This thread is being reposted by me by request of Celebi23 who started the original thread. This was done since Celebi23 can't reply to threads anymore and so doesn't visit this section very much anymore. I give Celebi23 and everyone who contributed to it credit for the information in this post. Please note that only Professors will be able to reply in this thread.
As I browse through this section, I often see a lot of the same questions popping up. Threads die off, and not everyone read them, so a new thread comes up in a couple days. I have written a guide on the most common questions in the hope of stopping this section from getting messy. It's also to prevent people from having to answer the same questions over and over. If there's a very general ruling, or pretty much any ruling really, you can search the Compendium. The difference is that I will answer a lot of questions more thoroughly or clearly than the Compendium (no offense intended). And of course, feel free to ask related questions or suggest more questions that should be added.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents:
Note- You may have to press the "Next" arrow on the finder in order to use the shortcuts.
1. Unown G (GE-57) General Guide [Ctrl F + azf1]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
azf1
I have noticed a lot of questions about Unown G (GE-57) in this section. Let's take a look at the actual text of the Power, the part of the card that is causing so much trouble.
"Once during your turn (before your attack), if Unown G is on your bench, you may discard all cards attached to Unown G and attach Unown G to 1 of your Pokemon as a Pokemon Tool card. As long as Unown G is attached to one of your Pokemon, prevent all effects of attacks, excluding damage, done to that Pokemon by your opponent's Pokemon"
Note-The text in red was added after the card was printed. Even if your copy of Unown G does not have those four words, you are expected to play as though they are there.
Let's take it from the top of this Power. When you attach this card to one of your Pokemon, you discard everything. This includes energy, Technical Machines and other Pokemon Tool cards (even other Unown G's/other Unowns on it). Next, when you attach this card to one of your Pokemon, if that Pokemon already has a Pokemon Tool card on it, Unown G can't be attached to that Pokemon. Examples of other Pokemon Tool cards are Memory Berry (PT-110) and Unown E (MT-65).
Now, the part where most questions come up: what does Unown G stop? Let's just take some common scenarios in order to answer this.
1. Q: If I have a Benched Pokemon and it is damaged, does Unown G stop it? If my opponent plays a Warp Point (MD-88), sending my Dusknoir LV. X (SF-95) with 120 damage and an Unown G on it to the bench then uses Dragon Pump on Kingdra (LA-5), discards 2 cards and does 20 to Dusknoir LV. X, does Unown G stop the 20 damage to the bench?
A: No. Read it. Even though the damage isn't stated right next to the attack in big bold letters, it still says damage and Unown G does not stop damage. This also applies to other ways that attacks damage. For example, an attack says 20+ in the big bold letters by the attack, then you flip a coin to do an extra 50 damage (if you get heads). Unown G doesn't stop the extra damage because it clearly says damage, not Damage Counters, Poison, etc.
2. Q: How far out can Unown G go? What exactly can it stop? If my opponent's Gardevoir (SW-7) uses Psychic Lock on me and my Active Pokemon has Unown G on it, can I still use Poke-Powers next turn?
A: The effect of that attack is not directly affecting your active Pokemon (it is affecting the game state), so Unown G does not stop it. Attacks that have effects on the game and do not directly change the condition of the Pokemon Unown G is attached to are not stopped. Also, "self-effects" are not stopped. Examples of this are Uxie LV. X's (LA-146) Zen Blade not letting it be used two times in a row and Mr. Mime's (MT-30) Trick Play attack dealing damage to itself when it flips tails.
3. Q: Does Unown G over-rule effects of attacks discarding it? If my opponent's Electivire LV. X (MT-121) or Mismagius (SF-7) attacks and tries to discard Unown G, does Unown G stop that?
A: Yes, it does. Although Mismagius is doing damage, the effect is letting it do the damage, which Unown G over-rules. However, if you have 5 Pokemon Tools in play for example, and your opponent does, for some reason, choose to target the Pokemon with Unown G on it, it still counts as one of their 4 targets. It just doesn't discard or add damage.
