Contest Text-Based Create-a-Card Faking Tournament (Final Results Are Up!)

Zigzagoon – Colorless – HP60
Basic Pokémon

NO. 263 Tiny Raccoon Pokémon HT: 1’04” WT: 38.6 lbs.

Ability: Pickup
Once during your turn (before your attack), you may search your discard pile for a Pokémon Tool card and put it into your hand.

[C][C] Fling: 40 damage. Discard a Pokémon Tool card attached to this Pokémon. If this Pokémon has no Pokémon Tool cards attached to it, this attack does nothing.

Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: None
Retreat: 1
It walks in zigzag fashion. It is good at finding items in the grass and even in the ground.
 
Round 3 Results

Match 1: FourteenAlmonds vs Nyora

Judges: @VioletValkyrie and @Lord o da rings

@FourteenAlmonds
Sunkern [G] HP30
Basic

NO. 191 Seed Pokémon HT: 1'00" WT: 4.0 lbs.

Ability: Popcorn
Once during your turn (before your attack), if you have 4 Sunkern on your bench and your Active Pokémon is a [R] Pokémon, you may use this Ability. If you do, Knock Out all Benched Pokémon in play (both yours and your opponent’s). Your turn now ends. If both players would take their last Prize cards as a result of this Ability, your opponent wins this game.

[G] Sunny Day
Search your deck for a [R] Pokémon and put it onto your bench. Shuffle your deck afterwards.

Weakness: [R] x2
Resistance:
Retreat: [C]
It suddenly falls out of the sky in the morning. A year after a cold summer, their population explodes.
Creativity: 18/20
I think the ability is wonderful, however the attack is very plain and quite typical of a basic Grass Pokémon especially, with the only interesting feature being it searching for a Fire Pokémon when these cards would normally search for Grass Pokémon.

Wording: 11/15
"bench" -> "Bench" x2 (Nest Ball SUM 123) -2 pt (1 pt ea)
“Your turn now ends.” → “Your turn ends.” (Steven’s Resolve, CES 165) -1 pts
"Shuffle your deck afterwards." -> "Then, shuffle your deck." (Several references, SUM wording change) -1 pt

Believability: 13/15
I'm a little concerned about how powerful an ability with no restraint can be used to completely wipe the field, however I think it's well-balanced enough to where I'll give a similar opinion to some Pokemon I've judged in the past.
I don't think this is something to dock points for, but what's the proper order for knocking out Pokémon? It's awkward to have it all be done at the exact same time (which is how this is currently worded), I'd think that saying that your Benched Pokémon are Knocked Out, and then your opponent's Pokémon are Knocked Out would remove the clause at the end of the ability. However at the end of it all, I don't think it's something important to dock points for. If anything it was just a thought I had judging.

-2 pts for edit penalty.

Final Score: 40/50
Creativity: (17/20)
God Popcorn is insane. I’m fascinated with it. The level of mayhem that goes down if those Sunkern light up is absolutely unreal, the game gets completely blown up. I’ve never seen anything like it. And nice touch with the ability name!

Wording: (10.5/15)
"bench" → "Bench" x2 [-1.5 points]
“Your turn now ends.” → “Your turn ends.” (Steven’s Resolve, CES 165) [-1 point]
“Shuffle your deck afterwards.” → “Then, shuffle your deck.” -- this is pre-SM wording [-2 points]

Believability: (14/15)
Balance wise? This card seems great. Popcorn is insane and I would be a bit stunned to see something like it printed… but all 4 Sunkern need to be on the Bench, and despite the ability being absolutely nuts it’s still overall pretty fair, and you have to be using it well to make advantage of it. It completely reshapes the game state, but whether or not that’s good or bad completely depends on how you use it. Sunny Day is pretty standard, would absolutely be printed.

Final Thoughts: Effects-wise this is a beautifully made card that stands out from the moment you see it with the outrageous ‘Popcorn’ ability. Wording wise I think the mistakes you made were very simple fixes, so those shouldn’t be too rough for the future. Overall this was a fantastic card, you should be proud of yourself!
-2 For Editing
Final Score: 39.5/50

@Nyora
Phantump HP 50 Psychic
Basic Pokémon
NO. 708 Stump Pokémon HT: 1'04" WT: 15.4 lbs.

/Ability/ ~ Found a Friend
If this Pokémon is in your deck whenever you are playing a Supporter card that looks through your deck during your turn, you may reveal it and put it into your hand. You can't use more than 1 Found a Friend Ability each turn.

