Vulpix would be second though as the potential for causing confusion is a good plus confusory needing Two Fire and only dealing 10 is what puts it below Charmander for me and then the worst one for me is ponytab but also not by much 40 HP is the lowest of the three and it has two straightforward attacks 20 or 30 damage depending on the two energies you managed to find with smash kick needing colorless and Flame tail needing fire no discarding necessary the main reason I put ponytail at last is just because it can attack on the first turn unless you play a double colorless energy and it has lower HP than the other two it's a close one though for the four fire uncommons Charmeleon growlith Arcanine and Magmar I think Charmeleon is actually quite good but I had to give Magmar the slight Edge it has a bit less HP than Charmeleon at only 50 compared to 80 and a worse Retreat cost and they both deal the same amount of damage with 30 and 50 but I put Magmar higher for only two reasons Fire Punch does cost less than slash although Two Fire is more specific than three colorless but the main reason is because Magmar is its own Bean Charmeleon needs a Charmander around to even be used while Magmar could be good to go on the first turn or at any point again I think these are all really close to each other in terms of strength so I wouldn't be surprised if other people put Arcanine is the best even Charmeleon is second though for mainly the reasons I just stated Arcanine is third although it has too many penalties for me 100 HP is the second best in the set and it only needs Growlithe out to evolve but flamethrower is the exact same move as Magmar and Charmeleon so those are all a wash takedown does 80 for four energies and then Arcanine takes 30 damage I'm less enthused about self-damaging moves but I mean 80 damage is a lot and it has a lot of HP but the worst one is a pretty easy decision Growlithe actually has a lot of HP for a basic Pokemon with 60 but Flair dealing 20 damage for two energies one being fire isn't too great very basic one here but it just can't keep up with the Charmeleon Magmar or Arcanine ah but then we have the two rares of Charizard and nine tails and yeah this is a tough one but I gotta go with my heart here Charizard is obviously good but I have to go with nine tails nine tails has 40 HP less with 80 but only a one or three cost the need to only have a Vulpix in play first and actually has two move options fire blast is the same cost as Charizard's fire spin but you only need to discard one energy instead of two to deal 80. 80 is still going to knock out the majority of all Pokemon you're against in this set so it's not too much weak here than fire Spin and then nine tails also has lure as another option acting as a permanent gust of wind for only two of any energy me and gusty's we get along nicely so I absolutely had to put Nine Tails as the best fire type rare and then we have Charizard in last by default base Charizard absolutely owns in terms of wanton value and there's no debate there but in terms of gameplay it's honestly not all that good it does have the highest HP with 120. it does have an attack that hits for 100 good God and it does have the Pokemon power of energy burn to turn any energy on Charizard into fire and it has a fighting resistance on top of those those are all really really good Pros but its cons are pretty costly a three Retreat cost they need to have both Charmander and Charmeleon out in play and the fact that fire spin is Charizard's only attack with the requirement to discard two energies each time in order to use it Charizard is like the perfect late game closer meant to seal it up and take the win home but it can usually only attack every other turn and that's if you have enough energies to keep using it so it's not great to get in the early game chances are though it's going to knock out a Pokemon in one hit unless it's up against another Charizard or Chansey on to Grass the type with the most variety here there are seven Commons here Bulbasaur Caterpie Metapod Weedle Knitter and mail coughing and tangler so I'll do my best to rank them this was also a tough decision as I think almost all the grass Commons are pretty good five of them can cause a status condition even it was a close call but I think the best here is Tangela 50 HP for a solo basic mod and it has two moves that hit for 20 with a status condition for each move Biden can deal 20 and possibly paralyze and then poison powder while costly for three grass does Auto poison and that's a huge Plus for me second is going to be coughing 50 HP is good for a basic mod and then I love its only attack foul gas does 10 for 2 grass but it will always cause either poison or confusion depending on the flip that's awesome it may only do 10 damage but the extra damage is where it's at for coughing in third is Metapod yeah Metapod is common but Kakuna isn't Metapod is actually pretty dang good though pretty high HP with 70 and then it can stiffen with two colorless preventing damage half of the time or use stun Spore for two grass doing 20 and maybe paralyzing almost everything is doubled here from Caterpie to Metapod in fourth for me is a close call but I'm gonna go with Bulbasaur 40 HP with only one attack leech C does 20 and heals Bulbasaur for 1 damage counter at a cost of two grass pretty decent but 40 HP is a bit low granted it will heal itself a little every turn if you can attack in fifth is Weedle the bottom four all have 40 HP so no comparisons there but since poison is my favorite status condition to cause poison sting doing 10 and maybe poisoning for only one grass is a sweet starting card in sixth I have Caterpie like I said everything is pretty much halved here from Metapod so String Shot doing 10 and maybe paralyzing is pretty okay but not as good as Weedle for me and then at last we have Nidoran male its only move is horn Hazard which can only hit 50 of the time however yeah 30 damage for a single energy is pretty awesome but the possibility is high that it will never deal any damage at least Caterpie and wheel can both cause damage without issue and