TCG Fakes 31 Days of CaC: A Month-Long Look at 10 Years of History

[PMJ]

Holy Christ on a cracker that card is horrifying

This is the perfect example of what not to do when making a good custom blank. All the changes are completely nonsensical. The Stage text being the only vertical text on the card is dumb. The text isn't fully justified, making it automatically look unprofessional - like a pianist hitting a wrong note, the rest of the song can be perfect but that one wrong part sticks out like a sore thumb. The height and weight aren't even lined up, like they literally just hit center justify and started typing.

Your eyes have to zigzag all across the card just to get the important information. The art space is oddly shaped for no reason at all - it doesn't change anything or make things cleaner, it's just changed for the sake of being changed. The arguably least important part of the card, the bottom stats, set number, illustration, and flavor text, are all predominantly featured front and center, because reasons.

Pone touched on a few other reasons why I hate this card, like wasted space and how the lack of borders makes this thing look even more like an eyesore. I'm surprised the artist actually left the evocon in the upper left corner.

It's not a coincidence that TPCi only had the evocon in the middle for a brief time and why they switched to the Japanese way of ordering Energy symbols starting in gen 3. Their card aesthetics, generally, have been spot on since Base Set and why they've only made minor changes since DP. You don't fix what isn't broken. I can appreciate the work that went into it, but it's a visual nightmare to me.

I've mentioned this before, but I actually really like Omnium outside of the adherence to classic-style attacks. I enjoy that it supports all gimmicks without sacrificing card space and everything looks clean and well-organized. Requiring absurd-res size artwork is kind of sucky and I also think Acid Wash is a trash foil but as for the blank itself, it's as close to perfect as a custom blank can get. I guess if I had to offer some criticism, it's that everything looks a bit too uniform. Like in AGE, for cards that are both Delta Species and Ultra Beasts, both are different colors to be able to tell at a glance what they are.

 

[Jabberwock]

Nod3’s Arceus

July 2014 — Legendary​

Judge: @CMP

Very cool concept here, Noddeh! It’s vaguely reminiscent of the LEGEND cards, but easier to play (in theory). I like how you’ve taken several steps (x3 [F] Weakness, attack costs, forced Energy discard on the Bench) to limit its play/set-up, although I’m still not sure if 200 HP is low enough, especially with Arceus being immune to three different Special Conditions. In the rule, you need to capitalize ‘Bench.’ Fleeting Strike, even with the effect and card rule, might be a little too OP – based on past cards with a similar effect, I’d suggest changing the damage to 40. Smite looks good, although you need to use ‘each Energy’ instead of ‘every Energy.’ Additionally, I would suggest bolding the ‘x’ in the attack damage, and lining it up with the ’30’ as seen in the example here. While it’s true that the word ‘judgement’ can be spelled that way, in the games, the attack is spelled Judgment (sans the ‘e’). And damn, 30 damage counters in the ex-era was a lot! There isn’t anything from that era that it wouldn’t Knock Out (until XY, the highest HP was 200), so you’ll be flipping a coin every time. I’m sure you were going for the “Arceus is the Creator/all-powerful” aspect, but it seems to be powerful just for power’s sake, with the Prize card drawback tacked on to try to balance it. And while it’s true that not taking a Prize could hurt your chances of winning, it’s still a KO and it means that’s one less Pokémon your opponent can play. Getting Arceus to the point where it can use Judgment is difficult, sure, but I think you could make it 15 or 20 damage counters and still achieve the same results (and with the max HP in that era being 200, 20 could be more poetic). Also, the ‘card’ in ‘Prize card’ doesn’t need to be capitalized. I’m somewhat confused as to why Arceus has a [D] Resistance, as it should be [P], if anything. I really like the concept you have here, Noddeh, but I’d tweak it a bit. Perhaps get rid of the three Special Condition immunities, lower the HP to 180 (or thereabouts), and it would work in my eyes just a little bit better. It’s still a damn creative card, and I’d love to see you expand the idea further. Awesome stuff!

Creativity/Originality: 20/20
(Very unique mechanic)
Wording: 13/15
(Missed capitalizing ‘Bench,’ use of ‘every’ instead of ‘each,’ use of ‘Judgement’ instead of the in-game spelling, capitalizing ‘card’)
Fonts and Placement: 9.5/10
(Bold the ‘x’ multiplier and move down in line with damage)
Believability/Playability: 3/5
(LEGEND cards exist, so I could see a concept similar to this making it’s way into the TCG eventually (if a little less powerful), plus [D] Resistance?)
Total: 45.5/50

Entry post: [https://www.pokebeach.com/forums/threads/pokébeach-create-a-card-july-2014-legendary-congrats-to-the-winners.119689/post-2643375]
Results post: [https://www.pokebeach.com/forums/threads/pokébeach-create-a-card-july-2014-legendary-congrats-to-the-winners.119689/post-2645391]

Custom blanks aren’t always totally new designs — sometimes they take the designs of existing blanks and use them to fill niches for new mechanics that weren’t being filled before. Nod’s Arceus, another crazy idea from the queen of crazy ideas, is a perfect example.

With 200 HP and some crazy attacks, this card is a force to be reckoned with. But it’s not the strong parts that make it interesting — it’s the things Nod did to balance it. Every turn, the card rotates, meaning you only get access to each attack every other turn. (It’s also got x3 Weakness and loses Energy if it remains on the Bench, but the rotation is the big thing.)

What do you think of the rotating mechanic? Too unrealistic, or could you see it work?

What do you look for in new mechanics in general — specifically, ones that require blank modifications? Have you ever tried modifying a (non-custom) blank yourself to achieve this? How did it go?

Tell us below!

 

[PMJ]

Decent idea, poor in execution. This card is essentially unplayable, forcing you to leave it up front and pass for a few turns just to maybe do some damage without throwing yourself back in the deck, or obliterate whatever's in front of you for the hefty cost of five Energy in three different colors and you have a 50% chance of not even being able to take any Prize cards for it?

I would just run 4 of these and stall. Fleeting Strike is the perfect stall tool, and 200 HP in ex era on a Basic that's immune to all the Special Conditions that matter is unheard of. Give this thing Cessation Crystal to stuff your opponent's setup or Protective Orb to stop Fighting-types from running a train on it and you're in business.

I think Nod would have been better served by showcasing a card that can actually fight without having such extremes in the rotated attacks. Something powerful, but not ridiculous like Judgement is, but at the same time not completely worthless like Smite is. It's hard to get excited about a new mechanic without reasonable cards to show it off.

As far as custom blanks go, it's not that bad. The attack space and art space are shrunk to make room for extra attack room on the top of the card. Symbol and font placement are correct for the era on both sides. It's a custom blank, but in a minimalist sort of way that's not too egregious. My one gripe is that the art has to suffer, but having the rule placed on an opaque text box was probably the best way to go about adding it, and props to Nod for having the foresight to realize that the rotating cards would necessarily need to be immune to sleep, paralysis, and confusion.

