RE: PokéBeach Create-A-Card: March 2015 - I Choose You! (Fan Voting)
I love how the red-eyed child has made it even here. >_>
I love how the red-eyed child has made it even here. >_>
PokéBeach Create-A-Card: March 2015 - I Choose You! — Results!
- Thread starter Ice Arceus
- Start date
RE: PokéBeach Create-A-Card: March 2015 - I Choose You! (Fan Voting)
Fan Voting Results
Image-Based:
1st Place: [TIE] BigfootAUS, Dynamic Duo (Athena & PMJ), professorlight - 4 Points
2nd Place: Huderon of Canossa - 3 Points
3rd Place: [TIE] Blui, Zygarde - 2 Points
Text-Based:
1st Place: Machamp The Champion - 5 Points
2nd Place: SeventhPrize - 2 Points
3rd Place: [PARTY TIME] 9Tailz, bbninjas, GM DracLord, Keeper of Night, PokeBoss123, Reggie McGigas, Tails - 1 Point
Fan Voting Results
Image-Based:
1st Place: [TIE] BigfootAUS, Dynamic Duo (Athena & PMJ), professorlight - 4 Points
2nd Place: Huderon of Canossa - 3 Points
3rd Place: [TIE] Blui, Zygarde - 2 Points
Text-Based:
1st Place: Machamp The Champion - 5 Points
2nd Place: SeventhPrize - 2 Points
3rd Place: [PARTY TIME] 9Tailz, bbninjas, GM DracLord, Keeper of Night, PokeBoss123, Reggie McGigas, Tails - 1 Point
RE: PokéBeach Create-A-Card: March 2015 - I Choose You! (Fan Voting Results)
Well, thank you, guys, I really am flattered; I mean, all of them are the best image fakers here, and I ended up tying for first? it didn't occur to me that something like that would happen, even with the reduced competition.
But, I know I ended up last in the judging, considering who I am up against. I didn't even make that card for the contest; in fact, I changed my mega template recently, so that card wasn't ready at all for this. But thank you anyway.
Well, thank you, guys, I really am flattered; I mean, all of them are the best image fakers here, and I ended up tying for first? it didn't occur to me that something like that would happen, even with the reduced competition.
But, I know I ended up last in the judging, considering who I am up against. I didn't even make that card for the contest; in fact, I changed my mega template recently, so that card wasn't ready at all for this. But thank you anyway.
I'm so sorry for the late results. Having to do text-based took more time than I expected (I blame all your wording errors, yours specifically), and somehow stuff kept coming up. I haven't proofread all of this too thoroughly, so If I messed up anywhere, feel free to tell me.
Image Results:
BigfootAUS:
I think I actually prefer the paintless version, I feel it better suits the borders and whatnot. A painty style would better suit either the classic frame or the HGSS frame better, I think. It could do with a bit more exposure, though. But I guess that’s not what I’m here to judge.
Would a card be restricted to just being full-art? Because if not, these cards are significantly worse with the very important and omni-present Cedric Juniper… Yeah, I guess not having height and stuff printed on it is alright.
Ancient Chill feels wrong. I think Ancient Traits were introduced partially to circumvent the ease with which Abilities could be shut off. By making Traits act like Poké-Bodies, all this would essentially reintroduce a power/body-like split without a sharp dividing line in how they function. I guess it’s a fine attack, but I’m personally not a fan.
Freezing Pulse is a lot more interesting. It forces your opponent to actually do something, anything. That being said, it does lose you some believability points. It’s not inconceivable that repeatedly using Freezing Pulse could lock your opponent out of the game completely, which I don’t think is something the designers want to be doing. Stopping the draw step might seem like a fun design space to mess around with, but it breaks a fundamental part of the game and probably does more harm than good. A better effect for this attack might’ve been turning off your opponent’s draw phase if they did something last turn (like attach an Energy, attack, draw a Prize Card, whatever).
Wording errors:
- The wording for the second attack has a precedent, actually, Luvdisc FLF, and I’m afraid it uses a different wording: “your opponent can't draw a card at the beginning of his or her next turn.” Fun Fact: The “start” of a turn used to be correct up until somewhere around Diamond and Pearl. “Beginning” was first officially used on Dialga lv.X.
Fonts and placement errors:
- The font size for the attacks seems a tiny bit small and for the damage (specifically the 30) seems a tiny bit big. These seem within normal margins of errors, and I would not subtract points for this were it not that the 30 is 2 whole pixels taller than the 70, which means you did mess up somewhere.
- The HP is a few pixels too wide.
Creativity/Originality: 15/20
(Exploring some fun design spaces, but not handled as well as it could’ve been.)
Wording: 13/15
(1 wording error.)
Fonts and Placement: 8/10
(Font size for the “30”, HP too wide.)
Believability/Playability: 3.5/5
(Possibility of locking an opponent out of the game.)
Total: 39.5/50
Blui:
That power made me laugh, in a good way. I was so ready to point out any restrictions involving what trainers could or could not be attached if you were going to use this for things like copying that Trainer’s effect, and then you hit me with the very simple and elegant “can’t be played” clause. Awesome. I really, really like this power. It’s simple and elegant, adds a lot of strategic dept to both playing and deckbuilding, and forces other decks to adapt. It’s a metagame warping card in all the good ways. (can you imagine locking out Rare Candy? Yes please!) All this makes it very sad that I think the wording might be slightly off. I’m not sure how to word it better, but the way you’ve worded players can’t play Pokémon Tool cards or TM cards attached to Ninetales either, which certainly isn’t the intent. I think this might be a clarified-in-the-rules kind of thing, though, as this is though to word otherwise. I’m letting it slide, because, while I think it’s imperfect, I think it’s very close to what the actual wording would be.
The attack is pretty great as well, though not without precedent. I like how this influences deck building (how many Energies do you add, and how many cards which look at your prize cards?), and face-down prize cards are always a pretty fun resource, since it depletes both the more you use the attack and the longer the game goes. 80 felt like a bit much, but I think it’s roughly in line with the post-HS power creep, so I guess it’s fine.
There’s not much synergy going on here, but both parts are very interesting gameplay-wise, which is perhaps even more important. I really like this card is what I’m saying.
Wording errors:
- Possibly confusing wording of the power.
- You don’t “turn” a Prize card face up pre-BW, you “choose 1 of you face-down Prize card and put it face up.” After that it should be “If that card is an Energy card, […]”. (See Mawile GE.)
Fonts and placement errors:
- Everything seems within acceptable parameters. Good job!
Creativity/Originality: 19/20
(I really, really like this card.)
Wording: 13/15
(Wording error with regards to putting Prize cards face-up.)
Fonts and Placement: 10/10
(No major flaws.)
Believability/Playability: 5/5
(Seems good.)
Total: 47/50
Delta:
I think I prefer classic blank cards without new-fangled Pokémon in the background.
Gust of Wind is one of the strongest cards in Pokémon (up there with original Bill, Professor Oak, and Energy Removal and friends). Palkia Lv.X has the same effect as that card and was widely played, despite being a 3-retreat Lv.X and despite also forcing your to switch. Luxray GL Lv.X copied Gust of Wind once, when it came into play. It too was widely played. Gust of Wind was (somehow) reprinted as Pokémon Catcher in Emerging Powers, only to essentially be banned a few sets later when a new version of the card required a coin flip (I guess the designers finally came to their senses). What I’m trying to say is that having access to Gust of Wind every single turn, no questions asked (Weezing doesn’t even need to be active!) is broken beyond belief. This is perhaps the single most powerful Power you could make which doesn’t actively damage or knock out Pokémon.
Burst Smog seems a bit low-powered unless it’s part of some combo. Trading Energy for Bench damage seems fun, though.
Wording errors:
- Forgot the comma after “(before your attack)”.
- Wording for the Power should be: “[…] you may choose 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokémon and switch it with his or her Active Pokémon.“
- There’s no “This power can't be used if Weezing is Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed.” clause.
- Using “this Pokémon” on a classic blank is a no-no.
- You “put” damage counters, not “place”.
- And you put them “on” Pokémon, not “onto”.
- “The” should be “a” in the attack.
Fonts and placement errors:
- Some minor issues with font widths, nothing major, and nothing worth deducing a lot of points over, though I would looking into using bigger blanks to make it easier to get the exact font size.
Creativity/Originality: 13/20
(Attack is decently novel, but that’s it.)
Wording: 4/15
(Lots of errors.)
Fonts and Placement: 9.5/10
(Some minor inconsistencies.)
Believability/Playability: 1/5
(Broken.)
Total: 27.5/50
Huderon of Canossa:
Any card which tries to one-up an awesome Pokémon like Venomoth does so at its own peril. Venomoth PHF has almost exactly the same attack, minus the confusion bit. It even has the same Energy cost. This probably means that your version is a bit on the powerful side. While Venomoth requires some set-up to be used effectively, Masquerain already does what you want to do with Venomoth anyway: lock your opponent’s Active Pokémon. Maquerain makes sure that Switch, Full Heal or whatever else aren’t an effective way of treating the special condition you’ve just inflicted. It’s a nice twist, and I don’t think it’s insanely powerful even though it’s essentially strictly better than Venomoth’s attack.
Clear Wing is very basic, so I guess there’s not much for me to say.
Wording errors:
- “He/She” should be “He or She”. x2
- The wording for the second part of the first attack should be: “Whenever your opponent plays a Trainer card from his or her hand during his or her next turn, your opponent flips a coin. If tails, that card has no effect and your opponent shuffles it into his or her deck.” (See: Venomoth PHF.)
- You forgot an “other” in the second attack.
Fonts and placement errors:
- Custom blank = easy points.
Creativity/Originality: 14/20
(Fun twist on the Venomoth attack, but perhaps not as original as you had hoped?)
Wording: 11.5/15
(Quite a few errors.)
Fonts and Placement: 10/10
(Custom blank, so probably fine.)
Believability/Playability: 5/5
(Seems fine.)
Total: 40.5/50
PMJ & Athena:
D’awwwwww. Trying to win me over with cute Mew art, I’m on to your plans! On to them, but completely powerless to stop them.
I really liked the Holon’s Pokémon mechanic, and this does seem like the most elegant way of bringing it back. It would’ve been nice to see a bit more of a twist on it, because at this point this is just that exact effect in the form of an Ability.
Mirage Strike… yeah, not much to say here.
You’re not completely lost when it comes to creativity, though, since you did do some very interesting balancing efforts. Holon’s Magneton and Electrode were basically Energy which could be searched for with cards like Celio’s Network, and Holon’s Castform was too good of a starter Pokémon it had to be included as a 4-of in practically every Delta Species deck, where it was both a starter and an Energy card. Mew here is different, since it does force some interesting deckbuilding decisions. You don’t want to start with this card, ever. 30 HP means you’re dead when your opponent first gets a chance to attack. It does encourage Basic-heavy decks, though, which are already a major problem of the current metagame. But I guess that’s not your fault, nor this card’s fault, which would be a very good design if the real-life design wasn’t as bad.
Weakness to Darkness is how the TCG differentiates Psychic Pokémon from Ghost Pokémon (I challenge you to find a non-Ghost Pokémon with a Weakness to Darkness). Having a Mew with weakness to Darkness doesn’t count a creative twist but as breaking the unwritten rules of the game IMO, and you will be judged accordingly.
Wording errors:
- The wording’s different from the (admittedly pre-BW) Holon’s Pokémon and Double Rainbow Energy wording, but in line with the post-BW Rainbow Energy wording, so I guess it’s fine.
Fonts and placement errors:
- Everything seems to be within acceptable bounds.
Creativity/Originality: 13/20
(Good execution, but not what I’d call creative.)
