Fossil Set: Pokémon Trading Card Game 

It made sense for Mew to be in this set. It's the ancestor of all Pokemon meaning it has to be Ancient.

this is some insane nostalgia, like, "i can smell the cards freshly opened from booster packs" level of nostalgia :D

Can I just take a moment to say how much I appreciate your music choices throughout this extensive review. You could have just quietly looped the same tracks over and over for 40 minutes. But the music changes and matches the various types and mon as you review them. Great work. Also, if people disagree, that's GREAT. It's more interaction in your comments section to be had. So long as they don't rage too hard at you.

I’m pretty sure Porygon is terrible no matter what. 30 HP makes it impossible to stall with against a good deck.

So a better way to phrase your ranking criteria would probably be "How good is this card if it's in a bad deck" Much less confusion that way I think

I mean, Para, you gotta realize that "basing an entire deck on a specific thing" is how meta decks operate. What's good in casual will not be good in comp. And doing rankings based on a themeless "I have a shoebox full of cards" deck is gonna upset people who know better. "Ditto could be anything, even Dragonite" has such "the mystery box could be anything! It could even be a boat!" energy.

That dragonite is still the most nostalgic for me. It's still just such beautiful artwork and of course I got the holo. I still remember that pull.

I mean, Wigglytuffs deck was incredibly strong, though, so of course youd build a deck around it to bring out that incredible strength. Any good card can be bad if played in a bad deck.

Gotta note that Energy Search even in a mono colored deck deck thins. It may not be relevant back then, it its relevant now.

I just take these as TCG deckbuild theory videos. Meta is strong, but deck styles are fun to build and theorize for on your own, too, though. That exploration is the best part. I've been enjoying these. I haven't played in a very long time, myself though

Wow, this video feels like the old school early 2010s Pokémon videos I used to watch as a kid. Absolutely amazing content!!

Fossil Dragonite is probably my most nostalgic pokemon card. I had no idea how to play the game (still don't) but i thought the card art was so cute! That and the bk keychain i got from a yard sale are proboy big reasons as to why i love that line so much

Actually energy search is extremely useful in a monotype energy if you follow more "modern" deck building strategies. Having 4 energy searches and 16 energies is much more useful than having no energy searches and 20 energies. Drawing an ES is basically drawing 2 cards at the same time which thins your deck by removing energies so that you can draw better cards down the line AND in the beginning of the game it's essentially a free prize check.

I remember when fossil was released I was in grade 4 or 5 living in Kamloops, BC, Canada at the time. This set is when the Pokemon craze was really taking off in my area. Every Kid was bringing their binders full of cards to school to trade. key word being WAS, because after a few fights broke out between students over stolen cards my school BANNED taking pokemon cards to school. This was catastrophic to my social life at the time where my sense of community was highly tied to playing and trading cards. Luckily the local toys r us hosted the pokemon trading card league which helped fill the void for the die hard fans that needed to get out and trade and battle. such a magical time and somehow i still have my cards and so many memories tied to them.

Wigglytuff still tends to be good in standard decks due to your draw power and how easy it is to fill out a bench, i don't think anyone was genuinely mad at you, if they were they didnt hear that you said it was your opinion. We all love ya Paraspectre.

