This is another CaC in which I showcase some of the upcoming updates to the Omnium template. This time, V-Unions! And golly wally there is so much more but I'ma try to stay focused.
For this contest, there were 13 Pokémon I wanted to go with at first: Gogoat, Scrafty, Noivern, Weavile, Steelix, Golurk, Floatzel, Absol, Xerneas (you know me), Yveltal, Zygarde, and our guy Sandslash. The artist went with Sandslash when I gave them the choice between him and Noivern. And I'm glad she did!
Sandslash still has no special cards. Alolan Sandslash got one within a generation, but Sandslash is still alone.
Amusingly, this is the case in CaC, too. Sandslash has never been chosen, but
Alolan Sandslash has. So hurrah! Now regular Sandslash gets some love, too!
Speaking of the artist, I am floored by how good Manex57 made this artwork look! The swipe and the shading and the post and aaahh man it's just so good! Not to mention the fact that the artwork is 2520x3520 to fit these huge blanks! One element I thought was really cool for the background that unfortunately got covered up by card elements was some eyes poking down from the ceiling to give the cave a little more life. Such a great touch, but alas. You can still see a Zubat silhouette on the left side underneath Union Gain, though!
Sandslash is found in the Terminus Cave in Kalos. Therefore, cave artwork! I also did work in a little bit of Sandslash's official lore in the card in the form of the Rapid Regrowth ability. Originally there was also an attack on this card called "Six-Pin Rollout" because of his Pokémon Stadium entry making it sound like he was bowling into other Pokémon. "Six pins" being the maximum of six Pokémon on the opponent's bench. But I digress. Let's talk about the attacks that did survive:
Union Gain appears on all V-UNION Pokémon. I had an idea for a more thematic energy acceleration that also would have synergized nicely with my previous CaC entry
Medicham, but it felt really weird to have two energy acceleration attacks on the same Pokémon, so I scrapped it. I think it's better to follow the conventions if I'm going for believability here.
Chuck, Chuck, Choose is a fun little attack though. It gave me by far the most trouble when trying to figure out the wording (as you'll see in the Wording section), but the idea behind it is slightly tweaking the number of cards in your opponent's discard pile for when you're trying to get Deft Swipes going. It's not the most reliable, obviously, so it would likely be even better to use it for other strategies. And obviously the name is a play on the game Duck Duck Goose. You Choose 1 card and Chuck the others. I think of it like Sandslash is coming to wreck your stuff and you only have time to save one thing. :>
Accelerated Excavation is new lore I added to Sandslash as part of the Holon region! So while the artwork in the card could be interpreted as the Terminus Cave, it can also be interpreted as the Silent Caves, which is an area I added to Holon for my own sets. The Silent Caves was found to be rich in fossils, so when the Holon scientists discovered how strong yet delicate Sandslash could be with its claws, they wanted to see if they could use it to dig up those fossils without destroying them. That's why the dex entry on CaC 12 says the fossil excavators took an interest. And here, the attack goes with the lore because he excavates those fossils! Just like the scientists trained him to!
I also was aware that this ability would be a one-of per game, since it's an on-play ability on a V-Union. That effectively makes it a Prism-Star ability, so I wanted it to be pretty strong. I think skipping the fossil mechanic on 4 fossils is pretty good, right? Not to mention this ability can provide some really cheeky help for the next attack. If nothing else, it would be super helpful in fossil decks!
Vicious Resonance, my favorite attack on the card. There's very few (if any) cards in the TCG that reference another card's base damage. Vastly unexplored territory here, and I really wanted to do something fun with it. This idea of Sandslash somehow gaining power from the potential for two Pokémon to hit each other for identical damage is really fun and I feel like it introduces a whole new kind of play style. You might be putting cards in your deck that have attacks you never want to use just to be able to match the damage of another card that's big in the meta. Or you might cause your opponent to choose not to evolve a Pokémon on the field because they know that would enable you to hit bigger damage that could put them in trouble. Or you might focus on trying to get the best coverage possible and emphasize Pokémon with more attacks on their card. So much really fun and unique design space that could be played with when these kinds of mechanics start to come in!
Rapid Regrowth is the aforementioned only surviving attack based on his lore. In the Pokédex, it says that any spikes or claws that snap off during battle will regrow within a day. This could have manifested as a health regen thing, but I like to think of his claws and spikes more as tools based on his dex entries. Plus reattaching tools from the discard pile is another way to manipulate the number of cards in your discard pile, even if not by much. If nothing else, it could be a nice work-around for Field Blower-style cards!
And finally, Deft Swipes. From the moment it was decided this was going to be a Sandslash card, I had the word "deft" in my mind and was trying to think of attacks that would go with that kind of description, but nothing really stuck, so for several iterations of the card, "deft" was not a part of it. But then, in the last minute, after scrapping two attacks that weren't working, I thought of something! Deft means skillful and quick, and I think the act of getting behind the main attacker to do some damage to the bench entails some skill and speed. So in the same vein as the resonance metaphor from Vicious Resonance, the concept of him gaining this extra speed when there's an element (the discard pile) that is the same between players is a fun and thematic way to do that.
There's a lot going on in this card, but each of its attacks and abilities work toward its own synergize while enabling some other playstyles as well. I do see this as a card that wants you to build your deck around it, as it definitely wants to be the attacker. But it is also a one-of, so it can't be your only hope in your deck. Gotta play carefully! Even as bulky as this card is, it can still be one-shot by a strong Grass Pokémon like Torterra LV.X or a Meganium Prime with an Expert Belt attached.
I also wanted to comment a little bit on the template! I always found it kind ugly looking for there to be text on the side edges, covering up all the broken border stuff, so when designing this template, I tried as much as I could to fit everything in the bottom or top, keeping as much as possible in the same spot it would normally be. I think I did a good job! On the bottom two cards, all the meta info is in the same spot as normal, and that space in between the symbols is the perfect size for the stage, name, and type to nestle right in between. I love the way that looks, haha. I unfortunately had to move the V-Union rules to the sides for space, but I think they take up very little space and are largely unintrusive, so I'm happy with their placement still. Other than that, most things are pretty similar, just adjusted for the Omnium aesthetic. And I still made a place for the Pokédex stuff
For the holo pattern, I decided cosmo looks the best here and that's the preferred pattern for Omnium promos anyway (acid wash is meant to be for main sets).
And as always, these are important to consider for this card:
- The wording is SM or the latest syntax of a specific effect if no such effect exists in the SM era.
- All Omnium cards are meant to be balanced for the 2010-2011 Standard Rotation, or slightly more broadly any set from Diamond & Pearl base set to Noble Victories.
- Fonts and placements should be pixel-perfect as they were made using my templates, which places all the fonts exactly where they should be.
- "Special Pokémon" is Omnium's way of accounting for all gimmicks that need to be called out. For now it's only been put on Pokémon which yield more than one prize, but it is more versatile as its own label and can therefore be put on other cards if needed. "Pokémon with a rulebox" is incredibly clunky and they managed to even make that confusing, so I don't want to go near that.