Discussion Why Isn't Golduck SM Competitive?

xJaq7

xJaq7

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Golduck 29/149

Stage 1 [W]

[C] Scratch : 20 Damage
[W] Double Jet: 60 x
Discard up to 2 [W] Energy Cards from your hand. This
attack does 60 damage for each energy you discard in this way.
1109981.jpg


Positives:
  • 1 Energy attachment attacker.
  • 120 Damage for 1 Energy, equal to Golisopod GX
  • Water. So hitting Volcanion/Turtonator for weakness.
  • Choice Band + Kukui makes a OHKO possible on Tapu Lele GX
Negatives
  • Stage One
  • Low HP
  • Stage One (Good while AOR Eeveelutions are around)
  • Weak to Grass, E.g. Decidueye GX, Golisopod GX, Lurantis GX.
Let Me Know Your Thoughts Down Below!
 

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It's not good be it doesn't win the prize trade. At 90 HP it is easy to one shot while it has to 2 shot everything back. So you're giving up a prize a turn while struggling to get a knock out on anything not weak to water
 
I have seen this deck run at my locals, it was a fun deck to play against. It does struggle to keep up with top tier decks but starmie from evolutions helps keep this deck attack every turn for 120 or 150 with choice band.
 
It's really a "pick your poison" reason why it's not good. The low health stats, the low damage cap, the consistency problem. It's a fun card, but it's not good.
 
You haven't seen this doing well previously because the metagame was hostile to it with Decidueue-GX/Vileplume (AOR) decks and/or lacked some of what you just recommended using with it.

We've seen some low Energy, Stage 1 attackers do well in the recent past (or even currently) but they either
  • Have a high chance of OHKOing many or most prominent attackers.
  • Have a lower chance of being OHKO'd.
  • Require fewer "moving pieces".
I also encourage you to remember the metagame not too long ago; prior to SM: Guardians Rising we didn't have Field Blower and Decidueye-GX/Vileplume (XY: Ancient Origins 3/98) decks ultimately stood on top of the rest of the metagame. Now the metagame has more attackers with which Golduck may successfully trade blows, plus the Choice Band it needed to handle bigger targets. Even with those, though, it needs Weakness to OHKO the biggest targets, which doesn't stack up well to rivals like Garbodor (SM: Guardians Rising 51/145).
 
I had fun with this deck. But it lacks the HP to stay alive, and needs to 2 shot all the guys running around out there.
 
Damage isn't high enough or consistent enough. HP isn't the issue, Vespiquen has the same and it's just fine. It's a fun deck for casual play but those issues prevent it from going further.
 
TheDude133 said:
It's really a "pick your poison" reason why it's not good. The low health stats, the low damage cap, the consistency problem. It's a fun card, but it's not good.
Click to expand...
Speaking of poison... I think this deck may work well with poison. in expanded. but then again, it would probably be to clunky
 
I played a Golduck deck to finish Top 16 at Birmingham Regionals, UK. I used Splash Energy to recycle Golducks to keep them alive and Starmie to recycle energy.
 
Its real weakness is Starmie, which is necessary for energy recycling. Once your opponent Lysandres Starmie, your in-hand energy is unreliable.
 
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