I've always loved TVTropes. It's a fun website for showing all sorts of connection between various media. But I bet you we can find the connections in Pokemon too. Here they are, PokeTropes, common 'Tropes' in the Pokemon TCG! Different cards, different playstles, different players.
If you have any ideas for contribution, tell me so we can add to this awesome and funny list. :]
Special Thanks to to vadrake for helping with a few names and ideas.
Archetypo-The cards that are lost in translation. These cards, imported rare from Japan, and so carefully translated that you know they must be flawless! But then it turns out the ultra powerful broken BDIF for the rest of the year was, well....mistranslated.
Examples: Politoed LA, Shaymin Lv. X, Tangrowth GE(temporarily)
Gmmuka-The counter kind of card. This style of card is overtly complex and the rulings are like solving zen riddles. This card was meant to be cool, but it kind of gets lost in its own intentions. These cards usually never even hit a tier,with a few notable exceptions. Named after an exceptionally gimmicky card creator.
Examples:Shiftry EX PK, Fossil Ditto, any card using 'counter's
Darth-These cards look good at first glance, with high damage and all, but the circumstances are hard to meet. Must have such and such cards in play is usually the requirement, but it actually turns out to be kind of hard. This card will be haralded by somebody as the Pokegod himself, until it ultimately fails at tournaments. Named after the champion of these decks.
Examples:Mesprit Lv X, Feraligatr MT, Charizard EX
Overblown-These cards have to make everything do MOAR damage or count as MOAR energy or give MOAR HP. Grass cards are usually the recipients of this, particularly in recent times. Culminating in Poke-Bodies, these have the potential to be game breaking, but usually are released with some sort of counter. Though sometimes the seemingly awesome effect isn't enough....See Ensemble Darktype.
Examples: Shaymin Lv. X, Cherrim SF, Espeon MD
Ensemble Darktype-Every once in awhile these comes a Dark type that has a cool effect and cool artwork, but is ignored because Fighting type happens to be popular at the time. But then people try it anyway, and it becomes temporarily popular. Oh dear. The result is usually mass Knock Out effect, but some live long enough to take a tournament. Also see the othertype version of this meme, Sheer Can't.
Examples: Shiftry EX CG, Darkrai Lv. X, Honchkrow MT
Sheer Can't-Named for Sheer Kahn, the mighty tiger who is defeated by....a burning stick. These cards mostly essentially rely on swarming with brute strength, thoughtimes coupled with an adverse effect that doesn't affect the cards in the deck, like Mario. They end up with debilitating weaknesses and generally see a small poof of popularity, then die.
Examples:Machamp and Lucario DP, Raichu Lv. X, Infenape(all of them)
Glass Deck-This card is seen as good, but it is temporarliy a regular tier deck due to the coolness and excitement of other new cards. They look straight through onto other prospects, because it's too obvious. Then, everybody realizes the beast that has been unleashed and rushes to start building the same deck. The rest of the season will mostly consist of mirror matches. Opposite of Darth and Look At Me! These cards begin to be called for Unstoppable Ban, though not all are.
Examples: Gardevoir and Gallade SW, Sneasel Neo, Slowking
Electric Mewtwo-These cards try to be a fresh new gimmick to change up the game, and do...but kind of in a bad way, once the game becomes centralized on these cards and absurd complexities ensue. Also, these cards will have specific trainer engines that cost bizarre amounts of money. See Mom, Can We Have Seven? for more on that.
Examples: All delta and SP Pokemon
Project Poison-Poison isn't a good Special Condition. It very rarely works because it's so easy to be rid of and doesn't actually do that much damage. There have been lot of attempts to give good Poison support, but these have ultimiately failed, although some could be lower tier decks. However, the sad thing is that it causes a lot of Pokemon to be bad ona regular basis. A good Arbok? What? But You Knew That Already.
Examples:Beedrill Neo Revelation, Arbok GE, Weezing GE
Cannonman-This card needs a lot of energy. In fact, it does more damage for every energy you attach, (but sometimes not for each one used to pay for the dang energy cost, which is usually high in this case). Named for Blastoise. Usually fail because putting all your energy on one card is like wearing a giant bullseye.
Look At Me!-There always seems to be a new cards that says, Look At Me! It's got great art and fairly unique effects. In theory, it looks awesome. In practice though, it's terrible. But EVERY deck has a proprieter. NO EXCEPTIONS. This deck is often overtaken by the Glass Deck or even just an Ensemble Darktype....sometimes, they ARE an Ensemble Darktype.
Examples: Dusknoir Lv. X, Raichu Lv. X, Honchkrow MT.
