Contest January 2022 CaC: Energy Acceleration (All Results Up!)
- Thread starter Jabberwock
- Start date
PMJ, as I live and breathe!
It's been a bit over 6 years since I last disappeared, I think? A very long time indeed. Good to see you're still around!
It's been a bit over 6 years since I last disappeared, I think? A very long time indeed. Good to see you're still around!
Whooooa hold up. This is not what I expected this year. 
Welcome back Spoon! I wasn't around when you were in charge of CaC, but as someone who has done extensive documentation of the history of the Create-a-Card contest over the years, I've seen all the hard work you put into the event. I'm legally obliged to thank you for all that hard work! It's really great to get to meet you!
Welcome back Spoon! I wasn't around when you were in charge of CaC, but as someone who has done extensive documentation of the history of the Create-a-Card contest over the years, I've seen all the hard work you put into the event. I'm legally obliged to thank you for all that hard work! It's really great to get to meet you!
In for an image!
If I had known I was held in such reverence here I would've come back sooner! Happy to meet you!Whooooa hold up. This is not what I expected this year.
I was looking for something involving my username and stumbled upon the thread discussing the old CaC entries, which gave me the impetus to come and see what else was going on in here. It's honestly surprising how well CaC is doing. I remember that CaC was going to be part of the site redesign as front-page content, but that never got off the ground (partly because of waning popularity) and real life suddenly got really busy, so at some point I lost touch with Pokébeach and assumed CaC would've died with me.
I'm not sure how active I'll be, life is still quite busy and I have a lot of other weird things I'm doing, so I might just disappear for another 6 years at some point. Don't grow too accustomed to me.
Gah, didn't see the CaC post! In for text, if the spot's still available!
It's great to see so much turnout! (And welcome back, Spoon!)
Since I've got longer to judge entries now anyway, I've opened up five more image-based slots, for a total of 20. If you were thinking of joining this month, there's still around 49 hours left to sign up!
Since I've got longer to judge entries now anyway, I've opened up five more image-based slots, for a total of 20. If you were thinking of joining this month, there's still around 49 hours left to sign up!
Oh! In that case, can you take me out of text and in for image if there's still room? Super sorry for the trouble and thanks so much!
I didn't end up getting around to it last time, but I'll sign up for image-based.
Lunala CES#070 "If this Pokémon has any P Energy attached to it, it takes 20 less damage from attacks (after applying Weakness and Resistance)."
Heracross UNM#107 "If 1 of your opponent’s Pokémon used a GX attack during their last turn,"
Shuckle LOT#016 "Attach 2 basic Energy cards from your discard pile to your Pokémon in any way you like."
Blastoise & Piplup GX CEC#038 "You may attach up to 3 W Energy cards from your hand to your Pokémon in any way you like." "Your opponent’s Active Pokémon is now Paralyzed. If this Pokémon has at least 3 extra W Energy attached to it (in addition to this attack’s cost)," "(You can’t use more than 1 GX attack in a game.)"
Misty & Lorelei CEC#199 "If you do, during this turn, your W Pokémon can use their GX attacks even if you have used your GX attack."
Froslass & Mega Glalie GX– Water – HP250
Basic
Tag Team
Ability: Frost Wall
If this Pokémon is your Active Pokémon and has any Water Energy attached to it, it takes 40 less damage from attacks (after applying Weakness and Resistance).
[W][[W][C] Blizzard Storm 150
If 1 of your Pokémon used a GX attack during your last turn, attach up to 3 basic Energy cards from your discard pile to your Pokémon in any way you like.
[W]+ Chilling Zero GX 50
Your opponent's Active Pokémon is now Paralyzed. If this Pokémon has at least 2 extra Water Energy attached to it (in addition to this attack’s cost), this Pokémon can use its GX attack even if you have used your GX attack. (You can’t use more than 1 GX attack in a game.)
Weakness: Metal (x2)
Resistance:
Retreat: [C] [C]
Heracross UNM#107 "If 1 of your opponent’s Pokémon used a GX attack during their last turn,"
Shuckle LOT#016 "Attach 2 basic Energy cards from your discard pile to your Pokémon in any way you like."
Blastoise & Piplup GX CEC#038 "You may attach up to 3 W Energy cards from your hand to your Pokémon in any way you like." "Your opponent’s Active Pokémon is now Paralyzed. If this Pokémon has at least 3 extra W Energy attached to it (in addition to this attack’s cost)," "(You can’t use more than 1 GX attack in a game.)"
