Contest May 2022 CaC: On-Drop Effects (All Results Up!)

[PMJ]

Spoiler: Arctovish

Everyone hates fossils. They usually have above average HP and A-tier Abilities but because they all evolve from virtually unsearchable Item cards, they are almost always relegated to the binder unless an Archie- or Maxie-like card allows you to cheat them into play. That still requires you to use those Supporters, which further requires you to empty your hand first. A single thing going wrong with the setup can ruin your plans for the turn. The whole thing is a mess.

Until Creatures figures out a better way to handle fossils (a ruling that makes them Items and Pokemon simultaneously would work wonders), it's up to us as fakers to try and find new ways to fix their mistakes.

Because the biggest problem with fossils as a viable archetype is getting Rare Fossil into your hand, this card seeks to eliminate that problem in the simplest way possible - by taking the card right out from under Arctovish's upside-down nose. While this means you'll still have to work for your first Arctovish, being able to recycle the Rare Fossil means your next fossil is essentially free; evolving into another Arctovish means you can continue recycling Rare Fossil until your field is full of fossils.

This card also won't necessarily replace Rare Fossil in your deck, which I think is fine since the goal isn't to completely replace the mechanic. It just exists to make getting them out just a little easier.

This card could have been any of the cursed abominations but Arctovish is the most cursed one (and my favorite of the four).

The attack is powerful, but it's a little slow to get going, even if you stream Arctovish. I lifted it straight from Torterra BRS; it was the perfect attack to use when your Ability focuses on getting more of your dudes in play. Arctovish is slightly harder to get out than usual so I didn't see a need to weaken the attack.

HP and bottom stats are the same as the only existing baby Arctovish. Foil is SWSH era at Jabberwock's request; I have no idea how good it is. I tried. Also, Arctovish's head is upside down. Hope that's okay.

References:

- The usage of the word "remove" was something I argued with myself about, but ended up doing because there wasn't a better word I could think of.
- No card exists that takes cards out from under the target while leaving the rest, so I took some liberties with "from under."
- No coming into play power specifies that you must evolve from a certain Pokemon, just "1 of your Pokemon" so I left that wording intact instead of saying "1 of your Rare Fossil."
- Torterra BRS ("This attack does [amount of damage] for each of your [Pokemon] in play...")
- Exploud VIV/Umbreon UD ("...that [qualifier].)"

 

[Jabberwock]

A little under one week remaining to submit your entries!

 

[SleepyBoi]

Spoiler: Mawile ex

Here I come with a multi prizer for the Omnium format. I'm gonna admit that i'm not that keen on the numbers of the card themselves, but I had to use this idea. Anyway, let's get started, with the Ability, which is the key of the card and the reason it fits on this CaC's theme.

I've always felt that we didn't have that many effects that altered a Pokémon's HP directly. We have lots of damage reduction, which can function similarly to an HP boost, but at the same time an HP boost has things over said damage reduction, such as covering attacks that place damage counters and attacks that ignore effects. OK, maybe the fact that an HP boost works like this is the fact we don't see those that much. But for this card I have more than an HP boost, a nice risky way that can make a frail 90 hp ex, which is very frail for HGSS standards, which Omnium is based on, to get it to a respectable 110 or 120 HP on average, by discarding the top 4 cards of the deck, getting +10 HP for each Metal discarded.

I can imagine this being played with Research Record, which is a very obscure card, that I knew of its existance by the time i made this card. Something concerning about the balancing of this card is that I made it a Metal type and Special Metal exist, but I honestly couldn't find a more fitting mon than Mawile for this effect. Mawile tends to have low HP and this whole "eating" effect is on theme.

As for the attacks themselves, as I said, I'm not that keen on the numbers, but themselves are not that special, with an usual Crunch attack and then the second attack which I think it may be a bit overtuned, to be honest.

References:
I honestly didn't find anything that I could consider reference for the Ability's wording.
Crunch: Various Pokémon with this attack in the SM era (which Omnium bases its wording on) such as Mawile CIN
Ravenous Mouth: the wording for the attack's condition was taken from Eelektrik BUS

 

[doofisconfused]

Spoiler: rock gremlin

Spoiler: thoughts

i'm definitely beginning to fall into a pattern with CaC entries: sign up, get an idea, write up half a spoiler, procrastinate, then finish within the last week of the month. this ability was originally going to be called "lucky cat" and it would be on a skitty card, but i couldn't figure out something neat to add to the attack, so i waited... and waited... and THEN i saw steve k's sableye art and was INSPIRED. for the attack, i wanted to incorporate coins into all parts of the card, so i made an attack based on it! my journey with holosheets continued in this card, and WHOAH this art looks neat with a holosheet! i just used the default sunlava holosheet that came with the psd, but i think it looks neat! a bit rough, but i did it in such a way that i would have to start over to fix it.

Spoiler: transcript

Sableye – P – HP80
Basic
NO. 302 Darkness Pokémon HT: 1’08” WT: 24.3 lbs.
Ability: Rose Tint
When you play this card from your hand onto your bench, you may use this Ability. The next time you flip any number of coins for the effect of an attack, Ability, or Trainer card this turn, treat the first coin flip as heads.
[D][D] Double Down 20x
Flip a coin. This attack does 20 damage for each coin you flipped this turn, and if any of them are heads, heal 20 damage from this Pokémon. Weakness:
Resistance:
Retreat: [C]
This Pokémon is feared. When its gemstone eyes begin to glow with a sinister shine, it's believed that Sableye will steal people's spirits away.
Illus. Steve K

 

[PMJ]

@Falling Skies @LazyEgg @Kaleidophoenix @EM-isthmus y'all really gonna just @I Like Shorts walk away with the gold?

 

[Falling Skies]

I haven't been amazingly motivated due to the low number of entrants in text, but here's my entry nonetheless:

Spoiler

Mothim V HP: 190 [G]
Basic

Ability: Honey Plundering
When you play this Pokémon from your hand onto your Bench during your turn, you may search your deck for as many Sweet Honey cards as possible, up to the number of [G] Pokémon with 50 HP on your Bench, reveal them, and put them into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.

[G][C] Revenge Swarm 30x
This attack does 30 damage for each [G] Pokémon with 50 HP in your discard pile. If the Defending Pokémon is Knocked Out by damage from this attack, put as many [G] Pokémon with 50 HP as possible from your discard pile onto your Bench.

Weakness: [R] x2
Resistance:
Retreat: [C][C]

· V rule: When your Pokémon V is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

Spoiler

I hope I got the hexcode right. This is meant to support Vespiquen from the newest set, as it's one of the few interesting single prizers we've seen this generation. I debated just making this Vespiquen V, but Mothim's pokedex entries mention stealing honey and the attack thematically ties in with Wormadam a little bit.