 

[Vom]

It's certainly an interesting mechanic, and one I would certainly be interested in seeing again. Maybe with better balancing and less artificial brakes, I could totally see this working on a modern card. Probably not one printed by TPCi, but that's what fakers are for.

Modifying blanks is a risky move. Minor aesthetic changes like changing the font for an aspect of the card or the style for a Rule Box are ok, but more extreme changes like this one should have an actual justification.
And thinking about it, this blank doesn't actually differ that much from the usual card layout except for the rotating attack. The name, HP, Weakness, Retreat, etc. are all right where you would expect. I'm honestly not sure how much that hurts or helps this card aesthetically, but it's definitely a great base for introducing a new mechanic to the average player.

 

[Jabberwock]

I would just run 4 of these and stall. Fleeting Strike is the perfect stall tool, and 200 HP in ex era on a Basic that's immune to all the Special Conditions that matter is unheard of. Give this thing Cessation Crystal to stuff your opponent's setup or Protective Orb to stop Fighting-types from running a train on it and you're in business.

Agreed; Fleeting Strike and the capacity to tank pretty much whatever hit you want make this a stall machine. I think that's one of the hardest lines for new mechanics to walk — how do you show off your cool idea in an interesting way, which usually entails big numbers and/or really good attacks, without breaking the format? It's especially hard in CaC where there's such a high level of scrutiny on these things.

 

[Jabberwock]

Huderon of Canossa’s Mismagius ∆

August 2014 — Delta Species​

Judge: @CMP

Each CaC that goes by shows HoC has yet another trick up his sleeve! I’m loving this card – it goes to show that faking is an art. Great choice in using an uppercase Delta (ex -> EX, δ -> Δ makes sense). The Grass/Fairy symbol is beautiful, and much more creative than the colored symbol on the other type orb. Beautiful art, as always, and the golden borders really fit the bright colors of the card. Like Heavenly Spoon’s entry, I appreciate the backstory behind the card, as it creates a richer card as a whole. I’m not sure that would work for every round, but it certainly works well for Delta Species cards! The Ability is very interesting and not something I believe has been seen in the TCG. I’d word some things differently, “During your opponent’s turn, if this Pokémon is your Active Pokémon, your opponent may use Energy attached to this Pokémon as if they were attached to their Active Pokémon for the rest of the game. If he or she does, your opponent’s Active Pokémon now has[Y]x2[G]+30 Weakness and no Resistance. This effect lasts as long as Mismagius stays in play.” The ‘During your opponent’s turn’ came from Silcoon RS. I started with it instead of the Active Pokémon clause because that’s when you (or really, your opponent) can use it, with the Active Pokémon clause specifying details. You really make me do my research on your effects, HoC! Sweet Tincture has another wonderfully creative effect. Few wording issues: as seen on Unown N SW and Escape Rope, ‘he or she does/doesn’t’ is used instead of ‘they do/don’t’; XY wording uses ‘both Active Pokémon’ instead of ‘all Active Pokémon’; ‘two’ should be ‘2’; ‘each of the Defending Pokémon’s’ should be ‘the Defending Pokémon’s’; the end clause should be italicized. I like how the card really does force your opponent to make some tough decisions – but I think they’d always choose to not discard and take the 30 damage hit. Otherwise, they’d be forced to use the power, and when you use Mismagius again (and they didn’t discard/have no more Energy to discard), that 30 damage could quickly turn into 90 (30x2+30). Great strategy on a single card – I love it. Another wonderful effort from HoC this month!

Creativity/Originality: 20/20
(Yep)
Wording: 12/15
(Wording errors in the Ability, some use of ‘they’ instead of ‘he or she’, missed capitalization of ‘Active’ once, wording errors in the attack, missed italics in the end effect clause)
Fonts and Placement: 10/10
(Nothing I can see, although the ‘xs’ in W/RC don’t perfect line up – possibly an anti-aliasing effect)
Believability/Playability: 5/5
(Perhaps not the most believeable, but in the proper deck there’s some great Playability)
Total: 47/50

Entry post: [https://www.pokebeach.com/forums/threads/pokébeach-create-a-card-aug-2014-delta-species-congrats-to-the-winners.120038/post-2654953]
Results post: [https://www.pokebeach.com/forums/threads/pokébeach-create-a-card-aug-2014-delta-species-congrats-to-the-winners.120038/post-2656483]

Rounding out our discussion of 2014-era custom blanks, we have the incomparable Huderon of Canossa, whose designs took originality to another level. Known for pioneering these unusual and yet clearly highly customizable blanks, HoC frequently wrote long and sometimes convoluted effects to go with them, as you can see on the Mismagius showcased here. If you took the time to puzzle out what each card did, though, you’d be rewarded — the creativity shines through in each card’s attention to flavor, with some, like this Mismagius, having whole stories behind them:

Don't let my random Macbeth reference fool you, the inspiration actually comes from the folk tale of Hansel and Gretel - more specifically the witch that lives in a candy cottage in the middle of the woods. Only this instance the witch is actually a benevolent, if not destructively clumsy Pokemon. I wanted to stray from the usual creepy/evil pokemon art I am so prone to do. I'm not sure if I succeeded, really. The artwork is actually unfinished, I had planned on doing a proper background but time was not on my side this time. Better than nothing I suppose, no?

The idea was that this estranged Mismagius was busy living a mostly solitary life inventing all sorts of weird sweet potions and magical consumables using its fairy/grass attributes. Of course, she's also not very reliable - though she gets excited when more test subj - er visitors arrive so she can have them try out her newest product. Any negative effects are not intentional whatsoever - so I tried to show this in the card itself by having effects that deal with the opponent choosing rather than you. I guess flips would have fitted better but I don't like using that mechanic all that often. Plus some mind games, those are fun, right?

The attack/ability are really wonky as I really didn't want this Pokemon to be a good fighter on its own - it's more actually like a weird stall card that will punish the opponent if they make the wrong decision (using that Ability really would seem like a bad idea for the opponent - but temptation I guess). It's supposed to be a very annoying card - I added self Confusion in there too when it actually deals damage so that there is somewhat a balance.. meh. I guess in concept, Mismagius would be confused too if her tincture screws up in her guest's face.

Mismagius explores in great detail the design space of giving your opponent choices, to such an extent that their decisions can actually matter much more than yours when you play this card. Warm Welcome is unlike any other Ability I’ve ever seen, either in the official TCG or indeed in fakingdom. The fact that the whole card actually works as a cohesive entity is a testament, imo, to some truly inspired design work. That being said, though, too much originality can also hurt a card in other departments — some of HoC’s effects were so new, unusual, or just plain complex that at times it seemed they were hardly even faking Pokémon cards!