Misty & Lorelei CEC#199 "If you do, during this turn, your W Pokémon can use their GX attacks even if you have used your GX attack."
Froslass & Mega Glalie GX– Water – HP250
Basic
Tag Team
Ability: Frost Wall
If this Pokémon is your Active Pokémon and has any Water Energy attached to it, it takes 40 less damage from attacks (after applying Weakness and Resistance).
[W][[W][C] Blizzard Storm 150
If 1 of your Pokémon used a GX attack during your last turn, attach up to 3 basic Energy cards from your discard pile to your Pokémon in any way you like.
[W]+ Chilling Zero GX 50
Your opponent's Active Pokémon is now Paralyzed. If this Pokémon has at least 2 extra Water Energy attached to it (in addition to this attack’s cost), this Pokémon can use its GX attack even if you have used your GX attack. (You can’t use more than 1 GX attack in a game.)
Weakness: Metal (x2)
Resistance:
Retreat: [C] [C]
With the Tag Team blanks available again, I thought I'd try my hand at one of these, and so I chose my favorite pair of Ice-types to start with, as there aren't any Ice-type Tag Team GXs. I liked the idea of a hard to take down Pokémon, and Paralysis fits well with that archetype, so I fit that into the GX attack. I originally had the additional effect preventing any sort of way to heal, switch, or get rid of the Paralysis, but the wording was convoluted, and I wasn't sure if it could fit reasonably, and as the Paralysis GX attack didn't include the Energy acceleration theme for the CAC, I decided it would be interesting if you could use the GX attack again. Misty & Lorelei already has this sort of effect, and would be a useful card to pair with this card.
Tag Teams, with their usually massive Energy costs, also come with Energy acceleration, but the usual pull 3 from your deck seemed overly familiar. Then I wondered if it could be involved with its GX attack in any way, I looked up some cards, and found Heracross UNM#107. Now Heracross responds to your opponent's GX attack, but I liked the idea of using your own GX attack as a boost. And with its GX attack being chainable, you can wait for a KO to use it to power up a backup attacker. I chose to accelerate from the discard pile as opposed to the deck because Misty & Lorelei is a card you would use more than once, giving you ample opportunity to discard the Energy from hand, and I dislike Full Blitz's power level. This makes for a much more interesting attack.
For the Ability, I decided that a stally kind fitted the card the most, given it's Paralysis effect, and a -40, while powerful, is only up while active, and your opponent wants this card on the Bench anyway. With this kind of Ability, the HP is lower, which Froslass especially tends towards.
A Metal Weakness makes this card weak to Zacian builds, while being strong against the various Fire supported builds without being weak to PikaRom. 2 Retreat is fine here, with Air Balloon filling in if needed. I don't know much more than that about the early Tag Team metagame, so I'll leave that there.
Because this is a Tag Team, I needed a good piece of art, and as I have been dabbling in some drawing over the past little while, I decided to do the piece myself, and I think it turned out decently.
Tag Teams, with their usually massive Energy costs, also come with Energy acceleration, but the usual pull 3 from your deck seemed overly familiar. Then I wondered if it could be involved with its GX attack in any way, I looked up some cards, and found Heracross UNM#107. Now Heracross responds to your opponent's GX attack, but I liked the idea of using your own GX attack as a boost. And with its GX attack being chainable, you can wait for a KO to use it to power up a backup attacker. I chose to accelerate from the discard pile as opposed to the deck because Misty & Lorelei is a card you would use more than once, giving you ample opportunity to discard the Energy from hand, and I dislike Full Blitz's power level. This makes for a much more interesting attack.
For the Ability, I decided that a stally kind fitted the card the most, given it's Paralysis effect, and a -40, while powerful, is only up while active, and your opponent wants this card on the Bench anyway. With this kind of Ability, the HP is lower, which Froslass especially tends towards.
A Metal Weakness makes this card weak to Zacian builds, while being strong against the various Fire supported builds without being weak to PikaRom. 2 Retreat is fine here, with Air Balloon filling in if needed. I don't know much more than that about the early Tag Team metagame, so I'll leave that there.
Because this is a Tag Team, I needed a good piece of art, and as I have been dabbling in some drawing over the past little while, I decided to do the piece myself, and I think it turned out decently.
Sign-ups are closed! Remember that you have until the end of the month to submit an entry.
Allow me to present my entry.
Thank you for reading.
Ho-oh HP: 130 [R]
Basic
NO. 250 Rainbow Pokémon HT: 12'6" WT: 438.7 lbs.
