TCG Fakes Platinum: Ardent Genesis

PMJ · Apr 6, 2021

Logo by @Nemes, set symbol by @CardPone

It's the dawn of a new age!

Our Lackey DPPt format has fallen into disrepair. It's embarrassing to look at:

- Welkin: Incomplete mess, weird blanks, not balanced for DP (or at all)
- Unsung Heroes: Complete set but not meant to be played in a vacuum, missing a lot of staple cards and is overall unbalanced as a result; also has several different blank styles
- Ultra Invasion: Hated by creator, 24 cards, does nothing to address format problems
- Skies Above: literally 8 cards lmao, random stuff like an unplayable Pelipper and a Beldum that can't evolve

This is honestly a shame, so I've set out to fix things. Introducing Platinum: Ardent Genesis (AGE).

AGE is, as the name and first line of the OP suggests, the beginning of a whole new era for our DP format in Lackey. I'm taking the entire format and flipping it on its head:

- Welkin is getting removed entirely
- Unsung Heroes is getting remastered (more on that later)
- Ultra Invasion and Skies Above are getting help in the form of better Ultra Beast support for the former and patching up Pokemon lines for the latter.

The end result is going to be a consistent, cohesive format with defined archetypes and uniform blanks throughout. It's a massive undertaking and I'm going it mostly alone, which is why I'm providing semi-regular updates as I get cards done. If you've ever had an interest in the DP era, now's your chance to get involved! I'm always looking for feedback, especially considering balancing since I haven't faked in this era in quite some time.

Right then, let's get to what you came here for.

Platinum: Ardent Genesis features the following:

- 228 new cards, featuring artwork from nearly 90 different artists - at least one piece from every artist we have permissions from (as of the date of this post)!
- Twelve powerful Pokemon LV.X
- The return of Delta Species Pokemon, including two Pokemon LV.X
- Zero (0) Pokemon SP
- A small handful of fakemon making their Lackey debut
- Five Special Energy cards, including Delta Rainbow Energy and Double Rainbow Energy
- Special Tools that attach to your opponent's Pokemon in the same vein as Jamming Net and Head Ringer
- Expanded flavor text, because sometimes two lines just isn't enough

Because Welkin is getting culled entirely, some of the cards in AGE have preserved some of Welkin's more interesting effects. Not every effect made the cut, not every effect translated 1:1 (keeping in mind that Welkin was not originally balanced for DP), and not every effect is on the same Pokemon in AGE as it was in Welkin. But with that said, a lot of them did make it in, and I'll do my best to make note of that as I post them.

Delta Species Pokemon function exactly the same way they did in the ex era; they just have an updated look for DP. But more on that when I actually post something.

One last thing: everything you see is subject to change. Nothing is final, so if you see a card you don't like, let me know! I might be persuaded to change it if your idea is sound.

Here are a couple cards:

Let's get the name thing out of the way first.

In DP era, Pokemon with different forms (sometimes) had their form names appended to the end of their proper name, e.g. Castform Sunny Form, Deoxys Speed Forme. This is a change from the ex era, where the form was either at the front of the name (Sunny Castform) or absent entirely (Deoxys). For whatever reason, Shaymin and Giratina never received this treatment. Regional variants were not a thing in DP, so when it came time to decide what to name this thing, I ended up going with what you see here - base name first, form name second, to keep it in line with how DP does form(e)s. This admittedly looks awkward to anyone not used to seeing DP-era cards, especially in the case of Alolan Ninetales where we have always seen it as "Alolan Ninetales". If you want to call this card Alolan Ninetales, I won't get mad.

I'm open to negotiating just about anything in this set, but the naming of regional variants isn't one of them.

Another reason I chose this card is because of its (Alolan Ninetales's) typing. Dragon and Fairy don't exist in gen 4, so even though Omega has some fine Dragon and Fairy blanks made up, I'm choosing to adhere a little closer to reality and not use them. That said, I did not shy away from using Fairy-type Pokemon in this set; they're just either listed as their other type (in the case of Alolan Ninetales) or they're Colorless (although I tried to keep this to a minimum).

Since the Dragon type doesn't exist yet, dragons are back to being Colorless, hence the Colorless Resistance.

A lot of Water cards provide some sort of Energy manipulation; Ninetales facilitates that by pulling them from your deck. And that's not the end of it; even once you get them all in play, you have options to basically move them however you want over the course of your turns. Gather Ice looks like a generic Energy-fetching power, but it's the backbone of this archetype and I hope to see folks give it a try. I think it's going to be really, really good.

I chose to showcase Guzzlord for a few reasons. First, you can see the updated Delta Species and Ultra Beast tags, made by Omega.

Next, this is a good example of how I tried to make the existing Ultra Beasts better by providing them with some support. The existing Guzzlord in Lackey, as well as its LV.X, are both atrociously bad and there's honestly no saving them; however, Guzzlord's Endless Appetite Poke-Power allows you to heal 40 damage from it if you discard its Tool.

This is where my Guzzlord comes in. If you get a heads flip, you can pull that Tool right back out of the discard pile. While Guzzlord LV.X's damage leaves a lot to be desired, that mammoth 160 HP is where it's at, and healing a quarter of your HP every turn can really set your opponent back - to say nothing of the other healing options present in the set.

Dark Devourer looks weak, but another thing I did to make Ultra Beasts more viable was give them a few damage-increasing options, some of which are stackable.

The icing on the cake is that while this Guzzlord works best alongside the existing Guzzlord, its power has enough general usage that you could throw it into any deck. Watch out for that fat Retreat Cost, though.

Bottom stats are worth noting here. First: It's weak to Colorless. All dragons, regardless of their card's typing, are weak to Colorless. All of them. If I post one that isn't weak to Colorless (except Dialga), that's an error and you need to bring it to my attention. Next, double Resistances. Because the Dragon type doesn't exist, all dragons have two Resistances to make them stand out from other Colorless Pokemon.

That's all for now. Updates will be slow, but they'll happen. Once I get the set symbol squared away, I can really get rolling. I'll include a Trainer or two in the next update.

The set list is enormous, of course, so to conserve space I'm going to post it in a spoiler:

