Pokémon TCG: Top 10 Best Dragonite of All Time

In this article, we'll show you the top 10 strongest and most interesting Dragonites in Pokémon TCG - considering cards from the Wizards of the Coast era until today. Today, we'll cover Dragonite, which is one of the most iconic "pseudo-legendary" Pokémon. It is also one of the most beloved Dragons, and has a reasonably sized fan base.

10 - Light Dragonite (Wizards of the Coast Era: Neo Destiny)

Its ability, Miraculous Wind, is interesting because, if your deck only has basic energy cards, it allows you to sabotage your opponent's special energy cards. This was really impactful if we consider one of the most popular cards at the time was Double Colorless Energy B2 124.

Still considering the Pokémon Light & Dark era, we used Miracle Energy N4 16 for Pokémon Light and Shining, and we used Rainbow Energy TR 17 as a multi-use energy card.

Its attack, Light Wave, disabled enemy attack effects, which forced your opponent to only deal brute damage to Light Dragonite. This made it immune, for instance, to any special conditions your opponent could give you through one of their Pokémon.

9 - Dragonite (Diamond/Pearl: Legends Awakened)

What stands out about this Pokémon is its attack, Draco Meteor, considering it deals "sniper damage": for each Pokémon on your opponent's board, toss a coin; if it's "heads", the Pokémon you attacked will be dealt 50 damage. Afterward, players could complement this damage with its first attack, Hyper Beam.

8 - Dragonite (Black/White: Plasma Freeze)

Its greatest strength is its attack, Deafen, which, in a certain way, lets you control your opponent's resources. It locks down your opponent and prevents them from using "item" cards, such as Ultra Ball DEX 102, Nest Ball SUM 123, Quick Ball SSH 179, besides other cards that are "staples" in Expanded.

7 - Dragonite (Scarlet/Violet: 151)

Its ability, Jet Cruise, sets the retreat cost of your Pokémon in play to zero. This is wonderful because this ability lets you retreat and "reset" your attackers with effects that prevent them from attacking on your next turn, such as Dragonite VSTAR PR-SW SWSH236.

So, using Dragonite sv3pt5 149 as a recursive retreat Pokémon is incredibly strong and efficient.

6 - Dragonite (Sun/Moon: Team Up)

Its ability, Fast Call, guaranteed this Dragonite's spot in this list.

This Pokémon plays its support role quite efficiently because, every turn, when it's your turn to play, you can look for a "Supporter" Trainer card once, reveal it, and put it in your hand.

This is as if you had a Lumineon V PR-SW SWSH250 on your board at all times, without ever having to "play it from your hand to the bench". Every turn, you will be able to use this ability and also put yourself out of the range of effects that lock down your strategy, such as Path to the Peak CRE 148 and Silent Lab PRC 140 in Expanded.

5 - Dragonite (Sun/Moon: Unified Minds)

Still in the Sun/Moon block, this Dragonite has two important roles:

1) It attaches energy cards to your Pokémon thanks to its ability (which you can stack).

2) It also has a powerful attack which, for a "baby" Pokémon, at the time it was released, it was incredibly powerful, even if its downside is forcing you to discard 3 energy cards.

To get back the energy cards you discarded and solve this problem, you can use Energy Recycle System CES 128, Superior Energy Retrieval PLF 103, and Energy Recycler GRI 123, which were our options in Expanded.

4 - Dragonite (X/Y: Roaring Skies)

In fourth, we have this version of Dragonite in the X/Y set, with its Delta "ability" mechanic called "Plus" which tells us the following: for every Pokémon you knock out with any of this Dragonite's attacks, you'll draw one extra Prize Card.

This card only occupies this position because the cost of its last attack is a bit expensive (5 energy cards: three Grass energy cards, one Electric energy card, and a colorless energy card). Additionally, it only became more relevant in Expanded thanks to Vikavolt SUM 52, or in decks that used Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX CEC 156 with the effect in its attack, Ultimate Ray, and used Double Dragon Energy ROS 97 constantly.

3 - Dragonite-GX (Sun/Moon: Unified Minds)

This Dragonite occupies our third place because of its attack, Sky Judgement, which, for 5 colorless energy cards, deals 270 damage, but it forces you to discard 3 energy cards attached to this Pokémon.

This isn't a problem if we use Pokémon that attach energy cards to other Pokémon rather explosively, such as Dragonite UNM 151 itself, which attaches one Basic Water Energy sv2 279 and one Basic Lightning Energy sv1 257 at a time, which means we'll need two Dragonite UNM 151. We can also use Baxcalibur PR-SV 19 to redirect Basic Water Energy sv2 279 and, by discarding them, we can then retrieve them with Superior Energy Retrieval sv2 189.

However, the decks it stands out in, historically, are precisely Psychic decks with Mewtwo & Mew-GX UNM 71 and its ability, Perfection. This duo copied this Dragonite-GX UNM 152's attack and used it as its main brute damage output against most Tag Team Pokémon at the time.

2 - Dragonite ex (Scarlet/Violet: Obsidian Flames)

In second place, we have the ex version of Dragonite, which released on the Scarlet & Violet block and had the daring goal of dealing up to 280 damage if you hit "heads" in your coin toss when using its attack, Mighty Meteor. And the best of all? It only required two energy cards: one Water energy card, and one Electric energy card!

However, it has a downside: if you miss your coin toss, you'll deal only 140 damage, and next turn you won't be able to attack. (Remember Dragonite sv3pt5 149, which occupies our seventh spot, and its ability, Jet Cruise?)

This Dragonite also has a lot of HP (330), and, without any Fairy or Dragon type Pokémon to deal weakness damage to it, this Pokémon, alongside Dragonite sv3pt5 149, forms a powerful duo!

1 - Dragonite V (Sword/Shield: Promo Cards)

This Dragonite was really impactful in many Lost Box decks in Standard, and soon, in April 2024, will rotate out because it has the "E" rating.

Its first attack, Shred, deals 50 damage and ignores any effects on your opponent's Pokémon. As for its second attack, Dragon Gale, it is a bit more aggressive, and deals 250 damage. However, it also deals 20 damage to all your benched Pokémon - an issue we couldn't really solve in Standard, but we can solve in Expanded with Pokémon that prevent damage to the bench, such as Mew UNB 76 and Mr. Mime PLF 47.

This Dragonite is in one of the best decks in Expanded, and is used as an alternative attacker alongside Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX CEC 156. Check out a deck guide about it here.

What did you think of this list? What would your top 10 best Dragonite list look like? Tell us your thoughts in the comment section.

Thank you for reading! See you next time.