4. Building off of the last question, what about Pachirisu (GE-5)? Can it deal 40? Can it discard the Unown G? Can you look at your opponent's hand? And if you can, can you discard any Unown G in there? I already gave my explanation on the over-ruling part in question three, so I am just going to show the answer from the compendium. It pretty much sums everything up.
So, just as basic guidelines for finding out how Unown G over-rules something, follow this:
1. Look and see if the effect of the attack is done by your opponent and is going to have a direct effect on the Pokemon it is attached to. Refer back to the Zen Blade and Psychic Lock example for examples of ones that would not be stopped.
2. Check if the Pokemon targeting the Unown G'd Pokemon is dealing damage. The Kingdra-Dusknoir example is something that would not be stopped.
3. Remember that Unown G stops Damage Counters, Special Conditions, energy removal, being sent to the bench or brought up to the active position and anything that will stop the Pokemon from attacking next turn. Of course, that isn't all he can stop. And it will not stop any of those effects if they are inflicted by one of your own Pokemon, a Poke-Power, a Poke-Body or a Trainer/Supporter/Stadium.
The last thing mentioned there, stopping a Pokemon from attacking, can get complicated. If a Horsea (LA-102) uses Smokescreen on a Pokemon with Unown G attached to it, it is stopped. This is because Horsea's attack specifically says Defending Pokemon, so it is effecting the Pokemon with Unown G on it. However, if a Dusknoir (SF-1) uses Night Spin and none of your Pokemon have 3 energy or more, Unown G does not stop that. This is because it says on the attack, "done to Dusknoir." This shows that it is affecting Dusknoir, not any of your Pokemon.
One last thing that is important to note is that Unown G does not stop Poke-Powers. For example, if a Spiritomb LA uses Curse Breath, it is not an attack and hence continues to work. Also, if an Alakazam (MT-2) uses Power Cancel or your opponent plays a Team Galactic's Invention G-103 Power Spray (PT-117) on Unown G as you are trying to attach it to one of your Pokemon, you can't just use it again. You have to wait until next turn. However, if you have a second Unown G in play, you can use that one's Poke-Power Guard as long as it isn't stopped as well.
ERRATA: Only effects of your opponent's attacks (not your own) are stopped by Unown G.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another frequent card to be asked about it Great Ball. First, let's get it straight that in NO CIRCUMSTANCES can you have more than 5 benched Pokemon. Hence, you can't use a Great Ball when you have 5 benched Pokemon.
Also, the card goes straight from the deck to your bench. Therefore, everything that has a Power that activates upon playing it from your [/color]hand fails. Examples are Mesperit LA, Uxie LA, Azelf LA and Spritomb LA. These cards have Powers that can activate when they are played from your hand. But if they never get played from your hand, how can they activate?
And yes, you may fail a search. In Kronar's words, the contents of your deck aren't known to your opponent, so they don't actually know if you have a Basic Pokemon in your deck. You obviously still have to shuffle, though.
I don't see why this generated so many questions, I can't even find anything more to say. :O
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another thing that generates a lot of questions is fossils. Let's just get this out of the way. Old Amber does NOT count as a fossil in terms of Fossil Excavator. In the videogames, sure (I guess), but because Fossil is not in the name of the card, it doesn't count as one. Notice how Fossil Excavator specifically says to search for a card with Fossil in its name. This means the name printed where the name of a Trainer would be has to say Fossil. This will apply to all other things that specifically say Fossil unless the wording is very different or we get an errata.
Next, Fossils only count as Pokemon while in play. This means that you can't Great Ball, Roseanne's, etc. for a Fossil. While in play, they count as Pokemon, so this means you can use Rare Candy on them, Warp Point them to the active position/benched position, etc. And yes, there's no way to make a Fossil have a Retreat Cost (at least in DP-PT). When moved to the discard, they no longer count as Basic Pokemon, so Night Maintenance and TSD can not get them out of the discard. This means that Marley's Request (SF) can. Fossil Excavator can, but not on Old Amber.