[C] Spiritual Summoning
Shuffle a Supporter card from your discard pile into your deck. Reveal the card you draw at the beginning of your turn. If that card is the Supporter card you shuffled into your deck, search your deck for Trevenant and put it onto your Bench, and attach up to 2 Energy cards from your hand to it. Then, shuffle your deck.

By imitating the voice of a child, it causes people to get hopelessly lost deep in the forest. It’s trying to make friends with them.

Weakness: Fire x2
Resistance: None
Retreat: 1
Creativity: 20/20
If there's one thing I can say I love about this card it's the sheer creativity and how interesting the effects are. Searching your deck for a Pokemon through a Supporter is a really cool idea, and a really specifically luck-based attack definitely made me interested reading it the whole way through. I'm not hesitant about giving Creativity a 20, which is something I've never done before.

Wording: 8/15
"If this Pokémon is in your deck whenever you are playing a Supporter card that looks through your deck during your turn, you may reveal it and put it into your hand." -> "Whenever you search your deck with the effect of a Supporter card, if this Pokémon is in your deck, you may reveal it and put it into your hand." (The supporter card is not what looks through your deck, you are, using the effect of the card. The proper wording would be "Whenever you search your deck with the effect of a Supporter card", Sabrina's Suggestion TEU 154) -3 pts
"Reveal the card you draw at the beginning of your turn." -> "Reveal the card you draw at the beginning of your next turn." (The occurence on the NEXT turn must be stated as from the current wording it can be assumed the effect means the current turn, which can't happen.) -2 pts
"If that card is the Supporter card you shuffled into your deck, search your deck for Trevenant and put it onto your Bench, and attach up to 2 Energy cards from your hand to it." -> "If that card is the Supporter card you shuffled into your deck, search your deck for Trevenant, put it onto your Bench, and attach up to 2 Energy cards from your hand to it." (List of events, the first "and" is replaced with a comma) -1 pt

Believability: 10/15
A specific issue I have with the attack that can't be overlooked for me is the specification that the Supporter card has to be the exact Supporter card you shuffled back into your deck, which is nearly impossible to tell if you ever play more than 1 copy of the same card. Unfortuntely, this would've been fixed with a small wording change to specify a Supporter card with the same name (See Repeat Ball PRC 136, Grumpig CES 60 for similar wordings). This could be included in Wording, however from what I've put in there already and the fact that this is a really big issue for Believability, since we're considering the rules of the game here.
While I'm not sure a clause for this is necessary and I'd think you couldn't use the ability if this is the case, but what happens when you have no Supporter cards in your discard pile? -0 pts

Final Score: 39/50
Creativity: (18/20)
This card is absolutely BRIMMING with creative juices. ‘Found a Friend’ is a completely unique effect, and I love the name you came up with for it! ‘Spiritual Summoning’ is equally well-named and equally creative. Process wise your ideas are truly new and exciting! Keep it up!

Wording: (10/15)
“If this Pokémon is in your deck whenever you are playing a Supporter card that looks through your deck during your turn” → "Whenever you play a Supporter card that looks through your deck during your turn, if this Pokémon is in your deck" -- rearrange out of order clauses, “are playing” → “play” [-2 points]
"Reveal the card you draw at the beginning of your turn." -- you need to specify that this is the beginning of your next turn [-2 points]
"search your deck for Trevenant and put it onto your Bench" -- replace “and” with a comma since this is a list [-1 point]

Believability: (12/15)
‘Found a Friend’ just easily gets this Pokémon available, which is fine. ‘Spiritual Summoning’ gets very interesting, but it has a believability issue that really bothers me, and that’s counting on the card being the exact same one as opposed to one of the same name. There’s really not a way for the game to keep track of that and make sure it’s the same card if you have multiple cards with that name in your deck.

Final Thoughts: Conceptually, this card is brown cow stunning Nyora! But you went for some really creative and experimental effects, naturally when the concepts get difficult points will be lost due to wording getting more difficult. There were a couple conceptual errors as well, but overall this was still a great submission, incredible job!
Final Score: 40/50


100
Match 2: Vom vs Blakers

Judges: @Vracken and @NinjaPenguin


@Vom
[Stage 1] Duosion HP90 [P]
Evolves from Solosis
duosion.gif

NO. 578 Mitosis Pokémon HT: 2'00'' WT: 17.6 lbs.
Ability: Mitochondria Are the Powerhouse of the Cell
Once during your turn (before your attack), if this Pokémon is on your Bench, you may use this Ability. During this turn, your Evolution Pokémon may attack twice in a row. (If the first attack Knocks Out your opponent's Active Pokémon, you may attack again after your opponent chooses a new Active Pokémon.) If you do, this Pokémon is Knocked Out.