Hello Paraspectre, nice video, looks like there was alot of work to make. I'm really glad to see people discussing old TCG expasions, i found your channel because of my love for the 2 pokemon tcg titles for the gameboy colour, I'm a big fan of the pixelart style and convertion the dev had to do to make the card art on a tiny screen. After watching alot of your videos and replaying the second pokemon tcg 2, i've started a project that sounded simple in my mind but was much more work than expected. The project idea was to make a pixelart version of all cards featured on the pokemon tcg2 (441 cards) and make them physical for playing in real life with friends (because like you mentioned in the video, old cards are kinda expensive). The first step of the project for me was to find the best and cheapest way to make the cards, after some experiences with diferent papers and using a laminating machine, i had an idea: - Print the cards with a thin photo paper and use cheap plastic to laminate (a box with 100 sheets is less than 2 dollars). For the holografic cards i got some holografic vynil sticker sheet (and it worked fine imo). But before all the printing i've spent some good 10 or 11 days designing the cards to be pixelart based, placing all arts from the pokemon tcg2, writing all text from all moves and placing in the limited space on each card. I did 440 cards, i just left one card out of it (that crazy random move mew that was exclusive for the gameboy colour games, the one that was impossible to get in the english speaking versions of the first game). After all that work i started printing, cutting and laminating each card. For sumery my project is to print 8 of each pokemon or trainer card and 40 of each basic energy, soo in total im gonna have more than 3.500 cards. And why im talking about this project here in the comment of this video? There are some reasons for that: 1- I think this is something that i think you will find interesting. 2 - I dont know a good way to share this project soo other people could enjoy the resources i've created. 3 - Maybe i could find other people who would be interested in helping on this project (Like feedback on changes to card designs, better ways to print, or maybe even make a small team to make a new related project : Making Unoficial Expasions based on this classic era in the same pixelart aesthetic) btw thanks alot if you read all this big all of text

I think Kabutops is one of the worst card in the history of the pokemon tcg tho. 60 hp for a 2 stage is ridiculous, especially since it force you to play a do nothing card like mysterious fossil and the reward is really underwelming. .

45:31 I will ALWAYS pick the Dome fossil simply because Kabutops is my favorite Pokémon.

Really excited for the next installment! Even if you already covered the Dark pokemon, it will be really need to see a comprehensive retrospective with the whole set. Good work as always! ❤

The music in this video is absolutely spot on.

Another fun video. I'm kinda puzzled by how underpowered certain cards are. Like, Cloyster with only 50 HP, really? And Kabutops is a stage 2 with only 60? Slowbro's power would be so much better if it had more than 60. Still a fun set though with a lot of cool cards, and super nostalgic.

I love this. This guy is just making his own "I remember liking this card videos" and the community cannot let go of the meta. This is hilarious.

Oh wow is that Them Bones in the SM64 sound font. Very nice

The Fossil theme decks were definitely a display of clever packaging.

yay was waiting for it

"wax nostalgia and have fun" no pokemon TCG expert myself I like learning and just seeing stuff I haven't in over two decades and liking the images and analysis

Buddy, don’t care too much about what other people are saying. It’s fine if you mis-ranked the cards, most of us here are looking for entertainment, not validation. Don’t pressure yourself too much with what commenters are saying, really, it’s fine, we’re all just having fun here, retrospectively looking back into our childhood. Edit: looking forward to the Base Set 2/Team Rocket video! The trainer cards in the Rocket set are absolute monsters way back then.

8:42 Fossil Geodude seems crappy, until your friend gets 12 heads in a row and it smokes your Kangaskhan.

Theme decks!? Boy oh boy oh boy, will you be making videos of them too? I have so much nostalgia on those

Fossil was one of the first sets I got my mum to buy me as a kid. So many great memories. Highlights for me a Omanite and Grimer (which I had both pulled from my first fossil pack). There is so much going on in those illustrations. From the placid temple ruins in Omanite’s background, to the moody nightly industrial view in Grimer’s. Also I was always so surprised by Mysterious Fossil. I used to ask myself how a Trainer card could have HP lol

"Can i beat Pkmn Trading Card Game with only 4 Dittos?" i doubt this run is worth doing, but would be interesting.

Energy Search is not worthless in a monocolour deck. It's deck thinning. You're less likely to draw more energy after playing Energy Search. Moreso if you play all 4.

Keep these coming!

Kind of weirdly, I don't think Fossil really shook up the game very much, in contrast to Base Set and Jungle which had huge impacts. I think the only ones that saw much use were Psyduck, Muk, Aerodactyl, Arcticuno, Ditto, Magmar, and maybe Mr Fuji. The real big shakeup came from the Mewtwo promo that came out shortly after this set. I've also seen someone use Gambler as a way to save themselves from losing by milling out, which is funny.

that link to the past music around the 14 minute mark was hitting haha great video, man! super nostalgic

Hope you do these for the following sets as well, real nostalgic! I never played the card game itself, just collected them, so its fun to hear what I was missing out on all those years ago.