We’ve already discussed cards with stories behind them to some extent, but I’d be curious to hear any additional thoughts y’all might have at this stage! What interesting new designs have you seen or come up with at the intersection of faking and fanfiction?

What comes to mind for me are many of @PMJ's fakes, including (and especially) his SM: Duel of Champions set. @Nyan's SM: Aberrant Echoes is another example, as is @CardPone's Omnium: Frontiers Renewed. (Tagging these members in case any of them want to talk any more about these projects and how their stories have influenced their designs.)

But each of these is an entire set, with a story tracked through the culmination of many, many cards. Can you think of any examples on a more microcosmic scale?

Let us know below!

 

[PMJ]

The Delta Species era was the peak of TCG lore. More recently, Legendary Treasures has a few pieces of artwork that tell a story, like Trubbish -> Phione -> Empoleon and Tepig -> Pignite -> Emboar. But the Delta Species era, with an entire region to play with and numerous pieces of artwork showcasing the locales within Holon, that was amazing.

The only artwork that Duel of Champions shares with the story it's based on is the set logo, and that's only because I made it. I created it as a way to try and renew interest in my fic, which has gone back to stagnating like 9000 words into the final chapter (I'm still gonna finish it!). It was super fun to have references to the story present in the attacks and flavor text. Hopefully the set will actually get added to Lackey someday.

 

[Jabberwock]

aschefield101’s Tauros-EX

September 2014 — Random​

Judge: @Heavenly Spoon

If only there were points for art...

The placing seems pixel-accurate, I can only tip my hat to you. This is by far the best placement I’ve seen this round, and as perfect as it gets. No errors in wording either.

That being said, I’m afraid I can’t give you a lot of points for creativity. Both attacks seem pretty standard, and the attack names seem only tangentially related. I realise the era this card is supposed to fit in is characterised by its simplicity, but creativity is part of the context, and I expect someone to be at least as creative as a run-of-the-mill card to get a passing grade. If coming up with creative effects isn’t your cup of tea, you can always team up with one of the text-based fakers, because everything else about this card seems beyond perfect.

Creativity/Originality: 12/20
(Creativity is part of the contest, and this card is sadly lacking in that regard.)
Wording: 15/15
(No errors here)
Fonts and Placement: 10.1/10
(Perfect.)
Believability/Playability: 5/5
(Yeah, I could see them making a card like this.)
Total: 42.1/50

Entry post: [https://www.pokebeach.com/forums/th...m-congrats-to-the-winners.120555/post-2663818]
Results post: [https://www.pokebeach.com/forums/th...m-congrats-to-the-winners.120555/post-2667752]

In September of 2014 came one of the most polarizing themes we’ve ever had — Randommons!

All you had to do was sign up, same as usual; but this time, an RNG chose your Pokémon for you. After signing up, a message would turn up in your inbox with the name of the Pokémon you would have to make a card out of for that month. Some saw old favorites like Flygon and Gengar, but others were stuck with less popular Pokémon like Nincada, Hariyama, and Klang.

We’ve actually run this theme twice now (the second time was in June 2017, and we gave people their choice of three random Pokémon). Each time, the round saw considerable turnout. But once the randomly selected Pokémon went out to the entrants, some were very pleased, while others … not so much.

asche was firmly in the latter camp — “I really dislike Tauros….” were his words as he posted this entry. But even with a Pokémon he abhorred, he went the extra mile and produced this truly impressive work of art. (Note the 10.1 points in Fonts and Placement!) The creativity of the effects leaves a lot to be desired, but as we’ve noted before, asche frequently pointed to effects as his weak point.

Have you ever joined a CaC knowing full well you wouldn’t like the theme? Why did you join? What made you dislike it? How did it go?

 

[Pone]

Ah yes, the entry so good that Omega thought it was real. ?

 

[Jabberwock]

Auride’s Kangaskhan

September 2014 — Random​

Judge: @Heavenly Spoon

A very creative take on Kangaskhan. I really like the ability, and it’s a gutsy move to make it an Ability and not an attack, as well as making it stackable. Because this promotes some more tactical play I’m all in favour of it. Focussing on the baby as much as you did does hurt believability, though, as the mother will always be there, and should at least be contributing HP and retreat cost.

I can’t find any big placement problems, but something feels wrong with the “x2” font in the weakness. It seems too bold. The name of the Ability also seems too close to the Ability symbol.

The wording for the Ability looks fine, but both “Active” and “Ability” should be capitalised. Always pay attention to this, it’s always sad to lose points because of something as silly as this.

Creativity/Originality: 18.5/20
(Very creative take on Kangaskhan, fun Ability.)
Wording: 13.5/15
(Capitalisation errors.)
Fonts and Placement: 9/10
(Ability name too far to the left, The “x2” feels off.)
Believability/Playability: 2/5
(Sadly, this seems very unlikely, fun as it may be.)
Total: 43/50

Entry post: [https://www.pokebeach.com/forums/th...m-congrats-to-the-winners.120555/post-2665747]
Results post: [https://www.pokebeach.com/forums/th...m-congrats-to-the-winners.120555/post-2667752]

Another blast from the Randommons past! With this card, Auride showed that when CaC gives you lemons, sometimes you can make orange juice and get away with it anyway. The RNG gave Auride Kangaskhan for this month, but instead of looking to past Kangaskhan cards for inspiration, Auride charted a new path entirely. Not only did they get away with it, they managed to score an 18.5/20 in Creativity/Originality — an almost unheard-of score from Heavenly Spoon.

As we’ve discussed already this month, people frequently do things we don’t expect. Almost every theme has loopholes, and sometimes we catch them in advance and try to close them (when exploiting them wouldn’t be in the spirit of the theme), but sometimes they can be a goldmine of creativity. Auride’s subversion of the Pokémon they received here is a perfect example.

What other examples of loopholes or subversions in themes can you think of? Have you ever looked for them yourself? If you’ve tried to exploit one before, how did it go? Tell us below!

 

[Jabberwock]

BigfootAUS’s Member’s Pokémon (KoN’s Umbreon featured)

January 2015 — Member’s Pokémon​

Judge: @Heavenly Spoon

You've misplaced “and” in the Ancient Trait, there, and the verb for “Knocked Out” is “to be” and not “to get" in anything but the oldest of sets. It also fails to mention what happens when Umbreon gets put into your hand, though I guess that might be a bit too specific to mention. There might be some other rules complications as well, for example when discarding your own Energy to pay for an attack, but I guess that wouldn’t be too big of a problem.

Placements seems to be largely correct. The retreat cost is a bit too far to the right and the resistance is roughly a pixel too far to the right as well. Your font for the HP seems to be a bit too bold. It’s the right height, but starts a bit too early.