[P][P][P] Memory of an Adversary
If a Pokémon in your opponent's discard pile has the same name as your opponent's Active Pokémon, both Active Pokémon are Knocked Out.

Weakness: [P]x2
Resistance: -
Retreat: [C]
When their brains, now divided in two, are thinking the same thoughts, these Pokémon exhibit their maximum power.
Wording
-1 Mitochondria Are the Powerhouse of the Cell should be worded “... your Evolution Pokémon may attack twice”
-0.5 “If a Pokémon in your opponent's discard pile has the same name as your opponent's Active Pokémon, both Active Pokémon are Knocked Out.” should be “If your opponent’s Active Pokémon has the same name as a Pokémon in your opponent’s discard pile, both Active Pokemon are Knocked Out” - I personally am not sure about the exact correct wording on this one. I don’t believe that your wording is correct, but there isn’t precedence for exact wording on this one, so I went with what makes sense for me from a logic argument standpoint.
13.5/15
---
Creativity/Originality
Interesting card for sure, I love the flavour of the dual brained monster granting 2 of something. The effect, while not wholly unique is still something new, certainly a new spin on something that already existed. The Attack is similar in that not a completely brand new effect, but a strong spin on something that already exists, and I love the interplay with your opponents having to play around the effects. Shame that attack is held back by the cost. The ability name is weird to me, I get you are playing at cells, but nothing about Duosion is specifically to do with the mitochondria. Memory however plays a little more into the brain theme, which is good to see.
17/20
---
Believability/Playability
I always look for where people push things like Hp. I personally hate powercreep, it is a problem that any long lived game that adds new things, or expansions. Unfortunately, this card hits it big time with a 50% increase to Hp over every other Duosion before it. It is weird, because when I checked, I thought it would be maybe 70-80 for normal, so I don’t know if Duosion is just cursed to be a low Hp stage 1, but they are, and for that reason, points are lost pushing it here by that much.
Dual attack effects have been limited for a while now, and most of them were put on pretty weak Pokemon for balance reasons, or Pokemon that had some kind of non-offensive attack that could either allow them to use an offensive attack, or get some kind of value. Allowing evolved Pokemon two attacks is an incredibly powerful effect that has the potential to run away with games, even at the cost of a prize card. So it is a major concern for balance. Memory of an Adversary is a pretty powerful effect but the hard cost and the restriction should be enough of a balance point.
11/15
---
Vracken Notes for Next Time
Couple of minor hiccups, wording is a little bit of a tough one since some things don’t have precedence. All around, cool effects, nice flavour, power is a little top heavy in my opinion, but I don’t hate that, just something to be wary of.

Final Score: 41.5/50
Creativity: 18/20
Mitochondria Are the Powerhouse of the Cell is a really nice way to use a double attacking effect which can apply to anything while still having a drawback that forces you to make a calculated decision about using it. Memory of an Adversary also has a very smart way to incorporate an instant KO effect with it being both highly unique and preventable by your opponent at the cost of forcing them to play in a certain discard-averse way. Great job!

Wording: 14/15
Mitochondria Are the Powerhouse of the Cell:
-Delete “in a row” [-1 Point]

Believability: 9/15
This card would be perfectly balanced as is if it was a Reuniclus, but as a NFE Stage 1, this is too strong. Mitochondria Are the Powerhouse of the Cell can allow you to do much more than one prize worth of damage and only pay the cost of one Stage 1, which is too powerful for an NFE. More importantly, though, Memory of an Adversary can get three prizes and for the price of only one with Tag Teams, which is way too strong for an NFE even with the three energy cost. Also, even with the power creep, the HP is still a bit too high.

Final Score: 41/50
I really loved the ideas you worked with here and your attention to detail in wording, Vom! My one complaint is that it didn’t feel like you really took this theme to heart, and your card was built and balanced as though it was fully evolved, which meant that you paid the price in terms of believability here.

@Blakers
Zigzagoon – Colorless – HP60
Basic Pokémon
zigzagoon.gif

NO. 263 Tiny Raccoon Pokémon HT: 1’04” WT: 38.6 lbs.

Ability: Pickup
Once during your turn (before your attack), you may search your discard pile for a Pokémon Tool card and put it into your hand.

[C][C] Fling: 40 damage. Discard a Pokémon Tool card attached to this Pokémon. If this Pokémon has no Pokémon Tool cards attached to it, this attack does nothing.

Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: None
Retreat: 1
It walks in zigzag fashion. It is good at finding items in the grass and even in the ground.
Wording
-1 Pickup should be worded “Once during your turn (before your attack), you may put a Pokémon Tool card from your discard pile into your hand.”
-3 “Discard a Pokémon Tool card attached to this Pokémon. If this Pokémon has no Pokémon Tool cards attached to it, this attack does nothing.” would cause the discard to occur, then the attack, having no Pokémon Tools, would fail.
Instead the wording should be “Discard a Pokémon Tool card attached to this Pokémon. If you don't, this attack does nothing”
11/15
---
Creativity/Originality
I like the concept behind the synergy of the ability and attack, however, the ability also completely defeats the purpose of the downside on Fling. Fling however, is not a particularly powerful attack, so there is honestly some kinda weirdness in there. Otherwise the card feels very standard, not much exciting going on, names are very stock standard, though are at least flavourful to the origins of those names. Tool specific is something unique, and I like the idea behind the synergy, but it feels like it was done without an understanding for why effects like both of those exist.
11/20
---
Believability/Playability
I am slightly concerned for the powerlevel of being able to return an item card every turn for free from your discard. It is balanced slightly by the Tool only restriction, but typically return effects are either 1-shot, or on attack.
13/15
---
Vracken Notes for Next Time
To be honest, this card feels a little phoned in. Small basics are really hard to make interesting designs for, so when you choose this over a middle evolution Pokémon, you are restricting yourself quite severely. I would like to see a more inspired design when attempting another small basic like this. While the space is limited, there are a few cool and interesting ideas that people can go for. I am glad you tried something a little different, but it just misses the mark.

Final Score: 35/50
Creativity: 12/20
Pickup and Fling have a nice simple synergy going on, while Pickup is still useful outside of the context of just this card. Fling is also a good way of making the effect work in the TCG, but the fact is both of these effects are only small modifications of what’s been seen in the past, which hurts this card a lot.

Wording: 12/15
Pickup:
-The wording format you’re using for this effect hasn’t been used since Gen 4. Instead, simplify the ending to “you may put a Pokémon Tool card from your discard pile into your hand.” [-2 Points]

Fling:
-As is, the effect would mean that unless Zigzagoon somehow had two tools attached to it, you couldn’t use the card, since the effects apply in the order they appear. To fix this, replace “If this Pokémon has no Pokémon Tool cards attached to it” with “If you don’t”. [-1 Point]

Believability: 15/15
The support for recycling tool cards isn’t enough to be overpowering generally, with the advantages and combos weighed down enough by the fact you need to take up bench space with a vulnerable 60 HP Basic to gain them. The attack being near guaranteed to hit that 40 damage is a bit worrying on a tiny basic, but within the realm of believability.

Final Score: 39/50
The card is well done in the technical aspects of wording and believability, but I feel like you left uniqueness and creativity in the process. Just because it’s not fully evolved doesn’t mean it needs to be simple, and I feel like you could have done a lot more with this card to make it stand out as something truly new.


100
Which means the contestants advancing are:
Match 1:
FourteenAlmonds, whose Superb Sunkern scored an total of 79.5/100 points!
Match 2:
Vom, whose Dynamic Duosion scored at total of 82.5/100 points!

Sorry, Nyora and Blakers, but with scores of 79/100 points and 74/100 points in your respective matches, that means that you have been eliminated.

Congratulations to those who advanced!
 
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Round 4
The theme for the final round is Alternate Eras! To become a champion, you need to be able to adapt and show your skill in a variety of formats. For this final round, you'll have to leave your comfort zone and fake outside of an era you've already faked in for this tournament. Since both of you have only faked in the Sun and Moon era, that means that you must cannot fake in that era (or the Black and White/XY eras, since their wording system is mostly the same as SuMo's). Aside from that, there's absolutely no restrictions on the Pokémon you choose or card you create. As always, be creative!

The final matchup is:
@FourteenAlmonds vs @Vom

Here's the link to the updated bracket.

You have just under two weeks, or until Sunday, April 28th, at 12:00 PM EST to submit your cards for this round. Good luck! :D
 
The 11th of February, 2019. A date that will live on in infamy.

It was then that Lord @NinjaPenguin made his royal decree — there was to be a Create-A-Card Tournament. A tournament of the minds. A clash of the titans.

Ten brave warriors gathered to the fray. Ten soldiers who would put it all on the line for honour and glory.

They were:
@FourteenAlmonds
@Vom
@Nyora
@Blakers
@Lord Goomy
@ShaQuL
@FlashRayquaza
@TheLastShaymin
@Kangaflora
@Luplayz

These daring heroes forged new paths into uncharted territory, creating cards and realising concepts that had never been seen before. The combatants forged some excellent cards in the war effort, sometimes in vain, and sometimes to great success. Still, as they pushed themselves to the limit and used everything they had to win, they knew that only one could reign victorious.

