aroramage |
Well hey, Dragonite's back! And
he's an awesome EX again! AND he's Colorless! What're
the chances of all that?
So what exactly is Dragonite-EX's
big appeal today? Well Hyper Beam's alright, being a
4-for-130 that discards an Energy off the opponent's
Active Pokemon. It's funny that it shares a trait with
Raticate, but Raticate's is also much cheaper...and much
weaker. I wouldn't be openly relying on Dragonite-EX's
attack to get you through the day, but it's a pretty
good way of getting rid of your opponent's advantage.
Then there's the Ability, and this
is what a lot of people have been looking forward to
with him: Pull Up. Ignoring the similarities to your
local diaper brand or whatever you wanna call those,
Pull Up is all about recycling resources, and that's
where Dragonite-EX hits the sweet spot. You can only
grab Basic Pokemon from your discard pile, but you get
to add them to your hand, which means they're
immediately available to get played and utilize their
power again.
Think of those come-into-play
Abilities, and you see some appeal behind Dragonite-EX.
But as of now, there aren't a whole
lot of decks that need to recycle back Basic Pokemon.
Volcanion definitely would for either the Basic form or
the EX hybrid, and surely there's a good one or two
other decks that wouldn't mind having access to
something they tossed out without using Karen to put it
back into the deck...oh right, and then there's M
Gardevoir-EX (STS). That's right, you can not only
utilize those Pokemon for their effects, you can power
up Despair Ray and then on your next turn be able to
recycle and re-use them again! In some sense, Dragonite-EX
makes an already big contender even bigger.
And that's probably Dragonite-EX's
biggest strength: supporting the decks that love
grabbing their stuff back.
Rating
Standard: 4/5 (expect to see a few
copies in those M Gardevoir-EX builds for sure, and
maybe in some other Basic-centric strategies)
Expanded: 4/5 (it's where Dragonite-EX
can shine the most!)
Limited: 5/5 (I mean, what's not to
like? grab what you need and plow through!)
Arora Notealus: It's nice to see
Dragonite getting the EX treatment again. It did always
make me wonder if they'd consider giving him a Mega
Evolution, but then I can't really think of what that
design would look like. And I guess it's a little late
to consider him for his Alolan form, huh? One can still
dream, I suppose...
Next Time: And the #1 card...is
actually two cards?
|
Otaku |
The runner up for our Top 10 XY: Evolutions cards
is… Dragonite-EX (XY: Evolutions 72/108,
106/108)! Which means our first place finisher
must be- oh, right, unlike in a pageant setting it could
theoretically be one of several cards. So let’s
get down to business; as a Colorless Type Dragonite-EX
will neither enjoy exploiting Weakness nor have to
suffer Resistance (because we aren’t worried about
Unlimited play). Though not overly abundant there
are pieces of Colorless Type support, and though there
are some Colorless counters as well, they are fewer
and have never seen any real success. Perhaps
the biggest strength for this Type is one technically
not limited to it; as most Colorless Types have [C]
Energy costs, they can work with just about anything.
Still with the Type support that is available and having
multiple cards a bit better at cashing in on the likes
of Double Colorless Energy it can still prove
pretty strong for its own deck “Type” as well.
Being a Pokémon-EX means giving up an extra Prize when
KO’d, dealing with Pokémon-EX counters, and being
excluded from certain card support. It usually
means better stats (typically HP) and effects than on a
non-Pokémon-EX, but it isn’t guaranteed with HP bumps
being as small as +20 while some get saddled with two
poor attacks. What is guaranteed is that if it
isn’t a Mega Evolution, it will be a Basic Pokémon, even
if the “regular” version would be a Basic, Stage 1,
Stage 2, or Restored Pokémon.
In this case, Dragonite-EX cashes in as a Basic
instead of being a Stage 2. This makes it as fast
and space efficient as it can be, allows it to take
advantage of cards like Fighting Fury Belt,
allows it a certain synergy with various game effects,
etc. The bad news is that there are some effective
counters for Basic Pokémon, and (as we’ll see) you
really prefer not opening with Dragonite-EX.