Wording: 15/15
(Good enough, I think/)
Fonts and Placement: 10/10
(Seems good.)
Believability/Playability: 5/5
(Very well balanced.)
Total: 43/50
professorlight:
Prevent 40? ._.
Put 2 into play, and you take forever to kill. 3 and you’re practically immortal. Put 4 into play and your opponent’s only hope is a deck-out. Just add a way of preventing and or healing Poison.
The thing with damage prevention and healing effects is that they get really good really fast. One of the best decks during the e-era was Scizor. Just Scizor. It couldn’t be poisoned, and with a few Metal Energies it was practically immortal. I think part of the reason we’ve noticed a power creep afterwards is because of the power of damage-reduction effects. The damage output has increased dramatically in recent years, but not drastically enough to give every Pokémon a 4 Metal Energies by default without any problems, not to mention 8 or 12. This is why most recent cards reduce by 40 at most, mostly as the result of an otherwise damage-less or weak attack. I think the furthest they’ve gone recently is Gigalith, with 50, and only if it’s at full HP. Heck, you need 4 Rhyperior (A stage 2 itself) just to get the same effect as a single M Gardevoir.
The attack is fine. I’m not a fan of moves which can swing games drastically based on random chance, but it’s a valid mechanic. Not the most creative, though.
Resistance is usually -20 now, but I guess that doesn’t really matter.
I’m not sure I entirely agree with your M rule. I like using the LvX rule (which is way better than the current one), but being able to evolve from Pokémon-EX is problematic. You tried to fix it by still applying the EX rule, but that means you essentially just get an M Pokémon with a very severe downside which is just as resilient and probably not much stronger than your average M Pokémon without the downside. I would’ve excluded Pokémon-EX from the rule entirely.
Wording errors:
- You forgot a clarification stating that damage is reduced after applying Weakness and Resistance.
- The template for multiple coin flip effects is that the number of heads precedes the effects, e.g. “If 1 of them is heads, do X”. Also, the “or”s should be replaced with full stops. You don’t need the “exactly” either. (See Bisharp DEX)
- Energy should be capitalised.
- The “Don’t” in “(Don’t apply weakness or Resistance” should either not be capitalised, or as is always the case, it should be preceded by a full stop.
- “Do” should be replaced with “This attack does”. x2
- “Remove damage counters” has been replaced with “heal” in DP-on.
Fonts and placement errors:
- Placements on customs is hard to judge. I’m not a fan of Gardevoir’s head blocking text, but everything else seems fine. A bit too sparkly for my taste, but sure.
Creativity/Originality: 11/20
(Pretty standard.)
Wording: 6/15
(Lots of mistakes and omissions. If you’re using a personal wording scheme, please don’t, or at the very least mention this.)
Fonts and Placement: 9.5/10
(Custom blanks, so sure. Hiding vital-ish information makes you lose half a point.)
Believability/Playability: 2/5
(Broken.)
Total: 28.5/50
Zygarde:
The power seems quite fun. I’m a fan of alternate wincons in other TCGs, and I wouldn’t mind seeing some more being added to Pokémon. I’m not sure how often these kinds of decks are going to be knocking out Pokémon, though I guess milling attacks which also deal damage do exist. And yeah, Lostgar, though I’m still not sure how to reconcile my love for alternative wincons with my dislike of the Lost Zone.
Gone with the Tide provides a very interesting alternative win conditions by itself. That being said, I think you may have been a bit too eager to introduce an alternative win conditions that you may have failed to notice just how powerful the attack is in any other context. Considering a stage 2 needed 3 Energies (don’t mention Boost Energy, that’s a different format) to pull this off, and that the power of this effect isn’t really affected by power creep, and considering the attack itself functions as a way of protecting Manaphy, which is a lot more relevant than protecting a 90 HP Drifblim, it strikes me as a lot more powerful than it has any right to be. This silly little Basic Pokémon with just 2 Energies undoes any hard work your opponent may have done. Yes, it doesn’t knock anything out, but the tempo gained from getting rid of an opponent’s Pokémon so easily is massive.
It’s still a very fun card, though, great job!
Wording errors:
- Everything seems fine.
Fonts and placement errors:
- It’s a custom blank, so there’s not much I can say, is there?
Creativity/Originality: 18/20
(Very fun meta-design, very creative power.)
Wording: 15/15
(Seems fine.)
Fonts and Placement: 10/10
(Custom blank loophole.)
Believability/Playability: 3.5/5
(A very dangerous attack to be costed so aggressively on a simple Basic.)
Total: 46.5/50
3rd Place: PMJ and Athena’s cute Mew (if I do say so myself), with 43/50 points.
2nd Place: Zygarde’s Manaphy, with 46.5/50 points.
1st Place: Blui’s Ninetales, with 47/50 points.
A very close finish between 2 very excellent entries!
Text Results:
I’ll try to be nice since Luis was supposed to be judging this round and not mean ol’ Spoon. I won’t be too nice, though, I have a reputation to uphold. The creativity score has been upped by a few points compared to my usual rating for this reason.
9Tailz:
Wow. That’s very, very good. As in powerful, as in very powerful. Getting some value no matter what essentially for free is a pretty sweet deal. Confusion is one of the more powerful conditions, Sleep is really good half of the time, and 2 damage is pretty sweet and seriously messes with HP calculations. Any of these options is fine, and you can decide what you want to do after using the Ability, which makes sure your opponent has no way of preparing for what will happen, but you can easily act accordingly. Assuming Benched Pokémon are relatively safe in the format (and even if not), I see very little reason why you wouldn’t at least one of this card to every single deck. Unless you’re talking about Trainers, that generally makes something a badly designed card (unless perhaps the Pokémon acts as a Trainer, like Uxie LA). This could’ve been fun in some niche strategies if it didn’t automatically give you a great amount of value, guaranteed, without any drawbacks.
What makes matters worse is that Chatot’s attack is essentially useless, which makes it a single-use Pokémon which gets slotted into every deck, and does nothing but randomise the game every turn. It’s a fun idea, but it would need a very, very specific strategy (I can’t think of very many cards this would go well with, actually, I guess the original Unown N or Sprout Tower or something, but even then you’re just stalling) or it would require a format where some card for some reason targets Benched Pokémon of a specific type and you’d want to waste 2 Energies trying to avoid this. I guess it could mess with some Special Energy cards which require the Pokémon they’re attached to to be a specific type, but even then.
Free retreat makes sense here, but in reality only reenforces the whole add-it-to-your-deck-whatever-deck-it-may-be-ish-ness (totally a word) of the card.
Wording errors:
- “If 1 coin is heads” should be “if 1 of them is heads”.
- (Both yours and your opponent’s) should be italicised.
Creativity/Originality: 15/20
(Key Change is creative, but only in a “that’s new” kind of way, not in a strategically interesting way.)
Wording: 12/15
(1 wording error and 1 minor error.)
Believability/Playability: 10/15
(A far too useful Ability combined with a far too weird/useless attack.)
Total: 37/50
bbninjas:
Suffocating Swarm sounds like a very fun Ability. It also sounds very, very powerful in donk decks, where 80ish damage attacks suddenly become lethal, and can be lethal every turn afterwards. I’m not sure it’s that big of a problem, though, since it does pose some interesting deck building questions. I really like it conceptually, but in reality it might be very oppressive.
But I think I’m interpreting it differently from you. You see, I think (and I think I’m correct here), damage isn’t done in increments. If something has 60 remaining HP, and you do 70 damage, it doesn’t fall to 60, then 50, then 40, then 30, then the Ability stops working, so it goes back to 50, then 40, then 30, then 20, and then 10. It simply does 70 damage. Even if I’m wrong here, I can’t be the only person interpreting it this way. If you want to have it interpreted differently, you should’ve worded it differently.Final Burst can indeed be very powerful in combination with Mew EX (or worse, the Smeargle of your fellow competitor fleshrum, though that might be Smeargle’s fault). I think Shedinja’s attack is significantly different in this regard, since it requires some damage on Mew EX, making it more fragile, while this attack requires no damage on Mew EX. A Mew EX Dunsparce deck could be very powerful, but it sounds like a lot of fun so whatever.
Wording errors:
- The wording for the first part, while I think it’s without precedent, feels wrong. I think it should either be “loses 20 HP” or “gets -20 HP”, losing -20 is a double negative. However, since the wording is becoming increasingly weirder (I think they’re aiming for short and simple, but somehow end up at weird), it might actually be correct. I hate the weird wording they’re using recently, something like “Your opponent’s Active Pokémon’s maximum HP is reduced by 20” which would’ve been roughly how they would’ve worded it in times long since past seems a lot more rigid and unambiguous.
- The second part is iffy as well. I think “This Ability stops working if your opponent’s Active Pokémon’s HP is 40 or less” would’ve been better. Though again, new wording is weird.
- Since “Knocked Out” is a condition, I think the word “now” should’ve been included in the attack.
- The “equal to” seems weird. I guess it can be correct, but I would’ve changed it to “If this Pokémon has more remaining HP than the Defending Pokémon, the Defending Pokémon is Knocked Out.” This would solve the convoluted wording problem.
Creativity/Originality: 20/20
(Fun, synergistic, clever. Would’ve been 18, but I’m trying to be more Luis-like, so a full 20. This is not representative of future scoring.)
Wording: 10/15
(Too much iffiness. There is at least one big error here, though don’t ask me where. That’s -2, the remaining -3 is for the ambiguity of the Ability, if I don’t subtract it here I would have to -4 your Believability score.)
Believability/Playability: 14/15
(Using your interpretation, it seems fine, though maybe a bit too abusable with cards like Mew EX.)
Total: 44/50
DarkMatterGaming:
I’m not sure how you’re fitting 3 different attack-things on a card which already features an “evolves from” rule (which you forgot, BTW), an M evolution rule and a Pokémon-EX rule. All M Pokémon-EX only have 1 attack, and I’m pretty sure that’s all the room they have. It’s tempting to want to add as much as possible to a card, but less is more in a lot of cases.
The Ability is a nice nod to the dual-type of Mewtwo, but it feels rather unnecessary and tries to hard to drive home the point. The x4 weakness thing will hardly ever be relevant, so all it does is add needless complexity, take up more space, and add a thing more players will likely forget about when it actually matters.
I really like the first attack, which is a real skill-testing move. I requires knowledge of what you suspect your opponent can be playing, what you expect they will play next turn, and what you don’t want your opponent to be playing next turn. It’d be nice if Pokémon had more moves like that. Definitely a fun idea.
The second attack strikes me as a bit much. 120+ without a downside is usually relegated to the 4 Energy attacks. 150, possibly even as much as 250, for just 3 energies sounds insane. What absolutely breaks this attack beyond any reasonability is the Gust of Wind part. This attack literally kills an opponent’s Pokémon of your choice, no questions asked, for the low, low price of 3 Energies. It is very hard for me to think of a more powerful attack. I used to play a very strong deck which needed 4 different hard to play Pokémon (Mesprit lvX, Uxie lvX, Azelf lvX and Palkia lvX), a Switch and 2 Energy discards just to do what this attack does all by itself. The fact that it technically evolves from one of the most dominant Pokémon-EX would make this the single most Pokémon card, without a doubt.
Wording errors:
- No “é” in Pokémon. x6
- There shouldn’t be a dot after M.
- Energy should be capitalised.
- The wording for the Ability should be: “If this Pokémon has any [F] Energy attached to it, this Pokémon's type is both [P] and [F] and apply Weakness this Pokémon as ×4 instead.” Not quite sure about the last part, but it definitely isn’t what you wrote.
- I’d have used “a” instead of “1” in the first attack.
- “if they play” should be “he or she plays”. I too prefer gender-neutral pronouns, but apparently the TCG does not.
