Makes sense! In that case the Altaria line will probably be running on Colorless and the others Water. I think you’re system makes the most sense and anyways I don’t have the skill to design ANY sort of card YET, much less tackle developing a special or basic Energy from scratch.
After way too long... Darkness! I lied about Metal being next because real life things started happening and the commission finished by the time I could get back to this. Part of the reason this took so long is because I was trying to get motivation to go back through and rebalance the cards I already posted before continuing, but that never happened and then I got spread maddeningly thin with a plethora of other projects which all still will need work, but I've found myself with a little time to chip away at Frontiers Renewed, so here's the next batch!
Alolan Rattata is arguably the simplest a card can get. Free attack, no effects, no set up required. Just play it and go. It being a dual-type does give it a slight advantage over any regular Rattata card with the same design philosophy, but not much. I adore how the black and white background looks on Omnium blanks, and it matches the grayscale aesthetic of the background so exquisitely well. This to me is a very pretty card.
Alolan Raticate, though... that's where it gets interesting. The ability is kinda weird, but basically it means Raticate can have as many tools on it as you want as long as everything after the first one was transferred from an Alolan Rattata. And it's limited to one per turn because the second attack can easily stack on some pretty mega damage if you can just slap down ten tools in one turn before attacking with one energy. You gotta play cleverly to pull this one off. It is, however, helped a lot by the first attack, although I would say if you have to resort to using this, you've probably gone wrong somewhere.
And finally, Alolan Raticate BREAK. Dirty Tactic allows you to do a little bit of cheeky damage while also accelerating Boss's Greed's effect, plus the evolution packs on some extra HP to boot. It's worded in a way so that it can't have more than one tool attached if something turns off Alolan Raticate's ability. It's fairly straightforward. Two things about this card, though: One, I've decided to completely change the holo pattern for BREAK cards in Omnium. The old official pattern was cool on certain backgrounds, but it's a major pain to make look good on any dark backgrounds, as you can see on the Banette BREAK card a couple posts ago (at least until I start updating previous posts). This pattern is both much better looking and doesn't do weird stuff to the background. I really like the way it looks on these cards, and it has a really aesthetic look over the rulebox and the BREAK symbol in the name.
Anyway, the second point is that this is the first card I actually commissioned custom artwork for. This card cost me $120 to make. And it was worth every penny. Mega props to Siplick for pulling through so spectacularly with this artwork. She even worked in the cool rocks you'd see in some of the official Delta Species cards in the background! Incredible. I can't wait to commission her again.
Admittedly these two cards aren't the most imaginative cards in the world in terms of effects, but I really wanted to use these wonderful artworks and I needed more Darkness types for the set. Murkrow is a run-of-the-mill attack copier, which can be very stronk in the right scenarios, but it does take a decent amount of effort to power up, so whether or not it's worth it to use is your call.
Honchkrow is a bit more interesting. It's basically crowd control for Basics. They can't touch him and he gains power the more of them there are in play. With a full bench of basics, you could be slapping a whopping 80 damage for three energy, and that's before you start counting your opponent's side of the field. That will cost you some evolved Pokémon perks on your bench, but for this kind of slapping power it could be worth it, too.
Darkness was a pretty small batch, but Metal is coming up next! And it's going to be a decently sized batch with some really nice-looking cards I'd say. Stay tuned, fellerinos!
I've got the next couple batches already finished, so I'll be rolling them out whenever I have time to type up posts for them. Today we're gonna take a look at the Metal Pokémon for this set!
The whole Pikachu line returns with their Metal Delta traits! Now with a bonus player: Alolan Raichu! But let's not get ahead of ourselves; let's talk about Pichu first! I don't believe I've posted any baby Pokémon for this set yet. As you can see, Omnium babies function very similar to the old Neo babies from way back in the day. You can only attack them on heads. The only difference is the wording had to be slightly update to account for double battles: This Pichu has to be the target of an attack for the rule to kick in, whereas in Neo it's worded so that the rule kicks in simply if the baby is active. Babies in Omnium also have no WRRC and mostly have 30 HP. You'll see one of the exceptions to the 30 HP thing a little later on in this set.
