Suggestions for the next cards

I really love this game and have been a fan of the franchise, and I really want this game to thrive.
But for that, I think that some cards needs to be fixed, while opening up options for new strategy.

Here are my proposals : (Making it strategic without increasing Powercreep - hopefully)

Necessary Changes

1) Misty (100% Nerf)

The very first thing is Misty is unbalanced. With Misty, by turn 2, Staryu can evolve to Starmie and do 110 damage (20 as Staryu plus 90 as Starmie).

Without making too much changes, and while keeping Misty a high-risk-high-reward advantage over Brock, Misty should be changed as follows : Flip a coin, if heads, attach a Water Energy from your Energy Zone to any Water Pokemon with 130 HP or lesser.

While Brock guarantees a Fighting energy to 2 specific Pokemon, Misty can attach to any water pokemon 130 HP or less (opening up more options) , but comes at the cost of 1 coin flip.

130 HP mark allows Misty to attack to Starmie EX (which resembles equivalent to the Anime) , but not Articuno EX. Starmie too needs a nerf, so i'll get to Starmie now.

2) Starmie (100% Nerf)

Starmie's attack should be split to two. A 2 energy for 50 damage, and 3 energy for the 90 damage we have now.

Since Starmie is a fast Pokemon inherently , this allows Starmie to attack as early as 2 energy but not the crazy damage output we had before, and a reduce 50 instead.

One would have to attach water energy to Staryu, evolve and roll a heads on Misty to do the same 90 damage that we have currently.

In addition, I think Starmie also needs 1 Retreat Cost instead of free. This would still put it on the broken side, but not as bad as before. This is all you could do to nerf Starmie, and the rest can be done to buff other mons to deal with it.

3) Pikachu EX? (Maybe Nerf?)

I'm putting a question mark because I'm not sure if Pikachu EX needs nerfing, but if it does,it would be very slight.

The only change I would make is instead of Pikachu EX doing 30x damage for each benched Pokemon, it could do 20x on all Pokemon on the user field (Both Active + Benched).

So at 1 bench, the current Pikachu EX does 30 damage while my proposition would do 40 (Higher)
At 2 bench, they do equal = Current Pikachu EX does 60 damage, while mine would do 60 too (20X3)
At 3 bench, that's where the nerf happens fro 90 damage to 80 damage .

80 damage for 2 energy is still not bad from Pikachu EX (Averages to 40 per turn instead of 45) , and we can always powercreep in future with items.

4) Fairy Types (Release)

I'm not sure why this was removed in this series compares to TCGO. It only adds depth, doesn't make anything worse.
Right now, Dragonite has no weakness and in the core series, it is weak to Ice and Fairy while being equal with other Dragons.

Since ice don't exist, Fairy is just a healthy addition to this game. - Not to mention, its usually on colourless type mons, they could still use attacks that need colourless energy as usual, so nothing changes there.

The only different is that instead of weak to Fighting, then would be weak to Metal instead.

When Pure Fairy type Pokemon would be released in future, what typing will they get? So for growth and expansion, its inevitable to launch Fairy Types.

I think whichever Fairy type is coming, they should have an ability that allows them to alter opponents Energy in opponents Energy Zone.

This would help them to ruin Dragonite decks by allowing to brick on Electric energy ONLY or Water energy ONLY, and it adds a level of strategy in the game where the user has to do the right plays correctly.

But on the other hand, they have to be careful not to power up any other mon in the opponents bench.

5) Energy Switch (Release)

I think either Items or Supporters to exchange / move energy from one Pokemon to another would be nice.

6) Full Heal (Release)

Removing special conditions seems like an obvious addition. We can apply status effects now, but can't remove them? . Doesn't quite make sense.

7) Pokemon Catcher equivalent? (Release)

While Pidgeots ability guarantees a switch but without control of which Pokemon is coming in,

I think there should be a supporter card where upon heads on a coin flip, you can switch opponent and choose which Pokemon to be sent out.

You have control but comes down to a coin flip.

8) Tools and Stadium Cards (Release)

I dont think Tools and Stadium Cards are overwhelming for this game. Usually decks run only 1 Stadium Card to support their whole deck, and 1 tool per Pokemon. Since these games run 1 EX + 1 Pokemon, or 3 regular Pokemon at most, 3-4 tools are all you need.

This allows for more depth in team building, where a choice has to be made between the Pokemon : Supporter : Items : Tool : Stadium ratio, in a pack of 20.

If its too low, I dont mind it being increased to 30 even (This still keeps it exactly half of the original TCG games) - still retaining the 'Pocket' title.

9) Mew EX - 160 HP (Buff/Release)

Mew is atrocious in the game right now and it feels bad because its a mythical Pokemon. So I propose an EX version of this keeping it +10 HP higher than Mewtwo as Mew is generally more defensive than Mewtwo.

Mew is supposed to be a very flexible Pokemon. So an ability to search your Discard pile for any card you need to put it back to your deck seems OK for now like Super Rod in the original game.

Or if its not too broken, to put in your hand even?? Maybe too broken though

This allows Mew to get ANY card it wants to the deck. The only flexibility it can't do is that you are limited to the energy attachments, but as the game becomes bigger, and more Supporter cards are released like (Brock for Fighting, Misty for Water Energy) , if Mew can pull these cards even, combinations can be made to attach more energy than 1 per turn, giving Mew crazy flexibility.

Additionally, Mew can also have an attack to do mediocre damage. (1 or 2 Attack - either 2 for 40 damage , 3 for 70 damage or 4 for 100? (To still keep it less damage output than Mewtwo EX , while not really bad.)