maybe each causes to as conditions but Knitter and male is a bit too chain space for me then there are only three grass uncommons Ivysaur Kakuna and Nidorino also pretty tough call here but in a crazy twist I think the best is Kakuna they actually made Kakuna stupid good for what it's meant to be which is I mean a cocoon that sits there and raises his defense but Kakuna the card has a ton of HP with 80 and two moves stiffen for two of any energy which prevents all damage half of the time just like Metapod but its main move is poison powder which does 20 and poisons half of the time Kakuna isn't Amazing by any means but it's a pretty nice middle Evolution for what it is but its high HP is what steals the deal for me second best is Ivysaur and it's not half bad at all 60 HP with Vine Whip and poison powder Vine whip is a straightforward 30 for 3 energies poison powder does 20 with an auto poison for three grass very awesome I probably could have put Ivysaur above Kakuna for that reason but meh it's my list and the worst for me just barely is going to be Nidorino it has the same HP as Ivysaur but I just like ivysaur's moves more double kick is a move dealing 0 30 or 60 for three energies which could be good or bad bad and then horn drill does do a solid 50 which is nice but takes a whopping four energies to use also I hate that it's horn drill a one-hit KO move but that's for another video one that I already made actually plug time but I really gave the edge to Ivysaur because it has an auto poison move for less of a cost than it areno's horn drill and there are three grass rares here Venusaur Beedrill and Nidoking completing all three of those three-part Evolutions so an even playing field in that sense and this one is pretty tough because they're all very good in different ways the best and worst for me here are all so close to each other so I'm going to base it on personal preference I'm actually going to go with Nidoking as the best which is kind of funny is I had Knitter ant male and Nidorino is the worst in their categories but Nino King has 90 HP in two moves thrash for one grass and two colorless is pretty good it'll either deal 40 damage or 30 and then tend to itself based on the coin flip but the main reason I put it at one is how crazy good toxic is with three grass it not only does 20 with an auto poison but the poison hits for 20 every turn instead of 10. that's nuts in my poison only challenge noodle king was a monster of a Pokemon because of toxic but in second is actually going to be B drill it actually has the same HP as Kakuna but gains a fighting resistance and loses a retreat cost both moves take three energies depending on the type twin needle will do 0 30 or 60 damage just like nidorino's double kick and then poison powder is quite good 40 damage with a coin flip poison I actually kind of Love bass B drill and then last for me is shockingly going to be Venusaur Venusaur has the highest HP of the three with 100 and has a really good Pokemon power of energy trans which gives you the option to move grass energies around on your team but solar beam while strong is quite costly with four grass energies it doesn't do anything else just 60 damage I really only put Venusaur lower than b drill because Beedrill also has a lot of HP it can deal strong damage with potentially poisoning for Less energies and has that fighting resistance with a free Retreat cost again the difference between Nidoking and Venusaur is Slim though they're all pretty great final stage grass cards lightning time or electric if you don't like that I call it lightning it's what it is in the card game though I didn't make the rules there are three lightning Commons Pikachu Magnemite and Voltorb the best for me is kind of a close call but I'm gonna go with Magnum light here all three of them have the same 40 HP so that's not anything to compare Magnemite has Thunder Wave which does 10 and can paralyze for a single energy and that's usually a great starting move but if things are looking rough it can self-destruct for a lightning and a colorless hitting for 40 blowing itself up and damaging every Pokemon on each bench for 10. this little Magnemite could potentially be dealing a total of 180 damage granted 40 that is to itself and 50 that would be hitting your own bench but still you would only use self-destruct if the opportunity would benefit you anyway if your opponent's bench is loaded ooh baby second and third are easy decisions though Pikachu is just better they have the exact same attack with gnaw and Tackle but that's all Voltorb has Pikachu at least has a second attack of thunderjolt which does 30 for two energies and then Pikachu takes 10 damage with a Tails flip although now that I think of it I can see one circumstance where Pikachu is worse Pikachu could hit itself with thunder jolt and under the right circumstance I guess you could lose the match if that 10 mattered but come on no voltor was worse and a story as far as lighting on Commons go uh yeah there actually aren't any so never mind there but to make up for a lack of uncommons we have five lightning rares here Raichu magnaton electrode Electabuzz and Zapdos kind of weird that Zapdos is the only legendary bird in the base set while all three are in the fossil set but anyway the interesting thing here with these five is that they all have an attack that can cause self-damage all five of them but the best I mean I have to go with Electabuzz right it's the other one-third of the Haymaker deck along with Hitmonchan here Electabuzz is a lone Basic Pokemon so it can go out right away with 70 HP it can cause paralysis and deal 10 for only a single energy with thundershock and then it has Thunder Punch which could be dealing 40 damage with the right coin flip it also has the lowest self-damaging total of 10 along with electrode so that's only with the Tails flip yeah it's easy to see why Electabuzz is so good in this set it's very similar to Hitmonchan but arguably better because of the paralysis from thundershock second place is a close call but I'm gonna go with electrode it has pretty high HP with 80 and only has