Contest August 2021 CaC: Top Cards (Results Are Up!)

GM DracLord

Shadow of Death
Member
In case you missed it in the OP: we're doing things slightly differently now, in that we want you to reserve your spot early in the month. Please sign up by 11:59 pm PST on August 8th if you intend to submit an entry — or even if you think you might submit an entry. There are still plenty of spots open. :)

About 3 days left on signups!
Guess I'll doing this next month,
 

Jabberwock

#Jovimohnaeliackvid
Forum Mod
Articles Staff
Member
Guess I'll doing this next month,
I wasn't around to formally close sign-ups, so I'll put you down if you like.

If anyone else missed the deadline to sign up, I'll look the other way until the end of the day. Just post "in for image" or "in for text" and you're good. :)
 

GM DracLord

Shadow of Death
Member
I wasn't around to formally close sign-ups, so I'll put you down if you like.

If anyone else missed the deadline to sign up, I'll look the other way until the end of the day. Just post "in for image" or "in for text" and you're good. :)
Yeah, sound good, probably posting it next weekend, thanx
 

Jabberwock

#Jovimohnaeliackvid
Forum Mod
Articles Staff
Member
With that, sign-ups are closed! There are just over 2 weeks remaining to submit your entry — you can view the deadline countdown here or in the OP.
 

GM DracLord

Shadow of Death
Member
Here is my entry,

Mew CRYSTAL 100HP [C]
CRYSTAL EVOLUTION
Evolves from Mew

[Mew CRYSTAL retains the attacks, Poké-Power, Poké-Body Weakness, Resistance and Retreat cost of its previous Evolution.]
[ID:Q-16-5]

Poké-POWER Special Crystal
Once during your turn (before your attack), you may discard 2 cards from the top of your deck. If you do, attach a Special Energy card from your hand to Mew CRYSTAL. This power can't be used if Mew CRYSTAL is affected by a Special Condition.

*References
This card is based on e-Series
Celebi e-Skyridge, Mew e-Expedition, Lugia BREAK

This is abit unconventional for that era, but I imagine that if the e-Series had survived something like this might appear. This is bassically an combination of Crytal & BREAK Mechanic. Reasoning for the PokePower is that, you may want to attack a Basic energy to trigger the Crystal Type PokeBody that the normal Mew have but at the same time, you may want to attack a special energy card to cover the additional type requirement (Rainbow) of the attack.
 

Mr. Melon

Faking hard or flailing all around the yard.
Member
Xerneas_CAC08.png

When I heard that the topic this month was the top of the deck, my mind immediately went to the "heart of the cards" from yugioh. I don't play that much, but I did love the manga, and the duel with Ma'at was super memorable to this day. This Xerneas is somewhat of a remake of that idea in Pokémon, with the same effect as an ability, and an attack which can mimic the power of Ma'at.

Revealing Light:
With its name derived from the Swords of Revealing Light from yugioh, Revealing Light is Xerneas's main mechanic. With extreme luck, or a deck stacking method like Oranguru or Expedition Uniform, you can draw several extra cards during your turn with little investment. Additionally, it comboes with the attack, Heart Blast, to deal a decent chunk of damage.

Heart Blast:
Drawing from the idea of "heart of the cards", Heart Blast allows Xerneas to function as a deck of its own, dealing up to 240 damage for just 2 Psychic Energy. I don't know how feasable this is, but it seems playable while not being overpowered, or even powerful in the current meta. It is heavily reliant on Expedition Uniform, but with an Inteleon engine, I could see a decent deck taking form.

Lastly, the HP, Weakness, Resistance, and Retreat Cost all follow the standard SwSh era convention, as well as the typing. Not much to say on this one.

As pointed out in the faking discord, this card is relatively new territory in terms of card wording. With this in mind, I did my best to copy the general feel of SwSh era wording, but I could not list any definative sources due to a lack of material. Hopefully the judges can prove me wrong and come up with some conclusion, because believe me, I struggled on this.

Credits:
Omnium Blanks by @CardPone
Art by Xous54 on Deviantart
 
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Falling Skies

The Traveler
Member
Allow me to present my entry.

Hoopa p HP: 70 [P]
Basic
hoopa.png

p (Prism Star) Rule: You can’t have more than 1 p card with the same name in your deck. If a p card would go to the discard pile, put it in the Lost Zone instead.

Ability: Wormhole Sealing
Once during your opponent's turn, after they draw a card for the start of their turn, you may Knock Out this Pokémon and put it face-up on top of your opponent's deck. While this card is face-up on top of your opponent's deck, your opponent cannot draw cards, search their deck, or shuffle their deck with a card effect. At the end of your next turn after using this Ability, put this card into the Lost Zone.

[P][P] Junk Sifting
Search your deck for a card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck. If you do, discard the top 2 cards of your deck.

Weakness: [D] x2
Resistance: [F] -20
Retreat: [C]

It gathers things it likes and passes them through its loop to teleport them to a secret place.

This is meant for the Sun & Moon era.
 

DashKing

Aspiring Trainer
Member
[
Chandelure
Type: [P] – HP 160
Stage 2: Evolves from Lampent
NO. 609 Gratitude Pokémon HT:3'03" WT: 75.6 lbs

Ability: Sinister Switch
Once during your turn, you may reveal the top card of your deck. If the top card of your deck is a Pokémon card, you may swap this card with a Pokémon on your Bench with an equal stage to the revealed Pokémon. Any attached cards, damage counters, Special Conditions, turns in play, and any other effects remain on the new Pokémon.

[P] Phantom Illusions
Search your deck for up to 3 Stage 1 Pokémon and put them onto your Bench. Then, shuffle your deck.

