What’s popping everyone and welcome to the Pokemon TCG Overview. For this first episode we’re doing it on the Geodude-Golem line since for some reason that’s the first pokemon that came to my mind when I thought of this series. In the vein of many other OG gen pokemon I quite like Geodude experiencing him in the anime, through pogs, cards and using him a few times in game. For some reason I really love killing him with Water Gun in the GBA games and other rock types for that matter so there’s that too even if you think it’s weird. I like its design and overall it just embodies original rock type Pokemon along with Onix being a main Pokemon Brock used appearing early in the game and the anime. It usually is prevalent in most Pokemon games in general and is easily my favourite of the trio. But how has his final form faired in the TCG throughout the years?
Wizards of the Coast Geodude cards (1999-2000)
Well starting from its basic form there’s nothing particular that stands out on Geodude stat wise. The ones from the Wizards of the Coast era have always been weak to grass excluding the one from Expedition while the ones from the ex era were all weak to water and throughout all his prints his attacks usually involve coin flips to even do anything. He has never had any poke-power-body or ability. Being a flagship pokemon of Brock though he has 3 owner’s versions of him to Brock and is one of the few Pokemon to have an alolan form, making the line in Guardians Rising the most different.
OCG-wise there are two versions exclusive there from a vending machine series called Extended Sheet and the Chikorita Side Deck both from the Wizards of the Coast era. The only gen he didn’t have a print so far was gen 5.
When it comes to Graveller he follows through with the similarities with a few notable differences. The wizards of the coast prints are all weak to grass excluding the Expedition version, the ones in the ex era were weak to water and then it seems since then the few ones that got printed have been weak to grass again.
Instead of 3 owner’s versions to Brock though he only gets 2 from Gym Heroes and Gym Challenge but gets 2 vending machine versions from the Extended Sheet exclusive to Japan. The one in Extended Sheet 3 is particularly interesting for its attack Boulder Smash, an attack that has the potential to put up to 2 damage counters on an opponent’s benched Pokemon, an attack concept you normally wouldn’t see on a Pokemon line like this. Probably the best one though (of its time of course) would be the one in Legend Maker, having a 2 retreat cost as opposed to 3 the other ones from that period had, a decent attack for a stage 1 but most importantly having a pokebody and a good one at that Exoskeleton. A pokebody that’s rather famous on being an important aspect on Donphan Prime’s strength.
Owner’s cards of Brock’s Gravelers.
Japanese Vending Machine Promos
So these are the little guys but the most important part is how the last form of the line handles himself in the game, Golem. In a nutshell, Golem has never really been that great in competitive play since he’s one of those Pokemon that are slow to set up with the high energy costs for its attacks and the super large retreat costs don’t help much either. He does have certain things going for it in some of its prints. The original one in Fossil is probably the worst of them all. Simply because the problems he would normally face are amplified even more in this format.
Even ignoring these facts 80 HP was mediocre at best, the first attack could be performed by Machamp which had 20 more HP, 1 less retreat cost and a poke-power that was actually useful instead of Golem’s Selfdestruct attack. He was outclassed by him and probably other fighting types back then. Brock’s Golem is slightly not as bad having a faster attack and 10 more HP but is still bad. Like the pre-evolutions these Golems were weak to grass with Expedition changing things up with a water weakness. While the Expedition Golem seems much better than the previous ones the competitive standards had risen slightly by then and he was still too slow anyway although Rock Body is a good poke-body.
Possibly the 2nd or 1st most valuable Golem card, the one in Skyridge being a secret rare from the crystal Pokemon secret rares this card is certainly valuable but didn’t end up being good. The potential of this card lies in the poke-body giving it the chance to change to 3 more types which can be good as it increases the potential to hit for weakness but the attacks were not good or even too weak for it to matter and the requirement for so many different types of energy made it impossible for a card like this to even try to compete. Possibly the most valuable Golem card is the only Japanese exclusive one from the Unnumbered Series cards that had very few prints and could only be obtained in certain events. Other than that the card is bad stat wise but the art is hilarious in a good way.
The original ex format is probably the one Golem had the biggest chance if he would ever have one since it’s one of those slower formats more focused on setting up rather than attacking quick. ex Dragon was the first set to feature Golem in this era but also gave Golem an ex form. The regular Golem is just alright I’d say. Bar a few exceptions 120 HP was as good as you could get for non ex Pokemon back then and Rock Vengeance has very good damage potential especially for back then with the attack cost it has. Rock Slide if you combine the bench damage does 100 damage for 5 energy which was normal damage for many Pokemon with 5 energy attacks back then. Spread was more crucial back then too, so one can look at this as a decent attack for 5 energy but because it’s so slow and doesn’t put enough pressure to the active Pokemon I’d say it’s not as good as the first attack. Still one of the better Golems for sure.