- The wording for the last part would have to be something along the lines of “This attack does 100 damage to that Pokémon”, but that seems inconsistent with the rules. It’d probably be best to say “put 10 damage counters on [the Defending Pokémon]”.
- In the second attack, you again use a gender-neutral pronoun.
- Forgot the word “damage” after “150”.
- And the word “more” after “10”.
- “Players” shouldn’t be capitalised.
- And neither should “Discard”.
- The EX rule should be: “When a Pokémon-EX has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.”
- “Cards” shouldn’t be capitalised.
I’d really appreciate it if you’d do a bit more checking and if you’d look at a few more cards next time, it saves me a lot of time trying to go through all the errors, and gives you quite a few more points.
Creativity/Originality: 15/20
(I really like first attack, everything else is rather lacklustre.)
Wording: 0/15
(You actually just had enough minuses to reach 0 (I use a very exact system), try to do a bit more research next time.)
Believability/Playability: 5/15
(Broken second attack, way too much going on on a single card.)
Total: 20/50
fleshrum:
I like the idea behind the Ability (Mechanically, I’m not sure what the flavour is meant to be). That being said, it’s slightly problematic. Mew EX’s Ability is already somewhat decent, and that’s on a low-HP Pokémon-EX. Giving every colourless Pokémon access to it might make it far too powerful. It would also restrict the possible power level of future colourless Pokémon.
Moody fits the tone of the eponymous ability. The second part of the attack possible affecting the Active Pokémon while the first part can’t is a bit irksome, but other than that it’s fine.
Also, only 50 HP? That’s Neo-era weak, there’s been a bit of a power creep since then, and Smeargle would probably have at least 60 HP nowadays.
Generally, this card strikes me as needlessly weak Pokémon with an overly strong Ability. I’m not sure those balance out in quite the way you’d want them to.
Wording errors:
- You switched feet and inches.
- (Both yours and your opponent’s) should be italicised.
- “Opponents” needs an apostrophe.
- “Energy” should be capitalised.
- No modifier after the Weakness. (I’m assuming it’s x2, but cards which use your wording template do mention it.)
Creativity/Originality: 16/20
(Flavourful attack, fun ability.)
Wording: 11/15
(Some minor and 2 very minor errors.)
Believability/Playability: 12/15
(Too weak a Pokémon with too strong an Ability.)
Total: 39/50
GM DracLord:
I like the concept behind Lv.V Pokémon, I’m not sure I like the name. Lv.X was a weird concept to begin with, this takes it to a whole new level (at what point does levelling your Pokémon result in it getting sick?). Mechanically it’s quite fun. Not being allowed to be Active can be an interesting twist, but I feel it’s a far weirder and more situational than the lv.X restriction. If something is easy to forget, it might be best to drop it (also, flavourfully, Lv.X have to be active because you can’t gain levels without being in the action, having to be Benched to virus-level (?) strikes me as bizarre).
Heal 20. I’m not a fan. If you’ve read some of the other reviews I’ve done in the last rounds (or even this one), you’ll know what I think about making damage healing and prevention too good. It’s a big no-no. It shuts off one of the most essential parts of the game and at best turns the game into a drawn-out grindy snorefest. Essentially healing 40 every turn is borderline, since it’s technically not better than 4 Metal Energies, but I’m afraid I still think it’s slightly powerful. Adding the more-damage thing doesn’t help.
Viral Storm is generic but fine. It’s sort of weird combined with the Body, which increases damage to the Defending Pokémon but not to Benched Pokémon. This is just asking for misinterpretations.
Chaotic Turbulence is fun. Discarding your opponent’s hand is a very powerful effect, and perhaps more importantly it feels powerful as well. 5 Energies on a Stage 3 is a big investment, and while the pay-off may be a bit small here sometimes, it definitely feels awesome. If this card finds itself a good Energy engine, doing 120ish and discarding your opponent’s hand is a very good way of locking up a game.
As a whole, it feels very busy. Less is often more when it comes to card design, and adding 2 attacks and a Body to a prevolution’s other attacks and powers feels like a bit much. There’s a reason every single Lv.X added only 2 in any combination of powers and attacks: things become needlessly complex. This card would’ve been far better if you didn’t include the first attack.
Wording errors:
- Zarquon’s armpits, that body. ._. I feel it at the very least lacks a full stop somewhere. It’s technically correct, but the way you’ve phrased it makes it very, very hard to fully understand when your first read it.
- You’re obviously using pre-BW wording, in which case “Heal” isn’t a thing yet. “Remove 2 damage counters” is what you’re looking for.
- You usually don’t increase damage done by a Pokémon, since that can be ambiguous and causes some rules complications. What you want to say is that each of Flygon’s attacks does 10 more damage.
- “Increased by 10 more” is redundant, “does 10 more damage” is sufficient.
- No italics for “(Don't apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)”.
- The full stop precedes the bracket in “(Don't apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)”.
Creativity/Originality: 17/20
(Fun concept, average execution.)
Wording: 8/15
(A bunch of errors in the Ability.)
Believability/Playability: 10/15
(Mechanic could be better executed, borderline body.)
Total: 35/50
Keeper of Night:
Trickster is pretty fun (though I guess functionally pretty similar to Porygon2 UF), not much else to say here, really. It opens up some strategies, which is always nice.
60 damage for 1 Energy felt like way too much, but Landorus-EX already did it so what do I know? Thanks for making me feel old and jaded there. Gem Scramble is nice and has some synergy with the Ability. Overall pretty standard but decent card.
Wording errors:
- “(before your attack)” should be italicised. (Yes, I can see through your foul Quote tags trickery.)
- There’s no comma after “(before your attack)”.
- There’s no such thing as a “Tool card”, what you mean to say is “Pokémon Tool card”.
Creativity/Originality: 15/20
(I’m being kind, would probably be 12ish if I were the original judge.)
Wording: 12/15
(Some mistakes.)
Believability/Playability: 15/15
(Seems fine.)
Total: 42/50
Machamp The Champion:
One of the worst things the SP format introduced was a card name “Power Spray”, which essentially meant you couldn’t just play your turn since you always had to ask for permission whenever you used a Poké-Power. I feel a TCG needs to be either completely interactive (like, say, Magic the Gathering) or completely non-interactive during another player’s turn. A bit of interaction makes for a very bad play experience IMO. That being said, the effect of this Ability seems very mild in comparison to even Alakazam MT, and only really punishes specific cards in a specific way. It’s hard for something to go irrevocably wrong with this effect as well, which I think is pretty important when it comes to these kinds of effects (nothing ruins your tournament like immediately drawing cards with Uxie only to have your opponent point out they have Power Spray). I think modern Pokémon doesn’t do these kinds of effects anymore for a very good reason, but I guess this specific Ability gets a pass. It would set a really bad precedent, though.
Junk Toss sounds like fun. I like the idea of forcing the trade-off between having an Item-heavy deck and then not being allowed to use them. It’s a very interesting choice and sets up a lot of interesting situations.
I’m not sure your wording references are 100% correct, since your mix and matching pre-BW and post-BW wording. It’s pretty hard to judge it accurately, though, since there is no post-BW precedent. That being said, there are some errors.
Wording errors:
- You forgot the word “damage” in the attack.
- Based on the wording of Igglybuff GE, “If you haven’t played any Item cards during this turn” should be “If you didn't play any Item card from your hand during this turn”.
Creativity/Originality: 19/20
(Decent ability, fun attack. Inflated from the 16ish you would’ve gotten because of Luis-ified scores.)
Wording: 13/15
(Some minor errors.)
Believability/Playability: 14/15
(Effects on your opponent’s turn. Ugh.)
Total: 46/50
PokeBoss123:
I like the idea behind the Ability, Snorlax being quite an Energy-hungry Pokémon and all. Getting a free reusable Energy attach through a Basic Pokémon might be very abusable, though, and I’m confident it would be outright broken in the right format. It’s thought to rate these kinds of Abilities, and I guess being restricted to 2/deck somewhat (though probably not significantly) restricts the power. It’s probably still a bit too strong, though, and perhaps most importantly limits what cards are allowed to be in a format without breaking it. Design which takes away other possible design avenues (in this case moving Energy between Pokémon) is always a bit iffy.
The attack is a bit boring, but very synergistic with the Ability. The big problem with it, though, is that you’ve presented me with a non-EX Basic Pokémon capable of doing 120 consistenly in 2 turns. That sounds quite powerful, even by today’s standards. I like that you have to discard all Energies, but still.
Resistance for Psychic is something which isn’t really done anymore, and I see no specific reason why you added it here.
Wording errors:
- It’s “Before your attack”, not “before you attack”.
- “(Before your attack)” should be italicised.
- “Basic” Shouldn’t be capitalised when referring to Energy. x2
- “If both are tails” should be “If both of them are tails”.
Creativity/Originality: 16/20
(Very flavourful, nice synergy.)
Wording: 10,5/15
(XXX)
Believability/Playability: 11/15
(Seems too abusable and powerful, resistance for Psychic)
Total: 37.5/50
Reggie McGigas:
Outrage is decent, I guess. The choice is interesting, and 100 is a decent amount. Nothing too exciting, though.
Wording errors:
- The Ability should include a “Once during your turn (before your attack) clause”. This is a pretty big mistake.
Creativity/Originality: 13/20
(Meh. If I weren’t rating a bit higher it’d probably be an 11.)
Wording: 13/15
(One big oversight.)
Believability/Playability: 6/15
(BAH-ROKEN.)
Total: 32/50
SeventhPrize:
The Spirit Link Ability is quite creative. I’m quite saddened that it doesn’t open the door for potential non-EX M Pokémon, but sure.
I feel it’s kind of rude to hate on Pokémon with Ancient Traits, since I think these were designed to circumvent Ability-hate (most notably Garbodor). I guess it’s fair, though, and it does make for a fun attack.
Spirit Strike sounds like too much of a game winner. 100 for 4 Energies is pretty good already, especially on a non-EX Basic. Being able to essentially wipe out every single one of your opponent’s Pokémon if they’re not using an EX-based deck is where it gets problematic. It feels like this attack needs an “only once” clause for it to be acceptable. The it’d just be very good, now I feel it’s too good. The idea behind it is quite creative, though.
I feel like this card is trying to do a bit too much. It feels like you want to make a card which solves some of the problems with the TCG, both the lack of spirit links for a lot of the M Pokémon and the lack of answers for Ancient Traits. On top of that you’ve added a way of dealing with a lot of low-HP Pokémon, seemingly for no apparent reason. For just a lowly Basic, this feels like a lot.
Wording errors:
- There shouldn’t be a comma before “(before your attack)”.
- In the first attack, “have” should be “has” x2.
Creativity/Originality: 17/20
(Creative second attack and Ability, but low on synergy and focus.)
Wording: 12.5/15
(Minor errors.)
Believability/Playability: 12/15
(A bit much.)
Total: 41.5/50
steffenka:
The first attack is rather simple, though I guess it goes well with the second attack. The second attack is very creative, though I believe it’s breaking many written and unwritten rules. It’s also immensely expensive for an attack which most of the time will do absolutely nothing. How often does your opponent have a Pokémon tool, not to mention one which is significantly better than one you could give them? If it switched tools even if one of the parties didn’t have one, this would be slightly better, if and only if a very detrimental tool was also in the set.
Everything else seems fine.
Wording:
- “Has” should be “have” (both implies plural).
- “Put” should be changed to “attach” when referring to Pokémon tools.
- I feel like the wording on the last sentence could’ve been better.
Creativity/Originality: 17/20
(Very fun mechanic.)
Wording: 12/15
(Some minor mistakes.)
Believability/Playability: 10/15
(Seems like a rules nightmare, weird Energy requirements.)