And so, as the smoke thinned in the silent, darkened arena, two silhouettes emerged from the dust. They stared wild-eyed at the carnage around them, at their fallen comrades, and they knew this war had changed them. Neither would ever create a card the same way again. These final two were @FourteenAlmonds and @Vom — the only two who had had the ability to stand up to the rest of the competition.

And so it comes to this. The final round. The last stanza in a poem that had pitted friend against friend, foe against foe, and master against apprentice. The post-penultimate showdown.

@FourteenAlmonds calmed his mind. After spending over 42 episodes preparing for this season finale, it was time for action. Time to show the world that he was here, and here to stay. He let out a guttural cry, and launched his last attack.

Classic era btw (if you need a specific set, go with Base Set. Otherwise just stick to Classic)
Bill’s Clefairy 40 HP [C]
Basic Pokémon

Fairy Pokémon. Length: 2’ 0”, Weight: 17 lbs.

[C] Cell Connector
Discard 4 Bill cards from your hand in order to use this attack. You and your opponent show each other your hands, then attach all the basic Energy cards from your hands to your Active Pokémon.

[C][C][C] Cell Separator
You and your opponent return all basic Energy cards attached to all of your Pokémon with basic Energy cards attached to them to your hands, then put all Bill cards from your discard piles into your hands.

Weakness: [F]
Resistance: [P] -30
Retreat: [C]

@Vom saw what was coming and returned the attack in kind. With a roar, @Vom used one last shred of strength to unleash an ultimate move, and the two beams of energy collided in a crash of noise and light worthy of being featured in any “Top 10 Anime Fight Scenes” video.

lol nah idk what it is yet... I find out the same time as you do.

Only the all-powerful @NinjaPenguin could say what would happen now. Would it be a win? A loss? A double prize card penalty? Nobody knew for sure, but the result was sure to rock the CAC community to its very core.

Good luck @Vom, and may the best card win.
 
Some Extra Stuff:

1. Discard 4 Bill cards from your hand in order to use this attack.

Kadabra (BS) says: “Discard 1 [P] Energy card attached to Kadabra in order to use this attack.” I simply replaced “[P] Energy”, which is the name of the card, with “Bill”, which is also the name of the card. I had a look at Garchomp (ULP) with relation to how it mentions Cynthia, but I decided against “Discard 4 Bills from your hand” and since that wording comes from 20 years later, I don’t think it’s right to compare them. I also changed the quantity and where you discard from.

2. You and your opponent show each other your hands, then attach all the basic Energy cards from your hands to your Active Pokémon.

This part was pretty much ripped straight from Lass (wording only, of course — not the idea!). Quote: “You and your opponent show each other your hands, then shuffle all the Trainer cards from your hands into your decks.” These were my changes:
- Shuffle -> Attach
- Trainer -> Basic Energy
- Into your decks -> To your Active Pokémon
The plural of Pokémon is Pokémon, and I know that looks a bit confusing, but take it however you like. Notably, Pokémon Center (BS) is not consistent with the wording of Lass here: when referring to “all” of a card, it says, “Discard all Energy cards” instead of “shuffle all the Trainer cards”. I am a little worried about whether to include “the” here, so I looked at Zapdos (BS) and it, too, says “Discard all Energy cards” without including “the”. It appears that when a card is in your hand, you include “the”; but, when the effect refers to cards attached to a Pokémon, you leave it out.

3. You and your opponent return all basic Energy cards attached to all of your Pokémon with basic Energy cards attached to them to your hands, then put all Bill cards from your discard piles into your hands.

Okay, this one is messy. Let’s break it down. “You and your opponent” is used as per Lass (BS). “Each player” is only used to denote ownership (see Nidoking and Magneton, both BS), and the wording from Lass is used when both players make an action. Next, “return... to your hands” comes from Thought Wave Machine (N4) which is the earliest example of returning energy cards I could find. It is consistent with Scoop Up (BS) so I went with it. “All basic Energy cards attached to all of your Pokémon with basic Energy cards attached to them” is not nice to look at, but as per Pokémon Center (BS) you must specify that you remove from only “Pokémon with xxxxx on them.” Next is “, then” and I’d just like to note that all Base Set cards that include “then” have it in the same sentence after a comma. It does make the sentence fairly long, but looking at Lass and Pokémon Center, that is how it is. “you and your opponent put all Bill cards from your discard piles into your hands” is based on Item Finder (BS) and is consistent with the card text: “put xxxxxxx from your discard pile into your hand.” “Bill cards” is used here for the same reason and in the same way as in the first attack, and was justified there. Across the whole attack, “discard pile” and “hand” are pluralised as in Lass (BS) because we are referring to more than one.