Ability: Rainbow Trail
Once during your turn, you may search your deck for 3 basic Energy cards with different types. Attach 1 of them to 1 of your Benched Pokémon, put 1 of them into your hand, and discard one. Then, shuffle your deck.
[C][C][C] Prismatic Flames 10+
This attack does 40 more damage for each different type of basic Energy attached to all of your Pokémon, plus 20 damage for each different type of basic Energy card in your discard pile.
Weakness: [L] x2
Resistance: [F] -30
Retreat: [C][C]
A legend says that its body glows in seven colors. A rainbow is said to form behind it when it flies.
Basic
NO. 250 Rainbow Pokémon HT: 12'6" WT: 438.7 lbs.
Ability: Rainbow Trail
Once during your turn, you may search your deck for 3 basic Energy cards with different types. Attach 1 of them to 1 of your Benched Pokémon, put 1 of them into your hand, and discard one. Then, shuffle your deck.
[C][C][C] Prismatic Flames 10+
This attack does 40 more damage for each different type of basic Energy attached to all of your Pokémon, plus 20 damage for each different type of basic Energy card in your discard pile.
Weakness: [L] x2
Resistance: [F] -30
Retreat: [C][C]
A legend says that its body glows in seven colors. A rainbow is said to form behind it when it flies.
References: Eldegoss EVS, Eldegoss SHF, Ho-oh EX DRX, Mamoswine SF
Right away, I wanted to do something different than just accelerating directly with an attack/ability without a cost. I also really like build-around cards - cards with a lot of potential when you work them into your deck successfully. This ho-oh satisfies both. Rainbow Trail is a ton of free acceleration - in the right conditions. Decks don't play three different types of basic energy often, but enough decks play two that you can make a legitimate argument for running 1 Ho-oh and 1 other kind of basic energy in something like Duralodon VMAX, for example, to get that extra 2 energy on board you might otherwise not. (Amazing Rares are also a possibility. I considered making this an Amazing Rare but I think the colourless attack cost was more important. Amazing Reshiram isn't half bad.) Or you can just build around Ho-oh itself as the attacker, which does a lot of damage very quickly but requires you to commit a lot of space to playing the different energy types. In theory, you can swing for 280 turn 1 going second, but that requires you hit four ho-ohs, and are playing at least twelve different energy of five different types.
This is a little messy, so I'll bullet point my thoughts as well.
- can be played in its own deck as a dedicated attacker, high damage with enough setup
- can be played in other decks (dragons, amazing rares) as its own engine at the cost of running a potential brick
- can potentially enable weakness toolboxes with three types depending on the format (for example: the current format is dominated by psychic, fighting, and electric decks, so you could run a psychic, dark, and fighting deck with Ho-oh to counter it)
- generally can do a lot but requires good deck building to do so, which is what I like
I hope you enjoy.
Right away, I wanted to do something different than just accelerating directly with an attack/ability without a cost. I also really like build-around cards - cards with a lot of potential when you work them into your deck successfully. This ho-oh satisfies both. Rainbow Trail is a ton of free acceleration - in the right conditions. Decks don't play three different types of basic energy often, but enough decks play two that you can make a legitimate argument for running 1 Ho-oh and 1 other kind of basic energy in something like Duralodon VMAX, for example, to get that extra 2 energy on board you might otherwise not. (Amazing Rares are also a possibility. I considered making this an Amazing Rare but I think the colourless attack cost was more important. Amazing Reshiram isn't half bad.) Or you can just build around Ho-oh itself as the attacker, which does a lot of damage very quickly but requires you to commit a lot of space to playing the different energy types. In theory, you can swing for 280 turn 1 going second, but that requires you hit four ho-ohs, and are playing at least twelve different energy of five different types.
This is a little messy, so I'll bullet point my thoughts as well.
- can be played in its own deck as a dedicated attacker, high damage with enough setup
- can be played in other decks (dragons, amazing rares) as its own engine at the cost of running a potential brick
- can potentially enable weakness toolboxes with three types depending on the format (for example: the current format is dominated by psychic, fighting, and electric decks, so you could run a psychic, dark, and fighting deck with Ho-oh to counter it)
- generally can do a lot but requires good deck building to do so, which is what I like
I hope you enjoy.
Thank you for reading.
PMJ
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Might as well post this before I forget.
