Ruling Palkia Lvl X Question

[HaunterX6]

This may or may not be an easy question to answer. When using palkia X's Restructure power, does your opponent get to choose only which active pokemon is switched, or do they get to decide which benched pokemon comes to take its place as well?

Example, if i had palkia x on the bench, and say a claydol and a mr. mime active (assuming this is a doubles battle). I use the power. My opponent chooses to send back mr. mime. Do they then have the ability to choose to bring up my palkia lvl x to take the mime's place?


Palkia Lvl X- PokePower: Restructure:

"Once during your turn (before your attack), you may have your opponent switch 1 of your active pokemon for one of your benched pokemon. Then, you switch 1 of the Defending pokemon with one of your opponent's benched pokemon. This power can't be used if palkia is affected by a special condition."

Normally, i would think that this would be a simple ruling to decipher, but some players at my league, including the TO, have been debating this all week. We'll have an official ruling by the weekend, i think, but i wanted to see if i could get a heads up before then.

the main confusing part of all of this is that the word "choose" or "chooses" is never used in the power's text. So it is a little unclear as to exactly which pokemon are able to be chosen to either be pushed back, and/or brought up as active. I am assuming that the power is meant to say that both are able to be chosen, but we're unclear.

Thanks in advance for any insight you guys can give.

 

[Chairman Kaga]

Whoever is doing the switching does the choosing.

...you may have your opponent switch 1 of your Active Pokemon with 1 of your Benched Pokemon.

Your opponent is performing the switch, so he gets to choose which of your Active and Benched Pokemon he wants to switch. Likewise, you do the same to him, since it says "you switch" your opponent's Pokemon.

For more clarity on this concept, take a look at Typhlosion from Mysterious Treasures:

Discard a {W} Energy attached to the Defending Pokemon.

Remember your English grammar? This sentence has an implied "you" at the beginning. Since you are doing the discard, you choose which card gets discarded.

On the other hand, look at Swellow from Deoxys:

Flip a coin. If heads, your opponent discards 1 Energy card, if any, attached to that Pokemon.

This one says "your opponent discards", so he gets the choice of which Energy card to toss.

 

[xxashxx]

Whoever does the switching chooses which Pokemon they want and switches it with the Pokemon.

 

[HaunterX6]

Yeah, I had thought so. But it was a big debate among some of our players. It was ruled that way in the end, by our League Operator, but they were going to get an official ruling from higher up by this weekend.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[xxashxx]

That is good. I don't play the TCG though but I like to collect the cards but I do read their attacks and other aspects of the card though.