I Hope You Brought Enough Rocks-There's always a player who loves spread decks. He Hopes You Brought Enough Rocks, because he's going to be placing damage counters, everywhere.
The Macham' Repor'-This is what happens when you're a liiiittle too braggy about your big win. You come back, swaggering and flaunting, and sometimes go far as a self dedication video. This action will instantly cause mass hate by the fanbase, sometimes because they were too braggy, sometimes because people are jealous, but You Knew That Anyway.
Examples:Nearly all Blastoise, Crawdaunt EX, Tyranitar SF
Fire Is Hot-Fire cards are usually very popular. Why? I dunno, Fire Is Hot. Usually discards lots of energy for lots of damage and is frustratingly boring as a concept. Occasionally doused by strong water types, but the crazy onslaught of string Fire types has generally caused...
Examples:Charizard, Infernape, Magmortar, Blaziken(ALL)
Kick Your Grass-Grass has, historically, been a bad type. Most, before the advent of the DP block, have been all about Special Conditions. Somehow, it took Nintendo a few years to realize Special Conditions weren't very good in a format with Warp Points and Switches. It doesn't help that most of these didn't have very good damage output anyway, and low HP for...some reason. One of the other big problems is that only a very select few Fighting types will even be weak to Grass.
Examples:Venusaur, Bellossom, Butterfree
Darwin's Law-Basic Pokemon, excluding legendaries, aren't allowed to be good for anything more than setting up or bookmarks. They've got low HP, even when the games say that some have much more HP than an evolved Pokemon, they do low damage for lots of energy, usually with some dumb second effect, and seeing one at a tournament is a good indication of your impending victory. The frustrating thing is that a lot of old favorites like Lapras and Tauros never get a chnce to be good cards, simply because they don't evolve. Oh well, blame it on the british.
Examples: Lapras, Farfetch'd, Tauros, Kangaskhan
What's a Rock Type?-In order to simplify the game, most types were shoved into....similar colors? Ground and Rock fused into Fighting, Bug and Poison into Grass(though this changed in the DP block), Ice into Water, Dragon and Flying into Colorless, and so on. As a result, many 'types' lost thier identity, with Rock types having no defensive capabilities whatsoever.
Examples:Well, they were listed.
You Knew That Anyway- Every once in awhile, you come upon a repetitve action within the fanbase. They will always repeat this at some point. Maybe it's asking for a ban, hyping up bad decks, or complaining about the cheapness of the company on printing. It moves in a cycle, but even though it gets pointed out every time, no one seems to notice or care, or better yet, stop. But You Knew That Anyway.
Examples: The fans.
Painful Information-Sometimes a website will obtain early info or scans from a new set, or translation. Of course Pokeparents being what they are, this causes massive whining and discontent. For some reason they will suddenly become aggressive, as if the proprieter has provided this information to offends and shock people. Other times information will not be available because it advertises other websites.
Examples: [Examples blocked as advertising websites.]
Mom, Can We Have Seven?-Some kids have parents, or Pokeparents, that don't mind spending the money for several boxes. But there are also several single cards that have been in the vein of ridiculous amounts for a piece of paper. This trope refers to kids who have access to an absurd amount of cards. He walks up with a 3 inch binder of cards, smirks, and walks on by. Also see Wanna Be A Master.
Examples: Holon Transceiver, Claydol GE, Time Space Distortion
Pokeparents-Pokeparents are concerned and enthusiastic parents of Pokemon players, and often Pokemon players themselves. They're usually more concerned with seeing smiles and spreading joy, but...maybe a little too much. The Pokeparent can sometimes be overbearing in their opinions, sometimes apparently to protect Pokekids.
How Long Is This?-Not every parent of Pokekids is a Pokeparent. Sometimes, the first thing they ask upon arrival to league or a tournament is, How Long Is This? Hey, it's not for everyone, but still, this is trope worthy because of how many bored parents you'll find on the sidelines who just don't get it. They wanted them to try football....or dancing.
Pokekid-The Pokekid is very young, probably not older than 12, and he LOVES Pokemon. The games, the show, the TCG, EVERYTHING. The Pokekid can sometimes however take a rarer elitist stance and become Little Paul. The Pokekids are usually protected by Pokeparents, or simply accompanied by How Long Is This? Pokekids are very vulnerable to The Ace and Pikachu For Gardevoir Lv. X.
Little Paul-Little Pauls, or Paulinas if you so prefer, are simply put, spoiled Pokekids. They will do anything to win in a sickeningly strange fashion. Little Paul is the junior version of The Ace. Named for Paul, from the show.