 

[EM-isthmus]

Spoiler: In the Nights

Spoiler: Dream Delight

Not too many entries this time, but I felt compelled to get something in anyway since I’ve missed a few submissions in the past. Anyway, this time my inspiration had less to do with happenings in the actual TCG and more with what I’ve been doing in my free time. I’ve been playing Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance HD and spent a lot of time doing so. From there you can see where the Ability name came from, but I’ll elaborate since it’s a bit more than that.
“Dream Drop” refers to a story element and game mechanic where the two playable characters “drop” and switch between each other at timed intervals. The game takes place within dreams and as such there are creatures within it known as Dream Eaters, being either benevolent Spirits that eat bad dreams or malevolent Nightmares that create them. The Spirits can be made into allies and the game features a pet raising element where you can train them by playing minigames as well as pet and feed them. The Spirits you befriend also take part in combat, so you may start to see the resemblance to Pokémon. Musharna as a result is very evocative of the former. Nightmare Dropper’s effect is tied more closely to the game mechanics than the story, as Nightmares will often disrupt you with status effects that speed up the Drop Gauge, leading to earlier drops to the other character than desired. My first thought to represent this concept was a gust-like effect, but that’s a rather overplayed effect and isn’t as conducive to the disruptive nature of an early drop. A Nanu-like switch can possibly bring a support the opponent was saving, like say, Lumineon V, and quite literally drop it early. Sleep Gaze is a bit more standard of a Musharna card, directly relating to sleep and relying on that Special Condition for any nominal effect. This again, is similar to a Nightmare’s habit of speeding up drops with negative statuses, with the opponent’s deck serving as an analogue for the Drop Gauge. It’s unlikely to see much use as there are currently no ways in the Standard format to inflict Asleep outside of attacks, but a partner could come in the future, providing a niche way to close out a long game.
The art this time is from one of the artists on the free-use list, Aonik. Musharna’s red eyes are another parallel to the Nightmares, and this piece shows them off with a faint glow, fitting nicely with the concept. I especially took to the Dream Mist as Aonik illustrated it here, which led me to incorporate it as a special visual effect on the card, similar to that of Amazing Rare Pokémon. I admit that a Kingdom Hearts crossover in the TCG isn't too plausible, but there was that Post Malone partnership a while back, which I wouldn't have ever expected, so who can say for sure?

Spoiler: Sweet Dreams Are Made of This

SUM Tsareena (“When you play this Pokémon from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokémon during your turn, you may have your opponent reveal their hand. Then,...”), SHF Ditto (“...choose a…Pokémon…and switch it with.... Any attached cards, damage counters, Special Conditions, turns in play, and any other effects remain on the new Pokémon.), SSH Musharna (“If your opponent’s Active Pokémon is Asleep,…”), FST Crabominable (“[d]iscard the top 2 cards of your opponent’s deck.”)

 

[EM-isthmus]

Spoiler: Hisuian Braviary

STAGE 1 Hisuian Braviary )) HP 120 {C}
Evolves from Rufflet


: .! J&J .G@J 7&@&. :B@@P !&@@5.?&@@&~ ~BY ^!~.:5G?. ~: J&@@#JG@@@&?.7G#&5 :!7!J#@@BP&@B!B@Y ^B@@@##&@@@&GYGBGBG: !5#@@&##@&G&@B#@#B5 .~G&@@@&&@@@&GGGGPP57.. .?#@&&@&&@&&@G@#. ^: ~G&@@@&&@@@@&#GPPPPPY??P#! .5@@@@&&&&&&#GY~7GBP&&G^ 7&@@@@@@@&#BGPPPP5PGGPGGG! Y&##BBGB###&@@@@@@@@&#~ :&@@@@&#BGPPPPPPP555PPP5J. ~J5PP#@&&&@@@@@@@@@@&P .G@@&BGY5PPPPPPPPP55PPGPY~ .PP&#&@@@@@@@@@@@&@&P .P@@BY!7!^!?Y5PPPPGY7!!^. ^7#&#&@@@@@&#@&@&#B#B5 !#@&Y~^^::::::^!75?J?^ :GBPGG&@#BP555PGB##GPY?..~P#&#Y!^^^^^:^^^~~?: ~PYYYGPJYJJYJJG&#G57!7J##BPY7^:^^^^^^~~!7? .55?7JY55JY5P#@@@#Y^!7#Y^:^^^:^^^^^~!J!?. :??!~??J77P&&@#G?~~!?Y::::^^^^^^!!Y~: ^GGYYJ?7~~JYYP~:~!!!^^^^^^^^^~?~.. Y#BY?7Y! ^!^~!!^:^^^^^:^J~! :~ ^7: ^~^^:::^^^^^^:J#Y. 7!:^::^^::^^^7@#. :~~!!. :!7!::^^^^:^^~7!YG~::.. !!?7~?55!~^^:.:~~~:::^!!!7Y5PGGGP5?!: J~~~!7JGJ7^^::^!^^?7^:^~~7Y555PPPGGB#BP7: . .JYGY^~!?JY??7Y5~~~^~YPPGPPPPP5PPPGB#B7 ~!7Y:...^J?7!~~?7~:~?::^?GBBGG5:...:!J7 :^ .!J??~^~ :!JY5! ^YJP. :^^^


(( NO. 628 Battle Cry Pokémon HT: 5’7” WT: 95.7 lbs. )_/

{ } Sudden Dive 130
If you play this Hisuian Braviary from your hand to evolve 1 of your Benched Pokémon during your turn, switch it with your Active Pokémon and use this attack. If you didn’t switch this Hisuian Braviary in this way, this attack does nothing.

{C}{C}{C} Free Glide
Search your deck for a Supporter card and a Stadium card and put them into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.

((weakness {L}×2 (resistance {F}–30 ( (retreat {C} ((

Screaming a bloodcurdling battle cry, this huge and ferocious bird Pokémon goes out on the hunt. It blasts lakes with shock waves, then scoops up any prey that float to the water’s surface.

Spoiler: Notes

Thought I would try text as well since it was open, so here it is. This one doesn't have quite as much behind it as my image entry, only that I wanted to fit the theme without an Ability. One option was a custom mechanic but I felt that sort of thing is better fleshed out in image form, which left me with an attack. So I figured the best way to do it would be to take advantage of Hisuian forms having free attacks like Alolan forms before them. An attack that forces you to use it on play wouldn't really work if Energy was required. There is of course RCL Grimmsnarl which could bump its attack cost up to 1 C, but you wouldn't really play it in that case. It's an experimental idea for sure, and I don't foresee such an effect ever making it into the actual TCG. I don't really have any references to include here since it's pretty straightforward and the only thing that would need them obviously won't have any. I will note however that "this Hisuian Braviary" is used to avoid any attack copying shenanigans from complicating it further.

 

[Mick-773]

Eh, I had a lot of fun with this one, but it was also quite challenging to work on a full art again.
Anyway, here's my entry!

Spoiler: fav fossil

the usual rambling concerning the creation process, as well as the references used will be added later here

 

[AlphaLad]

A bit short on time this month, but I managed to get this one in last minute.

Spoiler: Mismagius BY

Spoiler: Thoughts

Yep, we're doing these again. These GX/V style cards are always fun to make, and with these new blanks, I thought it'd be a perfect opportunity for a BY. The balancing on this one was a little wonky, especially with the ability. Shady Ritual could be a pretty disruptive ability with the right deck, but is offset by being on what is essentially a Stage 2 multi-prizer. Vengeful Spirit is there to provide synergy with Shady Ritual but is only really strong if your discarded Pokemon took a lot of damage. I'm not 100% sure about the wording for this one, since pkmncards.com didn't show anything remotely similar.

As for the art, the Mismagius is from Pokken, which is probably my favorite source for these "3d" multi-prizers. You might notice that the blank is slightly different from my old ones, and that's because I lost the original folder that had them. Luckily, it gave me an excuse to make new blanks for this month's CaC, and I'm pretty happy with the finished product.

 

[Holy Star]

Spoiler: Pidgey

Spoiler: Thoughts

Pidge.

This is my first CAC entry, and mostly was a challenge to myself to make something simple yet elegant. I believe this Pidgey to be just that! The photo was taken in my backyard with a figure from my collection.

Pidgey's Ability, Seed Picker, serves as some early game draw you could grab with Elm's Lecture or other search cards. Perhaps a Pidgeotto control deck could have used it to grab an extra card? When using Team Up Pidgeotto's Air Mail (which requires putting 1 of the top 2 cards of your deck on the bottom of your deck), this Pidgey could let you grab the other card you put away.

