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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Golem - Dragon

Date Reviewed: 12.18.03

Ratings & Reviews below

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst. 3 ... average.
5 is the highest rating.

Heidi Craig	Golem EX Modified 2/5 GolemEX has high hits but it does damage your bench and itself. I am not a big fan of this Pokemon. It hits my bench for 10 damage which may cause me to knock out my lower hit point Pokemon or at least adding damage to them making it easier for my opponent to knock them out. The attack Double edge hits for a 120 damage but deals 50 back to GolemEX. With the lack of healing without discarding energy in this format it would be hard to heal and still be able to use the Double edge attack. Boost energy would help getting Double Edge powered up quickly but it doesn't seem worth it once you take 50 damage to yourself. The retreat is rather high but there are trainers that can work around this. With the right cards this Pokemon can be used but the speed of the deck may be just to slow in comparison to other Pokemon in this format. Magnitude to effectively use this attack a small bench would be a good idea and some healing trainers or the Pokemon ChanseyEx to help remove the damage it does to yourself. Double Edge I would plan on using some boost to make this attack faster and hopefully get off two attacks and be able to get it to the bench and heal. Unlimited 1/5 I wouldn't use this card in this format it is just to weak. If you are a creative person and like to try interesting ideas and don't fear energy removals there are some interesting combos. Crystal Shard makes it a colorless Pokemon along with Sprout Tower or the Unknown that protects against colorless Pokemon, Double Edge would deal little to no damage back to you. No removal Gym would help stop them from taking your energy and using boost and double colorless could aid in powering up Double edge. Magnitude deals 60 damage but hits your bench so get creative here by keeping a low bench or use healing to off set the damage. Draft 2/5 If this is about your only Pokemon in play it can do some decent damage to your opponent with Magnitude without you taking much if any damage at all. Somebody I know did pretty well with this card in draft. Use it carefully in this format with only four prizes it can be risky if you damage your own Pokemon or if it gets knocked.
Thundachu	Golem EX Overview: Another Golem released. Great. For 1 fighting and 2 colorless energy, Magnitude does a solid 60 damage and 10 damage to every benched pokemon, including your own. For 3 energy, I wouldn't want to damage myself. Then for 2 fighting and 3 colorless energy, we get the wonderful attack. You knew one pokemon had to have it: selfdestruct. Does 120 damage then 50 to yourself. This pokemon is all about damaging yourself. Luckily, it has 160HP which will keep it from k0ing itself due to self-destruct for a while. A retreat of 5 is WAY too high for ANYONE, even a stage 2 with 160HP. And being an ex, it has 2 weaknesses; Water and Grass. Bad card pretty much IMO. Unlimited: 2/5 Modified: 1/5 Draft: Damaging yourself, 2 weaknesses and being an ex pokemon. Don't play it if you draft it. sings You can do it Ebayyyy. 1/5
Hedge	Golem ex I’m actually starting to see this card being played, mainly because of the fact that Ampharos ex is the #2 EON deck currently. It uses expedition Golem as back up also. Most common combos: SS Xatu, multiple healing, and Furret/Boost energy. Other than that, not much to say about this card except that the holo-foil on it is ugly looking. T_T Modified: 2/5 – Got some possibility. Needs further test trial though. Unlimited: 0.5/5 – You know my saying for stage two ex’s here lol. Draft: 3/5 – Hard to draft but gg if you get it going. 2 on 2: 2.5/5 – If you use it with Xatu, Xatu works a little better here. Team: 1/5 – Team is a little faster paced, and that’s exactly what Golem doesn’t need; even FASTER opponents.
Bullados	Golem ex Attributes: 160 HP is huge, and is necessary on this guy. It’s an improvement over the standard 120, even over the standard ex of 150, but it doesn’t help much. The weakness is horrible. Both Grass and Water are immensely popular types, and having both as your weakness is just insane. One shot from either type will usually KO you. No resistance, once again. That retreat is insane. I think he’s only the 2nd guy to have a retreat that high. Attack #1: “Magnitude” Good ol Earchquake. IMO, I’d like to see something a little more powerful from an ex type. 60 damage and 10 to all bench doesn’t cut it. Attack #2: “Double-Edge” Terrible. This attack should never have gone onto this guy. 50 to yourself is like sealing your own doom. Altho, the 120 is pretty nice... Ratings: Unlimited: Don’t waste ur time. Scyther still runs rampant through this format, and the guy’s extremely ER prone. Don’t play him, ever. 1/5 Modified: Not much better. Kingdra ex and Swampert will see play (no matter how many people want to claim that Swampert doesn’t work), and Sceptile is already popular and extremely good. Find something else to play with. 1.25/5 Limited: It could be pretty easy to get out. There are 2 Gravelers and 2 Geodudes, which makes them much easier to draft. Also, you never know what the other person is going to get. There isn’t much Grass or Water in Dragons (Crawdaunt and Gyarados are the only ones, I think), so this guy could be pretty decent. He could take 3-4 prizes, just with his first attack. The second attack is more backup than anything else. 4/5 ~Bullados ~~Bull23924@aol.com
