A fitting Ability and attacks for the god of Pokémon in GX form. Divine Retribution certainly looks threatening––all the Energy symbols alone!––and it can be powered up with relative ease with the Ability.
The art is quite nice, but I’m not sure it quite works for the card––without exception, GXs have a 3D-style art that really pops out at you. The painted style of this piece––while beautiful––isn’t exactly right for a GX.
In terms of power and balancing––I get that it’s Arceus and everything, but I question a few of the choices. The HP, for example, seems a bit high. Arceus generally has HP roughly on par with other Basic legendaries whenever it’s printed, like 130 HP in its most recent printing. 200 HP is the sort of thing I’d expect to see maybe on a Zygarde––which in its most recent incarnation had 20 more HP than Arceus’s most recent incarnation.
I also don’t really see the logic behind the Energy symbols for the GX attack. I guess you were going for the five Energy types that aren’t the “elemental” ones; G/R/W/L? It’s just a bit odd considering Fairy Energy didn’t exist in the generation Arceus is from, but I’ll let it slide––it’s not a big enough thing to dock points for.
All in all, I don’t think it’s overpowered. Very good, yes, but not gamebreakingly so, at least assuming there’s nothing like a Battle Compressor for the Lost Zone in the same format as it.
Wording errors:
- “Each player’s Lost Zone” should just be “the Lost Zone”––there’s only one Lost Zone, even though both players use it and can have cards in it. [-2 points]
- Arceus’s sig move is “Judgment”, not “Judgement”. While the English language technically accepts both spellings, the TCG does not. [-1 point]
- “Knock
Out should be capitalized. [-1 point]
- Cards aren’t put “into” the Lost Zone; they’re put “in” it. [-1 point]
- Missing a full stop after “game” in the GX clause. [-0.5 point]
- I don’t really like the wording beginning with “Treat each Energy card …” because it’s only ever been used before on Ampharos DF, over ten years ago, but I also can’t come up with anything better, so you get a free pass.
Fonts and Placement errors:
- GX attacks, as WSP brought to my attention a while back, never have more than three lines of text. If your text goes a bit over, you need to downsize it and do some squishing until you only have three. [-1 point]
- “Divine Retribution GX” looks to be just a bit off in terms of placement. Just needs a slight nudge upward, to be centered with the Energy icons. [-0.5 point]
Creativity/Originality: 11/15
(Interesting design space.)
Wording: 9.5/15
(One big mechanics thing and a few smaller semantics things.)
Fonts and Placement: 8.5/10
(Very close.)
Believability/Playability: 4/5
(Cautious point docked for high-end HP.)
Aesthetics: 4/5
(Art isn’t quite what I’d expect for a GX, but otherwise elegantly executed.)
Total: 37/50