The Ace-The Ace is every bad player you've ever faced that refused to shake your hand, every person that tricked a Pokekid into trading his Regigigas Lv. X and Uxie LA for his Pikachu, every deviant who kept an extra hand up his sleeve or stalled you out of a match. The Ace thinks he's awesome because he can pull all of this off, but as soon as he's confronted by Noble Judge or Pokeparent, backs down quickly. Too bad. He Could Have Won If He Drew Into His Potion. Named for The Ace from Nationals 2008.
Wanna Be A Master-Every kid wants to be a master. They have to catch all the Pokemon and get all the cards and dress up from the cartoon whenever possible. Sometimes cute, this can be absurdly obnoxious too. Some kids will be lured into bad trades in their efforts to collect every Pokemon, usually by the The Ace.
I Could Have Won If I Drew Into My Potion-This line is from the legendary Ace at Nationals 2008. This is the whining of anyone who has ever lost, not on bad luck, but on their own bad deckbuilding. It's a generally accepted idea that Potion is not a good card. The Ace will be most often guilt of this line, but the more innocent Pokekids can fall victim to this too.
Hatter Trick Mad-This deck type will show up occasionally in tournaments, a successful rogue that stomps out the competition with surprise to all others. It's not an easy feat, but when done right can take the whole meta by storm, if only for an instant.
Pikachu For Gardevoir Lv. X?-Any extremely unfair trade, usually proposed by The Ace, seeking to take adavantage of players that don't know any better. Pokekids are usually the target. Some Aces will argue that if these players deserve to be taken advantage of because, 'it will teach them a lesson.' Enter Pokeparent's Wrath.
Pokeparent's Wrath-Pokeparents are protectors to their children, and in some cases also their league members. If one of their own is a victim of Pikachu For Gardevoir Lv. X? or I Have Eleven In The Discard, you can bet there will be fire. Also may result in Ban Line, Do Not Cross.
I Have Eleven In The Discard-Famously named for an incident in which an opposing Kingdra player lied about the number of energy in the discard pile for the attack Aqua Stream, cheating his way to a Knock Out. This is any intentional lie made to unwary opponents to try and out the game in their favor.
Ban Line, Do Not Cross-On a couple of occasions, people have been banned from Premier Events, for any number of resons, but the most common seems to be swearing. However, they also seem to close themselves off from the online world too, though there are a few exceptions.
---------------
Hope you enjoy :0
If you have any ideas for contribution, tell me so we can add to this awesome and funny list. :]
Special Thanks to to vadrake for helping with a few names and ideas.
Archetypo-The cards that are lost in translation. These cards, imported rare from Japan, and so carefully translated that you know they must be flawless! But then it turns out the ultra powerful broken BDIF for the rest of the year was, well....mistranslated.
Examples: Politoed LA, Shaymin Lv. X, Tangrowth GE(temporarily)
Gmmuka-The counter kind of card. This style of card is overtly complex and the rulings are like solving zen riddles. This card was meant to be cool, but it kind of gets lost in its own intentions. These cards usually never even hit a tier,with a few notable exceptions. Named after an exceptionally gimmicky card creator.
Examples:Shiftry EX PK, Fossil Ditto, any card using 'counter's
Darth-These cards look good at first glance, with high damage and all, but the circumstances are hard to meet. Must have such and such cards in play is usually the requirement, but it actually turns out to be kind of hard. This card will be haralded by somebody as the Pokegod himself, until it ultimately fails at tournaments. Named after the champion of these decks.
Examples:Mesprit Lv X, Feraligatr MT, Charizard EX
Overblown-These cards have to make everything do MOAR damage or count as MOAR energy or give MOAR HP. Grass cards are usually the recipients of this, particularly in recent times. Culminating in Poke-Bodies, these have the potential to be game breaking, but usually are released with some sort of counter. Though sometimes the seemingly awesome effect isn't enough....See Ensemble Darktype.
Examples: Shaymin Lv. X, Cherrim SF, Espeon MD
Ensemble Darktype-Every once in awhile these comes a Dark type that has a cool effect and cool artwork, but is ignored because Fighting type happens to be popular at the time. But then people try it anyway, and it becomes temporarily popular. Oh dear. The result is usually mass Knock Out effect, but some live long enough to take a tournament. Also see the othertype version of this meme, Sheer Can't.
Examples: Shiftry EX CG, Darkrai Lv. X, Honchkrow MT
Sheer Can't-Named for Sheer Kahn, the mighty tiger who is defeated by....a burning stick. These cards mostly essentially rely on swarming with brute strength, thoughtimes coupled with an adverse effect that doesn't affect the cards in the deck, like Mario. They end up with debilitating weaknesses and generally see a small poof of popularity, then die.
