Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Dragonite/Dragonair/Dratini - Competitive History?

Paperfairy

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Light Dragonite was decent in the Neo phases in unlimited, never a popular archetype, though. Erica's Dratini was used as well as occasionally with Erika's Dragonair. She never had a Dragonite, though.
 
MetaNite? I guess that would make up the majority of your article, but wouldn't you want to put some focus on discussion Dragonite cards which have -not- been good for their particular format and why?
 
MetaNite? I guess that would make up the majority of your article, but wouldn't you want to put some focus on discussion Dragonite cards which have -not- been good for their particular format and why?

If I had a greater knowledge of past formats, I would, but I can only write about (without looking like an ***), the Holon Block and onward, as well as Base Set to like... Fossil. :tongue:
 
A quick run down -

Fossil Dragonite - Rubbish flippy attack. Power maybe usable once in a while, but basically never played.
Dark Dragonite - Very nice power. :D Very useful if you get up 1 DD but don't have much support. Attack.... why flips again??? 50% chance to do 70 is not nice at all.
Light Dragonite - Power was awesome against Dark/Steel decks. Attack could definitely be worse. Not getting hit with secondary effects makes it very unlikely your Power will be shut down.
Expedition Dragonite - Nice Power, once again terrible attack, requiring 3 different types of energy to do an attack that could easily do nothing.
Dragonite EX (Dragon) - Hmm, so-so. Power lets it use its first attack more often, if you can pair it with something that attaches to your other Pokemon. Really no reason to power up to a 50% fail attack, though. Not really worth the 2 prize drawback, in my mind.
Dark Dragonite (TRR) - Awesome power, pretty terrible attacks.
Dragonite EX (DF) - A relatively good card. :) Deafen is very nice, but having it on a Stage 2 diminishes its usefulness. Second attack is good if you've already got a lot of damage on the field. Deafen until the active is almost dead, then Dragon Roar for multiple KOs. Basically the only was your opponent can heal under Deafen Lock is Fuji.
Delta Dragonite - Awesome. VERY nice power, usable attacks once Metagross dies.
LA Dragonite - Again with the flips. -_-; First attack is pretty good, though expensive. 3 for 40 in DP-on wasn't the best, and terrible in MD-on. Second attack.... well, depends how good you are at flips. XD Worked moderately well in a spread deck, if you didn't care about the randomness of the damage.
Triumphant Dragonite - Meh. Removing Special Conditions is okay, and terrible flippy attack is terrible.

Dragonair-
Base Dragonair - Setting the bar for flips! XD First attack is pretty darn bad. Second attack only doing 20 for 4 energy is a laugh, but not having to flip for the discard is wonderful. This was out during the flood of Energy Removals/SERs, and DCE was king. Dropping a Dragonair and an Energy Removal could pretty much clear the opponent out of their energy. You may not do much damage, but it's sure annoying to have to reattach energy every turn in order to attack. ^^
Dark Dragonair - Free Elm's Training Method a turn is nice, very nice. Attack... could be worse. 20/40 damage for 3 isn't too bad on a pre-evo.
Erika's Dragonair - First attack is good if you don't have too many Pokemon out, or if you have some way of healing. Second attack is awesome. :) Someone set up a Charizard with 8 energy? Take it away! Set up anything that's a threat to your other Pokemon? Take it away!
Light Dragonair - Great to stall against spread decks. Other than that, just hurry up and evolve it.
Expedition Dragonair - Y U SO FLIPPYYYYYYYY! XD this was one of those cards that either epic won, or epic failed. I once saw this Dragonair do 240 damage. To something that had 40 HP left. Yeah. but a 50% chance to do nothing is not nice.
Dragon Dragonair - Meh. Attacks are somewhat nice.
Dark Dragonair (#31) - Look! It's just like the other Dark Dragonair! O.O Except its attack does the average of the other's, for one less energy. Very nice.
Dark Dragonair (#32) - Don't use this one. At all. ^Use that one.
DF Dragonair - If wrap had done even 10 damage, this would be so much better. -_-
Delta Dragonair (#41) - Sadly, this is the more reliable of the two DS Dragonairs.
Delta Dragonair (#42) - Why so flippy? Why not?
LA Dragonair - Not bad for a pre-evo. 50% paralysis with 20 damage is decent, and 30/50 for three is average. There are worse. :)
TR Dragonair - Very useful for setting up. 2 Bebe's in exchange for your attack seems like a good deal to me. Second attack... no. Just no.

Dratini -
Base Dratini - Meh. A flat 10 for any energy is OK, but 40 HP is bad.
TR Dratini - Needs 2 energy to do the same 10, but the added Paralysis is nice.
Erika's Dratini - A surprisingly good staller. In this format, it often took several turns to get a proper evolution, meaning it could survive 4 turns with no healing. A couple of Potions and it's a very potent wall.
Neo Dratini - Shed is useful to keep it alive long enough to evolve. Fury attack should only be used if you don't have any damage on you.
Expedition Dratini - 40 damage from something with 40 HP is very nice. Shame you need 2 different energy types on it and it's only a 50% chance.
Dragon Dratini - Healing anything for 20 is surprisingly nice. :D
TRR Dratini (#52) - Meh.
TRR Dratini (#53) - Sleep is nice. Guaranteed 20 damage is nice, too.
DF Dratini - Back to Base Set!
Delta Dratini (#65) - 30 damage is awesome, but doing damage to yourself when you've only got 50 HP is bad.
Delta Dratini (#66) - 50% paralysis? Yes please!
LA Dratini - Meh. 0/20/40 for 2 could be very nice, or could epic fail.
TR Dratini - Surprisingly useful in the Baby-ridden game start. Trapping a Baby early could nab you a free prize.

There you go.
 
It didn't have a lot of time in competitive play for Modified, but Light Dragonite was nice with Boost Energy and Miracle Energy. Note this is mostly a footnote for what others said: it really was spectacularly for that brief window of Modified (and still technically nice for Unlimited play if you could get Light Dragonite set up) powering it up with a single Boost Energy and getting to ignore the restrictions and discard clause on Boost Energy.
 
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