I disagree with some of the points made by JC in his article. First
of all, Dewgong is NOT in a tie with Blastoise. Blastoise is much
better. First I will examine the basic pokemon. I believe Squirtleis
better than Seel. Seel has more HP, but only does 10 damage for 1 water
energy. Squirtle does 10 plus chance of paralysis for 1 water, and has
Withdraw for 1 water and 1 colorless that prevents all damage. Now to
move on to Dewgong and Blastoise. Dewgong has 80 HP to Blastoise's 100.
Blastoise has Rain Dance, his Pokemon Power. This is awesome. Blastoise
can be powered up most times by the first or second turn he is out.
Dewgong needs to wait at least 3 turns to be powered up. Blastoise's
attack, Hydro Pump, does 40 for 3 energy, 50 for 4 energy, and 60 for 5
energy and can Rain Dance most of the energy. Dewgong has two attacks,
Aurora Beam which does 50 damage for 2 water and one colorless energy
and Ice Beam which does 30 and flip a coin for paralysis for 2 water and
2 colorless energy. Both have a three retreat cost. Blastoise is a Stage
2 and Dewgong a Stage 1, but I don't think that matters much. I have
both in my deck, and keep track of the Pokemon I killed. so far
Blastoise has lapped the pack at 36 out of 86. Dewgong has 3.
    The second highest killing Pokemon on my team is Venusaur with 15
kills, which brings me to my next argument. I believe Venusaur is way
better than Vileplume. I'll start with the basic Pokemon, Bulbasaur vs.
Oddish. Oddish has 50 HP and Bulbasaur 40, but Bulbasaur does 20 damage
for 2 leaf energy and takes off a damage counter from himself. Oddish
does 10 damage and flip for paralysis with Stun Spore for 1 leaf energy
and Sprout gets another Oddish for two leaf energy. Advantage Bulbasaur.
Now for the Stage 1 Pokemon, Ivysaur and Gloom. They both have 60 HP.
Ivysaur's attacks are Vine Whip which does 30 for 1 leaf and 2 colorless
and Poisonpowder which does 20 and definitely poisons for 3 leaf energy.
Gloom has Poisonpowder for 1 leaf that just poisons and has Foul Odor
which does 20 and confuses both pokemon for two leaf energy. Advantage
Ivysaur. Now for Venusaur and Vileplume. Both of them have a 2 energy
retreat cost. Venusaur has a lead in the HP area 100 to 80. Also, Energy
Trans is a much better Pokemon Power then Heal. This is because Energy
Trans can rearrange the entire energy make of the game, while Heal has
only a 50/50 chance of removing 1 damage counter. Usually the person
would just reaccumulate that damage next turn. Venusaur's attack,
Solarbeam, does 60 damage for 4 leaf energy. Vileplume's Petal Dance is
40x and you flip three times for 3 leaf energy. You have to be lucky to
get it to do 120 damage. Most of the time, though, you will do 0 or 40
damage. Plus, Vileplume becomes confused after you use it so that is
risky.

These are my opinions, if you have any comments or arguments, e-mail me
at bmwinsor@yahoo.com
                                                                BMW