Examples:Machamp and Lucario DP, Raichu Lv. X, Infenape(all of them)
Glass Deck-This card is seen as good, but it is temporarliy a regular tier deck due to the coolness and excitement of other new cards. They look straight through onto other prospects, because it's too obvious. Then, everybody realizes the beast that has been unleashed and rushes to start building the same deck. The rest of the season will mostly consist of mirror matches. Opposite of Darth and Look At Me! These cards begin to be called for Unstoppable Ban, though not all are.
Examples: Gardevoir and Gallade SW, Sneasel Neo, Slowking
Electric Mewtwo-These cards try to be a fresh new gimmick to change up the game, and do...but kind of in a bad way, once the game becomes centralized on these cards and absurd complexities ensue. Also, these cards will have specific trainer engines that cost bizarre amounts of money. See Mom, Can We Have Seven? for more on that.
Examples: All delta and SP Pokemon
Project Poison-Poison isn't a good Special Condition. It very rarely works because it's so easy to be rid of and doesn't actually do that much damage. There have been lot of attempts to give good Poison support, but these have ultimiately failed, although some could be lower tier decks. However, the sad thing is that it causes a lot of Pokemon to be bad ona regular basis. A good Arbok? What? But You Knew That Already.
Examples:Beedrill Neo Revelation, Arbok GE, Weezing GE
Cannonman-This card needs a lot of energy. In fact, it does more damage for every energy you attach, (but sometimes not for each one used to pay for the dang energy cost, which is usually high in this case). Named for Blastoise. Usually fail because putting all your energy on one card is like wearing a giant bullseye.
Look At Me!-There always seems to be a new cards that says, Look At Me! It's got great art and fairly unique effects. In theory, it looks awesome. In practice though, it's terrible. But EVERY deck has a proprieter. NO EXCEPTIONS. This deck is often overtaken by the Glass Deck or even just an Ensemble Darktype....sometimes, they ARE an Ensemble Darktype.
Examples: Dusknoir Lv. X, Raichu Lv. X, Honchkrow MT.
I Hope You Brought Enough Rocks-There's always a player who loves spread decks. He Hopes You Brought Enough Rocks, because he's going to be placing damage counters, everywhere.
The Macham' Repor'-This is what happens when you're a liiiittle too braggy about your big win. You come back, swaggering and flaunting, and sometimes go far as a self dedication video. This action will instantly cause mass hate by the fanbase, sometimes because they were too braggy, sometimes because people are jealous, but You Knew That Anyway.
Examples:Nearly all Blastoise, Crawdaunt EX, Tyranitar SF
Fire Is Hot-Fire cards are usually very popular. Why? I dunno, Fire Is Hot. Usually discards lots of energy for lots of damage and is frustratingly boring as a concept. Occasionally doused by strong water types, but the crazy onslaught of string Fire types has generally caused...
Examples:Charizard, Infernape, Magmortar, Blaziken(ALL)
Kick Your Grass-Grass has, historically, been a bad type. Most, before the advent of the DP block, have been all about Special Conditions. Somehow, it took Nintendo a few years to realize Special Conditions weren't very good in a format with Warp Points and Switches. It doesn't help that most of these didn't have very good damage output anyway, and low HP for...some reason. One of the other big problems is that only a very select few Fighting types will even be weak to Grass.
Examples:Venusaur, Bellossom, Butterfree
Darwin's Law-Basic Pokemon, excluding legendaries, aren't allowed to be good for anything more than setting up or bookmarks. They've got low HP, even when the games say that some have much more HP than an evolved Pokemon, they do low damage for lots of energy, usually with some dumb second effect, and seeing one at a tournament is a good indication of your impending victory. The frustrating thing is that a lot of old favorites like Lapras and Tauros never get a chnce to be good cards, simply because they don't evolve. Oh well, blame it on the british.
Examples: Lapras, Farfetch'd, Tauros, Kangaskhan
What's a Rock Type?-In order to simplify the game, most types were shoved into....similar colors? Ground and Rock fused into Fighting, Bug and Poison into Grass(though this changed in the DP block), Ice into Water, Dragon and Flying into Colorless, and so on. As a result, many 'types' lost thier identity, with Rock types having no defensive capabilities whatsoever.
Examples:Well, they were listed.