one attack electric shock for three lightning doing a simple 50 and then 10 damage to itself with a Tails flip not bad at all because it also has the Pokemon power of Buzz zap which allows you to knock out electrode and turn it into two of any energy it's a real nice bonus if you're either about to lose electrode or Can't Get Enough energies to even use it lots of options here in third is Magneton it has the lowest HP of the rares but I like its moves Thunder Wave dealing 30 with potentially paralyzing is pretty sweet and then if things are looking rough self-destruct can absolutely cause some chaos 80 damage to the defending Pokemon 80 damage to itself and then 20 damage to every bench Pokemon this Magneton isn't messing around but again this could absolutely hurt you more than help you gotta play it at the right time in fourth is going to be Zapdos this is a tricky one because it has so many Pros Basic Pokemon 90 HP no weakness a resistance to fighting attacks that absolutely smack but the cons are pretty costly too both attacks require four energies to use Thunder doing 60 but potentially hurting Zapdos for 30 and then Thunderbolt does a mighty 100 damage but you lose all of your energies on Zapdos also it has a big Retreat cost yeah Zapdos is a beast but there's a lot going on with it which puts it out of the top three for me and as far as the worst one that just leaves Raichu Raichu has decently High HP with 80 and then has two attacks agility is okay 20 damage for three energies and it can prevent damage with the heads flip so that could be beneficial but Thunder is a bit too risky for me and is exactly the same move as what Zapdos has 60 damage for three lighting and a colorless but Raichu will take 30 damage with a Tails flip it only has 80. so you're looking at losing almost half of its Health with the wrong flip Raichu is still good but I put it slightly last of the five I just like aspects of Magneton electrode the most more than Raichu or Zapdos psychic time here we have three Commons Abra gasly and drowsy I'm gonna have to go with drowsy is the best here even though there is no Hypno yet that could give the edge to ABRA if you view it that way Abra is more valuable on the right base deck but drowsy on its own has 50 HP compared to 30 can hit for 10 with a single energy right away with pound and has the additional option of confused Ray for too psychic dealing 10 and confusion with a heads flip confusion is my second favorite status condition to inflict just behind poison so I just like aspects of drowsy more here Abra is second though even though it's very basic low HP of 30 and only has side shock a simple 10 damage move for one psychic that can paralyze but no retreat cost and the worst is easily ghastly for me although it actually does have its merits it has no weakness has a resistance to fighting and no retreat cost all of that is pretty ideal but it has the lowest HP in the game with 30 and can't even deal any damage sleeping gas just kind of sucks two coin flips are needed to go your way for sleep to take effect and that's super unreliable but Destiny bond is a weird one you discard a psychic energy to use it and if a Pokemon knocks out Gastly on the next turn that Pokemon also gets knocked out but I mean they could just not attack and then you're out of a psychic energy and then they can attack on the next turn if you don't use it again in the GBC game though the AI will generally still attack Gastly if you use Destiny Bond so I think it's more useful there than if you're playing with a friend but yeah Gastly kind of sucks and then we have three psychic uncommons Kadabra Haunter and Jinx I'll be honest this is only difficult to choose between cadaver and Jinx Haunter is the worst one for sure but kind of like with Hitmonchan and Electabuzz I think Jinx takes the trophy here Jinx isn't part of a traditional Haymaker deck but she's actually pretty similar a 70 HP Basic Pokemon with some okay attacks double slap will either hit for 0 of 10 or 20 for a single psychic energy which isn't as good as hitmonchan's jab or electabuzz's thundershock but it's okay meditate is pretty decent though too psychic and a colorless to deal Baseline 20 damage with 10 more for each damage counter on the defender it's either a 20 damaging move or pretty much a knockout move if they're injured not bad at all and as good as cadaver is I think Jinx is slightly better cadabra doubles average HP to 60 and only has one attack but two moves it can completely heal itself with recover by removing an energy and then it can hit for 50 with three a 50 damaging move in the base set is quite good but for some reason they gave it a three or three cost I still don't really get that one Retreat cost generally tries to match a Pokemon's speed but it's not a black and white thing cadaver is fast but gets the highest Retreat cost here but the worst for sure is Haunter what a disappointment yeah yeah it has the fighting resistance and no weakness like ghastly but the only move it can deal damage with is dream eater and only if the defending Pokemon is asleep I hate moves that rely on sleep because they're flipping a coin to wake up every alternating turn the good parts about Haunter though is at least hypnosis is automatic so you don't need that extra coin flip for it to work but still you gotta use hypnosis before even attempting Dream Eater it is satisfying to pull off as 50 damage for two psychic energies is quite good but I'll pass on the Reliance of sleep here and that leaves us with two rares Alakazam and Mewtwo they have the same weakness and Retreat costs so no comparison there but I think I dislike Alakazam more Alakazam does need both ever and Kadabra to use it as opposed to Mewtwo being able to be played right away but I think Alakazam is more fun with arguably better attacks it has the damaged swap Pokemon power which can't be understated you basically rearrange all damage counters on your team any way you want every turn that's huge and on top of that confused Ray can cause confusion which I love and deal 30 for 3 psychic which is interestingly weaker than kadabra's