Dragonite ex looked all big and powerful, and had quite a few things going for it, but it was too unreliable to be counted on. It certainly could be a pain with luck and against the many Fighting-type decks out there, no question there, but discards and coin flips got in the way of that potential. It was okay, but kind of disappointing for what it looked like at first glance.
150 HP was outstanding, even for a Stage 2 Pokemon-ex, though a Colorless Weakness did leave it open to Rayquaza ex and, to a lesser extent, Crystal Shard. It had two Resistances though, to the rare Grass and the very common Fighting. Nidoqueen, Medicham ex, and Team Magma’s Groudon would not be very happy about this, though Groudon was normally paired with the dangerous Team Magma’s Zangoose. The Retreat Cost was pretty average at 2, but when using Dragonite ex, you didn’t want to discard any more Energy than was absolutely necessary. Use Switch alongside this.
Dragonite ex had a very good Poke-Power, Call for Power. As often as your like during your turn, you could move an Energy card attached to 1 of your Pokemon to Dragonite ex. This had the potential to fuel Dragonite ex’s Dragon Wave for a while under perfect conditions, but those conditions were rare in practice. You were likely to run out of the right kind of Energy at a bad point since you were relying on two types that couldn’t cycle from the discard pile like Fire could. That was the big thing that set Rayquaza ex apart from Dragonite ex: having that constant stream of reliable Energy.
Dragonite ex’s best attack was probably Dragon Wave. It did an absurd 70 damage for just 1 Water and 1 Lightning Energy. Pairing this with Swampert could be nice for the extra Water Energy attachment, and Dragonite ex could indeed work nicely early-game if things set up really well, but it had problems actually getting all the right cards in actual play. Unlike Rayquaza ex, which needed one Lightning Energy before relying on a stream of Fire to work, Dragonite ex had to discard one of each type. I’m sure this attack would have made Dragonite ex a top tier choice if Holon’s Castform was available, but Dragonite ex rotated out before it could take advantage of that sort of card.
If discarding Energy wasn’t for you, you could try for coin flips with Dragon Tail. For 4 Colorless Energy, it did an absurd 120 damage, but of course there was a catch. If the coin flip was tails, the attack did nothing. 120 was incredible, but nothing? Not on a Pokemon-ex.
Dragonite ex could deal good damage, but more often than not it just fell flat. If looking for a good dragon, try out Rayquaza ex or Dark Dragonite, since those do far more than Dragonite ex in the long run. I know it’s tempting, but steer clear of Dragonite ex. It’ll cause more losses than you’d think from the raw stats.
Golem was another in a long line of Fighting-types, a strong type that was quite hard to stand out in. After all, cards such as Swampert ex, Team Magma’s Groudon, Medicham ex, and Nidoqueen were all fantastic. Golem came at least one set before all of these Pokemon, but even at that point, Golem wasn’t exactly great.
Golem did have a big positive in its 120 HP, the highest possible on a Pokemon that wasn’t an ex at the time. The Water Weakness could be used by Suicune ex to get a Prize, but it wasn’t the worst Weakness to have otherwise. The Retreat Cost, on the other hand, was atrocious. 4 Energy was just way too much to pay to Retreat normally, so if you wanted to move Golem around at all, Trainer cards to that effect were absolutely required.
Rock Vengeance, Golem’s first attack, could have some use. It had a very weak base of 20 damage for 1 Fighting and 2 Colorless Energy, but for each damage counter attached to it, there was 10 damage added on. Most decks would not take Golem down in one hit, so it was likely to get a big shot in before going down itself. That let Golem get some 1-for-1 trades in quite a few cases.
Rock Slide was extremely expensive at 2 Fighting and 3 Colorless Energy, but it could be used with Boost Energy to power that up for 1 turn. The attack, once paid for, was decently strong. 60 damage plus 20 to 2 of the opponent’s Benched Pokemon was nothing to take lightly, though 5 Energy took quite a while to get going consistently.
Golem was pretty slow and clunky, but wasn’t bad at all once set up. It was going to get a couple of attacks off, and typically made for matches that were quite close in Prizes to the end. Sadly, Golem decks typically could not finish things off as well as many of the top decks and required more resources to reach its peak, leaving Golem was a slightly above average card. It could be used, and was definitely one of the better Fighting-types in the short time before the best Pokemon of the type were released, but there were typically better things to be used elsewhere.
For those only used to the newer run of Pokemon-EX, your eyes do not deceive you. This is absolutely a Stage 1 ex, something that was actually very common back when Gen 3 was the current generation of games. Aerodactyl ex had to evolve from the awful Mysterious Fossil, which made it much harder to get out than most Pokemon, but it was actually quite solid once it was out there. It was one of those Pokemon that was better on paper than in practice, as its lock did little in the formats it was legal in, but there was a bit of a use for a different reason.
100 HP was about the worst a Pokemon ex could be at. It meant that the relatively common Desert Ruins would pick off 10 HP between turns, leaving Aerodactyl ex as a quite frail choice for something that gave up 2 Prizes. Pairing this with a counter-Stadium was ideal. The Lightning Weakness wasn’t too bad, as Zapdos ex was the most likely attacker to take advantage of it. That card wasn’t too common, luckily. The Fighting Resistance was really nice, as many top decks, including ones based off of Medicham ex, Team Magma’s Groudon, and Nidoqueen, used attackers of the type. The retreat cost was quite low at just 1, so getting back to the Bench was not a big problem.
Aerodactyl ex had an interesting Poke-Body called Primal Lock. It prevented the opponent from using any Pokemon Tool cards, and any attached to the opponent’s Pokemon when Aerodactyl ex came into play were discarded. Sadly, the format was not one to use many Pokemon Tools, with only the occasional Strength Charm or Crystal Shard to make note of, so most decks didn’t really care.
Supersonic did just 10 damage for a single Colorless Energy along with Confusing the other Pokemon. Confusion basically just made the opponent switch during the next turn, and most decks were quite prepared for it, so this wasn’t a great attack.
Wing Attack, however, was quite solid. It did 60 damage for 3 Colorless Energy. As Aerodactyl was Colorless, it could make for a nice choice in many types of decks to hit Dark Dragonite, Salamence, and Flygon. A quick Boost Energy could take out a very dangerous threat, meaning that Aerodactyl had a niche; though as an offensive Pokemon instead of a defensive one.
For players wanting solid counter-play to the popular Dark Dragonite/Dark Electrode decks, Aerodactyl ex was a solid option. As Dark Electrode wasn’t much of an attacker, there was less worry there, and a quick KO on something dangerous like Dark Dragonite could make a big difference. Outside of that, Aerodactyl ex wasn’t too useful, so most players could do without it.