In the right situation, this Pidgey could also recover an Energy that was removed by Fan of Waves, or other disruption cards that put valuable cards on the bottom of the deck. If ever a Pidgey could be considered playable, I would hope it's this one! 50HP is on the lower side compared to its counterparts in the late SM/early SWSH era (60HP being more common), yet I feel the lower HP is justified by with having a semi-useful Ability.

 

[Kaleidophoenix]

Spoiler: Crawdaunt

Spoiler: References

Ludicolo EVS#034 "When you play this Pokémon from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokémon during your turn, you may use this Ability."
Canceling Cologne ASR#136 "Until the end of your turn, your opponent’s Active Pokémon has no Abilities. (This includes Pokémon that come into play during that turn.)"
Scizor V DAA#118 "Discard a Pokémon Tool and a Special Energy from your opponent’s Active Pokémon."

Spoiler: Text Fake

Crawdaunt – [D] – HP120
Stage 1 – Evolves from Corphish

Ability: Unnerving Vice
When you play this Pokémon from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokémon during your turn, you may use this Ability. Until the end of your opponent's turn, your opponent’s Evolution Pokémon have no Abilities. (This includes Pokémon that come into play during that turn.)

[D] Hack Off 30
Discard a Pokémon Tool and a Special Energy from your opponent’s Active Pokémon.

Weakness: [G] (x2)
Resistance: [P] (-30)
Retreat: [C] [C]
A rough customer that wildly flails its giant claws. It is said to be extremely hard to raise.

Spoiler: Thoughts

Just a brief writeup, as time is closing in for submissions. This is meant for a format without Scoop Up Net, as it is otherwise oppressive, but fills in the spot that Galarian Weezing will leave nicely. Because it lasts for the turn, it will block those pecky VSTAR Power Abilities, and allow you the opportunity to focus down a Palkia V/VSTAR or Arceus V/VSTAR that is threatening something big, without having to rely on sticking Path to the Peak. Genesect is also neutered completely for the turn, and with the attack discarding tools and Special Energies, Crawdaunt has an excellent matchup there. Radiant Greninja and Bibarel are also victims here, and even Radiant Hawlucha, which means you might protect a VMAX from that extra damage threshold.

Its attack is more utility focused rather than damage focused—I had considered if I wanted to interact with Abilities in the attack, but it felt a little too punishing to do that.

Other than that, this is a blank type I've been playing with a little, as I very much like the 3/4 art style, and it fits much more art than the Full Art does, so it's a fun edit. It also means that I can use a different holosheet, so I went with Sunlava, as it is one I like very much.

 

[Kaleidophoenix]

Spoiler: Staraptor

Staraptor – [C] – HP150
Stage 2 – Evolves from Staravia

NO. 398 Predator Pokémon HT: 3’11” WT: 54.9 lbs.

Ability: Vicious Winds
Once during your turn, if this Pokémon is in your discard pile, you may put it onto your Bench. If you do, discard an Energy from your opponent's Active Pokémon. If you use this Ability, your turn ends.

[C] [C] Breeze Through 50
You may put this Pokémon into your hand. (Discard all attached cards.) If you do, this attack does 50 damage to 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokémon. (Don't apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)

Weakness: [L] (x2)
Resistance: [F] (-30)
Retreat:
It has a savage nature. It will courageously challenge foes that are much larger than itself.

Spoiler: References

Empoleon BRS#037 "Once during your turn, if this Pokémon is in your discard pile and you have no cards in your hand, you may put this Pokémon onto your Bench."
Centiskorch V DAA#033 "If you do, discard an Energy from your opponent’s Active Pokémon."
Snorlax VIV#131 "If you use this Ability, your turn ends."
Shaymin CRE#123 "Put this Pokémon and all attached cards into your hand."

Spoiler: Thoughts

Once I saw the new Gengar from Dark Phantasma, I knew that I wanted to play around with similar effects, and this is no exception. Staraptor is very much a control type of card, and fits in nicely with the Zoroark box type deck, allowing for an Energy discard from the Active at any point there's a Bench slot open. It does mean ending your turn, as there are no other restrictions on using it, but if you have nothing better to do, or an Energy denial is all you need to slow your opponent down for the turn, it'll get the job done.

Its attack can return it to the hand, while discarding any Energy it has attached, so it's not easy to loop without extra effort. As long as there's a Grant in your discard pile, it's easy enough to get in there, or through the myriad of other discard we have in the format. Overall I think the concept came out well.

 

[Jabberwock]

That's a wrap on this round! Stay tuned for results coming near the end of the month!

 

[Jabberwock]

Image-Based Results

Judge: @Jabberwock


Even with such a constraining theme as this one, we saw a strong diversity of effects this month. Some hewed closely to existing on-drop effects, with varying degrees of success in the Creativity/Originality department. Others went a little more off-beat — with varying degrees of success in the Believability/Playability department. Part of this competition is being able to balance those two aspects of card design effectively. Don’t let a seemingly simple theme catch you off guard!

I’m seeing wording getting better over time, on balance, but there’s still room for improvement, and for our perennial call to make use of pkmncards.com or a similar database to check for references. Don’t be afraid to ask around in our Discord server for assistance, too!

The next round should be up shortly. See y’all next month!

~~Jabberwock

Spoiler: ggDerpyDerpy’s Hoppip

NFEs are always a risky choice in the Create-a-Card contest. Where the goal is to make as unique and interesting a card as possible, people tend to go for intricate effects and complex interactions, and rarely does the subtlety of a highly creative entry lend itself to the simplicity of an NFE. I think you’ve pushed things about as far as they can go here by giving a Hoppip both an extremely useful on-drop power and a widely usable attack with scalable damage, and any more might push it into the realm of unbelievability.

That being said, NFEs tend to be really heartfelt, genuine entries, and I like seeing them. I respect wanting to make a simple card that just “bounces around,” and the carefree whimsicality of “Floating Moves” and “Do the Wave” on a low-HP Hoppip were enough to make me smile as I read the card for the first time. If you’re happy with the end result, that’s what’s most important.

Still, from both a gameplay perspective and a creative one, I could wish for more novel effects. Floating Moves has been seen before on the likes of Shaymin UL (albeit under the name Celebration Wind), and Do the Wave is a time-tested staple of the TCG dating all the way back to Jungle. I guess putting them together on the same card is technically new, but it’s hard to give any card much credit for originality when the most transformative thing about it is an Ability name.

I guess the bottom line here is that while it’s okay and even encouraged in many aspects of card design to go for simplicity and straightforwardness where possible, in this contest I can’t give out very many points for effects I’ve seen before. For more points in Creativity/Originality, look for ways to shake up the tried-and-true effects without adding additional complexity. Self-synergy can be a useful design strategy here.

Wording errors:
- You’re using SSH-era wording references so I’ll defer to those, and in that case your wording is on point. Without them, the default wording would be Pone’s Omnium standard, which is basically SUM-era until you find something that works better.

Fonts and Placement errors:
- Looks good.

Creativity/Originality: 6/15
(Lighthearted whimsicality I can get behind, but there are no new effects here to speak of, and so I can’t give you very many points here at all. For more points without losing the whimsicality, look for ways to shake up the effects a little bit — maybe find ways for them to synergize with each other, as a starting point.)
Believability/Playability: 12/15
(You’re pushing the envelope a little bit on believability, putting two somewhat complex effects like this on the same evolving Basic, but where it loses me is the power level. 60 for 1 is still a good deal too strong for a Hoppip, even in this day and age.)
Wording: 10/10
(On point, assuming SSH-era references.)
Fonts and Placement: 5/5
(Looks good.)
Aesthetics: 4/5
(Nice choice of art, with a delicate, understated holosheet application. It doesn’t exactly wow me, but it’s pretty darn solid even still.)
Total: 37/50

Spoiler: PMJ’s Arctovish

That’s what I’m talking about — a unique, original Ability that breaks the conventional rules of the game and makes you want to get thinking about all the different ways it could be used in a deck. Fossil Pokémon commonly play off each other’s strengths, especially when they’re released together in the same set, but they’ve been roadblocked in recent years by the hard cap on the number of Rare Fossil (or Unidentified Fossil) you can play. So this is a natural direction for Fossil Pokémon to go, even though I can’t say I’ve ever seen it implemented like this before.