So yeah, as unfair as it seems, Kabutops MD stops you from playing Fossils directly from your hand to the bench as long as it's in the active position. And some other random things. Dialga G LV. X still stops all of the Fossils' Poke-Bodies as long as they are in play. And yes, your opponent takes a prize upon knocking out a Fossil.
Although it's an outdated ruling, it's sure to get some attention. Older fossils like Mysterious Fossil can't evolve into the newer Omanyte (MD), etc. It is what it says on the card. Evolves from Helix Fossil. And this goes backward as well. This also means that the older fossils, when knocked out, let your opponent take a prize. There is an errata that makes it that way, but the exact errata isn't really needed.
And that sums this up.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cyrus' Scheme and Honchkrow G. These are very common problems. Therefore, I'm adding them. The only question is if only the Trainer has to have Team Galactic's Invention in the name, or if all 3/2 have to have it. As of the moment that I am typing this, there is no Supporter, Stadium or Energy card that has that phrase in its name. Therefore, no. All 3 do not have to have that phrase in their name. Just the trainer. Also, the wording, although confusing, suggests this as well.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Energy Gain is presenting some problems as well. I'm going to number these for convenience.
1. If I have an Energy Gain attached to Toxicroak G and my opponent has a Pachirisu active that uses its second attack, what happens?
Well, first, Energy Gain is not discarded from Toxicroak. Its Body is like an Unown G, making it immune to all effects of attacks. This also means you can't search your opponent's hand because Unown G is not discarded.
2. Can I use Energy Gain to Retreat or use an attack for free which has the attack cost of [C]?
Yes and no. Energy Gain is making the ATTACK cost of the Pokemon it's attached to [C] less. Therefore, it has no effect on the Retreat Cost. However, yes you can use it to make an attack free. It's making it [C] less. What's [C]-[C]? We all know that any number or variable minus its self is zero (unless there's something I don't know here). So therefore, the attack cost is 0.
3. If my opponent's Dusknoir used Night Spin last turn and I have 2 Energy and 1 Energy Gain on one of my Pokemon-SP, can I still attack Dusknoir?
No you may not. Dusknoir is checking the energy attached, and as explained in question #2 here, Energy Gain is changing the cost of the attack, not actually providing an energy. You can still attack, and resolve effects that have nothing to do with Dusknoir, but you can't actually do anything to Dusknoir (unless it gets switched to the bench before you announce your attack).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Giritina LV. X vs. Dusknoir LV. X. What happens? There's been enough confusion about this already, so I'm just giving an answer here. Dusknoir LV. X's Ectoplasm can activate. The same applies to Gengar. I'm not going to go into detail on this one.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: So... what happens if I use my Gastly's (SF) Trick Gas and switch. The 10 damage KO's an opposing Gengar. If they flip Heads on Gengar's Fainting Spell Poke-Power is Gastly KO'd?
A: Gastly will be knocked out by a Fainting Spell heads. Gengar was errata'd to make his Poke-Power say the Attacking Pokemon instead of the Defending Pokemon. Therefore, Gengar can still KO Gastly on the bench as he was the attacking Pokemon.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: While on the topic of Gengar's line, what happens if I KO Gengar with Ampharos Platinum (70+70) and there isn't a Dialga G LV. X in play? Will Fainting Spell activate?
A: No, Gengar has damage counters on it, Ampharos therefore locks its Power, Fainting Spell can't activate. The same applies to Ectoplasm.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: If I evolve on one turn and in the same turn level up that Pokemon is that considered a legal move?
