History of Dewgong in the TCG Pokemon Trading Card Game Overview!

What’s popping everybody and welcome to the Pokemon TCG Overview. Today I’m covering the Dewgong/Seel line. Both of these classic water pokemon are special in my heart for several reasons and I’m happy to say they have some interesting cards under their belt. I still remember the Seel sticker from when we bought stickers from the canteen before pogs replaced them and became a phenomenon. As always we’re going to cover the pre-evolution too, just Seel in this case.

It never got any poke-body, power or ability and from its introduction in Base Set to the end of the ex era and was always weak to lighting. Starting with D/P it was then weak to metal but then with its last print in Evolutions started to be weak to grass.

Of course as an original water pokemon from Kanto it gets an Extended Sheet print in Extended Sheet 2, Japan exclusive but it also gets 2 owner’s versions in the Wizards era owned by Misty and a Delta Species print too. It’s also kinda crazy to think about the Base Set and Gym Heroes Seel had 60 HP but then it would never hit that HP again until the Diamond and Pearl era.

Naturally the original Dewgong comes from the Base Set as well and it actually gets reprinted in Base Set 2 and Legendary Collection along with Seel. This card is basically fond memories of the GameBoy Color game to me. As a print though it’s a great Dewgong card. 80 HP is great for a stage 1 if we consider all the other stage 1 pokemon that had 60 and 70 HP and it actually has solid no bulls**t attacks. Straight 50 for 3 is perfect and sometimes relying on the chance paralysis of Ice Beam is a sound strategy. Naturally this card is to be paired with Blastoise otherwise it had no chance against Haymaker and a million Energy Removals.

You can say Gyarados from the same set outclasses it but not completely. To run Gyarados you have to run Magikarp with only 30 HP and that is incredibly dangerous and risky while Seel has a good 60 HP and it makes a HUGE difference. This classic card gets an improved remake in Evolutions but sadly wasn’t enough by today’s standards. The 120 HP is fine (not really) but 90 for 3 along with self damage is not good enough. Note, like the Seel remake they changed the weakness to grass.

The Extended Sheet 2 Dewgong has lovely art and reminds me of my favourite beach spot in Paphos, and Cyprus period. Sadly, the card isn’t any good. The attacks actually aren’t that terrible it’s the 60 HP that’s the problem.

Out of the two owner’s versions Misty’s Dewgong is the only one we get from Gym Heroes and it’s not exactly an improvement from the first one. It has one less retreat, so it’s better stat wise but Take Down is worse than doing 50 for 3. It does 60 for 4 and also damages you for 20. Ice Throw can do 40 for 2 if the defending pokemon is a fighting type but because that’s situational isn’t the greatest, although you can 2 hit f**k up Hitmonchan.

Dewgong also gets one of the most retro special cards, a Light print with Light Dewgong from Neo Destiny. It has the same stats as Misty’s Dewgong and while it doesn’t hit as hard as the other ones, it does provide some tricks. Freezing breath does 10 for 2 but will always paralyse or put to sleep the opponent. If you use Ice Pillar and Light Dewgong stays active, your bench will be protected from damage if your opponent attacks it and you attack for 40. It’s another situational attack though and 40 for 3 on its own is weak.

Pryce’s Dewgong is the only other owner’s print and exclusive to Japan seeing as it comes from the VS set but it’s crap anyway so we don’t lose that much. Starting with this card though Dewgong would be weak to metal now.

Dewgong from Skyridge looks cool if you ask me and while not very competitive either it’s trying to get there. Once again the stats are the same with no improvement and only the weakness changes. Freeze Lock does 20 for 2 and if you get heads your opponent can’t attach energies from their hand to the active pokemon. Obviously this is a strong disruption effect, but as always the coin flip is in the way. Not bad though. Crushing Ice can actually be a great attack. It starts at 40 for 4 but will do 10 more for each energy in your opponent’s retreat cost. Most pokemon will have at least 1, so you can hit 50, but with even bigger retreat the damage starts to get good. Being able to do 70 or 80 damage on the heavy guys is excellent damage for the time but if you want to compare this with something like Feraligatr it’s still not that good.

Dewgong got 2 prints each in the ex era and D/P and 2 prints in 6th gen counting the Evolutions remake. No cards in Black and White and no current cards for Sun and Moon. The cool thing is that all 4 in 3rd gen and D/P have poke-bodies and besides the Base Set original have the best prints.

Even in 3rd gen Dewgong’s stats in Firered and Leafgreen didn’t improve from the previous ones but it gets a strong poke-body in Safeguard, making it immune to ex pokemon. Instant sleep with 10 for 1 energy is okay, and while Aurora Beam isn’t that good doing 40 for 3 at least it works with any energy, effectively making this card a flexible tech ex counter if you choose to run it. Nice holographic art and certainly more useful than the other ones that came after Base Set.

If that’s not good enough the Dragon Frontiers Delta Species print actually blocks a lot of damage from other delta species pokemon. Blocking 40 damage is a lot, with a little support from Delta Species Espeon and other cards it can come close to be invincible against them. You can use any energies with its attacks making it another flexible stage 1 tech but if you have at least 2 water energies Surge will do 60 for 3. Same stats with only the weakness changing back to lightning again. As a delta species pokemon itself it will also benefit from some exclusive card support. I dig the art on this one too and as a colorless pokemon it means it can hit dragon type pokemon for weakness.

With D/P Mysterious Treasures it finally gets an improvement with 90 HP and a poke-body meant to work with its attack. Collapse does 60 for 3 which isn’t all that bad but not good either. The attack puts you to sleep too. With Cold Fat as long as Dewgong is asleep it will receive 40 less damage from anything, an impressive tanking effect. This card honestly didn’t do anything though trying this luck stuff but the art is a redeeming aspect again.

Supreme Victors Dewgong is the better one from D/P and one of the best Dewgong cards being a counter to 3 different types of pokemon. With Thick Fat it will yet again tank damage, in this case just like the ability in the games it will tank 30 less damage from fire and water pokemon (I know in the games the resistance is for ice not water but this is the tcg). That can cover a lot of ground. Aurora Beam 4 for 70 isn’t special but Ice Shard when used against a fighting pokemon will do 80 instead of 30, very powerful and fast enough. I’m gonna sound a like a bitch again but the artwork is legit and it has 100 HP, best HP so far although it does get a 3 retreat cost as opposed to 2.

And that’s all the Dewgong cards we have. I’ve already talked about the Evolutions remake in the beginning, it didn’t do anything in standard either and they should be leaving soon too if this article makes it on the site on time. As you guys have noticed Dewgong cards have never been that great and since it isn’t one of the most popular pokemon, despite being from gen 1 it hasn’t got almost any special prints and many prints in general. It does have the rare light card which makes it unique but it wasn’t that powerful and it does have 2 owner’s versions and a delta species card that’s at least solid.

Originally Written in 2018

After this card we return to just bad since the one in Fates Collide many, many sets after Supreme Victors doesn’t do much. I guess Freezing Breath will always paralyse or put the target to sleep while doing 20 but 100 for 4 is crap. This card is still legal as I’m writing this in standard and of course cards like this are only there to be there as I mentioned before.

The best Dewgong cards function as good techs from blocking damage from different pokemon and hitting certain pokemon harder. Almost all of the Dewgong and Seel cards look lovely if you ask me but perhaps that’s because I really like their designs as pokemon. Hey, and we can’t forget the Base Set print can be used with Blastoise too!Thank you guys for reading and I hoped you liked this article. I’ll catch you next time when we cover another pokemon. Wazzuup!!!