Contest July 2019 CaC: React Energy! (All Results Up!)
- Thread starter Jabberwock
- Start date
This month I experimented a little bit with image faking, but I had a couple of issues. I tried using @aschefield101's blanks, and they were really great, but I didn’t have a lot of the fonts I needed and I didn’t want to spend money on Gill Sans and the other copyrighted fonts – the free “trial” versions I tried were pretty limited. If anyone knows where to get these, or what fonts would be appropriate substitutes, I’d appreciate it if you could let me know!
On top of this, there isn’t actually a lot of Salazzle art out there, and a lot of what I found when I was searching for what I needed… well, that’s something I’d probably best avoid talking about here.
As for software, GIMP wasn’t downloading properly for me and I didn’t want to buy Photoshop, so I used photopea.com for my editing. It seemed fine to me, pretty similar to my past experiences with Adobe Photoshop, but I’m curious as to whether other fakers have used it in the past, and what experiences you’ve had with it.
In the end I put the image faking on hold until I could work around those problems, but here’s the text fake for this month’s competition:
On top of this, there isn’t actually a lot of Salazzle art out there, and a lot of what I found when I was searching for what I needed… well, that’s something I’d probably best avoid talking about here.
As for software, GIMP wasn’t downloading properly for me and I didn’t want to buy Photoshop, so I used photopea.com for my editing. It seemed fine to me, pretty similar to my past experiences with Adobe Photoshop, but I’m curious as to whether other fakers have used it in the past, and what experiences you’ve had with it.
In the end I put the image faking on hold until I could work around those problems, but here’s the text fake for this month’s competition:
Salazzle HP110 [R]
Stage 1 – Evolves from Salandit
NO. 758 Toxic Lizard Pokémon HT: 3’11” WT: 48.9 lbs
Ability: Corrosion
If this Pokémon is your Active Pokémon and has any React Energy attached to it, this Pokémon’s attacks do 20 more damage to your opponent’s Pokémon (before applying Weakness and Resistance), and discard the top card of your opponent’s deck between turns.
[R][R] Melt 20
Discard all cards attached to your opponent’s Active Pokémon. For each card you discarded in this way, discard the top card of your deck.
Weakness: [W] x2
Resistance:
Retreat: [C]
For some reason, only females have been found. It creates a reverse harem of male Salandit that it lives with.
Stage 1 – Evolves from Salandit
NO. 758 Toxic Lizard Pokémon HT: 3’11” WT: 48.9 lbs
Ability: Corrosion
If this Pokémon is your Active Pokémon and has any React Energy attached to it, this Pokémon’s attacks do 20 more damage to your opponent’s Pokémon (before applying Weakness and Resistance), and discard the top card of your opponent’s deck between turns.
[R][R] Melt 20
Discard all cards attached to your opponent’s Active Pokémon. For each card you discarded in this way, discard the top card of your deck.
Weakness: [W] x2
Resistance:
Retreat: [C]
For some reason, only females have been found. It creates a reverse harem of male Salandit that it lives with.
Salazzle (Guardians Rising)
Flygon Lv. X (Rising Rivals)
Shedinja (Lost Thunder)
Garchomp & Giratina-GX (Unified Minds)
Lunala (Celestial Storm)
Altaria (Dragon Majesty)
Unown MISSING (Lost Thunder)
Rhydon (Unbroken Bonds)
Seviper (Burning Shadows)
Avalugg (Steam Siege)
Flygon Lv. X (Rising Rivals)
Shedinja (Lost Thunder)
Garchomp & Giratina-GX (Unified Minds)
Lunala (Celestial Storm)
Altaria (Dragon Majesty)
Unown MISSING (Lost Thunder)
Rhydon (Unbroken Bonds)
Seviper (Burning Shadows)
Avalugg (Steam Siege)
I believe there's a downloadable RAR in the PTCG Faking Community's discord with all the fonts. If those don't do the trick, you can try and scan a section of a card to recognize the font used in https://www.whatfontis.com/
Have you tried downloading on incognito mode?
I can get you any font you need, but chico is right. If you join the Discord, there'll be someone there that can find the resources you're looking for.
That's a wrap on this contest, y'all. Stay tuned for judging at the end of the month! ^.^
Results (and September contest) delayed until September 2.
This is for two reasons: a) @VioletValkyrie needs a couple more days to finish up her results due to IRL reasons, and b) I'm going to be away until then anyway.
Apologies for the inconvenience. See y'all Monday. ^.^
This is for two reasons: a) @VioletValkyrie needs a couple more days to finish up her results due to IRL reasons, and b) I'm going to be away until then anyway.
Apologies for the inconvenience. See y'all Monday. ^.^
Text-Based Results
Judge: @VioletValkyrie
I’d like to start by apologizing for the small delay for this judging. However, this was a fun batch to judge and as always all my thoughts are in the specific entries themselves! I was harsher with penalties for not including the theme as much as some people could have in their entries, as this is more of an interesting and applicable CaC theme than simple Pokémon choice. Get creative with themes like this!
~~VioletValkyrie
3rd Place: FourteenAlmonds's Salazzle, with 41/50 points.
2nd Place: Nyora’s Reuniclus & Duosion-GX, with 42/50 points.
1st Place: Vom’s Escavalier-GX, with 45/50 points.
Judge: @VioletValkyrie
I’d like to start by apologizing for the small delay for this judging. However, this was a fun batch to judge and as always all my thoughts are in the specific entries themselves! I was harsher with penalties for not including the theme as much as some people could have in their entries, as this is more of an interesting and applicable CaC theme than simple Pokémon choice. Get creative with themes like this!
~~VioletValkyrie
Creativity: (16/20)
I love the ability. I think the game doesn’t really play around with Special Energy as much as it could, which is why this theme is really intriguing to me. Being able to load up Special Energy is done in a unique way that isn’t simply allowing you to attach a single extra Energy or however many you want from your hand in your turn. Kinetic Particles is complicated but not in a way that feels ridiculous, and it gives you options as to what you want to do in a single attack allowing for a lot of flexibility while keeping simple synergy with the ability and this month’s theme. Alchemical Reaction feels like an interesting alternative to Kinetic Particles, though you could argue they’re just two attacks based off the same effect of discarding cards, just for different effects, when Kinetic Particles already has that nice idea of flexibility and synergy, making the second attack feel a little awkward.
Wording: (10/15)
“special energy” -> “Special Energy” (“Special Energy” is capitalized, Giratina UNM86) -1pt
“energy” -> “Energy” (Previous reference) -1pt
“This attack 30 more for each” -> ”This attack does 30 more damage for each” (Several references) -2pt
“do 10 damage to each of your Benched Pokémon” -> “This attack does 10 damage to each of your Benched Pokémon” (The attack is what does damage, not the player, Stunfisk UNB56) -1pt
Believability: (8/15)
This seems to be one of those cards that’s balanced well for itself, but reading the ability, it becomes apparent that if any of the energy are moved off this Pokémon, you’ve just loaded your entire board with Special Energy from your deck for zero penalty. Support for Special Energy is given out with a lot of consideration for balancing, since these Energy are a lot more powerful than others with certain effects and need to be properly balanced. When you consider that you can attach several of these stronger Energy per turn without even needing them in your hand on a Stage 1 Pokémon and can just move them off this Pokémon for no penalties, then balancing issues begin to shine very brightly. Thankfully support for moving Special Energy isn’t as large as you would think it would be, but immediate cards that could break this ability are Multi Switch BUS and Deoxys PRSM164, the former being a card that saw quite a bit of play in its high point.
Energy costs seem to be somewhat high for this Pokémon but seeing as it’s balanced for itself with its ability and its damage scales with discarding Energy, it isn’t unbelievable, in fact just making the card more interesting.
Final Thoughts:
Pokémon Stage not listed, -2 pts
Unfortunately, the card wasn’t listed as a Stage 1 which deducts point, but thankfully this was on a card made easy to tell for judging, so I took all my judging into account assuming I’m judging a normal Stage 1 Pokémon.
There weren’t many issues here and you made something very promising and unique! I love how you made the theme interesting! The card seems to be balanced just for itself without considering other cards that could have synergy with it, which is why unfortunately the ability is hit so hard for believability. Besides taking that into consideration, and double checking your entry over for common wording errors, you’ve got something really nice here! I didn’t expect to see an Alolan Muk this month, but you really made it work.
Final Score: 32/50
I love the ability. I think the game doesn’t really play around with Special Energy as much as it could, which is why this theme is really intriguing to me. Being able to load up Special Energy is done in a unique way that isn’t simply allowing you to attach a single extra Energy or however many you want from your hand in your turn. Kinetic Particles is complicated but not in a way that feels ridiculous, and it gives you options as to what you want to do in a single attack allowing for a lot of flexibility while keeping simple synergy with the ability and this month’s theme. Alchemical Reaction feels like an interesting alternative to Kinetic Particles, though you could argue they’re just two attacks based off the same effect of discarding cards, just for different effects, when Kinetic Particles already has that nice idea of flexibility and synergy, making the second attack feel a little awkward.
Wording: (10/15)
“special energy” -> “Special Energy” (“Special Energy” is capitalized, Giratina UNM86) -1pt
“energy” -> “Energy” (Previous reference) -1pt
“This attack 30 more for each” -> ”This attack does 30 more damage for each” (Several references) -2pt
“do 10 damage to each of your Benched Pokémon” -> “This attack does 10 damage to each of your Benched Pokémon” (The attack is what does damage, not the player, Stunfisk UNB56) -1pt
Believability: (8/15)
This seems to be one of those cards that’s balanced well for itself, but reading the ability, it becomes apparent that if any of the energy are moved off this Pokémon, you’ve just loaded your entire board with Special Energy from your deck for zero penalty. Support for Special Energy is given out with a lot of consideration for balancing, since these Energy are a lot more powerful than others with certain effects and need to be properly balanced. When you consider that you can attach several of these stronger Energy per turn without even needing them in your hand on a Stage 1 Pokémon and can just move them off this Pokémon for no penalties, then balancing issues begin to shine very brightly. Thankfully support for moving Special Energy isn’t as large as you would think it would be, but immediate cards that could break this ability are Multi Switch BUS and Deoxys PRSM164, the former being a card that saw quite a bit of play in its high point.