Rare DNA probably doesn’t intrinsically need to be an on-drop effect, and in fact you could argue that the end result isn’t really that different from “Once during your turn, you may put this Pokémon from your hand onto your Bench” in most scenarios. But it’s a neat starting point with the theme, and the player in me is happy to have the physical cards moving around so much between my hand and the board.

I’m a little sad about Prehistoric Party being such a straightforward attack. Where the gameplay value of this archetype really shines is in its ability to facilitate way more Fossil Pokémon than you would usually ever get to play at once, and they would no doubt be able to do some really nifty support things and allow for all kinds of fun combo plays. But Arctovish doesn’t have that by itself — it just does a bunch of damage and lets you make more Arctovish. So on the card’s own merits, I have to get pretty creative to imagine where its gameplay potential could take me.

On the art, when you said the head was literally on backward, I thought I would have a problem with it, but weirdly I don’t. Maybe it’s because the Gen 8 Fossils are already such messed-up Pokémon, giving one of their heads a full 180-degree rotation doesn’t seem out of place. The art is pretty, I like the colors, and the combination of the big lineart style with the vertical-line holosheet feels very clean. Nice work.

Wording errors:
- I can get behind “remove” on the (admittedly tenuous) basis of certain SM-era devolving cards like Celebi UNM and Celebi Prism Star, but I don’t think it’s necessary, and “... you may put a Rare Fossil from under this Pokémon into your hand” seems both sufficient and much simpler. I won’t dock for it since “remove” has been used in a similar context so recently, though.

Fonts and Placement errors:
- Looks good.

Creativity/Originality: 12/15
(Great concept for the Ability; I almost can’t believe it’s taken me this long to see an effect like that on a Fossil Pokémon. I could wish the attack was less straightforward, though, since it means most of the new gameplay potential for this archetype is relegated to cards I have to imagine for myself.)
Believability/Playability: 15/15
(On its own merit alone, it seems balanced. Taking Torterra BRS’s attack and putting it a Stage lower on a Fossil mon would probably work out. That assumes the other Fossils don’t help accelerate it basically at all, though — which is a fine assumption for my purposes, and I guess it’s the upshot of not expanding on the archetype with your entry.)
Wording: 10/10
(Minor disagreement over “remove”, but your wording is somewhat supported so it slides.)
Fonts and Placement: 5/5
(Looks good.)
Aesthetics: 5/5
(Nice art/holosheet combination. There’s probably a little room to refine the holosheet’s blending modes, but the vertical lines combo so well with the illustration it’s not even a fraction of a point’s worth. Arctovish’s head doesn’t look out of place, so that slides too.)
Total: 47/50

Spoiler: SleepyBoi’s Mawile ex

We don’t often see effects that linger past the first turn cycle after they’re used, but if there were ever a way to do it, it’s with an on-drop effect. Restricting usage of the Ability that way removes some of the ambiguity that comes from being able to activate an HP-changing Ability at any time; if any player wonders whether Voracity was activated and Mawile ex has more HP than it appears to have, you can point to a single instant in the game where the change in HP had to have happened.

It doesn’t remove all the ambiguity, though, and this is where I’d recommend a change — there’s no way to keep track of how much Mawile’s HP increases by. You could go the tried-and-true route and use counters, or you could attach the discarded Energy to Mawile (perhaps face down, if you don’t want them to act as attached Energy). Either way, you need to be able to mark the usage of Voracity, since the game typically doesn’t expect players to remember stuff like this beyond a couple of turns.

On the attacks side, Crunch has been a staple for years, appearing on 33 Pokémon (by my count) in the sets since BLW, including two Mawile. I can see why you chose the attack, but it’s hard to give points for creativity there. The coin flip adds a swingy element that makes Crunch rarely usable over Mawile’s second, stronger attack — only when you’re short on Energy, I’d imagine, or in a real pinch where you’re desperate to knock off an Energy from the opponent’s Active Pokémon.

I like Ravenous Mouth as a wallbreaker attack. With a little support, it can pull down threats at the higher end of the HGSS balancing range, but it might struggle to deal with more mid-range attackers. I’m not 100% convinced of the numbers here, but they seem roughly right, and at least not noticeably overpowered or underpowered. I also like that it riffs on maximum HP, making it a theme of the card alongside the Ability. A shame that we’re not doing an HP theme this month!

Wording errors:
- “into your Bench” → “onto your Bench” [-1 point]
- The SUM-era convention is to say “discard an Energy from your opponent’s Active Pokémon”, not “... attached to the Defending Pokémon”. [-4 points]

Fonts and Placement errors:
- The “ex” symbol in the name looks like it’s been squished horizontally — compare it to the same symbol in the Rule Box. [-1 point]

Creativity/Originality: 11/15
(Voracity is the main selling point of the card from a creative standpoint; apart from that there’s nothing too revolutionary. Crunch we’ve seen before exactly, and while Ravenous Mouth is a nifty effect with some cool gameplay applications, it too follows pretty closely from established effects.)
Believability/Playability: 12/15
(I find the “Special Pokémon” tag an odd choice, but everyone I’ve talked to about it thinks it should be used for something different, so who’s to say. I’ll give it a pass here. The numbers are mostly fine, or at least not noticeably balance-breaking in either direction. Having no way to keep track of the Voracity HP boost hurts the card a good deal, though — it’s just not something Creatures does with their cards, ever.)
Wording: 6/10
(A couple errors — double-check your references, especially on easily searchable effects like Crunch!)
Fonts and Placement: 4/5
(“ex” symbol is a little squished.)
Aesthetics: 2.5/5
(The art is solid, but for a Pokémon ex, it doesn’t exactly thrill me. The acid wash holosheet is Omnium standard, but could probably be fiddled with a little further, since it tends to look washed out on its own. I’ve also docked a half point here for the divider you left in just below the Pokémon ex Rule Box, which acts as its own divider between the attacks and the Weakness and Resistance.)
Total: 34.5/50

Spoiler: doofisconfused’s Sableye

Weirdly enough this is not the first time I’ve seen a [P]-type Sableye using artwork by Steve K on SM-era blanks. Fortunately Steve is extremely good at picking palettes that work with most blank backgrounds without any tinkering, and this piece is no exception. The sunlava holosheet can occasionally make them look a little more chaotic than necessary, but I think it mostly works with the gems here, and I end up not minding it.

I like the coin flip direction you went with for both the Ability and the attack. I happen to believe that coin flips are a much maligned aspect of the game, undeservedly so — it’s true that you don’t want too consequential an effect to rest on any one flip (see Supporter cards like Hooligans Jim & Cas, but introducing variance as an obstacle to get what you want isn’t a bad thing. It just forces you to find ways to mitigate the effect the variance can have on you.

Of course, there’s another way to tackle coin flips, too, which is what you did here — giving the player a useful result (20 more damage) regardless of which way the coin fell. I like this as a way of encouraging the player to use cards like Poké Ball without the outcome being too intrinsically tied to their success (if one Poké Ball fails, you’re probably fine, since your main attacker requires hardly any setup).

