Thanks for judging. There were a lot of cool and creative cards this time around, so I'm not too upset with missing the podium. My favourites were probably the Deoxys and Simisear V.
This isn't the first time my lack of knowledge of the SM era has cost me points. I'll have to be more careful next time.
Wow. I am honoured that my stupid fire monkey came first. I'll keep in mind the point about HP, as the reason for the ability to heal was to potentially prolong it's life. And I did think that it would be a bit overpowered if the original monkey stayed in hand, but I can see what you are saying as I have considered it.
Thank you for judging and well done everyone else!
The joke scores were my idea. If you guys honestly thought that we'd make you put serious effort into creating a card and not give it serious consideration, I apologize. We were always going to do real scores, but I couldn't pass up an opportunity to give out surprise meme scores that no one would expect in the one month where it would be allowed. With that said:
Wording, wording, wording. Overall I enjoyed judging these entries, but I think some of you are underestimating how important it is to make sure your wording is correct. I've said it before and I'll say it again - so many solid entries get their scores tanked by wording mistakes. It's the easiest place to lose points, so it's important that things are done the correct way.
There were some really cool ideas this month, a lot more than I thought there'd be with a theme that seemed pretty limited in its applications, but you all did admirably on that front. Which three of you did the most admirably this month? Read on...
Always nice to see Kadabra get some love. Looks like a solid Stage 1. Let's see if it holds up.
Spoonful Trick is kinda nice, essentially allowing you to pay part of your Pokémon's Retreat Cost with an Energy attached to Kadabra. Limiting it to 1 sounds good on paper but I honestly don't think you need to; any Alakazam printed in SWSH era wouldn't have a humongous Retreat Cost, and you'd need to dedicate multiple precious Bench spaces to Kadabra in order to ease the Retreat Costs of the biggest fatties. Fairly solid Ability all around though.
Super Psy Flash is a little strong. With two exceptions, Smokescreen-style attacks have always been 1) extremely weak (they all do 10 damage) and 2) on evolving Basics only. The two exceptions are Magmortar UNM and Eevee VMAX. Magmortar's is CC for 50 and that's a final Stage Pokémon. Eevee VMAX is, well, a VMAX, so that should tell you everything you need to know about the strength (generally speaking) of a 50% chance your opponent loses their attack, notwithstanding any retreat shenanigans.
Making the cost all Colorless is fine, but since Kadabra can evolve, the attack should be significantly weaker (and cheaper as a result). I'd probably go with CC for 30 or 40.
Lastly, Kadabra shouldn't have free retreat. I know it hasn't gotten a card since gen 2, but nothing about Kadabra as a Pokémon suggests it would have a card with free retreat. Additionally, only a handful of cards in the entirety of SWSH have free retreat, and Kadabra isn't anything like those Pokémon.
Wording errors: General
- HP should be written as HP90, not 90 HP. (Any SWSH era card) [-1 point] Spoonful Trick
- "If this Pokémon has any [P] Energy attached..." (Cacturne BST) [-1 point]
- "...the Retreat Cost of your Active Pokémon is [C] less." (Galar Mine) [-2 points]
- "You can't apply more than 1 Spoonful Trick Ability at a time." (Aegislash RCL) [-1 point]
Creativity/Originality: 13/20 (You met the requirement but, cool as Spoonful Trick's effect is, neither that nor Super Psy Flash is very interesting or unique. Both are standard effects that have been seen before.)
Wording: 10/15 (These are simple mistakes. pkmncards.com is a great resource to help keep your wording spot on.)
Believability/Playability: 12/15 (Kadabra shouldn't have free retreat. Super Psy Flash is too strong for the Pokémon it's on. It's difficult to judge Kadabra on its own merits without knowing how it would support an Alakazam (but I'm not docking you points for that).) Total: 35/50
I'm gonna start by saying I don't understand any of the references you made, if any. I don't know who this guy is or what his shtick is, or why a Flapple of all things. Your effects could tie greatly into Fire Emblem lore but since I have never played the game this guy comes from they are completely lost on me; you lose out on any chance of having some leeway in terms of card strength for adhering to Xane's character. But let's see what we've got.