α Keep seems like a fun ancient trait, reminiscent of good old Energy Burn, and I wouldn’t be surprised if something similar shows up as an actual ancient trait. Though I guess it doesn’t work with the old Charizard’s Fire Spin, since it prevents discarding. I’m a bit sad that it doesn’t sync up well with any of Umbreon’s abilities. There’s some synergy with the attack, in that you wouldn’t want your energies to be removed, but that’s about it.

The Ability seems awfully similar to Ninetales PCL’s (or I guess Golduck HP), not terribly creative I have to say.

Moonlight Pulse also feels a bit bland, and not terribly flavourful.

Creativity/Originality: 14/20
(Fun Ancient Trait, bland everything else.)
Wording: 14/15
(Misplaced an “and”)
Fonts and Placement: 9/10
(Minor placement errors.)
Believability/Playability: 5/5
(Very realistic.)
Total: 42/50

Entry post: [https://www.pokebeach.com/forums/th...n-congrats-to-the-winners.122036/post-2693734]
Results post: [https://www.pokebeach.com/forums/th...n-congrats-to-the-winners.122036/post-2699970]

In hindsight, Member’s Pokémon wasn’t a great idea for a theme. Consciously or not, it’s easy to see how it can turn into a popularity contest, with some people getting multiple cards based on them and others getting none at all. Several members expressed their disappointment in this after the submission deadline, and who can blame them? We ended up running the theme again in April 2018, but I wouldn’t be inclined to do it again these days.

Still, there was at least one bright side to the Member’s Pokémon theme — after the contest closed, several members took it upon themselves to collectively make cards for all the other entrants who didn’t get cards in the official submissions. One in particular, BigfootAUS, went through and personally made a card for every entrant on that list.

That’s why we’re featuring him today, but Bigfoot was also a formidable faker in his own right while he was around. His mastery of Autodesk Maya let him render complex models in an era of faking when that was very much the exception and not the rule. Much of his work is gone now, purged when he deleted his deviantART account and other online presences, but you can still see the Member’s Pokémon cards he made in January 2015, which we’re highlighting as part of our feature of the day below:

Spoiler: Bellsprout (Athena)

Based on her favourite Pokemon Bellsprout, her love of collecting things and her love of Fire Emblem.

Spoiler: Mew (Huderon of Canossa)

So this is based on HoC's tendency to make custom blanks and custom Pokemon - Mew seems the most fitting for representing that, too!

It's a mostly straightforward card, though Mirage would/should be cool if the current wording is suitable enough for it. It was a tough Ancient Trait to write due to the lack of space available in the box! XD

Spoiler: Jolteon (GadgetJax)

Jax's fakes thread has a nice schedule in it, and the PokeDex entry is based on his blog. It's a good blog full of in-depth writing and analysis, so that was cool to interpret as Pokemon behaviour! ^_^

Charge is a re-themed version of Growth - Growth just didn't seem natural for Electric-types. And Supercharge is hopefully too situational to be overpowered... I think... I dunno, I'm not a competitive player.

Spoiler: Keldeo (My Little Keldeo)

For the Skype socialite and a competitive TCG player! It's always cool seeing what crazy conversations happen on Skype, and MLK is usually involved in them. I thought about tying in some Meganium references too, but I'm happy with how it is at the moment anyway.

Spoiler: Litleo (Lugia123)

Lugia123 is common around Forum Games, so it was fun to put in references to what he does around there! I felt like I had to reference a non-forum-game thing too, so his scramble-playthrough thread came to mind.

Spoiler: Gardevoir (PMJ)

For the member that has been around since the dawn of time PokeBeach! PMJ's a veteran of this place, and writes in the Writing Cafe. Also, the Pokken Fighters promotional art is awesome and I had to use it somewhere!

Spoiler: Ho-Oh (Auride)

So this is something both new and something I haven't done in a while. I haven't done secret-rares in aaaaaaaaaaages, and I haven't done secret-rare half-arts ever. But Auride is cool, and deserved a gold card.
Auride is usually giving comments on my work, is another image-based faker (hence the Legend) and made me a card for this CaC as well! I hope this is good enough for ya, Auride! And I hope the painting effects aren't too overpowering

Spoiler: Bisharp (GM DracLord)

Drac is a frequent face around Forum Games, so I tried to represent that a lot in this card. Bisharp was chosen because it's a "lordly" Pokemon in my eyes, and also kinda spooky/dread-inspiring.

Spoiler: Victini (SeventhPrize)

Prize cards are tied to victory, so here comes Victini with some Prize Power! SeventhPrize also sticks to the Create-A-Card contests on PokeBeach and not much else, hence all the Focus in the Ancient Trait and the Pokedex entry!

Spoiler: Coralorse (steffenka)

I tried, I really tried! I hope I made the fakemon look good! =) Steffenka does a lot of fakemon stuff here and on his DeviantART page, which is where I got some more info on Coralorse (and its prevolution) from. I still don't know much about this Pokemon, but hopefully it's enough to make the card decent!

---

Nyan’s Member’s Pokémon (Gekki’s Kartana ◊ featured)

April 2018 — Member’s Pokémon​

Judge: @bbninjas

Another poppy card from you, Nyan!

Smart Strike isn’t anything particular new, being reminiscent of Greninja’s Water Shuriken Ability. It seems fine power-wise, since you can only ever see that Ability in play once per game - an simply Guzma / Lysandre will take care of it.

I really like Ascending Katanas as an attack! It is a very clever and elegant way to give more power to the Bench Pokemon, without just adding an Ability that allows it to attack from the Bench, which is very tempting.

The HP does seem to be a little too high for Kartana, especially considering it’s such a light-weight, glass-cannon Pokemon. Kartana-GX has only 170HP, for exampme, even though the threshold is a couple of 10s higher than that for GXs. I’d imagine the HP would be closer to 100.

Wording errors:
- The “(You still need the necessary Energy to use this attack.)” clause doesn’t feel quite right in the attack, probably because it is the last thing you read (and often will act on). I’d imagine that this effect would be written something like... “If this Pokemon is on your Bench and has the necessary Energy to use this attack, you may switch this Pokemon… and use this attack.” There isn’t a good reference for it though, so no points docked.

Fonts and Placement errors:
- The attack effects should start be a couple more pixels later than they already do. (-1pts)

Creativity/Originality: 12/15
(Fun flavour, and a very elegant attack.)
Wording: 15/15
(A n odd structure in the attack, but nothing to substantiate either argument.)
Fonts and Placement: 9/10
(A minor placement error.)
Believability/Playability: 4/5
(The Hp is a bit too high.)
Aesthetics: 4/5
(Looking very nice!)
Total: 44/50

Entry post: [https://www.pokebeach.com/forums/th...kemon-official-judging-up.146889/post-2942393]
Results post: [https://www.pokebeach.com/forums/th...kemon-official-judging-up.146889/post-2946718]

You didn’t think we were done for today, did you?

