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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

 Goodra

- Flashfire

Date Reviewed:
July 1, 2014

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Standard: 2.59
Limited: 2.83

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

Back to the main COTD Page

Baby Mario
2010 UK National
Seniors
Champion

Goodra (Flashfire) 

I know a lot of people love the Goodra line from XY (specifically Goomy), but to be honest, I expected a bit more from Generation VI’s pseudo-Legendary. Maybe this is because, unlike past pseudo-Legendaries like Salamence, Tyranitar, and Garchomp, Goodra is not so much hyper-aggressive, but is instead focused a bit more on defence. 

This is certainly reflected in this card, where Goodra is given a more-than-decent 150 HP, plus an Ability (Gooey Regeneration) which allows it to heal 60 damage at the cost of discarding an attached Energy. There’s no restriction on use either, so as long as you can afford the discard, you can heal as much damage as you need to. 

For this kind of Pokémon to work, two things need to happen. First it must be very difficult to OHKO, or the healing just becomes irrelevant. With Muscle Band, Hypnotoxic Laser, and some very powerful Pokémon in the format, this is a real problem for Goodra. Secondly, it must do something worthwhile when it survives, and this is an even bigger problem for Goodra as Heavy Whip only offers moderate amounts of damage (by today’s standards) for a very awkward Energy cost. 

Goodra may be nicely on-theme, but it’s not a very practical card in today’s format. Slow to set up, with a mediocre attack and an Ability that’s difficult to use. 

Rating 

Modified: 1.75 (much too slow)

Limited: 1.75 (still way too clunky)


aroramage

Welcome back, Pokemon fans! It's aroramage here with another card from the new Flashfire set! And this is one of my favorite Gen VI buddies, the great and powerful Goodra! ALL HAIL THE FULLY-EVOLVED GOOMY! 

All kidding aside, Goodra is a fun Pokemon to have around, and while it has some confusing pre-evos, today we're going to look at the TCG makeover that will either make Goodra very playable or very awkward. 

First off, Goodra has a pretty nice attack in Heavy Whip. 80 is a solid number to be hitting in general, and the fact that Goodra has a 50% chance to add an extra 40, while not entirely reliable, is pretty good. Still one of the biggest problems from Stage 2s is that most don't have a reliable source of recovery. Unlike the video games where all you need is one of four moves to get you HP back or just slap a Leftovers or a Shell Bell on it, Pokemon in the TCG usually have to rely on recovery cards like the Pokemon Center Lady or the Potions or else they need stuff like Giant Cape, Hard Stone, or an Ability that reduces damage to survive longer. And even then they don't survive that long! 

That's where Goodra's Ability comes in: Gooey Regeneration: 

"As often as you like during your turn (before your attack), you may discard an Energy attached to this Pokemon. If you do, heal 60 damage from this Pokemon." 

Instantaneous recovery, and a lot of damage recovered. That's almost as good as Pokemon Center Lady minus the Status clause - and you're not playing your Supporter for the turn on Goodra! 2 Energy pretty much heals Goodra to full (though 3 Energy makes sure of that), putting him back in the fight just like that! 

Except for that one attack costing 3-Energy, one each of Water, Fairy, and Colorless. That makes it very difficult to use Goodra's Abiltiy and attack in the same turn without either Blastoise spotting from the Bench or prior set-up with Xerneas (XY). Still, it can be very hard to play against a Blastoise/Goodra deck for those decks that can't OHKO a 150 HP Pokemon (i.e., Black Kyurem-EX/Blastoise, any successful Mega-Charizard-EX deck). Even Mewtwo-EX and Yveltal-EX will need at least 4-5 Energy on them to successfully KO Goodra out right to prevent it from recovering! 

Goodra has a great Ability and a solid attack. You'll have to build a deck around it and be able to deal with stuff like Hypnotoxic Laser, but you'll be able to build a fairly solid deck around it especially when the new Stadium from Rising Fists comes out! 

