Base-Fossil: First Impressions

Recently I’ve been enjoying the retro (1999-2000ish) Pokémon trading card game with local gaming friends. I'll admit I have nostalgia for the "guys" represented on the cards, which I (long ago) collected incompletely, but I could never piece together how the card game itself worked with no rulebook to reference. It was a pleasant surprise to find that the "Base-Fossil" format (described in great detail here) is a well-balanced, fun set of rules (a good explainer is here) and cards that can be played as casually or competitively as one likes. You never know! Many games, especially those based on random intellectual properties, are simply poorly designed. I could summarize my overall format impressions but I think it makes sense to instead talk about some of my "formative" matchups. I'll throw in the highlight cards from the decks but you can look at all of the cards in the Base-Fossil format in more detail here. 

I DON'T  CLICK  LINKS! 

If you'd rather read the article without reading the rules, essentially you play basic Pokémon (one active, several more in reserve on the “bench”) and attach energy to them (one per turn) to pay for attacks with the goal of knocking out all current or six total (whichever happens first) of your opponent's Pokémon. Trainer cards help you change the board state and look for more energies, and evolution cards grow the various Pokémon stronger. If you draw all your cards, however, you lose in what's called a "deckout," and forcing your opponent to lose that way is called "stalling." Go look at the link if you need more info, sheesh.

THEME DECKS

These were the decks sold to kiddos in 1999 as a way to jump into the game. These two-type decks promise powerful strategies and are given badass titles while consisting primarily of random commons and heaps of energy. Still, I figured this would be a good place to kick off the 1999 experience.

Overgrowth (Top) vs LockDown (Bottom)

While these decks were alright for learning the rules of the game, they certainly don't convey the fun of the game. There's a lot of energy, not a lot of cards to help you draw or find what you want, and the few really good cards hide out in the massive pile. It's a waiting game where you see if you happen to draw the right energy or flip into/out of confusion! After this game (and no others) we were impressed at how versatile Starmie was, and how good of an early-game attacker Krabby was, statements which are generally only spoken by the deranged. 

Two of the strongest cards in the extremely limited Overgrowth vs. LockDown format

It's strange to think - is this the intended experience of the card game? Slowly drawing cards one by one? You might as well play "war" with a deck full of Pokémon cards on the basis of type matchups. Sensing that the theme  decks hadn't  given the format a fair shake, we moved on to more intentionally synergistic builds.

DESIGNED DECKS

Rather than immediately play "best in format" lists, I decided instead to start by building decks based on intuition, perhaps to replicate the experience of 1999. At the time, no one knew what the best combinations were (possibly the designers?) and field testing was the name of the game. As an added challenge, mainly for ease of play, I tried to design decks that were not just fun overall but good matches for each other. That way even a truly awful deck design would have a chance... against another truly awful deck.

GoLong (Top) vs PinkWave (Bottom)

These were the first efforts creating decks from the available card pool. For both decks, the promise of Computer Search (get any card you want??), Bill (draw more cards??), and Potion (heal 20 damage, for free??) were too tempting to avoid using full playsets (four cards). Just like in tuning controllers, it can be helpful to start with the dials all the way on or all the way off. GoLong (GOLduck and DewgONG, get it?) uses Golduck to knock out your opponent's energy before switching to Dewgong to deal lots of damage. Lots of healing/anti-status cards (Super potion, Switch, Full Heal) were included to keep these attackers functioning, as well as a few copies of Recycle to pick back important trainers or energy. 

Two water type attackers with extremely different vibes. Using something called "Hyper Beam" for 20 damage is also a bit of a hoot, but the energy removal really does sting.

Pink Wave (Wigglytuff's do the wave attack + an all-pink Pokémon team) sets up Wigglytuff to knock out weak attackers, Clefable to knock out strong attackers, and Lickitung to buy time for setup. Mysterious Fossil trainers were included as a bench-booster (for maximum do the wave damage) but also a way to buy a turn or two so the (40 HP!) Clefairy doesn't die. Energy Removal was added to prevent Clefable getting hit by the attacks it's copying. 