I've had a ton of fun using Gengar and Hypno in a deck, because of how their attacks synergize with Gengar's pokepower. Takes a lot of setup given the 2 stage evolution, but man is it fun if it works (I only use it in the GBC game). My favorite of all the Fossile cards is definitely Ghastly though. Retrieving energy while being resistant to Fighting and having a decent 50 HP is really nice. I've actually used it without Haunter and Gengar in a few decks. The Sloepoke is awesome too. Retrieving Prof Oak? Yes please. Or you can retrieve fossils, which I think is why it's here. Speaking of the fossil pokemon, I never actually used any of them. I never found them to be worth it with the extra fossil stage. That said, Aerodactyl definitely seems strong, even though I never actually built a deck for it. It seems primed to work with the usual Haymaker bros. I also wanna say, I find it fascinating just how much more I like some of these artworks in high contrast pixel art. Aerodactyl and Tentacruel are prime examples, but the aforementioned Fossil Gastly as well. I'm probably biased since I played the GBC game so much more, but they look so much more impactful there I feel.

YOooo I just happen to be wearing my Paraspectre shirt today!

I have never played against or used the evolutions of mysterious fossil. The mysterious fossil card itself has proven to be useful for stalling.

I still have my fossil holos from when I was a kid. 2 Articunos, Haunter, Hypno, Magneton and Hitmonlee. This set definitely came out during peak Pokemania.

1:32 You did a rather poor job in trying to dig yourself out of this hole. Objectively there has to a card better than the rest, a card worse than the rest, and a bunch of cards ranked in the middle. Wigglytuff is objectively the best colorless rare in that set. You can see this by deck reports from back in the day. I get that you based what you said on your opinion and not actual thought to the game mechanics are a whole, but you didnt explain that and then doubled down in the beginning of this video. With thay being said, I still like these videos and calling them your personal favorites makes more logical sense.

I always really look forward to these set breakdowns. Even if I have every single one of these cards memorized, these looks back are both nostalgic and fun. I've always been a bit sour on how they handled Cloyster and Tentacruel, though. Both of them are not only super bulky in the main games (completely botched with the 50 and 60 HP they have, respectively) and Cloyster was one of the best Water-types you could use in a Gen 1 playthrough! My favorites here are probably the Gastly line, Magmar, Lapras and Golduck

The midified Alice in Chains, Them Bones at 41:17 goes crazy.

I feel like you could maybe make something work by having slowbro take damage from your other mons, then use mews devolution beam to then use slowpokes self healing ability.

Love the channel paraspectre!

A few things to note. Wigglytuff's Do the Wave does indeed require you fill your bench up to be of use. However, because the game at that point relied heavily on drawing as much as possible with Bill and Professor Oak, you were likely to pull this off easily. Especially since Wigglytuff was Colorless, which made it easy to fit in just about any deck. As for Aerodactyl and Muk, neither were ever used for attacking. They were always meant to be used solely for their Pokémon Powers. Muk would see more use during Team Rocket and Neo Genesis to counter Dark Vileplume and Slowking, however Aerodactyl's main use was to counter Blastoise. During that point of the game, very rarely did people rely on evolutions due to there being so many strong Basic Pokémon. With Aerodactyl being comboed with Mew, the idea was to trap your opponent from ever being able to evolve anymore after they've likely gotten Blastoise. Meanwhile, Mew would use Devolution Beam on it once it's taken at least 40 damage, due to most decks opting to use Pokémon Breeder to skip Wartortle. Also, there's no way Porygon was ever considered useful for stall. Especially not with Hitmonchan and Machop being in the same set it was introduced in and having only 30 HP.

The Slowpoke art is so good

I lov that OLD pokemon cards are always gambling and makes MANY viable to use even if they "suck" , that is the BEAUTY of them.

