Dear Pokemon Company: Why do you hate Torterra?
Lets go back alllll the way to the first set with torterra in it: Diamond and Pearl. You had two cards. Torterra lvl.45 and Torterra lvl X. You wasted no time in making his card the worst oit of the trio, giving him not only the highest retreat cost of the trip (4 energy retreat), but also a 3 energy attack that only does 30 damage and a chance of paralyzation OR a 4 energy attack that heals your grass pokemon for 20. What did the other two get? Empoleon, with a 2 retreat cost, an hp pool only 10 less than torterra, and a 2 energy attack that does 40 damage to active or benched pokemon AS WELL AS a 3 energy attack that does 70 to the active and, on a successful coin toss, 20 to the bench. So straight out of the gate, empoleon is almost strictly better aside from the minute hp pool difference. Infernape? 100 hp, so not as good, but a 1 energy attack that allows you to flip until you get tails, and for each heads you deal 30 damage. No retreat cost, and you also have a 2 energy attack for 90 damage at the cost of having to discard all the attached fire energy afterwards. Torterra is waiting to get 4 energy to deal 60 damage and heal a bit while infernape is essentially dealing 180 damage for the same price and faster than torterra ever could.
Lets look at the level x variants. They all keep their original retreat costs, but torterra gets a 20 hp boost and the poke-power ‘forest murmurs’ which, OPT, allows him to swap an opponents benched pokemon with the active one, BUT only if you have more prize cards (aka are in the lead) and if torterra isnt under a special condition. Not amazing, but not awful. Can be helpful. His only other attack is 4 energy for 100 and 30 damage to the bench, so hes still behind regular infernapes damage output by a fair amount, but to put the cherry on top, he also deals 30 damage to HIMSELF. Empoleon? +10 hp boost, poke-power is Supreme Command, allowing it (OPT) to choose 2 cards from your opps hand and put them face down next to the defending pokemon. At the end of your opps next turn, return those cards to your opps hand. This cant be used if empoleon is under a status effect. This is a good ability and doesnt require you to be in the lead, depriving your opponent of cards that might be vital to their gameplan. Its attack is Hydro Impact, dealing 80 damage to them for 3 energy. It can be benched or active. Unfortunately, empoleon cant attack next turn. I will admit, this is a pretty awful card due to the attack. Infernape is doing damage for cheaper and faster and as a non level x card. Speaking of which, infernape gets +20 hp, and its ability, burning head, says that OPT you can look at the top 3 cards of your deck, pick one to put into your hand, discard the other 2, cant be used if under status, yada yada yada. Its attack, Flare Up, for 2 energy, does 150 DAMAGE, but only if you have at least 8 fire energy in your discard pile to shuffle back into your deck. This is dookie. Or is it…? You see, the thing about level X pokemon for those who arent aware, was that the pokemon got to keep the attacks of the previous versions they leveled up on, so infernape could use his regular versions 2 energy 90 damage energy discard attack while burning through its own deck to turbo into the 150 damage version of the attack. Meanwhile, empoleon is doing 80 to the bench and then sitting on its ass next turn and torterra is playing a game of slowly beating its head into other pokemon and giving itself a minor concussion every time. Infernape actually saw a lot of competitive play back then, while the other two watched from a distance, like sad puppies.
Fast forward to Majestic Dawn, the next sinnoh set to feature the 3, and empoleon got a good upgrade! Dual splash replaced ice blade, being another 2 energy attack that dealt 30 damage to two different benched pokemon rather than 40 to one, and the other attack, Surf Together, did 50+ 10 for each of your benched pokemon, totaling up to a max of 100 damage, with the downside being that on a tails on a coin flip you also did 10 damage to each of your own benched pokemon. Meanwhile, torterra was doing 60 damage for 2 energy at the mandatory cost of dealing 10 damage to all your benched pokemon, or 100 damage for 4 energy and not being allowed to attack next turn. Fun! (Not.) infernape got mach punch, a 1 energy move for 30 and 10 to the bench, as well as Mega Bravo, another 1 energy attack that forced you to discard all fire energy on him and dealing 40 damage for each fire energy you discarded. Not astounding, but you could certainly kill with this, and you werent hurting yourself or your own team nor sacrificing your ability to attack next turn unlike a certain green turtle… ._.
