Welcome to the June/July 2023 round of the Create-a-Card!
This month’s theme is Special Energy Swap. This CaC will be different from the ones you might be used to, so make sure you read this post in its entirety!
People have asked us time and time again whether we’ll ever do a Special Energy theme. Non-Pokémon themes are tricky, because much more text usually goes on a Pokémon card than on any other type of card. We consider the room for multiple attacks / Abilities / Pokémon Powers / etc to be room for ample creativity to shine through. How do you make a Special Energy card interesting in its own right?
This month, that’s up to you! Take to the stage with a brand-new design space. Consider all the possibilities: What does it do while attached? What makes it different from other Special Energy that have been printed and reprinted throughout the game’s history? What makes your Special Energy so interesting, somebody might want to build a whole new deck around it?
But the fun doesn’t stop there! In July, you’ll take a Special Energy card submitted by somebody else and design a Pokémon card that pairs well with it in some way. Here’s how that will work: at the end of June, after everyone has submitted their entries, @PMJ and I will shuffle them and send them back out at random, and each contestant who signed up in June will have an all-new Special Energy card to use as their starting point for a Pokémon card in July.
This means that in effect, this is two rounds in one. It’s like one really long Create-a-Card contest where everyone makes two cards instead of one, but the cards get shuffled in between. A few other things will be different this month to accommodate the timeframe and the multiple cards, so read on to learn how that will work.
Otherwise, see the FAQ below — or, if you’re still confused, let us know! We’re happy to answer questions in-thread, in PMs, or in our Custom Card Community Discord. Best of luck, and don’t forget to let your imagination run wild!
Registration
- To sign up, reply to the thread below before June 30th, specifying which category you wish to enter. A post like “In for text!” or “In for image!” is sufficient. The category you enter also determines the category from which your Special Energy will come in July; text and image will be kept separate when we shuffle the entries. You may enter both categories if you wish.
-- - You may register with a partner and work together on the same cards. This way each member can use their different talents and combine their skills, especially if one of you is an artist and the other is a TCG player. (Feel free to post in the thread that you’re looking for a partner if you want one.)
-- - We have a total of 15 spaces available for text-based entries and 15 for image-based. If you’ve never done an image-based card before, now is a great time to learn! PokéBeach has many card blanks and guides available for use, and we have a vibrant Discord community willing to help with any questions you might have.
Judging
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For this round, each contestant will receive two scores out of 50, one for each of their cards. Scores will not be reported until after both parts of the contest, when they will be added together to determine placing. Otherwise, the rubric is the same as usual: applied once to a Special Energy card, once to a Pokémon card in the usual way.
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Text-Based
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- Creativity/Originality
We’re all tired of effectless attacks! Without images, part of the intrigue with text-based cards is the creativity of their effects. Let’s see something cool and new!
Total: 20 points
--- - Wording
Proper wording is key in designing any custom card. As official wording has changed many times over the years, try to ensure wording is correct for the era of card you choose. Naturally, grammar and spelling are also taken into consideration.
Text-based fakers may format their entries any way they choose, but for those who are new or would like a guideline to follow, this is a simple formatting guideline you can follow for a Pokémon:
Pokémon – Type – HP50
Stage 1 – Evolves from Pokémon
NO. 000 [Name] Pokémon HT: 1’11” WT: 111.1 lbs.
Ability: Name
Ability Effect
[R][C] Attack 20
Attack Effect
Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: Psychic (-20)
Retreat: [C] [C] [C]
Flavor Text
Total: 15 points
--- - Believability/Playability
Text-based fakes rely heavily on their believability. Think of your entries as if they were real cards. Try to avoid those 400-HP monsters which do 200 damage for [R]! Proper Weakness and Resistance, Pokédex information, and ballpark HP will also be taken into consideration. We will assume that your card is being created for the current TCG era unless otherwise stated, so if you are making a card for a previous era, you must mention this in your entry post.