Coming up with a unique method of Energy acceleration is really tough. With Treasure Energy being able to attach itself from the Prizes, there's not many ways that you can accelerate Energy that haven't been done before. But I don't believe there has ever been a card that accelerates upon a Pokemon retreating. And when I asked myself what sort of Pokemon thematically could utilize the Energy being thrown away by paying its Retreat Cost, and Garbodor was a natural fit. Garbodor and the discard pile are kinda synonymous with each other, which makes me not want to use it at all, but I can't think of a better Pokemon to show the idea of a Pokemon with an Ability called Trash Collector walking around simply picking up another Pokemon's unwanted Energy and holding onto it to power up its own attacks.
The idea to exclude itself from its own Ability was to prevent it from getting a discount when retreating, but I don't think it's that much of a stretch to say that a Garbodor wouldn't want to pick up its own waste. Sharing your Energy with multiple other Garbodor on your Bench is recommended, though.
The wording for Trash Collector was kind of a nightmare to figure out because I can't just use the word "put" everywhere. It's a little awkward, but I think it's correct.
As for an attack, I also didn't want to go the obvious route of "damage for each Energy" since this card's Ability allows it to stockpile Energy; however, once again, theme won out. The idea of Garbodor the garbage man using all his collected garbage to inflict big pain on the enemy is a great visual. I originally only used Garbodor's Energy for the damage calculation, but I didn't think that it would be strong enough to warrant any use if it did (Garbodor FST actually does 130 for the same cost and it gets no play). Victini V is great in decks that can utilize it, and I think that one-Prizers are criminally weak. So I increased the cost and increased the damage and that did the trick. And yeah, the attack is called Hefty Bomb because of Hefty brand garbage bags. It, like everything else, is also thematic; Garbodor's massive damage for its massive cost can only be described as HEFTY HEFTY HEFTY.
Bottom stats are typical for SWSH Poison-types, and Garbodor in particular. I would have liked to give him a little more HP, but with his damage potential, acceleration Ability, and like 8 other SWSH Garbodor cards with 120 HP, I figured it best not to mess with convention in that regard. Placements are the best I could do by doing what you said. Hope it's good enough.
References: Skaters' Park; Lucky Ice Pop (kinda); exceptions to stuff always goes immediately after the word Pokemon (Zoroark EVS, Abomasnow CRE, etc), so as odd as "this Pokemon, retreats," looks, it's still correct; Victini V for the attack
Coming up with a unique method of Energy acceleration is really tough. With Treasure Energy being able to attach itself from the Prizes, there's not many ways that you can accelerate Energy that haven't been done before. But I don't believe there has ever been a card that accelerates upon a Pokemon retreating. And when I asked myself what sort of Pokemon thematically could utilize the Energy being thrown away by paying its Retreat Cost, and Garbodor was a natural fit. Garbodor and the discard pile are kinda synonymous with each other, which makes me not want to use it at all, but I can't think of a better Pokemon to show the idea of a Pokemon with an Ability called Trash Collector walking around simply picking up another Pokemon's unwanted Energy and holding onto it to power up its own attacks.
The idea to exclude itself from its own Ability was to prevent it from getting a discount when retreating, but I don't think it's that much of a stretch to say that a Garbodor wouldn't want to pick up its own waste. Sharing your Energy with multiple other Garbodor on your Bench is recommended, though.
The wording for Trash Collector was kind of a nightmare to figure out because I can't just use the word "put" everywhere. It's a little awkward, but I think it's correct.
As for an attack, I also didn't want to go the obvious route of "damage for each Energy" since this card's Ability allows it to stockpile Energy; however, once again, theme won out. The idea of Garbodor the garbage man using all his collected garbage to inflict big pain on the enemy is a great visual. I originally only used Garbodor's Energy for the damage calculation, but I didn't think that it would be strong enough to warrant any use if it did (Garbodor FST actually does 130 for the same cost and it gets no play). Victini V is great in decks that can utilize it, and I think that one-Prizers are criminally weak. So I increased the cost and increased the damage and that did the trick. And yeah, the attack is called Hefty Bomb because of Hefty brand garbage bags. It, like everything else, is also thematic; Garbodor's massive damage for its massive cost can only be described as HEFTY HEFTY HEFTY.
Bottom stats are typical for SWSH Poison-types, and Garbodor in particular. I would have liked to give him a little more HP, but with his damage potential, acceleration Ability, and like 8 other SWSH Garbodor cards with 120 HP, I figured it best not to mess with convention in that regard. Placements are the best I could do by doing what you said. Hope it's good enough.