Total: 39/50
Tails:
The Ability seems creative and rather flavourful. The coin flip representing the randomness of the wind direction (which can be either up or towards the bench, I guess) is pretty clever. The attacks are rather generic, especially since U-turn isn’t too different from the Ability. There’s also a sort of anti-synergy. With hit-and-run strategies like U-turn, you usually don’t expect your attacking Pokémon to get hit (it goes to the bench after every attack), so you probably won’t need to heal it by returning it to your hand. Also, 2 attacks, an Ability and an Ancient Trait is a bit much. Not only would it be hard to fit onto a card, less is often more when it comes to making a good, coherent card.
Wording errors:
- No need for a (Before your attack) clause since this isn’t an Ability.
- It’s spelt “Pokémon”, not “Pokemon” (what are they poking?) x5 (you did it right 2 times, though, which is pretty disorienting.)
- The wording on the Ability would take me forever to fix. I’ll point out a few things, but this list isn’t comprehensive at all:
- Doesn’t start with “once during your turn” etc.
- “Than”, not “then”. English isn’t even my first language, I shouldn’t be correcting errors like this.
- Of course you can use an Ability, that’s what it’s for.
- No semicolons needed.
- “Scoop up” is a card, not an effect.
- If you’re referring to cards, say it, “Pokémon Tool cards”, not “Tools”
- Pokémon cards since BW use “This Pokémon” instead of the Pokémon’s name.
- “If tails”, not “Tails;”
- “Retreat” is when you pay a Pokémon’s retreat cost, you’re thinking of “Switch”.
- “Can’t” not “cannot”.
- And so on.
Creativity/Originality: 17/20
(Clever ability, everything else is rather generic. Would be 15ish using my regular scores.)
Wording: 0/15
(Various big wording errors, I’m sorry but it would take too long to point out every mistake.)
Believability/Playability: 15/15
(Seems fine.)
Total: 33/50
Vom:
180 HP strikes me as a lot. It used to be simple back in the day when 120 was the maximum, but still, it hasn’t risen that much. Most recent Garchomp have 140 HP, which seems a lot more correct.
I like the idea of hating on Pokémon-EX with a Stage 2 without it applying to the Stage 2 itself.
The attack is a bit more iffy, though. I feel it’s missing a “you may”, since this feels a lot more drastic than discarding an Energy, and discarding an Energy of your own to possible not discard an EX feels weird. 100 damage also seems like a lot on top of the getting rid of an EX. I get that Garchomp apparently hates EX, but this seems a bit silly.
I’d recommend against using Ancient Traits that will appear on upcoming cards, since you’ll most likely get the wording wrong, which you did. The wording should be: “You may play this card to evolve 1 of your Pokémon in play during your first turn or on a Pokémon that was put into play this turn”. I’ll correct as if you did not know the actual wording.
Wording errors:
- No need for a “(before your attack)” clause since this isn’t an Ability.
- Either way, it should’ve been italicised, no excuse.
- The “Discard a Pokémon” thing is weird, but not without precedent. I’d include a “(This doesn't count as a Knocked Out Pokémon.)”-like clause, though.
Creativity/Originality: 15/20
(Fun Ability.)
Wording: 11/15
(Minor errors, no rules clarification.)
Believability/Playability: 11/15
(The attack feels odd to me. Very high HP)
Total: 37/50
3rd Place: Keeper of Night’s Keeper's Sableye EX, with 42/50 points.
2nd Place: bbninjas’s Dunsparce, with 44/50 points.
1st Place: Machamp The Champion’s Swadloon, with 46/50 points.
And now it's time to start judging the next round...
Image Results:
BigfootAUS:
I think I actually prefer the paintless version, I feel it better suits the borders and whatnot. A painty style would better suit either the classic frame or the HGSS frame better, I think. It could do with a bit more exposure, though. But I guess that’s not what I’m here to judge.
Would a card be restricted to just being full-art? Because if not, these cards are significantly worse with the very important and omni-present Cedric Juniper… Yeah, I guess not having height and stuff printed on it is alright.
Ancient Chill feels wrong. I think Ancient Traits were introduced partially to circumvent the ease with which Abilities could be shut off. By making Traits act like Poké-Bodies, all this would essentially reintroduce a power/body-like split without a sharp dividing line in how they function. I guess it’s a fine attack, but I’m personally not a fan.
Freezing Pulse is a lot more interesting. It forces your opponent to actually do something, anything. That being said, it does lose you some believability points. It’s not inconceivable that repeatedly using Freezing Pulse could lock your opponent out of the game completely, which I don’t think is something the designers want to be doing. Stopping the draw step might seem like a fun design space to mess around with, but it breaks a fundamental part of the game and probably does more harm than good. A better effect for this attack might’ve been turning off your opponent’s draw phase if they did something last turn (like attach an Energy, attack, draw a Prize Card, whatever).
Wording errors:
- The wording for the second attack has a precedent, actually, Luvdisc FLF, and I’m afraid it uses a different wording: “your opponent can't draw a card at the beginning of his or her next turn.” Fun Fact: The “start” of a turn used to be correct up until somewhere around Diamond and Pearl. “Beginning” was first officially used on Dialga lv.X.
Fonts and placement errors:
- The font size for the attacks seems a tiny bit small and for the damage (specifically the 30) seems a tiny bit big. These seem within normal margins of errors, and I would not subtract points for this were it not that the 30 is 2 whole pixels taller than the 70, which means you did mess up somewhere.
- The HP is a few pixels too wide.
Creativity/Originality: 15/20
(Exploring some fun design spaces, but not handled as well as it could’ve been.)
Wording: 13/15
(1 wording error.)
Fonts and Placement: 8/10
(Font size for the “30”, HP too wide.)
Believability/Playability: 3.5/5
(Possibility of locking an opponent out of the game.)
Total: 39.5/50
That power made me laugh, in a good way. I was so ready to point out any restrictions involving what trainers could or could not be attached if you were going to use this for things like copying that Trainer’s effect, and then you hit me with the very simple and elegant “can’t be played” clause. Awesome. I really, really like this power. It’s simple and elegant, adds a lot of strategic dept to both playing and deckbuilding, and forces other decks to adapt. It’s a metagame warping card in all the good ways. (can you imagine locking out Rare Candy? Yes please!) All this makes it very sad that I think the wording might be slightly off. I’m not sure how to word it better, but the way you’ve worded players can’t play Pokémon Tool cards or TM cards attached to Ninetales either, which certainly isn’t the intent. I think this might be a clarified-in-the-rules kind of thing, though, as this is though to word otherwise. I’m letting it slide, because, while I think it’s imperfect, I think it’s very close to what the actual wording would be.
The attack is pretty great as well, though not without precedent. I like how this influences deck building (how many Energies do you add, and how many cards which look at your prize cards?), and face-down prize cards are always a pretty fun resource, since it depletes both the more you use the attack and the longer the game goes. 80 felt like a bit much, but I think it’s roughly in line with the post-HS power creep, so I guess it’s fine.
There’s not much synergy going on here, but both parts are very interesting gameplay-wise, which is perhaps even more important. I really like this card is what I’m saying.
Wording errors:
- Possibly confusing wording of the power.
- You don’t “turn” a Prize card face up pre-BW, you “choose 1 of you face-down Prize card and put it face up.” After that it should be “If that card is an Energy card, […]”. (See Mawile GE.)
Fonts and placement errors:
- Everything seems within acceptable parameters. Good job!
Creativity/Originality: 19/20
(I really, really like this card.)
Wording: 13/15
(Wording error with regards to putting Prize cards face-up.)
Fonts and Placement: 10/10
(No major flaws.)
Believability/Playability: 5/5
(Seems good.)
Total: 47/50
I think I prefer classic blank cards without new-fangled Pokémon in the background.
Gust of Wind is one of the strongest cards in Pokémon (up there with original Bill, Professor Oak, and Energy Removal and friends). Palkia Lv.X has the same effect as that card and was widely played, despite being a 3-retreat Lv.X and despite also forcing your to switch. Luxray GL Lv.X copied Gust of Wind once, when it came into play. It too was widely played. Gust of Wind was (somehow) reprinted as Pokémon Catcher in Emerging Powers, only to essentially be banned a few sets later when a new version of the card required a coin flip (I guess the designers finally came to their senses). What I’m trying to say is that having access to Gust of Wind every single turn, no questions asked (Weezing doesn’t even need to be active!) is broken beyond belief. This is perhaps the single most powerful Power you could make which doesn’t actively damage or knock out Pokémon.
Burst Smog seems a bit low-powered unless it’s part of some combo. Trading Energy for Bench damage seems fun, though.
Wording errors:
- Forgot the comma after “(before your attack)”.
- Wording for the Power should be: “[…] you may choose 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokémon and switch it with his or her Active Pokémon.“
- There’s no “This power can't be used if Weezing is Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed.” clause.
- Using “this Pokémon” on a classic blank is a no-no.
- You “put” damage counters, not “place”.
- And you put them “on” Pokémon, not “onto”.
- “The” should be “a” in the attack.
Fonts and placement errors:
- Some minor issues with font widths, nothing major, and nothing worth deducing a lot of points over, though I would looking into using bigger blanks to make it easier to get the exact font size.
Creativity/Originality: 13/20
(Attack is decently novel, but that’s it.)
Wording: 4/15
(Lots of errors.)
Fonts and Placement: 9.5/10
(Some minor inconsistencies.)
Believability/Playability: 1/5
(Broken.)
Total: 27.5/50
Any card which tries to one-up an awesome Pokémon like Venomoth does so at its own peril. Venomoth PHF has almost exactly the same attack, minus the confusion bit. It even has the same Energy cost. This probably means that your version is a bit on the powerful side. While Venomoth requires some set-up to be used effectively, Masquerain already does what you want to do with Venomoth anyway: lock your opponent’s Active Pokémon. Maquerain makes sure that Switch, Full Heal or whatever else aren’t an effective way of treating the special condition you’ve just inflicted. It’s a nice twist, and I don’t think it’s insanely powerful even though it’s essentially strictly better than Venomoth’s attack.
Clear Wing is very basic, so I guess there’s not much for me to say.
Wording errors:
- “He/She” should be “He or She”. x2
- The wording for the second part of the first attack should be: “Whenever your opponent plays a Trainer card from his or her hand during his or her next turn, your opponent flips a coin. If tails, that card has no effect and your opponent shuffles it into his or her deck.” (See: Venomoth PHF.)
- You forgot an “other” in the second attack.
Fonts and placement errors:
- Custom blank = easy points.
Creativity/Originality: 14/20
(Fun twist on the Venomoth attack, but perhaps not as original as you had hoped?)
Wording: 11.5/15
(Quite a few errors.)
Fonts and Placement: 10/10
(Custom blank, so probably fine.)
Believability/Playability: 5/5
(Seems fine.)
Total: 40.5/50
D’awwwwww. Trying to win me over with cute Mew art, I’m on to your plans! On to them, but completely powerless to stop them.
I really liked the Holon’s Pokémon mechanic, and this does seem like the most elegant way of bringing it back. It would’ve been nice to see a bit more of a twist on it, because at this point this is just that exact effect in the form of an Ability.
Mirage Strike… yeah, not much to say here.
You’re not completely lost when it comes to creativity, though, since you did do some very interesting balancing efforts. Holon’s Magneton and Electrode were basically Energy which could be searched for with cards like Celio’s Network, and Holon’s Castform was too good of a starter Pokémon it had to be included as a 4-of in practically every Delta Species deck, where it was both a starter and an Energy card. Mew here is different, since it does force some interesting deckbuilding decisions. You don’t want to start with this card, ever. 30 HP means you’re dead when your opponent first gets a chance to attack. It does encourage Basic-heavy decks, though, which are already a major problem of the current metagame. But I guess that’s not your fault, nor this card’s fault, which would be a very good design if the real-life design wasn’t as bad.