Google tells me this guy is a shapeshifter. Okay, cool, I get it. Next.
The Ability has three different effects that all trigger on damage. The one that lets Xane's Flapple take half the damage of the attack seems most useful, but there are things that need clearing up. It's unusable if Xane's Flapple is already defending, but what if you have two on the Bench? Can you have both of them take "half" the damage? If so, does the second Xane's Flapple take half the original attack's damage, or half of what damage remains after the first Xane's Flapple uses Dragon's Trick? Hell, why stop there? Just use four Xane's Flapple and some fatty up front to essentially eliminate all the damage you take. At best you can use them as shields to prevent it from taking damage for multiple turns; at worst it's degenerate stall that no one wants to deal with.
The damage payback effect is okay, you generally won't want to do this when the first effect is so good.
The third effect sounds like something you'd use if you had multiple Xane's Flapple and didn't need to use all of them to suck up damage. Cool effect, but outclassed by the other two.
Apple Toss is bad. Tails-fails attacks are more suited for evolving Basics in SWSH era. Evolved Pokémon typically have some sort of condition that needs to be met rather than just flipping heads, like Klinklang DAA requiring both Klink and Klang in play, or you having an odd number of Prize cards remaining in the case of Quagsire VIV. Though Eldgeoss SHF has a tails-fails effect, it's G for 50. In the case of Xane's Flapple, two colored Energy for maybe 20 damage is embarrassing. I'd personally redo the attack completely, but if you want to keep the tails-fails effect, I would increase the damage to 100.
Generally, I like the card idea as a whole, but it needs to be reined in a bit.
Wording errors: General
- While Owner's Pokémon don't exist in SWSH, they do exist in previous eras, and every single instance of an Owner's Pokémon has been handled the same way. Thus, Xane's Flapple should evolve from Xane's Applin, not Applin. [-1 point]
- In SWSH, exactly one foot in length is written as 1', not 1'00". (Flapple RCL) [-1 point] Dragon's Trick
- There are so many things wrong with how it's worded that I don't know where to begin in describing it. Even written out correctly, it takes up way too much space; forget having an attack, this Ability is taking up the entire card. My advice to you is to look at real cards that have similar effects to what you're looking for and go from there. [-5 points]
Creativity/Originality: 13/20 (I don't have the knowledge required to know if these effects also tie in with Xane's lore. I'll give you a bonus point because you incorporated a shapeshifting character. Pokémon hasn't done a lot of damage redirection, and for good reason; it is difficult to balance.)
Wording: 8/15 (Again, look at real effects and adapt that wording. Even if you're wrong, you'll at least be in the ballpark, and it's way better than guessing.)
Believability/Playability: 8/15 (The card as written has too much text, to say nothing of the essay this card would require if it was written with proper wording. Dragon's Trick is too powerful as written and needs to be toned down some.) Total: 29/50
Wasting no time with incorporating the new mechanic, huh? All right, let's see what we've got.
Rapid Strike Trickster is one convoluted Ability. I understand the intent, but a random Junior might not. Generally, a card should not have multiple places the Ability can be activated from, just to prevent confusion. We'll get to that later, though.
It looks like you have a little bit of leeway in getting Dragapult into play, but you still need to be careful because multiple discarded Dragapult shuts off the Ability. A single bad discard or a surprise KO essentially neuters your deck's damage output until you can find a way to pull all but one Dragapult from the discard.
Speaking of damage output, Dreepy Roulette is also one convoluted beast. Essentially, you temporarily drop off some cards, dump four Dreepy for 230, and then pick up the cards you parked at the start of your next turn. And all I gotta say is... why? Why go through all this hassle when you can just discard the Dreepy from your hand, calculate damage, and be done with it? There's no point to revealing extra cards or temporarily Lost Zoning cards, which is a whole other sin I'll get to in a minute. It seems less like cool and unique and more like making the attack bloated and worthless.
Regarding the Lost Zone: you are not allowed to take cards out of the Lost Zone. The whole point of the Lost Zone is that once a card is there, it can't come out. You can reference them, or count them, but you can't take them out once they're in. If you want to keep cards off to the side, you can do that (I referenced Empoleon LV.X last month for another user's entry). But don't ever put them in the Lost Zone unless you mean for them to be gone forever.
