Okay, I am going to talk to you about the Golem family. Most of you think
right now that, "Oh! He's gonna talk about the bad and stupid points of the 
Golem family." Well, I'm not going to do just that, but I am also going to
talk about the strengths of the Golem family too! Every card has it's
strengths and weaknesses. You should know that if you have at least played
the Pokemon TCG. Even Base Set Gastly! (Well, maybe not... But it's worth it
look at the card. Heck! I'll just do a quick card review of the Base Set
Gastly right now!)

Name: Gastly
Type: Basic Pokemon Card
Color: Psychic
HP: 30 HP
Weakness: none
Resistance: F -30 Retreat: none
Species: Gas
Level: 8
Pokemon #: 92
Attack: [P] Sleeping Gas () Flip coin. If heads, defender is now Asleep.
Attack: [1P] Destiny Bond () Discard 1 Psychic Energy card to use this
attack. If a Pokemon K-O's Gastly on opponent's next turn, K-O that Pokemon.


   The Base Set Gastly only has 30 HP. So what! Digglett has 30 HP and no
one complains about him! Plus Gastly has Fighting resistance! Anyways, on to
his attacks. First, Sleeping gas isn't all that good. You have a 50% chance
of putting the opponent's pokemon to sleep and a 25% chance that it'll stay
asleep. That attack was plain 'ol useless. Next attack please... Destiny
Bond! Aha! Reminds me of James Bond... Oops... Hehe I am getting a little
bit off-track here. Okay, Destiny Bond says that you discard a psychic
energy from Gastly. And if a Pokemon K-O's Gastly on opponent's next turn,
K-O that Pokemon. Pretty useless, unless the pokemon is a charizard and
Gastly is used as a stall.(Who would wanna destroy their Charizard to knock
out a gastly?) I'd rather use  Mewtwo's Barrier. So, Gastly has very little
use... I'd rather use an abra in this case. Lets go on to talk about the
Golem family now.

   Stone barrage for 1 fighting energy and 1 colorless energy is a really
high energy cost for such an attack. If you're unlucky, it may only do 10
damage, or even worse, 0 damage! So, be careful if you try to attack with
Geodude. I once flipped 4 heads on stone barrage, and I knocked out my
opponent's Bulbasaur for the win. Hehe, so Geodude is actually good, is
risky ways. Now, lets talk about Graveler.

   Graveler has only 60 HP, which is pretty low for a stage 1 pokemon. But
his attacks make up for his low Hit Points. His first attack "Harden"
Reduces 30 damage from all attacks that do 30 damage or less to Graveler
next turn. This is can be used as a staller in the beginning of the game.
But, Onix has that same attack. Now, onto the second attack. Rock Throw is
sort of like Hitmonchan's Special Punch. It does the same damage and it has
the same energy cost. 40 damage could take out most basic pokemon. Which
will put an end to Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Pikachu, and so on. Although this
pokemon could use some more HP, he can still do a nice amout of damage. I
wouldn't recommend you to use this card, because of it's weak Hit Points and
many pokemon have resistance to him.

   Ahh. Many turns of raising a weak Geodude and now you have done it! It
has finally evolved into a Golem! Golem's whopping 100 HP make him harder to
destroy. But, a Psychic pokemon like Kadabra could take it down in one shot.
On the other hand, Golem could knock out Kadabra in one shot too! Avalanche
does 60 damage and it is the most likely damage that a stage 2 can do. But,
Selfdestruct really helps this pokemon show off it's power a lot! Just keep
attacking with Avalanche for a while and then when Golem is almost knocked
out, Go out with a "Bang!" and use Selfdestruct to destoy both Golem and the
enemy. Golem is just too powerful, and I have used him many times. I have
had Geodude and Graveler destroyed early sometimes, but I have never had
Golem go without a "Bang!" For I use Selfdestruct to finish off every time.
So, I hope this article will help you think of the good things in these
cards, instead of the bad things.

---Gengar007

P.S. pojo, please post this. This is my first time writing an article for
the pojo.


Send All Comments, Requests, and anything else to Gengar007@hotmail.com


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