Energy costs seem to be somewhat high for this Pokémon but seeing as it’s balanced for itself with its ability and its damage scales with discarding Energy, it isn’t unbelievable, in fact just making the card more interesting.
Final Thoughts:
Pokémon Stage not listed, -2 pts
Unfortunately, the card wasn’t listed as a Stage 1 which deducts point, but thankfully this was on a card made easy to tell for judging, so I took all my judging into account assuming I’m judging a normal Stage 1 Pokémon.
There weren’t many issues here and you made something very promising and unique! I love how you made the theme interesting! The card seems to be balanced just for itself without considering other cards that could have synergy with it, which is why unfortunately the ability is hit so hard for believability. Besides taking that into consideration, and double checking your entry over for common wording errors, you’ve got something really nice here! I didn’t expect to see an Alolan Muk this month, but you really made it work.
Final Score: 32/50
Creativity: (10/20)
The idea of this card gives me interesting flashbacks to something like Frogadier BKP39 with Water Duplicates, allowing you to set up Stage 2 Pokémon on your board in a more interesting method than the usual simple methods, while not just taking the same method of Frogadier. I like the idea of setting that up with the use of React Energy instead of just making it an attack for a single grass or something. However, besides this ability, any synergy with React Energy is completely nonexistent, which gives the card a feeling of being finished, but needing to incorporate the theme at the last minute in order to avoid a penalty in judging. While I love the idea of the card, it seems like the theme wasn’t considered.
Wording: (15/15)
Everything seems right! Congrats!
Believability: (13/15)
There really doesn’t seem to be much going on here, and what is going on seems to be balanced and could absolutely be a legitimate card. Your ideas do seem well balanced and believable!
-2 pts for no ‘Dex entry, or stats.
Final Thoughts: The quality of things like Wording and Believability for this card were excellent. I’m not sure if I’ve given a 15/15 for both categories (of course, excluding the ‘Dex stats penalty) on a single card before. However, your Creativity is where this card really lacked, as it felt like it barely incorporated the theme, and it’s the shortest card I’ve judged at this point. The ideas behind this card felt incredibly simple, almost making it feel rushed, which I don’t believe to be the case as this was the second text entry we received. I’m not sure what the reason for that is, but it leaves the card, while well-made from a text standpoint, very boring from a creative standpoint.
Final Score: 38/50
The idea of this card gives me interesting flashbacks to something like Frogadier BKP39 with Water Duplicates, allowing you to set up Stage 2 Pokémon on your board in a more interesting method than the usual simple methods, while not just taking the same method of Frogadier. I like the idea of setting that up with the use of React Energy instead of just making it an attack for a single grass or something. However, besides this ability, any synergy with React Energy is completely nonexistent, which gives the card a feeling of being finished, but needing to incorporate the theme at the last minute in order to avoid a penalty in judging. While I love the idea of the card, it seems like the theme wasn’t considered.
Wording: (15/15)
Everything seems right! Congrats!
Believability: (13/15)
There really doesn’t seem to be much going on here, and what is going on seems to be balanced and could absolutely be a legitimate card. Your ideas do seem well balanced and believable!
-2 pts for no ‘Dex entry, or stats.
Final Thoughts: The quality of things like Wording and Believability for this card were excellent. I’m not sure if I’ve given a 15/15 for both categories (of course, excluding the ‘Dex stats penalty) on a single card before. However, your Creativity is where this card really lacked, as it felt like it barely incorporated the theme, and it’s the shortest card I’ve judged at this point. The ideas behind this card felt incredibly simple, almost making it feel rushed, which I don’t believe to be the case as this was the second text entry we received. I’m not sure what the reason for that is, but it leaves the card, while well-made from a text standpoint, very boring from a creative standpoint.
Final Score: 38/50
Creativity: (12/20)
This card’s creativity seems to come from ideas that are just simple things that have never been printed on a card before. The ability is an interesting idea that gives more to the idea of Special Energy as a whole and allows for an interesting way to search for specific Special Energy in a way that seems balanced. However, the card really seems to do nothing with the theme besides a simple tie-in to the attack, and its GX attack only seems to offer a simple twist to something similar to what already exists (Alolan Raticate GX CES) without a lot more.
Wording: (9/15)
“You may play as many Item cards as you want” -> “You may play as many Item cards as you like” (Any SUM-era item card) -1 pt
The GX attack requires a clarifying clause of allowing an opportunity to play those Item cards, as the attack only declares you can play those cards, without preventing the turn from ending immediately after the effects of the attack. -3 pts
“(You can't use more than 1 GX attack in a game)” should be italicized, -1 pt
“(You can't use more than 1 GX attack in a game)” needs a period at the end, -1 pt
Believability: (13/15)
The only issues I see with believability are the previously stated issue of the lack of a clarifying clause in the GX attack, and the following:
-2 pts for no GX Rule
Final Thoughts: It’s always interesting to see (what I’d still interpret as) a fakemon in CaC. However, besides the base concept, it doesn’t really seem like you’ve done much with that idea, which unfortunately is one of the most appealing things of using a fakemon in a setting like this. Unfortunately, while the lack of a clause on the GX attack was a big pitfall, the lack of creativity from a fakemon and underutilization of the theme were the biggest things to me when judging this entry.
Final Score: 34/50
This card’s creativity seems to come from ideas that are just simple things that have never been printed on a card before. The ability is an interesting idea that gives more to the idea of Special Energy as a whole and allows for an interesting way to search for specific Special Energy in a way that seems balanced. However, the card really seems to do nothing with the theme besides a simple tie-in to the attack, and its GX attack only seems to offer a simple twist to something similar to what already exists (Alolan Raticate GX CES) without a lot more.
Wording: (9/15)
“You may play as many Item cards as you want” -> “You may play as many Item cards as you like” (Any SUM-era item card) -1 pt
The GX attack requires a clarifying clause of allowing an opportunity to play those Item cards, as the attack only declares you can play those cards, without preventing the turn from ending immediately after the effects of the attack. -3 pts
“(You can't use more than 1 GX attack in a game)” should be italicized, -1 pt
“(You can't use more than 1 GX attack in a game)” needs a period at the end, -1 pt
Believability: (13/15)
The only issues I see with believability are the previously stated issue of the lack of a clarifying clause in the GX attack, and the following:
-2 pts for no GX Rule
Final Thoughts: It’s always interesting to see (what I’d still interpret as) a fakemon in CaC. However, besides the base concept, it doesn’t really seem like you’ve done much with that idea, which unfortunately is one of the most appealing things of using a fakemon in a setting like this. Unfortunately, while the lack of a clause on the GX attack was a big pitfall, the lack of creativity from a fakemon and underutilization of the theme were the biggest things to me when judging this entry.
Final Score: 34/50
Creativity: (16/20)
I’m loving the idea for the ability; it even reminds me of a past submission I wrote for CaC one month! I really like the idea that React Energy not only changes a single attack, but the card itself as a whole. The idea of the Pokémon being knocked out at the end of the turn makes for a fun way to balance out a boost in damage, offering an “eye for an eye” kind of risk. However, with only one attack it feels like the creative possibility of the ability isn’t fully realized, leaving the card feeling like while it has a great concept, the use of that concept ends up feeling a little underutilized.
Wording: (6/15)
“Evolves from Pokémon” -> “Evolves from Voltorb” as the previous Pokémon’s name should be listed, -2 pts
“Once during your turn,” -> “Once during your turn (before your attack),” as the ability is an action you choose to trigger with the Pokémon in play, therefore this added bit is necessary. -1 pt
“this pokemon’s Attacks” -> “this Pokémon’s attacks” (Garchomp UNM114, along with several other references) -2 pts
“do 100 more damage.” -> “do 100 more damage to your opponent’s Active Pokémon.” (Garchomp UNM114 and the previously listed references, as extra damage has been changed to only apply to an opponent’s Active Pokémon.) -2 pts
“benched” -> “Benched” x2, -2 pts
“energy” -> “Energy” -1 pt
Believability: (13.5/15)
As stated in creativity earlier, I love the idea for the ability and the way it’s balanced. It reminds me of my own Electrode of June 2018 which I felt proud of for both creativity and believability, and I think this card is honestly balanced beautifully, and wouldn’t take any points off for your ideas or what’s written here. The only errors with believability are listed below and have to do with card formatting. I considered putting them in wording, however they can really be either.
-1 pt for no ‘Dex stats.
“Ground” -> “Fighting”, or “[F]” -0.5 pts, it’s technically not incorrect, however the TCG formats Ground Pokémon along with Fighting Pokémon, so the card must reflect this change to be consistent.
Final Thoughts:
It’s really nice to see more first entries from people I recognize! Is this your first CaC entry? I love the creativity in this card, especially the use of the ability. It’s better to read the thoughts I’ve written on each of the sections specifically, however one thing I noticed that seemed very big for this card was the wording errors. Your references list seemed very low, and some of these things seemed general, such as not capitalizing “energy” and the “Evolves from Pokémon”, so remember to always doublecheck your entry before submitting, and checking existing cards for how to word certain effects and clauses can help your entry from lots of wording errors. Overall, I love this card, creativity is always the most enjoyable section of CaC, and I’m eager to see more entries from you in the future! Keep it up!