Otaku	Bill, is it the attachment or the text in the e-mails that doesn't like to copy right? See my last few CotDs if you don't know what I mean. ----------------------------------- Name: Golem ex Set: Dragons Type: Fighting Stage: 2 (Evolves from Graveler) HP: 160 Weakness: Grass, Water Resistance: None Retreat: CCCCC Attack#1: (FCC) Magnitude [60] Does 10 damage to each Benched Pokémon (both yours and your oppnonent’s). (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.) Attack#2: (FFCCC) Double-edge [120] Golem ex does 50 damage to itself. Name: Graveler Set: Dragons Type: Fighting Stage: 1 (Evolves from Geodude) HP: 80 Weakness: Water Resistance: None Retreat: CCC Attack#1: (C) Grind [10x] Does 10 damage times the amount of Energy attached to Graveler. Attack#2: (FFCC) Big Explosion Does 80 damage to each Active Pokémon (both yours and your opponent’s). Name: Graveler Set: Dragons Type: Fighting Stage: 1 (Evolves from Geodude) HP: 80 Weakness: Water Resistance: None Retreat: CCC Attack#1: (FC) Magnitude [20] Does 10 damage to each Benched Pokémon (both yours and your opponent’s). Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.) Attack#2: (FCC) Rollout [40] Name: Geodude Set: Dragons Type: Fighting Stage: Basic HP: 50 Weakness: Water Resistance: None Retreat: C Attack#1: (C) Light Punch [10] Attack#2: (F) Pebble Throw Choose 1 of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon. This attack does 10 damage to that Pokémon. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon). Name: Geodude Set: Dragons Type: Fighting Stage: Basic HP: 40 Weakness: Water Resistance: None Retreat: C Attack#1: (F) Steady Punch [10+] Flip a coin. If heads, this attack does 10 damage plus 10 more damage. Attributes: Being a “Golem” card could be considered good, as the best [established] Golem (Expedition) is an “iffy” card (and not shown above-again, I only included Dragons cards, and not that sets’ Golem). As such, there aren’t a lot of pre-existing decks to stick it into, but doesn’t have to compete with some “staple” version of itself. As an ex Pokémon, Golem must prove to be at least twice as good as the next best replacement, since it is worth 2 prizes. As a Stage 2 Pokémon, it also has to be better than the next best Basic or Stage 1 Pokémon. Okay, so it’s Fighting: this is good, as Fighting is sorely lacking a good “big guy” deck. Best I’ve seen is one of my own Gojira variants (I’ve mentioned them before-they involve a big hitter, usually that does bench damage too, with several benched Sandstorm Xatu to heal the big guy (or gal, or thing): Aquapolis Nidoking as the main hitter. I have heard of other people using Expedition Golem in such a deck, and I had planned on trying it too. Compared to them, Golem ex has iffy HP: it’s 60% more than the other Golem, meeting my satisfactory ex requirement… but I always thought that Golem should have 120 so… =/ Compared with other Stage 2 Pokémon ex, this is a high, but again, I find most of them to be a little low for my tastes. There’s even a Stage 1 ex with more: Wailord ex. Next we back track to its lower Stages: there are a couple options, but none are really great. No Graveler or Geodude really jump out at me. Using Rare Candy is iffy: the Energy requirements for Golem’s attacks will mean the only advantage will lay in more HP. Okay, now to Weakness. This thing has two! Ouch. It’s a Pokémon that probably should have more HP since it has good HP and a Great DEF in the GB games. It also gets a bad Weakness combo: Grass and Water. What does most Grass TecH in to combat Fire? Yup: Water. You can expect to be harassed by Marril or just hosed by AQ Suicune (which either does 60 and Sleep or 100 damage to you! x_x). Next, it has no Resistance. Somebody needs to find someway to get it through TPC’s head-this is almost always the worst decision you can make. Finally, we come to Retreat: the highest, five! Do your best to never, ever, ever pay this. Abilities: Golem ex’s first attack Magnitude. This attack is pretty good. It does 10 damage to all your Benched Pokémon, and all of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon, which is fair. For (FCC), you do 60 to the active, which is more than fair: (FCC) yields 35, so that’s a bonus of 25. The next attack, Double-edge does 120 for (FFCCC)… oh, and does 50 damage to you. -_- Math time kiddies: if each F is 15 and each C is 10, then how much did we pay for? That’s right, 60! So, after we do 50 to ourselves, we earned a big 10 bonus! =/ Sometimes even when stuff is properly priced, or discounted, it still ends up being over- or under-powered. This is a case of the latter. Now, if these attacks were on a Basic, with good HP, this could be a good Pokémon. As a Stage 1 (similar HP requirement), it’s still nice. For a Stage 2 Pokémon, it is just “okay”. For a Stage 2 Pokémon ex, it’s weak. Think: you are losing 2 Prizes for these! For a net damage bonus of 35, it’s not good at all. Uses/Combinations: Two uses I can think of for this. First, as TecH with a normal Golem, it might not be bad. One could also combo it with Sandstorm Xatu to help make Double-edge less awkward. I suppose one could also combo this with Skyridge Houndoom to make a “No Bench” deck. Otherwise, I fear that the lack of options could prove lethal. Ratings Unlimited: 1.5/5-It could be used in a fun deck. With Chaos Stadium, almost everything has a chance (and don’t forget those Xatu). Modified: 2.5/5-It makes so-so TecH for Expedition Golem/Xatu. Limited: 3/5-Good, but most Pokémon ex are much better in Limited. 2-on-2: 2.5/5-Still Tech, but some Graveler and Golem have better attacks for this format. TMP: 2/5-I don’t like Pokémon ex for this format, with a few exceptions. -Otaku ( nintendotaku@hotmail.com )

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