TCG Fakes Black & White: Plasma Revival (100% complete!)

[bbninjas]

That Zeraora looks beyond legit! Such impressive work. I think the first attack might be a bit powerful for BW-era - it's only on a Stage 2 (Gallade PLS) before migrating to a Stage 1 (Huntail PRC) in early XY-era. Plasma Shot will probably consistently be hitting 180 damage with the current version of Research Base, but I'm not sure if that's too much.

While I don't feel your basics engender a Big Basics archetype, I think the Trainers do. At least, they're advantageous for big basics and more difficult to use in evolution-based decks. There will inevitably be benchsitting Plasma basics that would be able to abuse Team Plasma's Assignment, whether in this set or in another. Even without them, I would gladly load my bench if it netted me a free +5 / +6 cards per turn - especially considering there's a basic Rotom that can turn other mons into Team Plasma Pokemon if I want to elevate that draw engine.

With Research Base, do you specifically want to provide free Energy acceleration? The thing is, I think Colress Machine and Research Base are two different kettles of fish, and I think Research Base is the better one. This is because:

• Colress Machine grabs Special Energy from your deck, meaning once you've used a Special Energy and it gets discarded, you can't accelerate it again. For Research Base, you can keep accelerating the same Special Energy.
• 4 Colress Machine could accelerate 4 Energy. But 4 Research Base can accelerate much more than 4 Energy.

I think the issue is that you're accelerating Energy on a Stadium, and Stadiums are more prevalent and long-term than Items and Supporters. My idea would be to get rid of the energy acceleration entirely, and instead have the effect let you swap an attached basic Energy for a Plasma Energy in your discard pile (for example).

 

[Jabberwock]

That Zeraora looks beyond legit! Such impressive work. I think the first attack might be a bit powerful for BW-era - it's only on a Stage 2 (Gallade PLS) before migrating to a Stage 1 (Huntail PRC) in early XY-era. Plasma Shot will probably consistently be hitting 180 damage with the current version of Research Base, but I'm not sure if that's too much.

Yeah it seems pretty top-of-the-range for the era to me too. I'm not sure what I'd do differently though — the only other thing I can think of, beyond revamping the attack entirely, is another X Ball clone, which feels suboptimal.

While I don't feel your basics engender a Big Basics archetype, I think the Trainers do. At least, they're advantageous for big basics and more difficult to use in evolution-based decks. There will inevitably be benchsitting Plasma basics that would be able to abuse Team Plasma's Assignment, whether in this set or in another. Even without them, I would gladly load my bench if it netted me a free +5 / +6 cards per turn - especially considering there's a basic Rotom that can turn other mons into Team Plasma Pokemon if I want to elevate that draw engine.

Actually, yeah, that's a really good point. I guess some part of me really is stuck in the real-life BW era. I'll reconsider Team Plasma's Assignment. Maybe something like "Shuffle 2 cards from your hand into your deck; if you do, etc".

With Research Base, do you specifically want to provide free Energy acceleration? The thing is, I think Colress Machine and Research Base are two different kettles of fish, and I think Research Base is the better one. This is because:

• Colress Machine grabs Special Energy from your deck, meaning once you've used a Special Energy and it gets discarded, you can't accelerate it again. For Research Base, you can keep accelerating the same Special Energy.
• 4 Colress Machine could accelerate 4 Energy. But 4 Research Base can accelerate much more than 4 Energy.

I think the issue is that you're accelerating Energy on a Stadium, and Stadiums are more prevalent and long-term than Items and Supporters. My idea would be to get rid of the energy acceleration entirely, and instead have the effect let you swap an attached basic Energy for a Plasma Energy in your discard pile (for example).

Those are also all good points. I don't think Stadiums are actually as long-term as you're thinking, especially in a format like Lackey that has so many playable Stadiums, Stadium wars are all but inevitable. But yeah, it's definitely fundamentally better than an Item.

I wonder whether having it end your turn (and then removing the other restrictions about Bench space and whatnot) might be a good fix? I'm definitely inclined to keep the acceleration; while I like the thematic-ness of a Research Base turning basic Energy into Plasma Energy, I think that nerfs it a little too hard.