Total: 15 points
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Image-Based
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- Creativity/Originality
This is a given. With the proper photo editing tools, let your imagination run wild! Among other things, this can involve innovating new mechanics, envisioning new card interactions, and exploring exciting gameplay potential or other design space.
Total: 15 points
--- - Believability/Playability
Believability and playability are both integral to a custom card’s realism. A card’s playability is its power level — try not to be overpowered or underpowered for the era you’re designing in! For believability, proper Weakness and Resistance, Pokédex information, ballpark HP, and so on will be taken into consideration.
Total: 15 points
--- - Wording
Proper wording is key in designing any custom card. Try to ensure wording is correct for the era of blank you choose, as card wording has changed many times over the years. Naturally, grammar and spelling are also taken into consideration.
Total: 10 points
--- - Fonts and Placement
Correct fonts (which may change era by era) are imperative when creating realistic custom cards — even for custom blanks, fonts in line with the convention can go a long way toward making them appear realistic. Placement of text / symbols / etc. is also taken into consideration.
Total: 5 points
--- - Aesthetics
Aesthetics is all about how your card looks as a complete whole. Aspects of this category include using creative and appropriate artwork, using neat or custom blanks, and overall having an appealing card creation. Additionally, you may not use existing artwork from the TCG for your cards. If you’d like to use Ken Sugimori stock artwork, you may do so, but it must be transformative in nature.
Total: 5 points
And that’s the point breakdown for this round’s Create-a-Card! @Jabberwock will be judging image-based, and @PMJ will be judging text-based.
General Rules
- For those entering image-based, you must include one of the the following symbols on your card for it to be accepted: [2017-on symbol by Nekoban Ryo] [SV-on symbol by Jabberwock]. In addition, we do not allow any image-based entries that have been made using automatic, online card generators.
-- - If you edit your post, you’ll incur a deduction of 2 points from your overall score. Posting your entry again on a different post also deducts 2 points. When you submit, make sure you’re done! If you mess up the tags or have a similar coding disaster, tag or PM me to get it fixed. If you forget to credit someone, do so in a new post instead of editing.
-- - Participants who sign up but fail to submit a card by the deadline, if the category is full, will automatically lose 2 points for the next round (similar to losing 2 points for the current round for editing). If the category you have signed up for is full and if you wish to drop out, you must do so with three days remaining before the deadline to avoid the penalty. Continuing to fail to post a submission in future rounds will result in a possible ban from the contest for a couple of months. Please keep a close eye on the deadline.
-- - The judges do not give feedback on entries before they are posted. However, you’re encouraged to seek out help from other members of the community! The forums are an acceptable place for this, but you may be able to get faster feedback in the Custom Card Community Discord server here.
-- - Artists/illustrators are free to post in this thread, letting participants know that they are available.
-- - All entries should meet the forum rules. You should always credit the artist, and never use someone else’s art without their permission — that’s art theft.
-- - Winning entries may be posted to the Custom Card Community’s social media accounts, with context and credit to the card creator(s). [Facebook][Twitter][Instagram][Tumblr]
Anticipated Entrants
Image-Based:
- @Kaleidophoenix
- @doofisconfused
- @Diego_Brando
- @NinJamezor
- @PMJ
- @Mr. Melon
- @bbninjas
- @Charmaster:)
- This could be you!
Text-Based:
- @Kaleidophoenix
- @Wolf Raider
- @NinJamezor
- @Falling Skies
- @doofisconfused
- @FireLizard
- @I Like Shorts
- @LightningSpence836
- @Charmaster:)
- This could be you!
Bold names means I have seen your entry in this thread.
Want to help advertise the contest? Just paste the code below for the banner in your sig!
Code:
[url=https://www.pokebeach.com/forums/threads/june-july-2023-cac-special-energy-swap-sign-ups-open.153914/][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/726804916240121878/1114604918347661414/June_July_23_cacbanner.png[/img][/url]Credit goes to @Nekoban Ryo and @Jabberwock for the banner.
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