I think that this card has potential, but it might be a little on the strong side. You only need two Dragapult in your deck as Prize insurance, which all but eliminates the chances that they will both be in the discard. The second you get both of them in play, you can keep recycling them one after the other and do some massive damage. Dreepy Roulette does 230 for P, fairly easily. It's a Stage 2 that doesn't need to evolve to get into play and it's painfully easy to get your Dreepy discarded. I would honestly give this a massive nerf, to the order of 30 damage per Dreepy instead of 50. That lets you swing for 150, which, while significantly less, brings it more in line with other Stage 2s. Even then, it's powerful, requiring only a single Energy and maybe two turns of setup for the whole game.
Wording errors: Rapid Strike Trickster
- Needs rewriting. "Once during your turn, if this Pokémon is the last card in your hand or the only Rapid Strike Pokémon in your discard pile, you may play it onto your Bench. If you do, draw 3 cards and put any number of Dreepy from your Bench or from your discard pile into your hand." (Beedrill VIV, Cramorant VIV, Morpeko BST) [-3 points] Dreepy Roulette
- Cards are put in the Lost Zone, not into. (Whimsicott CEC) [-1 point]
- You can't reveal random cards from your own hand. It's not random if it's your own hand. [-1 point]
- "...for each Dreepy you discarded in this way." (Cramorant VIV) [-1 point]
Creativity/Originality: 16/20 (I enjoy the potential for this card, even if it needs a complete rewording and the damage needs to get brought in line. Decent use of the theme.)
Wording: 9/15 (There's a lot of fat that needs trimming, and nearly all your errors go away once you do.)
Believability/Playability: 14/15 (I can easily see this as a real card, though I am gonna ding you slightly for the huge damage output. Overall, nice work.) Total: 39/50
As a huge Mr. Mime fan, I'm always down to see more cards featuring him. Let's see what we've got.
Property Pokémon seem to be no different thematically than old Owner's Pokémon of the past, as you mentioned. I'll buy the argument that they are stronger because they've been trained, but you still need to consider balance; a fresh coat of paint doesn't give you an excuse to throw convention completely to the wind.
To that end: 130 HP is a lot. Given that the standard HP for Mr. Mime is 80, giving it an enormous 50-point boost is a bit much. Even going on the low, low end and giving it, say, 100 HP, you can show that this Pokémon is an example of a stronger version of a typical specimen of its kind. Never mind that Galarian Mr. Rime doesn't even reach that point. I think 110 or 120 would have been a more suitable number while still getting your point across that these are supposed to be stronger than normal.
Circus Trick is super busted because it essentially wipes out your opponent's Benched Pokémon. It becomes impossible to power anything up because Circus Trick will immediately turn them into a Stadium. And this isn't a coming-into-play power, either, it can be used at any time. And it's on a Basic. And your opponent doesn't even get the Pokémon back after it's done its duty as a Stadium. That's way, wayyyy too powerful. I'm glad you had the foresight to limit its usage so you can't simply wipe your opponent's board in one turn, but it's still far too strong. With two Tricky's Mr. Mime on the Bench, all you need is a Stadium card in your hand to erase two of your opponent's Benched Pokémon (Trick one into a stadium, replace it immediately, and then Trick the second one). And while the heavy self-damage might seem like a balancing factor, any deck that plays this card can easily build a deck around keeping that Pokémon alive, or by recycling the extremely broken Tricky's Stop Sign.
Stop Sign Bash is too strong, full stop. Eighty damage and guaranteed Item lock is bonkers. If Vikavolt V does it for 50, no reasonable person would assume that a Property Pokémon could vastly out-damage a Pokémon V's attack for the same cost and same effect. And that's just pretending that it doesn't also have a damage bonus. The cost should be at least three Energy, PPC.
Tricky's Stop Sign is outrageous and makes this card even more powerful (and that's not a good thing). Imagine the scenario. Your opponent is under Item lock, can't attach Energy cards to their Active, and anything that they try to power up on the Bench is immediately removed from play by Circus Trick. Limiting Tricky's Stop Sign to Energy coming from the hand is largely irrelevant because anything that could attach Energy with an attack or Ability won't be around long enough to do it.