Anywhomst, on to the attack, which accidentally is way stronger than I thought. The original Pichu from Neo Genesis had a very similar attack, and was named the same except for the exclamation point. Apparently the exclamation point makes this Pichu much stronger. While the original attack hits all Pokémon and never accounts for weakness and resistance, this one only hits your opponent's Pokémon and applies weakness and resistance to your opponent's active. This wasn't pointed out until I brought up the card in the Discord server, but everyone seemed okay with it, so I left it as is. I think it's an amusing idea to slap an exclamation point on an attack to supercharge it.
Now for Pikachu Delta! The artwork for this was just perfect for a Delta Species card, and it really works excellent with the type texture if I do say so myself. The first attack is little convoluted, but the idea is supposed to be that Pikachu uses a tool to steal energy from its opponent. Moving your opponent's cards to your side of the field is generally a no-no in my opinion, so instead of stealing the energy I opted for discarding it and then attaching something from your own discard pile. The attack probably isn't the greatest in the world, but the idea is there. Conductive Spark I can see having some really fun strategy, though it's possible it's too strong. I'll have to revisit it later for balancing.
Next is Raichu! And this is another one where I think the artwork really goes well with the type texture. In fact, I think all four of these do. Either the type texture just really goes well with anything or I've just found four arts that really look like the belong with it. Now, the attack here was originally on a Red's Pikachu card way back when I first was messing around with the idea. This was way before Trashalanche ever became a thing. Naturally, since the power levels in the era this is aimed for are much lower, I couldn't just leave it at Trashalance levels, so I halved the amount of damage it does. That being said, it counts all trainer cards rather than just items, so it might actually end up being very nearly the same strength. More testing will be needed. Bizarro Conduction is meant to tie in with the Pokédex entry (or rather vise versa, although I'm thinking about rewriting the dex entry, or at least rewording it). Basically it encourages you to use some of your deck space on weak electric types. Right now the best card for this in Omnium is the Mareep card from a few posts ago, but I do believe I had plans for a Joltik or something later down the line that has 30 HP. Or a regular Pichu. I can't remember. Either way, this attack is more or less limited to 70 damage unless I do something weird later on, but for 2 energy that's not bad at all.
And to wrap up the rodent line, we have Alolan Raichu, rocking Metal and Psychic type. I went through several iterations of this ability, including just making it so you could attach either energy type from your discard pile, but I determined that made this type of energy acceleration too easy, so I went a different approach. In this version, you have to have both types of energy in your deck, which makes this a very Metal/Psychic-focused support card. I think it's kind neat to have cards that benefit specific type combos rather than just specific types. The attack is a bit of an interesting one. 70 for 3, which is really nice, but it also hits your opponent's benched Fairy and Ice types (or any other stray card with a Metal weakness). This card is kind of a lot more specialized than the other Raichu, but I think that makes a little more interesting.
Now we take a look at everyone's favorite over-adaptive fox-like adorable bundle of fluff! It's Metal type, again taking inspiration from the official Eevee δ card. I'm surprised none of the other cardists have taken advantage of this incredible Eevee artwork from the Let's Go games. It's so good, and I'm quite pleased with how it came out with the background I chose for it. For the ability here, I wanted it to be able to have the turn-1 evolution potential that other Eevee cards tend to have, but I didn't want it to be totally free and easy, so I made it something that's largely dependent on your opponent's side of the field. Here, it won't be 100% guaranteed for you to be able to use it the way you want, so you will still have to plan to evolve the normal way in many cases, but in those instances where it does work, you're in for a good time. Surprise Headbutt is sort of an experimental idea. I don't know too much of how this could be unexpectedly useful unless you really want Eevee to be in the active spot and don't care what happens to it. Maybe somewhere down the line I'll add effects that interact with a newly active Pokémon. We'll see.
This card has barely changed since it's original creation many, many years ago. In fact it's one of the oldest ideas I had for the set. The ability is pretty much a carbon copy of Skarmory ex's ability with some damage tweaks, so I won't touch too much on that. Metal Wind is where the real fun happens. Back when I first realized how important trainer cards were in decks and how often they're played, I started playing around with ideas that punish your opponent for using them. The results were the Scrap Attack card from before and this Metal Wind. In fact, this Skarmory and Raichu δ would make a pretty nice combo. Punish them for playing them with Skarmory, then come back and punish them for the same plays with Raichu. Absolutely diabolical.