Is pink the new black? It occurs to me also these are all colorless Jungle cards...

In practice, PinkWave was much more successful than GoLong since Golduck (which is supposed to be buying time for Dewgong) takes a fair bit of setup and is as vulnerable to tongue wraps and energy removal as any other deck. Potion and Super Potion, while nice for buying a little time, don't contribute to the overall goal - getting (and keeping) energy on Pokémon and using the cool attacks. 

GoLong v2 (Top) vs PinkWave v2 (Bottom)

GoLong v2 had a number of changes in direct response to its opponent. To buy more setup time, Lapras, Energy Removal, and Clefairy Doll (essentially the same as Mysterious Fossil) were added to the deck. Draw and healing capabilities were slightly reduced in favor of better energy recovery. In initial testing, GoLong v2 was able to win versus PinkWave by a stall strategy, using Seel to wall out Clefable, Energy Removal, Golduck and/or Lapras' confuse ray to put the brakes on Wigglytuff, and Gust of Wind to drag the 3-retreat Lickitung into the active. This initial, unceremonious loss to deckout added a bit of fear of Professor Oak in our home games and maybe created more conservative play for the next several matches. A common thread in Base-Fossil decks, replicated here, is that the inclusion of a "big basic" (slang for a basic Pokémon with >70 HP, in this case Lapras) buys a little space for evolution cards to set up and do their thing.  

Lightning Pokémon or some lucky coin flips might save you from the beast on the left... but only strong will against temptation can save you from the monster on the right.

To counteract stall strategies, PinkWave v2 included Dodrio to facilitate switching and more PlusPower to speed up knockouts. PinkWave v2 ended up beating out GoLong v2 fairly consistently, and being able to switch in Clefable at any time to copy the excellent Golduck or Dewgong attacks was pretty brutal. Note that these decks were designed to avoid type matchups while remaining monotype. Without strong beat-down fighting-type Pokémon like Machop, Clefable (and Clefairy) are a lot safer and therefore a lot stronger. Even without type matchups, the strength of Dodrio cannot be understated. I haven't done the statistics, but it seems that the average (or median? definitely mode) retreat cost is ~1, so having 1 Dodrio on the bench unlocks total board mobility. This is huge when you consider that retreating to the bench clears status conditions, so poison and confusion are greatly nerfed. Even for 2 retreat cost Pokémon like Wigglytuff, the retreat cost dropping to 1 means you can use your 1 energy attachment for a turn to retreat (after you've had all your energy Removal'd), retreat without sacrificing a Double Colorless energy. It's so good!

A classic fighting-type Pokémon, its lunch, and its worst enemy... or maybe its best friend.

Lightning Speed (Top) vs High Cholesterol (Bottom)

Lightning Speed (because lightning type, plus Fearow is free retreat and has an attack called agility? not my best work) is a deck in search of cohesion. Strategy 1 would be to use Magnemite and Magneton with Defender to blast the bench many times for big spread damage, then use Pikachu and Raichu to clean up.

The Magnemite-Defender combination is absurdly appealing. It seems so good it's like cheating! Deal 80 damage and 20 to everyone on the bench? I'm not supposed to be able to do it twice, I'm breaking the game!! If I could just get 1 raichu attack off after that, everything would go my way. These are the thoughts that draw gambling addicts into game after game.

Strategy 2 is to hit hard and fast with Electabuzz and Fearow using lots of PlusPower and Gust of Wind to pick off the weaklings. A few Pokémon Traders and draw cards smooth out all the evolution lines. I suppose you could start with either strategy and use the other for cleaning up, or change up your strategy based on the opponent.

Two mean lookin' dudes and a CGI Weedle about to be absolutely crushed by them.

High Cholesterol (because... eggs?) is a more focused deck. The whole point is to load lots of energy onto Exeggutor to deal 1 billion damage (with lucky coin flips). Gastly and especially Haunter are designed to slow things down with status conditions until you have your requisite energy pile.