The whole card in general needs to be balanced better. I like the idea behind Circus Trick, but maybe change the effect such that it only activates on a kill, and maybe don't put it on a Basic (Dusknoir LV.X was a "stage 3", after all). Maybe let them get their Pokémon back after it leaves play. I didn't mention Stop Sign Bash's 60-damage bonus but honestly it just makes a broken card even worse, so meh.
Wording errors: General
- Your accents are backwards: Pokémon uses é. In my benevolence, I won't dock you for it, since you were consistent throughout, and I can understand your intent by accenting the e in the first place. [-0 points]
- I am also choosing not to split hairs by docking you for spacing errors in your sentences. There should be one space after commas in the middle of a sentence. [-0 points]
- Your Pokedex information is missing. While it is possible that it was meant to be replaced by "Property - Tricky's Pokémon" in the same vein as Pokémon SP, I can't judge based on assumptions. (Pokémon SP replaced it, but the newer Owner's Pokémon from Double Crisis did not.) Since this is a new mechanic in the SWSH era, anything that bucks convention like this has to be specifically mentioned. [-1 point]
- Mr. Mime's Weakness should either be Metal or Darkness in Sword & Shield, not Psychic. If Darkness, it also needs a -30 Fighting Resistance. [-1 point] Circus Trick
- Needs rewriting. "Once during your turn, you may put 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokémon into play as a Stadium. (Discard all attached cards.) As long as your opponent has that Pokémon as a Stadium in play, put 2 damage counters on both Active Pokémon during Pokémon Checkup. You can't use this Ability if your opponent already has a Pokémon as a Stadium in play with the effect of this Ability." There are many deprecated phrases and general wording issues. [-5 points]
Creativity/Originality: 14/20 (Dusknoir LV.X was unique and I appreciate you giving its effect another try. Swing and a miss on the balance aspect, though.)
Wording: 8/15 (Entries are assumed to be for the current era unless otherwise noted.)
Believability/Playability: 4/15 (It has no counter-play. Evolved Pokémon become obsolete; Tricky's Stop Sign helps ensure they will never mount a comeback.) Total: 26/50
Ooh, mill, my favorite! But can it pass muster in this format? Let's find out.
Calculated Draw is interesting enough. It's a good tool for replenishing your hand so you can keep the Card Tricks coming. The extra Prize penalty is probably not that big a deal considering seven-Prize games aren't uncommon, but I question whether it's worth setting up a Stage 2 just to put yourself down a Prize. Overall I don't have an issue with it.
Card Trick is a super fun move on paper, but it's just as devastating to you as it is to the opponent. Never mind that you're almost certainly going to get turned into a streak on the pavement with your baby-tier HP, but losing all your Energy is horrific. It means that even if in the perfect scenario your opponent is draw passing the turn after you use the attack, you still can't attack on the next turn. Being able to attack consistently is key when you are dying every turn, and that goes double if you're a Stage 2. It's hard enough to keep my Durant in play; I can't imagine this deck would be anything resembling consistent unless there was a way to stream them directly from some zone to the Bench.
On top of that, the cards you need to set up future Alakazam also happen to be the fodder you use for Card Trick. To help remedy that, I would just put the cards back into your hand after the attack is over. That way, you aren't gimping yourself and forcing yourself to recover using Calculated Draw. Again, it's already hard enough to get not only an Alakazam into play every turn, but also having to attach two Energy to it is needlessly difficult.
Despite this card's shortcomings, I'm still a huge fan. I love mill and I'm always excited to see what people can do with it.
