Greninja Star · Sword & Shield Promos #SWSH144

6 comments

1. 

   Nos

   (2 years ago)

   The best Pokemon Star! (by virtue of 15 years of power creep)

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2. 

   Foon-Gus Fring

   (1 year ago)

   Here’s a nice touch — they wrote the Poke-Power in a way that resembles how it was written in Gens 3 & 4!
   https://pkmncards.com/?s=has%3Apoke-power+text%3A%22from+your+hand+onto+your+Bench%22&sort=date&ord=rev&display=images

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   • 

     Foon-Gus FringFoon-Gus Fring

     (1 year ago)

     And here’s how Poke-Powers were written when playing a card to EVOLVE a Pokemon, instead of going onto the bench: https://pkmncards.com/?s=has%3Apoke-power+text%3A%22from+your+hand+to+evolve+1+of+your+Pok%C3%A9mon%22&sort=date&ord=rev&display=images

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     • 

       Tatu chín đaiFoon-Gus Fring

       (1 year ago)

       Actually the text “from your hand onto your bench” is STILL how abilities/Poke-Powers are phrased; it hasn’t changed since Skyridge Magneton.
       The only thing that has changed is that, pre gen-5, the name of the Pokemon was INCLUDED in the Poke-Power text. Compare, for instance, the text on EX Dragon Ninjask versus Dragons Exalted Ninjask.

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     Ambassador PCGFoon-Gus Fring

     (1 year ago)

     I don’t know… Overall, the text of the card seems modern to me. As far as the Power goes, Greninja says “When you play this Pokémon…” instead of “When you play Greninja ✩…” – “this Pokémon” is a Gen 5-and-on thing. (There might also be some inconsistency here with play vs. put but “this” already makes me think they weren’t too worried about retrofitting the text.)

     The text of Mist Slash is also modern, referring to “your opponent’s Active Pokémon” rather than “the Defending Pokémon”. It also omits any mention of Poke-Powers and Poké-Bodies, which was standard for this sort of attack for the era it’s meant to fit in to.

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       AmbassadorAmbassador PCG

       (1 year ago)

       Incidentally, I actually *like* this approach after all. The text looks closer to what EN text of Gen 3 could’ve been translated as if PUSA had been quicker to drop WOTC language conventions, vs holding onto them for as long as they have.

       Even though I think this card was designed by TPCI – the “(This card cannot be used at official tournaments)” seems to be an unintended hint along these lines [1] – it seems to me that this card is based off a Japanese version of the card that was drafted up, and then translated, even though no such Japanese card was ever released. It might not even have been intended for release, but either because of how TPCI operates, they were required or else had the sense to, take this approach. (De facto deference, whether you want to argue about what the case in fact is ..until someone from TPCI wants to speak up, is unknowable.)

       It’s really interesting thing that points to the current state of the EN game deferring to the JP edition. It’s turning out that the EN Gen 3 sets were translated about as “bleh, this is a mess” as WOTC translated the e-Card sets, and as sets like Evolutions, SM6b, Celebrations, etc. are suggesting, we’re going to continue to see the game mine its past over and over. As someone whose favorite era is Gen 3, and even though it’s the only TCG block where the vast majority of my collection is focused on EN rather than JP, my response is “if these cards were translated wrong, I don’t care about future EN cards being faithful/consistent with those mistranslations.”

       I always bought these cards with the assumption they were trying to be as 1-to-1 with the original Japanese game as possible. It’s a Japanese franchise, the English TCG is based on a Japanese game… if I didn’t care about the Japanese identity of Pokémon, I wouldn’t play Pokémon. I’d just buy MTG or something.

       So while I get why the Celebrations cards were meant to be as-close-to-exact reprints as possible, it’s actually better, from a collector’s POV, for the card game to take the ‘retrain’ approach and fix text, even in the context of a thing like this. There’s no point doubling down on the mistakes of the past.

       [1] Not all SWSH-era cards that are prints on old templates have this text, and the only ones that do are those that are US-exclusive. There’s a few possible ways to make sense of it, but one is that maybe it made it easier for approval?

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