Hello Huxmonchan. Sounds like you've been out of the game quite some time. Well I've got some good news and some bad news: Pokemon has changed.
Right now the game is at an interesting point: a lot of rules tweaking done over the years was undone in the interest of making the game more "user friendly" to newer players. I am curious as to exactly when you bowed out of playing: your comments about enjoying Base Set
Dragonair lead me to believe it was probably pretty early in the game's life cycle.
I'd love for you to let us know how much you've learned since coming back. In many ways, this current format is a combination of two older ones, just with higher HP scores and higher damage output.
I have to agree with Psychup2034: traditional Haymaker Pokemon just wouldn't cut it in this format. To give you an idea, here are four Pokemon that update three classics that were dominant when released in the Base Set.
Base Set Hitmonchan's update:
Sawk
I know of no competitive decks that use
Sawk, even though he is literally just
Hitmonchan with 20
more HP and a
less expensive second attack! We even have a format where Fighting Weakness is a pretty common sight.
Base Set Blastoise's update
HeartGold/SoulSilver Feraligator
This card has struggled to get a competitive deck going. Its HP is just 10 under the modern maximum for Stage 2 Pokemon, and it has an attack that is better than
Blastoise's as well (though it requires one more Energy to use). It even has a better Weakness (Grass Pokemon aren't doing so well right now, but Lightning Types are quite potent).
Base Set Blastoise's other successor
Black & White Emboar
Even with
Emboar being pretty popular, Rain Dance decks have struggled. It doesn't hurt that
Emboar can attach just as much
Fire Energy as
Feraligatr can
Water Energy, but
Emboar has 10 more HP, a reasonable attack,
and can attach Fire Energy to any Type of Pokemon!
Base Set Electabuzz's superior successor
Black & White Zekrom
Zekrom has 130 HP, the maximum for a Basic Pokemon right now. This format has both :lightning: Type Energy acceleration and
Double Colorless Energy, so not only can you hit with Outrage (20 +10 per damage counter on
Zekrom) first turn, but Bolt Strike can be used
the very first turn of the game with the right combo. Bolt Strike does hit
Zekrom for 40 points of damage (instead of just 10 on a bad coin toss), but it also hits the Defending Pokemon for 120 points of damage. I am biased since I get to write for the site, but Pojo rated
Zekrom the second best card released in 2011.
Zekrom has been a major part of this format.
So in short, your Haymaker Pokemon wouldn't do so hot. The main strength of a classic deck like Haymaker against a modern one is all in the
Trainers, which would present quite a challenge to the average deck in this format which isn't used to
Energy Removal and
Super Energy Removal. Still, even with those a lot of decks would still have the advantage.