While this is not something to deduct points for, I don’t understand what the usage of Electrode ROS was as a reference, as the only things that seem to be consistent between the two are the WRR (which seem to be consistent with most Electric Pokémon) and the concept of moving Energy from an attack, which simply comes from a creative standpoint, and not a wording check, like most references are used.
Final Score: 35.5/50
I’m loving the idea for the ability; it even reminds me of a past submission I wrote for CaC one month! I really like the idea that React Energy not only changes a single attack, but the card itself as a whole. The idea of the Pokémon being knocked out at the end of the turn makes for a fun way to balance out a boost in damage, offering an “eye for an eye” kind of risk. However, with only one attack it feels like the creative possibility of the ability isn’t fully realized, leaving the card feeling like while it has a great concept, the use of that concept ends up feeling a little underutilized.
Wording: (6/15)
“Evolves from Pokémon” -> “Evolves from Voltorb” as the previous Pokémon’s name should be listed, -2 pts
“Once during your turn,” -> “Once during your turn (before your attack),” as the ability is an action you choose to trigger with the Pokémon in play, therefore this added bit is necessary. -1 pt
“this pokemon’s Attacks” -> “this Pokémon’s attacks” (Garchomp UNM114, along with several other references) -2 pts
“do 100 more damage.” -> “do 100 more damage to your opponent’s Active Pokémon.” (Garchomp UNM114 and the previously listed references, as extra damage has been changed to only apply to an opponent’s Active Pokémon.) -2 pts
“benched” -> “Benched” x2, -2 pts
“energy” -> “Energy” -1 pt
Believability: (13.5/15)
As stated in creativity earlier, I love the idea for the ability and the way it’s balanced. It reminds me of my own Electrode of June 2018 which I felt proud of for both creativity and believability, and I think this card is honestly balanced beautifully, and wouldn’t take any points off for your ideas or what’s written here. The only errors with believability are listed below and have to do with card formatting. I considered putting them in wording, however they can really be either.
-1 pt for no ‘Dex stats.
“Ground” -> “Fighting”, or “[F]” -0.5 pts, it’s technically not incorrect, however the TCG formats Ground Pokémon along with Fighting Pokémon, so the card must reflect this change to be consistent.
Final Thoughts:
It’s really nice to see more first entries from people I recognize! Is this your first CaC entry? I love the creativity in this card, especially the use of the ability. It’s better to read the thoughts I’ve written on each of the sections specifically, however one thing I noticed that seemed very big for this card was the wording errors. Your references list seemed very low, and some of these things seemed general, such as not capitalizing “energy” and the “Evolves from Pokémon”, so remember to always doublecheck your entry before submitting, and checking existing cards for how to word certain effects and clauses can help your entry from lots of wording errors. Overall, I love this card, creativity is always the most enjoyable section of CaC, and I’m eager to see more entries from you in the future! Keep it up!
While this is not something to deduct points for, I don’t understand what the usage of Electrode ROS was as a reference, as the only things that seem to be consistent between the two are the WRR (which seem to be consistent with most Electric Pokémon) and the concept of moving Energy from an attack, which simply comes from a creative standpoint, and not a wording check, like most references are used.
Final Score: 35.5/50
Creativity: (19/20)
Now that’s a cool GX attack. I love the idea and synergy with using this Pokémon’s ability in tandem with its attacks, showing you have this big synergy across the Escavalier and Accelgor lines, Pokémon who I wish always got something like this. This is a wonderful card that not only leaves plenty of wonderful ideas and possibilities for itself, but for all of the Pokémon it involves, and it leaves me very excited to see what a potential Accelgor-GX would be like when this card exists! Perhaps the next time I judge, hey Vom? I’m leaving this one at 19 just due to not knowing what the cards that could partner with the Pokémon would be like, however you’ve left me truly impressed. Amazing job.
Wording: (11/15)
The added step of revealing the Pokémon from your hand with Bound Hearts isn’t necessary, as you’re directly playing the Pokémon anyways. Cards such as Dusk Stone (UNB167) don’t declare any kind of reveal after searching the deck for the Pokémon in question, for example. -1 pt
“If you don't have Shelmet and Karrablast in play, you can't use this Ability.” at the end of Bound Hearts is unnecessary. The ability requires an energy attaching to one of those Pokémon, so it goes without saying that the ability can’t be used without setting off its trigger. -2 pts
“are any combination of Shelmet and Karrablast” -> “are in any combination of Shelmet and Karrablast”, as the “in” is proper wording, see Cascoon LOT27. -1 pt
Believability: (15/15)
I’m unsure of a part of the ability which states “If you do, put this Pokémon from your hand onto that Pokémon to evolve it” after either Karrablast or Shelmet can act as the trigger for the ability, as it doesn’t seem possible to evolve a Shelmet into an Escavalier-GX, however with the existence of cards such as Ditto Prism Star (LOT154) I’ll allow it and give the benefit of the doubt for this ability. Reading your notes for this, this seems intentional, so I opted to go for a zero point penalty. However if that’s any kind of wording error, just be aware of it for next time. -0 pts
Final Thoughts: Let’s be real. This card is nearly perfect to me. It was a joy to read through and you took the idea of the theme and used a creative Pokémon to run far with it. I’d change barely anything about this card, the only thing being the stated wording errors, as you seemed to include a few things that just weren’t necessary. The second error kind of tripped me up reading it. However, this is just… so good. Well played, Vom, it’s always great seeing entries from you.
Final Score: 45/50
Now that’s a cool GX attack. I love the idea and synergy with using this Pokémon’s ability in tandem with its attacks, showing you have this big synergy across the Escavalier and Accelgor lines, Pokémon who I wish always got something like this. This is a wonderful card that not only leaves plenty of wonderful ideas and possibilities for itself, but for all of the Pokémon it involves, and it leaves me very excited to see what a potential Accelgor-GX would be like when this card exists! Perhaps the next time I judge, hey Vom? I’m leaving this one at 19 just due to not knowing what the cards that could partner with the Pokémon would be like, however you’ve left me truly impressed. Amazing job.
Wording: (11/15)
The added step of revealing the Pokémon from your hand with Bound Hearts isn’t necessary, as you’re directly playing the Pokémon anyways. Cards such as Dusk Stone (UNB167) don’t declare any kind of reveal after searching the deck for the Pokémon in question, for example. -1 pt
“If you don't have Shelmet and Karrablast in play, you can't use this Ability.” at the end of Bound Hearts is unnecessary. The ability requires an energy attaching to one of those Pokémon, so it goes without saying that the ability can’t be used without setting off its trigger. -2 pts
“are any combination of Shelmet and Karrablast” -> “are in any combination of Shelmet and Karrablast”, as the “in” is proper wording, see Cascoon LOT27. -1 pt
Believability: (15/15)
I’m unsure of a part of the ability which states “If you do, put this Pokémon from your hand onto that Pokémon to evolve it” after either Karrablast or Shelmet can act as the trigger for the ability, as it doesn’t seem possible to evolve a Shelmet into an Escavalier-GX, however with the existence of cards such as Ditto Prism Star (LOT154) I’ll allow it and give the benefit of the doubt for this ability. Reading your notes for this, this seems intentional, so I opted to go for a zero point penalty. However if that’s any kind of wording error, just be aware of it for next time. -0 pts
Final Thoughts: Let’s be real. This card is nearly perfect to me. It was a joy to read through and you took the idea of the theme and used a creative Pokémon to run far with it. I’d change barely anything about this card, the only thing being the stated wording errors, as you seemed to include a few things that just weren’t necessary. The second error kind of tripped me up reading it. However, this is just… so good. Well played, Vom, it’s always great seeing entries from you.
Final Score: 45/50
Creativity: (16/20)
This is another example of great creativity in a GX attack. Cards that allow the use of attacks from other Pokémon always make for way more possibilities than you could ever fit on a single card, and making use of both the theme of this month’s CaC as well as different effects on the card (Why attach 2 special Energy when you can just make your basic Energy count?) is a really neat idea, and I wish we could see more effects like this in official cards. Compared to the rest of the card, Atomic Explosion seems rather simple. It’s not a bad attack, but I feel like you could remove the attack completely from the card, and it wouldn’t change the possibilities for creativity in this entry, leading it to potentially feel unnecessary, or padding in space where you could have another, more interesting attack.
I don’t usually knock points for Pokémon choice, because I usually feel it doesn’t matter what Pokémon our cards are of, however in a Tag Team card, the choice of Pokémon seems to be more creative (Giratina/Garchomp, Pikachu/Zekrom, Raichu/Alolan Raichu) and it seems like Reuinclus and its pre-evolution was just a simple choice.
Wording: (14/15)
“the number of Energy cards attached to this Pokémon for each React Energy attached to this Pokémon.” -> “the number of Energy cards attached to this Pokémon for each React Energy attached to it.” any Tag Team Pokémon can act as a reference, as consistent proper wording for these cards state “this Pokémon has … attached to it” and not “this Pokémon has … attached to this Pokémon”. -1 pt
Believability: (12/15)
I think the only way I can see this card getting out of hand is the obvious energy acceleration from Malamar FLI51 with Psychic Recharge. Even its previous partners such as Ultra Necrozma-GX FLI aren’t able to hit for such potentially high numbers. Using Reactive Cells to turn all basic Energy attached to the Pokémon and attaching 4 Energy to the Pokémon, that’s 80 damage, multiplied by 4 for each “React” Energy attached to the Pokémon, resulting in 320 damage for simply 4 energy, which is a number that nothing in the current game is able to match. While it seems well balanced by the idea of needing to use a turn to use Reactive Cells, your opponent can only have 1 turn in the game when you go second, use Reactive Cells on your first turn, and then use the still somewhat prevalent psychic support in the game (Mysterious Treasure especially) to set up Malamar, and just start wiping your opponent’s field. I wouldn’t consider it broken; however, it can get out of hand with the proper set up, which doesn’t seem very hard to do, and win a game. Unfortunately, this would take away any use of the GX attack, which from a creative standpoint, is the most beautiful thing about this card.
