Goodra – Fusion Strike
Date Reviewed:
December 14, 2021
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 2.50
Expanded: 2.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
Goodra (SW – Fusion Strike 197/264) is a baseline Pokémon: no goodies from being a Pokémon V, but it also means it only gives up one Prize. Goodra is one of the recently returned Dragon type Pokémon. This is useless for exploiting Weakness, as only BW-era Dragon types are [N] Weak. Nothing is [N] Resistant, but exploiting Weakness is more valuable than not having to deal with Resistance. Where the Dragon type might make this up is its type-based support. Standard has Crystal Cave and Stormy Mountains; while not obviously great, there’s potential there. The real nice support can be found in Expanded, where Dragon types enjoy classic cards like Double Dragon Energy.
Goodra is a Stage 2 Pokémon, so it isn’t fast or resource efficient. Still, some Stage 2 Pokémon aren’t just competitive, but among the best decks in the current metagame, so it can be overcome. Goodra has 160 HP; this is decent for a Stage 2. Goodra has no Weakness or Resistance. Lacking a Weakness is great, though heavy hitters will still one-shot Goodra even without it. No Resistance is technically the worst, lack of Resistance is actually the norm and – even if it was present – it’d only be a small benefit. The Retreat Cost of [CCC] is high enough you should pack some alternatives to manually retreating at full cost.
Goodra had one Ability and one attack. “Slimy Room” says it only works while Goodra is your Active Pokémon. While Slimy room functions, when your opponent goes to attach an Energy card from their hand, to one of their Pokémon, your opponent must flip a coin. If “heads”, Slimy Room does nothing more. If “tails”, instead of attaching that Energy card your opponent just discards it from their hand. However, this does not use of their manual Energy attachment for the turn. In other words, if they have another Energy available, they can try to attach it again… and hope they flip “heads”. Slimy Room is nice and disruptive when it works. Either way, Goodra is your Active, so what is its attack like? “Buster Tail” costs [WP] and does 120 damage. That’s actually decent for the Energy.
Goodra evolves from Sliggoo, which evolves from Goomy. There’s actually a good Goomy card, Goomy (SM – Forbidden Light 91/131). While it is just a 40 HP, baseline Basic Dragon type Pokémon with [Y] Weakness, no Resistance, and a Retreat Cost of [C]. Its attack, “Ram” costs [Y] and does 10 damage, which is bad. Its Ability, “Sticky Membrane”, forces your opponent to pay an extra [C] to attack while this Goomy is your Active… and that’s good! There’s a half-decent Sliggoo as well: Sliggoo (SM – Guardians 95/145). It is a Stage 1, baseline Dragon type Pokémon with 70 HP, [Y] Weakness, no Resistance, Retreat Cost [CCC], and two attacks. The second attack, “Tackle” costs [WY] and only does 30 damage. Yeah, another bad one. Its 1st attack, “Division”, costs [C] and lets you search your deck for up to two copies of Sliggoo and then Bench them (no Goomy required). These are only available in Expanded, however. In Standard, you’ve just got Goomy (SW – Fusion Strike 195/264) and Sliggoo (SW – Fusion Strike 195/264); they’re filler.
I don’t know if there are any Goodra-based control decks that are actually winning… but Slimy Room looks like one of those fun decks. Well, when you’re running it. When you’re facing it, not so much. There was some buzz before it released, and good control decks sometimes take time to emerge. So, I’m going to award Goodra and very optimistic three-out-of-five in Standard and in Expanded. Countering Goodra’s Ability is easier in Expanded, but it has more combo options as well. Let me warn you that I am banking on someone far smarter than myself figuring out how to use this card well… and if you ask me tomorrow, I might write this off as mere Johnny-bait.
Ratings
- Standard: 3/5
- Expanded: 3/5
Vince
Goodra from Sword & Shield Fusion Strike has a feature which seems to pump up the player’s adrenaline when it comes to luck-based aspect of that ability. It’s Slimy Room ability states that as long as Goodra is on the Active Spot, whenever your opponent tries to attach an Energy card from their hand, your opponent must flip a coin. If they flip tails, that Energy card gets discarded instead of attaching it to their Pokémon. This failed energy attachment does not use up their manual attachment, meaning your opponent can try to attach another energy card again, and subsequently having to flip a coin again in hopes that it’ll land on heads.
While this ability seems fun when it works, there are several glaring flaws:
-Goodra is a Stage 2, so it must have to wait a turn to evolve Goomy with a Rare Candy. The opponent would have already attached at least an energy or two prior to evolving.
-Since this ability works when Goodra is in the Active Spot, your opponent can use Boss’s Orders or Cross Switchers to move it to the Bench, and not have to worry about flipping a coin at all because the ability failed to work.
-Attaching energy cards from the discard pile and/or their deck doesn’t trigger the ability.
-Your opponent flipped heads and attach energy cards like normal.
-Goodra’s Buster Tail does it no favors, costing a Water energy and a Psychic energy, just to do 120 damage, and it’s 160 HP, which while decent for a Stage 2 without a type weakness, probably won’t last too long on the field.
All these factors keep Goodra from performing well when it comes to disruption. However, there might be a hypothetical deck that could take advantage of Goodra’s ability, probably with other Pokémon and trainer cards to supplement them. It’s even worse for Expanded, in which Pokemon such as Garbodor DRX can render any ability useless as well as many ways to circumvent Goodra’s Slimy Room.
Ratings:
Standard: 2
Expanded: 1
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