001/228 Appletun
002/228 Blastoise
003/228 Cacturne
004/228 Costenburn
005/228 Charizard
006/228 Cramorant
007/228 Derkabelle
008/228 Diamossal Kantonian Form
009/228 Duraludon
010/228 Heliolisk
011/228 Magnezone
012/228 Melmetal
013/228 Mew
014/228 Morpeko
015/228 Ninetales Alolan Form
016/228 Noctowl
017/228 Obstagoon Galarian Form
018/228 Pidgeot
019/228 Raikou
020/228 Raticate Alolan Form
021/228 Rhyperior
022/228 Roserade
023/228 Samurott
024/228 Sirfetch'd Galarian Form
025/228 Swellow
026/228 Yanmega
027/228 Zangoose
028/228 Zapdos Galarian Form
029/228 Arbok
030/228 Articuno
031/228 Buzzwole
032/228 Celesteela
033/228 Cresselia
034/228 Decidueye
035/228 Dialga
036/228 Dragonite
037/228 Entei
038/228 Exploud
039/228 Glaceon
040/228 Glastrier
041/228 Golurk
042/228 Gourgeist
043/228 Guzzlord
044/228 Incineroar
045/228 Jirachi
046/228 Kartana
047/228 Latias
048/228 Maractus
049/228 Metagross
050/228 Moltres
051/228 Naganadel
052/228 Nihilego
053/228 Pheromosa
054/228 Raccaflame
055/228 Raichu Alolan Form
056/228 Reshiram
057/228 Salamence
058/228 Salazzle
059/228 Shiinotic
060/228 Stakataka
061/228 Sylveon
062/228 Torterra
063/228 Thundurus
064/228 Vileplume
065/228 Xerneas
066/228 Xurkitree
067/228 Zacian
068/228 Zekrom
069/228 Arcanine
070/228 Bisharp
071/228 Breloom
072/228 Bruxish
073/228 Budew
074/228 Carkol Kantonian Form
075/228 Charmeleon
076/228 Dewott
077/228 Donphan
078/228 Dragonair
079/228 Dunsparce
080/228 Froslass
081/228 Frosmoth
082/228 Genesect
083/228 Gloom
084/228 Gogoat
085/228 Grotle
086/228 Hennifor
087/228 Keldeo
088/228 Linoone Galarian Form
089/228 Loudred
090/228 Lugia
091/228 Lumineon
092/228 Lycanroc
093/228 Magneton
094/228 Metang
095/228 Noivern
096/228 Oranguru
097/228 Pangoro
098/228 Passimian
099/228 Pelipper
100/228 Pichu
101/228 Pidgeotto
102/228 Raichu
103/228 Rhydon
104/228 Scuracha
105/228 Seviper
106/228 Shelgon
107/228 Skarmory
108/228 Slowbro
109/228 Slowking
110/228 Spearow
111/228 Spinda
112/228 Stunfisk
113/228 Suicune
114/228 Torracat
115/228 Wartortle
116/228 Zapdos
117/228 Zoroark
118/228 Zygarde 10% Forme
119/228 Applin
120/228 Bagon
121/228 Beldum
122/228 Cacnea
123/228 Charmander
124/228 Dartrix
125/228 Dratini
126/228 Eevee
127/228 Ekans
128/228 Farfetch'd Galarian Form
129/228 Fearow
130/228 Finneon
131/228 Growlithe
132/228 Golett
133/228 Helioptile
134/228 Hoothoot
135/228 Klefki
136/228 Litten
137/228 Magnemite
138/228 Meltan
139/228 Meowth
140/228 Miltank
141/228 Morelull
142/228 Noibat
143/228 Oddish
144/228 Oshawott
145/228 Pancham
146/228 Pavolyte
147/228 Pawniard
148/228 Persian
149/228 Phanpy
150/228 Pidgey
151/228 Pikachu
152/228 Poipole
153/228 Pumpkaboo
154/228 Rattata Alolan Form
155/228 Rhyhorn
156/228 Rockruff
157/228 Rolycoly Kantonian Form
158/228 Roselia
159/228 Rowlet
160/228 Salandit
161/228 Shroomish
162/228 Skiddo
163/228 Slowpoke
164/228 Smokoon
165/228 Snom
166/228 Snorunt
167/228 Squirtle
168/228 Taillow
169/228 Tauros
170/228 Turtwig
171/228 Vulpix Alolan Form
172/228 Whismur
173/228 Wingull
174/228 Yanma
175/228 Zigzagoon Galarian Form
176/228 Zorua
177/228 Air Balloon
178/228 Big Meat
179/228 Bubble Coat
180/228 Calming Campfire
181/228 Cleansing Bath
182/228 Comfy Scarf
183/228 Constricting Amulet
184/228 Cynthia's Challenge
185/228 Delta Ball
186/228 Delta Crown
187/228 Delta Stone
188/228 Energy Retrieval
189/228 Emerald Echelon
190/228 Fast Ball
191/228 Fresh Water
192/228 Flannery's Heart
193/228 Flute Set
194/228 Gold & Silver
195/228 Light Clay
196/228 Marnie & Piers
197/228 Meditation Waterfall
198/228 N's Compassion
199/228 Olivia
200/228 Pancakes
201/228 Power Beyond
202/228 Premier Ball
203/228 Rage Aura
204/228 Raihan
205/228 Snowy Forest
206/228 Steven's Determination
207/228 Swirling Storm
208/228 Switch
209/228 Team Rocket's Scheming
210/228 Wally's Gambit
211/228 Yellow
212/228 Apex Energy
213/228 Beast Energy
214/228 δ Rainbow Energy
215/228 Double Rainbow Energy
216/228 Upper Energy
217/228 Arbok LV.X
218/228 Breloom LV.X
219/228 Charizard LV.X
220/228 Dragonite LV.X
221/228 Duraludon LV.X
222/228 Lycanroc LV.X
223/228 Ninetales Alolan Form LV.X
224/228 Noivern LV.X
225/228 Raichu LV.X
226/228 Raticate Alolan Form LV.X
227/228 Thundurus LV.X
228/228 Umbreon LV.X

Kangaflora · Apr 11, 2021

Cool cards with the set so far. I was thinking just now: If you combine the Sword and Shield typing with the Diamond and Pearl Blanks in regards to the Pokémon's type, Weakness and Resistance, you could be in a win-win situation.

Kavross · Apr 11, 2021

Are you looking for any more card artwork?

PMJ · Apr 11, 2021

Kangaflora said:
Cool cards with the set so far. I was thinking just now: If you combine the Sword and Shield typing with the Diamond and Pearl Blanks in regards to the Pokémon's type, Weakness and Resistance, you could be in a win-win situation.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean.

Kavross said:
Are you looking for any more card artwork?

The answer is both yes and no. I am always down to add more art from people, but since the whole point is to have at least one piece from everyone, there are some pieces I can't replace because it's the only piece I have from that artist. No promises, but if you have a place with all your artwork that I could look at and pick and choose from, that would be super helpful. Otherwise, you could name off a few Pokemon you'd like to draw and I can tell you if I need them. An example of your art would also be helpful.

PMJ · Apr 12, 2021

Hello, everypony, here's another update.

I've updated the OP with images of the logo and set symbol, made by our very own Nemes and CardPone, respectively. I'll avoid tagging them since they are tagged in the OP, but many, many thanks to them for helping out. They don't have any card art in the set, but these are still important artistic contributions that I appreciate.

For this update, I'd like to go over some of the Trainers, Supporters, and Stadiums in the set. For those of you not familiar with Trainer subclasses in the DP era, it went like this. Trainers are what the current era calls Items. This covers both normal Items as well as Pokemon Tool and Technical Machine cards. Supporters are Supporters, and Stadiums are Stadiums. It sounds simple, but in this era, Supporters and Stadiums are not considered Trainer cards (they have their own classification, as Supporter and Stadium cards). This allows for different, less efficient locks, such as locking Trainer and Stadium cards, or just Supporter cards. If you're asking "Well that sounds really stupid, why would they do that?" then you can understand why they switched it back. Anyway, when I say Trainers I am referring to all three of these classes of cards at once.

I should have posted this alongside Ninetales, but forgot to. (I like to keep all the lines together.) Not every evolving Basic is going to be super complex, and sure enough, there are a few that are even simpler with this, having one attack with no effects.

Pokemon with Items were a rarely used mechanic that only appeared on a few Basic Pokemon in a few sets. The effects were pointless and none of the cards ever saw any strategic play. I've brought this mechanic back for Ardent Genesis with the intention of really putting it to good use. The game never officially gives them a proper name and never refers to them on any cards, so I've invented the term Held Item for this specific mechanic. These are not Pokemon Tools and are not affected by anything that affects Pokemon Tools.

