>>27448865The contradictory point is still there. There were still unevolving pokemon that were much stronger than the other Pokemon available and were far and away the representatives of the "competitive" aspects of the game. Numbers in general were lower back then but it doesn't change the point. Even ignoring basics, as I said, even among actually evolving Pokemon very few could actually stand up to Blastoise.
I actually looked up lists for back in the day and apparently PlusPower was not really a huge thing back then. Since I'm a relatively new in terms of looking at the TCG from a competitive standpoint, I'm used to that effect being absurdly powerful nowadays. It's hilarious how good it is taking that Blastoise deck from back in the day and getting in PlusPowers that basically function as additional energy to take the 70 HP basics without having to actually play more energy.