Oh, and thanks for the feedback! It's awesome to be able to develop the effects in real time like this; it's been so long since I've done a set I'd forgotten what it's like xD

 

[PMJ]

Powerful Storm is strong when combined with Electrode, with two Electrode and two Energy on your Active Zeraora-EX you're doing 80 damage. The attack counts all your Energy so, again, you can use Research Base to power this up in one turn and use any extra turns to start manually attaching - 170 HP is a lot to chew through, especially from the first turn of the game. You don't really need Research Base to function after turn 1, since by the time your first Zeraora goes down, you should have a second one ready to hit even harder.

Plasma Shot does comparable damage with Powerful Storm and two Electrode so I'd probably never use it. Maybe your second Zeraora could be built up to nuke something? I dunno, probably rather just keep swinging away for 100+ a turn.

 

[Jabberwock]

Made a few edits; the cards in the gallery linked in the OP are up-to-date with them:

— bb's suggestion for Research Base started to grow on me, so I took it. It now reads "Once during each player's turn, that player may switch a basic Energy card attached to 1 of their Team Plasma Pokémon with a Plasma Energy card from their discard pile."
— Gyarados only boosts damage by 60 now. Doing 100 for 1 on a Stage 1 was always gonna be insane to begin with.
— Tynamo's attack cost is [L][C] now, which coupled with the Research Base fix should hopefully mean it's less of a threat with Gyarados.

I'm still keeping an eye on Zeraora and Electrode, but I think for now those are generally kept in check by the Research Base fix.

More cards coming soon! \o/

 

[Jabberwock]

Spoiler: Omanyte (19/117)

Spoiler: Omastar (20/117)

Omanyte:
— art by nintendo-jr on dA
Omastar:
— art by salanchu on dA

Stepping away from Plasma to get into Fossils for at least one update. Omastar has had devolution effects in the TCG before, so this isn't anything particularly new — but it can be quite powerful, particularly if you can find the space for it alongside Kabutops and/or other Fossil mons. I opted to make Pull Down cost [C] rather than [W] so that you could feasibly run Omastar in decks that don't play Prehistoric Energy.

Destructive Whirlpool could have some niche uses, but it's not the main selling point of the card. Omanyte's attacks are similarly niche, though Muddy Water could have a more immediate payoff if you're already running it in a spread deck.

Spoiler: Lugia (89/117)

Lugia:
— art by Aonik on dA

This card does two completely separate things for two completely separate (potential) archetypes, and that's the way it's intended. I like cards where they're ubiquitous in one deck (say, Fossils), to the point where everybody sees it and goes, "oh yeah, it's about to put a Fossil onto the Bench and drop 3 damage counters on my Pokémon". But then a completely different deck pulls it out, and you're like, wait, "why does this deck care about Fossils?" And then you have to read the second attack.

That's not to say Lugia would be ubiquitous in either Fossils or Rain Dance, but the versatility is there. I also don't have a Rain Dance effect in my set, so its utility there might have to wait.

Also, one of my favorite arts in the set! Aonik's work is beautiful and you should go check it out.

Spoiler: Lenora's Curation (103/117)

Spoiler: Desert Resort (98/117)

Lenora's Curation:
— official Lenora art by Yusuke Ohmura from Pokémon Black & White
— background is the interior of the Nacrene Museum (or Library?) from the Pokémon anime
Desert Resort:
— art is of the Desert Resort, and is also from the anime

I reckon the two main problems with the Fossil archetype vis-a-vis any other evolving archetype are not being able to search for Fossils from the deck and not being able to retrieve them from the discard. So here are my solutions to that!

Desert Resort might be more consistency than I'm bargaining for, but it's significantly worse than Brooklet Hill, since it can't search out big scary EXs or GXs, so I think it's probably okay.

===
​

There are still (a few) more Fossil and Fossil-adjacent cards to come in this set, but Lenora and Desert Resort make up the bulk of the support for them, so that's that. Enjoy, and lmk your thoughts!