There are cards in Ardent Genesis that do effect Held Items specifically.

This Wingull is custom made to assist the existing Pelipper in Lackey. It has an attack that costs WCCC and has the potential to do some solid damage, but with only 90 HP, getting four Energy on it is going to be a pain. Wingull's Carbos Held Item gives you one chance to attach two Energy at once to it, cutting down the time it takes you to power up Pelipper's attack. There's also a small bit of strategic value in being able to attach two Energy to it at once, since Water is the deck of Energy manipulation.

Again, I've tried to make my own Pelipper support the existing one as best I can. This Pelipper isn't going to be scoring any kills any time soon, but it does move its Energy around while providing some minor disruption. It also makes for a fine Bench sitter, removing all your Pelipper's Weaknesses and giving them free retreat.

Despite these improvements, Pelipper may not see much play, since there are many different Water-type attackers coming in AGE. Still, it becomes usable, and who knows? Someone might find a cool way to play this deck.

It hits stuff. Evolve it as soon as you can.

I will say, I do like the glow effect on both this card and Golurk. I didn't even plan it that way, it just came out looking dope.

It hits stuff. Attach δ Rainbow Energy as soon as you can.

While the effect on δ Rainbow Energy stacks, Delta Overload does not; apply it once no matter how many δRE are attached to Golurk.

Here are a few of the staple Trainer cards appearing in Ardent Genesis, along with a refugee from Welkin.

I'd like to make the case for this card. Potion-style cards have long been underused, basically never appearing in any competitive deck, mainly because they aren't worth the deck space. In order to make these cards worth it, they need to be able to help turn the tide of battle. To that end, I've increased the healing power from the traditional 30 damage to 40 damage. Given that Pokemon generally have no more than 140 hp in this era (outside of a small handful of LV.X cards and a couple edge cases), 40 HP sounds like the sweet spot for Item-based healing. Nothing in Ardent Genesis has more than 140 HP (except for one card), so I also feel confident that 40 is a good place to sit at.

Reprinting Rare Candy was a request from the council. I decided to have some fun with it.

This is an exact reprint of the old Rare Candy, the one that allowed you to both use it on your first turn and evolve into a Stage 1 card.

There are a couple cards that gain bonuses if they are brought into play with the effect of Pancakes (and yes, Alolan Raichu is one of them).

"Okay, well and good," I hear you say, "But pancakes? Really?"

Yep. ishmam's artwork has been used quite a lot for our cards, and I wanted to showcase some of his other work too. Unfortunately, I had to use some of his typical artwork for this set, but I'm almost sure it was for a single card that I had to add at the very end, so I'll accept that.

Supporter-based Pokemon search, but with a twist. There is strategic value in discarding your cards, so decks that can do that won't mind guessing wrong at all.

This is an exact reprint of Roseanne's Research.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Here's Welkin's Cinnabar Mansion reborn. This was specifically requested to get a new lease on life and the effect is a good one so I'm more than happy to oblige. I already know this is going to get a lot of use. It's a cool card!

Lastly, I've decided that posting the whole set will generate hype far better than keeping the whole thing a secret, so I have also edited the OP with the set list (for real this time, so @Kavross you and others can see if anything piques your interest). Enjoy!

PMJ · Apr 14, 2021

Today's update was brought to you by @Nyora. If you don't like the cards you see, you know who to blame.

Chosen cards: Hennifor, Shiinotic, Yellow, Stunfisk, Gogoat

Creating your own region is nothing new. It's something a lot of people do at some point, although 99% of them lack the talent, manpower, or drive to actually finish something more than a text document.

I am one of those people, but I also had Xous as my personal art guy, so it was a little different, lol.

A long time ago, I made a thread that detailed what I thought a solid Pokemon game should have. Keep in mind that this was written in 2008, before even Platinum came out. Some of the things on my wish list have actually come to pass since then, like a young and hot female professor and being older than ten years old in every game.

Shroob, like all the other names in that thread, is just a placeholder, but I use it to refer to my undesigned region and small handful of fakes that come from it. Pavolyte is that region's starter. It's pure Fire, and it's pure cute. It shoots fireworks from its tail!

Wing Spark is Pavolyte's exclusive move. In the games, it has higher base power depending on if Pavolyte, Hennifor, or Costenburn is using it. In the TCG, it's just a simple damaging attack.

As the line progresses, the complexity of its fireworks displays also increases. Still images don't do this Pokemon justice; flames spread out in a wide area from this Pokemon's tail. As it grows, it learns to change the color of its flames. It's said that once it's learned how to display all the colors of the rainbow, it's ready to evolve.

I've stated that this is Fire/Flying, but I'm still torn on exactly what type to make it. Its secondary typing isn't really relevant.

Hennifor mainly exists to set up kills for Costenburn, although you can also come in with Hennifor after Costenburn has weakened something to the point that 20 damage will kill it.

Imagine a peacock, except its plumage is fire, shifts colors into various patterns, and also creates spark showers, and you've got Costenburn. It uses its wings to leap and glide across wide areas, shifting its tail flames and manipulating its fireworks to create beautiful displays of light.

Like Hennifor, I'm not sure about actually giving it a Flying sub-typing, but it's irrelevant for this card.

Anyway, the card. Fireworks creates some dangerous ground for your opponent, pinging every Pokemon they drop. Some decks won't mind this, some decks will love it, and some decks will absolutely hate it. Shrapnel Bomb is really where it's at, spreading tons of damage on the field if the flips go your way. Four Energy is a lot to ask for, especially since Dragonite LA has a stronger attack for an all-Colorless cost, but given the usefulness of Fireworks, I believe it's worth asking for.

It doesn't have a lot of staying power, but Luminous Moss and Flash stack to make an irritating Pokemon to hit. (If affected by Flash, flip for Flash before flipping for Luminous Moss.)

That's really all it's there for. If you're in an emergency, and you can pay the cost, roll the dice. If you're gonna lose anyway, you might as well, right?

Because I'm making drastic changes to Unsung Heroes (eventually), I was asked to give Kabutops decks some LV.X insurance. I've answered with this card. Its Held Item gives it a fat bonus against Pokemon LV.X and a move that instantly puts the target to sleep. If you don't need to do that (or if you'd rather put your faith in a single card) you can opt for Light the Way instead. You'll still get the bonus damage, so it can be used to pick off a weakened target.

It's plenty strong against Pokemon LV.X without it, though, so I'm asking you to make a small investment of a single Psychic Energy if you want to utilize Light the Way.

If you know me at all, you already knew this was coming. It's mill[er] time, baby!

Before you start peeing yourself in a rage, you should know that this card (currently) has no support at all. I want this deck to be more than just 4 Stunfisk, 6 Fighting, and 50 Trainers. I just need to make sure all the pieces are there for what I want this deck to be able to do. Running your opponent out of cards has been a win condition since day one but it's been vilified for nearly as long because reasons. If they didn't want us to mill, they wouldn't have banned Lysandre's Trump Card for eliminating it as a win condition. Stay tuned...

nice goat bro

First, yes, that's a 10 HP increase, and yes, it was intentional.