Its 180 HP is the higher of the two typical scores for
Basic Pokémon-EX, and 20 over
Dragonite
(XY: Roaring Skies 52/108), the larger of the two
contemporary Dragonite cards. That would
seem like a paltry bonus but again, the Stage difference
means Dragonite-EX will often be able to survive
a hit. Weakness is one of the times where it will
likely fold, because Weakness is a really unbalanced
game mechanic in the modern TCG; damage multipliers tend
to do that. It is not as dangerous as it could be
- I don’t recall us getting the Lightning Type
equivalent of Mewtwo-EX (BW: Next Destinies
54/99, 98/99; BW: Black Star Promos BW45; BW:
Legendary Treasures 54/113) - but even in Standard
play where there isn’t a standout Lightning Type deck,
you have to be on the lookout for it. Resistance
seems fairly balanced as a mechanic, which is why I
often downplay it. Kind of depressing that “works
like it ought to” comes across as “forgettable” in the
modern TCG, but what it means is that with the 180 HP on
Dragonite-EX, you’ll have a decent shot against
Fighting Type attackers of -20 damage making a
difference. The Retreat Cost of [CCC] is chunky
and will necessitate you pack a few extra cards to
compensate.
Dragonite-EX
goes the more promising Ability-with-attack route.
“Pull Up” is a terrifying name… well it is if you’re a
lifelong fat guy like me who has never managed to do
one. It actually is a helpful Ability that
triggers when you Bench Dragonite-EX from hand,
allowing you to add two Basic Pokémon from your discard
pile to your hand except for Dragonite-EX.
To be clear, the text expressly reads Dragonite-EX,
so that means Dragonite-EX (XY: Furious Fists
74/111, 108/111) is also off limits. Not a huge
limitation though, and as the Basics are going to hand
it means you can reuse coming-into-play effects, use
them as discard fodder, or actually play them again.
It is worded as an optional effect, but not variable;
you choose not to use it and you add zero Pokémon to
hand or you add two to hand. The only way to add a
single Pokémon to hand is if you have just one in your
discard pile when Pull Up triggers. The attack is
“Hyper Beam”, a favorite attack of mine in the video
games because I never was remotely competitive there
and I only got to really enjoy the multiplayer
during Gen I, when it was one of the best Normal Type
moves. Its [CCCC] cost is easier than Type
specific four Energy costs, but by no means easy.
Your reward for doing so is 130 damage plus discarding
an Energy from your opponent’s Active. In an era
where Mega Evolutions and Basic Pokémon-EX (the latter
often with Fighting Fury Belt) are a thing, it
seems like a solid attack. Not quite high enough
to build into OHKO-range for other typical Basic
Pokémon-EX in Standard play, but with Dragonite-EX
having decent bulk its 2HKO capacity and disruptive
element are welcome. Though I will admit, normally
I prefer single Energy attacks to discard an opponent’s
Energy, as if I am investing heavily I prefer the target
not survive the blow. The Ability is the real
star, but Hyper Beam is quality “filler”.
As already mentioned, there is another
Dragonite-EX, so that means they compete for the
same space in decks. Dragonite-EX (XY:
Furious Fists 74/111, 108/111) is also a
Basic Pokémon-EX with 180 HP, Retreat Cost of [CCC], no
Ancient Trait, a -coming-into-play Ability, and an
attack and that’s all they really have in common.
It is legal for Expanded play only. It is a Dragon
Type, so it has a different bit of Type support,
including the most excellent Double Dragon Energy,
Type specific counters no one really uses, and a few
notable members which are not explicit Type support but
that sometimes play nice together. Dragon Weakness
is currently only found on BW-era Dragon Types, and
hitting it hasn’t been a major bonus for some time, but
at least Resistance isn’t an issue either. As an
XY-era Dragon Type it is Fairy Weak, which right now
might be a little more dangerous than Lightning
Weakness: the main Fairy Type deck I think of is Rainbow
Road, and it’s going for a OHKO even before Weakness.
