aroramage |
Arguably one of the most hyped
Pokemon from the set, Golisopod-GX definitely has a lot
going for it...well, aside from Forest of Giant Plants,
since that's getting rotated and BANNED.
Golisopod-GX starts with a doozy of
an attack in First Impression. It's a 1-for-30 move that
only increases in damage if Golisopod-GX moved to the
Active slot from the Bench this turn, tacking on an
additional 90 damage if that was the case. That makes it
a great 1-for-120 move under the right circumstances! It
might not be the most practical of big damage moves, but
it can pack a wallop in its own way, and if you are able
to pull off the Ability to switch stuff around freely,
then Golisopod-GX can easily take advantage of it.
Really, having a couple copies of Float Stone around
immediately gives Golisopod-GX easy access to an attack
that can 2HKO most Pokemon on its own!
BUT WAIT, THERE'S STILL TWO OTHER
ATTACKS!!
Armor Press is a 3-for-100 move
that shrugs off 20 damage after Weakness and Resistance,
which means that at least you'll shrug off some damage
on your opponent's turn. You might even barely survive a
Fire attack if your opponent's not careful. But most of
the time, this is a good follow-up to First Impression
if you don't have the resources to switch Golisopod-GX
around. Not to mention that 20 damage prevention could
push a 2HKO into a 3HKO, or keep your opponent from
completely OHKO-ing Golisopod-GX (which unless they're
hitting Weakness isn't an easy task, given he's got 210
HP).
But perhaps the most notable attack
in Golisopod-GX's arsenal is his GX attack, Crossing Cut
GX. For the same cost as Armor Press, you now deal 150
damage and get a free switch with a Benched Pokemon and
Golisopod-GX, not only dealing a LOT of damage
(potentially even KOing an opponent with Choice Band)
but also allowing for a perfect follow-up with First
Impression for another 120 damage on your next turn!
It's a win-win scenario!
Of course there are workarounds to
Golisopod-GX. In order for First Impression to work,
Golisopod-GX has to be on the Bench and THEN become your
Active Pokemon in the same turn - if a Pokemon gets KO'd
and Golisopod-GX comes out to the Active slot then,
First Impression won't deal 120 damage because it'll be
happening during either your opponent's turn (with an
attack) or in-between turns (like with Poison or Burn
damage). There's also the fact that Crossing Cut GX,
while a great GX attack for Golisopod-GX himself, isn't
a great GX attack for anything outside of Golisopod-GX,
thereby making it a good option to have but maybe not
the ideal one. I would say though that Drampa-GX could
make a great partner for Golisopod-GX as not only a big
body to work with Switching around but also as an
alternate attacker in case Golisopod-GX himself has some
damage, being able to remove Special Energy threats or
deal 150 damage on his own if Golisopod-GX has damage on
him!
Just stuff to keep in mind as we
move forward through the Sun/Moon era, since I imagine
Golisopod-GX will probably continue to get better with
time. He may not have the benefit of Forest of Giant
Plants to get out quickly or the power of APCA to reduce
the damage even further, but he still has a lot of
benefits to his attacks and could make a lasting
impression.
Also he's a powerful Bug Pokemon.
When was the last time you heard of a powerful Bug
Pokemon?
Rating
Standard: 4/5 (I think Golisopod-GX
is going to make a strong opening in the game)
Expanded: 4/5 (and while he may not
benefit from the loss of a banned card)
Limited: 5/5 (he still has a LOT
going for him)
Arora Notealus: Admittedly, getting
a Golisopod is difficult. You have to catch a Wimpod to
evolve, and those guys are FREAKING FAST!! You have to
be able to chase one down somehow, battle it, and catch
it! On its own, Wimpod is pretty weak, but upon
evolving, Golisopod becomes a powerful offensive force
with a lot of bulk to back him up! As a BUG!!!