 

[bbninjas]

Solid and well-balanced additions to the set Jabber! I'm very keen for playable fossils in Lackey.

 

[Jabberwock]

Some Stage 2s!

Spoiler: Deino (70/117)

Spoiler: Zweilous (71/117)

Spoiler: Hydreigon (72/117)

Deino:
— art by Twarda8 on dA
Zweilous:
— art by salanchu on dA
Hydreigon:
— art by Autobot.Tesla on dA

I like Hydreigon a lot — way up there with Slowking and Lotad as my favorite Pokémon. I was a little constrained with the design of these cards because of a Zweilous that already exists in Lackey, which ... long story, but essentially there's a way to splice its Ability onto a Hydreigon and let you flip a coin to let it attack twice a turn. So you can't let it do too much damage or have any broken effects.

Indomitable Shadow is Multiprize hate, but 160-for-3 on a Stage 2 isn't really optimal Multiprize hate. It gets better if you pull off the Zweilous combo and flip heads to do it twice, though.

The main selling point of the card is Bury, which — if you're able to spread a bunch of damage across their board ahead of time and then lock them into a bad hand in the lategame — you can use a bunch of times to eke out a win. It's a checkmate sort of card, which I like in principle and hope it doesn't have anything that breaks it.

Spoiler: Beldum (74/117)

Spoiler: Metang (75/117)

Spoiler: Metagross (76/117)

Beldum:
— Beldum art by Dburch01 on dA
— background by artofcarmen on dA
Metang:
— art by Autobot.Tesla on dA
Metagross:
— art by EdoNovaIllustrator on dA (recolored to be non-Shiny by me)

This line's kinda weird in that Beldum and Metang both have a loose Prize card theme going on, while Metagross diverges entirely. I think if a split like that makes sense on any evolution line, it makes sense on Metagross. It's kinda like you're playing a prevo minigame within the larger game.

Data Swap's uses are twofold: it lets you search out Pokémon you need in order to set up your field, and it lets you shuffle Pokémon you don't want in your hand back into your deck — so you can then discard them with Meta Technician. I'm iffy on the cost for Meta Technician; I could see it being MM or even higher. I guess it all depends on how broken the potential targets are.

As an aside, it's called "Meta Technician" because the Pokémon you would include in your deck as targets for it are probably metagame calls on your part. Also, it's a Metagross. Meta, innit?

 

[bbninjas]

That Metagross might be even better than Goodra!

 

[Jabberwock]

Spoiler: Skrelp (49/117)

Spoiler: Dragalge (84/117)

Skrelp:
— art by Autobot.Tesla on dA
Dragalge:
— art by tatanRG on dA

I realized I hadn't released any [P] or [N] Pokémon left, and they're the last two types I'm missing, so here's a single line to make up for it xD

Drift In is Junk Hunt, but not on a Basic. I think this makes it okay. Even Sableye was largely okay until the format itself got out of hand.

The best use of this card would probably be as a one-off in decks that already play (a different) Dragalge. I'm not sure Item recovery is good enough to warrant teching a Stage 1 into any other deck. Drag Under is a potentially interesting effect, but the fact that it doesn't actually remove the Pokémon from play limits what it can do, keeping this Dragalge from being a central component of any deck's strategy. That's by design.

Spoiler: Sableye (67/117)

Sableye:
— art by EdoNovaIllustrator on dA

I think @ggDerpyDerp ended up using this art in their entry for this past month's CaC — I can see why! It's outstanding art, and I'm really glad it worked out as well as it did for a Plasma mon.

Pay the Piper is quite a versatile effect — it lets you heal your Pokémon, reuse on-play Abilities, move Energy or Tools around ... lots of stuff. In the Plasma engine, which might run tight on Bench space due to having important Bench sitters like Electrode and Claydol or simply stacking the Bench so as to benefit from Team Plasma's Assignment, it lets you clear the Bench to make room for other stuff. At the cost of an attack, that is, which, if you're not getting any other utility out of it, isn't something you really want to be doing. It's like a last resort — you hope you don't have to use it, but it can bail you out of some bad Bench planning in the earlygame.

And then there's Scratch, which does 20 damage. I wanted that to be an option.