Final Thoughts: I’ll admit, the name “Big Brain GX” did make me chuckle.
Final Score: 42/50
This is another example of great creativity in a GX attack. Cards that allow the use of attacks from other Pokémon always make for way more possibilities than you could ever fit on a single card, and making use of both the theme of this month’s CaC as well as different effects on the card (Why attach 2 special Energy when you can just make your basic Energy count?) is a really neat idea, and I wish we could see more effects like this in official cards. Compared to the rest of the card, Atomic Explosion seems rather simple. It’s not a bad attack, but I feel like you could remove the attack completely from the card, and it wouldn’t change the possibilities for creativity in this entry, leading it to potentially feel unnecessary, or padding in space where you could have another, more interesting attack.
I don’t usually knock points for Pokémon choice, because I usually feel it doesn’t matter what Pokémon our cards are of, however in a Tag Team card, the choice of Pokémon seems to be more creative (Giratina/Garchomp, Pikachu/Zekrom, Raichu/Alolan Raichu) and it seems like Reuinclus and its pre-evolution was just a simple choice.
Wording: (14/15)
“the number of Energy cards attached to this Pokémon for each React Energy attached to this Pokémon.” -> “the number of Energy cards attached to this Pokémon for each React Energy attached to it.” any Tag Team Pokémon can act as a reference, as consistent proper wording for these cards state “this Pokémon has … attached to it” and not “this Pokémon has … attached to this Pokémon”. -1 pt
Believability: (12/15)
I think the only way I can see this card getting out of hand is the obvious energy acceleration from Malamar FLI51 with Psychic Recharge. Even its previous partners such as Ultra Necrozma-GX FLI aren’t able to hit for such potentially high numbers. Using Reactive Cells to turn all basic Energy attached to the Pokémon and attaching 4 Energy to the Pokémon, that’s 80 damage, multiplied by 4 for each “React” Energy attached to the Pokémon, resulting in 320 damage for simply 4 energy, which is a number that nothing in the current game is able to match. While it seems well balanced by the idea of needing to use a turn to use Reactive Cells, your opponent can only have 1 turn in the game when you go second, use Reactive Cells on your first turn, and then use the still somewhat prevalent psychic support in the game (Mysterious Treasure especially) to set up Malamar, and just start wiping your opponent’s field. I wouldn’t consider it broken; however, it can get out of hand with the proper set up, which doesn’t seem very hard to do, and win a game. Unfortunately, this would take away any use of the GX attack, which from a creative standpoint, is the most beautiful thing about this card.
Final Thoughts: I’ll admit, the name “Big Brain GX” did make me chuckle.
Final Score: 42/50
Creativity: (15/20)
There’s not really anything wrong with going simple, and it’s nice to close judging by judging a non-GX Pokémon. However, the card seems simple, just with some interesting couple effects here and there.
Melt really stands out as the most interesting thing on this card. It seems like such a high-power disruption effect on a single prize Pokémon that can be potentially devastating (drawing a comparison to Garchomp & Giratina GX’s GG End GX, just for a different drawback) and makes the card stand out, with a fun idea for balancing and mixes well with the idea of being able to discard the top card of your opponent’s deck. It’s simple but has some nice synergy and leaves me pretty impressed. However, the card barely includes this month’s theme at all, and could easily be used for a different CaC without changing almost any aspect of it, which is the biggest drawback the card has.
Wording: (13/15)
“do 20 more damage.” -> “do 20 more damage to your opponent’s Active Pokémon.” (Garchomp UNM114 as well as several other references, as extra damage has been changed to only apply to an opponent’s Active Pokémon.) -2 pts
Believability: (13/15)
Discarding the top card of your opponent’s deck is a fun idea. I’m sure support exists for this card for it to be able to get that effect off several times in a game, however with the way the meta is I can’t see this Pokémon doing more than sitting in the Active position and only getting the chance to mill once before your opponent’s giant Tag Team GX knocks it out and you promote another Salazzle, just repeating the process.
As I said in Creativity, I love the idea of discarding the top card of your deck for each card you discard from your opponent’s Pokémon. While the effect is still in your favour, the new Standard format has less support for getting cards out of your discard pile or spending a turn to shuffle them back in (Oranguru UPR114) helps balance the card in an interesting and meaningful way. However, it may get out of hand in the Expanded format, which gives the effect a lot more support, possibly removing the drawback of the attack entirely, though I think the format gives a lot more support to your opponent, allowing for the effect to remain balanced.
Final Thoughts: Oh wow, is that a Flygon Lv. X reference? That got me interested immediately. I really did want to give the card a higher score in creativity, because at first glance it’s such a basic card but it really gets interesting the more you think about it. However, the neglect for the theme ends up being the biggest thing that brings the card down.
Final Score: 41/50
There’s not really anything wrong with going simple, and it’s nice to close judging by judging a non-GX Pokémon. However, the card seems simple, just with some interesting couple effects here and there.
Melt really stands out as the most interesting thing on this card. It seems like such a high-power disruption effect on a single prize Pokémon that can be potentially devastating (drawing a comparison to Garchomp & Giratina GX’s GG End GX, just for a different drawback) and makes the card stand out, with a fun idea for balancing and mixes well with the idea of being able to discard the top card of your opponent’s deck. It’s simple but has some nice synergy and leaves me pretty impressed. However, the card barely includes this month’s theme at all, and could easily be used for a different CaC without changing almost any aspect of it, which is the biggest drawback the card has.
Wording: (13/15)
“do 20 more damage.” -> “do 20 more damage to your opponent’s Active Pokémon.” (Garchomp UNM114 as well as several other references, as extra damage has been changed to only apply to an opponent’s Active Pokémon.) -2 pts
Believability: (13/15)
Discarding the top card of your opponent’s deck is a fun idea. I’m sure support exists for this card for it to be able to get that effect off several times in a game, however with the way the meta is I can’t see this Pokémon doing more than sitting in the Active position and only getting the chance to mill once before your opponent’s giant Tag Team GX knocks it out and you promote another Salazzle, just repeating the process.
As I said in Creativity, I love the idea of discarding the top card of your deck for each card you discard from your opponent’s Pokémon. While the effect is still in your favour, the new Standard format has less support for getting cards out of your discard pile or spending a turn to shuffle them back in (Oranguru UPR114) helps balance the card in an interesting and meaningful way. However, it may get out of hand in the Expanded format, which gives the effect a lot more support, possibly removing the drawback of the attack entirely, though I think the format gives a lot more support to your opponent, allowing for the effect to remain balanced.
Final Thoughts: Oh wow, is that a Flygon Lv. X reference? That got me interested immediately. I really did want to give the card a higher score in creativity, because at first glance it’s such a basic card but it really gets interesting the more you think about it. However, the neglect for the theme ends up being the biggest thing that brings the card down.
Final Score: 41/50
3rd Place: FourteenAlmonds's Salazzle, with 41/50 points.
2nd Place: Nyora’s Reuniclus & Duosion-GX, with 42/50 points.
1st Place: Vom’s Escavalier-GX, with 45/50 points.
Image-Based Results
Judge: @Jabberwock
A good round of entries this was. A few old faces joined in the fun with our newer base, and you all turned out cards in a spectacular way. I was surprised to see two LEGENDs make an appearance, for one thing! It’s good to see y’all stepping into new realms of faking, and I look forward to seeing ever more creativity from you in the future.
~~Jabberwock
Howdy, Pone; glad to see you’ve made your way over from asche’s Discord server to join us for this round. This is quite the test run for Omnium, too –– stepping out of the gates with a LEGEND to hand is … bold, haha.
The aesthetics are executed virtually flawlessly, too. kawayoo’s traditional art style (at least, I assume it’s theirs) works exceptionally well on a LEGEND, where flashy 3D graphics actually aren’t what you’re going for. The space background and whoosh-y effects have all been incorporated seamlessly as well. My one concern might be the fact that the entire top card appears to lack any form of holosheet save the name — it seems you may have overlaid it on the bar to the far left between the border and the illustration box, but it’s not much. That being said, the visuals are stunning enough that the holosheet issue is minor at best.
My impression of Omnium so far has been that it takes the octagonal motifs present in some parts of SUM-era cards (the stage bar, for example) and runs absolutely wild with them, to great effect. The blanks in general are more cohesive and visually exciting than even the official SUM-era blanks, which tend toward plainness. Though, I’ll admit that here the recycled octagonal stage bar in the upper-left detracts somewhat from the feeling of newness, since it’s one of the only blank elements we see on the top card and it’s just an SUM-era feature. The bottom card is much more exciting in this regard.
Reactive Adaptation is powerful for sure, as it plausibly lets you score an OHKO with the attack in addition to powering up something on the Bench. It’s balanced, though, by the fact that LEGENDs are just so difficult to get out. It’s a nice touch, too, whether intentional or not, that attaching a React Energy and self-targeting with the Ability actually isn’t enough to power up Prismatic Surge –– it requires more forethought than that.
It does feel a bit weird that Reactive Adaptation can self-target, but Prismatic Surge doesn’t count Energy on Silvally. I know you said it was a conscious choice, but it’s weird thematically. I don’t think it would mess up power balancing to change Prismatic Burst so that it does count its own Energy, and with so much of your deck needing to be devoted to Silvally in the first place it seems reasonable to make it a more powerful attacker.
The theme usage is good. Not much to say here; it’s a very good “reaction” effect that uses flavor from the games and lore and twists it in a fun way.
Wording errors:
- While attached to a Pokémon, “basic Energy card” is just “basic Energy”. Ref: Haxorus UNM, Arceus PR-XY83. [-1 point]
Fonts and Placement errors:
- Your blank, your rules, and everything looks fine to me.
