Gholdengo – Shining Revelry
Date Reviewed: March 27, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
It’s time for the Top 7 Cards of Shining Revelry (A2b)! Though, because I’m me, it’s faking being a Top 10 thanks to three Honorable Mentions. Our first Honorable Mention is…
Gholdengo (A2b 057, 077) is a Stage 1, Metal Type Pokémon that evolves from Gimmighoul. It has 120 HP, (R) Weakness, a Retreat Cost of (C)(C), and the attack “Scintillating Surfing”. For (M)(C)(C), this attack has you flip a coin for each (M) Energy attached to this Pokémon. Each “tails” does… nothing. However, for each “heads” the attack does 50 damage to your opponent’s Active. Gholdengo is available as a ♦♦♦ rare and ★ rare.
As a Stage 1, you’ll have to run another card (Gimmighoul), get that card into play before Gholdengo, and then wait a turn to actually evolve. Since it’s a different Type, I’ll go ahead and run through it here. Gimmighoul (A2b 036) is our only option for Gimmighoul. It’s a Basic, (P) Pokémon with 60 HP, (D) Weakness, (C) Retreat Cost, and the attack “Chest-oflage”. For (C), Chest-oflage lets you flip a coin; “tails” does nothing, but “heads” prevents all damage and effects of attacks done to Gimmighoul during your opponent’s next turn.
Gimmighoul does not make Gholdengo good, but at least it realizes you’re desperately trying to survive to evolve into Gholdengo. Plus, Chest-oflage is just fun to say. There’s no Stage 1 specific or Evolution-specific support. The only Evolution related effect is still the Ability on Aerodactyl ex (A1a 046, 078, 084), which would prevent an Active Gimmighoul from evolving. Being a Basic would be better, but I doubt the equivalent card would be permitted as good of stats and/or effects.
As a (M) Type, Gholdengo gains access to Adaman (A2a 075, 090) and… nothing else. Fortunately, the rest of the card makes it clear that Gholdengo should pair well with Dialga ex (A2 119, 188, 205, 207), and probably some other noteworthy (M) attackers, like Skarmory (A2 111, P-A 039). Which is good, because exploiting (M) Weakness won’t help much. At least it means Abomasnow (2a 021) requires one fewer “heads” to OHKO.
120 HP is solid, enough to survive a medium attack. (R) Weakness isn’t likely to make much of a difference; the commonly played (R) Types either already score a OHKO, or still fall a little short. Gholdengo has a Retreat Cost of (C)(C), neither high enough to be especially bad, nor low enough to be good. Leaf (A1a 068, 082) can still zero it out, as can a double X Speed (P-A 002).
Scintillating Surfing should seem familiar; it’s a slightly weaker version of the “Powerful Bloom” attack found on Celebi ex (A1a 003, 075, 085). While the damage-per-heads is the same, Scintillating Surfing requires three Energy to use and only flips for attached Metal Energies. Celebi ex can risk being built in the Active Position if it must, and attack Turn 3 or 4. Even if you’re able to evolve from Gimmighoul Turn 3 (or four), it won’t have enough Energy to attack with Scintillating Surfing.
Let’s run some numbers. With the minimum three Energy required, you’ll average 75 damage, with a max of 150, minimum of zero, mean (average) and median of 75, but the mode (most common amount) is 50. The minimum will never change, though flipping all “tails” becomes less likely. As for the rest, four (M) Energy means the max is now 200, and the mean, median, and mode becomes 100. Five (M) Energy means a max of 250, with a mean and median of 125, and mode of 100.
It’s not a fantastic return on Energy, unless you flip really well, but it’s reasonably good return. Compared to Celebi ex, the minimum requirement of three Energy does hurt, but only counting (M) Energy is both a “pro” and a “con”. Other than when a Mew ex (A1a 032, 077, 083, 086) is being fed by Dialga ex – a reasonably common occurrence – Mew ex is not going to benefit from copying Scintillating Surfing. Unlike Celebi, who counts any Energy. Sure, you cannot benefit from non-(M) Energy – except to pay (C) costs in the attack – but how likely are you to run Gholdengo in mixed company?
Let me rephrase; how likely are you to run Gholdengo in mixed company that would require setting your Energy Zone to spit out something other than (M) Energy? Which brings us to how I believe Gholdengo would be run; it’s the Celebi ex of (M) decks. Not exactly. It needs twice as many slots (ouch!), has 10 less HP, a (C) higher Retreat Cost and an extra Energy to get going… but it’s a single Prize Pokémon.
I don’t expect Gholdengo to become the new top deck in the metagame. I do expect it to start showing up in some Dialga ex decks. With Adaman and Giant Cape (A2 147), maybe Gholdengo can survive to attack again. If you never ran Celebi ex, there will be times when it whiffs, and whiffs more than once. Two shots from a Metal Energy-laden, single Prize Pokémon is a scary proposition nonetheless.
Rating: 3/5
Yeah, only a three-out-of-five; that’s one of the reasons this is an “Honorable Mention” and not #10 in a Top 10 countdown. I think Gholdengo has real potential, but not so much it will dramatically change the metagame. Being another potential “weapon” for Dialga ex decks is better than not being viable at all, but there’s a crowded field for Gholdengo to compete with.
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