===
​

And that's all for this time! We're nearing the halfway point of the set, which is exciting. More soon! \o/

 

[Jabberwock]

Spoiler: Regirock (62/117)

Spoiler: Registeel (77/117)

Spoiler: Regice (25/117)

Spoiler: Regigigas-EX (93/117)

Spoiler: Normal Gem (106/117)

Spoiler: Saving Scarf (110/117)

Regirock, Registeel, and Regice:
— all three are booster pack arts / wallpapers from the official TCG set Hidden Legends
Regigigas-EX:
— art from a wallpaper (not a pack art) from the TCG set Legends Awakened
Normal Gem:
— gem stock by M10tje on dA
— background by FlamingClaw on dA
Saving Scarf:
— scarf stock by lagrimadejarjayes on dA
— background by FlamingClaw on dA

50% of the way through the set, and here's another EX! I really hope to see an archetype develop out of these — they're heavily based off a Regigigas LV.X deck from 2010, which is one of my favorite old decks to play irl. It's loads of fun because there's a ton of stuff you can do with it — in this iteration, you can rearrange your opponent's next few topdecks with Registeel, temporarily lock Abilities with Regice, and pick off weak mons on the Bench with Regigigas-EX's Drag Off. You also have Normal Gem to boost your damage and Saving Scarf so the losses from the Regi sacrifice Abilities aren't crushing.

Notably, there's no Twins in this iteration of the deck. I think Twins is a neat card, but as a format gets bigger and bigger, Twins gets better and better, and veers into degenerate territory as soon as there's any kind of stall archetype. So I'm trying to avoid that.

I think [C] ought to have more support than it generally does, so Normal Gem is how I'm trying to implement it, even above and beyond Regigigas. I don't think there's cause for concern like with Electropower because these don't stack (they need to be attached), and you can't really play other Tools if you want to be attaching Normal Gems. There's also no way to recover them, etc. So hopefully they give the type a boost without being polarizing.

Saving Scarf ... I know a lot of y'all aren't a fan of coin flips, but I'm seeing this largely like Super Scoop Up, which formed the backbone of some decks without ever really being a problem. There might be some big difference I'm forgetting about, but I don't think the variance here is all that significant. I'm open to discussion as always, though.

===
​

This is probably the most cohesive archetype-in-a-post updates I've made so far, so lmk what you think! Would you play a deck out of these cards, or if not, what would it take to get you to play it? Any concerns about balancing? Anything else you'd like to see? Let me know!

 

[Jabberwock]

Spoiler: Maractus (8/117)

Maractus:
— art by ChrisMoschler on dA

I wavered between a few different wordings for Rattle Dance — it's supposed to be like a one-turn Victory Star, but rather than just attacks, it's good for everything. The other option was "... flip any coins for any attack, Ability, or Trainer card" [ref: Primarina LOT], and I opted for just "effect" to save space. I might still change it if this one feels too ambiguous.

Anyway, it's quite a strong effect; I'm just not sure how often it'll be worth your attack. It costs [C] to make it more versatile for more decks, and I could see it ending up in a few as an earlygame way to reduce variance during setup. It makes Poké Balls much better, for instance.

Spoiler: Torkoal (12/117)

Torkoal:
— art by EdoNovaIllustrator on dA

There aren't many hard-hitting non-EX Basic Pokémon in this set. I think this actually might be the only one. It's not very good — noticeably worse than, for instance, Reshiram BW. But this one's built for a slower meta, or at least to have a less polarizing effect on the meta. It might be a good option for Fire decks if they don't have any other Basic attackers, or as a tech in something that can afford to splash the Energy (or has access to Rainbow-ish Energy) and needs to hit for [R] damage. But it's no Reshiram, which is probably a good thing.

