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  • Venusaur
    • Base Set
    • 17 / 102
  • Beedrill
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Zapdos · Base Set (BS) #16

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$ / TCGplayer (19 hours ago) ↗
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  • ꩜ 57.51
  • ↑ 127.60
Zapdos · 90 HP · {L}
Pokémon (Zapdos) › Basic

{L}{L}{L}{C} → Thunder : 60
Flip a coin. If tails, Zapdos does 30 damage to itself.

{L}{L}{L}{L} → Thunderbolt : 100
Discard all Energy cards attached to Zapdos in order to use this attack.

weak: n/a | resist: {F}-30 | retreat: 3
illus. Ken Sugimori · LV.64
Classic › Base Set (BS) › #16/102 : Rare Holo · ↘ Jan 9, 1999
Formats: Other: 1999–2001
External: Bulba ↗ · #ad / Affiliate Links: TCGplayer ↗, cardmarket ↗, Amazon ↗, eBay ↗
A legendary bird Pokémon said to appear from clouds while wielding enormous lightning bolts.

Rating

Overall: 77.11% (64 wins, 19 losses)

Within Set & Formats:

  • Base Set: 100% (1 win, 0 losses)
  • BS-on (1999–2001): 100% (1 win, 0 losses)

Note: The rating system is currently disabled.

Reader Interactions

14 comments

  1. Mantidactyle

    (14 years ago)

    Wasn’t that bad before Jungle, fighting resistance was useful to use it as a wall against Hitmonchan / Electabuzz with the help of Scoop Up

    Reply
    • OtakuMantidactyle

      (9 years ago)

      Want to qualify what you’re saying.

      Card scarcity was insane prior to Base Set 2, maybe even a little bit afterwards. So prior to Jungle, having a combo to stall built around a Rare Holo and a plain Rare was quite the luxury. It was a good wall against Hitmonchan and decent against Electabuzz, but if you were not healing every turn, Electabuzz could take it out. In either case, thanks to S/ER, you were unable to power up Zapdos in order to attack.

      Reply
      • Mantidactyle Otaku

        (9 years ago)

        Well, in France we had no such scarcity issues. I know there was card scarcity in the USA though.

        Reply
        • OtakuMantidactyle

          (9 years ago)

          I see.

          I thought the scarcity was most of North America at the time, and that international distribution was hit or miss. My mistake. So yeah, as a wall against Hitmonchan and Electabuzz, seems plausible. I am curious though: what was the goal of the wall? Base Set gave us Gust of Wind, Energy Removal, and Super Energy Removal; what was Zapdos protecting?

          Thank you for your time and insight!

          Reply
  2. Mantidactyle

    (13 years ago)

    I always wondered why Thunder does less damage than Thunderbolt.

    Reply
    • Brian DuddyMantidactyle

      (11 years ago)

      If you try to compare the TCG to the video games, you’re gonna have a bad time.

      Reply
      • Tokiwa City SmuggleBrian Duddy

        (4 years ago)

        Thunder should have been a hit or miss attack in the TCG. And yeah it should have been the last attack on the card too. Also, none of Thunder or Thunderbolt should have recoils after attacking.

        Reply
  3. 100000Volts

    (10 years ago)

    One of the best old school artwork but each feet is missing one toe! It suppose to have three toe on the front and one on the back. :(

    Reply
    • flagrama100000Volts

      (9 years ago)

      This is the art the sprite in Red/Green is based on, lol. It is by Ken Sugimori, literally the art director and original designer of the original 150 Pokemon and much, much more in the Pokemon franchise. Zapdos looked like this back then. Even the Red/Blue sprite had the same general design.

      Reply
      • 100000Voltsflagrama

        (9 years ago)

        True, it is the art for the game, but it I dislike the error. I collect pokemon cards primarily for the artwork and I enjoy the manga-style watercolor like this one. They don’t draw them like that anymore, it is now all on computer. This site below show how it is suppose to look like. Atleast all the Alakazam in generation I sets are drawn correctly.
        http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/e/e3/145Zapdos.png

        Reply
        • Blob Takeshi100000Volts

          (7 years ago)

          Because it’s faster to draw people with a missing finger on each hand and birds with a missing toe on each foot.

          Reply
      • Renirambusflagrama

        (6 years ago)

        151. And Atsuko Nishida designed Pikachu, Raichu, Charizard, Oddish, Gloom, Vileplume, Dratini, Dragonair, Eevee and thee first 3 Eeveelutions

        Reply
        • Blob TakeshiRenirambus

          (5 years ago)

          They drew the most popular Pokémon + Oddish line? They should have drawn more Pokémon to distract from the Charizard hype.

          Reply
  4. AlcreMina

    (1 year ago)

    “Rating: 3
    Combo with a Basic-set Electrode to power up this bad bird on turn three!” – Pojo’s Unofficial Big Book of Pokemon, ~2000

    Reply

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