Dragons Nerfed?

[Emskas]

This will be something strange for many, but I want to discuss how noncompetitive dragon types have been. We're only now starting to unlock their potential with Double Dragon Energy, yet they still seem to be very overlooked. Why is this? Well, the big problem with the dragons were their energy cost. The dragons usually have this signature gimmick that makes them take 2 kinds of energy and then a colorless or two. This makes it difficult to build decks for dragons, since more than one type of energy makes a deck clunky and inconsistent (In most cases). Take a look at Giratina. throughout his debut in the DP/Platinum Era, we knew that he could attack solidly for 1-2 psychic, and maybe a few colorless. In fact, a few of his cards were half decent (i.e. Platinum 27, of which I played a 1-of in my LostGar deck) However, when he returned after a long absence, he came back as an unplayable junk EX. Giratina-EX had a high energy cost, with not enough damage or affect to cover for it. Dragons Exalted, (in my opinion) didn't really make us want to play dragons, and a bad start can to snowball:

The Pokemon I want to talk about now is Dialga. For anyone who played in the SP era, you can remember how good Dialga G was. a bulky basic that could be leveled up into the absolutely amazing and meta breaking Dialga G LV.X. He was a pure Metal Attacker that could hit hard, and then lock (kind of like Toad, now that I think of it.). Dialga was huge in his day. What do we get after a 4 year absence of the Time Dragon? Another. Junk. EX. At least Palkia was okay, but Dialga was a mess. It now required you to use a Metal and Psychic and a colorless for it's first attack, and it only dealt 50 damage, and allowed you to get back a card from your discard on a flip. It's 2nd attack was just garbage. For 4 colorless energy, you did a total of 90 damage, and then milled your opponent for each Plasma energy attached to Dialga. Now, Dialga was saved in PHF, (Phew!) but it was now a Metal type, and much better. Why is this? I have no idea? Why was Dragon Dialga so bad, but new metal Dialga actually okay? Keep in mind that the two are only a couple sets apart.

Is it just me? Or are Dragon Pokemon always worse then their other-typed cousins?

Spoiler: Pictures Below

-Emskas

 

[Rakkis157]

Do bear in mind that even though they are a 'couple' of sets apart, they are still from different eras. The support for a card is often more important towards the strength of a card than the card itself. Dialga EX Metal had a ton of support with Keldeo and Bronzong, which let it hit hard fairly quickly and recharge. Dialga EX Plasma also has a decent amount of support, but they aren't quite the support it needed, which was a way to consistently recycle, conserve and attach Plasma Energy to keep milling at your opponent. I've experimented with a version that used Umbreon from PLF, to make Dialga really, really tanky, but the lack of means to recycle Plasmas without using LTC or Thundurus EX really made it struggle.

Double Dragon Energy is actually a massive boost for all Dragon types, even the ones you called bad. Giratina EX is really, really scary now in Expanded with Altaria and Double Dragon, as it can hit for quite a bit of damage with Shred T2 without giving an eff about what it is attacking, or take something out with Dragon Pulse which can OHKO even Megas with enough Altaria on the Bench.

Many Dragon types, like Latios EX (Both of them), Zekrom from ROS, Dragon M Ray and Garchomp were not too shabby themselves.

It's a new type, and still needs more work in the support department, which ROS fulfilled to an extent.