Creativity/Originality: 13/15
(Nice use of the theme.)
Wording: 14/15
(One minor error.)
Fonts and Placement: 10/10
(Custom blank.)
Believability/Playability: 5/5
(Seems balanced.)
Aesthetics: 4.5/5
(A couple nitpicks, but overall stunning.)
Total: 46.5/50
Alright, I’ll start this off on a note about the placements, since you mentioned that that was your goal for this month. They’re vastly improved. There’s no more random excess space between and around the attack text, and you’ve even got it all Justified now, which makes quite the difference on the layout. Full marks for fonts this month, steff.
The card’s aesthetics aren’t bad either, even though you said it wasn’t your focus — there’s still something to be said for a good old-fashioned holo rare if it’s executed right. There’s nothing in particular to write home about, but it’s also not bad.
In terms of the effects, though, everything goes a bit out the window. I have no idea what that Ability is trying to accomplish. I guess it’s sort of a bomb, where if your opponent is playing a React Energy-heavy deck you’ve got a counter ready to hand — but that means you’re playing a Stage 2 (plus React Energy in your own deck!) that serves exactly one purpose against a specific other deck. It’s even a bit contrary to the theme, being that your React Energy “reaction” only serves to shut down other reactions. I guess, in summary, it’s a silver bullet style tech, but as a Stage 2 in an era where playing tech Stage 2s is really hard to get away with. I’m just not convinced by the balancing.
The attack is … fine. Underwhelming. Even though you’d be using this for the Ability, it’d be cool to see it have a more viable attack.
Wording errors:
- Things are put “in” the Lost Zone, not “into” it. [-1 point]
- The only card in Standard to go to the Lost Zone without the cards attached to it is Tapu Koko ◊, which doesn’t use italicized reminder text for that clause. The “Discard all other cards” bit shouldn’t be italicized here either. [-1 point]
- You never search your discard pile in the SUM era, because it’s a public zone (both players theoretically know the contents of it) and as such there’s no need to “search” it. You just “attach a Special Energy card from your discard pile to this Pokémon”. [-2 points]
Fonts and Placement errors:
- On point.
Creativity/Originality: 9/15
(Kinda an anti-reaction for the theme, but overall nothing particularly special.)
Wording: 11/15
(A few errors.)
Fonts and Placement: 10/10
(Looks good.)
Believability/Playability: 2/5
(Balancing is weird.)
Aesthetics: 4/5
(Looks fine.)
Total: 36/50
It’s a beautiful card, no doubt about it. This particular wallpaper is one of the ones you see over and over in the faking community, largely because it’s such a stunning work and of such a community-loved Pokémon, and yet you’ve still managed to put your own spin on it, such that this card feels fresh despite the origin of its art.
The dual-type integration works well. The difficulty with GX blanks is that there’s really not very much type texture on the card itself, but the blending works here. I think a major point working in your favor is the fact that Ninetales itself is illuminated with pink-purple light from the lower right, meaning that the art itself actually reflects the dual-type colors quite well.
(I do have to point out here, though I’m not going to dock you for it, that those sparkly star effects should all be orientated in the same four-point direction for physics reasons.
)
As for the effects — it seems that the angle you’re going for on React Energy is fairly basic; defense, attack, and healing, in that order on the card. I do wish there was a bit more going on there; as it is, it’s nothing we haven’t seen with React Energy before. Powerful enough to be competitively viable now, but not overly original.
I think my favorite part of the card is the acceleration of React Energy in the first attack, cos it can lend itself to some cool combos with other React Energy cards. It’s just a shame that those combos rely on … well, those other cards.
Wording errors:
- “take” in the Ability should be “takes”, because the subject is “each Pokémon” (i.e. singular). [-1 point]
- There’s some ambiguity in Echo Chill because of the lack of sequencing words like “then”. I assume you meant attach the Energy after doing the damage, but it would lend itself to a bunch of wording disputes. I think the neatest way to resolve it is just to have the attack do 40+30 instead of 70+30 and attach the Energy first, using a wording analogous to Blissey MT. [-2 points]
Fonts and Placement errors:
- Looks good.
Creativity/Originality: 11/15
(Fairly basic theme usage.)
Wording: 12/15
(A couple things.)
Fonts and Placement: 10/10
(Looks good.)
Believability/Playability: 5/5
(Seems good, but not too good.)
Aesthetics: 5/5
(Full marks here.)
Total: 43/50
Welcome back, PMJ! Haven’t seen you around CaC in a while, and it’s good to see you make a return.
You’ve always been known for not letting your cards’ effects take a backseat to anything, and this one’s no exception. Contaminate is probably my favorite part of the card, because it’s a twist on two different effects that are each interesting in their own right — screwing with Special Condition damage, and variable power over the course of a game. Putting them together is a nice touch.
I do question the anti-synergy with the Ability, though. I guess you can make the case that you have to play carefully to get the extra Prize, but Poison isn’t really something you can play carefully around; whether or not the Poison racks up is more or less up to your opponent. The Ability is really more of an occasional gimmicky extra Prize, if you’re lucky and your opponent doesn’t just play around it. (It also assumes that your opponent is playing React Energy and attaching it to something you can Knock Out, which is a hasty assumption in and of itself.)
Overall, if I’m honest, the React Energy incorporation feels like an afterthought. It’s not remotely a central part of the card, and even the one thing it does isn’t a reaction with your own cards but rather an anti-reaction with your opponent’s. It does fit the theme, I reckon, but only just.
Madness Descent is a good tie-in with the Ability, if your opponent thinks they can get away with hiding a React Energy on the Bench.
The aesthetics are okay, nothing special. The art is basically a render slapped onto a background with a faint holosheet over it. Galaxy foil is an odd choice for that, but mainly it’s just strange to see it so faintly. There’s a weird sharp divide between the texture at the top and the art below it, too; the gradient should be more feathered than that — and then there’s an uncut corner at the bottom-left.
Wording errors:
- Seems fine.
Fonts and Placement errors:
- “Nihilego” should have a white stroke, same as the HP numerals and all the attack text. [-1 point]
- The “1” in “150” should be closer to the “50”. Futura just has weird kerning around that. [-1 point]
- The Weakness and Retreat Cost icons should be centered on those bars. [-1 point]
Creativity/Originality: 12/15
(Nice effects overall, but theme usage feels like an afterthought.)
Wording: 15/15
(On point.)
Fonts and Placement: 7/10
(A few minor errors.)
Believability/Playability: 4/5
(Cautious point for the gimmickiness of the Ability.)
Aesthetics: 3/5
(Holosheet, gradient, uncut corner. Points for a GX, but lackluster aesthetics overall.)
Total: 41/50
Two LEGENDs in one contest? Y’all are ambitious. In this case, one of the virtues of being able to make your own art is being able to pull stuff like this, eh?
It’s an interesting choice to render art for a LEGEND in the first place, because as hallmarks of HGSS, they’re known for showcasing that era’s tendency toward traditional (i.e. non-3D) art. If this were done in a BWXY style — or really any other era — it would make more sense, but as it is it just kinda strikes me as a weird clash between media. I’m also not sure how much I agree with the texturing choice for Arceus; while I do like the more realistic style you’ve adopted for rendering in general, I’ve never seen anything to suggest that Arceus has that much fur.
I do think it was an inspired choice to include the Plate in the artwork for this card, though. Props for that.
In terms of what the card does, there’s a very clear synergistic path to follow; over the course of two turns, you’ll get to snipe for 150 damage and (presumably) Lost Zone one of your opponent’s Pokémon. It’s an interesting route to take with the theme, one I hadn’t thought of, to set up a multi-turn combo with React Energy. My hesitation, though, is that given that you’re giving up two turns with a 2-Prize Pokémon in the Active spot and only getting one snipe Knock Out out of it, I’m not sure it’s quite powerful enough. Remember, too, that LEGENDs can afford to be (and should be) more powerful than the average Basic Pokémon because of how difficult they are to get into play. Compare this to something like Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND. The only advantages this has over it are being able to snipe the damage and putting the target (if KO’d) in the Lost Zone — but RDL takes an extra Prize on a KO, and it can feasibly do that every turn. I’m just not sold on the balancing here.
Wording errors:
- You don’t need to specify “Giratina & Arceus LEGEND’s Shadow Force attack” twice. The second time can just be “that attack”. [-1 point]
- The “If you can’t …” clause should be directly after the clause it refers to (i.e. toward the beginning of the attack, not at the very end). [-1 point]
Fonts and Placement errors:
- The attack text is all oriented really wonkily; it’s most noticeable in the breaks in Galvanized Reaction. There’s just a ton of empty space in the middle of the attack text, where it should be flowing cleanly (even if at an angle) from one word to the next. Additionally, Galvanized Reaction as a whole feels cramped into the space allotted for it, and in comparison, there seems to be way too much space around Shadow Force. Going to dock a blanket [-5 points] for attack placement here.
Creativity/Originality: 11/15
(I like the synergy direction.)
Wording: 13/15
(A couple errors.)
Fonts and Placement: 5/10
(Placement of attack text.)
Believability/Playability: 4/5
(Feels fairly underpowered.)
Aesthetics: 4/5
(I question a couple of choices with the renders.)
Total: 37/50
Whoo, wow. Okay. That’s quite the custom blank. Everything’s all over the place, and while it’s distracting when compared to other cards, it’s not strictly out of the question. I did think the red bar on the right of the attack area was kinda weird, but then I saw that the blank is supposed to resemble an “R” for Rocket, and I actually have to applaud the creativity there, because I can see it and it works. Overall it looks very much the part of a promotional card. Nice work on aesthetics.
It’s particularly impressive that you did all this from scratch, and without any real-card reference point. The custom Energy symbols serve to accentuate, as it were, the fact that all this is uniquely your own thing. It’s out there, but well-executed.
