Part 12: War Recovery

Could you do me a favor? Battle me so I can gauge my power! 4 prize cards, then! These 2 booster packs are on the line!

Duel Time



It's time for lots of battles, since we'll be seeing who got their cards back on TCG Island and giving them their one moment in the sun. It's earlygame crew time, suggested by 1234567890num, no Dark Pokemon in this deck, nice to still use some of the earlier suggestions.



Doesn't matter that we've got resistance, since we'll be going to lots of different clubs anyway. All the Fighting members are back, but Mitch has been kidnapped, so we'll be coming back to the island later to properly fight everyone missing.



Master Balls are hit or miss since you can only see the top 7 cards of your deck, but at least it's better than whiffing a Pokeball. These are the only tools aside from Computer Search we get to search for any Pokemon, but there are other items useful for some decks.





Oh yeah, we're against a Fighting deck. Well, Raticate only got the one card until one of the last smaller expansions of Gen 1 in Southern Islands, which isn't in this game. It's meh, Super Fang carries it, but if the opponent has too much HP, then Bite can't finish them off and it's usually too fragile to last that long. So yeah, sounds about right for the earlygame rat.




Slicing Wind: Does 30 damage to 1 of your opponent's Pokémon chosen at random. Don't apply Weakness and Resistance for this attack. (Any other effects that would happen after applying Weakness and Resistance still happen.)

Gale: Switch Pidgeot with 1 of your Benched Pokémon chosen at random. If your opponent has any Benched Pokémon, switch the Defending Pokémon with 1 of them chosen at random. (Do the damage before switching the Pokémon.)

First up is the GB Pidgeot and Slicing Wind can be fun, especially when your opponent has a weak bench, but due to the randomness of all of its effects, it's not as useful as the actual Jungle Pidgeot. Still, it's a lot of bench damage for not much effort, which you could make use of with other Pokemon.





Here's the main offense for the deck, Hurricane is a pretty good attack, not as crazy as Dark Machamp, but evolved Pokemon become much less of a problem with this. Otherwise it has an alright chunk of health and doesn't take much to get going. Fine enough.



Machoke could be scary, but it goes right back! Chris's deck mainly focuses on Sandslash and has Kangaskhan for early draws. It also has Machoke and Vending Hitmonlee, though you can see the latter is quite fragile and can't touch us past resistance. Add in a smattering of standard Trainer cards and it's a pretty meh deck overall.




Hunh? I have failed... I seem to lack proper discipline. Alright! I'm going to try harder!!



I want to start training again but don't have any Pokemon cards... won't you continue your attack on Team GR?

I won't talk to everyone who's still missing cards and will only get them when you clear a certain point on GR Island, but I'll note anyone we don't fight, since we've already beaten Michael. Now he does have a new deck, but I definitely don't care.



Not worth 4 Voltorb, but at least it's over.



Hey! Come play with me and my Pikachu! Okiedoke! We'll play with 4 prize cards!



Cowabunga, dude! We'll have a bit more trouble here, but now Raticate can shine.



Jennifer still has every goddamn Pikachu, but also has Wartortle so her Water energy for Surfing Pikachu isn't completely wasted. Can be a nasty surprise if you're using a Fire deck!



Hell yeah Slicing Wind.



Ah crap, we're fighting an Electric deck! Still, we have some neat tech for more Colourless energy, such as Full Heal Energy and Potion Energy, which, well, do I really need to tell you? We also have Recycle and Rainbow, as well as Lightning, so we can still use Energy Search and not be limited to 4 of the specials.



Hey, you can't successfully use Pokeball! Ah whatever, we can blow away the last mon and boom, we win. It still feels illegal.




Ahhh, my Pikachu were defeated! Come back later to play with my Pikachu again!



Straight and to the point! We already fought Nicholas earlier and while we did fight Isaac, once he gets his deck back, we'll fight him, Club Masters are the exception, of course.




Thundershock: Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Paralyzed.

Look at my round son.




I guess you really didn't defeat GR No.4 by luck alone. I wondered if you won by luck, but I see now that it was all skill.



People have cards again, so now we can trade them!





Remember when Surfing Pikachu had Mt. Fuji in the background? Well, the Flying Pikachu is the same thing, available throughout 1998 via All Nippon Airways. You could redeem your boarding passes for this card and the flying Dragonite we saw last update and hopefully this is the last damn Pikachu I need to highlight!

Challenge Cup




Since we're liberated the island, it's Challenge Cup time! Yes they're still determined by story progress, no the game doesn't tell you a damn thing. At least one guy in the lobby trades you various cards and also does puns, so he can fuck off.



