Psyduck – Genetic Apex
Date Reviewed: April 30, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
Note: Celestial Guardians (A3) released in its entirety before this review. I will attempt to guess at how this will affect the metagame. If you do not want Spoilers, you’ll need to come back and read after you’ve seen enough of the set yourself.
Psyduck (A1 057) is a Water-Type, Basic Pokémon. It has 60 HP, (L) Weakness, (C) Retreat Cost, and the attack “Headache”. For (C), Headache lets Psyduck do 10 damage to the opponent’s Active and prevents your opponent from using Supporters during their next turn. Psyduck is only available at the ♦ Rarity.
This is a card where I need to (mostly) review it in reverse. Headache is perfectly splashable, and affordable as well. One of any Energy will suffice. Headache is used for its effect, locking your opponent out of their Supporters for a turn. This potentially can slow or even halt your opponent’s setup, and/or deny them many popular power plays. Headache does a token 10 damage; far better than nothing, as this can still take advantage of Weakness or damage boosting effects.
The Retreat Cost of (C) is low an easy to pay; if you can afford to attack with Psyduck, you can move it to your Bench. (L) Weakness still needs to be considered alongside Psyduck’s HP. At 60 HP, Psyduck is lucky to survive even one turn once your opponent’s deck gets going. Early game, or if you’re sufficiently slowing down your opponent’s setup, it might last two or three turns… but not against (L) decks. Two turns tops, and hope Togedemaru (A3 067) donks1 don’t become a trend.
Psyduck is a Basic Pokémon, and that’s still the best. No waiting to evolve into Psyduck, and while it can evolve into Golduck, that’s optional. Celestic Town Elder (A2a 073, 088), Combee (A2 017, 157), Fishing Net (A3 143) Poké Ball (P-A 005; A2b 111) and Shaymin (A2a 069, 081) all support Basics, though Poké Ball is the only one likely to matter. Araquanid (A3 053), Pokémon Flute (A1a 064), and Victreebel (A1 020) all have anti-Basic effects, but these too don’t matter2.
While almost all (R) Pokémon are (W) Weak, almost all of them haven’t been competitive since Shining Revelry dropped. It is entirely possible this is about to change, though, with some of the Fire-Types (and their support) in Celestial Guardians… and Psyduck does 10 damage. Existing (W) support3 gained new additions4 in Celestial Guardians but… none of it really helps Psyduck. It doesn’t need the Energy acceleration itself, and its a little small to make use of healing. Anti (W) effects5, like anti-Basic effects, probably aren’t going to see a lot of play, even after Celestial Guardians.
There are no other Psyduck cards you can play. There is Golduck (A1 058), a Stage 1 (W) Type Pokémon with 90 HP, (L) Weakness, (C) Retreat Cost, and the attack “Aqua Edge”. For (W)(W), this attack lets Golduck hit the opponent’s Active for 70 damage. I have fond memories of this, because when I was just starting, it was a decent attacker. Not for long; even before we received any expansions, it was just about obtaining the many superior options.
No, the closest Psyduck gets to being competitive is alongside the other anti-Supporter cards, Gengar (A1 122; A3 222) and Gengar ex (A1 123, 261, 277; A3 234). Gengar also has a single Energy attack that prevents your opponent from using a Supporter during their next turn, though it costs (P) and does 50 damage. Gengar ex has an Ability that, while Gengar ex is your Active, prevents your opponent from using Supporters.
So yeah, this was the deck people tried. Please note that the build they show is a modern attempt that I didn’t even realize anyone had tried. The original often (but not always) used Psyduck, hoping to open with it and go second. Your opponent would have one turn of Supporter use, you’d attach to Psyduck and – once you didn’t need to do anything else that turn – attack. Hopefully, Psyduck survived while tried to evolve a Gastly unto a Haunter into Gengar or Gengar ex.
There’s a tiny chance Rare Candy helps this deck. The big problem is, Gengar and Psyduck still have low damage output, so even if you can Rare Candy into Gengar on Turn 3 or 5, your opponent has a good chance of building their side of the field, through their non-Supporter plays and actions. Gengar ex hits just hard enough to likely outpace this… but it needs (P)(P)(P) to attack, doing 100 damage. That takes time to build.
Rating: 2/5
Yes, there are solutions to all these problems but there’s only so much deck space available. Which is why, every set, I hope we get a better Golduck, other useful Basics or Stage 1s that compliment Psyduck, better Trainers to work with the lock, etc. Psyduck is not great, but it’s good… oh, and while I said it didn’t need Misty, it is wonderfully horrible when a Psyduck player does use it, gets an Energy Turn 1, and locks you out of Supporters the entire game.
Lastly, I must inform you that I’ll be taking a break from Card of the Days for roughly two weeks. It could be a little shorter, or a little longer, but multiple real-world things have arisen, requiring I do so. Seriously, you all know me: I want to go on and on about the new set and how I think it’ll affect the metagame. At least this way, when I do get to them, it’ll be with hindsight. Maybe I won’t be quite as far off with my predictions… but I wouldn’t bet money on it.
1Probably paranoia on my part, but Togedemaru but for (L), Togedemaru attacks for an attack that does 20 damage, or 50 if you get “heads” on the coin toss. If a (L) deck can justify also running Sophocles (A3 153, 195), and uses it Turn 2, that’s a guaranteed donk of a 50 HP Active, and 50% of one with 80 HP. If they’re (L) Weak, it’s a 70/100 split. Psyduck has to pray for no Sophocles and no “tails”.
2Araquanid has an attack that does 60 damage, plus another 60 against Basics. So, even if it proves competitive, it already has the OHKO. It is possible Rare Candy (A3 144) and new (G) support could revive Victreebel, but probably not. Likewise, I don’t expect Pokémon Flute to suddenly “git gud”.
3Irida (A2a 072, 87), Manaphy (A2 050, 162; P-A 048), Misty (A1 220, 267) and Vaporeon (A1a 019, 072).
4Fishing Net is also (W) support, as it adds a random Water-Type, Basic Pokémon from your discard pile to your hand. Primarina (A3 048) is more healing Psyduck will rarely live long enough to utilize.
5Piloswine (A2 032) and Mamoswine (A2 033, 160) are still it for anti-(W) effects. Rare Candy could potentially help Mamoswine, but this is another Stage 1 I don’t expect Rare Candy to suddenly make “good”.
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