Spoiler: Drifloon (42/117)

Spoiler: Drifblim (43/117)

Drifloon:
— art by nintendo-jr on dA
Drifblim:
— art by FlippingChicken on dA

Unless I'm forgetting anything, all the tool removal in this set (this, Skarmory from an earlier update, and one more mon for a future update) is on Flying Pokémon, and tries to pay homage to the old card Windstorm. In Drifblim's case, you gotta set up a Stage 1 with two Energy, but you get to discard way more tools and do some neat snipe damage for it, too. It's no Tool Drop (discarding them vastly hurts consistency, even if it weren't on a Stage 1), but it's got other things going for it and it might end up being useful in the right deck.

Drifloon is one of the better prevos in the set, being able to support Drifblim's attacks with some quick damage in Counting Song or some specific targeted damage in Shadow Ball. It might veer into too-good territory, but it's got HP on the low end for BW-on Drifloon, so there's at least some reason to play a hypothetical other Drifloon over this one.

 

[Jabberwock]

Spoiler: Pansage (6/117)

Spoiler: Simisage (7/117)

Spoiler: Pansear (13/117)

Spoiler: Simisear (14/117)

Spoiler: Panpour (26/117)

Spoiler: Simipour (27/117)

Pansage:
— art by Twime777 on dA
Simisage:
— render by TheAdorableOshawott on dA
— background by ArtReferenceSource on dA
Pansear:
— art by @steffenka
Simisear:
— render and background by @The Ωmega One
Panpour:
— art by Steve K on Tumblr
Simipour:
— render by TheAdorableOshawott on dA
— background by ArtReferenceSource on dA

These are a wacky enough archetype that I'm not sure I can say whether they'll be good or bad, broken or unplayable. The intent is that they're the sort of deck you could build on a budget and have a ton of fun with, even if it doesn't win all that often against the BDIFs. They're monkeys, so they acrobat their way around the field a lot and even fling other stuff around the field (like your opponent's Active Pokémon). They're also Plasma Pokémon, and my image of Plasma Simisage/sear/pour is that they'd actively cheat in order to win. I'm not endorsing cheating here, but these cards do let you attack multiple times in one turn through a series of combos.

There's not really any one single gameplan — you just have a bunch of interesting gimmicks at your disposal that you can go ham with. Some of the obvious ideas:

• Simisage's Pivot into Pansear's Glower (requires a consistent supply of Energy, both to cause Paralysis and to retreat, and also requires a consistent damage booster for Glower)
• Simisage's Pivot into Pansage's Slapdash (with damage booster) into a wall/lock-y card
• Simisage's Pivot into Simisear's Combo Flare into Simisage's Max Out (on the next turn, for a bunch of damage in a finishing combo)
• Simipour's Overhead Throw into Rushing Water (board control)

One of the balancing things I'm still considering changing would be the retreat cost, which right now is at 1. I worried that it would be broken if it was free, but if it ends up being unplayable based on the retreat cost, that might be something I'd want to change.

Some other notes:

• I think these are the last 0-damage attacks of the set. At most, there's like one more.
• Gyarados specifies Basic Pokémon, so no, it can't use Combo Flare.
• As far as I know, Hasty Kick (on Panpour) is an attack @PMJ invented for a card for the Discord community set. I think we as fakers ought to use each other's attacks more; it'd be a cool Easter-egg-sorta thing to reference each other's work. I think I've got a couple other attacks taken from other people's cards in this set too; I'll try to remember to make a note of that here when I post them.

 

[Jabberwock]

Spoiler: Jumble Energy (115/117)

Jumble Energy:
— background by FlamingClaw on dA
— [C] symbol from a font by @CardPone
— miscellaneous effects by me

So this is a slightly-more-restricted Scramble Energy, and is the next (and probably last) phase in my make-Stage-2s-good plan. The hope is that this'll enable a bunch of decks that otherwise were hindered by their expensive Energy costs, and make any given metagame into one with a bunch of competitive non-GX Stage 2 decks. I'm a big fan of old formats where this was the case, and I reckon any format like those is a good format to play in.

For y'all who aren't used to the card, it's a Special Energy that plays differently depending on whether you're winning or losing the game. If you're ahead on Prizes, it's just a boring old [C] Energy — but if you're behind, it's a (hugely significant) triple Rainbow Energy. For evolved Pokémon (or in this case Stage 2s) only, and not Multiprize Pokémon, and so on.