Next, Colorless was criminally underused as a Delta Species type. In the whole of the Delta Species era, four whole sets with hundreds of cards, there were exactly three Colorless lines: Ampharos, Dewgong, and a single Deoxys. Six cards. That's it. Now, keep in mind this is back in gen 3, when stuff was actually weak to Colorless, so there really was no excuse to do this type so dirty. This set has six cards of every type as Delta Species, including Colorless. Here's two of them.

This card practically wrote itself. A splashable version of a Pokemon that gives you rides hmmmmmmm I wonder what I could do. So that's exactly what I did. Delta Ride is a powerful Ability that drastically boosts the mobility of any Delta Species deck, but its attack leaves much to be desired and it can't be searched with Delta Ball either. Neither of those is a dealbreaker, but it's my understanding that stacking your field with the Pokemon you need to set up and execute your plan is the goal of this format.

There's plenty of Delta Species hate in this set, too, so don't think this is the end of the world.

Do your best to ignore the disembodied hand of Red. Or don't, it's up to you.

Yellow will probably be used quite a bit, because not only is it Supporter search (so it can search itself), it's also Stadium search. Aside from Pidgeot, it's the only card in AGE that can search out Stadiums, so remember the name. You'll be seeing this card a lot.

Bonus round

I used this card to test positioning of the Ultra Beast and Delta Species bars, and also used it to promote my 482-card joke. Here's the actual card.

Remember that Delta Species hate I mentioned? Here's some of it. It doesn't affect Gogoat too badly, but there are plenty of other Pokemon that would hate to be sitting across from this bad bug. Fastwave slices through all effects on your opponent - given some of the damage increasing cards that Ultra Beasts have access to, you can send this damage up to some pretty impressive levels. Pheromosa, like Guzzlord and a few others, also has the privilege of being Delta Species as well, giving them access to even more support options.

Ultra Beast decks are gonna be wild, man.

Here's the card that @Xiu did for me. I don't think I did this as any sort of test, I just said hey do you wanna draw me a Xerneas and he was like yeah. So here it is.

Art from everyone means art from everyone. Keep em coming! I'd love to feature you in this set!!!

Minor tweak: Held Item text boxes were streamlined, they're much cleaner now.

PMJ · Apr 18, 2021

Here's a small update that includes a couple old cards, and some of the cards I did over the weekend.

Not much to say about this. If your opponent doesn't have any Benched Pokemon, then you can't flip for Splattering Buzz. It doesn't have much life, so evolve it quickly!

Yanmega has frequently had cards that allow it to attack for free. I like that aspect of its cards, but I don't like how it's an all-or-nothing kind of thing, so I've divided its attacking discount up into two parts. Neither part of Delta Frequency is that difficult to fulfill, so it's more common that you'll be attacking for a reduced cost rather than no cost. Dangerous Turn fits this card like a glove, allowing for cheap and decently strong Water damage that you can technically throw into any deck.

Oh, and note that its Weakness and Resistance are the same type with the same number modifier, effectively canceling each other out. Seemed fitting for a Yanmega.

The foil over the delta symbol is something I'm experimenting with. What you see here is just the foils in place of where the symbol usually is. I want this to be consistent among all the holos, but I'm not really sure what looks best.

Yep, that's right, custom Held Items.

My goal for Entei is to put a stop to problematic Pokemon with pesky Poke-Powers and Poke-Bodies. Since Held Items aren't affected by existing effects, Entei's Held Item puts a stop to them specifically. There are a couple really annoying ones in the set that you'll definitely want to consider enlisting Entei's services for.

Dashing Strike is this card's bread and butter. It doesn't do much damage, but it doesn't have to; for some Pokemon, losing access to their powers is pretty devastating. Obviously, it's not a death sentence for everyone, but this is still a tool that I wanted every deck to have access to. It has decent HP and its main attack does fair damage and costs one of any Energy. Keep it in mind if a particular power is giving you trouble.

You'll notice that this isn't exactly like the Air Balloon SSH. It functions more like the game version, where you lose it after you get attacked. This was intentional; while the vast majority of Pokemon in Ardent Genesis has Retreat Costs of 2 or less, I didn't want a Tool as strong as this one to essentially negate Retreat Costs the way the real Float Stone does.

My goal is to force the player to think carefully about when to attach and when to hold it - keep in mind that it gets discarded after any hit, even if you're on the Bench!

Letting it be popped early (or at all) also gives play to stuff like...

This is one of two special Tools in AGE that are attached to your opponent's Pokemon. It has a dark red border and a huge red X across the text area to distinguish it from other Trainer cards. There are two ways to get rid of it once it's attached to your Pokemon: play a card with an effect that can remove your own Tools, or die.

What do you guys think of the card design? I'm open to suggestions if you don't like it.

Unlike the real Team Flare Hyper Gears, which can only be attached to Pokemon-EX, these Tools have no special designation and can be attached to anyone. Because of that, they aren't super powerful. But they are annoying, to be sure. Of course, I couldn't very well create these without some way to take advantage of them, so be on the lookout for ways to use these to your advantage.

If you wind up with a hand full of them, you might not want to throw these all on your opponent right away, because of...

This is one of two cards you can play to remove Constricting Amulet from your Pokemon. (The other is a Pokemon, to be revealed later.) It cleans all your Pokemon of all Tools, not just the red ones, so keep that in mind.

As a small consolation prize for losing your Tools, your Pokemon each get a small heal, even if they didn't lose a Tool.

A note on Tool removal: cards like Tool Scrapper, which let you remove your opponent's Tools, significantly reduce the efficacy of defensive Tools, like Rock Guard and Buffer Piece. In order to strengthen Tools in general, it's my intent to not have any Trainer-based Tool removal in this format. Ardent Genesis has one Pokemon that can remove Tools from the opponent's Active--with an attack--but that's it. All other Tool removal is on your own Pokemon. (Sableye UNH has Poke-Power-based Tool removal for a single target, but whether or not that effect will survive the remastering remains to be seen. I'm leaning towards no, but I could be convinced otherwise.)

Minor tweaks: Gogoat's attack fixed

What do you think so far? Like what you see? Anything you're curious about? Drop a line or stop by the Discord, we'd love to have you.

Kangaflora · Apr 19, 2021

Once this set has been completed, will you be re-doing all of the Platinum Unsung Heroes cards?

PMJ · Apr 19, 2021

Kangaflora said:
Once this set has been completed, will you be re-doing all of the Platinum Unsung Heroes cards?

The short answer is yes. I plan on posting another thread for that set specifically, when the time comes. It's still quite a ways off, which is why I haven't gone into much detail about it in this thread (I did mention changes were coming in the OP, though). The long answer will come once I post that thread.

Kangaflora · Apr 21, 2021

PMJ said:
The short answer is yes. I plan on posting another thread for that set specifically, when the time comes. It's still quite a ways off, which is why I haven't gone into much detail about it in this thread (I did mention changes were coming in the OP, though). The long answer will come once I post that thread.

Saying that, the wording on some of the cards could do with correcting.

For example: in Unsung Heroes, Kadabra's Lone Warrior Poké-BODY needs to read, "If Kadabra is the only Pokémon you have in play, Kadabra gets +30HP, has no Weakness, and each of Kadabra's attacks does 20 more damage to the Defending Pokémon (before applying Weakness and Resistance)." The Mind Shock is powerful, though I would slightly balance that out with "If Kadabra is the only Pokémon you have in play, you may discard the top card from your oponent's deck. If you do, the Defending Pokémon is now Confused." But that's just my opinion.