And lastly we have a cute little hedgehog! While Alolan Raichu δ is a freer energy gatherer, Togedemaru is more costly but accelerates faster and with fewer restrictions! And it does a tiny bit of damage on the side! Bristly Generator is very much an early-game setup attack, and apparently spelled wrong according to my internet spell checker. I'll fix that in the final run. Magnetic Quill Spray is very much aimed at hurting Lightning decks, and that will be very amusing if and when I add a Lightning type Togedemdaru card. Speaking of which, did you know that, as of the writing of this post, we still have not received a Metal Togedemaru? They make it pretty easy to forget that's even one of his types. And that's why I specifically included this card in this set. I wanted Togedemaru to at last have a Metal type card.
I never can get enough of this type texture for Metal cards. I'm still so proud of how it turned out. Anywho, that wraps up the metal types! Stay tuned next time for the Fairy type block!
Behold! One of the best types in the TCG! And I think maybe the first time the improved Fairy backgrounds have been officially used? The difference is really subtle compared to previous versions of the texture. Just some minor color tweaks to make it a little more vivid and vibrant, though slightly darker than before. If you know, you know. I might post a comparison sometime.
Let's start off with some of the cutest rodents in the Pokémon universe, shall we? When thinking about Delta Species for this set, I knew I had to include the chinchillas as Fairy type. They way they look, especially the way Cinccino looks, is very Fairy-esque. Making it an actual thing was an obvious choice. The thing I like most about both of these is that I managed to find art of both of them all dressed up, which was a total accident. I was looking at several Cinccino artworks, sent out requests to multiple artists, and out of all of them, the only one to get back to me was the owner of the artwork where Cinccino was dressed up. And then of course this Minccino artwork was the only official one I could find and I was too lazy to look for others when I already had it. Things just sort of fell into place for these two.
Now for the individual cards. Minccino is mostly just recycled effects from other cards. Nuzzle is one we've all seen somewhat recently in the TCG. I believe it was part of a deck archetype sometime in the SM era. Dress Up is taken right off of Sylveon EX with some damage tweaks. Other than that, there's not really too much to say about it.
Cinccino, on the other hand, is much more exciting. Mending Hand is a rare way to recycle item cards, which is an extremely powerful effect, and could potentially be nerfed somewhere down the line. I would think this would be at minimum a 1-of in most decks for that ability alone. The attack is one that I don't think I've seen before. In case clarification is needed, Graduation Celebration would count this Cinccino if it became Cinccino that turn. It has potential to be a very powerful attack, but without any way to devolve your Pokémon, it only has so many uses before you lose the beef of its damage. I could see it being fun to mess around with, though potentially might need a damage nerf later as well.
This one is perhaps one of the most beautiful artworks in the set. It's taken from the same piece I got the Chimecho art from. This is another one that sort of fell into place in the best possible way. I had already chosen water as Sylveon's secondary Delta type long before looking for art, mainly for because of the blue secondary coloring already on Sylveon. At first I had chosen nintendo-jr's artwork for this card, but it ended up getting picked up by someone else and while I don't personally care all the much about repeat artworks, I still prefer to not do it. Then PMJ came in with Sa-Dui permissions and I immediately jumped on this one. Everything about it is perfect for this card. The pink a blue coloring just blends in so perfectly.
The ability is a fun one than I'm sure has never been done before in the official TCG. A Pokémon counting as multiple stages is an interesting idea I think. Mostly it's so it can work with Ribbon Energy later in the set, which can only be attached to Stage 2 Pokémon. Could you imagine if an energy with ribbon in its name didn't work with a Pokémon who is known for its flesh ribbons? It just wouldn't be right. So here we are. This actually goes into the first attack as well, since it's completely based around said Ribbon Energy. It's kinda supposed to stay a surprise until we get there, but I figure this card doesn't make sense without an explanation. Ribbon Energy can only be attached to a Stage 2, but no matter which you attach it to, it counts as being attacked to all of your Stage 2 Pokémon, so if you're crafty enough, it can count as playing 6 energy at once, and it stacks. That being said, it's a big investment. And last is Magical Ribbon, taken directly off of Sylveon-GX, minus a card. Nothing too wack here, but just something to add a little consistency to decks that might want it.