Weakness to Darkness is how the TCG differentiates Psychic Pokémon from Ghost Pokémon (I challenge you to find a non-Ghost Pokémon with a Weakness to Darkness). Having a Mew with weakness to Darkness doesn’t count a creative twist but as breaking the unwritten rules of the game IMO, and you will be judged accordingly.
Wording errors:
- The wording’s different from the (admittedly pre-BW) Holon’s Pokémon and Double Rainbow Energy wording, but in line with the post-BW Rainbow Energy wording, so I guess it’s fine.
Fonts and placement errors:
- Everything seems to be within acceptable bounds.
Creativity/Originality: 13/20
(Good execution, but not what I’d call creative.)
Wording: 15/15
(Good enough, I think/)
Fonts and Placement: 10/10
(Seems good.)
Believability/Playability: 5/5
(Very well balanced.)
Total: 43/50
Prevent 40? ._.
Put 2 into play, and you take forever to kill. 3 and you’re practically immortal. Put 4 into play and your opponent’s only hope is a deck-out. Just add a way of preventing and or healing Poison.
The thing with damage prevention and healing effects is that they get really good really fast. One of the best decks during the e-era was Scizor. Just Scizor. It couldn’t be poisoned, and with a few Metal Energies it was practically immortal. I think part of the reason we’ve noticed a power creep afterwards is because of the power of damage-reduction effects. The damage output has increased dramatically in recent years, but not drastically enough to give every Pokémon a 4 Metal Energies by default without any problems, not to mention 8 or 12. This is why most recent cards reduce by 40 at most, mostly as the result of an otherwise damage-less or weak attack. I think the furthest they’ve gone recently is Gigalith, with 50, and only if it’s at full HP. Heck, you need 4 Rhyperior (A stage 2 itself) just to get the same effect as a single M Gardevoir.
The attack is fine. I’m not a fan of moves which can swing games drastically based on random chance, but it’s a valid mechanic. Not the most creative, though.
Resistance is usually -20 now, but I guess that doesn’t really matter.
I’m not sure I entirely agree with your M rule. I like using the LvX rule (which is way better than the current one), but being able to evolve from Pokémon-EX is problematic. You tried to fix it by still applying the EX rule, but that means you essentially just get an M Pokémon with a very severe downside which is just as resilient and probably not much stronger than your average M Pokémon without the downside. I would’ve excluded Pokémon-EX from the rule entirely.
Wording errors:
- You forgot a clarification stating that damage is reduced after applying Weakness and Resistance.
- The template for multiple coin flip effects is that the number of heads precedes the effects, e.g. “If 1 of them is heads, do X”. Also, the “or”s should be replaced with full stops. You don’t need the “exactly” either. (See Bisharp DEX)
- Energy should be capitalised.
- The “Don’t” in “(Don’t apply weakness or Resistance” should either not be capitalised, or as is always the case, it should be preceded by a full stop.
- “Do” should be replaced with “This attack does”. x2
- “Remove damage counters” has been replaced with “heal” in DP-on.
Fonts and placement errors:
- Placements on customs is hard to judge. I’m not a fan of Gardevoir’s head blocking text, but everything else seems fine. A bit too sparkly for my taste, but sure.
Creativity/Originality: 11/20
(Pretty standard.)
Wording: 6/15
(Lots of mistakes and omissions. If you’re using a personal wording scheme, please don’t, or at the very least mention this.)
Fonts and Placement: 9.5/10
(Custom blanks, so sure. Hiding vital-ish information makes you lose half a point.)
Believability/Playability: 2/5
(Broken.)
Total: 28.5/50
The power seems quite fun. I’m a fan of alternate wincons in other TCGs, and I wouldn’t mind seeing some more being added to Pokémon. I’m not sure how often these kinds of decks are going to be knocking out Pokémon, though I guess milling attacks which also deal damage do exist. And yeah, Lostgar, though I’m still not sure how to reconcile my love for alternative wincons with my dislike of the Lost Zone.
Gone with the Tide provides a very interesting alternative win conditions by itself. That being said, I think you may have been a bit too eager to introduce an alternative win conditions that you may have failed to notice just how powerful the attack is in any other context. Considering a stage 2 needed 3 Energies (don’t mention Boost Energy, that’s a different format) to pull this off, and that the power of this effect isn’t really affected by power creep, and considering the attack itself functions as a way of protecting Manaphy, which is a lot more relevant than protecting a 90 HP Drifblim, it strikes me as a lot more powerful than it has any right to be. This silly little Basic Pokémon with just 2 Energies undoes any hard work your opponent may have done. Yes, it doesn’t knock anything out, but the tempo gained from getting rid of an opponent’s Pokémon so easily is massive.
It’s still a very fun card, though, great job!
Wording errors:
- Everything seems fine.
Fonts and placement errors:
- It’s a custom blank, so there’s not much I can say, is there?
Creativity/Originality: 18/20
(Very fun meta-design, very creative power.)
Wording: 15/15
(Seems fine.)
Fonts and Placement: 10/10
(Custom blank loophole.)
Believability/Playability: 3.5/5
(A very dangerous attack to be costed so aggressively on a simple Basic.)
Total: 46.5/50
2nd Place: Zygarde’s Manaphy, with 46.5/50 points.
1st Place: Blui’s Ninetales, with 47/50 points.
A very close finish between 2 very excellent entries!
Text Results:
I’ll try to be nice since Luis was supposed to be judging this round and not mean ol’ Spoon. I won’t be too nice, though, I have a reputation to uphold. The creativity score has been upped by a few points compared to my usual rating for this reason.
9Tailz:
Chatot - HP60 - [C]
Basic
NO. 441 Music Note Pokémon HT: 1’08’’ WT: 4.2 lbs.
Ability- Accompaniment
Once during your turn (before your attack), if this Pokémon is on your Bench, you may flip 2 coins. If 1 coin is heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Confused. If both of them are heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Paralyzed. If both of them are tails, place 2 damage counters on the Defending Pokémon. You can’t use more than 1 Accompaniment Ability each turn.
[C][C] Key Change
Choose a type. All Pokémon of that type are [C] until the end of your opponent’s next turn (both yours and your opponent’s).
weakness- [L]x2
resistance- [F]-20
retreat cost- none
It keeps rhythm by flicking its tail feathers like a metronome. It imitates human speech.
Wow. That’s very, very good. As in powerful, as in very powerful. Getting some value no matter what essentially for free is a pretty sweet deal. Confusion is one of the more powerful conditions, Sleep is really good half of the time, and 2 damage is pretty sweet and seriously messes with HP calculations. Any of these options is fine, and you can decide what you want to do after using the Ability, which makes sure your opponent has no way of preparing for what will happen, but you can easily act accordingly. Assuming Benched Pokémon are relatively safe in the format (and even if not), I see very little reason why you wouldn’t at least one of this card to every single deck. Unless you’re talking about Trainers, that generally makes something a badly designed card (unless perhaps the Pokémon acts as a Trainer, like Uxie LA). This could’ve been fun in some niche strategies if it didn’t automatically give you a great amount of value, guaranteed, without any drawbacks.
What makes matters worse is that Chatot’s attack is essentially useless, which makes it a single-use Pokémon which gets slotted into every deck, and does nothing but randomise the game every turn. It’s a fun idea, but it would need a very, very specific strategy (I can’t think of very many cards this would go well with, actually, I guess the original Unown N or Sprout Tower or something, but even then you’re just stalling) or it would require a format where some card for some reason targets Benched Pokémon of a specific type and you’d want to waste 2 Energies trying to avoid this. I guess it could mess with some Special Energy cards which require the Pokémon they’re attached to to be a specific type, but even then.
Free retreat makes sense here, but in reality only reenforces the whole add-it-to-your-deck-whatever-deck-it-may-be-ish-ness (totally a word) of the card.
Wording errors:
- “If 1 coin is heads” should be “if 1 of them is heads”.
- (Both yours and your opponent’s) should be italicised.
Creativity/Originality: 15/20
(Key Change is creative, but only in a “that’s new” kind of way, not in a strategically interesting way.)
Wording: 12/15
(1 wording error and 1 minor error.)
Believability/Playability: 10/15
(A far too useful Ability combined with a far too weird/useless attack.)
Total: 37/50
Basic Dunsparce HP40
NO. 206 Land Snake Pokémon HT: 4'11" WT: 30.9 lbs.
Suffocating Swarm
Your opponent's Active Pokémon loses -20 HP. You may only apply Suffocating Swarm Abilities on your opponent's Active Pokémon until its remaining HP is 40 or more.
Final Burst
If the Defending Pokémon has equal to or fewer remaining HP than this Pokémon, the Defending Pokémon is Knocked Out.
weaknessx2 resistance
retreat
When spotted, this Pokémon escapes backward by furiously boring into the ground with its tail.
Suffocating Swarm sounds like a very fun Ability. It also sounds very, very powerful in donk decks, where 80ish damage attacks suddenly become lethal, and can be lethal every turn afterwards. I’m not sure it’s that big of a problem, though, since it does pose some interesting deck building questions. I really like it conceptually, but in reality it might be very oppressive.
But I think I’m interpreting it differently from you. You see, I think (and I think I’m correct here), damage isn’t done in increments. If something has 60 remaining HP, and you do 70 damage, it doesn’t fall to 60, then 50, then 40, then 30, then the Ability stops working, so it goes back to 50, then 40, then 30, then 20, and then 10. It simply does 70 damage. Even if I’m wrong here, I can’t be the only person interpreting it this way. If you want to have it interpreted differently, you should’ve worded it differently.Final Burst can indeed be very powerful in combination with Mew EX (or worse, the Smeargle of your fellow competitor fleshrum, though that might be Smeargle’s fault). I think Shedinja’s attack is significantly different in this regard, since it requires some damage on Mew EX, making it more fragile, while this attack requires no damage on Mew EX. A Mew EX Dunsparce deck could be very powerful, but it sounds like a lot of fun so whatever.
Wording errors:
- The wording for the first part, while I think it’s without precedent, feels wrong. I think it should either be “loses 20 HP” or “gets -20 HP”, losing -20 is a double negative. However, since the wording is becoming increasingly weirder (I think they’re aiming for short and simple, but somehow end up at weird), it might actually be correct. I hate the weird wording they’re using recently, something like “Your opponent’s Active Pokémon’s maximum HP is reduced by 20” which would’ve been roughly how they would’ve worded it in times long since past seems a lot more rigid and unambiguous.
- The second part is iffy as well. I think “This Ability stops working if your opponent’s Active Pokémon’s HP is 40 or less” would’ve been better. Though again, new wording is weird.
- Since “Knocked Out” is a condition, I think the word “now” should’ve been included in the attack.
- The “equal to” seems weird. I guess it can be correct, but I would’ve changed it to “If this Pokémon has more remaining HP than the Defending Pokémon, the Defending Pokémon is Knocked Out.” This would solve the convoluted wording problem.
Creativity/Originality: 20/20
(Fun, synergistic, clever. Would’ve been 18, but I’m trying to be more Luis-like, so a full 20. This is not representative of future scoring.)
Wording: 10/15
(Too much iffiness. There is at least one big error here, though don’t ask me where. That’s -2, the remaining -3 is for the ambiguity of the Ability, if I don’t subtract it here I would have to -4 your Believability score.)
Believability/Playability: 14/15
(Using your interpretation, it seems fine, though maybe a bit too abusable with cards like Mew EX.)