PMJ · Apr 21, 2021

Kangaflora said:
Saying that, the wording on some of the cards could do with correcting.

For example: in Unsung Heroes, Kadabra's Lone Warrior Poké-BODY needs to read, "If Kadabra is the only Pokémon you have in play, Kadabra gets +30HP, has no Weakness, and each of Kadabra's attacks does 20 more damage to the Defending Pokémon (before applying Weakness and Resistance)." The Mind Shock is powerful, though I would slightly balance that out with "If Kadabra is the only Pokémon you have in play, you may discard the top card from your oponent's deck. If you do, the Defending Pokémon is now Confused." But that's just my opinion.

Appreciate you giving the set a look over (or was it just Kadabra?

). I agree with some of what you said. Disagree on others. I'm going to cover all the changes to Kadabra and other cards as I redo the set, so I'll ask you to hold your critiques of those cards until I post the thread. I'm focused on AGE at the moment, and don't want to derail this thread with talk about Unsung Heroes. Once I do, though, I will be more than happy to take your feedback on changes you'd like to see made - especially since Ardent Genesis will be available to use as a point of reference.

PMJ · Apr 22, 2021

This update is brought to you by @Jabberwock, who was fiending for new cards to look over.

Chosen cards: none he just said I should update more often lol, probably wouldn't have updated today otherwise

That's okay because I got plenty of neat stuff to show y'all today!

Big thanks to @Xiu for saving my ass in regards to this Pokemon's art when the one I originally had didn't work out as well as I'd thought. I appreciate all the help!

I usually try to make my Pokemon lines build up to something, but this line really doesn't follow that. It's an exception to the rule, I guess.

Anyway, Delta Draw is a super strong draw attack that can grab you up to six cards at once. If your opponent ever needed an incentive to hit you with N's Compassion, this would be it. As a Stage 1, I can't see too many Delta Species decks wanting to use Dewott as a draw option (or maybe they will; Samurott can attack for one Energy, after all). Maybe it'll only be utilized in Samurott decks? I'd be okay with that.

Samurott was one of the Pokemon @Nyora requested me to showcase, but Xiu asked if he could do the art for it. I had planned on using some old Xous art for it, so I was more than happy to hold off and let Xiu do his thing, and I was glad I did because this turned out great.

I think this is the only Stage 2 in the set that attacks for one Energy. I'm not sure, though. And even if it is (or isn't), remember that none of these cards are final. Dewott was changed before I even posted it here, so bring on those criticisms boiiii

Seamitar Skewer is adapted from Samurott STS.

So there are two ways I envision people playing this card; straight Pierce or the Seamitar Skewer wombo combo. Going straight Pierce is efficient and strong. You only need one Energy, and you can focus the rest of your deck on techs, healing, whatever you need. Seamitar Skewer costs three Energy and is telegraphed from a mile away, but the tradeoff is you can kill bigger things one turn quicker; hitting them with Pierce followed by Seamiter Skewer will 2HKO just about everything, whereas two Pierces might not. Seamitar Skewer is pretty strong in its own right, doing effectively 80 damage, and still 2HKOs a lot of stuff. Don't sleep on it.

This line's bread and butter is spreading and sniping. It's really cool - you'll see what I mean.

Whismur's Uproar can start you off as early as turn 1, provided you get the heads.

Like many evolving Stage 1s, Loudred's job is to help Exploud. Cacophonous Roar is a cool twist on damage spreading attacks by letting you choose how you want to spread the damage around. I'm aware that the net damage is technically higher if you choose to spread 10 damage to six of your opponent's Pokemon, but I figure the cost is fair if you decide to go that route.

I figured that since I made such a big deal out of using this artwork, I might as well show you guys the card I wanted to use it for. If it makes you feel any better, it's still thematically appropriate!

Violent Trigger is your key to powering this Pokemon up sooner rather than later. Even getting hit by 10 damage is enough for you to activate the power, but you won't be striking fear into anyone's heart with only a single damage counter on you. The threat of unloading a huge Angry Bellow after taking a fat hit is enough to make the opponent not want to hit into it. That's fine; you've got Mega Punch to whack 'em until they die. It's intentionally weak because the longer your opponent waits to hit you with a huge move, the easier it's gonna be to pick off their Active with Angry Bellow with enough leftover to seriously dent or kill some poor schlub on the Bench. If you're up against this thing, I'd just take my lumps. Exploud doesn't have enough life to kill more than one Pokemon at a time, assuming most of your Pokemon are healthy (and you aren't using Flock Power).

Note that this Tool is for Delta Species Pokemon only. If you move it to an ineligible Pokemon, it will immediately get discarded!

If you're having some trouble with Pokemon LV.X, feel free to make use of this to buy you a turn. Guzzlord AGE can recycle it infinitely, so LV.X decks are going to need an answer to this strategy.

Okay, I know you see the effect but I want to talk about the art for a sec.

You can kinda tell it's ishmam's, but it's still not something you'd ever see on a card, and that made it the perfect candidate for this set. The piece is titled "Emerald Echelon" (hence the card name - don't fix what isn't broken), and ishmam muses, "I had this surreal idea: what if jet bombers unleashed trees and flowers instead fire and destruction?"

The original design of this card took this literally, and made it so if you chose not to attack for turn, you'd get some bonus as thanks for not unleashing your fire and destruction. I realized that was stupid and decided on this instead.

The Stadium sits in a strange place; by triggering it solely at the end of each player's turn, a player can't replace it without forfeiting their chance at using it themselves. The player who plays it will always get to use it once (unless they get it discarded before the end of their turn obviously), and then it's up to the opponent to decide if they want to leave it in play for the extra two cards, or replace it so the opponent can't get any more use out of it.

The other Stadiums in this set, in my opinion, all have merit, so this isn't going to be the new Sunny Park.

Or maybe it will be, hell, I don't know what you guys are gonna do with all this.

Level Max. There are a few Pokemon you could use this on turn one going second. If you're feeling lucky, give it a try.

I think this was also a request, but I would have added it even if it wasn't.

~~Bonus~~ Lightning round

The most noteworthy part of this card is the power; being able to move your Tools around is pretty handy. The tradeoff is its inability to do any damage, but with that said, Call the Refs is pretty darn strong.

In this set, there are a whole goddamn LOT (emphasis on LOT) of Basic Pokemon that don't evolve. I've done my best to make each of them interesting enough to warrant their use; some are starters, some are recovery Pokemon, some are attackers... there's so many, it's hard for me to keep track of them all. You may see some doubling up on effects, in which case I would invite you to use whichever one you like best.

Another Pokemon from Shroob, Scuracha is a pure Electric-type cockroach. It has middling stats save for its demonic 170 base Speed.

Here's an example of a recovery Pokemon for Lightning decks. Lightspeed Rescue can get any Pokemon of any Stage, long as it's got the bolt in the corner. I feel like most decks will want at least one.

Wide Guard blocks all damage from Pokemon LV.X for a turn. There is nothing preventing the Scuracha player from using it every turn, so, again, if your main attacker is a Pokemon LV.X, you're gonna need a backup plan.

Free retreat because of course it does. Not many Pokemon in this set have free retreat (by default), so enjoy it.

If you're not playing Raichu LV.X, this will probably be your starter in Lightning decks. It's super good, but Rage Aura renders it completely dead weight unless you can cleanse it.