At one point in development, I'd had plans to just straight-up re-introduce Scramble Energy, but that seems like it'd be quite polarizing and, actually, not have the desired effect. It would just make Stage 1s like the Avalugg in this set better, while sidelining Stage 2s by comparison. So Jumble Energy it is!

Spoiler: Totodile (21/117)

Spoiler: Croconaw (22/117)

Spoiler: Feraligatr (23/117)

Totodile:
— art by Autobot.Tesla on dA
Croconaw:
— render by Arrancon (profile now deleted) on dA
— background by Coccineus on dA
Feraligatr:
— art by Twarda8 on dA

The idea with this one is that it would play like Empoleon decks of old — you pull off some cheap snipe damage here and there, and get stronger as your opponent's field gets weaker. Almost all the attacks, name and all, come directly from existing cards; I like reusing old attacks in different ways.

It's easy to see where Jumble Energy's utility comes in here — if you're using Break Through for most of the game, you're probably falling behind on Prizes early, and then you can pull it back in the lategame with a bunch of cheap 180-damage hits.

Spoiler: Venipede (44/117)

Spoiler: Whirlipede (45/117)

Spoiler: Scolipede (46/117)

Venipede:
— art by Autobot.Tesla on dA
Whirlipede:
— Whirlipede art by Gooompy on dA
— background by Raimey-L on dA
Scolipede:
— art by Jarzard on artstation

Doing a little bit more with Special Conditions, by which I mean two of these cards care about Poison. None of this line is particularly game-changing Poison-wise. Scolipede packs some raw power and could certainly do some damage depending on the extent to which you can manipulate the top of your deck, but Rhyperior LV.X had the same attack for free, so this would probably need a bit more to be good. Jumble Energy might be part of that.

===
​

Curious for thoughts on Jumble Energy in particular. Otherwise, till next time! o/

 

[Pone]

If you need the energy symbols without wanting to dig into the font for them, feel free to ask haha. I think the font program I used to make them got them every so slightly distorted when I tried to import them. I don't think it's visible on the [C] symbol, but some of the others look slightly off when scaled up to that size. The vectors should be perfect though.

 

[Jabberwock]

If you need the energy symbols without wanting to dig into the font for them, feel free to ask haha. I think the font program I used to make them got them every so slightly distorted when I tried to import them. I don't think it's visible on the [C] symbol, but some of the others look slightly off when scaled up to that size. The vectors should be perfect though.

Cool — if I ever end up making type-specific Special Energy, I know where to go haha. I think the [C] does work fine for these though, so I'm good keeping 'em how they are.

 

[Jabberwock]

Spoiler: Relicanth-EX (24/117)

Relicanth-EX:
— render by @The Ωmega One
— miscellaneous effects by me

This update's probably the last Fossil update of the set — we're already, somehow, two-thirds of the way through! That means another EX, and if it's gonna be the last Fossil update, we're making it the other (non-Genesect) Fossil-related EX of the set.

Clear Search is from Milotic DRX, which, yeah, I'm taking a Stage 1 effect and putting it on a Basic — but the Basic in question is a lowish-HP EX, and the effect is reduced by one card. I think it'll be fine. The extra Prize and relatively low HP in particular are what make me think it won't lead to any degenerate stall decks. The hope, in particular, is that it'll be useful in setting up Fossil decks, since they need a bunch of diverse search to get all their stuff in place before they start swinging.

Dredge Up is vaguely interesting recovery for Fossil decks, since I think their only other option for recovering the actual Fossils would be the Lenora in this set. We'll see! It's definitely mainly a Clear Search-focused card, though.

