Hi there. In this Pokemon trading card game post, I cover the card Gholdengo ex.
I write this in February 2024 where the recent set is Paldean Fates for international. In Japan the latest sets that were released are Wild Force and Cyber Judge. Temporal Forces is not released for international yet. Japan is playing in the new standard format (F, G and H) post-rotation while the international standard format is still (E, F, G) until early April 2024.
Contents
- Gholdengo ex Card
- Pros & Cons
- Palkia with Gholdengo ex Deck Version
- Scizor with Gholdengo ex Deck Version
- Other Notes
Gholdengo ex Card
Gholdengo ex was released early in Japan as part of the Raging Surf expansion. Internationally, this card was released in November as a part of the Paradox Rift expansion set. Image from here.
It is a stage 1 Pokemon that evolves from Gimmighoul. The ability is quite nice. Once during your turn, you can draw 1 card. If it is in the active spot, you can draw another card (so 2 cards total). Having 4 Gholdengo ex in play can allow you draw up to 5 cards per turn!! (Three on bench with 4 in active spot). There is also a play where you can draw up to 6 cards per turn with all 4 Gholdengo ex in play and a card like Switch.
The attack Make It Rain costs 1 Metal Energy. The damage is dependent on the number of Basic Energy cards you discard from the hand. Make It Rain does 50 damage for each Basic energy discarded in this way. The attacker chooses how much damage to deal with based on the number of basic energy cards being discarded. There is no limit to the damage amount but usually the highest damage you can deal with is 350. Doing 350 damage knocks out Charizard ex, Gardevoir ex or Mew VMAX in one shot provided there are 7 Basic energies to discard.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Drawing cards is always nice to have. More cards in hand generally leads to more options. In addition, drawing more cards leads to having more energies in hand to deal with large knockouts. The basic energies can be added to the hand from Gholdengo ex's draw ability and/or from cards like Superior Energy Retrieval.
Gholdengo ex has major one hit knockout potential. Being able to one hit almost anything does bring an element of fear to opponents even if they don't know what is in your hand.
The draw ability helps replenish cards in the hand after the opponent's usage of Iono, Judge or Roxanne from the previous turn.
Not many Fire pokemon are popular at time of writing. You do have to be careful of a few Entei Vs and Radiant Charizard.
Cons
In the E regulation format, Path To The Peak shuts down abilities of Rule box Pokemon including Gholdengo ex.
Retreat cost of two is somewhat high.
Two hundred sixty HP may be low against Giratina VSTAR that can attack for 280 damage or do a one hit KO. Charizard ex can do 270 damage (180 + 30 x 3) if you take 3 prize cards.
There are times where you do not have enough energy in hand for a knockout. Plus it is likely not efficient to use Gholdengo ex's attack on single prize Pokemon. It is better to use Gholdengo ex for large one hit knockouts.
Palkia with Gholdengo ex Deck Version
A very popular version of the Gholdengo ex deck is with Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR. The dual type does look weird at first but it does work well together.
Gholdengo ex does need some time in the early game to setup multiple Gholdengo exs. In addition Gholdengo ex is not great against single prized Pokemon as you are likely to run out of Basic energies even with the Superior Energy Retrievals.
Having Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR as an alternate attacker is great for the early game as you set up the Gholdengo ex for giant two prize knockouts later in the game. Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR has the Star Portal VSTAR ability that allows the player to attach up to 3 water energy from the discard pile to your Water Pokemon. This ability can be used with Radiant Greninja to bench snipe opponent's weak Pokemon with the Moonlight Shuriken attack(if they don't have Manaphy in play).
The most successful Gholdengo ex deck list has Palkia VSTAR. It came in second in the Dortmund Regional TCG tournament in early Frbruary 2024.