A: No, that is not allowed, even with the effect of Broken Time-Space. The only way to do so would to use a Level Max or Porygon-Z Promo's attack and the like. However, without an added effect it is not legal to level up a Pokemon the same turn you evolve that Pokemon.[/QUOTE]
As I browse through this section, I often see a lot of the same questions popping up. Threads die off, and not everyone read them, so a new thread comes up in a couple days. I have written a guide on the most common questions in the hope of stopping this section from getting messy. It's also to prevent people from having to answer the same questions over and over. If there's a very general ruling, or pretty much any ruling really, you can search the Compendium. The difference is that I will answer a lot of questions more thoroughly or clearly than the Compendium (no offense intended). And of course, feel free to ask related questions or suggest more questions that should be added.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents:
Note- You may have to press the "Next" arrow on the finder in order to use the shortcuts.
1. Unown G (GE-57) General Guide [Ctrl F + azf1]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
azf1
I have noticed a lot of questions about Unown G (GE-57) in this section. Let's take a look at the actual text of the Power, the part of the card that is causing so much trouble.
"Once during your turn (before your attack), if Unown G is on your bench, you may discard all cards attached to Unown G and attach Unown G to 1 of your Pokemon as a Pokemon Tool card. As long as Unown G is attached to one of your Pokemon, prevent all effects of attacks, excluding damage, done to that Pokemon by your opponent's Pokemon"
Note-The text in red was added after the card was printed. Even if your copy of Unown G does not have those four words, you are expected to play as though they are there.
Let's take it from the top of this Power. When you attach this card to one of your Pokemon, you discard everything. This includes energy, Technical Machines and other Pokemon Tool cards (even other Unown G's/other Unowns on it). Next, when you attach this card to one of your Pokemon, if that Pokemon already has a Pokemon Tool card on it, Unown G can't be attached to that Pokemon. Examples of other Pokemon Tool cards are Memory Berry (PT-110) and Unown E (MT-65).
Now, the part where most questions come up: what does Unown G stop? Let's just take some common scenarios in order to answer this.
1. Q: If I have a Benched Pokemon and it is damaged, does Unown G stop it? If my opponent plays a Warp Point (MD-88), sending my Dusknoir LV. X (SF-95) with 120 damage and an Unown G on it to the bench then uses Dragon Pump on Kingdra (LA-5), discards 2 cards and does 20 to Dusknoir LV. X, does Unown G stop the 20 damage to the bench?
A: No. Read it. Even though the damage isn't stated right next to the attack in big bold letters, it still says damage and Unown G does not stop damage. This also applies to other ways that attacks damage. For example, an attack says 20+ in the big bold letters by the attack, then you flip a coin to do an extra 50 damage (if you get heads). Unown G doesn't stop the extra damage because it clearly says damage, not Damage Counters, Poison, etc.
2. Q: How far out can Unown G go? What exactly can it stop? If my opponent's Gardevoir (SW-7) uses Psychic Lock on me and my Active Pokemon has Unown G on it, can I still use Poke-Powers next turn?
A: The effect of that attack is not directly affecting your active Pokemon (it is affecting the game state), so Unown G does not stop it. Attacks that have effects on the game and do not directly change the condition of the Pokemon Unown G is attached to are not stopped. Also, "self-effects" are not stopped. Examples of this are Uxie LV. X's (LA-146) Zen Blade not letting it be used two times in a row and Mr. Mime's (MT-30) Trick Play attack dealing damage to itself when it flips tails.
3. Q: Does Unown G over-rule effects of attacks discarding it? If my opponent's Electivire LV. X (MT-121) or Mismagius (SF-7) attacks and tries to discard Unown G, does Unown G stop that?
A: Yes, it does. Although Mismagius is doing damage, the effect is letting it do the damage, which Unown G over-rules. However, if you have 5 Pokemon Tools in play for example, and your opponent does, for some reason, choose to target the Pokemon with Unown G on it, it still counts as one of their 4 targets. It just doesn't discard or add damage.