Kabutops really has me thinking about Ken Griffey Jr. in the 1992 Simpsons episode Homer at the Bat

Just finished another video. And there is the paraspectre! Enjoy the video, yall :)

Love your vids man! Reminds me of a more chill Spoony 😋

I get where you're coming from on your rankings and them being your opinion, but I still don't understand what you're getting at with the "basic deck" concept. Even if a deck isn't super optimized and calculated down to the card, isn't it still going to be built around actually using the Pokemon in it? Like, yeah a deck without a lot of pokemon isn't going to be good for Wigglytuff, but that means it's a deck Wigglytuff wouldn't go in, so why is that a factor? It comes across a little like saying "Wigglytuff isn't great because if you play it wrong, it's bad." For an example in this video, it feels like you really undervalued Aerodactyl's pokemon power. It's incredibly disruptive against any deck that relies on evolution, and there are several Base-Fossil era decks that are disrupted by that. Same with Muk being a defining card which shuts down any power based deck like Damage Swap, Venu-Center and Rain Dance. It feels like, unless there is a direct pokemon comparison like with the lightning types, you aren't really taking cross set synergy and effects into account?

Ahh that and the Team Rocket set were my jam, didn’t know how to play the game but still hahaha.

I'm actually a big Kingler fan, if you take into account the Krabby it comes from. You can use the first Krabby to fill up your bench and soak up damage, then evolve it into Kingler for a powerful flail all for only 1 energy AND while safely setting up a crabhammer in the back. One of my favorite little strats for sure (that also synergizes well with Wiggly if you feel like giving that a shot) Also after all these years I still can't get over how perfect that Omanyte looks :)

Great soundtrack as usual! Jurassic park and chrono trigger!

fossil magmar made me switch from electric to fire as a kid, still one of my favorite openers horsea and seadra also so lowkey good

You're sleeping hard on Fossil Gastly. I used to run a Chansey-Gastly-Aerodactyl deck in Base-Rocket. The idea was that decks from that time tended to focus on a lot of 70-80HP basics and concentrated almost entirely on getting an early prize lead, so having Chansey self-destruct and OHKO their Pokemon was something the decks didn't really have an answer for (their only real late-game option was having Mewtwo recover discarded energy, but it can't really do much to Chansey). Fossil Gastly pretty much carried the deck on its back, since it's the only card in the format that can reliably recover Double Colorless Energy, walls Hitmonchan, is a free pivot, and hits under Mime's barrier. Its first attack could also sometimes buy an extra turn or two in the early game. You could also run it for the same reasons in Wigglytuff. Legitimately one of the most underlooked cards in the set.

Koffing is on the cover because of Team Rocket in the anime using it early on before it evolved

Energy Search thins your deck even in a mono color deck and fixes energy in a multi-color deck there is almost no reason not to run 4. Not the most powerful staple but its quite overpowered due to no downside and is a free tutor. It just not OP in the sense that Bill, Professor Oak, and Computer search is busted. But the fact it fixes energy in muti-color deck puts it as an A+ card. Gambler: In most other game context another ridiculously broken card, just dump your hand and then use gambler and it will either replace itself or net you +7 cards. It not as good only because Professor Oak exist and can be played in the same deck. It's also worse in most case because it shuffle your cards into your deck instead of a discard. It also slightly bad to have multiple gamble in hand as you cannot dump the extra gamble and it always correct to play Oak over gamble. However, it draws 4.5 cards on average so... OP card. Filling your bench a very easy task if you are abusing the computer search + Oak combo back in those days meaning Wiggletuff would be a very splashable card that can do 60 damage for 3 colorless energy and its 80 health is a very good number. It not as splashable as snorelax or scyther being an evolution but you do not actually need to completely fill your bench for it to be useful 2 or 3. As for Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan, Jab into Special Punch was comically Op giving you the opportunity to close out the game very quickly or when running multiple. Stretch kick cost 1 more and doesn't work if there are no bench pokemon if it had been a Hitmonchan it would have close out the game. There a reason it a crazy iconic card along with the Venesaur, Blastoise, and Charizard.

Geodude's attack averages 10 damage. For 2 energy, that's bad. Sandslash's Fury Swipes should average 32.5 damage, making it the better attack (assuming you have plenty of Fighting energy).