References: Skaters' Park; Lucky Ice Pop (kinda); exceptions to stuff always goes immediately after the word Pokemon (Zoroark EVS, Abomasnow CRE, etc), so as odd as "this Pokemon, retreats," looks, it's still correct; Victini V for the attack
Slowbro - Psychic - HP100
Stage 1 - Evolves from Slowpoke NO. 080 Hermit Crab Pokémon HT: 5'3" WT: 173.1 lbs.
Ability: Pressure Pulse
Once during your turn, you may search your deck for an Energy card and attach it to one of your Pokémon for each prize card that your opponent has taken. Then, shuffle your deck.
[P][C] Psyshock 60+
This attack does 60 damage for each Energy card that is attached to your opponent's Active Pokémon. Your opponent can't attach any energy to their Active Pokémon during their next turn.
Weakness: Darkness (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-30)
Retreat: [C][C]
Slowpoke became Slowbro when a Shellder bit on to its tail. Sweet flavors seeping from the tail make the Shellder feel as if its life is a dream.
Stage 1 - Evolves from Slowpoke NO. 080 Hermit Crab Pokémon HT: 5'3" WT: 173.1 lbs.
Ability: Pressure Pulse
Once during your turn, you may search your deck for an Energy card and attach it to one of your Pokémon for each prize card that your opponent has taken. Then, shuffle your deck.
[P][C] Psyshock 60+
This attack does 60 damage for each Energy card that is attached to your opponent's Active Pokémon. Your opponent can't attach any energy to their Active Pokémon during their next turn.
Weakness: Darkness (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-30)
Retreat: [C][C]
Slowpoke became Slowbro when a Shellder bit on to its tail. Sweet flavors seeping from the tail make the Shellder feel as if its life is a dream.
A little over 8 days remaining! Get your entries in!
My entry for CaC!
[
I've noticed others give some of their thoughts and inspirations behind their cards so here are mine:
[I've noticed others give some of their thoughts and inspirations behind their cards so here are mine:
When the contest theme was announced I had just finished a ski trip and on the way home I started thinking of what Pokemon or type would be good for the contest. Then it came to me, an ice type (or water type cause its the TCG). While I was snowboarding snow machines would blast snow into my face and I thought that would be cool for an energy acceleration card, an ice type that blasts the energy onto other Pokemon.
At first, I was thinking Cryogonal, but then I remembered that Rotom is literally a snow-making machine. Since the goal was to have a creative method of energy acceleration, I thought turning Rotom into a stadium would be cool and something that hasn't been done since Dusknoir Lv. X as far as I know, also fitting for a snow machine on a mountain. Now I didn't play the game during this era of TCG so I'm not sure how good or not good this ability is but I think giving up a prize card to use it prevents it from being busted
At first, I was thinking Cryogonal, but then I remembered that Rotom is literally a snow-making machine. Since the goal was to have a creative method of energy acceleration, I thought turning Rotom into a stadium would be cool and something that hasn't been done since Dusknoir Lv. X as far as I know, also fitting for a snow machine on a mountain. Now I didn't play the game during this era of TCG so I'm not sure how good or not good this ability is but I think giving up a prize card to use it prevents it from being busted
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here's my entry:
for the ability:
Galarian Moltres EVS - When you play this Pokémon...
Oranguru UNM and other guessing cards such as Blaine's Quiz Zhow UNM - all the guess the card part.
for the attack:
mostly Starmie FST, but also Eldegoss SHF/Victini CEC
HP, WRR: I went with 80 as a middle ground between what was used in previous Minior cards. While Core Form is supposed to be somewhat frailer than Meteor Form, I gave it more HP than what was previously used to reflect its nature as a support card (?)
Weakness, resistance and typing are based on it being part flying-type.
For the Holofoil, I used a combination of aschefield101's Circular HoloSheet and Icycatelf's Ripple Foil.
The blank base is, as usual, @CardPone 's Omnium Blank.
Galarian Moltres EVS - When you play this Pokémon...
Oranguru UNM and other guessing cards such as Blaine's Quiz Zhow UNM - all the guess the card part.
for the attack:
mostly Starmie FST, but also Eldegoss SHF/Victini CEC
HP, WRR: I went with 80 as a middle ground between what was used in previous Minior cards. While Core Form is supposed to be somewhat frailer than Meteor Form, I gave it more HP than what was previously used to reflect its nature as a support card (?)
Weakness, resistance and typing are based on it being part flying-type.