4. Weakness, Resistance, Retreat, Data Line, and top line formats

Look at the original Clefairy from Base Set — “Basic” is above the name line, and HP comes after the number. My only hesitation here is that convention is to put the Stage below the name when writing out the text for the card, even in Base Set, but I’m not sure of the reasoning behind that — is it so the cards can be arranged alphabetically? In the end, I put the Stage where it goes conventionally, but hopefully it doesn’t matter.

5. No Pokédex entry????

Owner’s Pokémon do not have Pokédex entries. See, for example, Brock’s Geodude or Erika’s Oddish (both from Gym Heroes).

I know I may have gone overboard here, but this is more for my peace of mind than anything else.

Ability: Bill’s Bonus
If this Pokémon is your Active Pokémon, draw one more card when you play Bill from your hand during your turn.

Ability: Bill’s Solitude
When you play this Pokémon from your hand during your turn, return all of your Pokémon in play (except Bill’s Pokémon) to your hand.

General Info
• Clefairy (BS)
• Brock’s Grodude (Gym Heroes)

Attack 1
• Kadabra (BS)
• Blastoise (BS)
• Lass (BS)
• Energy Retrieval (BS)
• Pokémon Center (BS)
• Zapdos (BS)

Attack 2
• Item Finder (BS)
• Scoop Up (BS)
• Lass (BS)
• Thought Wave Machine (N4)
• Pokémon Center (BS)
• Nidoking (BS)
• Magneton (BS)
 
I really want to continue that narrative, but I think it's pretty epic as-is and I don't wanna ruin it lol. Best of luck, and may the best card win indeed.

HGSS era

[LEGEND] Giratina
legend.png
HP140 [P]
Put this card from your hand onto your Bench only with the other half of Giratina
legend.png
.


NO. 487 Renegade Pokémon HT: 22'08'' WT: 1433.0 lbs.

Poké-POWER: Distortion World
Once during your turn, when you put Giratina
legend.png
into play, you may choose 1 of your opponent's Pokémon and put it and all cards attached to it in the Lost Zone. If you do, put Giratina
legend.png
in the Lost Zone.

[P][P][P] Shadow Force 80
If you have at least 3 [P] Energy attached to your Pokémon and you have both halves of Giratina
legend.png
in the Lost Zone, this attack can be used even if Giratina
legend.png
is in the Lost Zone.

Weakness: [P]x2
Resistance: [F]-20
Retreat: [C][C]
This Pokémon is said to live in a world on the reverse side of ours, where common knowledge is distorted and strange.
Dialga and Palkia LEGEND - Choose 1 of your opponent's Pokémon
Darkrai and Cresselia Legend
Shaymin Unleashed
Snorlax Rising Rivals
Thought later because I'm cutting it really close lmao
Also note that although the opponent gets 2 Prizes from Knocking Out a LEGEND Pokémon this was never actually on the cards themselves. : <

EDIT: oof i messed up the wording already xd
 
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And that is time! The judging should be up in a week; stay tuned to see who will be crowned the Text-Based Faking Tournament Champion!
 
Round 4 Results

FourteenAlmonds vs Vom

Judges: @Lord o da rings and @NinjaPenguin

@FourteenAlmonds
Bill’s Clefairy 40 HP [C]
Basic Pokémon

Fairy Pokémon. Length: 2’ 0”, Weight: 17 lbs.

[C] Cell Connector
Discard 4 Bill cards from your hand in order to use this attack. You and your opponent show each other your hands, then attach all the basic Energy cards from your hands to your Active Pokémon.

[C][C][C] Cell Separator
You and your opponent return all basic Energy cards attached to all of your Pokémon with basic Energy cards attached to them to your hands, then put all Bill cards from your discard piles into your hands.

Weakness: [F]
Resistance: [P] -30
Retreat: [C]
Creativity: (18/20)
The self-synergy is obviously there, I won’t go deep into that. But uh, the effects. Wow. Cell Connector is super interesting in requiring 4 Bill specifically, as well as how much Energy it forces into play at once. But Cell Separator, seemingly a reverse of that effect, undoes all of that and more, allowing you to effectively reboot the game and wiggle yourself out of a bad situation. I couldn’t think of anything that does something like this, great job!