super Sai if you're against a Pokemon with a psychic resistance you may not even want to evolve Kadabra into Alakazam but that Pokemon power is just so useful but like I said Mewtwo certainly isn't bad being a basic Pokemon with 60 HP and psychic psychic is only good if the defending Pokemon has a lot of energies on them so it's situational barrier prevents all damage no matter what if you discard a psychic energy which again is situational so I just barely put Mewtwo below Alakazam although I can certainly see why Mewtwo could be higher and finally that leaves us with water we have four water cabins here Squirtle pollywag Staryu and Starmie I mean I gotta go with Starmie is the best right it's kind of crazy that it isn't common sure it needs to Star you out in order to use it but it has pretty decent HP of 60. the option of completely healing itself with recover and has star freeze dealing 20 possibly paralyzing and while and eating three energies to use it two of them are colorless Starmie isn't blowing down doors or anything but it's pretty versatile for a common second best for me here is going to just barely be Staryu Staryu and Squirtle are very similar same HP weakness and Retreat costs so it just comes down to Staryu slap versus squirtle's bubble they both take one energy but I think slap doing 20 is slightly more valuable than Squirtle may be paralyzing but Squirtle also has withdrawal as an option although I don't know if I've personally ever used it maybe but the worst one here for me is pretty easy it has to be polywag they all have the same HP Squirtle can paralyze and Staryu hits harder for less poliwag's water gun costs the same as star you slap but is weaker unless you add one or two more water energies on it to deal 20 or 30 instead of 10. so a bit costlier unless their weakness comes into play as Poliwag is weak to grass and Staryu is weak to lightning I see few reasons why poliwags shouldn't be last here then we have five water uncommons Wartortle Poliwhirl seal dugong and Magikarp yeah seal and Magikarp are uncommons while starving is common what happened with the water type here but the best here is easy for me it's Gotta Be dugong dugong has a lot of HP with 80 has a strong move of Aurora beam dealing 50 for three energies and then if you want to rely on coin flips icebeam does 30 and can paralyze for four energies I think Aurora beam is more useful for this set but I can see ice beam being the move to go with under the right circumstances dugong ended up being pretty great for me and my ice challenge second best is also an easy one for me Wartortle has a lot of HP with 70 and has two move options withdraw is the same as Squirtles but I think is more useful here because it costs less than its actual attack so you can use withdraw to power up to be able to use bite which does 40 for three energies two of them colorless I think all three of the middle Evolution starters are pretty good cards Poliwhirl is next which is also pretty decent 60 HP which is average and has Amnesia and double slap double slap will do 0 30 or 60 depending on the flip so it's another one of those unreliable moves but Amnesia is unique you choose a move your opponent's Pokemon has and they can't use it for a turn if it's their only move Poliwhirl can bring the game to a halt in fourth is Seal who is super basic 60 HP and only has headbutt doing 10 for one energy that's really about it it's kind of similar to growlith so then the worst is also an easy one for me why would they ever make Magikarp an uncommon here in red and blue it's the only Pokemon you'll find while fishing with an Old Rod it is absolutely everywhere in that game but the Magikarp card is better than the main game Magikarp for sure it does have the lowest HP in the game of 30 but it could potentially be dealing 20 damage for a single energy with flail flail does 10 times the amount of damage counters on Magikarp which can only be 20 Max so with certainly no Powerhouse nor should it be otherwise tackle for 10 with any energy is the other option Magikarp is meant to be weak by Design therefore it's the weakest of the water uncommons which brings us to our last group here the water rares of Blastoise polyrth and Gyarados for me this is a very similar debate as the grass rares as they're all quite good in different ways but I simply have to go with Blastoise here as the best and that's mostly because of rain dance rain dance allows you to play as many water energies as you want each turn but only on water Pokemon so you could go from heavy no energy is not Blastoise at all to immediately being able to use a fully powered hydro pump in the same turn if the cards are right that's scary especially if you utilize trainers like Professor Oak or Bill plus it has a ton of HP with 100 one list I saw had Blastoise as the single best Pokemon in the base set so kind of hard not to argue against it not winning out over the other two what's funny is that Blastoise and Venusaur are actually more similar than you'd think yet I had Venusaur last in that group I'm such a funny guy they can both deal 60 damage have 100 HP and have a Pokemon power that revolves around Canon energies played but I think rain dance has the potential to be scarier than energy trans you can power up Blastoise and any other water Pokemon with ease here even with Blastoise on your bench it's a good card second for me is Gyarados who is also pretty beastly 100 HP with two powerful attacks but they take a lot of water energies each three and four dragon rage hits for a simple 50 which is all sorts of wrong it should be 40. but bubble beam does 40 and can maybe paralyze plus Gyarados resists fighting and is weak to Grass I think Blastoise and Gyarados are two of the top showcase cards in the entire set so then the worst by default is polyrth but not by much polyrth has less HP than Gyarados requires both Poliwag and Poliwhirl out instead of just Magikarp and doesn't have that sweet fighting resistance that Gyarados has but its moves could be potentially better water gun is simply worse than Dragon rage as they both could deal 50 damage but