Wording errors: Calculated Draw
- "...add a card from your hand to your Prize cards face down. (Xurkitree-GX) "Face-down" is an adjective; "face down" is a card state. Galarian Mr. Rime DAA uses both. [-2 points]
- "You can't use more than 1 Calculated Draw Ability each turn." (Kricketune V BST) [-1 point] Card Trick
- "Put a card from your hand face down in front of you." (Oranguru UNM) [0.5 point]
- "Your opponent guesses if that card is a Pokémon, Trainer card, or Energy card, and then you reveal and discard it." (Unown ? LA, Oranguru UNM) The order of which type of card to list first is debatable, but I'm dinging you for including the word 'whether', which hasn't been used since Neo Destiny, as well as not following the precedent set by Oranguru and making it all one sentence. [-2 points]
- "...put another card from your hand face down in front of you and your opponent guesses again." (Quick Ball SSH, Oranguru UNM) [-2.5 points]
- The sentence about the when the attack ends is unnecessary because it's clear that there are no more steps after you discard your Energy. You also can't put another card down if you don't have any cards to put down, so the attack would also automatically end at that point. It's like drawing cards up to a certain point but not having any cards left mid-draw; the card doesn't say "this effect ends if you have no cards in your deck" or anything to that effect. [-1 point]
Creativity/Originality: 17/20 (I think that adding to your own Prizes as payment for a powerful effect is pretty cool. Mill is cool and I love the guessing game aspect of Card Trick as well.)
Wording: 6/15 (While you were right that it's a pain to get right, you were wrong about the most recent references and it cost you a few points.)
Believability/Playability: 13/15 (As mentioned previously, it's fun, but it's too difficult to get into play consistently; too difficult to power up after an attack, let alone multiple Alakazam in a game; and too punishing for the player in a deck where your Prize cards may as well be the Lost Zone.) Total: 36/50
>require dex info and flavor text for all text entries
>circumvent this by making a tag team
>okay.jpg
It looks like this card employs something of a revenge play style, where the opponent is punished for doing certain actions (in this case, hitting into you or retreating (sort of). I like the idea behind it, but there are some problems...
Spectral Trick is bigly busted because it gives you a guaranteed way to avoid giving up three Prizes when it dies. Not only that, but it also pays back the attack's damage, which allows for huge chances to get ahead on the Prize trade. I'd like to assume that the Ability only lets you swap in Basics but since you didn't specify that I have to assume you can get literally any Pokémon. Time to whip out Shedinja DRX or Celebi XY93.
Spectral Cage looks good on paper but it's missing a huge component: an incentive. Sure, they'll eat 100 damage if they retreat, but why would they when you're not a threat? They can easily put you at a disadvantage by peppering you with smaller attacks, and if you retreat to bring in a better attack, you take 100 damage.
Spectral Resonance is a weird attack, but I guess I understand it 'resonating' with their Psychic Energy. The spread seems fair enough.
I'm a little disappointed in seeing you use the word "spectral" for everything. Online thesauruses are a thing and a fantastic resource.
One way I'd improve this card is to make it focus on a single idea. Each of its powers and attacks does something completely different, and none of them synergize with each other. For example, Spectral Cage seems super underwhelming because there's no real risk involved. I'd move the 100-for-retreating bit to an Ability and give some devastating effect to the attack that applies at the end of the opponent's next turn so they have to choose between retreating and taking 100 or staying Active and suffering the mystery effect.
Wording errors: General
- The name should be "Gengar & Duskull-GX". [-1 point]
- In the Tag Team rule, "Knocked Out" should be capitalized... [-1 point]
- ...but "cards" should not be. [-1 point] Spectral Trick
- "If this Pokémon is your Active Pokémon and is damaged by an opponent’s attack (even if this Pokémon is Knocked Out)..." (Alolan Sandslash-GX) [-1 point]
- "...you may search your deck for a Pokémon and switch it with this Pokémon. Any attached cards, damage counters, Special Conditions, turns in play, and any other effects remain on the new Pokémon. (Ninja Boy) [-1 point]
- "If you do, put damage counters on the Attacking Pokémon equal to the damage done to this Pokémon." (Dustox LOT; example of two-part Ability where second part is only triggered by activating the first part) [-1 point] Spectral Resonance GX
- "GX" is missing from the attack name. [-1 point]
- The attack is unclear how often it triggers. Just during the opponent's next turn? For the rest of the game? This is an important piece of information that's missing. [-3 points]
- "Active Spot" was not used until Sword & Shield. It should read, "If your Active Pokémon..." [-2 points]
- "Energy" is always, always capitalized, in every instance. [-1 point]
Creativity/Originality: 15/20 (It's a decent use of the theme, but Spectral Trick is broken in practice. I do like the idea of punishing your opponent for making certain plays, but the card as a whole needs to be more cohesive than this.)