Stormfront brings the 3 back again, now with different types. Torterra keeps his Hp and retreat but is now a fighting type with a water weakness and electric resistance, and has the poke power Sunshine Song, which says that OPT when you play a torterra from habd to evo 1 of your pokemon, you can choose as many of your GRASS pokemon in play as you like, and for each grass pokemon you choose, you search your deck for an evolution card that evolves from that pokemon and you evolve it, shuffling your deck afterwards. Really solid ability! That is, assuming you have another torterra you can evolve with, because this doesnt count itself. So, youll either need to evolve this again next turn into its level X variant, or have a second grotle on the bench ready to evolve into torterra, which as we all know, getting to stage 2 pokemon is VERY difficult to do, so the chances of this happening are small, and even if they do happen, you’re getting this off a max of 3 times in a game if you’re VERY lucky. Its got an attack that, for 2 energy, it does 60 damage to the opp and 20 to itself, then swaps out the active pokemon with a benched pokemon of your opponents choosing, so not only are you hurting yourself with this, but you’re making it more difficult to secure kills by mandatorily swapping out to a pokemon of your opponent’s choosing. It also gets Land Shake, a 4 energy attack for 80 damage and, during your opponents next turn, whenever your opponent puts a basic pokemon from the hand onto the bench, they take 20 damage, which sounds cool, but is VERY situational, and not much help by the time youve got torterra up and running to even do this attack. Empoleon was a steel type, and its poke power is similar to torterras, but instead of allowing others to evolve once you evolve into an empoleon, your opponent simply cant attach energy from their hand during their next turn. Again, only 3 uses per game total, but man, locking down your opponent can be brutal, so you’re more keen to wait to evolve at key moments in the game. It got steel wing, 2 energy for 40 and a 20 damage reduction to itself during the next turn. Not amazing, but its fine. Whirlpool is a 3 energy attack, dealing 60 and, on a heads from a coin flip, the defending pokemon has to discard an energy. It might not always work, but an energy discard can be brutal, especially if you pair that up with empoleons poke power. Overall, a solid card, though it never saw competitive play. Infernape was a fighting type, at base 120 hp, and got Blaze Dance. Same deal as empoleon and torterra, but you flipped a coin, and on heads you searched your deck for up to 4 fire energy cards and attatched them to any of your pokemon in any way you liked. Not bad! Close Combat dealt 60 for 2, at the downside of increasing the damage it takes from attacks during your opponent’s next turn by 30. Ouch. Pretty bad move all things considered. Spreading Fire was costly, being 4 energy for 80 damage, and costing you to discard 2 fire energy attatched to him to deal 20 damage to each of your opponents benched pokemon. Not great either. Overall, while empoleon was the best of the 3, they all kinda stunk compared to what was still available at the time and were seen as little more than a gimmick.
Now we’re at platinum. Torterras HP and retreat, same as ever, and back to grass type. It has two attacks. Green Blast, a 3 for 40+ 10 for each grass energy attached to all your pokemon. Solid, right? Its at least hitting for 70 by itself when you get it active, then it increases by 10 every turn until it dies, assuming you dont energy ramp at all. Its other attack, soothing scent, does 80 for 4, and garuntees the defending pokemon is now asleep. This was probably the best torterra we’ve seen in a while, but it was quite the energy hog all things considered. But, again, compared to its previous iterations, it was pretty good. Empoleon is back to water, 130 hp, and has knock off, 40 for 2 and discarding a card from your opponents hand at random. Neat! Jet smash was 3 energy, and did 70 to any of your opps pokemon, benched or active, but you couldnt use jet smash your turn after that. Decent for sniping backrow, overall not awful. Infernape at 110 hp, fire type, and for 1 energy, you could use roaring flames, which said that you could discard as many fire energy from your mons in play (not just infernape), and for each one you did, youd flip a coin, and for each heads you got, you dealt 80 damage. Pretty solid, but a bit risky. Lastly you had rage, a 2 for 30 + 10 for each damage counter on infernape. This could be great for clearing out foes, but infernapes low hp stat limits this from getting too out of hand. Its an alright card, which rounds out an overall alright trio release. This was the best we’ve seen torterra, and while it wasnt amazing, it was fine. But alas, not enough to see the light of day in competitive play.