Double Down isn’t the sort of attack you can easily get away with using the turn you play Sableye down ([D][D] on a [P] Pokémon? You can’t even use Dark Patch!), but that’s mostly okay, since you can use future Sableye drops to support your first Sableye as an attacker. By that point, the first Sableye will also have accumulated some amount of damage you can heal with Double Down’s if-heads effect, one hopes.

I admit I find the heal a little bit of an odd choice — an 80-HP Basic Pokémon isn’t really the sort of thing you can reliably expect to tank hits to make use of healing over time. Some additional damage or disruption would probably have been preferable to the heal here.

It’s very nice overall, though, as both a self-contained strategy that feeds into itself from Sableye to Sableye and a broader gameplay incentive to build decks focused around coin flips. There are a couple bumps to iron out around the attack, but those can be fixed. I’d be interested to see the card in action.

Wording errors:
- “bench” should be capitalized. [-1 point]
- The first clause of the Ability should have a “... during your turn” on the end. [-2 points]
- I went back and forth over whether “this turn” should have a “during” in front of it, and based on Will I think I’m okay with allowing it not to. [-0 points]

Fonts and Placement errors:
- Double Down should be a little closer to the Ability; right now there’s too much space above it and not enough space between it and the bottom of the attack box. [-1 point]

Creativity/Originality: 13/15
(Very exciting effects that encourage players to think about coin flips in a fun new way. A couple aspects of the card, like the heal effect on Double Down, feel tacked on in a way that doesn’t make very much sense to me with the rest of the design, but overall it’s a great concept.)
Believability/Playability: 13/15
(Balancing seems fine — perhaps at the lower range of playability since it’s a low-HP basic that requires you to have ways to flip a bunch of coins turn after turn to do any real damage, but certainly not underpowered, and I can believe that any format where this exists would have more coin flip support than we’re accustomed to seeing. I’ve docked a couple cautious points here because of the “Flip a coin” clause in the attack that leads … essentially nowhere, except for an additional 20 damage and another chance at a heads for the heal effect. Coin flips on official cards always result in an immediate “if heads/tails, …” effect, and not having one here is a little unbelievable.)
Wording: 7/10
(A couple minor errors around the beginning of the Ability. This is something that can be checked against real cards easily enough, so don’t forget to look at other cards with on-drop effects in a round like this one!)
Fonts and Placement: 4/5
(Vertical alignment on the attack.)
Aesthetics: 5/5
(Nice work! Steve K’s art is a great choice for an SM-era blank, and I think the holosheet works, too.)
Total: 42/50

Spoiler: EM-isthmus’s Musharna

I like what you’ve done with the dream mist — it’s a great way to make a card feel special without being overstated; it draws your attention and makes you wonder what else about the card is worth a look. It feels very typical of the SwSh era, with round-the-box swirls seen on cards like Amazing Rares — plus, they even debuted another similar aesthetic literally in the time since I started writing this month’s results!

I think at least some of the “specialness” of the card is probably intended to lie in its connection to the Kingdom Hearts game from which you’re drawing inspiration. I’m sorry to say I don’t get the references, but the card mostly works independently of them (save for the watermark I guess, which I’ll ascribe to the somewhat-out-there Post Malone–style crossover you’re asking me to imagine).

The Ability is very exciting: it has the potential to turn the tide of a game by effectively removing your opponent’s biggest threat, but it requires very careful timing and probably a good number of additional support cards in order to use it effectively. It’s quite hard to regulate which Pokémon your opponent has in their hand from your side of the field — for instance, I can’t think of a stronger play from the Musharna player than a well-timed N — but this is probably a good thing, since the effect is so strong. Your opponent can do what they can to avoid a bad Nightmare Dropper, and you can do what you can to mess up their plans, but at some point you just have to make the drop.

I’m cautious about high-risk, high-reward cards like these. They’re fun in a casual environment for sure, but if an effect can completely turn the tide of a game by itself, and it does so in a way that’s hard for both players to regulate, it tends not to be great for gameplay. Now, I acknowledge that you can mitigate the risk involved here using a hand-checker like Lavender Town, so — with extreme caution — I think this card skates by and comes out on the side of “fun”. But it’s definitely pushing the envelope, and even though you can mitigate the risk, the problem remains that one Musharna drop can completely upend a game by removing the opponent’s main attacker.

Sleep Gaze is cool in theory, but attacking into a sleeping Pokémon is so difficult to achieve I’d probably want to mill more than 2 cards for it. Slightly underpowered here, I think.

On the whole, though, it’s a nifty card. The on-drop Ability is definitely the main selling point, which is as it should be for this month. It’s bold, it’s daring, and the first thing it made me think was, “Whoa. Does that work?” And yeah, I think it does. Nice work, as usual.

Wording errors:
- The syntax “... reveal their hand. Then, choose …” caught me off guard in the Ability, since “Then, choose …” hasn’t been used since Professor Oak’s Visit, at the end of the DPPt era. After some investigation, it looks like the vast majority of cards that have your opponent reveal their hand do not follow it up with “Then, …”, with only three exceptions [1][2][3], all of which specifically have to do with discarding. But then, we also have the likes of Team Skull Grunt, which has a discarding effect but does not use “Then, …”, so maybe those three examples were accidents or the whole thing is inconsistent anyway. In the end, while my personal preference here would be to not use “Then, …” since the construction “Then, choose …” hasn’t been seen in almost 13 years, I’ll allow it on the basis of Tsareena SUM as a reference, accident on TPCi’s part or no. Good on you for citing your sources.

Fonts and Placement errors:
- Looks good.

Creativity/Originality: 13/15
(Nightmare Dropper is a very exciting Ability — forcing your opponent into a Nanu-style situation isn’t something I would ever have expected to see before it happened, and it works great in a month with an on-drop effect theme. Sleep Gaze excites me less, as it’s a pretty reasonable effect for a Musharna to have and doesn’t tie much into Nightmare Dropper, but still an impressive design overall.)
Believability/Playability: 12/15
(Sleep Gaze strikes me as noticeably underpowered, given how hard it generally is to ensure your opponent’s Active Pokémon is Asleep when you attack it. Nightmare Dropper I’m extremely cautious about from a high-risk, high-reward design standpoint, but came out on the side of it being okay.)
Wording: 10/10
(Tl;dr looks good.)
Fonts and Placement: 5/5
(Looks good.)
Aesthetics: 5/5
(Subtle mist effects work great for making the card look special. Understated, yet unique and eye-catching.)
Total: 45/50

Spoiler: Mick-773’s Tyrantrum V

Whoa, beautiful art! The pose is dynamic and intimidating, and it integrates the looming threat of Tyrantrum with Peonia’s audacious confidence in a way only a character rare can. The fact that Tyrantrum fills the frame, but the field of view is centered on its Trainer, is an inspired choice. The colors are great; the texturing is a little on the light side, but that’s okay. As a whole, the card is stunning.

As for the effects, well, I do love me a good usage of the Lost Zone. In recent years the discard pile has become less a trash heap for all your already-played cards and more a zone as easily accessed as any other, so if you want a place to send cards and truly remove them from the game, the Lost Zone is a great choice. It makes sense here with Lost Rumble — you can score pretty high numbers with an effect like that, but you probably can’t do it too many times in a game. Establishing an immutable cap like that means your players are forced to count their cards carefully, always making sure they have enough Pokémon left to have a clear route to victory.

Tyrannic Terror is a cool idea for an on-drop Ability. Conveniently, it helps facilitate your other on-drop Abilities — several of the Pokémon you play for Abilities like Luminous Sign won’t be doing too much after you play them down except clogging up your Bench space, so in a lot of situations it will be useful to have Tyrantrum at your disposal as a way to clean up. It also gets rid of highly damaged Pokémon or other prime targets your opponent may have been planning to snipe. What’s not to like?