Wording: (13/15)
"with basic Energy cards attached to them" doesn’t work, the reference given doesn’t equate this usage [-2 points]

Believability: (11/15)
Cell Connector is wild, but far from broken. First you need to have the maximum amount of Bills in your hand to be discarded, and then from there it just flushes out each of your Energy cards, thus accelerating the gamestate. You give more than they do, especially when you don’t know how much Energy they have. Cell Separator, however? That’s wild, especially when if you don’t have much Energy in play and your opponent does? You can wipe out their entire game with just one of these.

Final Thoughts: You absolutely weren’t messing around for the final round, Almond. The effects are incredibly original and explorative, and you matched the confusing and unclear wording of the Classic Era perfectly. The only dock I really can make over this card is how busted Cell Separator is, since it’d be used to completely wipe the game clean and/or cripple Energy heavy decks (or really any deck for that matter). Otherwise, fantastic job, and I look forward to seeing what you have in store in the future!
Final Score: 42/50
Creativity: 19/20
There’s some really crazy synergy going on in this card! I really love the way the two effects interact and counteract eachother, along with the restraint you’ve put into the details here (the first thing that came to my mind to compare it to is photosynthesis and cellular respiration, which shows just how complex of an effect you’ve packed in here). Cell Connector attaching energy to the active makes it more of a disruption to your opponent’s strategy than support for yourself (since Clefairy has to be active to use it) and Cell Separator provides disruption to you to the point where the card has cemented its place as a stall deck, with effects disrupting the opposition in opposite yet effective ways. Nice job!

Wording: 14/15
Cell Connector:
-The effect does get a bit confusing, as it’s somewhat unclear if you both attach the card to your own Active Pokémon or both players attach to their own Active. However, it fits the Classic wording standards and the meaning is clear enough unless you’re intentionally stubborn so it’s fine. [-0 Points]

Cell Separator:
-You’d likely add “own” after “all of your”, but the effect is done by both you and your opponent so it’s hard to say if that rule would still apply considering more than one person is doing the effect. [-0 Points]
-Delete “with basic Energy cards attached to them” (the reason Pokémon Center has something repetitive like this is because only those specific Pokémon who are damaged are then singled out to have their energy discarded from them, while there is nothing of the sort in this card.) [-1 Point]

Believability: 12/15
Cell Connector has enough challenge in setting up when combined with the fact that you are only able to attach energy to Clefairy that it shouldn’t be busted, though potential interactions with Gust of Wind bringing up a support Pokémon are worrying. Though Clefairy does die in one hit to Hitmonchan, placing it in check, Cell Separator still can remove all of your opponent’s work attaching energies, which completely shuts down your opponent and can just give you a free win in a fair amount of endgame scenarios (think of the power cards like N can have) and completely kill decks with otherwise viable Pokémon like Gyarados that can’t knock it out with only two attachments (since Clefairy can power up in only two turns using a DCE) and don’t rely on a strategy like Rain Dance. Though it wouldn’t be the BDIF or close to it, the fact it shuts down a good amount of potential deck options makes Clefairy too format centering of a card.

Final Score: 45/50
This is an absolutely stellar job on your final round in this tournament! It showcases why you’ve made it this far: incredibly smart and creative ideas combined with extreme attention to detail (as exemplified by your wording reasoning) paid to technical aspects of the card. Even though you left your comfort zone this round and moved to a totally different era, you adapted to the wording and balance standards of the strangest era of all almost flawlessly. Amazing work!

@Vom
[LEGEND] Giratina
legend.png
HP140 [P]
Put this card from your hand onto your Bench only with the other half of Giratina
legend.png
.

giratina-origin.gif

NO. 487 Renegade Pokémon HT: 22'08'' WT: 1433.0 lbs.

Poké-POWER: Distortion World
Once during your turn, when you put Giratina
legend.png
into play, you may choose 1 of your opponent's Pokémon and put it and all cards attached to it in the Lost Zone. If you do, put Giratina
legend.png
in the Lost Zone.

[P][P][P] Shadow Force 80
If you have at least 3 [P] Energy attached to your Pokémon and you have both halves of Giratina
legend.png
in the Lost Zone, this attack can be used even if Giratina
legend.png
is in the Lost Zone.

Weakness: [P]x2
Resistance: [F]-20
Retreat: [C][C]
This Pokémon is said to live in a world on the reverse side of ours, where common knowledge is distorted and strange.
Creativity: (16/20)
Distortion World is a great 1-for-1, and it can be used well to take out a potential heavy hitter from your opponent, but with a cost to you. Great. Shadow Force is in itself not very interesting, but the effect of how it can be used from the Lost Zone is very intriguing and brings a whole new boost to the Poké-Power you gave it.

