Well,
today we look at Golem from Dragons. Since I found five
versions of Golem (including ex) and its lower stages, we’ll
just look at the Dragons group… which I conveniently already
had typed up for the Golem ex review we did not too long
ago. ;)
Name:
Golem
Set:
Dragons
Type:
Fighting
Stage:
2 (Evolves from Graveler)
HP:
120
Weakness:
Water
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
CCCC
Attack#1:
(FCC) Rock Vengeance [20+]
Does
20 damage plus 10 more damage for each damage counter on all of
your Active Pokémon.
Attack#2:
(FFCCC) Rock Slide [60]
Does 20
damage to 2 of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon (1 if there
is only 1). (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for
Benched Pokémon.)
Name:
Golem ex
Set:
Dragons
Type:
Fighting
Stage:
2 (Evolves from Graveler)
HP:
160
Weakness:
Grass, Water
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
CCCCC
Attack#1:
(FCC) Magnitude [60]
Does 10 damage
to each Benched Pokémon (both yours and your
oppnonent’s). (Don’t apply
Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)
Attack#2:
(FFCCC) Double-edge [120]
Golem ex
does 50 damage to itself.
Name:
Graveler
Set:
Dragons
Type:
Fighting
Stage:
1 (Evolves from Geodude)
HP:
80
Weakness:
Water
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
CCC
Attack#1:
(C) Grind [10x]
Does
10 damage times the amount of Energy attached to Graveler.
Attack#2:
(FFCC) Big Explosion
Does 80
damage to each Active Pokémon (both yours and your
opponent’s).
Name:
Graveler
Set:
Dragons
Type:
Fighting
Stage:
1 (Evolves from Geodude)
HP:
80
Weakness:
Water
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
CCC
Attack#1:
(FC) Magnitude [20]
Does 10 damage
to each Benched Pokémon (both yours and your opponent’s).
Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)
Attack#2:
(FCC) Rollout [40]
Name:
Geodude
Set:
Dragons
Type:
Fighting
Stage:
Basic
HP:
50
Weakness:
Water
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Attack#1:
(C) Light Punch [10]
Attack#2:
(F) Pebble Throw
Choose 1
of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon. This attack does
10 damage to that Pokémon.
(Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon).
Name:
Geodude
Set:
Dragons
Type:
Fighting
Stage:
Basic
HP:
40
Weakness:
Water
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Attack#1:
(F) Steady Punch [10+]
Flip a
coin. If heads, this attack does 10 damage plus 10 more
damage.
Attributes:
Being a Golem is a mixed blessing-until recently, the Golems
were a pretty lackluster line. Now, we are starting to see some
worth running. Overall, its probably
for the best-there is one good Golem right now: the Expedition
Version has a decent Poke-Body and attack (but got the low end
for HP-just 100). It’s a Fighting Pokémon-not a lot of
Resistance going around, but a good amount of Weakness. It’s a
Stage 2, which, as always means that it will need to be stronger
than normal to compensate the difficulty or running it (as
compared to a Basic or Stage 1). For lower stages, I suggest
you experiment, as nothing really jumps out at me. I tend to
favor the versions with the highest HP. Rare Candy is a
thought, though as you’ll see later, could be problematic for
multiple reasons. The Weakness to Water is probably better than
most other choices, save perhaps Fighting
(since that’s not heavily played): Rock-Types are weak to
Fighting and Ground. Mind you, Water is fairly accurate
too-Rock/Ground are Water Weak, and Ground is Ice Weak too.
Water isn’t played much either: like Fighting, though, it’s
usually TecHed into many decks. Sadly, no Resistance: as usual,
this just irks me: there are many options, and all are better
than nothing. Retreat is four: worst there is for a non-Pokémon
ex. Don’t pay it unless it’s an emergency-make sure you have
some Switches or Warp Points or something in your deck.
Abilities:
So, here’s one reason why we don’t want to Rare Candy a lot-you
need at least 2 Energy cards (something to provide Fighting and
a Boost) to use the first attack. The first attack is fairly
decent, though I sometimes wonder if Rage-like attacks should be
a bit cheaper. Still, for (FCC), 20+ 10 per damage counter will
do some serious damage after Golem takes a hit or two. The
second attack is tricky to evaluate. Five Energies kinda throws
the normal pricing off. I think its okay-you pay for 60, and
get 20 to two benched Pokémon as well.
Uses/Combinations:
Once again, we have another big hitter with some nice tricks,
so I’d say it’s a Gojira candidate. For those who don’t
regularly read, that means playing Sandstorm Xatu with it for
mass healing. One might also add one or two Golem ex with Retro
Energies-Double Edge once then retro and re-evolve to Golem to
have a strong Rock Vengeance attack ready. Also, it could be
comboed similarly with its
Expedition cousin.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1.5/5-No. Too slow, too energy dependent, and water is easy to
TecH even if it wasn’t so hard to play the thing.
Modified:
3/5-Try it with Expedition Golem and Golem ex and –you guessed
it-Sandstorm Xatu. It’s got the HP and a bench hitting attack…
Limited:
3.75/5- It’s got the HP and a bench hitting attack. ;)
2-on-2:
3.5/5-Notice Rock Vengeance references both actives. ;)
TMP:
3/5-Don’t think you can use both you and your partners Pokémon
for Rock Vengeance the way it’s worded, though either/or may
work. On the bright side, if you opponent tries to gang up on
just this, they’d better KO it before you get a chance to attack
again. ;)
Summary
Could be a
real contender, could be another never-was. If you have it, I
encourage you to try it: we really need some more Fighting decks
in Modified (don’t use it in Unlimited XD ).
-Otaku (nintendotaku@hotmail.com)