Lack of Resistance is the worst Resistance, but again
it’s a well balanced mechanic so its presence versus
absence doesn’t swing things in a major manner (most of
the time).
“Bust In” triggers when you Bench this Dragonite-EX
from hand; you are allowed to move basic Energy from
your other Pokémon to itself, and if you do then you
promote this Dragonite-EX to your Active slot.
Moving Energy around can enable some very potent combos,
though it hurts that it only works with basic Energy
cards because again, Double Dragon Energy.
The attack is “Jet Sonic” for [GGL] and does 80 damage,
with the option of discarding an Energy from
Dragonite-EX itself to boost the damage by 40. 80
for three is decent, but less so when it’s two
different, basic Energy Types; not crippling by any
stretch, and it is nice that when you do not need
120 you’ve got the option to not discard an
Energy, but this doesn’t play as nicely as I’d like with
the Ability. People tried to make decks around it
competitive, but it was always just a “functional”
archetype; it could beat you if you let it but you
didn’t expect to see it in the top cut (or at least I
don’t remember it being a major “thing”). We gave
it
eighth place
in our Top 10 countdown for XY: Furious Fists and
that is about what it deserved; it didn’t pan out but
based on the available data it certainly had the
potential. Most of the modern (even pre-rotation)
metagame postdated this Dragonite-EX. It
doesn’t help today’s version but it doesn’t really hurt
it, either.
So getting back to Dragonite-EX (XY:
Evolutions 72/108, 106/108), does it have a place in
decks? It is a decent bit of general support and
ought to be functional in many decks, however not
optimal. It does not hurt most decks to
have a big Basic with a decent (though pricey) attack
and an Ability that can get back other attackers,
Shaymin-EX (XY: Roaring Skies 77/108,
106/108), etc. Where we expect it to shine,
however, are decks that need a big Bench.
Like I said, get your Shaymin-EX back into hand
to play it down again; same for Hoopa-EX (XY:
Ancient Origins 36/98, 89/98; XY: Black Star
Promos XY71) to snag some more Pokémon from your
deck. Why would you do that? You could be
running an M Rayquaza-EX (XY: Roaring Skies
76/108, 105/108) or an M Gardevoir-EX (XY:
Steam Siege 79/114, 112/114). Decks that like
to run a particular Basic heavily might also cash in,
such as decks focused on Volcanion (XY: Steam
Siege 25/114; XY: Black Star Promos XY145)
and Volcanion-EX, provided they can spare the
Bench space.
Other decks are more likely to benefit from already
established Pokémon reclamation methods. I believe
the two main considerations are the deck needing to keep
certain Basics in play and if it will still have room
for that resorting to Dragonite-EX. M
Rayquaza-EX decks may already make use of Winona,
making Dragonite-EX a bit easier to snag on the
fly, with Double Colorless Energy, Max Elixir
and/or Mega Turbo, Hoopa-EX, and
Shaymin-EX all feeding into the equation. M
Gardevoir-EX doesn’t have to wait for the opponent
to trash a Sky Field since it discards its own
Bench to fuel its “Despair Ray”; Dragonite-EX
gives you another warm body on the Bench and adds two
you already used up back into hand. Dragonite-EX
might prove to be a “space saver”, as a TecH copy of it
means reusing two existing cards from your deck, instead
of running a spare of each. Like nearly all
coming-into-play Ability blessed Basics, Dragonite-EX
can benefit from judicious Ninja Boy plays, but
unlike them it is plausible you’re building up to attack
with it. So yes, Dragonite-EX has a place
in Standard and Expanded play; it might be even better
in Expanded, where it can combo with Battle
Compressor. In Limited I would consider it a
must run unless you pull a different big Basic
Pokémon-EX and wish to build your deck entirely
around said other pull (a +39 deck). Don’t go that
route with Dragonite-EX as while its attack is
good, I worry it is not fast enough to take four Prizes
before your opponent overwhelms its HP, and of course
the Ability goes totally to waste if you have no other
Basics in your deck.