water gun would need 5 energies on it rather than three but Whirlpool has its merits it can discard energies on the defending Pokemon deal 40 damage and two of them are colorless as opposed to gyarados's Bubble beam needing for water so I do think I prefer Whirlpool over bubble beam but just about everything else is better with Gyarados putting Poliwrath last and there we have every single Pokemon in the base set ranked by their type that was a lot but now it's time to look at some cold hard facts so what I decided to do is look at the HP of every single Pokemon in the set and calculate the average to see which types have the best to the worst surprisingly the type that had the highest average in HP was the fire type at an average of 70 HP that's pretty crazy to me but with cards like Charmeleon Charizard nine tails and Arcanine it makes sense the next highest was fighting followed by water lightning grass psychic and colorless and last with only an average of 54.5 now it is important to note that a lot of these Pokemon didn't get their evolution line completed until the jungle or fossil expansions 10 of these stop at a certain point in just the base set Pidgeotto Clefairy Doduo Dragonair Sandshrew Ponyta Metapod coughing Haunter and drowsy we're the furthest you could go with these lines here so that does factor into a lot of the averages I don't really know why they chose to not complete these lines in the original set but I can safely guess that it was just to get people to buy packs and boosters of the expansions when they came out Pokemon was and still kind of is all about catching them all so while it sucks that you could only get it drowsy with no Hypno right away it kept the buyers coming back so they could get that Hypno later on kinda makes drowsy less important for the time being though so with that said fire ended up being the front runner for hit points with Ponyta being the only Pokemon without a completed Evolution there the colorless type in last had a lack of Pidgeot clefable dodrio and Dragonite to deal with the next thing I chose to look at was the amount of weaknesses and resistances on all of these cards the type that the most pokemon here are weak to was the psychic type as six out of the eight psychic types are weak to psychic as well as 4 out of the eight fighting cards and 4 out of the 13 grass cards at a whopping 14. next is a tie between lightning and fighting with 12 each then we have water and fire at nine and grass in last at eight there are five total Pokemon that have no weakness at all and that nobody is weak to colorless by Design only four fighting in four water are weak to grass here even though grass is the type with the most cards pretty interesting there but fighting Takes the Cake of being the type that gets resisted the most with 10 Pokemon there is at least one Pokemon of every type that resists fighting in this set except for the fighting type itself that can be a bit of a problem for that type only Doug Trio Machoke Machamp and Hitmonchan have an attack that can hit for more than 30. the next highest is psychic as seven of the 11 colorless Pokemon resist psychic only Kadabra Haunter Jinx and Mewtwo could even bypass that minus 30 resistance on them and Haunter Jinx and Mewtwo are situational for that to even happen Haunter needs to defending Pokemon to be asleep to even hit it Jinx can only hit them if they have damage counters on them and Mewtwo needs them to have a lot of energies so in the base set alone Kadabra is your best bet for countering any with a psychic resistance the only other type that shows up with any resistances at all is lightning with three Pokemon resisting it Sandshrew Diglett and Doug Trio although the majority of the lighting types have an attack that hits for more than 30. only Pikachu and Voltorb would struggle with this although Magnemite and Magneton would have to blow themselves up to bypass it no Pokemon resists the colorless fire grass or water types here the next thing I looked at was taking the average of the amount of retreat costs as while this isn't as important as hpe weakness attack Etc it is still important if you find yourself in a bind yeah that kind of bind the type with the best average of retreat cost is actually colorless with Pokemon like Rattata and Doduo having no retreat costs at all most of them only have one though with Dragonair being the only one with two the next best is the lighting type then grass fire psychic water and fighting having the worst Machoke Machamp and Onyx all have a three Retreat cost in the Doug Trio and Hitmonchan have too so let's summarize what we have here to see what the best and worst types are if you disagree with my findings here then that's super awesome make a deck proving me wrong and let's Rumble so let's keep it simple here and try to do some sort of silly point system to find the best type I think the best path to take here is compare the best of the rares uncommons and Commons in comparing the best rares of each type we have Dragonair Hitmonchan nine tails Nidoking Electabuzz Alakazam and Blastoise I do think it's more of a contest between Hitmonchan Electabuzz and Blastoise for the best Haymaker cards versus the quote best card so let's give a point to fighting lightning and water here for uncommons we have Raticate Machoke Magmar Kakuna Jinx and dugong I'm gonna opt for points here to Magmar Jinx and dugong with dugong being the best of them all for Commons we have Rattata Machop Charmander Tangela Magnemite drowsy and Starmie I feel like the points should go to Machop tangla and Starmie here so now my numbers findings top three for HP are fire fighting and water top three types that have the Pokemon weak to it the most are psychic fighting and lightning the types not being resisted at all are in a four-way tie of colorless fire grass and water and finally The Retreat cost points average colorless lightning and grass which leaves me to my final total based on my Superior no flaws in sight point system I think the best type in the base set is water with powerhouses like Blastoise Gyarados and dugong a good HP average decent