Where it loses me a bit is the switch with the Active Pokémon. Usually when cards have an effect like that, they also have a built-in way to pull Energy to themselves in the process — think Tapu Koko-GX or Dragonite-EX. This enables them to do something right away after they’ve been switched in. Tyrantrum doesn’t have that — with Lost Rumble costing [F][F][M][C], it won’t be able to attack the turn you play it down, and with a retreat cost of 3, switching it out won’t be trivial, either. So its on-drop Ability switches it in, and then essentially leaves it there to tank a few hits while you figure out what else to do with it. Maybe it’s a downside; the price you pay for such a great effect as clearing up to two Pokémon off your Bench. But I don’t think the card needs it.

It’s great work on the whole — the art is gorgeous, and I know you’ve proven your skills as an illustrator time and time again in this contest, but this piece is really something special. I like the discarding effect of Tyrannic Terror playing into Lost Rumble, and the gameplay choices the Lost Zone cap forces you to make. Just make sure to think about the route the synergy takes, and how you can get from an on-drop switch to using your attack!

Wording errors:
- “Pokemon” in the attack is missing an é. [-1 point]
- “into the Lost Zone” → “in the Lost Zone” [-1 point]
- Your other wording references are fine — it looks like you’re worried about whether you should have used SM-era references or SwSh-era ones, and I would be fine with either here, especially if you state your intention. You’re making a Pokémon V, but it’s on custom blanks rooted in Omnium, which conventionally uses SM-era wording unless stated otherwise. SM-era references are therefore fine.

Fonts and Placement errors:
- Looks good to me.

Creativity/Originality: 12/15
(I like the synergy between the Ability discarding Benched Pokémon — already an effect with exciting implications — and the attack Lost Zoning Pokémon from the discard pile. The switch in the Ability comes a little bit out of nowhere, leading to slightly awkward gameplay of which I’m not sure you fully thought through all the ramifications, so that would be the main area I’d suggest looking at from a design standpoint.)
Believability/Playability: 15/15
(The power levels seem pretty good. [F][F][M][C] is quite a hard Energy cost to power up on the fly, so we have to assume there’s some other infrastructure helping it out here, but that’s fine — no Basic Pokémon V should be completely self-sustaining. It’s very weird to see [Y] Weakness on a Pokémon V, but I’ll grudgingly let it slide since you’re on custom blanks and already messing around by making it a dual-type.)
Wording: 8/10
(A couple minor errors.)
Fonts and Placement: 5/5
(Looks good.)
Aesthetics: 5/5
(Beautifully executed character rare. The posing is dynamic, with great interplay between the Pokémon looming in the background and its Trainer taking center stage. Perfect.)
Total: 45/50

Spoiler: AlphaLad’s Mismagius BY

Man oh man, I’m sorry to hear you lost the folder with your old blanks! I know how much it sucks to lose a bunch of faking materials. I’m glad you were able to recreate them so easily, though — and just in time for this month’s round.

I can’t remember what’s a holdover from the previous blanks and what’s new, so I’ll look at them as though they’re totally new and give you my fresh opinion on the aesthetics. I can get behind the slightly thicker border and the rounded interior corners. The border is extremely bright with that holosheet, though, to the extent that I feel it’s detracting somewhat from the Pokémon, and the fact that part of Mismagius’s face is in shadow behind the magical orb probably doesn’t help. The Pokémon doesn’t feel integrated with the rest of the card, and while I know it’s natural to want to show off your custom blank with a powerful high-saturation holosheet, the art is always what should be taking center stage. Any holosheet on the blank or the background should serve to accentuate the Pokémon, not overpower it.

My suggestion here would basically be to tone down the holosheet a few notches, in terms of both opacity and saturation. It’s hard to give good estimates for this, but Multiply in the 40-60% range under Color Dodge in the 60-80% range should be about right for the blending modes, and the saturation can probably afford to be ~50% of what it is now.

I like the swoopy shapes of the name box, Rule Box, and W/R/R bars; they feel like a DPPt-era or BWXY-era take on the SM-on layout. I would probably go with an italicized font in the evo bar in keeping with tradition, as well as a slightly squished Gill Sans Bold for the name rather than Gill Sans Bold Condensed, but your choices are fine, too.

On the effects side, you’ve got a similar take to Mick this month — discarding both players’ Benched Pokémon, allowing you to wipe your board of Bench-sitters or heavily damaged mons before your opponent can snipe them off. I’m not sure I buy that it’s especially disruptive — in some cases, your opponent will be forced into discarding something they don’t want to discard, but in most formats you can expect them to have Bench-sitters aplenty, so it probably averages out to having some mutual benefit for both players, which you can skew slightly to your advantage with the asset of timing.

You’ve given Mismagius a win-more synergy in the attack, in that you benefit even more from wiping those damaged mons off your board than you already do, which is quite a significant amount. The synergy is clear and straightforward, but I’m not sure it leads to the most thought-provoking strategies, since you basically always have an incentive to pick the most heavily damaged mon you have with Shady Ritual — a compelling reason to pick a different Pokémon, forcing the player to weigh benefits and drawbacks in their head before making a decision, would probably have been a more thought-provoking design.

Wording errors:
- The “You must [do something] in order to use this Ability” clause has never been used in the SwSh era on an on-drop Ability, and I have a hard time convincing myself it would be. It always goes before the when-you-may-use-it clause, so chronologically, you’re reading the first effect of the Ability before the Pokémon has even been put into play! A wording like Thievul EVS’s seems more appropriate; something like “When you play this Pokémon from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokémon during your turn, you may have each player discard 1 of their Benched Pokémon. You discard first.” [-3 points]

Fonts and Placement errors:
- A couple of font choices I disagree with, but nothing so major as to dock for it. What I do have to dock for is an incorrect symbol: the letter “x” instead of the multiplication sign “×” in the Weakness bar. Subtle distinction, but important — I apologize if I missed this in your older blanks. [-1 point]

Creativity/Originality: 11/15
(There’s some straightforward synergy between the Ability and the attack, but in general I’d like to see more than just straightforward synergy. Looking at gameplay execution would be a good place to start here — what choices does it force the player to make? How can you make the gameplay more interesting?)
Believability/Playability: 13/15
(I’m not too concerned about the balancing — for a Stage 2 that you can’t use Rare Candy to reach, sure, wiping a Bench spot and doing a bunch of damage is okay. Cautiously, though, I’m docking a couple points because tracking the number of damage counters on a Pokémon that has left play is not something Creatures has ever done before, and I think it would lead to several disagreements if they did.)
Wording: 7/10
(Unusual use of a clause; precedent suggests a different wording.)
Fonts and Placement: 4/5
(Stray x that should be a ×.)
Aesthetics: 3/5
(The Pokkén-render-on-top-of-generic-background-with-holosheet approach broadly works, but I’ve seen it often enough from you in the past that it doesn’t do as much to impress me now. The blanks are cool, but I’d strongly recommend toning down the holosheet so it doesn’t overshadow the Pokémon.)
Total: 38/50

Spoiler: Holy Star’s Pidgey

An evolving Basic with an effectless attack! It’s not too often that I see one of those around here. To be fair, that’s with good reason: it’s hard for me to award very many creativity points to a card with [C][C] Gust: 20 damage. Simple yet elegant is a good thing to shoot for, but there’s such a thing as too simple, too.

You’ve put some good thought into your reasoning for Seed Picker. A Basic that “cantrips” itself into another card, thereby replacing itself in your hand, is certainly better than a Basic that doesn’t. The synergy with Pidgeotto TEU is a neat touch too, even if the cards are from different eras.

