Druddigon – Mythical Islands
Date Reviewed: January 28, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
The fourth best card of Mythical Island is Druddigon (A1a 056)! It’s a (N)1 Type, Basic Pokémon with 100 HP, no Weakness, (C)(C) Retreat Cost, the Ability “Rough Skin”, and the attack “Dragon Claw”. Rough Skin triggers when Druddigon is damaged by an attack from your opponent’s Pokémon, while Druddigon is in the Active position. Dragon Claw requires (R)(W)(C), and does 90 damage. Druddigon is only available at the ♦♦ rarity.
About the Dragon Type… it might be the only true neutral Type in the TCG. There’s no (N) support or Weakness, and there’s no Type-specific counters in Pocket. None of our (N) Pokémon have a Weakness printed on them, either. We have all of four (N) Pokémon in Pocket right now – Dratini (A1 183), Dragonair (A1 184), Dragonite (A1 185, 244), and Druddigon – so that absolutely could change. It certainly did in the full TCG.
Nothing has changed, so being a Basic is still the best, and by quite a margin. No other cards required to hit the field, no waiting to evolve from another Pokémon, a legal Poké Ball target, and a potential opener2. 100 HP is good; takes a full force medium attack (or higher) for the OHKO. Druddigon has the best Weakness: none! I am uncertain how important the (C)(C) Retreat Cost is for Druddigon. Lower would be better and higher would be worse but I don’t know by how much; Druddigon are usually up front until they’re KO’d. Usually.
Rough Skin is great! It gives Druddigon a way to damage your opponent’s Active without needing any Energy attached to itself, or attacking at all. If your opponent only has 10 or 20 HP left, they’ll be KO’d after their attack resolves, but before their turn ends. Even if it doesn’t directly score a Knock Out, Rough Skin can reduce the damage you need for a KO when you do attack that Pokémon. It can cause an opponent to not attack at all, or attack fewer times than they otherwise would have because they don’t want to risk that Pokémon being KO’d due to either of those situations.
Rough Skin won’t always matter. To activate, Rough Skin requires the Pokémon with it:
- Is your Active
- Takes damage
- The damage comes from an attack
- The attack is made by opponent’s Pokémon
If any of those don’t hold true, Rough Skin won’t trigger.
It’s also possible the damage itself won’t matter. This can be because, even with Rough Skin’s damage, the Pokémon that triggered it isn’t getting KO’d any faster. They may not even be KO’d at all; using resources to retreat and/or heal in order to deny your opponent is hardly an advanced strategy, even in Pocket. While that uses up resources, if those resources are available and not needed elsewhere, Rough Skin didn’t matter.
Dragon Claw can usually be forgotten about. 90 damage for three Energy isn’t especially good, but neither is it bad. However, needing two different Energy Types can be brutal in Pocket. If you’re from the full TCG, it may not be obvious. The Energy Zone randomly spits out Energy from all Types you’ve selected for a given deck.3 Even if every other Pokémon in your deck has (C) Energy requirements, your Energy Zone may not spit out (W) and (R) Energy when you need to attach them to Druddigon. It has happened to me multiple times.
Where and how to use Druddigon? Find a deck that needs a body to hide behind and not attack. This frees up the Energy to be attached elsewhere. It also helps if the deck’s strategy doesn’t mind Druddigon getting KO’d, or can spare the resources to retreat Druddigon once its job is complete. Druddigon can also be useful on your Bench. How? Unless your opponent can afford you promoting Druddigon, and their Active into Rough Skin, their copies of Sabrina are useless.
You’ll find Druddigon in at least one version of the following decks over at Pokémon Zone: Greninja, Gyarados ex, Brock, Alakazam, Blastoise ex, and Pidgeot ex variants. I don’t know if they do, but it is possible to run the Greninja and the Pidgeot ex decks with both (R) and (W) Energy selected, so Druddigon can attack. I’ve been testing it myself, but the results were mixed.
Rating: 3.75/5
Druddigon is a really good card. That might not last, but for now Druddigon is one of the best general opening Pokémon. Yes, there are others, and Druddigon won’t always be the best fit for a deck. Imagine if Druddigon’s attack had been easier to use!
1The shorthand for Pokémon/Energy Types uses the first available consonant of the English term for the Type. Darkness already has “D”, Fire has “R” because Fighting has (F), and Grass has “G”, so Dragon had to use “N”.
2While this applies to all Basic Pokémon, it’s worth mentioning because you want to open with Druddigon.
3If you don’t change the settings for a deck, the game itself will automatically select all Energy Types displayed on your cards.
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