For the Holofoil, I used a combination of aschefield101's Circular HoloSheet and Icycatelf's Ripple Foil.
The blank base is, as usual, @CardPone 's Omnium Blank.
So, new year, new blank, sort of.
The idea behind this blank was something among the line of "what if the SWSH blanks received a slight makeover in conjunction with the release of the gen 4 remakes/legends, similarly to what happened with DPPt blanks once HGSS rolled out?".
As such, the blank features some pinkish-blueish tones in the metallic parts, a rework of the upper area with shapes matching the newly released VStar cards, and and an overall use of rounder shapes to further differentiate itself from the octagonal shapes of the SM era.
While the general positioning of the elements is supposed to match the current layout, I decided to keep some elements form the original Omnium Blank,mostly because they look neater compared to the counterpart used in the actual cards.
For the art, I just went with sparkles. (I also took some liberties with Minior's pattern, changing the coloured sports from triangles to a more crystal-like pattern. I hope I did ok with the holofoil, although I know the current era no longer uses the circular style holo.
As for the card itself, I tried to incorporate Minior's gimmick (the colour of its core being decided at random) with the idea of energy acceleration/hand acceleration. I believe having your opponent guess the type of energy could lead to some *interesting* mind games, at least as long as you have a way to get energy in your hand and multiple Minior to put on the bench. I also tried to differentiate the win/loose mechanic, in the sense that if your opponent guesses correctly they don't get any direct benefits, escept for the fact that you may not get direct access to that energy for a while. I hope it's not too busted. (it probably is, though).
Wanting to avoid the "x damage per type of energy", I opted for a support role, with a (hopefully) versatile healing move, allowing you to control both its cost and the target.
Thanks for reading.
The idea behind this blank was something among the line of "what if the SWSH blanks received a slight makeover in conjunction with the release of the gen 4 remakes/legends, similarly to what happened with DPPt blanks once HGSS rolled out?".
As such, the blank features some pinkish-blueish tones in the metallic parts, a rework of the upper area with shapes matching the newly released VStar cards, and and an overall use of rounder shapes to further differentiate itself from the octagonal shapes of the SM era.
While the general positioning of the elements is supposed to match the current layout, I decided to keep some elements form the original Omnium Blank,
For the art, I just went with sparkles. (I also took some liberties with Minior's pattern, changing the coloured sports from triangles to a more crystal-like pattern. I hope I did ok with the holofoil, although I know the current era no longer uses the circular style holo.
As for the card itself, I tried to incorporate Minior's gimmick (the colour of its core being decided at random) with the idea of energy acceleration/hand acceleration. I believe having your opponent guess the type of energy could lead to some *interesting* mind games, at least as long as you have a way to get energy in your hand and multiple Minior to put on the bench. I also tried to differentiate the win/loose mechanic, in the sense that if your opponent guesses correctly they don't get any direct benefits, escept for the fact that you may not get direct access to that energy for a while. I hope it's not too busted. (
Wanting to avoid the "x damage per type of energy", I opted for a support role, with a (hopefully) versatile healing move, allowing you to control both its cost and the target.
Thanks for reading.
Okay, this is going to be my last CaC for a while. At least until I finish my Legends: Arceus playthrough. I'm going off the grid starting right after I publish this post in order to avoid spoilers. (I know I'm cutting it awfully close with the game officially releasing tomorrow and with the entire program being leaked via illegal emulation to the public days before the games actually hit store shelves.) I'll be brushing up on my watercoloring skills starting in a week or two, and will be uploading new paintings and photographs to my DeviantArt page as I make them (see the link on my personal Pokebeach thread, accessible via the link in my signature), but apart from that my online presence will essentially be dead. After my LA playthrough, I'll probably get back into making cards, participating in CaC's, and likely even resuming my custom template project. But for the time being, it's adios amigos and bon voyage.
You know how a Coalossal with the Steam Engine ability becomes significantly faster when hit by a Fire or Water attack? I've always been curious about how an effect like that would translate to the TCG, and as I was going through several ideas for this CaC (I had several), I suddenly stumbled upon the idea of turning it into an Energy acceleration effect... an extremely powerful Energy acceleration effect that can only be triggered when Coalossal takes damage from Fire or Water type Pokémon! After all, "speed changes" often seems to translate into the TCG as "Energy acceleration" instead of "retreat cost changes" (not that speed appears to be the criteria for Retreat Cost anyways). As for being able to attach to any Pokémon, I took some creative liberties here, because otherwise the strategy falls apart. What strategy? You'll see.