I’m less sure about the introduction of “Mineral” and “Wind” (referencing your transcript here) types for the W/R. I don’t have a problem with additional TCG types in general for this sort of thing, especially since this is so clearly not your average TCG card. But they kinda do have to do something that the existing types don’t. A Darkness-type Weavile in the TCG would generally be weak to Fighting (which makes sense, as it’s 4x weak to Fighting in the games) and resist Psychic (which also makes sense, as it’s immune to Psychic in the games). Mineral (presumably a Rock analogue) doesn’t not make sense for the Weakness, as Weavile is weak to Rock, but it makes less sense than Fighting. And I’m honestly just not sure what the Wind type is about here. The new types don’t really do anything for the card that the old types didn’t.
I do like what you did with the CaC symbol behind the text. I’m not convinced that it’s necessarily better there than as a set symbol, but it’s a nice effect, and I guess it works if you wanted to use your other set symbol.
Looking at the effects of the card, it does have some nice synergy, though I wonder what the eventual goal is. It looks like the game plan is just to swarm Weaviles … and then what? Is the point of this Weavile to be a Bench-sitter and just search for Sneasels and Weaviles when you need them? That seems to be the best use, because you want to conserve your React Energy, but then it’s got an attack that’s situationally useful. Very situationally useful, mind you; you’re putting your valuable React Energy on the line if you attack with it and then you’re just doing 60 and drawing (maybe) 4 cards. I’m trying to think what you could draw that makes that worth it, and I guess if you’re in a really sticky situation, but it does mean you’re throwing away potentially your most valuable Weavile. And all this assumes that you are in fact running this with other Weaviles, which isn’t necessarily the intent.
Wording errors:
- Don’t need a comma after Sneasel in the Ability. [-1 point]
- Effects like Greedy Claw are always given relating your cards to your opponent’s, not your opponent’s to yours. So, like, it’d be “If you have fewer cards in your hand than your opponent”, not “If your opponent has more cards in their hand than you”. [-2 points]
- “Switch cost”: I can’t just attribute this to it being a custom blank, because switching is a fundamentally different thing from retreating in the TCG. You can switch as often as you like if you have cards that say so, but you still only get to retreat once per turn. The implication for “switch cost” is that you’d have to discard an Energy in order to play Switch itself or something. [-1 point]
Fonts and Placement errors:
- Custom blank, your rules.
Creativity/Originality: 13/15
(I don’t always award points in this category for this, but you’ve got some really nice creativity with custom resources.)
Wording: 11.5/15
(A few things.)
Fonts and Placement: 10/10
(Pass for a custom blank.)
Believability/Playability: 4/5
(Extra types in W/R feel weird.)
Aesthetics: 5/5
(It works.)
Total: 43/50
Pokémon Star are cool, though I think you’re right that Shiny Castform is a bit weird. It’s just regular Castform with goggles xD
Your ability to vector Pokémon for use in cards like this is really impressive — I think we’ve seen it most often before in the form of FA EX’s, but it goes nicely for this style of art as well. The fact that Castform is a geometrically simple Pokémon doesn’t detract from that any; the shading is done just right and the art is believable.It’s just those damn goggles
I really like Molecular Reaction. It’s a fascinating effect. I do think there’s a bit of ambiguity, though, over whether the React Energy provides all the same Energy as are attached to Castform, or just 1 Energy that can be all the same types. Frankly I don’t know which way to take it as — the former would be somewhat overpowered, and the latter would require some additional clarification in the text — but I’m going to err on the side of the latter because the former would be extremely unprecedented in addition to being overpowered.
Anyway, I particularly like how you balanced it by making it a Pokémon Star. Good choice.
Carbon Splash seems fine. It’s gimmicky enough to be useful, but not so useful as to a central focus.
Wording errors:
- Need some sort of clarifying clause in the Body about the amount of Energy Molecular Reaction provides. [-2 points]
Fonts and Placement errors:
- The last line of both the Body text and the attack text is weirdly spaced relative to the rest of the text. [-1 point]
Creativity/Originality: 13/15
(I like Molecular Reaction.)
Wording: 13/15
(Missing a clause.)
Fonts and Placement: 9/10
(Spacing.)
Believability/Playability: 5/5
(Playable without being broken.)
Aesthetics: 5/5
(On point.)
Total: 45/50
3rd Place: A tie between Nyan’s Alolan Ninetales-GX and chico’s Weavile, each with 43/50 points.
2nd Place: bbninjas’s Castform *, with 45/50 points.
1st Place: CardPone’s Silvally LEGEND, with 46.5/50 points.
Judge: @Jabberwock
A good round of entries this was. A few old faces joined in the fun with our newer base, and you all turned out cards in a spectacular way. I was surprised to see two LEGENDs make an appearance, for one thing! It’s good to see y’all stepping into new realms of faking, and I look forward to seeing ever more creativity from you in the future.
~~Jabberwock
Howdy, Pone; glad to see you’ve made your way over from asche’s Discord server to join us for this round. This is quite the test run for Omnium, too –– stepping out of the gates with a LEGEND to hand is … bold, haha.
The aesthetics are executed virtually flawlessly, too. kawayoo’s traditional art style (at least, I assume it’s theirs) works exceptionally well on a LEGEND, where flashy 3D graphics actually aren’t what you’re going for. The space background and whoosh-y effects have all been incorporated seamlessly as well. My one concern might be the fact that the entire top card appears to lack any form of holosheet save the name — it seems you may have overlaid it on the bar to the far left between the border and the illustration box, but it’s not much. That being said, the visuals are stunning enough that the holosheet issue is minor at best.
My impression of Omnium so far has been that it takes the octagonal motifs present in some parts of SUM-era cards (the stage bar, for example) and runs absolutely wild with them, to great effect. The blanks in general are more cohesive and visually exciting than even the official SUM-era blanks, which tend toward plainness. Though, I’ll admit that here the recycled octagonal stage bar in the upper-left detracts somewhat from the feeling of newness, since it’s one of the only blank elements we see on the top card and it’s just an SUM-era feature. The bottom card is much more exciting in this regard.
Reactive Adaptation is powerful for sure, as it plausibly lets you score an OHKO with the attack in addition to powering up something on the Bench. It’s balanced, though, by the fact that LEGENDs are just so difficult to get out. It’s a nice touch, too, whether intentional or not, that attaching a React Energy and self-targeting with the Ability actually isn’t enough to power up Prismatic Surge –– it requires more forethought than that.
It does feel a bit weird that Reactive Adaptation can self-target, but Prismatic Surge doesn’t count Energy on Silvally. I know you said it was a conscious choice, but it’s weird thematically. I don’t think it would mess up power balancing to change Prismatic Burst so that it does count its own Energy, and with so much of your deck needing to be devoted to Silvally in the first place it seems reasonable to make it a more powerful attacker.
The theme usage is good. Not much to say here; it’s a very good “reaction” effect that uses flavor from the games and lore and twists it in a fun way.
Wording errors:
- While attached to a Pokémon, “basic Energy card” is just “basic Energy”. Ref: Haxorus UNM, Arceus PR-XY83. [-1 point]
Fonts and Placement errors:
- Your blank, your rules, and everything looks fine to me.
Creativity/Originality: 13/15
(Nice use of the theme.)
Wording: 14/15
(One minor error.)
Fonts and Placement: 10/10
(Custom blank.)
Believability/Playability: 5/5
(Seems balanced.)
Aesthetics: 4.5/5
(A couple nitpicks, but overall stunning.)
Total: 46.5/50
Alright, I’ll start this off on a note about the placements, since you mentioned that that was your goal for this month. They’re vastly improved. There’s no more random excess space between and around the attack text, and you’ve even got it all Justified now, which makes quite the difference on the layout. Full marks for fonts this month, steff.
The card’s aesthetics aren’t bad either, even though you said it wasn’t your focus — there’s still something to be said for a good old-fashioned holo rare if it’s executed right. There’s nothing in particular to write home about, but it’s also not bad.
In terms of the effects, though, everything goes a bit out the window. I have no idea what that Ability is trying to accomplish. I guess it’s sort of a bomb, where if your opponent is playing a React Energy-heavy deck you’ve got a counter ready to hand — but that means you’re playing a Stage 2 (plus React Energy in your own deck!) that serves exactly one purpose against a specific other deck. It’s even a bit contrary to the theme, being that your React Energy “reaction” only serves to shut down other reactions. I guess, in summary, it’s a silver bullet style tech, but as a Stage 2 in an era where playing tech Stage 2s is really hard to get away with. I’m just not convinced by the balancing.
The attack is … fine. Underwhelming. Even though you’d be using this for the Ability, it’d be cool to see it have a more viable attack.
Wording errors:
- Things are put “in” the Lost Zone, not “into” it. [-1 point]
- The only card in Standard to go to the Lost Zone without the cards attached to it is Tapu Koko ◊, which doesn’t use italicized reminder text for that clause. The “Discard all other cards” bit shouldn’t be italicized here either. [-1 point]
- You never search your discard pile in the SUM era, because it’s a public zone (both players theoretically know the contents of it) and as such there’s no need to “search” it. You just “attach a Special Energy card from your discard pile to this Pokémon”. [-2 points]
Fonts and Placement errors:
- On point.
Creativity/Originality: 9/15
(Kinda an anti-reaction for the theme, but overall nothing particularly special.)
Wording: 11/15
(A few errors.)
Fonts and Placement: 10/10
(Looks good.)
Believability/Playability: 2/5
(Balancing is weird.)
Aesthetics: 4/5
(Looks fine.)
Total: 36/50
It’s a beautiful card, no doubt about it. This particular wallpaper is one of the ones you see over and over in the faking community, largely because it’s such a stunning work and of such a community-loved Pokémon, and yet you’ve still managed to put your own spin on it, such that this card feels fresh despite the origin of its art.