Total: 44/50
[align=center][MEGA] M. Mewtwo EX HP 220 [P]
[MEGA EVOLUTION RULE - When 1 of your Pokemon becomes a Mega Evolution Pokemon, your turn ends.]
[Ability: Mind and Might] - As long as M. Mewtwo EX has a [F] energy attached to it, it's typing is [P] and [F].
M. Mewtwo EX has a x4 Weakness as long as this Ability is active.
[F][*] Fighter's Knowledge
Name 1 Supporter card.
During your opponent's next turn, if they play a Supporter card with that name, their Active Pokemon takes 100 Damage.[F][P][P] Educated Violence - 150+
You may switch one of your opponent's Benched Pokemon with their Active Pokemon.
This attack does 150 plus 10 damage for every [P] and [F] Energy in both Players' Discard pile.
Weakness - [P]
Resistance -
Retreat Cost - [*][*][*]
[When a Pokemon EX is knocked out, your opponent takes 2 Prize Cards.]
It was created by a scientist after years of horrific gene-splicing and DNA-engineering experiments.[/align]
I’m not sure how you’re fitting 3 different attack-things on a card which already features an “evolves from” rule (which you forgot, BTW), an M evolution rule and a Pokémon-EX rule. All M Pokémon-EX only have 1 attack, and I’m pretty sure that’s all the room they have. It’s tempting to want to add as much as possible to a card, but less is more in a lot of cases.
The Ability is a nice nod to the dual-type of Mewtwo, but it feels rather unnecessary and tries to hard to drive home the point. The x4 weakness thing will hardly ever be relevant, so all it does is add needless complexity, take up more space, and add a thing more players will likely forget about when it actually matters.
I really like the first attack, which is a real skill-testing move. I requires knowledge of what you suspect your opponent can be playing, what you expect they will play next turn, and what you don’t want your opponent to be playing next turn. It’d be nice if Pokémon had more moves like that. Definitely a fun idea.
The second attack strikes me as a bit much. 120+ without a downside is usually relegated to the 4 Energy attacks. 150, possibly even as much as 250, for just 3 energies sounds insane. What absolutely breaks this attack beyond any reasonability is the Gust of Wind part. This attack literally kills an opponent’s Pokémon of your choice, no questions asked, for the low, low price of 3 Energies. It is very hard for me to think of a more powerful attack. I used to play a very strong deck which needed 4 different hard to play Pokémon (Mesprit lvX, Uxie lvX, Azelf lvX and Palkia lvX), a Switch and 2 Energy discards just to do what this attack does all by itself. The fact that it technically evolves from one of the most dominant Pokémon-EX would make this the single most Pokémon card, without a doubt.
Wording errors:
- No “é” in Pokémon. x6
- There shouldn’t be a dot after M.
- Energy should be capitalised.
- The wording for the Ability should be: “If this Pokémon has any [F] Energy attached to it, this Pokémon's type is both [P] and [F] and apply Weakness this Pokémon as ×4 instead.” Not quite sure about the last part, but it definitely isn’t what you wrote.
- I’d have used “a” instead of “1” in the first attack.
- “if they play” should be “he or she plays”. I too prefer gender-neutral pronouns, but apparently the TCG does not.
- The wording for the last part would have to be something along the lines of “This attack does 100 damage to that Pokémon”, but that seems inconsistent with the rules. It’d probably be best to say “put 10 damage counters on [the Defending Pokémon]”.
- In the second attack, you again use a gender-neutral pronoun.
- Forgot the word “damage” after “150”.
- And the word “more” after “10”.
- “Players” shouldn’t be capitalised.
- And neither should “Discard”.
- The EX rule should be: “When a Pokémon-EX has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.”
- “Cards” shouldn’t be capitalised.
I’d really appreciate it if you’d do a bit more checking and if you’d look at a few more cards next time, it saves me a lot of time trying to go through all the errors, and gives you quite a few more points.
Creativity/Originality: 15/20
(I really like first attack, everything else is rather lacklustre.)
Wording: 0/15
(You actually just had enough minuses to reach 0 (I use a very exact system), try to do a bit more research next time.)
Believability/Playability: 5/15
(Broken second attack, way too much going on on a single card.)
Total: 20/50
I like the idea behind the Ability (Mechanically, I’m not sure what the flavour is meant to be). That being said, it’s slightly problematic. Mew EX’s Ability is already somewhat decent, and that’s on a low-HP Pokémon-EX. Giving every colourless Pokémon access to it might make it far too powerful. It would also restrict the possible power level of future colourless Pokémon.
Moody fits the tone of the eponymous ability. The second part of the attack possible affecting the Active Pokémon while the first part can’t is a bit irksome, but other than that it’s fine.
Also, only 50 HP? That’s Neo-era weak, there’s been a bit of a power creep since then, and Smeargle would probably have at least 60 HP nowadays.
Generally, this card strikes me as needlessly weak Pokémon with an overly strong Ability. I’m not sure those balance out in quite the way you’d want them to.
Wording errors:
- You switched feet and inches.
- (Both yours and your opponent’s) should be italicised.
- “Opponents” needs an apostrophe.
- “Energy” should be capitalised.
- No modifier after the Weakness. (I’m assuming it’s x2, but cards which use your wording template do mention it.)
Creativity/Originality: 16/20
(Flavourful attack, fun ability.)
Wording: 11/15
(Some minor and 2 very minor errors.)
Believability/Playability: 12/15
(Too weak a Pokémon with too strong an Ability.)
Total: 39/50
I like the concept behind Lv.V Pokémon, I’m not sure I like the name. Lv.X was a weird concept to begin with, this takes it to a whole new level (at what point does levelling your Pokémon result in it getting sick?). Mechanically it’s quite fun. Not being allowed to be Active can be an interesting twist, but I feel it’s a far weirder and more situational than the lv.X restriction. If something is easy to forget, it might be best to drop it (also, flavourfully, Lv.X have to be active because you can’t gain levels without being in the action, having to be Benched to virus-level (?) strikes me as bizarre).
Heal 20. I’m not a fan. If you’ve read some of the other reviews I’ve done in the last rounds (or even this one), you’ll know what I think about making damage healing and prevention too good. It’s a big no-no. It shuts off one of the most essential parts of the game and at best turns the game into a drawn-out grindy snorefest. Essentially healing 40 every turn is borderline, since it’s technically not better than 4 Metal Energies, but I’m afraid I still think it’s slightly powerful. Adding the more-damage thing doesn’t help.
Viral Storm is generic but fine. It’s sort of weird combined with the Body, which increases damage to the Defending Pokémon but not to Benched Pokémon. This is just asking for misinterpretations.
Chaotic Turbulence is fun. Discarding your opponent’s hand is a very powerful effect, and perhaps more importantly it feels powerful as well. 5 Energies on a Stage 3 is a big investment, and while the pay-off may be a bit small here sometimes, it definitely feels awesome. If this card finds itself a good Energy engine, doing 120ish and discarding your opponent’s hand is a very good way of locking up a game.
As a whole, it feels very busy. Less is often more when it comes to card design, and adding 2 attacks and a Body to a prevolution’s other attacks and powers feels like a bit much. There’s a reason every single Lv.X added only 2 in any combination of powers and attacks: things become needlessly complex. This card would’ve been far better if you didn’t include the first attack.
Wording errors:
- Zarquon’s armpits, that body. ._. I feel it at the very least lacks a full stop somewhere. It’s technically correct, but the way you’ve phrased it makes it very, very hard to fully understand when your first read it.
- You’re obviously using pre-BW wording, in which case “Heal” isn’t a thing yet. “Remove 2 damage counters” is what you’re looking for.
- You usually don’t increase damage done by a Pokémon, since that can be ambiguous and causes some rules complications. What you want to say is that each of Flygon’s attacks does 10 more damage.
- “Increased by 10 more” is redundant, “does 10 more damage” is sufficient.
- No italics for “(Don't apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)”.
- The full stop precedes the bracket in “(Don't apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)”.
Creativity/Originality: 17/20
(Fun concept, average execution.)
Wording: 8/15
(A bunch of errors in the Ability.)
Believability/Playability: 10/15
(Mechanic could be better executed, borderline body.)
Total: 35/50
Trickster is pretty fun (though I guess functionally pretty similar to Porygon2 UF), not much else to say here, really. It opens up some strategies, which is always nice.
60 damage for 1 Energy felt like way too much, but Landorus-EX already did it so what do I know? Thanks for making me feel old and jaded there. Gem Scramble is nice and has some synergy with the Ability. Overall pretty standard but decent card.
Wording errors:
- “(before your attack)” should be italicised. (Yes, I can see through your foul Quote tags trickery.)
- There’s no comma after “(before your attack)”.
- There’s no such thing as a “Tool card”, what you mean to say is “Pokémon Tool card”.
Creativity/Originality: 15/20
(I’m being kind, would probably be 12ish if I were the original judge.)
Wording: 12/15
(Some mistakes.)
Believability/Playability: 15/15
(Seems fine.)
Total: 42/50
Stage 1 // Swadloon // HP70 [G]
Evolves from Sewaddle
NO. 541 Leaf-Wrapped Pokémon HT: 1'08" WT: 16.1 lbs.
[Ability] Regrow
Once during your opponent's turn, if this Pokémon is in your hand, and an Energy attached to 1 of your Pokémon is discarded by the effect of an opponent's Trainer card, you may attach this Pokémon as an Energy card to that Pokémon. While attached, this card is a Special Energy card and provides every type of Energy, but provides only 2 Energy at a time.
[G][C] Junk Toss
Discard as many Item cards as you like from you hand. This attack does 20 times the number of Item cards you discarded. If you haven't played any Item cards during this turn, this attack does 40 damage times the number of Item cards you discarded instead.
weakness [R] X2
resistance
retreat [C][C]"Forests where Swadloon live have superb foliage because the nutrients they make from fallen leaves nourish the plant life."
One of the worst things the SP format introduced was a card name “Power Spray”, which essentially meant you couldn’t just play your turn since you always had to ask for permission whenever you used a Poké-Power. I feel a TCG needs to be either completely interactive (like, say, Magic the Gathering) or completely non-interactive during another player’s turn. A bit of interaction makes for a very bad play experience IMO. That being said, the effect of this Ability seems very mild in comparison to even Alakazam MT, and only really punishes specific cards in a specific way. It’s hard for something to go irrevocably wrong with this effect as well, which I think is pretty important when it comes to these kinds of effects (nothing ruins your tournament like immediately drawing cards with Uxie only to have your opponent point out they have Power Spray). I think modern Pokémon doesn’t do these kinds of effects anymore for a very good reason, but I guess this specific Ability gets a pass. It would set a really bad precedent, though.
Junk Toss sounds like fun. I like the idea of forcing the trade-off between having an Item-heavy deck and then not being allowed to use them. It’s a very interesting choice and sets up a lot of interesting situations.
I’m not sure your wording references are 100% correct, since your mix and matching pre-BW and post-BW wording. It’s pretty hard to judge it accurately, though, since there is no post-BW precedent. That being said, there are some errors.
Wording errors:
- You forgot the word “damage” in the attack.
- Based on the wording of Igglybuff GE, “If you haven’t played any Item cards during this turn” should be “If you didn't play any Item card from your hand during this turn”.
Creativity/Originality: 19/20
(Decent ability, fun attack. Inflated from the 16ish you would’ve gotten because of Luis-ified scores.)
Wording: 13/15
(Some minor errors.)
Believability/Playability: 14/15
(Effects on your opponent’s turn. Ugh.)
Total: 46/50
[Basic] Shining Snorlax HP140 - Colorless
NO. 143, Sleeping Pokémon, Height: 6'11", Weight: 1014.1 lbs.
