Generation 2 – Neo series

Generation 2 brought in dark and metal Pokémon types, changing up the game. Though basic dark and metal energy were missing, special energy versions and rainbow energy from Gen 1 filled the gap. We saw the debut of baby Pokémon and Pokémon tools, just like in the video games. And let’s not forget the big moment: shiny Pokémon! They first appeared in the Neo series, driving collectors wild. Light Pokémon also joined the fray, balancing out the darkness.

Best Neo Series Pokemon Cards

With so many awesome cards to choose from, listing them all would stretch this out, so here are the top picks instead.

Best Neo Genesis Pokemon

• Cleffa (Neo Genesis): Special baby rule grants immunity on a coin flip to attacks when active; free retreat; no weakness. Its single cost special energy attack allows you to shuffle your hand back into your deck and draw 7 cards, ensuring consistency and time to setup.
• Sneasel (Neo Genesis): Its “Beat Up” attack, powered by special darkness energy, deals additional damage for each Pokémon in play on a coin flip, averaging between 60-80 damage. The special darkness energy provides an extra 10 damage each.
• Slowking (Neo genesis): Its “Mind Games” ability, mis-translated in English which meant it could be activated from the bench, forces opponents to flip a coin when playing a trainer card; if heads, the card does nothing and is returned to the top of the deck, creating significant disruption. Imagine three or four of these on your bench…
• Murkrow (Neo Genesis): “Mean Look” costs one energy and prevents opponent’s retreating, not just one turn but forever, while Murkrow is active, allowing for strategic stalling tactics. Use the trainer card “Gust of wind” to put a non attacking Pokemon into the active spot and you’re laughing.
• Steelix (Neo Genesis): High HP for a stage 1; special metal energy reduces incoming damage by 10 points; respectable bulk and damage output.
• Pichu (Neo Genesis): Baby rule, free retreat, no weakness; “Zzzap” attack deals 20 damage to all Pokémon in play with a Pokémon power.
• Magby (Neo Genesis): Baby rule, free retreat, no weakness; “Sputter” attack disables all Pokémon powers until the end of your next turn. This was especially useful to counter Slowking’s “Mind Games” ability.
• Noctowl (Neo Genesis): “Glaring Gaze” ability allows players to view opponent’s hand and shuffle 1 trainer card back into their deck. Good for disruption.
• Typhlosion (Neo Genesis): Ability transfers 1 fire energy from the discard pile on a coin flip to any Pokémon in play, enhancing damage potential. Combine this with Blaine’s Arcanine and it’s massive 120 damage attack for maximum effect.
• Aipom (Neo Genesis): Prevents deck out (0 cards left in deck) and auto losing on your next turn; its attack shuffles itself and all attached cards back into the deck.
• Ecogym (Neo Genesis): Retains special dark and metal energy cards by returning non-colourless energy cards to the owner’s hand instead of the discard pile.
• Gold Berry (Neo Genesis): An item card that auto-heals 40 damage counters on a Pokémon with 40 or more damage; discarded after use. Great item to give to Steelix.
• Focus Band (Neo Genesis): Provides a 50% chance to avoid knockout; when heads, the Pokémon remains with 10 HP. Especially powerful on baby pokemon in combination with the baby rule which meant two coin flips and a 25% chance to avoid knockout.
• Recycle Energy (Neo Genesis): Returns to hand when discarded from play, ensuring resource retention.
• Professor Elm (Neo Genesis): Shuffles cards in hand back into the deck; prohibits further trainer card usage in the same turn. This was the first card to limit trainer usage to one card.

Best Neo Discovery Pokemon

• Tyrogue (Neo Discovery): Baby rule, free retreat, no weakness; used as a Cleffa counter due to its ability to potentially KO other baby Pokémon with a 25% chance.
• Igglybuff (Neo Discovery): Baby rule, free retreat, no weakness; its “Gaze” ability disables an opposing Pokémon’s power, similar to countering Slowking from the Neo Genesis Expansion.
• Fossil Egg (Neo Discovery): Allows Pokémon like Aerodactyl to be directly added to your bench without evolving, enhancing accessibility and bypassing evolution requirements. Aerodactyl’s “Prehistoric Power” ability prevents any Pokémon from evolving.

Best Neo Revelation Pokemon

• Crobat (Neo Revelation): Free retreat; attacks have a high chance of causing confusion or poisoning while dealing respectable damage.
• Kingdra (Neo Revelation): “Genetic Memory” ability allows it to use any basic or evolution Pokémon attacks below it without paying the energy cost. Pairing with Seadra’s “Mud Splash” attack from the previous generation yields a 50% chance of damaging a bench Pokémon. Kingdra has no weakness.
• Porygon2 (Neo Revelation): “Energy Converter” Pokémon power enables it to change a basic energy on the field into a different type.
• Parasect (Neo Revelation): “Allergic Pollen” Pokémon power prevents attacks and powers from affecting the discard pile, disrupting discard-heavy strategy decks.
• Misdreavus (Neo Revelation): Synergistic attacks; the first induces sleep with a single energy attack, while the next turn’s “Perish Song” attack, requiring 3 energy, KOs the opponent.
• Entei (Neo Revelation): “Howl” Pokémon power allows it to discard the top 5 cards from your deck upon entering the field; any fire energy cards among them can be attached to fire type Pokémon. It boasts a strong attack at the cost of high energy.
• Healing Field (Neo Revelation): Flip a coin, if heads, remove 2 damage counters from your active Pokémon; synergises well with the Steelix deck.
• Balloon Berry (Neo Revelation): Allows free retreat when attached to a Pokémon; discarded upon retreating, it’s a single-use item.