I can't believe I almost forgot to post these lol

Nyan donated the render; I added a little bit of shadows and the lightning effect. It's a simple effect, but it's leaps and bounds more complex than what I usually do (which is to say, nothing at all). There's a similar effect on Magnezone, some minor light play on Decidueye... these Lightning-types are looking slick.

So anyway, this genie is one bad mother. It accelerates Energy lightning fast and provides some powerful healing. There's a couple strings attached to that healing, though, so keep that in mind. Also remember that Raijin Healing isn't blocked by Rage Aura, so if you end up stuck with it attached, there's still some hope for you.

Minor tweaks: Entei's Embargo Gem text clarified

Hope this update is sufficient for hype. I'm about halfway done with images.

PMJ · Apr 23, 2021

Aw nuts, I forgot the thing on Oshawott. I'll get that fixed.

PMJ · May 2, 2021

I don't have an exact time frame for updates, but before I get into the cards for today, here's a general update on the set so far.

At the beginning of April, I said that if I could get 90% of the set done in a month's time, I'd be "on pace," which is actually a meaningless phrase since there is no hard deadline for me to get these done. As of right now I have 156 out of 228 cards done, or about 68%. This does not include several of the Trainer cards (which I can knock out in a couple minutes at most) or cards I'm waiting for art for that is otherwise done (most of the Level X cards). I have been doing these mostly by type since that is the order in which I had originally had these before being told that DP era doesn't order their cards like SM does, oops. I'm finishing up the Psychic cards shortly, which just leaves Darkness, Metal, and Colorless. It's three colors, but that's still like 50+ cards to do, so there's still a ways to go. Work steadily continues, however, and it's only a matter of time before the set is done. I am hoping I can finish within the next couple weeks since I'm moving at the end of the month, but we'll see.

Today's update is brought to you by Welkin. Welkin (WK) is a set by forum user Zygarde that served as one of the "base sets" for our DP Lackey format, the other being my own Unsung Heroes. As I mentioned in the OP, Welkin is an unfinished, unbalanced mess that is being removed from Lackey when this set goes live. Some of the effects found on Welkin's cards are kinda neat, though, so I've made it a point to save some of the ones that I thought were pretty cool, on top of a couple that the council specifically asked me to save. The following cards (or their evolutions) all feature effects found on Welkin cards.

If you want to check out Welkin and see if there's anything you like, click here. If you see an effect you like, feel free to mention it, and I'll let you know if it made the cut. If it didn't, I am still open to hearing your case for it; remember that nothing in this thread is finalized until the set goes live.

I lifted this power from Voltorb WK. The power is called Voltorb Flip and it was such a fun and interesting power that I had to steal it, even if putting it on a Bruxish doesn't make it as thematic as on a Voltorb.

Like Overzealous on Sableye SF, this power does nothing if both players have a Bruxish up front. Bruxish has some quick and somewhat potent biting attacks. They're weakened a little by requiring flips, but I think that's okay.

Stoke might seem a little out of place once you read what Arcanine does, but getting a second Energy attached to yourself can save you from having to attach it later; if your opponent is having really bad luck, you can also potentially put them out of their misery with Take Down.

Shared Warmth is adapted from Torchic WK. Torchic doesn't heal the recipient like Arcanine does, and it's also not a Stage 1. I thought that this was too useful of an attack to be relegated to a sucky Basic that exists solely to be evolved. Giving your attack up is a big deal, though, so I added a nice fat healing bonus to the attack. Ever climb into a hot tub and feel the warmth relaxing all your muscles? That's the idea here. That second Energy you attached with Stoke is a good candidate to get moved here, or you can attach a third and roll the dice with Rushing Flames.

Rushing Flames is adapted from Infernape PL. I like this attack since it allows you to throw away other Pokemon's Energy if you want. Infernape's attack does 80x, which I thought was pretty crazy, so I reduced it to make it more fitting for a Stage 1.

Here's my take on the "drop it and ping stuff" archetype. Sort of. Rowlet is restricted in that you can't ping anything that's already damaged; this was necessary to prevent people from abusing its power to donk. With that said...

There are no such restrictions on Dartrix; if you can evolve all your Rowlet in one turn, feel free to pile on the damage until they're dead. You still might wanna spread the love around a bit, though.

Decidueye was heavily adapted from Cloyster WK; it has the same Poke-Body and an almost identical attack (Decidueye can hit their Active Pokemon). I figured this would be the perfect Pokemon to adapt Cloyster's effects to, and I'm happy with how the artwork came out. At some point I'd like to do an update featuring one hit wonders, or cards featuring the only artwork I have of an artist - like this one.

I like to include artwork from people who are clearly not as advanced as folks like Sa-Dui or even ishmam. This art doesn't even look that bad; it's better than anything I could ever do. Anyway, Snake memes.

This artwork is so cool. I wanted to use it for Duel of Champions but it didn't make for very good GX card artwork. I definitely had to use it for this set.

Arbok's power is lifted straight from Electrode WK. It does the exact same thing.

Poison Vapor is adapted from Dark Arbok TR. It's cheap and doesn't do much damage, and the spread is nothing to write home about... or is it?

Damage Bind is adapted from Ampharos PL. It's slightly nerfed in that Arbok LV.X's version requires you to be Active to use it, but it's a quick and easy way to completely shut down your opponent's Poke-Powers, as long as you remember that any of your own damaged Pokemon (except this Arbok) are locked as well.

Venom Spreader can do some potent spreading, but requires the target to be Poisoned. While the base Arbok can do that with Poison Vapor, this one can't, so your opponent will get a reprieve either after they evolve, level up, or get KOed. This attack also originally did 70 damage, but I weakened it cause it sounded a little too powerful. I don't know if that's actually the case or just me being me and making my cards super weak out of fear of making them super strong. Let me know what you think.

Delibird WK, reborn. This was probably the most requested effect to save, and I was more than happy to oblige.

The wording might be slightly off but is adapted specifically for Lackey.

You probably won't be attacking with this, but don't sleep on Kick Down, especially if you're playing Dragonite LV.X.

Night time is a time to relax, unwind, and rest up for the next day's battles. With this adaptation of Battle Subway WK in play, benching Pokemon will be kept to a minimum.

The wording of this Stadium is key. Each player is allowed to play only 1 Basic from the hand. In most cases, this will mean you can only bench one Pokemon per turn, but it also severely limits Baby Evolution Poke-Powers, since the Pokemon that comes from your hand is a Basic Pokemon and Calming Campfire specifically prevents you from playing more than one per turn. So choose wisely!

Bonus round

So I got to thinking about the names of Pokemon, and I came to the conclusion that the reason Shaymin and Giratina don't have form names appended the way stuff like Burmy and Shellos do is because Creatures decided to abandon it starting with the Platinum block. This is made evident by the fact that Shaymin got two Level X cards in Platinum, featuring both of its forms. These cards have different Resistances, the same as Shaymin's base cards, so it was done intentionally to make the cards easier to play. The reason that Shellos and friends still have form names post-Platinum is because they had to; making their names different would make the previous versions harder to play.

Because of that, I have removed all alternate form names from each Pokemon in the set, except this one, as not only a nod to the DP era's consistent inconsistency, but as a favor to Omega who has built a Zygarde archetype around its various formes. Regional forms still have the form name, as they are not forms the way Shaymin or Shellos are, but entirely different Pokemon.