You Knew That Anyway- Every once in awhile, you come upon a repetitve action within the fanbase. They will always repeat this at some point. Maybe it's asking for a ban, hyping up bad decks, or complaining about the cheapness of the company on printing. It moves in a cycle, but even though it gets pointed out every time, no one seems to notice or care, or better yet, stop. But You Knew That Anyway.
Examples: The fans.
Painful Information-Sometimes a website will obtain early info or scans from a new set, or translation. Of course Pokeparents being what they are, this causes massive whining and discontent. For some reason they will suddenly become aggressive, as if the proprieter has provided this information to offends and shock people. Other times information will not be available because it advertises other websites.
Examples: [Examples blocked as advertising websites.]
Mom, Can We Have Seven?-Some kids have parents, or Pokeparents, that don't mind spending the money for several boxes. But there are also several single cards that have been in the vein of ridiculous amounts for a piece of paper. This trope refers to kids who have access to an absurd amount of cards. He walks up with a 3 inch binder of cards, smirks, and walks on by. Also see Wanna Be A Master.
Examples: Holon Transceiver, Claydol GE, Time Space Distortion
Pokeparents-Pokeparents are concerned and enthusiastic parents of Pokemon players, and often Pokemon players themselves. They're usually more concerned with seeing smiles and spreading joy, but...maybe a little too much. The Pokeparent can sometimes be overbearing in their opinions, sometimes apparently to protect Pokekids.
How Long Is This?-Not every parent of Pokekids is a Pokeparent. Sometimes, the first thing they ask upon arrival to league or a tournament is, How Long Is This? Hey, it's not for everyone, but still, this is trope worthy because of how many bored parents you'll find on the sidelines who just don't get it. They wanted them to try football....or dancing.
Pokekid-The Pokekid is very young, probably not older than 12, and he LOVES Pokemon. The games, the show, the TCG, EVERYTHING. The Pokekid can sometimes however take a rarer elitist stance and become Little Paul. The Pokekids are usually protected by Pokeparents, or simply accompanied by How Long Is This? Pokekids are very vulnerable to The Ace and Pikachu For Gardevoir Lv. X.
Little Paul-Little Pauls, or Paulinas if you so prefer, are simply put, spoiled Pokekids. They will do anything to win in a sickeningly strange fashion. Little Paul is the junior version of The Ace. Named for Paul, from the show.
The Ace-The Ace is every bad player you've ever faced that refused to shake your hand, every person that tricked a Pokekid into trading his Regigigas Lv. X and Uxie LA for his Pikachu, every deviant who kept an extra hand up his sleeve or stalled you out of a match. The Ace thinks he's awesome because he can pull all of this off, but as soon as he's confronted by Noble Judge or Pokeparent, backs down quickly. Too bad. He Could Have Won If He Drew Into His Potion. Named for The Ace from Nationals 2008.
Wanna Be A Master-Every kid wants to be a master. They have to catch all the Pokemon and get all the cards and dress up from the cartoon whenever possible. Sometimes cute, this can be absurdly obnoxious too. Some kids will be lured into bad trades in their efforts to collect every Pokemon, usually by the The Ace.
I Could Have Won If I Drew Into My Potion-This line is from the legendary Ace at Nationals 2008. This is the whining of anyone who has ever lost, not on bad luck, but on their own bad deckbuilding. It's a generally accepted idea that Potion is not a good card. The Ace will be most often guilt of this line, but the more innocent Pokekids can fall victim to this too.
Hatter Trick Mad-This deck type will show up occasionally in tournaments, a successful rogue that stomps out the competition with surprise to all others. It's not an easy feat, but when done right can take the whole meta by storm, if only for an instant.
Pikachu For Gardevoir Lv. X?-Any extremely unfair trade, usually proposed by The Ace, seeking to take adavantage of players that don't know any better. Pokekids are usually the target. Some Aces will argue that if these players deserve to be taken advantage of because, 'it will teach them a lesson.' Enter Pokeparent's Wrath.
Pokeparent's Wrath-Pokeparents are protectors to their children, and in some cases also their league members. If one of their own is a victim of Pikachu For Gardevoir Lv. X? or I Have Eleven In The Discard, you can bet there will be fire. Also may result in Ban Line, Do Not Cross.
I Have Eleven In The Discard-Famously named for an incident in which an opposing Kingdra player lied about the number of energy in the discard pile for the attack Aqua Stream, cheating his way to a Knock Out. This is any intentional lie made to unwary opponents to try and out the game in their favor.
Ban Line, Do Not Cross-On a couple of occasions, people have been banned from Premier Events, for any number of resons, but the most common seems to be swearing. However, they also seem to close themselves off from the online world too, though there are a few exceptions.
---------------
Hope you enjoy :0