On the other hand Golem ex from that set is a mixed back. 160 HP was great for an ex back then but the attacks are risky. Magnitude doing 60 for 3 is not that amazing for an ex Pokemon, but it does 10 damage to everyone else on the bench. This can make it a very pressuring attack for your opponent potentially but it also does the same to your guys as well so you’re either going to have to take advantage of that damage to your Pokemon or minimize it somehow for this attack to have better results. Double Edge is not a good attack in most situations in my opinion. Given that it’s an ex attack, costs 5 energy and does too much self damage (50) to Golem, for just 120 base damage is not enough in my opinion. The double weakness doesn’t help either.
Possibly the most well rounded Golem and definitely the best one from the ex sets is the one in Legend Maker. Just like Legend Maker has the best Graveller it also probably has the best Golem. Having the same good 120 HP but also 1 less retreat cost it also has 3 good attacks. Mend not only fixes one of Golem’s biggest issues which is speed by giving him some energy acceleration, it also gives some decent healing for back then. The second attack, not only does it have great damage like Rock Vengeance but it’s also a snipe attack which is handy and also unique for Golem. Costing only 2 energy is fantastic as well. And once you get going Rock Tumble is a very solid attack. 70 for 4 is solid and isn’t affected by resistance which is a nice little effect considering quite a few Pokemon resisted fighting back then. Art is pretty cool too.
Sadly it all goes downhill again in D/P for Golem. He gets 3 cards and without much thought I can say the 2 regular ones were an afterthought. Both the Secret Wonders and Arceus Golems have good HP and a nice Lightning resistance but mediocre to hard to use attacks that cost a lot of energy too. If the format was slower maybe Arceus Golem could have been average but honestly both cards are bad. Surprisingly Bertha’s Golem an SP Pokemon, while it didn’t see huge play it’s actually kind of good. 110 HP for a basic Pokemon is marvellous for D/P, you have no idea. With the Lightning resistance this guy could laugh at Luxray GL Lv.X for days which was the most dangerous Pokemon back then. Thanks to Energy Gain Rage can actually be a handy attack combined with all that HP and even Double Edge can actually be a fast last resort attack with DCE and a Gain. If you know about SP Pokemon you know that by default he has a lot of things going for him already so this is no doubt a good Golem.
The 5th generation had no Golem line and 6th gen only had one in Flashfire that got reprinted in Generations and a new Golem EX. Now a couple of years back when this was released the game was centred around big Pokemon EXs and stage Pokemon were mostly used as support Pokemon if used at all. Even incredible evolution Pokemon were barely cutting it. Today while things are slightly different big Pokemon GX and EX are still pretty relevant. So I think you get the idea. This Golem is actually legal in this format so just how good is he? Well 150 HP is ok, the first attack is crap and Explosion is good against other stage 1 and 2 Pokemon that have 150 HP or less. And this is only if it can block damage with the Pokemon tool card that blocks self damage, Protection Cube. If not then this card is total garbage. A better strategy with this and the Alolan Golem is to use the Flail strategy from Geodude and Shrine of Memories if you really want to use Golem.
The new Golem EX has similarities to the original one from way back and even the one from Flashfire as well. 180 HP is standard, Boulder Crush is a pathetic attack and Megaton Fall can instantly kill a lot of EX and GX Pokemon while making short work out of stage 2 Pokemon as well. The problem is the high energy cost; it won’t be easy to accelerate fighting energies especially without Landorus from Furious Fists. If we put these 3 cards together you can see the obvious power creep too.
And finally the most unique line is of course the alolan one being a group of Lightning Pokemon and weak to fighting instead while having a metal resistance. Alolan Geodude is the first one in the family to have a costless attack a concept we first saw in the D/P tcg era that went away once 5th gen came around. So Alolan Golem could potentially set up faster with the help of Magnezone’s energy acceleration but because you’re involving 2 stage 2 pokemon it has that sort of negation benefit. He is clearly stronger than the one in Flashfire and has the potential to do very heavy damage if you’re lucky with coin flips of face pokemon with low retreat costs.
And that about covers the Golem line! Since he’s such an old and iconic Pokemon Golem had enough chances to have competitive success. Getting owner’s versions, an alolan form, blessed (or cursed) with ex forms as well and even a crystal secret rare card he’s been in a lot of special card types that other Pokemon don’t come even close to. It seems even with all these prints however, the nature of it being a high energy cost Pokemon (most of the time) and the brutality of most formats kept it from seeing much success. Fighting is usually a difficult type to accelerate energy, the high retreat costs are always a pain; most of his prints have similar issues. I would say the original ex format is probably where he can be at its best especially with Legend Maker Golem helping a lot of his problems. Thank you guys for reading and I hope you enjoyed this overview in some form or another. Comment down what type of Pokemon you’d like to see next and maybe I’ll listen. That’s what’s up for today.
Originally written in 2017
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