Wording: 2/15 (It's absolutely important to check and double check your wording before submitting. Not only did you mix your eras (a consequence of using references from cards that came later and not from the era your fake is from), you had a number of simple capitalization or grammar errors and each one is worth a point off. It's a death sentence to do poorly in this category, and keep in mind that the reference you choose isn't always the best one!)
Believability/Playability: 11/15 (Spectral Trick is too powerful, Spectral Cage is too weak, and using the same word for all its attacks is boring. Try to mix it up a little.) Total: 28/50
Oh, cool, I wouldn't have expected anyone to mimic Amazing Rares. I was a bit skeptical of the attack cost, but seeing that it's an Amazing Rare, it all makes sense now. Let's see if the card is as amazing as its rarity.
At first, I was worried about the Ability, but in the end, I don't think it's as big a deal as it looks to be on paper, especially with it requiring a Special Energy to trigger in the first place. I don't like that it drops your Psychic typing, though.
Before I critique it too much, I'd like to say that I love the idea behind Amazing Trick. It's a neat little twist on the "reveal until you find X" mechanic and it's enough of a change to make the attack interesting. The damage output on this attack, of course, fluctuates wildly, but that's offset by the fact that you're four types at once (effectively three, though, since Colorless is basically irrelevant). Losing your Psychic typing is kind of odd, but also oddly fitting, given that Amazing Trick doesn't take Psychic Energy.
Overall I would say the card's strength is average. Ability is easy to deactivate and the attack will often not do as much damage as you think it's going to, unless you hit them for Weakness. Still, it's an expensive attack for essentially random damage - not a good sign.
Generally speaking, I can't find anything too ridiculous about this card. Well done.
Wording errors: Tricky Technicolor Types
- The wording for this Ability is outdated. "If this Pokémon has any Special Energy attached, it is L, D, M, and C type." (Necrozma V BST, Blaziken DAA) [-2 points]
Creativity/Originality: 15/20 (I enjoyed the use of the theme, and appreciate the callback to all the Deoxys δ. The attack fits for an Amazing Rare.)
Wording: 13/15 (Your card is presumed to be submitted in the Sword & Shield era unless otherwise noted; your wording should reflect that era regardless of your references. With that said, it's fortunate that you only had the one error.)
Believability/Playability: 13/15 (Deoxys should have a Darkness Weakness and a -30 Fighting Resistance. Other than that, I could see this card existing pretty easily, although I personally don't think it would see much play due to the randomness of the damage and the difficulty in activating and maintaining Tricky Technicolor Types.) Total: 41/50
Ugh, I hate these dumb monkeys. But while I don't like the monkeys, I do like memes, so let's see if there's something to this or if it's just a bunch of monkey business. After being pleasantly surprised by your Melmetal in January, I'm guessing it's the former. But we'll see.
Monkey Tricks sounds right up these guys' alley, so quite thematic. I think being forced to shuffle the first monkey away hurts this combo a lot since it drastically reduces your chances of being able to discard it for the new monkey's pledge. With three types and three different pledge combinations, this opens the door for a number of damage and effect options that the player could use to suit their situation, not to mention hitting three types for Weakness on top of it. The card is built to work with the two other monkeys, but trying to pull off the combo requires you to throw it back into your deck? I don't like it. I mean, yeah, Octillery can search them back out again, but putting your old monkey back in the deck seems meant for Octillery specifically to pull it back out, rather than putting it back in as a balancing factor that Octillery can help mitigate. This thing has 180 HP, it's not gonna be surviving very long in any case, and with such low HP, consistency is key.
I completely forgot this Ability heals you, too. That seems so random, like it has nothing to do with the rest of the card, it's just doing it just to do it.
The attack is cool. Nice relaxed Energy cost to facilitate use of all three monkeys. Damage isn't super crazy. I like being able to choose between a single powerful hit and Bench spread.