With that out of the way, check out the pupper. Growl Howl is limited in what you can pull from the deck, but if you pull anything, the sound will strike fear into your opponent's heart and prevent them from drawing a card for their next turn. This sounds dangerous, but it's limited in that you have to actually pull something from the deck to trigger the effect. It's not good for trying to mill, but it's a fun attack to use turn one.

This one goes out to @Charmaster:); I added this to the set just for him. And while it doesn't push the envelope or even be super interesting for a Cramorant, it's still pretty cool and I like it. Spit Up is a great power for softening up the Bench, but it requires you to discard Cramorant's Pokemon Tool to use it. Guzzlord AGE can get it back for you, if you want to go that route, but that requires a coin flip and a Bench slot. Cramorant can use Dive to potentially get his own Tool back, which is how I expect ~~Charmaster~~ people to play this card.

I'm posting this to show how much I had to shrink the text in order to fit my text spoiler alongside flavor text, which I promised Charmaster would talk about Cramorant getting eaten. The DP era has had some pretty ridiculous shrinkage of text, and Cramorant actually has the same number of lines of text as Weavile, so here's hoping this gets the green light; otherwise I'll just erase Fury Attack because there's no way I'm getting rid of the flavor text, lol.

These are the same cards I showcased before, except now they have the correct typing. Remember when I said at the beginning of this post that I had originally sorted these by type? Morelull and Shiinotic originally came after Naganadel but before the first Darkness Pokemon, which means I'd planned for them to be Psychic, and that's why they have Psychic attack costs. Here's what they look like (no changes have been made to the cards other than that). I messed this up because of how many times I'd rearranged the cards in this set. Thankfully, DP orders them alphabetically (can't believe I'm saying that), so changing the type won't change their location in the set list.

Minor fixes: Oshawott and Passimian have delta symbols now; set list updated with new naming conventions and an actually accurate list

I hope you enjoyed today's update. See you guys in another week or so lol

Charmaster:) · May 3, 2021

Just a disclaimer: I did not ask PMJ to make Cramorant’s Pokédex entry about it getting eaten. In fact, I dispose the notion, because why would you want to eat such a magnificent Pokémon as Cramorant? Still, PMJ did add Cramorant to the set just for me, so I can’t complain, and he did promise that the Pokédex description would be about it getting eaten (albeit at my great horror and not on my request), so I can’t say he was incorrect on that point.
It would be fun to use this Pokémon with Dark Box in Expanded Modern, especially since it would allow you to turn surplus Sableyiumite (I just know I’m pronouncing that wrong) into ammunition, but since the Lackey counsel seems reluctant to officially promote the Unlimited format, I’ll have to find other partners for this card. No problem! I’m sure there will be many decks that can use this card!
~~Now we just need to create an Arrokuda that is both a Pokémon AND a tool card without even relying on an ability.~~

PMJ · May 10, 2021

No special requests for this update. Today I just wanna show off some cool cards.

I finished Darkness and Metal (except Metagross) over the weekend; I've got less than thirty cards to go. If you include the ones I'm waiting for art on, that number jumps to around forty. But that still means I'm ~88% finished. This will probably be the last big update. I may do smaller, more frequent updates, consisting of a few cards each, or I may just upload the images to stash once they're all finished and let you guys have at it.

A side note on Arbok LV.X that I forgot to mention before: the additional HP awarded by the Level X allows for bonus cards from Unstable Gain. I thought that was pretty neat, and helpful since it potentially locks down your other powers.

*Squirtle noises*

I remember the first time I read Mirror Shell on Dark Wartortle TR and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. It was the first attack of its kind in the TCG, capable of dishing out unlimited damage for a pretty cheap cost. I've brought it back in all its glory for this set. While it is theoretically possible to stall with Mirror Shell, it's not difficult to play around, and honestly? If you're playing Blastoise, you've got better things to do.

Blastoise is your go-to guy for getting your Energy on the field once you've gathered them with Ninetales. Splash Rain is your bread and butter, but Shell Bash gives Blastoise a decent attacking option for when you either need to finish something off or don't have the means to attack with something else. With a fat 140 HP and a damage-reducing Poke-Body, this guy has some real staying power.

Both Below Zero and Ice Tornado are powerful attacks. Below Zero's effect can be circumvented by evolving, devolving, leveling up, or moving to the Bench. I mention devolving for completion's sake; there are no effects in AGE or the planned Unsung Heroes remaster that devolve a Pokemon. This is to strengthen Special Conditions and other debuffs to make them slightly more relevant.

Ice Tornado is a powerful nuke option that is easier to pull off than it looks. You'll have to spend a turn recovering (or just attacking with Below Zero), but that's fine.

Like Thundurus LV.X, this card is completely neutered by Rage Aura.

This was meant to be Shroob's early route shitmon, comparable to stuff like Raticate. It's Dark/Normal. It was unique when I came up with it ;/

Xous's art doesn't really capture it, but its smoke comes from the tip of its tail. It waves its tail back and forth as fast as it can to whip up a smokescreen, which it then uses to either attack or flee depending on the situation.

This is arguably the most important Basic in Ardent Genesis. Why? Because it evolves into Raccaflame.

Raccaflame is Fire/Normal, which, in my defense, was unique along with Dark/Normal when I made it up. It doesn't evolve further.

Though it's a Fire-type, they live on outskirts of town and in wooded areas. Towns with wild Raccaflame nearby are always on alert in case of accidental fires. Their tails are engulfed in flames in a similar way to the Charmander line, but unlike most Fire-types, Raccaflame's flame sac is in its tail; as a result, this Pokemon can't breathe fire. The tradeoff is the ability to channel all that power into its tail, causing some truly spectacular displays of flame.

Here's your Claydol. It's tweaked a little bit; Raccaflame burns (discards) your cards instead of putting them on the bottom. This will be a staple in a lot of decks, but Flock Power decks especially as they don't have very many ways to discard cards outside of this.

Normally, I would post the whole line together, but ~~I don't have Raichu LV.X art yet~~ Alolan Raichu doesn't really want anything to do with its Kantonian brethren, so I figured it would be okay to post it on its own.

Remember when I said that there were Pokemon that gained bonuses if you brought them into play with Pancakes? Here's one of them. You don't need Pancakes to get this into play any faster than is reasonable, but if you do go that route, Raichu will thank you with a big fat damage bonus. With Upper Energy, you can evolve a clean Pikachu and attack with it in the same turn for big damage (assuming you're losing).

World Traveler is an interesting attack; it only counts Evolved Pokemon for balance reasons, but you'd be surprised to find just how nicely the regional variants play with each other. Whether you want to use this or Kantonian Diamossal as your main attacker is up to you; they're both great.

Flock Power is this format's discard pile archetype. All the Pokemon with this attack are Delta Species, which is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, you gain access to all the Delta Species support options, but on the other hand, you are subject to all the Delta Species hate. Blastoise, Samurott, Pheromosa, Tauros, and Reshiram all give this deck major problems, not to mention how weak to spread this deck can be.

There are four Pokemon with the Flock Power attack, which means this deck caps out at 150 damage (Buneary UNH can't copy Flock Power unless you leave one of them Benched). Considering both Taillow and Pidgey attack for a single Energy, that's extremely powerful. The tradeoff, of course, is getting killed by just about everything. By the time you start ramping up the damage, it may be too late. Or maybe I'm completely wrong about the projected speed of this deck and it's going to run roughshod over the format. Only one way to find out!