I’m not sure it’s broadly playable, though, or at least not in the way you’re hoping for in your notes. One of the things you have to consider with this theme is how valuable a Bench spot is. If your card doesn’t double as an attacker — which, let’s face it, this one doesn’t — then all of its value has to come from that single, one-time effect that you get when you play it down. Is a card that just replaces itself in your hand worth one of your five Bench spots? My feeling is, in 99% of situations, probably not. Fan of Waves just isn’t a ubiquitous enough problem for that. It makes sense as the Pidgey to choose if you’re already playing Pidgeotto TEU or some other useful Pidgeotto or Pidgeot, but probably not as an inclusion on its own.

I do love the art, though. Mad props for giving it sunflower seeds to go with the Ability’s name.

Wording errors:
- SwSh-era cards omit the inches in the stats bar on Pokémon that are a round number of feet, as well as the digit after the decimal point if it happens to be a 0 — so “HT: 1′” and “WT: 4 lbs.” This is a hard one to catch on Pidgey since there have been no SwSh-era Pidgey cards yet — check something like Spearow BST in order to see it. [-1 point]

Fonts and Placement errors:
- Gust is too far down on the card — compare the placement to real SwSh cards with a three-line Ability and an effectless attack, like Galarian Perrserker SSH. [-1 point]

Creativity/Originality: 3/15
(Your thought process connecting this card to Pidgeotto TEU and Fan of Waves was good, but ultimately there’s just not much to the card. It has an on-drop Ability that replaces itself in your hand — the bottom of the deck is a twist, but not enough of one to warrant a whole lot of points here — and an effectless attack. Simple yet elegant is a good design ethos, but it seems you’ve gone all in on the simplicity side and left out most of the substance.)
Believability/Playability: 15/15
(Credit where credit is due: I don’t have any trouble seeing it as a real card.)
Wording: 9/10
(Stats bar error.)
Fonts and Placement: 4/5
(Gust placement.)
Aesthetics: 4/5
(Yeah, it’s cute. Well-posed photo, and the sunflower seeds are a great touch. Nice work here. It’s rare for a common to get full marks in this category, but the additional point could come from something like a holosheet (perhaps a reverse holosheet?) or some other “wow factor” to take the card above and beyond your average common.)
Total: 35/50

Spoiler: Kaleidophoenix’s Crawdaunt

The three-quarters illustration style is interesting. It works well as a way to elevate a card beyond the basic art-in-a-box aesthetic, and it makes your eye get drawn to the card in a crowd. But I gotta say, it surprised me a little to see it on SwSh-era blanks — my first instinct was to look for an Ancient Trait!

Effect-wise, there’s some interesting ideas here — Unnerving Vice locks other Abilities as an on-drop effect in much the same way Mesprit LA once did for Poké-Powers, and Hack Off punishes … well, a lot else. Neither effect is truly new, but the implementation brings some originality to the table, combining two discrete effects into an all-in-one no-fun-allowed powerhouse.

Unnerving Vice is quite a lot stronger than Mesprit’s Poké-Power since Abilities are a lot stronger now than Poké-Powers used to be by themselves — you mention VSTAR Powers, and then you throw in all the Abilities that would have been classified as Poké-Bodies back in DPPt and you’ve got a Crawdaunt that locks up shop very efficiently. Hack Off doesn’t totally neutralize a huge threat, but it might force your opponent to scramble a bit to find the replacement Energy and Pokémon Tool, so it earns its place as an attack here. Tick and tick.

You’ve clearly thought through the metagame implications of your entry, which is great to see. I think Crawdaunt would do very well in today’s format, perhaps slowing things down and adding a desirable level of thinking to any game it appears in. But CaC’s not solely about slotting a card into a metagame — creativity has to take center stage, too, and rehashing old effects, even in an interesting new way, doesn’t quite get you there on its own. Everyone has their own design process, but I might suggest starting from a different tack — start with an idea for a cool new effect, and then balance it to fit a metagame. You might find more room for creativity that way than with the other way around.

Wording errors:
- “your opponent’s turn” → “your opponent’s next turn” [-1 point]

Fonts and Placement errors:
- Looks good.

Creativity/Originality: 10/15
(Designing for a metagame is a valid design process, but it doesn’t always lead to especially original effects. In this case, the on-drop Ability is cool, but essentially a rehash of Mesprit LA’s tier-one Poké-Power Psychic Bind — or Hex Maniac, to use a more recent analogy. Hack Off is just an attack from Scizor V, down to the name. It’s cool that you’re considering the gameplay potential of the effects you choose in tandem with each other, but I’d like to see a little more creativity behind the effects in the first place.)
Believability/Playability: 14/15
(Balancing looks fine — the card would be a pain to play against, but that’s the idea. Good consideration of its place in the metagame. Point docked for the [P] Resistance, which hasn’t been seen since the SM era.)
Wording: 9/10
(Missed word.)
Fonts and Placement: 5/5
(Looks good.)
Aesthetics: 3/5
(The art and holosheet could both be quite a bit brighter; they look pretty heavily desaturated against the rest of the card. The three-quarters look is interesting, and even if my first instinct is that it should have an Ancient Trait, the style is generic enough that I don’t mind the absence too much.)
Total: 41/50

Spoiler: Top 3

2nd Place: A tie between EM-isthmus’s Musharna and Mick-773’s Tyrantrum V, each with 45/50 points.
1st Place: PMJ’s Arctovish, with 47/50 points.

 

[PMJ]

Text scores are done, I just got busy and forgot to post them. Expect them later

 

[PMJ]

Text-Based Results

Y'all really made me think that I was gonna have to hand out the gold medal by default but y'all came through in the end.

This month saw the reintroduction of entering in both categories, and I see no reason not to continue this in future months.

However, you text fakers are gonna have to step up your game now that the image fakers are sniffing around your category. Image-based is a cutthroat category that is frequently decided by a single point or less. Be sure to brush up on your wording for July, as that continues to be the category that everyone seems to struggle in, but legend has it that one man has gotten the elusive 15...

Cool month guys, I enjoyed all of these entries.

Spoiler: I Like Shorts's Radiant Togekiss

Radiant Togekiss HP: 90 [C]
Basic
View attachment 16560
Radiant Pokémon Rule: You can’t have more than 1 Radiant Pokémon in your deck.

Ability: Angelic Smite
When you play this Pokémon from your hand onto your Bench during your turn, you may put 1 damage counter on each of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon for each card in your opponent’s discard pile.

[C][C] Judgement Blades 30x
This attack does 30 damage for each Pokémon in your opponent’s discard pile.

Weakness: [L] x2
Resistance: [F] -30
Retreat:

It shares many blessings with people who respect one another's rights and avoid needless strife.

Extremely busted. As soon as your opponent has enough cards in the discard pile to wipe their Bench, you drop this and kill everyone in the back. If that doesn't win you the game outright, you will put enough Pokemon in the discard pile such that Judgement Blades will surely OHKO whatever's left, especially if you Boss up some Bench sitter before you drop the hammer. Angelic Smite, indeed.

The attack is fine but it's almost irrelevant because Angelic Smite is just that broken. Being limited to a single copy doesn't mean that balance goes out the window.

Wording errors:
General
- Putting an e in judgment is blasphemy [-0 points]
- No but for real congrats on a perfect score [-0 points]

Creativity/Originality: 13/20
(While the ability and attack work together, neither are new or interesting effects)
Wording: 15/15
(World's first baybeeeeee)
Believability/Playability: 4/15
(Destroys your opponent's entire field on drop and easily murders the leftovers)
Total: 32/50

Spoiler: Falling Skies's Mothim V

Mothim V HP: 190 [G]
Basic

Ability: Honey Plundering
When you play this Pokémon from your hand onto your Bench during your turn, you may search your deck for as many Sweet Honey cards as possible, up to the number of [G] Pokémon with 50 HP on your Bench, reveal them, and put them into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.