Pokémon (13)
- 3 Gimmighoul PAR 88
- 1 Gimmighoul PAR 87
- 4 Gholdengo ex PAR 139
- 1 Origin Forme Palkia V ASR 39
- 1 Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR ASR 40
- 1 Radiant Greninja ASR 46
- 1 Manaphy BRS 41
- 1 Spiritomb PAL 89
Trainer (37)
- 3 Worker SIT 167
- 2 Avery CRE 130
- 2 Irida ASR 147
- 1 Roxanne ASR 150
- 4 Battle VIP Pass FST 225
- 4 Superior Energy Retrieval PAL 189
- 4 Cross Switcher FST 230
- 3 Nest Ball PAF 84
- 3 Ultra Ball PAF 91
- 3 Earthen Vessel PAR 163
- 1 Energy Retrieval SVI 171
- 1 Canceling Cologne ASR 136
- 1 Super Rod PAL 188
- 1 Hisuian Heavy Ball ASR 146
- 4 PokéStop PGO 68
Energy (10)
- 6 Water Energy
- 4 Metal Energy
Scizor with Gholdengo ex Deck Version
The Gholdengo Palkia deck version is quite popular as of late but this Gholdengo Scizor version is pretty good too. Origin Forme Palkia V is a two prize Pokemon that is vulnerable to Electric Pokemon and while on the bench with 220 HP. Having a Scizor as an alternate attacker is nice as it is a single prize Pokemon and the Punishing Scissors attack can do up to 310 damage. The maximum of 310 damage occurs if the opponent has all 6 Pokemon on their side of the field and each of them have an ability. A common case I think would be the opponent having 2 or 3 Pokemon with abilities. This would be 110 or 160 damage on the Scizor for the 1 Metal Energy Cost.
As Scizor is a Metal Pokemon the weakness advantage would be against some Water type Pokemon with a Steel weakness like Chien-Pao ex or Baxcalibur. There are a few Psychic type Pokemon that are weak to Steel such as Iron Valiant ex, Mimikyu and the soon to be released Iron Crown ex from Temporal Forces.
Even without the type advantage Scizor can help deal some damage to set up for knockouts for your Gholdengo ex in the later turns. That is less Basic energies to discard from the hand.
Here is a sample list that has Scizor instead of Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR as the second attacker.
Pokémon (16)
- 2 Gimmighoul PAR 88
- 2 Gimmighoul PAR 87
- 4 Gholdengo ex PAR 139
- 2 Scyther MEW 123
- 2 Scizor OBF 141
- 1 Bidoof CRZ 111
- 1 Bibarel BRS 121
- 1 Radiant Greninja ASR 46
- 1 Manaphy BRS 41
Trainer (33)
- 4 Worker SIT 167
- 1 Boss's Orders PAL 172
- 1 Klara CRE 145
- 4 Cross Switcher FST 230
- 4 Superior Energy Retrieval PAL 189
- 4 Battle VIP Pass FST 225
- 3 Nest Ball PAF 84
- 3 Ultra Ball PAF 91
- 3 Earthen Vessel PAR 163
- 2 Energy Retrieval SVI 171
- 1 Pal Pad SVI 182
- 3 PokéStop PGO 68
Energy (11)
- 11 Metal Energy
Other Notes
There are a few decklists from Japan that use Hisuian Basculin and Hisuian Basculegion. The Hisuian Basculin has a free attack that benches two Basic Pokemon from the deck. Hisuian Basculegion has free first attack that does 20 damage for each Basic Energy in the discard pile and then you shuffle those Basic Energies back into your deck. This Hisuian Basculegion helps with avoiding running out of cards and as an alternate single prize attacker.
I bought my copies of Gholdengo ex back in November 2023 or December 2023. One copy was 3 or 4 CAD each. I write this in late February 2024 where one copy is like 7 CAD, 8 CAD, or 10 CAD in the Toronto area. The success of Gholdengo ex with Palkia from Japan in late December and the Dortmund Regional has attracted attention. More attention means a higher demand, a higher price and low availability.
It is uncertain how Gholdengo ex does in the F regulation block starting in April 2024. It does lose Battle VIP Pass but gains Buddy-Buddy Poffin. There is no Path To The Peak to worry about that shuts down abilities. No need to play 3 or 4 copies of Worker.
