Beedrill · Base Set (BS) #17

5 comments

1. 

   reshikrom64

   (14 years ago)

   I like how this has the same HP as the Kakuna it evolves from.

   Reply
2. 

   AlcreMina

   (1 year ago)

   “Rating: 4
   No retreat cost, two solid attacks (especially if you remembered to bring the two-headed coins) and not a can of Raid to be found. Great in plant decks.” – Pojo’s Unofficial Big Book of Pokemon, ~2000

   I love how this guy is like “great as long as you remembered to cheat!” like yeah man I bet…

   Reply
3. 

   Guzma

   (4 months ago)

   I think Wizards of the Coast mistakenly believed Beedrill and Venomoth were Bug/Flying, because in this era of the TCG Fighting Resistance was otherwise exclusive to Flying and Ghost-types. While, yes, as Bug/Poison they do have a quad resistance to Fighting-types so this wouldn’t be completely without basis, neither their pre-evolutions nor the Ariados line was ever printed with a Fighting resist. It wasn’t until the final WOTC set that both Beedrill and Venomoth stopped resisting Fighting.

   Not that TPC has been without their Pokemon type errors (Seel was printed with a Metal weakness from Gens 4 through 6 despite being pure Water, and a Cleffa SV promo was printed as if was either a Psychic or Ghost-type). Plus there were those times where Dratini, Dragonair, Bagon, and Shelgon mysteriously had a Fighting Resistance…

   Reply
   • 

     SquirchampionGuzma

     (4 months ago)

     gosh i hope this is trolling but either way i rly should’ve paid for an expedited order so my english cards can come back graded quicker

     Reply
   • 

     CharmasterGuzma

     (4 months ago)

     Wizards of the Coast weren’t the ones who designed Beedrill, it was Pokémon Card Labs in Japan. They continued giving Beedrill and Venomoth cards Fighting resistances all the way up to Janine’s Beedrill and Janine’s Venomoth in the Japanese exclusive set VS, only stopping in Skyridge. Even then, Venomoth SW saw the brief return of the Fighting resistance.

     My first theory is that the Fighting resistance is meant to represent either the Bug type’s resistance to Fighting or the Poison type’s resistance to Fighting, although this seems far-fetched as Resistance in the TCG was usually used to represent Immunities in the video games until Water resistance started appearing on Grass types in Expedition. There’s also the issue of their pre-evolved forms not having that Weakness-Resistance set, but Magikarp and Gyarados from Base Set pulled from different Water type weakness-resistance sets, after all!

     My second theory is that the game designers at PCL might have been working with older reference material that said these Pokémon would be Bug Flying, and they kept the resistance the same for a while to be consistent, with Venomoth SW being given Fighting resistance as a reference to its oldest cards using the video game resistances mentioned in theory 1 as a justification.

     My third theory is that the designers knew these Pokémon were going to be Bug Poison type in the video games but decided to treat their ability to fly as an attribute and grant them Fighting resistance. In fact, I think a lot of long-running weakness and resistance trends that don’t align with the video games were deliberate design choices, such as the Dratini/Dragonair/Bagon/Shelgon example you mentioned from generation 3 (The logic being to unify the weakness and resistance of Dragon type evolution lines that each bore some combination of two out of five possible resistances), or even the lack of weaknesses on Dragon types, Ghost types, and the legendary birds in generation 1 and the Neo era (Possibly to make these Pokémon feel more mysterious or powerful).

     Maybe “The Silver Bible” will have something to say about this. I’ll need to ask Coconut Lacroix.

     Reply