The dual-type integration works well. The difficulty with GX blanks is that there’s really not very much type texture on the card itself, but the blending works here. I think a major point working in your favor is the fact that Ninetales itself is illuminated with pink-purple light from the lower right, meaning that the art itself actually reflects the dual-type colors quite well.
(I do have to point out here, though I’m not going to dock you for it, that those sparkly star effects should all be orientated in the same four-point direction for physics reasons.
)As for the effects — it seems that the angle you’re going for on React Energy is fairly basic; defense, attack, and healing, in that order on the card. I do wish there was a bit more going on there; as it is, it’s nothing we haven’t seen with React Energy before. Powerful enough to be competitively viable now, but not overly original.
I think my favorite part of the card is the acceleration of React Energy in the first attack, cos it can lend itself to some cool combos with other React Energy cards. It’s just a shame that those combos rely on … well, those other cards.
Wording errors:
- “take” in the Ability should be “takes”, because the subject is “each Pokémon” (i.e. singular). [-1 point]
- There’s some ambiguity in Echo Chill because of the lack of sequencing words like “then”. I assume you meant attach the Energy after doing the damage, but it would lend itself to a bunch of wording disputes. I think the neatest way to resolve it is just to have the attack do 40+30 instead of 70+30 and attach the Energy first, using a wording analogous to Blissey MT. [-2 points]
Fonts and Placement errors:
- Looks good.
Creativity/Originality: 11/15
(Fairly basic theme usage.)
Wording: 12/15
(A couple things.)
Fonts and Placement: 10/10
(Looks good.)
Believability/Playability: 5/5
(Seems good, but not too good.)
Aesthetics: 5/5
(Full marks here.)
Total: 43/50
Welcome back, PMJ! Haven’t seen you around CaC in a while, and it’s good to see you make a return.
You’ve always been known for not letting your cards’ effects take a backseat to anything, and this one’s no exception. Contaminate is probably my favorite part of the card, because it’s a twist on two different effects that are each interesting in their own right — screwing with Special Condition damage, and variable power over the course of a game. Putting them together is a nice touch.
I do question the anti-synergy with the Ability, though. I guess you can make the case that you have to play carefully to get the extra Prize, but Poison isn’t really something you can play carefully around; whether or not the Poison racks up is more or less up to your opponent. The Ability is really more of an occasional gimmicky extra Prize, if you’re lucky and your opponent doesn’t just play around it. (It also assumes that your opponent is playing React Energy and attaching it to something you can Knock Out, which is a hasty assumption in and of itself.)
Overall, if I’m honest, the React Energy incorporation feels like an afterthought. It’s not remotely a central part of the card, and even the one thing it does isn’t a reaction with your own cards but rather an anti-reaction with your opponent’s. It does fit the theme, I reckon, but only just.
Madness Descent is a good tie-in with the Ability, if your opponent thinks they can get away with hiding a React Energy on the Bench.
The aesthetics are okay, nothing special. The art is basically a render slapped onto a background with a faint holosheet over it. Galaxy foil is an odd choice for that, but mainly it’s just strange to see it so faintly. There’s a weird sharp divide between the texture at the top and the art below it, too; the gradient should be more feathered than that — and then there’s an uncut corner at the bottom-left.
Wording errors:
- Seems fine.
Fonts and Placement errors:
- “Nihilego” should have a white stroke, same as the HP numerals and all the attack text. [-1 point]
- The “1” in “150” should be closer to the “50”. Futura just has weird kerning around that. [-1 point]
- The Weakness and Retreat Cost icons should be centered on those bars. [-1 point]
Creativity/Originality: 12/15
(Nice effects overall, but theme usage feels like an afterthought.)
Wording: 15/15
(On point.)
Fonts and Placement: 7/10
(A few minor errors.)
Believability/Playability: 4/5
(Cautious point for the gimmickiness of the Ability.)
Aesthetics: 3/5
(Holosheet, gradient, uncut corner. Points for a GX, but lackluster aesthetics overall.)
Total: 41/50
Two LEGENDs in one contest? Y’all are ambitious. In this case, one of the virtues of being able to make your own art is being able to pull stuff like this, eh?
It’s an interesting choice to render art for a LEGEND in the first place, because as hallmarks of HGSS, they’re known for showcasing that era’s tendency toward traditional (i.e. non-3D) art. If this were done in a BWXY style — or really any other era — it would make more sense, but as it is it just kinda strikes me as a weird clash between media. I’m also not sure how much I agree with the texturing choice for Arceus; while I do like the more realistic style you’ve adopted for rendering in general, I’ve never seen anything to suggest that Arceus has that much fur.
I do think it was an inspired choice to include the Plate in the artwork for this card, though. Props for that.
In terms of what the card does, there’s a very clear synergistic path to follow; over the course of two turns, you’ll get to snipe for 150 damage and (presumably) Lost Zone one of your opponent’s Pokémon. It’s an interesting route to take with the theme, one I hadn’t thought of, to set up a multi-turn combo with React Energy. My hesitation, though, is that given that you’re giving up two turns with a 2-Prize Pokémon in the Active spot and only getting one snipe Knock Out out of it, I’m not sure it’s quite powerful enough. Remember, too, that LEGENDs can afford to be (and should be) more powerful than the average Basic Pokémon because of how difficult they are to get into play. Compare this to something like Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND. The only advantages this has over it are being able to snipe the damage and putting the target (if KO’d) in the Lost Zone — but RDL takes an extra Prize on a KO, and it can feasibly do that every turn. I’m just not sold on the balancing here.
Wording errors:
- You don’t need to specify “Giratina & Arceus LEGEND’s Shadow Force attack” twice. The second time can just be “that attack”. [-1 point]
- The “If you can’t …” clause should be directly after the clause it refers to (i.e. toward the beginning of the attack, not at the very end). [-1 point]
Fonts and Placement errors:
- The attack text is all oriented really wonkily; it’s most noticeable in the breaks in Galvanized Reaction. There’s just a ton of empty space in the middle of the attack text, where it should be flowing cleanly (even if at an angle) from one word to the next. Additionally, Galvanized Reaction as a whole feels cramped into the space allotted for it, and in comparison, there seems to be way too much space around Shadow Force. Going to dock a blanket [-5 points] for attack placement here.
Creativity/Originality: 11/15
(I like the synergy direction.)
Wording: 13/15
(A couple errors.)
Fonts and Placement: 5/10
(Placement of attack text.)
Believability/Playability: 4/5
(Feels fairly underpowered.)
Aesthetics: 4/5
(I question a couple of choices with the renders.)
Total: 37/50
Whoo, wow. Okay. That’s quite the custom blank. Everything’s all over the place, and while it’s distracting when compared to other cards, it’s not strictly out of the question. I did think the red bar on the right of the attack area was kinda weird, but then I saw that the blank is supposed to resemble an “R” for Rocket, and I actually have to applaud the creativity there, because I can see it and it works. Overall it looks very much the part of a promotional card. Nice work on aesthetics.
It’s particularly impressive that you did all this from scratch, and without any real-card reference point. The custom Energy symbols serve to accentuate, as it were, the fact that all this is uniquely your own thing. It’s out there, but well-executed.
I’m less sure about the introduction of “Mineral” and “Wind” (referencing your transcript here) types for the W/R. I don’t have a problem with additional TCG types in general for this sort of thing, especially since this is so clearly not your average TCG card. But they kinda do have to do something that the existing types don’t. A Darkness-type Weavile in the TCG would generally be weak to Fighting (which makes sense, as it’s 4x weak to Fighting in the games) and resist Psychic (which also makes sense, as it’s immune to Psychic in the games). Mineral (presumably a Rock analogue) doesn’t not make sense for the Weakness, as Weavile is weak to Rock, but it makes less sense than Fighting. And I’m honestly just not sure what the Wind type is about here. The new types don’t really do anything for the card that the old types didn’t.
I do like what you did with the CaC symbol behind the text. I’m not convinced that it’s necessarily better there than as a set symbol, but it’s a nice effect, and I guess it works if you wanted to use your other set symbol.
Looking at the effects of the card, it does have some nice synergy, though I wonder what the eventual goal is. It looks like the game plan is just to swarm Weaviles … and then what? Is the point of this Weavile to be a Bench-sitter and just search for Sneasels and Weaviles when you need them? That seems to be the best use, because you want to conserve your React Energy, but then it’s got an attack that’s situationally useful. Very situationally useful, mind you; you’re putting your valuable React Energy on the line if you attack with it and then you’re just doing 60 and drawing (maybe) 4 cards. I’m trying to think what you could draw that makes that worth it, and I guess if you’re in a really sticky situation, but it does mean you’re throwing away potentially your most valuable Weavile. And all this assumes that you are in fact running this with other Weaviles, which isn’t necessarily the intent.
Wording errors:
- Don’t need a comma after Sneasel in the Ability. [-1 point]
- Effects like Greedy Claw are always given relating your cards to your opponent’s, not your opponent’s to yours. So, like, it’d be “If you have fewer cards in your hand than your opponent”, not “If your opponent has more cards in their hand than you”. [-2 points]
- “Switch cost”: I can’t just attribute this to it being a custom blank, because switching is a fundamentally different thing from retreating in the TCG. You can switch as often as you like if you have cards that say so, but you still only get to retreat once per turn. The implication for “switch cost” is that you’d have to discard an Energy in order to play Switch itself or something. [-1 point]
Fonts and Placement errors:
- Custom blank, your rules.
Creativity/Originality: 13/15
(I don’t always award points in this category for this, but you’ve got some really nice creativity with custom resources.)
Wording: 11.5/15
(A few things.)
Fonts and Placement: 10/10
(Pass for a custom blank.)
Believability/Playability: 4/5
(Extra types in W/R feel weird.)
Aesthetics: 5/5
(It works.)