Rating 

Modified: 3.5/5 (needs some support, but able to dish out solid hits and tank a lot with its Ability) 

Limited: 3/5 (the Ability won't be used much here, but Goodra's still a strong attacker with the right energy) 

Arora Notealus: Look at his face! Look at those eyes! He's just so adorable~ 

Next time: What am I even looking at? Are you a rock or a bunny?


Otaku

As one might expect, my premature return means I have need to promote something; in this case, I am trying to raise funds for something a bit odd; an injured pet.  With some help we can get it the treatment it needs, instead of having to put it down.

 

Today we look at Goodra (XY: Flashfire 74/106).  Evolutions have slowly made a comeback over the last years or so, largely due to changes to the first turn rules as well as the errata of Pokémon Catcher that occurred last November.  Note that those changes weren’t good things in and of themselves, but because of questionable card design they - or something like them - was necessary to better balance the game.  

 

Stats

 

Type

 

Goodra is a Dragon-Type Pokémon.  Right now Dragon-Type support still has access to Altaria (BW: Dragons Exalted 84/124; BW: Boundaries Crossed 152/149; BW Promo BW48) and Gabite (BW: Dragons Exalted 89/124): it would be counterproductive to run Gabite to search out Dragon-Type Pokémon on its own unless we get several more that can replace a significant amount of Trainer and Energy cards, but Altaria has had some success backing up another Stage 2 Dragon-Type Pokemon before, Garchomp (BW: Dragons Exalted 90/124; BW: Plasma Freeze 120/116; BW: Legendary Treasures 96/113).

 

Still the biggest advantage (probably) is hitting BW-era Dragon-Type Pokémon for double damage.  Rayquaza-EX (BW: Dragons Exalted 85/124, 123/124; BW Promo BW47) and Black Kyurem-EX (BW: Plasma Storm 95/135) are still the preferred primary attackers for Inferno Fandango and Deluge decks, respectively, and easily OHKOing them is why Druddigon (XY: Flashfire 70/106) has become popular.  It is also handy for when you do encounter Garchomp decks (which still see some competitive play).  As a small bonus, nothing is naturally Resistant to Dragon-Type attacks.

 

Stage

 

Goodra is a Stage 2 Pokémon, so its going to require a significant investment to set-up; at least three cards* and often more once you factor in the increased need for search to assemble everything in a timely manner, before the Basic Stage risks being KOed.  Evolutions would fair much better if their lower Stages could serve as something more than “placeholders”; while they probably shouldn’t upstage (pardon the pun) the final form, the obvious trick would be for lower Stages to have attacks and Abilities that helped set-up for the final form.  We’ll take a look at where Goodra comes from once we have finished going over it.

 

Hit Points

 

150 HP is good enough to survive one hit from the hypothetical “average” attack; this should not be confused with a guarantee of such a thing as almost every deck has a combo to take down something with more HP than that in a single hit, and there are many decks that can regularly OHKO something this big.  The slight silverlining is that it usually isn’t affordable; outside of exploiting Weakness, most decks won’t easily deliver repeated OHKOs to Pokémon the size of Goodra.

 

Weakness

 

Speaking of Weakness, Goodra sports Fairy-Type Weakness, which is the norm for newer Dragon-Types.  For now, this is an improvement as the only Fairy-Type attackers to see much use are Xerneas (XY 96/146), Xerneas-EX (XY 97/146, 146/146) and perhaps Carbink (XY: Flashfire 68/106) as an easier to search, single Prize but much more fragile alternative to Mewtwo-EX (BW: Next Destinies 54/99, 98/99; BW: Legendary Treasures 54/113; BW Promo BW45).  You’ll notice none of these are easy (or worthwhile) slipping into off-type decks, which is good for Goodra… but we’ve only had Fairy-Type Pokémon for two full sets and some “extras”; we only just got our worthwhile, easily splashed in Dragon-Type attacker

 

Resistance

 

Does not exist on this card; Resistance is far less useful than Weakness, though that isn’t entirely bad as Weakness is very much overpowered in the current format and has been since it shifted back to a universal “x2” back in HeartGold SoulSilver.  It still is usually a nice thing to have, only becoming an issue against cards that gain additional damage or effects when attacking something with Resistance.