4. Building off of the last question, what about Pachirisu (GE-5)? Can it deal 40? Can it discard the Unown G? Can you look at your opponent's hand? And if you can, can you discard any Unown G in there? I already gave my explanation on the over-ruling part in question three, so I am just going to show the answer from the compendium. It pretty much sums everything up.
So, just as basic guidelines for finding out how Unown G over-rules something, follow this:
1. Look and see if the effect of the attack is done by your opponent and is going to have a direct effect on the Pokemon it is attached to. Refer back to the Zen Blade and Psychic Lock example for examples of ones that would not be stopped.
2. Check if the Pokemon targeting the Unown G'd Pokemon is dealing damage. The Kingdra-Dusknoir example is something that would not be stopped.
3. Remember that Unown G stops Damage Counters, Special Conditions, energy removal, being sent to the bench or brought up to the active position and anything that will stop the Pokemon from attacking next turn. Of course, that isn't all he can stop. And it will not stop any of those effects if they are inflicted by one of your own Pokemon, a Poke-Power, a Poke-Body or a Trainer/Supporter/Stadium.
The last thing mentioned there, stopping a Pokemon from attacking, can get complicated. If a Horsea (LA-102) uses Smokescreen on a Pokemon with Unown G attached to it, it is stopped. This is because Horsea's attack specifically says Defending Pokemon, so it is effecting the Pokemon with Unown G on it. However, if a Dusknoir (SF-1) uses Night Spin and none of your Pokemon have 3 energy or more, Unown G does not stop that. This is because it says on the attack, "done to Dusknoir." This shows that it is affecting Dusknoir, not any of your Pokemon.
One last thing that is important to note is that Unown G does not stop Poke-Powers. For example, if a Spiritomb LA uses Curse Breath, it is not an attack and hence continues to work. Also, if an Alakazam (MT-2) uses Power Cancel or your opponent plays a Team Galactic's Invention G-103 Power Spray (PT-117) on Unown G as you are trying to attach it to one of your Pokemon, you can't just use it again. You have to wait until next turn. However, if you have a second Unown G in play, you can use that one's Poke-Power Guard as long as it isn't stopped as well.
ERRATA: Only effects of your opponent's attacks (not your own) are stopped by Unown G.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another frequent card to be asked about it Great Ball. First, let's get it straight that in NO CIRCUMSTANCES can you have more than 5 benched Pokemon. Hence, you can't use a Great Ball when you have 5 benched Pokemon.
Also, the card goes straight from the deck to your bench. Therefore, everything that has a Power that activates upon playing it from your [/color]hand fails. Examples are Mesperit LA, Uxie LA, Azelf LA and Spritomb LA. These cards have Powers that can activate when they are played from your hand. But if they never get played from your hand, how can they activate?
And yes, you may fail a search. In Kronar's words, the contents of your deck aren't known to your opponent, so they don't actually know if you have a Basic Pokemon in your deck. You obviously still have to shuffle, though.
I don't see why this generated so many questions, I can't even find anything more to say. :O
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another thing that generates a lot of questions is fossils. Let's just get this out of the way. Old Amber does NOT count as a fossil in terms of Fossil Excavator. In the videogames, sure (I guess), but because Fossil is not in the name of the card, it doesn't count as one. Notice how Fossil Excavator specifically says to search for a card with Fossil in its name. This means the name printed where the name of a Trainer would be has to say Fossil. This will apply to all other things that specifically say Fossil unless the wording is very different or we get an errata.
Next, Fossils only count as Pokemon while in play. This means that you can't Great Ball, Roseanne's, etc. for a Fossil. While in play, they count as Pokemon, so this means you can use Rare Candy on them, Warp Point them to the active position/benched position, etc. And yes, there's no way to make a Fossil have a Retreat Cost (at least in DP-PT). When moved to the discard, they no longer count as Basic Pokemon, so Night Maintenance and TSD can not get them out of the discard. This means that Marley's Request (SF) can. Fossil Excavator can, but not on Old Amber.