Me: Make a point to say how much spread hurts this deck
Also me:

Yes, the body blocks your birds from getting sniped out, but consider that in order to put Swellow in play, you have to evolve Taillow. That's two Flock Powers you're losing out on. I gave Swellow a useful body as a way to not only give it a fighting chance against spread decks, but also as an incentive to actually use it. Don't forget that Swellow also protects your other Swellow!

It poisons anything that isn't an Ultra Beast, which is a hell of a lot of stuff. This helps set Naganadel LV.X up for kills.

This was made to work perfectly alongside the Naganadel LV.X from Ultra Invasion. Even without it, this is a solid attacker in its own right. It delivers the poison and a 50% trap so you can follow up next turn with the wombo combo.

Aside from the body, this is lifted almost 100% from Welkin. Rev up those Constricting Amulets!

Made for decks like Flock Power, but slightly less useful for other decks. It's cheap and quick Pokemon search.

If your opponent has a huge hand, N will show you compassion by calling a redo and giving you both a fair amount of cards.

I've mentioned this card a few times previously. The intent behind this card is to block all attacks that have damage values that say "20" or less. This includes 20x, 20+, and 20-, as well as attacks that don't have a printed damage at all but still do more than 20 damage (Decidueye is a good example of this).

In its original, pre-pre-alpha version, it only blocked attacks that do no damage at all, but I figured that was too limited in its application, and also that it wasn't too much of a stretch to say that an enraged Pokemon would likewise forgo weak damaging attacks in favor of their big guns.

This card is best used during the early game, when the attacks it can block are most prevalent, but there are also Pokemon weak to this card specifically, like Decidueye, Exploud, and Thundurus LV.X. Others, like Charizard (did you guys forget there was a Charizard in this set?), Frosmoth, and Noivern, are hurt by this card, but can still reasonably function.

As a reminder, the only ways that these Tools can be removed is to play Cleansing Bath or to use the Pokemon-based removal:

I think having Pokemon-based Trainer options, similar to Galarian Zapdos, helps to give players options. If you think Cleansing Bath is enough, fine. If you don't like the idea of losing all of your Tools, and you've got the Bench space, Alolan Rattata's your guy. Just look at how eager he is to help!

Shear is good, but you'll have to do more than slap Alolan Rattata into your deck if you want to use it.

Psychic Fangs is some pretty intense Level X hate. It only costs one Energy, and I feel a lot of decks will run Alolan Rattata anyway, so it might not be a bad return for your investment.

What's that? What's the point of Boss's Edict, you say? Don't be sticking your nose into affairs it don't belong in or you may find yourself getting 86'd.

It's a baby. Sprout is good, not bad for a turn 1 move, although you might wanna just evolve if you can.

Budew makes it attack a little easier. It doesn't do much damage to the Active, but it does some decent Bench damage.

I said this was coming, and I wasn't lying. This is finally going to make Roserade LV.X playable*.

* - Roserade LV.X is an obnoxious card, and a great example of what I meant when I said that Unsung Heroes wasn't meant to be played in a vacuum. I know I said this wasn't getting changed so we can "test" it, but after thinking about it, I don't think that it's worth trying to make it balanced. This, like Farfetch'd and Farfetch'd LV.X UNH, never would have passed any sort of review. Leaving Roserade LV.X as is also restricts me to modeling Roserade after it, instead of possibly using some cool idea to link them both together. This also means that there's a fair chance these cards will get changed to bring it more in line with what the new Roserade LV.X does. I dunno. Point is, the meme is at an end.

Minor tweaks: Thundurus fixed with proper name, Thundurus LV.X and Arbok LV.X edited to have foil sclera

Hope you guys are liking these updates. There are a lot of other cool cards that I haven't got the time to share, like replacements for Duosion WK and Reuniclus WK, or how Glaceon and Umbreon LV.X are going to revolutionize the way Eeveelutions are played, or Froslass and its auto-paralysis attack, or how you can get Raichu LV.X into play on turn one. I also haven't really showcased many of the cards that the council requested I added, like the Stage 1 lock attacks or a copy of Smeargle UD's Portrait, but rest assured all of that and more is present in this big ol' set.

This art by Steff is hot off the presses, he hooked me up with it while I was on the forums making this update pretty so here you go.

PMJ · May 11, 2021

As I've mentioned before, I wanted to get art from as many people as I could for this set. @steffenka is probably the only truly self-sufficient faker in our group; if he made his cards perfect using Photoshop he would unironically put us all out of a job because he does it all.

Steff also frequently makes interesting regional variants for existing Pokemon (a handful of them are in Lackey right now!), and I could think of no better way to exemplify all things Steff than by asking him to design a regional variant for Ardent Genesis.

He asked me what type I was looking for, and I told him either Dark or Steel cause I was low on those Pokemon at the time, and he busted out two lines that he'd already had drawn, because of course he did. In the end, I decided to use his regional Rolycoly and base it in Kanto because, I mean, if you think about it, Alolan natives don't go, "Wow, nice Alolan Raichu you've got there," they'd just be like "hey nice Raichu." So why wouldn't Alolan natives also refer to Kantonian Raichu as such?

Anyway, after I'd chosen them he made digital drawings of them and badabing badaboom I had three more cards for the set. These variants are all Steel/Psychic as opposed to the traditional Rock and uhhh I don't know gen 8 so whatever other types they are. Fire? Whatever. Galar sucks. I said what I said.

All things considered, Abduct is a pretty strong move. It's worth mentioning that you can't lock them in if you don't switch them first.

If you really wanted to, you could go in with Carkol by itself; both of its attacks are cool. Unloading Laser might as well say "Your opponent discards 2 cards from their hand" because 2 for 80 is a tough pill to swallow.

The Long Journey is an okay-ish draw option. It gives you an extra boost to your hand that isn't subject to your opponent's shenanigans.

Diamossal is a regional evolution in the same vein as Obstagoon and Sirfetch'd. It's got a lot of things going for it, like great HP, a strong Held Item, a search attack, and an attack with a may-as-well-be-limitless damage cap. It does have a huge Retreat Cost, though, but once this bad boy is up front, there won't be much reason to move it to the Bench.

Signal Transmission was the attack I mentioned in the chat the other day that I was considering changing. Requiring a Metal Energy is intended; you can utilize any other colors for Prism Shot, but if you want to use Signal Transmission, you need the Metal.

PMJ · May 20, 2021

https://sta.sh/21obcgg4e36r?edit=1

I uploaded Ardent Genesis to stash today. As of right now I am missing two cards, so I decided to post the whole set so people could start getting a feel for them. Outside of adding the cards I'm missing, I won't be updating this thread anymore.

Special shout outs to Omega for all his work on several of the renders and for allowing me to adopt Ultra Invasion so I can make it suck less, to @Jabberwock for the cleanest damn Special Energy ya ever did see, and to the council for letting me essentially rewrite our DP format and mold it in my image.

If I understand things correctly, this won't actually go into Lackey until Unsung Heroes Remastered is finished. Until then, please do continue commenting on cards you like or dislike, or better yet, join our Discord and yell at me in person.

Kangaflora · May 25, 2021

Nice. So once the two missing cards are done, you will be able to update one of the previous sets like Unsung Heroes. I'm looking forward to that.

Wolf Raider · Jan 22, 2023

I loved reading this thread its clear you have done an exelent work. Especialy loved the tools you atach to your oponent. (Always loved the concept of flare gear)

TCG Fakes Platinum: Ardent Genesis

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