Ability Buffet & Nap
Once during your turn (before you attack), you may attach a Basic Energy card from your hand to this Pokémon. If you do, flip 2 coins. If both are tails, this Pokémon is now Asleep.
[C][C][C] Devour 40x
Discard all Basic Energy cards attached to this Pokémon. This attack does 40 damage times the number of Energy cards you discarded.
[Shining Pokémon Rule] You can't have more than 2 Shining Snorlax in your deck. You can't have more than 1 Shining Snorlax in play at the same time.
Weakness: [F] x2
Resistance: [P] -20
Retreat: [C][C][C][C]Promo 2
I like the idea behind the Ability, Snorlax being quite an Energy-hungry Pokémon and all. Getting a free reusable Energy attach through a Basic Pokémon might be very abusable, though, and I’m confident it would be outright broken in the right format. It’s thought to rate these kinds of Abilities, and I guess being restricted to 2/deck somewhat (though probably not significantly) restricts the power. It’s probably still a bit too strong, though, and perhaps most importantly limits what cards are allowed to be in a format without breaking it. Design which takes away other possible design avenues (in this case moving Energy between Pokémon) is always a bit iffy.
The attack is a bit boring, but very synergistic with the Ability. The big problem with it, though, is that you’ve presented me with a non-EX Basic Pokémon capable of doing 120 consistenly in 2 turns. That sounds quite powerful, even by today’s standards. I like that you have to discard all Energies, but still.
Resistance for Psychic is something which isn’t really done anymore, and I see no specific reason why you added it here.
Wording errors:
- It’s “Before your attack”, not “before you attack”.
- “(Before your attack)” should be italicised.
- “Basic” Shouldn’t be capitalised when referring to Energy. x2
- “If both are tails” should be “If both of them are tails”.
Creativity/Originality: 16/20
(Very flavourful, nice synergy.)
Wording: 10,5/15
(XXX)
Believability/Playability: 11/15
(Seems too abusable and powerful, resistance for Psychic)
Total: 37.5/50
Yup, that’s broken. Very, very broken. This card would be in every single deck, 4 times, no exceptions. I’m assuming you never played pre-e-series Pokémon? Supporters didn’t exist back then, and every draw card (Bill, Erika, Mary, Oak, etc.) would usually draw you more draw cards, until you essentially drew your entire deck. Fast forward to Legends Awakened, which brought us a Pokémon called Uxie. When it came into play, you could draw cards until you had 7. It was played in almost every single deck, even though it had the downside of possible being your only Basic at the start of the game and it took up valuable bench space. This card has all of the upsides, and none of the downsides. It’s essentially a pre-supporter Trainer with the effect of one of the best enter-player Poké-Powers ever made. The flavour also doesn’t work, because there is no Sacrifice here. You wouldn’t even consider playing Garchomp for anything but its Ability. You essentially made a Trainer which can’t be dealt with in any of the usual ways Trainers can be dealt with.
[Stage 2] Garchomp HP 130 [N]
Evolves from Gabite
[Ability] Sacrifice
If this Pokémon is in your hand, you may discard it. If you do, draw cards until you have 7 cards in your hand.
[W][F][C] Outrage 100
You may discard 2 Energy attached to this Pokémon. If you don't, this Pokémon is now confused.
Weakness: [N] x2
Resistance:
Retreat: [C]
Scientists have named these odd colored Pokémon "Shiny Pokémon". There is a gene mutation that results in the odd coloring.
Outrage is decent, I guess. The choice is interesting, and 100 is a decent amount. Nothing too exciting, though.
Wording errors:
- The Ability should include a “Once during your turn (before your attack) clause”. This is a pretty big mistake.
Creativity/Originality: 13/20
(Meh. If I weren’t rating a bit higher it’d probably be an 11.)
Wording: 13/15
(One big oversight.)
Believability/Playability: 6/15
(BAH-ROKEN.)
Total: 32/50
The Spirit Link Ability is quite creative. I’m quite saddened that it doesn’t open the door for potential non-EX M Pokémon, but sure.
I feel it’s kind of rude to hate on Pokémon with Ancient Traits, since I think these were designed to circumvent Ability-hate (most notably Garbodor). I guess it’s fair, though, and it does make for a fun attack.
Spirit Strike sounds like too much of a game winner. 100 for 4 Energies is pretty good already, especially on a non-EX Basic. Being able to essentially wipe out every single one of your opponent’s Pokémon if they’re not using an EX-based deck is where it gets problematic. It feels like this attack needs an “only once” clause for it to be acceptable. The it’d just be very good, now I feel it’s too good. The idea behind it is quite creative, though.
I feel like this card is trying to do a bit too much. It feels like you want to make a card which solves some of the problems with the TCG, both the lack of spirit links for a lot of the M Pokémon and the lack of answers for Ancient Traits. On top of that you’ve added a way of dealing with a lot of low-HP Pokémon, seemingly for no apparent reason. For just a lowly Basic, this feels like a lot.
Wording errors:
- There shouldn’t be a comma before “(before your attack)”.
- In the first attack, “have” should be “has” x2.
Creativity/Originality: 17/20
(Creative second attack and Ability, but low on synergy and focus.)
Wording: 12.5/15
(Minor errors.)
Believability/Playability: 12/15
(A bit much.)
Total: 41.5/50
[Stage 1] Tangrowth HP110 [G]
[G] Vine Grab 30
Switch your opponent's Active Pokémon with 1 of his or her Benched Pokémon.
[G][G][C] Mix n' Match
If both this Pokémon and your opponent's Active Pokémon has any Pokémon Tools attached to them, put your opponent's Active Pokémon's Pokémon Tool on this Pokémon, and this Pokémon's Pokémon Tool on your opponent's Active Pokémon. If this Pokèmon or your opponent's Active Pokèmon is Knocked Out, put the Pokémon Tools in the original owners Discard Pile.
Weakness: [R] x2
Resistance: [W] -20
Retreat: [C][C][C]
When it remains still, it appears to be a large shrub. Unsuspecting prey that wander near get ensnared by its vines.
The first attack is rather simple, though I guess it goes well with the second attack. The second attack is very creative, though I believe it’s breaking many written and unwritten rules. It’s also immensely expensive for an attack which most of the time will do absolutely nothing. How often does your opponent have a Pokémon tool, not to mention one which is significantly better than one you could give them? If it switched tools even if one of the parties didn’t have one, this would be slightly better, if and only if a very detrimental tool was also in the set.
Everything else seems fine.
Wording:
- “Has” should be “have” (both implies plural).
- “Put” should be changed to “attach” when referring to Pokémon tools.
- I feel like the wording on the last sentence could’ve been better.
Creativity/Originality: 17/20
(Very fun mechanic.)
Wording: 12/15
(Some minor mistakes.)
Believability/Playability: 10/15
(Seems like a rules nightmare, weird Energy requirements.)
Total: 39/50
Copy-pasted from Vom’s review:[Stage 1] Whimsicott [G] HP: 100
Evolves from Cottonee
Δ Evolution: Once during your turn (before your attack), you may play this card from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokemon even if that Pokemon was put into play this turn or if it's your first turn.
No. 547 Windveiled Pokemon HT: 2'04" WT: 14.6lbs
[Ability] Winds of Change
When Whimsicott has less then 50 HP and is your Active Pokemon; you can use this Ability. Flip a coin; if heads scoop up all cards attached to Whimsicott (excluding any Tools, Items and Energies) and place them in your hand. Tails; discard all cards attached to Whimsicott and retreat it to your bench. This Ability cannot be used if Whimsicott is affected by a Special Condition or you have no Benched Pokemon.
[G] Cotton Tackle 30
During your opponent's next turn, any damage done to this Pokémon by attacks is reduced by 30 (after applying Weakness and Resistance).
[G] [G] U-Turn 50
Switch this Pokémon with 1 of your Benched Pokémon.
Weakness - [R] (x2)
Resistance - [W] -20
Retreat Cost - [C]
Like the wind, it can slip through any gap, no matter how small. It leaves balls of white fluff behind.
Inspirations:
- Cotton Tackle (Whimsicott's Emerging Powers Cotton Guard attack)
- U-Turn (Whimsicott's Emerging Powers U-Turn attack)
Me said:
The Ability seems creative and rather flavourful. The coin flip representing the randomness of the wind direction (which can be either up or towards the bench, I guess) is pretty clever. The attacks are rather generic, especially since U-turn isn’t too different from the Ability. There’s also a sort of anti-synergy. With hit-and-run strategies like U-turn, you usually don’t expect your attacking Pokémon to get hit (it goes to the bench after every attack), so you probably won’t need to heal it by returning it to your hand. Also, 2 attacks, an Ability and an Ancient Trait is a bit much. Not only would it be hard to fit onto a card, less is often more when it comes to making a good, coherent card.
Wording errors:
- No need for a (Before your attack) clause since this isn’t an Ability.
- It’s spelt “Pokémon”, not “Pokemon” (what are they poking?) x5 (you did it right 2 times, though, which is pretty disorienting.)
- The wording on the Ability would take me forever to fix. I’ll point out a few things, but this list isn’t comprehensive at all:
- Doesn’t start with “once during your turn” etc.
- “Than”, not “then”. English isn’t even my first language, I shouldn’t be correcting errors like this.
- Of course you can use an Ability, that’s what it’s for.
- No semicolons needed.
- “Scoop up” is a card, not an effect.
- If you’re referring to cards, say it, “Pokémon Tool cards”, not “Tools”
- Pokémon cards since BW use “This Pokémon” instead of the Pokémon’s name.
- “If tails”, not “Tails;”
- “Retreat” is when you pay a Pokémon’s retreat cost, you’re thinking of “Switch”.
- “Can’t” not “cannot”.
- And so on.
Creativity/Originality: 17/20
(Clever ability, everything else is rather generic. Would be 15ish using my regular scores.)
Wording: 0/15
(Various big wording errors, I’m sorry but it would take too long to point out every mistake.)
Believability/Playability: 15/15
(Seems fine.)
Total: 33/50
[Stage 2] Garchomp HP180 [N]
[Δ Speed] Once during your turn (before your attack), you may play this card from your hand to evolve 1 of your Gible or Gabite even if that Pokémon was put into play this turn or if it's your first turn.
NO.445 Mach Pokémon HT:6'03'' WT:209.4 lbs
Champion's Vigilance
Prevent all effects of attacks, including damage, done to any of your Basic or Stage 1 Pokémon (excluding Pokémon-EX) by your opponent's Pokémon-EX.
[W][F][C] Champion's Secret Strike 100
Discard an Energy attached to this Pokémon. Then, discard one of your opponent's Pokémon-EX and all cards attached to it.
Weakness: [Y]x2
Resistance: -
Retreat Cost: -
It flies at speeds equal to a jet fighter plane. It never allows its prey to escape.
180 HP strikes me as a lot. It used to be simple back in the day when 120 was the maximum, but still, it hasn’t risen that much. Most recent Garchomp have 140 HP, which seems a lot more correct.
I like the idea of hating on Pokémon-EX with a Stage 2 without it applying to the Stage 2 itself.
The attack is a bit more iffy, though. I feel it’s missing a “you may”, since this feels a lot more drastic than discarding an Energy, and discarding an Energy of your own to possible not discard an EX feels weird. 100 damage also seems like a lot on top of the getting rid of an EX. I get that Garchomp apparently hates EX, but this seems a bit silly.
I’d recommend against using Ancient Traits that will appear on upcoming cards, since you’ll most likely get the wording wrong, which you did. The wording should be: “You may play this card to evolve 1 of your Pokémon in play during your first turn or on a Pokémon that was put into play this turn”. I’ll correct as if you did not know the actual wording.
Wording errors:
- No need for a “(before your attack)” clause since this isn’t an Ability.
- Either way, it should’ve been italicised, no excuse.