Spoiler: Cranidos (63/117)

Spoiler: Rampardos (64/117)

Cranidos:
— art by tatanRG on dA
Rampardos:
— art by EdoNovaIllustrator on dA

Last Fossil line! You might notice there are only three total in the set — Kabutops, Omastar, Rampardos — and the reason there aren't more is that while I wanted to include Fossils, it's also a Plasma set, and I also wanted there to be cards that weren't either Plasma or Fossils. More Fossils would've been constraining. But there is a bunch of support for them (Relicanth, Lugia, a bunch of Trainers), so I think three's plenty. (Also, there was originally gonna be a Bastiodon-EX, but Omega and Nyan and I ran into some problems finding suitable rendering models for it, so now I gotta work out a different Pokémon for that EX slot :x)

Rampardos does a bunch of damage, situationally. It's probably not good enough in any of those situations to be playable in a format with SM cards, but it is Rampardos-y and not every card has to be playable. Cranidos doing 60 for [F] to Multiprize mons might make it good enough to play in decks that already play a different Rampardos.

Spoiler: Pidgey (85/117)

Spoiler: Pidgeotto (86/117)

Spoiler: Pidgeot (87/117)

Pidgey:
— Pidgey art by hftran on dA
— background by Ho-oh on dA
Pidgeotto:
— Pidgeotto art by DBurch01 on dA
— background by SqdPxl on dA
Pidgeot:
— art by ishmam on dA

I'm not a huge fan of this Pokémon in general, but I found the Pidgey art and the background separately, thought "man, that'd look great together," and it DID. I've never thrown a Stage 2 Pokémon into a set based on art for the Basic before, but I love this one. If I had to pick a single favorite art in the set, this Pidgey would probably be it.

Pidgey has Tapu Koko's Flying Flip, but for 10 damage rather than 20. Pidgeotto has the same Tool removal attack from this set's Skarmory. Pidgeot has a big snipe-y attack that's meant to work well with @PMJ's Pidgeot-GX. Not much else to say about these. (I just really love Pidgey's art)

===
​

I'm nearly done with classes, but not quite — the update pace will probably continue to be slow until I'm done. Not sure when next time will be, but hey. Till then! o/

 

[Pone]

Looking amazing as the rest of the set! That Pidgey illustration really takes the card to another level! I'm really gonna wanna take another look through Ho-oh's gallery now haha. Lovin' the effects on that Relicanth, too. This set is really coming together!

 

[Jabberwock]

Spoiler: Magnemite (31/117)

Spoiler: Magneton (32/117)

Spoiler: Magnezone (33/117)

Magnemite:
— art by Jarzard on ArtStation
Magneton:
— art by nintendo-jr on dA
Magnezone:
— Magnezone art by DBurch01 on dA
— background by Raimey-L on dA

Another update on the smaller side today, but hopefully it's a good one — this is another wacky archetype I hope to see come out of this set. The idea is that Abilities activating from the deck provide some interesting new design space, and this line makes use of them in a couple of ways.

Magneton is your main attacker. You can search out any number of Magnemites, do some snipe damage, and then also stack the top cards of your deck if that's what strikes your fancy. You don't want to have to give up your Magnetons, though, so Magnezone has a nifty Ability that lets it come directly into play without needing to evolve one!

Magnezone acts as a sort of utility attacker, letting you shuffle some Magnemites back into the deck for reuse with Magneton's attack. I think this sort of inverted devolving(?) is another example of design space that ought to be explored more.

[L][L][C] is a steep cost for a 90-HP Stage 1, so powering Magneton up and being able to stream them presents a challenge that's left up to the player. Magnezone's cost is very minimal, though, so if you time your usage of Magnetize right, you can do it on a turn that you would've needed to take to recharge Magneton anyway.

Some other notes:
— Damage-on-drop is obviously a very risky effect to introduce to any format, but I think the combination of limiters here (you can't just play it down out of your hand, it can only hit the Bench, and it only has 30 HP) balances it. I'm open to reducing it to 1 damage counter, though.
— Top Entry is a (really cool) existing effect, and I know I'm changing the wording somewhat. I'm condensing it to make it fit, and I feel justified in doing this because (a) it's a different era and (b) the official wording is bad.

 

[ShaQuL]

Oh wow, I really like that Magnezone line! Not only are they one of my favourites, if these were real (and if meta was different) I would totally build a deck around these! Shame Pokemon don't like to make cards nowadays too creative

 

[47bennyg]

With the new Battle Styles cards coming out with text relating to "multi-prize" cards, are you going to keep yours how its written or change it to be in the "official" style?