Pokémon TCG: Venusaur - Top 10 Best Cards

This article is part of a series of rankings with the 10 best cards of a certain Pokémon in Pokémon TCG, considering their strength, design and history, from the Wizards of the Coast era until now.

I'll start this series with the Kanto starter trio. Today's pick is Venusaur!

10 - Radiant Venusaur (Sword/Shield: Pokémon GO)

This was the first time we had a "shiny" Venusaur, and it had some very efficient features:

Its ability, Sunny Bloom, draws you cards at the end of the turn after you attack, which is rare in Pokémon TCG to this day.

Its attack is also nice. Pollen Hazzard deals 90 base damage, and also gives the enemy Pokémon three special conditions: Burned, Poisoned and Confused. Out of these three, Confused is the best one because it forces your opponent to rely on luck to hit any attacks.

You can easily get the energy cards this Pokémon needs with Rillaboom SHF 13's ability, which gets two basic Grass Energy CRZ 152 from your deck and attaches it to one of your Pokémon, and you'll also have the energy card you can attach each turn, which will be the last one you'll need.

As it is a Radiant Pokémon, it is considered a basic Pokémon, and, therefore, it is easy to get it from your deck with certain Poké-Balls, such as Net Ball LOT 187, which applies to Grass Pokémon, or Quick Ball FST 237, which is useful to look for basic Pokémon specifically, but it forces you to discard a card in your hand.

9 - Venusaur (Sun/Moon: Shining Legends)

This Pokémon plays a support role due to its ability, Jungle Totem, which doubles the value of the basic Grass Energy CRZ 152 that are attached to your Pokémon. It is an excellent way to get energy cards to pay for the attacks of your Grass Pokémon.

8 - Venusaur (Ruby/Sapphire: Crystal Guardians)

Chlorophyll is another excellent ability: all cards that grant your Pokémon colorless energy cards will give them Grass energy cards instead (when they are used to attack).

This ability matches Venusaur's first attack, Green Blast, really well, considering it deals 20 damage for each basic Grass Energy CRZ 152 attached to all your Pokémon.

If this ability was valid in the Expanded format, alongside Venusaur SLG 3, it would make the Grass archetype incredibly powerful.

7 - Venusaur (e-Cards Series: Expedition)

This Pokémon occupies this spot due to its ability, which allows you to attach one extra energy card from your hand to your Pokémon besides the standard energy card you can attach to your Pokémon every round.

This effect is strong and efficient, and, if we consider other formats, imagine this type of ability in Expanded, with a combo that uses Venusaur CG 28 and Venusaur SLG 3's abilities, the ones listed above?

► You'll attach two energy cards to your Pokémon at the same time.

► You'll also double the energy cards you attach with Venusaur SLG 3; for instance, two Grass energy cards will become four energy cards.

► And every colorless energy card spent on attacks will automatically become a Grass energy card because of Venusaur CG 28's ability.

These three Pokémon together would be incredibly strong in Expanded (but that only exists in my imagination... for now.)

6 - Venusaur (Diamond/Pearl: Supreme Victories)

This is another Venusaur that, if it had more HP and dealt more damage, in the current Scalert/Violet era, it would be excellent.

Its ability, Green Aroma, is already excellent because, with it, any of your Pokémon that have any number of Grass Energy CRZ 152 attached can't be affected by any special conditions. A similar effect was replicated for the famous Virizion-EX PLB 9, and also Virizion V PR-SW SWSH295.

Additionally, its attacks are excellent.

Currently, if this Venusaur had at least 190 HP, and if its base damage were adjusted, it would be an excellent Pokémon in Expanded.

5 - Venusaur ex (Ruby/Sapphire: Fire Red & Leaf Green)

This is a fantastic card that was incredibly relevant in Venusaur's history as a whole!

The first reason is that its ability, Energy Trans, is basically a tribute and a reimagined version of the Venusaur from Wizards of the Coast Base Set (Venusaur BS 15). Once per turn, this ability allows you to move a basic Grass Energy CRZ 152 from one of your Pokémon to another.

The second reason is that all its attacks became a reference to its TAG TEAM version, Celebi & Venusaur-GX TEU 1, and even the name of their common attacks are the same, which is extraordinary.

4 - Venusaur & Snivy TAG TEAM-GX (Sun/Moon: Cosmic Eclipse)

Its ability, Shining Vine, allows us to, as soon as we attach a basic Grass Energy CRZ 152 from our hand to this Pokémon, pull a Pokémon from the opponent's bench into the active position, as a sort of built-in "Boss's Orders RCL 154".

Imagine how it would be to combine this ability with:

► Venusaur EX 30's ability, which attaches two energy cards to your Pokémon at the same time.

► Venusaur SLG 3, which doubles your energy cards; so, two Grass energy cards would become four.

With this, you would have already practically set up its attack, Forest Dump, and you would also have the Boss's Orders RCL 154 effect to use against your opponent.

