This is part 5 in a series. For a more interesting, less detailed overview, see: Meta Report Kanto.
The theme of grass is to have cards grow - in Kanto, that meant handbuffing, here it means self-buffing. Again, Abilities trigger at the end of your turn, so will guaranteed happen once, but with Meganium for instance, you will not be able to make use of the buff straight away.
In Kanto, there were no blockers for the Fire-type, but the Cyndaquil-line fixes that, together with some high-tempo cards. If they seem weak, well, they are! But only due to balance-changes, because they used to have quite high win-rates.
The Totodile-line sees a new theme for the Water-type - healing! In a way it makes sense both strategically and thematically, since Water has always been board-oriented tempo, which healing helps with just as well as spread-out damage does.
The Totodile-line is also the designated Dragon-type starters for this generation. Crocodiles, Dragons, what's the difference anyway?
These cards only exist because for some reason, I had not made them in Kanto. Their strength is subtle, but not to be underestimated.
Finally, our first dark-type pokémon! Again, this type-change was necessary for gameplay reasons, but I hope you will agree that the change makes sense. These are dark owls, after all.
Dark has a lot of cards that deal damage to their Idol, in exchange for some effect. With Hoothoot and Noctowl, that effect is really high stats for their cost.
Here we have our requisite high-attack, low health, shielded cards. Is shield better than one health? Maybe not when any effect that deals just one damage can take you out straight away.
While Spinarak is simple and boring, there is a reason for it. Ariados gives you the flexibility for freezing two enemy pokémon whenever you want, which is a great control strategy for Poison, and also allow you to get three pokémon for the price of one card, which is a great swarm-strategy for Bug.
If you ask why Spinarak freezes, I was going to implement a status called "Web" which disabled the opponent from attacking for one turn, but then I realised it was just freezing with a different name. This is the necessary result.
Our evolution for Golbat! Crobat comes with Venom, and enough to share with all its friends, too! This effect is not particularly strong with Poison decks, since they generally already have venomous friends and most enemies poisoned, but it works quite well with Flying type decks, where it works as a +1 attack with upside.
Electric was really weak, but I found a couple of ways to change that. The first we see on Chinchou - some of the damage being guaranteed to hit enemies really changes the usefulness. Both cards are a bit more powerful than usual, but it is to balance out the general weakness of electric (and to create problems in balancing water, it seems).
Lanturn is not the other way to change the weakness of electricity, but just a really strong effect on an acceptably-statted card. It combines the potency of Electricity with the accuracy of Water. It also gives another way to remove important enemies.
We have already seen Pikachu and Raichu, but Pichu is a new baby pokémon, that can evolve into Pikachu. It showcases the other way to focus the effect of Electric. Costing just one, it can take out almost any enemy. The lack of control, and whether it hits a friend or a foe, makes it strong, but only situationally so.
For some reason, this Pichu seems to have the power-level of Pikachu from the anime - I guess to make up for how basic Pikachu and Raichu are.
More baby-pokémon, and this is one where it is important to see the full evolutionary line. Cleffa gives you a moon-stone, which you can use on any friend. Using it on Cleffa might be a bit slow, a 3 cost 2/3 without an effect is, eh, bad. But I am sure you can find an alternative target.
And another baby, Igglybuff. Like the above, it follows in its family's footsteps, but requires you to put in a bit of extra mana for the effect, but in return offers unprecedented flexibility.
Metronome is a really good idea for a pokémon move, that is just dreadfully slow in the games. Here it is a bit more decent. Togepi offers you the choice of whether you even want to use the Power, or just keep it as a 1 cost 1/1.
Togetic however commits. Maybe the Power is free, and Togepi would be better. Maybe it is an 8 cost Ultimate Mind. Maybe it ends up being Mass Produce and your hand is filled with more Togetics for madness.
Wait, these say spell instead of Power. Okay, I am terrible at writing these cards consistently.
Whenever we talk about the cost of cards, it refers to the cards in hand. Natu is an early-game Psychic or Flying pokémon that can be considered free. And if you keep it alive, it will keep discounting your cards. Nice lil' Natu.
Xatu, however, takes it a step further. If you can control what card to make free, it might win you the game. Usually, it just helps you survive a bit longer, though. One should also consider the synergy of Xatu's effect hitting another Xatu.
The Mareep-line focuses on random damage, like any good Electric type pokémon would. The two first are just more moderate rehashes of Pichu, meant to be played on curve.