Afterwards, we’d stop seeing the trio release in the same sets together for a while. Torterra was seen may 12th 2010 in unleashed, empoleon may 9th 2010 in Dark Explorers, and infernape feb 6th 2013 in plasma storm. This is getting long so ill be more brief with my descriptions of these releases. Unleashed? Sucked. Low damage, too costly, but at least it healed itself for 40? I guess? Plasma Storm? Ok, but again, too costly, but at least it got +10 hp and its first attack reduced damaged it took by 20. Ultra prism? 180 hp, 50 damage and heals self for 50, or a whopping 180 for 4 energy and 20 to your own benched pokemon. THIS was a good card, but not good enough to see any real competitive play. Forbidden light? Same thing but a fighting type. Brilliant Stars 8? First attack required you to play evolved pokemon to get damage counting itself, 50 damage per evolved, not awful since it costed 2. Hammer in did 160 for no after effects, and its total hp was now 190 to keep up with the times, but by now that wasnt enough, with cards like charizard v star being in the same set with 280 hp. Thus, making it shit. Torterra never saw another fancy card until recently with Temporal Forces Torterra EX, dealing a range of 30-180 damage for a 1 energy attack in Forest March, or Jungle Hammer, dealing 150 and healing for 50 for 3 energy. Again, its okay, but its outpaced, because basic pokemon were doing the same or better without having to go through evolution stages. Torterra was always slow on the times, never able to keep pace, always just a bit behind the curve.
Empoleon saw many more releases, some of which saw competitive use, and even got a few new special cards, like Empoleon FB, Empoleon Break, and Empoleon V. Infernape is a similar case and also got more love than torterra with special cards, like Infernape 4, Infernape 4 level X, and Infernape V.
In total, torterra got 11 different cards, empoleon got 16, and infernape got 14.
And now, with pokemon tcg pocket releasing its diamond and pearl set, history repeats itself, with them giving Infernape the best card, empoleon the second best card, and then giving the torterra line absolute shit, practically unplayable garbage. Why? Why do they hate him so much? Even in the main games hes the worst of the 3 starters, since empoleon can ice beam him for x2 damage and infernape can hit him for some kind of fire attack and kill him before he gets in an earthquake.
I just want some respect to be put on my son. I want him to get the time in the spotlight he deserves. He doesn’t get any respect, and im sick of it. JUSTICE FOR TORTERRA
Thanks for coming to my ted talk.
Lets go back alllll the way to the first set with torterra in it: Diamond and Pearl. You had two cards. Torterra lvl.45 and Torterra lvl X. You wasted no time in making his card the worst oit of the trio, giving him not only the highest retreat cost of the trip (4 energy retreat), but also a 3 energy attack that only does 30 damage and a chance of paralyzation OR a 4 energy attack that heals your grass pokemon for 20. What did the other two get? Empoleon, with a 2 retreat cost, an hp pool only 10 less than torterra, and a 2 energy attack that does 40 damage to active or benched pokemon AS WELL AS a 3 energy attack that does 70 to the active and, on a successful coin toss, 20 to the bench. So straight out of the gate, empoleon is almost strictly better aside from the minute hp pool difference. Infernape? 100 hp, so not as good, but a 1 energy attack that allows you to flip until you get tails, and for each heads you deal 30 damage. No retreat cost, and you also have a 2 energy attack for 90 damage at the cost of having to discard all the attached fire energy afterwards. Torterra is waiting to get 4 energy to deal 60 damage and heal a bit while infernape is essentially dealing 180 damage for the same price and faster than torterra ever could.