Here we have the broken card. I'm extremely iffy on this one because it basically kills any multiprize Pokémon. I wouldn't entirely get rid of the effect if I were to nerf it, but probably add an additional coin flip and both would have to be tails. Even then it could be way wacko when you throw baby Pokémon into the mix. That's exactly why this is a Prism Star. And believe it or not, this is a heavily nerfed version of this card already. It used to be no coin flip and not a Prism Star. The effect just always feels way powerful. Now for the attack, it's nothing too wild. I didn't want to be both a great attacker and a great support, so I made the attack just kinda eh. I would expect this to be played a lot anyway.
And last but not least, we have the best Pokémon to ever exist. The one, the only, the deeriest: Xerneas. And what a doozy. So in Omnium, Legendary Pokémon are supposed to be very strong, unlike in the official TCG where they feel like just another Pokémon. But with the story I'm trying to set later on with my sets, they also will come with a fair amount of counterplay. This set is pretty light on the counterplay, but it also has the fewest legendary Pokémon, so it more or less balances out I think? Anyway, Accelerated Flourish is basically just 2 Evosoda in a trenchcoat. Not a whole lot to say about it otherwise. The first attack is meant to be good for setting up. It intentionally doesn't specify "basic Energy" because I want it to be able to accelerate Special Energy as well. This could potentially be useful for setting up Ribbon attacks like you saw on Sylveon. Lots of fun potential here. You don't see Special Energy support all that often. And finally, Collateral Healing. A way to heal while doing damage, and to do more damage the more you heal. Can be fun, can be hard to set up. Just depends on the cards that make it into the format.
Once again, that wraps up another block! This might be my favorite block actually! It has a lot of really neat little effects that I think will be super influential in the format. Stay tuned next time for the Dragon types!
Now we move into Dragon types! This type texture has also gone through a ton of changes. At first it was more heavily based on the BWXY Dragon texture, but I grew to really dislike the way it looked, so I tried to model it after the type textures the community created for it before Dragon types were made official in the TCG. It's still not my favorite type texture in Omnium, but it's at least on the same level now. Anyway, into the cards now, right?
The Dratini line makes an entrance! I don't use photography for illustrations all that often, but sometimes there are some that just work so well. X-Alex's gallery is full of stuff that works really well for card illustrations, and this Dratini is the first of possibly many, depending on the Pokémon I decide on for my next set. Aside from the artwork, there's not really anything groundbreaking about this card. Dragon types in Omnium are kinda split 50-50 for weakness between Dragon and Fairy. This line just happens to get Dragon type weakness.
Dragonair is a much more interesting card. I mentioned before that Legendary Pokémon would be getting some counters here and there. For this set, I believe Dragonair is the only one that counters them, but like I said, later on in Omnium there will be more. Dragonair just blocks all their abilities for being active, but it comes with a twist. Using Dragonair to attack may do extra damage to Legendary cards, but you also lose this ability lock if you use it, whether you attack a Legendary Pokémon or not. I try to be super careful with any kind of locking ability and I think this one is sufficiently limited so that it can be played around if you're prepared for it.
And next up is Dragonite! Our first dual-type dragon of the series, giving you a sneak peak at the Flying type texture that will feature in the next batch. The first attack isn't anything new, though it can be powerful. It's the second attack that as far I can tell hasn't been done before. It encourages you put fatties in your deck, like the Snorlax that will be coming up later. You can dish out some serious damage with this one if you know what you're doing. And I think it's a neat idea.
Vibrava's attacks focus on the two new types of Trainer cards that got added to Omnium. As of this set, there are no Trigger cards planned because I'm still not 100% sure how or even if I want to implement them, but I went ahead and left them in the effect just in case. Status cards are like mini-stadium cards that can work on either one or both side of the field. You play up to three of them next to your Pokémon and they're meant to bring effects like Spikes or Electric Terrain into the TCG. Field hazards and stuff like that, though there are more than just field hazards to these cards. I knew I had to make a way to clear these because sometimes they can get to be a little too much. Vibrava's attack is one such way to clear them, and I have some Trainers that can mess around with them later on as well.
Now Flygon! Cleft Beam was a weird idea I had. I found it just a little surprising that no effect ever did more with flipping until you get tails, so I wanted to try out flipping until you get more than one tails. I think in this one you're mostly going to be doing 100 damage, but there's a strong chance you still will only so 0 damage as well. Or on the flip side, maybe you'll do 500 damage. The nature of these kinds of attacks is that you can't ever be sure, although with this one you have a much better chance of doing at least something. And that in theory makes it a little more likely to be used. You are dedicating space to setting up a Stage 2 with this after all. You want some kind of consistency.