Not only do I believe that this card could be viable in a competitive setting... I already have the beginnings of a deck mapped out in my head! The format I'm planning out this deck for would be the 2010 standard format (Diamond and Pearl Base through HGSS Unleashed), which would make sense considering the era that Omnium is balanced for (the HGSS era). A Coalossal partner needs two things, besides being a Fire or Water type; the ability to hit the bench, and the ability to apply offensive pressure throughout the game. Whishcash Mysterious Treasures has it both, with an attack that, for four Energy, does a decent 60 damage to the defending Pokémon, and, more importantly, does twenty damage to EACH Benched Pokémon! Yours AND your opponents! So not only can you trigger Steam Engine, but you can also spread damage across the board on the opposite side of the field! It even uses the same Energy type as Coalossal! Unfortunately, the attack cost of [F][C][C][C] feels prohibitive, but if you're playing with Diamond and Pearl/Platinum AND HeartGold SoulSilver cards, you can at least tap into Double Colorless Energy. Although DCE runs contrary to Coalossal's Ability, so maybe that doesn't work. In any case, if you can even land a single hit with Whishcash's attack, you are able to fully charge up another Whishcash, setting off a chain of blows that strike your opponent's bench. And if you tech a 1-1 or 2-2 Nidoqueen line, then you can keep your bench healthy as well, completely cleansing all damage counters from your own bench by your next turn! The biggest threat to this deck is if your opponent is running a Nidoqueen of their own, but as for that threat, Coalossal's own attack can do 100 damage, and if you throw in an Expert Belt, you can bolster that damage to 120, scoring a quick OHKO on Nidoqueen IF you can drag it into the Active spot, which is made possible by Regice. My main concern with this strategy is the possibility of your own Coalossal being Knocked Out and your opponent netting two prizes, but with 160 HP, an Expert Belt-equipped Coalossal will be a tough nut to crack... and if your opponent resorts to exploiting Coalossal's weakness, then you get a free Steam Engine. Not to mention that Thermal Runoff will allow you to conserve Energy if you fear that Coalossal will get Revenge KOed immediately after use. One other consideration is including a full playset of Night Maintenance, to make sure that you never run out of basic Fighting Energy to accelerate and Whishcash to accelerate them to.
As for Nidoqueen, I have an idea of how to deal with it, but it may be too convoluted. You could probably run Regice to gust it up, and after that... well, you're running Uxie Lv.X, which can do 60 damage for 2 of any Energy and is a Psychic type, so if you have Lucario GL, you can OHKO your opponent's Nidoqueen. I know that is probably a horrible response since it requires a four-card minimum setup that takes up half of your board, but you're going to have Uxie/Uxie Lv.X regardless, and Regice is necessary to gust up a benched Pokémon, meaning you would need it anyway, so Lucario is probably the only Pokémon that you are adding. And it also allows you to fully capitalize on Pokémon that are weak to Water and Fighting types. But at this point it might be easier to tech a Garchomp Lv.X line and skip both the Lucario and the Regice.
The question is, can a deck with four evolution lines (counting the near obligatory Claydol) ever succeed? Absolutely! Some of the best decks from the 2010 Worlds had comparable quantities of evolution lines! And I'm not talking about SP Lv.X lines, either. I mean ACTUAL, LEGITIMATE stage 1- and 2-evolution lines. You might not even need the Claydol. Ampharos and Abomasnow didn't play it. (Oh, that might be another troublesome matchup. Fortunately Coalossal can OHKO Abomasnow WITHOUT attaching Expert Belt!) Probably the biggest concern is your ability to fully charge a leading Whiscash, which DCE makes easier, if not entirely easy.
As for the art, thank you, Kaleidoscopic, for creating the illustration for this card, even though you yourself were also an entrant in this CaC! Looking at the list of artists over on the Discord server only turned up one Coalossal illustration by Autobot Tesla (a portrait style piece as opposed to a landscape piece), and while I could have asked another artist for permission, expanded the art with Clone Stamp, modified a Pokémon the Series screenshot, or even made a Full Art, the fact that Kaleidoscopic was willing to invest time and effort into making an original art piece for a rival CaC entrant was a blessing that I will not soon forget. (We also talked a little about Bible studies, which was neat.) The Coalossal was even drawn separate from the background, a further blessing that allowed me to create this card as a holo-rare without spending an hour chiseling the subject from the rest of the piece. Thank you for taking that extra trouble as well.