Best Neo Destiny Pokemon

• Dark Gengar (Neo Destiny): Ability “Deep Sleep” forces Pokémon asleep at the end of the turn to flip two coins; if either are tails, the Pokémon remains asleep. Its “Pull In” attack counters baby Pokémon, dealing 30 damage and negating their usual coin flip advantage.
• Dark Haunter (Neo Destiny): “Surround” attack flips a coin; heads puts the defending Pokémon to sleep, tails prevents retreat the next turn.
• Dark Crobat (Neo Destiny): “Surprise Bite” Pokémon power adds 2 damage counters to any opposing Pokémon upon being played from the hand.
• Dark Porygon2 (Neo Destiny): “Spatial Distortion” ability controls the stadium in play, allowing recovery of stadium cards from the discard pile and putting them into play, countering effects like No Removal Gym.
• Dark Feraligatr (Neo Destiny): Counters baby Pokémon, disabling all baby Pokémon abilities and attacks, if Feraligatr is in the active position.
• Light Dragonite (Neo Destiny): Counters special energy and their effects with “Miraculous Wind” Pokémon power; its attack deals respectable damage and prevents opponent’s attack effects from affecting Dragonite on the next turn.
• Broken Ground Gym (Neo Destiny): Negates free retreat of baby Pokémon, requiring both baby and basic Pokémon to use 1 more energy card to retreat.
• Energy Stadium (Neo Destiny): Recovers energy from the discard pile with a coin flip, catering to energy-hungry decks.

Best Neo Series Decks

Sneasel Deck

During its legality, the Sneasel deck epitomized the ultimate troll strategy. It combined Sneasel’s efficient attack, Slowking’s disruptive ability that barred the use of trainer cards, and Murkrow’s ability to lock active Pokémon in place. The tactic revolved around utilizing Gust of Wind and Murkrow to prevent switch-outs, Slowking to thwart trainer cards aiming to swap the active Pokémon, and finally, Sneasel to deal substantial damage. This trio created a formidable and frustrating obstacle for opponents to overcome.

Steelix Deck

The strategy featured a resilient Steelix fortified with special metal energy and Gold Berry, backed by Noctowl’s disruptive capabilities to thwart opponent’s attempts to use trainer cards to remove Steelix. Ecogym played a crucial role in recovering any discarded special metal energies, ensuring the deck’s resilience and longevity on the battlefield.

Giovanni’s Machamp Deck

Giovanni’s Machamp deck showcased the formidable “Fortitude” ability of Giovanni’s Machamp, forcing opponents to rely on a coin flip to determine its knockout, offering only a 50% chance. When coupled with the Focus Band discussed earlier from Neo Genesis, this required two coin flips, decreasing the odds to a mere 25% chance of knocking out Giovanni’s Machamp. Additionally, Giovanni’s Last Resort from Generation 1 served as a potent fallback, eliminating all damage counters from any Pokémon bearing Giovanni’s name, providing a formidable defensive strategy.

Kingdra Deck

The Kingdra deck boasted flexibility with its ability to use attacks from its pre-evolutions like Seadra’s Mud Splash and Horsea’s Fin Slap. With good HP and no weakness, coupled with the ability to attack with just one colourless energy, Kingdra proved to be a powerhouse. Pokémon Center played a key role, allowing for healing of all damage at the cost of losing all attached energy—Which didn’t matter considering the deck’s low energy requirement. Furthermore, the addition of Pichu or Magby added additional strategic depth, either dealing more damage to Pokémon with abilities or disabling their effects entirely, solidifying the deck’s effectiveness.

Parasect Deck

Many decks utilised Parasect alongside its discussed ability above. These included both Feraligatrs, Blaine’s Charizard, and Charmander. One Feraligatr employed the Berserk ability, aiming to deck out opponents with a 50/50 chance of discarding 5 cards from their deck, complemented by Parasect’s ability preventing access to the discard pile. Nightly Garbage Run was essential to prevent self-decking out.

Dark Gengar Deck

The Dark Gengar deck used a clever strategy involving Gengar’s skill in beating baby Pokémon, with Haunter helping in bringing Baby Pokémon back from the discard pile while putting them to sleep or preventing retreat. Adding Noctowl from earlier Neo expansions proved valuable in removing opponent’s trainer cards. Misdreavus played a pivotal role when paired with Gengar, leveraging Gengar’s Pokémon power to reduce opponents’ chances of waking up from sleep setup by Misdreavus to a mere 25%, further cementing the deck’s control over the game.

Dark Feraligatr Deck

The Dark Feraligatr deck engineered a strategic lock-down, using Dark Vileplume from Gen 1 to block the usage of trainer cards and Dark Feraligatr to stop baby powers, badly limiting opponents’ options. Noctowl was an alternative option by removing trainer cards from opponents’ hands instead of simply disabling them, further tightening the deck’s grip on control and disruption.

Key Takeaways to Improve Deck Building

Here are the key takeaways to improve your own strategy and deck-building ability:

1. Aim for deck-out victories using disruptive Pokémon and strategies.
2. Strengthen your defense with resilient Pokémon and defensive cards and abilities.
3. Disrupt opponent strategies with cards that hinder their use of abilities, trainer cards, etc.
4. Create synergy between Pokémon abilities to control the game flow, identify which abilities work well together.
5. Ensure longevity by including cards for resource recovery and resilience.
6. Opt for low energy flexible attacks to adapt to various battle situations.
7. Exploit opponent weaknesses with disruptive strategies and abilities. Identify common weaknesses in the meta.

Learn more strategies, decks, and the best Pokemon cards the TCG history has here.

Are there any cards or decks we missed from the Neo Series from generation 2? Let us know in the comments!

Team Maniax, shuffling out – see you next time!