Ruling Super Rod & Level/Ultra/Heavy Ball

[Secret Pikachu]

I have a few questions today!

Super Rod (Trainer - Item):

Shuffle 3 in any combination of Pokémon and basic Energy cards from your discard pile back into your deck.

1) If you only have two in any combination of Pokemon and basic Energy cards in your discard pile, can you still use Super Rod? My guess is yes.

2) Can you choose to pick less than three in any combination of Pokemon and basic Energy cards from your discard pile to shuffle back into your deck if you have more than the amount that you chose? For instance, if I had three in any combination of Pokemon and basic Energy cards in my discard pile, could I choose two cards to shuffle back into my deck and leave the third card in my discard pile? My guess is no :O.

Level Ball (Search your deck for a Pokemon with 90 HP or less), Ultra Ball (Discard two cards and search your deck for any Pokemon), Heavy Ball (Search your deck for a Pokemon with a retreat cost of CCC or more) - (slight paraphrasing, all three cards are Trainer - Item cards, you most likely have them memorized )

3) If I play any of the above cards and search my deck for a Pokemon only to realize that I have no Pokemon I could pick up, what do I do? I've read elsewhere in this sub-forum that you cannot play a Trainer/Supporter and ignore the effect; should I have known beforehand that I had no Pokemon and not have played the card? Or have I completed the effect of the Level/Ultra/Heavy Ball card by searching my deck and attempting to pick up a Pokemon (I'm assuming that if there is a Pokemon in my deck, I must pick it up)? My guess is the latter!

I hope this all made sense, I'm close to falling asleep .

Thank you in advance!

 

[PMJ]

1) Yes. The only way you could not play Super Rod is if there was nothing you could take (ex. there were only Supporters in your discard pile). If you can't take the maximum, you take as much as you can.

2) No. The reason for this is because the card specifies a specific amount. The key words you're looking for here are "up to." Cards that say you may do something "up to" a certain amount means you may take as many as you like, with whatever number after "up to" as the maximum. Because Super Rod says to take exactly three, that's what you must do. The only way you could take less is if you had no other valid cards to take.

3) You are allowed to fail any search of your deck even though it might be obvious you're lying about the search failing. The deck's contents are always private to the game state, even if both you and your opponent know that you're lying about failing the search. For example, you could Super Rod 3 Pokemon back into your deck, shuffle, immediately play Pokemon Communication, put a fourth Pokemon back into your deck, claim nothing was there and shuffle.

Note that this luxury only applies to searching your deck. The discard pile, unlike your deck, is public and your opponent can check its contents at any time.

 

[Spidy]

3) You are allowed to fail any search of your deck even though it might be obvious you're lying about the search failing. The deck's contents are always private to the game state, even if both you and your opponent know that you're lying about failing the search. For example, you could Super Rod 3 Pokemon back into your deck, shuffle, immediately play Pokemon Communication, put a fourth Pokemon back into your deck, claim nothing was there and shuffle.

About this, you can only fail searching for specific cards in your deck (like if it say find a pokemon, or find an energy). That is because that it isn't known how many of those cards are valid targets (even if you just put 4 valid targets in he deck).

If it's a search that lets you grab any card out of your deck (like Twins), you must get a card. While the contents of your deck are private, the number of cards in your deck is public; and since every card in your deck is a valid target, it is known that you have that many cards to choose from.