Next Time: Let the flames of your
heart BEAT!!
|
21times |
Golisopod GX’s
(Burning Shadows, 17/147) inception into the game
comes in the Burning Shadows expansion set.
Golisopod
has three attacks.
First
Impression does thirty damage
unless the
attacking
Golisopod came into the Active position
during this turn
in which case it does 120 … for a single energy!
Please note: if your opponent KO’s one of your
Pokemon and you then move
Golisopod into
the Active position, this does not count as moving
your Golisopod
during this turn.
You need to put something else in the active and
then retreat that into
Golisopod. Apparently,
when you move your Pokemon into the Active position
after a Pokemon gets KO’d, this happens either during
the very end of your opponent’s turn or in some quasi
mysterious unassigned time between turns, but it
definitely does not happen during your turn.
Armor Press,
for a Grass and two Colorless energies, does 100 damage
but reduces the amount of your opponent’s attack by
twenty during your opponent’s next turn.
Finally,
Crossing Cut-GX does 150 damage and forces you to
switch your Active Pokemon with a benched one, but I
used that to my advantage by switching into a Pokemon
(usually Tapu Koko
(SM Promo 31)) that could retreat and allow me to use
First Impression
again in the following turn.
Golisopod GX
has had a number of partners during its initial wave of
exploratory testing.
I’ve seen it with
Decidueye GX (Sun
& Moon, 12/149),
Vileplume (Ancient
Origins, 3/98),
Lurantis GX (Sun
& Moon, 15/149), and others.
I chose to pair it with
Zoroark (Breakthrough,
91/162), and I had TREMENDOUS success with this pairing.
I went 24W 9 L – the decklist is posted here:
http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=1267866
I played most of these matches
on the PTCGO ladder which means that many of the decks I
faced used pre-rotation cards that I did not have
available as this list is post-rotation.
I will say that my opponent had the advantage in
only seven of the 33 matches, I had the advantage in
eleven matches, and neither of us had the advantage in
thirteen matches (two matches were not on the ladder).
In games where I had the advantage, I went 10 W 1
L. I was 4 W
3 L when my opponent had the advantage and 8 W 5 L when
neither of us had the advantage.
I played fourteen of the 33 matches against
“meta” decks, going 8 W 6 L in those matches.
The second to last match I
played defined this deck for me.
I played a
Volcanion (Steam Siege, 25/114),
Volcanion EX (Steam
Siege, 107/114),
Turtonator GX
(Guardians Rising, 131/145),
Ho-Oh GX (Burning
Shadows, 21/147) deck and almost beat it.
I had a major misplay in the match where I
grabbed a
Golisopod GX instead of
Tapu Lele GX (Guardians
Rising, 60/145).
Had I grabbed the
Lele I would
have been able to get a
Professor Sycamore
(Steam Siege, 114/114) and given myself seven
additional cards.
Had I not selected the wrong Pokemon, I’m pretty
certain I would have won a match where my opponent had
card rotation and weakness advantage over me.
Rating
Standard: 4.5 out of 5
Conclusion
Golisopod
is a VERY good deck. It will win you a lot of matches.
It’s a little surprising to me, I’m not exactly
sure why because the majority of the time it’s only
hitting for 120, which is on the low end for the meta
right now (and even post rotation).
It’s not the BDIF – I lost the only match I
played against
Gardevoir GX (Burning Shadows, 93/147)
although it does give
Gardy some
trouble because
Golisopod can easily continually attack for just a
single energy. I
never had a problem using
First Impression
for the full 120 damage.