Same as before, beat up 3 kids and win a Promo!!!



Looks like we'll be fighting Michael's new deck after all, what are the chances?



Now that's a bitch, they're my entire strategy! Michael has Primeape and Machamp, as well as one of each Hitmon to deal some damage, but always has Gastly to disrupt and even some Psychic energy to use for it and the Colourless Basics every deck has, like Vending Tauros. It also means he has 2 Bills and 1 Oak, rip.



Alright, who's next?



You'll notice we skipped over the entire Rock Club since they kept their cards and we've fought them already.



But that's cute, get outta here.



Oh hey, this is someone new.



Nice to start off with some paralysis... so Heather is someone we can't face at the moment, since we need to progress more into GR Island, but the Challenge Cup doesn't give a shit, it'll select any Club Member with their final deck no matter where you are in the story.



Her main way of filling up the bench is Vending Paras, which is a reskinned Call for Family.



At least Raticate had some mushrooms for lunch, but then gets paralysed into oblivion.



Dunno what you would use Mr. Fuji for that Scoop Up doesn't already do, but whatever, her strategy is overwhelming you with a full bench, but she doesn't have the energy to keep it up. But when she gets rolling with Vending Parasect and Jungle Vileplume it could be a problem. But such is draws when you only have the 1 Oak. Poor, dumb AI.




What can I say, my rat just can't help itself.





Well that was fun. Finally we get a new Promo and it's totally different to the other Mewtwo Promo, it's a slight edit to the Gen 1 artwork and it's flipped! Well the JP one was first released at the 7th Next Generation World Hobby Fair in Dec 1997, with the English version released through Nintendo Power in Apr 2000, getting new artwork due to being pretty similar to the other Mewtwo Promo from the first movie. Otherwise, it's an alright card, with the first attack useful disruption while you build it up.



Stop



We fought Murray and Stephanie before, while Robert and Daniel have to wait until later, so another club to skip!



I've gotten a few cards from Ken after we were freed from that cage. If I don't keep battling, my fire will burn down to nothing. C'mon! Let's have a duel! We'll burn brightly with 4 prize cards in this match!

DUEL? DUEL!!!



We'll use a new deck for the second half of the island, so here's Dark Raichu and Dark Magneton by FoolyCharged. This Promo Pikachu is probably the best one to use, since you can charge it up in 2 turns and deal some damn good damage.



So good I got away with it twice. It's actually kinda funny, Adam is using a Fire/Lightning deck and he's also using Raichu and Magneton! Also has Rapidash and Ninetales to do some heavy damage on both sides with enough energy for both. It can be a pain fighting him with a Water deck.





Oh no, it's turned bad! Raichu isn't too crazy, but spreads a fair bit of damage around and requires 2 heads to get its full potential, but also getting 0 bench damage is lame. It also has some interesting history in that it was the first Secret Rare and caused the Rocket expansion to be delayed in NA due to Wizards having to get approval from Nintendo to make this card and have it as the Secret Rare.




I've completely burned out! I've got to remember to watch my blaze when I'm duelling you!



I hid this deck before we were attacked! Fire! 4 prize cards! Fire!



Ah nuts, time for the other side and the Vending Magnemite's Power lets us search for Magnemite if we get the coin flip.



Which comboes nicely with Rocket Magnemite that has an attack that deals up to 40 damage for how many Magnemite, Magneton or Dark Magneton you have on the bench. Pretty powerful attack, but we need to get lucky for it.



And then 10 damage wherever, but we're getting roasted and we're not even Steel yet! As you'd expect, Jonathan uses Fire, with Kangaskhan being the only exception. Burning you away with Arcanine and Charmeleon, with plenty of Energy Retrieval and plenty of energy.





A bit fragile and not too crazy, Dark Magneton can ignore resistance and shift energy around, which is way more useful on multiple energy decks. Otherwise it's a way to make your opponent unable to attack and hopefully survive a couple attacks.




That duel ousted my fire! If you want another battle, just say the password: FIIIIRE!



Can't fight John or Ken, so onwards!



Naturally, you're up for playing Pokemon cards with me, right? I propose we use 4 prize cards!



Gotta give the nerds their weekly swirlies.





Microwave: Does 20 damage to 1 of your opponent’s Pokémon. Don’t apply Weakness or Resistance. Then, flip a coin. If heads, discard 1 Energy card attached to that Pokémon.