Wording: (15/15)
Wording looks good, great job!

Believability: (10/15)
Shadow Force literally cannot be used from the Lost Zone due to the 3 Energy cards that’d have to be on it there to work. And for that to work, Giratina would have to be able to use this attack on its own for free. Even still, the idea that all you need is a bulky Active Pokémon and 3 [P] Energy throughout all your Pokémon in play is, in addition, very powerful and can be abused with ease.

Final Thoughts: This is a very interesting card, Vom! You clearly put a lot of work into making it shine from a creative stand-point, and keeping wording fresh and clean. However, the singular problem that cropped up from Shadow Force’s Energy cost was incredibly problematic, not to mention so were any options with an effect like that being far and away very powerful. But overall, this is was well-done and effective at showing off your creative talents. Nice job!
-2 For Editing
Final Score: 39/50
Creativity: 18/20
I love Shadow Force as an effect! It turns everything that you’re accustomed to see in the TCG on its head, attacking from the Lost Zone and powering up using Pokémon other than the one attacking, and I’m shocked to see there hasn’t been anything like it before. Distortion World synergizes well with Shadow Force and is interesting in its ability to take out the opponent’s threats at difficulty (plus it could be an interesting combo with Lost World), but it feels just a bit less unique than Shadow Force.

Wording: 15/15
Distortion World:
-In the text, you need to say “LEGEND” in plain text, not use the symbol used at the top of the card. However, this is more a personal aesthetics issue than an actual wording issue because the symbol does have the word “LEGEND” in all caps. x4 [-0 Point]

Shadow Force:
-I’d want to say you should add some sort of clause denoting that Giratina is the Attacking Pokémon, just because it is so different than anything else that’s been created, but it makes enough sense as is. [-0 Points]

Everything is correct; good job!

Believability: 9/15
First things first, this wording doesn’t make any sense because Giratina would need energy attached to it while still being the Lost Zone, so you need to delete the attack cost because as is this effect is literally impossible to execute. And when this effect actually can work, it’s completely busted. Once you manage to get Giratina in the Lost Zone (which isn’t too terrible from the combination of Mew Prime and the ability), you start being able to do a very high amount of damage for the era (this is like Garchomp Lv. X but without the discards and slightly more difficult to afford) while not being penalized from a KO because Giratina can keep attacking and you can promote a beefy Pokémon with no energy attached to it to simply soak up all the hits and get KO’d without consequence. The fact that you need two halves of the LEGEND to ever have a chance to disrupt your opponent and it’s realtively difficult to find the cards to so in HGSS makes the ability balanced well enough.
(Also jsyk this card is worth only one prize because it is only one Pokémon (like Lugia and Ho-oh LEGEND) unlike what you said in the description.)

Edited: -2 Points

Final Score: 40/50
This is a really nice card, Vom! You’ve proven once again your ability to think up incredibly interesting effects and to word them flawlessly, even when moved to a totally unfamiliar era. Unfortunately, a lack of balance marred this card again, but this was a really great effort and you’ve definitely shown here why you’ve done so well for the entirety of this tournament.


100
Which means the winner of the first ever Text-Based Create-a-Card Faking Tournament, by a score of 87/100 to 79/100, is:
FourteenAlmonds!

Congratulations to the winner and thank you to everybody who participated in this tournament! We hope that you enjoyed it and would love to hear your thoughts on how well this worked and how you'd like to see an event like this structured in the future.
 
Congratulations @FourteenAlmonds! This was a really fun experience and I hope there'll be more in the future.

That being said, I can't believe that went over my head lmao. I thought the text would change it but I guess not. Obviously an oversight on my part but it's so dumb in hindsight lol.
But for the prize thing, bulbapedia lied to me :(
 
Well played, @Vom! You made some really impressive cards in this tournament, and I'm glad I got to go up against you in the final round (I particularly enjoyed your Samurott-GX and Dusoion)!

I really pushed myself for this one, and I'm glad it turned out all right.

It's been great fun making these cards and I'd like to keep going with this tournament-style format. Maybe have one a year, in addition to the monthly CaCs? I'm not entirely sure how it'd work out, but I do look forward to more!

@NinjaPenguin, mad respect for setting this up and judging it -- I know a lot went on behind the scenes and it must take heaps of time to judge all the entries, so thank you heaps for that. I think the CaC is a key part of the Creative Works community and I'd love for it to continue into the future! Thanks also to @Lord o da rings for the same reason -- without judges, this whole thing wouldn't be possible. (Was there anyone else who judged this time? No? Cool.)

...

And now I have something to put in my signature :0
 
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