I would highly recommend trying this deck, and I
definitely feel confident in my ranking of
Golisopod GX
as number four overall and the second best Pokemon
coming out of Burning Shadows.
|
Otaku |
Our seventh place
finish is another Pokémon-GX, Golisopod-GX (SM:
Burning Shadows 17/147, 129/147, 148/147). As
we have Golisopod (SM: Guardians Rising
9/145) from just a single set ago and there are only two
versions of Wimpod available - SM: Guardians
Rising 8/145 and SM: Burning Shadows 16/147 -
we’ll just include them as we go through the entire
Evolution line and card family, because a lot is
the same. Golisopod-GX is the only Pokémon-GX:
worth an extra Prize when KO’d, has to deal with
anti-Pokémon-GX effects, enjoys better stats (in this
case, +80 HP), has three effects (one of which is a
GX-attack), and has access to Pokémon-GX support. Note
that when I went to look for effects that exclude
Pokémon-GX, I was only able to find beneficial instances
of it (Lunala-GX and its “Lunar Fall-GX” attack
being unable to affect Basic Pokémon-GX). All of
these Pokémon are Grass-Types, allowing them some nice
benefits like Revitalizer and Lurantis (SM:
Black Star Promos SM25). Thanks to the
Wimpod the line enjoys Forest of Giant Plants
adding extra speed. There are some anti-Grass-Type
effects, but odds are you won’t run into any outside of
Parallel City (usually run for shrinking
Benches). Grass-Types can hit many Water-Types and
a chunk of the Fighting-Types for double damage due to
Weakness, and as we don’t worry about the Unlimited
Format they won’t have to worry about Grass Resistance.
The Grass-Type has some nice Bench-sitters like
Vileplume (XY: Ancient Origins 3/98), and
even other attackers, which may enjoy a synergy bonus
with Golisopod-GX and company.
The Wimpod
are Basic Pokémon, which are the best; fast to the
field, one slot in your deck means one copy of the
Pokémon, natural synergy with various card effects, can
function as your opening Active, and there are even
cards that specifically support Basic Pokémon usage.
The only drawback is from anti-Basic effects. As
we intend to Evolve Wimpod, those won’t apply but
neither will some of those benefits. Stage 1
Pokémon are better than the other non-Basic Stages of
Evolution and even enjoy a few pieces of support that
only apply to their own Stage, like Flareon (XY:
Ancient Origins 13/98), Jolteon (XY:
Ancient Origins 26/98), and Vaporeon (XY:
Ancient Origins 22/98). Each of those Pokémon
have an Ability that allow your Stage 1 Pokémon to count
as their original Type(s) plus the Type of that
Eeveelution. With Forest of Giant Plants,
Golisopod-GX and Golisopod don’t require
an additional turn to Evolve, though you are still
sacrificing deck space for it all. Both Wimpod
have 70 HP; most Evolving Basics have too little
HP (based on what they need), but at least 70 is
on the higher end of what is typical. Plus, at
least while we have Forest of Giant Plants,
you’re rarely going to be stuck with it anyway. Golisopod-GX
has a hearty 210 HP, difficult to OHKO rapidly,
reliably, and repeatedly without exploiting Weakness or
that being your deck’s entire focus (which usually comes
with other drawbacks). This is 80 more than
the 130 enjoyed by the regular Golisopod, with
130 HP still being a solid amount with a decent chance
of surviving a hit, especially when factoring in the
Ability (more on that in a moment).
That Fire Weakness
is scary as Volcanion-EX decks are still
very much a high-level competitive thing, other
competitive decks like Decidueye-GX/Vileplume
or Metagross-GX already giving folks a reason to
try and exploit it. More of an issue for
Golisopod-GX given its improved durability while
less likely to matter for the Wimpod due to their
size and the likelihood you’ll Evolve them immediately,
No Resistance is the worst, but it isn’t a surprise, so
let’s move onto the Retreat Costs. Wimpod (SM:
Guardians Rising 8/145) and Golisopod
have Retreat Costs of [CC]; low enough you can
technically afford them but high enough it’ll usually
cost you too much in the long run, and may actually be
too expensive at times even in the short run. Wimpod
(SM: Burning Shadows 16/147) and Golisopod-GX
have a chunkier Retreat Cost of [CCC], which you’ll
rarely be able to afford and will suffer for it in the
long run if you do manage it, but most decks already run
at least a few cards to help deal with such things, so
it running a few more isn’t a big burden. It also
could make Heavy Ball a legitimate search option
(and based on what I’ve faced, it isn’t just my
Theorymon this time).