And that does it for the Dragon types! Another small block, but that's okay. Next time we'll get to see some Flying types!
As you described it, the status mechanic looks really interesting.
Given how entry hazards/field effects are so prominent in the games, having them implemented as a different mechanic from Stadiums definitely allows for more freedom and creativity in the effects. Together with Defog-like attacks, will you also add abilities/techs similar to Magic Bounce/Court Change to move Status from one side of the field to the other?
As you described it, the status mechanic looks really interesting.
Given how entry hazards/field effects are so prominent in the games, having them implemented as a different mechanic from Stadiums definitely allows for more freedom and creativity in the effects. Together with Defog-like attacks, will you also add abilities/techs similar to Magic Bounce/Court Change to move Status from one side of the field to the other?
I honestly haven't really thought about those kinds of effects. I really prefer to avoid having cards being moved to your opponent's side of the field at any point, so those kinds of effects may not be viable, though it may be possible with ability effects to change what they target.
Iiit's Flying types! With a unique type texture and icon! I think the question is inevitably going to pop up of "What add only Flying types out of all the other types not represented in the TCG?" My reasons may not be as compelling to others, but the way I justify it is that Flying type seems to get shafted often in the TCG. If a Pokémon every has a second non-colorless type, it is almost always represented instead of the Colorless typing it would normally get, with a few exceptions, such as Talonflame STS, among others. It feels underrepresented as a type in general. I also kinda preferred Bug types to have a separate weakness from Grass types to give them a tiny bit of their own individuality. Is it a good enough argument? Maybe, maybe not. But I still wanted to include them, especially after all the work I put into the type texture.
I'm conscious of the fact that there are a lot of basic Energies as well, which is why I've opted to not include a Flying type basic Energy. Flying types instead function a lot like Dragon types in that their attack costs are based on their other typing, or just colorless if they have no secondary type.
If I do end up submitting this set for Lackey, I think the ruling was going to be that any Flying symbols would count as Colorless symbols, although when I think about it, having a new type that other sets don't acknowledge doesn't seem like it would break anything.
We'll kick it off with the OG birds of the Pokémon franchise. Pidgey is just a regular evolving basic. Nothing too crazy as it's most there to evolve. Pidgeotto takes things into useful territory, though, with Wind Power. Recycling Special Energy isn't always easy, and even as an attack like this it will cost you valuable time and a little bit of resource gathering to get it going. Is it worth it? Maybe. We'll find out. Pidgeotto has a small amount of beef to keep him from getting one shot if you do use this attack, and a low retreat cost to help him get out of the way once you're done. Could be useful, could be not good enough. That's one I may have to revisit sometime after testing.
Pidgeot is a fun one, though. Hyperimpose's effect is something that was submitted to a different card by one of the others on the Discord server. By turning everything into a Basic, you're enabled to use stuff like certain Ball cards that only search for Basic Pokémon, for example. It can be a powerful effect, which is why it's on a Stage 2. I would be excited to see what people do with it. The second attack is run of the mill Special Pokémon hate. I'm trying to balance Special Pokémon so that they don't need so much hate, but I do want to have stuff that's more powerful against them. They are worth 2 prizes after all, so they need to be powerful, which means they need to be counterable in some way.
I'm still debating on if this is the finished state of the holo pattern. The artwork kinda blends some of the sky into the foreground effects, which makes it look a tad jarring when the holo pattern isn't also on top of that. Feedback on that would be cool.
And for the last of the bunch, we have my favorite derpy bird: Cramorant! This one comes with custom artwork from a friend of mine, and is another one I paid money for. This card cost me $40 to make, but still worth it all! I specifically wanted an artwork of Gorging Form, and even more specifically wanted to see Pikachu's face as well. I love his frustrated face. Like "Ugh, this again? Didn't he already try this?" even though a bird this size could easily swallow something like Pikachu whole, but we'll not worry about that for now lol.
