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

What’s popping everybody SaberWolf94 here back with a Pokemon TCG Overview on the Makuhita/Hariyama line from gen 3. I don’t know how many of you are aware of this but like Wooper and Quagsire Makuhita seems to be one of those pokemon that are always happy and smiling. Always a carefree positive one. Besides that I always thought it had that combination of a cool look with a touch of cute and if you’re not prepared Brawly can beat you with no mercy with his Bulk Up Makuhita in Ruby and Sapphire.

For Hariyama though my opinion on it is pretty indifferent. It’s a cool fighting pokemon to use for competitive battling in gen 4 but I don’t think I’ll be able to say it’s one of my favourite fighting pokemon. I’ll always remember how I first learnt of its existence encountering it in Ever Grande City thinking “oh crap a new pokemon”

As it’s usually the case you get to find out how popular a pokemon is from its tcg prints and for Hariyama they’re not that many. Luckily for fans of the line there aren’t any Japanese exclusive promos for both pokemon so you shouldn’t have difficulty collecting all of the cards if you want to.

Hariyama made a pretty normal debut with 2 prints in ex Ruby and Sapphire, the first gen 3 set of the great golden age. Quite frankly the rare holo Hariyama was very powerful having a good 90 HP for the first time and even better, Mega Throw, an attack that would do 80 damage on pokemon ex. This is actually very good damage that would stay strong even towards the end with ex Power Keepers. Obviously it limited this card to being only a great ex hater dealing high damage only to those pokemon but still, it was a great start for a first card. Unsurprisingly the uncommon Hariyama here was weaker in almost every way bar having a better retreat cost but it had worse HP and weakass attacks.

Straightforward fighting pokemon line in the tcg always being weak to psychic, I can’t say much about the pre-evolution here as there isn’t a single Makuhita card with any poke-power, poke-body or ability. However, Hariyama is one of the most unique pokemon I would say having retreat costs ranging from 1 to 4, a pretty unusual case for a pokemon. For the most part pokemon with either small or big retreat costs don’t do sudden 180s like this.

Making quite a segway here the next Hariyama print would be its one and only special card Hariyama ex from ex Deoxys. It’s impressive they took so long to print the next one in its home era but at least this card doesn’t disappoint and it’s quite strong too. For a stage 1 ex 11o HP is a great amount to have especially when you have a useful body and attacks. With its Commanding Aura as long as Hariyama was active your opponent wouldn’t be able to play any stadium cards, a great effect to have at your disposal with all the significant stadiums shifting huge advantage. His Knock Off attack is pretty useful too dealing solid damage for 2 energy while always discarding a card from your opponent’s hand. Pivot Throw would increase damage done to Hariyama by 10 damage but it was a fair price to pay for dealing high 80 damage for 3.

After this card Hariyama would get his other 2 prints in the era pretty rapid fire in ex Emerald and Delta Species respectively. The Emerald print isn’t particularly special having a decent attack that can hit evolved pokemon for 40 damage with 2 energies but being let down by its unimpressive second attack and worse HP than the holo Hariyama from the first set. For the most part that card was still better.

Thankfully despite this small hiccup the last Hariyama from ex Delta Species was a great print for Hariyama. Due to its Reversal Aura body if you were losing in prizes Hariyama would get 20 more HP and deal 20 more damage with its attacks. Even without the boost Brick Smash dealt respectable damage considering it would go through any effects on the defending pokemon, including resistance, bodies and powers while still able to hit for weakness. Staying behind in prizes was a common tactic in the era as there were many other cards you could take advantage of so in the right hands this Hariyama card was strong. With 3 out of 5 of its cards being solid in its debuting era, Hariyama had started out pretty okay but sadly that little legacy was short and sweet.

Moving on to D/P Hariyama had its retreat drastically increase and the 3 cards it got in the era were more disappointing than good. It got a print again in Great Encounters, a good while since the last card in ex Delta Species and for the expectations at that time it didn’t have much to stand out. 100 HP wasn’t too bad for a stage 1 at that time but it was dragged down by that large 3 retreat. Admittedly 60 for 2 wasn’t too bad if you got lucky on a coin flip but if not Palm Strike would just do 20 for 2, a laughable amount for any serious play. Spirited Throw was also mostly a weak attack doing 50 for 3 and only increasing to 80 if Hariyama had fewer remaining HP than the defending pokemon. There were better ways to deal that damage for 3 energies so it wasn’t impressive.

By the time it got the next print in Platinum Arceus things were even more ruthless in the format with this card being almost in the same shoes as before. It had decent 110 HP but its retreat got bumped up to 4 and while Vortex Chop was trying to make a statement here it still left much to be desired. If the defending pokemon had a resistance this attack would do 120 for 4, not too shabby but not good enough either. Without that side effect you were dealing 60 for 4, an utterly terrible amount and if you knew that Donphan Prime would come in the next set doing 60 for 1 you’d get dizzy just thinking about using this card.

The last Hariyama card in the era came in Undaunted and it’s mostly frustrating trying to review such a card. It went completely backwards when it comes to its stats, let alone improve with the competition and both of its attacks deal your average unimpressive damage for high energy costs. After this disappointing era Hariyama would only get one print each at the following gens with odds being as you might imagine.

Plasma Freeze Hariyama is fu***ng terrible, his Pivot Throw attack would have been mediocre as it was but it actually helps your opponent hurt this card more by 20 damage, a throwback to Hariyama ex but poorly done. Between all those sets apart this card should have improved a lot more when comparing other similar throwbacks. Bar the average HP everything else is crap.

Furious Fists Hariyama didn’t do anything either but at least isn’t as insultingly bad. Thick Fat is a handy ability blocking 30 damage from fire and water pokemon so at least you know this card might survive a hit from them. Its attack is weak for sure but it’s better than the previous one I can tell you that.

This last Hariyama card is from the Sun and Moon base set, quite a while ago if you think about it and it’s just another filler card that comes as a rare too. I suppose it could have tech use if you want to OHKO something weak to fighting, being compatible with Triple Acceleration Energy but even without researching I’m sure there must be better pokemon at this job out there by now.

And that’s the last of em, from what I’ve seen Hariyama is up there with Skarmory as one of the most neglected pokemon in the tcg, from what I reviewed so far anyway. It only has one special card, even Skarmory had more to show than that and very few prints in general. You’d think it’s a newer pokemon from gen 5 or something. It starts of strong with some pretty good cards in the original ex era but then it just went downhill after that. Who knows, maybe a miracle will happen and it’ll see a good card in the Sword and Shield era…. Or just stick to using SubPunch in gen 4 battles. Thank you guys for reading and I hope you enjoyed. Saberwolf94, Wazzuup!!!

Originally Written in 2020