Charmander · Arceus (AR) #59

4 comments

1. 

   Blob Takeshi

   (6 years ago)

   That’s probably one of the healthiest Charmander I’ve seen! It’s got such a huge flame! Too bad it’s so close to water. :/

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     NogyBlob Takeshi

     (3 years ago)

     That charmander looks very happy and cute. :)

     Reply
2. 

   Crystal

   (1 year ago)

   This is the last card printed with the Call for Friends (originally singular ‘Friend‘) attack. This appears to be a result of Call for Family taking over its effect.

   Back in Jungle set, the Call for Friend attack debuted on Jungle Marowak, and it allowed you to search for any Basic Fighting Pokémon and put them on the Bench. This was a relatively broad search option, in an apparent deliberate contrast to the ‘Call for Family’ attack (that also debuted in Jungle) – Jungle Bellsprout‘s Call for Family only let you search for other Bellsprout, Jungle Nidoran F’s Call for Family only let you search for other Nidoran F or M, and so on.

   Both attacks were semi-recurring and the contrast held up for at least Generation 1 and 2 – Call for Friends was a broader option while Call for Family was always specifying who you could search for by name… until EX TMvTA Team Magma’s Zangoose‘s and Team Aqua’s Seviper‘s Call for Family effects were broadened, and seemed more like a Call for Friends attack. Shortly thereafter, Hidden Legends Beldum had a very non-specific “Search your deck for [any] Basic Pokémon” effect, despite being a “Call for Family” attack.

   FRLG Nidoran M went back to being a more specific Call for Family search effect, but the Paras in the same set had a broader, Friends-like search effect. After this point, both attacks were still appearing on cards here and there, but now that Call for Family had expanded its potential effect, Call for Friends became effectively redundant, and, as mentioned, this Charmander is the last time the attack name was used at all.

   Call for Family now behaves exclusively the way Call for Friends used to, with Double Crisis’ Team Magma’s Zangoose the last time the search effect was even somewhat specific in terms of what Basic Pokémon you could search for, and Majestic Dawn’s Eevee the last time a Call for Family attack searched for other Pokémon with the same name as the Pokémon using the attack.

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     Jiří z PoděbradCrystal

     (1 year ago)

     Crystal, thanks for all these amazingly thorough posts–and mods, thanks for going through and adding the relevant hyperlinks! It’s touches like these that keep me coming back to this website

     Reply