So as you can probably tell, this card is entire based off of the Gulp Missile ability from the games. We'll start with Surf since that's where all the effects are gonna come from. Like the Onix card posted before, this is an attack where it has a specific additional effect on specific Pokémon. If any other Pokémon had the attack, it would stop after the first sentence, but Cramorant gets to do more. He gets to try to catch and eat Pokémon he finds while the water is rolling in. For clarification, you could not use this to stack multiple Arrokuda and/or Pikachu onto the same Cramorant, as they still count as Pokémon Tool cards and thus the Tool rule also applies to them. Only one Arrokuda or one Pikachu at a time.
Now for the Ability, it's basically a single-use Rocky Helmet. Gives you an opportunity to throw in a little bit of cheeky damage or maybe convince your opponent to not attack you because it would give you an advantage. If you use Surf and grab a Pikachu, they risk taking a total of 70 damage off of one attack, which is nothing to scoff at. Pikachu can be removed by Tool-removal effects like any other Tool, but those kinds of effects are not intended to be easily attainable in Omnium.
Finally, the healing. If you grabbed an Arrokuda, Cramorant can just gulp it down for a complete restore because that's how food works in video games. I've always felt healing to be weak in just about any given format, so I don't feel like a total heal is too powerful. Maybe I'll be proven wrong. Who knows.
Also you may have noticed that Arrokuda is not in this set. That's me being a derp and writing Cramorant's effects after completing the set list and not having room to include Arrokuda. With that being said, Arrokuda will probably be a promo card and I'll try and have those promos added to Lackey at the same time as FRR if things go that way. Either way, Arrokuda will most likely also feature in a future Omnium set.
Flying types finished! Only four for this block. A smol batch, but that's okay. Not all of them have to be huge. There's just the Colorless batch left before I finished the Pokémon in the set, and then we work on Trainer cards!
Here's that other baby I was talking about! The one that breaks the HP and retreat cost rule that I would normally set for any other Baby Pokémon. Munchlax is kinda bulky for a baby, so I figured it would make sense. The attack is a nice way to get you going at the start of a game I suppose. Not much else I can think of to say about it.
Snorlax utilizes a bit of a mechanic that I would like to see more of in the TCG: a reason to evolve from a baby rather than just Playing the Basic first. Snorlax is already one of the bulkier basics in Omnium, so that extra defense is really going to make it a wall to be reckoned with. Flop an Snooze is a weird one. It does something no matter what the coin flip is, but it always puts Snorlax to sleep. Unfortunately with the way sleep works in the TCG, there's a 75% chance he'll be awake again for the next turn, so it may end up not really being that much of a drawback when Paralysis is a possibility. Might nerf this later.
Back when the Intrinsic Collection was still a thing, there was also a Snorlax LV.X to accompany these two that worked slightly with this card by giving it healing if it stayed asleep between turns, but since I have no intention of adding LV.X cards to my Omnium sets anymore, it's unknown if that will make a comeback. Maybe a BREAK later on down the road? Who knows. For now, this is where the line ends.
I always loved these two. Raccoons are criminally underrepresented in the TCG and so are... badgers? I think that's what Linoone is supposed to be. Badger ferret maybe? Who knows. Anyway, Zigzagoon is another one of those super simple cards that's really only there to evolve. I like the artwork on it. He got himself an apple.
Once again, Linoone is one I put a little fun into. The idea is that having an energy on the wrong Pokémon is even worse than having it discarded, because there's not really a lot of ways to reliably move energy around the field. It seems like this could only be beneficial at first glace, but say you attach a Fire energy to a Pokémon whose attacks only require Water energy; or say you attach an energy to something that's meant to be a bench sitter. You've just basically made that energy unusable. It's a unique strategy and I don't think I've seen it around before.
Now the attack is also pretty darn good I think. Item recovery is not a common thing in any format I've seen. And when it does happen, it tends to be a pretty darn good thing to have. Just hope your opponent doesn't have a hand-shuffle ready to spring on you or you'll lose those items in your deck, which is still technically better off than before, but now you don't get to use them right away next turn, which is a bummer.
I always loved the idea behind these types of Pokémon that you can just attach as an energy instead of playing like a normal Pokémon. It makes them basically energy that is searchable via Poké Ball, which can be really good. I'm aware that they're called "Holon's Pokémon" in the official TCG, but to me that makes it sound like Holon is a person, which is isn't. "Holon Pokémon" seems more like it's describing the Pokémon to me, which is why I took the liberty to change it.