Weakness: [D] X 2
Resistance: [F] -30
Retreat: [C][C]

Dex Entry: This Pokémon haunts dilapidated mansions. It sways its arms to hypnotize opponents with the ominous dancing of its flames.


References:
HP/Retreat:
Chandelure RBL
Cresselia CRE

Ability:
Ether PLS
Nanu TEU


Attack:
Kirlia CRE
Orbeetle BTS
]
 

FireLizard

A man who knows nothing about proportions.
Member
Sorry late!

Girafarig-V HP200 [P]
Basic Pokémon

[Ability]Mysterious Punishment

Once during your turn, you may discard the top 2 cards of each player's deck. Put 1 damage counter on both Active Pokémon for each Energy card discarded in this way.
You can't use more than 1 Mysterious Punishment Ability each turn.

[C] [C] Psychic Reaction 20x

This attack does 20 damage for each damage counter on both Active Pokémon.




Weakness:[D]X2

Resistance:[F]-30

Retreat Cost:[C][C]

Pokèmon V Rule:When your Pokèmon V is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 cards.

I made it simple but useful at the same time: Mysterious Punishment discards the top 2 cards of both player's deck,and puts 1 damage counter for each Energy discarded in that way. Works pretty well with Oranguru,so you can put an Energy from hand into your deck for at least 1 guaranteed damage counter on both Pokèmon. It works great also with Single Strike Pokèmon,for their main mechanic of doing more damage for each damage counter on them, especially Single Strike Urshifu from Chilling Reign. And also the attack require 2 Energy of any type, so you can put this card in any deck.
Psychic Reaction is great when you're struggling,because it counts damage of both Girafarig V and the opponent.
This attack can also KO Urshifu of both Battle Styles both V and VMAX if you put 4 damage counters on both Active Pokèmon with Mysterious Punishment.
 

Mr. Sableye

Lithovore Extraordinaire
Member
illumatrix.png
When considering this months theme, my mind immediately went to the borderline "unusable" Future Sight attacks many Pokémon have that allow you to re-arrange you or your opponent's deck. I wanted to push that further in a way that could be oppressive in the right deck or under the right circumstances. I thought of no other fakemon than Pokémon Clover's Illumatrix to fit this.

Illumatrix's design is heavily inspired by the Eye of Providence (which this card's first ability is named after) and Illuminati conspiracy theories. It felt like a perfect fit for a card design that focused around manipulating the future and having "perfect" information about your opponent.

The card's attack, Twist Fate, is a damaging version of Future Sight and it felt appropriate to use "twist" to convey its damaging capabilities.

Just for reference, the dex entry is Illumatrix's actual dex entry and the pre-evolution image is Illumatrix's pre-evolution's, Illuminowl, menu sprite from Pokémon Clover.
The goal of Illumatrix is to be the center of a deck. A deck running Illumatrix would hope to lock down their opponent and whittle away at them for a victory. Its ability, Eye of Providence, and its attack, Twist Fate, is designed to give you perfect information on what your opponent will have access to in the near future. Under the right circumstances, you can attack with no resistance from your opponent if you stack their deck such that they cannot shuffle and will not draw anything of use. The damage of the attack is intended to require ~2 attacks for other single prize stage 1s (SwSh stage 1s tend to have around 120 HP), 3 attacks for stage 2s, 4 attacks for Pokémon V, and 6 for Pokémon VMAX.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of locking decks. However, I felt this type of lock is balanced around the abundance of deck shuffling effects through search (Quick Ball, Pokémon Communication, Cherish Ball, Level Ball, Great Ball, Fog Crystal, etc.) and strong draw effects (Crobat V, Dedenne-GX, Professor's Research, Marnie, etc.) that can counteract this strategy. This is also considering that most cards in a player's deck have some intrinsic value even if you get the worst cards out of them.
"As often as you like during your turn,": SSH Frosmoth
"you may have your opponent reveal their hand.": SUM Gumshoos-GX
"You may discard a card from your hand.": DAA Swanna
"look at the top 4 cards of either player's deck and put them back in any order.": VIV Duskull
The card has 3 retreat since Illumatrix is a generally slow Pokémon with only 70 base speed. I also consider making its ability read "As long as this is in the Active Spot, your opponent plays with their hand revealed." similar to Magic the Gathering's Telepathy, but I figured it wasn't worth introducing new wording to complicate the card further. Also, the reason the ability is repeatable is so you can use an effect like SSH Marnie and know what cards they got from it.
 

AlphaLad

Aspiring Trainer
Member
deppgz5-45b384b5-510b-4f0f-8287-0739cfc743b6.png

For this month's CaC, I went with a Lucario featuring my BY mechanic. It's a pretty straight forward gimmick which combines your typical 2 prizer with the evolution mechanics of stuff like Level X and BREAK. The card itself is balanced for SwSh, and the wording should also match that era.

For the effects, I wanted to do something that shifts around the top cards of your deck, since that sort of effect goes really well with Lucario's "aura" theme. Aura Sense does just that, and its effectiveness is based on how much energy is attached to Lucario. Triple Combo synergizes with this aforementioned Ability, letting you put the top three cards of your deck into your hand while also doing extra damage if all of them share the same "type."
 

doofisconfused

aspiring doof
Member
igVOHv6.png
hi! i really enjoyed making this card! @Vom was in charge of balancing and creating the spoiler and attacks, while I put together the image! pretty happy with the result, thanks 4 doin this with me vom :)

art by Volmise!
 

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doofisconfused

aspiring doof
Member
supersorry for not spoiler-ing the card, still figuring out how BBcode and the forum itself works 😅

No worries, fixed it. ~~Jabberwock

thanks!!! - doof
 
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