Total: 43/50
Pokémon Star are cool, though I think you’re right that Shiny Castform is a bit weird. It’s just regular Castform with goggles xD
Your ability to vector Pokémon for use in cards like this is really impressive — I think we’ve seen it most often before in the form of FA EX’s, but it goes nicely for this style of art as well. The fact that Castform is a geometrically simple Pokémon doesn’t detract from that any; the shading is done just right and the art is believable.
I really like Molecular Reaction. It’s a fascinating effect. I do think there’s a bit of ambiguity, though, over whether the React Energy provides all the same Energy as are attached to Castform, or just 1 Energy that can be all the same types. Frankly I don’t know which way to take it as — the former would be somewhat overpowered, and the latter would require some additional clarification in the text — but I’m going to err on the side of the latter because the former would be extremely unprecedented in addition to being overpowered.
Anyway, I particularly like how you balanced it by making it a Pokémon Star. Good choice.
Carbon Splash seems fine. It’s gimmicky enough to be useful, but not so useful as to a central focus.
Wording errors:
- Need some sort of clarifying clause in the Body about the amount of Energy Molecular Reaction provides. [-2 points]
Fonts and Placement errors:
- The last line of both the Body text and the attack text is weirdly spaced relative to the rest of the text. [-1 point]
Creativity/Originality: 13/15
(I like Molecular Reaction.)
Wording: 13/15
(Missing a clause.)
Fonts and Placement: 9/10
(Spacing.)
Believability/Playability: 5/5
(Playable without being broken.)
Aesthetics: 5/5
(On point.)
Total: 45/50
3rd Place: A tie between Nyan’s Alolan Ninetales-GX and chico’s Weavile, each with 43/50 points.
2nd Place: bbninjas’s Castform *, with 45/50 points.
1st Place: CardPone’s Silvally LEGEND, with 46.5/50 points.
Oh, thanks for the judging!
I agree with Violet that my entry could be better this month >.> After reading the judging, and then my card again, I got the feeling that my entry was "rough". Being a "fakemon" leaves a lot of doors open and I should've polished it before posting, make a better use of the time given. Notes taken for the next time!
There's just two points that I disagree, but it's more like a clarification needed I guess (?)
This sounds... creative, I guess? I agree that some things looks similar to already existing ones, but if it was never printed on a card, it's new (?)
The Ability is in synchrony with the attack, and indirectly lets you pull more React Energy to the board. The way of using React Energy is different from what we have (like discarding them to do more damage), but still it's something new: Ketsuban powers the others up with React Energy, specially in pair with Porygon-Z UNB. It's a supporting card to bring Triple Accel or DCE, for example.
Also, congrats to the winner @Vom! The Escavalier is AMAZING, the only point I disagree is the believability (the amount of text wouldn't fit a SM physical card, I guess?), but it's a very creative spin to the theme (specially the link for the special evolution between Karrablast and Shelmet).
Thx guys, till next time o/
I agree with Violet that my entry could be better this month >.> After reading the judging, and then my card again, I got the feeling that my entry was "rough". Being a "fakemon" leaves a lot of doors open and I should've polished it before posting, make a better use of the time given. Notes taken for the next time!
There's just two points that I disagree, but it's more like a clarification needed I guess (?)
This sounds... creative, I guess? I agree that some things looks similar to already existing ones, but if it was never printed on a card, it's new (?)
The Ability is in synchrony with the attack, and indirectly lets you pull more React Energy to the board. The way of using React Energy is different from what we have (like discarding them to do more damage), but still it's something new: Ketsuban powers the others up with React Energy, specially in pair with Porygon-Z UNB. It's a supporting card to bring Triple Accel or DCE, for example.
Also, congrats to the winner @Vom! The Escavalier is AMAZING, the only point I disagree is the believability (the amount of text wouldn't fit a SM physical card, I guess?), but it's a very creative spin to the theme (specially the link for the special evolution between Karrablast and Shelmet).
Thx guys, till next time o/
Can I just say I love getting feedback on judging? I want you guys to not have any misconceptions so I want to say that I'm very happy to respond to anyone's thoughts on my judging for their entries, especially because sometimes it can be hard to understand ideas perfectly as they've been written down, or due to the events happening in my personal life, I could end up missing stuff. Whenever I judge your entries, feel free to spark discussion because it not only helps you guys as participants but also myself as a judge. Thanks Gabs!
This is true! If it's something that's never been printed on a card, it's new and exciting. However I always believe there's a difference between having something that's just never been done before, and having something that changes the game and allows for several possibilities. Giving 20/20 in Creativity is loosely described as doing both of these things, to the point where you wouldn't want to change a single thing about the card.
I imagine it's an awkward idea to get across, because doing something new doesn't always mean it's super creative, and there's a difference between the two. An effect or ability may not exist on a card before, but it's the effects and abilities that truly make the game interesting and allow for so many combinations and ideas to play with that really give the highest score.
True, having self-synergizing cards are great, but again they usually don't end up being something ground-breaking. I may be misunderstanding this, but the idea of putting more React Energy on the board through the use of its ability benefits the Pokémon's own attack, and using it to put Triple Accel or DCE onto the field gives it more of a supporting role, which makes things more interesting, though both can't be done at the same time. You're either using the ability to support this card with React Energy, or any partner for it by use of cards like Triple Accel, giving it the feel of trying to do both and being unable to, if that makes sense. Though I'll argue once again that besides just using the ability to play Energy in a new way, there's no different method of using React Energy on this card, as there are plenty of attacks that do damage based off a number of Energy attached to different places on the field, and the clause of needing a React Energy attached to the Pokémon in order to use the effect makes it feel as if it was forced to keep in line with the theme.
Thanks for replying @VioletValkyrie!
I understand your points now! I got lost in the Special Energy side of the thing and the attack felt like it was just to be inside the theme; the Ability was a little ambiguous with the use of React Energy too, bc it actually functions better with all of the other Special Energies. Notes taken!
I understand your points now! I got lost in the Special Energy side of the thing and the attack felt like it was just to be inside the theme; the Ability was a little ambiguous with the use of React Energy too, bc it actually functions better with all of the other Special Energies. Notes taken!
That's some solid judging @Jabberwock. Thank you very much for your feedback!
I just wanted to say two things that I probably forgot to mention in my original post:
1) When I chose Weavile, I thought more of it as a "support"/"bench warmer" Pokémon. I planned for another Pokémon (like Yveltal) to take advantage of Weavile's draw acceleration ability. I went more for the aesthetics/boost than for raw power I guess. And that's something I have to take into account for the next time it seems.
2) I used the word "switch" instead of "retreat" mainly because of a conceptual flaw of the Pokémon TCG if you will. When a Pokémon "retreats", the trainer/player is actually switching it with another. It's not like the Active/Battle zone is left empty, as would happen when something retreats (like an army). And you also need a Pokémon on the Bench in order to "retreat". The trainer "Switch", "Escape Rope" and what have you let you perform the switching more than once a turn, but it's always a switch. I've also had the videogame in mind, which the TCG is based off of.
Also, congratulations to the other participants, and especially to the other winners! Let's keep improving *flex*
I just wanted to say two things that I probably forgot to mention in my original post:
1) When I chose Weavile, I thought more of it as a "support"/"bench warmer" Pokémon. I planned for another Pokémon (like Yveltal) to take advantage of Weavile's draw acceleration ability. I went more for the aesthetics/boost than for raw power I guess. And that's something I have to take into account for the next time it seems.
2) I used the word "switch" instead of "retreat" mainly because of a conceptual flaw of the Pokémon TCG if you will. When a Pokémon "retreats", the trainer/player is actually switching it with another. It's not like the Active/Battle zone is left empty, as would happen when something retreats (like an army). And you also need a Pokémon on the Bench in order to "retreat". The trainer "Switch", "Escape Rope" and what have you let you perform the switching more than once a turn, but it's always a switch. I've also had the videogame in mind, which the TCG is based off of.
Also, congratulations to the other participants, and especially to the other winners! Let's keep improving *flex*
PMJ
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Good feedback. I don't understand the feedback on the foil, I recently learned that it is not uncommon to have dozens of foil layers and I am still unsure how it makes much of a difference. I also don't know what feathering is.
I used galaxy because it's my favorite :>
Wanted to try something different (and rep best beast Nihilego); for being so far out of my comfort zone, I will gladly take fifth place. ggs all, it was fun.
I used galaxy because it's my favorite :>
Wanted to try something different (and rep best beast Nihilego); for being so far out of my comfort zone, I will gladly take fifth place. ggs all, it was fun.
Thanks for the feedback Jabber!
I can hardly understand the foil since I can hardly see it, which I think is the point Jabber was making. The foils should be obvious and have some nice contrast, which is best achieved by using a combination of layers (often just an Overlay (~50%), Screen (~25%) and Multiply layer (~20%), and maybe Colour Dodge for some extra colour). Less is more, unless you're Asche, in which case more is more.
There's nothing wrong with faking a support Pokémon! In this case it simply wasn't completely obvious to me what the card was trying to do for a couple of reasons, mainly because the Ability and attack seemed to be at odds in terms of how you would play the card. And I respect the decision to go for the aesthetics.
I wouldn't call it a conceptual flaw; it's just a convention that happens to differ from the games. I get what you mean in terms of the definition of the word, but the fact remains that switching and retreating refer to slightly different things in the TCG.
Basically what bb said: the holosheet is technically there, but isn't obvious and doesn't have high contrast with the background (or, indeed, look particularly holographic). The particular layers and blending modes that achieve this differ from card to card (and often faker to faker), but the aim should be to achieve a holographic effect.
It's the sort of gradient effect that lets you fade in to something instead of it being a sharp line; in Photoshop you can set the feather amount when you select something by going to Select > Refine Edge.
A fair opinion lol