More than three years down the line, when we ran the Member’s Pokémon theme again, Nyan stepped up in a similar way to BigfootAUS with an astonishing twelve cards. Rather than one for each entrant, though, she chose to honor twelve people who had made her experience on the site especially brilliant. In her words:

I want to thank all of the people close to me on this website, for making these cards possible. PokeBeach has changed and shaped my life in a way that nothing else has, and it's all because of the people I met here. Open-armed, loving people with charms, quirks, and great personalities. To everyone reading this, keep being yourself, it's the best you there is!

These are the cards in question:

Spoiler: Alpha’s M Absol ◊ (AlphaVoxel)

Spoiler: asche’s Mew ◊ (aschefield101)

Spoiler: blah’s M Rayquaza ◊ (blahblahbal)

Spoiler: Blakers’ Lucario ◊ (Blakers)

Spoiler: Brave’s Tyranitar ◊ (Brave Vesperia)

Spoiler: Riki’s Tapu Koko ◊ (Kapu Riki)

Spoiler: Violet’s Luxray ◊ (VioletValkyrie)

Spoiler: Vracken’s Gengar ◊ (Vracken)

Spoiler: JC’s Lucario ◊ (Juliacoolo)

Spoiler: SR’s Raikou ◊ (Shining Raikou)

Spoiler: WPM’s Staryu ◊ (Water Pokémon Master)

Choosing to honor so many fellow fakers and PokeBeach members as Nyan and BigfootAUS did — not to mention all the other members in January 2015 who pitched in with text- and image-based entries to round out the cast that month — is something special indeed. Sometimes we see it in CaCs (even in rounds without this theme), sometimes we see it for people’s birthdays, and sometimes we see it simply because somebody saw some art that reminded them of a fellow member, and they wanted to make a card for them.

Today, feel free to tell us about your history with cards inspired by other people. They can be PokeBeach members, fellow fakers, or others entirely. What sorts of cards have you made for other people? If you haven’t made any cards like this, could you imagine yourself doing so?

Tell us below!

 

[PMJ]

If I'd known I would have had a reason to go down memory lane again I would have reuploaded these fakes. Man, I have so many:

bacon aka scampy (Malevolole; Sinacorn, Walnite, & Juggernut; Garchmop; Xaxasxa)

bacon was a great friend, kind of quirky but still super nice and chill. None of us had any idea he could draw until he busted out a whole thread dedicated to strange drawings he'd done, usually from doodles during class or dreams he had.

Of course, as an artist and a Pokemon fan, it was only natural that bacon had a few designs of his own. Malevolole was the first card I made once I made the switch from ex era to DP era faking. The name Malevolole was my own creation. It's Dark/Ground, and the only reason I remember that after over a decade is because I had the foresight to make it weak to Water and resistant to Electric.

The Juggernut line is Grass/Dark (and was named by him). They used to have different names, but I don't remember what they are.

Garchmop was, as you can probably guess, a typo. But bacon had the hilarious idea that Garchmop was the result of people endlessly inbreeding babies in order to get max IVs, and Xous (badass that he is) was more than willing to draw it up.

Xaxaxsa was a name that bacon sort of made up; he wrote that in the chat room as gibberish and I was like "that kinda looks like a Pokemon name." I assigned it to this creature which had no name of its own. It's Electric/Water and was bacon's submission for one of Smogon's Create-a-Pokemon projects. It ended up getting rejected, so I decided to use it. Its Ability is Poison Heal. :>

Xous (Impertogon, Exsonigon, Palisaegon, Abzolugon)

I... actually don't know how many of you were actually around when Xous was. Everyone knows his artwork, but few got the chance to know the man behind it all. He was unfailingly polite to everyone and loved to draw (obviously), taking seemingly any request. He made avatars, artwork for hundreds of Pokemon, even full-size banners for people. Not only was Xous a prolific artist but he also dabbled in writing. Also, per the man himself, his username is pronounced "zowss". Up until that point I'd been pronouncing it "zeus" so this kinda came as a shock to me. I still call him zeus tho

A lot of my fakes that featured his artwork were either things I got inspired to make (Raikou, Dialga, a jillion others) or that I requested from him specifically (Farfetch'd ON FIRE, Sad Gardevoir). These four he actually asked me to make, and after everything he'd done for me and for the site, I was more than happy to oblige, and honored that he asked me to do it (y'all saw what he was capable of). Everything on the card was his idea, from the names, to the designs, the attacks, all of it. Man I miss Xous.

DNA (Regigigas)

Man is an enormous Regigigas fan. I was also tired of seeing dog shit Regigigas cards so I killed two birds with one stone. It wasn't the first time I made a Regigigas in his honor, either.

Takeshi aka Blob55 (Raichu)

I made this for her birthday. She said Raichu was her favorite Pokemon, and the ones listed in its attack were others she mentioned. The power was something I came up with in order to make the attack a little more viable. Takeshi is actually still around on the Discord server but I haven't actually tried talking to her in years. I do remember seeing her one day when I popped in, so it's nice to see she's still around in at least some form.

The Members of PokeBeach Forums (Dusktung, Smeargle, Mega Blaziken (FA), Mega Blaziken, Pikachu Pop Star)

So right off the bat, Dusktung is a stupid card. The power text is taken verbatim from an old forum post where user PokeChamp thought that Dusknoir's eye was actually his tongue and that he had no eyes. Cue Spoon and my friend Xander who spent 2 years in MS Paint mocking up what this monstrosity might look like and this art was the result.

After the success of Garchmop, people asked me to make a card of Dusktung too, and I outright refused because I didn't want to push the meme too far. Well, as Okay, I said I wasn't going to make this, but... I caved. Whatever. says, I caved. I went full dumb and nothing on this card makes sense. It does reference Garchmop with Okay, I said I wasn't going to make this, but... I caved. Whatever. letting it retreat for free, but the rest of the card was a little bit too dumb humor and to this day it's probably my least favorite fake ever.

Smeargle was created as the solution to the problem "What card could theoretically beat any other card?" People used to argue about stuff Smeargle could actually lose to, so I changed it so if Smeargle did lose, it's all on the player. To my knowledge, Smeargle is still unbeatable, even to this day.

Decades later, I made a whole ton of Mega Evolution Pokemon in SM style as a new mechanic for our latest faker creativey extravaganza or whatever it was called. It was during this saga that I became enlightened to the horrors of Mega Evolution and tried to explain that with the like two dozen cards I made. Some of them are pretty rad so feel free to check out the thread if you can find it.