So yeah, as unfair as it seems, Kabutops MD stops you from playing Fossils directly from your hand to the bench as long as it's in the active position. And some other random things. Dialga G LV. X still stops all of the Fossils' Poke-Bodies as long as they are in play. And yes, your opponent takes a prize upon knocking out a Fossil.
Although it's an outdated ruling, it's sure to get some attention. Older fossils like Mysterious Fossil can't evolve into the newer Omanyte (MD), etc. It is what it says on the card. Evolves from Helix Fossil. And this goes backward as well. This also means that the older fossils, when knocked out, let your opponent take a prize. There is an errata that makes it that way, but the exact errata isn't really needed.
And that sums this up.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cyrus' Scheme and Honchkrow G. These are very common problems. Therefore, I'm adding them. The only question is if only the Trainer has to have Team Galactic's Invention in the name, or if all 3/2 have to have it. As of the moment that I am typing this, there is no Supporter, Stadium or Energy card that has that phrase in its name. Therefore, no. All 3 do not have to have that phrase in their name. Just the trainer. Also, the wording, although confusing, suggests this as well.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Energy Gain is presenting some problems as well. I'm going to number these for convenience.
1. If I have an Energy Gain attached to Toxicroak G and my opponent has a Pachirisu active that uses its second attack, what happens?
Well, first, Energy Gain is not discarded from Toxicroak. Its Body is like an Unown G, making it immune to all effects of attacks. This also means you can't search your opponent's hand because Unown G is not discarded.
2. Can I use Energy Gain to Retreat or use an attack for free which has the attack cost of [C]?
Yes and no. Energy Gain is making the ATTACK cost of the Pokemon it's attached to [C] less. Therefore, it has no effect on the Retreat Cost. However, yes you can use it to make an attack free. It's making it [C] less. What's [C]-[C]? We all know that any number or variable minus its self is zero (unless there's something I don't know here). So therefore, the attack cost is 0.
3. If my opponent's Dusknoir used Night Spin last turn and I have 2 Energy and 1 Energy Gain on one of my Pokemon-SP, can I still attack Dusknoir?
No you may not. Dusknoir is checking the energy attached, and as explained in question #2 here, Energy Gain is changing the cost of the attack, not actually providing an energy. You can still attack, and resolve effects that have nothing to do with Dusknoir, but you can't actually do anything to Dusknoir (unless it gets switched to the bench before you announce your attack).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Giritina LV. X vs. Dusknoir LV. X. What happens? There's been enough confusion about this already, so I'm just giving an answer here. Dusknoir LV. X's Ectoplasm can activate. The same applies to Gengar. I'm not going to go into detail on this one.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: So... what happens if I use my Gastly's (SF) Trick Gas and switch. The 10 damage KO's an opposing Gengar. If they flip Heads on Gengar's Fainting Spell Poke-Power is Gastly KO'd?
A: Gastly will be knocked out by a Fainting Spell heads. Gengar was errata'd to make his Poke-Power say the Attacking Pokemon instead of the Defending Pokemon. Therefore, Gengar can still KO Gastly on the bench as he was the attacking Pokemon.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: While on the topic of Gengar's line, what happens if I KO Gengar with Ampharos Platinum (70+70) and there isn't a Dialga G LV. X in play? Will Fainting Spell activate?
A: No, Gengar has damage counters on it, Ampharos therefore locks its Power, Fainting Spell can't activate. The same applies to Ectoplasm.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: If I evolve on one turn and in the same turn level up that Pokemon is that considered a legal move?
A: No, that is not allowed, even with the effect of Broken Time-Space. The only way to do so would to use a Level Max or Porygon-Z Promo's attack and the like. However, without an added effect it is not legal to level up a Pokemon the same turn you evolve that Pokemon.[/QUOTE]