 

Retreat Cost

 

Goodra has a Retreat Cost of three; for now this can be a somewhat good thing as it allows Heavy Ball to fetch it from the deck, and there are multiple tricks to reduce or eliminate a high Retreat Cost.  It would take a truly bizarre rotation to even eliminate all of the Retreat Cost reducing options available to this card, because peeking ahead at the attacks, we see it needs a source of Fairy Energy anyway, making it so that you won’t even be going out of your way to make use of Fairy Garden.  Still, once Heavy Ball is gone (and it is almost guaranteed to leave the format with the next rotation), it will be a detriment instead of being neutral or slightly beneficial.

 

Effects

 

Ability

 

Gooey Regeneration allows Goodra to heal itself.  Healing has often been a less-than-successful strategy in the Pokémon TCG; there are indeed some decks that do it well, but you have to have something that is unlikely to be OHKOed and the effort to heal needs to be less than the effort to build a replacement and/or take Prizes more quickly.  Gooey Regeneration provides a built in Super Potion for Goodra… sort of.  The wording is such that you must discard an Energy to use the effect and without it, there is no healing, but Super Potion has seen some limited competitive play largely because it is worded so that you heal and then discard (which means if you have no Energy attached, you just heal).

 

There is more, though I almost missed it; you may use this Ability “As often as you like, during your turn…” which means not only can you effectively has a Super Potion per Energy attached to Goodra, but you potentially have a “better” Max Potion, though this will depend upon how much damage and how much Energy are currently on Goodra.  You gain access to healing without dedicating any extra slots solely to healing cards, though you will be giving up Energy/Energy attachments and of course most decks don’t use a Stage 2 Pokémon as the primary attacker or worry about healing anyway.

The final concern for Goodra will be if it has a worthwhile attack to make it worth keeping alive and Active.

 

Attack

 

Heavy Whip flirts with being a “borderline” attack.  The Energy cost is a bit complex as Dragons are still being saddled with odd Energy combinations.  In this case, the attack requires (WYC); not the most difficult but still requiring some effort.  For this investment, you get 80 points of damage with an additional 40 if you get “heads” on a mandatory coin toss.  This is 10 shy of guaranteeing (before Weakness, Resistance, and effects) a 2HKO of all but Wailord (BW: Dragons Exalted 26/124) and Mega Evolutions before the coin flip, but that 10 points of damage per attack will matter because often enough, you will find yourself attacking twice and getting “tails” each time.  Still, you do have the thread of 2HKOing anything should you get “heads” each time, at least before Weakness/Resistance/Effects.

 

Intra-card Synergy

 

While the elements of Goodra don’t violently clash with each other, there is little to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts.  The HP is high enough the Ability will be of some use, but the attack already requires three Energy so you will be hard pressed to spare even one to activate Gooey Regeneration.  Heavy Whip doesn’t really care about either save that it needs to survive long enough to attack at least twice… which goes for most attackers.  The Type will help the attack a little; Dragon Weakness isn’t the most common, but “heads” will allow OHKOs of all currently released Dragon-Types with self Weakness, even the big Pokémon-EX.  It also may allow Altaria to function as a Bench-sitter to boost damage into OHKO range, and even a single copy would enable guaranteed 2HKO range… before Weakness, Resistance, and effects of course.

 

Related Cards

 

No, I did not forget about the lower Stages. Unfortunately, the only versions I am seeing usual “filler-style”, with one each for Basic and Stage 1.  Goomy (XY: Flashfire 72/106) is a 50 HP Basic Dragon-Type Pokémon sporting the new Fairy Weakness, no Resistance, and a Retreat Cost of two.  Its first attack has a fun name - Gooey - and for (C) heals 10 damage from itself.  For (WY) it can use Tackle for 20 points of damage.  Sliggoo (XY: Flashfire 73/106) has the same Type, Weakness, and lack of Resistance but sports 80 HP and a Retreat Cost of three.  It also has two attacks: for (C) its own version of Gooey heals 30 points of damage, while for (WYC) its unfortunately but aptly named Gentle Slap does a mere 40 points of damage.