Pikachu Pop Star was made for our Flash CaC that we hold exclusively on Discord, by Nyan. I figured it was worth mentioning, since these cards don't ever get showcased on the forums.

Join the Discord.

StellaTheSneasel (Adorable Articuno, others)

She provided art for the three Kanto birds and it inspired me to create sort of an "Adorable" mechanic. All these cards have the Charming Look power and a single attack for XXC Energy. I've applied this power to other Adorable cards that weren't illustrated by her (Claydol and Mewtwo) as well. Charming Look was also originally on Cufant HST before it got changed.

Lenny and ...someone else I can't remember (Kadabra)

Couple of pals from way back in the day. Mind Bender and Omega Blade were their OC superhero alter egos or something, I don't remember this was like 200 years ago.

Gale (Politoed, Heatmor)

Gale was a cool guy. He was also really sick and we all thought he was going to die, but he recovered and, as far as I know, is still alive. His last name is Hauer, so that's why Heatmor's ability name is spelled incorrectly.

Geez that's a lot. There's more than this but that's a good chunk. I've been here for a really long time <_<

 

[Jabberwock]

Man that's some incredible history. Awesome to get it from somebody who was actually here during all that time; there's all this stuff you bring up (zowss??) that I never knew.

Making cards is a great way to commemorate chat memes / inside jokes / etc, but unfortunately I don't see it happen all that often. I can't remember the last time I made one myself (my imgur gallery tells me it was this, but I haven't got the slightest idea what it might be referencing). Katsu's incredible food memes are one recent non-PMJ example of that type of thing, though.

Joining the Faking Community Discord is a great idea, and if anyone here hasn't done so already: https://discord.com/invite/fKzFZ2n

 

[Jabberwock]

Otaku & Zygarde’s Snorlax

June 2015 — Fully Evolved Basics​

Judge: @Heavenly Spoon

That Ability reminds me of a Magic card called “Treasure Hunt”, which is essentially only used for combo decks. I don’t think this is quite as abusable, though maybe I’m just not thinking about it hard enough. It does seem like a very interesting drawback for what would otherwise be a very strong Ability. Replacing the “You can’t use more than 1” clause for this Ability with simply knocking out both Pokémon is definitely interesting. It might on the surface seem far worse than the alternative, especially since you can’t attach Energy to a Benched Snorlax in case the Active one would get Knocked Out, but it’s actually a pretty deep effect, since it provides an emergency exit when you’re about to deck yourself. Very interesting design choice.

Feeding Frenzy feels like a nice counterbalance to Carb Loading, and it turns the game into a rather interesting new subgame where you’re trying to keep your Snorlax alive long enough to deck your opponent without milling yourself to death in the process. Overall a very creative take on milling and a very flavourful take on snorlax.

It’s very hard to judge the power of this card, but it definitely feels like it completely changes the rules of the game. That can be a fun thing in small doses, though nobody would want this card to be dominant.

Wording errors:
- “Between turns” should be “At any time between turns”.
- I think this needs to say “all other revealed cards.
- Abilities refer to themselves by name, not as “this ability”.

Fonts and placement errors:
- As far as placement can be judged, everything seems to be in order.

Creativity/Originality: 19/20
(Great flavour, neat effects, creative use of design space, very well done.)
Wording: 11/15
(2 minor errors and 1 medium error.)
Fonts and Placement: 10/10
(Seems fine.)
Believability/Playability: 4.5/5
(A cautious -0.5 since it does seem a bit out there.)
Total: 44.5/50

Entry post: [https://www.pokebeach.com/forums/th...d-basics-official-results.124116/post-2726461]
Results post: [https://www.pokebeach.com/forums/th...d-basics-official-results.124116/post-2730459]

Here we have another example of a teamwork entry: Otaku drew up the spoiler (text-based component) for this card, and Zygarde put together the image. On a custom blank by asche himself, it really speaks to faking as a community effort, and the ability to pull off some incredible things (like first place!) when people come together.

The reason we’re showcasing this card today is its use of unexplored design space to accomplish some things that have been done before in an interesting new way. It has a potentially self-damaging Ability if you leave it unchecked for too long, but it also has the opportunity to take advantage of it with a great mill attack. As Spoon notes in his judging, there’s even a last-ditch back door if things get out of control — you can just Bench another Snorlax, Knocking Out them both (and losing two Prizes), but saving yourself from a deckout.

I don’t think he’s quite right that it’s hard to take advantage of. Additional Energy acceleration (beyond Carb Loading) makes Feeding Frenzy a force to be reckoned with, and you can significantly mitigate the self-mill effects, or even turn them net-positive, with something like Mallow or Super Rod. The only-one-Snorlax-at-a-time thing goes a long way toward balancing it since you can’t power up several of them simultaneously, but with the right acceleration engine, one would be all you need.

From the creative side, though, it’s a pretty spectacular card. Spoon awarded it 19/20, which is almost as close to perfect as he’s ever given. It’s true that effects can sometimes take a backseat in image faking; we consistently see more complex entries in text-based, for example. When somebody spends the whole month on a spoiler and doesn’t spend time worrying about aesthetics or anything else, their creativity results can be leaps and bounds ahead of the curve. But that creativity can shine through even in image-based — teamwork entries like this one, where one member pulls together the image component and the other designs the spoiler, are frequently great cases in point.

With the month after this one, the pre-hiatus era of CaC draws to a close. Join us again tomorrow for a look at the beginning of the post-hiatus era, when CaC returned triumphantly in February 2017!

 

[Jabberwock]

Blui’s Decidueye

February 2017 — Alola Pokédex​

Judge: @Jabberwock

I can totally see what you mean about loving the HGSS aesthetic! That holosheet is incredible, especially considering you’re using it on such an already-dark piece. The dual-type blending this way is much more pleasing than the XY way of doing it, and references LEGENDs in a neat way as well.

It shows excellent originality that you took an existing card that was very good in its day and tried to find ways to counter it. Sort of reminds me of VS Seeker’ing for a Supporter to prevent your opponent’s Gardevoir SW from Telepass’ing it. Indeed, Hollow Impersonator comes off as something of a Telepass for Trainers, which is cool (but admittedly slightly less original).

Another thing is that, even if your opponent tries to get their Junk Arms out of the way early, you can hilariously copy your opponent’s Junk Arm to grab any Trainer effect from your discard pile. Not sure if that’s what you intended, but it’s an interesting loophole.

The attack scares me a bit. Even two different Energy types in the cost doesn’t necessarily make it significantly harder to pull off when Energy are so easy to search for. It’s also not overly difficult to get stuff in the Lost Zone––Lost Remover and Mew Prime are both decent options, plus even setting up just a few of these and you’ll hit max in a few turns. BTS does wonders for a Stage 2 with a low attack cost proportional to damage output.