"Look guys! I'm psychic type too! Aw, c'mon!"

Once you have your egg man you need Slowbro, Super Potion, and Pokémon Center to keep him alive. If he is doomed beyond repair, use Mr. Fuji to send him back into the deck. Here is a deck that is very focused but has a lot of moving pieces and is very coin flip dependent!

Beyond mechanical benefit, these cards have the important side-effect of demoralizing your opponent. Wipe all their damage off the board. Keep your best attacker healed up. Hide away the Pokémon they sunk twelve turns fighting back into the deck. Depending on your play setting, you may want to pair these cards with judicious trash talk.

My description of the decks belies their success. Lightning Speed was less successful as it has to decide early which evolution line(s) to invest in and Magnemite destroying itself strands unusable Magnetons in your hand and trashes a lot of energy and work. The efficient strategy turned out to be to use Defender to protect Fearow or Electabuzz and Gust out a weakened Slowbro for stalling (investing 2 psychic energy for its attack is tough) or getting an easy knockout. High Cholesterol was fun to play but definitely can have a bad start (or a bad end), especially once you realize the "stall" capability of Haunter is very luck-dependent. Also, the damage output of anything other than a fully-loaded Exeggutor is essentially nil. Again, typing was ignored here, but any psychic-resistant enemy Pokémon would have been a huge headache High Cholesterol may not have been able to cope with, whereas Lightning Speed had Spearow/Fearow as a response to fighting-type attackers.

Lightning Speed v2 (Top) vs High Cholesterol v2 (Bottom)

Lightning Speed was streamlined to eliminate the Pikachu line and focus on Fearow and Electabuzz, with the Magneton as a backup, adding in Energy Removals and more draw and search to make the deck more Haymaker-ey (convergent evolution? vide infra). High Cholesterol was really only lightly tuned, reducing the number of egg-men and Haunters to be played in favor of more draw and switching power. Here the decks felt somewhat evenly matched, though I think High Cholesterol has a much higher capacity to have an opening that completely fails.

SpookyChu (Top) vs DragoPlume (Bottom)

These are some of the worst decks I've put together. 

SpookyChu (scary ghosts and Pikachu) builds up lightning energy on Raichu or Zapdos using either recharge Pikachu and/or Electrode’s buzzap power (knock out Electrode, give your opponent 1 prize, then attach it as 2 of any energy) to then deal lots of bench damage. At the same time, Gengar is supposed to move that bench damage around for single target knockouts. For specialty trainers, Defender keeps Zapdos from taking too much recoil, Lass protects Electrode (or ex-Electrode (not to be confused with Electrode-ex)) from Energy Removal, and Switch and Gust of Wind keep everything in position. As a note on Lass, it’s a super fun card… when you get it right. It returns the trainers of both players back to the deck, so you can stop Energy Removal… until they draw one, or Oak, or search, or whatever else messes up your plan, and then you have to hope you draw some of your goodies back by then too. Good dramatic tension!

Draw more energy or knock yourself out to get it - either way you're staring down the barrel of a Removal. In contrast, Gengar is sort of like free damage (that you already paid for).

DragoPlume (boring portmanteau) is designed to be a non-traditional stall deck. In concept, multiple Vileplume are set up on the bench to heal many damage counters per turn. Dragonite (and Dragonair) serve as weakness-free sponges for damage counters, the former having the advantage of getting itself back into the active so your Vileplumes can bench-sit undisturbed. Healing cards and Energy Removal takes care of the rest so you never hit big damage.

Step 1: We set up at least three stage 2 Pokémon. Step 2: Dragonite LEAPS into the active and takes a big hit, from which we heal....10! Could be better, but we're still trucking. Step 3, we'll use Hyper Beam to knock off their energy and... wait, that's Dragonair. Well, at least I get to flip a lot of coins.