Your reasoning for giving it 180 HP is sound...ish. You don't have to adhere so strictly to existing cards when there's no precedent. There's honestly no formula or anything you can follow to determine what an "appropriate" number is; as long as you're not super egregious and going way out of range (like HP reserved for edge cases like Wailord or Steelix, like you mentioned), you can give it any number you like. I'm not gonna ding you for it, but it's something to remember. I personally would have given it 200 HP, maaaaaaaaaybe 210. It still wouldn't survive very long, but for such low HP you are gonna want to have a good reason for it.
Wording errors: Monkey Tricks
- The only card that swaps a Pokémon with a card in your deck is Ninja Boy, so I would adhere to that for the structure of your Ability: "Once during your turn, you may switch this Pokémon with a Simipour V or Simisage V in your hand. Any attached cards, damage counters, Special Conditions, turns in play, and any other effects remain on the new Pokémon. If this Pokémon has a Pokémon Tool attached, you may heal 60 damage from it. Shuffle this Pokémon into your deck. You can't use..." (Ninja Boy) [-1 point]
- I'm also confident that Simisage V would be listed first because it's Grass, and Grass supersedes Water. You got it right in the attack, though. [-0 points] Fire Pledge
- "...this attack also does 30 damage to each of your opponent's Benched Pokémon." (Galarian Darmanitan VMAX VIV) [-1 point]
Creativity/Originality: 16/20 (I'm down for anything that reminds me of doubles. The ability to adapt your monkeying around for whatever the situation calls for is super cool, but being forced to throw them out is pointless other than to give Octillery something to search out. I can't see any other reason to make it a Rapid Strike Pokémon.)
Wording: 13/15 (Excellent improvements over January! Nice work. Don't feel bad about what you got dinged for - sometimes small things slip under the radar.)
Believability/Playability: 14/15 (I'm going to ding you one point for the random Tool healing and the low HP; this has high playability (in a world where accompanying Simisage V and Simipour V exist), or at least the possibility of playability, so I believe they'd have a little more HP than this. The Tool healing seems so out of place that I can't think of a valid reason to keep it. It does give Simisear V a bit of survivability, but 180 HP gets wiped by a light breeze in this format.) Total: 43/50
Interesting to submit an evolving Stage 1. Dusclops is a cool poke so I hope you did it justice.
Thieving Frisk is actually pretty neat. Knowing what your opponent's topdeck is going to be has all sorts of strategic implications. Needing to be Active is probably necessary, so no issues there. The problems start when you start attaching your opponent's cards to your own Pokémon. Per the Team Flare Hyper Gears, you need to specify that your opponent's cards go their owner's discard pile when they're removed from a Pokémon. That's going to double the text on this card, and there's just not enough room for it (the text size required to fit your text on a card is already too small, pre-wording changes). But we'll get to that later, let me talk about the actual effect.
Seems like it would trigger pretty rarely; I would have liked to see False Trick replaced with a move that reorders your opponent's top cards so you can immediately snatch any Tools you put on top. Messing with your opponent's deck is also thematic for a ghost like Dusclops.
Taking your opponent's Tools away with False Trick has use outside of setting up for a big Devastating Trick, but since Devastating Trick has the exact same cost and also removes multiple possibly problematic Tools, False Trick loses a lot of reason for using it in the first place, especially with such a low damage output. Oh, you could give this a pretty solid damage buff as a conditional to moving one of your opponent's Tools to your own guys. I'd go 10 + 50 or 60.
Devastating Trick is everything this card builds towards with the constant Tool theft. Since this is a Dusclops, I'm not super worried about the damage, although I will say that without a way to put Tools on your opponent's dudes, this isn't gonna be killing any two-Prizers ever, while Dusclops will get killed by getting sneezed on. As an evolving Stage 1, you need to give me a reason to evolve into this and not simply skip it over with Rare Candy. Devastating Trick could be that thing, but there should be an easier way to pile on that damage.
Overall, I like the concept. I'm a fan of attacks that require a little work to do big damage, but the execution here is flawed. Stealing your opponent's cards requires text you don't have room for, and it's also super easy for your opponent to kill your strategy by simply not playing Tools. It's not like they would need them when their opponent is a 90 HP Dusclops, you know?