 

Being a Dragon-Type and having Fairy Weakness and now Resistance is to them what it is to Goodra, only “less” because these cards have lower HP and damage output.  The 50 HP on Goomy seems like a relic of yesteryear; power creep led to Energy-to-damage and HP inflation, but HP hasn’t kept up. 50 HP is almost indistinguishable from 40 HP and only better than 30 HP because of frequent 30 point Bench hits and the vulnerability to the Hypnotoxic Laser/Virbank City Gym combo first turn being common in the metagame.  The 80 HP of Sliggoo is also quite sad and an easy OHKO, even before Weakness.  Both benefit a little by being legal Level Ball targets, but like Heavy Ball, Level Ball is almost certain to rotate out soon.

 

The two Energy Retreat cost is a minor issue for Goomy; if you’re stuck opening with it you’ll need more than just a “standard” manual Energy attachment to retreat, though tricks like Fairy Garden still work.  In the short term it would have been better if it had the three Energy Retreat Cost of Sliggoo, so that the entire line would be legal Heavy Ball targets.  The real issue is the attacks; they do next to nothing to aid in set-up; the healing is unlikely to matter because both are probable OHKOs, and even if they weren’t they just don’t heal enough damage to be worth an attack.  Their offensive attacks are horribly overpriced, having the same awkward dual Energy-Type requirements as Heavy Whip but doing about half the damage they need to even if they had been all Colorless Energy requirements.

 

You’re stuck with the Goomy, but you do have the option of running less Sliggoo (including none at all) in favor of Rare Candy; just remember that Item lock decks exist, as well as the odd Evolution lock deck using Archeops (BW: Noble Victories 67/101; BW: Dark Explorers 110/108) that might need Evolution Soda plus Sliggoo to still Evolve.

 

Uses and Combinations

 

Modified

 

Goodra is designed to be a deck’s primary attacker and thus a deck needs to be built around it.  I can think of four different deck concepts to put it into, but all have problems.

 

1) You could put it in a Fairy Transfer deck so that Aromatisse (XY 93/146) can easily move Energy on and off of it while an opening Xerneas helps to build up a stock of “spare” basic Fairy Energy cards to discard for Gooey Regeneration.  Rainbow Energy could then meet the lone (W) requirement while still being transferrable.  Slurpuff (XY 95/146) can offer protection against Special Conditions, another aspect important to tanking strategies.  The biggest strike against this notion is that after all is said and done, you might as well choose a better attacker alongside Max Potion to do the same job better; if you’re able to OHKO Pokémon-EX (for example), you likely would only need to heal two to four times.  Perhaps if you just used the Xerneas, the Fairy Garden, and the basic Fairy Energy instead of an actual Fairy Transfer deck?

 

2) The next “making a worse version of an established deck” I’ll get out of the way makes the Fairy Transfer idea look good by comparison: you could insert this into a Blastoise (BW: Boundaries Crossed 31/149; BW: Plasma Storm 137/135; BW: Plasma Blast 16/101), simply running a few easy to search and recycle basic Fairy Energy cards (as the deck already makes extensive use of basic Energy search and reclamation cards).  Given that this would mean running two Stage 2 Pokémon for a clunkier deck and weaker offense in exchange for healing you might not even get a chance to use seems like a fool's bargain.

 

3) I’ve made this suggestion many times before, and its never panned out for a serious, competitive deck, but I’ll make it again; a faux-Plasma build utilizing Team Plasma Badge.  Startling Megaphone/Tool Scrapper, as well as all the disruption this opens the deck up to (counters for Abilities, Items, and Team Plasma) make this even more of a longshot than it used to be, and just like the previous two suggestions you quickly get to the point where another Pokémon would probably benefit more. Still the combination of Deoxys EX (BW: Plasma Freeze 53/116, 11/116) and Umbreon (BW: Plasma Freeze 64/116) can be used in combination to tailor damage output and HP to the current match-up, while Colress Machine and Thundurus EX (BW: Plasma Freeze 38/116, 110/116) help with Energy acceleration/reclamation, as well as the latter being the opener.