[G][C] Revenge Swarm 30x
This attack does 30 damage for each [G] Pokémon with 50 HP in your discard pile. If the Defending Pokémon is Knocked Out by damage from this attack, put as many [G] Pokémon with 50 HP as possible from your discard pile onto your Bench.

Weakness: [R] x2
Resistance:
Retreat: [C][C]

· V rule: When your Pokémon V is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

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I don't think this needed to be a V. The power is nice, but since it's limited to Sweet Honey and Vespiquen, itself a Stage 1, is capped at 240 damage no matter what, I think this would have been fine to leave on a Stage 1. But it being a V does have its perks, such as being able to recover at a moment's notice upon getting hit with Marnie.

You can't force people to take cards from their deck. The deck is a private zone; the game does not know what cards are in the deck, even if both players know. This is why you're allowed to fail searches even if both players know that a valid target exists.

You can, however, force people to take cards from the discard pile, since it is a public zone and the contents of public zones are known by the game. On that note, Revenge Swarm is a little better than I originally thought. Being able to recycle dead Combee to set up for a Vespiquen the following turn is great, but Eldegoss EVS and Cherrim BST also have valid targets for this attack. With that said, though, if you are in a position to take a kill with this, you end up clogging your field with Basics, leaving no room for support Pokemon like Crobat V or Eldegoss V to help you come back after you inevitably die next turn. And even if you don't, you are losing a massive amount of power after you score a kill unless your Bench is already full, in which case you lose out on the recovery power this Pokemon provides.

I'd probably reduce the Retreat Cost to one. It's helpful but it's not broken on its own, given the restriction on Revenge Swarm's damage. All in all, a neat little fake.

Wording errors:
Honey Plundering
- "...search your deck for a number of Sweet Honey cards up to the number of [G] Pokemon with 50 HP..." (Sigilyph BRS) [-1 point]
- The effect is unclear whether or not you are meant to only count Pokemon with 50 HP max, or remaining. You either need "exactly" or "or less remaining" somewhere in there. [-1 point]
Revenge Swarm
- "If your opponent's Active Pokemon is Knocked Out by damage from this attack..." (Greedent VMAX) [-1 point]
- No card exists with the effect you're going for here. While I'm almost certain it wouldn't be worded this way, I can at least understand the intent of the attack, so you're off the hook. [-0 points]

Creativity/Originality: 15/20
(I like that its utility extends past Vespiquen, but being forced to flood your field is dangerous)
Wording: 12/15
(I appreciate you trying out new effects)
Believability/Playability: 14/15
(As I said, this could have been a Stage 1 and been just fine. Pokemon V should earn that distinction. Still - a fine partner for Vespiquen.)
Total: 41/50

Spoiler: EM-isthmus's Hisuian Braviary

STAGE 1 Hisuian Braviary )) HP 120 {C}
Evolves from Rufflet


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(( NO. 628 Battle Cry Pokémon HT: 5’7” WT: 95.7 lbs. )_/

{ } Sudden Dive 130
If you play this Hisuian Braviary from your hand to evolve 1 of your Benched Pokémon during your turn, switch it with your Active Pokémon and use this attack. If you didn’t switch this Hisuian Braviary in this way, this attack does nothing.

{C}{C}{C} Free Glide
Search your deck for a Supporter card and a Stadium card and put them into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.

((weakness {L}×2 (resistance {F}–30 ( (retreat {C} ((

Screaming a bloodcurdling battle cry, this huge and ferocious bird Pokémon goes out on the hunt. It blasts lakes with shock waves, then scoops up any prey that float to the water’s surface.

Digging the ASCII art. It's the kind of thing that stands out when compared to the endless amounts of text fakes out there.

Sudden Dive is neat. I don't know if it was intentional making this card Colorless so that you can't take advantage of Weakness, but considering this thing is one and done (and a Stage 1 to boot) you could have gotten away with it. The damage is probably fine. I might have upped it just a little.

Attacking from the Bench is a mechanic I've used on a couple cards. The way you've written it is not the same as I have, but there's a reason I worded it that way, so hopefully it makes sense when I explain it to you.

Free Glide is a great attack but highly overpriced. Consider Carbink LOT, a Basic who does this exact attack for just [F]. On a Stage 1, and a Hisuian one at that, you could easily get away with making this attack free, or [C] at the most.

Wording errors:
Sudden Dive
- Attacks that can be used outside of normal circumstances need to clearly state the exception. (Komala GRI, Snorlax-GX SM05) Therefore, this attack should begin with the sentence, "This attack can be used if this Pokemon is on your Bench." [-1 point]
- "If you played this Hisuian Braviary..." (Morpeko V BRS) [-1 point]
- You don't need "and use this attack" here. You are already using the attack by virtue of the fact that you've announced it. [-1 point]
- "If this Hisuian Braviary didn't move from the Bench to the Active Spot in this way..." (Hoopa DAA) [-1 point]
Free Glide
- When you search for specific types of cards (like Supporters or Stadiums), you always have to reveal them. The only time you don't need to is when you are not searching for any specific type of card, like when using Uxie ASR's Wise Guidance. [-1 point]

Creativity/Originality: 17/20
(Just cause I've used this gimmick on my own fakes doesn't mean I can't give points for others doing so)
Wording: 10/15
(Even with custom wording, you can Frankenstein together a proper string)
Believability/Playability: 12/15
(If Free Glide was, well, free, this would be a solid Stage 1)
Total: 39/50

Spoiler: Kaleidophoenix's Staraptor

Staraptor – [C] – HP150
Stage 2 – Evolves from Staravia

NO. 398 Predator Pokémon HT: 3’11” WT: 54.9 lbs.

Ability: Vicious Winds
Once during your turn, if this Pokémon is in your discard pile, you may put it onto your Bench. If you do, discard an Energy from your opponent's Active Pokémon. If you use this Ability, your turn ends.

[C] [C] Breeze Through 50
You may put this Pokémon into your hand. (Discard all attached cards.) If you do, this attack does 50 damage to 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokémon. (Don't apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)

Weakness: [L] (x2)
Resistance: [F] (-30)
Retreat:
It has a savage nature. It will courageously challenge foes that are much larger than itself.

I love a good control card. Losing your attached cards prevents DCE loops and having to attack to get it out of play prevents it from being looped on consecutive turns. It is kind of a shame that it ends your turn, though. You can accomplish the same thing by hard limiting it to one usage per turn. Control decks likely won't suffer from changing this, it just changes their sequencing for the turn a little bit.

The power's effect itself isn't unique, although coming from the discard pile instead of the hand is a neat little twist. All in all, I am pleased.

Wording errors:
Breeze Through
- You're missing some clarification here. Whether the intent is to do 50 damage to an Benched target instead (Golduck TEU) or 50 the Active and also to a Benched target (in which case you'd say "this attack also does..."), you missed something. [-1 point]

Creativity/Originality: 17/20
(Nice twist on the theme. Effect is powerful but the rest of the card balances it out.)
Wording: 14/15
(Easy error to fix)
Believability/Playability: 15/15
(I am struggling to find a way to break this in Expanded, but can't think of one. But putting me in that mindset is never bad. This card would be a gift to control decks.)
Total: 46/50

Spoiler: Standings

3rd Place: EM-isthmus’s Hisuian Braviary, with 39/50 points.
2nd Place: Falling Skies’s Mothim V, with 41/50 points.
1st Place: Kaleidophoenix’s Staraptor, with 46/50 points.