Ampharos, however, is a beast. When I banished cards to the 8-cost realm, it seems to have escaped. But not for long. It sits at 55% win-rate, and looks ready for the nerf-hammer.
One comment. Ampharos does seem quite strong, but you will not understand how excellent its ability is before you consider the synergy with all the other Electric cards that also spread damage. These effects work really well together - the more damage spread, the more consistent the result.
An alternative evolution to Gloom, here we have Bellossom. Vileplume was able to hit all enemies when attacking. Bellossom instead heals all friends. A nice mirroring. Since healing is a lot worse than damaging, its stats are decent instead of decimated like Vileplume is.
Marill and Azumarill are designed after their ability in the games, "Huge Power". These pokémon surely have huge power. Marill is a really good early game drop, but unless you find a way to buff its health, it remains a fragile glass cannon.
Their secondary typing of Fairy is not my design, but the official design. They are water fairy mouse water balloon rabbit Pikachus, after all.
Sudowoodo shows the first time an effect scales in size with some state of the board. Its effect can be great if you have control of the board, but the question stands, if you have control of the board, why would you want health?
Politoed, our resident pacifist alternate evolution. Like Bellossom, instead of damaging, it heals instead. It has also lost its fighting type - generally, I prefer avoiding type-changes mid-evolution, but you can still access the full important part of the evolution line as a Fighting type deck, so that's fine.
I first discovered Politoed a couple of years after I stopped playing pokémon, thinking it to be gen 5 or something.
Aipom is a fun 2-cost 3/2 that comes with a 2-cost discount on your Idol Power. Of all things to discount, the Idol Power is usally the least important. Unless you have changed your Idol Power, that is. With a new, stronger Idol Power, it instead becomes a decent card that is not overpowered because its use will be late in the game, where a 2-cost discount is not a big deal.
Our second example of a Sunbeam pokémon. While it was alright to evolve Hoppip, evolving Sunkern is really strong, giving it +4/+4 for just three mana! But with one health, it does not usually survive that long.
Sunflora completes the secondary Grass theme of growing pokémon through evolutions. Though its cost is assymmetrical compared to that of Clefable, its cost makes it difficult to play alongside other cards.
Yanma is a dragon-fly, therefore part Dragon-type. Its effect reflects the cost-reduction theme of Dragon quite well - since it is quick, it is guaranteed to trigger once, but with its amount of health, it might go off again and again.
Wooper mixes the Idol Power of Water and Ground. This reflects it being part water-type until very late in development where there were so many more water pokémon than any other type that I was losing my mind. It started leading to bugs.
Still, I regret it.
Quagsire is more fully ground, with the great ability that as long as it stays on the board, all enemies will be confused, attacking into its low-attack high-health body without their owner's control. This gives it the enviable win-rate of 53%, just low enough to survive my nerf-hammer.
The Eevee line has extended by two! Espeon follows the other Eeveelutions in using its elemental theme. However, Umbreon has a different function. It works as a value machine. So much value. Infinite Eevees. So many Eevees.
Our first official dark-type pokémon, Murkrow shows us a new mechanic: Mana ramp. You will still never get more than 8 max mana, but Murkrow will help you get there faster. It might seem like a strange thing for an aggressive deck like Dark, but Dark does have several good late-game cards, like Umbreon, the king of value. Murkrow trades an early-game set-back for more tempo in the future.
Slowking is an alternative to Slowbro. They are identical apart from how many cards they draw - Slowbro always draws two, Slowking can draw six! Which do you think is stronger? How many cards will Slowking draw on average?
Appartently fewer than two, since Slowbro has a 51% winrate, while Slowking only has a 45% winrate. At some point, an aggressive Psychic deck will be possible, but not today.
Talking of huge potential, Misdreavus is perhaps the card that has seen the most balance changes. Originally, its trigger was "when you draw cards," which also happens at the beginning of your turn, but with Ghost's Idol Power, that was too weak. After nerfing it into a 3-cost 1/1 and seeing how boring that was, this version seemed more prudent.
Before we move into Johto, let me just add a comment about the design process. Kanto was meant to be a base set, exploring mostly just each type's central theme and trying to flesh out the different game mechanics. Apart from a few examples, I did not want to implement new mechanics for just a single card. This all came at the cost of alright cards that were kind of interesting, but hardly unique.
I cannot say that all Johto cards are unique, but with these 100 new cards, as many mechanics are introduced as in the first 151. Additionally, it became possible to start to mix and match different mechanics. I especially found a lot of opportunities in triggers, which exist in Kanto but are underutilized - things like "when this pokémon attacks".