 

4) The first “real” deck still seems like a knock-off.  Altaria was mentioned earlier for its capacity to boost the damage of Dragon-Type Pokémon.  In the unlikely event you could get a full four into play, the +80 damage means you’re now a coin flip away from OHKOing almost anything that sees competitive play, while a single copy puts you into reliable 2HKO range, as stated earlier.  Less than four still puts various supporting Pokémon or less common attackers into OHKO range (with or without the flip, depending on the exact circumstances).

 

Instead of or in addition to Altaria, you will probably need Milotic (XY: Flashfire 23/106).  Nothing I have suggested so far locks you into requiring Special Energy, and Milotic plus not having to worry about Enhanced Hammer (or other anti-Special Energy cards) gives you little reason to run anything other than Basic Energy.  Using Energy Grace - the Ability on Milotic - you’ll give up a Prize for some Energy acceleration, but it will be enough to take a Goodra from zero to fully powered.  This also frees up the manual Energy attachment for Gooey Regeneration.

 

Now for the more “general” suggestions, that work for multiple of the above decks, though sometimes just barely.  The big issue with any and all of them is space.

 

1) You might want to include Hard Charm over more commonly used Pokémon Tools like Muscle Band; a little extra damage puts Heavy Whip into reliable 2HKO range but if you’re OHKOed you can’t heal yourself.

2) A benched Victini (BW: Noble Victories 14/101, 98/101; BW: Legendary Treasures 23/113; BW Promo BW32) is tempting to improve the odds of getting “heads” (that one coin flip is worth +40 to damage after all), but I don’t know if any build I’ve suggested has the room.

3) Mr. Mime (BW: Plasma Freeze 47/116) would be nice to protect smaller, Benched Pokémon, but I don’t know if any build I suggested has the room.

4) Virizion-EX would be useful to protect against Special Conditions, provided you’re running Rainbow Energy to trigger its Ability, though I suppose you might still be able to do the trick with a Basic Grass Energy for builds trying to avoid Special Energy entirely.

5) You’ll want an alternate attacker.  No specific suggestions here; everything I thought of had obvious concerns.  Just remember that if you don’t have something without an Ability, the odd Latias-EX (BW: Plasma Freeze 85/116; 112/116) could shut you down.

 

You’ll always have to be wary of decks that can deliver OHKOs as well as those that shut down Abilities.  Odds are my suggestions just won’t cut it, but hopefully they give you an idea of what kinds of combos to be on the look out for if you do want to make use of Goodra in Modified.

 

Limited

 

For Limited play, its all about what you can pull to work with it.  The fact that it is a Stage 2 Pokémon, requires two different Energy Types to attack, and that only one of those Types is well represented this set may force you to ignore it even if you did pull a fleshed out line.  The good news is you might be able to fudge things a bit because it can heal itself and in Limited, you have room for a lot of basic Energy; so much that even if Goodra was the only Pokémon able to make use of Fairy Energy and/or Water Energy, the deck might still work.

 

Ratings

 

Modified: 2.5/5 - This card does some good things, but just not well enough for me to be optimistic about its place in competitive play.

 

Limited: 3.75/5 - Again, assuming you can build a decent deck around it, it will be amazing, but it does require both pulling the entire line itself and preferably enough other Pokémon with overlapping Energy costs.

 

Summary

 

Goodra focuses on healing, a trick that has had some success in the history of Pokémon, but far less than the amount of times it has been attempted and rarely when the target of the healing is the same as the source.  In a format built around OHKOs of Pokémon larger than Goodra, its capacity to heal tank is questionable and it doesn’t quite hit enough damage without support to be a credible threat… unless you’re good at coin flips.  Still, its so close that if you can get a playset easily, it might be worth holding onto in case future support can tip the scales from “not quite” to “just enough”.

 


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