Both decks are extremely inconsistent and somewhat painful to play. SpookyChu suffers in that it's simply not worth it to buzzap to do a bunch of bench damage, especially versus a healing team. If you run out of Pikachu (easy to do) you are stuck with Raichu and Zapdos -- difficult Pokémon to operate -- and Gengar who (except for the bench damage) is walled by psychic resistance. On the other hand, DragoPlume has so many moving parts it is madness to assemble everything needed and the great reward is... healing about 1 counter per turn and having Dragonite leak energy with its non-free retreat. 

SpookyChu could work, but it would be better served by having some cheaper bench damage (Magnemite? but it was so unpopular before!) and a few big basics. DragoPlume I think is flawed from the beginning -- it needs Dodrio with Dragonite to avoid losing energy for constant retreating, and probably should be oriented around using Gloom and Vileplume's attacks rather than the mediocre power. In theory Dragonite just sits in the active, but the healing from Vileplume is really too anemic to stand up to a serious attacker and Dragonite is inconsistent to attack with. Vileplume might be better suited to a support role in a slow-pace grass-type deck, really. Weirdly enough, these matches were just about the only time I ever actually wanted Devolution Spray to get rid of Dragonite or Raichu and use the better sub-attackers underneath. These decks were not subject to further improvements.

Man, I want devolution spray to be good, delivering some surprise trickery, but it's just so painful to discard the evolution stages. At least in the Team Rocket set (printed after Base-Fossil) you have nightly garbage run to get those cards back into your deck and hopefully re-evolve later into your big attacker. I think they ultimately realized that devolution is something they want to make a realistic option and printed the card on the right in the Neo sets (much after Base-Fossil), which is almost a straight upgrade (you can't de-evolve from stage 2 to basic with one card... big whoop!). 

Geodude (Top) vs Eevee v1 (Middle), v2 (Bottom)

I'm a simple man. I love Geodude. Such a stupid yet iconic Pokémon design. I wanted a deck where Geodude (and its evolutions) could shine! Kangaskhan and Magmar help you to get your evolutions set up and stall out attackers, and scoop up gets them out of danger. Geodude isn't much of an attacker, but Graveler can deal a decent 40 plus has a defensive move, so with healing cards, Defender, and recovery cards like Mr. Fuji you can get some hits in before switching to the bench and starting over. One Golem is included as an emergency exit to suddenly take out your opponent's ace.

Three great cards for setting up. The protectors of the realm. Scooping up an 80 damage Kangaskhan after fetching 4-5 extra cards feels awesome.

The promise of Geodude is infinite damage. The reality is an expected value of 10. Graveler looks pretty good if you haven't seen Hitmonchan. And Golem... 100 is a big number for damage, but four is also a big number for energy requirements (and retreat cost!). But we love the designs and dream of them being good, so we include them. After all, isn't that part of the fun?

Since type matchups are so important, one might assume that Eevee-based decks, with the manifold-type "Eeveelutions" would rule the B-F metagame. Unfortunately, Eevee itself is kind of tricky to work with, and the Eeveelutions are fairly energy-hungry. The initial concept of the deck was to use Dodrio to switch the evolved forms around (and protect Eevee with fighting resistance) along with three colors of energy to use whatever attack is most appropriate. Lass, Gust of Wind, and PlusPower are for knockouts after you're set up, and Revives and Recycles are to make the most of limited Eevee and Double Colorless energy counts. 

Look at this toolkit of an evolution line! So flexible it can go in any deck! As long as you're running the right color energy... and not up against some grass-type, fighting-type, or normal-type Pokémon...

The first formulation of the Eevee deck really struggled versus the Geodude deck. If Geodude succeeds even a few coin flips or Graveler attacks once, little Eevee is pretty dead. If the opponent is smart and not arbitrarily doing chip damage to Dodrio, it's difficult to get past Graveler's harden (block damage <= 30) unless you can get one of the color-dependent Eeveelution attacks online. Vaporeon seems the obvious choice to deal with Magmar, but to deal >30 damage you need 3+ water energy attached. Flareon can be unsustainable with discarding energy, and Jolteon, the highest-power attacker, is knocked out by just one attack from Graveler. The Geodude deck therefore often won by deckout while taking a not insignificant prize count. This inspired the modifications for Eevee v2.