Attack is nothing too new. We've seen effects that happen when Stadium cards are in play before, and I think we've also seen effects that care about whose Stadium is in play as well? Either way, it's mostly there so it will have an attack. I don't see it being used for that really.
Huzzah! We've reached our third deer duo of the set! Finally one that's not a Delta Species! Dual type this time, too. I rather like how the Colorless and Grass textures look together, though I guess I could say that with pretty much any Colorless dual type. White just looks good with most colors. Deerling is, once again, mainly there to evolve. The first attack kinda works against the second attack, but I suppose it would help out in a pinch. The second attack can be pretty darn decent for an evolving basic assuming you can find a way to damage the Deerling. But you're not playing it for that. You're playing it for Sawsbuck.
This artwork I think is my favorite of the Sawsbuck arts for this set. I just love how happy and serene they look. And I find it a little amusing that it looks like they're both looking at the evocon. Like papa Sawsbuck is saying "Look, son. I used to look just like you." Anyway, ability is basically just Fliptini, but you have to evolve first. It's hard to say if that ability was too strong on a basic or would now be too weak on a Stage 1, but we'll find out with this one. Buck has the potential to really screw someone up. Most decks play their Supporter for the turn, so there's a pretty darn strong chance you will be doing 70 damage every turn with this Sawsbuck, which for 2 energy is nothing to scoff at.
This is a wrap for all the Pokémon in the set! (Not counting secret rares wink wink.) And this also catches up to everything I've got finished in the set so far. Trainer cards are next, and those are notoriously more difficult to get art for. I'm not sure how I'll reveal them; if it will be in groups of like-typed trainers (Stadiums in one batch, then Tools, then etc etc), or if I will still try to keep them in order and release them in small groups of 5 or so at a time. We'll see what happens. Either way, I'm happy to be two thirds of the way through the set! I'll see you in the next one!
Xerneas is the only Legendary Pokémon in the set. Special Pokémon is the label CardPone puts on Pokémon worth multiple prize cards to create a sort of “rule box” cover phrase across mechanics without lumping in things like Lv. X, BREAK, Gold Star and Prism Star in with bulkier Pokémon like ex’s and GX’s. The only Special Pokémon in this set are Pinsir ex, M Pinsir ex, and Barbaracle ex. Since these are all ex’s it doesn’t seem as important to include a cover phrase, but CardPone has created numerous cards with this template prior to and after Frontiers Renewed, and, in any case, it is good future-proofing for the series.
Baby Pokémon in this set have the evolutionary stage basic, but they have a picture of the next Pokémon in the line where you would see the pre evolved form on an evolved Pokémon and a line saying “evolved into ____” instead of “evolves from ____.”
There are a few different answers to this, depending on what you are referring to. One, Delta Species Pokémon have always had the same weakness as their original type, even in the official TCG, with the exception of the recent Mikikyu celebrations promo and several cards in Dragon Frontiers that had no weakness or resistance. Second, giving larger, stronger Pokémon multiple weaknesses was a balancing technique used in third generation that CardPone has borrowed. Finally, giving Pokémon that are also flying types in the game a lightning weakness and a fighting resistance used to be the norm, and can still be seen on a few Pokémon (such as Honchkrow) long after weaknesses and resistance were standardized in the TCG and Galarian Moltres was relegated to being weak to Grass.
Hopefully at least one of those insights answers your third question. It’s easy to be confused when looking at Onix (I myself was fascinated by its arrangement of Weaknesses and Resistances), but apart from that it’s remarkably standard, as opposed to PMJ’s custom sets, where everything gets a resistance (which is also great game design, so nothing gets left out and no type doesn’t get effected, but it makes keeping track of those things more difficult). CardPone’s biggest innovation on the Weakness and Resistance chart was adding Flying to the mix.
Now we move into Dragon types! This type texture has also gone through a ton of changes. At first it was more heavily based on the BWXY Dragon texture, but I grew to really dislike the way it looked, so I tried to model it after the type textures the community created for it before Dragon types were made official in the TCG. It's still not my favorite type texture in Omnium, but it's at least on the same level now. Anyway, into the cards now, right?
The Dratini line makes an entrance! I don't use photography for illustrations all that often, but sometimes there are some that just work so well. X-Alex's gallery is full of stuff that works really well for card illustrations, and this Dratini is the first of possibly many, depending on the Pokémon I decide on for my next set. Aside from the artwork, there's not really anything groundbreaking about this card. Dragon types in Omnium are kinda split 50-50 for weakness between Dragon and Fairy. This line just happens to get Dragon type weakness.
