Dragonair · Base Set (BS) #18

8 comments

1. 

   Mantidactyle

   (13 years ago)

   My favorite illustration from Base Set

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     AmbassadorMantidactyle

     (2 years ago)

     I was really disappointed when it was omitted from CP6 / XY Evolutions for this same reason!

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       AmbassadorAmbassador

       (2 years ago)

       Oh! So apparently this card has a weird error in Japan’s Base Set. Its name was spelled as ハクリュウ instead of its actual name, ハクリュー. The error was retained in the first TCG Game Boy game (they corrected it for the sequel). I wonder if that motivated the reason for its omission – the other thing crossing my mind was that it could be that the art maybe didn’t look very nice with the Dragon template?

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         Warnock 2022Ambassador

         (2 years ago)

         Perhaps an updated version of Dratini and Dragonair were designed, but they just chose to put them in the next set (cards #94 & 95 in Sun/Moon base set) so that they could have a Dragonite evolution.
         It’s odd that the Dragonite line in SUM is {G}{L}, consistent with the line’s typing in Gens 5-6. Later in Gen 7 it would become {W}{L}. This suggests that the cards may have been originally designed for Gen 6….

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           AmbassadorWarnock 2022

           (2 years ago)

           Neat. I think you might be onto something there.

2. 

   feyblade

   (12 years ago)

   The ONE Pokemon in ALL of the classic sets that benefits from devolution spray: you can combo it with Dragonite · Fossil (FO) #4 to switch it in for free after playing Dragonite. This is the only Pokemon of the era that a player wold ever feel bad about evolving. At this point in time, virtually all forced energy discard is stuck with a coin toss drawback or is limited to requiring a successful coin toss to work. Sadly, you won’t be able to toy with that effect outside of very narrow lower-tier unlimited decks any time soon

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3. 

   Ambassador

   (2 years ago)

   This card is the debut of Hyper Beam in the TCG. In terms of following up on its appearance over the years, Misty’s Poliwhirl, Dark Feraligatr, and Shining Steelix would be good points of reference on attacks in the “Hyper Beam family of moves”* that got lost in translation, but it’s only occurring to me today, while documenting all this, that the effect of the attack is also lost in translation.

   All things considered, wouldn’t you say this looks pretty underwhelming for an attack called “Hyper Beam”? I’ve always thought that myself. The problem is the original name of the attack is [はかいこうせん 𝐇𝐚𝐤𝐚𝐢 𝐊𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐧], which despite the games and TCG rendering as “Hyper Beam”, more literally translates as “Destruction Beam” – and that’s what the effect of the attack is doing here. It’s destroying your opponent’s Energy. The name fits the attack perfectly!

   * These attacks will have [はかい 𝐡𝐚𝐤𝐚𝐢 – “Destruction”] in their name. Those bored can plug はかい into https://www.pokemon-card.com/card-search/index.php and fiddle with dropdown options, and cross-reference against this site’s results for +text:”Hyper Beam”, look for outliers, and check the effect of the attack, and try to find more “Hyper Beam”-associated attacks. “Crushing”/”Crush” in the EN attack name is a hit-or-miss, with lots of true positives, but also some false positives, and doesn’t appear to cover all of the moves. はかい can also be plugged into pcg-search.com to find cards from the eras of the TCG that pokemon-card.com doesn’t cover.

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4. 

   AlcreMina

   (2 months ago)

   “Rating: 3.5
   Hyperbeam is incredibly powerful, but energy-intensive. Some players run this colorless line in their Haymaker decks.” – Pojo’s Unofficial Big Book of Pokemon, ~2000

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