Both
Wimpod avoid being pure filler but aren’t
particularly good. Wimpod (SM: Guardians
Rising 8/145) can use “Scamper Away” to shuffle
itself and all cards attached back into your deck (you
lose if you don’t have another Pokémon in play!) or
“Ram” to do 10 damage for [G]. Scamper Away just
barely avoids being pointless because of Expanded-Only
and future support that allow an Evolution to use
attacks from its lower Stages; this might be a
nice option for a heavily damaged Golisopod-GX. Wimpod
(SM: Burning Shadows 16/147) has the Ability
“Wimp Out” that zeroes out its Retreat Cost on your
first turn and the attack “Gnaw” for [GCC], doing 30
damage. Wimp Out is better than nothing… but not
as good as various past Abilities that simply offer a
free Retreat Cost, or free Retreat while the card has no
Energy, or an actual free Retreat Cost, etc. The
one time Wimp Out is better than a natural free Retreat
Cost is when something is artificially raising
Retreat Costs. I haven’t mentioned Ram or Gnaw
because those? Those are pure filler. I’m
not thrilled with it, but SM: Burning Shadows
16/147 seems to be the better Wimpod. Golisopod
was already reviewed
here.
Its “Armor” Ability reduces the damage it takes by 30,
and that often is better than a higher Retreat
Cost; while you have to worry about Abilities being shut
off by cards like Hex Maniac, while it is working
Armor can reduce damage taken over multiple
turns, while HP is only useful for absorbing damage
once. Its “Resolute Claws” are mediocre to
adequate against most Pokémon but brutal when
used against Pokémon-EX and Pokémon-GX. Under
those circumstances, its 80 damage for [GCC] becomes
150, with various common buffs allowing it to OHKO most
Basic Pokémon-EX and Pokémon-GX. I’m still kind of
surprised we haven’t really seen it succeed in
competitive play.
Golisopod-GX
doesn’t have an Ability, which means it has three
attacks. For [G] it can use “First Impression” to
do an “okay” 30 damage but wait, there’s more!
The effect text of the attack states it does an extra
90 damage (meaning 120 total) if the Pokémon using First
Impression went from your Bench to your Active spot
during your turn. Note this means you cannot
gain the bonus by
-
Promoting a Benched Golisopod-GX
during your opponent’s turn, such
as when most attacks would KO your (now
former) Active Pokémon.
-
Promoting a Benched Golisopod-GX
between turns, the time when
Burned and/or Poison can KO something.
-
Promoting a Benched Golisopod-GX
during your previous turn for
any reason, even if it was a self-KO
through Confusion (I doubt anyone needed
to be told this one…).
-
Promoting a Benched Wimpod during
your own turn then Evolving it
while it is Active; Evolving resets most
effects, and that includes Wimpod/Golisopod-GX
“remembering” it moved to the Active
position!
-
Promoting an opponent’s Benched
Golisopod-GX during your turn,
whether yours is attacking or you’re
using something like Zoroark BREAK
and its “Foul Play” to copy First
Impression.
So while you have
to mind the specifics, 120 for one Energy is fabulous! This
is the attack that makes people care about Golisopod-GX,
though the rest helps.
Speaking of the
rest, the second attack is “Armor Press” for [GCC],
which does 100 damage while reducing the damage
Golisopod-GX takes by 20. 100 for three Energy is
decent, and the requirements allow Double Colorless
Energy to shave a turn off of the build time.