Not only do I believe that this card could be viable in a competitive setting... I already have the beginnings of a deck mapped out in my head! The format I'm planning out this deck for would be the 2010 standard format (Diamond and Pearl Base through HGSS Unleashed), which would make sense considering the era that Omnium is balanced for (the HGSS era). A Coalossal partner needs two things, besides being a Fire or Water type; the ability to hit the bench, and the ability to apply offensive pressure throughout the game. Whishcash Mysterious Treasures has it both, with an attack that, for four Energy, does a decent 60 damage to the defending Pokémon, and, more importantly, does twenty damage to EACH Benched Pokémon! Yours AND your opponents! So not only can you trigger Steam Engine, but you can also spread damage across the board on the opposite side of the field! It even uses the same Energy type as Coalossal! Unfortunately, the attack cost of [F][C][C][C] feels prohibitive, but if you're playing with Diamond and Pearl/Platinum AND HeartGold SoulSilver cards, you can at least tap into Double Colorless Energy. Although DCE runs contrary to Coalossal's Ability, so maybe that doesn't work. In any case, if you can even land a single hit with Whishcash's attack, you are able to fully charge up another Whishcash, setting off a chain of blows that strike your opponent's bench. And if you tech a 1-1 or 2-2 Nidoqueen line, then you can keep your bench healthy as well, completely cleansing all damage counters from your own bench by your next turn! The biggest threat to this deck is if your opponent is running a Nidoqueen of their own, but as for that threat, Coalossal's own attack can do 100 damage, and if you throw in an Expert Belt, you can bolster that damage to 120, scoring a quick OHKO on Nidoqueen IF you can drag it into the Active spot, which is made possible by Regice. My main concern with this strategy is the possibility of your own Coalossal being Knocked Out and your opponent netting two prizes, but with 160 HP, an Expert Belt-equipped Coalossal will be a tough nut to crack... and if your opponent resorts to exploiting Coalossal's weakness, then you get a free Steam Engine. Not to mention that Thermal Runoff will allow you to conserve Energy if you fear that Coalossal will get Revenge KOed immediately after use. One other consideration is including a full playset of Night Maintenance, to make sure that you never run out of basic Fighting Energy to accelerate and Whishcash to accelerate them to.
As for Nidoqueen, I have an idea of how to deal with it, but it may be too convoluted. You could probably run Regice to gust it up, and after that... well, you're running Uxie Lv.X, which can do 60 damage for 2 of any Energy and is a Psychic type, so if you have Lucario GL, you can OHKO your opponent's Nidoqueen. I know that is probably a horrible response since it requires a four-card minimum setup that takes up half of your board, but you're going to have Uxie/Uxie Lv.X regardless, and Regice is necessary to gust up a benched Pokémon, meaning you would need it anyway, so Lucario is probably the only Pokémon that you are adding. And it also allows you to fully capitalize on Pokémon that are weak to Water and Fighting types. But at this point it might be easier to tech a Garchomp Lv.X line and skip both the Lucario and the Regice.
The question is, can a deck with four evolution lines (counting the near obligatory Claydol) ever succeed? Absolutely! Some of the best decks from the 2010 Worlds had comparable quantities of evolution lines! And I'm not talking about SP Lv.X lines, either. I mean ACTUAL, LEGITIMATE stage 1- and 2-evolution lines. You might not even need the Claydol. Ampharos and Abomasnow didn't play it. (Oh, that might be another troublesome matchup. Fortunately Coalossal can OHKO Abomasnow WITHOUT attaching Expert Belt!) Probably the biggest concern is your ability to fully charge a leading Whiscash, which DCE makes easier, if not entirely easy.
As for the art, thank you, Kaleidoscopic, for creating the illustration for this card, even though you yourself were also an entrant in this CaC! Looking at the list of artists over on the Discord server only turned up one Coalossal illustration by Autobot Tesla (a portrait style piece as opposed to a landscape piece), and while I could have asked another artist for permission, expanded the art with Clone Stamp, modified a Pokémon the Series screenshot, or even made a Full Art, the fact that Kaleidoscopic was willing to invest time and effort into making an original art piece for a rival CaC entrant was a blessing that I will not soon forget. (We also talked a little about Bible studies, which was neat.) The Coalossal was even drawn separate from the background, a further blessing that allowed me to create this card as a holo-rare without spending an hour chiseling the subject from the rest of the piece. Thank you for taking that extra trouble as well.