Lets look at the level x variants. They all keep their original retreat costs, but torterra gets a 20 hp boost and the poke-power ‘forest murmurs’ which, OPT, allows him to swap an opponents benched pokemon with the active one, BUT only if you have more prize cards (aka are in the lead) and if torterra isnt under a special condition. Not amazing, but not awful. Can be helpful. His only other attack is 4 energy for 100 and 30 damage to the bench, so hes still behind regular infernapes damage output by a fair amount, but to put the cherry on top, he also deals 30 damage to HIMSELF. Empoleon? +10 hp boost, poke-power is Supreme Command, allowing it (OPT) to choose 2 cards from your opps hand and put them face down next to the defending pokemon. At the end of your opps next turn, return those cards to your opps hand. This cant be used if empoleon is under a status effect. This is a good ability and doesnt require you to be in the lead, depriving your opponent of cards that might be vital to their gameplan. Its attack is Hydro Impact, dealing 80 damage to them for 3 energy. It can be benched or active. Unfortunately, empoleon cant attack next turn. I will admit, this is a pretty awful card due to the attack. Infernape is doing damage for cheaper and faster and as a non level x card. Speaking of which, infernape gets +20 hp, and its ability, burning head, says that OPT you can look at the top 3 cards of your deck, pick one to put into your hand, discard the other 2, cant be used if under status, yada yada yada. Its attack, Flare Up, for 2 energy, does 150 DAMAGE, but only if you have at least 8 fire energy in your discard pile to shuffle back into your deck. This is dookie. Or is it…? You see, the thing about level X pokemon for those who arent aware, was that the pokemon got to keep the attacks of the previous versions they leveled up on, so infernape could use his regular versions 2 energy 90 damage energy discard attack while burning through its own deck to turbo into the 150 damage version of the attack. Meanwhile, empoleon is doing 80 to the bench and then sitting on its ass next turn and torterra is playing a game of slowly beating its head into other pokemon and giving itself a minor concussion every time. Infernape actually saw a lot of competitive play back then, while the other two watched from a distance, like sad puppies.
Fast forward to Majestic Dawn, the next sinnoh set to feature the 3, and empoleon got a good upgrade! Dual splash replaced ice blade, being another 2 energy attack that dealt 30 damage to two different benched pokemon rather than 40 to one, and the other attack, Surf Together, did 50+ 10 for each of your benched pokemon, totaling up to a max of 100 damage, with the downside being that on a tails on a coin flip you also did 10 damage to each of your own benched pokemon. Meanwhile, torterra was doing 60 damage for 2 energy at the mandatory cost of dealing 10 damage to all your benched pokemon, or 100 damage for 4 energy and not being allowed to attack next turn. Fun! (Not.) infernape got mach punch, a 1 energy move for 30 and 10 to the bench, as well as Mega Bravo, another 1 energy attack that forced you to discard all fire energy on him and dealing 40 damage for each fire energy you discarded. Not astounding, but you could certainly kill with this, and you werent hurting yourself or your own team nor sacrificing your ability to attack next turn unlike a certain green turtle… ._.
Stormfront brings the 3 back again, now with different types. Torterra keeps his Hp and retreat but is now a fighting type with a water weakness and electric resistance, and has the poke power Sunshine Song, which says that OPT when you play a torterra from habd to evo 1 of your pokemon, you can choose as many of your GRASS pokemon in play as you like, and for each grass pokemon you choose, you search your deck for an evolution card that evolves from that pokemon and you evolve it, shuffling your deck afterwards. Really solid ability! That is, assuming you have another torterra you can evolve with, because this doesnt count itself. So, youll either need to evolve this again next turn into its level X variant, or have a second grotle on the bench ready to evolve into torterra, which as we all know, getting to stage 2 pokemon is VERY difficult to do, so the chances of this happening are small, and even if they do happen, you’re getting this off a max of 3 times in a game if you’re VERY lucky. Its got an attack that, for 2 energy, it does 60 damage to the opp and 20 to itself, then swaps out the active pokemon with a benched pokemon of your opponents choosing, so not only are you hurting yourself with this, but you’re making it more difficult to secure kills by mandatorily swapping out to a pokemon of your opponent’s choosing. It also gets Land Shake, a 4 energy attack for 80 damage and, during your opponents next turn, whenever your opponent puts a basic pokemon from the hand onto the bench, they take 20 damage, which sounds cool, but is VERY situational, and not much help by the time youve got torterra up and running to even do this attack. Empoleon was a steel type, and its poke power is similar to torterras, but instead of allowing others to evolve once you evolve into an empoleon, your opponent simply cant attach energy from their hand during their next turn. Again, only 3 uses per game total, but man, locking down your opponent can be brutal, so you’re more keen to wait to evolve at key moments in the game. It got steel wing, 2 energy for 40 and a 20 damage reduction to itself during the next turn. Not amazing, but its fine. Whirlpool is a 3 energy attack, dealing 60 and, on a heads from a coin flip, the defending pokemon has to discard an energy. It might not always work, but an energy discard can be brutal, especially if you pair that up with empoleons poke power. Overall, a solid card, though it never saw competitive play. Infernape was a fighting type, at base 120 hp, and got Blaze Dance. Same deal as empoleon and torterra, but you flipped a coin, and on heads you searched your deck for up to 4 fire energy cards and attatched them to any of your pokemon in any way you liked. Not bad! Close Combat dealt 60 for 2, at the downside of increasing the damage it takes from attacks during your opponent’s next turn by 30. Ouch. Pretty bad move all things considered. Spreading Fire was costly, being 4 energy for 80 damage, and costing you to discard 2 fire energy attatched to him to deal 20 damage to each of your opponents benched pokemon. Not great either. Overall, while empoleon was the best of the 3, they all kinda stunk compared to what was still available at the time and were seen as little more than a gimmick.