Ratings
Standard:
3.25/5
Expanded:
3.4/5
Limited:
4.5/5
Summary:
Composite scores again; in terms of general usage
Dragonite-EX isn’t quite a three out of five, but
when you factor in the few decks where it will make an
excellent addition, that gives its score a significant
boost.
Dragonite-EX
claimed third place with 18 voting points, beating out
our
third place
duo of Rattata (XY: Evolutions 66/108) and
Raticate (XY: Evolutions 67/108) by three
points, and only missing a tie for
first place
by one point. No complaints from me as eight of
those points were from my own Top 10, where I gave it
third place. Okay, perhaps one caveat; this is a
card worth making a Top 10 list, but in most sets it
wouldn’t be good enough to claim second place. A
great set? It’d be near the bottom of the list.
An “average” set? I’m guessing somewhere in the
middle, maybe as high as fourth place, but not in the
top three. Within the confines of XY:
Evolutions though, this card was in the running for
first place, even on my own list, so a second place
finish is a just fine.
|
Zach Carmichael |
Ever since watching the first
Pokémon movie back in the ‘90s, Dragonite has always
been a favorite of mine. The jolly, orange giant has
been featured a lot in the TCG and that trend continues
with Evolutions. Thankfully, this Dragonite-EX is
probably the most playable card in the set, though I
suppose that isn’t saying a whole lot given that the
majority of Evolutions are direct reprints of their Base
Set counterparts. What makes me most excited about this
card, though, is that it should give new life to what
was perhaps the most hyped deck before the season
started – Mega Rayquaza-EX.
Dragonite’s “Pull Up” Ability
allows you to basically recover 2 Basic Pokémon from the
discard pile when you play it down. This is a very
strong Ability and helps counter one of the most
annoying Stadiums that is legal, and that is Parallel
City. Initially, the card was used mainly to get rid of
liabilities on your Bench, such as Shaymin-EX. But with
Sky Field being used in a number of decks, Parallel City
is suddenly much more powerful, often times shutting out
decks like Rainbow Road and M Rayquaza-EX in an instant
because they simply cannot recover after going from as
many as 8 benched Pokémon down to 3. The problem isn’t
necessarily not having enough Stadiums in these decks –
they often run 4 Sky Field – it’s that the one-time
effect of discarding down to 3 is just too devastating.
Dragonite-EX circumvents this by
letting you recover Pokémon. In the case of M Rayquaza-EX,
this will let you get back Shaymin-EX and Hoopa-EX,
which will give the deck explosiveness out of nowhere if
timed correctly. Likewise, Rainbow Road decks can use
Dragonite-EX to recover the dual-type Volcanion-EX and
another Basic to add 90 damage to Xernea’s Rainbow Force
attack in a pinch. Its Hyper Beam attack isn’t terrible
either, doing 130 damage for 4 Energy – easily powered
up thanks to Max Elixir and Double Colorless Energy –
and discarding an Energy with no drawback. And because
it’s a Colorless-type, Dragonite-EX should be splashable
in a number of decks.
Besides M Rayquaza-EX decks, it’s
hard to say where Dragonite-EX will provide some use.
Night March decks already have both Buddy-Buddy Rescue
and Puzzle of Time, though being able to recover Night
Marchers or even a Shaymin-EX on the fly thanks to
Battle Compressor could be huge. Other decks don’t
really need to recover Basics and have Super Rod if they
must.
Ratings
Standard: 3.5/5
Expanded: 3/5
Limited: 2.5/5
Summary: Resource management
is often a big factor that distinguishes player skill in
the Pokémon TCG. Dragonite-EX provides a safety net when
it comes to recovering Pokémon in a pinch, and this will
greatly benefit M Rayquaza-EX, Rainbow Road, and future
decks that rely on having lots of Pokémon in play. While
it is unlikely that Dragonite-EX will have its own deck,
I think it is arguably the best card in Evolutions and
will be a popular tech this season.
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