Wording errors: Thieving Frisk
- Being able to steal your opponent's top card is a choice that is actively made by the player. As such, it needs to be clarified when and how often it can be used. You can't just leave it nested inside the constant effect from the first part of the power. [-3 points]
- "attached to it" is written just as "attached" as of Sword & Shield. (Skarmory DAA; compare to Alolan Sandslash CEC) [-2 points]
- You need to clarify that your opponent's cards go back to their discard pile. I'm choosing to take this out of your believability score - it's better this way. [-0 points] False Trick
- "attached to it" -> "attached" [-0.5 point] Devastating Trick
- "Discard all Pokémon Tools from each Pokémon." (Skarmory SUM) [-1 point]
- "...for each card you discarded in this way." (Whimsicott VIV) [-2 points]
Creativity/Originality: 14/20 (It has a simple job, but won't live long enough to execute it with any sort of frequency. The way in which it does this job is pretty cool, though.)
Wording: 6.5/15 (Aside from the opponent's Tools thing, it just looks like some of your references were incorrect, that's all.)
Believability/Playability: 12/15 (You have too much text; even if your wording was perfect, it requires excessively small text to fit in the space.) Total: 32.5/50
Special shout out to you for making me take longer to judge >:[ nah I'm just playing let's see what we got.
Okay, neat, it gives you the power to turn balls into weapons. Makes sense for a Pokémon like Passimian. Good way to use up your extra Cherish Balls. I have no qualms with this Ability, it's balanced and gives further utility to other cards you'd already be using.
Option Attack is perfect. The damage is low but I think being able to pass your Tool is worth the 10 or 20 damage I'd have given this instead. Passing stuff to your teammates is literally what Passimian does and I'm all for this.
I kinda like Trick Play GX. although I don't know if I'd actually use it as my GX attack of choice.
Overall, I love it from a design standpoint. I don't want to sound like I'm just skimming over this, but there aren't a lot of moving pieces for me to critique. Complicated isn't always better and I think that this card shows that off beautifully. Great work.
Wording errors: Ball Carrier
- There is no clarification as to how often Ball Carrier can be used, such as "once during your turn". [-3 points]
- There is no clarification as to where the Item card comes from. Hand? Discard pile? Deck? Opponent's collection? [-1 point]
- "..."Ball" in its name to 1 of your Passimian or Passimian-GX as a Pokémon Tool card..." (Shedinja LOT) [-2 points]
- The line about being allowed only 1 Item attached is either unclear (so I can only this power once, period, no matter how many eligible targets there are?) or unnecessary (one Tool per Pokémon is a meta rule that can't be broken without specifically mentioning it does so). I'm assuming it's the latter, so if it's the former, enjoy your point. [-0 points] Option Attack
- "You may move a Pokémon Tool card from this Pokémon to 1 of your Benched Pokémon." (Gallade CEC, Kommo-o CEC) [-1 point] Trick Play GX
- Whether or not to hyphenate GX attacks is disputed, even in official sources. It's because of this that I'm not docking you points for it, but it is my belief that GX attacks are not hyphenated (Trick Play GX, not Trick Play-GX). As an aside: names are always hyphenated (as you've done here). [-0 points]
- "...with 1 of your Benched Pokémon that has a Pokémon Tool card attached to it." (Doublade FLI) [-1 point]
Creativity/Originality: 17/20 (Excellent use of not only the "trick" theme, but also tying it into Passimian's shtick as a team player and a sportsball boi.)
Wording: 8/15 (The few mistakes you made were costly ones.)
Believability/Playability: 14/15 (The HP seems a smidgey bit low, but it's believable. Being able to fashion weapons out of your excess Poke Balls is cool, but limiting them strictly to Passimian or Passimian-GX drastically reduces the card's effectiveness. This is the one area I think it would have been worth it to not adhere so strictly to the lore in the interest of good gameplay mechanics.) Total: 39/50
Text Scores 3rd Place:Vom's Dragapult and 47bennyg's Passimian-GX, with 39/50 points. 2nd Place:bbb888’s Deoxys, with 41/50 points. 1st Place:ShaQuL’s Simisear V, with 43/50 points.