Still, though, that’s a beautiful card. Epitomizes everything you were saying about the aesthetics of HGSS.

Wording errors:
- All on point. I’m hesitant about the “You can’t use the effect of a card that stays in play when you play it” since the only cards that actually have that text on the card are Stadium cards, but I can’t think of a better way to word it.

Fonts and Placement errors:
- Perfect.

Creativity/Originality: 13/15
(Creative way to counter Junk Arm)
Wording: 15/15
(On point.)
Fonts and Placement: 10/10
(Wow.)
Believability/Playability: 4/5
(The attack is a bit worrying.)
Aesthetics: 5/5
(Holosheet works well with art, and dual-type blank is done in a pleasing way.)
Total: 47/50

Entry post: [https://www.pokebeach.com/forums/th...la-pokedex-results-are-up.138409/post-2855470]
Results post: [https://www.pokebeach.com/forums/th...la-pokedex-results-are-up.138409/post-2856615]

---

quakingpunch73’s Necrozma​

Necrozma–Psychic–HP 140
Basic Pokémon

Ability: Reflective Eclipse
If this Pokemon is your Active Pokemon when your opponent plays an Item or Supporter card from their hand, you may discard either 3 cards from your hand or 1 of your Benched Pokemon and all cards attached to it and use the effect of that Item or Supporter card as the effect of this Ability.

[P][P][P][P] Prismatic Wormhole 60+
If you have the same amount of Pokémon in play as your opponent, this attack does 50 more damage. If you have the same amount of cards in your hand as your opponent, this attack does 60 more damage. If you have the same amount of cards in your discard pile as your opponent, this attack does 80 more damage.

Weakness: [P] (x2)
Resistance: None
Retreat: [C][C]
Scientists have not discovered the true nature of this enigmatic Pokemon. Whether it is an Ultra Beast or not has yet to be decided.

February 2017 — Alola Pokédex​

Judge: @Luispipe8

Mirror, Mirror in the wall, will I be judging this card once and for all?

Creativity: 19/20
(Reflective Eclipse is crazy cool! And I thought Power Spray was an original card. The effects and costs are well thought out. And Prismatic Wormhole mixes like 3 different attacks into 1 and in a really clever way. Nice job!)
Wording: 13/15
(You forgot to accent the "e" on Pokémon on the whole Ability text and also once in the Dex entry, but that's all.)
Believability: 13/15
(First of all, I do believe the card is, on itself, balanced. It has low enough HP, a monstrous 4 [P] on the attack cost and damage boosts that are too crazy to get all at once, and the fact that it needs to be Active is even more restrictive unless used on hit-and-run decks, and I can't guarantee that'd work all that well. So in terms of your creation, it's not something I'd be surprised to see sometime along the era. The other point, however, does go for the missing Dex WT/HT/N°. Something to watch out for next time.)

This card was overall fantastic! Just take a better look at those little thing for next month and I'm sure you'll be among the best.

Total: 45/50

Entry post: [https://www.pokebeach.com/forums/th...la-pokedex-results-are-up.138409/post-2851578]
Results post: [https://www.pokebeach.com/forums/th...la-pokedex-results-are-up.138409/post-2856616]

---

When the July 2015 round was posted, little did anyone know it would be CaC’s last for over a year and a half. There were a number of factors at play here, but most of them had to do with infrastructure. At the time, CaC was fully integrated with PokeBeach itself, and the OP and results appeared as news articles every month (along with a bunch of other stuff, including PTCG tournaments). Around mid-2015, though, that model stopped working for reasons that have never been made clear. CaC disappeared not only from the front page, but from the site as a whole.

Fast-forward to February 2017, when the Creative Works moderation team (@bbninjas, @Luispipe8, @steffenka, and yours truly) decided the time was ripe to bring it back. bb took point on the administrative oversight, including OPs, fielding questions, and posting results; Luis took on the role of text-based judge; and I took image. And man oh man, did we ever get a turnout! We filled both categories, a feat we replicated a few times in the ensuing months, and one which led us at the time to expand the number of available spots from 15 to 20. (It’s since shrunk back to 15.)

The February 2017 resurgence of CaC carried a couple of changes with it. Some were as simple as a changing of the guard in terms of both judges and entrants — after a year and a half out of commission, many of CaC’s old faces were now gone — but one major one was the advent of a new CaC set symbol, designed by Nekoban Ryo specially for the contest’s comeback. (These [1][2] were the two symbols used previously; either one was fair game.) We liked Neko’s 2017 symbol so much we’ve used it ever since.

Since we’re entering a new era of CaC in our history, it’s only right to highlight the inaugural entries of that era. Blui won in image-based and quakingpunch73 won in text-based, and you can see their entries above. Both are stunning cards, and well deserved wins. For the others — and they’re well worth seeing — take a look at the thread! You can find the image-based results here, and the text-based results here.

And since we’re talking about new eras, today we want to hear about the beginning of your CaC era! When was your first CaC contest? What was the theme, and what did you submit for it? Looking back on it, what do you think of that entry now?

Tell us below!

 

[PMJ]

It's not surprising to see that quaking chose Necrozma as his entry - his character submission for MotFI, which I swear to god I'm gonna finish someday, also included Necrozma, completely with a total nonsense story about how it was an evolution of Cosmoem. But, to be fair, this was back when we knew almost nothing about it.

I'm not typically a fan of mixed-color blanks, but goddamn that card is just beautiful. The colors are blended together perfectly - neither one seems dominant over the other. And, as you mentioned, the foil looks stunning. Excellent work by Blui, and well deserving of first place.

My first CaC was the first CaC (Water). I entered two Pokemon in both image and text, and managed to win in text with one of them. Neither image was anything special, although it wasn't until well into when I started faking in BW that someone asked me why my Ability names and attack names weren't lined up, and I had to look in horror as I realized I'd been doing it wrong this entire time and nobody told me, not even for CaC. I was almost 100 fakes in at that point. So, seeing both of these entries with that error makes me shake my head. I would probably also improve the foil on them - after learning a bit more about good foil effects, all my old fakes look really dull in that regard.

 

[bbninjas]

The CAC is the reason I came to be involved in the 'Beach - and Hariyama was my very first entry. I think I surprised Luis back in the day with a rather novel but entirely redundant phrasing for coin flipping - "flip a coin with an outstretched arm". How the days have gone by...

 

[Jabberwock]

crystal_pidgeot’s Braviary-GX

March 2017 — Nationalities​

Judge: @Jabberwock

Oh man. This card. Can’t say I’ve seen anything quite like that before, and it certainly got a chuckle out of me, so well played. You’ve managed to capture a goodly amount of American stereotypes, stuff them into a blender with a couple birds, and somehow get a Pokémon card out of it.