Eevee v2 focused more on drawing as much as possible early on, searching for more colored energy, thinning the Dodrio line (since all Pokémon used have just 1 retreat cost) and adding Ditto as an extra user of Double Colorless energy. This found some more success, albeit with a few lucky coin flips, as attacks could be focused more on Geodude (before it can evolve) rather than dealing with Graveler, I also played this deck versus a Venusaur deck (vide infra) and had some success with surprise duplication of Kangaskhan's comet punch. It is probably not in the top-tier of decks, but it at least has more of a focus. In this particular matchup I would have loved a grass-type or fighting-type Eeveelution, so perhaps the final iteration of the deck would include some Double Colorless energy-user from those types to round things out...but at some point you run out of card space. At least unevolved Eevee has some edge against psychic types!

A match made in heaven. (Actually, I think Double Colorless energy or "DCE" is probably one of the best cards in the game as there are so many good attacks it can help with and is essentially energy acceleration. Never unhappy to have one in hand!) Ditto may be whatever type your opponent is, but it also inflicts psychic damage on new players who cannot remember how its convoluted power works.

A FEW THOUGHTS FROM DESIGNING DECKS

• It's tough to have an original thought! A lot of the obvious or secretly good combos have already been explored in the "established decks" (vide infra) and the combos that have not been explored... are often not that good.
• You probably need more draw power than you think, even if you're trying to stall. Especially Oaks! You might have to run 4 Oaks even if you only use 1 (or 0).
• It's good to have at least 1 Pokémon that can deal 40+ damage without too much hassle. Gets you out of a lot of sticky situations.
• Man does it suck to get Energy Removal'd! So most decks have 3-4 Energy Retrieval, which has the added benefit of making energy easy to get, especially if you Oak too much like me.
• Personally I love Switch as a get-out-of-jail card and it feels lighter than using Dodrio. But probably Scoop Up, Dodrio, or manual retreating is better in the long run as the former 2 open up more options and the latter gives you some more trainer space.
• Running too few basics and getting knocked out in 1 turn is real. It happened to me.
• If you think your deck is going to need time to set up, add some big basics in. If you're scared of using too much Oak, throw in Kangaskhan. I wish there were more "draw" Pokémon in this format, which is what intrigues me about some of the later cards from the Rocket and Gym sets which have utility powers and attacks.

"ESTABLISHED DECK" MATCHUPS 

The secret subtitle for this section is "...that I remember." These 'established' decks, usually part of some existing archetype and designed/playtested by more experienced players than me, are either pulled from the great Base-Fossil blogpost I linked earlier or from the Pokémon 1999 discord (invite link here) which always has a few people chatting about deck ideas and is therefore great even for lurkers like myself. Rather than the theme decks (the "intended?" experience) or my own decks (the "kitchen table" experience), these decks represent the "competitive" experience -- what was winning tournaments back in the day, and what is winning retro tournaments nowadays. Together I may have played more of these established decks than my own decks, but I don't have as much to say about what cards I chose and when...and I am more forgetful if I didn't record my construction and versioning. In no particular order...

Rain dance (below) vs. Dodrio-Fighting-Psychic

Mewtwo and Hitmonchan are great fighters, but Articuno is also extremely powerful. The normally disruptive Energy Removal doesn't do much in the face of Blastoise's power (attach as much water as you like every turn), but it's still useful to catch your opponent while they're setting up. Rain Dance's biggest weakness is Mr. Mime, so he is naturally promoted to deal with the wall of water. That means DFP's main priority is to churn through the deck's supply of Lapras to ensure permanent victory. Tense, fun, and well balanced. 