Now we’re at platinum. Torterras HP and retreat, same as ever, and back to grass type. It has two attacks. Green Blast, a 3 for 40+ 10 for each grass energy attached to all your pokemon. Solid, right? Its at least hitting for 70 by itself when you get it active, then it increases by 10 every turn until it dies, assuming you dont energy ramp at all. Its other attack, soothing scent, does 80 for 4, and garuntees the defending pokemon is now asleep. This was probably the best torterra we’ve seen in a while, but it was quite the energy hog all things considered. But, again, compared to its previous iterations, it was pretty good. Empoleon is back to water, 130 hp, and has knock off, 40 for 2 and discarding a card from your opponents hand at random. Neat! Jet smash was 3 energy, and did 70 to any of your opps pokemon, benched or active, but you couldnt use jet smash your turn after that. Decent for sniping backrow, overall not awful. Infernape at 110 hp, fire type, and for 1 energy, you could use roaring flames, which said that you could discard as many fire energy from your mons in play (not just infernape), and for each one you did, youd flip a coin, and for each heads you got, you dealt 80 damage. Pretty solid, but a bit risky. Lastly you had rage, a 2 for 30 + 10 for each damage counter on infernape. This could be great for clearing out foes, but infernapes low hp stat limits this from getting too out of hand. Its an alright card, which rounds out an overall alright trio release. This was the best we’ve seen torterra, and while it wasnt amazing, it was fine. But alas, not enough to see the light of day in competitive play.
Afterwards, we’d stop seeing the trio release in the same sets together for a while. Torterra was seen may 12th 2010 in unleashed, empoleon may 9th 2010 in Dark Explorers, and infernape feb 6th 2013 in plasma storm. This is getting long so ill be more brief with my descriptions of these releases. Unleashed? Sucked. Low damage, too costly, but at least it healed itself for 40? I guess? Plasma Storm? Ok, but again, too costly, but at least it got +10 hp and its first attack reduced damaged it took by 20. Ultra prism? 180 hp, 50 damage and heals self for 50, or a whopping 180 for 4 energy and 20 to your own benched pokemon. THIS was a good card, but not good enough to see any real competitive play. Forbidden light? Same thing but a fighting type. Brilliant Stars 8? First attack required you to play evolved pokemon to get damage counting itself, 50 damage per evolved, not awful since it costed 2. Hammer in did 160 for no after effects, and its total hp was now 190 to keep up with the times, but by now that wasnt enough, with cards like charizard v star being in the same set with 280 hp. Thus, making it shit. Torterra never saw another fancy card until recently with Temporal Forces Torterra EX, dealing a range of 30-180 damage for a 1 energy attack in Forest March, or Jungle Hammer, dealing 150 and healing for 50 for 3 energy. Again, its okay, but its outpaced, because basic pokemon were doing the same or better without having to go through evolution stages. Torterra was always slow on the times, never able to keep pace, always just a bit behind the curve.
Empoleon saw many more releases, some of which saw competitive use, and even got a few new special cards, like Empoleon FB, Empoleon Break, and Empoleon V. Infernape is a similar case and also got more love than torterra with special cards, like Infernape 4, Infernape 4 level X, and Infernape V.
In total, torterra got 11 different cards, empoleon got 16, and infernape got 14.
And now, with pokemon tcg pocket releasing its diamond and pearl set, history repeats itself, with them giving Infernape the best card, empoleon the second best card, and then giving the torterra line absolute shit, practically unplayable garbage. Why? Why do they hate him so much? Even in the main games hes the worst of the 3 starters, since empoleon can ice beam him for x2 damage and infernape can hit him for some kind of fire attack and kill him before he gets in an earthquake.
I just want some respect to be put on my son. I want him to get the time in the spotlight he deserves. He doesn’t get any respect, and im sick of it. JUSTICE FOR TORTERRA
Thanks for coming to my ted talk.