Ruling Xatu - Psychic Shift

Ophie

Ophie

Aspiring Trainer
Member
The Xatu from Secret Wonders has a Poké-Power that reads,

"Once during your turn, if Xatu is on your Bench, you may choose 1 Special Condition from 1 of your Active Pokémon and remove that Special Condition. Then, 1 of the Defending Pokémon is now affected by that Special Condition you chose."

I have two questions about this.

1. If both my Active Pokémon and the Defending Pokémon are affected by Special Conditions, but they're different and cannot co-exist (Sleep, Confusion, or Paralysis), and I use Psychic Shift, would that mean my Active is now healed of the Special Condition and the Defending Pokémon's Special Condition now changes to the one my Active Pokémon previously had?
2. If both my Active Pokémon and the Defending Pokémon are affected by the same Special Condition, would the net effect of Psychic Shift be that my Active Pokémon is now healed of the Special Condition?

That is, can Psychic Shift override Special Conditions already on the Defending Pokémon?
 
1. Yes. The Defending Pokemon's old condition is erased and replaced with your new one.

2. Same answer as above. Say you're both Poisoned, him by the Toxic you did last turn with Base Nidoking and you by his Poisonpowder from Team Rocket Oddish with an Energy Root attached. If you use Psychic Shift to get rid of your poison, it overwrites his poison (Toxic) with your new poison (regular).
 
I see! So does this mean that different levels of Poison are treated as different but mutually exclusive Special Conditions?
 
Something like that. Most times it won't matter because the Special Condition isn't "special" (like Toxic, Endless Darkness, Torrid Wave), but old Special Conditions are always overwritten by new ones, even if the new ones have the same game effect.

Like if you're regularly poisoned and get hit by Toxic the next turn, your old poison isn't there anymore, the new, altered poison condition is.
 
I see. So "special" Special Conditions are treated separately from normal ones. This sort of thing has never come up for me playing the card game, but I wasn't sure, since the video games only override Special Conditions with the move Rest.
 
Ophie said:
I see! So does this mean that different levels of Poison are treated as different but mutually exclusive Special Conditions?
Click to expand...
It's treated as two separate effects on your Pokemon:
  1. Standard Poison: Between turns, place 1 damage counter on this Pokemon.
  2. Modifier: When placing damage counters for Poison, place 2 damage counters instead of 1 on this Pokemon.
2 is dependent on 1. If anything happens to 1, 2 is destroyed.

Past discussions here, here, and if you're a Professor, here (posts 26-33).
 
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