Gambler, I think. "Normal" Trainer that let you shuffle your hand away. Then you flip a coin. If "heads", draw eight. If "tails" draw one. All about leveraging the risk and for a while was the only shuffle and draw Trainer. I loved it, but I tended to get the result I needed (I'd use it to avoiding decking out sometimes besides using it for draw power). What was crazy was when I'd be trying to draw, shuffle a hand away, then topdeck either exactly what I needed or an Oak. XD
I agree here, looking back on many STS lists, it's not there and I wonder why. It's a nice card to topdeck after being trapped too, 'cause you either get 8 or the card you would have drawn. And there was no way to recover DCE in the early game, so oaking with a hand full of say DCE and Wigglytuff you couldn't play at that time was destructive.
This big boy. Great general counter for many cards in things like Metanite or Infernape.
Best answer to Blissey ever conceived. In the time when Blissey ruled the game, this won me every mirror.
I don't think either of these were ever underrated. Blissey had Holon FF to fight back with. Both were very potent techs though, I remember seeing them discussed a lot.
Never been underrated?
My personal favorite for this topic is Lass from Base Set 1.
People used it in combos but it was just as devastating when you learned how to use it and when was the right time. No combo needed with this card to immediately infuriate your opponent.
No better feeling than to lass and see they had a professor oak and computer search ready to go after your turn.
I don't think it was an underrated card either.
Well, it was a solid card for the Game Boy game, but I think that's because the CPU was never smart enough to S/ER or GoW the right cards. If we just had one decent Grass Energy acceleration card to do with it before the format was being dominated by something obscene, it could have its day in the sun.
Yeh, I've always thought Venusaur had it tough. Looks good, but just can't work efficiently
My personal choice would be a Bulbasaur that could search the deck and attach a grass energy to itself like the Promo Pikachu. There was S/ER to prevent that being broken, it would just make the game more interesting.
My choice for the delta era is:
Arbok. It KOs Metagross even with Metal energy and gives all sorts of delta pokemon that were played at the time trouble. Raichu is KOd even with a metal, as is Exeggutor and you could just put a scramble on it to get the effect. 80 means you can take down any of those stage two exs in two attacks. Do the math on the card, it worked great. They need rare candies, basic, stage 2, three separate energy drops (no scramble/dce for exs) for their e.g. Flygon ex delta, you take it down with a stage 1 and one energy after losing the castform start. I used Arbok to good effect with the other underrate Togetic delta. Togetic can copy spreading attacks, and is such a good scapegoat to activate scramble with due to low HP and very efficent damage output for energy. It does neat things Raichu couldn't, like no discard required and no weakness to Eggs.
My choice for the original base/jungle/fossil: Ponyta. Comes out of nowhere to deal 40 to Scyther, or open with it. As many players would open with a Scyther, it's a fast threat. No use them using swords dance, as you can take it down next turn. Gust out a Scyther with 30 damage at the end to take the game, no use in between those points, but I'm suprised I haven't heard about it anywhere. That or Rocket Machop.