- The “Discard a Pokémon” thing is weird, but not without precedent. I’d include a “(This doesn't count as a Knocked Out Pokémon.)”-like clause, though.
Creativity/Originality: 15/20
(Fun Ability.)
Wording: 11/15
(Minor errors, no rules clarification.)
Believability/Playability: 11/15
(The attack feels odd to me. Very high HP)
Total: 37/50
2nd Place: bbninjas’s Dunsparce, with 44/50 points.
1st Place: Machamp The Champion’s Swadloon, with 46/50 points.
And now it's time to start judging the next round...
/me sees "Luis-ified" results.
/me was actually going to judge as harshly as you this month.
Not that it actually matters, though, since I won't judge anything until July, if anything. But for clarity's sake, consider yourselves with 3 points less in creativity.
Congrats, Machamp! Not surprised at all.
/me was actually going to judge as harshly as you this month.
Not that it actually matters, though, since I won't judge anything until July, if anything. But for clarity's sake, consider yourselves with 3 points less in creativity.
Congrats, Machamp! Not surprised at all.
3rd? I'll take it. \o/
That was a good round everybody, congrats to all who placed!
That was a good round everybody, congrats to all who placed!
My boy Swadloon bringing it home! I'm honored that you liked my card, Spoon.
Congrats to everyone else who placed, and thanks everyone for entering! A lot of solid entries this month.
Congrats to everyone else who placed, and thanks everyone for entering! A lot of solid entries this month.
You know, I didn't actually know there was a Venomoth card with that same attack at all! I probably could have avoided some wording errors if I knew about it Dx
But now that I've seen it, wow it's literally almost the same thing o__o; That's a little eerie...
but enough of that, congrats everybody!
But now that I've seen it, wow it's literally almost the same thing o__o; That's a little eerie...
but enough of that, congrats everybody!
It really is sad. That Venomoth attack is one of the few really coolest new attacks in recent years. I wish I could've given you a higher creativity score, since it was obvious you didn't realise the effect already existed, but that probably wouldn't have been fair to everyone else who does try to find out if an effect has been done before.Huderon of Canossa said:
Actually, I already knew about the whole Tool situation with my Ninetails. My excuse is that there were no Pokemon Tools in the HS block Sure, you had cards like Defender, but it's temporary card and I was okay with having that get locked down. If it were a BW card, I probably would've slapped a clause along the lines of
"As long as Ninetales has a Trainer card (excluding Pokemon Tools) attached to it, each player..."
And I also made sure that there was an acceptable answer to it, in Tropical Tidal Wave (sure, it's a Worlds promo, but whatever) that discards all Trainer cards in play, which I think is pretty cool.
Thanks for the win though, good job to everyone else who placed
Sure, you had cards like Defender, but it's temporary card and I was okay with having that get locked down. If it were a BW card, I probably would've slapped a clause along the lines of"As long as Ninetales has a Trainer card (excluding Pokemon Tools) attached to it, each player..."
And I also made sure that there was an acceptable answer to it, in Tropical Tidal Wave (sure, it's a Worlds promo, but whatever) that discards all Trainer cards in play, which I think is pretty cool.
Thanks for the win though, good job to everyone else who placed
Am I surprised I did this terribly? Not at all.
There's still next time, at least.
Congrats to the winners regardless!
There's still next time, at least.
Congrats to the winners regardless!
last place whippe
Looks like next month is my 2 year anniversary of CaC's. Let's hope that it will finally happen two years later.
Looks like next month is my 2 year anniversary of CaC's. Let's hope that it will finally happen two years later.
quote: Heavenly Spoon
Prevent 40? ._.
Put 2 into play, and you take forever to kill. 3 and you’re practically immortal. Put 4 into play and your opponent’s only hope is a deck-out. Just add a way of preventing and or healing Poison.
The thing with damage prevention and healing effects is that they get really good really fast. One of the best decks during the e-era was Scizor. Just Scizor. It couldn’t be poisoned, and with a few Metal Energies it was practically immortal. I think part of the reason we’ve noticed a power creep afterwards is because of the power of damage-reduction effects. The damage output has increased dramatically in recent years, but not drastically enough to give every Pokémon a 4 Metal Energies by default without any problems, not to mention 8 or 12. This is why most recent cards reduce by 40 at most, mostly as the result of an otherwise damage-less or weak attack. I think the furthest they’ve gone recently is Gigalith, with 50, and only if it’s at full HP. Heck, you need 4 Rhyperior (A stage 2 itself) just to get the same effect as a single M Gardevoir.
Reduced to 30 and added a 1-mega per deck limit rule, which I was intending to do all along. I had forgotten about that until after I entered the card. But for the number itself, it needed something to compensate for the attack's randomness.
I think that also helps some with the multiple abilities eventuality; I would add the "You can only use 1 caring embrace ability each turn." text, but I'm out of room. It is a problem with image cards that text-based cards don't suffer.
The attack is fine. I’m not a fan of moves which can swing games drastically based on random chance, but it’s a valid mechanic. Not the most creative, though.
I liked the randomness; it might make the card inviable for competitive play, but it also keeps any of the effects from being broken; and to be honest, I don't make cards with competitiveness, or with existing cards and the metagame, in mind (especially since I don't know them anymore, and I never knew them enough anyway). I just do them for myself, I didn't even plan on entering this gardevoir to the CAC, because of the uncreative attack, but it was a free choice theme; how could I not enter a Mega gardevoir?
Resistance is usually -20 now, but I guess that doesn't really matter.
Er... I like the classic resistance better? but then, I also liked the +10, +20 weaknesses of DPP times...
I’m not sure I entirely agree with your M rule. I like using the LvX rule (which is way better than the current one), but being able to evolve from Pokémon-EX is problematic. You tried to fix it by still applying the EX rule, but that means you essentially just get an M Pokémon with a very severe downside which is just as resilient and probably not much stronger than your average M Pokémon without the downside. I would’ve excluded Pokémon-EX from the rule entirely.
I eliminated the ability to evolve from EX; now Megas can only evolve from their bare base form, so are essentially repurposed Lv.Xs. I actually like it better that way. Also, I didn't have a Gardevoir EX designed, so it all works out.
Wording errors:
- You forgot a clarification stating that damage is reduced after applying Weakness and Resistance.
Done; the text is too big now, though.
- The template for multiple coin flip effects is that the number of heads precedes the effects, e.g. “If 1 of them is heads, do X”. Also, the “or”s should be replaced with full stops. You don’t need the “exactly” either. (See Bisharp DEX)
Done, that helped slightly with the previous fix.
- Energy should be capitalised.
Done.
- The “Don’t” in “(Don’t apply weakness or Resistance” should either not be capitalised, or as is always the case, it should be preceded by a full stop.
Done... I think?
- “Do” should be replaced with “This attack does”. x2
Well... this suddenly got a bit cramped.
- “Remove damage counters” has been replaced with “heal” in DP-on.
Done.
Fonts and placement errors:
- Placements on customs is hard to judge. I’m not a fan of Gardevoir’s head blocking text, but everything else seems fine. A bit too sparkly for my taste, but sure.
Pish posh, it needs more sparkles. SPARKLES FOR ALL THE CARDS!
Creativity/Originality: 11/20
(Pretty standard.)
Wording: 6/15
(Lots of mistakes and omissions. If you’re using a personal wording scheme, please don’t, or at the very least mention this.)
Fonts and Placement: 9.5/10
(Custom blanks, so sure. Hiding vital-ish information makes you lose half a point.)
Believability/Playability: 2/5
(Broken.)
Total: 28.5/50
Ouch. I have to remember doing a venomoth or a mew next time. But you wouldn't like my venomoth either, probably.
Put 2 into play, and you take forever to kill. 3 and you’re practically immortal. Put 4 into play and your opponent’s only hope is a deck-out. Just add a way of preventing and or healing Poison.
The thing with damage prevention and healing effects is that they get really good really fast. One of the best decks during the e-era was Scizor. Just Scizor. It couldn’t be poisoned, and with a few Metal Energies it was practically immortal. I think part of the reason we’ve noticed a power creep afterwards is because of the power of damage-reduction effects. The damage output has increased dramatically in recent years, but not drastically enough to give every Pokémon a 4 Metal Energies by default without any problems, not to mention 8 or 12. This is why most recent cards reduce by 40 at most, mostly as the result of an otherwise damage-less or weak attack. I think the furthest they’ve gone recently is Gigalith, with 50, and only if it’s at full HP. Heck, you need 4 Rhyperior (A stage 2 itself) just to get the same effect as a single M Gardevoir.
Reduced to 30 and added a 1-mega per deck limit rule, which I was intending to do all along. I had forgotten about that until after I entered the card. But for the number itself, it needed something to compensate for the attack's randomness.
I think that also helps some with the multiple abilities eventuality; I would add the "You can only use 1 caring embrace ability each turn." text, but I'm out of room. It is a problem with image cards that text-based cards don't suffer.
The attack is fine. I’m not a fan of moves which can swing games drastically based on random chance, but it’s a valid mechanic. Not the most creative, though.
I liked the randomness; it might make the card inviable for competitive play, but it also keeps any of the effects from being broken; and to be honest, I don't make cards with competitiveness, or with existing cards and the metagame, in mind (especially since I don't know them anymore, and I never knew them enough anyway). I just do them for myself, I didn't even plan on entering this gardevoir to the CAC, because of the uncreative attack, but it was a free choice theme; how could I not enter a Mega gardevoir?
Resistance is usually -20 now, but I guess that doesn't really matter.
Er... I like the classic resistance better? but then, I also liked the +10, +20 weaknesses of DPP times...
I’m not sure I entirely agree with your M rule. I like using the LvX rule (which is way better than the current one), but being able to evolve from Pokémon-EX is problematic. You tried to fix it by still applying the EX rule, but that means you essentially just get an M Pokémon with a very severe downside which is just as resilient and probably not much stronger than your average M Pokémon without the downside. I would’ve excluded Pokémon-EX from the rule entirely.
I eliminated the ability to evolve from EX; now Megas can only evolve from their bare base form, so are essentially repurposed Lv.Xs. I actually like it better that way. Also, I didn't have a Gardevoir EX designed, so it all works out.
Wording errors:
- You forgot a clarification stating that damage is reduced after applying Weakness and Resistance.
Done; the text is too big now, though.
- The template for multiple coin flip effects is that the number of heads precedes the effects, e.g. “If 1 of them is heads, do X”. Also, the “or”s should be replaced with full stops. You don’t need the “exactly” either. (See Bisharp DEX)
Done, that helped slightly with the previous fix.
- Energy should be capitalised.
Done.
- The “Don’t” in “(Don’t apply weakness or Resistance” should either not be capitalised, or as is always the case, it should be preceded by a full stop.
Done... I think?
- “Do” should be replaced with “This attack does”. x2
Well... this suddenly got a bit cramped.
- “Remove damage counters” has been replaced with “heal” in DP-on.
Done.
Fonts and placement errors:
- Placements on customs is hard to judge. I’m not a fan of Gardevoir’s head blocking text, but everything else seems fine. A bit too sparkly for my taste, but sure.
Pish posh, it needs more sparkles. SPARKLES FOR ALL THE CARDS!
Creativity/Originality: 11/20
(Pretty standard.)
Wording: 6/15
(Lots of mistakes and omissions. If you’re using a personal wording scheme, please don’t, or at the very least mention this.)
Fonts and Placement: 9.5/10
(Custom blanks, so sure. Hiding vital-ish information makes you lose half a point.)
Believability/Playability: 2/5
(Broken.)
Total: 28.5/50
Ouch. I have to remember doing a venomoth or a mew next time. But you wouldn't like my venomoth either, probably.