So, setting aside for a moment the amalgamation of references and whatnot that make up this card, it’s hard to justify a 300 HP Stage 1 that can swing for 100 for a DCE and lock your opponent’s attackers. For that reason, I can’t give you much credit for Believability. Fortunately, though, your imagination does seem to be running wild, which is the whole point of the Creativity score. Props for that.

Wording errors:
- Missing the “(before your attack)” clause in the Ability. [-2 points]
- Missing the accented “é” in “Pokémon”. [-1 point]

Fonts and Placement errors:
- You seem to be using the Weakness icons rather than attack icons for the attacks. They’re much too small. [-1 point]

Creativity/Originality: 14/15
(What can I say?)
Wording: 12/15
(A missing clause and é.)
Fonts and Placement: 9/10
(Attack icons.)
Believability/Playability: 0/5
(The day TPCi prints this is the day I eat my hat.)
Aesthetics: 5/5
(You, sir, have earned it.)
Total: 40/50

Entry post: [https://www.pokebeach.com/forums/th...alites-results-are-now-up.138845/post-2857935]
Results post: [https://www.pokebeach.com/forums/th...alites-results-are-now-up.138845/post-2861577]

Oh man, crystal_pidgeot. This guy brought some real crazy cards to the mix while he was here, and this one is probably the pinnacle. He only ever submitted four image-based entries ([1][2][3], plus this Braviary-GX), but they were some cards for the ages.

Probably the most defining aspect of his CaC ethos in general was his abundant love for bird Pokémon. Every one of those image-based entries captures it in some form or another — fully half of them being his signature Pokémon Pidgeot — and many of them reflect personal connections he has to those Pokémon in other contexts. He could be a polarizing figure at times, but his impact on early post-hiatus CaC is legendary.

This particular card is heavy on the satire. In hindsight Nationalities was a very risky theme for us to run, especially for CaC’s second month back from hiatus, but fortunately people all handled it very well. What fun-poking there was, was directed only toward people’s own countries of origin. And this card went over great, clinching the fan vote with 7 points to second place’s 6, and scoring third place in the official results.

We’ve addressed meme cards before in this thread, so today let’s take a look specifically at their place in CaC. It’s hard for them to do well in the Believability department, but it’s definitely possible — after all, Imakuni?’s Doduo is a perfectly real card. Granted, there are some pretty big differences between Imakuni?’s Doduo and crystal_pidgeot’s Braviary-GX above, but that’s not a mark against meme cards in general.

In light of the fact that the official TCG itself has printed meme cards on occasion, why do you think we see so few of them in CaC? Why do the ones we do see tend to do so poorly in Believability? If you were designing a meme card for a round (take, say, the most recent round as an example), how would you go about it?

 

[Pone]

I've mentioned this before, but I actually really like Omnium outside of the adherence to classic-style attacks. I enjoy that it supports all gimmicks without sacrificing card space and everything looks clean and well-organized. Requiring absurd-res size artwork is kind of sucky and I also think Acid Wash is a trash foil but as for the blank itself, it's as close to perfect as a custom blank can get. I guess if I had to offer some criticism, it's that everything looks a bit too uniform. Like in AGE, for cards that are both Delta Species and Ultra Beasts, both are different colors to be able to tell at a glance what they are.

At some point I still think I would like to make an "expansion pack" or something for Omnium that offers the option to use the modern attack layout. If I ever get enough free time for it I'll be sure to let you know haha. The high-resolution requirement basically became a non-issue once we found out about waifu2x.

The Acid Wash bit I can't really help with, as that's much more of an opinion thing and I still love the foil, but anyone's free to use any foil they want on the blanks.

In Omnium, the Ultra Beast tag actually does have its own color that matches the official one, and same deal with any "Team's Pokémon" for when I start doing those in my sets. The other's don't have distinct colors, though, I'll give you that. It may be worth looking into adding secondary identifiers for the other tags.

Huderon of Canossa’s Mismagius ∆

Mismagius explores in great detail the design space of giving your opponent choices, to such an extent that their decisions can actually matter much more than yours when you play this card. Warm Welcome is unlike any other Ability I’ve ever seen, either in the official TCG or indeed in fakingdom. The fact that the whole card actually works as a cohesive entity is a testament, imo, to some truly inspired design work. That being said, though, too much originality can also hurt a card in other departments — some of HoC’s effects were so new, unusual, or just plain complex that at times it seemed they were hardly even faking Pokémon cards!​

I never realized how much thought and effort was put into this card's backstory. I always really love it when I can look at a card and imagine all the events going on just off-screen or the history of the Pokémon. Even just an inkling of what they've been through or some major question the scenery around them begs you to ask. If I were able to illustrate more cards of my own, I would absolutely love to tell more story through the artwork than I've been able to, which brings me to the next bit:

What comes to mind for me are many of @PMJ's fakes, including (and especially) his SM: Duel of Champions set. @Nyan's SM: Aberrant Echoes is another example, as is @CardPone's Omnium: Frontiers Renewed. (Tagging these members in case any of them want to talk any more about these projects and how their stories have influenced their designs.)

The whole group of Omnium core sets was always meant to follow the story of the Holon Scientists returning to the region after having abandoned it some years ago, as it says in the thread. I had this huge story arc planned to go on in the background (literally if I was able to illustrate my own cards or had the money to commission custom illustrations), and still would love to explore the region more through the design space, utilizing different mechanics, ability and attack names, Pokédex entries, and new species of Pokémon, along with Trainer cards which I'm effectively forced to produce new art for (which is why FRR is currently at a standstill). It's a shame, because theirs so much more that gets revealed in the very next set. Maybe I'll be able to wrap it all up someday and get started on the second part. Who knows.

And since we’re talking about new eras, today we want to hear about the beginning of your CaC era! When was your first CaC contest? What was the theme, and what did you submit for it? Looking back on it, what do you think of that entry now?

Tell us below!

I got into CaC actually pretty recently, my first one being July '19 - React Energy, which was a blast and I joined in a time where I really had no other time commitments, so I was able to dedicated everything I had to making this card, and man did it pay off. Not only did I win the first CaC I entered, but I still regard that entry as the best card I've ever made. I only hope I can somehow match the amount of detail and well-placed effects when I do more LEGEND cards for my own sets.

 

[PMJ]

For a meme card I'd probably just pick some fakemon or some old Pokegod from the 90s. Maybe Missingno., but that's real enough that someone may have unironcially tried to enter it.

People don't enter memes because this is a contest and the goal of any contest is to win. No one wants to submit an otherwise perfect card and tank their believability score because they went full meme. Imakuni?'s Doduo is a real card and is technically playable in friendlies but all of his cards are, by design, unusable joke cards, so citing Imakuni?'s Doduo isn't a great example.