But enough about that. Let us see what cards there are to look at:
The Totodile-line is also the designated Dragon-type starters for this generation. Crocodiles, Dragons, what's the difference anyway?
Dark has a lot of cards that deal damage to their Idol, in exchange for some effect. With Hoothoot and Noctowl, that effect is really high stats for their cost.
If you ask why Spinarak freezes, I was going to implement a status called "Web" which disabled the opponent from attacking for one turn, but then I realised it was just freezing with a different name. This is the necessary result.
Our evolution for Golbat! Crobat comes with Venom, and enough to share with all its friends, too! This effect is not particularly strong with Poison decks, since they generally already have venomous friends and most enemies poisoned, but it works quite well with Flying type decks, where it works as a +1 attack with upside.
Lanturn is not the other way to change the weakness of electricity, but just a really strong effect on an acceptably-statted card. It combines the potency of Electricity with the accuracy of Water. It also gives another way to remove important enemies.
We have already seen Pikachu and Raichu, but Pichu is a new baby pokémon, that can evolve into Pikachu. It showcases the other way to focus the effect of Electric. Costing just one, it can take out almost any enemy. The lack of control, and whether it hits a friend or a foe, makes it strong, but only situationally so.
For some reason, this Pichu seems to have the power-level of Pikachu from the anime - I guess to make up for how basic Pikachu and Raichu are.
Togetic however commits. Maybe the Power is free, and Togepi would be better. Maybe it is an 8 cost Ultimate Mind. Maybe it ends up being Mass Produce and your hand is filled with more Togetics for madness.
Wait, these say spell instead of Power. Okay, I am terrible at writing these cards consistently.
Xatu, however, takes it a step further. If you can control what card to make free, it might win you the game. Usually, it just helps you survive a bit longer, though. One should also consider the synergy of Xatu's effect hitting another Xatu.
Ampharos, however, is a beast. When I banished cards to the 8-cost realm, it seems to have escaped. But not for long. It sits at 55% win-rate, and looks ready for the nerf-hammer.
One comment. Ampharos does seem quite strong, but you will not understand how excellent its ability is before you consider the synergy with all the other Electric cards that also spread damage. These effects work really well together - the more damage spread, the more consistent the result.
Their secondary typing of Fairy is not my design, but the official design. They are water fairy mouse water balloon rabbit Pikachus, after all.
I first discovered Politoed a couple of years after I stopped playing pokémon, thinking it to be gen 5 or something.
Hoppip is our first sun-beam user. It just so happens to be the case that adding its cost to Sunbeam equals the cost of its evolution, so you can get Skiploom over two turns, if you want. Apart from that, Hoppip is our new wanna-be Magikarp.
Skiploom, however, is a force to be reckoned with. It might not kill the enemy, but it will cement your victory if not answered immediately.
The same goes for Jumpluff, although this one might kill the enemy, too. While its two pre-evolutions sit at a perfect 50% win-rate, it has jumped or skipped or hopped up to 52% instead. It is really good. Taking one health away from it probably won't break it - I should remember to do that whenever I nerf Ampharos to cost 8.
Sunflora completes the secondary Grass theme of growing pokémon through evolutions. Though its cost is assymmetrical compared to that of Clefable, its cost makes it difficult to play alongside other cards.
Still, I regret it.
Quagsire is more fully ground, with the great ability that as long as it stays on the board, all enemies will be confused, attacking into its low-attack high-health body without their owner's control. This gives it the enviable win-rate of 53%, just low enough to survive my nerf-hammer.
Appartently fewer than two, since Slowbro has a 51% winrate, while Slowking only has a 45% winrate. At some point, an aggressive Psychic deck will be possible, but not today.
Unown's strange power is reflected here in that it doubles the effect of your Idol Power. If it is targeted, the second use has a random target on the proper side of the board.
Unown is one of my favourite cards. The only sad thing is that these days, it can usually only be put in Psychic (and thus also Steel) and Dragon (and thus also Ice) decks, meaning that it only is used with four of the eightteen Idol Powers. It used to be really strong in Fire-type decks, and destructive if not good in Electric. These days, it mostly just seems like a temporarily upgraded Idol Power, unless you use an interesting card like Innovate to gain random Idol Powers every turn.
Unown shows both the first effect that triggers with Idol Power use and the first doubling effect. We will see more of both later, if not in Hoenn.