on the weakness averages no Pokemon that resist water it's just a good type all-around with a lot of variety also all of the water revolutions are complete here too water and lightning are the only lines without any Strays there are the second most water Pokemon only behind grass here too as far as the types with the least points I have colorless and psychic and last I think I would personally give the edge to the colorless ones being the worst here as I think that ones like Clefairy Porygon and Pidgey are on the lower end also for the colorless Pokemon are without their final Evolutions here so there are some incompletions present the obvious bonus for colorless is that they use any energies and thus can be used in any deck of any type so the balance gets implemented there for sure overall though I do think they did a good job finding the right balance with types in the base set it's the very first set so I think there are few bumps along the way I can see a deck of any type succeeding here really but hey I'm just a guy on YouTube trying to have a good time so that takes us to the trainer cards and there are a whopping 26 in the base set I say whopping because when I get to the jungle set there's literally only one trainer card there so just like with the Pokemon let's rank them by the Rarity these are obviously extremely situation based so I'll pretty much base this on how often I end up using them or how often they would actually be helpful there are certain certainly situations where the best ones wouldn't help you in the least so keep that in mind we have five common trainers Bill energy removal gust of wind potion and switch these may be Commons but wow they're all pretty essential in most base decks the best for me I mean come on it's gust of wind it's my favorite trainer card of all time watch any of my challenges I use them constantly you choose which of your opponent's Pokemon becomes the active one it's so incredibly useful next best has to be bill you simply draw two cards you really benefit by being able to draw cards fast with these early cards so bill is the perfect card for doing so I think every base deck should have at least two bills in it next best for me is energy removal just like with gusty's and Bill I almost always have two to four of these in every deck you just remove any energy on your opponent's Pokemon nothing to it these are so good to get in the early game as you're preventing your opponent from being able to do anything next is potion you heal any Pokemon for two damage counters uh by the Numbers healing card and that's it and in last is switch although these can come in handy plenty of times switch basically bypasses any Pokemon's Retreat costs so it's helpful if you really have some Hefty boys out there and need to keep them safe it also bypasses Pokemon with a status condition which could be huge then we have 11 uncommon trainers wow Defender energy removal full heal maintenance plus power Pokemon Center Pokemon flute Pokedex Professor Oak revive and super potion the best here is really easy to choose Professor Oak has you discard your hand to get seven new cards it's almost too good I think it's the best trainer card in the set in general if you have no hand you automatically get seven new cards to unleash whatever strategy your deck has the oak man is incredibly good then it gets a little muddy I feel like of these I end up using plus power the most it simply adds 10 to whatever attack you're using if your opponent has everything all planned out just whip out a plus power to do that extra 10 to knock out the Pokemon and then they can stack too and to contrast that I think Defender should be third it prevents 20 damage from your opponent's next attack slapping a few plus powers and defenders in your deck can really make the difference depending on the circumstances I think the next best is super potion discard an energy to heal 4 damage counters it's just a boosted potion but you do lose an energy but this could be the difference of keeping a strong Pokemon in for a few more turns later in the game next for me is revive you bring any Pokemon back from the discard pile to your bench but at half Health the ideal Second Chance card especially if you have some strong basic ones there I don't tend to use the rest of these too much but again they can really come in handy I think I gotta go with full heal next it cures your Pokemon of any status condition absolutely huge if you have some poison or confusion problems or to even bypass that one turn paralysis next is Pokemon Center it's pretty much the ultimate start over card you heal all damage counters on every one of your Pokemon but you also lose all energy cards on them too if things are really going awry a Pokemon Center can be a good reset button then I gotta go with Pokedex next look at the top 5 cards you your deck and rearrange them in any way the perfect card for planning a strategy for the next few turns or it could show you that you have absolutely no hope at winning now at least it speeds that process up energy retrieval is next which has you discard a card in your hand to bring back two basic energies from your discard pile I only put this low because it's better for Middle to late game matches and only if you're having energy problems which isn't too likely that's certainly a generalized thought though second to last is maintenance which basically turns any two cards you don't want in your hand into the ability to draw one card those cards go back in your deck too not as good as Bill but a nice card to have if you're needing extra cards because what you have isn't working and then in last is Pokemon flute it's basically a revive but only figure opponent that can help you if they have some really garbage Pokemon there that you can easily take out it's a good way to get a quick prize but this is probably the most situational card of the bunch you may not want to ever use it at all and then we finally have 10 rare trainers Clefairy doll computer search Devolution spray imposter Professor Oak item finder lass Pokemon breeder Pokemon Trader scoop up and super energy