Since these are 20 card decks, cards will run by fast, and Mew can make it a bit longer by working with discard pile.

10) More Love for Steel Types (Skarmory , Steelix) (Buff/Release)

Steel types inherently are supposed to tank hits so you can draw the cards you need for a late game finish.

The steel types we have now (Meltan, Mawile and Bisharp) dont really do that. Melmetal is the closest to doing that.

Skarmory and Steelix could change the games. Skarmory could tank the hits (while its a basic Pokemon) while Steelix could finish (since its a evolution , and is heavy).

Skarmory (at least 120 HP) could have an ability to remove 10 damage counters each turn, or could have an ability where if an attack would knock if out, it would survive at 10 HP instead.

Onix does 3 for 70 right now, Steelix (at the very least 140 HP. Im going to say anywhere less than 200 for Zard to KO) .

Its attack could do for 4 energy, 30 times the metal energy attached. 120 damage for 4 seems quite bad for an EX but with a Jasmine supporter could be really usefull .

Jasmine could simply have both offense and defense property- You may remove upto 40 damage counters from your Steelix. If you do, that pokemon, may do that much damage more - allowing to do 160 for 4 (which doesn't OHKO Charizard-EX even with Giovanni) so it still keeps type effectiveness balanced.

And with this comes some sort of strategy or combinations (Skarmory (to tank) + Steelix + Jasmine.

Other Ideas :

11) Rhydon (Buff) // Rhyperior

Rhydon definitely needs a buff. Either in the form of Rhyperior or a variant of Giovanni card to help it, or a Viridian City Gym Stadium Card to help it, or even an EX for its self.

100 for 4 is absolutely atrocious. (Averaging 25 damage per energy) , and a terrible retreat cost? Really.

They cant change the 4 energy cost now, but Rhyperiors attack should be monstrous for that 4 energy (~200 like Zard EX , at best or 50x the number of Fighting type energy attached.)

If its a non-ex, at least 120 HP . If its an EX, at least 140-160 HP

12) Bruno Supporter (Release)

Machamp EX's 120 damage for 3 energy is nice (averages 40) , but it could be buffed.

As Blaine + Ninetales does 120 for 2 (averages 60) , Machamp can do something similar.

This is where Bruno can come in (if we are transitioning to 2nd generation as next set) . Bruno can allow Machamp and Machamp EX to do +30 more damage for MAchamp to do 150 for 3 (Average : 50) , giving it more viability.

13) Slowbro EX (Buff/Release)

Slowbro is barely used in the TCG game right now and its a really good Pokemon. I think a Slowbro EX with Ability (similar to Regenerator) where it heals 30 damage upon retreating would be nice.

2 Retreat cost to retreat and healing 30 damage, would give it more viability.

14) Heracross - Fighting Type - 110 HP (Release)

Heraross can keep Electric types in check in the next generation.

110 HP allows it to tank a full Circle Circuit from Pikachu + Giovanni (100 damage).

Since its a basic pokemon, it doesnt need additional turns to evolve.

When it comes to attacks, it can have an ability where if opponents weakness is a Fighting type, it deals additional 20 damage - so keeping the buff focussed specifically on electric types while not getting too OP.

And an attack to do 80 damage for 2 energy - allowing it to tank a hit from Pikachu EX and OHKO it in return (80 + 20 (ability) + 20 (Weakness))

This allows Heracross to not OHKO Zapdos EX (as it should be) , since Zapdos is part Flying type and in the core series , somewhat has an advantage unless the attacker uses Giovanni, which makes sense since switching into Heracross is usually not easy.)

This would be healthier in terms of Type Effectiveness.

15) Tyranitar (160 HP - Like Dragonite) and Kingdra line (Release)

Both of these would be nice. Like in the core games, Sandstorm should be a thing , but this should probably come from Stadium Cards. Stadium Cards could act as 'Sandstorm' and could allow you to do an additional 10 damage per turn to your opponents active Pokemon as long as your active Pokemon is a Fighting type.

Similar type of Stadium cards could be done for other typing to buff their own types.

This helps with the currently Pikachu EX meta running around.

Similarly, Tyranitar could also have a dark type card to deal with Mewtwo EX (since that was the original counter in GSC) . Mewtwo EX, even with 4 energy does only 150 to TTar, not 160 - So they need a Giovanni to knock out.

Eitherways, Tyranitar and its line will be a very important card for balance next generation since both its typings allow it to counter the meta right now, and its a pseudo-legendary - There's so much scope to do something.

16) Ho-Oh EX - 180 HP?

If Ho-Oh is to be released, the most obvious ability is that since its a Phoenix, it should be : if this Pokemon is knocked out, put this Pokemon back to the bench with 90 HP (half) without any energy. If you do, your opponent takes 1 less Prize Card (so 1 for knocking out an EX).

Kinda broken? But not quite since its attacks will hit hard but do recoil? , so putting that 90 HP at risk too.

Either 2 energy for 80-90 AND/OR
3 energy for 120-140 damage seems nice
.
This attack could do 20 damage recoil or something?

17) Lugia EX - 180 HP (same as Ho-Oh)

Ability : Multiscale : If this Pokemon has no damage counter, it takes X damage less.

So you would always want to keep Lugia at max HP with Potions, etc.

Its attack could be really bad or really good (Like Aeroblast in the core games, that has a high chance to crit)

2 Energy attack - 40 damage. Flip 2 coins, if both are heads, this attack does 60 more damage.

So 40 damage for 2 energy is quite bad (Averages 20 damage per turn which is one of the lowest damage output) , but similar to crit, there is a 25% chance to do 100 for 2 energy (50/energy average)