Soaking 20 damage isn’t much, but it might matter
given the 210 HP. Don’t focus on this attack, but
you might want to find room for a Double Colorless
Energy to help you use it, even if the deck is
focused on First Impression. The GX-attack
“Crossing Cut-GX” also costs [GCC], so it shares
the same benefits, this allows Golisopod-GX to
swing for 150 damage while Benching itself afterward,
handy for delivering a big hit while denying an opponent
a follow-up KO or setting up for First Impression
(by bringing up something that can survive then easily
retreat). Not a deck focus since it is a
one-and-done thing, but still good as a one-time-trick.
I don’t have to
delve into much Theorymon with Golisopod-GX as
I’ve already encountered it a few times, and it is a
beast. The 210 HP makes it durable and your
opponent may be able to force you to delay 2HKO’s as the
deck constantly tries to switch out its Active
Golisopod-GX to take advantage of First Impression.
Acerola, Max Potion, and Super Scoop
Up are possible combo partners, and I recall seeing
Acerola; the first and last get your Active
Golisopod-GX out of the way so the next one can
attack while ditching damage as well, while Max
Potion only accomplishes the latter. Guzma
has nice synergy, with the card, appropriate given the
video games (if I read things correctly); pick the
desired opposing Active while satisfying the conditions
for First Impression. I don’t recall if I actually
saw Lurantis (SM: Black Star Promos SM25)
used, but it seems tempting as two of it allow a single
Choice Band or Professor Kukui to KO key
numbers; even one would help a little. I did
not notice Golisopod (SM: Guardians Rising
9/145) being used with it, but I still think it is
another tempting option unless you really are
focusing just on First Impression and have no
easy way of fueling Resolute Claws. I am
embarrassed to say, but as I rush to finish this late
review, I also cannot remember what partners (beyond
Tapu Lele-GX) were used in the builds I faced, but
Zoroark (XY: BREAKthrough 91/162) seems
likely for its “Stand In” Ability; combo in a Float
Stone and you can easily trigger the damage bonus of
First Impression over and over again. Vileplume
might be nice to lock down Items instead, especially if
you’re able to shift to the other attacks at least
some of the time. The earlier mentioned
Eeveelutions can improve your chances of hitting even
harder, but if you’re not relying on Abilities then
Garbodor (XY: BREAKpoint 57/122) is
another option.
I think most of the
preceding applies to Expanded as well as Standard, at
least prior to September 1st. After that, the deck
takes a hit losing Forest of Giant Plants but
I think it will endure. Remember, Expanded loses
Forest of Giant Plants as well due to it being
Banned. A strong pull for Limited Format play, but
you’ll be relying more on Armor Press unless you are
fortunate enough to get a good free-retreating Pokémon
or two (and assemble it all in play).
Ratings
Standard:
Pre-Rotation - 4.25/5, Post Rotation - 4/5
Expanded:
Pre-Rotation - 4.25/5, Post Rotation - 4/5
Limited:
4/5
Conclusion
Golisopod-GX
has a single-Energy attack that pretty easily scores a
2HKO and with some effort, can even shoot for a OHKO.
This is on a frame that looks hard to OHKO back, and
with some effort, can prove hard to 2HKO. Its
other two attacks are decent, if not kind-of good.
Get used to seeing this card unless Fire decks
prove too hot for it to handle.
Breakdown
Golisopod-GX
secured seventh place with 21 voting points and
appearances on all five individual lists… but it
also tied with tomorrow’s sixth place finisher.
In the end, broke the tie by rolling three six-sided
dice (3d6) and awarding it to the card that rolled
higher. Golispod-GX only got an “11” while its
competition got a 13. It shouldn’t have been
necessary, though; Golisopod-GX ranked 10th on my
list, mostly because I hadn’t seen it in action.
Yes, that means I had it below Noivern-GX;
even if all other cards remained the same, I’d switch
those two on a rewrite. Which would mean one more
voting point for Golisopod-GX, breaking said tie.
Of course, by the end of this countdown and after
worlds, I wouldn’t be surprised if several of us had at
least one card we wished we’d ranked differently… so the
only point of this bit of rambling is to explain how
close things really were!
|