It’s impossible for any human being to give a statement without personal bias

I just found my pokemon cards last weekend. I have some shadowless bur I also found my favorite. A first Edition holofoil fossil Aerodactyl

Nice

It's kinda funny how every time they've added a new type to the video games they've added it to the TCG, but ground and rock still aren't distinct from fighting

I don't know how other people would feel about it, but I'd be interested if you did a video like this for the MTG sets that were coming out when you first started playing. It might be tricky though considering how big MTG sets are.

Gengar is way too fun. Love some Dark Mind/Curse action.

is it weird that I still love this game and play it daily ? I love your content bro

The spergs arguing over semantics in the comments section are missing the point of these videos. That being said, spergs are going to be the target audience for these types of videos.

If u use defender, weezing can survive its own explosion.

I feel like rankings would probably vary a lot by strategy or deck preference so technically any card can be bad I don’t know how to play very well yet though so take this with a grain of salt

Play the game with only the legendary birbs

Babe wake up, there's a new Paraspectre video

So yeah, at the very end of the video you mention you and your friends felt like you were too grown up for Pokemon and that Magic was for adults or whatever dumb shit teenagers think, well Wizards intended that. They started cutting the 15+ tournaments towards the end of their run to try and force young adults and adults into getting into Magic the Gathering instead. They did a lot of shitty stuff, to be honest. Base Set 2 was... um, well it's not a terrible idea these days but just after Fossil had come out making a set that was just Base Set and Jungle was really kind of weird. Definitely a cash grab. Imagine the alternate universe where instead of that we got the Vending series.

39:15 is that the hazy maze cave music?

I used to play pokemon cards with a somewhat gullible friend and I flipped my coins so that they always came up heads so I would destroy him with Geodude

Using Cephalid Snitch as the Magic: the Gathering version of Omanyte was a deep cut.

I think kabutops is probably the worst card in all of base through fossil. 60hp on a stage 2 is just sad and 4 fighting energy just to do 40 damage. at least aerodactyl stops pokemon from evolving which is way more useful.

Love this as always

30:12 they flipped them in the neo sets.

I like Kabutpos.

Is 150$ a good price for a 11 card pack of fossil as of November 2023?

IF rare candy is a thing in the old sets then hitting a mon with the mew attack to de-evolve the mon would hurt the OP a lot

Fossil was the last truly great TCG set imo

I have a Japanese holo gengar and an English holo dragonite. I was happy to see my card collection as a kid is worth a little something 😅

Godzilla and Jurassic Park? Like !

Wait what set will this series end please tell me your going to do aquapolis

I LOVE MUK!!!!!!! THIS IS MY GOAT IN THE TCG GBCGAME!!! Second game is the birds... Zapdos to be accurate

Shroom boys

I'm a rebel so I'll pick the Dome Fossil. 😎

You Switched to MtG, I switched to Yugioh. Funny how that happens. Probably because of the easier to understand rules and the Egyptian theme.

LFG!!!

Praise Helix 🙏

My friend flipped 22 heads in a row with Geodude once. Shit was wild. He killed what ever he was killing but we just let him keep flipping to see how long it could go.

Song list?

Is that Jurassic Park

For the porygon🎉

Why you so Salty man, welcome to youtube

Is... is that an 8 bit cover of "them bones" by Alice in Chairs... I... you....

You can tell people it's your opinion until you're blue in the face. Some people simply want to fight. "You dare not like "X"!? You must die!" It's ridiculous. It's the state of the modern world I think. I love watching other people's opinions. What do you think? What do you like? Why? I find other people's opinions fascinating. That's not meant in a mean way btw. When I say fascinating I mean interesting. I'm pretty sure they're synonyms. Anywho! You do you bro. I look forward to more paraspecter's introspecter.

I can't believe you ranked Seadra so low (INSERT FAKE OUTRAGE HERE). I just can't overlook something like preventing all damage and effects on a heads flip and doung damage regardless. Can be a nightmare, especially if the retreat cost is low. Rapidash is similarly brutal in this way. Enjoyed the video as always!