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Light Golduck

Neo Destiny Pojo's Average Rating - Standard: 3.35 (based on 6 reviews) Modified: 2.41 (based on 6 reviews) Draft: 2.56 (based on 5 reviews) Reviewed March 15, 2002 Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale 1 being the worst.  3 ... average.   5 is the highest rating.

TwInSeN21	Light Golduck This card is dang good in Standard IMO. 80HP, only ONE Retreat Cost, AND it evolves from Fossil/Promo Psyduck! Let's get one thing straight first. Fossil/Promo Psyduck's attack, Headache, is extremely good! If your opponent doesn't get a Cleffa out, there's no way for them to build up their Pokemon effectively without some sort of draw power. By keep on using Headache over and over again, you're depriving your opponent of Trainers while you can use as many Trainers as you want. Anyways, back to Light Golduck. In Standard, there are a lot of Special Energy cards running around. Be it Darkness Energy, Metal Energy, Double Colorless Energy, Rainbow Energy or Recycle Energy. Heck, many standard decks run NO Basic Energy cards at all! Light Golduck's 1st attack, Flipper Stroke, is not really useful. Plus, it needs Water Energy...=/ Light Golduck's 2nd attack, Core Blast, is THE reason why Light Golduck is good. Remember, you would probably have a Psychic Energy since you have been using Headache. All you need to do now is to attach a DCE and you can use Core Blast. Against a Sneasel with 2 Energy, you'll do 70 damage to it. Against a Steelix with a Metal and DCE, you would do 60 damage. It's all good. Now in Modified, there are less Special Energy cards. Plus, you can't use DCE in Modified. :-( In Draft, the 1st attack could be decent. It's too bad you'll also be helping your opponent though. The 2nd attack would most probably do only 30 damage since Special Energy cards would be so hard to get in Draft. 3 Energies for 30 is average. Although the high HP and low Retreat Cost are really awesome! Basically, Light Golduck is a better card in Standard and Draft. Not recommended for Modified. Standard Rating: 3.9/5 Modified Rating: 2.1/5 Draft Rating: 3.2/5
Lurili	Light Golduck Standard: Whoa! Turn 2 buster! First turn Headache, second turn busted Sneasel. Truly a potential card to try out in Blastoise with some TecH-ed out Rainbow Energies... Never know what hit them ;) Modified: Recently, more Elemental decks have seen play in Modified. This makes Light Golduck obsolete to it’s counterpart Dark Golduck which deals big damage, especially with the bonus Dark Energies. Limited: Usable but not all that. 30 damage flat for 3 Energy is average, and in Limited, not much Special Energy will see play so the attack isn’t as great as in the other formats. If it’s there go for it with caution or to waste a pick if nothing else good is floating. Standard: 3.1/5 Modified: 2.1/5 Limited (Draft): 2.6/5
Random	Interesting card. I see it to have some use in some decks. Core Blast would take out a sneasel without problem. It owns Steelix, Murkrow, Sneasel, pretty much every pokemon that needs special energy. Standard: 4/5 Modified: 2/5 It's not as good with fewer special energy pokemon. (In other words, sneasel.) ~ RaNd0m
Jeremy B.	What can I say its a worthless piece of junk. Flipper Stroke is nice but to waste playing these cards in a deck. Core blast is not worth much I mean it can't even KO a two Dark Sneasel. In modified there are less special Energys round and its water type hit is so low its not worth hitting the fire types. Standard I give it a 1.75/5 Modified I give it a 2/5 Limited I give it a 2/5
Pokepop	Like Light Dragonite, this may be more useful in Standard than in Modified. Golduck's first attack may get you some Energy out of your deck, but it doesn't attach it to anything (like Stoke) and it also gives some to your Opponent (not to mention that they get to use it before you do...). It's his second attack that generates interest. An attack that does bonus damage for every Special Energy card on your opponent.... hmmmmm...... Well, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that every single popular deck in Standard uses Special Energy cards as a mainstay. Now, the question is: Is that damage good enough to overcome it being a Stage 1? Maybe. I think it would be worth trying out as a Spoiler card. Play it with Headache Psyduck and you have a nice combo going. In Modified you, of course, have to worry about Gatr, Fire, and now Dark Golbat and Dark Haunter. None of which really need Special Energy cards. Not a good choice for Modified. Dark Psyduck would be better here. In Draft, it has the nice Hit Points and a Common playable Basic going for it. The attacks aren't all that great, but not too bad. I'd grab it as a 4th pick unless I had something better passing by. Standard: 3.75/5 Modified: 2.75/5 Draft: 3/5
Lord Gothmog	I like this card. OHKO on a loaded Sneasel or Murkrow. It virtually gets past Metal Energy. FHE, DCE, Rainbow, Recycle...It punishes you for playing all of them. Is anyone else seeing a pattern in this set? In standard, Special Energy cards are everywhere. It isn't often I see a deck without them. Energy Removal is a double edged sword with it, considering it would take 3 turns to power it without a DCE. Thus, you will want to play Lass in here, if you don't normally in every deck. Weakness to lightning is kind of a downer, but 80 HP and 1 retreat cost are very reasonable. Just don't pair it with Neo 4 Psyduck. There are better ones to choose from. 3.6/5, it's a little pricy, and the weakness hurts, but the attack is worth it. ...What? First attack? Okay, it's actually not that bad. After all, it's for hosing decks with lots of special energy. So you play more basic energy to benifit from the first attack. Or don't. In modified, Dark/Steel Pokemon aren't showing their faces quite as much, but Recycle Energy, and Full Heal Energy to a lesser extent, are around a lot. Plus, as I am so oft in recognizing, there are no Energy Removal trainer cards in this format, so the higher attack cost is less of a hinderance, as is the weakness. I'll give it a tentative 3.5/5, because no one's broken it yet. In limited, Common/Uncommon evolutions that are playable in constructed are generally jewels in limited. Base Arcanine, Blaine's Rapidash, Brock's Sandslash, and such. But this one being focus around Special Energy cards, which are rare in draft, comes out as being rather blasé. 2.3/5. It's okay if fire is big and electric is low, but otherwise it isn't a great pick.

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