removal the best is an easy choice for me computer search is extremely good discard two cards in your hand to search your deck for literally any card trainer energy Pokemon whatever whatever card you need in that moment you can just go get it this card could be the Catalyst for winning a lot of the time after this it gets a little tough some of these are surprising that they are even rare I think I gotta pick Pokemon Trader though you trade any Pokemon in your hand for any Pokemon in your deck need a Blastoise but you have a stupid Porygon in your hand then just trade them a great card to benefit you in the moment in third I think is Pokemon breeder Pokemon breeder allows you to completely bypass the middle stage of a three-part Evolution so bam Weedle can turn right into Beedrill Pokemon breeder can really speed up the process of getting your best mods out then I'm gonna go with a super energy removal you're moving energy on one of your mods to remove any two from one of your opponents another great card for the late game especially if they have a strong one out needing four to attack next I'm gonna pick item finder discard two cards in your hand to bring any Trainer Card back that's in your discard pile again another great card for the midterm late game if any trainer card that you've already used would help you again just bring it back next is scoop up you choose any Pokemon you have in play and return just the basic Pokemon to your hand all other cards on it get discarded an excellent card if you're about to lose that Pokemon anyway or if they have a Pokemon power that activates when you play it the bottom four though really aren't all that great I guess I'll go with last next as it makes both players shuffle all trainer cards in their hands back into their decks if your deck isn't reliant on trainer cards this could help but it might easily fail entirely if your Pokemon doesn't have any it's a gamble I'll go with Clefairy Dolla next it acts as a Pokemon with 10 HP but can't do anything at all and doesn't cause your opponent to draw a prize when it gets knocked out it's basically a one turn stalling card not to get too ahead of myself here but it's basically a mysterious fossil card from the fossil set except it can evolve into those fossil Pokemon in second to last is imposter Professor Oak it's almost just like a regular professor stroke except it only works on your opponent and they Shuffle their cards back into their decks instead of discarding I have encountered very few situations where this would have benefited me in fact the AI likes to use this on the GBC and it oftentimes helps me out but in last is Devolution spray you choose any of your evolved Pokemon in play discard all Evolution Cards on it in order to heal it of a status condition um okay so it's just like a full heal except you unevolve it the times where this would even benefit you are far and view between and I've never bothered to even use one of these maybe I'm completely missing something here but it's kind of a baffling trainer card and it's a rare and the last segment here is going to be finding the best theme deck in my opinion there are five but I kind of only want to compare four of them one of them is the two player starter deck which was in fact my introduction to the card game itself but I don't know it seems like it shouldn't be up against the actual theme decks it's fighting and Fire based and actually has 60 one cards in it it's not even legal to use as is Machamp is technically a bonus card there the other Pokemon in it are Machop and Machoke of course Diglett Ponyta Charmander Charmeleon Growlithe Rattata and Dratini I do have a lot of nostalgia for these cards as my friend Shane brought this over introducing me to the Pokemon cards so I'll give a shout out to it but let's look at the other four instead overgrowth zap brush fire and blackout what's cool is that overgrowth brush fire and blackout each have the starters in them just not the final stages of Venus or Charizard and Blastoise you're meant to buy these and then the booster packs to complete the lines and then zap has Pikachu in it closing out the Gen 1 starting Pokemon if you include the Yellow Version overgrowth is grass water based with Gyarados and Ivysaur on the cover with the two rares being Gyarados and Beedrill the other Pokemon here include Bulbasaur and Ivysaur Staryu and Starmie and of course Magikarp Weedle and Kakuna this deck was actually the first Pokemon cards I ever bought so it holds a special place for me I even did a challenge on the Red version using only these Pokemon with these moves that was a fun time I think it's a solid group here too personally the weaknesses here are to Grass lightning and fire and two of them resist fighting the ones that are weak to fire though can be assisted by the water types in the deck the only ones that could have trouble with are against lighting or grass and even then it's just star you starving and Magikarp weak to lightning and only Gyarados weak to Grass I think Gyarados and Beedrill are quite good for the rare sphere and the trainers are all solid choices brush fire is fire and grass based with a charmeleon and Nidoran male on the cover with the two rares being nine tails and lasts the other lines here are kind of all over the place there's Charmander in Charmeleon of course Growlithe and Arcanine but then the grass types are Weedle Knitter and male and tangler no Kakuna or Nidorino even which is a bit of a letdown this one is definitely more lopsided with fire being the better type this deck would absolutely struggle against a water deck as the few water types weak to Grass only have to deal with Weedle Nidoran male and tangler Tangela is pretty good but Weedle and it are in male aren't too intimidating most of the time as far as one of the rares being laskos that kind of sucks too last has both players shuffle all trainer cards and their hands back into their decks and then this deck gives you nine other trainer cards even some strange choices here and I don't think brushfire is nearly as good as overgrowth blackout focuses on water and fighting