While it isn't too useful, this Vending Magneton can also do a fair bit of bench damage and disrupt with energy discard, but pure damage is preferable most of the time and it's a lot of setup for not much of it, so it depends if you really need something like that.




You should work harder to study decks built around science research. I'm not in Team GR, of course, but they also use science-themed cards.

Easy enough, Erik, named wrongly in this patch, has a full Nidoran deck, 2 Nidoqueen, 2 Nidoking, which doesn't make Boyfriends sting that much, but it's better than nothing. Has a couple Breeders to help with that as well as a couple of Colourless, like the Vending Tauros, Lickitung and Clefairy, because every deck needs Colourless!



However, I've collected enough cards to duel with you. Want to play? I'm partial to duels with 4 prize cards!



Aw man, at least he isn't using any of his 4 Defenders!



Christ almighty, that's not weakness damage, Focus Energy lets Horn Rush hit for 80 damage, if you flip heads on the attack. At least, uh, I could show this off. Haha.



Thankfully even though his Nidoran M are kicking my ass, he's running out of energy to put on stuff cause it keeps getting moved. We're facing another Nidoking, but it's joined by Arbok and Weezing, so poison is the name of the game. Along with 4 Potions and the aforementioned Defenders, it becomes a bit tricky to knock out his stuff before poison damage does.




Yes! Just as expected! Here, these booster packs are yours! By earning booster packs, you get stronger and stronger. As long as you use that strength to save Rick, I'm happy losing.



Only 2 clubs left to check out and we've already fought Heather, so we won't be coming back even when she gets her deck back, that's convenient!



Beautiful gardens call for beautiful card battles, right? Then let's set aside 4 prize cards.



I sleep.




Quick Attack: Flip a coin. If heads, this attack does 10 damage plus 20 more damage.

Thunderbolt: Discard all Energy cards attached to Raichu.

Let's see what Dark Raichu is dreaming about. Oh? All it's longing for is to relax at home and to give em a Dunderbolt. Goals right there.





Time for Magnemite to go on a rampage. Kristin gets her deck name from Venomoth, even if we won't see it, it's pretty neat, but Venom Powder would be much better without the coin flip. Oh well, at least you can Shift your type to an enemy's weakness, or failing that, a resistance. Otherwise her deck is split between some Colourless, like Porygon and Wigglytuff and other strong hitters like Scyther, as well as Potions and Full Heals all Grass decks seem to have.




It was my loss. You really are a strong kid! Please come back if you'd like to play again.



You've done me a great favor, and I thank you whole-heartedly. Even though it's been a while, could I have a card battle with you? I like to have battles using 6 prize cards. Please try to relax and not get worked up.

Club Master Battle



At least we're able to face some Club Masters. Aside from Gene, at this point, only Nikki has her cards back and we'll be able to face the others when we free them. Hopefully this Caterpie doesn't paralyze us too much!



We're gonna be here a while.



This is looking familiar, wonder what deck she has.



Please let me go.



Oh boy, this is a problem. Thankfully the AI won't over energy, so this is the worst we'll get.



Nothing a Super Energy Removal can't fix. And just in time too! Nice strategy, too bad it only works for me!



And then she had the big brained idea to move energy from her active onto Venusaur so she couldn't attack. Thanks for the free prize card!




I see what's she trying to build up to, but let's snipe something instead, even though we could easily beat it! Since she only has Venusaur, Exeggutor and Butterfree, she could get her strategy rolling pretty quickly, this deck is still no joke. 4 Bills and 2 Breeders make this a lot more likely too!



I had a lot of fun in our battle, Minto. Please do your best in your fights on GR Island. Feel free to come back to our club. I'll be waiting for your return.



Do you feel like duelling me with my newfound freedom? Umm... let's use 4 prize cards. Sound good?



Only one fight to work with weakness, which is why I left it to last!



Though a lucky Quick Attack means we won't roll over this too quickly.



She's not getting Vaporeon, so Eevee is gonna run away. This Intro Wartortle does consistent damage with Surf and is one of the best attackers of her deck, along with Lapras and Seadra. She also has some Poliwag and lots of Water energy, so she won't be running out of mons to throw at you anytime soon.



She just comes right back in with a lucky boosted Quick Attack and claims another prize, quit it!!!




So that's how you beat the others... Minto, you're so strong! If you feel like challenging me again, come back to the Water Club! You're free to do as you like, of course.



Alright, that's enough distractions, we can't fight Amanda or Amy yet, so it's time to finally take down a criminal organisation, overthrow their king and free prisoners of war. You know, card games!