Psystall vs. Damage Swap

New-school vs. old-school stall strategies. Perhaps unsurprisingly, new-school kicks old school's butt. Lickitung puts pressure on from turn 1 with just 1 energy while damage swap is scrambling to draw cards to put all its pieces together. Even once you have the Alakazam-Chansey engine built, you're lower in deck and back to trying to...take prizes to add pressure? You can really feel a sense of despair playing this stall strategy vs. Lickitung. The worst part is when Alakazam is gusted to the active to be killed by a Chansey's double edge. C'mon man.

Only malice lies behind that cold stare.

Damage Swap vs. Magmar/Arcanine

Since damage swap crashed and burned against Lickitung, the thought was to test it against a more prize-focused deck. This matchup was quite a bit closer, though the star of the show was actually Magmar much more than Arcanine, which -- probably as a result of clumsy play on my part -- got knocked out before the 100 HP beast could deal much damage. Still, damage swap was not the impenetrable wall it was purported to be, especially with poison damage really cranking the output. Without something like Tentacool in the deck (vide infra) your only damage-removing options are trainer cards so you end up being limited by draw just like any other deck... except Lickitung.

Wigglypeek vs. Classic Haymaker

Although Haymaker is sometimes called a deck with a simple gameplan, the lack of Switch or free retreat from Dodrio was actually a little clunky to handle. You need to know when to Scoop Up and you need to know well! Although Hitmonchan seems like the obvious choice for knocking out Wigglytuff, you get a lot of mileage out of Electabuzz since it denies the opponent the opportunity to wall you with Scyther or Moltres. Even so, if Magmar is on the field you are constantly fighting coin flips, so your energy efficient attacks might not even matter. I would believe that Wigglytuff-plus-friends decks are probably #1 or #2 in the format behind Lickitung. People crow about peanut butter and chocolate as a good combination, but that's really more a testament to the strength of chocolate (Wigglytuff). Any deck playing many basic Pokémon (common) and Double Colorless energies (common) won't mind having an 80 HP, 60 damage attacker tossed in.

Poison Rain Swap (below) vs. Venusaur

These are two decks that are all about pacing. I was particularly intrigued by this "Rain Swap" deck since the idea of damage swap didn't pan out in any of the previous games. Tentacruel acts as an anti-Mime, anti-Lickitung (poison), and possibly anti big-attacker (with confusion) Pokémon. This means Blastoise is your main attacker, so depending on the circumstances you can either go "turbo" and try to set him up as fast as possible for quick knockouts, or go a little slower but also set up your Alakazam with Tentacool to heal up your Blastoise for the long run. Venusaur is essentially a freight train with a lot of mass that needs draws from Kangaskhan to set it up. If you can weather out the turns and not get killed by a fast Blastoise, Dodrios can absorb tons of damage to threaten attacks or just to wait for the Pokémon Center all-clear. I think if the "Rain Swap" deck had any Gust of Wind or PlusPower the Dodrio-soaking wouldn't be quite as painful (hitting 70 vs 60) but the matchup was very close and fun. I loved the innovative inclusion of Alakazam in an offensive deck! For any deck where you are already playing Pokémon breeder (skip the middle evolution), I think it should be worth at least a moment of consideration.

Damage swap's MVP.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Like I said before, I've really enjoyed playing Base-Fossil! There are some for whom the ultimate expression of play is fine tuning the same decklist +/- 1 card over and over, but I'd really like to try and have some more creative decks with possibly underlooked or "bad" cards. Top of my list is some kind of Omastar/Fossil deck, or maybe a defense-oriented Rhydon deck. Will they be awesome? No, they will probably lose to Lickitung and Haymaker like most other things, but they might eke out a few fun wins... and they can definitely be balanced against each other. I'm interested also in expanding into some of the cards from later sets, particularly those with utility or unexpected powers, or for cards like nightly garbage run making resource recovery a little more viable. If you've never played Base-Fossil before and made it to the bottom of this post, I recommend checking it out! I wrote a quickstart guide here. Hope you have fun!