with Squirtle and Hitmonchan on the cover with the two rares being Hitmonchan and super energy removal the other lines here are Squirtle and Wartortle but chop him a choke and then the solo ones of Sandshrew Onyx Staryu and far-fetched this deck has weaknesses to lighting and psychic but at least a lightning deck could have trouble against Machop Machoke Sandshrew and Onyx here I think a psychic deck is the best against it as Machop Machoke and Hitmonchan are all weak to it and they are the best Pokemon in the deck it's a pretty decent deck although there are so many Onyx sandruent Staryu here three of each to be exact none of them are all that great super energy removal is a better trainer rare than lasses but I think this deck isn't as good as overgrowth I put this in the middle above brush fire and finally we have zap the deck that focuses on lightning and psychic with Pikachu and Mewtwo on the cover with the two rares being Mewtwo and computer search the other lines here are Abra and cadabra gasly and Haunter and then the solar ones of Pikachu Magnemite drowsy and Jinx for the deck being named zap with an exclamation point even the only lighting types in the deck are Pikachu and Magnemite not really that scary it's definitely more psychic focused the benefit of this deck is that the only weaknesses it deals with are psychic and fighting and even then Gastly and Haunter resist fighting and have no weakness I think this deck has the best edit trainer cards too Mewtwo is a nice choice for the rare Pokemon here too although I think all four decks have pretty great choice for the hollow rares but zap is just so incomplete for it to be the best deck in my opinion I would probably say it's pretty close to blackout but there are just some things holding it back for me Pikachu and Magnemite being the only lightning types here are kind of disappointing and I simply don't think Gastly and Haunter are good so I do think the best deck here is overgrowth followed by blackout then zap and brush fire last with that said these decks are certainly meant to be a starting point for trying to get the rest of the cards missing from the evolution lines and then customizing them from there but as decks on their own overgrowth having Weedle Kakuna Beedrill Staryu Starmie Magikarp Gyarados Bulbasaur and Ivysaur is just so much more complete feeling wow that was a lot to go over I really hope I did this set Justice and didn't get too many things wrong I tried to give it a good mix of facts and opinions here and I like to think I have a pretty decent knowledge of these cards by this point of my favorites my personal favorite card here in terms of gameplay is probably Nidoking I can't resist the temptation of that sweet sweet toxic move a few other favorites to use are dugong Alakazam and Beedrill they're all very fun cards my personal favorite of the artwork is Gyarados that Hollow look is so good some honorable mentions are Kadabra Nidorino Dragonair Porygon and yes Charizard I'm not a Charizard fan but even I can't deny that's a sweet looking card and just for a fun side thing let's list the top 10 most valuable cards in the set this is just a very general list as a first edition shadowless Poliwrath will be worth more than a standard Hollow blast noise or something so this is just a basic top 10 unlimited ranking list according to TCG player at a current market price as of July 2023. number 10 Hollow Clefairy at about 29 number nine Hollow Magneton at about thirty dollars number eight Hollow Gyarados at about thirty dollars number seven Hollow Mewtwo at about thirty one dollars number six Hollow Zapdos at about 33 dollars number five Hollow Raichu at about thirty four dollars number four Hollow Alakazam at about forty two dollars number three Hollow Venusaur at about 84. a significant jump there number two Hollow Blastoise at about a hundred and twenty five dollars and in a surprise to absolutely nobody if you know anything about Pokemon cards like at all number one hollow Charizard at about 366 dollars marking the only base set card that I still do not own and then the least valuable Pokemon in the base set is Staryu at about 28 cents overall the base set is obviously so important to the card game as a whole and is such an excellent kickoff it's so incredibly integral to the success of the Pokemon franchise even the big three of the games the anime and the trading card game didn't necessarily start here but the base set really did help accentuate pokemania in the 90s in so many ways I love it millions of others love it and it still stands the test at time except for like how incredibly obsolete it is now thanks to the game's ridiculous power creep look at some of these cards now my God the base set is trash compared to these oh well so thanks again to you all and a huge thank you to these patreon people here since this video is all about that bass set I wanted to Showcase everybody's virtual cards here as they're mostly all base set ones if you don't know when you join any of the four tiers on my patreon you get assigned a virtual card in number order as a personal thank you for your support I got the idea from Scott's thoughts as he also does something similar with the Pokedex head on over to patreon.com Paris Specter if you want to see what's currently going on and what else I offer so if you enjoyed listening to me talk for quite a long time on all of these cards let me know what you think I'll most likely move on to the jungle set unless this video really does poorly either way Paris Specter will return [Music] foreign [Music] [Music]

Channel: Paraspectre

Views: 50,541

Keywords: pokemon, paraspectre, paraspective, paraspectre pokemon, paraspectre spike, pokemon tcg, paraspectre eeveelutions, mah dry bread pokemon, pokemon challenges, pokemon card game gameboy, top 10 pokemon cards, top 10 pokemon tcg, pokemontcgexclusives, pokemon gbc, pokemon gbc exclusives, pokemon base set, pokemon tcg base set, base charizard, every base set card, pokemon cards, charizard

Id: qva62VDTcqc

Length: 62min 38sec (3758 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 26 2023