Newly Added: Cosmic Eclipse (11/1), McDonald’s Collection 2019 (10/1), Hidden Fates (8/23), Unified Minds (8/2)
To get started, enter search terms above. By default, only card names, sets, and numbers will be matched in the search results. Use the advanced search and search syntax to refine them further. For the completionist, all sets are available for viewing. Chance upon a random card if you’re indecisive.
Or, just check out the latest discussion below:
It would have been interesting to see how an Ace Spec or Prism Star version of Super Energy Removal panned out; without serious playtesting and just Theorymon, I could honestly have seen such cards range from probably-broken-staples to niche-specialist cards and anyplace in between.
As for what the game’s designers from the time were thinking, it was NOT that they were releasing a TCG that would not only stick around for over 20 years, but be played competitively around the world! Looks lik…
I’m not trying to rain on your parade, Nick15, but… no. XD
Hitmonchan was great not because it was this massive beast of a Pokémon. It was great because of the rest of the cardpool and how it was able to exploit oversights in the game’s intended design. Hitmonchan costarred with set-mate Electabuzz in “Haymaker” decks, and those were brutally efficient beatdown/control decks.
MOST Evolving Basic Pokémon were NOT in the natural OHKO range of Jab; even Magikarp survived with 10 HP… un…
I think if this card is a prima star card, it may be not too broken, but every deck will have one instead.
To be fair, Wizards never designed a single card, other than Dark Raichu. The cards were designed by Media Factory in Japan, which IIRC still run the game, albeit under “Pokemon Inc” or something. Point is, all WotC did was translate the cards into English, the actual content was all Japan.
For anyone who wants an idea of how powerful this card was back in the day, lemme update it to account for 20 years of power creep:
HITMONCHAN – 210 HP – F
F – Jab – 100
FFC – Special Punch – 200
W: P / R: X / RC: CC
If this looks insane, that’s the point.
Combined with a Gust of Wind, you can effectively one-shot ANY Basic Pokemon before it can evolve or otherwise become useful. At its worst it could still KO anything in three to four turns… but anything against it would need to …
That’s a tall order, to be honest. Magic had Ancestral Recall but I’d argue three cards and no discarding for U is more effective in Magic than dumping your hand for 7 in Pokemon.
I think a better equivalent to Oak in Magic would be Wheel of Fortune, other than the fact that WoF makes every player dump their hands. On the flip side, Oak is free versus playing for WoF, so I think it evens out a bit.
Discussions? LOL
The original designers has NO IDEA what they were doing. To be fair, neither did Richard Garfield and the rest of Magic’s Alpha/Beta designers. Stuff like this, Oak, Bill, are effectively Pokemon’s “Power Nine”, akin to Magic’s Black Lotus, Ancestral Recall, and Moxes. That said, it’s fascinating how the most expensive card in Magic and Pokemon are 180 from each other: Black Lotus is kinda boring looking but has serious game play value, while 1st Edition Base Charizard is ju…
Probably the best Basic that isn’t a BBP. Efficient as fudge, and is still very viable even today.
Possibly, but I’m almost certain this error was a legitimate design mistake. These cards were (are?) most likely made in something like Adobe InDesign, which allows you to place graphic elements by name. So probably the person doing the actual layout for this card wanted to place “Fire_Energy.file”, and so typed “F” then “I” to select it, but unwittingly chose “Fighting_Energy.fire” instead, seeing as “Fighting” is before “Fire” in the file list. This accounts for how common this error is, espe…
Well, shit happens. I’ve been designing Pokemon cards for years and mistakes crop up all the time. Kudos to all designers who keep things as clean as they can!
They didn’t make the fighting weakness “on purpose”; when designing cards, they likely used Adobe InDesign, and you can place graphic elements by name. What likely happened was that the person who was designing the card simply typed “F” on their keyboard thinking they typed “Fire” and accidentally selected “Fighting” instead. This is why a majority of “wrong type” errors are “Fighting/Fire” mismatches, like on Blaine’s Charizard (Gym Heroes) and Crystal Nidoking (Aquapolis).
mes pantalons est en feu
To clarify what Jack said, while attached to a Pokémon, Rainbow Energy provides one unit of Energy that always counts as all Types. You cannot treat them as one Energy Type, then another; that unit of Energy is always all Types.
Other Special Energy cards that provide units of Energy that count as multiple Types are similar.
For the purpose of Hydro Shot, each Rainbow Energy card provides [W] Energy, so they would both need to be discarded.
Can rainbow energys not be discarded with hydro shot to save energy?
so if i have 1 fire energy and 2 rainbow energys, would i discard the two rainbows or would they stay on
I expected a different wording for Poltergeist attack: Look at your opponent’s hand. This attack does 30 damage times the number of Trainer, Supporter, and Stadium cards you find there.
Yes, all three have to be in play, hence the use of “and” instead of “or”.
Do all three of Poliwag, Poliwhirl, Poliwrath have to be in play for the bonus damage? Or would one single Poliwag for example be dealing 60 more damage?
I can’t see the Steel Wing in this illustration.
The only thing I see is a strange dance step.
this lad is too big to fit in the frame i love him
I would like to give a huge applause to JP for acquiring, scanning, and editing these cards. Thank you JP!
I’m a little bothered about this card and Baltoy DX.
Both have a 40-damage Selfdestruct, but does 50 damage to themselves. I always think these values shold be the same, like classics Magnemite, Magneton, Electrode, Golem…
Three years late and it still unique.
I think Torkoal is just showing off.
Torkoal wants to appear stronger, but it can’t fool us.
Maybe he’s an elderly Camerupt and he’s using dentures.