Dragonair is a much more interesting card. I mentioned before that Legendary Pokémon would be getting some counters here and there. For this set, I believe Dragonair is the only one that counters them, but like I said, later on in Omnium there will be more. Dragonair just blocks all their abilities for being active, but it comes with a twist. Using Dragonair to attack may do extra damage to Legendary cards, but you also lose this ability lock if you use it, whether you attack a Legendary Pokémon or not. I try to be super careful with any kind of locking ability and I think this one is sufficiently limited so that it can be played around if you're prepared for it.
And next up is Dragonite! Our first dual-type dragon of the series, giving you a sneak peak at the Flying type texture that will feature in the next batch. The first attack isn't anything new, though it can be powerful. It's the second attack that as far I can tell hasn't been done before. It encourages you put fatties in your deck, like the Snorlax that will be coming up later. You can dish out some serious damage with this one if you know what you're doing. And I think it's a neat idea.
Vibrava's attacks focus on the two new types of Trainer cards that got added to Omnium. As of this set, there are no Trigger cards planned because I'm still not 100% sure how or even if I want to implement them, but I went ahead and left them in the effect just in case. Status cards are like mini-stadium cards that can work on either one or both side of the field. You play up to three of them next to your Pokémon and they're meant to bring effects like Spikes or Electric Terrain into the TCG. Field hazards and stuff like that, though there are more than just field hazards to these cards. I knew I had to make a way to clear these because sometimes they can get to be a little too much. Vibrava's attack is one such way to clear them, and I have some Trainers that can mess around with them later on as well.
Now Flygon! Cleft Beam was a weird idea I had. I found it just a little surprising that no effect ever did more with flipping until you get tails, so I wanted to try out flipping until you get more than one tails. I think in this one you're mostly going to be doing 100 damage, but there's a strong chance you still will only so 0 damage as well. Or on the flip side, maybe you'll do 500 damage. The nature of these kinds of attacks is that you can't ever be sure, although with this one you have a much better chance of doing at least something. And that in theory makes it a little more likely to be used. You are dedicating space to setting up a Stage 2 with this after all. You want some kind of consistency.
And that does it for the Dragon types! Another small block, but that's okay. Next time we'll get to see some Flying types!
Yes, the Dragonair would turn off Xerneas's ability when it came into play if it was your active Pokémon, but if you used Legend Breaker, your opponent would have an opening to play Xerneas. Also, Dragon weakness was the standard for Dragon types during fifth generation (you might already know that, but I wanted to cover any other possible questions) (Fun fact: Deerling, Sawsbuck and Xerneas are among CardPone's favorite Pokémon, and all three are featured prominently in the set).
Charmaster is right here. Legendary Pokémon and Special Pokémon are two separate things.
I use the Legendary Pokémon tag to refer to any Mythical and Legendary Pokémon because they're meant to be a smidge stronger than normal. As far as what I've posted, it only includes Xerneas, but I have a Latias & Latios LEGEND card coming up that also counts as a Legendary Pokémon, so it won't have been made for just one card.
And Charmaster is spot on with the Special Pokémon description. I do plan to have a lot of funky gimmicks somewhere down the line, and I find the "Pokémon with a rule box" wording really tacky frankly, so I decided to use Special Pokémon as a blanket term that also allows me to include and exclude cards if I feel they should break the usual trends.
It's really kind of a complex system and I have a guide for determining what Pokémon should have what weakness based on their type combination in the games. Charmaster pointed out Onix as having an unusual combination (I'm actually not sure if I want to keep it that way now that I look back on it, but we'll see), but the reason for that is because he's not just "fighting type", even if that's all that show up on his card. He's actually "Rock/Ground type" and so I gave him a weakness and resistance to reflect that. But I could also just as easily choose either rock's or ground's weakness and resistance and use that instead so he doesn't have things stacked against him so much. That's something I'll work out when I do my final review of the set in which I make sure everything is balanced.
Ugh it looks like Discord decided to break every single link ever. I'm aware of the problem. Working on figuring out something else, but I might not care to bother going through the thread to update every link. Most likely it will just be the Google Spreadsheet