Additionally, its GX attack is excellent:

► For three colorless energy cards (C)(C)(C), you'll deal 50 damage to all enemy Pokémon in play.

► If you add two more energy cards, not only you'll activate this attack's first half, but you'll also heal all your Pokémon.

In Expanded, as there are cards like Life Forest ◇ LOT 180, it would be a perfect combo that constantly heals your Pokémon, which would make it an excellent "tank" deck.

3 - Venusaur VMax (Sword/Shield: Promo)

Its upside is its above-average HP, which guarantees it more durability in the game, even if its first attack does need an expressive amount of Grass energy cards to deal significant damage. As a result, it necessarily needs Venusaur SLG 3 to double your basic Grass energy cards, besides Rillaboom SHF 13 to pull these energy cards directly from your deck and attach them to Pokémon in play.

The other options you have to attach these energy cards are:

► Using Arceus VSTAR PR-SW SWSH307, and its attack, Trinity Nova,

► Using Forretress ex sv2 5's ability, but you'll have to sacrifice this Pokémon in the process, and you'll lose two Prize Cards. To use this in your favor, equip Defiance Band sv1 169 on your Venusaur VMAX PR-SW SWSH102; you'll get an extra 30 damage.

Its second attack, G-Max Bloom, deals significant damage and can also heal Venusaur, but it could be much better.

Like so, the most efficient strategy is, for instance, to use Venusaur V CPA 1 to copy its attack, Pollen Bomb, and to copy the attacks of this Pokémon's previous evolutions to evolve it to its VMax form. The cards that can help us with this strategy are:

► Shining Celebi PR-SM SM79's Time Recall ability.

► Memory Capsule VIV 155.

► Memory Energy LOT 194.

Like this, you'll use Pollen Bomb, make your opponent Asleep and Poisoned at the same time (and they can also miss the coinflip and fail to remove the Asleep status), so you can then use its attack, G-Max Bloom, more safely.

2 - Venusaur ex (Scarlet/Violet: 151)

This is another excellent version that heals your Pokémon with its ability, Tranquil Flower: if it is the active Pokémon, it can heal one of your Pokémon (60 damage).

This has synergy with several types of cards:

1) Life Forest ◇ LOT 180, for instance, which heals 60 damage and removes all special conditions from one of your Grass Pokémon.

2) Radiant Tsareena SIT 16, which helps you by healing 20 damage several times.

3) In the most extreme cases, we have the suggestion to set up the Rillaboom SHF 13 combo, which is:

► Use Max Potion GRI 128a, even if the Pokémon that was healed loses all the energy cards attached to it.

► Recycle these energy cards from the discard pile into your deck with Energy Recycler GRI 123.

► With the energy cards back in your deck, use Rillaboom SHF 13's ability and attach them to your Venusaur ex sv3pt5 3 again.

Its attack, Dangerous Toxwhip, is also interesting because it deals 150 damage and makes the enemy Pokémon Confused and Poisoned, and you also have ways to keep these statuses on that Pokémon, such as:

► Use Sea of Nothingness CIN 99 to force your opponent to keep their "bad statuses" even if they evolve or retreat the Pokémon in question.

► Use Poison boosters, such as, for instance, Radiant Hisuian Sneasler LOR 123.

1 - Celebi & Venusaur TAG TEAM-GX (Sun/Moon: Team Up)

As listed above in Venusaur ex RG 112's part, this Pokémon is the upgraded version of this old Pokémon, but it gives your opponent three Prize Cards if it is knocked out. On the other hand, it is also a basic Pokémon, which means it is easy to look for it in your deck with Net Ball LOT 187, which targets the Grass type, or with Quick Ball FST 237.

You can make up for the cost of its attacks if you use Rillaboom SHF 13, which allows you to set up Celebi & Venusaur-GX TEU 1 quite quickly.

About its GX attack:

► For two Grass energy cards and two colorless energy cards (G)(G)(C)(C), it deals 180 damage, and also heals this Pokémon entirely.

► Furthermore, if you add another Grass energy card (it can be a basic energy card or special energy card) to its standard cost, (G)(G)(C)(C), besides dealing 180 damage and healing this Pokémon in full, you'll recycle all cards in your discard pile back into your deck.

To activate its GX effect, if you only want to use basic Grass energy cards, you can combine Rillaboom SHF 13's ability with Venusaur SLG 3's.

Mega Venusaur-EX (X/Y: Base Set)

Its attack, Crisis Vine, is excellent because of its Paralysis effect.

Its downside is that, as it is a "Mega" Pokémon, by norm, every Pokémon-EX that evolves into its "Mega" form loses a turn, unless the player uses Venusaur Spirit Link EVO 89.

Its upside is that we can copy this attack if we use Mewtwo & Mew-GX UNM 71, but we'll need to add M Venusaur-EX XY 2 to the discard pile and pay this Pokémon's attack cost.

What did you think of this list? Do you agree with it or not? What would you be your top 10 best Venusaur cards? Comment down below!

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!